Nigeria News
What Exactly Is Happening In Imo State?
By Kanayo Esinulo
My cousin, Godfrey – Goddy for short – is not particularly unknown in political circles in Imo State. Under Nigeria’s prolonged military rule, I managed to prevail on him not to accept to serve, either as Commissioner or Special Adviser, any military administration in Owerri. We argued several times, and for many hours, on this matter, and in each instance, he conceded that the points I raised were convincing. When he managed to bow to my arguments and accept my advice, he would grudgingly add that a lion does not accept defeat easily. He was at Nsukka in the early seventies and strongly believes that a lion must not feed on vegetables. As politics resumed in 1999, he located on the side of Dr. Ezekiel Izuogu, the man evil men of Nigerian politics severally teamed up to deny the governorship of old and new Imo State by brazenly rigging him out at each political competition in the state. I supported my cousin, Goddy, in his choice of Izuogu as a governorship candidate. Before 1999, Izuogu had solidly established himself as a towering political figure in the East. But somehow, the then formidable Izuogu political machine that my cousin supported and worked for never made it to Douglas House, Owerri. Chief Arthur Nzeribe and all he represented made sure that never happened. Those were the ugly days of political godfathers, and Nzeribe was then a big player in the murky waters of Imo politics.
When the numerous court cases that Izuogu instituted failed to restore his mandate, my cousin went back to his public service job – angry with and disappointed by a rotten political practice that promotes and sustains injustice. Goddy was on sabbatical when he went into the field with Izuogu. As he went back to his regular job, he preferred to remain out of politics. He became somewhat apolitical for a good number of years. But suddenly, his interest in the politics of Imo State was awakened soon after Chief Ethelbert Anayo Rochas Okorocha surfaced in Owerri as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA. Surprisingly, Goddy was again ready to take out another sabbatical to work for the man he saw then as a “God-sent rescuer of Imo State”. His sympathy and support were totally for Okorocha and his new love, APGA. I would arrive Owerri, and right from the airport where he picked me, it was Rochas, Rochas and Rochas, all the way. Obviously, he was part of the mass hysteria that greeted Okorocha’s arrival in Owerri brandishing APGA’s governorship ticket.
Happily, my cousin knew where I stood. I refused to be fascinated by his theory that “this man’s entry into the politics of our state would re-configure its landscape.” I was convinced that the incumbent governor then, Chief Ikedi Ohakim, was doing a good job and obviously on the right track and, if given a second term, I believed and still believe, he would transform Imo State. Besides, the resuscitation of the old Owerri Master Plan by Ohakim attracted the attention of some of us who had taken time to study and write on it when several military administrators in Owerri chose to ignore and abandon it. As the general elections of 2011 approached, Goddy, who, like I said, had become so excited by Okorocha’s governorship gamble in Owerri, and was confidently referring to him already as “governor-elect” even when the campaigns were only beginning to gather steam and momentum. I knew that some like him in the state would be carried away by sentiment. And this was at a period of the alleged mistreatment of a Catholic Reverend Father by an overzealous security detail, which was a veritable propaganda material for those who wanted to cut short Ohakim’s socio-economic programme in Imo State. The opposition led by Okorocha had been looking for excuses to give a good dog a bad name in order to hang it. Curiously, my Lord Archbishop, Anthony Obinna, was sold on this exaggerated story and, painfully, he bought it and stuck to it. No apologies or explanations were able to mollify an ‘outraged’ Catholic community. The Okorocha camp feasted on the sad event.
When Rochas ‘won’ in a controversial election that almost divided a homogeneous state right down the middle, Ohakim, advisedly, congratulated Okorocha, welcomed him to Government House and handed over an elaborate and, I am told, self-explanatory note that detailed everything an in-coming governor needed to know or be briefed on. But we all know how he reciprocated that brotherly gesture: as a governor-elect, Okorocha wrote to all the banks that transact business with the state government (on a letter-headed paper that no one has disclosed to us yet!) and instructed them not to honour cheques or any financial instrument from a government that was still in power. I reached out to Goddy in Owerri immediately and told him: “That is your man, Rochas, on duty – Mistake number One. Watch out for more mistakes. Many more will follow, I assure you!” The Deputy Governor-elect, Sir Jude Agbaso, may have been enjoying his new boss’ style and carelessness. And it was too early for a governor that was yet to be sworn-in to be making silly mistakes. But that was a sign of what to expect.
Today, Agbaso, the Deputy Governor, is at the receiving end of an administration that he and his boss have been running on flat tyres. It is not difficult to know why the deputy governor is now game for those who think that the wonderful state should be disengaged from civilisation. The on-going fracas and cracks within the top ladder of the Okorocha administration are not coming as a surprise to some of us. The administration lost focus too early in the day. Instead of concentrating on governance and delivering on his specific promises to the people of Imo State, Okorocha was busy feasting on cheap populism, cheapening and discontinuing many good projects that his immediate predecessor was dutifully executing – the Ring Road that could have decongested and set Owerri free for those moving on to Port-Harcourt, Aba, Uyo and Calabar, for instance – wasting time, energy and resources witch-hunting and probing everybody and everything, and in the process may have lost opportunities that could have enabled him to improve the state and the living standards of the people.
Only last week, I called Goddy, my cousin, to know what exactly was happening in Imo State and why the conventional and social media were feasting on the alleged resignation of the Deputy Governor of Imo State, how true were the points raised by the two construction firms about the N458 million bribe that Agbaso allegedly demanded and received from the Lebanese Managing Director and the degree of seriousness and commitment by the state House of Assembly to find out the truth and possibly impeach or punish any culprit. His reply was short and direct: “We no understand this government again. We no understand my man again-ooo.” It appears the Rescue Mission now needs to be rescued. It is a pity indeed.
Kanayo Esinulo, www.kanayoesinulo.com.
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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
UFC: Usman gets N584m after beating Masvidal
Insecurity: Lagos bans occupation of abandoned buildings
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