The Nation Newspaper

Tag: threat

  • ‘Prepare for avian flu threat’

    ‘Prepare for avian flu threat’

    The  Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute (ARMTI) Acting Executive Director, Dr. Olufemi Oladunni,  has  advised  poultry keepers across  the country to remain vigilant to the threat of Avian Influenza (AI), and take action to reduce the risk to their flocks and the wider poultry industry.

    AI refers to infection with bird flu viruses. Those viruses occur naturally among birds worldwide and can infect domestic poultry and other birds and animal species.

    AI outbreak has been reported in many countries in Africa, Europe and Asia, and even Americas.

    Oladunni said in addition to a plethora of other devastating effects, climate change will increase the risk of diseases, including AI, spreading in bird populations.

    According to him, the   worsening climate change will give rise to new diseases among birds and cause imported birds to spread diseases when they are brought into the country.

    Bird flu has cost poultry producers millions of naira since last year, increasing the cost of poultry farming to rise.

    He highlighted the importance of keeping up high biosecurity even though the immediate disease risk has dropped.

    Given the risk of bird flu in the country, he urged bird keepers to take some simple actions to help reduce the chance of their birds becoming infected. These could include steps to reduce contact with birds, particularly on ponds and other water bodies.

    He called on farms to adopt serious safety measures to try and prevent bird flu.

    He said solutions for Avian Influenza are vaccination and bio security. Besides, good prevention programme is highly recommended.

    In May, the Federal Government alerted the public to the outbreak of Avian Influenza or bird flu in the FCT and seven states of the country.

    Veterinary and Pest Control Services Director, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Gideon Mshelbwala, raised the alert at a meeting with state Commissioners of Agriculture in Abuja.

    Mshelbwala listed the states affected by the outbreak to include Bauchi, Kano, Katsina, Nasarawa, Plateau, FCT and Kaduna. They all reported cases on May 30.

    He said the disease had spread across 26 states and the FCT since it started in 2008 affecting 800 farms in no fewer than 123 local government areas.

    Mshelbwala said there were no scientifically-proven vaccines for bird flu, noting that the Federal Government was adopting quarantine, movement control, stamping out, decontamination and bio-security measures to curb the spread.The director expressed regret over the poor bio-security practices by some poultry farmers.

  • Militants’ fresh threat

    •Time for positive dialogue on Niger Delta’s 16-point agenda

    A section of Niger Delta militants has resolved to attack oil facilities anytime from September 10. This announcement came from the Coalition of Niger Delta Agitators, CNDA. Its spokesman premised the decision on continued neglect of what he calls issues of Niger Delta: “The only language the Federal Government seems to understand is violence. September 10 is the day we will resume attacks (on oil installations). By September 10, which is on Sunday, over 5,000 members of the Niger Delta Coalition of Agitators will shut down no less than 20 platforms.”

    This is a regrettable development, especially for a country that has just come out of recession. Last year, militants prevented the country from pumping about 40 percent of its normal output, thus worsening the value of the naira for the better part of the year.

    The nation was heartened when the Federal Government promised to respond to the 16-point agenda submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari by leaders of Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANEF), an umbrella body of leaders of ethnic nationalities in the Niger Delta. So upbeat were leaders of PANEF that a spokesman for the forum announced during a visit by the vice president to Delta State thus: “There can be no stronger expression of Federal Government’s understanding of the situation in Niger Delta than the pronouncement by the vice president that the region should be treated as a special development zone.”

    We believe that periodic multiplication of militant groups is not conducive to meaningful negotiation between representatives of the Niger Delta and the Federal Government. Currently, there are five groups jostling for attention in the region: Coalition of Niger Delta Agitators (CNDA), Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Niger Delta Revolutionary Crusaders (NDRC), Pan Niger Delta People’s Congress (PNDPC), and Reformed Niger Delta Avengers (RNDA). Leaders in the region need to get more organised, for the region to get the attention it deserves, not only from the Federal Government but also from the rest of the country. Certainly, many citizens across the country empathise with the people of the Niger Delta, but no section can make the case of the Niger Delta better than the region itself.

