Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State has accused the Igbo socio-cultural body, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, of delaying discussions with the Federal Government over Nnamdi Kanu’s release.

The governor made the claim on Friday when he featured on Channels Television’s Politics Today.

“We wished that it should be solved and that’s why I went to Mr President. And our leader, Chief Mbazuluike Amaechi, has also gone to the President and he agreed for a political solution, but it should be us that should initiate it,” he said on Friday.

“And I am asking Ambassador Obiozor (Ohanaeze President), he is very slow about this because I had gone to the DG DSS. I had gone to the Attorney-General of the Federation and they were ready to receive them to discuss. I had excluded myself so that politics is not by any means adduced to it.”

“So, we should be encouraging the president of Ohanaeze to work with the IPOB leader as Mr President suggested and then let them, you know, bring something before the Federal Government and say, ‘These are what we are bringing on board.’ I think that the President is not averse to that,” the government added.

The governor, who said he foresaw the growing insecurity in the South East, reiterated that that was why his government opposed the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) from the onset.

He, however, said many people misunderstood him and “jumped into and used it for politics”. Umahi lamented that the situation is now “a pain in everybody’s eye” in the region.

Buhari’s ‘Worry’

President Buhari flanked by Governor Umahi during the inauguration of the project.

Umahi’s comment followed President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit to the state where the Nigerian leader commissioned several projects.

During the visit, leaders of the South East region pleaded with the Nigerian leader for the release of Kanu who has been in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS).

But Buhari told the Ebonyi State Stakeholders’ Forum at the Government House in Abakaliki on Friday, that only the court can decide the IPOB leader’s fate.

“I have listened carefully to the various appeals from the elders to the traditional leaders, regarding a wide range of options,” he said. “And as I have said previously, this matter remains in the full purview of the court where it will be properly adjudicated.

“My worry is for our hardworking and innocent civilians for whom life is already tough and will like to just go out and earn a decent and honest living.”

A policeman has been killed alongside two suspected militants of the Indigenous People of Biafra during a gun battle in Agwa, Oguta Local Government Area of Imo State.
The incident happened on Friday when operatives of Imo State Police Command’s Tactical Teams exchanged gun with the fighters, suspected to be members of IPOB and its armed affiliate, Eastern Security Network (ESN), according to a police release.

The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Michael Abattam, in a statement, said other policemen were injured but had been taken and treated at the hospital for the minor injuries they sustained.
According to the police spokesman, corpses of the hoodlums were later deposited in the Federal Medical Centre’s mortuary in Owerri, while investigation was ongoing.
“ESN members in their numbers emerged from the surrounding bushes, shooting sporadically at the policemen while conducting stop and search duty.
“The officers, who swiftly took cover and responded, engaged them in a fierce gun duel, while they called for backup from the Divisional Police Headquarters, Agwa.
“On arrival, they positioned themselves strategically and professionally engaged the hoodlums in a fire fight. For the operatives’ superior firepower and number, they were able to neutralise two of the hoodlums while others fled in disarray with bullet wounds into the bush.
“The police operatives tactically chased the hoodlums, in the process, combing the bush for possible recoveries of their arms and arrest of the fleeing suspects. However, two locally made double barrel guns with seven live cartridges and ten expended cartridges were recovered at the scene.”
The Commissioner of Police, Imo Command, CP Mohammed Ahmed Barde, while consoling with the family of the officer who lost his life gallantly, advised the officers and men not to relent in their efforts until all criminal elements are apprehended and made to face the full wrath of the law.
He then appealed to Imo residents to give continuous support and collaboration to the security agencies and to report any person seen treating bullet wounds or hiding within the community, to the nearest police station for prompt action.

The Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, has recalled how he was charged with murder and armed robbery before he became Obio/Akpo Council Chairman.

Wike said his journey to becoming the Local Government Chairman was not an easy one as he was subjected to court cases.

The Governor, who is contesting for the 2023 presidency on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, said this when he appeared on Channels Television’s Politics Today.

“I contested election to be Obio/Akpo local government Chairman In 1998/9, and by the Grace of God I won,” Wike said.

