Why I challenged my removal – Taraba PDP Acting Chairman, Bakari

By Musa Baba Adamu

The acting Chairman of the Taraba State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Inuwa Bakari, has finally broken his silence on why he dragged Alhaji Abubakar Bawa to court.

Bawa, who was the former Special Adviser to Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku on Political Matters, was recently announced as the party’s state chairman by the outgoing governor.

Bakari, who could not fathom why he could not be made the substantive chairman of the party after being in an acting capacity, said he decided to approach the court to seek justice.

Making his position known on

Sunday in Jalingo, he said, “I challenged my removal because there is no justification by any reason for somebody who actually managed the office and won governorship, senatorial, House of Representatives and House of Assembly elections be said to be incompetent.”

Stressing that “I am from Karim 1 constituency”, the aggrieved Bakari said he does not see why someone from outside the party was appointed to take over the leadership.

Arguing that by the constitution, positions in the party “are elective not appointive,” he opined that “it is clear that once the Chairman is not there the deputy automatically takes over pending when elections are held”.

He said, “I was called by the Governor who told me that one Abubakar Bawa was appointed as the Chairman of the party; my thinking is that for the sake of democracy and justice and for the sake of those coming behind, there shouldn’t be any illegality if it comes to the issues of elective positions that’s why I went to court.

“I challenged it based on the fact that it is democracy, to protect democracy and justice, there is injustice there”.

He also faulted the reasons proffered by those behind his removal, stating that “their basis of argument was that the central Zone lacks representation at the State level which I disagreed with”.

He said the Central Zone of the state has one of the largest shares of the leadership of the party, adding that

“the National Vice Chairman of Zone E comprising six States Emmanuel Bovowa comes from Sardauna in the Central Zone, the Central Zone also has the State Secretary Kuriya Tafarki from Kurmi the State Women’s leader is also from Sardauna in the Central Zone and the Zonal Chairman from Gassol.”

He lamented Ishaku’s decision to appoint someone from Sardauna to be acting CHairman, saying the secretary and chairman cannot come from the same zone.

“All these are some of the things I feel should be looked into may be they just want to score cheap marks feeling that because they are in power they can do and undo which I feel should not be allowed,” he said.

Zenith Bank’s quarterly profit hits N66 billion

Nigeria’s second-largest private lender, Zenith Bank, grew its profit for the first three months of this year by double digits to N66 billion, according to its earnings report issued on Friday.

The bank recorded the growth after interest income and similar income, which often provide the most revenue for banks, increased by more than half.

Lenders in Africa’s biggest economy are reaping record profits from an interest rate hike that began in 2022. The rate has shown no sign of ending soon following six straight hikes in the benchmark lending rate by the central bank, allowing banks to charge more for loans.

Godwin Emefiele, the apex bank’s chief, has stated that the said rate, now at its peak level ever, will continue to be raised until Nigeria’s galloping inflation slows to the desired point.

Central banks sometimes use monetary policy rates as a tool to control inflation.

The gross earnings of Zenith Bank rose for the review period to N270 billion, drawing strength from interest and similar income for over 70 per cent of that figure.

The bank expanded net income on fees and commission only marginally by 2 per cent to N34.1 billion after fees on electronic products (the biggest contributor to that pool) dropped 18.2 per cent.

No explanation was provided in the document as to why e-banking income fell.

That slide bucked the expectation that traditional banks and, more importantly, neobanks would earn more from e-banking services after a cash crunch drove many Nigerians to embrace banking apps and shot transaction volume sharply up.

To help broaden its income streams, Zenith Bank early March received a provisional approval to operate a holding company structure like many other big competitors such as Access Holdings, GTCO and FBN Holdings.

Jim Ovia, its founder and former CEO, will chair the group when the new model is completed as he presently does.

Profit before tax jumped by 27.4 per cent, while after-tax profit advanced to N66 billion from N58.2 billion.