The United States of America has advised media practitioners in Nigeria to maintain balance, neutral and non-defamatory in the coverage of the campaigns of various political parties ahead of the 2019 general elections.
A statement today, Monday by the US Embassy and Consulate, said that friends of Nigeria and its people, “we will follow the campaigns and election process closely. Who wins the elections is for the Nigerian people to decide. Our concern is to see a process leading to free, fair, transparent and peaceful elections.
“We strongly support the principle of media freedom and the vital role the independent media plays in ensuring informed public debate. We also stress the importance of balanced, neutral and non-defamatory coverage.”
The US hoped to see transparent campaigns even as it called on all voters to use their democratic right and vote.
“We are particularly keen to see greater participation of women, youth and people living with disabilities.
“We urge all involved – political and non-political actors – to refrain from using hate speech and take a firm stance against violence. The 2015 Peace Accords played an important role in that regard and we welcome new efforts towards that end.
“We were gravely concerned over widespread incidents of intimidation, interference and vote-buying during the recent gubernatorial elections. We were also perturbed by irregularities and violence during party primaries, and noted with particular concern that several women candidates were disenfranchised.
“We reiterate the importance of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as it fulfils its constitutional role. INEC must be allowed to operate free from outside pressure and intimidation, and in turn must demonstrate full neutrality and professionalism. We encourage that adequate funding is swiftly facilitated for INEC and supporting institutions, and we hope to see the entry into force of improvements to the Electoral Act as soon as possible.
“We wish to draw particular attention to the fundamental role of the security agencies in providing a safe and secure environment for the Nigerian people to exercise their democratic rights. It is vital that security agencies act, and are seen to act, in an impartial manner that maintains the high standards of professional conduct.
“At the beginning of the 2019 electoral campaign, we would like to reiterate our strong commitment to support democracy in Nigeria. We encourage Nigeria and its people to consolidate and deepen democracy, building on the standards set in 2015.”
The statement was signed by European Union (Delegation to Nigeria), France, Germany, United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden.
Presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar has promised to double Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to $900 Billion by 2025.
Atiku, who unveiled his policy document today, Tuesday, ahead of 2019 polls said that he will be proactive in attracting investments and supporting the 50 million Small and Medium Scale Enterprises across Nigeria “for the purpose of doubling the size of GDP to 900 Billion Dollars by 2025.”
He said that such investments will create a minimum of 2. 5 million jobs annually and lift at least 50 million people from poverty in the first two years.
“My team and I will also help create jobs by innovating flagship programmes such as the National Open Apprenticeship programme through which we shall enhance the capacity of mater-craftsmen and women to train one million new apprentices every year.
“Our national innovation Fund and SME venture capital Fund initiatives will provide stable and sustainable long-term support to aspiring entrepreneurs.
“My plan to restructure Nigeria will lead to a vast increase in the Internally Generated Revenue, both for the Federal Government and States via the matching grants that we will provide to State Governments that increase their own revenue.
“Let me be clear; no State will received less funding than they get today – in fact, all will receive more and the harder a state works the more they will get.”
Atiku asked Nigerians to be the part of owner of his policies, assuring that they have opportunity to provide feedback.
“I will give opportunity for anyone in Nigeria to have their say on National television. These are not just Atiku Abubakar’s plans; these will be our plans, yours and mine.”
The PDP recalled that he started in life as an orphan selling fire wood on the streets of Jada in Adamawa State, but that that God, through the Nigerian State, he invested in him leading to his success in life, adding: “if Nigeria worked on me, i owe it as my to make sure that Nigeria also works for you, your family and your friends.
“It is time to get Nigeria working gain, and these are the plans and policies i have for achieving that. I appeal to you to join me on this journey towards a better life for all Nigerians.”
Justice Ahmed Rahmat Mohammed has ordered the former National Security Adviser, Col Sambo Dasuki be prosecuted in absentia by the Federal Government following his resolve not to appear in court for further proceedings.
The judge invoked section 352 (4) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) to issue the order at the resumed trial in Abuja in which Dasuki was absent in court.
