Category: South East

Coalition of Civil Society Organisations has warned the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Imo State against destroying the peace in the state because of politics.

Addressing a news conference yesterday, the coalition leader, Collins Ughalaa, reacting to a claim by the party to cancel the Ngor Okpala State Assembly Constituency election held last weekend and won by the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, said PDP’s  utterance was another way of igniting crisis in the state.

He said: “We monitored the election as civil society organisations, but we are shocked at the kind of misinformation coming from the PDP to the extent that they are even calling for the cancellation of the poll. We are shocked because the Ngor Okpala by-election is one of the freest and most credible elections conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in recent time.

“What PDP did not get by trying to disrupt the election is what they want to get by spreading falsehood and calling for cancellation.

“The party should be able to manage its losses. We saw this in 2020 when the Supreme Court sacked the PDP-led administration in the state. Unable to manage their loss, the party set the state on fire, not minding that it did not win the election in the first place.

“We should not throw caution to the wind in the name of playing politics. Enough is enough. PDP should stop destroying Imo State in the name of politics.”

The representative of Edo North Senatorial District, Francis Alimikhena, has opposed the ‘sleeping senator’ tag on him by allies of the former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

Alimikhena, of the APC, through his aide, Benjamin Atu, described his accusers as political outsiders, sponsored merchants and jobbers, who had no idea of his development efforts in Edo North Senatorial District.

The senator said: “The paid merchants should come for two weeks development inspection tour of my projects in Edo North.

“On the issue of boreholes that have stopped functioning, the fact that the critics admit that boreholes exist means that they are ignorant. They are paid to criticise me, but they have failed, since they did not do proper research, before criticising me.”

Oshiomhole’s allies, on the platform of Southsouth Movement, Edo North chapter, led by Alhaji Mustapher Buddy, Vitalis Eshokene, Ojisua Akojima David and Felix Ughiovhe, promised to stop the third term bid of Alimikhena.

They insisted that they would sustain the pressure on Oshiomhole to throw his hat into ring and vie in 2023, as the representative of Edo North Senatorial District, alleging that Alimikhena had not met the yearnings and aspirations of the people to deserve third term in the Senate.

The pro-Oshiomhole group described the senator’s projects, especially the boreholes, as ceremonial, stressing that they ceased to function immediately after their inauguration.

The members said: “Sen. Alimikhena has failed to meet the collective interest of our people. He was a principal member of the Senate in his first term and there was no significant project he attracted to the senatorial district with this position. Look at what Prof. Julius Ihonvbvere, also of the APC, is doing in Owan Federal Constituency, with laudable people-orientated projects.

Protest has greeted Anambra State governor-elect Prof Charles Soludo’s online job application from members of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

The Nation gathered yesterday that 22,000 people have applied for the posts of commissioners, senior special assistants, among others.

The APGA members condemned the recruitment method for political appointees, describing it as strange.

Soludo, the former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), after winning the November 6, 2021 governorship election, had asked political appointees, who would want to serve in his government, to apply online.

But APGA members rejected the online method, saying Soludo did not consult them before taking such decision.

Speaking with The Nation yesterday, some APGA members, who did not want to be named, said: “Soludo’s online method of selecting those to work in his administration is not acceptable because it doesn’t justify his preparedness to be a governor.

According to them, “it shows that he doesn’t know the people much; he doesn’t know the kind of people he can use to implement his manifesto and he wants people from the moon to give him ideas on what he is going to do at the Government House.

“Did Soludo fill online form before former President Olusegun Obasanjo gave him appointment as the Economic Adviser or as the Governor of Central Bank?

“Soludo shut the door against party members shortly after he was declared winner of the November 6, 2021 poll and told us that he didn’t want to see anybody.

“After that, he announced his bogus transition committee. The next thing he did was to release online application form.

“Let me ask one question, did he secure votes that made him governor from online device?

“We mobilised votes for him physically in our wards and in our local governments. So why should we express our interests to work in his government online?

“During campaigns, he was accessible to us. He didn’t ask people to come in through online to vote.”

A media assistant to Soludo, Mr. Joe Anatune, said as at Monday, 22,000 job applications had been received.

He said the online talent hunt was a kind of data bank that would be retained by the state government to identify the sector each applicant would be employed.

Anatune said:  “This is not a one-off thing, but a kind of employment bank or database from which applicants are engaged, depending on the demand for such job specifications.”

The National Coordinator of APGA Media Warriors Forum, Chinedu Obigwe, debunked the stories making the rounds that Soludo had abandoned APGA members in his appointment plans.

He said in a statement yesterday in Awka that the public should disregard such insinuations.

”I’m saying it authoritatively that the report did not emanate from APGA stalwarts.

”It’s important for me to use this medium to tell the public that Soludo is well prepared for the task of governing Ndi Anambra and he is determined to do his best for them.

“He is not joking with any of his moves and nobody should take his directives for granted.

“Those behind the report are labouring in vain to sow a seed of discord between APGA faithful and Soludo, but they have failed already,” Obigwe said.

Youths of Itu/Ibiono Ibom Federal Constituency have accused Akwa Ibom State Governor Udom Emmanuel of coercing his appointees to support his preferred successor, Pastor Umo Eno.

