Leadership news

No. 461

N300

07.12.14

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY

nIGeRIa'S MOSt InFLuentIaL newSPaPeR

Leadership Newspapers

Gunmen Invade Reps Primaries: Jonathan Loyalists Minna Prison, Free 270 Inmates Lose Out In Bayelsa News, PAGe 12

News, PAGe 5

Chibok Diary DAY 237

@leadershipNGA

Ireti Kingibe Quits Race For Senate, Dumps PDP News PAGe 5

Female Suicide Bombers are not abducted Chibok Girls – Community > Page 2

Operatives Stop Plane Carrying Arms In Kano 2 choppers, rocket launchers, ammunition, jeep found in plane FAAN confirms detention of aircraft

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The Russian-made RA H20 38 aircraft carrying arms intercepted by security operatives at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano yesterday

Crashed 2015 senatorial Deal: PDP Govs Angry with Jonathan, Mu’azu, Mark > Page 5

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Sunday, December 7, 2014

chibok diary 237 DAY

ChiBok tweetS @myunicy Won't the FG #bringbackourgirls before the year runs out? I wish they're reunited with their parents before January 1 @NikeAdeyemi We're praying for Nigeria and specifically the Chibok girls, we must not forget these daughters in unlawful captivity! #BringBackOurGirls

members of #BringBackOurGirls (BBOG) group chanting solidarity song in support of the abducted Chibok girls during a rally in abuja recently. photo by oyEDELE foMoKAGbo

@rescueourgirls 236 DAYS since Maimuna Usman from #Chibok.

Will she ever come home? Never forget. #BringBackOurGirls @estherclimate Let us also pray for our military men and women who are truly committed to #BringBackOurGirls @JuliusAgwu1 Those of You Living with girls that u haven't paid their Bride Price we say... Pls #BringBackOurGirls BringBackOurGirls@ comradop Wouldn't be asking for much if Mr president can address d nation on violation of d ceasefire deal if any was signed COMPILED BY BLEssIng UkEMEna

members of #BringBackOurGirls during one of their village square meetings at the unity Fountain, abuja.

photo by oyEDELE oMoKAGbo

Female Suicide Bombers Are Not Abducted Chibok Girls – Community

By Kareem Haruna, Maiduguri

Against the disturbing assumptions that Boko Haram may be using some of the abducted Chibok school girls to carry out their recent suicide bombings across northern Nigeria, voices from Chibok town have denied such claims saying none of the photographs of the girls involved in the attacks matched any of the missing girls, LEADERSHIP Sunday reports.

A government official from Chibok town, who spoke

under strict condition of anonymity as he feared for his safety, said most of the photographs shown in both the conventional and social media did not match the faces of any of the 219 abducted girls.

“They can’t be Chibok girls because, the parents are still alive, even some that have died still have other children and relatives who usually see the photographs and judge if any of the suicide bombers resemble the abducted girls; and so far, we have not seen

anyone yet”, said the source.

The source, who is also a stakeholder in Chibok, added that, “Though each time we hear girls being used for bombing attacks, we are very worried, but so far, none of them looked like our girls.

As a matter of fact, even the ones arrested in Kano and Maiduguri were not speaking like Chibok girls and some of them claim to have come from the North-western states. This actually gives us the assurance that our girls are still alive and perhaps somewhere, and we

hope they would return back home some day”.

In the next eight days, the 219 abducted Chibok schoolgirls would clock exactly eight months since their captivity on April 14, 2014.

The president of the federal Republic of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, had on the 21st July met with some of the parents of the abducted girls at the Aso Rock Villa where he assured them that their daughters would be rescued “soon”. but that promise had failed to see the light of the day.

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our stand Sunday, December 7, 2014

Nigeria And World Disability Day

T

he third day of December every year was instituted by a United Nations (UN) General Assembly Resolution in 1992 as International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD). As expected, in Nigeria, it was celebrated with the usual political speeches and outings borne out of a mindset besieged by tokenism rather than true desire for change. The resolution intends, among other things, to promote an understanding of disability issues and mobilise support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities. This year’s theme emphasises the role of technology in the process of social and economic integration of persons with disabilities. Aptly captured as Sustainable Development: The Promise of Technology, the theme is an ironic representation of our collective disability.

As a country, we suffer a more serious form of disability than just physical and nothing brought this out more than the insipid, noninspiring speech attributed to the minister of Women Affairs and Social Development; a tragic case of ‘cut and paste’ as un-original as they come.

Paragraphs were lifted straight from the pages of UN ENABLE publication,

which clearly showed the nation’s level of caring and preparation. More to the point is the country’s inability to appreciate that this theme actually marks the end of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that Nigeria failed to achieve and begins the new UN development framework of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Can Nigeria sustain development when public schools that are supposed to cater for more than 90 per cent of children of school age are underfunded, lack teaching materials, furniture, adequate public conveniences and are instructed by people with no capacity to impart any knowledge? Where does technology come in when there is no adequate

Ag. Editor Auwal Sa’id Mu’azu Deputy Editor Kazeem Akintunde Editorial Board Safiya M. Adamu, Chairman Christian Ochiama, Deputy Chairman Standards ’Lara Olugbemi, Assistant Director

power supply to operate machines and equipment? What role will technology play in an economic environment that fails to encourage or motivate talents but chooses to applaud foreign mediocrity? The theme for last year’s IDPD was Break Barriers, Open Doors: For Inclusive Society and Development. A year later, there is absolutely no evidence that it has had any impact on the nation’s policies at whatever level.

While we campaign for so-called affirmative action to get 30 per cent or more space for women in policymaking or executive positions, no one, it seems, has thought that there are very capable persons fit to occupy these lofty positions, even though they are disabled in one way or the other. We note, with regret, that there is not a single disabled person in the Federal Executive Council (FEC), except in Nasarawa State, where the governor appointed one in a wheelchair. No other state has done the same. Surprisingly, that was considered news instead of a normal occurrence.

In our opinion, Nigeria must move away from seeing the disabled only as objects in need of our charity and start accepting them as people with rights and capacity to claim those rights.

Founder Sam Nda-Isaiah

Group Managing Director Azubuike Ishiekwene Group Executive Directors Michael Okpere Dr Kazeem Durodoye Divisional Directors Iyobosa Uwugiaren Salisu Alhassan Bichi General Managers Aminu Abubakar Sule Abdulmumin Balogun Zipporah D. Tanko

Leadership Holdings

Managing Director Abraham Nda-Isaiah Executive Director Nnamdi Samuel New York Office Mohammed Bello Shehu London Office Dr Bello Salihu Johannesburg Office Abiodun Oguntuase

LEADERSHIP is a national paper symbolically embedded in the nation’s capital.

We shall stand up for good governance. We shall defend the interest of Nigerian people even against their rulers, and we shall raise our pen at all times in defence of what is right. These are the values by which we intend to be assessed.

We shall never, ever for any reason forget the noble reason of our coming into being: For God and country!

4 news across the states

Sunday, December 7, 2014

How We Battle Kidnapping In Imo – Rochas Okorocha

BY ANKELI EMMANUEL, Sokoto

Imo State governor and one of the presidential aspirants on the platform of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), Rochas Okorocha has said, he was able to curtail kidnapping in the state with only N37 million and adequate delegation of power.

He therefore submitted that before voting leaders, Nigerians should be able to ask their aspirants what were their antecedents.

He also stated that the devastating effect of Boko Haram attack on innocent Nigerians will not have any end in sight as soon as expected except a change in leadership baton is entrenched hence insecurity has now become a business in Nigeria.

Rochas who spoke in Sokoto while on delegates wooing mission for the forthcoming APC presidential primary election, further observed that had the budget allocated to security been spent adequately, the menace of Boko Haram would have been over, saying that some individuals are benefiting from contracts of supply and the host of others, thereby never want an end to insurgency.

While insisting that the APC could win presidency only if he emerged the flag bearer, Okoro-

cha further opined that, should a northerner emerge, such a candidate might only garner more support of the north while the south east, south-south and west might become wining apparatus for the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Noting further that nobody is more northerner than himself, Okorocha challenged the elites as well as the leaders of the region to dispute his contributions to the region hence it is there for everybody to see even before he ventured into active politics.

“Leadership goes with justice.

Let’s ask our leaders of their antecedents. If you are a thief before becoming governor, you then become an excellent thief. I am seeking leadership to help the masses because I am already rich even before joining politics.

Responding to questions on why the presidential aspirants of the APC were unable to reach a consensus, Okorocha said, it’s to allow for fairness and democracy in action.

“The essence of democracy is equity and fairness. Therefore, we want to demonstrate to Nigerians the difference between APC and PDP. In PDP, they do what is called imposition but we in the APC believe in giving the people the opportunity to decide who they want,” Okorocha noted.

Senator Lado Danmarke Emerges Katsina PDM Guber Candidate

BY Muazu Elazeh, Katsina

Senator Yakubu Lado Danmarke has emerged as gubernatorial candidate of opposition Peoples Democratic Movement, PDM, in Katsina State, following affirmation of his candidacy by the party’s delegates.

Danmarke, who was the party’s sole aspirant and consensus candidate, received the endorsement of over 1,000 delegates who converged at the PDM secretariat on Friday for the party’s congress, which was conducted under the watchful eyes and supervision of deputy national chairman of PDM, Titilayo Ajanaku, who led other committee members for the exercise.

Addressing the delegates and scores of party supporters, Mrs Ajanaku said although Danmarke was the party’s sole guber aspirant, the primary election was conducted to fulfill the provision of electoral law.

She lauded members of the party for the orderly manner in

which they conducted themselves throughout the period of the exercise and enjoined them to give the party all needed support to ensure victory.

“What we want is for each of you to mobilise others that will vote for the PDM at the polls, so that we can form the next government and provide quality leadership in line with desires and aspiration of Nigerians,” she said.

In a short speech after the exercise, Sen Danmarke pledged to focus on critical areas like agriculture, education and poverty eradication, stressing that he was in the race to transform Katsina State.

He said if elected governor, he would ensure that the abundant water resources in the state was put into effective use through supporting all year round farming.

“This is a state with large body of fresh water and three large dams all of which are under-utilised. We shall put all these into proper use so as to strengthen irrigation, farming and boost tourism,” he stated.

L-R: Governors Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State, Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom, former president Olusegun Obasanjo, governors Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu of Niger State, Sule Lamido of Jigawa State and Liyel Imoke of Cross River State shortly after a meeting at the residence of the former president in Abeokuta.

PLWD Wants Kano Govt To Ban Begging

By Abubakar Salihi, Kano

As the world commemorates world international day for People Living With Disabilities, PLWD, the disabled people in Kano State have solicited for more support from the State government and donor agencies to enable them disengage from begging habits and be self reliant.

In view of the significance of the year, UNDP, M4D is supporting its partners PWD, CBO’s in

the Local Governments to use the opportunity to present articulated demands to PMs and canvass for the support of the community members to appreciate them.

Our reporter was at Garun Malam local government area yesterday to witness the various groups of people with disabilities commemorate the day, as they converged on the Islamic centre building in the town of Garun Malam.

Participants at the occasion

comprised people with various forms of disabilities ranging from leprosy, blindness to those crippled as a result of unsuccessful treatment of polio meningitis.

The village head of Garun Malam, Muhammad Sani Tukur had told our reporter that the day was very important to him considering that his subjects who are physically challenged have been recognised worldwide and that the support getting to them was making very significant impact in their lives.

PDP Crisis: Madaki, Others Vow To Boycott National Convention

BY MOHAMMED ISMAIL, Yola

As the crisis in Adamawa State chapter of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) deepens, the suspended chairman of the state chapter, Chief Joel Madaki and other stakeholders have vowed to boycott the national convention of the party unless the national working committee of the party rescinded its decision to conduct party primaries outside the state and allow the “authentic delegates to vote during the party primaries,”.

While delivering the resolution

of some aggrieved stakeholders of the party at the state party secretariat complex, spokesman of the group, Prof Andrawus Sawa noted that in view of the court orders issued by the Federal High Court Yola, they only recognised Chief Joel Madaki and Barr A.T. Shehu as chairman and secretary of the party respectively, adding that the purported suspension of the two without fair hearing should be regarded as null and void.

Sawa added that they only recognised the list of all the delegates endorsed at the October 31, 2014

and November 1, 2014 delegates election as adopted by the stakeholders and exco of Adamawa for all primary elections in 2014, adding that no other list will be recognised beside the one upheld by the Federal High Court Yola on December 1, 2014.

The stakeholders also expressed dissatisfaction over the shabby treatment the NWC was metting out to Governor Bala James Nggilari adding that such treatment is unjust and unfair to the party and its stakeholders and a mockery to the judiciary.

INEC Postpones PVC Distribution, CVR Exercise In Kaduna BY isaiah benjamin, Kaduna

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has again postponed the distribution of Permanent Voters Card (PVC) and the Continuous Voters registration exercise in Kaduna State earlier schedule to take place from December 6 - 10 and December 10 - 15, 2014 respectively.

A statement issued by the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Alhaji Haliru Tambuwal, in Kaduna said the PVC distribution would now hold from December 8 - 12, while the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR)

would now hold from December 12 - 17, 2014.

Meanwhile, the Igbos in Kaduna State under the umbrella of Igbo Community Welfare Association yesterday engaged in a massive sensitisation and mobilisation of their people in the state to ensure that they collect their PVCs for those who have already registered and participate in the CVR to make them eligible to vote in the 2015 general elections.