“Obio/Akpo LGA is…people say one of the richest but I don’t want to use the word richest, [I rather say]one of the very most popular local governments the entire country cannot even do without…

A very important LG. So, you cannot preside over this important Local Government with all these major stakeholders of the economy and security of the nation…for you to preside over such then you know what Nigeria is all about.

"But before I became the Council Chairman it wasn’t easy because it is local government with so many interests both from Indigenes and those who are not from that area.

"For record purposes, I was the first person to become a Chairman that the Supreme Court had to affirm. It’s not a where anybody can be Chairman. No. It’s not correct.

"Because you have several interests Indigenous and from outside …it took me to go to Supreme Court to become the Chairman of the Council and I passed a lot of hurdles.

"I was charged for murder …I don’t know if you understand me? I was charged for armed robbery. So it’s not something that you think, oh, he just became a local government Chairman it wasn’t easy for me…”

Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, on Monday, disclosed his grouse with former President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki; and Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal, over zoning of the presidency to the South ahead of the 2023 general elections.

Wike said he had always supported presidential aspirants from the North, wondering why those he supported in the 2019 elections are now aspiring to be president in 2023.

He stated this while appearing on Politics Today, a current affairs programme on Channels Television, monitored from Abuja on Monday.

Wike claimed to have supported Tambuwal to become Speaker of the House of Representatives and Saraki to become Senate President against all odds.

The governor also noted that only Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State had personally expressed his support for his presidential bid.

When asked about his relationship with Saraki, Tambuwal and other governors on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, Wike stated that the problem he had with Nigerians was that “people don’t want to tell the truth and I feel so bad.”

Wike said, “There is nobody today contesting for president of this country from the North that I did not have a relationship with or that I did not support. There are nine of them who have not come to me to say, ‘Wike, with you, I think I will have my way.’ And I always told them, ‘I agree, but what is on the ground; what is on the table?’

“If you ask most of my friends, the problem I have with friendship is that if we agree on something, let’s keep to it. If there is any reason why that shouldn’t be done, I should be notified.”

He added, “I will tell you one. Sadly, it is with one very intelligent young man Nigerians listen to – Bukola Saraki with all due respect. I was one of those who made sure he became a Senate President. He was in APC. I tweeted and spoke about his intelligence. Whether you hate him or you don’t like him, this young man is intelligent. Why would you not allow such a person to be at the helms of affairs? I never hid my feelings.

“My brother and friend, Tambuwal, when he wanted to be Speaker, the government and the PDP didn’t want him to be the Speaker. I was one of those who said no, we shouldn’t do that. I came out and said he should be Speaker. Even when he wanted to be president, I was one of those who said he was a vibrant young man and it didn’t matter; that we should not do it by age. People were fighting me all over…in the South, in the West, in the North, in the East. They all fought me. ‘Why are you bringing Tambuwal?” I said it was not about me bringing Tambuwal. I said I had found somebody that I thought had all it takes to lead.”

Wike stated that he had no apology to anybody for previously supporting Tambuwal and Saraki.

The governor stressed that he did not support the presidential bid of a former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar. Still, when Tambuwal lost to Abubakar at the primary, he gave all his support to the ex-VP.

Wike confirmed on the national TV programme, “I want to challenge anybody, any governor, any person in this party who would say they gave Atiku the support I gave. In fact, I can tell you that in the South-South, it was only in my state that APC never got 25 per cent (votes). Atiku knows that I came all out and supported him,” he added.

According to Wike, there was a gentleman’s agreement that power should remain in the North while it is shifted to the South in 2023.

Former President Goodluck Jonathan who is considering joining the All Progressives Congress to run for President is set to face a legal battle in the coming days, The PUNCH has learnt.

This is just as the Vice Chairman/Director of Public Affairs, Igbo Leadership Development Foundation, Dr. Law Mefor, says his group will be going to court to challenge Jonathan should he declare his intention to contest.

Mefor stated this as the Peoples Democratic Party members in the House of Representatives warned the ex-President against accepting offers of the APC and the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.)

Explaining the stand of the ILDF, Mefor, who believes the next President should be from the South-East region, argued that Jonathan had been affected by the constitutional amendment and thus had no right to contest.

He said, “I have said it before and I’m saying it again. We will go to court to challenge it if Jonathan joins the presidential race.