    Without doubt, the people of Niger Delta have been patriotic for decades, by allowing the entire country to depend largely on exploitation of oil and gas from the bowels of the region at the expense of the region’s environment and the people’s health. But a sudden resolution by a fragment of PANEF to attack oil platforms is not the rational way to go at the incipient stage of a long-expected economic recovery. Even with pumping of 2.2 million barrels of oil per day, Nigeria will earn just about 50 percent of what it used to earn about two years ago. Throwing the country back into recession may be counterproductive for all parties. And the Federal Government itself needs to be more responsive to the grievances of the oil-producing region.

    While we urge the various groups in the Niger Delta to get more strategic and magnanimous about the region’s decades-long grievances, we call on the Federal Government in particular to honour its promises  to the region. Strengthening Niger Delta-related bureaucracies: Ministry of Niger Delta and Niger Delta Development Commission to get more sensitive to the needs of the people of the region is as urgent as it can ever get.

    Further, Niger Delta leaders entrusted with responsibility of negotiating with the Federal Government need to consult robustly with their constituents, to avoid giving the impression of serving two masters. In addition, the government ought to return (with the enthusiasm evident in January) to the 16-point agenda submitted to President Buhari before he took ill. Peace in the Niger Delta is so crucial to the nation’s economy that the Federal Government should resolve to walk its talk on the region’s demands.

  • Arms proliferation, threat to national security

    SIR: When the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace Disarmament in Africa in 2016 raised an alarm on the spate of proliferation of illicit small arms and light weapons in Nigeria to the tune of 350 million, many dismissed it as lacking accurate statistical data for its verification. Although many Nigerians believe that the porous nature of the nation’s borders might facilitate this illicit and nefarious enterprise through activities of smugglers, but the recent discovery that some of these weapons could actually pass through the nation’s prime port –Lagos, was rather rattling

    In January, this year Nigerians were jolted by the breaking news that the Nigerian Customs Service intercepted 661 pieces of pump-action riffles from China surreptitiously concealed in steel doors and other merchandise goods. The fact that the consignment was purportedly cleared from Lagos port cast not a little doubt on the integrity and competence of officers of the Customs but in a swift move to purge itself of complicity, the Customs leadership dismissed the culpable officers.

    Four months later, in May, news of another seizure of a container with 440 arms and ammunition hit the newsstand. This time around, the consignment was disguised and declared as Plaster of Paris by the importer. The imports which were said to have originated from Turkey were intercepted even before declaration. Arrest was also effected and it is believed that the suspects are being prosecuted.

    This week, Monday, September 11, the Comptroller of Custom Service, Col. Hameed Ali (retd) confirmed yet another seizure of 1100 pump-action-riffles in Lagos. This brings the number of intercepted pump-action–riffles within the last eight months to 2201. Already, the Customs officer and the clerk at the command which were found to be complicit have been promptly arrested for investigation.

    For a nation currently being polarized along ethnic divide with threats and counter threats, it calls for a national vigilance of not only the security operatives but by all well meaning citizens. With the recent rampant incidents of Boko-Haram insurgency in the North-east, militancy in the South-south, the herdsmen’s attack in the North-central and the agitation for secession in the South-east, the country’s security architecture should be repositioned and be battle-ready to square up with any  possible break-down of law and order. This is certainly not the time to rest on one’s oars.

    It is also not the time to revel in self-congratulations for effecting those few interceptions because one may not know how many of such consignments have successfully found their ways un-detected into the country through the ports and sundry porous borders across the country. The most baffling of this narrative is the fact that we still have officers in the Nigerian Customs Service who would not mind if the entire country is consumed in a conflagration so long as their pockets are stuffed with filthy lucre. It is equally pathetic since they have no inkling of where they would be, in event where these lethal objects of human destruction are put to use as they could be victims.