Speaking with newsmen on the occasion, president general, Igbo Community Welfare Association, Kaduna, Barr Chris Nnoli said the sensitisation was tagged, “Register

Today and Vote Tomorrow”.

Barrister Nnoli however, expressed deep concern over continous postponement of the distribution of the PVCs in Kaduna State, saying that it could weaken the morale of the people to register for the card.

But INEC in its statement stated that the postponement was to give the commission time to address logistic problems that may impede hitch-free exercise ahead of 2015 general elections.

The statement added that INEC regretted any convenience the postponement would cost Kaduna State residents.

NEWS 5

Sunday, December 7, 2014

LIVING TO BE 100

One health tip daily An Anti-Inflammatory On Your Salad Native to North America and Asia, evening primrose has been used by American Indians and Asians alike for centuries to ease the ills of arthritis, stomach disorders, sore throat, hemorrhoids, and bruises. Evening primrose oil contains a rich supply of gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), an omega-6 fatty acid that aids in reducing inflammation; thus it helps combat rheumatoid arthritis, nerve damage, and Alzheimer’s-induced memory loss. Because GLA aids the transmission of nerve impulses, it may also be helpful in multiple sclerosis. Evening primrose comes in capsule from or as an oil. Go ahead and use it in salad dressing!

Operatives Stop Plane Carrying Arms In Kano

By Auwal S. Mu’azu, Abuja and Samson Echenim, Lagos

Security operatives at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano yesterday intercepted a Russian-made cargo aircraft model AH-124-100, with registration number RA H20 38, laden with arms and ammunition.

The aircraft, which was under the command of five Ukrainian crews, was said to be heading for Ndjamena, the Chadian capital, but landed at the Kano airport at exactly 10:00am.

Competent sources at the airport informed LEADERSHIP Sunday that the aircraft was forced to land due to fuel shortage, which in the aviation parlance is referred to as “technical landing”.

According to one of the sources, checks conducted by security operatives on the contents in the cargo aircraft revealed that it was stocked with two helicopters, rocket launchers, long boxes filled with rifles, and a cache of firearms.

Other contents found in the impounded aircraft included an off-road Ford vehicle, and Bazooka machine guns, among other equipment.

The source further revealed that upon interrogation, the 5-man crew, who are believed to be of Ukrainian origin, informed the operatives that they took off from Bangui, the Central African Republic, en route Ndjamena, the Chadian capital.

“As I’m talking to you now, the crew members are in the custody of the airport commandant,” the source said, revealing further that what arose the operatives’ curiosity about their mission were the destination and the contents of the plane, based on the fact that the crew members had earlier told them that they left Bangui and were heading for Ndjamena.

“Ideally, the plane had nothing to do with passing through Nigeria, if truly they were from Bangui,” our source said, adding that the ideal route should have been for the plane to pass through Sudan to Chad and not through Nigeria, and Kano for that matter.

Although, no disclosures were made on the ownership of the intercepted plane and the contents it was carrying, fears were heightened that the weapons might end up in the hands of ➔ CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

Crashed 2015 Senatorial Deal: PDP Govs Angry With Jonathan, Mu’azu, Mark •Frustrated southeast gov eyes APC

By Donald Ojogo, Abuja,

Strong indications have emerged that governors elected on the platform of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) are poised for a showdown with the national chairman of the party, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu and Senate President David Mark over the collapse of the deal President Goodluck Jonathan had sealed with them a month ago.

To express their grievances, the governors are expected to meet with President Jonathan on Tuesday night ostensibly to extract “some commitment from him” before his ratification during the December 10 national convention of the party.

As this emerged, LEADERSHIP Sunday gathered that a frustrated governor in one of the South East states has concluded plans to defect to the opposition All Progressives Party(APC).

The governor’s grouse is that he has been stopped from presenting his preferred anointed successor for next year’s governorship election in the state. His albatross are a former governor of the state and a high-ranking member of the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

As part of the deal between the governors and President Jonathan, they (governors) were to present their preferred candidates as successors, just as those with senatorial ambitions were to be allowed to aspire. About eight PDP governors serving their final terms are reportedly eyeing the senate.

But since the deal was struck a month ago, there have been several dissenting voices, even as incumbent senators have drawn the battle line with their governors.

The highpoint of the high-wire political intrigues was Friday’s curious withdrawal from the senatorial race of Governors Emmanuel Uduaghan and Sullivan Chime of Delta and Enugu states respectively.

A governor from one of the northern states confided in a team of newsmen that his southeast colleague “is already on his way to the opposition” as a result of the shabby treatment meted to the governors.

The governor said: “The PDP we used to know is not the one we are seeing now. The party is rotten, and this is very shameful and unfortunate.

Some of us feel like crying for the party we once cherished as the biggest party in Africa.

“It is most ridiculous for the President to reach an agreement with us and renege or rather not to know what is happening, when governors are being pushed here and there by forces who are merely interested in their personal benefits.

“But I can assure you that we have decided to unravel what is really the issue, because we suspect foul play in all that is going on within the party. Imagine forcing sitting governors to withdraw from the race simply because someone somewhere is threatened by the presence of former governors who are desirous of being senators.

“Right now, one of us, a southeast

Jonathan

governor, is already on his way to the opposition party. How are we sure even those who will not leave will not work from within to undermine the party.

“This is the height of unseriousness on the part of any political party that intends to win next year. This matter has to be tabled, maybe on Tuesday, before the President, because there are reports we need to confirm that this whole thing is being oiled by the senate president and the national chairman,” he alleged.

The governor further alleged that, in particular, the senate president has put up an attitude which seemed to depict that he was uncomfortable with the presence of the cleavage of former governors at the senate.

“We know what the senate president is doing underground. It is to stop as many governors as possible from going to the senate, because he sees them as being too powerful to subject to his control,” he alleged.

Ireti Kingibe Quits Race For Senate, Dumps PDP

By Michael Oche, Abuja

Hajiya Ireti Heebah Kingibe has announced her decision to drop her ambition to run for the FCT senatorial race under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

She also said she was withdrawing her membership of the party, citing various factors, including the irregularities that marred the conduct of yesterday’s PDP FCT House of Rep-

resentatives primary elections.

Kingibe in a terse statement to LEADERSHIP Sunday stated that, “After close observation of the PDP FCT House of Representatives primary elections, conducted on December 6, 2014, I have come to the conclusion that the PDP FCT senatorial primaries will be neither free nor fair. Therefore, I am withdrawing from the PDP FCT senatorial race.”

She stated further that, “As

the PDP has failed to offer a free, fair and democratic platform, where all members can participate without fear or intimidation, I also withdraw from the membership of the party.”

Ireti, the wife of the former chairman of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP), Alhaji Baba Gana Kingibe, had said her desire for political office was to bring succour to the less-privileged people in the FCT.

ducted nationwide yesterday, lawmakers loyal to President Goodluck Jonathan in his home state, Bayelsa, suffered heavy defeat, putting an end to their hope to return to the House.

The state governor, Seriake Henry Dickson, who was a member of the House before becoming governor, had earlier declared that none of the present lawmakers would

return in 2015 on the platform of the party. Only Hon. Japheth Foinyan, out of the five members of the House of Representatives, won a ticket to contest in 2015.

The most notable of the President’s men who lost out is Hon Henry Ofongu, a staunch supporter of the President who, it will be recalled,

Reps Primaries: Jonathan’s Loyalists Lose Out in Bayelsa, Violence In Party Secretariat

By Adesuwa Tsan, Abuja, Osa Okhomina,Yenagoa, Abu Nmodu, Minna, Alo Abiola, Ado-Ekiti, Matthias Nwogu, Umuahia, Yahya Sarki, Kebbi, Patrick Ochoga, Benin City and Midat Joseph, Kaduna

As primary elections to choose candidates to fly the Peoples Democratic Party’s flag in next year’s House of Representatives elections were con-

➔ CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

6 NEWS

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Operatives Stop Plane Carrying Arms In Kano FROM PAGE 5

the dreaded Boko Haram sect, who are operating from the fringes of the Nigerian border and Chad.

Our source at the Kano airport disclosed that, “this is the third time such an incident of inter-

cepting an aircraft with arms is happening here,” alleging that on the two previous occasions, they were directed to release the aircraft.

“On one occasion, when we impounded the aircraft, we were told that the contents belonged to one of the state police com-

mands, but upon enquiry, the said command denied knowledge of the aircraft and its contents,” he further alleged Meanwhile, spokesman of the Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Yakubu Datti, has confirmed the interception and detention of the Russian-made

aircraft, saying that the authority has no detailed information on the aircraft as, according to him, it was a “military aviation”.

“We are to give instruction, allowing an aircraft to land. An aircraft has landed and security operatives are checking the aircraft,” Datti told LEADERSHIP

Sunday through telephone conversation yesterday.

It would be recalled that in June 2012, a Ukrainian aircraft was intercepted at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport with arms onboard, but was cleared to proceed to Malabo in Equatorial Guinea.

Reps Primaries: Jonathan’s Loyalists Lose Out in Bayelsa, Violence In Party Secretariat FROM PAGE 5

started a fight with members of the breakaway faction of the PDP, when the leadership and governors of the defunct nPDP paid a visit to the House of Representatives last year.

In his Southern Ijaw federal constituency, he lost to Nimbofa Ayawei, who got 49 votes, after pulling only 24 votes.

Hon. Warman Ogoriba (Yenagoa/Kolokuma) lost with 31 votes to Hon. Douye Diri, who polled 65 votes to win the ticket. Chief Dikivie Ikiogha scored 19 votes.

Other results as contained in a release announced by the chairman of the electoral panel, General Idi Adamu (rtd), and made available to newsmen for the party primaries which were held in the five federal constituencies also showed that in Ogbia federal constituency, Sodaguwo Adega Festus-Omoni polled 49 to win the primary, while Joseph Ogu got one vote. The incumbent Nadu Karibo lost.

In Sagbama/Ekeremor federal constituency, incumbent Hon. Stella Dorgu lost to Fred Agbedi with 100, while in Nembe/Brass federal constituency, Jephtah Foinyan scaled through with 96 votes and Joseph Ateki polled three votes.

Commending party members for their peaceful disposition, Adamu said this has further confirmed the position of the leadership of the party that election is not a do-or-die affair.

Rep who attacked David Mark loses PDP primary The House of Representatives member, representing Katcha/Gbako/Bida federal constituency, Hon Abdulmalik Cheche, who allegedly attacked Senate President David Mark, has lost the House of Representatives primary of the PDP. The result of the exercise showed that he scored only 14 votes, while the winner, Mohammed Sharu, scored 84 votes. Isah Kawu scored 26 in a tensed primary election which was characterised by allegations of money exchanging hands.

Similarly, the deputy speaker of Niger State House of Assembly, Abdulraman Gombo, defeated the incumbent, Hon Haliru Zakeri, with 61 votes to 16 .

PDP primaries held under tight security In Ekiti All the six federal constituencies in Ekiti State were heavily secured by operatives of the state po-

lice command as PDP held its House of Representatives primaries yesterday.

Anti-riot policemen were also deployed to the party’s secretariat located in Ado Ekiti, the state capital, by the police commissioner, Mr Taiwo Lakanu, to prevent breakdown of law and order.

Also, late arrival of materials was again witnessed in the election, which the head of committee for the primaries, Alhaji Bala Suleiman, attributed to far distance factor.

The materials arrived the designated centres at about 5pm in the presence of heavily armed policemen and State Security Service officials, led by ACP Abdulkadir Mohammed.

Gagging of delegates mars Niger PDP primaries, as three ex-commissioners lose The PDP primaries in Niger State were marred by late start and alleged gagging of delegates, even as three ex-commissioners in the state lost out in their bid to get the party ticket for House of Representatives.

The Niger State Governor Mua’zu Babangida Aliyu however expressed satisfaction with the peaceful conduct of the primaries.

The delegates from Agaie, billed for the Agaie/Lapai federal constituency election, were allegedly delayed forcefully in Minna until about 3:30pm. However, results released so far indicated that the immediate past head of service of the state, Barr. Abbas Bello, lost to Abdullahi Kwatu, who scored 41 votes against Abbas’ 38 for Paikoro/ Bosso federal constituency.

Also, the immediate past commissioner of tertiary education, Dr. Bashir Nuhu Tachi, lost to Abdullahi Ricco, the incumbent, with 71 votes to 47 for Shiroro/Munyan/ Rafi federal constituency, while the immediate past commissioner of local government, Alhaji Yusuf Tagawi, lost to the incumbent, Hon. Mohammed Muktari Ahmed, with 58 votes to 57 for Suleje/Tafa/Gurara federal constituency.

Others who won their elections were Mohammed Kabir, the immediate past commissioner of youths for Wushishi/Kontagora/Mariga/ Mashegu federal constituency and the incumbent of Lavun/Edati/ Mokwa federal constituency, Sani Legbo Kutigi.

LEADERSHIP Sunday observed that as at 3:30pm, the elections

had not started in Bida/Gbako/ Katcha federal constituency, Borgu/Agwuara federal constituency as well as Agaie/Lapai federal constituency.

In Chanchaga federal constituency, the immediate past chairman of the council, Yakubu Sallau, defeated other contestants with 35 votes, while the other contestants, Garba Danalmajir scored eight votes and Vera Ndanusa had two votes.

