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Tag: Useni

  • Useni: Exit of the Langtang-born fighter

    Useni: Exit of the Langtang-born fighter

    It is said that there is an end to everything under the sun, including our mortal body. That is exactly the case with a famous member of the Langtang mafia, Lt.-Gen Jeremiah Useni who answered the final call on Thursday.

    Popularly called Jerry Boy by his admirers in the military, Useni was a retired officer of the Nigerian Army who had a distinguished career spanning more than four decades.

    Born on February 16, 1943 in Langtang, Langtang North Local Government Area of Plateau State, Useni rose through the ranks to become a Lieutenant General in the Nigerian Army.

    His splendid and successful military career was marked by various appointments, including Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, under the General Sani Abacha military junta. J.T. Useni also served as Minister of Transport and Quarter-Master General of the Nigerian Army.

    One of the significant events in Useni’s life and time was his appointment as Military Governor of Bendel State in January 1984. He later became a key figure in the Abacha regime, serving as the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    However, Useni’s fortunes began to decline after the sudden death of his boss and mentor, Gen. Sani Abacha in 1998 as the regime after Abacha put Useni under severe scrutiny, slamming him with allegations of corruption and embezzlement. But the Langtang born General successfully waded through the rough waters of anti-corruption trial.

    Read Also: Useni a leader of all seasons, says David Mark

    He later delved into politics and became a prominent figure in party politics. He was a national vice chairman of the defunct All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP); a party that later metamorphosed into CPC. He eventually crossed carpet to PDP where he emerged a senator of the federal republic between 2015 and 2019.

    Throughout his career, Useni was known for his shrewd business acumen and his ability to build a vast network of influence and wealth.

    The late General, who was reported to have been struggling with undisclosed illness for some time, which virtually kept him out of public functions, eventually breathed his last on Thursday at the age of 82.

    The highest point of Useni’s political career was when he contested for the governorship seat in Plateau State in the 2019 general election. The gallant soldier fought his way through the election petition tribunal up to the Supreme Court where he finally gave up the struggle.

    As the immediate past senator in the 8th National Assembly, he had called on his followers to remain calm as he was going to explore all legal windows to claim the mandate given to him by the people of Plateau State.

    It will be recalled that following the 9th March, 2019 governorship election, Simon Lalong of the All Progressive Congress (APC) was declared winner. But not satisfied with the outcome of the election, Senator Useni of the people Democratic (PDP) headed to the tribunal, challenging the declaration of Lalong by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as winner of the election.

    In the petition, Useni challenged the authenticity of governor Lalong’s qualification, alleging that he used double names, which he said was contrary to the laid down electoral guideline.

    While the legal battle ended against his political interest, Gen. Useni succeeded in using the 2019 election to demonstrate his love and interest in serving the people of Plateau State as governor; a dream that never came to pass until his demise last Thursday.

    Be it as it may, the political terrain of Plateau State is bound to miss him dearly.

  • Taraba: Tribunal affirms Useni as winner

    Taraba: Tribunal affirms Useni as winner

    The National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Jalingo yesterday affirmed the election of the former speaker Taraba State House of Assembly and Member representing Takum/Ussa/Donga federal constituency, Mark Bako Useni.

     Istifanus Gbana of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Rimam Shawulu of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) had challenged the victory of Useni as a member representing the federal constituency at the tribunal.

    The petitioners approached the tribunal on grounds of non-compliance of the Electoral Act in the rerun election.

    Both parties sought for the nullification of the election over non-compliance with electoral laws by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    Read Also: Bandits kill one, abduct 25 in Southern Kaduna

    They also said Useni did not acquire the lawful number of votes to be declared as the winner of the election.

    The three-member panel led by Justice Benson Ogbu during his ruling dismissed the petitions of the two candidates and their parties, stating that “the petitions collapse on failure of prove by the petitioners”

    Ogbu, who read the judgment stated that during the cross examination, counsel to Useni proved that the candidate of the APC won the election with lawful votes “and his election remains valid in the eyes of the law.”

    Useni described the judiciary as the last hope for common Nigerians. He called on Gbana and Shawulu to take the judgment in good faith.

  • I will end killings in Plateau if elected – Useni

    Retired Lt. General Jeremiah Timbut Useni has said he will restructure Plateau State and end insecurity if elected governor of the state in the coming general election.

    Useni was speaking in Abuja after he submitted his expression of interest and nomination form, at the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) National Secretariat, Wadata House, Abuja.

    The battle for the number one seat in Plateau has begun with candidates submitting their nomination forms preparing them for the contest ahead.

    Useni who is also a former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Abuja, is promising to provide free education, boost Agriculture and attract foreign investors in the State.

