The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has denied any intentions of voting by the Internally Displaced Persons, IDP, not resident in Nigeria, as being widely reported in the media.
Reports indicate that the INEC Chairman, Mahmud Yakubu, has stated that special arrangements have been made for the voting of internally displaced persons in Chad and Niger, with the press speculating that over seven million votes are expected to be garnered by the Diaspora IDP.Social Media reactions insisted that if that is going to happen, Government must allow diaspora voting completely, wherever they are in the world.
In reaction, the Peoples democratic Party, PDP, accused the Federal government of trying to use the method to rig the 2019 elections.
But in a statement signed by Festus Okoye, the Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, the commission faulted the INEC chairman’s speech.saying that there was no time the commission talked about the diaspora voting. Below is the text of the release made available to this magazine.
I don’t know if the Presidency and the leadership of the All Progressives Congress, APC, are nervous about First Lady, Aisha Buhari. And if they are wringing their palms in helplessness. But in their shoes I would, each time she dares out. Nothing captures the helplessness in the Presidency over Mrs Buhari’s unpredictability than this cartoon in The Punch newspaper of Thursday, December 6.
President Muhammadu Buhari, Aisha’s husband, was busy at his desk when the newscaster began to read the news. He looked up, and it was the First Lady’s comments at a summit in Abuja on Tuesday, December 4, that was being read. On hearing what his wife said, Mr President threw his hands up in the air, helplessly, and exclaimed: “Aah! Who released her from the other room?” This is my cartoon of the year.
Our First Lady is ravishingly beautiful, educated, sophisticated, and brilliant. And she is, also, bold, full of spunk and fire. An unusual First Lady, in all my adult life, I have never come across one like her before.
I first took note of Aisha’s blunt nature in 2014, or was it 2015? I forget now. But she had gone to Benin, Edo state, to campaign for her husband and the APC. And looking at the crowd, made up of, mostly, women in the eyes, she told them the evils of encouraging their daughters to travel to Italy for prostitution. A sensitive issue in Edo state, which no politician would be comfortable to talk about during campaigns, Aisha saw it differently. She was speaking the truth. A few days later, a group of Edo women, obviously sponsored, protested what they termed Mrs. Buhari’s insult. Advertised in various newspapers, she was given a deadline to apologise. No prize for guessing Mrs Buhari never did.
The second time was when former First Lady, Patience Jonathan, during one of her campaign outings, told Nigerians President Buhari would jail everybody if he won. Wasting no time, Aisha retorted: “Only the guilty should be afraid.” And, during the first victory party she hosted for APC women, she took a jab at the immediate past regime when she warned: “Don’t give anybody any money in order to see my husband and I. It may not be as fast as you would have wished, but keep trying. Eventually, you will get to see us.” Her comment was an indirect reference to unconfirmed reports that a number of people, during the past regimes, allegedly, made huge sums of money just by getting appointments for those who wished to see the First Family. And APC members cheered. Soon, those who cheered found out she had no borderline. It began gradually.
After waiting for the APC government to fulfill its campaign promise of giving stipends to the poorest of the poor, she warned of the dangers in reneging on it. That warning put the government on a high jump.
Since then, our First Lady has upped the ante. This, to the discomfort of the Presidency and the APC. Behind closed doors, the consensus among many APC members is: With Aisha, we don’t need an opposition party. But many Nigerians love her guts. They think she is the conscience of her husband’s government. She speaks truth to power. Read in-between the lines of what she says, and you will get the drift of what was, what is, and what will be.
It was Aisha who, during an interview she granted the BBC Hausa Service in October 2016, told Nigerians that her husband would go for a second term in office. Until, she blurted that out, everybody thought that Buhari, given his age, would do a Mandela. But angry that strangers, like vultures, had descended on her husband’s government, eating where they did not sow, she lashed out: “The President does not know 45 out of 50, for example, of the people he appointed and, I don’t know them either, despite being his wife of 27 years.
Aisha Buhari
“Some people are sitting down in their own homes, folding their arms, only for them to be called to come and head an agency or a ministerial position.” Then, the bomb: “He is yet to tell me, but I have decided, as his wife, that if things continue like this up to 2019, I will not go out and campaign again or ask any woman to vote like I did before. I will never do it again.”
