Yesterday [Saturday] saw the national Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] chairman present his book to the public. It was termed a Public Presentation Of “The Global Villager” A Literary Biography Of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, National Chairman PDP In Commemoration Of His 77th Birthday In Abuja. The President of the Federal republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebelemi Jonathan was present along with other PDP stalwarts.
However, of the 23 invited PDP governors only 3 showed up to the book launching. The state governor’s of Abia, Kaduna and one other State governor attended the event. The governor Tukur Bamangar’s home state, Adamawa State – was not present and did not send a representative. Other PDP notable personalities were not in attendance.
The absence of the State governors showed/exposed the growing divide within the national PDP – and the believed imposition of the national chairman, Bamanga Tukur, on the party members. Sources tell 247ureports.com that the PDP governor had long turned their backs on the national PDP chairman – and had begun actions to subvert his continued reign as the party chairman. The majority of the PDP governor are reported to have stopped remittance of the monthly monies sent to Abuja PDP – and that the PDP has become cash starved as a result.
It is understood the principal source of revenue for the national party come from the various state PDP governors. And the PDP governors were said to have presented a candidate for the then vacant national PDP chairman seat – only for the President to reject their candidate and impose his choice. This action did not seat well with the PDP governors.
Police spokesman, CSP Frank Mba, in this interview with Weekly Trust, talks about the abolition of roadblocks by the police, car theft and other topical issues
The Inspector General of Police Mohammed Abubakar recently abolished roadblocks yet, some people want policemen stationed along roads with high prevalence of crime
Well, so far so good; the dismantling of roadblocks has been a huge blessing to the Nigeria Police Force. There were some fundamental challenges that compelled the inspector general to take that action. We discovered that the roadblocks have lost their usefulness in all ramifications and have since ceased to be a means of crime fighting and were centres for harassing Nigerians. They have in the past become centres for extortion by policemen thereby affecting free movement of goods and people across the country. This is crippling our economy, our trade, commerce and social life. We also discovered that people spend long time unnecessarily moving from one place to another due to the roadblocks. Again, we found that various unethical conducts such as bribery, accidental shootings, assault and unnecessary confrontation between policemen and civilians take place at the roadblocks.
People thought that policemen won’t be happy when they were instructed to dismantle the roadblocks and thought there will be an upsurge in crime on the highways, but the reverse is the case. We asked an independent organization to conduct opinion poll within the police force on the dismantling of the roadblocks and it was gathered that 97 per cent of the policemen who participated supported the cancellation of the checkpoints. Most policemen said the removal of roadblocks has improved their dignity and they command more respect when they carry out motorized patrols. It was found in the opinion poll that motorized patrol is even more effective. Apart from that, we also conducted an online poll where we urged Nigerians to vote in support or against the policy. We discovered that over 89 per cent of those who voted supported the action. In all, we believe that we are actually doing what the tax payer wants.
People must also know that the concept of roadblock is not an effective way of crime prevention because the defects are so many. (1) the position of the policemen is known to the enemy (2) the number of policemen in any point is known and the hoodlums can predict the number of policemen immediately, (3) their firepower is also predictable because the hoodlums can drive through the area and count the number of policemen bearing arms, (4) the enemy can find the time you (police) resume and when you close making it easier for them to devise counter measures to beat security. They can devise alternative route and plan their operation to coincide with when the police will be changing duty or when they will probably not be on the road.
Do you have enough vehicles to conduct motorized personnel?
Obviously we are in need of vehicles, but the whole thing is to have a good vision which every good leader must have as well as ensure that his followers complied. If the police must wait until everything is perfect before we give Nigerians ideal policing, then there will be no policeman on the road. We cannot wait until our salaries are perfect; we cannot wait until they provide us with all the logistics. The good thing is that we are ready to work with what we have and demonstrated that over the last eight months. Sometimes the logistics are important but how you use the little resources you have is also very important. For instance, we understood that forty vehicles distributed recently for the highway patrol across the federation are of cause, not enough, but we are ready to put them to the best use and work hard towards getting more.
The public should give chance to the current police management to prove what they can do because already, you can see total turnaround and total transformation in our attitude, morale, crime fighting methodology and how we go about doing things.
What makes the new patrol vehicle different from others?
They are standardized patrol vehicles and customized for Nigerian roads, weather as well as the challenges of policing. They also have other security features which the public may not know.
