₦airaland Forum

NYSC Forgery: Prosecute Kwara PDP governorship candidate, KMC tell police, as it accuses KWSG of culpability

A Pro-Democracy group in Kwara State, popular known as Kwara Must Change has said it received with utmost surprise, a report alleging that the Kwara State People’s Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Hon. Razaq Atunwa forged his National Youth Service Scheme (NYSC) certificate to deceive the nation.

‘’We find this allegation very strong and weighty and rather than allow the issue remain a mere allegation, we call for proper investigation into the matter by the police to ascertain the credibility of the story and if true, as eventual prosecution of the culprit’ the group said through a statement signed by its president, Abdulrazaq Hamzat.

In an exclusive report by Premium Times newspaper, it was discovered that the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Kwara State in the forthcoming general elections, Hon. Razak Atunwa did not participate in Nigeria’s compulsory national youth service scheme. Instead, he procured a forged discharge certificate of NYSC which he submitted to the PDP to prove his eligibility for public office.

The NYSC law requires every Nigerian who attended university or polytechnic to participate in the national youth scheme for one year after graduation, provided the person finished before age 30. Failure to serve would prohibit such individual from gainful employment in Nigeria, and making false claims about serving could attract up to 14 years in jail. Also, anyone who graduated before 30 but deliberately declined to serve has committed a crime that could attract 12-month imprisonment, even if the person did not forge NYSC documents.

Mr Atunwa, born on October 17, 1969 and according to his public profile, he studied law at the University of East London, graduating in 1992 at age 23. Having earned a bachelor’s degree at 23, Mr Atunwa, going by Section 2 of the NYSC Act, should have participated in the year-long national service.

However, rather than present himself for national service, Mr. Atunwa was said to have stayed back in the United Kingdom, returning only in 2005 to join the cabinet of then Governor Bukola Saraki in Kwara State at the age of 36.

Kwara Must Change queried that, should the Atunwa’s NYSC forgery scandal be confirmed to be true, this would be an indictment on the Kwara State government and the Kwara State House of Assembly in whose custody; Atunwa has been working for about 15 years.

According to the group, since it is not allowed for anyone without NYSC certificate to work in Nigeria and contrary to this law, Atunwa has been working in the country since 2005, serving under the Kwara State government in various capacities, including commissioner for Land, Work and Transport, Information and Home Affairs, Finance as well as serving as speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly and now a member of federal house of representative, the culpability of the Kwara State government cannot be under emphasized.

To secure the PDP governorship ticket on October 1, Atunwa was said to have submitted a counterfeit NYSC discharge certificate and accompanied it with an affidavit, indicating he lied on oath, an offence that attracts up to 14 years in jail.

Mr Atunwa — who claimed he qualified for law practice in the United Kingdom after obtaining undergraduate and master’s degrees at separate universities in London — indicated in the nomination document he submitted at the PDP national secretariat in Abuja that he partook in the youth service scheme between 1995 and 1996.

The lawmaker accompanied it with a notarised affidavit sworn at the Kwara State High Court in Ilorin on September 10. The document was attached to his PDP expression of interest form. He signed the document despite a clause indicating he remained automatically disqualified as candidate if any statement or information he provided is found to be false, inaccurate, or mislead the party or its agents from making proper assessment of his competence to contest the governorship election under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

According to the newspaper, one could see at first glance that Mr. Atunwa’s so-called discharge certificate is fake. For one, Mr Atunwa’s ‘certificate’ purportedly obtained in 1996 carried the signature of Walter Oki (brigadier general at the time). But Mr Oki was only made NYSC director-general in 2002. In 1996, Soyemi Sofoluwe (brigadier general) was director-general of the corps and signed all discharge and exemption certificates during the period. He was succeeded by S.M. Dule (brigadier general), who served as director-general between 1996 and 2000.

To further crosscheck the authenticity of Mr Atunwa’s ‘certificate’, PREMIUM TIMES compared his with original ones that bore the basics of the document, especially those from foreign university graduates.

At least three ministers who returned to Nigeria to serve after finishing from schools in the UK and the United States had similar call-up mark in their certificates, which usually carries the acronym of the institution, the state where the participant served, where the person was called up, the year of service and the serial number for the certificate.


For instance, Ibe Kachikwu, the minister of state for petroleum, has his NYSC certificate marked as NYSC/OY/FORN/82/7101. Mr Kachikwu was deployed for service in Oyo State (OY) on August 16, 1982, passing out a year later on August 15, 1983. He came back to Nigeria to serve after completing his doctorate in law at Harvard University (FORN) in December 1981.

Aisha Abubakar, the minister of state trade and industry, returned to Nigeria after concluding her masters in development studies at the University of Leeds. Her certificate is marked NYSC/LA/FRN/91/18170, indicating that she served in Lagos, after graduating from a foreign university.

Khadija Bukar Ibrahim, the minister of state foreign affairs, also schooled abroad. She attended Roehampton Institute for Higher Education, affiliated with the University of Surrey and finished in 1989. She enlisted in the NYSC on October 2, 1990 and passed out on October 1, 1991. Her certificate is marked NYSC/LA/FRN/90/28750, indicating that she served in Lagos (LA) after graduating from a foreign university (FRN) in 1990.

However, Mr. Atunwa’s certificate, rather than bear FRN or FORN (code for foreign graduates) has KWP (a code reserved for graduates of Kwara State Polytechnic) as identification mark. But the politician did not graduate from Kwara Polytechnic. He claimed he attended the University of East London for the first degree and the University of London for his master’s.

According to the newspaper, “This is the most audacious forgery since PREMIUM TIMES began investigation into NYSC claims of senior government officials and politicians generally,”

Hon. Atunwa was said to have broken Nigerian law twice. According to the report, “Based on Section 13 (c) of the NYSC Act, even being in possession of a forged NYSC certificate is already a crime,” “And then we now have an affidavit that he swore to and walked himself into perjury, another criminal offence.”

