A new Commissioner of police has resumed in Edo State and has expressed readiness for Saturday’s Governorship Election.
Fimihan Adeoye took over from Chris Ezike in a brief hand-over and Take-over ceremony in Benin, the Edo State Capital on Monday.
The outgone commissioner said he was leaving the state better than he met it as, according to him, the spate of robbery incidents, kidnapping, cultism and other criminal activities were no longer the order of the day
He reminded the new police boss that his first major assignments, among other things, would be the visit of President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday for the APC Campaign rally at the Samuel Ogbemudia stadium Benjn and the September 10 governorship polls.
The new commissioner of police assured that his leadership would sustain the measures that were already in place and will seek to improve on them.
He said: “I want to say that I am an apostle of crime prevention, so we are going to be sustaining all the crime preventive strategies that have been put in place by the outgoing CP and that is to say that we are going to be reinforcing the song of policing and indeed security is everybody’s business.
“The idea of thinking that policing should be left to the police and other security agencies, we want the people to discard.
“We are going to ensure we enlist their support in the policing of their own communities.
“Community policing like democracy is the policing of the community by the people and for the people, so the communities will be actively engaged in the policing of the society,” he added.
Adeoye called on citizens of Edo State to be law abiding as they go to the polls on Saturday.
“Our message is that everybody should be law abiding, nobody should take the laws in his hands; election is a process of choosing leaders, so people should learn to do it peacefully.”
A recent video released by Boko Haram showed some of the girls alive while the terrorists said the others had either been married off or had died in air strikes by the Nigerian Military
A number of groups and individuals have reportedly shown interest in negotiating the Chibok girls/Boko Haram swap deal in response to President Muhammadu Buhari’s disclosure that his government was open to a deal with Boko Haram to get the Chibok girls out of captivity.
Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, who made the revelation said multiple groups with claims of contact with the Boko Haram had come forward with the proposal to link government up with the Boko Haram faction that is holding the girls.
Buhari had told journalists on the sidelines of the sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development, TICAD VI, in Nairobi, that his government was prepared to take all the necessary measures to ensure the release of the girls.
The president said government was ready to enter into discussions with genuine leaders of the Boko Haram sect with the knowledge of the whereabouts of the girls.
He said such leaders could reach the Federal Government through an internationally recognised non-governmental organisation and show proof that they have the girls.
The president was reacting to a video that was released by Boko Haram earlier in the month where the group showed some of the girls and a spokesman stated that the girls would be released if government agreed to release insurgents in detention.
But speaking to Daily Trust on Sunday, Shehu said the Federal Government was being “prudent, careful and scrupulous” in every line of action it was taking to secure the freedom of the girls.
For that reason, he said, the nation’s intelligence agencies had been involved in scrutinising the groups that had come forward, as well as their claims.
“The comments by the president have aroused interests and offers in certain quarters, from people who claim to have contacts with the group (Boko Haram).
“The intelligence agencies are scrutinising them. They are being careful this time around because of what happened in the past.
“Every offer is being investigated and verified. The president has always maintained that he wants to see a group that has the mandate of the sect and has a proof of possession (of the girls) and the willingness to discuss,” he said.
In addition to the groups, the presidential spokesperson said security agents who have served in the North-East were also supplying information that could aid the girls’ rescue, just as Boko Haram members currently in detention were also trying to prove their capacity to lead the way to their leaders, in order to get the girls returned.
“Nobody knows the way to the girls, but all options are being followed. Every line of action will be followed to a logical conclusion, with the hope that this time around, we will get it right.
“The president is very passionate about returning these girls to their parents,” Shehu said.
He added that the government would be guided by the provisions of the constitution when the need arose to discuss the release of Boko Haram commanders in exchange for the girls.
“There is nothing the government will do in releasing the commanders that will violate the constitution of the country. Everything will be done in accordance with the provision of our laws,” he said.
Recently, the Nigerian army set up a military tribunal to try 16 officers and men accused of various offences in the course of the anti-Terrorism war, including theft and sale of ammunition to Boko Haram members
Military authorities have confirmed that a Brigade Commander and some soldiers were selling arms and ammunition to Boko Haram terrorists, says Lucky Irabor, Operation Lafiya Dole Theater Commander in the Northeast.
