The Lagos State government has reacted to claims by Orji Kalu that his Ikoyi residence was sealed by government officials after he criticized the state governor.

In a statement made available to PREMIUM TIMES, the state government said it sealed the former Abia State governor’s Park View Estate home over his failure to pay the statutory annual land use charge.

The statement noted that Mr. Kalu defaulted despite three separate notices delivered to the said property.

“As a government driven by law and process, the Lagos State Government will ordinarily expect all law abiding residents to discharge their responsibilities to the state,” Aderemi Ibirogba, Commissioner for Information, said in the statement.

“If, in spite of failing to do so, Mr. Orji Uzor Kalu wants to give ethnic colouration to a routine performance of its duties by an agency of the state government, which in this case is the Land Use Charge Office, under the Ministry of Finance, he is welcome to do so,” he added.

Earlier, Emenike Ojukwu, Mr. Kalu’s aide had claimed that the sealing of the property was connected to an article written by his boss in the wake of the “deportation” of some Igbo indigenes to Onitsha by the Lagos State government.

“There’s no other reason than because Mr. Kalu told Fashola not to deport people from Lagos State. He’s not the owner of Lagos State. Lagos does not belong to him,” Mr. Ojukwu had said.

In the article titled: “Deportation: Fashola got it wrong” published in Mr. Kalu’s The Sun newspapers, the former governor criticised the Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola, for the “deportation” of 67 people of Igbo extraction.

He described the “deportation” as “dehumanising and demeaning and an affront on the sensibility of all Igbos,” promising also to take the Lagos State government to court if it does not “show remorse, confess and own up to their sin and ask God for forgiveness.”

The lagos government has refuted Mr. Kalu’s claims saying “only 14 people” were relocated to Anambra State, and that it acted in consultation with the Anambra State government.

However, in its response late Tuesday, the Lagos State government insisted that Mr. Kalu’s claim that the action on his property had anything to do with the ‘deportation’ matter “could not be further from the truth.”

Mr. Ibirogba further said that the state government has, after Mr. Fashola’s intervention, directed the agency to “unseal” the property and that an additional 14 days grace period be given to Mr. Kalu to pay the said charge.

“It should be emphasised that notices like these are served on defaulting property owners on a regular basis who either comply or contact the Agency to raise any objections they might have to such notice,” said Mr. Ibirogba.

“Mr. Orji Uzor Kalu, like every other citizen, must fulfill his obligation to the State.”

Senate President, David Mark, has accused a senator, Ahmed Yerima, who is at the centre of the child marriage controversy, of blackmailing the Senate to reverse its initial move to delete a section of the constitution that appears to support child marriage.

The said section says a woman married shall be deemed to be of age for the purpose of renouncing citizenship. But many Nigerians fear the section sanctions girl marriage and have asked that it be removed.

Mr. Mark repeated an earlier position of the deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, that the section would be revisited.

He did not, however, guarantee the contentious section, which ordinarily deals with citizenship, but appears to promote child marriage, will be deleted since it will require voting.

But he said the Senate was poised to remove the section from the law in the first place until members were blackmailed by Mr. Yerima by his claim that an alternative decision would be un-Islamic.

“Let me also talk to my own brothers and sisters who are Senators, who were probably blackmailed. That is the fact, because it is in the open that I cannot also hide it and nobody can hide it,” Mr. Mark said.

“They were simply blackmailed, and on that day, if they didn’t do what they did, nobody knows the outcome or how the consequences will be today, because the people outside can say this man, you are Muslim and didn’t vote for something that is of Islamic interest, because if we don’t hit the nail squarely on the head, we may never get it right.”

Mr. Yerima’s call compelled the Senate to repeat the vote which had already passed the required mark. The second vote was defeated, leaving the section intact.

Mr. Yerima, a former governor of Zamfara State, shot to controversy after introducing the Sharia law while he was in charge of Zamfara State. After he left office and became a senator, he took a fourth wife, a 13-year-old Egyptian girl, sparking anger and widespread criticism across the land.

Mr. Mark spoke on Wednesday while receiving a high-level team including the minister of women affairs, Zainab Maina, and the chairman of the Nigerian Human Rights Commission, Chidi Odinkalu, who protested the Senate’s failure to delete the section.

Other members of the team included wife of former Chief Justice of the federation, Maryam Uwais; former Vice President of the World Bank for Africa and former Education Minister, Obiageli Ezekwesili; former women minister, Josephine Anenih; and other top gender activists.

The group asked the Senate to revisit the section and delete it.

“The Senate must remain impervious to emotional, religious reasoning, and focus on the aggregate social good which will protect and enrich the lives of half of the nation’s population,” remarks read by Mrs. Maina said.