Kwara Must Change is therefore calling on the police to promptly launch an investigation into the matter to ascertain the truth.
Should the Police investigation proved the allegation correct, Atunwa must be made to return all the salaries he had received from the Kwara State government, Kwara State House of Assembly and the National Assembly.
He must also be prosecuted for forging the NYSC certificate and then lying on oath.


https://mrrightsng..com/2018/10/nysc-forgery-prosecute-kwara-pdp.html

Atiku is a man of yesterday. 2019 is about the future. Gohashim2019 is the way

Gohashim2019

If it boils down to a choice of two, who’s the better devil between the APC and the PDP candidates?

Let me be clear; the next election will not be a bet between two Devils, we have passed that stage in 2015 where Nigerians were forced to make that choice. In 2015 I heard some people saying I just want Jonathan to go but can you honestly say that Nigeria is better now than 2015 in all the indices?

We have lately heard of issues and factions in the ANN. What happened?

Well you know once a party starts becoming relevant, then you will have lots of internal contestations. There was an attempt to have one convention where a candidate was supposed to have been produced with delegates from six states out of the 26 states where the ANN is presently constituted but at the end of the day the NEC took the appropriate decision to annul it and those involved have been punished according to the party constitution and at the convention of the party where we had about twenty states in attendance out of the 26 states where I was elected presidential candidate, a decision was also taken to fast-track the alliance discussion with other political parties like PT which also adopted me as their presidential candidate. Now we have about ten political parties also coming to the alliance, and I will be running as the flag bearer of the entire alliance of the political parties. For different reasons some of our supporters ended up in different political parties, some even in SDP.

Who were those responsible for the crisis in ANN?

I think the one in ANN came from the APC, some powerful elements in the APC who have presidential visions and who think that the APC platform will not be available for them post 2019 elections, and they want to see the ANN as a holding platform for their interest. One thing they wanted to do was to make sure that ANN didn’t have any nomination at all for any office, that was defeated by our members who have been patriotic and then the second attempt was this last sponsored crisis, but well that’s politics.

Are you ready for the Presidential debate?

Yes, I’m looking forward to the presidential debate with Alhaji Buhari and others who are presidential candidates of their various parties.

There are insinuations that Buhari will send Osinbajo to debate on his behalf?

I won’t debate with Osinbajo because he’s not the presidential candidate. Osinbajo will debate with my Vice presidential candidate.

But the youths you expect to vote for you in the other parties threw up septuagenarians in the persons of Buhari and Atiku. Were you disappointed?

You see the two major political parties have their problems; that’s perhaps why somebody like me didn’t run under them. I have a lot of friends in PDP. I left PDP in 2006. I have a lot of friends in APC too. I’m not against old people because they are old, that’s not the narrative here. Mandela was very old and advanced in age, and he was a good president because he had the legacy and history that recommended him to the whole world as a leader. Trump is 70, and the economy is doing well under President Trump. Even though you don’t like him, the economy of America is growing. So I’m not against anyone because you are young or old, and I’m not marketing myself as a young candidate, that’s not my selling point. The most important thing is the history, experience, competence that I bring to the table, so it’s not just a question of young versus old. You are not breaking any record by being young, yes we need young people but young people with content, history, experience. There’s some skill set that’s necessary, and I take exception to people who don’t want to have any experience, they want to start from the top, you don’t want to be councillor, chairman but your first shot in politics is to become president.

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/10/atiku-missed-his-chance-in-2007-olawepo-hashim/

Atiku missed his chance in 2007 says ANN Presidential candidate, Olawepo-Hashim

Journalist turned civil rights activist and politician, Mr. Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim was a prominent figure in the formation and early days of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. He left the party and the country just about the final crisis of the PDP in the Olusegun Obasanjo era to focus on his business cutting across oil and international investments.

The Kebbi State born Olawepo-Hashim was recently adopted as the presidential candidate of the Alliance for New Nigeria, ANN and also by the Olisa Agbakoba led Peoples Trust

In this interview, the presidential candidate speaks on his prospects, his prescriptions and his place in the brewing political battle for Nigeria.

Excerpts: What is your response to the emergence of Atiku Abubakar as the presidential candidate of the PDP?

By all standards, the Waziri of Adamawa is qualified to be the President of Nigeria. Having been Vice President before, but the 2019 election is a different election, I think Vice President Atiku missed his chance of being president in 2007 and talking about in 2019 is like talking about the future of Nigeria and at the same time facing and reasoning backward.

80% of Nigerians want to see a new direction, they don’t want to go backward, and Vice President Atiku Abubakar is a man of yesterday.

What competitive edge do you have over him going into this election?

Number one, I will be able to unite the country, I will be able to build a strong economy given my experience. I’m that candidate that majority of voters particularly first-time voters and who are very significant, almost about 15 million of them, who are not supporters of APC or PDP. And then, my friends in PDP and APC who have made up their mind that when it comes to presidential election ‘we will vote Gbenga,’ that’s an edge I have going for me. I believe, no other candidate in this election has that.

What are the basic ingredients of the alliance that ANN has forged with People’s Trust and other political parties as reported?

