Armed robbers have invaded St. Joseph Catholic Church in Aba, Abia State, beat up the priest and stole an undisclosed amount of cash.
247ureports.com gathered that the St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, located on Market Road, Aba held a dedication service to mark the building of new structures and the renovation of the entire church, where funds were raised for the project
In the night following the event, armed robbers invaded the church through the fence and made straight to where the funds realized during the day was kept and beat up the parish priest with the butt of their gun.
They were said to have carted away the funds but avoided cheques written in the name of the parish.
When our correspondent visited the church, the parish priest was said to be away.
When contacted, Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Abia State command, ASP Geoffrey Ogbonna said he is not aware of the incident.
The member representing Imo West Senatorial District in Nigerian Senate, Senator Hope Uzodinma has denied nursing governorship ambition in Imo State for 2015.
The senator, who is also a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Board of Trustees, had been rumoured to be eyeing the governorship seat of the state on the party’s platform.
The rumours became rife three weeks ago at the Orlu Zonal PDP statkeholders meeting in Orlu where he said that he might not return to the senate come 2015, but warned that his decision not to re-contest for the senate does not imply that he would not actively be involved in selecting his successor.
But speaking with journalists in his Omuma country home in Oru East Local Government Area of the state, Uzodinma said that there had never been a time he nursed the ambition of governing the state in 2015.
He said the rumour of his gubernatorial ambition was a big distraction.
He said: “I’m a distinguished senator of the Federal Republic. If I’m running for any position, I shouldn’t be playing hide and seek about it. I should come out boldly to do so”.
Foremost governorship aspirant under ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abia State, Barr. Friday Nwosu says Gov. Theodore Orji has laid a solid foundation for his successor to build on judging by the quality of his projects and achievements in office.
Speaking at his 55th birthday celebrations at St. Gall’s Catholic Church, Itungwa in Obingwa LGA, Nwosu who rated Gov. Orji’s major achievement as the liberation of the state from occult practices and family worshipping, added the governor has done much for the state by laying the foundation for its development.
“Gov. Theodore Orji has laid a solid foundation for his successor to build on. He didn’t enjoy such, but labored to ensure that the man coming after him will have something to build on. For me, his major achievement is the liberation of Abia State from worshipping of individuals and occultism. He has said it on several occasions that before he came into office, it was impossible for anybody in Abia state to become an ordinary councilor without worshipping idol. So, this is a great achievement and I salute his determination to make a change in Abia where nothing was on ground before he assumed office.”
According to him, what is required now is someone who will build on the achievements of the governor with discipline and determination to take the state to further heights, stressing that he (Nwosu) remains the best person to succeed Gov. Orji in 2015.
“I thank God for his grace upon my life and family. I’m in the race for the governorship position in Abia state not just to run but to build on the foundation laid by Gov. Theodore Orji who has changed the face of the state with his legacy projects. As a legal practitioner of twenty two years standing, I have the capacity, vision and commitment to take the state to the next level. I offer my wealth of experience to serve and assure you I will not disappoint the people of Abia State. If I have any plans to deceive Abia people when I become governor, let God stop me, but if I have good intentions for the people of the state better than other aspirants, let God make me governor to the glory of His name.
The legal practitioner added that his unflinching faith in God has been his greatest strength as the enormous support he has been receiving from the people of the state and beyond can only be described as divine.
In his homily, presiding Priest of St. Gall’s Catholic Church, Rev. Fr. Obinna Achilihu who predicted victory for Nwosu in the governorship elections, advised him not to forget to seek the face of God in his political pursuit.
“Have faith and always seek the face of God, you will be surprised at how everything will be made easy for you,” the cleric said.
Imo State Governor, Owelle Rochas Anayo Okorocha has not only commended but praised the Abia State Governor, Chief T.A. Orji for living up to his promise of recalling indigenes of the state (Imo) in the Abia state work force who were disengaged in September 2012 following the policy of the state government to transfer non-indigenes in its public service to their states of origin.
The issue had attracted reactions from the public with the Imo state Governor, Owelle Okorocha appealing to his brother governor in Abia to review that action with the intension of recalling the affected staff.
