A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC),  Dr.  Idahosa Wells Okunbo has described as ungodly, people linking his ill-health to the outcome of the September 19 governorship election in Edo State. 

In a statement today, October 6, Dr.  Idahosa said a rash of social media posts concerning his health and the inhuman manner in which it is being orchestrated to look as if it was as a result of the outcome of the September 19, 2020 Edo State Governorship election in which he publicly supported Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, is in bad taste. “It is evidently ungodly for people to gloat over the fact that I am not feeling well.  God does not approve of such disposition and those who engage in that pastime are only mocking and playing God.
“I have never claimed to be a superhuman being.  I do not deny the fact that I am not well.  I am outside the country for my medicals, which were delayed because of the lockdown occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“After a series of tests, my doctors confirmed that I have some health issues. 
“It is, therefore, ill-advised and inhuman for those who are not comfortable with the position I took in the Edo election to joyfully circulate in the social media that I have health issues and that I have slid into coma. Well, I leave them all to God.
“I am over 60 years.  I thank God who gave me the gift of life, an opportunity to live a good life, the grace to build a legacy of achievements and, most importantly, a good name, which is better than silver and gold.
“I hold dearly to heart the words of the scriptures that there is a time to be born; and a time to die.  But what is most important in life is what I have done with my life.  And, this applies to every mortal being.
“Edo election, which is the reason they are doing this, has come and gone.  Those who are opposed to me for taking a position in the election, which they won, should leave me alone and get busy with their life.
“I have moved on with life. I advise them to do the same instead of dwelling in the past. Nevertheless, I wish them well in all they do.
“God is on His throne and to Him be all glory, honour and adoration.”

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has identified extreme poverty, deficit in infrastructure, children out of school as some of the challenges Nigeria is still battling with.

Professor Osinbajo, who spoke today, October 6, at the close of a two-day Executive/Legislative retreat in Abuja, asked: “hat is the reality of the context that we operate in today? We all know, our nation has millions of extremely poor people, the Covid 19 pandemic has worsened employment and poverty. “We have huge deficits in infrastructure, many children are out of school.” The Vice President stressed that the executive and legislature have no choice “if we are not to fail the Nigerian people who have given us this incredible  opportunity amongst millions of our compatriots to serve at this high leadership levels we occupy today.”

“We will be callous and irresponsible if we don’t come together, work together to sort out these grave life threatening problems our people have to confront everyday.”
He said that the dogmatic emphasis on procedural niceties is a luxury we cannot afford. 

 “In any event, there is no pure practice of the doctrine of separation of powers. The Anglo American traditions that we hold on to in support of the separation of powers are not pure…so for example the US Vice President serves as the president of the Senate and presides over the Senate’s daily proceedings.”

The retreat ended today with resolutions on how the two arms of the government can collaborate to move the country forward. It recommended that the ruling party should exercise more control on its members to enable it to resolve crises that may arise. 

In a10-point recommendation read by Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Muhammad Bello, the retreat advocated respect for party leadership by its membership. “The ruling political party should be encouraged to take ownership of its members to be able to reconcile them whenever conflict arises, and, members in both arms of government should show regard for the party and its leadership.” It called for a concrete understanding and working knowledge between both the Executive and Legislature just as it noted that an effective confidence building measure should be put in place in the governance process to ensure mutual respect and cordial relationship between the Executive and Legislature.

Participants recommended the creation of an effective conflict management and resolution mechanism in resolving areas of disagreement between the Executive and Legislature in the overall national interest.Other recommendations are that there should be modalities for better access, interfacing and engagement between the leaderships of both arms of government, the NASS Committees and MDAs should be worked out by the SGF and NASS-Executive Liaison. “There should be regular pre-budget consultations between the Executive and Legislature particularly between the MDAs and NASS Committees, Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning and the appropriate Committee in NASS. “There is need for an effective communication and collaborative engagement to enhance and strengthen the relationship between the arms of government for the benefit of Nigerians. “The relationship should not be adversarial but complementary, thus, more interpersonal and informal relationship between heads of MDAs and NASS members should be encouraged.“Operators in the arms of government should act with moderation and limit their sense of entitlement by placing public interest over and above personal and parochial interest.

“The Presidency should strengthen the capacity of the Executive Liaison Offices in the National Assembly. “There is need for an organic budget law which will optimize the budgetary process so as to deliver effective and efficient service to the citizens.”