At the hearing today, Monday, counsel to the Federal Government, Dipo Opeseyi had filed an affidavit dated November 19, and attached with it a letter of November 12 written to the court by Dasuki that he would no longer attend trial in court in protest over the disobedience of the Federal Government to several court judgment which ordered his release from unlawful detention since December 2015.
In the affidavit deposed by a lawyer Abimbola Akintola, the Federal Government pleaded for the trial of Dasuki in absentia and in the alternative for the court to compel his presence before the court.
Opeseyi, while adopting the affidavit claimed that it was filed in compliance with the order of the court plead on April 10, 2018 to effect that whenever the Ex-NSA chooses not to be in court, the prosecution must depose to an affidavit to the effect.
The Senior counsel submitted that with Dasuki’s letter addressing to the Registrar of the court which was tendered before the court, it is clear that the ex-NSA has made up his mind not to attend the trial in the charges of unlawful possession of fire-arms brought against him by Federal Government.
Opeseyi submitted that Dasuki’s grouse was borne out of facts that from matters in different courts and as such his grievances ought to have been addressed to the affected courts.
However, Dasuki’s counsel, Victor Okwudili vehemently objected to the affidavit of the federal government on his client on the ground that the affidavit evidence was not competent in the eyes of the law to be entertained by the court.
Okwudili drew the attention of Justice Rahmat to the fact that the lawyer who deposed to and filed the affidavit did not affix his seal to the court process as required by Section 10 (Sub 1, 2,3) of the rule of professional conducts for legal practitioners in Nigeria.
With the failure to affix the seal of authority, the counsel argued that no probate value should b e attached to the affidavit. He, therefore, prayed the court to reject the affidavit and in the alternative to adjourned the matter for him to show the affidavit to Dasuki for his reaction in the interest of fair hearing.
However, in his ruling, Justice Mohammed agreed that the affidavit has no seal of authority but however said that it was deposed to by a lawyer in the chamber of Opeseyi and that it contained only facts drawn from the letter of Dasuki where he declared not to attend the court again for trial.
He said that the defendant did not attack any of the facts in the affidavit hence, the resolve of the court to uphold it and then ordered that Dasuki be tried in absentia in compliance with 352 of ACJA.
The judge subsequently adjourned further trial to December 11.
The Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), President Muhammadu Buhari has defeated the Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar and others in an
Online poll created by CitizenPoll and published on its website.In the poll, Buhari had 64.52 per cent of the votes with 8348, while Atiku polled only 3,241 votes, representing 25 per cent of the total votes
The Poll which featured only eight Presidential Candidates, has Mrs Oby Ezekwesili of Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) trailing at the bottom with only 163 votes being 1.11 per cent of the poll as at the time of this report.
In the 3rd position on the poll was Omoyele Sowore of African Action Congress (ACC) who polled 344 (2.66%), followed by Kingsley Moghalu of Young Progressive Party (YPP) with 264 votes (2.04%).
Tope Dasua of the Abubdant Nigeria Renewal Party (ANRP) polled 215 votes (1.66%) while in the 6th position as at the time of this report was Donald Duke of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) with 195 votes (1.51%).
The seventh position was occupied by Fela Durotoye with 190 votes representing 1.47 per cent of the votes.
The Citizen Poll also had another running online poll of worst performing Governor in Nigeria with Gov. Yahaya Bello of Kogi topping the 10-man list.
Minister of Transportation, Chief Rotimi Amaechi has recalled the day President Muhammadu Buhari and Federal Executive Council (FECT) turned down his request to borrow $500 million from China to complete ongoing railway project.
Amaechi, who spoke today, Sunday at the `Next Level Presentation’ at Presidential Villa Banquet Hall to signal the commencement of the campaign of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2019 general elections, said: “when I wrote a memo to the president and to the cabinet requesting that he should allow me borrow 500 million dollars from China to buy locomotives and coaches for Lagos-Ibadan rail line, the cabinet under the directive of the president refused.
