Organised labour in Taraba on Wednesday, commenced three-day warning strike over illegal salary deductions, omissions and non-payment of primary school teachers.
This is contained in a statement signed by Mr. Solomon Obaji, Secretary, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Alhaji Tukur Taji, Secretary, Trade Union Congress (TUC), and issued to newmen in Jalingo.
The statement criticised the state government for being `insensitive’ to the sufferings of its workers and pensioners.
“Government has failed to address the abnormalities, ranging from underpayment of salaries, omission of genuine workers from salary vouchers, removal of approved allowances and non payment of teachers salaries,” it stated.
When contacted, the Commissioner for Information, Mr. Anthony Danburam, said that government was holding meetings with the labour leaders with a view to resolving the matter.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) checks showed that workers complied with the directive of their leaders on the issue as all the offices in the state secretariat in Jalingo were locked.
The Supreme Court has upheld the election of Darius Dickson Ishaku of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as governor of Taraba State.
The court, in a unanimous judgment by a seven-man panel, led by Ibrahim Galadima, dismissed the appeal by the candidate of the All Proessives Congress (APC), Hajia Aisha Jumai Al-Hassan on the ground that it lacked merit.
Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour, who read the lead judgment, upheld the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which affirmed Ishaku’s election.
Al-Hassan (now Minister of Women Affairs) challenged the return of Ishaku as winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at the election tribunal.
Al-Hassan won at the tribunal, but her victory was overturned by the Court of Appeal, Abuja, a decision she appealed to the Supreme Court.
This morning, the court took arguments from parties to the appeal and gave its judgment around 1:30pm, but reserved its reasons to February 22.
The Supreme Court is expected to deliver judgment at 1:30pm today (Thursday) in the Taraba State governorship dispute.
The candidate of the All Progressives Party (PDP) in the last election, Hajia Aisha Jumai Al-Hassan (now Minister of Women Affairs) is challenging the return of Darius Ishaku of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Al-Hassan won at the tribunal, but her victory was overturned by the Court of Appeal, Abuja, a decision she appealed to the Supreme Court.
On Thursday morning, a seven-man bench, led by Justice Ibrahim Galadima took arguments from parties on the appeal and reserved decision till 1:30pm
Aspirants on the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) platform in Taraba State have described the failure of the party to hold primaries before the last general election, after collecting nomination fees as extortion.
They said the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) should investigate the matter.
The aspirants, who gathered under the aegis of ‘The 2015 Taraba State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Aspirants Forum,’ spoke after an “inclusive consultative meeting” in Karu, Abuja.
They demanded the refund of their money.
Its Protem Chairman, Rimamnde Bitrus Nuhu, said it was no longer hidden that the PDP did not conduct primaries, adding: “It tasks the credulity of any right thinking individual to pretend that all is well within the PDP House in Taraba State.”
He said the defection of former PDP aspirants to the All Progressives Congress (APC) because of its governorship candidate, Senator Aisha Jummai Alhassan, showed the political truth in the state.
According to him, “it also demonstrates that she has emerged as a rallying point among the progressives.”
Nuhu said attempt by the masterminds of the political debacle to cover the truth would make the PDP to play into the hands of enemies, “who do not wish peace-loving Tarabans well.”
Most persons displaced by Boko Haram insurgents have had a breather. They are better looked after now. Still, some 4,723 persons fleeing from the terrorists have been largely on their own in Taraba State, apparently glossed over by the authorities. There is a glimmer of hope, though, as the Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Prof. Bem Angwe visits their camps. FANEN IHYONGO reports
•Their temporary home
Just a glance at their ramshackle camps tells the story of people in excruciating destitution. It is the heartrending tale of 4,723 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) abandoned in a Taraba State camp.
They were abandoned by those who should care for them-their society-resign to their fate. They sleep on bare floors in stuffy environment; daily bitten by mosquitoes and other crawling ants. The physical and emotional traumas they go through as a result of the activities of Boko Haram insurgents in the Northeast are great burden on them. Mostly affected are women and children.
After finding their way to a relatively peaceful state after they were displaced by the insurgents from their ancestral home, they seem to experience worst form of wretchedness-abandonment.
A visit to the IDP camps by the Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Bem Angwe revealed that the IDPs were in some harrowing circumstances best described as hell.
