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Tag: Nasir el-Rufai

  • El-Rufai orders probe of rifles found in accident car

    El-Rufai orders probe of rifles found in accident car

    Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai has ordered an investigation into the discovery of five locally made AK 47 rifles and a magazine in a car that was involved in an accident last week.
    The Nation recalled that, the fatal accident, involving two vehicles, occurred on the 12th May, 2017 at Mazuga, Kachia local government area.
    Meanwhile, Governor El-Rufai in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Samuel Aruwan, said his government has received a briefing on the accident from the Kaduna State Sector Command of the Federal Road Safety Corps and security agencies were charged to ensure thorough investigation and diligent prosecution.
    According to the statement, “On 15th May 2017, the Kaduna State Government received a brief from the Kaduna State Sector Command of the Federal Road Safety Corp on the discovery of a weapons in a car that had been involved in an accident. The government has therefore directed a thorough investigation of the matter.
    “According to the Sector Head of Operation, Salisu D. Galadanci, the FRSC on 12th May, 2017 at about 16:07 hours received information of an accident at Mazuga, KM10, Kachia-Kafanchan road and it quickly proceeded to the scene to rescue the victims.
    “On reaching the scene, some people around the area had already started helping by bringing the victims out from the accident’s vehicles. Two vehicles were involved, an Audi Salon car AG 60MKR, one Opel Vectra car without registration. Of the seven persons involved in the accident, three died while four persons were rescued. Five locally-made AK47 rifles and a magazine were also recovered from the Audi car.
    “The driver of the Audi, Mr. Sabo Goni, was among the rescued accident victims. All the victims were rushed to Kachia Hospital. The Kachia Divisional Police Officer, CSP Faruk Umar, was alerted about the discovery of five rifles in the Audi car. The recovered arms have since been handed over to Kachia DPO for further investigation.
    “The Kaduna State Government commends Mazuga community for reporting the matter to security agencies and for preserving the recovered arms till the arrival of security agencies”, the statement read.
  • It’s not compulsory for Buhari to preside over FEC meetings- APC

    It’s not compulsory for Buhari to preside over FEC meetings- APC

    Governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), have said that it was not compulsory for President Mohammadu Buhari to preside over the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.

    Gov. Nasir El- Rufai of Kaduna State made this known on Wednesday in Abuja, while addressing journalists on the outcome of the governors’ meeting with members of the APC National Working Committee (NWC).

    He also said the constitution made provision for the Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, to preside over such meeting in the president`s absence.

    El- Rufai, who was reacting to speculations that President Buhari could not attend the FEC meeting for the third consecutive time because he was ill, said the governors were not bothered by such speculations.

    “We are not worried yet and have no reason to be worried, but we however, urge Nigerians to continue to pray for the president to be in good health.’’.

    He said it was normal for the president to have medical challenge, considering the fact that he was over 70 years old.

    “Even me that is 57 years old, I still go for medical check up,’’ El-Rufai said.

    He, however, debunked insinuations that APC had internal crisis, stressing that the party was intact with a unified leadership structure, adding that contrary to speculations, its NWC was intact.

    El-Rufia explained that the reason the party was presently constrained financially was because it did not rely  on public funds to operate like some parties in government.

    According to him, the party is funded by private and cooperate donors who had been its sponsors before it came to power.

    He further said the party`s leadership was willing to return to such donors to raise funds to ensure that it was operated as expected.

    The governor said that the meeting discussed best incentives to reward loyal party members, in line with its constitution.

    El-Rufai also said that the governors, at the meeting, pledged their loyalty to the party`s leadership and promised to meet with its NWC members monthly.

    The move, El-Rufai said, became necessary to discuss ways of strengthening APC and move it forward.

    He said a date would be picked for the party`s National Executive Council meeting at the governors next meeting with the NWC members.

    The governor also said that the governors had committed to assist the Federal Government in delivering true dividends of democracy to the people.

    Earlier, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, the APC National Chairman, commended the governors for attending the meeting, in spite the short notice.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 20 APC governed states were represented at the meeting, the second in the year.

  • 13 feared killed in fresh Southern Kaduna attack

    13 feared killed in fresh Southern Kaduna attack

  • No apologies for calling for transparency of National Assembly – El-Rufai

    No apologies for calling for transparency of National Assembly – El-Rufai

    …Buhari implementing issues in my memo, says el-Rufai

     

    Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai on Friday said that he has no apology for any National Assembly member offended by his call for transparency.

    According to him, he has the right as a Nigerian to call for such transparency.

    Speaking with State House correspondents after observing the Jumaat prayer with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, he said that it would be in the interest of the lawmakers to make public their earnings in the face of the bogus salaries allegations.