Irabor, a major general, said the accused is facing a secret trial in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state over what happened to 21 anti-aircraft guns assigned this year to his artillery brigade.
The admission comes three weeks after the Nigerian army said a military tribunal is trying 16 officers and troops accused of offences related to the fight against Terrorism and insurgency, including the theft and sale of ammunition suspected to Boko Haram.
Before Muhammadu Buhari took over power in May last year, Nigerian soldiers complained that they were forced into battle with Boko Haram with just 30 bullets each and no food rations.
They also claimed that the insurgents were better armed and equipped, and that their officers were stealing parts of their salaries and allowances.
Many Nigerian soldiers ran away when the extremists attacked, allowing Boko Haram to take control of a large swath of northeastern Nigeria in 2014.
President Muhammadu Buhari has blamed corruption for the continuous rise in insurgency in the country and deaths of thousands in the seven-year Islamic uprising that has killed more than 20,000.
Children who escaped Boko Haram are dying of starvation and malnutrition in Internally Displaced Persons,IDPs camps spread across Northern Nigeria and in the northeast.
The government is also investigating the alleged diversion and theft of food aid meant for refugees.
The United Nations has described Nigeria’s economy as gloomy, calling Nigeria the poorest and most unequal among countries of the world with 64% of her population living below poverty line.
This is according to a report on Nigeria’s Common Country Analysis, CCA, read during a consultative meeting on the formulation of the fourth UN Development Assistance Framework, UNDAF IV, for the South East geo-political zone in Awka.
The UN report stated that “Poverty and hunger have remained high in rural areas, remote communities and among female – headed households and these cut across the six geo-political zones, with prevalence ranging from approximately 46.9 percent in the South West to 74.3 percent in North West and North East.”
It also noted that Youth unemployment which is 42% in 2016 has continued to create helplessness and despair which has resulted in upsurge in crime and terrorism.
The world body said that over “10 million Nigerian children of school age are out of school with no knowledge or skills.”
It estimates Nigeria’s revenue to “have fallen as much as 33% which it says resulted in the contraction of the Gross Domestic Product, GDP.”
The UN also condemned what it described as the division of Nigeria along ethnic lines, while blaming the country’s woes on lack of good governance.
The report read in part: “Nigeria is a deeply divided society considering the plurality of ethnic, religious and regional identities that define her political existence.
“For decades, different segments of Nigeria’s population had, at different times, expressed feelings of marginalization, of being short-changed, dominated, oppressed, threatened, or even targeted for elimination.”
“The major challenges Nigeria is currently facing that constrain her economic growth and social development are lack of good governance, general increased insecurity across geo-political zones in North East, Niger Delta and Lake Chad region in particular.
“The situation is exacerbated by the existence of systematic accountability challenges, limited capacities of independent institutions/ commissions and limited accountability at the federal, states and local government levels.
However, the report recommended that Nigeria should adopt a radical and new approach to achieve a transformation, by investing in people and in a more dynamic and inclusive productive informal sector.
It also recommended the development of programmes that would address good governance, peace and security.
Candidates of four political parties contesting the 2016 Edo State governorship election on Sunday, participated in a debate organised by Channels Television in collaboration with a Civil Society Organisation, Enough is Enough Nigeria.
The Candidates include Godwin Obaseki of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Osaro Onaiwu of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, Amos Areologbe of the Labour Party, LP, and Osagie Ize-Iyamu of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
The debate was aimed at affording the candidates the opportunity to explain their manifestoes and how they intend to run the affairs of Edo State if they were elected to office.
Obaseki said he would build on the successes of the current governor. Adams Oshiomole but would seek to transform the economy of the state, based on the reduced allocation coming from the Federal Account.
“The foundation has been laid already by the current government of Adams Oshiomhole and that foundation is what I will build on,” he stated.
He also promised to empower the agriculture research institutes in the state to further deepen the state’s involvement in agriculture.