Not a few people felt it was an indictment of her husband’s regime. A Fulani woman, the impression had always been that a number of them, married to high profile men, were not meant, or allowed to speak out in public.
No wonder some Fulani women, crying more than the bereaved, protested Aisha’s outspokenness. They reminded her of her status as a Muslim, and a Fulani wife. Her husband, in Germany then, standing beside the most powerful woman in the world, Chancellor Angela Merkel, and, unprepared that a question on his wife’s comments would be thrown at him, committed a faux pax. Mr President: “I don’t know the political party my wife belongs to. But I know she belongs to the kitchen, the parlour and the other room.”
Several people thought that the public chiding by her husband would make her crawl back into her shell, a shell she had been in since her husband started vying for the top job – but for the 2015 election when she was allowed to crawl out. But no. I guess, having realised what good her presence on the campaign train did for him and the party, Buhari decided to let her be. Her presence shows his softer side. A combination of Aisha and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s wife, Dolapo, is one not many Nigerians could ignore. Both glow. But Aisha has since added activism to that glow.
In October 2017, she took on the management of the Aso Rock Clinic at a public function. With the Clinic’s Medical Director present, the First Lady called for a probe of its budget. She had gone to the Clinic for a simple procedure, and was shocked there were no equipments, and even no consumables. So, she publicly asked: “Where has all the money budgeted for this clinic gone to? We need explanations, we need answers.”
This First Lady has no no-go-areas. In the outcry that followed the APC primaries for the 2019 general elections, she lashed out at the party Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole. Aisha: “It is disheartening to note that some aspirants used their hard earned money to purchase nomination forms, got screened, cleared and campaigned vigorously, yet found their names omitted. These forms were bought at exorbitant prices.
“Many others contested and yet had their result delayed, fully knowing that automatic tickets have been given to other people.
“All Progressives Congress being a party which cardinal principle is change, and headed by a Comrade/activist whose main concern is for the common man, yet, such impunity could take place. Under its watch.”
For the first time, Oshiomhole, a garrulous combatant , who pulls no punches, was tongue-tied. But many think that the First Lady’s comments encouraged a number of APC aspirants, who felt cheated, to either go to court, or leave the party in anger. This other day when I chided one of them for jumping from one party to the other, and back again, he told me: “Even the First Lady condemned impunity in my former party, as presided over by Oshiomhole.”
In between, Aisha had helped in exposing her ADC for allegedly receiving money in her name. If anybody thought that the First Lady was crying wolf where there was none, the Commissioner, Anti-Fraud Unit, Alagbon, Lagos, Dan Okoro, recently arrested a couple of people, with documents, duping high profile Nigerians, in the name of the First Family. And so did the Department of State Services, DSS. Any other First Lady would, perhaps, have preferred a more quiet handling. But not Aisha. She has nothing to hide. Many find it refreshing.
Yet, not many APC members found her recent outing refreshing. To them, it is a bad market. And, they are nervously asking: What next? Addressing a conference hosted by an association of women, Project 4+4 (Meaning four more years for Buhari to make it eight years), Mrs. Buhari deviated from the script, and said the unbelievable. She called for a revolution, almost. And accused two people she described as powerful, of hindering the progress of her husband’s government. She accused them of pulling the government back, thus denying it of achieving more than it has already. She called them retrogressive. And she doubted if there were still men in Nigeria. Otherwise, she lamented, the situation won’t have been what it is. Mrs. Buhari: “If 15.4million people can bring in a government to be dominated by two people or three people, where are the men of Nigeria? Where are Nigerian men? What are you doing? Instead of them to come together and fight them, they keep visiting them one after the other, licking their shoes, I’m sorry to use these words.”
Noticing that some of those who accompanied her were uncomfortable with what she was saying she lashed out: “I have realised that Senator Babafemi Ojudu, Special Adviser, Political, to the President, and my aide, Dr. Hajo Sani, and wife of the Vice President, Mrs. Osinbajo, are not comfortable with my saying this, and want me to confine myself to the prepared speech, but we must say the truth.”
As she spoke, the women clapped and cheered. Some gave her a standing ovation. Watching the video, which has since gone viral, I wondered if the women understood the implications of what the First Lady was saying, which are: That her husband is not fully in charge of his government; that he left the governance of the country to two men whose names she didn’t disclose, but who definitely were not elected by the people; that the two men are so powerful, even the President defers to them in every situation.