And it is worth commending that the Abia state governor had not only announced the reversion of the action, but had also taken concrete steps to ensure that the workers have been recalled. The Abia state government had in a letter dated 30/6/2014 and addressed to the Executive Chairman of the Universal Basic Education Board, Owerri demanded the release of the personal files of the concerned workers for their immediate re-instatement to the Abia state Public Service.
The Executive Governor of Imo state considers this development as a good one that deserves high commendations, and had wasted no time commending the Abia governor. He said what the South-East states need at the moment is unity of purpose no matter their political affiliations.
The Imo governor said that the government and good people of Imo state see the recall of the sacked Imo workers in Abia as a patriotic action, in the interest of the oneness of the Igbo nation and the society at large. He regretted any misunderstanding the disengagement had generated when it took place.
When President Goodluck Jonathan, in his first year in office, mooted the idea for a single term of office for the President and the State Governors, one of the reasons he gave was to reduce the acrimony that usually trailed quests for second term.
The President suggested a single seven-year tenure for the Chief Executive Officers, after which they would not qualify to vie for the same office again.
But trust our people and their scepticism as a deluge of verbal attacks descended on Dr. Jonathan who was accused of preparing the ground for an extended tenure of 11 years for himself if his proposal was accepted and adopted.
Apparently surprised and astounded by the swell of opposition to his suggestion, and especially the imputation that his ambition was for an extension of his four-year tenure, President Jonathan confessed that what he said wasn’t an original thinking of his.
According to him, he was only ventilating the view of the Council of State which is composed of himself, the Governors, past Heads of State and a few other statesmen. In fact he said that he would personally not benefit from such a Constitutional amendment.
Now, the Senate Sub-Committee that canvassed the opinions of Nigerians in the course of its assignment to articulate proposals for a possible Constitutional amendment, has submitted its report to the Senate.
Among the proposals that are now to be debated by the Senate is that for a single-term of six years for future Presidents and Governors, effective from the moment the idea is legislatively approved.
Irrespective of the fact that no deadline was given for the Constitutional amendment processes to be completed, a fresh torrent of criticisms broke out on this issue of tenure of office of the President and the Governors.
Leading the pack of those opposing a single term are individuals and political party spokesmen who tend to speak before they begin to think.
To them it is, “shoot, aim and then select.”
Ever since Senate Deputy President, Ike Ekweremadu, in his capacity as Chairman of the Senate Sub-Committee on Constitution Review, presented his Committee’s report and recommendations, our print and electronic media have been inundated with all types of criticisms and condemnations, even when it is obvious that many of the opponents to the tenure proposal have not actually read the committee’s report.
If the more vociferous opponents of a six-year single tenure had given themselves some hours of introspection and retrospection, they would have said something on the point of atavistic bickering and blood-letting that usually go with the desire of incumbent chief executives to return for a second term and the equally hell-bent and single-minded fight-to-a-finish by party colleagues and opponents determined to unseat them.
It is amazing that anybody at all should sincerely oppose an idea that would put paid to the unnecessary wastage of public funds, in-fighting among both Cabinet and party colleagues, diversion from governance and the egregious corruption that trail the mad quest of incumbents to succeed themselves.
That some otherwise respectable political parties and their official spokespersons have rejected a single-term tenure is most baffling.
They have given no alternative explanation than that “we don’t see anything wrong with the existing four-year first term and a second and final four-year term.”
Does such a mentality not betray a dangerous politician who thinks nothing of a possible credible election that could throw an incumbent out of office?
To say so blandly that a sitting President or Governor should be allowed a second term to complete projects he started suggests, subconsciously, a suspect democrat who has little respect for transparent elections and is prepared to rig the poll to enable his principal to return.
It also suggests that the incumbent who looks forward to a second term before he can perform is a failure ab initio.
If a President or Governor cannot do anything substantial in his four-year tenure, it means he romped into office without a programme or a vision.
Another plank of argument by proponents of second term is that a one-tenure chief executive would be unrestrained in his looting of public funds and other misdemeanours since he is sure he is not coming back.
Again this is a naïve and specious reasoning.
