₦airaland Forum

Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, on Monday, poured encomiums on former President Olusegun Obasanjo, describing him as a man with rare courage committed to national unity and development. <!--more-->
Shettima said he was convinced that Obasanjo would have rescued the missing Chibok girls if he were the president at the time the insurgents seized the 279 girls from their hostels.

Olusegun Obasanjo Obasanjo would have rescued Chibok girls if he was in office-Gov, Kashim Shettima ON March 28, 2016 6:17 PM / IN News / Comments By Soni Daniel, Northern Region Editor Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, on Monday, poured encomiums on former President Olusegun Obasanjo, describing him as a man with rare courage committed to national unity and development. Shettima said he was convinced that Obasanjo would have rescued the missing Chibok girls if he were the president at the time the insurgents seized the 279 girls from their hostels. But the governor regretted that former President Goodluck Jonathan, who was in charge when the girls were taken, only phoned him 19 days after the seizure of the innocent children. The governor said the former president neither sympathised nor empathised with his government over the abduction of the girls. Shettima made the claim on Monday when former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is on a two-day visit to the University of Maiduguri, visited him at Government House in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital. While playing host to Obasanjo, Shettila recalled how Obasanjo fought gallantly for peace during his tenure, vigorously interacting with stakeholders including governors, traditional rulers and other peacemakers in troubled regions in search of peace. The governor said: “In our own case, Your Excellency, after the Chibok abduction of over 200 schoolgirls in April, 2014, it took 19 days for me to receive a call from the Presidency,” Mr. Shettima said. “I brought this mainly to show the difference, because we will only appreciate scenarios when we make comparisons.” The governor also recalled a statement credited to the current Agriculture Minister Audu Ogbe who once served him as an adviser, who, he said made glowing remarks about Obasanjo long after they had changed their political parties. He said, “Your Excellency, Sir, I was privileged to have worked closely with Chief Innocent Audu Ogbeh as Honourary Adviser to me on Agriculture. He selflessly assisted us in fine- tuning our Agricultural programmes from 2012 to 2015 which made him to be frequent in Maiduguri in the heat of the Boko Haram insurgency. I remember that in one of his visits, we had one conversation in 2014 after the Chibok schoolgirls’ abduction. I was actually lamenting to him on governance at the Federal level with relations to poor handling of the Boko Haram insurgency.

Troops of the Nigeria Army yesterday killed 25 Boko Haram members during a mop up operation of the terrorist hideouts in parts of Borno State. Disclosing this in a statement, the spokesperson of the Nigerian Army, Col Sani Usman also stated that some 18 villagers held hostage by the sect members were rescued by the troops. The statement reads, “Troops of 151 Task Force Battalion, 21 Brigade have also cleared remnants of Boko Haram terrorists from three villages in Iza general area, killing 25 Boko Haram terrorists and recovered some weapons.” “The cleared villages were Mballeri, Shuari 1 and Shuari 2. “In addition, the troops also rescued 18 persons held captive by the terrorists. They comprised of 2 men, 7 women and 9 children. The rescued persons have been moved to the Brigade’s headquarters for further screening and care. “Unfortunately, one Civilian JTF accompanying the troops fell off a vehicle and sustained some injuries. He has, however, since been evacuated to the unit’s Regimental Aid Post for medical treatment and he is in a stable condition.”

