The Nation Newspaper

Tag: PRESIDENCY

  • PDP is ill wind in Nigeria, Says Presidency

    The Presidency on Wednesday night described the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as an ill wind on the country that should be rejected in 2019 elections.

    According to a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, also accused the PDP of irresponsible lies.

    He said “The People’s Democratic Party, PDP has continued spreading lies about the Buhari administration in the mistaken assumption that its toga of corruption will dissipate if it succeeded in black painting every other person as corrupt.

    “The strategy is to make corruption appear as normative and that everyone is equally involved.

    “They think by so doing, Nigerians will forgive them for their sins. This is a huge mistake.

    “The PDP has become an ill-wind on the country today and the elections next year present the citizens an excellent opportunity to save the country from it.

    “We can’t imagine a sane organization shamelessly telling Nigerians that President Buhari is looting, as they themselves did of the recovered loot, the USD 322m lately recovered from the Abacha family. This is an irresponsible lie.” he said

    Shehu added “The USD 322m  recovered is being used to make the Conditional Cash Transfer, CCT of a monthly amount of N5,000 to more than 300,000 poor homes across the nation under the Social Investment Program introduced by the Buhari administration.

    “This is in line with the Memorandum of Understanding, signed between the governments of Nigeria and Switzerland as a condition for releasing the funds.

    “As part of the MoU, the World Bank is monitoring the application of the funds.

    It is also important that the World Bank has equally given an additional facility to support the on-going cash transfers.

    “Nigerians are hereby advised to be watchful of what comes out from the opposition, not to be misled into voting for a party that sees nothing wrong with corruption and would rather have everyone drenched in its colors, as they irretrievably are.” he stated.

  • Presidency warns political appointees against extortion

    The Presidency on Tuesday issued a stern warning to political appointees, government officials and party men against influence peddling for corrupt pecuniary gains and other forms of extortion.

    A presidential spokesman, Malam Garba Shehu, told State House Correspondents in Abuja that complaints of extortions of innocent people by what he called “self-serving name droppers and influence peddlers” was causing increasing embarrassment to the Presidency.

    He said: “President Buhari had made it very clear since his inauguration that he won’t tolerate any form of impropriety by his appointees, aides, and government officials who abuse and misuse their offices for illegal financial advantages.’’

    Shehu, who is the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, explained that using one’s office or influence for private advantage or financial gains is corruption.

    He, therefore, warned that the president would not tolerate any conduct by anybody to use his name to extort innocent people.

    The media aide stressed that President Buhari’s commitment to fight corruption at all fronts in his government remained unchanged.

    He added that “those who are not genuinely committed to this vision would be weeded out once caught and punished accordingly”.

    He advised Nigerians to report any government official or appointees using the president’s name or that of his aides and appointees to extort the public.

    Shehu added that the current zero tolerance for corruption by the Buhari administration would not condone this repugnant culture in government or public business.(NAN)

  • Presidency: we’ve created 12m new jobs

    PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari-led administration has created 12 million jobs since it was elected into government, Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity Garba Shehu said yesterday.

    Shehu stated this on Sunrise Daily, a programme on Channels Television, while discussing National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data indicating millions of jobs have been lost.

    Disputing the figures about the number of unemployment released by the NBS, the presidential aide said the NBS Director-General, Dr. Yemi Kale, had admitted to the Federal Government that they had only focused on white collar jobs loses.

    Shehu said: “There was a departure last week. The NBS chief while addressing the Federal cabinet, made admission himself that they had concentrated their analysis over time on white collar jobs and that they haven’t taken into cognisance jobs creation in the area of agriculture. The Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria made an open claim that they have created 12 million new jobs and nobody has come out to dispute that.

    Read also: Tinubu: APC targets over three million votes in Lagos

    “When he finished addressing the Federal cabinet last week, the DG was told to go out and address the public about what he just told them. So, you are just saying to us that Jigawa, Kebbi and Ebonyi are reporting the lowest employment rate on the account of agriculture?”

    “I think that it is the data collected on the basis of which some of the judgements that have been passed are misleading. There is now a convergence. The data has been unfair to this administration. They have ignored job creation in the areas of agriculture and now that is being integrated and Nigerians will be impressed with us as we have created 12 million new jobs in the area of agriculture.