In real terms, where lies the difference between a man doing a second final term and one doing a single final term?
Secondly, does it ever occur to people who think so shallowly that there is an in-built restraint, called impeachment, to take care of a misbehaving President or Governor?
There again, we betray our democratic innocence when we do not factor such constitutional provisions in our public pronouncements and criticisms.
We actually need to begin to think like people practising democracy.
The arguments of many of our political leaders do not portray a deep knowledge and appreciation of the political system we pretend to practise.
The House of Representatives has charged the Federal Ministry of Health make adequate preparation to tackle the deadly Ebola disease and prevent it from spreading, should it eventually enter the country.
This was sequel to a motion brought before it under matters of national importance by Rep Kingsley Chinda.
It also mandated the House committees on Health and Disaster Preparedness to commence legislative work on the prevention of the dreaded disease without delay.
Chinda submitted that the cause of Ebola has been traced to unsafe burial practices in West Africa.
“That health is of utmost importance and one of the areas the Federal Government ought to give attention to so as to enhance the welfare of the people thus: Section17(3c) of the 1999 as amended constitution states that the state shall direct its policy towards ensuring that the health, safety and welfare of all persons are safeguarded and not endangered.
“It will be most appropriate, if we start putting measures in place to avoid the most dreaded disease in the world from entering our country since it has ravaged Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Mali, Ivory Coast and others.
“Since 2009 more than 400,000 West Africans had lost their lives to this deadly disease that is transmissible through body contact, fluids, tissues of infected persons and high risk monkeys signs of infection are vomiting, stooling and high fever.
“The World Health Organisation (WHO) had repeatedly warned other African countries to do everything to avoid the disease from spreading into their countries instead it continued to increase.
“I urge all our relevant committees to quickly look into this matter to ensure that preventive measures were taken to avoid it from entering Nigeria,” he submitted.
When the speaker, Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, called for debates on the motion, Hon. Friday Itulah rose to speak against it.
Tambuwal quickly reminded him that “the motion in question is a preventive one that should ordinarily be forwarded to the various committees for legislative action.”
But Itulah would not give in.
“The motion was in bad light because when Ebola broke out, the federal government did put preventive measures in place. The impression this motion is creating is that the federal government is not doing its work and we are aware that government has done well in the right direction. Our committees particularly that of Health are aware of government landmarks in this area,” he argued.
House of Representatives is seeking to regulate donations made to voluntary organisations in the country by empowering the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences commission (ICPC) to monitor the in flow and utilisation of such contributions obtained from donor agencies.
Under the new arrangement, ICPC is to approve the application and dispose within 60 days from the date of receipt of such application.
The bill which provides that any registered voluntary organisation with Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) must also register with ICPC, further states in subsection 4(1) that “All voluntary organisations shall make an application for permission to the ICPC in such form and in such manner as may be prescribed among other provisions.
Chairman, House Committee on Civil Society and Donor Agencies, Hon. Ini Udoka, revealed this at a day public hearing on “A bill for an Act to regulate the acceptance and utilisation of financial/material contribution of donor agencies to voluntary organisation and for other matters connected therewith, 2013.”
Udoka stated that the Seventh Assembly of the House of Representatives, in its committed efforts to expose and fight corruption, has enacted relevant laws to curb wastages and introduce sanity in the ways private and public businesses are conducted, hence the bill.
Udoka, who expressed concern over the abuse of the huge foreign assistance channeled through CSOs into the country, stressed the need for a legal framework for the effective regulation, monitoring and ensure utilisation of the aids.
He added that the bill, also known as the ‘Foreign Contribution (Regulation)’, will streamline activities in the sub-sector by ensuring that donor agencies do not give funds to organisations, parastatals and agencies without due consultation with relevant government authorities.
It also aims at empowering ICPC, being a regulatory authority, to monitor the disbursement of funds from donor agencies for effective implementation of targeted projects.
While declaring the public hearing open, the speaker, Rt. Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, who was represented by the deputy House leader, Hon. Leo Ogor, emphasised the need for CSOs to make their input into the bill especially on how it affects their operations.