    Since the exporting countries of these fire-arms are already known, the Customs should interact and interface with the World Customs Organization to ensure the security of the nation’s trade supply chain and strengthen enforcement to combat all forms of illicit trade. It should also unravel the mystery behind these nefarious transactions and invoke extant legal framework to sanction the culprits.

    Nigeria’s firearms’ laws should be rejigged to deal with emerging security challenges in the country in order to curb illegal and abusive use of light weapons by unauthorized people.

    The revelation made by the presidential committee on small and light weapons in 2015 that about 60 percent of all illicit arms used in the South-east zone of the country were locally fabricated should provide a veritable template for holistic sensitizations, regulations and disarmament.

     

    • Itaobong Offiong Etim,

    Calabar.

  • PDP’s renewed threat

    PDP’s renewed threat

    Since the Ahmed Makarfi faction of the beleaguered Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won the ferocious legal battle for its control, things have been looking up for the main opposition party.

    Amid the euphoria of the victory, the party has renewed so stridently its threat to return to power in 2019. Its leading lights have suddenly found their voices, which had been muffled and muzzled by the civil war that wracked the party.

    Ayo Fayose, the energetic loudmouth governor of Ekiti State, has announced his political future. He wants to be president. The Makarfi faction offered the Ali Modu Sheriff faction a general amnesty, which it rejected, vowing to fight on as if  litigation is a Lagos owambe street revelry that goes on ad infinitum.

    Former President Goodluck Jonathan took some time off the lecture circuit to join the jollification. He urged party chiefs not to see the Supreme Court’s verdict as “victory for a section of the party but as moral victory for constitutionality over arbitrariness”.

    “I believe in our jurists. We may have issues with some individuals but the Nigerian judiciary deserves respect and commendation,” Dr Jonathan said. He was not done. “I hereby call on all those who left the party…to return to their natural home and build the PDP. We see Nigerians as human beings, deserving of the rule of law, separation of power and free market economy that provides level playing ground for all.

    “The party that gave Nigeria the largest economy in Africa is a party with large heart enough to find a place for all Nigerians.”

    Dr Jonathan has said it all. Rule of law. Respect for Nigerians. Separation of powers.  And free market economy. Consider the case of the judiciary. The other day when Directorate of State Services (DSS) operatives stormed the homes of some judges, rousing them from sleep and seizing them as if they were some amateur Lagos pickpockets, there were no protests. In those good old days of the PDP, could such an egregious abuse of privacy have been imagined let alone executed in such a brutal manner that left so much to be desired about our human rights identity? Never.  Such a plan would never have seen the light of day.

    Can judges, who are seen to be next to the gods, be corruptible? Even if they are, is it fit and proper for some young gun-wielding fellows to grab them and whisk them off to be detained? Where is the old respect and adulation and admiration and veneration for judges even when hefty sums in hard currency are found in their bedrooms?

    They said they found vaults of huge sums of money in various currencies in their Lordships’ homes, questioned them and hauled them before their brother judges who wasted no time in applying the law.

    Is it a crime to own a vault? Is owning a vault a symbol of corruption? Has anybody complained that his money is missing? Is corruption the same as stealing? Wasn’t that argument settled a long time ago? It is all muddled up.

    Those who know nothing about the spirit and the principle of law and the workings of jurisprudential theories attacked their Lordships and claimed that there was enough evidence to nail the beleaguered judges. Of course, the ignorant few who raised such vacuous objection were simply ignored. Today, the judges have gone back to their courts, dispensing justice. I hope they have forgiven all those who played one role or the other in their travails. It is a measure of their unusual magnanimity that their Lordships have not demanded apologies nor claimed damages from the government for the brazen assault on their privacy and integrity.

    Again, could that have happened in the days of the PDP? Never. Now the PDP has vowed to reverse such injustice.