    He said “There is nothing like falling out with the National Assembly, first of all I am a state governor and do not have any direct relationship with the national assembly. They don’t legislate for me specifically. I don’t have any relationship that is negative or positive with the National Assembly.

    “The National Assembly is the legislature of the federation and we have very good relations with the legislators. There are senators from my state and there are representatives and I meet regularly with those of them that are ready to meet with me. Here, beside me are Senators Abu Ibrahim and Marafa.

    “If I have problem with the National Assembly they will not be standing beside me. So there is no problem. The issue is what I did last Friday was to ask the leadership of the national Assembly to fulfil the promise that they made themselves to publish the details of their budget and asking for that is my duty as a citizen. Every Nigerian is entitled to ask that question,” he said.

    He went on “It is in the National Assembly’s interest to actually publish it because there are rumours of bogus amounts of money that they are getting which I do not believe is true. I think that the best way to kill that rumour is to publish the details of their budget but some people took exception to that call for transparency and I have no apologies because as citizens we have the right to demand for transparency for how resources are being spent.

    “This one hundred billion or so budget of the National Assembly is money belonging to the people of Nigeria and every Nigerian has the right to ask and I am exercising that right as a citizen not even as a governor.”

    He explained that he had no problem with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and the Senate President, Bukola Saraki.

    “I have no problem with the Speaker. He is my kid brother, he respects me and I respect him, I have no problem with the Senate President, we worked together in the past and I am confident that we will work together in the future in the interest of Nigeria.

    “But demand for accountability is not a problem and should not be construed to be undermining or any such thing. It is only someone who has something to hide that will do things like that and I don’t believe that the National Assembly has things to hide,” he added

    The Governor also maintained that there is no rift between him and President Buhari.

    He said “There is no strain in my ties with the President. The villa is a bigger place. Within the villa there are people that like me and there are those who don’t and it is normal. My relationship with the President has never been strained in anyway.

    “I met with him last night, I did not talk about things like that but our relationship with him is like that of father and son and it is privilege for me. I told him I will come today for the Jumaat and I did.”

    On how he was received by the President, he said “As usual with great warmth and graciousness and I am grateful for that.

    Asked why he wrote such a letter to the President, he said that it was a well-meaning memo aimed at ensuring development of the country.

    Even though he faulted those who leaked the private memo to the public, he said that most issues raised in it are already been implemented by the government.

    He said “It was a private memo and it is not a letter. If you want to ask any question about it you ask those who leaked the memo because I wrote it seven months ago. I have written similar memos to the President in the past and none of them got leaked. He knows that he can count on me to give him my views of what is out there that he may not hear and to give him sound advice without any interest on my part.

    “If anyone reads that memo he will see that there is nothing in the memo that has anything to do other than the success of Mr. President and progress of the country. That is my goal, my motive and I am driven by that. I stand behind the President to the very end.

    On whether his views in the letter have changed since he wrote it, he said “Yes, I believe that since September last year when I wrote the letter, there have been significant improvement in the delivery of services at the federal level as I said some of our federal programmes have started
    in earnest.

    “Social protection for instance, the N-Power, budget releases has been accelerated, this is an unprecedented move, the minister of finance has released up to about a trillion naira of capital budget. In September last year, little or nothing had been released and that was part of my concern, since then the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan has been done and published.

    “At the time I wrote the memo there was no five year plan for the country, since then the government has moved ahead to change some of the appointees of President Jonathan in parastatals. This is something that we were worried about, many of us in APC felt that we were in office but not in power because the people that Jonathan appointed were still running most of our key agencies.

    “From September till date even up until yesterday there has been significant improvement. So there is improvement and I believe that part of what I recommended to the President is being implemented, whether because of my memo or not, it is being implemented and the country is moving forward and I am grateful to God for it.” he said

    On how he felt about the leakage of the letter in contrast with secrecy oath of office, he said “I am disappointed that a private communication to the highest office in the land can be leaked and it was leaked from the Villa, I am told by those that published it, but this is a fact of life. We live in an
    age where anything you write or say can be leaked. It is ok, my intentions are clear, I have no ill motive but I wanted to communicate with the President what many Nigerians are talking about and what steps can be taken to improve governance of the country and move the country forward.

    “That was my motive and if tomorrow like I said I see anything that the President needs to know I will discuss with him and I will articulate and put it into writing and on the record for him to
    have a reminder document to work on. I have no regrets and I have no apologies.”

    Against the belief that he was stopped for some months from coming to the Villa, he said that he was not stopped and that nobody can stop him.

    He said “No, no one ever stopped me from coming to the villa and no one can stop me from coming to villa. As a governor I come here, I have blank cheques, no one checks me at the gate but I believe what the President needs is for those that love him to keep away from him and allow him to rest.

    “The President needs quality time to rest because it is meeting too many people that strains leadership. I am a governor and I know that when I meet 10 people in a day I get really tired, it is not the paperwork, it is not really the memos approving them or asking questions that strain a leader, it is the stream of visitors.