The summation from the retreat highlighted what it referred to as weak mechanism for conflict management and dispute resolution between both arms of government and limited consultation between them on critical governance issues such as policy initiation, programme implementation, planning, and legislative processes.Other issues that arose from the retreat include lack of clarity in communication and poor feedback mechanism leading to different and subjective interpretation of intent and purpose of the message.

 The retreat also pointed at limited understanding of the workings and internal processes of each arm of government by government operatives; lack of mutual respect between the Executive and the Legislature in the conduct of governmental business; and lack of and/or absence of pre-budget consultations and briefings between the Executive and Legislative branches of government making the budgetary process acrimonious. 

Others observed issues according to Bello are “the pursuit of personal interest as against national interest; ill-equipped and poorly resourced offices of Presidential Liaison Offices in the National Assembly;poorly defined channels of communication between the executive and legislative arms and weak utilisation of the Offices of the SSA-Ps to the President in managing communication between Committees of the National Assembly and MDAs. “Limited participation of MDAs at public hearings organised by the National Assembly on critical bills to influence the process but choose to raise objections when the bill is transmitted for Presidential assent.“The current operational budgetary process is sub-optimal; and political parties have not really played the fatherly role that is expected of it in managing the relationship between the Executive and the Legislature.”

Participants at the two-day event include President Buhari, Vice President Osinbajo, President of the Senate, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Deputy President of the Senate, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and Chairmen of Committees in the Senate and House of Representatives. Others are Members of the Federal Executive Council, Heads of Agencies and Senior Government officials, including the management of the National Assembly. 

Thirty nine year old Ibrahim Haruna Aminu, husband of the kano housewife who allegedly stabbed her biological children to death has said that the woman was ‘possessed’ because she did not even know that she killed the children. 

“…on getting there, I met my wife and her mother in the room discussing. When I narrated what happened, her mother started crying while my wife was asking me what was happening?”

The housewife, Hauwa Habibu allegedly killed the children because her husband married a second wife. The deceased children were identified as a boy Yusuf, 5-, and girl Zahra’u, 3.
In an audio recording, the husband said that the suspect had called him in the morning at exactly 9:55am and told him that some people had come to kill her. When he asked who were the killers, she said they were two males and one female. When he sought to know where his children were, she told him it was the children who wanted to kill her.

“So, I urged her to intensify prayers because the previous night I sensed that her interactions were abnormal, as if she was somehow possessed as she was saying strange things. I promised to be with her when the rain stopped. Five minutes later she called again that the children wanted to speak with me. I spoke to all of them as they requested for some sweet which I asked her to give them.

Ibrahim narrated that when he got home after greeting his parents, he went straight to his apartment but was greeted with silence. He then used his key and unlocked the door, that was when he met the shock of his life, his children laying in a pool of their own blood.
The eldest child who survived the incident told him that their mother killed the two children with matchet and fled after she locked the door.
“So I quickly went to my parents and informed them, took the victims to the hospital while I rushed to my in-law’s place. On getting there I met my wife and her mother in the room discussing. When I narrated what happened, her mother started crying while my wife was asking me what was happening?”
When asked why he thought his wife did what she did, Ibrahim simply replied, “She is possessed. A normal woman would not just hack her own children to death for no reason.”
Asked if she had initially shown any tendency prior to the incidence, he replied, “Not at all. Only that a day before the incidence since when I went to give her money for food stuff she held my cloth and kept asking if I was okay, I asked why she was asking such questions, she said nothing, just that she is seeing things but she doesn’t know what they were. I then calmed her down and assured her I would come over the following morning since I was going to sleep at my second wife’s place.”

Soldiers of the Nigerian Army, yesterday, October 4, ambushed a number of bandits on Abuja-Kaduna expressway, killing two of them and recovering some weapons from them. 

The Defence Headquarters in a statement today, October 5, signed by Major General John Enenche, coordinator, Defence Media Operations, said that the soldiers engaged the bandits in firing, resulting in the killing of two of them while many escaped with gunshot wounds.

“In continuation of aggressive clearance operation to stamp out banditry and other sundry crimes in the country, troops of Operation Thunder Strike recorded tremendous successes against armed bandits on Sunday 4 October 2020.

“Troops deployed at Rijana acting on credible intelligence on the movement of some suspected bandits towards Abuja-Kaduna expressway, swiftly mobilized to the scene and laid ambush along the suspected bandit’s route.

“Contact was made and the gallant troops overwhelmed the bandits with superior firepower thereby killing 2 while others escaped with gunshots wounds.

“Also, in the course of the encounter, 2 locally made guns were recovered. Currently, troops have continued to dominate the area with aggressive patrols to deny bandits freedom of action.”