Sponsor of the bill, Hon. Eddy Mbadiwe, expressed concern over the abuse and misuse of foreign contributions that comes into Nigeria from various donor agencies across the world.
He maintained that funds have been funneled into the country under the guise of social development but was actually meant to promote terrorism.
Chairman of the ongoing National Conference and former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Idris Kutigi on Wednesday admitted Senator Alphonsus Igbeke as replacement for a former Minister of Information and Communications, Prof. Dora Akunyili.
Igbeke’s name was announced to the plenary by Kutigi amidst applause and clapping of hands from fellow delegates.
The Senator who represented Anambra North Senatorial District on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party was earlier sited by journalists on Tuesday evening when he came to finalize his documentation with the Conference Secretariat.
He later confirmed that he has replaced Akunyili in the confab.
Akunyili, a delegate representing Anambra State in the confab and former Director-General of the National Agency for Foods and Drugs Administration died on Saturday June 7, was the third delegate to die since the inauguration of the confab by President Goodluck Jonathan.
She was said to have died in a specialist Hospital in India “after a two-year battle with cancer.”
Ex-Governor Peter Obi who confirmed her death said, “In spite her illness, Prof. Akunyili was unwavering in her belief in a better Nigeria. That was why she defied her condition and was part of Anambra State Handover Committee and the National Conference.
“The last time I visited her in India, even when she needed all the prayers herself, she was full of concern for the abducted Chibok girls, security and other challenges facing the country and told me that she remained prayerful for the release of those girls and for God to help President Goodluck Jonathan to overcome all the challenges facing the Nation. She therefore urged all Nigerians to remain prayerful and committed to building a better society for our children. We all prayed together and I promised to be visiting her every month.
“We thank all those who remain fervent in prayers for her recovery and urge them to remain prayerful for the peaceful repose of her soul.”
The Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress has assured Lagosians that it is ready and prepared to protect the mandate of the people of Lagos and ensure that the strange negative factors that decided the recent Ekiti elections are not imported to Lagos to reward those who believe in mass impoverishment of Nigerians and using the money that would have been used to develop the nation to buy off the votes of the people. The party says that it is getting clearer picture of the indecent developments the PDP used to corner Ekiti and warns that such will never work in any other state and will never ever work in Lagos.
In a release in Lagos, signed by the Lagos State Publicity Secretary of the APC, Joe Igbokwe, the party said that what happened in Ekiti is an anomie, a reversal of democracy and an affront on development, which is the bedrock of PDP’s criminal politics of mass impoverishment through relentless stealing of state resources and using such money to buy the votes of the people. It warns PDP not to think it will get away with both the deployment of soldiers and other security agencies to manipulate the electoral process as such will be resisted by the masses and using stolen money to buy the people’s votes, given the obnoxious ends these were put in Ekiti.
“We note that the PDP and in particular the Lagos PDP has been over the moon since the disastrous elevation of its politics of mass hunger, gargantuan public stealing and mass deployment of the stolen money to buy the victims of its criminal politics, gave the party a pyrrhic victory in Ekiti. It should be noted that PDP is now flaunting what is now known as ‘politics of stomach infrastructure’ which targets the borderless hunger it has provoked for fifteen years for exploitation. What PDP is celebrating is the seeming triumph of public stealing and corrupt inducement during election time over performance and we assure them that they will fail in this criminal reversal of what should undergird the people’s expectation from democracy.
“It is a tragedy that a party that should be advertising on its stellar performance for the fifteen years it has inflicted this country is today leveraging its bid for continuity on how it shares out morsels to the hungry it has made during election time. It is tragic that the PDP is now elevating a politics of public stealing for the purpose of building stomach infrastructure during election time. It is a grave pity that PDP is today celebrating the mass poverty, total infrastructure breakdown and total hunger and privation it has inflicted on the country and leverages on exploiting it during elections, as happened in Ekiti. They will fail and we assure them of this.