The People’s Trust, the PT is a party promoted by National Intervention Movement. The whole idea is to key in into the strategy of national intervention movement that promoted for almost one year running now. So this is not just any initiative, it’s just being consolidated and taken up some further steps. I think the issue is to build a stronger political platform that’s also committed to the idea of national unity, economic development, security in the land and to have a Nigeria where the life of every citizen will count and no discrimination against anyone regardless of your ethnic descent and religious beliefs and a true federal system, these are some of the issues that the platform is committed to. I think the alliance with the National Intervention Movement shows you that this is the natural platform that I belong to. The leader was the president of the Civil Liberty Organization while I was the national administrative secretary of the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights. In 1990 with me and some other patriotic Nigerians, some are late today; we travelled the whole of northern Nigeria consistently for about three weeks in a bus to get the consensus of our people on how to end military rule. I think most importantly for me, and my priority is to expand the GDP of Nigeria because this is the most important issue and the economy is too small for 180 million people. If you consider that even in 2013, when Nigeria made a lot of money from oil sales, the country made less than 50 billion dollars in total revenue, that same year Disneyworld a private company that markets entertainment in Florida made 47 billion dollars. So for 180 million people that revenue base is too small and its GDP of 510 billion even though it was celebrated as being the biggest in Africa as at 2013 equals to poverty, and that’s why you see that almost two-thirds of the country’s population still live below two dollars in a day. And that’s why you see that the life expectancy rate in Nigeria is 53 whereas, in Liberia that experienced civil war and Ebola on a max scale, their life expectancy rate is 61, Sudan is 63. We need to build a bigger economy, and the New Economic Development Programme (NEP) which we have planned will move Nigeria from 410 billion US dollars to 4 trillion dollars in ten years, and that will bring our average per capita income to be at par with countries like Malaysia, Thailand.

Court Orders Police To Pay Charly Boy N50 Million over Attack During #ResumeOrResign Protest
https://mrrightsng..com/2018/10/court-orders-police-to-pay-charly-boy.html?m=1

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja presided over by a Hon. Justice John Tsoho in a landmark judgment delivered on Monday 22nd October, 2018 has ordered the Nigeria Police Force, the Inspector General of Police and the Commissioner of Police F.C.T. Command to pay the sum of 50 Million Naira and publish an apology in Two National Newspapers to popular musician and activist, Mr. Charles Oputa alias Charly Boy.

In the suit filed on the 29th of March, 2018 by his lawyer and human rights activist, Mr. Inibehe Effiong to enforce his fundamental rights, the 67-year-old popular musician gave a graphic account of how policemen numbering over 100 from the F.C.T. Police Command invaded the Unity Fountain in Abuja on the 8th day of August, 2017 and attacked him and his group with teargas canisters, hot water cannon and wild police dogs during the Resume or Resign protest when he led other activists to protest the prolonged absence of President Muhammadu Buhari from Nigeria on account of his medical vacation in the United Kingdom.

Charly Boy further narrated that the attack by the policemen was so severe that he collapsed in the process and was rushed to the hospital.

He also stated that the police attacked them because of claims that their protest over the President’s absence, which had exceeded 90 days on the second day of their daily sit-out protest, had gone international and brought serious embarrassment to the country.

Delivering judgment on Monday in the case marked as Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/343/2018 between Charles Oputa versus The Inspector General of Police & 2 Others, Justice Tsoho held that there was no evidence that miscreants invaded or stormed the premises of the protest as alleged by the police.

On whether the Applicant is entitled to stage the protest, the court held that protest is a constitutionally guaranteed right provided it is done peacefully and that even if miscreants were on the scene to hijack the protest, the Respondents possess enough security measures to dislodge such persons and maintain law and order.

‘’The Respondents (the Police) need not exercise an uncommon aggression and mayhem to wade off alleged miscreants’’ Justice Tsoho ruled.
According to the court, the Respondents admitted in their Counter Affidavit that it was in the bid to protect members of the public and public properties from the ‘’miscreants’’ who suddenly took over the protest that the men and officers of the Respondents had to use teargas canisters and hot water Canon in order to disperse the hoodlums. But that the Respondents stated that the teargas and water Canon were not directed at the Applicant.

This assertion according to the court, lacks substance as teargas circulates and affects all persons within the premises. And the atmosphere generally affected which causes cough.

The court found that the Applicant has disclosed a reasonable cause of action against the Respondents and that the Respondents violated the Fundamental Rights of the Applicant to dignity of the human person, freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association as enshrined in Sections 34, 39, and 40 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).

‘’The law is that the court has the right to grant redress to anyone whose right is violated and the Applicant is entitled to a remedy.’’ said Justice Tsoho.

‘’Relief 4 is granted and the Respondents are ordered to publish an apology to the Applicant in 2 National Newspapers for violating his Fundamental rights. The sum of 50 Million Naira is awarded against the Respondents as General and Exemplary damages.’’

The court also ordered perpetual injunction against the Respondents from violating the fundamental rights to dignity of the human person, freedom of expression and peaceful assembly and association.

Reacting to the judgment, the Applicant’s counsel, Inibehe Effiong described the judgment as a resounding victory for democracy, freedom of expression and peaceful assembly in the country.

‘’This judgment sends unequivocal message to the Nigerian Police that they have no power to stop or disrupt peaceful protests by Nigerians. The police by this judgment cannot invent flimsy excuses to stop citizens from exercising their fundamental rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. I am highly elated by this victory for democracy.’’ Effiong said.

Reacting to the judgment, the Secretary of the OurMumuDonDo Movement, Comrade Raphael Adebayo, in a statement said that the judgment has raised the confidence of Nigerians in the judiciary.

‘’The OurMumuDonDo Movement wishes to express satisfaction over the judgment of the Federal High Court in Abuja on the unprovoked attack of the police on its members during the ResumeOrResign Protest. This development is a sign that the Nigerian judiciary is indeed committed to upholding the supremacy of our country's Constitution.’’

‘’We also wish to thank the Judge for his sagacity in handling this case, just as we are grateful to our team of young, vibrant, and courageous lawyers who have tirelessly worked on this case to get us to where we are right now.’’