The IG also promised to turnaround the Special Anti Robbery Squad saying they have become killer squads. People still complain of extortion, bullying and highhandedness by SARS operatives
The Squad has become a very important component to the police in Nigeria and plays prominent role in tackling violent crime including kidnappings. But we realize that not all personnel of the squad have live up to their oath of offices and not all of them have discharge their duty professionally and we don’t make pretences over that. One of the best ways to change the situation is for you to look at your areas of strength and weakness and see how you can improve; that is what we are doing. What we did in SARS lead to some positive changes in the Federal SARS and it is our desire that these improvement will be replicated at states SARS. One other thing is that the IG has ordered mass training and retraining of the SARS personnel.
We have also opened opportunities for Nigerian to have oversight on the SARS and other policemen. We expect Nigerians to know that we are their servants; they are our masters and as our masters, they must take interest in what we are doing and must made contributions. They must tell us what we are doing wrong and what we are doing well. That explained why the IG made public his dedicate de-mail addresses and phone numbers for people to forward their complaints. As I speak, plan is underway to release the telephone numbers of the assistant inspectors general in charge of zones, command commissioners as well as all the police public relations officers to the public. The Idea is to make the police more transparent, improve accountability and enhance the capacity of Nigerians to exercise oversight on the police. This will help us in the reform processes and get feedback both from the people and the police management. The public should make input to what they consider as their priority and report the excesses of our men to enable us take action either to prevent, redress, or to punish any acts of indiscipline. I want call on all Nigerians to help us bring to book all the officers who are found to have misbehaved.
Apart from the public, you must have an internal mechanism to keep an eye on your personnel….
(Cuts)… We have and we get feedback day in, day out. We always punish policemen for unlawful acts. I am sure if you check with the Police Service Commission, you will find the lists of officers recommended for punishment. In the last couple of months you must have seen from the reports of the Commission the names of very senior officers who were out rightly dismissed, suspended and demoted. Those dismissals were not just from nowhere; they were a climax of a disciplinary process that starts from the divisional level to area command to the zone and finally to the headquarters. Suspected officers were subjected to scrutiny by the force disciplinary committee and thereafter recommendation is made to the IG who will either approve or adjust them before forwarding such recommendations to the Commission. The Commission will review these recommendations before taking a decision. So if we are not punishing them you will not be seeing such reports. I think the next time the force disciplinary committee will be sitting; I will issue a release to shed more light on the committee’s composition, functions and the processes it follows. The police force is the only organization that monitors itself apart from policing the public. The police provost unit, X-Squad and the IG monitoring teams were established to monitor the policemen which indicated that the police force is concerned with public safety; In fact the police organization is the only pan-Nigerian organization.
What are you doing to tackle car theft?
The IG recently put together a Special Taskforce on Heinous Crimes mandated to among tackle crimes including car thefts. The task force recently recovered 19 stolen vehicles in Kaduna after a tip-off. The new initiative was meant to tackle car theft with the support of the public. There is also the Special Taskforce on Anti Pipeline Vandalism which recently arrested pipeline vandals in Kogi state seized over 15tankers with illegal oil.
Ondo governorship election is around the corner, how prepared are you?
Police are making adequate preparation toward the Ondo elections including the training of personnel who will be involved in the election monitoring. The training cut-across all ranks to improve the capacity of officers. We held consultations at various levels and met politicians and non-governmental organization, just like what we did before the Edo state election. We shall remain impartial.
What is the position of the force on state police?
The Inspector General has already said Nigeria is politically not full-grown for the creation of state police
TRIPOLI — Libya’s parliament chief announced on Sunday the arrests of some 50 people over the killing of US ambassador Chris Stevens in an attack he said was planned, although Washington said it was spontaneous.
US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta, meanwhile, said the American military has no major plans to bolster its forces in the Middle East despite a week of violent protests targeting diplomatic outposts, including at the US consulate in Libya’s eastern city of Benghazi where Stevens died.
“The number reached about 50,” Mohammed al-Megaryef, president of the Libyan National Congress, said in an interview with CBS News.
Stevens and three other Americans were killed on Tuesday when suspected Islamic militants fired on the US consulate in Benghazi with rocket-propelled grenades and set it ablaze.
Megaryef said “a few” of those who joined in the attack were foreigners who had entered Libya “from different directions, some of them definitely from Mali and Algeria.”
