Nigeria News
ACN, CPC, Jonathan’s aide in public spat
Nigeria’s leading opposition party, the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, latest salvo against President Goodluck Jonathan, accusing him of sliding into dictatorship has drawn an equally combative and virulent response from presidential aides, accusing the ACN, instead, of being the abode of despots.
“The paradox is that those who do not allow freedom and equality in their own party or backyard, those who are well known as self-proclaimed Godfathers and closet despots, are the same ones who are now quick to accuse others of despotism. The ACN should start by removing the log in its eyes. President Jonathan is not a despot. ACN is the real abode of budding despots in Nigeria”, Reuben Abati, presidential adviser on media and publicity said today.
From Abati also came another salvo to the CPC spokesman, Rotimi Fashakin, who had accused Jonathan of not doing enough about Baga and of not visiting the town, where 187 civilians were reportedly killed by a multi-national force, including Nigerian soldiers.
Abati said: It is in the character of the CPC and its spokesperson to play to the gallery even when the occasion calls for maturity and sobriety. The problem with them is that they consider everything “very unacceptable”, and in particular everything relating to President Jonathan. They deserve our sympathy.
Goodluck Jonathan: Aide declares fire-for-fire to opposition parties
“If they care to know, President Jonathan has been very pro-active in dealing with the Baga incident. He ordered an immediate probe by the Military High Command and the intervention of rescue and aid agencies, who have been working with the Borno state government and other agencies of state to ensure that the victims are rehabilitated and assisted with relief materials.”
The ACN started the main controversy with the statement on Sunday by publicity secretary, Lai Mohammed accusing President Jonathan of heating up the polity with his move to silence perceived enemies and opposition.
The ACN accused the president and his administration of steadily descending into despotism with a brazen assault on the freedom of expression and the press, the use of national institutions against perceived enemies and a growing inclination to denigrate opposition leaders.
“The Jonathan administration is anchored on a Transformation Agenda. But the only transformation that we can see is the one from a democratically-elected President to an Emperor, a despot,”said Lai Mohammed.
“If the president is not prevailed upon to change course, Nigeria may be in for another season of anomie, reminiscent of the days of the maximum ruler who took the country to the brink before his sudden demise.”
But the presidency responded by accusing the ACN of ‘standing truth on its head’, of indulging in ‘politics of abuse’, ‘of engaging in perfidy’ and of poor understanding of the word ‘despotism’.
According to Abati: “Does Lai Mohammed know the meaning of the word, despotism, or is he just throwing the word around for onomatopoetic effect? He and his sponsors are in fact beneficiaries of the openness and freedom that this administration promotes. The paradox is that those who do not allow freedom and equality in their own party or backyard, those who are well known as self-proclaimed Godfathers and closet despots, are the same ones who are now quick to accuse others of despotism. The ACN should start by removing the log in its eyes. President Jonathan is not a despot. ACN is the real abode of budding despots in Nigeria.
“The ACN’s allegation that there is a disagreement between the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi is also wrong-headed and mischievous. Governor Amaechi has publicly stated that this particular allegation is a piece of fiction created by certain persons and the media. We insist that President Jonathan is not engaged in any quarrel or dispute with Governor Amaechi. And it is wrong to use the matter of the aircraft that was grounded by the aviation authorities to concoct stories of persecution. The institutions involved have offered reasons publicly why they took their decision with regard to the unlicensed aircraft, which in any case is an asset of the state, not the Governor’s personal property. The President has nothing to do with that incident.
“The ACN claims that there is “a growing propensity to stifle the freedom of expression and freedom of the press.” The report by the Committee to Protect Journalists which the ACN quotes is not a comment on government-media relations in Nigeria. This administration sees the media as a strategic partner in the business of nation-building. The government not only enjoys a robust relationship with the media, it continues to encourage the freedom of expression and of the press.
In its statement, ACN said that the way President Jonathan is handling his political disagreement with a member of his party, Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, has portrayed him as a leader who is willing to jettison democratic ideals and principles on the altar of personal ambition.
The party wondered why national institutions have to be bastardized and compromised just to get at a political enemy, specifically citing the role being played by the Ministry of Aviation, its parastatals like the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, National Airspace Management Authority and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, as well as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the police, among others, in the presidency’s clash with the Governor Amaechi.
“Like we said before, we are not perturbed by what is happening in the PDP,” the ACN said. “Our main concern is the fact that the party’s internal crisis is overheating the polity and threatening the country’s hard-won democracy.
“After the theatrics of the aviation agencies and their parent ministry, the EFCC has suddenly realised that the cost of the Rivers state’s plane was inflated by US$ 10 million while the police have sacked the Secretariat of Obio-Akpro local government in Rivers.
“The question is: who gave the orders for the police to sack the Secretariat, and in the process take sides with the president in the political disagreement with the Governor?
“Which are the other national institutions that will be drafted into this scorched-earth campaign against a perceived non-conformist party member? If the president can go to this length against his own party man, what will he do against the opposition?
“Why is it that a democratically-elected president cannot be challenged by anyone, whether or not he is a member of his party?” it queried.
The party also expressed concerns at the growing propensity of the administration to stifle the freedom of expression and freedom of the press, citing the report by the media rights group, Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ, on the occasion of this year’s World Press Freedom Day on 3 May, as a global testimony to the worsening record of the administration as far as press freedom is concerned.
Observers said, from the exchange of salvos today, Nigeria’s political landscape may be in for interesting political fireworks in the next few months.
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Posted in Nigeria News. A DisNaija.Com network.
Source: PM News
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The Kano State Government on Saturday said it has transferred 1,098 ‘almajiris’ to different states of the country.
The commissioner for local government, Murtala Garo, disclosed this while presenting a report before the state’s task force on COVID-19 at the government house, Kano.