‘’We wish to state unequivocally, that this victory is not only for the OurMumuDonDo Movement but also for every Nigerian who believes that a new and better Nigeria is achievable. We strongly hope that by virtue of this victory, Nigerians will feel more emboldened to speak truth to power, hold leaders accountable, and resist fear in advocating for issues of social order and social justice in our great country.’’ The statement read.

The Respondents were represented in the case by O. M. Atoyebi and M. D. Podos while Inibehe Effiong along with S. M. Oyeghe represented Charly Boy.

goh

Taofiq01:
And what you also failed to mention is, APC's primary was based on people's votes not delegates, there is no way on earth AA could have beaten Prof in Kwara central based on that ; quote me anywhere.

Furthermore, let's not forget that it isn't only Kwara central that's gonna vote for the governor of the state sha. And as to what caused what differences amongst politicians, i restrain from commenting on those, there is no saint in Nigerian political space. But all in all, the 2019 general elections is gonna be a fun one, peace.

I can't quote you anywhere because you don't have any evidence to back up your claim. This is just your personal opinion based on your association.

And again, election is not just held in Kwara Central. It was held in all the 3 senatorial district

We have very good candidates, particularly we are in the People’s Trust Alliance. One thing I can assure you is that we are fielding candidates in virtually all the constituencies and what the alliance has given us the opportunity to do is also to migrate candidate from different parties who are in their alliance to the same single platform. Particularly the presidential and National Assembly elections and that’s what we are going to do, once INEC finishes with the process of nomination and their names should be published. One thing we want to assure Nigerians is that given our history, we are coming with a lot of experience that will a proper difference, we are going to be presenting people who are tested. It’s only when you are tested that you can talk about your integrity. It’s unfortunate that history has been taken out of our syllabus by people who want hold Nigeria down. Unfortunately when the military decided to amend the curriculum, it produced a generation of people who don’t have historical consciousness. We have to fill in the void and I think that’s going to be one of the first job we are going to do once we are elected as president. We need to restore content in the Nigerian educational system because the education curriculum that we have doesn’t support patriotism, if you don’t have a historical consciousness you can’t be patriotic. A lot of young people think that Nigeria has always been a mess like this, No it has not always been a mess like this, there are people who stood for integrity. Aminu Kano died without having a house, some of the young people don’t even know, they just think looting and stealing is what Nigeria has always been, it has not always been like that. A lot of people don’t know it’s not Buhari that started anti-corruption campaign in Nigeria. In 1966 coup, people were killed because people were being accused of corruption and corruption still didn’t stop in Nigeria. So Buhari isn’t the first person that started anti-corruption campaign, a lot of people don’t know that, they don’t know that there are people who have more integrity than people that they are looking at. So, there’s a sense of void that helps up hand of charlatans to get public attention so we need to put a proper education in place that will restore the historical consciousness of young Nigerians.

Alliances have limitations. Why are you not considering the fusion of parties in the alliance?

I think the People’s Trust/ANN Alliance is with an intention for a merger and that is on the card, but because election is here, we have to do election first. With mergers, you have to talk about new constitutions and so on. We have already notified INEC as to what we intend to do and what we are doing. Outside the election we will see the merger of the number of the existing parties with the initiatives that we are having and that’s where we are going. As I said to you, our organization which is the campaign platform, the Gbenga Hashim Organization has members of PDP, APC, SDP and various parties so these people are going to vote for us in the presidential election.

I think most importantly for me and my priority is to expand the GDP of Nigeria because this is the most important issue and the economy is too small for 180 million people. If you consider that even in 2013, when Nigeria made a lot of money from oil sales, the country made less than 50 billion dollars in total revenue, that same year Disney world a private company that markets entertainment in Florida made 47 billion dollars. So for 180 million people that revenue base is to small and its GDP of 510 billion even though it was celebrated as being the biggest in Africa as at 2013. Equals to poverty and that’s why you see that almost 2/3rd of the country’s population still live below two dollars in a day, and that’s why you see that the life expectancy rate in Nigeria is 53 whereas in Liberia that experience civil war and Ebola on a max scale, their life expectancy rate is 61, Sudan is 63. We need to build a bigger economy and the new economic development program (NEP) which we have out in place will move Nigeria from 410 billion US dollars to 4 trillion dollars in ten years and that will bring our average per capita income to be at par with countries like Malaysia, Thailand than Nigeria was. We are not talking about comparing the United States or Germany, we are talking about building a comparable economic base so nothing extraordinary for 4 trillion dollars GDP in ten years for a country of 180 million people.

Are you comfortable with the fact that among these two major parties as it were, those you expect to vote for you are throwing up old men in their 70’s as their presidential candidates in the APC and PDP?

You see the two major political parties have their own problems that’s is perhaps why somebody like me didn’t run under them, I have a lot of friends in PDP, I left PDP in 2006. I have a lot of friends in APC too. And some of them in APC I funded their elections in the National Assembly, I funded some people who are big people today in the APC in the past so the point is that when I’m in the ballot it’s a different matter. I’m a young man but I’m bringing to the table something more than being a young man, I’m not against old people because they are old, that’s not the narrative here. Mandela was very old and advanced in age and he was a good president because he had the legacy and history that recommended him to the whole world as a leader. Trump is 70 and the economy is doing well under President Trump even though you don’t like him, the economy of America is growing. So I’m not against anyone because you are young or old, and I’m not marketing myself as a young candidate, that’s not my selling point. The most important thing is the history, experience, competence that I bring to the table so it’s not just a question of young versus old. You are not breaking any record by being young, yes we need young people but young people with content, history, experience. There’s some kind of skill set that’s necessary and I take exception to people who don’t want to have any kind of experience, they just want to start from the top, you don’t want to be councilor, chairman but your first sting in politics is to become President. Even if you are coming from business background, you have led corporations and which exposes you to some level of politics and that gives you some experience to be president of a country but you don’t have any such history you have never been a student union leader, trade union leader, even if its chairman of road transport workers union, that’s some politics, that gives you some experience so I’m not just saying any young man, I’m not against old people as long you are competent and have something to offer we will take you for who you are. I will like to encourage a lot of young people but I also want you people to have the required skill set to do the job well. One of the difference between me and other people is that I started very early. There’s nothing to come up as a young leader, there’s nothing about it as long as have prerequisite training and there’s no job in this world without a skill set if you want to do properly well in that job.