“He (the president) said 500 million dollars; we can get from here and we are funding it from here; so we did and completed Kaduna to Abuja quickly.
“We spend N56 million per month and we get N16 million; so we are augmenting for both rich and poor—N40 million per month under the directive of the president because he fears that the poor might not be able to afford it. So, everybody is using it.”
Amaechi, who made a presentation titled `What We are Building ’ said that President Muhammadu Buhari, upon assumption of office, directed that old and abandoned projects be completed.
“The truth is that the country is compelled to make a choice between good and bad. When I was appointed the Minister for Transportation, the president warned–do not start new contracts, go and complete old ones.
“We met Itakpe –Warri Rail line which had been in existence for 34 years uncompleted; it would have been the first Standard Guage line in Africa if it was completed.
“Based on the president’s instruction, I did a memo; I thought we will borrow money from China; but the president refused. He said we should use our internal funds to execute the project.
“People saw me on social media on Train service from Warri to Itakpe. I got to Warri 8pm because I was going from one station to the other—almost all the villages and most prominent members of PDP made sure that train stations were in their villages.
“So, I am compelled to do those stations in villages of members of PDP; it is okay; it is the instruction of the president that you must go and finish the old work.”
He said that the tradition in the past was that once one was elected, one left the old things for the old people and awarded new contracts.
According to Amaechi, the ministry will start commercial service from Itakpe to Warri.
On PDP’s argument that it started the projects, Amaechi said that Buhari made it clear on commissioning the Abuja –Kaduna rail project that the project was started by the former government of President Goodluck Jonathan.
“We completed it but two things are remarkable—we borrowed 500 million dollars to start that project at the time oil was selling at 114 dollars per barrel.
“We should not have borrowed; you mean this country could not have afforded 500 million dollars?
According to him, Lagos to Ibadan railway is almost complete—a distance of 156kms.
The minister said that application had also been made to construct Kano to Kaduna railway as approval for funds is being awaited.
“We are about to award the central line from Abuja to Niger to Baru from Baru to Itakpe to Warri; the president had approved a new seaport in Warri. We are negotiating with a Chinese company which will build it.
“Do not forget that N2.7 billion dollars is N1 trillion. So, we are looking for money to commence already awarded work on the coastal rail.
“The coastal rail starts from Lagos, from Lagos; it passes through Ogun State, Ondo, Benin, Asaba, and Onitsha. From Benin again, it passes through Warri, Sapele, Ughelli, to Bayelsa, in fact, it goes to Utuoke. From Otuoke, it goes to Port Harcourt.
“ Then from Port Harcourt, it goes to Aba, Uyo, and ends up in Cross River State.
“We are almost ready to award Port Harcourt to Maidugiri. The difference between us and the last award is that the last award was 1500km but under the directive of Mr President, it was extended to 2000 km.
“The last award was Port Harcourt straight to Maidugiri but in order to satisfy everybody at the directive of the President, we must get to every state capital.”
President Buhari Launches APC Road Map for 2019 Campaign titled “NEXT LEVEL” in State House on 18th Nov 2018
President Muhammadu Buhari has said that the three and half year of his government has been spent in laying foundation for a new Nigeria, even as he is ready to move to the next level of building the type of nation that will be the envy of everybody.
“Over the last three and a half years, we have laid the foundations for a strong, stable and prosperous country for the majority of our people. Foundational work is not often visible, neither is it glamorous – but it is vital to achieving the kind of country we desire.”
The President, who spoke today, Sunday at an event to kick campaign for his re-election with the launching of campaign manual/next level document at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, said that judging by the depth of decay, deterioration and disrepair into which Nigeria was sank, “we are certain that these past few years have put us in good stead to trudge on the next level of building an even stronger nation for our people.”
He recalled that his government inherited a nation at war, but that with his government went on to deliver on its commitment to secure the territorial integrity of the nation in the face of a raging insurgency that devastated many parts of the North East.
“We liberated 17 Local Government Areas from the grip of insurgency. Brokering and sustaining peace in the Niger Delta has also been crucial to stabilizing the polity.