The IDPs are indigenes of Borno and Adamawa states. Their homes had come under terrorists’ attacks and to save their lives, they escaped with only the clothes they wore at the time of the attacks. Some of them had trekked several kilometers, spent some nights in the bushes before arriving at Taraba.
Until their displacement from Borno and Adamawa states, they and members of their families were happy. Their children were attending schools. At the camps in Taraba, they cannot afford food; they often fall ill and cannot afford drugs when their women give birth in the camps, let alone sending their kids to school. Majority of them have been traumatised. They are more of endangered species.
Angwe, a professor of Law, fought back tears throughout the period he inspected the IDP camps. He visited Gullong in the state capital, Jalingo and Mallum in Ardo-Kola Local Government Area. He was accompanied by the Taraba State Permanent Secretary of State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Nuvalga Dan-Habu.
At the Gullong Camp that has 259 IDPs, at the door was a woman’s wrapper which serves as a blind. Nearby, a five-year-old boy was sleeping, apparently hungry. There were no toilets in sight and the surroundings were filthy and smelly.
The leader of the Gullong IDPs Camp, Emmanuel Bulus, told The North Report that the IDPs drink from the same stream where cows, goats and chickens also drink.
“Look around and see–there is no food and water to eat and drink. I cannot talk of clothes or sending children to school. We cannot afford anything. We came here with nothing; we drink from nearby streams with animals,” he said.
He further revealed that the TY Danjuma Foundation and the State National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) secretariat once assisted them with food.
Bulus, an indigene of Borno State, lost relatives and his home to bombings and attacks by Boko Haram.
At the camps, Angwe spoke soothingly to the IDPs. But he queried the state government for abandoning the IDPs.
“These people don’t have any means; they don’t farm, they don’t have any work or business to do in order to live. So, we have a responsibility here. We need to have their record for accountability; where they are coming from. We need to know their total number, their names and ages and other necessary information about them.
“The government must put in place health facilities in the camps and carry out specific programmes to cater for the IDPs,” he said.
He expressed worry that the IDPs were dying of hunger while food items such as beans and rice were decaying in stores and the Federal Government was not informed.
“Over 4,000 people are suffering here, and the state government did not write to the Federal Government on the development.
“If IDPs are benefitting from government programmes, why can’t these ones benefit too? They are also Nigerians,” he said.
Angwe reminded the people that an indigene of Taraba State, Theophilus Danjuma, is the chairman of the committee set up by President Muhammadu Buhari to rehabilitate infrastructure and resettle the IDPs in the Northeast.
He said it was very wrong that there was no coordinating effort by SEMA for the government to take care of the IDPs.
The number of IDPs in the various camps are: Mayo Dassa (402 IDPs), Gullong (259), ATC Kofai (968), Abuja I and II (357), Dorowa/Magami/Malam Joda (579), Sabon Gari (482), Malum (872), Murtai/Yaukani/Yelwa (554), Mile Six (74), Nyabukaka/Tutan Kurma/Kasa (148) and Nukkai (30).
The human rights chief said he foresees a huge problem if the IDPs are not catered for and helped to return to their native states.
“If they stay here up to 10 years, another problem would pop up. Because they are not harmful, the communities and state government have forgotten them and their children.
“If this problem is allowed to germinate and get roots, in few years to come, it will rear a bigger problem here,” he noted.
He said he would have spoken tougher if Governor Darius Ishaku and his Deputy Haruna Manu were around.
“I am sending you to him (Ishaku) but I know you will be afraid to tell the governor exactly what I have said,” he told some state government officials.
The IDPs in Gullong are staying in an abandoned dispensary. Angwe said he will probe why the dispensary was not equipped to function.
Angwe said: “We don’t want Nigerians to depend on alms and handouts. There are funds that are meant for the benefit of these people who are suffering from displacement today. And the Federal Government is ready to assist.
“I want you, the Secretary to SEMA, to take charge of this situation; you have a responsibility now. Don’t rely on your sub-ordinates; you have to personally write letters formally to organisations informing them that these are the people you are catering for.
“The state must put in its efforts, but the Federal Government is also ready and prepared to assist. Go around and see what NEMA is doing. It has even provided security and mobile ambulances in some of the IDP camps in other states for people to be treated during emergencies.
“Send one of your SEMA staff here to be reporting to you daily. Deploy your staff to all the IDP camps in the state so that you will know whenever something happens to any of them.
