The Nation Newspaper

Tag: KOGI

  • President Buhari: do something!

    Let me at the very outset enter a caveat: This is no hysteria or histrionics of any kind. The issues raised in this piece are absolutely in the public interest, especially in the interest of the most at risk Nigerians who literally have no voice of their own. Among them are the unemployed and the totally unemployable s to whom the Federal Government’s social security programmes might have reached, and provide a succour of sorts, have our legislators not taken to themselves a hugely disproportionate part of the national income. Certainly among the victims of this crass selfishness, are government workers, millions of who are owed their salaries for upwards of eight months and some, as in Benue and Kogi states, for over 12 months. These are people whose children, and wards’ inability to pay their school fees have either taken to prostitution or chose almost certain death in the Sahara desert or, worse still, on raging seas in North Africa. Or sold into slavery.

    And that is where they have not simply succumbed to the elements.

    Thanks to Mr Peter Obi, former Anambra State governor, we now know that everything has broken down in Nigeria. According to him: “If he revealed how much a Nigerian governor earns, the outrage would be hotter than what trailed the N13.5 million monthly pay of senators.” “None of you,” he further said, “knows what a governor earns.  Quote me anywhere, if you know you won’t be here.”

    Nigerians already have details of what senators earn, and with those figures, we can work straight away. If any of the figures are wrong or outlandish, it will be the duty of the senate spokesperson to let Nigerians know. It will be the height of disrespect to the citizenry for the senate to resort to any sabre rattling and Nigerians will take none of such insult.

    For me, Olakunle Abimbola of The Nation remains a constant source of great delight. He writes for all time, now and, forever, and always, quotable. Let’s see him in DISTRACTIONS, The Nation, Tuesday, 6 March, 2018. He wrote, and I will quote him in ex tensor: “The more the president pines, the more he is scorned, if not by the quiet majority, then by a noise-some, virulent ensemble; most garrulous among whom are unfazed past wreckers, locating their own redemption in Buhari’s destruction.

    Yet, Buhari is nary the enemy.

    “As if bewitched, critical stakeholders of the Nigerian realm have joined this self-destruct crusade. In booming business are ethnic entrepreneurs, with their impassioned Fulani roasting; tribal pigeon-holing and ethnic scapegoating, their golden but empty panacea to rural banditry (read “Fulani herdsmen”), with its wanton waste of life. Churches live in scandalous denial of the tough economic rebuilding, play politics of the belly with their congregants’ plight and worship on the altar of cheap populism. Yet, that denial negates their core doctrine: purgatory before salvation – that tough path to spiritual renewal. If you don’t purge yourself of old vices, how do you appreciate the new grace? A section of the media, smug, severe, all-wise and all-knowing, point fingers, lecture and hector: a very few from the position of condescending knowledge; a good many from self-yoked, but badly disguised bigotry; and many, many more, just echoing the din, like some Roman plebs baying for blood, but never bothering to ask why! Among the commentariat, an anarchist’s manifesto would appear writ large!”

    What he failed to do in that piece, was cast a glance at the totally disreputable Nigerian legislature, an arm of government so unfeeling its less than 600 total population takes such a humongous portion of our country’s total annual income it would not be a curse to say that some of them will, very soon, choke on gluttony.

    Cognisant of the fact that many wished President Muhammad Buhari dead not too long ago, I stopped short, in the title of this article, from doing that which Ghanaians, our neighbours and brothers, did a while ago when they called on President Jerry Rawlings to save Ghana from the likes of the predators who now predominate the Nigerian political space. Cried hapless Ghanaians: J J, DO SOMETHING BEFORE YOU DIE.

    That is the war cry I am extending to the president today. If it is the only thing President Buhari will do for the remaining part of his entire life, he must save hapless Nigerians first, from the internal slavery the Legislature has dug us into. Their out of the world heist from the national treasury is choking Nigeria. They are so unfeeling not an all-consuming recession could make them bat an eyelid or have a rethink. They took it, all of their N13.5 million monthly heist, and more. What exactly runs through these fellows veins, what? Why is shame in such short supply among them? How many times a day do they feed their ravenous palates?