When the First Lady asked: “Where are Nigerian men?”, the question was not directed at only the APC men, but a call on all Nigerian men to rise up and fight instead of keeping quiet, and swallowing every thrash thrown at them. She was telling them that their “mumu don do.” She meant that Nigeria is where it is today because those two men wouldn’t allow it move forward. Where are Nigerian men?, she repeated. That question sounds like an indirect way of calling for a revolution, almost.
For the records, the First Lady has my sympathy. I believe she spoke out of frustration. She is the closest person to her husband. Therefore, she knows her husband’s capabilities. She believes he would have done better without those retrogressive elements. The seemingly slow action is getting at her. The questions many are asking though are: Does her husband know of her frustrations? Did she discuss her frustrations with her husband before going public? If so, what was her husband’s reaction? Did he ignore her, or dismiss her pains as nothing serious?
My opinion is that the First Lady must have been bottled up. She had to let out some of it for her own sanity. She had to let Nigerians know of the two powerful men drawing her husband and Nigeria back. Good.
But unfortunately though, the buck, as they say, stops on her husband’s table. Nigerians don’t know those men, and didn’t vote for them. It is her husband the 15.4million people voted for. Nigerians have only one President – her husband – not three.
Having said all those let me say that I love this First Lady. I love her courage and boldness. I am attracted to bold and brilliant women. But, in her shoes will I go public? Not likely. Of course, I will fight those men. I will so do it that when they hear my name, they will run. I will make the State House too hot for them. Because, when the chips are down, my husband and I will be on the spot while the interlopers would relax comfortably in the arms of their wives.
It is okay to clap for Mrs. Buhari’s courage. But her comments amount to a de-marketing of her husband. If he is not solidly in charge, why vote for him, a number of people are asking. The main opposition party, the PDP, and their sympathisers have since latched on it. As I write this, an advert is running in national newspapers, placed by an association which goes by the name Society for Better Nigeria. Analysing Mrs. Buhari’s comments, the Association wrote: “The President’s own wife, Aisha Buhari, just revealed that two unelected men are controlling her husband’s government.” See? And they went on to ask: *”Do you want to vote for a man who can’t control his own government?
*”Do you want to vote for a man whose wife does not believe in him?”
But what does Mr. President think? We don’t know. He may be having a good laugh at the PDP. He knows his wife more than anybody else. He will not cage her. Or curtail her freedom of speech. Proof: On Monday, December 10, Mr. President inaugurated his lovely wife, Aisha, as a member of the Two-Tier Presidential Intervention Structure on Elimination of Drugs. Bad belles, eat your hearts out!
29 Junior secondary students of Baptist Boys High School and Saje Secondary School in Abeokuta, Ogun State, were paraded by the Adatan Divisional Police Headquarters today.
The ages brackets of the students arrested were between 12-15 years. The male students were 24, while the female were five.
The cultists were nabbed by the police after a tip-off that the students were going to be initiated into the cult group by their leaders.
The police in a commando style stormed the bush in Saje Secondary School where the initiation was to take place and arrested the students who had their school uniforms on them.
The police recovered local made guns and pistols, knives, cutlasses, broken bottles and charms at the initiation ground.
on sighting the police, the leader of the group that ought to perform the initiation for the young students took to his heels likewise other top member of the group. But the students were rounded up by the police. Though some of the tried to escape but were nabbed by the police.
14-year old Yinka Areh, who tried to escaped by scaling a fence, was bitten by a snake in the bush forcing him to succumb, while one of the girls got her leg pierced by broken bottle as she tried to escape through the bush.
ASP Olaleye who led the operation said that investigation is still ongoing to nab the leaders of the group who escaped and also to unravel the motive behind the initiation, to ascertain the name of the cult group.
The area is no doubt a cynosure of all eyes. A first timer in the area would be attracted by the lights that illuminates the area, either there is power from the Ibadan Electricity company or not. The power generating set is always on as from 7pm.
Ladies of easy virtue from ages between 15-21 years dressed half nude line up at the front of the hotel named Five Star Hotel, on Sapon-Ake road, Abeokuta, for prospective clients to come and have a quickie or swell time.
