₦airaland Forum

AN unnamed party agent of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has narrated how security officials were watching while she was being manhandled by thugs allegedly belonging to the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Ekiti State.

This comes days after the State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, made similar claims against security agencies dispatched to the state to monitor the July 14 governorship election.

The gubernatorial election of the state which holds today and ongoing is a clear contest between the two major political parties in the country.

In the state, the PDP is the ruling party while the APC is the opposition.

The unnamed party agent who is a woman was allegedly assaulted by thugs believed to be agents of the opposition party after she refused following them to the APC having decamped from the PDP.

According to Premium Times which published the story, the incident took place at Unit 9, Ward 8, Ado Ekiti local government area, in the presence of security officials attached to the unit.

“One Olayinka Babawobe, he is a thug. He is the one who brought in three thugs and they started beating me.

“They ask me to kneel down, but I refused and they started beating me and the police were there.

“We were in PDP together and I was working PDP together. I was working for them, but they were taking the glory.

“When they were moving to APC, they called me but I refused," she said.

The online medium reports that she was rescued from the men after she had been beaten and after more security officials were drafted to the unit.

The woman who was earlier without a party tag was given a chair to sit and observed the voting between the two voting points at the unit on realisation that she is the party agent of the PDP.

THE Reformed APC (R-APC) has taken a legal dimension to wrestle power from the ruling All Progressive Congress, (APC).

This is after the R-APC had approached the Independent National Electoral Commission urging it to invalidate the newly elected National Executive Committee (NEC) of the APC led by Adams Oshiomhole.

They are aggrieved members of the APC who formed a splinter group of the ruling party.

Most of its members are former members of the new PDP who in 2013 formed a similar splinter group within the then ruling party.

On Thursday, the R-APC approached a federal high court in Abuja praying for it to declare the election of Oshiomole’s national executive committee as invalid, null and void.

It also asked the court to declare its faction the authentic executives of the party.

The action of the group is contained in a suit with file number FHC/ABJ/CS/734/18 filled on behalf of the faction by its National Chairman, Buba Galadima, Publicity Secretary, Kazeem Afegbua, youth leader; Nicholas Asuzu and chairman of Kogi state chapter, Hadi Ametuo.

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THE Nigerian Law School on Tuesday finally called Firdausa Amasa, the law graduate who challenged the restriction on the use of hijab during call-to-bar ceremonies.

Ms Amasa was in December denied entry into the hall for the ceremony which took place at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, for refusing to remove her hijab.

THE National Assembly joint ad hoc committee investigating the invasion and carting away of the Senate’s mace has recommended the immediate suspension of Senator Ovie Omo-Agege.

The committee after the outcome of its investigation recommended Omo-Agege be suspended for 180 legislative days.

Submitting the outcome of its probe, the panel also recommended that Senator Omo-Agege be prosecuted alongside six other suspects who accompanied him into the chamber on the day of the incident while suggesting a total review of the National Assembly’s security architecture.

They are to be prosecuted for treasonable felony assault on National Assembly members of staff, conspiracy to steal and eventual theft of the Senate Mace, according to a report on Channels Television.

The lawmaker had while resuming from an earlier suspension slammed on him, allegedly led thugs who invade the upper legislative chamber amidst security.

The invaders carted away the mace which symbolises the authority of the chambers. It was later recovered by the police.

While appearing before the probe panel, Omo-Agege engaged them in a shouting match, insisting that he cannot answer questions from the committee because the matter is in court and discussing it will amount to subjudice.

STATE Governors of the South East region has stated why they won’t donate lands in their domain for cattle ranching.

The federal government in a bid to curb herdsmen and farmers clashes proposed the establishment of cattle ranching nationwide. This move has been rejected by some states.

The eastern governors while noting that their do not have enough land for themselves to use also reiterated their calls for restructuring saying it remained the only way forward for the country.

The governors also called for an emergency meeting in the zone with heads of the federal security agencies, farmers and herdsmen in order to stop the movement and prevent the clashes.

Rising from a four-hour closed door meeting at the weekend held at Government House in Enugu, the Enugu State capital, the governors stated that they had noted the increased challenges in the movement of herdsmen from one state and region to another with the attendant clashes with farmers.

“Let’s make it clear that no land in the South-east has been donated for ranching and the federal government has not asked us to do so either. We have not approved any land for ranching and we will never do so because we don’t even have enough land in our zone for our use, let alone for ranching,” the chairman of the forum and governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi, said.

The governors also expressed dismay over the huge sums of money they spend in paying farmers whose crops are destroyed by herdsmen.

In a nine-point communique read to journalists at the end of the meeting, the governors who condemned the recent gruesome murder of innocent citizens in Plateau State, joined other zones in demanding justice for Plateau people and also commiserated with the governor of the state over the unfortunate development.