Obaseki said noted that he has been part of the new Edo project since 2009, adding that the allegations that he was imposed on the people by governor Oshiomole was unfair.
“I have been part of the Edo project to renew Edo State which had been run down by the previous administration.
“Over the last seven and half years, the evidence is clear from what we have done…
“To talk about a remote control in an administration where I and my colleagues designed a blueprint for Governor Oshiomhole is not being fair. I am not going to be remote controlled,” he insisted.
Candidate of the PDP, Ize-Iyamu, on his part said that his policies would focus on diversification of the State’s economy to increase output in agricultural produce, mining of solid minerals and building of necessary infrastructures that would draw more foreign-direct investments.
He said: “We need to diversify the economy of the state. There is too much dependence on allocation and it became even worse in the past seven to eight year.
“Agriculture is not funded by the present state government. Edo State was very good in tree crops.
“We have two research institutes here because of our experience in agriculture,” he stated.
Photo Credit: Channels TV
“If we ensure that government money does not go to private coffers, a lot more money can come. We must consider solid minerals, industries and even housing. Lagos State generate a lot of its wealth from its land.
“All we need to do is to invest in our land, create infrastructure and sell that land like a premium.”
Ize-Iyamu accused the Oshiomole government of underutilizing the monies meant for security vote.
“Security votes should not just be money for the governors to play with, it should be used for security reasons,” he insisted.
Onaiwu, the APGA candidate said he would key into the party’s policies which is already working in Anambra State, another APGA-governed State.
He dismissed the notion that APGA was a party of the Igbo ethnic group.
“The APGA model which is ongoing in Anambra State is working.
“We are exporting Ugu leaf and other vegetables in Anambra State. The State is producing rice as we speak. It is not about propaganda. The template is already in Anambra and it is working. Agro-economy is number one,” he emphasised.
Candidate of Labour Party, Areolegbe also said his government would reduce dependency on crude oil and shift attention to the creation of industries.
“We have what it takes in Edo State to generate revenue for ourselves. We will encourage inventors and innovators to create jobs for the unemployed,” he said.
The Labour Party Candidate also promised to revive the dead companies in Edo State.
He also promised that, if elected, his government would make the agriculture sector attractive for young persons to go into it.
Chairman of the senate committee on the Federal Capital Territory, Dino Melaye, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to shake up his cabinet, by getting rid of non-performing ministers.
In a statement on Sunday, Melaye recommended the sack of three of Buhari’s top officials, adding that he is afraid his constituents could stone him someday if the current administration continues to fail.
Those Melaye recommended for sack include minister of finance, Kemi Adeosun; minister of budget and national planning, Udoma Udo-Udoma and the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele.
Melaye said: “The finance minister has not only displayed gross incompetence on the job, she also lacks the basic and rudimentary grasp of economic fundamentals necessary to run a critical sector of the Nigerian economy like the finance ministry.
“It is time for her to go now and pave way for a qualified and experienced person to steer the Nigerian economy away from the dark woods it has sunk presently under her stewardship.”
About the Budget and national planning minister, the Kogi State senator said: “To be sure, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma is a very charismatic man, an accomplished lawyer, and a quintessential gentleman with a fairly untainted reputation.
“In everyday parlance, he is a good man.
“But the critical job of budget and national planning minister for a huge country like Nigeria, with her prevailing economic challenges requires much more than being a good man with a great personality.
“As a lawyer, accomplished in this field as he is, Udoma’s appointment to that position is nepotism taken to very ridiculous heights; and a classic case of putting round pegs in square holes. It will, and can never fit.
“It is akin to saddling a carpenter with a tailor’s responsibility. The outcome under the circumstances, as has become evidently clear, is bound to be catastrophic for the economy.
“President Buhari must therefore do the needful now by relieving Udoma of this huge burden that is constituting a clog to the revival of the Nigerian economy,” he said.
Melaye said the CBN governor was guilty of “policy flip-flops, summersaults and inconsistencies” which are clear evidences “of gross incompetence in the management of the nation’s fiscal and monetary policies.”