    “I do not want to contribute to the President’s problem by coming here every day. I am in touch with him, I know everything going on and I do not think I should add to his burden. Most of the time I come to visit the President I do not come to the office, I go to see him at home.

    “I think and I appeal to all of us that love the President to please allow him some space so that he will recover. We need him and the country needs him, it is in our interest for the stability of the
    country, we should just let him be. It is absolutely necessary lets us leave him to do his work in the privacy of his room or his office without strings of visitors. Visitors stress leaders,” he said.

     

     

  • Kaduna recorded 2.1m primary school enrollment – El-Rufai

    Kaduna recorded 2.1m primary school enrollment – El-Rufai

    The Kaduna State  Government said on Thursday that a total of 2.1 million pupils had enrolled into public primary schools since 2015 till date in the state.

    A statement issued by the Public Relations Unit, Universal Basic Education, said Gov. Malam Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State disclosed this when he visited the Executive Secretary, UBEC, Dr Hamid Bobboyi in Abuja.

    El-Rufai said that the increase in pupil enrolment was as a result of government’s free Universal Basic Education (UBE) policy and renewed drive to provide improved learning facilities in the State.

    “From the 1 million figure recorded in 2015, the total primary school enrolment in Kaduna State now stands at 2.1 million. ”

    El-Rufai, together with the Kaduna State Commissioner for Education, Prof. Andrew Nok, highlighted other landmark achievements of his administration to include the 35 per cent budgetary allocation to the education sector.

    The governor said others included renovation of 608 primary schools out of a total of the total of 4,200 primary schools in the State.

    “The plan to maximise the use of available school space by constructing multi-storey structures in existing schools.

    “Establishment of model schools across the State and other interventions toward improving basic education especially the improvement of teacher quality,” he said.

    The governor added that efforts were being made to gradually replace obsolete equipment and method from the school system and replace them with contemporary practices.

    El-Rufai said that very soon schools in Kaduna State would have white boards instead of the usual blackboard.

    In his response, Bobboyi commended the giant strides recorded in UBE delivery in the State, particularly increased access to basic education, systematic approach to improving school infrastructure and the State’s commitment to quality UBE service delivery.

    He urged the government to continue to exemplify leadership in this direction as Kaduna was known to be the regional capital not only in politics but also in other human endeavours.

    He pledged UBEC’s continued support to the State within its operational mandates and commended the Governor for taking out time to visit UBEC.

  • Dogara releases pay slips, earns N346,577 monthly

    Dogara releases pay slips, earns N346,577 monthly

    Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara on Tuesday disclosed that he earns N346,577.87 monthly after deductions.

    He made this known in his three months’ pay slips released in response to the disclosure by Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai who also released his monthly pay on Monday.

    A breakdown of the Speaker’s monthly pay as reflected in his pay slip below is as follows:

    Basic salary; N206, 425.83, Constituency allowance;  N175,461.96, recess allowance; 20,642.58. and pay as you earn; 55,952.50.

    Spk Pay slip2-1

     

    Spk Pay slip2-2

     

    Spk Pay slip2-3

  • El-Rufai fully implementing APC blueprint in Kaduna – Oyegun

    The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Oyegun, on Thursday said Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, is fully implementing policies and programmes in the party’s blueprint.

    Oyegun commended Kaduna State Government for its economic and investment initiative, saying the gains will soon be felt all over the country.

    The APC national chairman, who spoke during the closing of a two-day Kaduna investment and economic summit, said he is happy with Governor El-Rufai’s efforts in the areas of education, health and economy among others.

    Oyegun said: “I’m convinced that by the time you finish your tenure as the Governor of Kaduna State, we will have a new Kaduna State.”

    “Governor El-Rufai is a pride to APC and I’m happy that he is sharing the knowledge and ideas to other governors of the APC to use. Your plans for Kaduna State in various areas are the best demonstration of what the APC stands for.  To facilitate economic growth, create employment and tackle insecurity in the country.

    “What you are doing is to show and make sure that Kaduna is well placed as investment destination of choice.  We are happy with the development because anything that happens here will have effect all over the country.

    “Investment will not go anywhere without peace and I believe you are working in that direction.  Because I know the government is making great efforts to make Kaduna State an investment heaven.”

     

  • LG Election: Kaduna SIEC to recruit 25,000 ad-hoc staff

    LG Election: Kaduna SIEC to recruit 25,000 ad-hoc staff

    The Kaduna State Independent Electoral Commission (KAD-SIECOM) says it would engage no fewer than 25,000 ad-hoc staff, to conduct election into the 23 local government councils in the state.

    Prof. Andrew Nkom, KAD-SIECOM Commissioner for Public Affairs and Information, made the disclosure to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Kaduna.

