Category: Northern Reports

Sorno State Governor Babagana Zulum has ordered the completion of the Azare Mega Water Project in the Hawul Local Government Area of the state.

The governor directed the state Ministry of Water Resources to ensure the completion of the project within two months.

Zulum gave the directive while assessing the progress of the ongoing project at the site in Azare town.

Commissioner for Water Resources, Tijjani Baba-Alkali, assured the governor that the project would be completed within the stipulated time.

Baba-Alkali said the Azare Mega Water Project, which began four months ago, has 10 middle aquifer boreholes each with a pumping capacity of nine to 10 litres per second.

The project, according to him, is expected to store 560,000 litres of water to enhance its availability to the 20,000 residents of Azare and its environs.

“The 560,000 litres combine a surface tank with 400,000-litre capacity and an overhead tank with 160,000-litre capacity,” he said.

The commissioner noted that the project included the reticulation of primary and secondary distribution networks of over 3km and arrays of water point.

He explained that the drilling of six out of 10 boreholes for the project, has been completed with four more to go.

Baba-Alkali also explained the water project will be powered by a hybrid of 24,000 watts of solar capacity and a 100 KVA generator set.

NAN report that at the end assessment, Zulum approved five additional boreholes with high-yielding capacity in other parts of Azare town that will not benefit from the Azare Mega Water Project.

Politicians in the country have been advised to stop making comments that could lead to violence and undermine the general elections.

This admonition was given by a coalition of over 100 pro-democracy groups following the explosion that rocked Okene, Kogi State, the day President Muhammadu Buhari visited.

The Nation reports that Buhari was in Kogi State to inaugurate legacy projects executed by the administration of Governor Yahaya Bello.

Expressing worries over what they termed unguided utterances and activities of some politicians, the groups urged security agencies to probe such persons because their actions were suggestive of their support for terrorism.

At press conferences tagged “2023 polls: Call for caution,” held in Lagos and Abuja, the group said those behind the explosion must be fished out and decisively dealt with in accordance with the law to prevent reoccurrence.

They condemned politicians who allegedly celebrated the blast and those that gave casualty figures of the explosion on social media even before police preliminary investigations

“What we joke about in this country cannot be allowed in other climes. It is a crime against the President and the whole of Nigeria and not against Governor Bello or Kogi State alone. Security agencies cannot joke with this,” the group said.

A communique jointly signed by co-conveners, Olufemi Lawson, Executive Director, Center for Public Accountability; Madam Gift Yusuf, Secretary, Northern Women for Democracy and Justice; Benjamin Emeka Igwe, Member, Steering Committee, CUPP; and Razaq Eyiowuawi, National Vice Chairman, Southwest, African Democratic Congress, applauded Bello for the impactful projects executed, noting that the President’s visit exposed deliberate falsehood and campaigns of calumny against the Governor.

They said: “We would not even have taken an interest in Kogi State this much if the president’s visit had not exposed a case of deliberate misrepresentation of facts on ground by those who the people of the state should regard as their enemies. We want to categorically state that the campaign of calumny against the state governor is unfounded and those who sponsored the dastardly act on the day the president visited the state, either remotely or directly, must be fished out and dealt with.

“If these kinds of actions are not nipped in the bud, other politicians with the same mindset would set the country on the brink of collapse before the elections are conducted.

“We view with serious concern the recent bomb blast at Okene in Kogi State that coincided with the visit of President Buhari which was apparently to disrupt the President’s schedules or paint a picture of an unsafe state.

“It was a dastardly crime no doubt, but more dastardly was the actions of some politicians in the state allegedly celebrating the bomb blast. We state unequivocally that security agencies must fish out those unpatriotic politicians for questioning.

“In all, we call on politicians and those saddled with the responsibility of seeing to the socio-economic wellbeing of Nigerians to rise up to the challenges we have currently in the country, ensure free and fair elections and also deal decisively with those instigating violence, either with fake news or unverifiable allegations.”

Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai yesterday swore in Muhammed Danjuma as Acting Grand Khadi of the Sharia Court of Appeal in the state.

The governor congratulated the new Grand Khadi and prayed to Allah to guide him in the discharge of his duties.

He expressed the hope that the National Judicial Council would complete the process for the confirmation of the acting grand khadi.

el-Rufai also thanked the immediate past grand khadi, Abdulrahman Abubakar, for his meritorious service to the state and described the proposed judicial reform bill as a welcome development.

He assured that his administration would address all the issues raised by stakeholders.

“Kaduna State judiciary is one that we are very proud of, as it ranks first in ease of resolving commercial disputes and civil cases, and this is due to the hard work being exhibited by our judges at all levels,” he said.

In an interview after the swearing-in, the acting Grand Khadi assured of improved service delivery in the state judiciary.

He pledged to build on the achievements of his predecessor, with a focus on training and retraining judicial officers for maximum outputs.

Danjuma urged members of staff to extend the cooperation given to his predecessor to him too in order to take the Sharia court of appeal to greater heights.

Supporters of the governorship candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) in the March 11 governorship election in Adamawa State, Senator Aishatu Ahmed Binani, and those of Governor Ahmadu Fintiri, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), are pitted against each other in a war of words overuse of a campaign venue.

Supporters of Binani are accusing the Fintiri-led government of rejecting the application of the APC for use of Mahmud Ribadu Square in the state capital, Yola, for its governorship campaign flag-off, while the government and those speaking for it in official and unofficial capacities are fighting back, alleging intention by the Binani group to paint the Fintiri government in dark colours.

Letters viewed by our correspondent Tuesday morning showed that the APC had applied to the management of the Mahmud Ribadu Square, better known simply as Ribadu Square, seeking to use it for its governorship campaign kick-off rally on January 9.

The management of the Square had written back to the APC, saying that the ongoing renovation of the square would have reached the inner grounds by that date.

This explanation clearly does not go down well with the Binani camp, and several in the camp have since Monday been accusing the Fintiri government of political repression of opposition voices.

A supporter of Binani, Sallau Amada, said: “It will amount to a huge travesty for the state government to wilfully deny our gubernatorial hopeful her right to use Ribadu Square for her campaign flag-off. Such crude abuse of power is indicative of the mindset of Governor Fintiri to use state might crush opposition in the state.”

Against such a stance which is common with virtually everyone in the Binani camp, the state government, in a statement obtained Tuesday from Governor Ahmadu Fintiri’s Press Secretary, Humwashi Wonosikou, said the government has no evil intentions.

The government said the relevant authority which had approved the use of the Mahmud Ribadu Square for the national campaign team of APC for its Presidential campaign rally in Yola on January 18, could not for any political reason disallow the state chapter of the party a similar request.

The statement reads: “Every Adamawa resident can attest to the fact that Ribadu Square is undergoing renovation and the contractors are billed to return to the site on January 7 to complete work before the APC Presidential campaign after the Christmas and New Year break to make the venue most befitting for Mr President (who is scheduled to be in Yola for the APC Presidential campaign).

“It is not in our character to deny any party the use of the square and APC was therefore asked to pick another date after January 18 for its campaign flag-off, but instead the APC chose to sensationalise the whole thing for sympathy shopping which is distasteful.”