Apart of Governor Umahi and Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Deputy Governors of Abia, Ude Oko-Chukwu and Anambra, Nkem Okeke, stood in for their states. Governor Rochas Okorocha was absent.

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Mr Umahi said the meeting which also had in attendance some other major stakeholders, including the President General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo; chairmen of traditional rulers from the five states of the zone as well as former Minister of Power, Prof. Bart Nnaji, among others, received presentations from the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation on the vexed issue of restructuring.

While reiterating its earlier stand that restructuring remains the only way forward for Nigeria, the governors resolved to take a studied look at the template of restructuring and will make its final stand clear by its next meeting.

deantimes:
Source: https://www.headlineng.com/buhari-melaye-blame-politicians-killings/

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has reacted to a question thrown to him by Senator Dino Melaye on the unabated nationwide killings.

The reaction done by the Presidency comes two days after HEADLINE ran a story reporting Senator Dino Melaye querying President Muhammadu Buhari on why his administration has repeated called for the establishment of cattle ranching if truly politicians where behind the killings.

The Presidency defending its principal on why the president accused politicians of being responsible for the killings refused to address the question posed to Buhari by Melaye. Instead it appealed “to all its citizens as well as members of the international community to refrain from spreading false stories and inflammatory statements concerning the recent herder-farmer clashes.”

HEADLINE ran the story described as ‘false’ by the presidency based on a tweet on the lawmaker’s twitter handle. Melaye, as at press time, has also not withdrawn his query described as ‘inflammatory’ by the presidency. One baffles how come the story is false.

Mr Buhari has on several occasions shifted blames to politicians as motivating the killings for their personal gains.

The president first launched his attacks on politicians when he visited Jos, the Plateau state capital, last week.

On Thursday, Mr Buhari launched his second attack when he played host to a delegation of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) from the 19 northern states at the presidential villa, Abuja.

While describing those accusing him of incompetence the Nigerian leader said his accusers were evil-minded people.

But reacting, Mr Melaye on Friday threw a question to the president on his claims.

“If PMB said politicians are the cause of the killings. So why is ranching the solution?” he queried.

Defending its principal, the Presidency said the government had evidence to back-up Mr Buhari’s claim.

“As President Buhari indicated lately, there is evidence of involvement of some politicians using criminals to perpetuate the killings,” presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, said in a statement on Sunday.

“The Nigerian Government is working closely with State governments and the Security Services – as well as international partners – in order to resolve this ongoing issue.

“The clashes between herders and farmers are historical. The causes of these confrontations are varied and complex.

“Climate change, specifically the drying up of the Chad Basin, has led to more pressure on the population in the North of Nigeria, which further compounded the problem.

“Climate change is an issue of global significance and the Nigerian Government is determined to continue working closely with its neighbours in order to ensure that a long-term solution can be implemented.

“The Federal Government makes no distinction amongst the population and works tirelessly to protect all Nigerian people.

“We are strongest as a nation when we are united and it is through unity that we will overcome this challenge,” Shehu said.

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has been called upon to allow his cronies accused of corruption to prove their innocence through the judiciary just like Bukola Saraki, the Senate President, did.

The call is coming from a former spokesman and chieftain of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), Timi Frank, in reaction to Mr Buhari’s comments on the acquittal of Mr Saraki on false assets declaration charges.

The Supreme Court had exonerated Mr Saraki of all the charges levelled against him.

Reacting, Mr Buhari, said the country’s judicial system, no matter the challenges it faces, is truly working and no one should be allowed to undermine or break it.

“I have seen many instances where individuals and groups seek the destruction of the judicial institution in the foolish thinking of saving their skin, instead of going through the painstaking process of establishing their innocence,” he said in a statement signed by his spokesperson, Garba Shehu.



In his reaction, Mr Frank described the president’s comment as “hypocritical.”

Frank in a statement in Abuja on Sunday, said it would have been better for the President to have maintained a dignified silence rather than betraying his emotion by comparing his purely political judicial antecedents to the persecution of Saraki.

He said that Buhari should have since demonstrated his faith in the judiciary by ensuring that all persons around him that have been accused of corruption are also made to prove their innocence through the judicial process instead of shielding them from prosecution.

“I find it a joke of the year and facetiously hypocritical for Mr. President to say that Saraki’s “tortuous journey” to victory at the Supreme Court is akin to his own three-time sojourn through the judicial apparatchik, he said.

“What does Mr. President mean? Is he saying that he tacitly supported the persecution of the President of the Senate simply because he emerged as the Presiding Officer of the Senate on June 9, 2015 against the wish of a cabal in the party with his tacit support?

