Nigeria News
Amaechi vows to lead protest against Police chief, FG
Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi of Nigeria’s Rivers State has vowed that he is just waiting for an appropriate time to lead the people to protest the injustices being meted out against Rivers people by the federal Government and the Police Commissioner, Mbu Joseph Mbu.
He said that the Police was not drafted to the state to fight crime but terrorise people and dared the Police Commissioner to shoot him when he leads the planned protest.
Amaechi spoke in Government House ,Port Harcourt, today in reaction to the various complaints by traditional rulers and four local Government Chairmen of Abua Odual, Ahoada East,Ahoada West and Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local government areas that make up the Orashi region of the state.
He commended the doggedness of the people of the region not to be cowed by the antics of the Commissioner of Police, Mbu who tried and failed to trample on their rights to free movement in their own state.
On the planned protest against the Federal Government and Mbu, Amaechi said: “We are looking for a date we will demonstrate against what the Federal Government and the commissioner of police are doing in Rivers state. We have told our chiefs to get ready. Once we get a date, once we get people from overseas and Nigeria that will join us, we will give you the date. I have told the commissioner of police to be ready to shoot me. I will be in front.
“I will not sit in Government House and wait for you to march here and give me letter. Instead, we will put SSG here. Then, I will march with the people. We will give SSG letter to give the Federal Government. This is so that if they want to shoot me, they can shoot me, because we have the right to express our views.”
Amaechi lamented that the state is practically under siege.“We have been suffering. We are now in a police state in Rivers state. If they blocked the entire Orashi region, and not allow more than a million persons, from Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni, Abua/Odual, Ahoada East and Ahoada West LGAs. All policemen in Rivers state put together are not more than 17,000. With their guns, they tried to stop you. What you showed them is called people’s power.
“That you came out, despite the fact the police blocked all the roads. Looking for people in buses and stopping them from driving out. That you still passed that road and came here, you are stronger than me. You are more courageous than me.
“You (people of Orashi region of Rivers state) are by far stronger than me. I got a report yesterday (Monday), very late at night that police planned to stop you. You should have recorded them, so that we can show it to the world, how much a tyrant the commissioner of police (Mbu Joseph Mbu) is.
“Let us assume you are coming to protest, the commissioner of police cannot say he banned protest, when it is part of your fundamental human rights, which are in the constitution. His personal order is now superior to the constitution.
“They have not taken your oil wells yet. They have taken oil wells from Etche people. They have taken from Kalabari people.They have taken from the Andoni. There is a claim by our sister state in Egbema and we also have boundary with Delta state. How do we know they will not claim from the Delta area?
“How do we know that if we close our eyes, the ones they are claiming in Egbema, they will not take them from us? You can never tell how we will be losing our oil wells every day. If I speak, they will say we are against government. Should I sleep as governor of Rivers state and be watching them?
He warned Rivers people who to be wary of those parading as opposition politicians now because as he said, some of have been out power for the past eight years.
“Part of the fight we are getting now is because of our desire to protect our oil resources. There are politicians who have played politics with us. In the past eight years, they have not been part of government and poverty has set in.
“My brother, Chibudom Nwuche (former Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives)the new PDP Vice Chairman said we are not running an inclusive government. My brother, the Governor of Ekiti State (Dr. Kayode Fayemi) told me that they call it ‘stomach infrastructure’.
Rivers Governor explained that “Part of the problems we are having is that our brothers, who have gathered in Abuja, have been hijacked by those who are not from Rivers state, to cause confusion in Rivers state. We are trying to complete the road to Nwuche’s village and we must complete it. If we have done that, what else is inclusive? What they mean by inclusion is stomach.
“The danger in letting them to take power is that for four years, they will not be able to do anything, because for eight years, they have got nothing. By the time they finish chopping and remember that you are alive, it will be four years. They have been out for eight years and they cannot wait to come in. Promise me, we will stop them.
“They can bring 50 commissioners of police. They can bring 50 Mbus. Mbu can live in their house. Just promise me that the people power will defeat them the way you defeated them this morning. It does not matter, how much they want to come in. Only the people can defeat them.
“Governors in this country have two choices to make. You either stand by the people or stand against the people. How do you stand by the people? Many people have been here and we have been hungry, in the midst of plenty. We have not had infrastructure. No employment. I am not saying it has improved, but we are moving towards improvement.
“I will not stand against you, just because I want to share the money.”
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Posted in Nigeria News. A DisNaija.Com network.
Source: PM News
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Nigeria News
Kano Transfers Over 1,000 Almajiris To Different States Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic
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
Nigeria News
COVID-19: ‘Bakassi Boys’ Foil Attempt To Smuggle 24 Women Into Abia In Container
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
Nigeria News
Woman Kills Her Maid Over Salary Request
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.
Tribune
Boko Haram Attacks: Buhari Summons Urgent Meeting Of Service Chiefs
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