Almajiris are children who are supposed to be learning Islamic studies while living with their Islamic teachers. Majority of them, however, end up begging on the streets of Northern Nigeria. They constitute a large number of Nigeria’s over 10 million out-of-school children.
Mr Garo said the Kano government transported 419 almajiris to Katsina, 524 to Jigawa and 155 to Kaduna. He said all of them tested negative for coronavirus before leaving the Kano State.
Despite the coronavirus test done in Kano for the almajiris, the Jigawa government earlier said it would quarantine for two weeks all the almajiris that recently arrived from Kano.
Mr Garo said another 100 almajiris scheduled to be taken to Bauchi State also tested negative to COVID-19.
In a remark, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje said the COVID-19 situation in Kano was getting worse. He appealed for a collaborative effort to curtail the spread of the virus in the state.
Mr Ganduje, who commended residents for complying with the lockdown imposed in the state, said the decision was taken to halt the spread of the virus.
Kano State, as of Saturday night, has 77 coronavirus cases, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
The decision to transfer the Kano almajiris is part of the agreement reached between Northern governors that almajiris in each state be transferred to their states of origin.
However, even before the latest agreement by the governors, the Kano government had been transferring almajiris to other states and neighbouring countries after it banned street begging in the state, most populous in Northern Nigeria.
Despite the transfers, however, no concrete step has been taken to ensure such children do not return to Kano streets as there is freedom of movement across Nigeria although interstate travel was recently banned to check the spread of the coronavirus.
Sourced From: Premium Times Nigeria
By Ugochukwu Alaribe
Operatives of the Abia State Vigilante Service, AVS, popularly known as ‘Bakassi Boys’ have arrested 24 market women hidden in a container truck, at Ekwereazu Ngwa, the boundary community between Abia and Akwa Ibom states.
The market women, said to be from Akwa Ibom State, were on their way to Aba, when they were arrested with the truck driver and two of his conductors for violating the lockdown order by the state government.
Driver of the truck, Moses Asuquo, claimed he was going to Aba to purchase stock fish, but decided to assist the market women, because they were stranded.
A vigilante source told Sunday Vanguard that the vehicle was impounded while the market women were sent back to Akwa Ibom State.
Commissioner for Home Land Security, Prince Dan Okoli, who confirmed the incident, said that smuggling of people into the state poses great threat to the state government’s efforts to contain the spread of COVID- 19.
Sourced From: Vanguard News
Operatives of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID), Yaba of the Lagos State police command have arrested one Mrs Nene Steve for allegedly killing her maid, Joy Adole
The maid was allegedly beaten to death by Nene for requesting for her salary at their residence located at 18, Ogundola Street, Bariga area in Lagos.
Narrating the incident, Philips Ejeh, an elder brother to the deceased said that he was sad when they informed him that his sister was beaten to death.
He explained that the deceased was an indigene of Benue State brought to Lagos through an agent and started working with her as a maid in January 2020.
‘’She reported that her boss refused to pay her and anytime she asked for her salary she will start beating her.
She was making an attempt to leave the place but due to the total lockdown she remained there until Sunday when her boss said she caught her stealing noodles and this led to her serious beating and death,’’ Ejeh said.
He called on Lagos State Government and well- meaning people in the country to help them in getting justice for the victim.
The police spokesman, Bala Elkana, stated that the woman and her husband came to Bariga Police Station to a report that their house girl had committed suicide.
Detectives were said to have visited the house and suspected foul play with the position of the rope and bruises all over the body which confirmed that the girl had been tortured to death and the boss decided to hang up the girl to make it look like suicide.
He said: “The police moved on with their investigation and found a lot of sign of violence on her body that she has been tortured before a rope was put on her neck.’’
He added that the police removed the corpse and deposited it in the mortuary for autopsy to further ascertain the cause of the death.
Elkana said the matter has been transferred from Bariga police station to Panti for further investigation while the couple have been arrested and will be charged to court.
Ostensibly alarmed by the latest killings of dozens of soldiers by Boko Haram insurgents, President Muhammadu Buhari has summoned an urgent meeting of Service Chiefs to find ways to stop the trend.
He has also dispatched the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan Ali, to the neighbouring Republic of Chad for an urgent meeting with President Idris Deby and his defence counterpart.
Knowledgeable sources said in Abuja on Friday that the president is worried by on the deterioration of security situation on the Nigeria – Chad Border that has led to the recently increased Boko Haram terrorism in the area.
The sources which did not want to be named in Abuja said: “Nigeria has a Chad problem in the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) put together to secure the Lake Chad basin areas and repeal the Boko Haram terrorist attacks against all the countries neighbouring the Lake.”
The sources noted that Chad is believed to be having their own internal security challenges and this has reportedly led to their pulling away their own troops manning their own border around Lake Chad, saying: “That lacuna is being exploited by the Boko Haram terrorists, who go in and out of Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon to launch terrorist acts. This is a clear illustration of the fact that terrorism is beyond national borders.”
When contacted, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, confirmed that the Defence Minister is going to Chad but said he is unaware of the purpose.
Meanwhile, the military authorities are said to be in the process of identifying the families of the latest victims with a view to making contact with them.
Credible sources revealed that it is the reason the president is yet to make any pronouncement on the matter.
“The President has called an urgent meeting with the Service Chiefs, as well as the fact that families of the latest victims of the Boko Haram are being identified and contacts made before a government pronouncement on the tragic attacks. This, it is understood, is the reason for the silence of the government over the incident,” the source said.
Sourced From: Tribune
Nigeria records 55 new COVID-19 infections, total now 165,110
Military, Police Ring Abuja to Forestall Boko Haram Attack
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