“The others are affiliates and maybe sympathisers,” he added.
Megaryef said the government has learned the attack was not the result of spontaneous anger over a US-made anti-Islam movie which has triggered sometimes deadly protests across the Arab and Muslim world.
“It was planned, definitely, it was planned by foreigners, by people who entered the country a few months ago. And they were planning this criminal act since their arrival,” he told CBS.
But Washington’s ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, offered a very different account, saying the assault began with a “spontaneous” protest over the video.
“Our current best assessment, based on the information that we have at present, is that, in fact, what this began as, it was a spontaneous — not a premeditated — response to what had transpired in Cairo,” Rice said.
“We believe that folks in Benghazi, a small number of people came to the consulate to replicate the sort of challenge that was posed in Cairo,” she told ABC’s “This Week” programme.
“And then as that unfolded, it seems to have been hijacked, let us say, by some individual clusters of extremists who came with heavier weapons. And it then evolved from there.”
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has said in a statement the attack was revenge for the killing of the terror network’s deputy leader Sheikh Abu Yahya al-Libi in a drone strike in June, and called for more attacks on US targets.
US officials have already deployed counter-terrorism Marine units to Libya and Yemen and stationed two destroyers off the North African coast.
Panetta told reporters before arriving in Tokyo that with a substantial force already deployed in the region and now boosted by extra Marine units, the military has the ability to respond as necessary to protect American diplomats.
“We do have a major presence in the region,” he said.
“Having said that we’ve enhanced that with FAST (Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team) teams and others so that if they are requested, they can respond more quickly.”
Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Karti on Saturday flatly rejected a US request to send special forces to protect the Khartoum embassy, the official SUNA news agency said, quoting his office.
Hours later, US officials announced Washington would evacuate all non-essential staff and family members from Sudan and Tunisia, and warned US citizens against travel to the two countries.
The US embassy in Yemen, meanwhile, suspended all consular services for two weeks, the mission said on its website, after four people were killed in violent anti-American protests in Sanaa.
— ‘Killings not warranted’ —
Across the Muslim world protesters have since vented their fury at the “Innocence of Muslims” — an amateur film produced in the United States — by targeting symbols of US influence ranging from embassies and schools to fast food outlets.
Although the US government itself has condemned the film, protests erupted again on Sunday, with hundreds of students pouring into the streets of Kabul shouting anti-American slogans, as the Bangladesh government condemned the film as “reprehensible” and New Delhi called it “offensive.”
Belgian police said they detained 230 people in the northern city of Antwerp after clashes at a demonstration against the film.
Protests were also staged in Britain, Niger, Pakistan, Turkey and France, whose interior ministry said it would block any further anti-American demonstrations over the film.
With Muslim anger boiling, AQAP on Saturday called for more violence against US diplomatic missions in the Middle East and Africa, and urged attacks on American interests in the West, the SITE Intelligence Group said.
AQAP, Al-Qaeda’s Yemeni offshoot, did not claim direct responsibility for the deadly attack in Benghazi.
But it said the killing of Libi in a June drone strike in Pakistan “increased the enthusiasm and determination of the sons of (Libyan independence hero) Omar al-Mukhtar to take revenge upon those who attack our Prophet,” according to SITE.
In Afghanistan, heavily armed Taliban fighters on Friday stormed a strongly fortified air base in Helmand province where Britain’s Prince Harry is deployed, killing two US Marines in an assault the militia said was to avenge the anti-Islam film.
A NATO spokesman on Sunday revealed six US fighter jets and three refuelling stations were destroyed and six aircraft hangars damaged in the attack, the scale of which he said was unprecedented.
A total of 17 people have died in violence linked to the film, including the four Americans killed in Benghazi, 11 protesters who died as police battled to defend US missions from mobs in Egypt, Lebanon, Sudan, Tunisia and Yemen, and the two US soldiers in Afghanistan.
(CBS News) Senator John McCain, R-Ariz., was skeptical that violent attacks on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya were not preplanned.
“Most people don’t bring rocket-propelled grenades and heavy weapons to demonstrations. That was an act of terror,” McCain said on “Face the Nation” Sunday. “For anyone to disagree with that fundamental fact I think is really ignoring the facts.”