These young ladies are either working for different madams who brought them from different parts of the country, mostly from Akwa Ibom, Edo and Cross River States, and have their eyes wide open as their protégé or ‘girls’ move into the rooms with their clients.
Immediately these ladies come out of their rooms with clients after the short time sex, they remit the money collected from their clients to their madams.
The prices of short time sex in these area varies. It is between N300-N1500, depending on the bargaining power of the clients. Atimes, it is higher than that. While, for Till Day Break, TDB, is between N2000-N4000.
For accountability sake, their madam counts the condom given to them on a daily to ascertain the amount that ought to be remitted to her for every sex escapades.
Their madam however give them stipends on a daily basis for feeding and some other expenses. The ladies are barred from using phones, so as not to have any connection with their families or friends who they could tell their predicament.
When Precious Inyang (Pseudonym) left Eket, Akwa Ibom State, for Abeokuta in Ogun State, she was hopeful and optimistic that she would wipe off the tears of her poor parents, whose major source of livelihood was farming.
Precious was the first child in the family of six. She had just finished her secondary education in the remote suburb of Eket. Precious like her peers, saw Lagos and Ogun State as a safe haven where they could live and make money.
Their sole aim was to go into business in these states, by engaging and learning a trade in which they too could become a boss of their own after understudying their bosses.
They saw every person in their village that had been to Lagos, Abuja and other developed states as a ‘demi god’ who could give them solace in achieving their goals and ambition. They all believed that in seeking greener pastures, states that has massive commercial hubs is the next destination.
Her madam, Queeneth, took her from her parents and her cousin, promising to bring them to Lagos or Ogun State to learn a trade in which they could raise money to finance their poor parents and become the breadwinner of their families.
Happily, the parents released their children, with the hope that after few years they will become bosses of their home and wipe their tears.
Precious and her cousin never had the premonition that Queeneth was introducing them to prostitution.
The first thing she did was to give their parents N20000 as the amount paid by their bosses who they are going to work for at the states mentioned above. The parents gullibly accepts the offer, not knowing that Queeneth had an ulterior motive.
Precious told the magazine that they are forced to engage in the job because immediately they arrived in Abeokuta, their madam collected their phones and made them talk to their parents at her own convenient time.
“We had no choice than to obey her command because we have nowhere to go. She brought us here, and we don’t know anybody, so we just have to endure. We were surprised when we saw some of our mates that had left the village earlier also doing the same job”.
Precious said that due to the fear that was instilled in them before coming over by Queeneth, forcing their parents to sign an agreement that they won’t disturb her or interfere in the way she treats the ladies.
“Our parents see her as an helper, so they treat her with respect, she is highly respected in our community in Eket, even the King knows her, she is always given award on a yearly basis by the King of our area, because they saw her as an illustrious daughter of the community who is assisting others. Not knowing that she engages us in prostitution. It’s a cartel. They have a group that engages young ladies in this job”.
Precious revealed that at Madojutimi Street, off Abiola Way, off the Abbattoir in Abeokuta, there is another location of Five Star Hotel where she also has ladies she used for the job.
She added that they are moving some of the ladies now to certain states in the south west to expand the business.
The tale of Precious is similar to that of 15 year old Chelsea, whose parents were gullible to have trusted Queeneth, who promised to get Chelsea a housemaid job in Ogun, only to make the girl a sex hawker for her own selfish interest.
“I thought I was going to be working in the house of one big rich man as a maid, as Aunty Queeneth as promised, only to be become an ‘ashewo’. I lost my virginity to this job, and I have vowed that it is this job that I will use to become rich and famous”, Chelsea said boldly.
Most of this ladies who smoke marijuana, cigarettes, take tramadol, Rephynol, codeine, gum and other hard drugs to get high, say they do this to put aside their sorrow and make money.
According to Chelsea, “If we don’t get a client to sleep with us that means no food for that day. During our menstrual cycle is hell. We are given N500 per day to eat, and we will still work for that money when we are done with our menstruation because our madam made it known that they are just helping us”.
When the magazine visited the Ministry of Women Affairs, Ministry of Youth and Sports and Social Development to inform them of the sex slave camps in areas across the state, mostly in Abeokuta, they promised to swing into action and bring the perpetrators to books.
