The Nation Newspaper

Tag: deplores

  • Dabiri-Erewa deplores killing of another Nigerian in South Africa

    Dabiri-Erewa deplores killing of another Nigerian in South Africa

    Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, has condemned Wednesday’s killing of another Nigerian by the South African police.

    Kingsley Ikeri, a 27year old businessman from Mbaitolu, Imo State, was allegedly suffocated to death during interrogation by the police.

    He is the latest Nigerian to be killed in South Africa.

    Dabiri-Erewa in a statement through her Special Assistant on Media, Abdurrahman Balogun, said “this is one death, too many.”

    She said in spite of all diplomatic talks between Nigeria and South Africa to put an early warning signal in place, “it doesn’t seem to be working.”

    The Nigeria Union in South Africa has confirmed the killing of Ikeri at Vryheid town in KwaZulu Natal Province of South Africa on August  30.

    He is the second Imo State indigene to be so killed in the last two weeks.

    Dabiri-Erewa described the latest extra judicial killing of another Nigerian in South Africa as “worrying and condemnable.”

    She said that the latest gruesome killing of Ikeri by the Police in South Africa is “unacceptable to the people and government of Nigeria.”

    While reiterating President Muhammadu Buhari’s calls to Nigerians to avoid crimes like drug peddling which attracts stiff penalties, sometimes death, she noted that the latest killing has increased the number of Nigerians killed in South Africa through extrajudicial means in the last one year.

    “The barbaric behaviour of the perpetrators is not only unacceptable but also calls for urgent attention by diplomatic authorities in Nigeria and South Africa,” she said.

    Dabiri-Erewa urged the South African government to ensure that justice prevails by carrying out investigation and bring the culprits to book.

    She reiterated her calls to Nigerians living abroad to always respect the laws of their host countries and be good ambassadors.

    “My heart goes out to the families of the deceased and I pray God to grant the departed soul eternal rest,” the SSA prayed.

    Bartholomew Eziagulu, Chairman of the Nigerian Union in the province, said at the weekend that Ikeri was tortured to death by the police.

    He said the union’s investigations revealed that the police arrested the deceased and a friend on suspicion that they were carrying hard drugs.

    He said while interrogating him, the police used plastic to cover his face to extort information from him.

    “In the process, they suffocated the deceased. When the police took him to the hospital, he was confirmed dead,” he said.

    Adetola Olubajo, the Secretary General of the union, said the national secretariat had been informed about the death of the Nigerian.

    He said the body had informed appropriate Nigerian authorities and the police in South Africa.

    A senior diplomat from the Nigerian Consulate in Johannesburg has visited Vryheid on a fact-finding mission.

    Dabiri-Erewa had in February during a meeting in Abuja with South Africa High Commissioner, Mr Lulu Louis Mnguni, said a total of 116 Nigerians have been killed in South Africa through extrajudicial means in the last two years.

    Seven in 10 of the killings were carried out by the Police.

     

  • Ex-militant leader deplores calls for Kuku’s sack

    Ex-militant leader Augustine Ogedegbe yesterday warned those urging President Goodluck Jonathan to sack the Special Adviser to the President on Amnesty, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, to desist from such act.

    Ogedegbe, who also enjoined Niger Delta ex-militants to rally round Kuku, said the amnesty programme has changed lives in the Niger Delta.

    He said there was nothing Kuku had done that should be investigated, adding that since he assumed office, there had been peace and development in the region.

    Ogedegbe, who issued this statement when reacting to an online publication by ex-leader Sobomabo Jackrich said as a stakeholder in the programme, there was no time it experienced any sort or deliberate delay of payment as alleged.

    Ogedegbe said: “Jackrich, who claims to be the director-general of the Network for the Defence of Democracy and Good Governance (NDDGG), has not given any evidence on his claim that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) should probe the Amnesty Office.”

    Hailing Jonathan for the choice of Kuku as the special adviser to the President on Amnesty, Ogedegbe enjoined Niger Delta ex-militants to rally round him to ensure that he renders good services to the people of the region.

