The Ebonyi State government has explained why police had to wade in to stop the lawlessness displayed by the supporters of the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, who stage a solidarity march for him today in Abakaliki, the State capital.

Special Assistant to the state governor on Media and Strategy, Chooks Okoh, said that the organisers of the solidarity march did not pay the required fees to stage the march.

“For record purposes, the relevant government agencies had approved the use of Abakaliki Township Stadium for a rally by the Labour Party subject to the payment of some specified fees. “Rather than pay the fees, it was gathered, the organisers chose to empty into the streets causing some untold hardships on the hapless citizens going about their daily pursuits.

“The police, we are told, had to step in to restore law and order. The Governor appeals to all citizens to always abide by the dictates of the law and decent living so that law and order will always reign supreme.

The full statement goes thus:

“The attention of the Executive Governor of Ebonyi State has been drawn to some online publications and rumours making the rounds that he ordered the disruption of a gathering in support of one of the presidential candidates in the 2023 elections. This is not true.

“The Executive Governor of Ebonyi state is certainly not aware of any disruption of any gathering as he didn’t order any.

“He is a democrat who believes firmly in the rule of law. He wishes every contending politician the very best and will insist on a level playing ground for all. If it is true that the police dispersed people, the answer will surely rest with the police.

“For record purposes, the relevant government agencies had approved the use of Abakaliki Township Stadium for a rally by the Labour Party subject to the payment of some specified fees. Rather than pay the fees, it was gathered, the organisers chose to empty into the streets causing some untold hardships on the hapless citizens going about their daily pursuits.

“The police, we are told, had to step in to restore law and order. The Governor appeals to all citizens to always abide by the dictates of the law and decent living so that law and order will always reign supreme.

“He wishes all political parties and their candidates well and enjoins all to play the game by the rules.”

Also, Ebonyi Police Command has said that it acted base on the Rules of Engagement, reiterating that organisers of the rally did not pay the specific fees, as directed by the State Government.

The statement read: “Several unfounded allegations of Police high-handedness have been renting the air with regards to the One-Million-Man-Rally organised by the Labour Party and other loyalists of the Peter Obi Presidential Campaign in Ebonyi State.

“It is pertinent to put the records straight in spite of all false allegations and the Press release from the State Government.

“Granted that the organisers of the rally had a brief meeting with the Police Command authority represented by the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Operations, it was expected that the group should abide by the outcome of the meeting and the requisite conditions given by the State Government which includes payment of a certain amount of money for the use of the Stadium as a take-off point as well as another refundable sum of money as a collateral in case of any damage to Government property/infrastructures.

“It was, therefore, unfortunate when the Command got wind of the fact that the organisers of the rally failed to meet up with the obligations and threatened to go ahead and conduct the rally threatening that nobody, not even the State Government would stop them from going on, against the decision of the State’s Gubernatorial candidate for Labor Party, Dr Edward Nnwegu’s decision to stop the rally in order to avoid the looming catastrophe.

“Armed with credible intelligence, the State Police Command sensing that if not checked, the rally will become turbulent and create a state of insecurity in the State, decided to nip it at the bud.

“So in a bid to proactively curb the impending turbulence, police men were despatched to the newly proposed take-off venue, Pastorial Center for the purpose of maintaining law and order.

“Unfortunately, while the Police men were properly deployed to ensure that there was no breakdown of the law, the radicals and mischief-makers among the rallyists became violent and started hauling missiles on the police operatives, uttering all manners of imprintable statements on the Police and the Government. Many of them even went physical to assault and attack the police men.

“So in response, and guided by the Presidential pronouncements/order at the era of the unpopular END-SARS protests, the police personnel on duty rose to the occasion to dislodge the violent and criminally oriented attackers.

“After taking control of the situation, the rally continued and ended up peacefully. This is even depicted in the video clips captured during the peaceful rally.

“I, therefore, on behalf of CP Aliyu Garba psc(+), the Commissioner of Police, Ebonyi State, state that the Police in Ebonyi State acted professionally and within the rules of engagement in order to ensure that peace and order prevails in Ebonyi State.”

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has made it clear that its support for the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter has not changed its position on petroleum subsidy removal.

“The NLC, Organized Labour, and Labour Party position has not changed. It only got amplified!”

The statement by the NLC President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba read:

“The attention of the Nigeria Labour Congress has been drawn to a media statement by Olorogun Festus Keyamo, the Honourable Minister of State for Labour and Employment and the Campaign Spokesperson of the Presidential Campaign of All Progressive Congress (APC).

“In the statement, the APC challenged the Nigeria Labour Congress over its seeming support for the position of the Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Mr Peter Obi on the heated issue of the removal of petrol subsidies.

“First, we wish to commend the Honourable Minister of State for responding positively to earlier calls by the Nigeria Labour Congress that political parties must focus their engagement on the current electoral cycle campaigns on issues-based politics.

“We believe that an issues-based campaign will help sieve the facts from fiction, address burning national issues, review the performance of those in government at all levels, especially on the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals, improve Nigeria’s public accountability frameworks, prepare voters behaviour on Election Day away from the destructive lines of ethnoreligious divide and defuse the looming political tension.

“Second, in furtherance of the avowed position of the Nigeria Labour Congress on issues-based campaign in the run-up to the 2023 general election, we wish to state that Nigerian workers through a number of painstaking processes have been able to articulate a Nigerian Workers’ Charter of Demands which the NLC and TUC are using to engage the political process.

“A major demand in the Nigerian Workers Charter of Demands is that our local public refineries must work. We have also demanded that we must stop 100% importation of refined petroleum products.

“The NLC and indeed the Labour movement in Nigeria has over many decades been vehemently consistent that the only way to address the issue of the so-called petrol subsidies is to get our refineries to work.