    At the National Assembly, the news is always about one pet project or the other that has little  to do with the public interest. Lawmaking has taken the back seat. What better proof do we need than the Bill on amnesty for treasury looters. How could it have taken so long to pass  such a law?

    In the days of the PDP, it would have zipped through without all the noise, even from people who know nothing about lawmaking.

    The other day when Sambo Dasuki, the young man who manned the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) in the Jonathan administration, spoke of how Boko Haram had been defeated before the Buhari administration took the reins, the Presidency urged Nigerians to ignore him.

    Not so fast, I dare say. When PDP eventually carries out its threat to return to power, the Dasuki imbroglio, I bet, will be the first to be settled. Here is a man who was only obeying presidential orders. Now he has been bundled into detention for allegedly disbursing some $2.1b  meant for arms to fight Boko Haram.

    Walking free are some of those who confessed to participating in the massive bazaar Dasuki is being accused of superintending. Former Sokoto Governor Attahiru Bafarawa said he got N200m for prayers. A politician who obviously has some experience in spiritual matters has reckoned that the country would not have slipped into this biting recession if the Buhari administration had paid attention to prayers, dishing out hefty grants on such a venture.

    No doubt the PDP is not only the biggest party in Africa, it is the most spiritual. Its return will guarantee steady income for marabouts, necromancers, soothsayers and seers whose lucrative trade has fallen on bad times since the party left power. Were it not for their prayers, you will agree with me, the recession would have landed here a long time ago.

    Besides, when experts cried that the hard times were imminent, former Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo – Iweala, arguably one of our most inventive ever, simply dug into her bag of tricks and pulled out one that reset the engine. She announced the rebasing of the economy. Suddenly, the troubled economy became Africa’s largest. We hailed the magic formula. Only the PDP could have pulled off such a rare feat.

    Okonjo-Iweala was later quoted as saying: “I told them to save ahead of eventualities but Jonathan had no political will to do so and this is the reason why we are in crisis, because we squandered our boom.”

    Is she also getting set for the PDP’s return to power?

    Since the PDP left, the Naira has suffered many reversals – and abuses. Some prominent citizens, obviously afraid that they could be accused of either stealing or corruption, buried their fortune (dollar bills and more) in cemeteries. Others built or hired safe houses to keep theirs.

    Former Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) chief Andrew Yakubu hid his in a bungalow tucked away in a derelict part of Kaduna. A whistle-blower squealed on him. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) stormed the place and hauled out the cash, some $79m. Now, Yakubu has launched a desperate legal battle to recover the cash, which he swore was a gift from his ever appreciative friends.

    In the days of the PDP, nobody hid cash. In fact, the dollar was the preferred currency in hotels and some elitist businesses. It was sprayed at private parties by the wealthy who pasted it on the foreheads of musicians either as a mark of appreciation of their art or simply to show class and style. Will the PDP bring back such good times?

    What role for Dr Jonathan and his amiable consort, Dame Patience Jonathan? A colleague recalled the other day how Mama Peace was wondering what the change slogan was all about. In a classic instance of the wothering putdown for which the former First Lady is well known, she was quoted as saying: “These people shouting ‘change’, ‘change’, dem be bus conductor?”

    Poor lady. She has been fighting to retrieve a $15m fortune which a court ordered to be frozen. She got reprieve from the courts, but the EFCC won’t let go; it appealed a court ruling granting her custody of the money, which the affable woman claimed to have inherited from her loving mother.

    In the days of the PDP, who would have questioned the First Lady’s right to inherit her mother’s treasure?

    The ruling APC believes the PDP is only dreaming. Really? Here is a party that threatened to rule for 60 years, in the first instance. It was on course for 16 unbroken years, until fate supervened and truncated the journey. Well, a journey of fantasy is no political sin; the APC should concede to the opposition party its right to dream.

