Category: Southeast report

The Commissioner of Police (CP) in Delta, Mr Ari-Mohammed Ali has warned politicians in the state against fomenting trouble during the forthcoming governorship and House of Assembly election.

The CP gave the warning at a meeting with some members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Patani on Friday.

The meeting was sequel to a petition sent to the police by the APC, accusing some PDP leaders of conducting themselves in a manner that would lead to breakdown of law and order.

Ali advised them to work towards peaceful conduct of the election by maintaining peace in the area.

The CP was represented by the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Patani Police Division, CSP Tobi Debakeme.

“Elections are opportunities for the electorate to exercise their franchise in a peaceful atmosphere and does not call for violence,” he told the two party leaders.

Ali assured that the Police command would deploy crack teams to Patani LGA to maintain law and order during the election.

He reminded all candidates in the forthcoming election that they would be required to sign an undertaking of good conduct.

Following the declaration of the APC Presidential Candidate as President Elect in the just concluded presidential elections, the SouthEast APC Chairman, Dr. Ijeomah Arodiogbu has congratulated Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu on his victory.

Arodiogbu, who addressed pressmen in his country home in Imo State described Tinubu’s victory as similar to the title of one of the literary works of Nigeria’s Noble Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka’s , “The Lion and the Jewel”.

Waxing literary, Arodiogbu pointed out that Tinubu’s victory reflected much the choice of Nigerians who put aside those he described as political Lakunle’s who campaigned within the frames of religion, ethnicity and regionalism for competence, experience and performance exhibited by Senator Tinubu.

“Let me use this medium to thank Nigerians and congratulate the President-Elect, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress on his superlative victory in the just concluded presidential elections. As a Zonal Chairman, I am delighted that Asiwaju has despite the numerous challenges thrown his way emerged triumphant.”

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has denied mutilating election results in the Presidential and National Assembly elections in Imo State.

In a statement issued on the INEC website yesterday by its media team, the commission decried fabricated and malicious accusations from some quarters in the social media insinuating that election results in Imo State were either mutilated or tampered with by the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof. Sylvia Agu, to favour a particular political party.

The commission said it was of public knowledge that at the final collation of results of the presidential election as generated from the field, the Labour Party was announced as scoring the highest number of valid votes in the state.

A prominent indigene of Opu-Nembe, Dr. Kojo Sam, has described as mischievous, wicked and unthinkable, the allegations linking him and some persons to the recent invasion and killings at Opu-Nembe community of Bayelsa State.

Yet-to-be-identified gunmen stormed the community on February 15, killing three persons, a development that had sparked outrage across the state.

The youth leader of the community, Opu-Nembe, had alleged in a statement that the killings were authorised by Kojo as part of a plot to remove him as the youth leader.

Also, on Tuesday during a news conference at Opu-Nembe town hall, the royal throne and the entire Opu-Nembe kingdom alleged that the mastermind of the attacks was Kojo, an indigene of the kingdom and others with the help of some hired militants from other communities.

They claimed Kojo prided himself as above the law, boasting that no security outfit in the country could invite him, let alone arrest him.

However, reacting to the allegations, Kojo denied having hand in the unfortunate incident and called on security agencies to bring the perpetrators to book.

He said: “Opu-Nembe (Bassambiri) has been under a serious attack since the inception of Ayerite Moses (youth president) and grows curiously under the rulership of Chief Ezekiel Ikoli, the chairman of Council of Chiefs.

“The news conference by the Council of Chiefs chairman lacks merit because I have no hand in the invasion of the community.

“It is a fact that the youth president has turned the community into a militant zone and its residents to political prisoners. Power, water, peace and other social amenities are long lost.

“There have been series of criminal acts carried out by Ayerite such as the gun attack on Israel Suny-Goli’s house and the Agrisaba attack, which claimed lives. Ayerite and his group exchanged fire against anti-kidnap police on their way to make arrests, deliberately flogged an innocent boy to death, among other atrocities.”

“Ayerite has been invited by security agencies on many occasions, but failed to report.”

Kojo expressed surprise that issues of looting and demolition of properties of innocent indigenes attributed to him were not mentioned during the news conference.

“They have destroyed my house. The items inside, including the roof, have been sold. Yet the chairman of the Council of Chiefs refused to mention it for the public to know the wrong they have done to me over an incident I know nothing about,” he said.

The former youth president of the community, Iruo Theo, who was equally accused of involvement in the incident, denied any involvement.

He alleged that the enemies of Ayerite were the ones fighting him, but chose to blame innocent persons.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has begun a three-month free medical health care outreach for flood victims in Anambra State.

State Reproductive Health Coordinator, Ministry of Health, Dr. Obianuju Okoye, who disclosed this in Onitsha yesterday, said 5,000 people were being targeted from the outreach.

She said 560 health care workers had been trained in modified life- saving skills for the exercise, which would be carried out in the 10 local governments affected by the deluge.

She listed the councils as Anambra East and West, Onitsha North and South, Awka North, Anyamelum, Idemili North, Ogbaru, Ekwusigo and Ihiala.

Okoye said the project was sponsored by UNICEF after the governor’s wife, Mrs. Nonye Soludo, visited Internally Displaced People (IDP) camps in company with Health Commissioner Dr. Afam Obidike.

The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii has said that the insecurity currently pervading Ebonyi State was occasioned by unemployment and the needless interferences of government in the affairs of local communities.

