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Ganduje’s aide demands arrest of Bishop after reinstatement

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Salihu Tanko Yakasai a.k.a Dawisu, the media aide of Governor Abdullahi Ganduje’s has demanded the arrest of Catholic Bishop of Nsukka, Godfrey Igwebuike Onah.

Yakasai made the call in a series of tweets on Monday while reacting to a viral sermon by the cleric which he claimed was inciting.

Onah had decried an alleged discrimination in handling of security cases in the north and in the south, backing up this claim by recounting the clash between IPOB members and DSS operatives in Enugu state.

The clergy also alleged that mosques are springing up in the east, while it is allegedly difficult to get lands to build churches in some states and the northern region of the country.

Salisu in his reaction on Twitter called on security operatives to arrest the Catholic bishop stating that one cannot use a place of worship be it Mosque or a Church and incite violence.

He tweeted thus; “This will be a good scapegoat for security operatives to make example of. You CANNOT use place of worship be it Mosque or a Church and incite violence particularly that of religion in a country like ours, and then get away with it. I call for the arrest & prosecution of this man.”

It would be recalled that Salisu was recently suspended by his principal over comments he made about President Muhammadu Buhari on the same Twitter.

He was only just recalled to his duty post a few days ago.

Lekki Shootings: Oduduwa descendants absolve Army of blame, declares total support for troops

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The Coalition of Oduduwa Descendants (COD) have absolved the Nigerian Army of any wrongdoing at Lekki toll gate or any part of the country during the EndSARS protests.

In a statement signed by General-Secretary, Kolawole Emmanuel, on Monday, the Oduduwa group said the troops acted in the best interest of the nation.

According to the COD, the intervention of the Army was timely to quell the imminent collapse and save the country from disintegrating into anarchy.

While declaring total support for the troops who they said remain committed to the preservation of democracy in Nigeria, the Coalition of Oduduwa Descendants called on all well-meaning citizens to do likewise.

The group further urged “Nigerians, as well as the international community not to be hasty in passing judgment against the intervention of the Nigerian Army in arresting the violence that erupted in almost 20 states in Nigeria”.

The Coalition of Oduduwa Descendants, however, warned that criticizing the Nigerian Army is not the best approach that should be employed due to the exigencies of time.

Read the full statement below:

The Coalition of Oduduwa Descendants in light of the recent happenings in the country wishes to state that the efforts of the Nigerian Army in the restoration of law and order in the country are indeed commendable and cannot be overemphasized.

We are all witness to the wanton looting of public and private properties by hoodlums and other criminal elements. We also witnessed the mayhem that resulted in the burning of houses, ransacking of the Oba of Lagos Palace and a host of other atrocities committed by the hoodlums and secessionist groups who took advantage of the EndSARS protest to wreak havoc in the country.

It is also a statement of the fact that Lagos State recorded the highest casualties, hence the need for the intervention of the Nigerian Army to quell the uprising and save the country from disintegrating into anarchy.

The Coalition of Oduduwa Descendants having reviewed the whole events in the past weeks states in unequivocal terms that indeed the Nigerian Army acted in the best interest of the country at Lekki and other parts of the country, regardless of the narrative been pushed forward by some individuals and groups.

It is our considered view that, but for the intervention of the Nigerian Army, the level of chaos and destructions would have indeed been of unimaginable proportion.  We must also admit that the activities of hoodlums and other criminal elements indeed threatened our nascent democracy.

We are consequently urging Nigerians to realize that the intervention of the Nigerian Army was indeed timely and was in the best interest of the country hence the peace and tranquillity that now pervades the length and breadth of the country.

Nigerians must come to terms with the invaluable contributions of the Nigerian Army in Internal Security Operations in the country, which by and large is an added responsibility in the event where the city police are overwhelmed as it was in the case with the violence that erupted in the aftermath of the EndSARS protest.

The Coalition of Oduduwa Descendants is appreciative of the efforts of the Nigerian Army in its various interventions in Internal Security Operations. It wishes to call on all well-meaning Nigerians to extend their support to the Nigerian Army, who by all indication, remains committed to the preservation of democracy in Nigeria.

Nigerians, as well as the international community, must not be hasty in passing judgment against the intervention of the Nigerian Army in arresting the violence that erupted in almost 20 states in Nigeria. If not for anything, Nigerians must in retrospection see the arson, looting and killings by the hoodlums and other criminal elements that hijacked the EndSARS protests across the country.