Areas that play host to this kind of sex slave camps include; Ori Gada in Lafenwa area of Abeokuta, Oju Agbara area, Itoko area, Isolu, Gbagura, Elemere, OkeIlewo, Onikolobo, Adatan, Bode Ijaiye and Kemta on Ajebo road,
The annual musical youths fiesta organized by Senator Oluremi Tinubu (Senator Lagos Central District) was held yesterday 12th December, 2018 at the expo center of Eko Hotel and Suites, with the theme ‘I AM’. About eight thousand youths were in attendance from various church denominations and musical groups displaying their skills at the fiesta.
Personalities present at the event are Mrs. Bolane Ambode, First Lady of Lagos State, Mr. Jide Sanwo-Olu, Mrs Sherifat Aregbesola and others.
Following: some faces present at the event. By Uche Nwosisi
Hon. Princess Rashidat Abiodun Adu and some kidsCross-section of TeenagersMrs. Bolanle Ambode and Mrs Oluremi HamsatMrs. Oyindamola Ogunsewa and Mrs. Adele AderonkeMrs Oyaduni Gbadebo,Sen.. Oluremi Tinubu and Prince Adesegun OniruMrs Bolanle Ambode, presenting a gift to one of the beneficiary,flanked by Senator Oluremi TinubuMr. Alawiye Kings and Mr.Tijani Olusi
Eko Atlantic, Nigeria’s sprawling city on the ocean will next Monday witness the biggest entertainment event ever in the country with A-list sensational artist DAVIDO performing live alongside Tiwa Savage in the 2018 edition of Born in Africa Festival, BAFEST.
The one day event is sponsored by the Herbert Wigwe-led Access Bank Plc, Nigeria’s top entertainment promoter.
Other stage wizards like Awilo Longomba, Sho Madjozi, Olamide, Timaya, Kizz Daniel, Yemi Alade, Falz, Dbanj, Burna Boy, Flavour have been confirmed to perform.
According to the organizer, the festival is a celebration of the dynamism of the African spirit.
Group Head, Communications & External Affairs of Access Bank, Amaechi Okobi said the bank will continue to invest in entertainment.
“We are proud to be showcasing the best of African Vibes at this historic event. It is the climax of all our efforts to change the Nigerian and African narrative.
Davido: To perform at BAFEST
Our string of event partnerships such as the Access Bank Lagos City Marathon, Art X Lagos, the African International Film Festival and the finale, the Born in Africa Festival all aim to change the continent’s negative narrative as well as to project it as a hub for entertainment and creativity.
“BAFEST’ he said “is a day-long event which kicks off at 9am with the Fashion, Art and Film Park, where various artistes and fashion designers will exhibit their works, while some of Africa’s finest filmmakers will host movie screenings. The main concert featuring Africa’s biggest talents starts at 6pm.”
Africa’s top models and fashion designers will add spice to the event. They include Oluchi, Millen Magese, David Tlale, Torlowei, Blingshiki and Tiffany Amber.
It was a night glitz and entertainment last Saturday 8 November, 2018 as Ndigbo Lagos partners with the Governor’s Forum, Industrialist and others, with a view to extending their investments to Igbo land. The event was held at Intercontinental Hotel Victoria Island.
Some personalities present at the event are Senator Ike Ekweremadu, Deputy Senate President, Engr. David Umahi, Ebonyi State Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, Abia State Governor, Chief Martin Agbaso, Sir James Udoji, Mrs. Ngozi Ekeoma and others.
Following are the faces captured at the event. By Uche Nwosisi
Anyim Pius Anyim and Dr.Okezie Ikpeazu,governor of Abia StateChief Charles Anudu and Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu,governor of Abia StateChief Chuma Nnoruka and Hon.Okey EzeChief Julius A.Orji and Sen. Sylvanus NgeleChief Princewill Utchay and Chief Martin AgbasoEng.David Umahi,Ebonyi state governor and Sen Ike Ekweremadu,dep Senate presidentMr & Mrs. NwankwoProf. Anya O.Anya and his wife InyangProf. Simon Ortuanya and prof. Bath NnajiProf. AnyaO.Anya,Major Gen.Obi Abel Umahi,Eng.David Umahi and Sen. Ike EkweremaduNze Basil E.Osuokwu and Chief James UdujiMrs. Ngozi Ekeoma,Mrs. katia Ekesi,Chief James Uduji and Chief Cyprian NwubaMr. Fidelis Anosike and Sen.Sam Egwu
Leading Tier Two lender, Fidelity Bank Plc. appears to have delivered more in putting smiles on the faces of those on the low end of the society than any bank in its category in the last one year.
