The Nation Newspaper

Author: The Nation

  • Anger in police over stalling of promotions, retirements

    Anger is building up within the ranks of Police officers, which may snowball into a protest due to the stalling of promotions and retirements as a result of the face of with the Police Service Commission (PSC) over the recruitment of 10, 000 constables, The Nation has gathered.

    Following a meeting of the Management of the PSC with the Joint Staff Union of the Commission over the recruitment imbroglio, the Union had demanded the suspension of all promotions and recruitments and other activities as it pertains to the Police until all the issues are resolved.

    A source in the Commission told The Nation on Tuesday that the development had led to the stalling of many promotions and retirements, which were still being processed thereby creating feelings of disaffection among those affected.

    The source said: “The staff union of the Commission insisted that the Commission must suspend all activities that concern the police until the matter is resolved.

    “They demanded and got the management to agree that all these things would be suspended. Since then there has been piles of recommendation for promotion.

    “For instance about three AIGs have retired and we are not processing their retirement letters and if it is not processed you cannot access your benefits. It is when you get this letter that you can now go and access those benefits.

    “Then for those that have pending disciplinary matters (PDM), they are still in abeyance and nobody is looking at them, and if you have PDM you cannot be promoted.

    “So there is a problem. Nigeria needs these people we are recruiting to get into the system fast so that they can help in the security challenges we are facing in the country. Now it is stalled. Nothing is happening again.

    “All these things are pending and the union are insisting they would not be touched until this thing is resolved. It is terrible that nothing is done about it for a matter as critical thing as security.

    “The policemen are not happy and the feedback we are getting from the states indicates so. And it is building up.

    “There is a build up of animosity and there is likely to be some revolt, because when you don’t get promoted, when they retire and they cannot get their retirement letters processed for them to get their benefits, and when they have PDMs and nobody is addressing it, the anger would be building up.

    “The implication is that it would shake the system. You know when your subordinates revolt, they would not take instructions from you, so we are now saying the security architecture is shaky.

    *You can now imagine when policemen start revolting. Police is not doing enough in internal security. The army has now taken over their job. They are not interested in that.

    “What they are interested in is recruiting constables. So these are things people should look at. Why can’t the police face their main job that it is created for.

    “They did not set up the police to recruit. They set them up to ensure that there is internal security. The commission was set up to do that, recruiting.

    “The illogical thing they are saying now is that it is the IG and the police that would know the people to recruit. Are they in the system before?

    “So how would you know that they are the ones that would know those capable of doing this or that? We are saying that in the Commission, the police is properly represented.

    “There is a retired AIG who is a member of the board and he is there to protect the interest of the police. There is someone representing the media, the organized private sector, human rights organization and so on.

    “The composition of the commission is the best in the world. There is someone representing the judiciary, a retired Justice of the Supreme Court. And you are now talking of a commission headed by a former IG. So what this IG know that the former IG does not know. So you see they are just doing this thing because it is an ego.

    “They have messed up the entire thing. The authentic people that applied are stranded. This is a recruitment exercise that was started since last year and would have ended by now, but the police has messed it up. The police should face their basic responsibility of ensuring there is peace and safety in the country, internal security, and leave another agency of government who has been saddled with the responsibility of getting correct Nigerians to enter the force. Now there is no promotion and no recruitment, the force is stagnating and this is the worse time for such a thing to happen,” the source said.

    The Secretary of the Union, Ogundeji Remi, told The Nation, they would stop at nothing to ensure the Commission’s duties are not usurped.

    Read Also: Between Police Service Commission and Nigeria Police

    “I feel it is a systemic failure and this can only happen in Nigeria. It is a flagrant abuse of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which can never happen elsewhere. It can only happen in an environment that has lot its sanity. It cannot happen in a sane environment. Usurping the constitutional mandate of the police service commission, a body established by the constitution and has three core functions, and that is recruitment, promotion and discipline/dismissal of police officers. If you are talking about recruitment and you are saying the commission does not actually recruit, who are you to promote, who are you to discipline or dismiss. So if you are taking away this function of recruitment, that means before you know it the commission would cease to exist and that is why the union is here to defend and protect and defend the constitution and also defend and protect our job because if the commission ceases to exist, that means we no longer have any job here. So that is why we would not stop anything to make sure our powers are not being usurped by the IGP.