    But, the NBS DG, in a response to a question tweeted to him on his official twitter handle about Shehu’s claim of admitting to misleading the public on the number of job loses across the country, denied the statement credited to the presidential spokesman.

    “Neither the Statistician-General nor NBS ever made any such admission at any time to anybody and the unemployment computations does take into account all sectors, age groups and both rural and urban areas,” he said.

  • Presidency, Atiku clash over Buhari’s alleged insensitivity

    The Presidency yesterday faulted the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate and former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, over claims that President Muhammadu Buhari was insensitive to have failed to attend the burial of the 19 military victims of Boko Haram or send Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to represent him.

    A reliable Presidency source said that president Buhari viewed the death of the soldiers as a national loss, which made him to visit Maiduguri to console the troops and the state government.

    He said, “We have read the hypocritical press release by Atiku Abubakar, accusing the government of Muhammadu Buhari of insensitivity by the failure of the president or the vice president to attend the burial of the 19 military victims of Boko Haram. The loss of the gallant soldiers, as President Buhari has said is a national loss, on account of which he went to Maiduguri where he condoled the government and people of Borno State, addressed the troops at Maimalari Barracks as well as visited the convalescing gallant soldiers. This was a clear case of sensitive and responsible leadership,” the source said.

    Speaking earlier on the funeral held last Friday for the departed soldiers in Abuja, the PDP presidential flag-bearer had accused President Buhari of being insensitive to the plights of the soldiers.

    Atiku in a statement had said, “Today, I saw the pictures of the funeral of the officers and men of the 157 Task Force battalion of the Nigerian Army based in Metele and who were killed by Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists and my heart went out to the men, their families and to our entire armed forces. May their souls rest in peace and may God grant their families fortitude at such a trying time.

    “I am further pained that neither the President or his vice were in attendance at the funeral and that the Federal Government did not send a high powered delegation to represent the government at the funeral. This is sad and totally unacceptable. This is beyond politics. This touches our shared humanity. What would it cost for the President to take a day and fulfil his role as head of state by attending the funeral of such men of honour and valour? The sad part of it is that a day before their funeral, President Buhari took time out of his busy schedule to host Nollywood stars at the Presidential Villa.”

    But the presidency source pointed out that neither Atiku nor Obasanjo during their administration in 2001 visited or paid tribute to soldiers killed that year. He said, “On the other hand however, when a similar number of troops (19 soldiers) were abducted and killed in October, 2001, neither he (Atiku Abubakar) or his boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo paid any tributes, not to talk of visiting the grieving family members of the martyred soldiers. Instead, they sent additional troops who rounded up the people of the town, and authorized an indiscriminate shooting as reprisals.”

    It recalled that the BBC at that time reported that “In four ethnic-Tiv villages in Benue, soldiers rounded up and killed over 200 unarmed civilians. Zaki Biam, a town of about 20,000 people, was completely destroyed. According to eyewitnesses, the source said that the military team came in eight armoured cars. They came to Anyiin first where they were said to have summoned all the villagers to Gbeji public square, claiming that they had an urgent message for them. As soon as the villagers were gathered, the troops asked all the women and children to leave and then opened fire on the men, killing 100.

    “At another village, the village head, a blind old man who is uncle to the former army chief, General Victor Malu, was killed alongside his wife. Their bodies were burnt inside the house.” A BBC correspondent in Nigeria, Dan Isaacs, reported from Zaki Biam that “they have destroyed every single building. Everything is burned out—walls are still standing but everything has been gutted. They came in and shelled buildings. They shot buildings with rocket propelled grenades—there are bullet holes all around.”

  • Presidency, Obasanjo: the unending 2019 wars

    STILL stunned by ex-president Olsuegun Obasanjo’s flip-flop over the Atiku Abubakar presidential bid, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and many Nigerians wait with bated breath for the other shoe to drop. They are certain that having excoriated the former vice president, Alhaji Atiku, so brutally and mercilessly in August, describing him as an incorrigible leader and a politician unsuited for the post of president, the former president would once again revoke his recent endorsement of his former deputy. Chief Obasanjo had in early October revisited his August denunciation of Alhaji Atiku, describing him this time as fit for the presidency, and indeed should be rightly addressed as president-in-waiting. For both the public and the APC, Chief Obasanjo’s volte face was too traumatic to be either true or lasting.

