₦airaland Forum

naturalman:
From Forbes magazine

BeautifulSE:
Useless OP, Didn't you claim on one of your threads that you're from Rivers state ?

Igboesika:
There is freedom of movement.
Shikena!

Miscreants have infiltrated our ranks – IPOB

JULY 31, 2017

By Vincent Ujumadu Awka- THE Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Monday, accused the federal and Anambra State governments of recruiting those it described as uneducated individuals and students in the universities to infiltrate into its ranks in order to label the organization a violent group.

IPOB was apparently reacting to Sunday’s incident at Ekwulobia in Aguata local government area of Anambra State where some youths dressed in IPOB uniform and waving Biafra flags tried to force themselves into St. Joseph’e Church in the town where Governor Willie Obiano was worshiping at the time.

The indigenous people of Biafra(IPOB) and it’s leadership worldwide under the command and leadership of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu accuses the Federal Government, Gov Obiano and some few politicians in Nigeria of recruiting some unducated individuals and students in the universities to infiltrate into IPOB in order to label IPOB as a violent group.

In a statement Monday, IPOB media and publicity secretary, Comrade Emma Powerful accused government contractors of mobilizing people who went to the Catholic Church and harassed those in a church service, alleging that the aim was to create room for security operatives to begin to arrest IPOB members in Ekwulobia and its environs.

The statement by Powerful read: “IPOB leaders and members are very intelligent people who cannot involve themselves in any act of violence. It is crystal clear to all and sundry that IPOB under Nnamdi Kanu remains nonviolent in its pursuit for Biafra freedom and cannot change our methods of peaceful approach towards the restoration of Biafra.

The election boycott in Anambra come November this year remains, but cannot cause any violence. “We are aware that some politicians and Nigeria security employed some uneducated individuals and groups in the society to harass the general public in the name of IPOB members. Some government contractors have printed IPOB t- shirts and Biafra flag with huge amount of money to be shared to the hungry youths to claim to be IPOB members under Nnamdi Kanu.

“We advise the general public to beware of fake IPOB members, who were paid by politicians to cause confusion in Anambra and states in Biafraland.”

Meanwhile, several bus loads of suspected IPOB members were sighted in Awka on Sunday evening as they headed towards Onitsha through the old Enugu-Onitsha road. Comprising mainly people between the 20 – 25 age bracket, and chanting Biafra songs and displaying Biafra banners, they kept shouting to other motorists and passerby that there would be no election in Anambra State in November.

Many residents of Awka said they were part of the reinforcement that tried to disrupt Governor Obiano-s church service at Ekwulobia.

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BARELY a week after the prolonged legal battle that nearly terminated the life of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was laid to rest at the Supreme Court, governors elected on the platform of the party appear set to cause another controversy.

Investigations by the Nigerian Tribune in Abuja revealed that some members of the PDP Governors’ Forum had already penciled in a particular candidate from the South-West and planned to foist the candidate on the party, regardless of the zoning arrangement of the party.

Sources close to the PDP revealed that some of the governors involved were working on the premise that the zoning arrangement would take the chairmanship position to the South-West.

It was confirmed that those already indicating interest in the top job included the former deputy national chairman of the party, Chief Olabode George; a member of the Board of Trustees (BoT), Professor Tunde Adeniran; another BoT member, Professor Taoheed Adedoja; former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode and the candidate of the party in the governorship contest for Lagos State in 2015, Mr Jimi Agbaje.

Of the aspirants, it was gathered that the governors had already shifted their focus from their target in 2016 and zeroed in on another candidate who they believed would wield the big stick and spare no one in the fight for 2019.

It was gathered that some governors elected on the platform of the party were already rooting for one of the aspirants who was said to have once held an office at the federal level, while many of the BoT members who got wind of the plan immediately opposed it.

Sources also confirmed that the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led national caretaker committee of the party had resolved to remain neutral in all its activities in order to ensure that the people’s will prevailed in the selection of the new executive.

According to the source, “the only thing that can save the party from the looming crisis is for the national caretaker committee to remain neutral, if there is any funny game in whatever form, the party will boil again.

“?The party needs an experienced hand to put it together and not somebody who will come and further scatter it. The post is not for the boys but for the men, our governors should see reason with the party for now.”

A similar crisis is already rearing its head in the Osun State chapter of the party where some members of the PDP Governors’ Forum were said to have influenced the removal of the state chairman, Mr Soji Adagunodo, from the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting held in Abuja on Tuesday.

It was gathered that though the state congress was held shortly after the appointment of Senator Ali Modu Sheriff as national chairman, the division that rocked the party was largely as a result of protests from Adagunodo’s opponent at the state congress rather than a creation of Sheriff.

It was, however, gathered in Abuja that a member of the Governors’ Forum, leading the reconstruction of the party in Osun, was bent on removing Adagunodo who emerged when the party was still united.

“If we get it right in Osun, we will easily build on the achievements of this recent senatorial election. But if they insist on imposition of any chairman, we may be back to square one,” a source close to the party said.

Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune on the matter, the national publicity secretary of the party, Mr Dayo Adeyeye, dismissed the insinuations of possible fresh crisis in the party.