“We want to assure the PDP that it is building castles in the air by hallucinating that it will ever capture Lagos by its politics of hunger and mass poverty. We want to let them know that such negative alterations of the values of politics will be short lived, starting from the upcoming election in Osun State. We want to assure PDP that it will never drag Nigeria back to the days of politics of hunger and stomach infrastructure, despite what happened in Ekiti. What Nigerians are faced with at present is the rustication of the failed PDP, which had been a curse to a well endowed country for the fifteen years its politics of poverty started. Nigerians, despite the anomie of Ekiti, are still faced with throwing away the PDP government that continues attracting ridicule and scorn for its incompetent, corrupt and inept governance of the country.
“We want to let Lagos PDP and the entire PDP know that Lagos is still the base of Nigeria’s intelligentsia, and that Lagosians know the difference between performance and organized stealing and will never infect the state with the blight that the PDP has become. We want to let the PDP, both in Lagos and elsewhere that they cannot succeed in fooling Nigerians by targeting the mass poverty it had created for exploitation. We put them on notice that what happened in Ekiti, rather than mitigate the urgent need for throwing out the huge liability of a non existent PDP government in Nigeria, will rather open the eyes of Nigerians to the dangers of the negative politics of the PDP.
“Lagos APC wants to let Lagos PDP know that the party is aware of all the diabolical moves of PDP in Lagos, which targets the masses it has impoverished for massive deployment of bribes in form of monetary inducements, phony grants and recruitment of unwary Lagosians for phantom jobs which the PDP could not grant in the fifteen years of its gangsterism and mass looting of the common patrimony. We want to assure it that it will fail in this devilish task of reversing performance and the political reward that goes with it. We want to let them know that never will Lagosians fall for the antics of a corrupt, failed party and its ruinous approach to politics, as the PDP is planning. We want to let them know that having experienced good governance, progress and real development, that no sane Lagosian will ever approve a party that is notorious for gargantuan failure in all sectors and spheres of governance to take over Lagos so as to add it to its ruined legacy. We want to let them know that Nigerians still keep faith with the mission to rid Nigeria of the menace and disaster which PDP has been in the past fifteen years”.
We wish to totally disagree with the Government of Enugu State on the June 18, 2014 judgment delivered by Her Lordship, Justice (Mrs.) C.I Nwobodo of the Enugu State High Court, which declared the removal of Chief (Mrs.) Ethel Nebo-Ezeabasili from office as the Chairman, Enugu State Universal Basic Education Board as illegal and unconstitutional.
We frown at its notice of appeal regarding the N10 Million in damages and N100,000 prosecution cost awarded by the Court in favour of Mrs. Nebo-Ezeabasili against the State Government i.
While we uphold the constitutional right of the State Government to appeal the judgment, we find the grounds of the appeal, by law, to be highly wishy-washy, a mere damage control stunt, waste of public funds, and a clear attempt at buying time.
The notice of appeal therefore is simply another reminder that when you fight corruption, corruption also fights back.
Nigerians should note that the judgment in question was delivered by the Enugu State High Court. In Nigeria of today, we do not see how a judge of a State High Court could indict a government that pays her salaries and has so many avenues of hitting back at her if she did not clearly see and was convinced that the Chime Administration had acted illegally, unconstitutionally, and with impunity as usual.
We believe Mrs. Nebo-Ezeabasili that the reason the State Government unleashed its armada of coercion and witch-hunt on her remains her principled stand against awarding 583 contracts worth billions of naira to just three handpicked companies- in breach of the Procurement Act, Universal Basic Education Commission Guidelines, and due process.
We know by the antecedents of Governor Chime’s second tenure that all elements, including the Church, political class, labour, and even our former First Lady, Mrs. Clara Chime, who disagreed with the actions and ways of Governor Chime; his Chief of Staff, Mrs. Ifeoma Nwobodo; and other members of his kitchen cabinet have always been met with highhandedness.
In conclusion, the court of public opinion adjudges and extols Her Lordship, Justice C.I Nwobodo as a sound, courageous, incorruptible, and unwavering judicial officer. We recommend her courage and principled life to other justices of various State judiciaries to end the reign of impunity by Governors and their foot soldiers.
Indeed, we reiterate that the Enugu State Government is merely pulling at straws to save it’s face because it has no absolutely no case against Mrs. Ethel Nebo-Ezeabasili or the judgment delivered by its own High Court