    What began as a battle of endorsements and good-humoured criticisms has now become an open and unremitting war. The APC is determined to press the matter and show the former president as unprincipled and hypocritical. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), for which Alhaji Atiku is standard-bearer, is also determined to show that Chief Obasanjo made a u-turn because increasingly, President Muhammadu Buhari’s unsuitability for the exalted presidential seat was becoming apparent. It is true that Chief Obasanjo’s description of his former vice president as incorrigible was harsh and shocking, but his walk-back, about two months later, in which he saw his former vice president as president-in-waiting was even more bewildering.

    As predicted by this column moments after Alhaji Atiku took the PDP nomination early October, the battle for the presidency would become most intense in January. January is around the corner. Not only will the campaigns become fiercely intense, in particular the war (sometimes of words) between Chief Obasanjo and his enemies in the APC will also become horrifyingly sanguinary. President Buhari and his aides know that a loss in 2019 would both bar them access to privilege and constitute personal tragedy to each of them, considering how they have all become accustomed to both the good life and the heady raptures of rosy future and circumstances.

    Chief Obasanjo is of course entitled to change his mind, regardless of how solidly he made it up earlier. When he first denigrated Alhaji Atiku in early August, few believed the former vice president could clinch the PDP nomination. The former president did not also think it possible, and perhaps had hoped that his throaty deprecation would catalyse his private cause of barring Alhaji Atiku from the presidency permanently. At the time, too, and since the beginning of 2018, Chief Obasanjo had preoccupied himself with the chimerical cause of enthroning a totally new leadership paradigm on the country. Between January 2018 when he indulged his damaging asseveration against President Buhari and the country’s political old guard, all of whom he dismissed as expendables, and August some eight months later, the former president was still hopeful he could help midwife a new national reality and political narrative.

    This was why on August 3, 2018 Chief Obasanjo found it supremely easy to derogatorily condemn Alahji Atiku in a manner most pernicious and unsparing. Said he: “How can I be on the same side with Atiku? To do what? If I support Atiku for anything, God will not forgive me. If I do not know, yes. But once I know, Atiku can never enjoy my support. I do not have personal grudges with anyone…If you do not do well for Nigeria, you do not do well for all of us. It is not a question of working with or not working with an individual, If you are working But about four days after Alhaji Atiku took the nomination, Chief Obasanjo dramatically and extraordinarily recanted. He was neither coherent nor persuasive, but his endorsement was enthusiastic and fulsome. Said he on October 11, 2018: “Let me start by congratulating President-to-be, Atiku Abubakar, on his success at the recent PDP primary, and I took note of his gracious remarks in his acceptance speech that it all started here. Yes, when it started, it was meant for Atiku to succeed Obasanjo.  In the presence of these distinguished leaders of goodwill today, let me say it openly that we have reviewed what went wrong on the side of Atiku. And in all honesty, my former vice-president has rediscovered and repositioned himself. As I have repeatedly said, it is not so much what you (Atiku) did against me that was the issue but what you did against the party, the government and the country. I took the stand I had taken based on the character and attributes you exhibited in the position you found yourself. I strongly believe that I was right. It was in the overall interest of everyone and everything to take such a position. From what transpired in the last couple of hours or so, you have shown remorse; you have asked for forgiveness, and you have indicated that you have learnt some good lessons, and you will mend fences and make amends as necessary and as desirable.”