    Unfortunately, the respective Houses of Assembly, save one or two,  have become nothing but slaves to their Almighty Governors and there is no way they can call them to order. It is not unknown that many state legislators are owed salaries for months but you won’t hear a word. That is why the president must also handle all these leakages.

    Mr President, it has become obvious that we, an absolutely docile Nigerian citizenry, can no longer help ourselves, and therefore have no choice than to call on the only one man we elected to govern us, despite all the mischievous antics of the antichrists that now populate our country. By whatever means, Sir, you must stop this lootocracy in high places and the place to start is to kick the ass of the soporific and useless Revenue Mobilisation Allocation Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) which has remained deaf and dumb to all the noise made by Nigerians on the ignominious obfuscations its constitutionally prescribed roles have suffered in the hands of legislators. The agency must be sacked immediately with new members appointed to breathe life into it. Most of the legislators’ allowances are self- awarded; a direct consequence of President Obasanjo inflicting two luckless presidents on Nigeria both of who became playthings of the legislature, especially during the Speaker-ship of Hon Dimeji Bankole when they not only astronomically increased their allowances, but went a-borrowing from banks, to pay illegal  allowances that  were curiously backdated.

    Subsequent on Senator Shehu Sani’s letting slip their monthly pay, traumatised Nigerians have come up with several comments. Below is one on the Facebook wall of Valiant Samson Idowu-Alaba.

    IN CASE ANY FIGURE IS WRONG, LET THE SENATE CORRECT IT AS THE ONUS IS ON THEM.

    WHAT A NIGERIAN SENATOR GETS

    1. RUNNING COST

    Newspaper allowance…….N1.24m

    Wardrobe allowance……….N0.62m

    Recess allowance ………….N0.25m

    Accommodation…………….N4.97m

    Utilities …………………………N0.83m

    Domestic staff……………….N1.86m

    Entertainment………………..N0.83m

    Personal Assistant…………N0.62m

    Vehicle Mtce Allowance…N1.86m

    Leave Allowance……………N0.25m

    TOTAL RUNNING COST ………..N13.58m/month

    This adds up to N162.96m annually

    1. CONSOLIDATED SALARY

    He goes home with N750,000 monthly.

    This sums up to N9m annually.

    1. He is entitled to N200m annually to execute projects which is the duty of the Executive branch but which they normally corner, where executed, at all.

    SUMMARY

    Annual Salary…N9,000,000 per annum

    Running Allowance….N163,000,000 per annum

    Constituency….N200,000,000 per annum

     

    TOTAL N372,000,000.00 per annum.

    This amount is over N1,000,000 every blessed day including Sundays when he/she is in church.

    HE ALSO GETS THIS

    Severance Gratuity………… N7.43m

    (Is this as many terms as he does?)

    Furniture allowance ……….N7.45m

    Motor Vehicle Allowance…N9.94m

     

    TOTAL  N24.82m. I presume once in a Senate life.

    The above are the amounts to which Nigerians can put a figure.

    So Mr President, if clearing this Augean stable is, the only additional thing you can do for Nigerians, you would not only have earned a place in our history books, you would have earned it in our hearts.

    We know you can do it.

  • APC’s unending crisis in Kogi

    The efforts of the All Progressives Congress (APC) stakeholders at both national and state levels to resolve the lingering crisis in the Kogi State chapter of the party seem to have failed. JAMES AZANIA examines why the crisis, which has pitched Governor Yahaya Bello and his loyalists against the Audu/Faleke/Ametuo-led state executive council, has proved intractable. 

    THE warring factions in the Kogi State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) appear unwilling to compromise. Despite efforts by stakeholders to unite the fold, all the sides to the crisis remain obdurate.

    The crisis started the moment it became obvious that Alhaji Yahaya Bello was going to be governor. The death of Alhaji Abubakar Audu, the party’s governorship flag bearer in the 2015 election just before the party was declared winner of the election, created a lacuna. The framers of the electoral law did not envisage a situation where a party’s standard bearer would pass away in the process of the election. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared the poll inconclusive.