Why the crisis in your party over presidential nomination?

Well, you know once a party start becoming relevant, then, you will have lots of internal contestations. Sometimes people sponsor from outside because they don’t want a formidable challengers competing with them and that was the case with ANN and there were attempt to have one convention where a candidate was supposed to have been produced with delegates from six states out of 26 states where the ANN is presently constituted but at the end of the day the NEC took the appropriate decision to annul that and those who tried to do that have been punished according to the party constitution and at the convention of the party where we had about twenty states in attendance out of the 26 states where I was elected presidential candidate, a decision was also taken to fast track the alliance discussion with other political parties like PT also adopted me as their presidential candidate, now we have about ten political parties also coming to the alliance and I will be running as the flag bearer of the entire alliance of the political parties. For different reasons some of our supporters ended up in different political parties, some in SDP, so will say the time is too short we are in PDP and we already have a governorship candidate that has been campaigning, we will vote for our governor and vote for you as the presidential candidate. So the GHO which is the big machine plus the alliance platform is the machine for the 2019 election and because we are in a unique circumstance, no party is actually coercive seriously even this two big parties that you are talking about. The APC virtually in every state had factional congresses from Lagos to Oyo to every state in Nigeria. So what you are talking about isn’t unique to AN. So this is expected. For us in our campaign the GHO and the alliance platform is a big platform that will be able to compete with APC.

http://thenationonlineng.net/atiku-will-take-nigeria-backward-says-olawepo-hashim/

Atiku will take Nigeria backward, says Olawepo-Hashim

Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN) presidential candidate Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim spoke with reporters in Lagos on his ambition, plans for the country and why next year’s general elections will determine Nigeria’s future.

Group Political Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU was there.

WHAT is your reaction to the emergence of Alhaji Atiku abubakar as the PDP presidential candidate?

By all standards the Waziri of Adamawa is qualified to be the President of Nigeria, having been Vice President before. But, the 2019 election is a different election. I think Vice President Atiku missed his chance of being president in 2007 and talking about in 2019 is like talking about the future of Nigeria and at the same time racing and reasoning backwards. I think the choice before Nigerians is between Nigeria and the whole Nigerians. A better Nigeria and the Nigeria that people like Atiku created before and most electorates from the polling that we have seen already are not talking about the maps that are been called up by some newspapers, I mean the pollings by those who have PVCs and want to vote. Eighty per cent of Nigerians want to see a new direction. They don’t want to go backward and Vice President Atiku Abukakar is a man of yesterday.

What competitive edge do you have over him going into this election?

Number one, I will be able to unite the country. I will be able to build a strong economy, given my experience and I’m that candidate that majority of voters, particularly first time voters and who are very significant, almost about 15 million of them who are not supporters of APC or PDP and then my friends in PDP and APC, who have made up their mind that when it comes to presidential election we will vote Gbenga. That’s an edge I have going for me I believe, no other candidate in this election has that.

I think the ANN as a party is not all that my political structure is all about. The Olawepo-Hashim Organisation, which is our political platform is presently in 36 states of the federation is bigger than the ANN. ANN comprises of the fathers of ANN and some of my supporters who agreed to migrate to that party, but the GHO is made up of my supporters and friends who are in APC, PDP, SDP, PT and ANN and it all these forces that we are going to be galvanizing for the next election and we have always known that we will come to this point when we started this campaign, 2019 elections is going to be a different election, you will find some states when it comes to presidency they will vote candidate A and party A, when it comes to governorship they will vote for party B so the results of the presidential election is not going to be measured by the strengths of the parties as they are established right now and because it’s not automatic that because someone’s in APC he will vote Buhari. We did an opinion polls 6 months ago, a survey of people who actually have PVCs. In Lagos for instance, Buhari scored 5 per cent, Atiku scored 3 per cent. majority of the people who are both APC and PDP said they are waiting for a new candidate. The 2019 elections is a unique election, it’s not going to be that simple and this is not just a Nigerian trend, it’s a worldwide trend. In the last elections in the United States we saw that a lot of democratic supporters, the men for instance migrated and voted for trump even though they were in a Democratic Party and that’s the trend.

I understand that in ANN you have an alliance with People’s Trust, what are the basic issues. What are you presenting?

The alliance with the People’s Trust, the PT is a party promoted by National Intervention Movement and in discussion to have an alliance with ANN started as far back as May, it’s not a new thing, we are just consummating that and our national convention which was held in Abuja proves that, it’s not just people’s trust, we have a number of organizations and parties that have also signed up in the alliance. The whole idea is to key in into the strategy of national intervention movement that promoted for almost one year running now. So this is not just any initiative, it’s just being consolidated and taken up some further steps. I think the issue is to build a stronger political platform that’s also committed to the idea of national unity, economic development, security in the land and to have a Nigeria where the life of every citizen will count and no discrimination against anyone regardless of your ethnic decent and religious beliefs and a true federal system, these are some of the issues that the platform is committed to.

