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Tag: Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar

  • Monarch to Police: Don’t be quick to release arrested bandits

    The Emir of Katsina, Alhaji Abdulminu kabir Usman has warned the Nigerian Police Force against quick release of arrested bandits and kidnappers, without proper integration to ascertain the degree of their culpability.

    The monarch also urged the police to remain impartial and ensure that justice is done without discriminating or respecting the caliber of the suspect, as the force embarks on war against bandits and kidnappers in the North West.

    The Emir who made the call while receiving Acting Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar in his palace, also decried a situation where a criminal is arrested and handed over to the Police only to be found walking freely on the streets the next day probably because of his connection or position in the society.

    READ ALSO: Buhari to security chiefs: be ruthless with bandits

    He said: “I am happy that you are facing this challenge following your appointment at this time, while praying for the success of you and your men in the war against banditry and kidnapping in the zone I am urging you to ensure justice and punish the culprit. do not spare any one no matter how highly placed .You are asking for our cooperation in providing you with information, please act promptly on any report made and  ensure justice, such will encourage the people and build confidence between you and them’’

    “I spoke to President Buhari and asked him to increase the salary of the police and I am happy he heeded nu request, now I am appealing to him to equip the Police so that they can do a good Job in ensuring security in the North West.”

    Responding, the IGP said the deployment of a special security squad in parts of the state especially the 8 Local government bordering Zamfara state was in compliance with a Presidential directive, and assured of the determination of the force to succeed in the task ahead while appreciating the anticipated cooperation of the traditional ruler and the host communities.

    He assured the emir that the force will remain firm and just in the discharge of the assignment.

  • NBTE to address falling standards in polytechnics

    The National Board for Technical Education ( NBTE ) says it will tackle issues that are negatively affecting the standard of technical and vocational training in the country.

    The board’s Executive Secretary, Dr Masa’udu Kazaure, gave the assurance in Kaduna on Wednesday at a meeting with Chairmen and Rectors of state polytechnics.

    The meeting was summoned to discuss critical issues affecting standards especially in states-owned polytechnics.

    Kazaure noted that some of the institutions were running unaccredited courses, enrolling more than their capacity, facing serious funding gaps and have no proper statistics on their activities.

    He added that the polytechnics have unqualified staff, and serious issues with their workers.

    According to him, records from the board’s Quality Assurance Department indicate a worrisome level of continued existence of expired programmes in mostly state-owned polytechnics.

    “This is a serious problem that if left unaddressed would greatly affect our standard.

    “This problem is further compounded by the menace of over enrolment, driven solely by the desire to generate revenue.

    “While there is the need to complement government subvention, education remains a social investment that is quality conscious.

    “The board also observes with dismay, the trending practice of recruitment and promotion of unqualified staff especially in the academics in clear violation of prescribed rules.”

    He stressed that appointment and promotion should not be at the whims and caprices of those in authority but based on laid down rules.

    Read Also: NBTE hails foundation on programme

    “Anything contrary will only water down standards and make our product half-baked.”

    The NBTE boss also identified nonpayment of staff salaries and allowances running into several months and victimisation of union leaders by management as a recurring problem.

    “There is also the problem of increasing wave of management and union conflicts, threatening the smooth running of academic calendars,” he added.

    Kazaure stressed the need for partnership between the board, governing councils, rectors and other relevant stakeholders to solve the problems in order to maintain quality in the system.

    Also speaking, Malam Usman Dutse, President, Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) thanked the board for organising the meeting with a view to addressing issues affecting quality in polytechnics.

    Dutse, who acknowledged the problems identified by Kazaure, added that the institutions also have poor infrastructure and low staff strength.

    The ASUP president also said the polytechnics have been withholding union dues and were interfering in union affairs.

    He accused state governments of establishing most of the institutions purely on political grounds and now unable to meet minimum standard due to poor funding.

    “In fact, most of the infrastructures in state polytechnics are TETFund projects.

    “Today’s engagement presents a unique opportunity to address these issues which already threatened industrial harmony,” he said.

    On his part, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar, Chairman, Committee of Chairmen, Governing Councils of Federal Polytechnics, said that the stakeholders must work together to address the problems.

  • 1m Nigerian children die yearly of lack of water – USAID

    1m Nigerian children die yearly of lack of water – USAID

    • 57m Nigerians lack access to potable water

    United State Agency for International Development (USAID), has said that over 57 million Nigerians have no access to potable water in the country.

    This was also as it said that, one million Nigerian children die yearly for lack of potable drinking water.

