The Nation Newspaper

Tag: worried

  • 2019: Group worried about rising tension

    A civil society coalition, OneVoice, has expressed concerns about rising tension ahead of next year’s election.

    It said the upsurge in killings and political crises portended danger to democracy.

    It decried the frosty relationship between the executive and legislature, urging politicians to put the country ahead of personal ambitions.

    The coalition is made of National Endowment for Democracy (NED) grantees, including the Human Rights Law Service (HURILAWS), the Centre for Constitutional Governance (CCG), the Access to Justice (A2Justice), the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), and the Independent Advocacy Project (IAP).

    OneVoice Media Committee Chairman Pastor Adedeji Adeleye, at a media parley in Lagos, said there were fears that the elections could be disrupted by various forces.

    Such forces, he said, include hate speeches, executive/legislature tensions, insurgency in the Northest, bandits in the Northwest, herdsmen crisis in the Northcentral, kidnapping and herdsmen crisis in the Southeast, militancy in the Southsouth, among others.

    OneVoice said every effort must be made to ensure that all possible threats to peace are neutralised if democracy must survive.

    It said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies have crucial roles to play in ensuring a free and fair election and must get their act right.

    Adeleye said the protracted feud between the National Assembly and the executive could endanger democracy if not quickly resolved.

    “The feud has become a serious problem for both arms of government to the extent that ministers and heads of government departments and agencies, including security agencies, now find it easier to disregard resolutions of the National Assembly than to uphold them,” he said.

    HURILAWS Senior Legal/Programme Officer Collins Okeke said there was much uncertainty regarding 2019 elections that creates palpable fear in the land.

    “This is evident in the current state of affairs in Nigeria where it is as if we are in a state of war; one new killing field every day and yet some people think it is well,” he said.

    He was of the view that INEC should begin to create scenarios as to what will happen if the elections do not hold next year.

    “That is a possibility, even if remote,” he said, while advocating the need for increased political consciousness among Nigerians and the need for the government to do more to defuse all possible threats.

  • Eguma worried by goals drought

    Eguma worried by goals drought

    Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) club, Rivers United were guests of Wikki Tourists in Bauchi as the competition entered match day 11.

    Bookmakers were almost unanimous in their verdict that the hosts would be victorious on Wednesday but the formbooks were torn to shreds after 90 minutes.

    “It is really unfortunate (that we are not scoring as many goals as we would have liked) because we need goals at this point in time. It is especially important to score goals as it will motivate the players ahead of the next round of the CAF Champions League,” he told the club’s official website, www.riversunitedfc.com.ng.

    Before then however, they face the ultimate challenge in the shape of trying to get a win against arguably the most formidable side in the division – the champions, Enugu Rangers in the NPFL on Sunday.

    “Matches involving Rangers and Rivers United are always crackers and this one will be no different. Rangers have a very big pedigree and they are the champions and we will not take them for granted. I see this game as a derby as they are our rivals. I expect a very tight game on Sunday,” he said.

    Rivers United is currently in 16th place in the NPFL standings with 11 points from nine matches while Rangers sit in 14th.

  • Julius Agwu worried over Rivers State

    Julius Agwu worried over Rivers State

    These are not the best of times in Rivers State, following the Presidential and House of Assembly elections which held yesterday, and comedian Julius Agwu seems to be particularly worried over developments in the state.

    Dropping a poignant one-liner on his Twitter page, the diminutive entertainer who was eyeing a career in politics wrote: “I weep for my state #RiversState.”

    However, despite the replies, Agwu remained mum as to the direct reason for sending his tweet. But there are indication he was referring to the confusion in Rivers State, following Saturday’s election.

    In the aftermath of the elections, violence had erupted in some parts of the State. It was reported that four persons died while some houses were burnt in different places across the state.

    Governor Rotimi Amaechi had called for the election results to be cancelled, saying there was no election. “I realised that in all polling units in my ward, all the result sheets had been hijacked and I sought to know why (and) the presiding officers reported that the EOs, that is the Electoral Officers had taken all the result sheets from them,” Amaechi said in an interview.

    “Then I began to receive calls from all over the state that they took all the result sheets.”