McCain disputed U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice’s statement, made earlier on “Face the Nation,” that the U.S. has information that attacks on American consulate in Benghazi that killed four Americans were premeditated.
“[T]here was no doubt there were extremists and there’s no doubt they were using heavy weapons and they used pretty good tactics – indirect fire, direct fire – and obviously they were successful,” McCain added.
McCain said the United States has adopted a policy of “disengagement” under President Obama, which, he said, has “weakened” America’s standing in the world.
Pointing to the violent protests this week in Benghazi, Libya and Cairo, Egypt, McCain said, “The fact is the United States is weakened.
“It was Osama bin Laden that said, ‘When people see the strong horse and the weak horse, people like the strong horse.’ Right now the United States is the weak horse.”
McCain also disputed the opinion that the consulate attack was prompted by the release on the Internet of a blasphemous film mocking the Prophet Muhammad.
“Let’s point out, this wasn’t a video that caused this. It’s a fight, a struggle in the Arab world between the Islamists and the forces of moderation,” the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations committee said. “Look, one of our fundamentals [is] freedom of speech, and that’s what the Arab Spring was about – to bring about an end to the censorship by their government.”
He also defended Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s rapid criticism of a statement put out by the U.S. Embassy in Cairo – before the protests turned violent – condemning the anti-Islam film.
“It was a semi-apology,” McCain said of the Embassy’s statement. “We shouldn’t be apologizing for freedom of speech. We should be saying we demand freedom of speech for these people,” he said.
McCain also said the U.S. “need[s] to assist these people” in a post-Arab Spring transition.
Pointing to another country in turmoil, Syria, McCain said the United States has not done enough for Syrians living under the brutal regime of President Bashar al-Assad. A reported 20,000 Syrians have been killed since the insurrection began.
“The President of the United States will not speak up for them, much less provide them with the arms and the equipment for a fair fight,” McCain said.
McCain pointed to increased violence – and increased Iranian presence – in Iraq; attacks on Americans in Afghanistan; and the killing of 20,000 Syrians as signs of America’s “disengagement.”
“Prior to 9-11, we had a policy of containment. Then after 9-11, it was confrontation…. Now it’s disengagement,” McCain said. “We’re leaving Iraq. We’re leaving Afghanistan.
“They believe the United States is weak and they are taking appropriate action,” said McCain, who has opposed an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, adding that the U.S. needs to “reassert American leadership in the region.”
McCain also said President Obama is failing Israel by telling Israeli leadership not to attack Iran. Instead, the senator said that the U.S. “should be in agreement” with Israel on when Iran has gone too far in its quest for a nuclear weapon, instead of “being in a public dispute” with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“The Iranians don’t believe we are doing to do anything about their effort,” McCain added.
TEHRAN, Sept. 16 (UPI) — Iran’s military announced in Tehran Sunday it has reached its goal of developing a drone aircraft that can fly for 24 hours and carry missiles
Major Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, said the new unmanned Shahed 129 has a vast range because it can fly non-stop for 24 hours, the FARS news agency reported.
Iran first successfully tested a homemade radar-evading drone with bombing capabilities in June 2009, which was unveiled in a Tehran ceremony in August 2010 by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
In March, the military announced success with a smaller drone called the Shaparak for use in border patrols. It can fly for 3.5 hours, has a range of 30 miles and a maximum altitude of 15,000 feet, the report said.
Four men suspected to be agents of the Boko Haram sect have shot dead a member of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps and three members of his family in Kano.
They killed the officer, his wife, his three year old daughter and his crippled brother staying with him, police sources told a news agency today.
The victims were all locked up in a room and shot dead in the home of the yet to be identified NSCDC officer in Hotoron Gabas district.
Neighbours said they saw the four men arriving on two motor cycles and entering the house.
After the killing, they jumped back on their bikes and sped off.
Kano, since the 20 January multiple attacks by the Boko Haram sect, has been experiencing isolated attacks by militants of the sect, such as throwing bombs at police patrol vehicles or check points or killing people at their homes or on the street. In June, an SSS officer was shot dead by the sect in his house.
In 2009, Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State, had cause to cry out against political marginalization, rascality, voodism and abuse of his personality by North East regional leaders of the party that availed him its platform to contest gubernatorial election in 2007, All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).
In view of the trust reposed in him by the electorates across party divide, Yuguda called an emergency meeting and met with other stakeholders to intimate them of his woes in the ANPP to fet out of the web safely.