It remains unclear whether this has impacted on the huge profit made by the bank within this period despite serious economic challenges facing the country.
The shareholders are, therefore happy and customers are smiling because the Nnamdi Okonkwo led bank has kept its unwavering word of delivering innovative services, industry watchers say.
“The figures and the numbers are good,” Okonkwo said confidently at the end of the year party organized recently to appreciate hardworking staff and customers.
The bank’s CEO is right. considering that within the last one year, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN has wielded its big stick by taking over at least one bank over serious governance issues.
More are still under the watch of the regulator, CBN sources told the magazine.
Fidelity Bank is home and dry in all core areas. The stellar performance has seen the bank income rise by 23 per cent to N17.86 billion from N14.5 billion anchored on a N10.03 billion growth in total income to N120. 40 billion, compared to N110.37 billion in the previous year.
But while competitors focused mainly on profitability, the bank which won at least two important awards in the last 365 days has strengthened its relationship with various communities across the country in terms of corporate social responsibility, CSR.
“In a society that’s highly competitive, fostering co-operation will help solve the many challenges facing the society. This includes devoting resources to others than self. This will bring about solidarity that nurtures harmonious relationships,” Okonkwo said.
It would be wrong for Fidelity “to stick to our primary purpose of existence,” he said, because “we would have missed the chance to care which of course will result to lack in the midst of abundance.”
For Fidelity Bank to remain a responsible bank, Okonkwo added “we must be a caring economy in order to solve the issue of inequality. We must serve and not be served.”
According to him the success of any bank depends on what it’s able to give back to the society because “The maxim doing well by doing good presupposes that if a company does well in terms of meeting its business objectives, including profitability that company should also have a deliberate strategy for doing good.”
That message has resonated well in no other place than the fishing and forgotten Maroko community where an indigent girl will now has the opportunity to live her dreams of becoming a digital solution engineer courtesy of a university scholarship provided by the bank.
Elated Okpoe, parents with Okonkwo
Sharon Okpoe had resigned to fate as her patents were too poor to sponsor her university education. Her parents’ fish business could barely take care of core domestic needs and her other siblings.
But her fortune changed after she had an encounter with destiny changers from Fidelity Bank.
On why the bank decided to help Okpoe, Okonkwo said “we were moved by her story when we saw the CNN clip and decided to award her scholarship through university, thus giving her wings to fly.”
Okpoe is “very grateful for this opportunity” and will not disappoint the bank.
The bank will not disclosed how much it cost to deliver various life changing interventions in the last one year but, what’s more important, the bank said, is to make sure that wherever “we do business, we identify a project that’s relevant to the community and support that project.”
This will portray the bank as “responsible and supportive members of every community where we operate,” it said.
No fewer than 50 of such interventions have been delivered to various communities across Nigeria in the last three years, as part of the Fidelity Helping Hands Programme, FHHP.
These include drilling a borehole and purchasing a new submersible pumping machine, refurbishment of the children dining table and settees in the children common room, refurbishment of the kitchen cabinet and provision of essential items and food stuffs to IFO Sought After Children Orphanage in Ajah Lagos.
The bank has also constructed and provided essential furniture at Urban Maternity and Child Welfare Clinic, Kofar Ran, Bauchi state.
It also renovated and furnished the Female Surgical and Pediatric ward of Minna, Niger state.
Speaking on the issue, the bank’s Chairman, a former Deputy Governor of CBN, Ernest Ebi said “It gladdens our hearts to see that we have impacted lives through the numerous projects recorded over the years by FHHP in the focus areas of Health, Social Welfare, Environment, Education and Youth Empowerment.”
Indeed, doing good to Nigerians has remained the center of Fidelity Bank’s business in the last few years.
Senate today went into a rowdy session as they considered the names that were submitted by the presidency for confirmation of their appointments into the anti graft agency. The uproar was hinged on the flagrant disregard for federal character in the nominations.