“Despite the difficult circumstances presented by weak oil prices and reduced oil production, we delivered on our commitment to make public investments to spur economic growth, job creation, and broad-based prosperity.
“Agriculture continues to expand our economic base, as do our investments in our deficient infrastructure across the length and breadth of this nation. We implemented a responsible and transparent fiscal plan for the challenging economic times that saw us doing more even with lesser oil revenues.
“The past history of grand-scale corruption perpetuated by the highest office in the land has been nipped in the bud just as the Treasury Saving Account has made it more difficult for ministries, departments and agencies to exercise the unrestrained liberties that helped foster a climate conducive to corruption. Now, for the first time, investments in capital projects to expand
infrastructure continue to connect people, goods and opportunities by rail, road and air.
“The Federal Government supported state governments with a bailout that enabled them to pay workers on their payroll.
“We took an unprecedented step towards creating a fairer and more equitable society by implementing Africa’s biggest social investment programme. Through the National Social Investments Programme, we are providing direct support to over 12 million Nigerians who need it by giving relief and assistance to unemployed youth, our children, the weak and vulnerable as well as small and medium businesses.”
Buhari said that even as his government lays the foundation for a stable and prosperous nation, he acknowledged that there is still much work to build on, adding that the next level of effort has an immense focus on job creation
“From an enlargement of the N-Power programme to investing in technology and creative jobs to Agriculture and others, there is scope for 10 million new jobs.
“The march away from a mono-economy must continue with our focus on an industrialization plan coming to fore. With specific plans underway to exploit the comparative advantage of the geo political zones and different states by developing six Industrial Parks and 109 Special Production and Processing Centres (SPPCs) across each senatorial district, our incremental move away from oil dependence is assured. In addition, our development of the Special Economic Zones will quickly concretize our Made in Nigeria for Export (MINE) plan.
“To sustain food production and value addition, our mechanization policy for agriculture will make tractors and processors easily accessible and available for farmers across Nigeria. We will continue a wide scale skilling policy, prioritizing technology to reach the demography of young people within the productive sector on a massive scale even as we create jobs and growth within our economy.
“We believe that our people who are still in poverty have a direct way out and up through our expanded National Social Investments Programme. We believe we can implement the painstaking and comprehensive work we have done to bring an end to the perennial conflict between farmers and herders- a conflict which is heightened by a struggle for land, water and pasture and the effects of climate change and every now and then, opportunistic and cynical manipulation by political actors. We are implementing a blend of measures that ensures that justice, order, modernization and new economic paradigms emerge.
“Perhaps our biggest ambition yet is the overhaul of our education sector. Every child counts – and simply, whatever it takes to prepare our teachers, curriculum and classrooms to attain the right educational goals that grow our country, will be done. We will remodel 10,000 schools every year and retrain our teachers to impart science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics using coding, animation, robotics to re-interpret our curriculum.
“We know that, to succeed, moral integrity and conscience must continue to form the dominant character of our nation and its leadership. Corruption is an existential threat to Nigeria. Despite the gains we have made in closing the gates, we know that there is still much ground to cover to stop systemic corruption. We are committed to deepening the work we started this first time such that the nation’s assets and resources continue to be organized and utilized to do good for the majority of our people.
“The next four years will be quite significant for our country. Nigeria is faced with a choice to keep building a new Nigeria- making a break from its tainted past which favoured an opportunistic few. Our choices will shape us – our economic security and our future prosperity. Nigeria, more than ever before, needs a stable and people-focused government to move the agenda for our country forward.”
President Buhari asked Nigerians to join him and his government “on this journey to the next level of a prosperous, strong and stable Nigeria.”
Right from the outset of his interest in the chairmanship of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole knew that his programmes of reform, which formed the major plank of his electioneering promises, would not only ruffle the feathers of some influential stakeholders but also break their backs.
Some of the governors, who reluctantly threw their weight behind him because of the massive endorsement he got from President Muhammadu Buhari, also knew that they had Oshiomhole’s independent-mindedness (read stubbornness) to contend with in the months ahead. Perhaps, they were not sure of the extent he would go to push through his reform.