    Bello who came second in the governorship primary was later to emerge as the APC candidate, thus foreclosing the chances of the running mate to the late Audu, Hon. James Faleke, stepping into the shoes of his former principal. From thast moment, “things fell apart and the centre could no longer hold”.

    From the litigations that ensued, to Bello’s choice of appointees, to the perceived exclusion of those that worked for the party’s victory at the polls and subsequent moves to upstate the Alhaji Haddi Ametuo-led state executive council, labelled ‘Diaspora APC’, the distraction caused has been enormous, even as the bickering among the warring factions remains unrelenting.

    All along, Bello has schemed to put in place a new party leadership that will be loyal to him, but with the extension approved by the APC National Executive Committee (NEC), of the tenure of the Chief John Odigie-Oyegun-led National Working Committee and state executive committees of the party for another one year with effect from June 2018, all that would have to tarry a while.

    Governor Bello who briefed newsmen last Wednesday, midway into the weekly state executive council meeting, said the decision was taken in line with Article 13 of the party, which allows the NEC to exercise the powers of the National Convention.

    He said the decision to elongate the tenure of the NEC and its state counterparts was taken to avoid any confusion in the operation of the party ahead of the forthcoming general elections and to allow the Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu-led reconciliation committee to carry out an effective job.

    With the development, Governor Bello’s survival strategy, particularly his bid to organise council elections, has been jeopardized. The Ametuo-led faction dominates the state executive council, because it has the support of 39 out of the 51 members of the group; though those loyal to the governor continue to exert themselves.

    The governor had in a recent petition passed a vote of no confidence on the members of the executive, accusing them of anti-party activities. They appeared before a disciplinary panel at the zonal office of the APC in Lafia, Nassarawa State, where they denied all the allegations.

    The Ametuo group and other stakeholders affiliated to it, including the member representing Kogi West at the National Assembly, Senator Dino Melaye, had in time past passed a vote of no confidence on the governor, from outside the state.

    At the disciplinary panel, Ametuo accused Governor Bello of anti-party activities, alleging among other things that after he lost the party primary in 2015, he worked for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Captain Idris Wada, during the November 2015 governorship election.

    Ametuo said that the petition against him lacked merit and that some of the signatories were ghosts. He said: “Hon. Taufiq Isah who has been appointed as Ijumu Local Government Area (LGA) Caretaker Chairman signed as party chairman, while Osanaiye Taiwo who died in 2015 signed as Secretary of the council. Haruna Isah could not have signed as Lokoja LGA APC chairman, because he has been appointed as a Special Adviser (SA) to the governor.

    “Our governor, Yahaya Bello, joined the APC in February 5, 2015, when it was obvious that President Muhammadu Buhari was going to win the presidential election and at a time when we had concluded all rallies. We had toiled day and night under the rain and sunshine from 2014; through membership registration exercise, congresses, conventions, primaries, rallies and all elections in Kogi State. Those of us who made these victories possible are still much intact and focused. We are still prepared to recover the lost grounds for our party in the state to repeat a resounding victory for President Buhari and recapture all the legislative seats in 2019. We therefore request that this petition be thrown into the dustbin for lack of merit.”

    The zonal leadership however announced the sack of Ametuo and 38 other executive members, saying their removal was recommended by a report from the zonal disciplinary committee.

    In his reaction the decision, Faleke described it as a sham, insisting that money exchanged hands ‘to do the governor’s biddings’.

    He said: “Yes, I read in the newspapers that the state executive has been dissolved. Only yesterday morning, it came to our knowledge that the North Central chairman collected money to carry out an illegal dissolution. I maintain that it was not possible, because in the first instance only the National Working Committee (NWC) can recommend the dissolution of state executives which must be ratified by the NEC. So, if a committee was set up, my expectation is that the recommendations of that committee should have been passed on to the NWC before any action is taken. It is the same NWC that caused the havoc that we are having in Kogi today. Is it now that the president is making peace in the party that such a thing should come up?”