    “Presently we have a serious security situation on our hands. Police officers retire everyday. Some of them die in the course of their duties. Some of them willingly resign from the force and what that translates to is shortage of manpower in the police and when you now cease to recruit, you know what it means. There would now be gross inadequate police personnel to secure the country, so that means it is a keg of gunpowder waiting to explode. So of something drastic is not done in earnest, your guess is as good as mine,” Remi said.

  • 200 homeless as erosion destroys houses, churches in Onitsha

    No fewer than 200 persons have been rendered homeless following the destruction of houses by gully erosion in Onitsha, Anambra State.

    Over five houses, including St. Philips Anglican Church, a school belonging to Redeemed Church in Nkisi Aroli/Obeleagu, Inland Town, as well as two-storey building were reportedly at the verge of collapse if nothing urgent was done.

    Displaced residents of the community have appealed to the state Governor, Willie Obiano for his quick intervention towards salvaging the remaining buildings.

    In a Save Our Soul (SOS), message, the victims also asked President Mohammed Buhari through the Ecological Fund office to come to their rescue.

    The letters partly read, “We expected that the Onitsha North local government and the State Ministry of Environment would have come urgently to our rescue to stop further impact.

    “Now, more buildings will soon go once it rains. We fear for our lives. Our hearts ache because of property of families and legacies lost”.

    Read Also: Mechanised agric solution to Nigeria’s unemployment, say Oyedepo, expert

    Spokesperson of the community, Mr. Arthur Mazeli, told reporters yesterday that they had also written to the National Assembly through their representatives, Lynda Ikpeazu and Sen. Stella Odua, with no response from any of them.

    He said, “Some officials of the state government including Commissioners for Envrionment and Agriculture, Commissioner of Police have visited the site, making bogus promises.

    “All efforts so far made are purely communal but they are so infinitesimal to the magnitude of the scourge.”

    Debunking insinuation that some structures were built on water channel, Mazeli explained that the drainage channel which collected water from the upper part of Inland Town gave way due to the force of the flood which started eating deep into the soil.

    On his part, the Priest in charge of St. Philips Anglican Church, Umu-Aroli, Rev. Chinedu Agugua, thanked God that no life had been lost to the erosion, but said they were eagerly looking forward to government’s immediate intervention.

    Photo: Scenes of erosion sites

  • NFC hails Genevieve Nnaji’s lion heart movie in Nigeria’s first Oscar listing

    The Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC) has hailed actress, Genevieve Nnaji on the listing of her movie, Lionheart, as the first Nigerian film to compete for the 2020 Oscar.

    Dr Chidia Maduekwe, NFC Managing Director, commended the actress in a statement signed by Brian Etuk, Head, Public Affairs and Intergovernmental Affairs at NFC) on Tuesday in Jos.

    NAN reports that the movie would be competing in the international feature film category.

    Maduekwe said the movie would spur other Nigerian film makers to aim for international recognition by improving on their production quality.

    “The listing of Genevieve Nnaji’s Lionheart movie for the 2020 Oscar will definitely spur other Nigerian film makers to soar in the international film production space.

    “I commend Nnaji for making Nigeria proud through her several years of superlative screen appearances and then lately, a Producer/Director,” he said.

    Read Also: Genevieve Nnaji’s ‘Lionheart’ is Nigeria’s submission for the Oscar

    The NFC managing director assured that the corporation would continue to create the environment that would enable the film sector to thrive in Nigeria.

    Maduekwe also said that the NFC would sustain its domestic and foreign collaborations, to position Nigeria’s film sector to compete favourably in international competitions.

    He said such collaborations would be realised through signing of co-production treaties and provision of support structures for film production.

    According to him, stakeholders in motion picture and indeed, Nigerians, are happy with the Lionheart’s nomination.

    He described the listing as an indication of the leap Nigerian films had attained in the international motion picture circles.

    The managing director also said listing of the movie was a recognition of the ingenuity and determination of Nigerian filmmakers to compete with their counterparts from other countries.

    NAN reports that Lionheart, which premiered at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, was acquired in same year as one of the first Netflix original films to be produced in Nigeria.

  • Group hails Akeredolu over Ore interchange Bridge

    A group, Ondo for Good Governance, Accountability and Transparency (OGGAT) has hailed the Governor of Ondo State, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu over the construction of the Ore interchange bridge.