    But when the former president’s zeal seemed to flag sometime last week, as apparently misreported by a section of the media, the combative president vociferously denounced those who thought he had become unprincipled so soon. In responding to the misrepresentation, Chief Obasanjo seized the opportunity, in a press statement issued by his spokesman on December 9, 2018, to again train his guns on his chief enemy, President Buhari, signalling that the 2019 presidential war would be a fight to the finish. Here is how he framed his response, dripping with venom and sarcasm: “It is disingenuous, if not malicious, for anyone to suggest that Chief Obasanjo was being neutral when he chose not to use the Owu (his hometown in Ogun State) convention as a platform for political campaign but instead adopted a communal and familial approach in talking to members of his Owu family. For the records, and as accurately reported by some media organisations, what the former President said at the convention in Owu was that while he would not impose any candidates on them, Nigerians should vote for credible candidates who would drive growth and development and make their lives better than it is now. Chief Obasanjo’s statement did not suggest his neutrality. In fact, the former President believes that only a fool will sit on the fence or be neutral when his or her country is being destroyed by incompetence, corruption, lack of focus, insecurity, nepotism, brazen impunity and denial of the obvious. Chief Obasanjo is no such fool, nor is he so unwise. The former president reassures Nigerians that he will not sit on the fence when he needs to be out and active for people to know where he stands in the best interest of Nigeria.”

    But every time he hurled his barbs at President Buhari, presidential spokesmen, including the inimitable Information minister, Lai Mohammed, and the pugnacious media assistant Garba Shehu, gave as much as they received from the former president. For instance, on December 10, Mr Mohammed snatched the bottom from the former president’s conviction. “With due respect to former President Obasanjo,” began Mr Mohammed cynically, “it is his constitutional right to support any candidate of his choice and we urge him to go out and campaign vigorously for any candidate he wants to support. He has not hidden his preference for the PDP candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and we wish him very best of luck. However, I want to assure you that his candidate will be defeated roundly and comprehensively. It is not about endorsement; endorsement does not win election.” This confident response was nothing but a red rag to a bull.

    Chief Obasanjo is a man of many parts. He is as unrelenting against weaklings as he is merciless against his strong-willed enemies. It will not matter how President Buhari and his aides posture, whether as strongmen or weaklings. All that matters to the former president is that he has met his enemies, and he knows them, and he wants them to be subdued. He will stop at nothing to neutralise them. But, unlike former president Goodluck Jonathan who vacillated between courting Chief Obasanjo one day and denouncing him another day, President Buhari and his bad-tempered aides are eager to throw punch for punch, as often as needed. The smoke of the cannonade will only clear after February 2019, when from all indications either the president or Alhaji Atiku is electorally dead and buried. Alas, Chief Obasanjo knows that his political fate is now inextricably tied to that of Alhaji Atiku. So, in February next year, Nigerians will either witness a double coronation, at least figuratively, or a double burial in fact and in substance.

  • Presidency: Obasanjo’s support for Atiku irrelevant

    THE Presidency has dismissed the recent utterances by former President Olusegun Obasanjo as a sign of confusion not worthy of attention.

    Speaking to reporters in Abuja yesterday, presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu, said whoever “Obasanjo chooses to support at the 2019 elections is irrelevant.”

    He noted that the former president had publicly changed his mind on the matter so many times over the past few months alone.

    He said: “Former President Obasanjo denounces one person today and supports that same person the next day.

    Read also: Police arrest 51 suspected IPOB members

    “When it pleases him, he brings God into the matter and uses that as his excuse for whatever position he has chosen.”

    Shehu added that he was not surprised that newspapers reported Obasanjo expressing neutrality at a weekend forum, only for the former president to express a completely different stance after a day or two.

    “We have learnt not to take his utterances seriously anymore.

    “We know that the slightest wind can make him change his mind again.

    “After all, this is the same man who publicly tore his party registration card barely four years ago, and he now claims to be backing the same party,” Shehu added.

  • Presidency to PDP: You are a leader, expert in fake news

    The Presidency has dismissed the story about the raid “ordered by Buhari-led government” on the home of Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar’s son as fake news.

    Malam Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, in a statement in Abuja on Monday, also described as untrue the fairy tale on the alleged blockage of the bank accounts of Atiku Abubakar’s running mate, Mr Peter Obi and his family.

    He said these stories should be dismissed “as just another manifestation of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP’s growing expertise in fake news’’.

    He said: “Nigerians must be becoming wary by now, of a political party with absolutely nothing to offer in the coming elections and has instead, transformed into a knight in shining armor, slaying the truth.

