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Tag: Suleiman Hunkuyi

  • Paramount ruler’s death: Kaduna senators sue for peace

    The three Senators representing Kaduna State, Friday asked the people of the state, especially those on Adara Chiefdom to remain calm in the face of the gruesome killing of their paramount ruler, Maiwada Raphael Galadima.

    Senators Shehu Sani, (Kaduna Central), Danjuma La’ah (Kaduna South) and Suleiman Hunkuyi (Kaduna North) in a joint statement said that the full weight of the law would be brought to bear against the perpetrators of the heinous crime.

    Read Also:Tension in Kaduna, as kidnapped traditional ruler is killed

    The paramount ruler of Adara people in Kajuru Local Government Area, Kaduna State, the Angwom Adara, Maiwada Raphael Galadima who was abducted last Friday with his wife was reported killed by his abductors.

    His wife was said to have been released last Sunday and taken to the hospital for treatment.

    The statement read, “In peaceful memory of the paramount ruler of Adara Chiefdom, Mr. Maiwada Raphael Galadima, whose death was announced this Friday, the 26th of October, 2018, the three senators from Kaduna State hereby offer this release as a special condolence to the entire people of Adara Chiefdom, the people of Southern Kaduna, and the entire people of Kaduna State for this monumental loss.

    “The three senators also wish to send this message as a comfort to the people of Adaraland and the entire state, to please remain calm as all efforts to bring the perpetrators of this heinous crime shall be unearthed and brought to book.

    “We also appeal to all and sundry to remain calm in their houses while the curfew lasts, and engage in special prayers for the repose of the soul of our beloved leader and all who lost their lives in the upheaval.”

  • 2019: Two PDP senators vow to sack El- Rufai

    Two serving Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senators have vowed to sack the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai from office in the 2019 governorship election in the state.

    Senators Suleiman Hunkuyi (Kaduna North) and Danjuma La’ah (Kaduna South) said they have joined forces against the governor to defeat him at the poll.

    While Hunkuyi is contesting the position on the platform of the PDP, La’ah said he was mobilizing voters in his senatorial district for his colleague to unseat El-Rufai of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Addressing a gathering at the rally, Hunkuyi promised that if elected, he would, within one week, reinstate all the traditional rulers and chiefs that were sacked by the governor earlier this year, describing their removal was an act of injustice.

    The aspirant also promised to revisit the case of the over 25, 000 primary school teachers who were sacked by the governor. Hunkuyi said he would set up a committee that would review the cases of the affected teachers strictly on their merits.

    He accused the state government of impoverishing the people through harsh social and economic policies, adding that the governor has plunged the state into huge debts for coming generations to grapple with.

    Read Also: Amosun, El- Rufai, Dickson preach unity at Ojude Oba

    Hunkuyi, who dumped the APC for the PDP in July, expressed regrets that El-Rufai could turn against him after providing the political structure that enabled him win the seat in 2015.

    The federal lawmaker further said El-Rufai cannot pretend to be unaware that the people of Kaduna State have rejected him, owing to what he described as the governor’s anti people policies.

    El-Rufai and Hunkuyi used to be in the same political camp in the APC. They were however torn apart by disagreement arising from differences in opinion and conflict of interests.

    They disagreements got to a baking point in May this year, when the governor demolished the senator’s property in Kaduna.

  • Kaduna: APC Committee, Senators disagree over ward Congresses

    Adamu Modibbo, Chairman All Progressives Congress ( APC ) Wards and Local Governments Congresses Committee for Kaduna State, said on Monday that the committee was satisfied with the conduct of the ward congresses in spite of protests against the exercise.

    Modibbo told Journalists in Kaduna that the exercise was conducted “peacefully in well-organized manner without any incident recorded throughout the state.“

    According to him, there was large turnout of party members for the congress and was was impressed with the orderliness they displayed during the event.

    The news men however reports that Sen. Shehu Sani (APC Kaduna Central) and Sen. Suleiman Hunkuyi (APC Kaduna North) had separately told newsmen that the congresses did not hold in any part of the state.

    Modibbo insisted that the congresses held in accordance with the party’s guidelines.

    “We met with the APC stakeholders at the party secretariat after which we constituted three member congress committees for all the wards and gave them all the needed materials for the exercise, promptly.

    “Some aspirants, including their leaders requested for forms from us and once they met the stipulated conditions, showing evidence of payment, we gave them the forms.

    Read Also: Congresses: APC asks aggrieved members to appeal

    “Those were few of the measures we took and to the glory of Allah; the preparedness of the party leaderships at all levels in the state, the exercise is a huge success. We are highly satisfied, “Modibbo said.