    He described as unfortunate the idea of the zonal leadership relying on a petition written by the Bello group against 39 members of the state executive.

    The Speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly, Prince Mathew Kolawole who expressed optimism that the ruling party would successfully put its house in order however blamed the state party exco. for allowing the crisis to fester.

    He said: “It is unfortunate where we are today that the crisis in our party, especially in Kogi, still lingers among members of the executive. The executive members have refused to accord the governor his right of being the leader of the party. Hence, they undermine him with derogatory comments and insults.

    “I sincerely believe that what has a beginning must surely have an end. The tenure of the executives as at today is coming to an end gradually and I believe that in party politics the governor is number one. Governors are party leaders in all the states and our own cannot be an exception. He remains the party leader; come rain, come sun, till he ceases to be the governor. Even when efforts were being made for reconciliation, the utterances of some of the executives were not encouraging.

    “These are people who believe they were there before he came and so, they want to oppress him with insults. Those things will not help anybody. The governor remains the leader of our party and I am loyal to him to the core, because I am a party man. It is a party mechanism, but I can tell you the APC is together in Kogi State.”

    The APC National Secretariat rejected the sacking of the Kogi exco., saying that the NWC had nothing to do with it.

    The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Bolaji Abdullahi, dismissing it. He said: “Our attention has been drawn to a story on a national television that the state executive committee of the APC in Kogi State has been suspended. We want to state that this action does not emanate from the NWC or any of its organ so empowered to do so.

    “Although there are issues within the party in Kogi and the NWC has empowered a committee to investigate and make recommendations, it has not been appropriately briefed on the outcome of the committee’s work and therefore has not taken any decision.”

    Governor Bello was to constitute a parallel executive to replace the allegedly sacked one, a move that now appears ‘dead on arrival’. The Kogi APC imbroglio was to assume another dimension with the recent visit of the party’s National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, to the state, ostensibly in a show of support for the governor

    Oyegun graced the Lokoja mega rally organised to receive sundry defectors from other parties, a move that many read between the lines. Even in the face of glaring fracture within the Kogi APC, Odugie-Oyegun chose to overlook the issue. Rather, he was full of praises for the governor and the state chapter of the party.

    The APC National Leader and Chairman of its Reconciliation Committee, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, was to point out that Odigie-Oyegun compounded the problems of the party, with the role he played in Kogi.

    Tinubu, in a letter to the President, accused Odigie-Oyegun of complicating the onerous task of reconciling the factions in the Kogi APC, particularly and the nation in general.

    With the most recent one year extension of the Ametuo-led state executive council, the situation in the Kogi APC can at best be described as detente.

  • Nothing can stop us from accommodating herdsmen, Kogi gov vows

    Nothing can stop us from accommodating herdsmen, Kogi gov vows

    • ACF chieftain warns governor over cattle colony
    • ‘We adopted ranching in place of cattle colony
    and nothing can stop the project’ – KDSG

    The Kogi State government has declared that it has no intention of backing off its generous accommodation of herdsmen and development of agriculture in the state, despite criticism from certain quarters.

    Some prominent citizens of Kogi are opposed to Governor Yahaya Bello’s allocation of 15,000 hectares to the federal government for use as cattle ranches.

    One of such is Alhaji Mohammed Baba Abdulrahman, a chieftain of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and of Ebirra stock as Bello.

    He branded Bello’s action as a coup against the Ebirra and a threat to peace.

    Reacting to Abdulrahman’s statement, Governor Bello’s Chief Press Secretary, Petra Akinti Onyegbule said people like the ACF chief are behind the news.

    Government, according to her, decided to support the establishment of ranches, after listening to the views of the generality of the people of the state.

    She said the ranches will go a long way in   developing the cattle value chain.

    According to her, “One suspects that Mr. Abdulrahman’s grouse goes beyond the use of the word ‘colony’ to the whole idea of supporting herdsmen while promoting peaceful co-existence and ensuring security of lives and property.