    Sequel to this perceived anomaly, supporters of the APC in the state took a protest to the INEC office, demanding that elections be rescheduled in the state.

    Agwu, a successful Nigerian entertainer, who founded a genre of music called musicomedy, was widely reported last year as being interested in contesting the governorship position of Rivers State.

  • Cross River govt worried over upsurge in crime

    The Government of Cross River State has expressed worry over an upsurge in crime in the state capital, Calabar.

    The Commissioner for Information, Mr Akin Ricketts, in a statement in Calabar yesterday, “observed with sadness the recent upsurge of the unwholesome activities of unscrupulous and deviant miscreants in and around the Calabar Metropolis.”

    The statement read further, “These undesirable elements are believed to have infiltrated the state from neigbouring states, capitalizing on the peaceful and quiet disposition of Cross River State, thereby disrupting the prevailing serene environment enjoyed by residents of the state over the years.

    “For purpose of emphasis, government further wish to inform the public that some of these social deviants and miscreants operate between the hours of 5.00 a.m. to 7.00 a.m. and 7.00 p.m. to 10.00 p.m. daily especially in and around adjoining streets and routes of Watt Market, Ika Ika Qua Market, (Marian Market) by the pedestrian bridge among others, where they pretend to be passengers or appear as taxi and bus touts, only to end up dislodging innocent drivers and commuters of their valuables, including money from daily sales.

    “Government hereby enjoins all residents of the state, particularly taxi and bus drivers, as well as those who carry out their daily businesses in the aforementioned areas to be wary of activities of these miscreants and take necessary precautions to avoid falling prey to them.

    “Road Transport Unions and Organizations are by this development advised to provide clear identities for their members who work with them as security agencies are in full gear to clamp down on these city thieves.

    “In all of these, government wishes to assure members of the public that the Joint Security Task Force Team, comprising the Nigeria Police, the Civil Defence, Army, Navy, Air force and State Security Service, are in full control of the situation to weed out and rid the state of these elements and their heinous crimes.

    Meanwhile, the Cross River State command of the Nigeria Police said it has arrested 95 suspected criminals across the state.

    Parading some of the suspects yesterday, Commissioner of Police, Henry Fadairo, said the suspects would be charged to court as soon as the judiciary workers in the state call off their strike.

  • Breakup rumour: fans worried for P-Square

    Breakup rumour: fans worried for P-Square

    There are strong indications that the relationship between twin singers, Peter and Paul Okoye of the P-Square fame, may have been strained by their new status as married men.

    The friction, which sources link to Lola, wife of Peter, has also reportedly affected their business relationship, as their elder brother and manager, Jude Okoye, announced on Friday via his Twitter handle that he was quitting the twins’ record label.

    The frosty relationship between the twins was said to have gone bad that both engaged in a fiasco last Wednesday, a situation that necessitated their invitation to a lawyer to facilitate the legal splitting of their assets.

    Peter, it seems, is the one pushing for separation because the other family members are not too happy about his choice of wife. It will be recalled that Jude was absent during Peter’s wedding to Lola in Lagos, last year.

    A popular blogger, Linda Ikeji, reported that Peter had moved out of their Squareville mansion in Omole, Lagos and now lives in Lekki Phase 1 with his wife, Lola Omotayo and their children.

    But another source, who did not feel the relocation was due to the quarrel, said it was normal for Peter, who got married first, to move to another place.

    Quoting a source, LIB reported that although Peter was at Paul’s wedding in Port Harcourt a few weeks back, he has not been partaking in their company’s activities for a while.