First to kick against the decision to dump the ANPP as one way out, was Senator Bala Abdulkadir Muhammed, present FCT Minister and Yuguda’s ungrateful political son.
Senator Bala attempts to scuttle the efforts of Yuguda to correct the wrong doings in the ANPP including embezzlement of party funds by a clique that held the party to ransom. Senator Bala and his co-travelers, did everything possible to frustrate Yuguda’s efforts to reposition the ANPP in such away it could forge ahead as an organized party befitting its national status.
“ANPP is our party and I shall die as its member. I shall never dump the party for what ever reason”, said Senator Bala at a stakeholders meeting of the party in Bauchi.
Yuguda mindful of the consequences involved, he silently perfected his plans to join a more formidable party that could allow him a breathing space to govern the people that mandated him as a governor and the democracy for thrive.
In July 2009, Yuguda finally defected to the PDP along with all the ANPP Bauchi State legislators and across section of the party’s leadership.
ANPP was then left at the fragile and inexperienced hands of political toddlers, pretenders, mischief makers and rabble rousers.
From the day Yuguda defected, fortunes of the ANPP started to dwindle as the centre could no longer hold and no sincere and determined politician within its fold could even finance its minor undertakings as Yuguda had left unceremoniously to better organized and more nationalistic political party.
In public, Senator Bala pretended to remain with his ANPP but in his inner self, he was just waiting for the right time to dump it to satisfy his penchant for wealth. Suddenly, the ‘golden’ opportunity came his way in the Senate through the conferment of an acting President on Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, then the serving Vice President.
While majority of Senators from Northern extraction opined that the then ailing president be allowed to continue pending, Senator Bala smartly sponsored a bill against the collective interest of the North and other Senators from friendly States of the North for an acting capacity position on the then Vice President.
Constitutionally, it was a case for debate but for sanity to prevail the Senate was forced to unanimously support the motion to save the eruption of an ugly situation that Senator Bala and his like minds had wanted to create and it scaled the hurdle.
The mere sponsorship of the bill against the interest of majority of the Senators, most especially the North, served as the spring board for sycophancy and extensive lobbying by Senator Bala Muhammed.
The despicable sycophant effectively used the success of the bill to move closer to the Ebele family and other Niger Delta tribal lords the likes of the Ijaw leader, Edwin Clark and other miscreants from the Niger Delta region.
As a pay back, it was alleged that money was offered to Bala for his ‘courage’ by Goodluck Jonathan which he was said to have rejected in pretence. Unknowingly to Goodluck, Bala was silently eyeing a bigger reward from the Ebeles to satisfy his lust for wealth.
Having rejected the settlement, the then acting President mistakenly rated Senator Bala as an honest and sincere person that could be trusted. He mistakenly offered him a ministerial position to serve the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
It was a jubilation period for Senator Bala and his syndicate as he had scored his goal through deceit and pretence. He settled down and floated the FCT with his blood brothers, tribal folk and loyal associates that were directed to serve as foot soldiers against his political mentor, Isa Yuguda.
To perfect his plan of stay in office, Bala hurriedly introduced sycophancy and bootlicking as the most veritable tools against decorum and service delivery.
He abandoned his primary responsibility in the FCT and almost relocated to Aso Villa as a permanent visitor to the number one family. He made sure his wife followed suit by paying daily homage to the first lady to curry favor.
Despite all these pretence, Senator Bala was not done, in 2010, during the first official visit of the first lady to Bauchi State to launch her pet project (Women Initiative for Change), Senator Bala wanted to impress and prove to the innocent woman as being in control of Bauchi politics. Foolishly, he fixed a date for his kangaroo decamping from the ANPP to the PDP, a party he earlier promised not to dump to tally with the day of her visit.
As expected, he was left alone at his native village with few of the guests he deceived to honor his invitation for the event including the Senate President, David Mark.
Again, Yuguda proved his political superiority over his rude and arrogant political son and confined him to his rightful position as a political turn coat and mere deceiver.
The kangaroo gathering in Alkaleri was the most shameful political jamboree ever with the state PDP leadership publicly dissociating itself from the event till this moment.
Not satisfied, Bala turned to a systematic system of blackmail as the best tool to nail Yuguda and curry favor from the Presidency which failed to scale through.