“The SEMA staff should supervise the distribution of food items given in camps, because as soon as I go back, NEMA is going to send some relief materials here. The IDPs should not be integrated in such a way that they would be at the mercy of the people.
“The IDPs can be integrated in their neighbouring communities, but they must be supported, because even the communities are lacking some of the needed facilities. At worst, food should not be a problem to them.
“I am not happy because these people have been displaced, and they left their homes under circumstances beyond their wishes. They are not happy where they are; they will be happy if they return to their homes.
“The nation generally is in a sad mood regarding the plights of IDPs. It is a situation that no Nigerian is happy about. The activities of the insurgents led to many millions of Nigerians leaving their homes. Many of them crossed the borders and many of them are coming in now as returnees. But more to it, we are sadder that they are not being taken care of here.
“I came here with other agencies of government (NEMA/SEMA) that have direct responsibility. As soon as I go back, NEMA is going to respond. In fact, NEMA had not been aware of this high number of IDPs who came all the way from Borno and Adamawa states to reside in Taraba.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has assisted the Taraba State Government with relief materials to alleviate the sufferings of residents who were affected by flood.
The relief items consisted of food stuffs, cloths and building materials. They are to be distributed in the six affected local government areas namely Karim-Lamido, Lau, Gassol, Wukari, Ibi and Ardo-Kola.
The North Report gathered that the agency had earlier visited the affected areas for an on-the-spot assessment of the level of damage in order to determine the level of Federal Government’s assistance to be rendered.
The Director-General of NEMA, Muhammad Sani Sidi said the materials should be distributed directly to the affected persons by the Operations Office in collaboration with the officials from the Taraba State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA).
Sidi was represented by the Head of Operations in Gombe, Saidu Ahmed Minin.
The relief materials included 1,800 bags of 25kg rice, 1,500 bags of 25kg maize, 300 bundles of roofing sheets, 1,000 pieces of ceiling board, 100 packets of zinc nails, 1,300 bags of cements, 2,120 bags of 25kg guinea corn and 1,800 bags of 25kg beans.
Other items were 150 mattresses, 150 blankets, 150 mosquito nets, 100 plastic buckets, 50 cartons of Omo detergent; 50 cartons of bathing soap, 200 pieces of wax prints and 200 pieces of guinea brocade. The materials were stored at the agency’s warehouse along Jalingo-Yola Road.
The River Benue that cut across six of the 16 local government areas is one tremendous gift of nature, which most times are a source of tears for the people.
The people use the fertile plains of the Benue for all-seasons cultivation, as water from the river serves the people in terms of irrigation and other domestic purposes. However, when the rainy season peaks, the river banks overflows, wreaking havoc. In 2012 and last year, scores of people were killed by flood while domestic animals and birds, farmlands and many homes were destroyed.
Secretary to the State Government (SSG) Anthony Jellason received the materials on behalf of Governor Darius Ishaku.
He appreciated NEMA and the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration for the assistance.
He revealed that the government had spent N50 million to procure, stockpile and distribute relief materials to those affected by the flood.
The decision, he said, was informed by the seasonal rainfall prediction by the Nigeria Meteorological Agency and alert from the Cameroonian authorities on the release of excess water from the Lagdo Dam.
He stated that the magnitude of the incident was overwhelming for the state to bear alone, owing to financial challenges currently confronting it.
“The D-G of NEMA was approached and a letter was written to the President on the plight of the victims and they responded promptly,” he said.
He assured that the materials will be judiciously distributed. He reminded the Federal Government to categorise Taraba in the map of flood vulnerable states in Zone 1(A) because of the long stretch and disastrous effect of River Benue on the state.
The governor solicited the support of all stakeholders in disaster management, urging them to devise measures of preventing or ameliorating negative impacts of flood disaster in the country.
“This can be achieved by heeding to early warning signs,” he said.
Players of FC Taraba have finally called off a nine-night sleep strike to press for the payment of their salaries running to 11 months after an assurance from the Taraba Governor and the payment of a month’s pay by the League Management Company (LMC).
“We have received a month’s salary from the LMC,” confirmed FC Taraba skipper Austin Obiora.
“We have also received assurances from the Governor that he will pay us two months’ salaries and so we have left the Government House, where we have been sleeping for nine nights.”