The Coalition of Oduduwa Descendants as a consequent state that criticizing the Nigerian Army is not the best approach that should be employed due to the exigencies of time, but rather Nigerians in their generality should applaud the efforts of the Nigerian Army so far.

Nigerians must also devise means to make tangible contributions to an improvement in the involvement of the Nigerian Army in internal security operations which would ultimately be beneficial in our quest for long-lasting peace in all parts of Nigeria.

The Coalition of Oduduwa Descendants is using this medium to call on all Nigerians regardless of our ethnic or religious affiliations to extend their support to the Nigerian Army in its efforts towards addressing the various security threats in the country.

The support of the Coalition of Oduduwa Descendants for the Nigerian Army remains unflinching, and we wish to encourage officers and soldiers of the Nigerian Army to stay steadfast in their support for the preservation of democracy in Nigeria.

Police arrest opposition leaders in Tanzania

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The police in Tanzania on Monday arrested several opposition politicians for allegedly planning illegal demonstrations after accusing the ruling party of rigging the general election.

Special police zone commander, Lazaro Mambosasa, told journalists that among those arrested are Chadema Party national chairman, Freeman Mbowe, and several other leading Chadema members.

“We were tipped [off] that they were organising illegal demonstrations and persuading youths to go into the streets today,” he said.

“We did not issue a permit for anyone to hold demonstrations, so these are illegal demonstrations.’’

Chadema meanwhile said 20 senior party officials have been detained.

The arrests come after Tanzania’s two main opposition parties on Saturday called for mass demonstrations after results from the October 28 parliamentary and presidential polls was announced.

On Friday, the incumbent President John Magufuli, known as “the bulldozer” was given an overwhelming victory.

The U.S. embassy in Tanzania said there had been credible allegations of fraud and intimidation. (dpa/NAN)

#EndSARS: Your voice has been heard at the highest level, Minister tells youth

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Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu on Sunday told youths in the country that their agitations as expressed during the #EndSARS protests have been heard at highest levels.

Onu state’s this during when he paid a visit to a victim of gunshot, Favour Imoha, a 300-level medical student of the Ebonyi State University (EBSU), who was hit on the head by a stray bullet during the endSARS protest in Abakaliki, the state capital.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the minister also assured that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration was implementing the five-point demand of the #EndSARS protesters.

“The future is for our young people and if we don’t give them the best, what will happen in the future when they govern the country?

“The message to our youth is that your voice has been heard at the highest level and that all your demands as contained in the 5-point demands have been accepted and are being implemented,” Mr Onu said.

He warned the youth against indulging in violent agitations and urged them to use dialogue as a means to achieving their demands.

The minister prayed for speedy recovery of the victim and others who sustained different degrees of injuries during the violent protests in the state and for peaceful repose of those who lost their lives.

He said: “We will like to use this opportunity to say to those who carried out the Endsars protest in a violent manner that that is not a proper way to go.

“Violence is inimical to our national growth and development.

“Violence cannot help us as a nation because if we start destroying our national assets particularly when we know that we need a lot of infrastructure; no foreign investors will come and help us accelerate the process of industrialisation.

“Industrialisation will help us create more jobs for our young people, create wealth for the old and young and this cannot be achieved in an atmosphere of violence.

“Once you have violence, it introduces tension and people can no longer feel secured both for their lives and for their investments.”

Over 200,000 withheld as WAEC releases 2020 SSCE results

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West African Examinations Council (WAEC) on Monday released results of the 2020 Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE), showing that a total of 1,549,740 candidates registered for the examination

According to the head of the national office Patrick Areghan, 1,338,348 candidates representing 86.99 per cent obtained credit and above in a minimum of any five subjects – with or without English Language and/or Mathematics.

Areghan also said 1,003,668 candidates representing 65.24 per cent obtained credits and above in a minimum of five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics.

“A total of 1,549,740 candidates registered for the examination from 19,129 recognised secondary schools in Nigeria. Of the number that registered for the examination, 1,538,445 candidates sat the examination,” a statement from WAEC quoted Areghan as saying.

“The examination was also administered to candidates from some schools in Benin Republic, Ivory Coast, and Equatorial Guinea where the Nigeria curriculum for Senior Secondary School is being used.

“The results of 215,149 candidates, representing 13.98 per cent of the total number of candidates that sat the examination, are being withheld in connection with various reported cases of examination malpractice.

“The cases are being investigated and reports of the investigations will be presented to the appropriate Committee of the Council for determination in due course.”

WAEC had postponed the release of the results due to the violence that followed #EndSARS protest.