Adeyeye said the party had not taken any decision on the zoning formula to be adopted, adding that even the forthcoming special national convention of the party slated for August 12 would be non-elective.

He assured that the party would not hide anything from its members as its programmes progressed, adding that members should stop listening to rumourmongers who were out to sow seeds of discord.

moninuola65:
'repackaging':-means elites is not only Nigerian, you were 30% only, that control medias both social or non social! to threat the existence of the great nation Nigeria!
you were fraction of a 1/3 of Nigeria!
i. 1/3 is the Dead Nigerian!
ii. 1/3 is the Living One!
iii. 1/3 is the Unborn generation!
Literates thread with cautions!
The third will curse those who have hand in the liquidation of the great Nigeria, and will fight to reunite the great nation at all cost at their time!

By Chinonso Alozie, Owerri

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Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo state, Monday, said that the country did not need any restructuring. The Governor was quoted to have made the statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Sam Onwuemeodo, at the 67th Annual Conference of the Broadcasting Corporation of Nigeria, BON, in Owerri. Okorocha’s reason was that restructuring meant different things to the various geo-political zones in the country and that what they country needed was “repackaging.”

The release went further to justify the governor’s opposed to the call for restructuring. As captured by the release, “Governor Rochas Okorocha has called on proprietors and managers of the Radio and Television Stations in the country operating under the aegis of Broadcasting Organization of Nigeria (BON) who are meeting in Owerri for their 67th Annual Conference. “To help repackage Nigeria for consumption by the rest of the world because that is what is needed now and not restructuring.

“He also asked them to come up with programmes that could allow the less privileged in the society who cannot afford the high cost of electronic media to also be heard. “Our nation requires repackaging. It is unfortunate that a great nation like ours has not been properly packaged for consumption by the international communities.

“Yet, there are more evils in other nations than we have in Nigeria but the reports going out about our country is such that no one will want to come into Nigerian unless for those who want to take risk. No nation can grow with this arrangement. “I want to charge you today, as you meet, think Nigeria and see how you can repackage it. We are not the worst of them all. “Every geo-political zone has its own interpretation of restructuring. To the South-East, restructuring means creation of an additional State. “For the South-South, restructuring means resource Control.

For the South-West, it means devolution of power and the North may see it differently, but whatever is the Case, we are better of, as a United Nigeria. “The ball is in your court to see how you can project Nigeria and repackage it for public and international consumption. “Let me say to all of us here that there is nothing wrong with Nigeria and Nigerians. Nigeria is a great nation and will ever remain a great nation.”

One out of the remaining two Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) members in the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mr Victor Akande(PDP-Ojo I), on Monday defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC). Akande informed the House of his defection on the floor of the Assembly through a letter he addressed to the Speaker, Mr Mudashiru Obasa, which was read by the Clerk of the Assembly, Mr Azeez Sanni. Akande, in the letter, said he was defecting because of the factions in the PDP, which he said were not just two but four, especially in Lagos State.

My defection is to further continue my support of adding legislative excellence to Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode and the political leadership of the Speaker of the Assembly, who has impacted on legislative standards in the state. “PDP has fallen apart and the centre can no longer hold, so I have chosen to follow the stable APC. I thank PDP for giving me the political platform to showcase myself. “I also thank my constituents and traditional rulers in my constituency for their support.

I will continue to give them better representation and for me, this is a home coming,’’ Akande said. Commenting on the letter, Akande said he moved to APC with the blessings of his people from the Ojo Constituency I, including the royal fathers and all indigenes and non indigenes of the constituency. “I consulted widely before arriving at the decision to dump PDP for APC. I hereby shed the garb of PDP and I want to now be clothed with the APC garb,’’ Akande said. Akande’s counterpart from the Ojo Constituency II, Mr Olanrewaju Ogunyemi, said, “Akande has made our day in Ojo with this defection. “Actually, there is nothing more for him to do in the PDP than to move to the moving train of the APC.’’

The Speaker of the House, Mr Mudashiru Obasa, congratulated his colleagues for their good work, which he said, made all the defections possible. Obasa also thanked Akande for coming on board the APC. He said: “We know you are a man of integrity and we are sure that image will reflect in our party,’’ Obasa said. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that six out of the eight PDP lawmakers in the Assembly had defected to APC on Feb. 16. With the latest defection, the sole opposition lawmaker in the Assembly is Mr Dipo Olorunrinu, representing Amuwo-Odofin Constituency I.

By Eric Ugbor ABA

SHOEMAKERS in Ariaria market have expressed worry over the state government’s plan to bring a foreign investor who would produce shoes in Aba to compete with local shoe-makers. Some shoemakers who spoke with Vanguard in Aba yesterday in separate interviews said that the arrangement would strip them of their little income and make them jobless.

Ikedi Ohaeto, said that the government may benefit from the taxes the investor would pay but noted that the investor would in turn take the made-in-Aba shoe market away from them. He said ,”It is not fit for Governor Okezie Ikpeazu who is championing made-in-Aba products to shop for an investor from abroad who would be a huge beneficiary of his effort which is supposed to support local and indigenous production.If the Chinese arrives with his machines and coupled with cheap man-power from Nigeria, how can we compete with him producing with no machines but bare hands?