    For now, about 16 aspirants of the PDP have collected nomination forms for the party’s governorship ticket.

    They have however called on the party’s leadership to ensure credible governorship primaries.

    If nominated, Jeremiah Useni may be facing Governor Simon Lalong who is for now the only aspirant seeking re-election under the All Progressives Congress (APC).

  • Useni cautions Shagaya on petition

    The lawmaker representing Plateau South, Senator Jeremiah Useni, has cautioned his kinsman, Gen. John Shagaya, on his memo to the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.

    Shagaya reportedly sent a memo to the APC national chairman, alleging a plot by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to destroy APC’s stronghold in Plateau State through the election tribunal.

    The memo followed the dismissal of his petition by the National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal in Jos for lack of merit.

    Useni, the benefactor of the tribunal judgment, said Shagaya’s memo did not reflect the character of a retired general and a seasoned politician, who should concede defeat.

    Senator Useni, who reacted through his media aide, Abubakar Ateeku, said: “The attention of Senator (Gen) J.T. Useni’s media office has been drawn to a letter written to the National Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, by Gen. John Shagaya and published in the media.

    “Useni found Shagaya’s letter as unfortunate, unnecessary and uncalled for, by trying to discredit a tribunal set up by the President of the Court of Appeal.

    “I expected that as a politician, Gen. Shagaya should have toed the path of honour by conceding the defeat he suffered at the polls and at the tribunal.

    “The tribunal worked on the fact laid before it and dismissed the petition of my opponent for lack of merit, not because it  compromised as Gen. Shagaya claimed in his memo.

    “Gen. Shagaya ought to blame himself for his failure to prove his allegation of electoral fraud beyond reasonable doubt, as expected of him, instead of blaming the judges.”

    Useni urged the APC national chairman to ignore Shagaya’s memo on the grounds that it was an attempt to cast aspersions on innocent judges for discharging their duties as their professional calling instructed them to do and because it was an attempt to undermine the credibility of the judicial system.

     

     

  • Aguiyi-Ironsi: Igbo leaders blast Useni

    Aguiyi-Ironsi: Igbo leaders blast Useni

    SOME eminent Igbo leaders yesterday faulted revelations by Lt. General Jeremiah Useni, former Minister of Federal Capital Territory, on how northern military officers killed the late General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, Nigeria’s first military head of state. He was killed in the July 1966 counter-coup.

    Useni, in an interview published in The Nation yesterday, claimed that he was one of the soldiers who fired shots during the coup in which Aguiyi-Ironsi was killed. In the interview, he spoke of how the plot to topple the military government was hatched and executed by mainly northern military officers seeking revenge against the Igbo.

    The 1966 coup which toppled the civilian government in which the Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafwa Balewa, Premier of the Northern Region and Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Premier of the Western Region, Chief Ladoke Akintola and several northern military leaders were killed, was perceived as a coup against the north.

    Colonel Joe Achuzia, former Biafran army commander, dismissed Useni’s accounts as unreliable. According to him, the former minister was not relevant in the scheme of things during the Aguiyi-Ironsi era.

    He said, “I don’t react to such nonsense as the one you said came from Jerry Useni. It is not in my character to make statements on documents or statements I have not seen or read as the case may be.

    “However, people like Useni are not in any position to give any reliable account. He was a junior officer who was not in reckoning in the army until the mass recruitment done in preparation for the Nigerian civil war. His account can never be anything reliable. It cannot be correct. At most, it will be very, very wrong,” Achuzia said.

    In his own reaction, Chief Ralph Uwazurike, leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), accused Useni of intentionally fanning the embers of discord ahead of the 2015 presidential election in the country.

    “I like what Jerry Useni has said. It is a good revelation that reinforces the fact that Nigeria was built on distrust right from the word go. The whole polity called Nigeria was conceived and delivered on distrust between the north and the south. We know this all the while but Useni’s confession merely confirms our fears over how our brother was murdered.”

    According to him, northerners saw themselves as brothers united against the south. It was not about religion but a north versus south divide. “They conspired and murdered Aguiyi-Ironsi simply because he was an Igbo man who rose to become the Head of State. That is why MASSOB is saying there is no basis for us to remain in the entrapment called Nigeria. With this kind of revelation, what is the basis for our remaining in the country called Nigeria? We want to be allowed to go our separate way because Nigeria is built on distrust.”

    He accused Useni of fanning the embers of war at all cost. “They want the country to erupt in chaos ahead of 2015. He is reminding us of how they murdered our brother in cold blood based on distrust. He expects us to be happy reading all he said. Boko Haram is killing our brothers even now, based on the same distrust. Yet they want a united Nigeria.”

    For Dr. Chinweoke Mbadinuju, former Governor of Anambra State, Useni should be cautioned against waking up the past that is not very pleasant. Doing this, he warned could re-open old wounds that are better left to heal.