    The group said the Governor deserves a pat on the back for the execution of projects, which it describes as leagcy projects across the state.

    OGGAT listed some of the projects to include the Ore Fly-Over, construction of 300-bed hospital at Ifon in Ose local government and the dualization of A Division to Ijoka road in Akure among others.

    Having toured all the 18 local government areas in the state, the group said Akeredolu has placed the state on an honourable footing through his legacy projects in infrastructure, education, health and human capital development.

    Addressing reporters at Ore, headquarters of Odigbo Local Government, shortly after inspecting the ongoing construction of Ore flyover, OGGTA state coordinator, Mrs. Margaret Akinwalere posited that history will record Akeredolu as a man with passion, zeal, and commitment whose achievements were unprecedented and nonpareil.

    She noted that the Akeredolu administration has made the people to know that it is possible for contractors to construct roads, even in the rainy season.

    Mrs. Akinwalere stressed that the ⁰governor has entrenched good governance through the execution of pro-people projects, adding that infrastructural development is key to the growth of a state or a country.

    “We are an advocate for good governance, accountability and transparency. This is a group that has professionals as core members. OGGTA has been in the existence for the past 18 years and we can simply speak on both the past and present governments in the state.

    “We have been following Governor Akeredolu’s activities since the flag off of his campaign in October 2016, just how we did to other governorship candidates. Our duty was to collate all the campaign promises made by all these candidates and to ensure these promises are implemented when the winner gets to the office.

    “We vividly remember that Akeredolu made the promise of the construction of this flyover to the people of Ondo State when he flagged off his 2016 campaign in this same Ore town. Since then, we have been monitoring the activities of the governor.

    Read Also: ‘Why Akeredolu sacked Political Aide’

    “So far, Akeredolu deserves the pass mark of the people of the State because he has been able to fulfil majority of his campaign promises. His projects are visible. There is no local government in the state that you can say has been left out.” OGGTA coordinator said.

    Emphasising more on the Ore-Flyover, the group leader said they are aware that the state government has a policy that has stopped contractors from getting mobilization funds and this, according to her has helped in fighting against siphoning of government funds, shodding work, and abandoning infrastructural projects.

    Mrs. Akinwalere said “Akeredolu has taken a worthy risk by embarking on this flyover project on the basis that we are not even sure if the federal government will refund the money that the state government spent if we should based this on the recent comment of the Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Tunde Fashola that the federal governments will no longer refund a state government who constructs a federal government road.

    “We believe strongly that the risk is worth taking. Although, this a federal government road but the state government can no longer wait when lives are being lost as a result of avoidable circumstance.

    “Ore is a gateway town, situated in a vantage position between the Western part and the Eastern part of Nigeria. We are glad that the Governor is constructing an international standard flyover that will serve as a major contribution to the economic growth of the country.

    “We have inspected this project, the 60 meters bim has been fixed. This project is first in the history of the state and the good news is that the contractors have assured the good people of Ondo State that the project will be completed by December”.

  • Association urges Gov. Yahaya to appoint people with disabilities in cabinet

    The Joint Association of People Living with Disabilities in Gombe State, on Tuesday urged Gov. Inuwa Yahaya to appoint one of its as commissioner.

    Alhaji Ali Goro, the Chairman of the association made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Gombe on Tuesday.

    Goro frowned at the exclusion of members of the association in governance in Gombe.

    ”Our people are being marginalised and discriminated against in terms of appointment into decision making positions in the state.

    “We want Gov. Yahaya to address this (marginalisation) by appointing disable persons into his cabinet and other positions where decision that affect them would be made.

    According to him, impact on lives of people living with disabilities can only be made when our members are in decision making positions.

    “We need inclusive governance because if we are not part of the government our issue will not be addressed as it should.

    Read Also: Gov. Inuwa Yahaya suspends all govt’s appointments, contracts in Gombe

    He said the state has over 400,000 people living with disabilities out of which 120 possess NCE and degrees.

    The chairman said his members participated in the campaign resulting in the election of the governor.

    He, however, said the governor did not include any of his members in the list 18 and 16 nominees forwarded to the State House of Assembly for appointment as Commissioners and Advisers, respectively.

    “We want the governor to redeem his campaign promise because we also have competent hands among us capable of handling any political appointment,’’ Goro said.

    He also appealed to the state government to give free education to children of people living disabilities.