As it were, the sheer dimensions of the Oshiomhole reform and its implications for some governors’ political structures in their respective States have become writ large. Real and pseudo political empires have collapsed under the magnitude of the reform like a pack of cards.
Whereas, the feeling of apprehension was noticeable in their dispositions, the emperors who have been subdued in the states never thought that apocalypse was inches away from their skin.
Their nemesis, one-time president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and former governor of Edo State, was magisterial in his pursuit of the policy to return the party to members. On the basis of that, he resisted the urge to pander to the whimsical and entrenched desires of some of the governors for impolitic control of the party structures in their respective States.
I am not too sure that the APC, which, by the circumstances of its formation, was change-inclined, bargained for the significant reform that Oshiomhole has driven, thus far, by his utter will-power as well as moral and mental discipline. His can-do spirit has unraveled in its vast flourish; but, in a fit of resistance by warmongers, he has become a butt of attacks in the onerous task of cleansing the Augean stables and setting the party on the trajectory to greatness.
But the governors, in their determination to fight back to reclaim their dismantled structures, have since thrown all manner of dirty tricks into the mix. Some governors unsuccessfully mobilised for a no-confidence vote in Oshiomhole. They also purportedly influenced the invitation by the Department of State Services (DSS) over the conduct of the governorship primary elections in some States. When the first two gambits failed, they resorted to the third option, which is to consistently make bribery allegations through some proxies.
In all of the shenanigans, Oshiomhole has been uncompromising to the chagrin of his traducers who are doing a great job, stoking the fire of the war of allegations of bribe-taking even when they have not directly produced the specific evidence. Characteristically, they have resorted to media propaganda, using their hirelings to disseminate the phantom amounts in millions of dollars that Oshiomhole allegedly received.
Their odious strategy is simple: continue to assail the sensibilities of Nigerians with the lies so that, with time, they could pass off as truth. Interestingly, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and some of its leaders, particularly the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, have joined in the fray to assassinate the character of Oshiomhole and destroy his hard-earned reputation. Again, the expectation was that the stratagem would discount the moral high ground that the APC national chairman occupies.
But as a veteran of many struggles in labour activism and survivor of subterfuge in the nation’s cloak-and-dagger politics, the raging battle of wits and grits is for Oshiomhole to win. He is poised to run away with victory, having put the control of party’s structures in the hands of members in realisation of the new governance reform that has, as its essential components, party discipline, supremacy and internal democracy. This has, undoubtedly, benefitted from the strategic support of President Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
Indeed, Oshiomhole has put up a defence that appears more rational against the backdrop of the allegations of bribe-taking coming out from the camps of the embittered governors. He explained that the primary elections were not about money. In one of his ripostes in the last one week, Oshiomhole had said that the exercise was not about money or bribe-taking, arguing that if it was, nobody had resources more that the governors to dispense in that circumstance.
Oshiomhole has continued to insist that the governorship primary elections fulfilled the requirements of transparency and due process. The significant narrative by him is that the governors who lost out had deployed state machinery, to no avail, in their desperate bids to impose their preferred candidates on members of the party in their respective states.
I posit that Oshiomhole’s uncompromising stance on internal democracy which is sine qua non for the party’s victory in the general election. And, with the critical presidential support he enjoys, he has left the rank of the governors, who lost out in the primary elections, exasperated, thus making them to resort to all manner of despicable self-help.
The objectives of that enterprise, among others, centred on forcing Oshiomhole to resign his position before the window of substitution of candidates closed so that his successor could revisit the issues and do their biddings. But because that failed, the conspirators set out to erode the moral basis of Oshiomhole’s leadership through the medium of irresponsible allegations and propaganda.
It is remarkable that Oshiomhole has served notice to those who propagate such defamatory comments of his intention to seek redress in court. In a desperate situation of partisan frenzy where good reputations are unkindly sullied for parochial political ends, it is in apple-pie order to call on the courts for injunctive reliefs and compensation for damages.