The LMC paid 34 players and 19 officials a month’s salary on Wednesday.
“We have paid the team for a month,” said LMC chief operating officer Salihu Abubakar.
Taraba State Governor, Darius Dickson Ishaku on Wednesday presented to the State House of Assembly a budget of sixty eight billion and one hundred and ten million naira (N68.8 bn) for 2016.
Tagged “The Rescue Budget “, the governor explained that the appropriation bill was prepared bearing in mind “the realities of times.”
“We can only spend what we have; our projections are conservative and based on what we feel are more certain to accrue within the 2016 fiscal period.”
A breakdown of the budget has recurrent expenditure of N42.7 billion, representing 62.10 percent, and a capital expenditure of N26 billion, representing 37.90 percent of the budget.
The governor expects fiscal projections from the traditional revenues of the federal statutory allocations of N35.8 billion, Internally Generated Revenues (IGR) of N5.3 billion, Value Added Tax (VAT) of N8.6 billion, Aids and Grants N5.3 billion, proposed internal loan of N12 billion and external loan draw down of N1.4 billion.
Ishaku told The Nation that his priority would be in the areas of agriculture, health and peace.
Housing and urban development had the lion share of N4.8 billion, followed by skills and knowledge enhancement programme with N3.4 billion and governance with N3.4 billion.
Agriculture was allocated N2.3 billion, health N2.9 billion while roads construction and transportation had N2.4 billion.
From the bottom on the expenditure is poverty alleviation with N100 million, youth empowerment with N235.8 million, private sector N297 million, gender empowerment N350 million and airways with N500 million.
The governor disclosed he has directed that a strategic framework for the implementation of his rescue agenda manifesto be developed between now and the end of February 2016, to serve as the basis for the annual budgets of the state from now to 2019.
To remain focus on the implementation of the agenda, Ishaku said the framework will be linked with the state’s cash flow.
He added that all the local councils affected by civil unrest in the past years will be given due consideration.
“Though our current macroeconomic indices which serve as the benchmarks for our medium term projects for 2016 and beyond are not encouraging, we are facing the future with determination and faith to change our fortune as a state,” he said.
The Deputy Speaker Muhammed Gwampo who presided as the Speaker pro tempo, said “the appropriation bill will be speedily deliberated upon and put into law in the soonest possible time, so that we shall not delay the governor in his agenda of rescuing Taraba state.”
PRESIDENT of the Court of Appeal Justice Zainab Adamu Bulkachuwa is to determine where the appeal filed by Taraba State Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku is to be held, it was learnt yesterday.
The Court of Appeal in Yola, the Adamawa State capital has jurisdiction and entertains appeal from Taraba.
But with the sitting of the tribunal in Abuja, following security concerns in the Northeast, it was not clear where the appeal would be treated.
The Appeal Court president holds the four aces on the venue for the appeal.
Ishaku, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), filed an appeal to set aside the judgment of the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, sitting in Abuja, which sacked him and gave victory to his All Progressives Congress (APC) opponent, Senator Aisha Jummai Alhassan.
Taraba State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice Yusufu Akirikwen, yesterday, said the governor’s legal team, headed by Joseph Dauda, filed three notices, to be treated by the Court of Appeal.
Akirikwen was reacting to reports that Ishaku, who rejected the verdict, failed to file his appeal within the constitutional 21 days.
He said: “The report is a mischief; it is meant to mislead the public, particularly the supporters of the governor.
“Where did they get their report from? The only authentic source, apart from us, would have been the registrar of the Court of Appeal.”
The commissioner, who displayed three notices of appeal with the official stamp of the court, added: “The first appeal was filed by the governor himself, on November 24; the second appeal by the PDP, on November 25 and the third appeal, also filed on November 25, was by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).”
It was gathered that Alhassan also filed a cross-appeal on November 26.
The tribunal, headed by Justice Musa Danladi Abubakar, on November 7, ordered that Alhassan be sworn in as governor because the PDP did not conduct a valid primary that produced Ishaku as its flag bearer.
But the tribunal said Alhassan could not adequately prove her allegation of “over-voting, irregularities and non-compliance with the Electoral Act, 2010”.
Alhassan filed an appeal that the tribunal erred on this ground.
“You can cross-appeal only when there is a substantial appeal pending. With Alhassan’s cross-appeal, it means we have appealed the tribunal’s judgment,” Akirikwen said.