“What my group, Igbo Leadership Development Foundation, would test in court is whether Jonathan can be sworn in as President of Nigeria a third time despite the express constitutional provision against it.

“We are just waiting for Jonathan to pick up a political party’s nomination form and the Igbo Leadership Development Foundation will approach a court of competent jurisdiction to challenge his qualification to stand this election. I have nothing personal against Jonathan. After all, I was in his media team in 2015 but we have to do things right as a nation under the law and not as a nation of impunity picked as a consensus candidate.

In a chat with The PUNCH, a human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), said any party that picked Jonathan as its candidate risked being disqualified.

When asked what would happen if Jonathan emerged candidate, Falana stated, “Of course, their opponents will go to court to challenge the legal validity of his election. It will be too much of a risk without having a definitive pronouncement on this matter.”

The senior advocate maintained that Jonathan having been inaugurated as President twice could not be sworn in the third time.

Falana also noted that Section 137(3) of the constitution which was amended in 2018, states that a person who was sworn in to complete the term for which another person was elected as President shall not be elected to such office for more than a single term.

He argued that since Jonathan became President following the death of President Umaru Yar’Adua, he would not be able to serve two more full terms.

As politicians jostle for the nation’s presidency in 2023, former Senate President Bukola Saraki has said it is the turn of the Northcentral to lead the country.

He spoke yesterday in Jos when he addressed delegates from Plateau State ahead of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primary election slated to hold in May.

The former Kwara governor, who is among the many aspirants in the race for the PDP ticket, said the Northcentral had consistently supported other regions to lead the country and deserved similar support from other zones.

“You remember that before the national convention of our party, we held a meeting in Abuja with delegates of Northcentral extraction.

“We said to ourselves that for many times and many years, we, in the Northcentral, have worked hard, we struggled, used our efforts, used our money, used our energies to support other people to lead.

“Everybody, who had become President under this great party, got the seat because of our massive sacrifices.

“We have now resolved that it is time for others to vote for us in 2023,” he said.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige has said that he has done what many cannot do to forestall strikes by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.

Senator Ngige also dismissed insinuations that he is responsible for the ongoing action by the union, saying that his work was only to conciliate and not to implement agreements reached.

Speaking on a Silver Bird Television Live Interview Programme, the Minister said he has successfully conciliated 1683 industrial disputes since assumption of office in 2015, and has been taking extra measures beyond his statutory responsibilities, to forestall strike and ensure action is promptly suspended when workers unions make it inevitable.

Ngige also said the untiring efforts of his office towards peaceful national industrial milieu , sleepless nights as a parent whose children are also in the public universities and who equally bear the brunt of ASUU strike, are being undermined by an erroneous impression by some Nigerians over his role as a conciliator, and by the uncooperative, anti-labour attitude of ASUU leadership

The Minister insisted that the role of the Minister of Labour is to conciliate disputes and does not include the implementation of agreements so reached with parties.

“However, when conciliation fails, the Minister is under obligation by section 9 and 14 of Trade Disputes Act, Cap T8, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria to transmit the results of the negotiation to the Industrial Arbitration Panel (IAP) or to National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN)

“In the ongoing ASUU imbroglio, I’m the conciliator. I bring them to negotiate with their employers – the Ministry of Education and the National University Commission as well as IPPIS, the office of the Accountant General of the Federation, all under the Ministry of Finance.

“At the end of every negotiation, we put down what everybody has agreed on in writing and add timelines for implementation.

“But let me tell you. There is nothing new about ASUU strike. It has been a recurrent decimal. In the last twenty years, ASUU has gone on strike, sixteen times. So , there is nothing new as such.

“What is new however is that I have done what Napoleon could not do. You can ask them, the ASUU leadership. I’m sure that in the innermost part of their hearts, they can’t sweep away my untiring efforts. I’m the only conciliator lately, who has conciliated and put timelines on agreements and pushed all the parties, the government side to implement and stick to the timelines. Such fidelity wasn’t there hitherto.