    “On Wednesday, February 28, the Northern Governors’ Forum met in Kaduna; following that meeting, Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State issued a communiqué on behalf of all the 19 governors stating their stand to support cattle ranches and the event was well covered and widely reported.

    “Alhaji Mohammed may have spoken a little too soon; it is either that, or he is unaware that the train has already left the station, in which case he might want to expand the scope of his criticism given this recent development if it indeed is his considered position that government should not venture into cattle ranching.

    “We appreciate the fact that cattle herding is age old in this country, and that the herders have become accustomed to the practice and the nomadic way of life it entails but a time comes when it is imperative for people to alter their usual ways of doing things, especially given the incalculable cost this particular matter comes at in terms of loss of human lives, possessions, not to mention the inter-ethnic tensions generated as a result that are capable of destabilizing the country.

    “We cannot keep doing the same things and honestly expect different outcomes; for us to break out of this vicious cycle of cattle herding, cattle rustling, attacks and reprisal attacks, and in keeping with what works in other climes, cattle ranching needs to be looked into and pursued vigorously.”

    Akingbule  said  critics of the cattle ranching initiative  appear to favour the continued practise of cattle herding while holding on to incorrect assumptions and a wrong notion that government may have to cede public land to individuals for what is essentially private business.

    “It is no different from the current practice where government land is freely given out to crop farmers from time to time and they would also get seedlings, fertilizers and other farm inputs,” she said.

     

     

  • Kogi, firm set to implement MoU on 3000mw deal

    The President, PowerChina International Group Ltd, Mr Song Dongsheng has said  his company is set to begin the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed with Kogi State government for the establishment of 3000 megawatts of electricity in the state.

    Dongsheng, who visited    Governor  Yahaya Bello in Abuja to discuss  the implementation of the  MoU, which was signed during the just- concluded Kogi Economic and Investment Summit,

    said the meeting was a followup to the projects.

    He requested that a technical team on the side of the Kogi State Government be set up  before the arrival of PowerChina’s Technical Team, scheduled to arrive in the state in two weeks time.

    The President of the company who explained that the MOU comprises two projects; a 2,400MW coal-fired power generating plant and a 600MW hydro-powered plant , urged the state government to identify the two sites.

    Bello said his government was ready to safeguard the lives of the personnel , equipment and investment of the company within the state’s borders.

    He said the technical team had  been set up and the sites  identified in readiness for the work, stressing that electricity is key to his plans to make Kogi  an economic hub.

    At the meeting were Dr. Zhang Nianmu, President Central and West Africa; Tian Haihua, Executive Vice President Central and West Africa; Wang XinHuai, Vice President Central and West Africa; Samuel Fayemi, Nigerian representative; Mr Shola Arifayan the Executive Director of Energy Consultant Consortium; and Asiwaju Asiru Idris, Head of Economic Team/Commissioner of Finance.

    T `he 3,000 megawatts MOU was one of the seven that the state government signed with  investors over the two-day economic and political investment summit held recently in the state.

     

  • Artisans lament power outage in Kogi

    Artisans lament power outage in Kogi

    The Blacksmith, Welders and Iron Benders Association of Nigeria (BWIAN) in Kogi State has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Yahaya Bello to rescue their business from imminent collapse.

    They berated the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) for not keeping to its promise of distributing prepaid metres to customers after so many years. They lamented that their members in the central senatorial district, over 2,000, would soon be pushed out of the trade if urgent actions are not taken by the government.

    A statement by the association’s president in Kogi Central Musa Sa’id, and the branch chairmen of Adavi, Ajaokuta, Okene and Okehi councils, said: “The AEDC, in the last three years, has been sending our members crazy bills for the electricity they did not consume.

    “More worrisome is the six hours’ light-a day, we get which, if evaluated, amounts to only seven days in a month. But the company bill us for 30 days.

    “We are tired of paying for the electricity we did not use. While disconnected, the bills keep coming. Many of us can no longer feed our families talk less of paying school fees. We get jobs but there is no electricity to execute them.

    “We have been asking AEDC to give us prepaid metres, but they deliberately refused to serve us because they want to continue cheating us”.