    “Many of our members are willing to send their children to school but they do not have the means,’’ he said

  • Police arraign 3 men for allegedly attacking party guests

    The police arraigned three unemployed men who allegedly attacked guests at a party with dangerous weapons in an Ikeja Magistrates’ Court in Lagos.

    The police charged Adedoyin Williams, 25; Rainard Jhame, 25; and Daniel Niniola, 24; with three counts of fighting in public, conspiracy and breach of peace.

    The prosecution counsel, Insp. Emmanuel Ajayi, told the court that the defendants and others still at large committed the offence on Oct. 6 at Alagbado, Lagos.

    He alleged that the defendants conducted themselves in a manner likely to cause breach of peace by breaking bottles and using knives to chase people away from a birthday party .

    The offence, he said, contravened the provisions of sections 54, 168 and 411 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

    Read Also: Police arraign 2 fuel attendants for allegedly stealing N100m

    News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that section 54 stipulates six months imprisonment for affray while section 411 prescribes two years for conspiracy.

    Magistrate O.O. Fagbohun admitted the defendants to bail in the sum of N100, 000 each with one surety each in like sum.

    Fagbohun ordered that the sureties must be gainfully employed and show evidence of two years tax payment to the Lagos State Government.

    The case was adjourned until Nov. 21 for mention

  • Court sentences trader to Five years in prison for cheating colleague

    An Upper Area Court in Kasuwan Nama, Jos, on Tuesday sentenced a trader, Idris Adamu, to five years in prison for cheating his colleague of N250,000.

    The Judge, Suleiman Lawal, sentenced Adamu, after he pleaded guilty to breach of trust.

    Lawal gave the convict an option to pay a fine of N50,000.

    He also ordered the convict to pay the sum of N 250, 000 as compensation to the complainant, Uche Obiafuna.

    Earlier, the prosecution counsel, Sgt. Ibrahim Gokwat, told the court that Obiafuna, who owns a business at No 43, Rwang Pam street in Jos, reported the matter on Sept.6, at the Laranto Divisional Police Station.

    Read Also: Court denies ex-Nigerian Air Force officer post-conviction bail

    He the complainant entrusted N250, 000 to the convict to help him deposit same in a bank but he converted the money to his personal use.

    Gokwat said that the offence contravened the provisions of sections 296 and 306 and punishable under sections 297 and 307 of the Plateau Penal Code law.(NAN)

  • Jonathan, govs absent as PDP begins campaign in Bayelsa

    Former President Goodluck Jonathan was conspicuously absent on Monday when his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flagged off its campaign for the November 16 governorship election in Bayelsa State.

    Also governors elected on the platform of the PDP were not on ground to support the campaign inauguration, which held at the Ox-Bow Lake Pavilion, Yenagoa,the state capital.

    But the National Chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, was represented at the event, which attracted thousands of party faithful across the eight local government area of the state, by the party’s Vice-Chairman, South, Emmanuel Ogidi.

    The party also received defectors from the All Progressives Congress (APC) led by a former APC stalwart from Sagabama Local Government Area, Miebi Bribina.

    While addressing the crowd, Dickson reiterated that only PDP had the political structure to win any election in Bayelsa adding that the party controls the grassroots with its eight local government chairmen and 105 ward councilors.

    The governor reeled out all his achievements in education, health, road infrastructures, political stability among others and insisted that development was brought to the state by the PDP.

    He said through the party, many youths had been given appointments and noted that his administrations would engage more youths in governance.

    Dickson told the crowd that one of his big-ticket projects, the Bayelsa International Cargo Aiport, would take off within the month “no matter the antics”.

    He described the PDP Candidate, Senator Douye Diri and his running mate, Senator Lawrence Ewrujakpor as a ticket of stability predicting that Diri would succeed him by God’s grace.

    He said: “We are presenting a ticket of stability; a ticket of development and a ticket that will turn this state to a gathering place of hooligans and criminals where people will be running away as they were doing before. That is why we are presenting this ticket and by the grace of God your next governor in 2020 will be Senator Douye Diri.

    “There is no government that can claim to solve all problems of a state or of a country. There are so many things that we have done. There are a lot of things that are ongoing and so many things we plan to do but due time and resources. All of these, Douye Diri and his new government from February will continue and complete.