    Meanwhile, Hunkuyi said at a news briefing that the elective congress did not hold in any of the 255 wards in the state as stipulated by the APC constitution.

    “Our members had by the provision of the guidelines and the APC Constitution paid the required fees for the nomination forms into the APC accounts and collected tellers for the 9,453 positions to be contested in 255 Wards across the 23 LGs involving 37 different positions in each of the Wards across the State.

    “The APC State Congress Committee in a very frustrating outing gave our members the Nomination Forms for only Two Local Governments out of 23 LGs around 3:55a.m and that was at the wee hours of the Congress date of 5th May, 2018.

    “It must be noted that even those who collected the forms were already programmed for disqualification as the guidelines for the conduct of the congresses, stipulates that all aspirants must return the forms 24 hours before the date of the congresses.

    “Thus given the scenario above, our members were left with no other option than to troop to the venue of the Ward Congress by 8: 00 a.m. of the same morning carrying the bank tellers and APC membership Cards in order to participate at the Congress.

    “However, to our utmost surprise, no official of the APC-Ward Congress Committee showed up in any of the 255 Wards Areas from 8:00 a.m., neither in the morning nor throughout the day.

    “This is in contravention of the guidelines and directives of President Muhammadu Buhari that urges for conduct of elective Congresses in conformity with provisions of the Nigerian Constitution, the Electoral Act and the APC Constitution.”

    He, however, said that they would lodge a formal complain to the APC Congress Committee, the party’s National Working Committee and other relevant organs of the party.

    NAN

  • Kaduna to Hunkuyi on demolition: go to court

    Kaduna to Hunkuyi on demolition: go to court

    THE Kaduna State government yesterday said the demolition of Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi’s house on Tuesday in Kaduna was legal without political motives.

    It asked the senator to go to court for redress if the state did not apply relevant laws.

    It insisted that there was nothing wrong with the timing of the demolition because it had nothing to do with the persecution of the senator in any form.

    The clarifications were made at a briefing in Abuja by a three-man delegation of the state government, which was led the Special Adviser to the Governor on Political Matters and Inter-Governmental Relations Uba Sani.

    Others in the team were the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media, Mr. Muyiwa Adekeye and the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Media and Publicity, Mr. Samuel Aruwan.

    Sani, who spoke on behalf of the delegation, said Hunkuyi was deceiving the public because he allegedly violated the law and it caught up with him.

    He said: “This demolition is legal because the terms of use were violated by Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi. On Wednesday last week, a private property in a residential area was converted to a non-existing factional party office. Then, all sorts of characters started menacing the neighbourhood with streets blocked and access denied to innocent residents. The Certificate of Occupancy is clear that you cannot change or violate the use.

    “You cannot hold brief for Hunkuyi on this matter at all. The demolition was done without malice or political motives. The state government, through the appropriate agency, has demolished over 100 houses in the last one year, including 40 in Kaduna and dozens in Zaria, which is part of Hunkuyi’s Senatorial District.

    “But because the houses belonged to poor people, there was no noise and the public did not hear of it. Even Hunkuyi did not come out to defend these poor citizens in his district.

    “Also, on the same property, Hunkuyi has not paid the ground rent in the last eight years. It is clearly stated in the enabling law that if you don’t pay your rent, the C of O will be revoked.

    “The property in question at 11B Sambo Close is a residential apartment. The title wax properly revoked and the revocation notice served, pasted and sent through Express Post.

    “The Kaduna State Urban Planning and Developing Agency (KASAUDA)  has been issuing notice o owners of houses to pay ground rent.

    “The notice affected me as a house owner in Kaduna; I did not sit down to say I am a political adviser and I won’t pay ground rent or do recertification. I have paid my ground rent and did the recertification of my title.”

    Responding to a question, Sani said the timing of the demolition was not wrong.

    He added: “As far as the timing is concerned, it is perfect. There is nothing wrong with the timing.

    “The demolition was not persecution at all. Hunkuyi can lie about the facts like he did but the truth is that the state government enforced the laws.

    “We have the laws on our side. If Hunkuyi feels aggrieved, let him go to court. Anybody that thinks the demolition is illegal should also go to court. The Judiciary is there as the final arbiter on this matter.

    “You cannot be in violation of the law and when action is taken, you will now start complaining of persecution.

    “We are going to do the right thing, no matter whose ox is gored. If the people of the state think what we are doing is right, they will re-elect us back to power and if they feel what we did was wrong, they will not.

    “I am quite sure that none of us will argue that if you become an opponent of the government, you have acquired immunity to violate the law.”

    However, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, has asked Nigerians of good conscience and lovers of democracy to speak out against the anti-democratic tendencies being exhibited by Kaduna state governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai.