    “I don’t know what he wants to achieve by all he said. The statements were very unfortunate and unnecessary. We need peace in this country. No need to wake up the past that is not very glorious.

    “I would have said more, but the truth of the matter is that it is not good to ascribe too much to inglorious past especially now that Nigeria is at the stage it is now politically. It is bad now that seven northern governors are looking for trouble in the PDP.”

    And according to the submission of Nduka Eya, former Secretary-General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, the consciences of people like Useni, who had hands in the killings of prominent Igbo sons and daughters during the dark days of Nigeria’s history, must be haunting them.

    “Even though I am yet to read the said interview, I can say maybe his conscience is haunting him,” Eya said.

    Mazi Okwu Okwu, Secretary of the Board of Trustee (BoT) of the Ohaneze Youth Council, said Useni should be ashamed of his involvement in the killing of Aguiyi-Ironsi and other gallant officers of the Nigerian Army.

    “If Useni is importing heroism into his action, then it means he lacks any element of human feeling. At a time when his co-travellers are writing books and granting interviews to express their regrets over this same incident, Useni is busy celebrating his callous nature.

    “To me, here is a man who is on his own in his failure to realise that the misdeeds of the past account for many of the troubles we face today as a nation. He is a fish out of water. He should be pitied,” Okwu said.

  • Absence of counsel stalls Useni’s trial

    Absence of counsel stalls Useni’s trial

    The absence of Mr. Victor Ochemu, counsel to retired Lt.-Gen. Jeremiah Useni, on Tuesday stalled hearing in a case filed by the former minister at the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

    At the resumed hearing, Ochemu sent a letter urging the tribunal to grant him an adjournment to enable him travel to Calabar.

    Useni was also absent in court.

    He said the adjournment was to enable him take his sick brother to the hospital.

    Ochemu, who apologised for his absence before the tribunal, said that he was the only counsel handling the matter for his client.

    Mr. Abbas Ibrahim, Assistant Chief State Counsel in the Ministry of Justice, who is holding the brief for Mr. Simon Egede, the Director, Public Prosecutions of the Federation, confirmed that he had received a letter from Ochemu, stating reasons for his absence.

    Ibrahim, who did not oppose the application for adjournment, prayed the tribunal to fix a date in November for hearing.

    The Tribunal Chairman, Justice Danlami Umar, therefore, adjourned further hearing in the case to November 13.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that at the last sitting, Umar had ordered Useni to appear before the tribunal.

    Umar gave the order while hearing the motion on notice filed by Useni`s counsel challenging the confiscation of his property by the Federal Government.

    Useni is seeking an order of the tribunal to compel the government to release the title documents of his property that were confiscated in 1999.

     

  • Assets’ declaration: Hearing on Useni’s case stalled

    Assets’ declaration: Hearing on Useni’s case stalled

    The failure by the Code of Conduct Tribunal to form a quorum stalled hearing on the case against the former Federal Capital Territory Minister, Lt. Gen. Jeremiah Timbut Useni (rtd), on Wednesday.

    Tribunal Chairman, Danladi Yakubu Umar, regretted the tribunal’s inability to form a quorum.

    He explained that the two other members of the tribunal were unavoidably absent and pleaded with all present to bear with the tribunal. He adjourned hearing till June 25.

    Useni is being tried on a five count-charge brought against him by the Federal Government marked: CCT/FRC/ABJ/1/01/2000.

    He is charged with alleged failure to declare his assets on assuming office and on completion of his tenure; running private businesses while in office and abuse of office by allegedly allocating plots of land to himself and companies in which he has interest, among others.

    The tribunal was to hear Useni’s motion challenging government’s seizure of five of his choice property in Abuja and Port Harcourt on Wednesday.

    It is his contention that the property, seized under the administration of ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo, were not taken over on the order of a competent court.

    He is praying the tribunal to order that documents relating to the property be retrieved from the government and held by the tribunal pending the completion of his trial. The property include plot 3348 Cadastral Zone A5 (held in the name of Tim- Tali Shipping an Marine Services); plot 3346 Cadastral Zone 6 (held in the name of Messrs Tim-Tali Motel Nigeria Limited); plot 2233 Cadastral Zone 2 (Julnan Enterprises Nigeria Limited); plot 1881 Cadastral Zone 4, Asokoro (Jebut Business Enterprises) and plot 99C, Olumeni Street, Old GRA, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

    Useni stated in a supporting affidavit that the property had been seized by the then National Security Adviser (NSA) and Attorney General of the Federation before a formal charge was filed against him.

    The Federal Government, in a counter affidavit, asked the court to discountenance Useni’s request.