In Bosso/Paikoro federal constituency, Abdullahi Kwatu scored 41 votes to defeat the immediate past head of service of Niger State, Abbas Bello, who scored 38 votes in a very tight contest.

Onyejiocha, Ukaeje, Uzor Azubike scale through In Abia Member representing Aba North and South federal constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon Uzor Azubuike, his counterpart representing Umunneochi / Isuikwuato federal constituency Ho. Nkiruka Onyejiocha , as well, Hon Nnenna Ukaeje representing Bende federal constituency scaled through to the PDP primaries in Abia State to contest the 2015 elections However, Hon Eziuche Ubani, representing Osisioma \ obingwa\ Ugwunagbo; Hon Chinenenye Ike, Isiala Ngwa North and South, and Hon Oluchi Ibeji representing Ikwuano \Umuahia federal constituencies were among the incumbents who lost out in their fresh bids to return to the green chamber for either the third or second term.

Other results from the remaining three federal constituencies in the state are still being awaited as at the time of filing this report , but one of the incumbents , Hon Arua Arunsi representing Ohafia / Arochukwu constituency announced his withdrawal from the race on the state radio shortly before the exercise commenced.

Sporadic shootings, destruction of PDP secretariat mar primary election in Bayelsa Sporadic gun shots by armed policemen, yesterday, shattered the peace of the Bayelsa State capital following the invasion of the state secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by suspected political thugs struggling to hijack the materials for the conduct of the House of Representative primary election in the state.

In spite of the heavy warning gun shots from the policemen attached to the secretariat of the party, the suspected thugs held hostage members of the electoral committee deployed to the state for the conduct of the primaries.

The election committee members led by Gen Idi Adamu as chairman,Yeye Bola Dare, Barr Zanna Mustapha, Hon Alaye Don Pedro and Barr John Idoko as secretary, were held hostage at the PDP secretariat for hours.

According to eyewitness account, crowd of journalists were also caught in the confusion. A reporter with the regional tabloid, the ‘Weekly Star’, Mrs Joy Bello told LEADERSHIP Sunday that the incident occurred at about 12pm.

According to Bello, the suspected armed thugs arrived at the PDP secretariat in a white Siena space wagon and armed with dangerous weapons including guns. “We were all held hostage for hours. It was fearful. All of us including the state working committee members of the party were trapped inside the secretariat”, she said.

LEADERSHIP Sunday gathered that the armed youths put up a stop and search barricade at the entrance of the secretariat apparently searching for the voting materials meant for the congress. “They searched the bags of some female journalists that tried to leave the premises of the secretariat”.

While the Col Sam Inokobaled state working committee were thrown into confusion, Passersby and commuters along the D.S.P Alameisegha way location of the state secretariat scampered for safety.

It took the combined team of armed mobile policemen and soldiers to overpower the thugs.

LEADERSHIP Sunday gathered that the Gen Idi Adamu-led election committee, who had earlier addressed journalists to witness the distribution of election materials, reportedy reversed himself and suspended the conduct of the primaries into the five federal constituencies of the state due to the perceived security threats.

The state publicity secretary of the PDP, Barr Osom Macgbere dismissed the claim of cancellation allegedly ordered by the election panel of the party and assured that the primaries were, indeed, conducted and peaceful.

But party faithful from Yenagoa

and Sagbama/Ekeremor federal constituencies of the state, however, held the primary elections in Yenagoa and Sagbama respectively.

The duo of the former political adviser to the governor, Chief Alfred Agbedi and the principal executive secretary to the governor, Hon Douye Diri emerged as elected flag bearer of the party for Sagbama/ Ekeremor and Yenagoa federal constituencies of the state.

While Chief Alfred Agbedi recorded 100 votes, over six votes were recorded by Mrs Dibra Pamor to emerge as winner. Hon Douye Diri recorded 65 votes to defeat incumbent member of Yenagoa federal constituency, who recorded 31 votes and Chief Dikivie Ikhiogha who recorded 16 votes.

The incumbent senator for Ekeremor/Sagbama Senatorial district, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, the former acting governor of the state and member of the state House of Assembly, Hon Nestor Binabo and other anti-zoning loyalists within the party stayed away from the conduct of the primaries.

At the party’s primaries in Sagbama town attended by Governor Seriake Dickson, it was conducted without a hitch, but the intimidating presence of riot policemen and other security operatives gave the impression that the area was under siege.

Kebbi PDP primaries : LG chairman snatches ballot box The PDP National Assembly primary election for Koko Besse / Maiyama constituency was marred by chaos when the chairman of Maiyama local government, Umar Salla, who is also one of the contestants, snatched the ballot box and disrupted the process of voting.

The prompt intervention of security agents had initially prevented the snatching of the ballot box by the contestant, who forcefully made his way through and grabbed the ballot box.

The aggrieved chairman was protesting against the prevention of agents loyal to him from gaining access to the entrance to the venue of the primary election.

When the situation became chaotic, security agents started firing canisters of tear gas to prevent the chairman’s attempt to escape with the ballot box and also stop people from getting closer to the venue.

Normalcy was, however, restored and voting continued.

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10 news across the states Credible Election ‘ll Safeguard Our Democracy – Mark In spite of the challenges ahead of the 2015 general elections, senate president, Senator David Mark, has reiterated that a free, fair and credible election is all that is needed to safeguard and sustain democracy in Nigeria.

Mark said this when he addressed delegates to Saturday’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) House of Representative primary election in his Otukpo home.

He said that Nigerians have come to the inescapable conclusion that democracy is the way to go.

He expressed satisfaction with the orderly arrangement put in place for the election and urged his people to sustain such good conduct in further elections.

According to Mark in a press statement issued by his chief press secretary, Paul Mumeh, “I always want to lead by example.

You can see from the conduct of my people here that my constituency is most peaceful. You cannot find us quarreling or creating an atmosphere of disaffection because we do things in a dignified manner. “ We believe in justice , equity and fair play. Above all , we allow the will of God and the people to prevail. For us, the people are the kings and we act in tandem with their wishes and aspirations”.

Sunday, December 7, 2014

APC Suspends Governorship Primaries In Benue

BY SOLOMON AYADO, Makurdi

The governorship primaries of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benue State has been suspended till further notice.

This is just as the High Court of Justice in Makurdi, led by Justice A.O. Unum, had issued an order restraining the conduct of the party’s governorship primaries in the state.

A governorship aspirant of

the party, Prof Steven Ugba had filed a motion of ex parte seeking an interim order to stop the state chairman of APC, Comrade Abba Yaro and the party itself, from conducting the governorship primaries. There is also a motion on notice to keep matters on status-quo pending the outcome of the suit.

Ugba was excluded as a governorship contender of the op-

position party to be nominated as flag bearer of the party in the state. The party claimed that the governorship ticket is not zoned to Benue North East senatorial district where Ugba is from.

However, the APC primaries began yesterday with accreditation of delegates at the state secretariat of the party.

The delegates later moved to IBB square, venue of the gov-

ernorship primaries.

LEADERSHIP Sunday report that voting commenced at about 6.30am and lasted for several hours before the electoral officials announced the suspension of the polls. It was also gathered that the stoppage of the exercise was propelled to stall the emergence of Emmanuel Jime who was leading in the contest.

By Jonathan Nda-Isaiah, Abuja

Reps: Group Backs APC Aspirants As the FCT All Progressives Congress (APC) holds its primaries today, a socio-political organisation, Igala APC Youths Forum, said it has thrown its weight behind the candidacy of Comrade Emma Ezeazu, who, is contesting to represent Bwari/AMAC constituency in the House of Representatives.

This position was made known formally, yesterday, when the executives of the organisation led by its chairman, Mohammed Othman, paid a visit to the aspirant in Abuja.

The organisation lauded the humanitarian gesture of the aspirant, which they said, towered above all others vying for the same slot. Among other contestants, they said, Comrade Ezeazu stands out. They said long before the date of the primaries were announced, he had visited each ward and area councils in Bwari and AMAC to fraternise with the delegates.

The APC in the FCT, they said, is strong because of the aspirant’s commitment to it.

In a chat with LEADERSHIP Sunday, Comrade Ezeazu said he was confident that he will pull the crowd ahead of his opponents judging from the understanding he has enjoyed from various interest groups in the FCT and the strength of APC in the area.

By Ruth Choji, Abuja

L-R: APC gubernatorial candidate for Lagos, Mr Akinwumi Ambode, former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu and speaker, House of Representatives and APC gubernatorial candidate for Sokoto State, Alhaji Aminu Tanbuwal, during a post-election victory visit to Tinubu in Lagos yesterday. PHOTO BY NAN

Terrorists Can’t Determine Tempo Of Governance – PDP

By Chibuzo Ukaibe, Abuja

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday declared that it will never allow terrorists and their supporters to dictate the tempo of governance in the country.

The ruling party stated this while reacting to a comment by Nigeria’s former high commissioner to the United Kingdom,

Dr Christopher Kolade, on the leadership of the nation, specifically as it relates to the fight against the insurgency facing the country.

Kolade, who is the immediate past chairman of SURE-P, had last week, passed a damning verdict on the PDP-led federal government over its fight against insurgency in the country.

But a statement by the na-

tional publicity secretary of PDP, Olisa Metuh, said the party regretted that Dr Kolade, an eminent Nigerian with very senior diplomatic credentials, who also served as the chairman of SURE-P, a special development and empowerment programme of the Jonathan administration, got his facts mixed up about the character and person of the president and the nature of the

overall security challenges in the country.

“We wish to restate that the PDP and all well-meaning Nigerians are solidly behind President Goodluck Jonathan in this fight against terrorism. Those, who expect the president to get distracted, demoralised or cowed through their utterances must know that they are fighting a lost battle”, it said.

Ebonyi Govt Calls For Full Scale Investigation Into Attack On Judiciary

by Obinna Ogbonnaya, Abakaliki

Ebonyi State government yesterday described as worrisome and regrettable the mayhem unleashed on judicial workers at a court premises by some suspected hoodlums, who sacked judges and other senior officials of the court thereby bringing its operations to

a halt for over 30 minutes. It called for full-scale investigation into the unwholesome attitude of the suspected hoodlums.

Briefing journalists in Abakaliki, the chief press secretary to the state governor, Dr Onyekachi Eni, said that the state government has alerted the federal government,

security agencies and the nation, at large, about the sustained effort of some desperate politicians to destabilise the state through acts of harassment, intimidation and violence against innocent people.

Dr Eni stated that the state government has taken appropriate notice of a court injunction by

an Abakaliki federal high court restraining the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from recognising or giving effect to any congresses or primaries conducted by the deputy chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Ebonyi State, Chief Onwe Joseph Onwe.

news across the states 11

Sunday, December 7, 2014

My Relationship With Fashola Intact – Tinubu

By GEORGE OKOJIE, Lagos

The national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, yesterday, dispelled rumours making the round that the just-concluded Lagos State governorship primary election has caused rift between him and Lagos State governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola.

In a statement signed by Tinubu and made available to journal-

ists, he said contrary to the insinuations, there is no rift between them.

He said: “For a while now, I have noticed and read many published political stories on Lagos politics in particular and the personalities involved that are either concerted, unsubstantiated, pure conjectures or outright falsehood.

“In this instance, I reference a recent story ran by a major newspaper concerning my successor

and me. There is no doubt, political charlatans and enemies are at work fueling unnecessary rumour and insinuations and seeking to drive a wedge in an otherwise cordial and respectful political relationship.

“My relationship with Governor Fashola remains cordial both at the personal level and at the level of commitment to ensuring Lagos State remains on the path of political stability, growth and de-

velopment.”

Tinubu pointed out that whether governor Fashola had a specific candidate or not isn’t the issue here, saying what is important is to have a transparent process in the spirit of democracy to which they both subscribe.

He said, “We often debate, agree or disagree. But when it comes to concluding on the interest of Lagos State, we are on the same page,” he said.

short news Armed Robbers Attack Musician, Oritse Femi It was a bad day for musical taliban, Oritse Femi as armed robbers tried to snatch his Range Rover Sport car yesterday morning. He was due to perform in Big Brother Africa’s grand finale today and so left home to finalise the agreement on the show.

Robbers, however, chased him and his driver to Surulere area along Funsho Willams Road where the robbery took place. The driver not willing to stop after a gun was pointed at him, accelerated but he was hit by a truck carrying cement which damaged the car by hitting the driver’s side.

The driver named Danko passed out immediately.

According to Femi, a good samaritan came to their rescue and helped to drive the victims to the hospital.

By Samuel Abulude, Lagos

L-R: Former special adviser to the president on Political Matters, Mr Ahmed Gulak; Senator Silas Zwingina; national secretary, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prof Adewale Oladipo and former minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Aliyu Hong, during a meeting on the Adamawa State governorship primary election in Abuja, yesterday.

APC Will Rule Nigeria In 2015 – Oyegun

By ALO ABIOLA, ADO-EKITI

The All Progressives Congress (CPC) yesterday said next year’s general election will put an end to President Goodluck Jonathan’s Peoples Democratic Party-led administration.

The national chairman of APC, Chief John Oyegun and the party’s national vice chairman, Southwest, former governor, Segun Oni, said APC has been ordained by God to take over the rulership of Nigeria in 2015.