    He urged President Jonathan to bring more developments to the Niger Delta states.

  • ACN deplores Ladoja’s presence at Adedibu’s memorial

    The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Oyo State has said former Governor Rashidi Ladoja’s presence at the fifth remembrance of the late strongman of Ibadan politics, Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu, was to mock the deceased .

    In a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Mr. Dauda Kolawole, ACN said: “We cannot understand why Ladoja would choose to mock the memory of the late Adedibu by attending the event. Wherever Baba Adedibu was when Ladoja visited his Molete empire, he must have been seething with anger. This is the same man, who made life very uncomfortable for him when he was alive.”

    ACN said the drama that took place at the venue of the remembrance was a confirmation of Ladoja’s disrespect for the late Adedibu.

    It said: “This disposition is un-African, as Africans respect the dead. Whatever wrong the late Adedibu did against Ladoja, the former governor ought to have forgiven him.

    “We understand how, as governor, Ladoja made life unbearable for the deceased. But Adedibu is dead now and that should be in the past. That mockery of an appearance he made at Molete on Wednesday is condemnable. It is bad to nurse a grouse against a dead man.”

    The party wondered why Ladoja, who did not visit the family of the late Adedibu when he died five years ago, chose to attend the remembrance ceremony.

    It said: “All these underscore the personality of Ladoja. That he chose not to greet former Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala’s deputy, Mr. Hazeem Gbolarumi, at the ceremony shows the politics of acrimony and unforgiveness that Ladoja plays.

    “If he truly loves Adedibu as he tried to show by his presence at the ceremony, why did he snub Baba’s lieutenants? This is paradoxical because those lieutenants prosecuted whatever action Adedibu took while he was alive.”

    ACN said it found the report that the former governor chose not to sit on the chair provided for him to be in bad taste.

    It said: “Ladoja trusts no one, believes no one, except himself and his immediate family. He apparently believed that the chair was laced with charms. This is not coincidental. It is a mirror of the life of a man, who once governed us.”

  • PDP deplores Ondo debt profile

    The campaign organisation of Olusola Oke/Saka Lawal, candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the October 20 governorship election, has berated Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko over the debt profile of the state.

    The group said Ondo people are unhappy due to the poverty, gloom, frustration and inertia in the last three and a half years.

    It said: “Nobody should be in doubt about the magnitude of the punishment the current tenants of the Government House will receive from the electorate.

    “For example, whereas the Mimiko administration has illegally taken custody of and converted the over N100 billion funds belonging to the local governments every month since February 2009, you cannot find any meaningful project in the local governments.”

    The campaign organisation said the state is under debt burden which has hampered development at the local government level. It added that Governor Mimiko has not fulfilled his electoral promises.

    It said: “The local governments are broke. Workers in 90 per cent of the councils, after agitations and threats, have just been paid the two month salaries owed them by the local governments.

    “It is also alarming that the state government is planning to enter into a N3 billion loan deal with a first generation bank to enable it pay the state and local government employees for September and October. This is apart from the N50 billion loan burden placed on the people by the bond market.

    “No public water tap is working in the state, whereas government spent over N300 million to build a water fountain on the Oba Adesida Highway.

    “With over N600 billion revenue since 2009, it is not surprising why the people are asking the governor to point to one completed or inaugurated road project and any established or facilitated large scale or cottage industry since 2009.

    “Did Mimiko not promise 4,000 jobs within 100 days? Did he not boast of establishing a N5 billion Ore Sunshine Megacity Plaza having 1,000 capacity trailer park, 200 shops 2,000 residential units, hotels, power plant, etc? Did he not promise a N3 billion tomato paste factory at Arigidi Akoko, a N13 billion motor assembly plant at Bolorunduro in Ondo East, an N8 billion cement factory at Okeluse, a N1.8 billion international conference centre, among others? Were billions of naira not released for all these? The people are asking Mimiko to point at any of these projects.”