Wife of Anambra State Governor Mrs. Margret Peter Obi yesterday warned parents against allowing their children to be used as thugs during the election.
She advised mothers against allowing their children to be used as thugs by politicians.
Mrs. Obi spoke yesterday at the annual women empowerment programme visit to communities in Achalla Awka North Local Government Area.
The Commissioner for Women Affairs, Lady Henrietta Agbata, advised the women to use everything given to them judiciously.
•It’s a spurious allegation,full of mischief-firms reacts
Another crisis between Bi Courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL) and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) erupted last Wednesday when the General Manager, Corporate Communications, Mr. Yakubu Dati, was allegedly stopped from driving off in his car at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport domestic terminal (MMA2) by the Chief Executive Officer of BASL, Mr. Christopher Penninck.
Dati alleged that Penninck “personally led thugs to block the car conveying me out of the MMA2 official car park on the fateful day.”
He added:”He offered no explanation as he made frantic phone calls. Sensing danger, I took pictures of the scene.
“He sent thugs to forcefully take my phone. It took the intervention of the police officer on duty to rescue me. The police removed the barricade and allowed my car to drive off.”
He also alleged that Bi Courtney CEO threatened to deal with him.
“What surprised me was that other cars with FG registration numbers, same as mine, were neither harassed nor molested but given free access. In fact, our Director of Legal that arrived with me was allowed to leave.”
However, spokesman for BASL, Steve Omolale-Ajulo dismissed the allegation as spurious and mischievous .
His words:”I should not reply to this kind of petty allegation but, there is the need to set the records straight .
“Mr Dati drove his car to MMA2 on Wednesday July 17, 2013 and parked illegally at our protocol car park, instead of the multi storey car park. All pleas by our security personnel to make him park at the right place, being the car park was ignored.
“While doing his usual work round , Mr Pennick saw the illegally parked car and challenged Bi-Courtney security men why they should allow the owner to park there .
“While he was talking with his men, Dati emerged from our arrival hall and started taking photographs , an action he protested.
“ A senior security personnel intervened and the matter was settled in minutes. However, the questions to ask Mr Dati are: Does he have right to park anywhere at MMA2 or any other airport terminal for that matter? Is he above the law? Does Bi- Courtney now keep thugs at MMA2? Why did he not go to the police if he was really attacked by the so- called thugs.
Can somebody being attacked by thugs take the photographs of the same attack? We see some element of mischief and blackmail in this . But, we would not succumb to such dervish antics.”
In the last few weeks FAAN and Bi Courtney officials have been locked in confrontations over the placement of billboards at the uncompleted hotel which BASL is building opposite MMA2, a structure that is strategically located at the link road to the international terminal of the airport.
FAAN officials removed the BASL billboards saying that the concessionaire, which built and operates the MMA2 on Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) has no right to place advert billboards on the building which has ceased to belong to the organisation.
Besides, FAAN said only it has the control over advert placements at the airport and should be consulted before any billboard was placed.
•Govt: we don’t control thugs
More than 200 women traders in Awka, Anambra State, stormed the Central Police Station (CPS) yesterday to protest what they called “harassment and intimidation by thugs” believed to be government agents.
Some of the women were beaten up by the thugs, following their inability to pay the stipulated N3,000 government tax imposed on them at the market.
But the Commissioner for Information, Joe Martins Uzodike, said: “Government does not control thugs and we do not intend to have any in the state.”
He said the government does not run markets, adding that what the government is interested in is people paying their taxes.
“If the women are saying that thugs are harassing them, the onus is on the police to investigate the claim,” Uzodike said
One of the women leaders, Mrs. Praise Moneke, said the harassment and intimidation by some boys had become unbearable, which forced them to move to the police station.
At the Eke-Market yesterday, some 20 thugs were seen harrassing the women and throwing away their goods.
Some of the thugs were parading the market with weapons, including guns, machetes, axes and empty bottles.
At the central police station, the women were told to appoint 10 persons to meet with the Commissioner of Police, Bala Nasarawa, today.