The APC leaders stated this yesterday during a service held at the Methodist church, Ifaki Ekiti in Ido/Osi local government area, to mark the 60th birthday of former Governor Oni. Oni, at the service, thanked governor Ayo Fayose for restoring his privileges as a former governor, describing the gesture as a rare show of brotherliness.

Describing the PDP government under President Jonathan as wasteful, APC national chairman, Oyegun said Nigerians are

already disillusioned with the sufferings the party brought into the country, expressing confidence that PDP will be rejected in the forthcoming elections.

“APC is a party, whose time has come. APC is a party with welfarist and people-oriented programmes. Let me say here that youth employment will be a priority on our agenda, apart from the fact that we will do everything possible to protect the lives of the Nigerian citizens,” he stated.

Rivers PVC Distribution: Group Calls for Extension A coalition of accredited observer groups for the Permanent Voter Card (PVC) distribution and the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise in Rivers State has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to extend the exercise in the state.

The group said the visible irregularities and the manner the exercise was abruptly staggered in the state is enough reason for extension of the exercise.

It revealed that there were various cases of missing names, cards and other human errors across the state and urged INEC to do a more thorough job to correct these errors.

A statement issued yesterday in Abuja and signed by the team leader, Comrade Kalu Victor, said, “INEC should kindly commence the distribution on PVCs in the remaining LGAs without further delay to avoid negative and unfriendly voters’ reactions in those areas.

“Rivers State is already politically tensed, therefore, any attempt by INEC, persons or group to compromise the exercise aimed at disenfranchising a section of the state from voting during the coming elections will rather worsen the already tensed political and security situation in the state and is capable of plunging the state into very serious security, political and ethnic crisis.

By Ruth Choji, Abuja

Group Warns Against Fueling Political Crisis

By Murtala Muhammed, Abuja

The Nigerian Reintegration Group (NGR), a non-partisan organisation, has condemned the recent statement by Rivers State governor, Chibuike Amaechi, that suggests connivance with some foreign embassies in his threat of anarchy, if his party fails to win in the 2015 elections.

PDP BoT Secretary Urges Tukur To Apologise To Party, President

In one of Amaechi’s statements, he told his audience in Port Harcourt that he has perfected plans, after his threats of civil disobedience, to leave the country and that certain embassies have given him forms to fill in advance for residency.

In a statement by the group’s North-central zonal coordinator, Emmanuel Aku Ndah, the group said, “We take exception to the po-

Stanley Nkwocha, Abuja

Following the suspension of the immediate past chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, the secretary of the party’s Board of Trustees, Senator Walid Jubrin, has advised him to swallow his pride and apologise to the party.

sition of the United States embassy which we believe strongly is giving this sort of impetus to Governor Amaechi and his opposition party just to justify its earlier and venerable prediction that Nigeria will disintegrate by 2015.

“As well, we urge the United States embassy to be focused on her primary diplomatic assignment which consists, inter alia in representing,

This followed his suspension by the leadership of the ruling party.

Tukur, it is believed, is behind the case instituted against the current chairman, Adamu Mu’azu. Even though a federal highcourt dismissed his prayers last Tuesday.

The decision has been appealed.

Speaking on the issue, however, Senator Jubrin said it was un-

protecting the interests of the US and its nationals in Nigeria and promoting friendly relations between the US and Nigerian nation-state.

“We are urging the federal government to call the United States to order and Nigerians to be wary of the unfriendly activities of countries like the US whose similar interference in many countries of late has led to unsavoury consequences”.

fortunate that Tukur was playing hide and seek with the party, knowing that his action violated the party’s constitution.

“It is time Tukur swallowed his pride and apologise to the party and, indeed, Mr President. At a time when the party was gearing for elections, it is absurd that it’s past chairman should be seen

to be dragging the party into disrepute.

“We should not be changing party chairmen like clothes everytime.

I expected that Tukur would for the sake of our party, join hands and ensure that our party was successful at next year’s election than this unnecessary distraction the suit is causing,” Walid stated.

12 news PDP ASSEMBLY PRIMARIES

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Gunmen Invade Minna Prison, Free 270 Inmates

BY Abu Nmodu, Minna

In what seems like insider aided operation yesterday evening, some gunmen gained entrance into Minna medium Prison called “Minna new prison” located on the outskirts of Tunga Minna, off David Mark road, freeing 270 prisoners of the 323 inmates of both convicted and awaiting trials categories.

LEADERSHIP Sunday gathered that three gunmen gained access to the prison after over powering the Prison warders at the entrance of the prison and gained access without breaking the door leading to the jail house.

It was learnt that the three gunmen gained entrance and stationed some of their men in the bush path adjoining the prison

yard as they shot into the air and injured the warder guarding the door leading to the prison.

A check revealed that the gunmen’s entrance coincided with the 4.30pm time that inmates who are convicted are allowed to come out of their cells to the yard and the operation lasted for just ten minutes.

An eye witness account stated that the prisoners were able to be released because they were not in their cells and that the 53 left were those who are awaiting trials and were locked up in their cells when the gunmen entered.

It was learnt that the gunmen who came wearing long robe (Jalabia) concealing their firearm might have come to release two notorious armed robbers Ayo alias Eze

Ego and Osama who were convicted and brought to the prison last Wednesday.

A Prison official who preferred anonymity revealed that Osama was seen collecting gun from those who broke into the prison firing into the air within the prison yard before snatching a white car immediately from a passerby to escape but was unable to move the car because of the security installation in the car.

“Where I took cover I saw Osama, one of the notorious armed robbers in the facility firing shots into the air. I want to believe his gang must have brought the gun and I saw him leading Ayo (Eze Ego), a dismissed Mobile policeman, out with other inmates” the official said.

It was learnt that the escapees drove off in a Sienna space bus they snatched from another passerby. They were said to have later abandoned the car with some fire arms on the road before escaping through foot paths.

As at the time of filing this report, the commander of the 31 Artillery Brigade, Brigadier General Mohammed Abba Diko, commissioner of Police Olusola Amore, and director of the Department of State Security (DSS) Mr Larry Obiagwu had visited the prison.

The Asst Controller in charge of the Prison, Mohammed Idris was not available to answer journalists questions as at press time but the Commissioner of Police said his men have apprehended four of the escaped Prison Inmates.

Police Deny Reports Of Planned Attack By Boko Haram On Lagos Seaports

By Samson Echenim, Lagos

The Lagos State Police Command has denied reported planned attack by Boko Haram on the Lagos seaports, saying that there was no report on such in the domain of the state police command.

There were media reports on Friday that security agents in Lagos have been alerted about a plan

by Boko Haram militants to attack the Apapa and Tincan Island seaports in Lagos.

The report quoted the commissioner of Police in charge of the Western Ports Command, Mrs Hil-

da Ibifuro-Harrison, as saying that an intelligence report three months ago revealed the threat. Ibifuro-Harrison was reported to have said this at the inauguration of the new executive members of the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN) held in Apapa, Lagos on Wednesday.

But the Lagos State Police Command in a reaction to the report said it got no report of such threat.

The spokesperson of the command, Mr Kenneth Nwosu, said the command had no such information.

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“We did not get any sort of intelligence of a threat like that. That kind of issue is in the domain of the police command at the port. But I can assure you that all police formations in Lagos are always working to be a step ahead of any eventuality,” he said.

He maintained that the duty of the police is to protect lives and property and uphold the law always.

“The strategy in place is to have adequate manpower ready in every part of the state so that nothing untoward happens,” he added.

Nigerian UNpeacekeeper Ebola Victim For Treatment In Netherlands A Nigerian UN peacekeeper infected with the Ebola virus in Liberia yesterday arrived in the Netherlands for treatment, Dutch authorities have said.

The Nigerian becomes the first Ebola patient to be treated in the Netherlands. According to AFP, the peacekeeper was flown to the country in a specially equipped plane and was to be taken straight to the university hospital in Utrecht, in the center of the country.

“After Germany, France and Switzerland, it is The Netherlands’ turn to make a contribution by welcoming an employee of an international organisation,” the Dutch health and development minister was quoted as saying in a letter to parliament.

The patient had been enlisted in the fight against Ebola, which has killed more than 6,000 people and infected around 17,000, almost all in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

By Chika Otuchikere, with agency Reports

E

KUKAH C E N T R E FAITH

.

LEADERSHIP

.

PUBLIC POLICY

Invites

the public to her Time: 12 Noon Prompt Date: Tuesday, December 9, 2014 Venue: Auditorium, Merit House, 22 Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja Chairman

Special Guest of Honour (President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria)

Guests of Honour

Chief Host (Founder, The Kukah Centre)

R

S

V

P

Dr. Arthur-Martins Aginam

Ag. Director, The Kukah Centre

arthurmartinsaginam@gmail.com 081 46937133, 081028963626

Guests should be seated by 11:30am

cover story

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Sunday, December 7, 2014

Checkpoints: What Commuters, Motorists Go Through On Northern Highways Since Boko Haram’s activities have intensified in some parts of northeastern Nigeria, soldiers and other security operatives have mounted surveillances along routes in the region. But commuters and commercial drivers have been lamenting their presence along the highways. KAREEM HARUNA, MUHAMMED ISMAIL, Maiduguri, and ISAIAH BENJAMIN, Kaduna, write

We would be held at holdups at several checkpoints for hours, and at the end of the day, the only checking that would be carried out was on our pockets and not on the passengers or luggage we carried

A top Islamic cleric at Umar Ibn Abdulazeez Mosque in Bauchi had last week, while delivering his Friday sermon, declared that Nigerians may not see a quick end of the ongoing Boko Haram insurgency until security operatives, both soldiers and policemen, do away with extortion of motorists and do their prescribed jobs of genuinely checking vehicles on the highway.

The cleric, who dedicated his entire sermon on the sufferings commuters go through due to the corrupt attitudes of soldiers and policemen at several checking points that have dotted northern Nigeria highways, alleged that, “We are experiencing all these insecurity problems today because policemen and soldiers have preferred taking forced bribes from helpless transporters, who would only be allowed through checkpoints if succumbed to their illicit pecuniary demands.

“The police and soldiers on the highway should remember that God will ask them to account for every kobo they so collected from helpless motorists, and for the pains their actions and inactions may have caused innocent civilians, either on the highways or in the towns and villages being attacked by the insurgents just because they failed to do their jobs.”

The cleric was speaking from the pool of experiences of thousands of people who on daily basis had to spend hours on journeys that ordinarily should have cost them few minutes.

It is a common sight on the highways leading from Abuja to Jos; Jos to Bauchi; Bauchi to Potiskum, to Damaturu, up to Maiduguri, seeing vehicles lined up for hours simply because these security men are allegedly negotiating how much to collect from a driver, gauging from the size of their vehicle. “Since this Boko Haram insurgency worsened about three years ago, there hasn’t been a single case of arrest

Heavy traffic in Maiduguri as the joint police, military operations intensify checking. PHOTO BY Hamza Idris

of the sect members on the highways leading to parts of northern Nigeria. Yet, soldiers and policemen would on daily basis subject motorists and travellers to hours of torture in the name of highway checking,” a truck driver, Samaila Abdullahi, lamented.

“We would be held at holdups at several checkpoints for hours, and at the end of the day, the only checking that would be carried out was on our pockets and not on the passengers or luggage we carried. If you don’t have any money to offer, you would be asked to pull up for as long as the soldiers deemed okay.

LEADERSHIP Sunday gathered that it is now a norm for every cab, bus or truck driver to have ready some change of Nigerian currency at his disposal, so that he and his passengers or luggage would not be delayed from getting to their destination on time.

“If you don’t have money to give, you would be delayed for hours until you are ready to part with your money. So, what we have to do, grudgingly though, is to make sure we have enough N50 or N100 notes in our pocket which will guarantee our quick clearance to proceed to the next checkpoint,” Baba Alhaji, a middle-aged driver of a public mass transit company in the northeast, said.

“There was a time we were coming from Kano, and a certain vehicle ahead of mine was being passed through by both soldiers and policemen at the checkpoints because

he was giving out money as demanded. No one knew that among his passengers were two Boko Haram members until we got to Maiduguri when the Civilian-JTF boys decided to check and fished them out,” Baba Alhaji alleged, lamenting that he had never seen a checkpoint where soldiers or policemen had intercepted arms and ammunition, or even arrested any Boko Haram members in the past 24 months.

Alhaji alleged that the points are merely where security operatives are directed by their superiors to collect money from innocent commuters and make certain returns to their offices.

Another bus driver working with Plateau Riders, whose name has to be protected for obvious reasons, gave a sad tale of how a pregnant mother suffered a miscarriage after spending hours of journey from Jos to Maiduguri.

According to him, it was sometimes in March, last year, and the weather was very hot. “It took us more than 11 hours on that fateful day to get to Maiduguri because of the holdups at the various checkpoints,” recalled the driver. “It was when we got near Damaturu, where the military checkpoint usually recorded heavy traffic, that one of the women started screaming, and before we knew what was happening, blood was everywhere. Even at that, it took us time to beg the soldiers to let us through so that the woman could be rushed to the hospital. She lost that pregnancy

because of the unfriendly weather and the inconveniences of sitting in a tight bus for more than 10 hours.”

Drivers of trailer trucks have also lamented heavy charges they have to pay at every checkpoints, especially those manned by soldiers.