    “This election is about you and your future. It is not about Governor Dickson. By the grace of God and with your support I am today the longest serving governor in the state. Just as we defeated them with their so called federal support in 2015, we will defeat them with bigger margins.

    “Unlike the other party that didn’t even do primaries, that continue to bring candidates from their pockets and show to the world sometimes in hotels and drinking parlours, we the PDP did a very serious and hotly contested primaries”.

    He asked the APC leaders not to use federal might for politicking and elections but to deploy same in development of the state adding that the PDP had continue to champion development in the state.

    Dickson advised the Petroleum Minister and former Governor Timipre Sylva to use his position to bring development to the state adding that he had yet to impact positively to the state since he joined the APC.

    Read Also: APC to Jonathan: The world knows corruption is PDP’s political ideology,

    He said: “This state is totally and wholly PDP. Let me caution the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies, if you are here to kill and intimidate, you will have to do so much work because you have thousands of people to intimidate, to maim and to kill”.

    Diri vowed to continue with the programmes and policies of the Dickson’s administration and pledged to award and compete the three senatorial roads.

    He said Bayelsa would become an exporter of fish adding that his administration would give special focus to the youths by empowering them with more skills.

    He promised that if elected, he would give women loans to set up businesses through the micro-finance banks established by the present government.

    Diri also vowed to champion the Ijaw struggle and to lead campaign for resource control .

  • ‘School principal defiles twin sisters, impregnates one’

    A doctor at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, Alabi Oyedeji, Monday, told an Ikeja Special Offences Court, that a twin sisters (names withheld), 17, were allegedly defiled by their school principal, Samson Adeyemo over a period of two years.

    The defendant, who was the principal of the school located in Beckley Estate Abule Egba, allegedly had sexual intercourse with the sisters between 2015 and 2016, when they were in SS1 students.

    Adeyemo, 30, is standing for having allegedly having sexual intercourse with 17-year-old twin sisters and impregnating one of them before Justice Sherifat Solebo.

    He was alleged to have lured the twins to his office on separate occasions, had sexual intercourse with them, until one of them got pregnant.

    Dr Oyedeji, a consultant at Mirabel Centre, LASUTH, told the court that the twin sisters confirmed to him that their principal had sexual relationship with them from 2015-2016.

    According to him, the school principal, in the course of having incessant intercourse, impregnated one of the twins.

    Led in evidence by the State prosecutor, M. S. Oshodi, the doctor said, “The principal, on several occasion, had sexual intercourse with the twins and one of them tagged, ‘Victim X’ became pregnant. Their mother got to know about it, during an attempt to terminate the pregnancy.

    “It was in the process of terminating the pregnancy that Victim X found out that the same principal was equally having an affair with her twin sister, tagged Victim Y.

    “This was what Victim X verbally told me. However, during the general observation of the victims, I discovered that they were both clinically stable”, he said.

    Dr Oyedeji told the court that further examination of the twins showed that other structures of body like the urethra was normal. But the vagina entrance had tags of hymen that was fragmented.

    “The tags of hymen found at the vagina entry proper suggests a repeated forceful penetration into their vagina. I also took blood and urine samples of the victims, including appropriate screening test,” he said.

    One of the twin sisters, (Victim X), had testified in court that the school principal kept a camp bed inside his office which he used whenever he wants to have sex with her.

    Victim X told the court that she aborted the pregnancy through the help of her mother, who took her to a nurse.

    “I was still in SS1 when the incident happened. On that day, I was in my classroom when the principal entered and asked if my class teacher was around. I said no. He then ordered me to follow him to his office.

    “When we got to his office, he started calling me sweet names before removing my school uniform. He thereafter had sexual intercourse with me and instructed me not to tell anyone.

    “He continued having sex with me over a long period of time until I became pregnant.

    Read Also: Vice principal allegedly had sex with student for months

    “I didn’t even know that I was pregnant until one of our neighbors noticed some changes in my body and informed my mother.

    “When my mother confronted me and slapped me several times, I told her that the principal has been having sex with me inside his office.

    “My mum immediately called the principal and asked him, and he admitted impregnating me. He then told my mother that we should keep the baby but my mother refused.

    “The principal begged my mother not to abort the pregnancy but she refused and took me to a nurse to remove it. My mother told him that she cannot allow me carry a baby, at a tender age”.

    She said it was the defendant that made money available for the abortion.

