The opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Borno State got further weakened at the weekend as 31 strong members decamped to the ruling All Peoples Congress, APC.

Those who dumped the PDP were members of the governorship campaign organisation of Mohammed Goni in the 2011 governorship election.

The number of the defected members from PDP has now increased to 63 as 32 leaders of the PDP, consisting 15 state officials and 17 party executives in Hawul local government area of the State, left the party for APC less than two weeks ago.

The 63 persons who have now left PDP on separate days and in three groups claimed that their defection is premised on persuasive governance style of Governor Kashim Shettima, his good management of the Boko Haram crisis and record of achievements in different sectors despite the security situation in the state.

Kabir Wanori, secretary of planning and strategy in Mohammed GoniCampaign Organisation who led the latest group to the Government House at the weekend to announce the defection of 31 members of the organization, said they have since realized that no “true Bornoman has business working for the PDP given the manner in which the PDP led Federal Government showed lackadaisical attitude in assisting the state in the darkest days of the Boko Haraminsurgency.”

The group condemned the gesture from the PDP – led federal government for the comparatively inadequate assistance given toBorno State as a result of Boko Haram insurgency.

“The PDP led Federal Government under President Jonathan gaveBorno a paltry N200 million as relief after giving over N20 billion to Cross River over Bakassi and N3 billion to actors in the Nigerian film industry called Nollywood, whereas Borno’s problem is about life and death as well as destruction of property worth billions of naira,” the group said.

Wanori, accompanied by other key members of the Goni CampaignOrganisation handed over a promotional audio tape with songs composed to spread messages on the efforts of the governor.

Reacting to the development, governor Shettima expressed his appreciation and told the new APC members that they will not be regarded as decampees because they came at the formation level of the APC.

Shettima maintained that the group and the two others before it have equal rights with officials and members of the ANPP, ACN and CPC which merged to form the APC.

He assured them of level playing ground and fair play while calling on them to help his administration in its determination to reinvent the state.

The All Progressives Congress, APC, has accused President Goodluck Jonathan of promoting impunity, unconstitutionality and overheating the polity thus threatening the peace and stability of the country.

The party said that President Jonathan, more than any other leader in the history of the country, has promoted and encouraged impunity and unconstitutionality, divisive policies and exploited religious and ethnic differences – all in his attempts to cling to power till 2015 and beyond.

Reacting to last week’s blockade of the Rivers State Government House, by the police, the party in a statement issued by its national publicity secretary, Lai Mohammed, blamed the President for the incident, noting the police would not have taken the action if they were not assured of support from higher authorities.

“As far as the crisis in Rivers is concerned, the buck stops on the President’s desk. Here is a President who decided, unwisely, to make the election of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum a referendum on his administration’s credibility. Even after he lost woefully, he has failed to learn his lessons, as he has continued in his hot pursuit of a fellow-elected political leader,” the APCsaid.

The party warned that giving presidential backing to the police or any national institution at all to commit impunity and violate the nation’s constitution, is the fastest means to destroy such institutions and erode public confidence in them.

”In the case of the police, what is happening in Rivers is sending a wrong signal to the polity concerning the role of the force in 2015. How can a malleable police be trusted to be neutral and to help ensure the conduct of a free and fair election – with the President as a candidate – in 2015?” APC queried.

Condemning the act of using police force as a mechanism to harass, intimidate, arrest and persecute all his real and perceived political enemies, the party said the police under President Jonathan, has increasingly become a lawless institution whose allegiance is only to the President and not to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The APC noted that since the onset of the Jonathan-inspired political logjam in Rivers State and the implosion of PDP, the President has been depending on the police to shore up his dwindling political fortune.

Instances given by the party include the insubordination of the Rivers State police commissioner Joseph Mbu; the police-sponsored fracas in the Rivers State House of Assembly; the assault on the five visiting governors by thugs and the unlawful occupation of the new PDPSecretariats in Abuja and Lagos.

APC also stated that the President has set an unenviable record of being the first sitting President of the country to suffer the indignity of being walked out upon by governors and federal legislators elected under the platform of his own party; as well as senior members of the same party at its National Convention in the full glare of local and international media.

”Under his watch, his party which at the height of its self delusion prided itself as the biggest party in Africa that is destined to rule the country for the next 60 years has now imploded and the fallout of this implosion is threatening the fragile unity of the country,” the party said.

Nma Shekwolo
Six female intending pilgrims from Niger State have been disqualified from the forth-coming Hajj to Saudi Arabia.