    The Liaison Officer, Licensed Electrical Contractors Association of Nigeria (LECAN), Haruna Ahmed Osike, who bemoaned the plight of the artisans, appreciated the government’s effort at encouraging people to learn a trade for self-reliance. He, however, lamented that the power situation is discouraging and may spell doom for the state and the country at large.

    AEDC’s Marketing Manager, Okene Business Unit, Mr. Olusegun Pelema, however promised that the association’s complaint will be forwarded to the company’s head office in Abuja for attention.

  • AEDC requires $150m to install meters for customers – MD

    AEDC requires $150m to install meters for customers – MD

    Abuja Electricity Distribution Company ( AEDC ) says about 150 million dollars is required to finance metering of  electricity customers  in its coverage areas of Kogi, Niger, Nasarawa and the Federal Capital Territory ( FCT ).

    AEDC’s Managing Director, Mr Ernest Mupwaya, said this while making a presentation to House Committee on  Privatisation, who was on oversight visit to the company.

    Mupwaya said  the huge cost of metering was one of the challenges to mass metering of all the customers.

    He, however, said the company had a target of installing 120,000 meters yearly, adding that 146,000 meters had been installed so far.

    He told the  house committee  members that  AEDC was in the final process of  procuring another 320,000 meters  to accelerate  metering of  residential  customers.

    On Large Power Users (LPU), he said AEDC  had successfully  installed meter for all the 4,000 LPU customers; installed a technology to improve security and tampering detection on the equipment.

    He also said that the technology was designed to help monitor quality of power supply and power flow to the customers.

    According to him, the company has installed network capacity of about 870 MW above 710 MW peak power network received, adding that it has capacity to receive more power across its franchise area.

    He also said AEDC had also reduced its technical and commercial losses from 56 per cent at inception to 44 per cent in Dec 2017.

    Mupwaya further disclosed that the company had replaced and installed 630 faulty distribution transformers, totaling 208 MVA at the cost of N903 million to ensure improved services to its customers.

    He said that the company had consolidated its vending system into three separate systems.

    This, he said,  was designed to ensure increased payment tracking, flexible electronic solutions and convenience vending at any location, irrespective of meter type, brand or location.

    Earlier, House Committee Chairman on Privatisation, Ahmed Yerima, represented by Shadima Mutiu, said the committee was aware of the challenges faced by DISCOS  in the country.

    He, however, said the oversight visit was to ensure that objective of privatising the sector by  Federal Government was being  archived, especially in delivering power to Nigerians.

    Yerima said the visit was to ensure the DISCOS performed their duties and lived up to the terms of  the agreement  reached in the privitasation documents.

    According to him, part of the agreement is that AEDC reduces power theft, either technical or commercial.

    “We expect that you overhaul your obsolete equipment; we expect that you have metered majority of your customers.”

    He said it was important that Nigerians experienced the benefits of privatising the sector.

    He, however, said  the committee members were impressed  with the  level of achievements by AEDC  in its franchise areas.

    He urged AEDC to always present its operational challenges to the House for possible ways of resolving the issues.

    Yerima said the house would collaborate with the company, with the support of the executive, to help resolve challenges like energy theft, debts owed by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) through legislation.

    High point of the visit was the inspection of some of the facilities in the company by the committee members.

    NAN

  • APC NEC extends Odigie-Oyegun-led NWC’s tenure

    APC NEC extends Odigie-Oyegun-led NWC’s tenure

    The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the All Progressives Congress ( APC ) on Tuesday, extended Chief John Odigie-Oyegun -led National Working Committee’s (NWC) tenure by one year.

    Gov. Yahaya Bello of Kogi made this known while briefing newsmen on the outcome of the party’s NEC meeting in Abuja and said that the extension was from June, 2018.

    Bello said that the decision was taken in line with the party´s Constitution, and explained that it was to ensure that peace prevailed within the party hierarchy.

    “Considering the time left for the party to conduct all the congresses, we cannot afford to approach general elections with more dispute and crisis.