The nominees are Ndasule Moses, Lawan Mamman, Galadanci Najib and Adeleke Adebayo Rafiu. The letter from the presidency has been with the senate since 2016, but it only came up today for hearing and debate in the upper legislative chamber. It was then refered to the anti corruption committee of the senate for appropriate action.
The chairman of the Committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes, Chukwuka Utazi presented the report to the house, and debate ensued. He read out the recommendation of the committee, to wit, that the nominees are fit and should be confirmed.
No sooner did he finish than Victor Umeh (APGA, Anambra), stood up and insisted that the appointments were lopsided, and that there is no representative of the southeast there.
According to him, the acting chairman, Ibrahim Magu, is from the North-east, while the recently confirmed Secretary of the Commission, Olanipkekun Olukoyede, is from the South-west. and Two of the nominees are from the North. Finally, he insisted the nominees should be stood down. Lawmakers from the south east and south south became agitated when Enyinnaya Abaribe supported Senator Umeh, and Senators Ahmed Lawan and Ali Ndume wanted the nominees approved.
At this point, Senators were arguing and pointing at each other. Despite appeals by the Senate president, Bukola Saraki, the rowdiness continued. The Senate later went into a closed door session.
The Buhari administration has been accused of nepotism of the highest order, thereby jettisoning the principle of Federal Character in its appointments. It is noted that almost all service chiefs are from the North, and majority of heads of the agencies and parastatals are from the North also.
Recent events have given credence to the allegation that the Federal Government has perfected plans to cripple the opposition financially so that they will be cash strapped to fund the 2019 elections, according to opinions sampled by this Magazine within the last week. The Source has, in recent past, reported that the initial hiccups in the electioneering campaign was due to the apprehension that the government may use the instrument of coercion to cripple the Activities of the opposition, particularly the People’s Democratic Party, PDP.
Recent reports indicate that the Vice Presidential Candidate of the PDP, Peter Obi, allegedly has his accounts frozen as he is said to be under investigation by the anti-graft agency, EFCC. Although the EFCC has made efforts to deny any wrong doings in the issue, the PDP has condemned in strongest terms the siege.
Before the dust has settled, the apartment where the two sons of Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the PDP, was raided by the anti-graft agency, in what was described as a search for foreign currency. “Apparently they thought that Atiku kept campaign money with his sons”, said a source close to their Maitama home,” but they found nothing.”
The sons, Aliyu and Mustapher Abubakar, were, however, out of the country when the raid was carried out.
But their neighbor, Chiemeka orji, the son of Theodore orji and his brothers, were quitzed and were allegedly asked to identify the particular flat that belonged to the boys in the Maitama neighborhood. They later whisked them away, detained them and allegedly seized there cars.
The anti-graft agency has been struggling to pin the raid on the Orji young men, allegedly claiming that he has been under investigations.
Only recently, Olisa Metu, who has been having a running battle with the EFCC that has resulted in court cases, cried out that all his accounts have been frozen, and that he can no longer feed his family.
Besides, reports indicate that the principle officers of the opposition party are listed for arrest. According to the PDP, Party chairman, Uche Secondus; Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar and the SENATE President, Bukola Saraki, are slated for arrest by the anti graft agency, who have vowed to track election funding. According to the PDP chairman,”The country is on a keg of gunpowder as a result of (Magu’s) hatchet job for the ruling government “, he said , sounding a note of warning to the Acting EFCC boss.But they are also accused of looking the other way when it comes to the funding of the ruling party. In fact, reports indicate that the EFCC chairman, Ibrahim Magu, was sighted in an APC strategy meeting, giving the impression that their neutrality is questionable. Only recently, Bukola saraki, the Senate president, insisted that they are not contesting the elections against President Buhari, but against the security agencies.
Meanwhile the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) recently released its electoral violence risk assessment in Nigeria.
According to the Institute, “the first ever peaceful transition of power in 2015 raised expectations for the government performance. Many feel their hopes have not been met.
“With this disappointment, we gathered there may be general voter-apathy, particularly from the stronghold of the ruling party and high turn-out in the opposition areas.
“The implications for electoral violence is first, there is possible violence as the ruling party may use intimidating tactics to shore up the votes while similar intimidation could be applied to deter large turn-out of electorate in the opposition strongholds.”