No fewer than four policemen, 10 thugs and a court bailiff yesterday forcefully evacuated over 10 patients from a state-owned community hospital in the Isokan, Bodija area of Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. It followed a court warrant of possession issued to Mr Latifu Mobolaji Oluboyede who claimed to own the land.
The court order, issued on March 25 in the Oyo State High Court, read that the judgment was delivered in favour of the claimant, Mr Latifu Mobolaji Oluboyede, against the defendant, Ibadan North Local Government, and that the claimant is entitled to a declaration of title to the parcel of land situated at plot 12, Dr Awosika Layout, Bodija, Ibadan.
“That the sum of N108,000 should be paid as damages for tresspass to the claimant on or before the 30th of April, 2013,” the order said.
Revealing his ordeal in the hands of the armed policemen, the matron in charge of the hospital, Mrs Bisi Emiade explained that they stormed the hospital premises around 9.15 am with a court bailiff, adding that some hefty men, whom she described as touts, threw the patients out of the hospital, including the hospital’s equipment, after which they locked the doors.
Mrs Aina Ojo, a perplexed nursing mother, said: “I was dragged out on the floor with my child in the presence of the policemen that accompanied them here.”
Also Chairman of the Landlord Association, Dr Steven Lawal, said the land was carved out of the Olive Primary School for the community health centre,adding that it belongs to the government.
He appealed to the state government and the Ibadan North Local Government to look into the situation and not allow the residents to suffer unjustly.
•Party stalwart hospitalised
•Mimiko defends Oke’s petition
Thugs suspected to be supporters of the Labour Party (LP) in Ondo State yesterday invaded the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting at the High Court in Akure, the state capital.
The hoodlums, who were said to be members of a transport union, assaulted supporters of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
An ACN stalwart, Mr. Niyi Ojo, had machete cuts on his head. He is on admission at a hospital in Akure.
It was learnt that the thugs were led by a union official.
The invasion occurred shortly after the counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Chief Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), told the tribunal that the electoral body would not call any witness.
Awomolo said the commission would rely on the documents before the court.
The tribunal called for a brief adjournment before calling the first respondent (Governor Olusegun Mimiko) to open his defence on the petition of the PDP’s candidate, Chief Olusola Oke.
An ACN supporter said: “After the tribunal rose for a short recess, hell was let loose, as LP thugs attacked ACN and PDP supporters.
The policemen around the court could not save the situation.”
A Toyota bus belonging to the ACN governorship candidate, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), was vandalised. Those injured were taken to various hospitals.
Police spokesman Wole Ogodo confirmed that thugs attacked people at the tribunal, but said he had not been briefed on the incident.
Mimiko later opened his defence on Oke’s petition.
Four of his witnesses gave evidence that the election was hitch-free.
ACN condemned the attack on the opposition. In a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Mr. Rotimi Agbede, the party said the thugs were frustrated by the “abysmal performance” of the LP at the tribunal in the last one week and decided to take it out on the opposition.
It said INEC’s abrupt closure of its defence without calling any witness must have heightened the desperation of the hoodlums.
ACN said: “Not satisfied with their hopeless situation, the thugs embraced violence. It is unfortunate that the thugs vented their anger on anybody in sight, injuring many people. But for the intervention of security agents, the story would have been different.”
“We condemn the desecrating of the court with violence and wonder why a government that came to power through the instrumentality of the courts would do everything in its power to undermine the process.”
ACN urged security agencies to be on the alert to check trouble makers.
Nigeria’s frontline farmers group,
Agbekoya Farmers Association has
embarked on aggressive mobilisation of farmers in Ondo State ahead of Saturday’s governorship election in the state.
It also vowed not to allow political thuggery to avoid rigging at the poll as efforts were in place by the group to join hands with security agencies to ensure a peaceful, free and fair election.
According to a release made available yesterday to The Nation by the group’s National Publicity Security, Chief Olatunji Bandele, the President General of the Association, High Chief Kamorudeen Aremu Okikiola was quoted as saying Agbekoya Farmers Association is a big stakeholder in the agricultural sector of Nigeria and Ondo State and therefore, the group’s position is to support an agriculture-friendly government who genuinely has the love of farmers at heart.