“We enjoin the Senate leadership to use every avenue within its rules of procedure to cause a revisit of the vote on Section 29(4) (b). The overwhelming reaction of Nigerians against the outcome of the vote on 16 July, 2013 is a clear and unequivocal indication that women, and indeed diverse and significant constituencies of Nigerians, have concerns for the specific and general implications of the decision of the Senate to retain Section 29(4) (b).”

Mr. Mark said Senators were not “pedophiles” and would reconsider the contentious section.

“We wanted to remove it but it failed, we were a total of 101 Senators, 85 voted and I think about six or so abstained. There was hardly any dissenting votes but once it got mixed up with so many other issues, it didn’t get the required 73 votes anymore.

“So, first of all, I think the castigation outside is done out of misunderstanding but because a religious connotation was brought into it, which is a very sensitive issue and you must agree with me that in this country, we try as must as possible not to bring issues that involves faith to the floor of the Senate and indeed the chamber, we keep religion completely out of it because what is good for a Christian is also good for a Muslim.

“The good of the country is for everybody and not for a particular religious sect. I think the bottom line is, when people get more educated, then we can do a re-think and probably, if the Senate agrees, go back and see whether we can get the required number once more, because that is the solution.”

There is a plot by some persons within and outside Bayelsa State to destabilise the state, the governor, Seriake Dickson, has said.

The governor stated this in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Iworiso-Markson.

He alleged that “the plan is being spearheaded with the active support and collaboration of some desperate politicians and their collaborators from neighbouring states who do not mean well for the state.’’

Mr. Iworiso-Markson said that the plan involved embarking on a sponsored mass street protest as part of a campaign of calumny and propaganda against the state government.

“In recent times, we have seen deliberate attempts by this group of desperate power seekers sponsoring some gullible graduates to take to the streets. They were also behind the recent protest staged by pensioners in the state.

“It is sad to note that they are now on a planned mission to incite unsuspecting youths to take to the streets to protest against the state government,” he said.

The spokesperson said that as a responsible government, the administration of Mr. Dickson would not fold its hands while peace and security were undermined in the state. He warned that government would not hesitate to bring the full weight of the law on anybody that breached the existing peace in the state.

“We have it on good authority that these disgruntled politicians are going round doling out cash to recruit youths in the state to join in the dastardly act,’’ Mr. Iworiso-Markson alleged.

He said that the government was aware of plans by “these political leaders to re-open militant camps in the creeks and procure arms as part of their agenda to make the state ungovernable.’’

The spokesperson advised youth in the state to take advantage of the existing peace in the state to advance their potential and wellbeing.

The aspirants meet PDP national leadership, rule out consensus candidacy.

Twenty three people have signified interest to be candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Anambra State; and have purchased the Expression of Interest forms to contest the November 16 governorship election.

Josephine Anenih, the wife of the Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Tony Anenih; the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Independent National Electoral Committee, INEC, Andy Uba; and the Coordinator of Foreign Affairs at the PDP national secretariat, Agape Kramer; are among the members that signified their interest by purchasing the forms for N1 million each.

Others are a former member of the House of Representatives, Nicholas Ukachukwu; a former President of the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, and PDP chairman in Anambra, Tony Nwoye; a former Senator, Emmanuel Anosike; and Chairman, Gocuz Group of Companies, Obinna Uzor.

The national leadership of PDP had, during a meeting with the party’s stakeholders in Anambra State last week, released the guidelines for the governorship primaries beginning with the sale of Expression of Interest Form between July 18 and 19.

The party also fixed, for August 1 to 5, the sale and return of nomination forms, while the primaries and possible run-off hold August 24. It will submit the name of the eventual candidate to INEC on August 30.

Although the cost of nomination form has not been officially disclosed, sources said it may go for N5 million.

At a meeting with the party leadership on Monday at its national secretariat in Abuja, all the aspirants reportedly resolved not to pick one of them as a consensus candidate, preferring to go through the party primaries.

They also agreed that whoever emerges as the candidate should be supported by others who must not dump PDP for other parties in protest.

It was further gathered that the meeting, which was presided over by the acting Deputy National Secretary, Emmanuel Agboti, and acting National Organising Secretary, Hamisu Abubakar, resolved to shelve the use of electronic registration of the members of the party for the election.

According to a source, due to the peculiarity of the Anambra State chapter of the party, which has three factions, the meeting resolved that the factions should submit their membership lists from which the through membership would be compiled for the August 24 primary election.

The ruling party insisted at the meeting that members on the list of each faction must not only have membership cards but must produce evidence of paying their dues regularly and at the right time. This is expected to check the inclusion of names of people who were never financial members.

A source at the meeting stated that it ruled out the issue of electronic registration for the Anambra election because going by the party guidelines for primaries, the exercise should have been concluded at least a month before the ward congresses which holds on August 17.