    A reader, who obviously supports the APC’s position, sent me one of the posters that were common on the Internet before the 2015 election. It reads: “Final word. Thou shall say unto them, I presented my supplication before the king, that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan’s house to die there. Jeremiah 38: 26. Vote wisely.”

    Without dreams there will be no expression for our abundant talents and energy. Dreams spark off the fire of ambition, which is pursued relentlessly by will. With dreams, there will be competition, which enlivens life.

    The PDP has the right imagination., however deluded Shouldn’t it be allowed to exercise it?

  • On the expulsion threat against Igbos

    SIR: When a gang of disillusioned youths in northern parts of Nigeria reportedly threatened to expel Igbo indigenes by October, I know that some mischievous and grave-bound elders have incited the gullible gangsters!

    I suspect that, the pond-skater that dances wildly on water surely has its submarine-drummer underneath!

    It is a pity that Ango Abdullahi, an old professor and former VC at ABU Zaria will be so mean, as to encourage treasonable tantrums of few children of anger!

    There are so many highly intelligent northerners who will never support the nuisance variable which Ango represents. A truly educated person knows that every citizen has inalienable rights of abode anywhere in Nigeria.

    Those who have sense of history will know that great Igbo leaders like late Nnamdi Azikwe, late Ojukwu, Ike Nwachukwu and many others were born in northern Nigeria! They have birth right and citizenship status under the law in descendants.

    And that inference war should be avoided through peaceful coexistence among all

    A professor, who is worth his chair, ought to reason better than being a tribal bigot in a diverse nation like Nigeria!

    Sad enough, at this period of Ramadan, when peace and unity should be promoted among all mankind, Prof Ango Abdullahi and cohorts are fanning embers of war?

    My advice to all sensible youths in Nigeria is, embrace peace, love and unity. Do not engage in tribal hatred.

    Ignore wicked elders who are hell-bent on pogrom and scorched-earth politics while reclining at departure lounge of their riotous old-age!

     

    • Kunle Rotimi

    Ikeja, Lagos State

  • Police probe ‘threat ‘to man’s life

    The Inspector-General of Police Ibrahim Idris has ordered investigation into the alleged threat to the life of a businessman, Daniel Nnadumaka.
    It was in response to a petition he wrote through his lawyer, Batholomew Ajagbo.
    The IGP ordered an immediate investigation of allegations of “conspiracy, criminal terrorism, threat to life with violence, unlawful invasion, and seizure of landed documents” by Nnadumaka.
    The petitioner said his life was being threatened over a family dispute.
    The petitioner said the suspects in February destroyed his gate, invaded his Lagos home and took away his title documents after his caretaker was brutalised and almost killed.
    Nnadumaka said he was being trailed and threatened through anonymous calls.
    He said he had to abandon his home for fear of being killed and has been staying in a hotel.
    According to him, there was a bid “to eliminate me at all cost having been trailing me through well organised assassination bid with a view to dispossessing me of my belongings including my various properties acquired with my hard-earned money.”
    The IGP, in an April 28 memo to the Deputy Inspector-General of Police signed by his Principal Staff Officer II, said: “I forward herewith a copy of letter dated 25th April 2017, received from Bartholomew Ajagbo & Co…and respectfully convey the directive of the IPG that you investigate and report.”

  • ‘4.7m Nigerians under threat of Type 2 diabetes’

    •CU researchers: disease threatens more people

    A study by researchers at Covenant University, Ota has suggested that Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus – a chronic condition that affects metabolism of glucose in the body – now affects over 4.7 million Nigerians aged 20-79 years.

    A statement by the institution’s Deputy Director, Media & Corporate Affairs Emmanuel Igban warned that the study showed that the disease will threaten more people without an effective public health response, higher public awareness and lifestyle changes, including healthy diets and physical activity.

    The researchers found that 40 per cent of people with type 2 diabetes are undiagnosed, and that deaths occur in one 1 in five diabetes patients admitted to hospital with complications from the disease.