They said the governor’s choice of Eno, who is not from Itu/Ibiono Ibom Federal Constituency, but from Etinan, was against micro-zoning in the rotation of the governorship seat in Uyo Senatorial District.

The youth also accused the governor of using the state resources to sponsor his candidate over other governorship aspirants.

They said his action was a threat to the corporate interest of the state.

Their leader, Mr. Bassey Etim, who addressed a news conference at the NUJ Press Centre, Uyo, yesterday, said it was the turn of Itu/Ibiono Federal Constituency to produce the governor.

He said Uyo Senatorial District comprises three federal constituencies of Uyo, Etinan and Itu/Ibiono, lamenting that while Uyo and Etinan have each had their shot at the governorship, Itu/Ibiono Ibom has been cheated.

The Commissioner for information and Strategy, Iniobong Ememobong, declined comments on the matter when our correspondent phoned him.

“The Chief Press Secretary to the Governor is the right person to speak on the issue. Call him,” he said.

However, the Chief Press Secretary and Senior Special Adviser to the Governor, Mr. Ekerere Udoh, didn’t not respond to text messages and phone calls from our correspondent on the allegations raised by the youth.

Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday inaugurated bridges at Ogbolomabiri and Bassambiri, Nembe and Elebele in Ogbia area of Bayelsa State.

The residents were excited at the completion of the Nembe Unity Bridge linking Ogbolomabiri to Bassambiri and for constructing the Elebele Bridge, which is also a gateway to Nembe.

Jonathan hailed Governor Douye Diri for completing the project, which he noted would help to consolidate the peace and unity between both communities.

He said Diri had performed well in infrastructure development in just two years.

The former president described the bridge as symbolic and urged Nembe people to learn to resolve their differences, especially during elections, rather than play politics of brigandage and violence.

He said: “You have done well to complete this bridge project. I had to come and identify with this unique ceremony. Today should mark the end of any inter-communal conflict.

“The importance of this bridge cannot be overemphasised. From what I have seen, this bridge is expensive, well-built and solid. I hope it will solidify the unity between the people of the two communities.

“Politics should be a platform to bring development to our people and not to kill and chase them away from their communities. With the inauguration of this bridge, we pray that that brand of politics will also come to an end.”

Diri said the Nembe Bridge had been on the drawing board since the First Republic, adding that a former governor, who is now the Minister of State for Petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva, however, started construction work, “but the project was left till my administration took it over and completed it.”

Describing the bridge as historic, the governor said the project was one that would heal wounds and engender peace and unity among Nembe people.

He said: “My administration felt this is one historic and significant infrastructure that will help heal wounds. It is not only a physical bridge, but also a human bridge, especially between the brothers of Ogblomabiri and Bassambiri. Wherever there is war, development suffers and we lose not only infrastructure, but also human lives.”

The Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) has distanced itself from the claims of Francis Akpanari, the president of the Ijaw Peoples Association (IPA) in Great Britain and Ireland, that the programme is not living up to its financial obligations to some scholarship students.

PAP in a statement by the Special Adviser, Media, to the Interim Administrator, Neotaobase Egbe, said PAP did not owe any of its scholarship students, insisting that it was up to date with all payments.

He said it was unfortunate that Akpanari would make a blanket statement without verifying the facts on ground and appealed to the public to ignore him.

Egbe said since the emergence of Col. Milland Dixon Dikio (retd) as the interim administrator, there had not been complaints from students and their schools about school fees and in-training allowances.

He said PAP challenged anyone with contrary opinion to come forward with facts of bona fide amnesty students owed by the Amnesty Office.

Said he: “The PAP unequivocally states that the school fees and in-training allowances of all bona fide beneficiaries of the PAP scholarship scheme are up to March 2022.

“No student in our scholarship scheme is being owed, neither is there any institution that is owed. Those with contrary opinion are challenged to provide the names of the students and schools owed.

“The management of the PAP, under the leadership of the Interim Administrator, Col. Milland Dixon Dikio (rtd), is focused and committed to its beneficiaries.”

Abia State Government has reportedly handed over cash to support traders of Omumauzor Cattle Market in Ukwa West Local Government.

The Nation had reported that the cattle dealers lost about eight members and an unconfirmed number of cows and other animals during the invasion of the market after they were relocated from the Waterside Cattle Market located in Aba North Local Government, on the Aba-Ikot Ekpene Expressway.

The Nation learnt that a delegation of Abia traditional rulers led by Abia revered monarch, Eze Kalu Ogbu, the Einachioken of Abiriba, went to Gombe State to assure the people of the safety of their loved ones in Abia State.

A government source, who preferred anonymity, said that the state government paid N150, 000 for each of the 58 cows and N20, 000 for each of the 37 goats that were reportedly slaughtered by the hoodlums, who invaded the market.

The source said the government released N2milion each for wives of the deceased cattle dealers.

Another government source, who corroborated the account of his colleague, said the cow dealers had been relocated to the Uratta Market, on the Enugu-Aba-Port Harcourt Expressway, with full security complement.