“To prove his new faith in the Judiciary, let the executive arraign and ensure that persons like the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. David Babacheer Lawal and the former Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, to prove their innocence over the grass cutting scandal and corruption petitions from the Rivers State Government against them respectively.

“We knew from day one that the charge of alleged false asset declaration against Saraki was a political vendetta plotted to shame and pull Saraki down. We never had doubt that the judiciary would vindicate him. Our only fear was the attacks and intimidation of judicial officers, by agents of this administration to force a miscarriage of justice.

“I think the President should have been courageous enough to ask the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) – that hijacked the job of the Code of Conduct Bureau and championed the persecution of Saraki – to apologize to him.

“To equate Saraki’s unjust trial to Buhari’s episodes of legal battle to prove that he was cheated during three presidential elections is to admit guilt. It is like ‘I went through hell and I also wanted you to go through hell to know how it feels.’

“I think that this type of mindset is sadistic and un-fatherly, if that was the thinking behind the statement issued on Saturday by Garba Shehu – Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity.

“I think the Justices of the Supreme Court and the Chairman and members of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), deserve the commendation of all Nigerians for seeing the case for what it was, and for their courage in preventing a calamitous injustice which was about to perpetrated against an innocent man,” Frank noted.

SENATOR Shehu Sani (Kaduna Central), has suggested immediate recipes for peace that could resolve the long-term feud between the Presidency and the National Assembly.

Disclosing his suggestions in a Facebook post on Sunday, Mr Sani, tendered what must be done by the two parties for peace to reign between the duo.

BELOW ARE SANI’S SUGGESTIONS:

The feud between the two arms of government began right from the inception of the 8th Senate which its president, Bukola Saraki emerged the leader of the National Assembly against the wish of some forces in his party, the All Progressive Congress, (APC).

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has reacted to Friday’s Supreme Court ruling clearing the senate president, Bukola Saraki, of graft charges.

The president said the country’s judicial system, no matter the challenges it faces, is truly working and no one should be allowed to undermine or break it.

“I have seen many instances where individuals and groups seek the destruction of the judicial institution in the foolish thinking of saving their skin, instead of going through the painstaking process of establishing their innocence,” he said in a statement signed by his spokesperson, Garba Shehu.

“In the case of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, I have seen him take the tortuous path of using the judicial process. He persevered, and in the end, the highest court of the land, the Supreme Court, says he is not guilty as charged.

“This is what I have done in the three elections in which I was cheated out, before God made it possible for me to come here the fourth time I ran for the office.”

Mr Buhari said Mr Saraki’s journey from the lowest to the highest court of the land provides an important example that all Nigerians should emulate.

In its judgememt, the Supreme Court affirmed the June 2017 decision of the Code of Conduct Tribunal which ruled that the prosecution failed to prove the case against Mr Saraki.

The senate president was brought on an initial 16-count charge of false asset declaration by the Code of Conduct Tribunal in September 2016 by the Code of Conduct Bureau.

He was accused of making anticipatory declaration of assets as well as withholding information regarding his assets while he was governor of Kwara State between 2003 and 2011 and when he became a senator in 2011.

The charges were subsequently amended to 18-counts.

Mr Saraki, who challenged all charges against him at different levels, made a no-case submission at the CCT after the prosecution closed its case against him.

Following the application of a no-case submission, the tribunal chairman, Danladi Umar, ruled that the evidences tendered by the prosecution were insufficient to substantiate its charges against the defendant.

THE National Chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, has described the emergence of ‘Reformed APC’ (rAPC) as corruption fight back.
https://www.headlineng.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Oshiomhole.jpg
Earlier in the week, a breakaway faction of aggrieved members of the ruling party emerged self-styling itself as ‘Reformed APC’

During its formation the rAPC described their former party as worst than the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The faction largely made up of National Assembly members is led by Buba Galadima, a former leader of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), a party to the signatory of a merger which saw the formation of the ruling party.

Mr Oshiomhole disclosed his opinion on the matter while addressing a delegation who claimed to be state chairmen of the CPC that came to disassociate themselves from the rebellious rAPC, on Friday.

The APC chairman who had earlier pleaded with the aggrieved members to be patient told his audience that the party could emerge victorious in the coming general election without the inputs of the splinter group.

“For me, there is no cause for alarm; nobody should panic over one Baba Galadima, whose group, I believe, cannot define us in the next election in 2019. Nigerians are wiser, they know that corruption is fighting back, they also know that President Buhari’s resolve to fight corruption must elicit a counter force and that force must find attraction in some people,” Oshiomhole said.

“But like we have rightly said, we should not be distracted and we encourage the president not to be distracted. He must remain focused and sustain the fight and I believe the rebellion will be crushed using the superior power of argument, persuading our people not to forget in a hurry where we are coming from,” he stressed.