    “In this so-called transformation, PDP has changed into nothing but to a ceaselessly flowing stream of fake news.

    “It is impossible to find in Nigeria today, anyone propagating fake news more than the PDP. Our advice to Nigerians is: ignore them.’’

    The Peoples Democratic Party had on Dec.8, alleged that the accounts of its vice-presidential candidate, Peter Obi, had been frozen.

    The party, in a statement by its Director, Media and Publicity, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, pointed accusing fingers at the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for the alleged frozen accounts.

    NAN reports that the EFCC has since dismissed the PDP’s allegation, claiming ignorance of such incident.(NAN)

  • Senate to Presidency: avert looming fuel crisis

    •Govt, petroleum marketers agree on settlement of unpaid claims

    THE Senate yesterday asked the Federal Government to take immediate step to avert looming fuel scarcity in the country.

    The upper chamber said the advice became even more compelling with the Christmas festivities by the corner.

    But the Government and petroleum marketers have agreed on the settlement of outstanding claims and assured that operations at all depots and sales would continue until further notice.

    The Senate’s position followed the alarm raised by Senator Kabiri Marafa over alleged failure of the Federal Government to honour its obligation to pay oil marketers.

    Marafa, who is Chairman Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), told his colleagues that the grim reality was that if measures were not taken to pay the oil marketers their outstanding entitlements, the country might be the worse for it.

    The Zamfara Central senator in a motion unanimously adopted told his colleagues that the Federal Government was yet to pay oil marketers about N1 trillion outstanding entitlements accumulated over the years.

    He said the controversial debt dated back to President Olusegun Obasanjo administration.

    The Senate also urged the government to direct the relevant agencies to immediately pay the subsidy arrears as approved by Federal Executive Council and the National Assembly.

    However, a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the Minister of Finance on Media and Communications, Paul Ella Abechi, said the assurance not to disturb activities at the depots was jointly reached and signed by officials of the Federal Government and representatives of the petroleum marketers in Abuja after a joint meeting.

    The meeting, he said, had senior government officials from Federal Ministry of Finance, the Debt Management Office (DMO), the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Budget Office of the Federation, the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) in attendance.

    Representatives from the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA), Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) and Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) also attended the meeting.

    Abechi noted that “while expressing satisfaction over the arrangement being made by the Federal Government to settle their claims, the petroleum marketers assured members of the public of availability of petroleum products.

  • ‘APGA will determine who wins presidency’

    Chief Ifeatu Okoye is the Senior Special Adviser to Governor Willie Obiano on Political Matters. In this interview with NWANOSIKE ONU, the one-time Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) explains why the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) is in crisis and how the party leadership is resolving the logjam. He also says APGA will play a key role in determining who wins next year’s presidential election.

    HOW prepared is APGA for next year’s general elections?

    You will recall that we just finished our party primaries nationwide. I must admit that it presented a lot of challenges for us, because the party has grown in size, stature and membership, as a result of the good works of Governor Willie Obiano, who is also the national leader of APGA.  This is perhaps due to the way the party has been managed in the last few years. This attracted a lot of new members. What we did not reckon with is the fact that these people were coming from different political backgrounds and that has brought a lot of pressure in the conduct of the primaries. But we will remain focused in our quest to more seats at the National Assembly and to win governorship elections in other states across the nation. All things been equal, we intend to win Imo, Abia, Nasarawa and Taraba states. Everything is pointing to that direction. We are fielded Dr Alex Otti again as our candidate in Abia, because of his popularity and influence. We are also looking at Nasarawa State, which we won in 2015, but were rigged out. You recall that the Nasarawa governorship election result was delayed for almost five days. INEC officers who participated in that election refused to be involved in doctoring the result. But, after five days, a new result was announced and we lost Nasarawa State. Unfortunately, the judges didn’t see it at the tribunal and at the Appeal Court. We are fielding the same candidate again, Mr. Labaran Maku, who is also the National Secretary of our party. We are also looking at Taraba and Benue States, because of the new politics of the Middle Belt. At the presidential race, without sounding too ambitious, I want to tell you that APGA will play a cardinal role in determining who will win the election. I am not sure we have done enough in this period to win the presidential election, unless God does it in His own way. We are ready preparing, by picking credible candidates, no matter the crises that may have arisen as a result of the primary.

