The Nation Newspaper

Tag: destroying

  • ‘Herdsmen still destroying our crops and houses’

    ‘Herdsmen still destroying our crops and houses’

    •Soldiers arrest suspect with bullet-proof vest

    Farmers in Tiv land have lamented that despite the presence of soldiers in their settlements, Fulani militia still destroy their crops and houses.

    A military exercise, Operation Cat Race, is on in Logo and Guma Local Government areas of Benue State.

    Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, who launched the exercise in Gbajimba, Guma council, said it is to flush out killer herdsmen and restore peace so that Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) can return home.

    However, when The Nation visited Asege, Tse Gbeleve, Agboko, Anyibe, Tse Dzungwe and Ibor, in Tombo ward, Logo council, most villages were deserted.

    The villagers said the Fulani militia seem to have returned with more force.

    A victim, Unande Utor, said Fulani militia have looted their property and destroyed their yam seeds.

    Another victim in Anyibe, Terzungwe Azua, alleged that the destruction of crops had increased since soldiers came to the area.

    Azua said they were better under the police, who responded to attacks on their farmland and crops.

    They alleged that the soldiers looked the other side while the Fulani destroyed their houses.

    Chairman of Logo council Richard Nyajo said he would report to the military to step up operation in abandoned settlements.

    Police spokesman Moses Yamu said he was yet to get the report.

    Troops in Benue State have arrested a herdsman with a locally-made bullet proof vest and cutlass at Chegba, Logo Local Government Area.

    A statement by Col. Aliyu Yusuf yesterday said the suspect had been handed over to the police.

    Yusuf added that troops in Taraba State intervened in a clash between hunters and herdsmen in Obi Local Government Area, and seized a locally-made pistol with live cartridge at Gidan Kiya, Ibbi Local Government Area.

    He urged residents to cooperate with troops by providing information and report any suspicious movement to security agencies.

  • Ogoni group to Avengers: stop destroying Niger Delta

    A group, Ogoni Ex-illegal Refines Forum (OERF), has warned the Niger Delta Avengers to desist from the constant attacks on oil facilities in the region.

    It described the group as saboteurs.

    The group wants the avengers to tow the line of OERF who abandoned their illegal refineries for the peace of the region and to support President Mohammadu Buhari’s effort to address the Niger Delta problems.

    Speaking yesterday in Port Harcourt, the leader of the group, Mr. Cassidy Mbera  said with the appointment of  Brig-Gen Paul Boroh, Coordinator, Presidential Amnesty Programme , the region is in a good position to benefit more from Buhari’s administration.

    Mbera regretted that the Niger Delta Avengers started their illegal activities in the region when President Buhari has shown interest in the region especially his action to clean up Ogoni.

    He urged the Ogoni people to disassociate themselves from the activities of avengers and support President Buhari who they said is  set to flag off the Ogoni cleanup on  2nd of June 2016 in Bori, the capital of Ogoniland

    He said it is an act of wickedness for Avengers to disregard the pains and sufferings the region would pass through from their deliberate evil activities against the people of the region.

    Mbera said: “We are here to condemn the illegal activities of the avengers who refused to put our people, environment into consideration. We are calling on them to accept dialogue and embrace peace. We have a President who has a listening ear.

    “We want to use this opportunity to congratulate the Coordinator for the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Brig-Gen Paul Boroh for appointing an Ogoni son as the head of Monitoring and Evaluation Unit. Of course, this group will continue to protest against anything that is inimical to the development of the region.”

  • Dame Jonathan destroying PDP in Rivers and Bayelsa

    SIR: The many excesses of the First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dame Patience Jonathan, if not checked, would lead to the failure to re-elect President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan come 2015. It will be shocking to see President Jonathan lose in both Rivers and Bayelsa states through protest votes. Dame Patience’s actions, on a daily basis, point in this direction, and may present President Jonathan as a weakling, even in the home front. The onus is on President Jonathan to, please, call his wife to order. She is not the first First Lady that Nigeria has ever had.

    President Jonathan should thank God that there would be no gubernatorial election in Bayelsa State in 2015 otherwise Dame Patience’s continuous interference and domineering behaviours have the potentials of harming his victory in his home state. The meddlesomeness of the First Lady is unbecoming. As it now stands, many Bayelsans see both Governor Dickson Seriake and Dame Jonathan as two greedy fellows, for offering and accepting, respectively, the position of Permanent Secretary in the Bayelsa State public service, which she has now resigned from. Their actions portrayed them as awful persons.