Dr. Odii spoke through his deputy governorship candidate Senator Paulinus Igwe Nwagu during a debate organized for governorship candidates of different political parties in Ebonyi State by the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA), Abakaliki.

He said that until the state governments hands-off local administration to the local people, conflicts and communal crises may continue.

He said, “Unemployment, government interferences in the affairs of local communities is one of the major causes of insecurity.

“If you look at what is happening today, we have several communal crises, Ikwo and Izzi people, Abaomege and Ishinkwo, Ezza and Effium people, Ngbo and Igala, Edda and Amasiri etc.”

The PDP governorship candidate said that uniting the peoples of Ebonyi State would be a paramount policy of his government as there cannot be any development if there is no peace.

He promised that his government will ensure that the local government and local communities in the state would be granted their deserved autonomy so that they can elect their own leaders, develop in their own pace thereby engendering healthy competition and peaceful development..

“Our government will not have any interference with local politics.

“The government should not have interest in electing leaders of local communities, in communities you allow the people to elect their Town Union Presidents, Allow people to elect their traditional rulers; allow people to elect whosoever will be their councilor.

“Councilors are one of the most important representative of the people, my grandmother at home does not know who is the Chairman of the local government. Allow the government to go back to the people, by giving autonomy to the local government, it is very key.

“If you give autonomy to the local government and monitor them, they will do wonderfully well,” he reiterated.

Odii in all his campaign rallies has maintained that the various communal clashes and criminalities pervading most communities in Ebonyi State were caused because the government usurped the powers and values of local communities.

A former presidential aspirant, Stanley Osifo has congratulated Nigeria’s president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu on his victory at the just concluded presidential poll in Nigeria.

In a statement issued in Benin-City, Edo state capital on Saturday, Osifo described Tinubu’s emergence at the poll as an indication, doggedness and conviction of possibilities that can emerge from strong character and bold astuteness.

The business mogul turned politician urged Tinubu to reach out to as many people as he can and bring onboard as partners in execution of the lofty plan that he had line up to improve the lives of Nigerians and develop the nation.

He prayed God’s grace and wisdom for the president-elect to lead Nigerians into glorious improvements and development in all strata of national and international spheres.

The governorship candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) in Delta state, Dr. Goodnews Goodman Agbi, has assured of leading a human face administration if elected come March 11.

He stated this during a campaign tour to Oyede, Ivrogbo-Irri, Idheze, Orie-Irri, Utue-Irri and Oleh in Isoko South and North Local Government Areas of the State ahead of the governorship and state assembly elections.

He enjoined the electorate in the state to look beyond party lines and vote him, as well as the House of Assembly candidate for Isoko South Constituency 1, Hon. Clement Oyibo a.k.a Bako, next Saturday.

Citing the presidential election, he posited that the outcome of last Saturday’s polls has shown a change in Nigeria’s politics.

He said “if you look at what happened during the just concluded Presidential and National Assembly elections in Nigeria, people are no longer voting for party.

“Rather they are voting individuals with impeccable character that can give the people quality and effective representation.

“Since we have been hearing of Obidient Movement, Mr. Peter Obi never gave money to people to campaign and vote for him, a lot of people voted for him without money.

“We shouldn’t look at party. Come March 11th, vote for me and the House of Assembly candidate Isoko South Constituency 1 Hon. Clement Oyibo a.k.a Bako.

“In Isoko, people are always afraid when you tell them I am contesting for governor and I cannot be discouraged. But at the moment I am fully primed to contest the governorship.

“If people are looking at where you hail from or how much money you have, Mr. Peter Obi will not win Lagos, Nasarawa and other states.

“It is what the person can offer and the character of the person is what voters are looking for, that will make them to vote for him.”

Speaking, he said that when elected as governor, he would use resources accrued to the state for development and not to enrich himself.

“I have been very consistent in fighting for justice, fighting for the downtrodden, fighting for the oppressed, defending the defenseless, grooming the future generation as lecturer.

“I have always been nominated as best student friendly lecturer by my students in all the schools I have taught, in Ozoro polytechnic, now Delta State University of Science and Technology, Delta State  University Abraka, Oleh Campus.

“Ask any of my ex-students, they will tell you ‘Dr. Goodnews Agbi is a benevolent person with a good heart’. I will govern Delta with a human face.”

CROSS River state governor, Sir Ben Ayade has expressed deep shock and sorrow over the death of the Archbishop Emeritus of the Catholic Archdiocese of Calabar, the Most Reverend Joseph Edra Ukpo.

In a condolences message signed on his behalf by his Chief Press Secretary/ Special Adviser Media and Publicity, Barrister Christian Ita, the governor who is a knight of the Catholic Church, described Archbishop Ukpo’s passing as a “personal loss to me and my family.”

The news of Archbishop Ukpo’s demise, he said, “came with a profound pain of loss of such a great treasure of the Church and humanity at large.”

According to him, the late Archbishop was “a source of wisdom and counsel who was always there to lend a shoulder.”

The governor said his son-father relationship with the late Archbishop Ukpo makes his demise a personal loss to him and a void which will be too difficult to fill.

“This is a personal loss and a void that cannot be filled because he was a father to me. I cherished the moments of all my encounters with him and I wish him a safe journey and eternal repose in the bosom of the Father.”