    Given the crises destabilising your party in Imo and Abia, are you still capable of winning those states?

    There were 19 governorship aspirants on our party’s platform in Imo. I was part of the team that visited the state, even before the primary started. I recall that we interviewed 25 people who wanted to be governor. But, when it came to purchasing the form, only 19 of them did. Out of the 19 aspirants, I can tell you that only about three were members of APGA as at December last year. It tells you that the 16 others were new members. The nature of rancour in Imo State suggests that it was sponsored. We had secret information that most of those aspirants were being sponsored by Governor Rochas Okorocha of the APC and the PDP. Their objective was to destabilize APGA. All of them were part of the process in one way or the order, but in the end a candidate has emerged. If you see the way a lot of them are jumping out, you will see that they are not members of our party. You will also see the way they proved us right as Ikedi Ohakim, who led the first protest is now the candidate of the Accord Party and Okey Eze is now the candidate of the SDP. So, that tells you that the rancour has nothing to do with the conduct of the primary. Where you have 19 people running, one person was bound to win and that person has won. That person is a very strong candidate. He is one person we are very certain has the capacity to win the governorship election in Imo State. In choosing our candidates during the primary, we were looking at many factors. Those factors also include capacity to win the general election. Every aspirant thinks he is popular, but not all of them has the capacity to win. This entails a lot of things. It includes the ability to fund the process of the election. It includes your ability to attract critical institutions that will be there for the election. What is your relationship with the police? What is your relationship with other agencies that will conduct the election? All these form the capacity to win an election. That is very important. A lot of them don’t know or have the idea of what APGA is all about. APGA is not the usual political party. It has a followership that transcends the political class. In Anambra State, we have always won elections, not because it is a political class, but as a result of those institutions; the traditional institutions, disaster institutions, which have been the party’s unique selling point. What we have in Anambra is stronger in Imo, because Imo State has the stronger of Igbo elements, movements there are always difficult. Go to people on the streets, they are going to vote for APGA and, happily, we are fielding a strong candidate, Senator Ifeanyi Ararume. He is strong in every capacity. He is very experienced in every process of the election, because he has been there. He would have been the candidate of PDP a long time ago. He has been a two term senator. So, he understands what it takes. A lot of those who participated don’t even know what it takes to go into general elections. Before now, APGA has always argued that we were unable to defend our results in Imo State. I am happy today that we have a strong candidate who can rob shoulders with those of other political parties.

    You were not clear about APGA’s readiness for election in Anambra State…

    Like I said, we just came out of primary. It was a full house of all sorts. I will give you an example; in Aguata Constituencies I and 1I, there were 13 and 18 House of Assembly aspirants respectively. One seat and only one person would win at the end of the day. Thirty people are going to lose. You now understand the level of ill-feelings that will definitely come out. In Supreme court judgment between Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and the PDP, it was established that it is the party that people vote for. The candidates use the party as a vehicle to reach their destinations. It is always about the party. Because it is always about the party, in arriving at a decision, we always look beyond the personality in question. Sometimes, a popular person that comes from a small community may not be considered, if the opponent comes from a community that may produce votes may be 10 times of the popular person from a small village. We have to look at this factor. We have to also consider the seeming religious factor. If from your locality, you come from a minority religious sect, it may not be wise for us to field you, unless you show yourself that you have the capacity to rise above that kind of situation. Do you know that in this country, we had Muslim-Muslim tickets? But, it took someone like the late MKO Abiola who everybody accepted. Christians and Muslims accepted him. But, I doubt if anybody can try that again. What I’m saying is that, altogether, we tried our best to produce the best candidates who will carry the party’s flag. It is the disagreement from that exercise that we are currently grappling with. It is connected to the November 2017 governorship election in Anambra State, when a lot of people joined APGA. Many of them have not sat down to really appreciate the culture of APGA. Before now, we did not have this type of noise. APGA had never been a place where you have rancorous party congresses, because we believed in the consensus process, in dialogue. We always choose our candidates in a peculiar way; not from the usual political party election contest.  So, a lot of them were taken by surprise. No true APGA person can insult the governor of a state, who is the national leader and Chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT). But, be that as it may, when you beat a child, you must one way or the other try to pacify the child. That is what informed the reconciliation committee which I’m the secretary. We have completed our work. Hopefully, this week, we will be presenting our report to the national leader.