Oshiomhole who emerged the chairman in the recently held national convention of the party had in his acceptance speech, acknowledged that the party had challenges, but promised they would be addressed.

Also, the splinter group had in their grievances noted that the process by which the former Edo governor emerged was unconstitutional judging from the constitution of the APC.

While reacting to Oshiomhole’s remarks about the rAPC being inconsequential, Mr Galadima, on a national television, said it was the ruling party members that lacked integrity and honesty.

The group also boasted of possessing enormous strength in the National Assembly to impeach anyone if there was need to do so.

“On that side, there is no man of integrity and honesty as Buba Galadima. Those of us that had sacrificed our sweat and blood cannot sit idly and watch these values destroyed, this is the beginning of what is called crisis in the party,” the leader of the splinter group boasted.

“We believe that all the values and visions of APC have been thrown to the dustbin. Nigerians from all walks of life have shown solidarity with us and for those who said that they are not losing sleep, why are they going cap in hand to the National Assembly.

“I want to say that today as I sit here, if I give a directive to our members in the National Assembly to impeach for constitutional infractions, it would be carried out because we have that majority,” he added.

Earlier, the leader of CPC delegation, Umar Shuaibu said contrary to insinuations from the opposition that the outcome of APC’s National Convention would lead to the disintegration of the APC, “it is to their dismay that we have not only come out successful, but have produced a National Chairman of the caliber of Comrade Adams Oshiomole.

“We wish to disassociate ourselves from the rAPC and their opposition to the President Muhammadu Buhari.”

Melaye To Buhari: If Politicians Are Responsible For Killings, Why Ranching?

SENATOR Dino Melaye, representing Kogi West at the upper legislative chamber has hit back at President Muhammadu Buhari over his claims that politicians were responsible for ongoing nationwide killings.

Mr Buhari has on several occasions shifted blames to politicians as motivating the killings for their personal gains.

The president first launched his attacks on politicians when he visited Jos, the Plateau state capital, last week.

His media aide, Garba Shehu had quoted the president in a statement as saying that: “desperate people had pursued their quest for instability and chaos which they hoped would give them an advantage in the coming elections”.

Mr Shehu went on to add that: “We know that a number of geographical and economic factors are contributing to the longstanding herdsmen/farmers clashes. But we also know that politicians are taking advantage of the situation. This is incredibly unfortunate.”

On Thursday, Mr Buhari launched his second attack when he played host to a delegation of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) from the 19 northern states at the presidential villa, Abuja.

While describing those accusing him of incompetence the Nigerian leader said his accusers were evil-minded people.

“When some (people), for clearly political purposes, attempt to suggest that this government is doing nothing about the killings, and that I, being Fulani, must be encouraging these satanic acts, it seems to me that there is no limit to the evil in the minds of these men,” he said.

Besides shifting blames when confronted on his failures on national issues, the Buhari administration has on several occasions suggested that cattle ranching was the solution to farmers and herders clashes across the country.

The suggestion has widely been rejected by various states who insisted that they have no land for cattle ranching.

Earlier in the week, the Presidency had told those against providing land for the proposed ranching that submitting their lands for ranching was better than being killed by killer herdsmen.

“Ancestral attachment? You can only have ancestral attachment when you are alive. If you are talking about ancestral attachment, if you are dead, how does the attachment matter?” Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, queried while speaking on an AIT morning programme in response to a question on people giving out their ancestral attachments.

But reacting, Mr Melaye on Friday threw a question to the president on his claims.

“If PMB said politicians are the cause of the killings. So why is ranching the solution?” he tweeted via his twitter handle.

THE accusation and counter-accusation bordering on election rigging between incumbent Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) continued on Thursday.

Mr Fayose, belonging to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has on several occasions accused INEC of plans to rig the July 14 governorship election in the state in favour of the All Progressive Congress (APC).

The electoral body has also been denying the accusations challenging the governor and his party to back their allegations with evidence.

The governor’s allegations ranged from; compromised card readers, electoral staff; bribery of security officials; padding of sensitive election materials; indiscriminate arrest of top functionaries of the state government; among others.

Speaking at the grand rally of the PDP’s campaign train of the party’s candidate, Prof. Kolapo Olusola, Fayose told the electoral body that they (INEC) would not be handed a breathing space to carry out their alleged rigging plan.



“INEC we want to tell you, we know your plans that you want to rig for APC, we will follow you bumper to bumper,” the governor said.

He also told the APC to forget about winning the gubernatorial election as the state belongs to the PDP.

“Ekiti is a no go area, we are not interested in violence.

“I have been your governor for the past four years, nobody has been attacked, no politically motivated violence in Ekiti,” he said.

Fayose also criticised the ongoing nationwide killings in the country challenging PDP to come back into power at the national level.

The governor also expressed optimism that his party will coast to victory at the end of the poll.