    These complications can affect the heart, kidney, brain, eyes, blood vessels and nerves, according to the statement.

    Over the last 30 years, type 2 diabetes has increased by 440 per cent to 4.7 million cases – or 5.7 per cent of all Nigerians. This rate is up to three times higher than the neighbouring countries of Cote d’Ivoire (2.3 per cent), Ghana (1.9 per cent), and Senegal (1.8 per cent).

    The researchers highlight how the understanding of type 2 diabetes in Nigeria and many African countries is hindered by shortfalls in routine health data, and how this hampers an effective response in various settings. They call for more research, especially in Northern Nigeria, where data is particularly scarce.

    The lead researcher, Dr. Davies Adeloye, said: “The last nationwide survey of non-communicable diseases in Nigeria was conducted in 1997. Most findings reported on type 2 diabetes mellitus in Nigeria since then have been based on modelled estimates from neighbouring countries with relatively more detailed data on the disease.

    “We have, therefore, systematically synthesised the best evidence on type 2 diabetes mellitus across all geo-political zones in Nigeria to guide relevant evidence-based public health and policy response in the health sector.”

    Their findings have been published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) Open. A full copy of the research paper can be accessed at: http://bmjopen.bmj.com/

  • Medical union dismisses sack threat

    Medical union dismisses sack threat

    •We’re not fighting NMA, says govt

    The Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) in Kogi State has told its members to disregard the government’s threat to sack whoever participates in the ongoing strike.

    A statement by its Chairman, Dr. Tijani Godwin, said the strike would continue until their demands are met.

    It warned members against signing any register as stipulated in the government’s circular, saying anyone who disobeyed the “decision of the congress would blame him/herself because the congress’s decision is binding on all”.

    The statement reads: “Information reaching us shows that the Acting Head of Service, Mrs. Kehinde Lawal, has directed the Chief Medical Directors of HMB, KSSH and KSUTH, to open a register for the striking doctors as from today, to begin the No Work No Pay Policy.

    “We are also threatened with sack, if we failed to suspend the strike and resume duty. But NMA urges its members to disregard the threats and be resolute in this struggle. No doctor should sign any register.

    “Any member who disobeys the decision of the congress will have him or herself to blame because the decision is binding on all members.

    “Remember, injury to one is injury to all. When ASUU and other category of workers were on strike, they were never threatened, rather they were pardoned. Why NMA? Let’s join hands to save our profession today”.

    But the government has said it is not at war with the doctors, promising to work towards an amicable solution on the matter.

    It, however, reiterated its earlier position, calling on the doctors to resume work, failing which the no-work-no-pay rule will apply.

    Governor Yahaya Bello’s Director-General on Media and Strategy, Kingsley Fanwo, in a statement yesterday, said the government would ensure a peaceful industrial relation between it and the health workers.

    Fanwo said the government made its position known through a circular by the Acting Head of Service, Mrs. K. Lawal.

    The statement reads: “The medical profession must not lose its humanitarian heart. Healthcare issues are about life, and the government will never trivialise issues affecting the health sector.

    “Rather than abandon patients on the sick bed, NMA should choose the path of negotiations to resolve the issues they have raised about the screening exercise, and the effects on its members. We are prepared to care for those who care for the sick.

    “Doctors’ welfare is critical to achieving our goals in healthcare delivery. Strike must be seen as a last resort, when all peaceful avenues are not yielding fruits. The governor is prepared to listen to all grievances and give truthful positions. This quality should be explored by patriotic unionists who dream of a better and a more prosperous Kogi State. It will be unfair to the people to hide behind the transparent curtains of political interest to subvert their interest and welfare

    “The government’s position on the strike remains the same. Government is prepared to listen and negotiate, but the public will tell us if we can use their taxes to pay those who will leave the sick unattended.

    “We want to know the justice and fairness in paying people who do not work. We want to continue to pay our doctors, and that is why we are begging them to go back to work and give government the benefit of the doubt to address their grievances.”