According to Dan’umma Mustapha, a 26-year-old truck driver, “We are often charged much higher fees than other vehicles. Each time we failed to pay either N500 or N1000 as the case might be, the soldiers or policemen would keep us waiting as we continue to beg, regardless of the number of vehicles waiting behind us. There was a time we have to even pass the night because we couldn’t offer N2,000 they asked for; even after we did explained to them that we ran out of cash because of other checkpoints where their colleagues had collected money from us.”

“Travelling these days is like going through hell, especially when plying the routes from the North West to the North East. The checkpoints are not helping matters at all, most especially when they are not using them for the purpose they were meant to achieve,’ he said, adding that, “It is not that we are against checkpoints; but our concern is of what use is one spending hours at a military checkpoint only to get to the officer in charge and be asked to bring money; and they would do that by first wasting your time asking where you ➔ CONTINUES ON PAGE 14

14 COVER STORY

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Checkpoints: What Commuters, Motorists Go Through On Northern Highways ➔ FROM PAGE 13

Boko Haram is now in charge of one part of our country, ... and yet, some soldiers and policemen do not see it expedient to leave the highways and go to the bush to fight them and rescue our towns and villages

are coming from or where you are going, or which tribe are you, without necessarily going to check what you are carrying.”

Some motorists who have shared similar ugly experiences on the highways have begun to question the rationale of having soldiers dotted on the highway checkpoints while insurgents are having a field day butchering innocent and defenceless residents of various communities and taking over their towns and villages.

Abba Maina is a commercial bus driver who lamented that, “Our people are being killed everyday in the bushes; everyday hundreds of people are running into Maiduguri and other camps around Adamawa and Yobe states. Boko Haram is now in charge of one part of our country, innocent lives including that of security operatives, have died in the hands of Boko Haram sect members; and yet, some soldiers and policemen do not see it expedient to leave the highways and go to the bush to fight them and rescue our towns and villages.”

In one of the notorious checkpoints in Yola, located at the foot of the Jimeta bridge, many commuters say they usually spend hours at roadblocks, which usually cause serious traffic gridlock on the highway and sometimes make the road unnavigable. Many commuters described the road, which is the gateway to northern parts of the state, as their nightmare. Also, the road serves as a link to many important places and institutions within the state metropolis like the Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Adamawa Television Corporation, and many other settlements, including the high density Vunoklang, a suburb of Yola, Sangere and federal housing unit in Yola.

A commercial driver who commutes students to and fro Modibbo Adama University of Technology in Yola, Malam Saidu Awwalu, said, the roadblock has constituted a major stumbling block to the people plying the road. “During the worst gridlock, traffic usually extends to many kilometres, making the road impassable, which is usually compounded with the attitude of some road-users who usually shunt the queues, leading to total blockade of the road.

“The presence of the military checkpoint has killed many businesses, as many of the transporters have been forced to abandon the route. Before the military checkpoint was established, I make between N7,000 to N10,000 on daily basis,” he said, adding that with the current situation, sometimes he hardly made N3,000 a day.

Another driver, Bisalla Kari, who lamented the long hours spent at the checkpoints, said despite the fact that they waste significant man hours, the soldiers don’t thor-

oughly check the vehicles, adding that since the mounting of the checkpoints he had never heard the soldiers making any breakthrough by apprehending the insurgents.

He accused the soldiers of extorting money from them, especially those who carry heavy luggage to allow them go unchecked.

“Most of the time, they extorted money from us and did not usually scrutinise drivers, especially those who give them money, no matter the luggage they were carrying,” he alleged.

State coordinator of National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in charge of heavy trucks unit, Alhaji Ahmadu Musa, said the attitudes of both policemen and soldiers on the highway had further worsen the difficulties faced by people in the volatile northeastern zone. “We have serious problems on the highway, especially with the way soldiers and policemen are handling the checkpoints. You often encounter situations where soldiers that are deployed to highway on a single patrol vehicle would end up splitting themselves into smaller groups just for the purpose of extorting money from commuters. At all the points, commercial trucks and bus drivers would have to hand out money to them, or they won’t be allowed to move. And despite all these, they do not do anything to protect the highways. Once it is 5pm, the soldiers would disappear from these checkpoints; some times, they would only go and converge in one spot,” he alleged.

The NURTW chieftain lamented that this situation has contributed greatly to the difficulties road-users go through. “Our major problem now is that of the five major highways leading in and out of Maiduguri; only one, which is the one that links Maiduguri and Damatur, otherwise called Kano-Maiduguri highway, because Boko Haram has taken over other routes,” he said.

“And as a result of that, the Kano-Maiduguri highway is usually very heavy with traffic, and instead of the soldiers and policemen helping us to reduce the difficulty of travelling these longer routes, they are further compounding it for us. There are no checkpoints at which drivers come in contact with a soldier or policeman without spending money. For example, if a truck or bus wants to go to Yola from Maiduguri, instead of going through Bama road, the driver has to take a longer route through Maiduguri, Potiskum, then via Gombe; and even Gombe is now a no-go area. So, drivers have to go a longer route through Darazo before going through Billiri-Kaltungo road, before hitting the road to Yola. These are tortuous trips for our drivers, which could still be managed, but with the high level of extortion from the uniformed

A typical military checkpoint in Nigeria.

men at checkpoints, our drivers are no longer finding it funny,” he lamented.

LEADERSHIP Sunday however observed that the military officials who were aware of the unbridled spate of extortions at these checkpoints had mounted bold signposts near most of the checkpoints, warning commuters thus, “Don’t Give or Take Money Here”.

But the signposts are mere mockery on the commuters’ claims.

According to the NURTW coordinator, “those signposts are as useless as anything. Even in front of the signposts that say ‘Don’t Give or Take Money’, the soldiers would boldly ask you to hand them money without any apologies. Under the signposts, there are certain numbers commuters are asked to call should any personnel ask for money. Even if you call the number, it is one of them sitting close by that would pick and answer you.

In fact, there was a time one of our drivers developed courage to call one of the numbers and a soldier near by picked the called saying, ‘stupid man, so you don’t want to give us money right? Okay, we are going to deal with you’.

“There was a time when the road to Damasak was safe, before the Boko Haram took over the town.

One of our trucks went to Damasak to load rams to be taken to the West, but before the truck arrived Maiduguri, which is just about 200km, the driver had spend N45,000 on soldiers and policemen on the highway checkpoints. So that means before he got to Lagos, his freight charge and part of the rams cost might have been spent on checkpoints. So, what kind of business is that?

“We are calling on government to wake up to these challenges and help us out of these plights; if they are not aware of what we are going

through, then this is an opportunity for them to know and take action. If they cannot take action and end Boko Haram insurgency, they should at least not contribute to our pains through these illicit extortions of our poor drivers. Our economy has been grounded already, and few of us still struggling in spite of this situation should not be made to work in vain by spending our earnings on soldiers on the highway,” he said.

In Kaduna, particularly from Kaduna to Zaria, en route Kano and Katsina states, and from Kaduna to Abuja, it is no longer news that a journey of 45 minutes could take you as much as two to three hours.

Malam Ada Nasir, a commercial driver who runs Kaduna-Abuja route daily, said, “The security checkpoints are not very good for us, because on a bad day you could be on the holdup for over 30 minutes, only to discover that the security men there are either discussing with a vehicle driver or so. Before these checkpoints were introduced, I could run Kaduna-Abuja twice or so in a day, but now, I cannot do that again, because your time will be wasted at the checkpoints and you will be burning fuel. So, it is very discouraging.”

Malam Danlandi Abdullahi, an official of NURTW at Kaduna central market motor park, lamented the stress their m embers go through, and appealed that the government should do something about it, arguing that the checkpoints have not really solved the insecurity problems in the country.

“If the checkpoints are yielding results, it would have been fine; but we have not heard of any arrest on such checkpoints. Yet, people have to spend longer hours on the roads because of the checkpoints. Government needs to intervene,” he stressed.

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sunday interview Sunday, December 7, 2014

The opposition has kept insisting that the Presidency was behind the recent incident in which the Speaker of the House of Representatives and some lawmakers were locked out of the National Assembly. Would the police have embarked on such a mission without orders from above?

It is really pitiable that a man like Governor Amaechi is almost descending to the level of the ridiculous with the accustomed manner in which he spews sound with no sense

The police is an institution; it is a constitutional body. Its functions are properly spelt out in the Police Act and the Constitution. The police have the responsibility to maintain law and order. If in every instance when the police have intelligence reports or where they see the need to perform their constitutional duties, they would still have to get clearance from the President, then there will be chaos in society. I would have thought that the idea of having institutions is that such institutions should be strong enough to discharge their constitutional responsibilities whenever the occasion arises.

The President had no hand in that incident, and the police themselves have said so.

According to the police, they got intelligence reports that some hoodlums were trying to overwhelm the National Assembly and you need to understand the context in which that occurred. If the police whose responsibility it is to maintain law and order have that kind of information, they don’t need to go and take directive from the President, even if in this instance what was involved was the legislative assembly. In fact, the situation called for even greater urgency and prompt action. Legislators are very important Nigerians.

So, the police said they acted on the basis of the information that they had to prevent thugs from overwhelming the National Assembly. They have also said that given the fallout from that action that they took, which was meant to be preemptive, they are still going to investigate to find out exactly what happened and that at the end of the investigation they will make their findings known to all Nigerians. I think that is where we are at this moment on that matter and I think it is most unfair to continue to drag the name of the President into everything. Even if the President of a country as big as this wants to, there is no way he can micro manage every little thing.

There are institutions that have been established to function under the law, but because politicians are involved, it is very convenient, and this is election time, to try to drag

Abati

Impeachment Threat Not A New Thing, Opposition Only Heating Polity – Abati In this interview with GEORGE AGBA, special adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on media and publicity, Dr Reuben Abati, defends his boss on the plethora of allegations levelled against his government. Insisting that the President has not committed any impeachable offence, the presidential spokesman argues strongly that while blackmail is the reason why the issue of corruption is being played up against the current administration, those accusing the Jonathan government of corruption are the ones who are most corrupt President Jonathan’s name into everything that mischief-makers can dredge up.

The resultant effect from this incident is that the House is now divided, with the opposition lawmakers angling for the impeachment of the President and those of the ruling party opposing the move. Don’t you think it is a bad omen for the Jonathan presidency?

This is not the first time that the House of Representatives would threaten to impeach a sitting president. I think they issued a similar threat under former President Obasanjo.

But I don’t think that anybody will impeach this President, because this is a President that has not committed any wrong. He is a President who has served this country diligently. For the opposition politicians, Nigerians can see

through their antics, because the people who are calling for the President’s impeachment are members of the opposition, the All Progressives Congress (APC); the same people who are threatening that if the President wins in 2015, they will form a parallel government and make Nigeria ungovernable.

The 2015 elections have not even taken place. The President is still an aspirant; he has not been officially declared a candidate. He has just been screened by his party and given a certificate of clearance, but already it looks like the APC has accepted defeat. They are already speaking like losers, bad losers, in an election that has not taken place yet; that will still take place in February. Perhaps all this is consistent with their rhetoric of saying they will make Nigeria ungovernable, they will form a parallel government, they will cause commotion. So, their threat of impeachment is part of it and I think that Nigerians should appeal to them to allow democracy to take its course, to allow the Nigerian democracy we are trying to consolidate to flourish.

Threatening fire and brimstone, and mayhem, all of that is bad sportsmanship, totally unpatriotic in my view, and it is selfish. Even from the rhetoric, either on the platform of the legislature or in other circumstances, there is so much threat. They are heating up the polity. If they want power, the best place to go is the ballot; it is not through threat of impeachment or making Nigeria ungovernable, and as I said earlier, Nigerians can see through their antics. We should appeal to them to allow the people of Nigeria to freely express their will through the ballot box and they must not do anything for any reason whatsoever to hijack the will of the people through the back door.

Governor Amaechi, who actually made that statement of forming a parallel government, had been consistent in criticising the President and the federal government. That he seems to get away with the weighty allegations he keeps making gives credibility to whatever he says.

Any plans to get him to prove the allegations he has made so

far?

You know that as a sitting governor, he enjoys immunity from criminal prosecution, and I guess, in his own case, he interprets that immunity to mean a licence to be utterly disagreeable whenever he

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16 suNDAY INTERVIEW

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Impeachment Threat Not A New Thing, Opposition Only Heating Polity – Abati 14

chooses to be. It is really pitiable that a man like Governor Amaechi is almost descending to the level of the ridiculous with the accustomed manner in which he spews sound with no sense. At nearly every event these days, including the ones organised by him at public expense, and even when the event has nothing to do with President Jonathan, he will find a way of accusing President Jonathan of doing nothing for Rivers State, whereas that is not true. When that is not the issue, he would whine childishly about Soku oil wells. Or he will invite his audience to make sure that they don’t vote for President Jonathan in 2015.

In fact, in one recent incident, he was said to have been addressing a group of students and he told them that in 2015 they must vote out President Jonathan and the student responded in unison, “no”.

He lost his audience. He was booed. It is instructive that the more he tries to condemn President Jonathan, the more he finds that nobody is willing to listen to him. He doesn’t have an audience because the people know that his baseless allegations against President Jonathan make no sense.

We will like to encourage Governor Amaechi in the few months that remain out of his tenure in Rivers State, to concentrate on governing and serving the people of Rivers State, rather than going about launching what looks like a full-time obsessive maniacal campaign against the person and office of President Jonathan.

