The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) and the Action Peoples Party (APP) asked an Abuja Federal High Court to compel President Muhammadu Buhari to sack all his political appointees who are yet to be re-appointed.

Among presidential aides the coalition is asking the court to be ordered to be sacked are Chief of Staff to the President, Malam Abba Kyari; Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha; Special Adviser to the President on media and publicity, Femi Adesina; Senior Special Assistant to the President on media and publicity, Malam Garba Shehu and others.

The plaintiff described as an aberration, for the presidential aides whose tenure ended with the expiration of the president’s first term, to continue in office without being re-appointed.

Those sued as defendants in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/762/2019, include; President Buhari, Abba Kyari, Boss Mustapha, Garba Shehu and Femi Adesina, as 1st to 5th defendants.

The plaintiffs want an order of the court to restrain Kyari, Mustapha, Shehu, Adesina (2nd to 5th defendants) and any other personal staff of the president, from parading themselves as the Chief of Staff, SGF and media aides to the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, until official reappointment is made.

They also prayed the court to order the defendants and other aide or personal staff of the president appointed prior to May 29, 2019 and still acting in that capacity without reappointment, to return and pay into federation account, all their emoluments, salaries and allowances received from May 29, 2019 till the day they vacate office.

The plaintiffs, in the suit filed on July 3, 2019 by their counsel, Chibuzor Ezike formulated three questions for the determination of the court, one of which is, “Whether by Sections 151(3), 152 and 171(1)(2)(a and e) and (6) of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended, the first defendant (Buhari) has the power to extend and elongate the tenure of the office of the 2nd to 5th defendants and any of his aides appointed pursuant to Sections 151(1) and 171 (2) (a and e) of the constitution without first terminating their tenure at the end of his four year term on the 29th, May, 2019?

“Whether the tenure elongation and continued service of the 2nd to 5th defendants and all other aides of the first defendant, despite the expiration of the President’s four year tenure on May 29, without official reappointment taken and subscription of oath of office and oath of allegiance is not in clear breach of Section 151(3) 171 (6) of the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended?

“Whether the 2nd to 5th defendants or any other aide of the president appointed pursuant to Section 151 and 171(2)(a and e) are entitled to any official emoluments and benefit with respect to their offices as from May 29, 2019, when the first four year tenure of the president ended?”

CUPP said in a statement that the “Former SGF, Boss Mustapha is still in that office, Sen. Ita Enang is still parading as special adviser to the president on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Abba Kyari as Chief of Staff, Adesina is still appearing in TV programs as Special Adviser to the President on Media, likewise Garba Shehu parading as the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity.

“These among other officials of the presidency are still illegally occupying their former offices without any lawful authority as the president have not made any announcement to the nation that he has appointed or reappointment officers onto the positions,” it said.

According to CUPP, “President Buhari’s inability to appoint personal/presidential aides or indeed any other appointments over one month after taking oath of office is a sign that the president is still not yet ready to govern and lacks understanding of the urgency needed to fix Nigeria.”

The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar has assured Nigerians that the new strategy adopted by security agents to eliminate all types of insecurity bedeviling the country is working fine and that the result will soon become obvious.

Air Marshal Sadique, who briefed news men today, July 4, shortly after a security meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, confirmed that security strategy has since been changed to reflect the new realities.

“I think the strategy has already been changed and from what we are seeing, the current strategy is working. What we are going to do is to ensure that all hands are on deck and every Nigerian equally has a role to play by passing relevant intelligence to us.

“So far, the strategy that we have on ground is really working and that is the one we will continue to pursue.”

He said that the meeting, which lasted for about two hours was all about the security of Nigerians and Nigeria.

He said that the message coming out of that meeting is that the Armed forces and other security forces will continue to work much harder to ensure that every Nigerian is secure and the territorial integrity of Nigeria is not undermined by anybody.

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), has moved Abuja to the next level with the disbursement of N197,531,799.95 to 23 communities across the six area councils of the territory for infrastructure development, under the Community and Social Development Programmes (CSDP).

A breakdown of the amount shows that each of the 23 communities got between N5.3 million and N8.9 respectively, depending on the nature of their projects. Some of the projects include the purchase of speed boats, mechanized boreholes, rural electrification, community roads, blocks of classrooms, health centres, skills acquisition centres, among others.

The projects were selected by the rural communities under the supervision and approval of the Area Council authorities.

The Chief Press Secretary of the Administration, Anthony Oguleye, in a statement today, July 4, said that the FCT Permanent Secretary, Chinyeaka Ohaa presented cheques to the representatives of the 23 communities.

He quoted the Permanent Secretary as saying that the Community and Social Development Programme has been of great importance in the development of rural communities in the territory.

Ohaa commended the efforts of the Community and Social Development Project workers who represent their communities, for working hard to ensure that their people have access to basic social infrastructure through community driven development programmes, even as he advised them to ensure that the funds are judiciously utilized for the set purpose.

He said that the funds would enable the FCT Administration to assess the performance of the community driven development projects, the challenges they encounter and the way forward for successful implementation of the various community development and poverty elimination projects.

The Permanent Secretary assured that the Administration will continue to partner with various international and community agencies as well as other groups, towards the achievement of its vision of ensuring an acceptable standard of living for FCT people.

The Director of Economic Planning, Research and Statistics, Lawal Muhammed said that the CSDP is an intervention that effectively targets social and environmental infrastructure at the community level.

He said that the project works through a counterpart funding format whereby the communities would raise 10 percent of the total cost of their selected micro-projects (in cash and in kind), while the FCT CSDP matches that with 90 percent grant.

The Director explained that the idea is to encourage community ownership through community driven development approach by empowering them systematically to take charge of their lives instead of relying on government for all their needs.

He added that the various communities have been trained on project implementation (monitoring and supervision), book keeping, community procurement, conflict management and environmental issues among others to ensure the success of the programme.

The General Manager of the CSDP, Dr Shuaibu Adamu said also that the projects cut across all the rural communities and they include health, electricity, water, roads as well natural infrastructure projects.

He said that water related projects is top of the approved micro projects with about 124 projects, including 52 boreholes, while 22 health centres have also been approved in addition to the opening of 23 community roads. He said there are currently 19 ongoing micro projects, with 65 projects completed while work is yet to commence on 40 others.

The GM expressed optimism that the ongoing projects would have attained 85 percent completion by the end of July.