    NAN reports that preparations for the local government polls was coming barely two years, after the APC-led administration of Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, took over the affairs of the state.

    When Gov. El-Rufai assumed office in May 2015, he promised to run an autonomous local government system, with funds disbursed directly to the council accounts.

    However, the local council areas had so far been run by Interim Committees, appointed after every six months by the state government.

    El-Rufai said, recently, that the local government elections would be conducted within the next four months.

    Meanwhile, Nkom said that the ad-hoc staff would include Local Government and Ward Returning Officers, as well as supervisors, in the state’s 255 wards.

    He also said that four ad-hoc staff would be deployed to each of the 5,108 polling units, to ensure successful election.

    According to him, the ad hoc staff would include presiding officers and their assistants, as well as polling clerks and their assistants.

    Nkom said the commission would provide about 6,000 electronic voting machines for the elections, expected to hold later in the year.

    “We have advertised and forms have been deployed to each of the 23 local government areas, for interested and qualified persons to fill, free of charge.

    “Applicants who completed the forms will be selected from the local governments’ areas, because they are conversant with the terrain.

    “The successful candidates would undergo training in various areas to conduct a successful election in the 23 local government areas in the state,” the official said.

    He noted that some of the ad-hoc staff would be trained on how to operate the electronic voting machines, and the commission’s computers.

    According to him, the commission has acquired some prototype of the electronic voting machines, for the training of the ad-hoc staff, ahead of the local council polls.

    Nkom said the commission had concluded arrangements to procure 6,000 electronic voting machines from China, for the elections.

    NAN reports that no fewer than 301 seats comprising 23 chairmanship and same number of vice-chairmanship, as well as 255 councillorship positions, would be contested for during the exercise.

     

  • Chocolate City boss Maikori slumps at public event

    Chocolate City boss Maikori slumps at public event

    Chocolate City boss, Audu Maikori, on Tuesday collapsed at the 2017 Women in Management, Business and Public Service (WIMBIZ) holding at Muson Center.

    Although it was not clear what the immediate cause of his collapse is, reports state that doctors at the venue were able to revive him and he was taken to St Nicholas hospital for further medications.

    The music entrepreneur had just finished moderating the Q and A sessions with Mo Abudu and was taking a selfie with fans when the incident occurred.

    Maikori was recently in the spotlight for sharing some gruesome photos of what he alleged to be corpses of people killed in the violence that has engulfed Southern Kaduna.

    Although he admitted to being misinformed and issued an apology, the Department of State Security (DSS) subsequently arrested him and kept him in detention for almost 24 hours, after which he was released, following the intervention of some top Nigerians.

    •Governor El-Rufai
    •Governor El-Rufai

    Despite his release, the Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai is insisting the entertainment mogul must be prosecuted.

    Speaking at the Social Media Week in Lagos last week, El-Rufai said it was irresponsible of Maikori to have posted such information without verification.

    According to him, Maikori’s messages could have sparked off a crisis which could have in turn led to the deaths of some Fulani people.

    “Audu Maikori rushed to publish a false story without checking with anyone. But before then, he had been posting fake pictures by posting Boko Haram attacks, Rwanda genocide as southern Kaduna killings which elicited a lot of emotions on social media,” El-Rufai said.

  • KADCCIMA: ‘38th edition of Kaduna International Trade Fair, a huge success’

    The Kaduna Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (KADCCIMA) has described the 38th edition of the Kaduna International Trade Fair, which came to a close on Sunday, a huge success.

    Dr Muheeba Dankaka, President of the chamber, said at the closing ceremony in Kaduna that the chamber had achieved a lot in the past 10 days.

    About 600 exhibitors participated in the fair, which started on Feb. 24.

    Dankaka said: “I am confident to say that the trade fair has provided the needed linkage between innovators, inventors and investors.
    “It has also provided states and local producers the opportunity to showcase their products,” she said.

    She advised exhibitors to make good use of the contacts they had and create the needed business partnership to increase their productivity and sustainability.

    The KADCCIMA president said relevant stakeholders during the trade fair seminar and the business roundtable organized by the chamber had suggested that public private partnership remained relevant in bridging the infrastructural gap in the country.

    She added that the recommendations from the discussions would be put together and forwarded to relevant authorities for immediate action.

    She thanked security agencies for a good job throughout duration of the fair and promised that the 39th edition scheduled for February 24 to March 6, 2018 would be better.

    In his message, Gov. Nasir El-Rufai promised that the next edition would attract more foreign investors, adding that the government would do everything it could to make it worthwhile.

    The governor said that the state would tap from the annual trade fair to attract the needed foreign and local investments to the state.

    The governor was represented by the state’s Commissioner for Commerce, Industries and Tourism, Dr Daniel Manzo.