The commissioner urged Taraba residents to remain calm.
“The governor is going to guide and protect the mandate given to him,” he said.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) appears stuck with its plan to appeal against the recent decision of the Taraba State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal that nullified the April election of Mr. Darius Ishaku as governor of the state.
The party, according to an investigation, has been unable to get the support of those aggrieved by its handling of the governorship primaries before heading to the appeal court.
It was gathered that the party fears that unless the aggrieved men put the past behind them and agree that contrary to the position of the tribunal, there was indeed a primary election in which they participated it might be futile going to the higher court.
Ishaku is yet to file the appeal three weeks after the tribunal handed down its verdict, although he has 21 days to do so.
Party sources told The Nation that the delay in filing the appeal might not be unconnected with the inability of the national and state leaderships of the PDP to get its governorship aspirants in the state to forget the past.
The Nation learnt the PDP is unsure of how to handle the refusal of two frontline aspirants, including the former Acting Governor of the State, Alhaji Garba Umar, to endorse the position of the party that all aspirants should agree to defend Ishaku’s mandate at the Appeal Court by testifying that they participated in the primary election that produced him.
Umar who was Ishaku’s main rival for the PDP ticket, according to sources, bluntly told party leaders and chieftains at the various parleys called to resolve the issue, that he will always publicly attest to the fact that there was no primary election in the PDP, even in the court of law.
One source said, “There is a serious problem within the PDP over the much awaited Appeal. The party has spent the last three weeks trying to put its house in order by appealing to the aspirants who ran against Governor Ishaku to be willing and ready to testify that they participated in the primary election that produced him as candidate. But some of them are adamantly refusing to tow that line.
“It is very important for the party to get this sorted out with the aspirant because the whole subject of the tribunal judgement was wrongly premised on the assumption that there was no proper primary election in the PDP before Ishaku was thrown up by the party as its flag-bearer. Unless we are able to speak with one voice as a party at the Appeal Court on this matter, it will be difficult to win.
“And the most important persons in this desire to jointly defend Ishaku’s mandate are the aspirants. Unless they all concede the ticket to him willingly and refrain from publicly agreeing with the opposition and the tribunal that the Governor was wrongly nominated, the entire process of appealing may be an exercise in futility.
“But as I speak with you, today (Friday), former Acting Governor Umar and Chief David Kente, two prominent chieftains of our party in Taraba and front-line governorship contenders, have refused to buy into the arrangement of the party meant to save Governor Ishaku from being sacked by the Appeal Court.
“The situation is frightening. As at this morning a decision was taken by the national leadership to invite the various factions to a final meeting on Monday after which a decision will be taken about the appeal. But there is fresh fear and that concerns when exactly the 21 days will lapse.”
The Nation also learnt that the camp of the former Acting Governor recently met and urged him to insist on the position that there was no primary election in the PDP before the last governorship poll in the state. According to aides and political associate of Umar’s, the meeting was meant to take a position on the matter.
Prominent Taraba PDP chieftain and Co-ordinator of the UTCiaya Amana Political Movement, Umar’s political family, Jinadu Yawe while describing former Acting Governor Umar UTC as the major victim of the political robbery perpetrated by the PDP, denied his participation in the purported sham primary election, where Ishaku was selected as the candidate.
He confirmed that pressure is being mounted on the former Acting Governor to endorse the ‘primary’ but added that the group is insisting that PDP members in Taraba State were clearly and brazenly denied their right to select candidates of their choice for the election.
He said if primaries were held anywhere without the knowledge of relevant authorities and lawful delegates, the primaries should appropriately be declared unconstitutional, null and void.
“Claiming that any of the PDP governorship aspirants participated in the fraud called primary election held in Abuja is a wicked and barefaced lie aimed at covering the disgraceful subversion of both the PDP constitution and the Electoral Act just to willfully hand over the ticked to Ishaku.
“It was at the contrived primaries that Alhaji Umar was awarded the Senatorial ticket in absentia just to assuage his teeming supporters. It is the same rejected ticket that former Acting Governor Abubakar Sani Danladi seized, even without purchasing the form and going through the screening process.
Efforts to get the comments of the Governor on the development proved abortive as the Senior Special Assistant to the governor, Sylvanus Yakubu Giwa, could not be reached on phone.