“The net effect of this inconceivable ineptitude on the part of Emefiele is the free fall in the value of the naira and the total loss of faith and confidence by the international community on the Nigerian economy,” he said.
Melaye advised president Buhari to “immediately transit from mere rhetoric to drastic but positive action to save the economy and Nigeria from total collapse.”
“The hunger in the land is real, pervasive, widespread and debilitating for the poor masses.
“I was a permanent fixture at the All Progressive Congress,APC’s, Presidential campaign rallies and events, functioning mostly as the Master of Ceremonies..
“I am a proud APC Member, a party bonafide with a great stake in the success or failure of this administration, so no one can accuse me of sour grapes or meddlesomeness.
“As I walk the streets of my constituency these days, I constantly harbor a foreboding that I could be stoned by my angry constituents for the failure of Mr President to fulfill his campaign promises and expectations to Nigerians.
“Nigeria is tottering on a dangerous precipice, sliding perilously to a certain catastrophe if the current economic malaise is not halted immediately,” he stated.
The Federal Government has said that the comments attributed to a United States’ Congressman, Tom Marino, were sadly out of tune with reality.
Marino had reportedly written to the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, asking his country to suspend assistance to Nigeria, alleging that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration was not democratic.
“I would urge the US to withhold its security assistance to the nation until President Buhari demonstrates a commitment to inclusive government and the most basic tenets of democracy: freedom to assemble and freedom of speech,” Marino had written.
However, a statement issued by Segun Adeyemi, media aide to the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, on Sunday, said Congressman Marino was poorly informed about the issues he commented on.
The minister wondered why Marino did not make efforts to get firsthand information from the US Embassy in Nigeria or any other credible source before engaging in a ‘propaganda of his own imagination’.
Mohammed noted that the lawmaker demonstrated a poor understanding of global security issues by asking the US to refrain from military equipment to Nigeria based on a faulty premise.
“Insecurity anywhere is insecurity everywhere. Had Congressman Marino understood this, he would not have made the kind of call he made concerning the US security assistance to Nigeria.
“The Boko Haram insurgency that Nigeria has decisively dealt with under President Muhammadu Buhari is not just a Nigerian problem but a regional and international crisis,’’ the minister said.
“An Administration that operates purely on the basis of respect for the rule of law and a strict adherence to constitutional order is not one to deny the citizens of their constitutionally-guaranteed rights,” Mohammed said in defence of President Buhari’s administration.
“This Administration therefore does not need the goading of Congressman Marino or anyone for that matter to do what is right.
The information minister pointed out that the President picked his ministers from the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital territory in keeping with Nigeria’s constitution.
He added: ”Had the Congressman sought information from credible sources before engaging in a flight of fancy, he would have been presented with a comprehensive information on the appointment of CEOs for Federal Government’s parastatals, agencies and commissions that shows that the appointments were almost evenly matched along the line of the six geo-political zones in the country: With the North West having 51, North Central 46, North East 45, South East 41, South West 45 and South South 45.”
Mohammed described the claims by Marino that Buhari’s anti-corruption campaign was ‘selective’ as a lame argument and a sign that the lawmaker was taking sides.
“That line was invented by those seeking to cause an unnecessary distraction from the Administration’s anti-corruption efforts, and it has been roundly rejected,” the minister said.
“Congressman Marino’s decision to exhume the dead postulation without an iota of proof is a reflection of whose side he has taken in the ongoing efforts to rid Nigeria of corrupt elements.
“Needless to say that the anti-corruption battle will continue unhindered, irrespective of whose ox is gored. And in this fight, only the guilty needs be afraid,” he added.
Mohammed said Nigeria is delighted that Secretary Kerry, to whom the Congressman addressed his letter, is more knowledgeable and better briefed on issues concerning Nigeria.
Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State presenting a gift to the CAS, Sadique Abubakar
The Nigerian Air Force, NAF, will soon deploy additional personnel to the Niger Delta as part of the resolve to combat militancy and other forms of internal security challenges in the region, Sadique Abubakar, Chief of the Air Staff, CAS, has said.