    What do you think of what is happening in the House of Assembly? Does it have any connection with the APGA primary?

    I seriously doubt it has anything to do with the primary or members of the opposition. I have my reasons. What happened few days ago was the fourth attempt to remove the Speaker. What it means is that the removal of the Speaker has been lingering. I recall that in October last year, barely a month to the governorship election, 27 members of the House of Assembly signed for the impeachment of the Speaker. But, there was an intervention from the leadership of the party. The governor intervened for very critical reasons; because it was too close to the election. Again, we were just coming out of the national crises in the party: The case of National Chairman and Martin Agbaso. The timing as it were was uncalled for. It does appear to me that there was a postponement of that agitation. So, what is happening now is a continuation of that agitation. It definitely has nothing to do with the primary. But, something may resuscitate an existing issue. In that context, one may say that the circumstances of the primary may have reinvigorated it. But, if you look at it critically, 15 of the old members were re-elected. There are 30 members, excluding two PDP members. That is, they are 14 members left. If it is a product of primary, one will now say the 14 members involved in the impeachment of the speaker. We are getting conflicting number. Some said they are 22 that signed. The Speaker said she had 16 members with her. But one thing in my mind is that there must be a separation of process of notice of impeachment and impeachment proper. Outside the chambers of the house, even within the chambers of the House when it was not in session or when is in session, 30 people can sign. But impeachment of the Speaker must be signed by two-third (20) members of the house. What it means is that there must be a proceedings captured in the votes and proceedings of the house where each of the members voted against the continued presence of the Speaker as the Speaker of the House. We don’t have that record. The votes and proceedings of the day did not show that any such process was conducted.  What we only hear is that 20 people, 22 people, 23 people have signed. It does not matter if 30 people have signed for the removal of the Speaker. Her removal must be in the context of the law within the proceedings of the House where each member will stand up and vote. That is how it is done. That is what is expected of the law. But we must exercise caution. I understand that a few of them were suspended by the party.

  • Assembly frowns at ‘killings’ by Customs

    Lagos State House of Assembly has called on the Presidency to caution Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) officers against what it called reckless killings while chasing suspected rice smugglers.

    It urged the government to commiserate with the families of those who died during such occurrences.

    David Setonji (Badagry Constituency 2) spoke yesterday on the issue under matters of urgent public importance during plenary.

    He recalled the incident that claimed the life of Mrs. Patience Oni on November 20, adding that many were injured.

    The lawmaker urged the House to caution the Customs before more people are killed.

    Ibrahim Layode (Badagry 1) said the matter must not be swept under the carpet. He urged Inspector-General of Police Ibrahim Idris to ensure the prosecution of those arrested.

    Rasheed Makinde (Ifako-Ijaiye Constituency 2) also spoke of someone who was killed when Customs officers pursued rice smugglers.

    He said: “This incident is rampant in the state. I wouldn’t know why Customs officers will chase smugglers within the state, when their job is limited to borders.”

    Majority Leader Sanai Agunbiade (Ikorodu 1) said the Customs must compensate the bereaved  family, adding that though this would not bring the woman back to life.

    Speaker Mudashiru Obasa stressed the need to write to the Presidency to caution Customs officers on what he called their excesses.

    He said: “This shows Nigerian Customs is inefficient to manage the borders. The Clerk of the House should send a letter to the Presidency on the prayers of the House.”

    The Assembly read for the second time, a bill for a law to amend the Lagos State Security Trust Fund law presented by Funmilayo Tejuosho, chairman, House Committee on Information and Strategy.

    Lagos State audit law amendment bill was also read for the second time.

    The House committed the bills to the House Committee on Public Accounts (State) and directed the committee to report back to the House in two weeks.