I think the alliance with the National Intervention Movement shows you that this is the natural platform that I belong to. The leader was the president of the civil liberty organisation while I was the national administrative secretary of the Committee for Defense of Human Rights. In 1990 with me and some other patriotic Nigerians some are late today, we traveled the whole of northern Nigeria consistently for about three weeks in a bus to get the consensus of our people on how to end military rule so we are already working together, I quite understand that there are many civil societies structures now outside these traditional structures that we have and there’s a whole historical gap between the civil society activists of the 80’s and the 90’s and some of them are here today. So I believe that we will have a lot of buying in as the campaign progresses. You start somewhere and people get the right information that they need and they join in the process so it’s a developing story.

Taofiq01:
They really don't.

FYI, AA has been contesting in Kwara for God knows how many years now. Truth be told he gave Saraki the run for his money for Kwara central senetorial election last election, but he still lost nonetheless.

AA is no grass root politician and contrary to what many APC guys will tell you in Kwara, there's a batshit crazy civil war going on with them. Just like the problems most APC candidates are currently facing.

In conclusion, never underestimate Saraki based on what you read online. And until APC settle there civil war shit, i don't see them winning the election.

NB: I reserve the right to be wrong though.

What you have failed to say is that, prof Oba started contesting in the same year as AA.

In 2011, while AA was contesting under the progressive platform of CPC, a new party with its ideology for change, Prof was contesting under the destructive platform of Saraki under PDP. Saraki suddenly asked prof and others to step down for Ahmed and because they all lack any political strength or structure, they did, except one person. Guess who it was? Bashiru Bolarinwa, the current APC chairman in the state.

Bolarinwa contested the primary against Ahmed and Ahmed was declared, in an election Bolarinwa believed he won. We all remember his court cases in trying to reclaim that mandate. If Prof had any political stremgth, he wouldn't have stepped down. he would have done what Bolarinwa did.

In 2015, after Prof had shared garri with Saraki, he contested the PDP governorship primary election, where he came a distant 5th, trailing the likes of Ajibola, Belgore, Gbemi Saraki and Ajadi.

AA on the other hand became the Senatorial candidate of PDP, giving Saraki a run for his money. The result announced was actually forged and in a court ruling, it was recommended for the INEC official who presented that result, declaring Saraki as winner be prosecuted. Till this day, that case is still yet to be concluded.

So, where did Prof suddenly got the political strength you are ascribing to him?

Like i said, Prof has his strength, but definitely not compared to AA.

Yes, AA is a business man who doesn't stay at home, but he has his team and structures on ground and they are well funded to operate. Prof on the other hand may be at home, he does very little to connect. And besides, Prof doesn't go beyond Kwara Central. So they are incomparable.

Taofiq01:
They really don't.

FYI, AA has been contesting in Kwara for God knows how many years now. Truth be told he gave Saraki the run for his money for Kwara central senetorial election last election, but he still lost nonetheless.

AA is no grass root politician and contrary to what many APC guys will tell you in Kwara, there's a batshit crazy civil war going on with them. Just like the problems most APC candidates are currently facing.

In conclusion, never underestimate Saraki based on what you read online. And until APC settle there civil war shit, i don't see them winning the election.

NB: I reserve the right to be wrong though.

Indeed, you reserve the right

?

Johnnyessence:
lol you funny no be small, if it is professor oba abu, the talba of ilorin, i can still say that he can shake the table. but it is abdulrazak that is not a grassroot politician in kwara state. Atunwa still has upper hand in next year governorship election.

Prof don't have the political capital of AA. It's incomparable. Although, Prof too has his strength, you can't compare him to AA. AA has real strength that has been tested, but for prof, it's imaginary

Even to the blind, it was widely agreed that Bukola Saraki is a failure, not just in the whole of Kwara State, but also in his immediate community of Agbaji.

For us, Saraki is now a past tense. We can say it very proudly and authoritatively that 2019 will be the end of Saraki’s deceit in Agbaji community and Kwara as a whole.

IF NOT RAHMAN RAZAQ, WHO ELSE?

The inconsequential uproar generated by the All Progressive Congress (APC) primary election in Kwara State, which produced Alhaji Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq as its governorship candidate came to the public as a surprise, considering the popularity and wide acceptance of the candidate.

It is a fact, that the larger population of the people are rejoicing and celebrating that indeed, the most capable person who is properly equipped to drive poverty and oppression out of Kwara State has been rightly given the mandate to lead the Kwara free struggle. However, tiny voices of dissent are also being heard in the background from one of the aspirants that lost, whom many have now described as desperado.

As at the time of writing this, many still could not understand why anyone would question the legitimacy of Abdulrahman as the governorship candidate of APC. Majority of the people have been asking, if not Rahman Razaq, who else can lead this struggle at this time?

A brief survey in the state indicates that, in the eyes of the larger percentage of the public, even before the primary election was conducted, almost everyone already knew that there is only one aspirant capable of emerging in that election. This perception is not just based on feelings or attachment to the aspirant; it is as a result of the aspirant’s readiness, experience, preparation and capability.

One commentator in Ilorin, who had spoken to this write said and i quote, ‘’the truth of the matter is that, there is only one aspirant that is capable of winning the APC Governorship primary election and that person is Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq. If he didn’t win, many would have been surprised, he said.

It has been argued that out of all the aspirants that contested for the APC governorship ticket, only two of them have real state wide political capital due to past engagements and existing verifiable structures. The two are Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq and Dele Belgore. When these two aspirants eventually merged together to present one (AA), it became almost impossible for any other aspirant to stand a chance.

Rahman and Belgore both contested for Kwara governorship in 2011 under CPC and ACN respectively. Similarly, in 2015, while Dele Belgore lost the PDP governorship primary, Rahman went ahead to contest the Kwara Central Senate seat with Bukola Saraki, in an election many believed he won. That victory snatched away from him is still under litigation till date.