The Air chief made the disclosure in Yenagoa while on operational visit to NAF Mobility Command.
He said that the deployment is aimed at strengthening the existing NAF manpower disposition, especially in Bayelsa State, and to enhance the NAF involvement in OPERATION DELTA SAFE.
In preparation, new facilities have been put in place to cater for accommodation and other welfare needs of the personnel.
These include the construction of new blocks of accommodation for officers and men, office accommodation, airmen mess, and provost squadron, which were commissioned recently.
Two of the airmen’s blocks of accommodation were named after Corporal Omaka VI and Aircraftman Ofonih EF, both of whom were killed recently in Bosso, Niger State during an Internal Security Operation.
During the visit, the CAS paid a courtesy visit to Governor Seriake Disckson of Bayelsa State, who pledged his administration readiness to partner with the NAF and other Security Agencies in providing sufficient security for citizens of the State and for economic prosperity.
Governor Dickson also promised that his government would partner with the NAF to build NAF Primary and Secondary Schools in the State to enable Bayelsans benefit from the quality education provided by NAF Schools with a view to bringing about discipline and reorientation among youths in the State.
The Department of State Services, DSS, has announced the arrest of one Idris Audu, a suspected Boko Haram terrorist who specialized in making Improvised Explosive Devices, IEDs, for the terrorist group.
A statement signed by Tony Opuiyo, a DSS spokesperson noted that Audu had “perfected plans to join the Nigeria army” before he was nabbed.
The DSS statement read: “In response to the regrouping of Boko Haram elements in Kano state, the service in concert with the military, carried out coordinated operations in the state which led to the apprehension of two high profile members of the sect, namely; Ibrahim Ustaz Abubakar and Idris Audu (aka Aya).”
“Audu is an IED specialist who was being groomed to penetrate security agencies in the country.
“Audu had already perfected plans to seek for recruitment into the next recruitment scheme of the Nigeria army, before his arrest.”
The statement also noted that the DSS had arrested gangs of kidnappers and armed robbers across Nigeria.
It added: “On 22 August, 2016, one Samuel Asuquo, a kidnap kingpin, was arrested by the service at Nasarawa Bakoko village in Cross River state.”
“Asuquo was the mastermind of the kidnap of three Australian staff of Lafarge Cement Company, for which his gang received ransom of 150m.
“Similarly, on 30 August, 2016, the trio of Bamaiyi Mustapha (aka Dan Borno), Aminu Isa and Hassan Shehu, members of a notorious kidnap gang operating around the Abuja-Kaduna axis, were arrested at Lafia, Nasarawa state.
“The gang had earlier kidnapped five Igbo women and collected the sum of N13m as ransom. They were subsequently arrested by the service while planning a high profile kidnap in Abuja.”
One of the aspirants in the All Progressives Congress, APC, governorship primary in Ondo State, Olusola Oke, has condemned the exercise that saw Rotimi Akeredolu emerge as the party’s Flagbearer for the governorship election.
Director-General of his campaign, Bola Fisayo, on Sunday, said the exercise was not a true reflection of the delegates that participated in the primary on Saturday
The former candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, during the 2012 governorship election, alleged that some names were removed from the delegates’ list while non-delegates were allowed to participate in the election.
He insisted that the list of delegates given to the aspirants at a meeting in Abuja was different from the list of delegates brought by the Chairman of the Election Committee, Governor Mohammed Abubakar of Jigawa State.
Fisayo said that the new delegates’ list was shown to the aspirants at the eleventh hour when they had no time to scrutinize it.
He alleged that about 110 names that belonged to Oke’s camp from both Ondo East and West Local Governments Areas were removed and their names replaced with non-executive members of the party.
“There was nothing we could do at that particular time,” he lamented.
“I can confirm to you that 80 per cent of those that cast their votes for Abraham came from Oke’s camp.
“The election did not represent the true position of the delegates.
“The accreditation gave room for manipulation and the whole process was laced with fraud and the result released did not represent the true reflection of the delegates as non-delegates were allowed to participate in the election,” he said.