The state  commissioner for health, Ibrahim Sule, disclosed to journalists on Sunday in Minna, during the flag- off of the inoculation of intending pilgrims against yellow fever, polio and cerebral spinal meningitis.

He said they were excluded because they were discovered to be pregnant by the medical team in charge of screening.

Sule noted that the decision is in order to protect the women and their pregnancy from the demanding activities to be carried out by pilgrims in the holy land, which conforms with the directive of the National Hajj Commission.

Travelling documents of the affected women have been recovered from them by the medical team in a bid to ensure the ban on their pilgrimage is enforced.

The commissioner said another round of screening for the female pilgrims, would be conducted hours before their departure to the holy land and urged all intending pilgrims to present themselves for the free immunisation against diseases during the Hajj.
Sule warned that yelllow cards would not be issued to any pilgrim who refuses to be vaccinated as the Saudi authorities are very strict about the administration of the vaccines.

Pregnant females have also been barred from the Hajj in other states across the country, including Kano, where seven women were disqualified from the trip, and in Lagos state where pregnant women, children, aged people and those with terminal diseases like cancer, stroke and others were excluded.

The alleged killing of a member of the youth vigilante group by a policeman in Maiduguri, BornoState on Saturday sparked protests from hundreds of people in the city.

According to the account of the vigilante group, the shooting occured as members were returning from a trip made to some Boko Haram identified quarters where they were to arrest some suspected insurgents and hand them over to a military post opposite the Borno Express Transport Company.

According to the youths, they were confronted by two policemen along the popular Kano road who accused them of violating traffic law by driving against the traffic and as the arguments dragged, one of the policemen threatened to shoot and subsequently pulled the trigger.

Realising what he had killed the young man, the trigger happy officer ran for his life but his colleague was attacked by the angry vigilante group.

Afterwards, members of the group, popularly called the Civilian JTF, along with other youths inMaiduguri took to the streets chanting “police is Boko Haram”.

The protest caused traffic gridlock along the major roads for hours as the youths barricaded roads, burning tyres and wielding dangerous weapons to scare off motorists.

They also tried unsuccessfully to raze down the state police headquarters as they were prevented by soldiers who came to the assistance of the policemen on duty.

The governor of the State, Kashim Shettima, whose convoy ran into the protest, appealed to the youths to keep the peace, promising to address their grievances.

Speaking to some youths later at the government house, Shettima who  said he was sadden by the incident commiserated with the family of the deceased and promised to pay them a compensation of N3.5 million.

He also promised to personally attend the burial of the youth whose v life was cut short, as a way of regaining their confidence.

The Civilian JTF is a voluntary group of youths who have decided to team up with security men in the state to fish out members of the notorious Boko Haram sect, in order to  restore peace to the state.

Former governor of Ondo State, Olusegun Agagu, is dead.

The former governor slumped on Friday evening and died before he could be taken to the hospital, a day after returning from vacation in the US.

Confirming the news of his death to www.icirnigeria.org, Agagu’s former Chief Press Secretary, CPS, Yemi Owolabi said the former Governor had slumped during a meeting he was attending in Lagos at about6pm and was immediately rushed to the hospital.

He added that his former boss was certified dead on arrival at anIkoyi hospital.

Owolabi noted that Agagu had shown no sign of weakness since his return from the US on Thursday.

Agagu, a scholar, was born on February 16, 1948. He was governor of Ondo State from May 29, 2003 to February 2009 before the court nullified his re-election as on account of electoral fraudulence.

Agagu was the first minister of aviation during former PresidentOlusegun Obasanjo’s first term from 1999.

He had his primary school education in different schools across the country between 1954 and 1960.

They include St. Luke’s Anglican School, now known as St. Paul’s Anglican School Okitipupa, Ebenezer African Church School, Oke-Ado, Ibadan, Ebenezer Methodist School and Baptist Primary SchoolSabon-Gari, Kano and Ebenezer African Church School, Ibadan.

He proceeded to Ibadan Grammar School between January 1961 and 1967 where he passed his West African School Certificate and the Higher School Certificate examinations.

He was admitted to the University of Ibadan in 1968 to study Botany but later changed to Geology and graduated in 1971.

Agagu went to the University of Texas between 1973 and 1974 for his Masters degree in Geology, returning to Nigeria, for a Ph.D degree in Petroleum Geology from the University of Ibadan in 1978.