Apart from Rahman Razaq and Dele Belgore, the other 2 aspirants with some narrow political capital are Mashood Mustapha (MM) and Amb. Yahaya Seriki. These two aspirants had equally contested for Federal house of representative elections. While MM won the election in 2011 under PDP, Yahaya Seriki lost the election under DPP in the same year. But again, when another aspirant, Yahaya Seriki also merged with Rahman Razaq on the eve of the primary election, the election became more like a walk over for the son of the first lawyer in Northern Nigeria.

All other aspirants have very little experience running for office; neither do they have formidable structures capable of posing real challenge to Rahman Razaq.

So, when the public began to hear some aspirants claiming that they were robbed, many do not really understand what they are saying. How can you be robbed of what you don’t have?

There is only one person, at this moment, who has been given mandate by the people of Kwara to lead the kwara freedom struggle and that person is Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq of the All Progressive Congress (APC). If not Razaq Rahman, who else?

FREEDOM MEDIA GROUP

Johnnyessence:
Mr right you can't understand omo baba oloye smartness in politics. besides the Apc governorship candidate is imposed too by lai mohammed and tinubu. Atunwa still has upper hand in next year governorship election. kwara state politics is not on facebook and twitter or instagram, it is the politics of what is on ground.

There is no any imposition. That's the winner.

This is the same guy that has been contesting since 2011. The complainant of the losers are mere propaganda. Abdulrahman is going to win handsdown. It's over for Saraki

2019 will be the end of Saraki’s deceit in Kwara
https://mrrightsng..com/2018/10/2019-will-be-end-of-sarakis-deceit-in.html?m=1

The attention of Kwara Must Change has been brought to the lame remarks by the Director General of Bukola Saraki constituency office in person Alh Musa Abdullahi, who claimed that people who rejected Saraki’s deceit and babiallah kind of leadership in our revered Agbaji community are never successful.

To our understanding, this kind of faithless remark can only emanate from a person who is in prison of the mind.

Before his appointment as DG of Saraki’s constituency office, Alh Musa often share the feelings and messages of youths in Agbaji community about the mind blowing under-development and unemployment in the community.

Even to the blind, it was widely agreed that Bukola Saraki is a failure, not just in the whole of Kwara State, but also in his immediate community of Agbaji. This is why the entire youths of Agbaja supported the recall of Saraki, previously aborted due to INEC’s culpability.

Sensing that the people of Agbaji have equally resolved to send him parking like the rest of Kwara, Saraki promptly looked for someone whose loyalty is strictly tithed to their belly and Alh Musa was identified. It was for the purpose of silencing and misleading people and buying few others that he was appointed DG.

Immediately he was appointed, he suddenly turned his back on the same youths and singing a different song. He neglected the community for a long time and promptly enriched his pocket, only to resurface now that the election is getting close, claiming that those who rejected Saraki are not successful.

For us at Kwara Must Change, we believe that only Allah has the capacity to make people successful and only he can enrich whomever he wills, without resort to any other man. Evidences of people enriched by Allah abound in our communities. Through talent and hard work, many in our community have tested success beyond what any man have ever offer.

We therefore find the statement of Alh Musa as a remark from someone who doesn’t believe in Allah, subhanahu watahala, thereby equating man to God.

In truth, for people like Alhaji Musa, who have been held captive in Saraki’s dungeon for decades, such remark maybe true. But for all hard working Kwarans, particularly the youths in Agbaji, who put Allah first and work hard using their God given intellect, nothing can be further from the truth.

We are therefore using this opportunity to inform all well-meaning Kwarans that the first place Saraki will be defeated in 2019 is in Agbaji community.

For us, Saraki is now a past tense. We can say it very proudly and authoritatively that 2019 will be the end of Saraki’s deceit in Agbaji community and Kwara as a whole.

Kwara Must Change

2019 will be the end of Saraki’s deceit in Kwara
https://mrrightsng..com/2018/10/2019-will-be-end-of-sarakis-deceit-in.html?m=1

The attention of Kwara Must Change has been brought to the lame remarks by the Director General of Bukola Saraki constituency office in person Alh Musa Abdullahi, who claimed that people who rejected Saraki’s deceit and babiallah kind of leadership in our revered Agbaji community are never successful.

To our understanding, this kind of faithless remark can only emanate from a person who is in prison of the mind.

Before his appointment as DG of Saraki’s constituency office, Alh Musa often share the feelings and messages of youths in Agbaji community about the mind blowing under-development and unemployment in the community.

Even to the blind, it was widely agreed that Bukola Saraki is a failure, not just in the whole of Kwara State, but also in his immediate community of Agbaji. This is why the entire youths of Agbaja supported the recall of Saraki, previously aborted due to INEC’s culpability.

Sensing that the people of Agbaji have equally resolved to send him parking like the rest of Kwara, Saraki promptly looked for someone whose loyalty is strictly tithed to their belly and Alh Musa was identified. It was for the purpose of silencing and misleading people and buying few others that he was appointed DG.

Immediately he was appointed, he suddenly turned his back on the same youths and singing a different song. He neglected the community for a long time and promptly enriched his pocket, only to resurface now that the election is getting close, claiming that those who rejected Saraki are not successful.

For us at Kwara Must Change, we believe that only Allah has the capacity to make people successful and only he can enrich whomever he wills, without resort to any other man. Evidences of people enriched by Allah abound in our communities. Through talent and hard work, many in our community have tested success beyond what any man have ever offer.

We therefore find the statement of Alh Musa as a remark from someone who doesn’t believe in Allah, subhanahu watahala, thereby equating man to God.

In truth, for people like Alhaji Musa, who have been held captive in Saraki’s dungeon for decades, such remark maybe true. But for all hard working Kwarans, particularly the youths in Agbaji, who put Allah first and work hard using their God given intellect, nothing can be further from the truth.

We are therefore using this opportunity to inform all well-meaning Kwarans that the first place Saraki will be defeated in 2019 is in Agbaji community.