    The most disturbing now is in Rivers State where our Dame appears determined to impose her chosen candidate on the party that her husband nationally leads. Well, it is said that birds of the same feather flock together. Dame Patience is almost succeeding in destroying PDP in Rivers State. Her unchecked excesses that saw Governor Rotimi Amaechi leave the party is detestable. Her insistence that only Nyesom Wike possesses the capacity to defeat governor Amaechi’s candidate in the governorship election in Rivers State in 2015 cannot bring victory to PDP in Rivers State. Mark my words.

     

    • Cosmas Omoku,

    Diobu, Port Harcourt, Rivers State

  • Obi: we can’t build our country by destroying it

    Obi: we can’t build our country by destroying it

    Former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi has urged Nigerians to use the Eid-el-Fitri celebration to reflect on the state of the nation and themselves.

    In his Sallah message, Obi noted that happenings around the country did not give room for celebration.

    He said the nation cannot be built by first destroying it.

    The former governor said such occasions should be used to think “about ourselves, our country and the future we plan to bequeath to posterity”.

    He decried the spate of violence in the world, adding that Nigerian should see religious celebrations as a call for love, sharing and promoting peace in the world in line with the teachings of the founders of the various religions.

    Obi said: “We need to ask ourselves what we can do for the country, for our own present good and for the sake of coming generations. Greatness will come to nations that consciously plan and work hard to achieve consensus and confidence-building.  “Discipline and patriotic spirit of service are, therefore, essential to safeguarding the future. We cannot build our country by first destroying it.”

  • Suspected ‘PDP thugs’ caught destroying Aregbesola’s billboards, posters

    A crisis was averted yesterday in Ibokun, the headquarters of Obokun Local Government of Osun State, by security agents as suspected Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) thugs were caught destroying the billboards and posters of Governor Rauf Aregbesola.

    Aregbesola is the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in the August 9 poll.

    According to the state’s APC spokesperson, Kunle Oyatomi, the destruction of the billboards and posters was allegedly sponsored by the PDP’s candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore, who is billed to hold his campaign rally soon in the town.

    It was alleged that as the thugs were defacing the posters and billboards and replacing them with those of Omisore, some youths demanded to know the reason behind their actions.

    The two parties then engaged in altercations before the timely intervention of the Alademure of Ibokun, Oba Festus Awogboro and security agents.

    The Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Maishanu, has warned that his men would deal with anybody who violates the law.

    But the Head of Media, Omisore Campaign Organisation, Prince Diran Odeyemi, denied the allegation.

    He said that the allegation against Omisore and the PDP was designed to score cheap political points.

    The APC’s spokesperson while reacting to the incident said the PDP has introduced terrorism into politics.

    He said: “Political terrorism is being introduced into Osun State by desperate PDP politicians, who want to snatch power by all means; and it would appear they have the blessing of the Presidency.

    “With Boko Haram terrorists devastating the Northeast of Nigeria and stretching the security forces to their limit, it is inconceivable that the ruling party will be setting off political terrorism in the West in addition to Boko Haram in the north.”

  • Wike, Obuah destroying Jonathan, says forum

    The Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike and chairman of a faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Felix Obuah have been accused of destroying President Goodluck Jonathan.

    The President, Rivers Peoples Forum (RPF), Charles Bekwele, said this in a statement yesterday.

    The statement reads: “Mr. Felix Obuah, who pompously parades himself as a factional chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) in Rivers State has continued his grossly thoughtless, ill-mannered and horrid, though fruitless mission of denigrating and disparaging the person and office of the Governor of Rivers State and the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum(NGF), Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi.

    “It is important to note that this Obuah character is a lackey and domestic servant of Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike. Wike, an erstwhile protégé and boy of Governor Amaechi, who was nominated to the ministerial position by the governor, has now made discrediting and running down Amaechi his biggest life mission.

    “The Rivers’ Peoples Forum (RPF), an umbrella body of all Rivers people both at home and in diaspora, over the months have watched with disgust the scurrilous comments and statements of Wike, Obuah and Wike’s other lackeys, who persistently assail the person and office of the Governor of Rivers State under the pretensions of defending and fighting for President Goodluck Jonathan and his dear wife, our lovely, beautiful sister Patience.

    “In reality, Nyesom Wike, Felix Obuah and their co-travellers by their actions and statements are hell-bent on destroying the office of the President and dragging the name of its present occupant and his wife through the mud. Their penchant for dragging the name of President Jonathan and his wife into their petty war of attrition against Governor Amaechi is tantamount to rubbishing President Jonathan in a most brutal and crude manner and a vicious humiliation, disrespect and bastardisation of the office of the President.”