    “So, relying on Article 13 of our Constitution, which empowers the NEC to carry out the function of the convention, the NEC has decided to extend the tenure of the current NWC,” he said.

    Bello explained that the tenure extension included the party’s other executive committees at various levels.

    He, however, pointed out that the decision would not prevent the party’s non-elective National Convention from holding in July as slated.

    “Let me tell you that this will not stop the convention of the party, but to go into elective congresses is what we are trying to avoid,” he said.

    The national convention usually provides avenue for the party to ratify its policies and programmes, elect or remove members of its NWC and amend its Constitution if need be, among other things.

    The tenure of the current NWC will expire in June.

    Before now, there were issues on whether the committee should continue or be replaced.

    The party has been unable to hold its mandatory bi-annual non-elective convention since 2014 as stipulated in its Constitution.

    Article 25 (A)(i) of the APC Constitution specifically stipulates that the national convention of the party shall be held once in two years at a date, venue and time to be recommended by its NEC.

    NAN

  • ‘Kogi seeks speedy criminal justice reform’

    Kogi State’s desire is to en-sure speedy criminal justice reform, its Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice Ibrahim Mohammed (SAN) has said.

    He spoke at a workshop on the sensitisation and implementation of the state’s Administration of Criminal Justice Law 2017, organised by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) with the MacArthur Foundation in Lokoja.

    Sanni, who represented Governor Yahaya Bello, said: “I must appreciate my governor, the new direction advocate, for the role he played in the passage of this law.

    “It might interest you to know that the law, in the case of Kogi State, was a combination of both executive and legislative Bills.

    “It is on record that without the knowledge of the fact that the Administration of Criminal Justice Bill, 2017 had gone through the first reading at the House of Assembly, the Executive Arm of Government ably led by the Governor, presented the same bill to the House of Assembly for consideration and passage into law.

    “This goes to demonstrate the extent to which Kogi State of today, desires a reform in the Criminal Justice Delivery System.

    “I must, therefore, also appreciate the Hon. Speaker Rt. Hon. Prince Samuel Kolawole, the leadership, the relevant House Committee, and the membership of the House of Assembly, for not treating the scenario above as rivalry, but simply harmonising the bills into one and speedily passing same while following the due process.

    “The Bar in Kogi State has also been at the front burner of the vanguard for passing the Law. I am aware that, despite very short notice, the Bar assembled a team to consider and make input at the public hearing of the Bill before its passage into Law,” he said.

    The essence of the NBA Public Forum on the law was to sensitise the states on the need to improve the Criminal Justice System by enacting the Administration of Criminal Justice Law.

    A  MacArthur State engagement committee for Kogi State was set up, with the following members: Muizdeen Y. Abdullahi (Chairman), Theophilus Oteme (alternate chairman), Isyaka Idege, Friday Ogwo, Audu Onuche, Abbas Sumaila, Mrs Deborah Mus and Mrs. H. E Yusuf.

    They are to be assisted by Oluwadamilare Ojo, Eyo Onoja and Umar Gezawa.

     

     

     

  • Suspected herdsman ‘kills’ boy in Kogi

    A suspected Fulani herdsman at Guchidan village in Kupa district, Lokoja Local Government of Kogi State, has allegedly killed a 15-year-old boy.

    The herdsman, Buba Ardo, with his two accomplices, Alo Ardo and Babuga Ardo, allegedly killed the boy and mutilated his body.

    The deceased accompanied his elder brother, Abubakar Audu, to the farm for a trap game when they were ambushed by the herdsman.

    The elder brother was said to have escaped.

    A source, Mahmud Abubakar, confirmed to The Nation that the suspect, Buba Ardo, was apprehended by residents, but his accomplices escaped.

    He added that the motorcycle which the victim and his elder brother rode to the farm was set ablaze by the attackers.

    The source said Buba Ardo was handed over to the district police.

    “He confessed to killing the boy and the case was referred to ‘A’ Division, Lokoja.

    “The boy has been buried in his town, Guchidan and the case has been transferred to Lokoja. We hope our hospitality will not be abused by the Fulani herdsmen.