    USAID Mission Director, Stephen M. Haykin stated these in Kaduna on Thursday at the occasion of official launch of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH).

    To this end, he said the USAID is supporting the WASH programme with 2.5 million Dollars to enable Nigerians have access to potable drinking water.

    According to him, “Having a clean water and sanitation is very essential for the development of a healthy society”.

    “Research has shown that, over 57 million of the Nigerian population don’t have access to potable water and sadly, about one million Nigerian children die yearly for lack of potable drinking water,” he said.

    Earlier, WASH project Coordinator, Timeyin Uwejamomere, said the project is expected to last for two years, ending in November 2018, adding that it will primarily target urban areas and focus the States of  Bauchi and Kaduna.

    He said this was because the respective State government have demonstrated firm commitment to the water sector.

    He said, “This is why we established a country office in the city of Kaduna, and last month a satellite office was opened in Bauchi.

    “The programme will strengthen institutions as well as research and knowledge management to support urban water, sanitation and hygiene”.

    In his speech to the occasion, Kaduna State governor, Malam Nasir El-rufai who was represented by his Chief of Staff, Malam Bashir Saidu said when Zaria water work is completed, it will provide 150 million litres of water for the populace.

    Also, the Bauchi State governor, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar regretted that the influx of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the State has increased the demand for water supply at the expense of original supply.

    He therefore pledged the commitment and political will of his government to ensure the success of the project.

  • ‘Power ‘ll shift in Bauchi’

    ‘Power ‘ll shift in Bauchi’

    All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Bauchi State Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar spoke with AUSTINE TSENZUGHUL in Bauchi, the state capital, on his plans for the state and other partisan issues.

    What lessons did you learn   from the primary election that produced you as a candidate?

    I thank God for giving me the victory at the primaries of my party. The election that took place was the freest and fairest I have ever witnessed anywhere in the world. The election was conducted on a lawn Tennis Court in Zaranda Hotel. That Tennis court has only one entrance which was manned and guarded by armed soldiers, police and other security operatives, therefore, anybody who alleged that, there was an attempt to snatch ballot boxes. There was nothing like that to mar that election. The voting was done in the presence of everybody and even when some agents of other aspirants raised the issue of excess votes, the Electoral Committee members, before announcing the result, they recounted the votes and discovered where they went wrong and effected the correction on the return sheets. But a three-man Appeal Committee was set up by the party [APC] to investigate and report the truth. The committee came to Bauchi and met with my party officials and the other aspirants while I was away in Lagos. But, when I came back I was shown some of the petitions and I answered to the best of my knowledge sincerely. That Appeal Committee has written its report and as far as the report is concerned, the committee did not find anything wrong with the election.

    Therefore, I am the governorship candidate of APC in Bauchi State. There can’t be two candidates and I’m the only candidate of the party which the National Headquarters of the party has confirmed, and that is why I went out today. I have done this in order to prove to the world and any doubting Thomas that the people of Bauchi state are with me and APC has approved of my candidature. I’m sure you witnessed the fact that, that crowd today was unprecedented and I have been in this town for so many years and I have never seen such crowd. I was the head of Legal Drafting Committee of Bauchi State House of Assembly during the Second Republic, and during third Republic, I was the Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General of the state during Dahiru Mohammed Deba of National Republican Convention, so I know the kind of politics that took place then. There was never a time when a candidate of any political came out and the entire Bauchi state capital came to a stand-still for good six hours. There was no movement because of the support of the people and I thank God for that. If anybody is looking for evidence that APC is on ground in Bauchi state, that was it and that means my candidature is widely accepted by the people of Bauchi state after the APC members have spoken at the primaries. Today, the entire people of Bauchi state came out en mass to welcome me after I came back. There is no better testimony better or more than the acceptance of my candidature.

    Are you not threatened by the PDP’s formidable structure?

    I doubt, if the PDP will ever pose any threat to me in Bauchi state. The PDP as you have seen today, as far as I’m concerned is nonexistent in the state. We have done it before in 2007, we defeated an incumbent governor when he contested for Bauchi South Senate seat, and defeated his candidate who contested for the state governorship, so we are going to repeat that feat. Now, more than the 2007, all the requirements for a clean sweep exist in Bauchi state for the APC and we are going to sweep PDP out of Bauchi state. You now have the evidence that Nigerians are yearning for a positive change.

    What is your reaction to the media report that you are being sponsored by  Governor Isa Yuguda?