And of course, he must realise that we are living under the rule of law. Those who invite the storm over the heads of other people oftentimes fail to realise that when that storm descends, it may descend first on their own heads.

Soon after the President’s declaration, the opposition alleged that it was insensitive for him to have proceeded with his declaration barely 24 hours after over 40 school children were butchered by Boko Haram sect in Potiskum, Yobe State. Doesn’t this sound like President Jonathan is a leader who lacks empathy for the plight of his people?

On that, I granted an interview in which I accused the APC of sheer hypocrisy, because a day after the President’s declaration at the Eagle Square, they themselves had one elaborate event in Edo State. So, why didn’t they postpone their event? Why didn’t they even remember the children that were said to have been killed at their event? So, you are dealing with people who are duplicitous, people who go by double standards; they talk

Abati

from both ends of their mouth.

Whatever they do, no matter how questionable, is supposed to be accepted by others, and when another man does anything at all, especially if it is President Jonathan, they try to pull him down, and of course, I accuse them frontally of jealousy, hypocrisy and unproductive pull-him-down politics.

They saw that the declaration by the President was a very successful event supported

by Nigerians across all facets of society. Even in the United Kingdom, in the US and everywhere in diaspora, Nigerians celebrated President Jonathan’s declaration for a second term in office, which for them (opposition) cannot be good news because they could see with their own eyes very clearly, they could hear very clearly too that President Jonathan is the man, he is the leader that Nigerians prefer.

The truth is that President Jonathan is fully committed to bringing the nightmare of terrorism in our country to an end. Anyone who tells you that he is not, is just being unkind for their own selfish reasons.

No President will want to preside over any form of insecurity, because without peace, security and stability, it will be difficult to achieve the objectives of national growth and development across board.

watch terrorists will not take over Nigeria. In what appears to be a resurgence of terrorist activities, there have been quite a number of unfortunate incidents in the North-Eastern part of the country but the government is acquiring new arms and ammunitions, soldiers are being retrained, more effort is being put into the cooperation with our neighboring countries.

But of course if you look at the history of terror in different parts of the world, in Colombia, in Afghanistan, terror is a major threat to the whole of humanity because it is a cancerous kind of evil which even when you think it is gone, it suddenly resurfaces. But in this particular case, government is adopting every strategy to ensure that it wins the war against these evilminded persons and that at the same time it safeguards the lives of people and their property.

The aggression, especially after the failed botched negotiation with the Boko Haram insurgents had been one of the greatest reasons for attack on the President. Is there any hope of a total repel of the miscreants in the territories they now occupy?

The responsibility for ensuring peace and stability is not that of the President alone. It is that of all Nigerians, and the governors in whatever state they may be cannot say that it is not their business. What you are trying to suggest is that a sitting governor can legitimately say that the welfare of the people under him and their security is not his business. And for any governor to say that at all is irresponsible because state Governors owe the

The war against terror is a war that this administration is determined to win no matter how long it takes, no matter what it requires. President Jonathan has been very unequivocal in making it clear that under his

Aside terrorism, there are communal clashes like the recent one in Nasarawa State.

Each time the clashes happen, the state governors keep saying they are helpless in quelling communal aggression and clashes. They keep insisting that it is only an assignment for the President and the federal government. What exactly does the constitution say about this and has the President been able to handle this in the face of rising socio-political clashes in Nigeria?

people they serve a duty of care.

Take for instance, the Safe Schools Initiative that has been introduced by President Jonathan which involves physically securing schools and ensuring that schools without gates and fences, are properly fenced and all that.

Are you saying that a state governor who knows that the state governments are equally responsible for secondary school education can legitimately say that it is not his business to provide security in schools?

Some of these communal clashes that you talked about are usually as a result of disagreements between two communities or two sects or two ethnic groups and at the state level. These are grassroots issues. Can a Governor say it is the primary responsibility of the President to resolve communal clashes or to provide an enabling environment for inter-ethnic and religious harmony? I don’t think that any responsible Governor would say that. Even in terms of security, it should not be taken in the literal sense of soldiers and the police securing a particular environment.

Security if taken in an expanded view involves economic security. Is it not also the duty of Governors to ensure the welfare and prosperity of the people? In fact, when you say this and that is the responsibility of the President alone, you clearly want to turn Nigeria into a one-man state where one man is responsible for everything.

We are not running a one-man system. That is why President Jonathan at every occasion has always talked about unity of purpose, about solidarity of action and that is why we have a National Council of state where governors and the President sit together and take a decision on major issues.

And that is why President Jonathan has said the kind of solidarity that was demonstrated in eliminating Ebola is the kind of unity of purpose, solidarity of action he would like to see in other aspects of national life, security inclusive. So, it would be wrong to say it is the President alone who is responsible for all the security. These days when people even dream and wake up in the morning after a bad dream, they will say oh, President Jonathan should do something about people having bad dreams.

That is how ridiculous it is, the president gets blamed for everything, and if Governors begin to sound like that then it means that we really have a serious situation on our hands which amounts to abdication of responsibility on the part of whichever Governor is talking like that.

The war against terror is a war that this administration is determined to win no matter how long it takes, no matter what it requires

sunday politics

Politics Editor Weeklies: STANLEY NKWOCHA

Sunday, December 7, 2014

2015 ...Likely PDP, APC Governorship Candidates

17

With the ongoing party congresses in various states, the coast is getting clearer on the likely candidates for the 2015 elections.

STANLEY NKWOCHA projects the likely governorship candidates for both the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) across some states where elections are due

W

hile some states like Niger have had peaceful congresses across both parties and remained quiet, others like Rivers, Plateau, Enugu, Cross River, Imo, Kaduna etc have become boisterous, and almost uncontrollable.

However, in view of the congresses results that have been released, it is only natural and easy to speculate on which candidates will emerge in both the PDP and APC that are deemed the main parties in the election.

Abia State In Abia State, the PDP ticket will go to Dr . Okezie Ikpeazu , the aspirant known to have been endorsed and is the choice of incumbent governor T. A Orji. The All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, has a strong showing in Abia and Alex Otti, a former bank chief executive thought to have fallen out with T.A Orji is fancied to be the candidate.

Adamawa State In Adamawa State, the PDP seems to have settled for Nuhu Ribadu as its candidate. However, it will take a miracle for Ribadu to achieve his dream as Bala Ngilari seem to have taken control of the congresses held in the state. It will take the national leadership of the PDP to frustrate Ngilari’s move. However, it is rife to state that Senator Bindow may emerge as the APC candidate, even as Alhaji Mijinyawa Yayaji , Atiku Abubakar’s choice may pop up a surprise.

Ambode

Obanikoro

Ngillari

Bindow

Wike

Peterside

Akwa Ibom In Akwa Ibom, the fight no doubt will be between Chief Emmanuel Udom of the PDP and Chief Umana Umana of the APC . What is expected to be a bull fight will indeed be epic in that state.

Why PDP Senators Met With Jonathan – Sen Kure > 20

Bauchi State While Awwal Jato is expected to clinch the PDP ticket, Barr.

Mohammed Abubakar is expected to humble other aspirants in the APC and fly its tick➔ CONTINUED ON PAGE ???????

18 politics

Sunday, December 7, 2014

PDP, Atiku 2015 ...Likely AndPDP, Facts APC OfGovernorship History Candidates et at the elections.

Benue A dicy situation exists in Benue PDP as after all the roforofo fights, Rt. Hon Tehermen Tarzoor, the former Speaker of the Benue State House of Assembly seems set to slug it out with Hon. Emmanuel Jime of the APC. Though Suswam has been mute on his choice of successor, his body language suggests Tarzoor is the man that the APC will confront.

17

Takai

Yero

Ganduje

el-Rufai

Borno State In Borno State , the very popular Governor Kashim Shettima will definitely fly the party’s candidate and check out either Hon Mohammed Imam or Ali Sheriiff’s brother, Mala Sheriff of the PDP Enugu State Endorsed Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwanyi , will fly the PDP flag while Dr Okey Eze will fly APC’s. While APGA despite having strong roots in The Southeast is no threat to the parties.

Gombe State Incumbent Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo of the PDP will lock horns with APC’s Inuwa Yahaya. Gombe will be the battle of a two past political freinds.

Imo State The coast is very unclear in this state as Governor Rochas Okorocha continues to play hide and seek with his 2015 agenda. However, Owelle is expected to fly the APC Guber flag against a PDP ticket expected to be fiercely contested for between the duo of deputy speaker Emeka Ihedioha and Senator Ifeanyi Araraume.

Tambuwal

Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of the APC is expected to try Salihu Sagir Takai of the PDP for size .

Kano guber election is expected to be another hotspot

Shagari

Jigawa State In Jigawa , Aminu Ringim of the PDP is expected to win and hence slug it out Hashim Yusuf of the APC. Ringim was Lamido’s immediate past chief of staff.

Kaduna State It will be incumbent Ramallan Yero of the PDP against Nasir el-Rufai of the APC in an election that can best be described as keen.

Kano State Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of the APC is expected to try Salihu Sagir Takai of the PDP for size . Kano guber election is expected to be another hotspot.

Ishaku

Alhassan

Kogi State In Kogi State, incumbent governor Idris Wada of the PDP will square up against Prince

Abubakar Audu, most likely.

This will be the 4th time Audu will be contesting since his defeat by Ibrahim Idris in 2003.

Lagos Except an upset is recorded, Senator Musliu Obanikoro will engage in yet another muscle flexing with nominated APC flag bearer, Ambode. Again, like in the past, Lagos will be intense as regards the election.

Nasarawa Tanko Almakura of the APC is already locked in, waiting to thrash it out with either Senator Solomon Ewuga or erstwhile minister Labaran Maku.

Again , Nasarawa will be another interesting spectacle.

Niger Ordained Umar Gado Nasko will fly the flag of the PDP against Abu Lolo who is expected to pick the ticket of the APC Ogun Incumbent governor Ibikunle Amosun of the APC is waiting ob the flanks for either Dimeji Bankole or Chief Buruji Kashamu’s candidate to emerge and then sort themselves out.

Plateau State All things being equal Senator Gyang Pwajok will emerge the PDP flag bearer as the results of the congresses held so far indicates the Governor is in charge of delegates in the State.

For the APC, all eyes are Simon Lalong , a former speaker of the State’s Assembly, to emerge.

Rivers Rivers will be a straight battle between two old folks, Chief Nyesome Wike of the PDP and Hon. Dakuku Peterside .

Again like Kaduna, Nasarawa and Lagos States, Rivers will the mother of all showdowns in the governorship elections.

Sokoto State Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal will clinch the APC ticket and is expected to battle Muktar Shagari as the likely PDP guber candidate at the elections.

Taraba State Darius Ishaku is expected to clinch the PDP ticket and slug it out against Senator Jummai Alhassan . The power woman is seen to be the favorite amongst the APC contenders in the state.

Yobe State Incumbent Governor Ibrahim Geidam of the APC is set for a power squabble with a likely A.M. Waziri opponent at next year’s election.

politics 19

Sunday, December 7, 2014 Were you surprised when the speaker, Aminu Tambulwa defected to the PDP?

No I wasn’t. I had granted an interview before and it was to the effect that, if Mr. Speaker were to take such a risk without considering the implications - the stability first of the house, and his political career and the stability of Nigeria because a person holding such a sensitive position as speaker, whatever happens to him as a person or his office has the capacity to reverberate around the country, then it would be wrong.

Some people have been calling on him to resign with others calling for his impeachment.

What do you think he should do at this given time?

It is not natural to have a speaker from the minority party. Naturally if I have my way, I would have told Mr. Speaker that the honorable thing to do is to resign. Even when he won ab initio, we know what played out, he won with the help of some of us from the majority but a good chunk of opposition gave him the seat, but we did not give somebody from the minority the seat. A speaker of parliament anywhere in the world has to come from the majority party. Where there is no clear majority, you will have a coalition of parties and whoever they want will be the speaker.

What has the PDP as a party done concerning this issue?

That PDP is silent does not mean it is not concerned. It doesn’t mean it doesn’t care. Even though he didn’t work with the party initially, but you remember that he came to the party after he won and apologised.

What is the impact of the speaker defection on our democracy?

Even the adjournment we had was abrupt. Mr. Speaker adjourned the House after a motion for adoption had been taken. Usually the motion for adjournment comes from the leader of the House. My understanding was that, it was wrong.

The leader had moved for adjournment and it was seconded. It was after that that he announced his defection and then adjourned for about a month. The way he did it was not exemplary. It makes people who have been practicing democracy for years, those who will rather chose honor than self, laugh at us. If I were Tambuwal, I would have resigned first. In fact he ought not just to lose his seat, he ought to take his leave. The constitution is clear that it is only when there is division that one can leave his party and he Tambuwal cannot tell us there was any division in the PDP as at the time he left. Invariably, what it means is that, if the speaker leaves, his seat remains vacant.

There have been lots of complain of irregularities in the recently held congress, what is your take on this?