    Frank said if left unchecked, it was capable of having negative effect on the present democratic practice.

    In a statement in Abuja, he urged political leaders to must speak out against the demolition of secretariat of a faction of the party in Kaduna State, saying other governors might begin to exhibit similar tendencies.

    He said if El-Rufai could demolished a house belonging to a serving senator of the same political platform, using military action, the lives of his opponents in other political parties might be in danger.

  • Army denies involvement in Kaduna demolition

    Army denies involvement in Kaduna demolition

    The Nigerian Army on Wednesday denied involvement in the demolition of the factional All Progressive Congress (APC) Secretariat in Kaduna in the early hours of Tuesday.

    The Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi- led faction of the party had on Tuesday alleged that the demolition of its secretariat was supervised by the armed soldiers.

    But the army through the Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, 1 Mechanised Division, Col. Muhammad Dole, said the allegation was a mischief of the highest order.

    The army in statement titled: “Re: Army Demolish Property In Kaduna,” said the “allegation is viewed as another calculated attempt to distract our troops from performing their professional duties.”

    “The attention of the 1 Division Nigerian Army has been drawn to a Twitter message, a report in mass and social media of alleged involvement of military personnel in the demolition of a politician’s property by KASUPDA in Kaduna.

    “This is not true. No soldier was involved in the exercise. The allegation and the attempt to drag the Nigerian Army into the issue of demolition is yet another baseless and unsubstantiated claim to malign the hardworking, loyal and professional officers and soldiers of 1 Division Nigerian Army and discredit them.”

    “Therefore this claim remains the highest mischief and misleading and it is viewed as another calculated attempt to distract our troops from performing their professional duties. Therefore, the public should disregard such false allegation.

    “The troops of 1 Division Nigerian Army will continue to remain apolitical and non-partisan in the discharge of their constitutional roles. Presently our troops are dutifully engaged in EXERCISE AYEM AKPATUMA (CAT RACE) in Niger and Kaduna States, combating kidnappings, cattle rustling, armed banditry and terrorism.

     

     

  • Rescue Kaduna chapter, Sen. Sani urges APC leadership

    Rescue Kaduna chapter, Sen. Sani urges APC leadership

    A member of the National Assembly, Sen. Shehu Sani, has called on the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to rescue the party’s Kaduna chapter from imminent destruction.

    He made the call while speaking with newsmen on Monday in Abuja, after a closed-door meeting with National Chairman of APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.

    Sani, who represents Kaduna Central in the Senate, was in company with some APC members in Kaduna, including Sen. Suleiman Hunkuyi (Kaduna North) to the meeting with the national chairman.

    He condemned Saturday’s local government elections in the state, saying that it did not hold.

    Sani alleged that the delegates list for the election was doctored and did not follow due process.

    “They sat down in the palace of their gods to write names and send it down here for us to accept; that can never happen,” he said.

    He said that such practice contributed to the problems of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and warned that the APC could go the same way if its leadership failed to address the problem.

    “This was the seed of the destruction of the PDP, where individuals considered themselves as gods and any other person a slave; that will never happen in Kaduna state.

    “We are here to present our case and to appeal to the instrument of leadership of this party to intervene in the Kaduna issue before it becomes too late.

    “We are here to also state it to the party´s national leadership that we are under siege in Kaduna

    “The use of thugs and violence by agents and close associates of the state government is one thing we cannot tolerate,” Sani said.

    He decried the recent raiding of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) secretariat in Kaduna by thugs during a press briefing after the councils’ election, during which journalists were injured.

    He said that such was the trait of the APC, and urged its leadership to should set up an investigation panel to bring the perpetrators of the disturbances.

    The lawmaker alleged that the thugs were acting in concert with the police in the state.

    “If we continue on this part, where one person feels he is a god, I think we are simply repeating the very problem that destroyed the party we ejected out of power,” he said.

    He maintained that there was a need for APC to provide the vehicle for real change for the country to change and tasked members to change the manner they played politics.

    Sani stressed that those who resolved to the use of violence or thugs to liquidate perceived political opponent were on the wrong side of history.

    He said that members of his faction of the party in the state were not agents of violence but were loyal and peaceful.

    He insisted that if the APC must win the 2019 election, it must apart from fulfilling its campaign promises, set an example for discipline, comradeship and a sense of belonging to all members.

    Sani said that what was happening in the party´s leadership in the state was unbecoming and should be addressed before it became late.

    He appealed to those in authority to know that the God that brought the APC to power was still alive and will always listen to the cries of the oppressed and marginalised.

    “We are here in the spirit of that, and we hope that we will get the cooperation of the national party´s leadership to come to the rescue of the party in Kaduna before it is too late,” he said.