  • Osun APC: Yusuf’s claim of death threat unfounded

    Osun APC: Yusuf’s claim of death threat unfounded

    Osun State All Progressives Congress (APC) has said House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Lasun Yusuf’s claim of threat to his life ahead of next year’s governorship election in the state is unfounded.

    In a statement by its Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy, Kunle Oyatomi, the party said the allegation that some APC leaders in Osun State were after Yusuf’s life was baseless.

    It denied Yusuf’s claim, through one of his aides, Dr Remi Ajala, that he and late Senator Isiaka Adeleke were singled out and warned not to contest in next year’s governorship poll.

    The statement said: “The attention of the leadership of APC in the State of Osun has been drawn to a release issued by Dr Aderemi Suleiman Ajala on behalf of Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Lasun Yusuf, on the threat to his life, among all other allegations which are unfounded and baseless; they are of no security concern, to say the least.

    “We hereby state unequivocally that the Deputy Speaker and his band of delusional propagandists are mere opportunists clustering to the death of our late party leader and illustrious son of Ede, Senator Isiaka Adeleke, to make smokescreen names and score undue political relevance for themselves.

    “To all intent and purposes, the deputy speaker has once again demonstrated to the teeming populace that he is a mischievous and a mere opportunist, who lacks the deserving respect for the dead and cannot stand by the etiquette and traditional norms of our rich cultural heritage as Yoruba-speaking people.

    “Setting the records straight: the executive of the Osun State APC, in line with the tenets of democratic principles entrenched in the ideology of our great party and in order not to distract the business of developmental governance and fulfilment of our electioneering promises, as contained in our manifesto, issued an advisory notice to all intending governorship aspirants for the 2018 election to wait until there are clear guidelines and directives by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). As such, the claim by Yusuf, that himself and the late Adeleke were singled out and warned, is a blatant lie and a template to deceit.

    “Without searching further, Yusuf has shown to us that he is the chief sponsor and promoter of the irritating blackmail against the government of the state of Osun, that the late senator of Osun West Senatorial District was poisoned, which he said caused his death. This is illogical and irresponsible.

    “It is quite unfortunate that someone who rode on the popularity and acceptability of our party to get to National Assembly could fabricate tissues of lies against the government and leadership of the party. We only wish to advise the lawmaker to simply retrace his steps, if truly he is still a member of the Osun APC.”

     

  • Defection: Emmanuel’s cousin alleges threat to life

    Kingsley Uffang, a kinsman of Akwa Ibom State Governor Udom Emmanuel, has raised the alarm over alleged threat to his life.

    The politician defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), last week in Awa Iman, the community of Governor Udom Emmanuel.

    Addressing reporters yesterday in his hideout, Uffang, a maternal cousin of the governor, accused some unnamed PDP members of threatening him on the phone since he defected to APC.

    The politician said he had been noticing some suspicious persons trailing his vehicle at Eket and Onna, his local government area, since last week.

    Uffang, also a first cousin of Udom’s Chief of Protocol, Edmund Uffang, urged security agencies to protect him because of the resurgence of killings and kidnapping in the state.

    He admitted that he had also received friendly telephone calls from some PDP members in Onna, especially those who begged him to return to the party to save the governor from further embarrassment.

    But the APC member vowed not to return to the PDP because of what he called the governor’s arrogance and ill-treatment of his kinsmen.

    Ufang said he realised Emmanuel would not win the governorship election in 2019 because of his “unpopularity” even among PDP members.

    Another defector, who pleaded anonymity, said their defection was popular in their villages and outside.

    He said more of the governor’s relatives would soon join APC.

    The defector said many Akwa Ibom State residents, including a commissioner and an aide to the governor, had congratulated him for leaving the PDP.

    He pledged his loyalty and that of the new APC members to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Commissioner for Akwa Ibom, Samuel Frank, who is from their ward, like the governor.