The congresses that took place on November 1, 2014 was started with lots of expectations. As a loyal party member, I went to my ward. My unit incidentally is the returning

It’s Unnatural For A Speaker To Come From Minority Party – Hon. Kaze Hon Bitrus Kaze is the member representing Jos south/Jos east Federal Constituency of Plateau State. He tells RUTH CHOJI in this interview that it is structurally wrong for Speaker Tambuwal to remain the Speaker of the House o f Reps after defecting. He discusses the crisis in Plateau PDP over zoning and also peeps into other issues in the polity. one and it is where a councilor is declared. I was there from 8am till 6pm in the evening and I never saw any returning officer and I never saw anybody who came to conduct any elections. I made sure I waited till the end so that I will not be told stories. As a member of the house and being sensitive with this kind of things, I appointed three persons in every ward to observe and report what was happening. I want to report to you that, there is no ward in Jos East where an electoral officer is reported to have conducted elections. I must tell you that it is very disappointing and frustrating. I never believed that such ignoble act could take place on the Plateau. Unfortunately I am using the word ignoble.

But were results declared at the end of the day?

Results were compiled before the congresses started and were declared at the end of the day. All I know was that there was some form of siting somewhere where some of us were excluded and military men were deployed to make sure that nobody came to the place. How results were gotten I cannot say.

Kaze

Who is to blamed for the irregularities?

I really cannot apportion blame at the moment, but it is clear that something went wrong and it must have something to do with our party officials at the local government, state and may be at the national level. People have been complaining because the person given the mandate to conduct this election is a Plateau State government contractor. I also heard that, one of the people who came to conduct the congress is a sister in-law to a key government official in the state.

It doesn’t make for honor, dignity, and transparency. I have never seen us descend so low. To me, there was no congress, certainly not in Jos east.

Still on the Plateau , what do you make of the zoning crisis in the state?

I can tell you that, the reason why I am in the National Assembly as at today is because of zoning.

The first person to make an attempt from Jos east was 50years ago. It was late Azi Nyako and he contested against the late premier of Northern Nigeria and then we were in Bauchi State until 1976 when we were made to join our brothers in Plateau. I am

The way he did it was not exemplary.

It makes people who have been practicing democracy for years, those who will rather chose honor than self, laugh at us. If I were Tambuwal, I would have resigned first

the first person that won elections to the National assembly and it is through the grace of zoning.

I come from a community that I consider the minorities of minorities. Nobody has ever gotten elected as a lawmaker in my place and it came through zoning. So you should understand my passion for zoning. The only reason why a minority group like the Rukubas in Bassa could have produced two senators is because of zoning .zoning is the only reason why someone who went to school without shoes from Otuoke could become president today. So for those of us from the small tribes, how else could we make any impact except through zoning? Zoning for those of us from Plateau north was like an unwritten law. Today when I hear people say we don’t need zoning, I ask if we can have a Nigeria without zoning? Zoning is what is keeping us as one. It is a twin sister of what we call federal character. Zoning and federal character are two sides of the same coin. It is a fulcrum of what our national integrity lies on - justice, fair play and respect. Take it away and you may not have a Nigeria.

There have been reports that the governor of Plateau State has anointed a successor form the same Jos north where he comes from. If it’s true, what will be the impact on the state?

My understanding is that, people feel that if another person comes up to take over from Baba Jang, coming from the same zone again,

it will bring a death to zoning in the state.

Do you share the same views?

Yes because if it were not for zoning, I wouldn’t be here. Plateau is heterogeneous and it has about fifty-five tribes and my understanding of Plateau State is that, there is no single tribe that can lord it over others. If it were not so, it will not make us consider each other as brothers. For someone to come and take over form Baba from the same zone, even if he wins, it would create bad blood, disharmony and strife and that is the last we want for the state. If we have had zoning from the beginning, it has always been zoned. If you take the voting pattern in the state, you will know that it has always depended on zoning. For example in 2011, when Dame Tallen tried to contest with the governor, there was lots of strife and the people insisted that Baba should be allowed to conclude his 8years because that was the general feeling.

Dame Paulen did not win a single local government. 1992 was the last time we had a governor from the southern zone in the person of Fidelis. Tapgun. In the new dispensation, the central had it for 8years and now the north is having 8years and naturally it should be the turn of the south. For the sake of peace and unity equality, justice, fair play, let’s allow somebody from the south come up. At the moment we have a governor from the north and if somebody is given the ticket from the north, it will seem as a desperate attempt to cling to power and that to me will not speak well for us.

As one who is very close to the governor, have you tried to make him see reason?

Yes, I have been close to the governor for the past 10years or more.

I have paid my price in the House as I have been disgraced, mocked, tainted and I have done everything within my power to show loyalty. I wasn’t doing it because of Baba, it naturally occurs to me that everybody must play his part for us to succeed. To be honest I have tried as much as I can to speak to Baba directly and indirectly that the people of the north should zone the seat to Plateau south, that even if there had been no zoning at all, as a pastor, elder and leader who said his mission is to unite the church and state, he should think of this and fulfil that divine mandate. I have advised him to reconsider zoning the seat of government.

PDP is seen as a party that adheres to zoning, has the national headquarters tried to reach out to him to make him see reason on the need to rezone the governorship?

We have heard rumors that the party at the national level has tried to reach him and make him understand that, things must be done in line with the party’s constitution, but definitely the national level is abiding by party constitution that zoning takes place at all levels of elective offices.

20 politics

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Why PDP Senators Met With Jonathan –Sen Kure Sen Zainab Abdulkadir Kure is representing Niger south senatorial zone in the National Assembly and is one of the eight amazons in the Red Chamber. She recently had a chat with Ruth Choji and gave insight into the last Senators meeting with President Jonathan. She also discusses the brews over congress results in the PDP as well as other vital national issues You seem comfortable with the Senate. Why didn’t you aspire for governorship like some of your colleagues did?

It is out of the passion to see that I complete certain legislative bills that I started. That is what is making me want to come back to the Senate. On the other side, talking about governorship, I believe everybody has his passion, I am not interested in going for governorship. Even if I am, I would have been zoned out of it because my state is PDP, we respect zoning and the second zone is just finishing its tenure. It is going to go to the third zone. But in all sincerity, even if it is my zone today, I would rather go back to the Senate to complete what I have started for my people.

As we step into elections next year, are you convinced of INEC’s preparations and capacity to deliver on this pertinent national assignment?

We are expecting that supplementary budget will have to come in for that purpose. I have discussed that with my chairman because what was allocated wasn’t going to be enough. I think they budgeted forty five billion for them and they have said that it is not going to be enough for them. If the funds could come through supplementary, then it might be included in the 2015 budget which we will consider soon enough and then we take off from there.

Talking about budgets, are you happy with the budget implementations, especially 2014’s?

In fact it was when we were discussing the medium term expenditure that we invited the minister of finance and other agencies involved and of course I was the one that raised that question. I said I want to find out if the budget has been released and she said yes, it has been released, that they just released the third quarter for capital but recurrent has no problem. She said it has been released but it has not been cash backed to an extent but by now, it must have been cashed backed.

Your party, the PDP has been at loggerheads over the conduct of congresses. What is the situation report?

As far as I am concerned, these things are local issues and we have had several meetings with the president on our party. Secondly and most importantly, we had meeting with Mr. President to further enlighten him on the need for a turn over that will not affect the

system. A situation where elections will be held and out of a 109, only about thirty or forty will come back does not augur well for our democracy. We interact with legislature across the world and we know how we are lagging behind as far as certain things are concerned.

Nigerians are complaining that we don’t churn out bills the way we should and that is because 70% of senators are usually new. It is always an issue of forward and backward.

If you look at it again, institutional memory is being lost as far as such turn over are concerned. We had to let Mr. President realize this so that he can discuss with the executive arm both at the states and local governments level to realise all the dangers involved. Today we are the ruling party, if we will continue to be in the ruling party, then we need experienced legislators to make the work less cumbersome. Aside from that, if you look at the whole working of the FG at the center, we are like the ‘House of Assembly’ of Mr. President, so he has to be interested in what happens there.

It wasn’t out of place for us to discuss our individual tickets and that is because in some states, there are friction between senators and governors who have indicated interest to want to come to the Senate.

Some Nigerians are of the opinion that the Senate has become a ‘refuge’ for the state governors. Is this normal?

Nothing stops one from aspiring to be a senator especially if you have young, vibrant governors that want to continue to serve the nation. But there has to be a balance between those that are already in the senate and those that are coming so that there won’t be acrimony and the intervention will be such that both parties will look at the overall scenario they represent.

What was the President’s response to these issues?

The President is an experienced president, he is a party man, he knows all these, but you can’t know everything.

You have to listen to some people. He said he is going to talk to those concerned because the party needs to accommodate peculiar interests. The Senate should not be the only place people should run to. There are some states that, it is not only the government that have issues with those of us that were elected, even the local people will say it is zoned to another place or a big wig who feels that

Kure

you have been there once or twice, and son should give his crony an opportunity too to be there. So we need someone that will stand for us. If you are representing your people and you are doing well in the senate, I don’t see any reason why you should not be supported to come back, but if you are not on ground for your people and you expect Mr. President to anoint you, then you will have problems. He also made us know that it is not possible to give a blanket ticket to everybody but if you merit it, it will be given to you. I am of the opinion that people should have a cordial relationship with their governors. You shouldn’t fight your governor because it is not healthy for the people you represent. Somebody asked me a question, that why is it that House of Reps members don’t have problems with governors and I said because governors don’t aspire to go to the House, they come to the Senate.

It’s not unconstitutional for them to want to aspire because they need a platform.

Now as a mother and legislator, are you worried with the spate of violence that is being unleashed by insurgents in some parts of the country?

I am very worried and very disturbed.

We have to return to God and start praying. We have been relying on the security agents, but we all must play our roles. One area that we have been discussing with security chiefs is area of intelligence gathering. I don’t think they have been doing well

He said he is going to talk to those concerned because the party needs to accommodate peculiar interests. The Senate should not be the only place people should run to

there. I don’t sleep very well because of the way people are being killed - both civilians and soldiers. It portend lots of danger. It is quite worrisome because I don’t know what these people want to achieve. At the beginning, it wanted to take the color of religion, but now it has been established that it has nothing to do with religion. In my religion, nobody has been asked to kill anybody on basis of religion. What we are thought is to accommodate those that are not of our religion because if you want people to believe in what you believe, you have to make it attractive, you don’t scare people away. Our prayer is that, those perpetuating this will think twice.

What is happening is not ethnic and we shouldn’t look at it from party perspective. If you bring party into it, then you will realise that these thing started from states that are not run by PDP. What I expect from us is to look at it as Nigerians, by the time you started looking on the basis of party because the FG is being occupied by so-so party, the havoc would have been done and there might be nothing to salvage. If people from others parties have answer to this, they shouldn’t wait until they come to power because if they are waiting until they get to power, Nigeria is disintegrating and there might not be a place for them to rule.

politics 21

Sunday, December 7, 2014 The gift of prophesy seems to stand you out of other men of God . How did prophecies come about?

Well God is supreme and we human beings are his vessel I never intended to be a prophet. I just attended church and prayed while growing up. I was around 17 years old when I fell into a trance for 21 days. It actually happened like this. I was washing my mother’s clothes and the next day was to be my birthday. I was thinking that I had not really fasted. My father would always say that I should fast. But I didn’t like it. So that day, when it was noon, I told myself that I should go and eat but before I knew what was happening, I fell in a trance. That was all.

It was after that that I decided what church to attend. I joined the Christ Apostolic Church.

When I got there, the woman in charge gave me the responsibility of leading prayer sessions. After a while, I went to Aviation School in Zaria where I joined the Celestial Church of Christ. After that, I joined the Scripture Union. After which I joined a gospel church.

It was after that that I joined the Cherubim and Seraphim church.

Every church that I attended gave me one responsibility or the other to handle. God is faithful and has been with me ever since then.

The 2015 general election is by the corner and Nigeria seem to be at crossroads with many afraid that anarchy would erupt.

Do you have any prophesy in this regard?

Nigerians need to pray seriously against imminent anarchy that would erupt from the 2015 general elections. Nigeria is sitting on a time bomb that would definitely erupt in 2015. The nation’s politicians will destabilize many parts of the country to the extent that a lot of Nigerians will be forced into exile. I can tell you there is going to be crisis whether the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) wins there will be crisis, if the All Progressive Party (APC) wins there will be crisis. President Goodluck Jonathan’s second term in office will be more bloody. The political situation in Nigeria demands we need prayers because the country like I said earlier is sitting on a time bomb and I see crisis and of course, we need to pray very well so that this crisis will not disintegrate this country. I know that revolution is coming. Revolution will not come instantly but it could be after the election.

Still on the state of the nation, apart from prayers what do you think the leaders need to do to avert the crisis lurking in the country?

President Goodluck Jonathan said he has sought the face of God but he needs to seek God in the right place. He needs to stamp his feet on the ground as the president to overcome the volatile political situation to succeed .The former president Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and President Jonathan will fight dirty. But the president should not be afraid he should be

omy cannot be fixed with the present socio-political situation in the country. First and foremost our leaders need to be more proactive and be honest with the generality of the citizenry. There is poverty in the land and it is going to affect the so called big men. By the time it starts affecting them we will know that there is problem. There will soon be a situation in this country whereby the poor will be attacking the wealthy people. I don’t see the Nigerian economy on the right path till 2017, 2018 likewise power stability in the country. Until we get it right with the power sector, the Nigerian economy cannot be stable. They government has not been doing the right thing. Let the government query the system and bring out those sabotaging their efforts. Nigeria is a mess, and we are pretending about it. Petroleum products will be scarce any moment from December and the price will sky rocket . At a time it will not be seen anywhere at all. Other food price will be high because of economic crises.