    The source, according to the report, said: “Forget that he was at his brother’s wedding, things are not good between them right now. He said Paul and Jude are sidelining him. He said if they push out 200 songs, 199 would be songs done by Paul. He said people are now calling him a dancer in P-Square. Peter is really angry. He’s even the cool and friendly one between the brothers. And then, he accused his brother, Jude, of disrespecting his wife. Peter and Jude haven’t spoken in weeks. Peter said Jude had been disrespecting Lola for years and he was done tolerating it. In fact, Peter said that not only is Lola older than Jude, but that she’s also pregnant and Jude was upsetting a pregnant woman. If you notice, Jude didn’t attend their wedding last year, despite the fact that he was in Nigeria. Jude asked Peter why he didn’t marry Lola when their mother was alive. Jude said it’s his wife that is pushing him and they will need to pray for him. In fact, nobody in the Okoye family likes Lola and they didn’t support the marriage. The brothers are really angry at each other. The Police are now even involved. This week, either the commissioner of police or someone from his office visited their house. The worst part is that they have invited a lawyer to come and share their property. They want to share everything. The lawyer was at their house, I think, on Thursday. Peter said no more P-Square joint ventures. You know, they own everything together, including houses in Omole, Parkview and Atlanta. Except something is done fast, P-Square is about to be finished. But I know that people have been intervening and begging them to reconsider, that they are the biggest musical duo in Africa. Nobody will benefit if they split. The power to make money is in their togetherness. It is Jude that people are begging to keep the brothers together. But after what he tweeted yesterday, it may truly be over for P-Square. Jude has really tried for his brothers, so for him to give up may mean it’s over for them. He practically put his entire life on hold for his brothers; and he even sold his first car to shoot their first video. However, all that is about to come to an end, as he tweeted. The only thing that can save the situation is if, by a miracle, Jude and Lola settle their differences. But I don’t see that happening.”

    Already, the social media is abuzz with fans’ reactions, with many are decrying the separation.

    When asked about the possibility of a split, Peter, in a chat with The Nation in Malawi last year, said only their late mother had the power to make them split. “Peter and Paul are not perfect; we quarrel like normal siblings do, but we don’t let it affect our business. Even with Jude our brother, in business, he is our manager and he respects us as the artistes he manages. But when it comes to family matters, he is our elder brother and we give him that respect. Only our late mum had the power to make us split and she wouldn’t have done that. So, if there is to be a split, it will not be as a result of quarrel, but on mutual grounds. Group splits are not out of place, but our blood ties keep us strong and our background won’t even allow us split. We understand each other very well,” he had said.

    It is obvious that the death of their mother accounts for why things have gone awry. “We haven’t sat down to do an album because she was usually there with us in the studio. As a pastor, she used to pray about everything we do and even pray on our album a week before it was released. We don’t know how we will do it this time, but we hope for the best,” he said.

  • Bankers’ union worried over long working hours

    The Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSIBIFI) has criticised the increasing working hours of workers of commercial banks in the country, saying the development amounts to slave labour.

    ASSIBIFI said Nigeria is a signatory to International Labour Convention (ILO) on decent work, wondering why banks in the country contravene the rules in pursuit of profits.

    Speaking during the union’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, held in Accra Ghana, the President of the union, Comrade OlusojiSalako, said the association can no longer tolerate the poor work-life of its members, adding  that the union is considering meeting the management of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) so as to nip the development in the bud.

    The union appealed to the Senate Committee on Banking to fashion out laws specifying the number of hours bank workers must put in daily and also monitor its implementation.

    Lead presenter at the meeting, Olayide Atanda-Obalakun, blamed some bank workers for the scourge, saying some of them have conditioned their minds to late work hours.

    However, he advised them to condemn the practice and voice out through the union in order to promote a balance between work and good health.

  • Police chief Abubakar worried over insecurity

    Police chief Abubakar worried over insecurity

    The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Abubakar yesterday decried what he called the persistent rise in terror-related crimes in the North.

    He regretted that the emergency rule imposed on three states in the North as part of the counter measures against insurgency has not yielded the desired results.

    Abubakar spoke at a meeting with Assistant Inspectors General of Police (AIGs) at the Force Headquarters, Abuja.

    He urged the AIGs to be on the alert in their zones so as to give the nation and her people the much needed security.

    Abubakar said: “I urge you to pay more attention to the incidences of rising crime waves across the country. Daily situation reports bear testimonies to this phenomenon.

    “In spite of the emergency rule in place in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, the insurgents still inflict untold hardships on the peace-loving and innocent residents of these states.

    “The series of explosion in Sabon-Gari area of Kano metropolis on July 22 were another painful reminder that the war against terrorism is not yet over.

    “In the Southeast and South-south zones, armed robbery, kidnapping and other violent crimes such as murder, assassination and political upheavals seem to be the order of the day.