    “They complain that people tamper with their cows. The government should intervene before the incident results in crisis.”

  • Kogi West Senatorial poll: NJC panel probes judge

    Kogi West Senatorial poll: NJC panel probes judge

    •Asks Senator Adeyemi to produce call logs
    •Panel may summon Saharareporters publisher

    A three-man panel of the National Judicial Council (NJC) at the weekend began investigation into the conduct of a judge, Justice Akon Ikpeme of the Cross River State High Court.

    The judge is being investigated for alleged bribery compromise with the senator representing Kogi West zone, Dino Melaye, when she handled election petition case in 2015.

    The panel also took evidence from a former Chairman of the Senate Committee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Sen. Smart Adeyemi and the Chairman of the Civil Society Network Against Corruption, Olanrewaju Suraju.

    But the panel, headed by the President of the National Industrial Court (NIC), Justice Babatunde Adeniran Adejumo, gave a two-week deadline to Adeyemi to produce call logs of purported telephone conversations between the judge and Senator Melaye.

    There were indications that the panel may invite the publisher of an online publication, Saharareporters or any of its representatives, to testify on the tape it aired on its channel alleging conversation between the judge and Melaye.

    According to findings, the NJC raised the panel following petitions to it by both the Civil Society Network Against Corruption and Adeyemi.

    Investigation revealed that for about four hours at the NJC Conference Room, the panel heard from the petitioners and the judge who maintained her innocence at the session.

    She denied any telephone conversation on alleged dollar bribe between her and Melaye.

    A reliable source, however said: “There were two issues which were tabled before the panel on the purported conversation between Melaye and the judge.

    “The issues bordered on the judge’s alleged demand for bribe in dollars from Melaye and assistance from Melaye to use his influence to assist her ‘daughter’ secure a job at the Cross River State Ministry of Health by prevailing on Governor (Sen) Ben Ayade.

    “While the judge claimed that the voice allegedly identified as hers might have been technologically cloned, Adeyemi asked the panel to ask the relevant service provider to make the call logs of the judge and Melaye available as appropriate.

    “But upon enquiries from the defence lawyers (two Senior Advocates of Nigeria) and the panel, Adeyemi promised to produce the call logs within two weeks.

    “The panel may also invite Saharareporters and other television stations which aired the alleged conversation between the judge and Melaye.

    “The fate of the judge will be known in two weeks’ time based on the evidence tabled before the panel.”

    The Civil Society Network Against Corruption petition before the NJC reads in part: “An online based newspaper, Sahara Reporters reported and published a supposed voice conversation on the 30th day of May, 2017 of how Senator Dino Melaye representing the Kogi West Senatorial District compromised Justice Akon Ikpeme, the tribunal judge who handled his election petition case in 2015.

    “The said report claimed that the alleged corrupt communication between the duo was captured on tape which has gone viral on social media.

    “In the said recordings, which capture the telephone conversation between Justice (Mrs) Akon and Mr. Melaye, at two different times, the judge is overheard asking Mr. Melaye to give her a bribe in US dollars.

    “She also sought Mr. Melaye’s assistance for a person he repeatedly referred to as her ‘daughter’ secure a job at the Cross River State Ministry of Health, with the Senator reassuringly bragging that he had already spoken to the State Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade.

    “It is worth noting that sometime in 2016, Justice Ikpeme dismissed a petition by Smart Adeyemi, Mr. Melaye’s opponent at the 2015 Kogi West Senatorial District election. In accordance with the plot of reaffirming the alleged electoral infractions associated with the emergence of Mr. Melaye, the election tribunal, in spite of the fact that only Senator Melaye retained his seat as a Senator in the state, the other two senators elected under same circumstances as Mr. Melaye were nullified by the tribunal.

    “In view of the gravity of the allegations viz- a- viz the recent allegations of bribery against the said Senator Melaye, as evident in the voice contained in the leaked audio recordings, we urge you to urgently commence high-powered investigation by a team of forensic experts and investigators into these allegations to assuage the growing diffidence of the citizens in the fight against corruption.”