And, the fact of the narrative should not be lost in that the war of allegations resulted from the dismantled political empires of some governors that Oshiomhole turned into crying and browbeaten emperors. Oshiomhole was politically pragmatic enough not to align with them to promote their imperial control of the party structures in their states.
Oshiomhole’s commitment to return the party to members, which was the reason he swayed the national working committee to introduce direct primary election for the selection of the party’s standard bearers, would be judged by history and remembered by posterity. In fact, the significance of that policy continues to be reinforced by President Buhari’s decision to submit to it.
Seventeen States chose the direct primary election mode while nineteen States settled for indirect primary election. What the governors who settled for indirect primary election wanted to achieve was to use the state government machinery and their entrenched structure in their respective State Chapters of the party to predetermine the governorship candidates and those who would be awarded the tickets for other elective positions.
The move was to unconscionably shut out the vast majority of the members of the party in the choice of their representatives, a development which was contrary to the spirit of the reform. To be clear, the reform was geared towards achieving internal democracy together with party supremacy and discipline.
The party members, according to reports, are happy with the decision of Oshiomhole in Imo State where Senator Hope Uzodinma is the bona fide governorship candidate at the expense of Governor Rochas Okorcoha’s son-in-law, Uche Nwosu; and, in Ogun State where Governor Ibikunle Amosun could not, single-handed, foist his preferred candidate, Hon. Adekunle Akinlade, on the party as the governorship candidate. Prince Dapo Abiodun is the validly-nominated candidate.
Zamfara State presents the same scenario. Governor Abdulazeez Yari had threatened fire and brimstone, to no avail, to produce his crony as governorship candidate. As a corollary of his failed brinkmanship, INEC has claimed that the APC in the State could not field candidates for all elections in the 2019 as, according to it, the party did not conduct its primary election within the time set for the exercise. The matter is before a court of competent jurisdiction. Meanwhile, we watch the the unfolding war of allegations, the mongers and other theatrics in the APC with keen interest.
The Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim K. Idris, is scheduled to attend the 87th International Police Organization (INTERPOL) General Assembly 2018 currently on-going in Dubai, United Arab Emirate (UAE) from today, 18 to Wednesday 21 November.
a statement by the Force Public Relations Officer, Jimoh Moshood, said that the General Assembly 2018 had already been declared opened today, Sunday in Dubai, by the Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Ruler of the Emirate of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. It said that the forum has brought together Police Chiefs, officials of public security departments and global experts to discuss important safety and security issues worldwide with particular attention to fight against terrorism and other organized crimes. Participants will dialogue on best practices to enhance further cooperation to make the world safer.
The statement said that since assumption of office as the 19th indigenous Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris has made frantic efforts in ensuring synergy and collaboration with other International Security Bodies, such as INTERPOL, to tackle security challenges and combat organized crimes in Nigeria. “It is in the pursuit of these commitments, that the IGP led the delegation of Senior Police Officers from Nigeria to Dubai, UAE to attend the 87th INTERPOL General Assembly to improve on the capacity of the Force to deal with current security concerns in the Country.”
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has taken an online journalist and radio presenter, Akanda Oro, popularly known as Awikonko, to court demanding the sum of One Billion Naira for accusing him of killing of the late Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Bola Ige (SAN), and the slain National Vice-Chairman of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party, Marshall Harry.
In the suit filed by his lawyer, Kanu Agabi (SAN), Obasanjo said the claims by the journalist, which were also posted on social media, were malicious and false.
In the suit filed before Justice O.A. Adenyi of Apo Federal Capital Territory High Court with number FCT/HC/CV/2920/18, the former President asked that Awikonko retract the publication.
It read in part, “A declaration that the publication complained of are false, malicious, unjustified, injurious, scornful, distasteful, unsavoury and have exposed the claimant to public odium, ridicule and disdain both nationally and internationally.
“A declaration that the words complained of do not constitute a valid exercise by the defendant of his freedom of speech.
“The sum of one billion naira only against the defendant as general damages for the defamation of the claimant’s hard earned reputation.”