    “Hardly any day passes without tales of woes of residents being robbed, kidnapped or being assassinated by political rivals.

    “The trauma and pains of these experiences linger for so long. I therefore charge you to sit up and tackle the menace and ensure that the ordinary citizens get reprieve from those hell-bent on inflicting anguish and pains on them.

    “There is no substitute to robust intelligence gathering, constant patrol and effective supervision of men under your watch. It is only when you ensure close monitoring of their activities that you can get positive results.

    “The challenges may be daunting, but the task of making Nigeria crime free is a mandate we must pursue with all the strength at our disposal.

    “It has become clear and a reminder that the war against terrorism is not yet over. You must address the issue of insecurity frontally”.

    The IGP enjoined the officers to restructure their crime fighting methods to ensure that all police commands under their control carry out their responsibilities.

  • The police should be worried

    The police should be worried

    One of the most difficult and unpleasant tasks top police officers in Nigeria face is how to respond to the misconduct of their men. They are often torn between the dignified acceptance of blame for the egregious actions of trigger-happy cops, with the implication of public loss of confidence in that security institution, and the deliberate and even instinctive resort to lying about those malfeasances in order to cover up for their men and present a façade of professionalism. The police top brass have so far not found the right formula to manage this dilemma and engender a reform-minded and reform-driven modern police organisation. The consequence is that in the past few decades, an increasingly unethical police force appears to dominate, override and compromise its top echelons, thereby giving the security organisation a bad image.

    The police should really be worried that their image is not improving. Not only are a significantly large number of policemen and officers resistant to change and modernisation, preferring to do things the old-fashioned, unscientific and unrefined way, they have also created a security monolith that no one seems able to manage or reform. To everyone’s dismay, that unhealthy mould became the immediate trigger for the turbulence ravaging the Northeast. Amnesty International and other local civil society organisations have given us an earful of the reprehensible practices of the police. Rather than be shamed into refining their methods, as the current Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, is crusading, they prefer to deny all wrongdoings. And rather than prevent or limit to the barest minimum poor policing tactics, they seem resigned to routinely and absentmindedly punishing errant policemen as a satisfactory remedy. But prevention is always better than cure.

    The police hierarchy should be worried that the country is daily inundated with newspaper reports of police misbehaviour. The top brass need to be shamed into action. Torture, extra-judicial killings, discourteous policing methods that alienate the public, and as experienced by a newspaper recently, even imperiousness by top police officers who should know better, and on whose shoulders the reforms being undertaken by the IGP rest, are some of the widespread reports that humiliate and ridicule both the police as an institution and the country as a whole. Given the attitude of many police officers and the rank and file, it is not unlikely that the IGP will find it increasingly difficult to make his modernisation efforts permeate the entire organisation. He has scrapped police checkpoints, which for decades opened the largest black nation on earth to scorn, and is moving to undo decades-old habits of torture and cruelty. He will need likeminded officers to succeed. But it is not clear whether he has succeeded in identifying passionate and patriotic officers burning with the zeal to give Nigeria one of the most modern police organisations in the world, if not in technology, at least in methods.

    Nor is it even clear that the presidency, which itself is still steeped in fairly archaic ways of running a 21st Century government, shares the IGP’s passion for change and modernisation. This column acknowledges the efforts of the IGP and some of his officers, and even feels the IGP sometimes cuts a lonely picture up there where he is. If he wishes to succeed, however, he must change gear by doing something definitive about his officers who abuse their power, and he must also reconceptualise the training paradigms of both the officer corps and rank and file, clean up the torture chambers and remould them into proper crime detection and crime investigation departments, and forcefully but intelligently institute behavioural changes in his men, police stations and police commands all over the country. Very many of his top officers are too steeped in the methods of the past to be of any use to a modern police and to the country.

    A surgical intervention is needed to restore public confidence in the police. A failure to carry out that surgery means abandoning the police force and indeed the entire country to an uncertain and brutish future and perhaps eventually to an anarchical showdown. The task is not easy, but for the sake of the country, the IGP, who has talked the talk quite engagingly, is encouraged to take firm and concrete measures to implement his reforms. He must believe in himself and not condone the laxity, collusion and connivance many of his men are noted for.