For us, Saraki is now a past tense. We can say it very proudly and authoritatively that 2019 will be the end of Saraki’s deceit in Agbaji community and Kwara as a whole.

Kwara Must Change

Still don't get your point

Joevics:
Stupid group.
Since you have analysed the video, is it fake or not?

Whether its political, religious, economocal or otherwise, the truth remains tha the governor collected money and should resign.

Are you reading with your eyes or leg?

Fresh insight into Ganduje's $5million bribe and Jafar's culpability in corruption

ttps://mrrightsng..com/2018/10/buharis-anti-corruption-gov-gandujes.html?m=1

One of the strategies or steps on investigation on issues of allegations on corruption that has been working for us at CATBAN is - Romancing the devil. IN this strategy, when the whole world is throwing stones of allegation on an accuse, our members don't do that, we go close to the accuse and console him or her. This open up so many does to carry on our findings.

It has worked for us on so many cases and it is still working. Very importantly, this strategy is only applied to suspects that are close to some of our members.

When CATBAN received the news of the video of Governor Ganduje of Kano State collecting bribe as released by the Publisher of Daily Nigerian, Malam Jaafar Jaafar, some organizations under our coalition rushed to our headquarters and some of them that are far away called us, almost all asking to throw our support behind Jaafar Jaafar. But, few were asking us to stand with Governor Ganduje.

We took the video and analyze it to our best of ability and got to a decision to bring in reasons beyond the content of the video. Some of us raised the issue of "political motive" against the Governor. Meaning, some of us were questioning the integrity of Jaafar Jaafar and his motive.

The reasons for such suspicion coming against him from some of our Members is the fact that Jaafar Jaafar happens to be the 1st person that made effort to interfere when CATBAN published the content of petition against the Chairman of Hajj Commission. Two of our members from our sister organizations went to the extent of speaking about why Jaafar Jaafar never looked into our petitions against Hajj Commission instead he came begging us to remove the post IG Wala made on Facebook.

It was at that point IG Wala also revealed further how Jaafar Jaafar challenged him openly on why he made the post against his own boss. When Wala asked Jaafar, who is your boss? Jaafar replied that the Chairman of Hajj Commission.

Wala said that this conversation took place in Jaafar Jaafar's office at Wuye. It was that same moment that Jafar called the Chairman of Hajj Commission on phone and was begging that he should allow him to persuade IG Wala to pull down the post against him. But, Wala refused even after a phone call at night from Jaafar to Wala.

As a result of all that transpired, CATBAN launched an investigation on Jaafar Jaafar and Daily Nigerian in relations to the media attack on the Emir of Kano the result of the findings is for another day.

The little information IG Wala tipped other members in that discussion was that the publisher of Daily Nigerian and few other journalists who were part of the 43 journalists that have been attending hajj for free and enjoying freebies from Hajj Commission never published anything against the Chairman of Hajj Commission and the corruption going on in the operations of Hajj for years. These were same journalists that were commissioned through the Hajj Reporters WhatsApp groups to attack IG Wala and CATBAN when he petitioned the anti graft agencies.
On the Governor Ganduje's saga, CATBAN made effort through Government officials who are close to the Governor to find reasons as to why will such video be concocted against the Governor! Most of those we spoke to confided that the Governor is known for bribe taking. One most disturbing response came from a diehard supporter of Governor Ganduje who said that "it is no news that Ganduje was caught on video, the news is that Ganduje will never deny collecting kickbacks". A Top Government official in Kano also said that the video is real and that someone that may appear before the Committee set up by the State Assembly will give more information about the video.

CATBAN also came across politicians that are already working hard to hijack the situation. One of such politicians have also gone far in using the name of the President and the Villa for the political funeral of Governor Ganduje. Meaning, they have already endorsed their own candidate who will resigning from his present position in a Federal office to contest for the position. All ready, they are substituting his name with a candidate whose name is on the INEC list.

We wish to emphasis on the following:
- The video may note be fake even if the media or publisher was sponsored for political reasons.

- Jaafar Jaafar deserve commendation for releasing the video under any circumstance but he should be made to also know about the implication of double standard. This is to all of us that are in the fight against corruption in a corrupt continent like ours.
- Governor Ganduje must also be bold to say the truth and honourably step down before it will be too late for him.

- Kano State Assembly may likely take advantage on the issue because of personal political grudge. But, they should pls restrain from doing so since many of them who claimed to know much about the Governor's activities have never summon the courage to report him. They must therefore be objective.

I wonder o

lol

@gohashim2019

quickberry2:
Technically avoiding PYO

VP for VP. President for President.

Hashim's VP will conveniently take on Osinbajo

Hashim is the best man.

I’m ready for debate, says Olawepo-Hashim

ALLIANCE for New Nigeria (ANN) presidential candidate Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim said yesterday that he was ready for a presidential debate with President Muhammadu Buhari, ahead of next year’s election.

He said the President should participate in a live debate, where he will tender his stewardship.

Olawepo-Hashim told reporters in Lagos that Nigerians are warming up for the poll, adding that the exercise would determine the future progress and prosperity of the country.

He said: “I am ready for presidential debate with President Muhammadu Buhari and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. I won’t debate with the vice-president, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (SAN). My running mate, and not me, will debate with Osinbajo. I am a presidential candidate.”

The ANN/Alliance for Peoples Trust (APT) flagbearer, whose party is in alliance with other opposition parties, also said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate will bring Nigeria backward, if elected as president.

He urged voters to decide between candidates, who will retard progress and a flag bearer whose leadership will give birth to a new Nigeria.

Olawepo-Hashim said the outcome of the 2019 poll will shock many people, stressing that Nigerians are prepared to take their destiny in their hand.

http://thenationonlineng.net/im-ready-for-debate-says-olawepo-hashim/