“The logic is very simple: it is atrocious to buy from abroad at very expensive prices a

product that a country like ours can easily produce at home.

“At the heart of our demand on the management of Nigeria’s mineral resources especially our downstream petroleum subsector is the issue of Production Economy. We believe that the rescue of Nigeria from the current ruinous path of Consumption Economy to Production Economy is the only way to resolve Nigeria’s economic nightmares of massive depletion of scarce foreign exchange reserve; continuous devaluation of the Naira; significant jobs haemorrhage and destruction, deepening of poverty and downturn in the living standards of our people.

“In a determined effort to popularise the positions in the Nigerian Workers Charter of Demands, the NLC and TUC at the behest of the Labour Party on September 12 – 13, 2022 hosted a National Retreat of the leadership cadres in our movement.

“At the retreat, the Labour Party and Organized Labour in Nigeria adopted and mainstreamed the Workers Charter of Demands into the Manifesto of the Labour Party.

“This is in line with our persuasion that issue-based campaigns anchored on the manifesto of political parties should drive Nigeria’s political process.

“If any political party goes around saying that they plan to sell our refineries, remove subsidies, and further oppress long-suffering Nigerians, they should be ready to defend such stance to Nigerians at the campaigns.

Peter Obi had promised to stop payment of petrol subsidy if he emerges the president, vowing to make the country a production country and not a consumption nation.

But Festus Keyamo of the APC Campaign Organization and minister of Labour and Productivity criticized the NLC for supporting the LP Presidential candidate on removal of petrol subsidy.

Police I Kano have arrested a Chinese lover, Geng Quanrong, for allegedly stabbing his 22 year old girlfriend, Ummukulsum Sani Buhari with knife. The incidence occurred at Janbulo quarters, Kumbotso Local Government Area of Kano.

Police source said that the Chinese boyfriend had gone to see the lady at her parent’s residence located adjacent to the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) office at about 10pm yesterday, September 16.

Confirming the incidence, the spokesman of the Kano Police Command, Abdullahi Haruna Kiyawa, narrated: “On 16/09/2022 at about 2200hrs, a report was received from Janbulo Quarters Kano that, one Geng Quanrong, ‘m’, 47 years old, of Nassarawa GRA Quarters Kano, a Chinese national, went to the residence of his girlfriend, one Ummukulsum Sani, ‘f’, 22 years old, had a misunderstanding with her, as a result, he attacked her with a sharp knife inflicting deep cut on her neck and some other parts of her body,” he said in a statement on Saturday.

“On receipt of the report, the Commissioner of Police, Kano State Command, CP Abubakar Lawal, FDC mobilised a team of policemen led by SP Ibrahim Hamma, Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Dorayi Babba Division to the scene.

“The victim was rushed to Murtala Mohammed Specialist Hospital Kano, where a medical doctor confirmed her dead. The suspect was immediately arrested.”

He quoted the commissioner to have “directed that the case had been transferred to the command’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Homicide Section for discreet investigation”.

A former deputy national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and still the chieftain of the party, Olabode George has confessed that with the way the party’s national officers are composed now, it would be difficult for them to campaign for the Presidential candidate of the party, Atiku Abubakar in the build up to the 2023 election.

Speaking today, September 16 on The Morning Show on Arise TV, the PDP chieftain, stressed that the PDP will encounter difficulty in campaigning against the presidential candidate of the  ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) if Southwest is not given a national role in the party’s structure.

“But how do I go on the campaign trip in the South-West and tell the people that look, we are ready and you must vote for our candidate? We must realize that the opposition party has its own presidential candidate from the South-West and he (Tinubu) will tell them (voters) I have the presidential ticket, what does the PDP have on its ticket for South-West?

“Let’s assume the south has the presidential ticket, vice presidential ticket and chairmanship position, how will our PDP brothers from the north take it? Will they be happy? All I am saying is to ensure justice and fairness and if they say they don’t want it, history will be on the side of the truth.

“And if at this age I can’t tell the truth, then what am I doing in politics? It is not a matter of forcing Ayu out. Remember, Ayu himself stated and I quote him: “If the presidential candidate emerges from the north, he will resign as the chairman of the party to allow the balancing.”

“We are simply just saying “let us be mindful and don’t let us overdrive this,” he said.

Bode George said that Ayu’s resignation became imperative to ensure balance in the party, advising Ayu to resign to help PDP convince Nigerians as the right party to vote for it in the next year’s election.

He said the calls for Ayu’s resignation is in line with the constitution, saying that the PDP chairman had himself promised to resign from his position if a northerner emerged as the party’s presidential candidate.

Bode George reiterated that zoning is more important now than it was in 1998/1999.

The elder statesman said that he had been part of the party’s system for a long time and that he knows what is right for the party.

“In fact, the need to have zoning now is more important than in 1998/1999. Maybe some of these people don’t understand the concept that led to the thought processes of our founding fathers. Because it is an unwritten law it is up for debate and I hope we have the opportunity to put it down in writing and everybody will be able to read it.

“Those saying they don’t believe in it (zoning) and don’t want it are saying that because they don’t understand what brought about it but I am talking because I was part of the system from the very beginning and we have a saying from my part of the world that when you have old people in any association, they (old people) always make sure they correct the mistakes of the young ones and I am trying to refer us to that concept (zoning) that was established and brought about sanity to the nation.

“Now that we are trying to manoeuvre the concept that came from us to suit certain purposes and personal ambitions, it is going to drive us to the canvass and that is what I am saying.

“We are not asking Ayu that he should be zoned out or forced to resign. We are asking for this in the sense of oneness and inclusivity for him to throw in the towel and let us balance the top positions. We are going to campaign in my zone and we want our party to win. If it is not going to affect the party, I won’t bother.”