“We are currently mobilising farmers and educating them on the candidate to vote for in the Saturday election in Ondo State,” the release stated, adding that Agbekoya Farmers Association “has no political afflation with any political party, but we are ready to support any government or governor that supports Agbekoya Farmers Association and our agri-business project.”
It further said: “In Ondo State, Agbekoya Farmers Association has about 22,000 members spread across all the 18 local government areas of the state, with majority of them languishing in poverty in the rural areas without any financial and technical support from government.
“On our own we have gone to the financial market to access fund for our agri-business projects. Our mission is to feed the nation and turn Ondo State to the food basket of Nigeria.”
The release further hinted that the group had put machinery in place to monitor the governorship election. “Agbekoya hereby warns political thugs and hoodlums to steer clear of the polling booths across the state because we are on ground to monitor the election, protect our votes and also to assist security operatives to maintain peace.”
“We don’t belong to any political party. All we are interested in is to ensure that the man who is genuinely interested in real governance is voted for. We believe it is hightime we get involved in who govern us because as farmers, we are stakeholders,” Bandele added.
Suspected Labour Party (LP) thugs yesterday at Owe Akala in Akure attacked two supporters of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).
One of the victims, Ajayi Gboyega, was in a critical condition at the General Hospital, Akure at press time.
Sources said the hoodlums allegedly attacked the victims for wearing ACN vests and caps at Oke-Aro ward eight.
A chieftain of the ACN in the ward, Tayo Abidakun, flayed the development, saying the intolerance of Governor Olusegun Mimiko and his party is becoming unbearable.
Abidakun, an ex-lawmaker who represented Akure South Constituency, said everybody has a fundamental human right to associate. “I wonder why Mimiko wants to remain in power by force,” he added.
The former legislator, who visited one of the victims in hospital, prayed for his recovery.
He urged ACN supporters to remain consistent in their resolve to vote out LP, which, according to him, has brought backwardness to the state.
The Director, Aketi Campaign Organisation (ACO) for Akure North/South Federal Constituency, Mr. Saka Yusuf Ogunleye, reiterated his appeal to the Commissioner of Police to curtail the violent act of the LP.
The campaign of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Okitipupa yesterday turned bloody as thugs of the Labour Party (LP) attacked ACN supporters.
An eyewitness said the rally, which was attended by a massive crowd, was on when the LP thugs came from different directions and attacked ACN supporters with machetes and other weapons.
The source said many ACN members were injured, adding that they have been taken to hospitals.
The Director of Media, Publicity and Strategy, Akeredolu Campaign Organisation (ACO), Mr. Idowu Ajanaku, said: “This is to confirm the position of the Akeredolu Campaign Organisation that the LP and Governor Olusegun Mimiko have brought in thugs to Ondo State in the last three days to intimidate, harass and rig the election.
“ACN supporters were restrained from retaliating as a result of the intervention of the party’s standard bearer, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) and other leaders. The party urges the Commissioner of Police and other security agents to be alive to their responsibilities by protecting not only ACN members but the entire citizens of the state.
“We are not weaklings. If the police and other security agents shy away from their duties, ACN members will have no choice than to device other means of defending themselves.
“If the late General Sani Abacha could not cow the late Pa Michael Adekunle Ajasin, the leader of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) and the people of Ondo State, Mimiko and his co-travellers can not cow the ACN as the party is poised to win the October 20 election.”
The Akeredolu Campaign Organisation (ACO) has alleged that a chieftain of the Labour Party (LP) on Sunday night brought thugs to Akure and lodged them in two popular hotels in the town (names withheld).
The Director, Media and Publicity of the organisation, Mr. Idowu Ajanaku, alleged
that the thugs were brought into Akure in batches in a green CRV Sport Utility Vehicle with registration number MM 22 ABJ.
He alleged that the hoodlums, numbering over 300, were brought in to rig the October 20 poll.
Ajanaku said: “ACO urges the Commissioner of Police and other security agents to take note and investigate the matter because Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) members will not allow themselves to be molested by the thugs brought in by a chieftain of the LP from the eastern part of the country.
“Ondo people have a reputation of repressing oppression. Not even the late General Sani Abacha could cow them and their leader, the late Chief Adekunle Ajasin, who led the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO).”