Are you saying President Jonathan’s led administration has not done well?

Jonathan has done a lot for this country, but a lot of people, enemies do not want his efforts to be rewarded. Jonathan is playing with enemies within and outside. That is why I say he has not really sought the face of God appropriately, he would know what to do at a particular time.

Elija

2015: Nigeria Sitting On a Time Bomb – Primate Elijah Founder and spiritual head, INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, Primate Elijah Babatunde Ayodele is highly revered for his precise prophesies. This spiritual feat over the years had turned Oke Afa, Isolo, Lagos where his church is located to a Mecca of sort for the high and mighty who storm the place to seek the face of God. In this interview with GEORGE OKOJIE, the Clergyman gives insight on the state of the nation, what to expect from the Nigeria’s political landscape, amongst others

able to stand as the president and face the challenges as the president. Not only will Obasanjo and other politicians shake him but he should be calm and pray for God support to be able to lead the people well. The politicians will want to make sure they take all the Northern states from him. That will divide the country politically but Nigeria will not break.

What do you think can be done to avert the problems?

These are warnings they are preventable. First of all from 1st of January to seventh of January Nigerians should declare fasting. The country should go into prayers in order to prevent the danger ahead of the country. That will help us to avert these troubles.

You are reputed to have predicted that the incumbent Governor of Lagos State Mr. Babatunde Fashola would

emerge as governor, are we also expecting another surprise governor?

This time it is going to be very tough. APC must put their house in order for them not to lose Lagos State cheaply and ridiculously to the opposition. If the party makes mistake about the next governor by imposing any candidate, that may lead to massive defection from the party. If they field Akinwunmi Ambode they will lose Lagos state to opposition.

Mark this prophesy. People in Lagos will resist it with protest and mass defection and the party will lose. If care is not taken still they will lose some states in the South –West to the PDP. Do you see the possibility of Nigerian economy improving in the nearest future?

I don’t see Nigeria’s economy being fantastic in 2014. The econ-

The INRI Widows Foundation has received accolades locally and internationally. What informed the setting up of the ?

INRI Widow’s Foundation was given birth from the INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church. It is a humanitarian organization that looks after the welfare of the widows, orphans and the unprivileged children.

This is where we take care of the widow’s needs spiritually and medically. The Christians and Muslim widows we take them to Mecca, Jerusalem and we pay for their bills. We normally have healthcare programme for them every first Friday of the month when we test their blood pressure and their sugar level. First Sunday of every month we give them food. We pay for their rents. We are planning a project whereby we are going to give them accommodation, a self contained room for N1,000., which they will be paying on monthly basis . We give them a revolving loan, this revolving loans does not attract any interest rate. We send some of their children to school, we give them scholarship, we help them to enroll international examinations and we monitor them to their school. In the old people’s home, we go to their homes to take care of them. During Christmas we give clothes and shoes to the children of the widow. In September when they were going back to schools we bought them bags, biros and we pay for their schools fees.

The political situation in Nigeria demands we need prayers because the country like I said earlier is sitting on a time bomb and I see crisis and of course, we need to pray very well so that this crisis will not disintegrate this country

Apart from the INRI Widows’ Foundation, do you have plans to embark on other ventures aimed at nation building ?

We are planning to build schools and hospitals. It is a matter of capital constraint but we are going to manage whatever we have to be able to achieve our plans. Next year by His grace we will go for the hospital, may be sometime we will go for the school.

We have a land for the school which has been given to us. We will build the Information Technology center , the secondary school and also the primary school but we will run it at a cheaper rate compared to other schools run by churches. We are not going to build schools that ordinary Nigerians will not be able to send their children to. We will put the people and need for knowledge first. We understand what poverty is all about. You know those pastors , most of them have never witnessed poverty , they are rich pastors. We are pastors for the rich we are pastor for the poor.

Why do you think is important to help the less privileged?

The moment you remember the poor, you have remembered God. He loves the poor and He’s always happy when they are blessed. Again the moment you also say ‘Let me bless the poor’ God will bless you in return. But to be sincere, doing this is by the grace of God. It’s not by anybody’s power to assist the less privileged. Great is God towards us.

22 POLITICS feature

Sunday, December 7, 2014

How APC Governorship Ticket’s Were Won And Lost The political space is toughened.

20 15 is here and for the political parties and their candidates it is fight to finish. For some politicians, needless to state that the loss of their primaries election may mark the end of their political aspirations at least for 2015.

With the decision to return its first term governors unopposed, the APC naturally reduced the pressure from its fold and transferred it to the states that were going to have their sitting governors check out after completing two terms next year.

The All Progressives Congress (APC ) has wasted no time in taking the lead to front it’s governorship aspirant for the 2015 general elections. And as such is the first party to unleash mixed feelings in the polity amongst aspirants, especially amongst its first time candidates. While there are stock takings and gnashing of teeth going on as regards those who lost at the primaries, for those who have gotten their tickets, it is jubilation galore, at least before the main election.

But how did the first term candidates outwit their opponents?

How easy a feat was it for them?

LEADERSHIP SUNDAY chronicles the first term APC governorship ticket winners and their strategies.

In Lagos, it took the political suaveness and dominance of Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu to again determine the success of former Accountant-General of Lagos State, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode who emerged as the governorship candidate of the APC early friday morning.

Chief Peter Obadan, chairman of the Lagos APC primaries, formally declared Ambode winner in a poll widely adjudged transparent. He disclosed that 5,959 voters were accredited while 5,815 voted, with valid votes of 5,724 and 91 invalid.

Akinwunmi Ambode, who was not the choice of incumbent Governor Babatunde Fashola, scored 3735 as against the 1201 scored

by Femi Hamzat. Others included Ganiyu Solomon 272, Adeyemi Ikuforiji 182, Olasupo Shasore 121, Leke Pitan 112, Tola Kasali 69, Tayo Ayinde 17, Adekunle Disu 7, Adetokunbo Wahab 7, Olarenwaju Ope 0, Abayomi Sutton 0 and Adetokunbo Agbesanya 0.

In Kaduna State, former minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai defeated his closest rival, Alhaji Isa Ashiru by 1965 votes to Ashiru’s 1379. el-Rufai’s emergence finally put an end to the intense power play that had engulfed Kaduna APC for months ahead of the primaries. The endorsement of el- Rufai by General Muhammadu Buhari seemed to be the catalyst that

Oyegun

While the All Progressives Congress (APC) first term governors were given automatic tickets by the party, other candidates who emerged are new turks on the bloc. Stanley Nkwocha (Abuja), Kazeem Akintunde (Lagos) Abubakar Salihi (Kano), Muazu Elazeh (Katsina), Ankeli Emmanuel (Sokoto) and Abdulkareem Haruna (Bauchi) write on how the new tickets were won and lost propelled a would-be candidate elRufai.

Outgoing governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso had his way in Kano State as his deputy and endorsed aspirant, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje emerged the winner of the primaries.

Contenders such as deputy minority leader in the Federal House of house of Representatives, Kawu Abdurrahman Sumaila and Usman Alhaji Usman, former Kano commissioner had announced their withdrawal.

The only aspirant that hit it off it with the Kano deputy governor, was the former military administrator of Kaduna State, Brig.

Gen. Lawal Jaafar Isa, who it was thought had the backing of Gen. Buhari.

Dr. Ganduje garnered over 5000 votes as against the 126 that sympathised with Gen. Isa. Plateau State APC threw up former Speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly, Simon Lalong as its candidate. Lalong polled 2,222 votes to earn the landslide victory over his opponents: Professor Emmanuel Garba (304) Mr Solomon Dalung (293), Dr Elijah Maina (50) and Senator Dangin Vinken, who went empty.

As was expected in Sokoto State, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal has emerged the APC flag bearer in Sokoto. The Speaker’s resilience as well as that of out-going governor Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko proved too strong for other contestants at the primaries.

While declaring Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal winner, chairman of the electoral panel, Alhaji Bolaji Khalid said having pulled 3466 out of 3513 votes cast, Tambuwal is the APC candidate. Khalid divulged that 3569 were accredited, 3503 valid vote and another 10 votes were invalid.

Giving breakdown of the result, Bolaji informed that Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal got 3466 of the total votes, Senator Umaru Dahiru Tambuwal got 23, Yusha’u Kebbe 13, while Professor Lawal Bashar, Barrister Aliyu Sayinna as well as Senator Jibril Gada had no vote.

In Akwa Ibom State, outgoing Governor Godswill Akpabio will have a lot to contend with following the emergence of Umanah Umanah, his deserted SSG and political foe.

Former Secretary to the Akwa Ibom State Government (SSG)

With the decision to return its first term governors unopposed, the APC naturally reduced the pressure from its fold and transferred it to the states that were going to have their sitting governors check out after completing two terms next year

Umana Okon Umana emerged the governorship candidate as he secured 2, 444 votes to become the winner at the primary held at the Uyo township stadium.

In Rivers State, the state congress of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State unanimously adopted chairman of the House of Representatives committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), Hon. Dakuku Peterside, as its sole candidate for the governorship elections.

Peterside polled 3,773 votes out of the 3,914 votes cast at the primary election.

In Taraba State, serving female senator, Aisha Alhassan, got elected as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the state.

Chairman of the APC primary committee in the state, Kola Shittu, who announced the results of the election in the presence of party members and other officials, stated that delegates cast 2,471 votes at the primary.

In Abia State, former National Vice of the APC, Chief Chinenye Nyere Anyim, emerged the party’s flag bearer in the governorship primaries of the party. Anyim, emerged the party’s governorship candidate through a voice vote which was adopted by the primary electoral committee after it became clear that there was no other candidate in the race with him.

In Gombe State, former commissioner for Finance in the State, Alhaji Inuwa Yahaya polled 920 votes to defeat former deputy speaker Usman Nafada and another aspirant, Murtala Aliyu, to the governorship ticket of the party.

Yahaya, a former Commissioner for Finance under the immediate past administration of Danjuma Goje, polled 905 votes to be declared winner ahead of Nafada, who got 727 votes.

In Bauchi State, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar, a lawyer from Bauchi North constituency, emerged winner of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primaries in Bauchi State and is therefore, the candidate. Returning Officer, Mr Oluwole Rotimi (SAN), announced that Abubakar contested with seven other aspirants and scored 934 votes to clinch the ticket.

While Alhaji Yakubu Lame, former Minister of Police Affairs, scored 806, Alhaji Yusuf Tuggar, 526 and Alhaji Sadiq Mohammed, 194 votes, others like Alhaji Ibrahim Zailani, former member of the House of Representatives picked 161 votes as Alhaji Abdullahi Tanko got 92 votes. Alhaji Nuhu Gidado picked 86 votes as against Alhaji Mohammed Umar’s 56 votes.

In Adamawa State, deputy chairman , Senate Committee on Defence and Army, Senator Bindow Umaru Jibrilla, emerged APC’s candidate after again defeating Mijjinyawa Yayaji, known to be former vice president and APC presidential aspirant, Atiku Abubakar’s candidate.

Others who ended up chasing shadows included Dr Tahir Mamman who got 17 votes, Kobis Ari who scored 85 votes and Yayaji Mijinyawa who scored 1,183.

Senator Jibrila Bindow got a total of 1,880 votes while 24 votes were returned as invalid out of a total delegates of 3,316 from the 21 LGAs in the state .

Aminu Bello Masari , former House of Reps speaker has emerged the All Progressive Congress (APC) gubernatorial candidate in Katsina state for next year’s election.

Masari who polled 2, 470 out of the total 5, 266 vote cast defeated Abubakar who polled 106 votes, Senator Abubakar Sadiq Ya’adua who got 215 and Abdul’Aziz Yar’adua who polled 243 votes. Arch Aliyu Ahmed picked 4 votes while Dr Usman Bugaje polled 47, Sen. Kanti Bello got 1, 327. Sada Ilu picked 468 votes as against Abdullahi Aminci who was only able to comfort himself with only 16 votes.

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Sunday, December 7, 2014

REPORT OF THE

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President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan

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LEADERSHIP in a bid to provide a true and objective picture of the successes and challenges of the Transformation Agenda is publishing THE REPORT OF THE TRANSFORMATION AGENDA as told by the key actors themselves in their own words unedited.

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The Transformation Agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan has been hailed as successful in several areas like agriculture, power, roads, macro-economic stability, foreign-direct investment inflow, and the health sector, among others. Critics cite poverty, youth unemployment, insecurity and the contracting middle class as evidence that the Transformation Agenda is not working. So who and what do you believe? Welcome to the Situation Report.

Ministries, Paratatals and Agencies who have made impactful contributions to the Transformation Agenda are invited to tell their success stories in the REPORT OF THE TRANSFORMATION AGENDA. Private sector companies and contractors who have successfully executed Transformation Agenda projects are also invited to show and tell their success stories in the historic REPORT OF THE TRANSFORMATION AGENDA.

To participwaithteph:otographs, charts and graphs and call

achievements along y Ubimago: 08068640944, n’s tio sa ni ga or e th le pi m co Simply 3143902, Henr Iyobosa Uwugiaren: 08:03 Tosin Allen: 08052116707spaper 6, 76 52 45 06 07 in am nj ew Adebayo Be t Abuja resident n n a in m o d e th in Show and tell it