Not moved, Yuguda forged ahead to serve the people to the best of his ability and reduced Senator Bala to a mere village champion and leader of miscreants in need of a shepherd.
Finally, Bala having amassed questionable wealth within his short stay in the FCT and realized anytime he was sacked from the Federal Executive council he was going to be jobless and thrown into limbo, he summoned courage and pretended to have retrieved his steps back to own his mistakes and foolery targeted against Yuguda and was compelled to lobby Yuguda for forgiveness and to accept him back to his fold as a forgiven son which Yuguda agreed to do with pride and open mind as declared at the Abuja NIPR investiture on Yuguda in 2012.
Having publicly apologized and lobbied Yuguda to pardon him, Bala now comfortably and shamelessly, made his 2015 gubernatorial ambition public through his horde of miscreants and merchants of doom as he rated Yuguda as the fool to trust him again.
To perfect his 2015 ambition, Bala launched another system of sophisticated sycophancy to curry favor in the Presidency while eyeing the number position for grab in 2015 by paying nocturnal visits with lavish gifts to paramount Emirs, Obas, Obis, religious and community leaders as well as Chiefs and prominent miscreants in the Niger Delta region and the South West nationwide including allocation of choice plots of land in the FCT.
To prove his arrogance and rascality coupled with power drunk, he first tested the water with the revocation of the land allocation of Her Excellency, Hajia Ajoke Murtala Muhammed which was certificated through the due process
Ajoke, was Nigeria’s first lady between 1975 – 76 when her husband held sway as military Head of State. General Muratala Ramat Muhammed, was gruesomely murdered in 1976 while in service for a better Nigeria.
Apart from several respected Nigerians excluding those from the Niger Delta, that suffered various degrees of humiliation in the FCDA with the connivance of the now sacked Chief of Staff, Musa Umar Yashi, next to suffer humiliation from Senator Bala is a respected elder states man, General Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma. General Danjuma served Nigeria in different capacities including fighting a civil war to keep the country united. Out of power drunkenness and disrespect to elders not from the Niger Delta region, Senator Bala had the guts to humiliate the General to his satisfaction for the gentleman’s acceptance to honor an official invitation from the Minister.
Not satisfied, he went further to revoke the land allocation of Her Excellency, Hajia Turai Yar Adu’a the immediate past first lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria whose husband brought Goodluck Jonathan to the corridor of Aso Rock villa as his vice. As a professional bootlicker, he reallocated the same parcel of land to Her Excellency, Dame Patience Goodluck to prove a case of arrogance and loyalty.
The action has not only painted the Goodluck administration in bad light but exposed the inexperience and desperateness of Senator Bala Muhammed to bootlick the Ebele family without minding the consequences of his action on the respect the Ebele family enjoys and as representative of the North East in the Federal Executive Council.
Commenting on the shameful act, ACN national publicity secretary, Lai Muhammed, described Senator Bala as a despicable sycophant who wants to remain in power.
Agreed, he has tasted power, he has abused the trust reposed in him unconsciously and initiated and supported several corrupt practices to fruition and humiliated several leaders, but must he be retained as a minister having failed to deliver what is expected of him? Whose interest is Senator Bala Abdulkadir Muhammed now protecting and serving in the FCT definitely not the interest of Nigerians. Was he secretly appointed as minister for sycophancy and corrupt practices? Through his despicable sycophancy, he has brought hatred and insults to the very system he claims to serve. Nigerians, most especially residents of the FCT are not happy with his style of leadership. He has threatened and destroyed many families through his initiated demolishing exercise, revoked legally acquired plots and reallocated same to highest bidders, fought the very women that supported his pretence in the 2011 presidential campaign in the FCT (Commercial sex workers) and turned his style of administration to favor only family and friends including miscreants and blackmailers.
For the FCT to move forward, Senator Bala Abdulkadir Muhammed should not only be sacked but be sacked and thoroughly probed. FCDA stinks of corrupt practices.
Bamanga Tukur, Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] Chairman*Says PDP Ready To End Problem Of Fractionalization In States
The National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Bamanga Tukur has made passionate appeal to aggrieved members of the party who had defected into different camps of the opposition to return to fold, just as he marks his 77birthday today with party faithfuls in Abuja.
Tukur said the National Working Committee (NWC) of PDP would make special arrangement for members willing to rejoin the party to feel comfortable on their return, promising to engage them in the ongoing reform within the party with special roles to be assigned to them.