    Of course, I have never heard any nonsensical lies more than that. I became the Bauchi state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in 1990 when Yuguda then was a lowly staff in the Federal Mortgage Bank. He was not the governor of Bauchi state then. There is no way I could have been his Attorney-General and he introducing me to politics as claimed by that reporter with the Leadership newspaper, there is no blatant lie more than that. I contested for the Bauchi South Senatorial seat and everybody thought he was supporting me when I joined, PDP but you remember what happened. If Yuguda was my friend and sponsor, he would have sponsored me to go to the Senate. He started with a trick when we were supposed to go for the contest to fill the vacant seat for Bauchi South after Senator Bala Mohammed was appointed FCT minister. There was no election, at the venue as the candidates merely gambled. But I don’t win at gambles. I don’t gamble, because I don’t win and that is my nature. During the proper primary election in 2011, Yuguda made it look as if he was supporting me but a day to the primaries he withdrew his support and everybody knew how much I spent and what I put in, if he is my friend he wouldn’t have abandoned me mid way.

    There is no iota of truth that Yuguda is sponsoring me. From the time I contested the primaries to date I have not had any relationship with PDP or Yuguda. However, as a Muslim any time I meet with him, I greet him. I met him at a Mosque when some books were being launched and I greeted him because he is the governor of Bauchi state my governor. Even if anybody does not like it, he is the governor of the state and we are respecting the office of the governor and not Yuguda. Recently, I met him at a Friday Mosque behind Government House, he walked to that place through the back door of the Government House for his Juma’at prayers. I drove from my House in company of my Campaign Organization, Deputy Director General, Alhaji Salisu Azare and after the prayers we greeted and left him, entered my car, but my detractors were busy telling the world that Yuguda went to my house and gave me a lift to the Mosque. There is no truth in that. We are Muslims and there is no way I will see him in the Mosque and refuse to pray or go back because Isa Yuguda is in the same Mosque.

    What is your relationship with Governor Yuguda?

     I do not have any relationship with Gov. Isa Yuguda except the relationship that my religion enjoined me to have whenever I meet with him. Before 2011 he was my friend. We were in the University together. I was in the university with Dr. Ibrahim Lame, though he was my senior and he has been a friend. Almost all the APC aspirants were at one time or the other friends with Isa Yuguda. Engineer Mohammed Umar Gambo was my classmate in the School of Basic Studies, Barrister Ibrahim Zailani is also a friend to Yuguda and many others. To others it is not an issue but when I, Mohammed Abubakar is involve that it becomes an issue, but you know why. What these people fail to understand is that God Almighty does not make mistakes, my victory was not a mistake, and it will never be a mistake because it is from Almighty Allah. If anybody is challenging my victory, he is not challenging me, but he is challenging Almighty Allah.

    Do you have plans to reconcile with aggrieved aspirants?

     Yes I have. Three of them came and congratulated me and pledged their support. The other three are Engineer Nuhu Gadido, Engineer Mohammed Gambo Umar, Comrade Abdullahi Ningi and Hon. Yusuf Maitama Tuggar. The others who feel more aggrieved I have not rejected them. I’m making efforts to get them on board because I know I have huge task ahead of me and will require everybody, especially the aspirants’ support to achieve our collective aim, which is to take the state out of its present doldrums. I intent to rally round all the aspirants, starting with state and national assembly’s aspirants to be able to move the state forward.

    What would be your priority as the governor, if elected?

    My first priority would be to bring back the economy of the state on stream. Bauchi is one of the most indebted states in Nigeria today, but our Internally Generated Revenue is nothing to write home about, so there is need to address the issue of state finance. But if I have reasons to probe Yuguda’s administration But Certainly I will not make an issue of it like it did with Ahmed Mu’azu only for the administration to sweep the recommendations under the carpet. I will do that quietly, so that I will get the diverted Bauchi state government resources back for the people.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Any plans for the youth and women?

     

     

     

     

     

    I have said it repeatedly that one of my focal points is to address the social issue involving the youths. Besides that, for our own interest we should address the issue of youth because if we allow it to continue, one day these youths will turn against us and of course, it has already started. You never heard stories about kidnapping in Bauchi state but today kidnapping is prevalent and I suspect it is some of these youth that are committing these ills. So, in our interest, we must address the issue of youth. For anybody who likes to see his community and state progress, the issue of the youth must be addressed because at the end of the day it is these youths that will become our Imams, Pastors and Emirs. For the women, Bauchi is one of the states that have recorded the highest number of cases of infant mortality and maternal mortality and if this is   not adequately checked the society will be endangered.