    “As a result of the abortion, my parents withdrew me from the school and enrolled me at the defendant’s father’s school, where I wrote my WAEC exams,” Victim X said.

    Justice Solebo has adjourned the matter till November 18, 2019.

  • NASS vows to challenge court ruling on Edo House crisis

    The leadership of the National Assembly and the Edo State Government are on collision course over the crisis rocking Edo Assembly, it has been learnt.

    Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila has vowed that the leadership of the National Assembly would challenge a Federal High Court ruling restraining it from taking over the legislative functions of the Edo Assembly.

    Gbajabiamila gave this indication in his remarks during a visit by the Progressive Governors’ Forum to the leadership of the National Assembly in Abuja.

    Also on Monday, Katsina Governor and Chairman of the Progressive Governors’ Forum’s subcommittee on Legislative Matters, Aminu Bello Masari, lamented that absence of coordination has brought distrust capable of destroying the APC.

    Before the meeting went into a closed -door session, Gbajabiamila said that the leadership of the National Assembly was surprised that it could resolve the crisis in the Bauchi State House of Assembly “which is an opposition state” but could not resolve that of Edo which is an APC state.

    He said it was surprising that the Edo Assembly has decided to “test an exclusive constitutional role of the National Assembly in court.”

    It could be recalled that both chambers of the National Assembly had in June resolved to take over the legislative duties of the Edo Assembly following the crisis that emanated when nine lawmakers loyal to Governor Godwin Obaseki were secretly inaugurated by the Governor on June 17, while others were left out.

    A Federal High Court in Port Harcourt had restrained the National Assembly from interfering in the affairs of the Edo State House of Assembly.

    Justice Kolawole Omotosho had also ruled that the National Assembly could not compel Governor Obaseki to issue another proclamation within the lifespan of an existing proclamation for inauguration of Edo House of Assembly.

    The court gave the order when it delivered judgement in a suit brought by Yekini Idiaye, the Deputy Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, and Henry Okhuarobo, the member representing Ikpoba-Okha State Constituency.

    Omotosho had said: “There is nothing before the court to show that the Edo State House of Assembly is unable to sit.

    “Some elected members have been inaugurated. The House has been carrying out its legislative duties.

    “The National Assembly lacks the power to take over the Edo State House of Assembly.

    “It amounts to taking over the functions of the Edo State House of Assembly.

    “The House of Assembly is not an appendage of the National Assembly.”

    Reacting to the ruling, Gbajabiamila said: “While addressing the issue of one party and one government, myself and my big brother the Senate President will want to draw our attention to the issue of the crisis in Bauchi and Edo states.

    “Whilst we were able to successfully resolve the issue in Bauchi State, which is an opposition state, unfortunately, we are unable to resolve that of Edo State.

    Read Also: National Assembly to help Katsina tackle banditry

    “I think this is what we have to look at and prioritise. We should consider how to constitutionally address the issue.

    “For those of us on this side, the National Assembly, we are surprised that the exclusive constitutional roles given to us as prescribed in Section 12 of the Constitution, which is written unambiguously clear was being tested.

    “We are a bit concerned about that. Of course we have three arms of government and on the basis of that, we will be going to court on this matter to resolve not just the judgement but to ensure that any other related issues like that do not come up again.

    “The House of Representatives have adopted a theme, “The nation building is a joint task”, that is how we are operating in the National Assembly irrespective of our political party divides.

    “We have resolved to come together when it comes to national issues. We belive that since there is one government, there should be a symbiotic relationship between the governors and the legislators,” he said.

    It was learnt that after this outburst by Gbajabiamila in the presence of Obaseki, the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, spent a substantial part of the closed door session in calming frayed nerves.

    The Progressive Governors’ Forum was led to the meeting by its Chairman and Governor of Kebbi State, Atiku Abubakar Bagudu.

    The Governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the meeting include Governor Aminu Bello Masari (Katsina), Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’s Forum and Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, Mallam Nasir Elrufai (Kaduna), and Babagana Zulum (Borno).

    Others include Mohammed Yahaya (Gombe), Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano), Sani Bello (Niger), Mai Mala Buni (Yobe), Abdulrahaman Abdulrazak (Kwara) and Godwin Obaseki (Edo). The Deputy Governor of Nasarawa State, Dr. Emmanuel Akabe, represented the Governor.