“I am not too sure that Aba shoe-making industry will survive long after the Chinese arrives to establish his shoe factory here. We need foreign investors but not in this way or this sector in Abia”, he said. Chinbueze Onyeizu said that the governor should change his mind on bringing the Chinese to Aba to produce shoes that would compete with their own in durability and cost. He said that rather than bring the Chinese to increase shoe production in Aba, government should buy machines for them to boost their production and give them time to repay the cost of the machines.

Onyeizu noted that the idea of bringing the Chinese investor in the area of shoe production with machines to compete with people producing with bare hands would be counter-productive for the Aba shoe industry. Another shoe-maker, Ken Ora said that it would seem that the governor does not want to complete the Umukalika Industrial City that would house the Shoe, Finished Leather Products and Garment Clusters at Obingwa.

He argued that for the Industrial city to be without machines would be like talking of sending a man to work without equipment. “If the shoe-makers that would be located at Umukalika do not have machines, how can they compete with the Chinese coming with machines and other advantages?Again, the machines we need cannot be purchased individually by us because we do not have the funds to do that and so we look up to government to help us” he said.

According to him ”And if Abia state government would want to buy us machines and recoup the money later does it make business sense to bring in a Chinese competitor whose impact would make recouping their fund harder”, he queried. The state government had April 2017 secured a $1.5 billion deal for Mr Zhang Huarong’s Huajian Shoe Industry based in Dongguan, Guangzhuo, China to establish its factory in Aba. The government had said that the Chinese investor’s presence would engender competition among shoe-makers in Aba but did not say what the state may loose from the shoe factory deal.

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The pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere and the Ohanaeze Ndigbo have condemned Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso’s opposition to the call for the arrest of northern youths, who said the Igbo should leave the North before October 1.

Prominent Nigerians and groups including Afenifere, Ohanaeze and the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, have demanded the arrest of the youths by security agents.


But Kwankwaso was reported on Thursday to have opposed the call for the arrest of the youths. According to a national newspaper (not The PUNCH), the former Kano State governor in an interview with journalists in Abuja on Wednesday said the youths should be engaged in dialogue.

However, Afenifere and Ohanaeze, in separate interviews with The PUNCH on Thursday described the former governor’s position as unfortunate.

The Deputy Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze, Mr. Chuks Ibegbu, who spoke with one of our correspondents in Enugu, said Kwankwaso’s position should be probed.

The Ohanaeze spokesman said, “Nobody is above the law so the security agencies should investigate him.

“We want to warn that those that are fanning the embers of disunity should desist from doing so, because, if at the end of the day, the country descends to anarchy, they will also lose out.”

Ibegbu added that Kwankwaso’s statement did not come as a surprise. “We have not forgotten that when he was governor, he stated that there was no need for more states to be created in the South-East. He said the land mass of the South-East would not support a new state, but he chose to forget the fact that state creation is not just about land mass but population.

He advised Kwankwaso, whom he said wanted to be President of Nigeria, to turn a new leaf.

The spokesman for Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, said he was not surprised by the ex-governor’s utterances, noting that he had always been known for his bigotry.

He stated that Kwankwaso was trying to position himself as a defender of the Arewa.

Odumakin said his statement had further confirmed the widely held notion that the northern youths had backers.

He said, “He (Kwankwaso) is trying to position himself as a defender of the Arewa and anyone who knows him over the years would have observed his bigotry and it shows clearly that he doesn’t believe in Nigeria.

“When a crisis happened in Ife, it was Kwankwaso that was making incendiary remarks and yet there are rumours that he wants to be president of Nigeria. We have noted his utterances.”

“When people like him talk about one Nigeria, it is pure deception. I endorse what the Southern Nigeria Youths Coalition said that they wanted a referendum to determine the future of the country. I support their plan to retaliate any genocide against the Igbo in the North,” the Afenifere chieftain said.

Also, a former governor of old Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, said Kwankwaso’s call to negotiate with Arewa youths was wrong, adding that the northern youths drumming the quit notice should be arrested.

Balarabe Musa said the arrest would serve as “deterrence” and uncover the sponsors of the youths calling for a quit notice.

He said, “There is nothing wrong in inviting the youths, but definitely, the position of the Kaduna State Governor, el-Rufai, calling for arrest is the position of majority of Nigerians. The call of people is that these young ones must be held responsible for their actions, not just to teach them a lesson for their crime, but also to expose those behind the quit notice.

“This is because the quit notice is clearly illegal and unconstitutional. How can you tell another Nigerian to quit and then give a date? That means that after that date, the youths can do anything illegal. The Federal Government and 80 per cent of Nigerians are clearly opposed to this notice. All the steps being taken by the government are correct and the government should immediately arrest these youths. Kwankwaso is wrong and the Kaduna State governor is right."

etebefia:
The nation newspaper

mbaboy:
How can u compare Nnamdi Kanu's agitation with what those northern youths did, the ibos have been treated unjustly in this entity called Nigeria and thanks to Mohammadu Buhari for making Kanu a great man