He said, “For us as to be one, indivisible and indissoluble political party ruling Nigeria since1999, it may be necessary for me to beg our members who are aggrieved and hence left the party into different strange camps to come back home. It is time tore-build Nigeria and all hands are needed to do so.
“The umbrella is big enough to accommodate all of us. So our members who left us should please come back into the party so we can resolve our differences and begin to move on as one people for one Nation Nigeria”
Tukur said he accepted the onerous challenge of leading the ruling party not to acquire fame or fortune, but to give back to Nigeria much of what the country had offered him all along to become who he is today.
He made this known in a message to party members on the celebration of his 77 birthday, just as he drummed support of party members and Nigerians in general for the government of President Goodluck Jonathan to enable him succeed in his Transformation Agenda.
The Tafidan Adamawa reiterated that the PDP would soon set machinery in motion to engage its founding fathers, elders and stakeholders in rebuilding the party through his12-point agenda of Reconciliation, Reformation and Re-building based on equity and justice, such that PDP would continue to remain in the saddle with spread to all parts of the federation.
Tukur allayed fear of Nigerians on the Security challenges facing Nigeria at the moment, stressing that the PDP has always been in league with Federal Government and security agencies in their efforts to mitigate the problem and return Nigeria to the path of peace.
He said the PDP under his leadership had resolved to focus attention on Energy, Environment Sustainability/food security and Education, while it would use Diplomacy and Dialogue as tools for guaranteeing National Defense.
According to him, the PDP has started repairing its umbrella to accommodate more Nigerians willing to be members, noting that the ruling party had set machinery in motion to reconcile members, most especially in states facing the problem of fractionalization.
Tukur dismissed the idea of automatic ticket for any of its members in 2015 and the media hype on issue of power shift, insisting that merit, good record of performance and credibility of political office seekers would henceforth be the yardstick for determining access to power at all levels in Nigeria, in line with the new thinking of the ruling party.
Tukur disclosed that the PDP would henceforth take the fight against corruption more seriously starting with close monitoring of performances of its members in elective offices in order to ensure better performances on their parts.
Tukur stressed, “Our opponents misjudge us always and they scream even when we sneeze or cough. Yes, they have the right to do so because we are the ruling party. But that again calls on us to be more up and doing for the opposition not to be justified by the manner we conduct our affairs.
“If we must rule, then we must rule well. In ruling well, we must collectively guide against abuse of public office such that no member of our party would be called to question on issue of dereliction of duty or financial recklessness. This is necessary because we want to continue to see the PDP retaining its status as the number one political party in Africa.
“I want to assure every member of the party that fresh water has started springing in PDP and that is foretelling a brighter hope for the party in the future elections, 2015to be specific. Our members and the rest of Nigeria should continue to pray for us as we embark on operation restore hope for our great country”.
A former Minister Of Interior ,Captain Emmanuel Iheanacho has reportedly been arrested in Lagos.He was picked up in connection with alleged oil theft.Investigations into a company linked to him led to his arrest.
The ex minister is believed to have been handed over to the State Security Service,SSS as investigations continue into the affair. Iheanacho had a controversial tenure as a minister as he was suspended only to be reinstated and later laid off.
While announcing the suspension of the minister pril 2011 in a a statement Mr. Ima Niboro who was then , Special Adviser to the President, Media and Publicity said: “President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has ordered the immediate suspension of Capt. Emmanuel Iheanacho as Minister of Interior and member of the Federal Executive Council.
“Capt. Iheanacho has been directed to hand over to the Minister of Labour, Mr. Emeka Wogu, who will, in addition to his present portfolio, oversee that ministry.”
Reports at the time said Olisa Metuh a PDP topshot from the South East lamented what he called at the time the disloyalty of then minister to the ruling party in his home state saying he had asked the president to call him to order whilst also directing the Imo State chapter to set up a disciplinary committee to investigate his activities and recommend necessary sanction against him. Metuh added then that “The president has shown that he is a peaceful man and that he has a listening ear.
But Iheanacho’s arrest on Saturday which came as a surprise to outsiders is bound to generate intense interest.A security official reportedly said the ongoing arrests may help stem the tide of oil theft on Nigeria’s waters.
President Jonathan recently said it was very embarrassing that Nigeria was the only country where oil theft has remained rampant.