The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party has detected ghost workers on its payroll after ordering the workers to line up and collect their salaries in cash. Investigations by our correspondent showed that the precarious financial situation of the party forced its leadership to take the action. It was gathered that the National Chairman of the party, Ali Modu Sheriff, was worried about the huge salary bill of the workers and decided to take action aiming at ascertaining the actual number of workers at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja. Sheriff was said to have inherited about N872m debt when he assumed office about a month ago. Worried by this, Sheriff was said to have taken members of the National Workers Committee by surprise when on Thursday he directed the workers to get their salaries in cash. A management employee, who spoke with our correspondent on Sunday, said that they were surprised when they (the workers) were directed to assemble inside the National Executive Committee hall at the national secretariat. He said, “Sheriff has started the restructuring of the PDP for efficient and effective performance. “March 24 will ever be a day to remember in our party. On that day, as early as 11am, the NWC and members of staff of the PDP, under the instruction of our national chairman, moved into the conference hall. “The chairman also joined everyone in the hall. And to the surprise of all, the business of the day was the payment of staff salaries, which was done department after department. “One after the other, after individual’s physical verification of each file and identity, thereafter you are then paid your salary in cash.” The exercise was chaired by the national chairman who directed the National Treasurer, Mr. Buhari Bala, to call the workers by their departments. Another management worker said, “Names of all the workers were called according to their departments and once you heard your name, you would come out to collect your salary by hand. “This order was followed by the national treasurer and some employees of the Finance Department, who assisted him. “All heads of departments were on the ground to observe the exercise. “So, when a name was called, the person came out and his/her file was opened for verification before cash was paid to such a worker. “And at about 6:30pm, the chairman left the hall to attend to other meetings, while the national treasurer continued to call the names of employees. “In the absence of the national chairman, he called four departments, amongst them were the Youth Department and Security Department.” Before calling the security staff on the list submitted, Bala was said to have complained that the list was too lengthy. It was gathered that Bala realised during the payment that the security department had what he described as ghost workers and security personnel, as the names of policemen called were those who had left the service of the PDP immediately after the resignation of the then National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, about two years ago. Some of the workers at the national secretariat had called on Sheriff to set up a panel to investigate those behind the scam. One of them said, “The outcome of what happened on Thursday was an indication that salaries of those ghost workers were being collected by someone over the years. “ Ghost workers were also discovered in the other departments.” It was gathered that seven policemen, who had left the party more than two years ago, were still being paid. The affected policemen (names withheld) comprise of a DSP, an ASP, two inspectors, one sergeant and two corporals. One of the police officers, who left the party some years ago, was posted to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, but was still collecting salaries from the PDP or someone was collecting it on his behalf without his knowledge. It was gathered that the pays included N12,000 allowance for conventional policemen and N30,000 for riot policemen. It was also gathered that personal staff of past national chairmen, majority of whom had defected to other political parties, were still being paid by the party. “If this isn’t true, then someone is collecting their salaries without their knowledge. A proper external audit of the members of staff must be conducted. Then the party must investigate those who have been collecting the salaries of these ghost workers,” another source added. Bala, who confirmed the exercise, told our correspondent that the national chairman ordered the action. He also said that some fictitious names were discovered during the exercise.

Deadly Suicide Bomb Rocks Kids’ Park 0:31 At least 63 people, mostly women and children, were killed and more than 300 others were injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a children’s park in Lahore, the capital of Pakistan’s Punjab province on Sunday evening, officials said. “A large number of people, majority of them women and children, were present in Gulshan-e- Iqbal Park in Lahore when the suicide bomber blew himself up. Mostly women and children are killed and injured in the blast,” Said Lahore Police Chief Dr. Haider Ashraf. The police chief said there was an unusual rush of the people in the park due to the weekend and Easter. He said a large number of Christian community celebrating the holy day were present in the park. Asked if women and children were their target as most of those killed in the blast included women and children, the Taliban spokesman said they were not on their list. “We didn’t want to kill women and children. Our targets were male members of the Christian community,” Ehsan said. He said this was the first of series of attacks they had planned this year in different parts of the country. Punjab Health Minister Salman Rafique said they had declared emergency in all the hospitals of Lahore city to better handle the injured. “We are in a state of emergency. All the hospitals are under emergency. All ambulances had been called to site of the blast as a large number of people, the majority of them women and children are injured,” the health minister said. Media footage showed children and women crying and screaming and rescue officials, police and bystanders carrying injured people to ambulances and private cars. Punjab Chief Minister, Shabaz Sharif later announced a three-day mourning in the province. In 2014, Pakistan launched an offensive against Taliban and affiliated jihadist fighters in North Waziristan, seeking to deprive them of safe havens from which to launch attacks in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Punjab has traditionally been more peaceful than other parts of Pakistan. Sharif’s opponents have accused him of tolerating militancy in return for peace in his province, a charge he strongly denies. Last year, a bomb killed a popular Pakistani provincial minister and at least eight others when it destroyed the minister’s home in Punjab.

She’s a year older today.

[url] /1MjXcZX [/url] Doyin Okupe, a former Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs to former President Goodluck Jonathan, has called on the leaderships of the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party to accept blame for the killings in Rivers Rerun election.

The Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, on Tuesday rescheduled the resumption of the trial of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, from March 10 to 11 March, 2016. The Head, Press and Public Relations of the CCT, Ibraheem Al-hassan, said in a statement said the new date was fixed following a request by Saraki’s new lead counsel, Chief Kanu Agabi, SAN. Al-hassan said the new counsel to the Senate President pleaded with the tribunal to reschedule the trial because he has other urgent court matters to attend to on March 10. Agabi conveyed his request to the CCT in a letter dated February 26, 2016. The letter reads, ‘‘I write as lead counsel to the above defendant (Saraki) to apply that the matter, which is now scheduled to come up on the 10th day of March 2016, subject to the convenience of the honourable tribunal and learned counsel for the prosecution, be taken on the 11th day of March, 2016, due to my earlier and urgent commitments in other courts on the 10th. ‘‘I will sincerely appreciate the indulgence of the tribunal to accommodate me in this way.” The CCT had last month fixed March 10 for resumption of proceedings shortly after the Supreme Court dismissed Saraki’s appeal challenging his trial at the tribunal.