The journalist was quoted as saying on live radio that Obasanjo killed Bola Ige and that President Muhammadu Buhari had even claimed at the burial of the late Harry that the Obasanjo-led government sponsored the killing of the ANPP chieftain.
Awikonko was quoted as saying: “Obasanjo’s murder of Bola Ige, if not for the shortage of time, I would have listed the names of those murdered by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo during his regime.
“Bloodshed during Obasanjo Aremu’s regime was too much (foolish old man).
“There are repercussions for every evil deed done… In case you hear of my death, do not be sad. Perhaps this is the only mission I have been sent by God to accomplish.
“The fellow that killed a whole minister of justice and attorney general of the federation went scot-free.
“So, what will it cost him to kill me, a commoner? Let him go and commit suicide or take himself before Ogun shrine to swear that he does not know anything about the murder of Bola Ige and Marshall Harry or that all his children die in his lifetime.”
The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, has extols the high level of professionalism, civility, politeness, firmness and unbiased conducts of the Police Personnel and that of other Security and Safety Agencies, throughout the period of the elections in Kwara, Katsina and Bauchi which were held yesterday, Saturday.
A statement by the Police spokesman, Jimoh Mosshod quoted the IGP of having expressed utmost satisfaction and commends the Commissioners of Police in Kwara, Katsina and Bauchi State Police Commands, other Senior Officers from other Police formations and their Personnel, Officers and Men of other Security and Safety Agencies deployed to complement the Nigeria Police Force in the implementation of the Security Arrangement for the just concluded Bye-Elections in Ekiti/Irepodun/Isin/Oke-Ero Federal Constituency of Kwara State, Kankiya/Kusada/Ingawa Federal Constituency of Katsina State and Toro Federal Constituency of Bauchi State.
“The Inspector General of Police deeply appreciates the high level commitment of the Police Personnel and that of other Security and Safety Agencies in ensuring adequate security, secured and conducive environment for free and fair Bye-Elections in the affected Federal Constituencies in Kwara, Katsina and Bauchi States.”
The statement said that the police boss also appreciated the law abiding attitude and peaceful conduct of the good people of Kwara, Katsina and Bauchi States, the traditional rulers, religious leaders, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Staff, Local and Foreign Election Monitors/Observers, Situation Room Election Observers/CSOs, other Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), the Media and other critical stakeholders for a good working relationship with the security personnel deployed for the election.
“The good disposition and spirit of sportsmanship exhibited by most of the political parties in the elections which doused fear and tensions during the elections is gratifying and highly commendable.
“As a lead security agency in election security in a democracy, the IGP once again commends the Commissioners of Police and their personnel in Kwara, Katsina and Bauchi States Commands, for their personal sacrifice, collective patriotism and commitment in ensuring that the elections were conducted in an atmosphere of peace devoid of any breach of public peace and security throughout the period of the elections.
“The impressive performance of the Police personnel to ensure law and order, and a successful election is a clear testimony of the capability of the Nigeria Police Force in its renewed commitment to continue to adhere to International Best Practices in the conduct of elections in the country now and the upcoming 2019 General Election.
“The Nigeria Police Force shall continue to sustain the elections security successes recorded in Gubernatorial Elections in Edo, Ondo, Anambra, Ekiti and Osun States, and the just concluded Bye-Elections in Ekiti/Irepodun/Isin/Oke-Ero Federal Constituency of Kwara State, Kankiya/Kusada/Ingawa Federal Constituency of Katsina State and Toro Federal Constituency of Bauchi State as an index for the successful conduct of subsequent elections in the Country.
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The United States of America has advised media practitioners in Nigeria to maintain balance, neutral and non-defamatory in the coverage of the campaigns of various political parties ahead of the 2019 general elections.
The Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), President Muhammadu Buhari has defeated the Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar and others in an
Right from the outset of his interest in the chairmanship of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole knew that his programmes of reform, which formed the major plank of his electioneering promises, would not only ruffle the feathers of some influential stakeholders but also break their backs.