“Last year alone, based on the timelines I put on the 2020 agreement , they got N92.7b in terms of Revitalization and Earned Academic/ Earned Allowances for the university system. I went out of the schedule of my office, to the Ministry of Finance , to the Office of the Accountant General myself , on occasions , to ensure these monies were paid.

“Yes, I did it. I did same for doctors and other health professional operating under JOHESU. I promised in 2015 when the President appointed me that the era when agreements were left to gather dusts were over and I have maintained it. I work even at odd hours, late night , at times far into morning hours to ensure things work.

“I recall that in 2020 when ASUU went on strike and refused virtual meetings which COVID-19 imposed, turned down all appeals by the federal government to call off the strike and engage the virtual teaching of their students as was done in the private universities, the Federal Government had no option but to invoke No work, No pay in line with section 43 of the Trade Disputes Act after three month of the strike. As a parent whose children with others already lost nine months of academic teachings, I approached the President to approve payment to ASUU on humanitarian ground, despite not teaching for nine month!

“I have also personally suggested to ASUU to appoint a general secretary and deputy as part of its secretariat to do the leg work, follow up on its matters, since its leadership, comprising professors, senior citizens may not stand the bottle necks and delays usually associated with public service bureaucracy.”

The Minister regretted that the current ASUU strike has prolonged because the university teachers have made negotiation difficult.

“Negotiation now is being made impossible by ASUU. For example , ASUU insists that National Information and Technology Development Agency (NITDA) should take the payment platform, University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) that it developed and deploy it for payment in the university whether it is good or bad , whether it failed integrity and vulnerability test or not.

The governor of Rivers State, Mr Nyesom Wike, who is a presidential aspirant under the platform of the main opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, at the weekend tasked stakeholders and founding fathers of the party to give the presidential ticket to someone who will not run away from the party.

The Presidential aspirant equally vowed to put David Umahi’s successor in Ebonyi State during the forthcoming 2023 general election.

Wike made this known while addressing stakeholders and political leaders of PDP in Ebonyi State during his consultation visit to the people of the state.

According to him: “I’m here in Ebonyi State to let you know that you should not border on the setbacks you have, that the law must take its prepared place at the right time. I don’t want to send any delegation to the people of Ebonyi, I told Governor Ugwuanyi that I’m coming personally so that you look into my eyes and I will look at your eyes.

"And nobody born of a woman shall tell me not to enter Ebonyi, I say nobody. I’m a full committed party member of PDP. I joined PDP when it was founded in 1998. Anything I’m today by the special Grace of God, as chairman of LGA to governor, Minister and it is PDP that gave it to me.

"Therefore, I owe PDP a lot and I will continue to support PDP. I’m not one of those who will reap and abandoned those who helped him. Go and tell whoever that is anywhere, that whatever you sow, you will reap. All those that PDP helped to be in power and have betrayed PDP, the judgment will come one day.

“I told Ebonyi people that you must take back your party secretariat and to the glory of God, we are here today. Let me tell you the truth, nobody can intimidate me, Not one. And I want my colleague in Ebonyi, David Umahi to hear me well. Wherever you are, wherever you may be, hear me now.

"PDP laboured and put their sleepless night and PDP won the election and you took the mandate of our people and go to another party, anybody who has conscience’, if you know you are a man and very strong and any day they put election you will win, I challenge you to resign and then come and contest election to know whether you will win again.

“We will continue to fight against injustice, we will fight for democracy. I’m making myself available to defeat APC in the forthcoming 2023 general election. My dear Ebonyi people, I’m here to tell you, I will stand by you, I will support you any day anytime.

"What PDP want is who will win election, give me this ticket, let me go and defeat APC for you. I’m not running for president to be given vice president. I’m not running to be called former presidential aspirant. I didn’t buy another form, Incase this one didn’t work, I will go back to it. If you have told Ebonyi people and Nigerians that you are running for president, why are you collecting another form for other positions” he stated.

"In a swift reaction, the Governor of Ebonyi State, Chief David Umahi who is equally a presidential aspirant under the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress APC, challenged him to a debate.

Umahi cautioned Wike for saying that he will not win elections without PDP, describing him as a lawyer that does not know the law.

“I am calling him to debate, he wants to be President, I want to be President, let us do a debate so that the world would see how intellectual property would be deployed,” he noted.