Candidates are to visit WAEC’s website to check their results.

Time to restructure Nigeria, El-Rufai says

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Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai says it is about time to restructure Nigeria in order to ensure equitable distribution of resources across the nation.

El-Rufai who made the declaration on Saturday, while speaking at a public lecture to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Arewa House in Kaduna added that there was a need to reorganise the country’s constitutional framework, in order to give states more control over certain resources.

According to him, it will “empower state governments to cease passing the buck to the president and the federal government.”

“I, therefore, call on our federal legislators and the National Assembly ad hoc committee on constitutional review to take advantage of our report and initiate the constitutional and legislative amendments in either a piece-meal or comprehensive manner without further delay.

“We, therefore, have no excuse not to seize this moment and do the heavy lifting for our country and our people.

“It is in our hands to make the structures, laws and constitutional arrangements in our country conducive to modern governance that will ensure our nation thrives in the 21st century,” El-Rufai said.

APC Crisis: Concerned All Progressive Congress Group Extends Ultimatum, Gives Buni Another to 7days

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The Concerned All Progressive Congress group has extended the ultimatum given to Mai Mala Buni APC led caretaker committee to fix party convention date for november.

The group in a unanimous decision decides to extend its earlier 14days ultimatum by 7days as a result of the party’s publicity secretary statement that they are working on the convention time table last week.

Spokesperson of the group Abdullahi Dauda in a statement said:
”In the light of the 7days extension, we hope that the failure and disappointments that characterise the period of the earlier ultimatum given will have no place in the next one week.

”It is important to state that, with this extension, The Buni led APC caretaker committee is given an ample opportunity to fix convention date and time table that will produce new National Executives for our party in November.

”We want to authoritatively warn that, if no time table released within the next 7 days, we will have no option than to embark on daily protest to draw attention of Mr President and party members on the elongation plot that will destroy the party we have labored for.” He concluded.

Hell Hath No Fury Like Corruption Fighting Back, By Osmund Agbo

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“The duty of youth is to challenge corruption.” — Kurt Cobain, Nirvana

For eleven straight days, the moon shone bright on the sky over Africa’s most populous nation. Platoons of a moral army called Nigerian Youths were seen protesting a murderous police unit, propped up by an incredibly flagitious government in the mostly peaceful of ways, all across the nation. They sang the national anthem, staged sit-ins, and even prayed for their country in distress. For the first time in many years, Nigerians both at home and in the diaspora were starting to nurse the hope of change for a nation that for far too long had consistently swerved toward the edge of the precipice. The idea that the much-maligned Nigerian youths, grossly under-estimated by the gerontocrats, decided to take back their country from the jaws of tyranny was in and of itself a revolutionary act.

On October 20, Lekki Toll Gate, the symbolic capital of this peaceful movement was brim-full with young people who ditched tribal, religious and cultural allegiance to embrace a renewed national identity. They waved the green-and-white flags while soaking in an inspirational speech by one of our own, the popular comedian, Ayo Mukun. Expecting a possible deployment of security forces, AY, as he is fondly called, had instructed the protesters to wave the Nigerian flag to show they were peaceful and non-belligerent. His act was later followed on stage by the multi-talented musician/songwriter, DJ Switch. The 29-year-old Glo X Factor winner continued to harp on the historical imperative of the moment to the somber mood of the future generation of our country.

Shortly before 7pm, the fluorescent streetlights that illuminate the Lekki Toll, an area populated by high rise office complexes and elite shopping malls fizzled out, plunging the place into pitch darkness. Minutes later, kaboom! First, they heard the dull thud, then the acrid yellow-colored smoke piercing right through from tear-gas canisters with a peppery feel. Following shortly after were crackle of bullets and sparks flying from the rifles. Witnesses saw soldiers moving in formation. Many watched as Nigerian soldiers fired live rounds at their unarmed compatriots, leaving a number of deaths and injured in its wake and a nation’s flags stained red with blood as the demonstrators continued to sing the anthem, “Arise O’ Compatriots”.

By DJ Switch’s eyewitness account of the event of that Black Tuesday and later corroborated by Amnesty International, up to 15 dead bodies were counted. According to other witnesses, the military did not allow ambulances to provide aid and quickly removed corpses from the scene of the shooting. President Buhari later said in a written statement, totally lacking in empathy that 51 civilians, 11 police officers, and seven soldiers had been killed in the recent unrest. He conveniently ignored the Toll Gate massacre or any action to be taken against those that perpetrated the gruesome act that had elicited widespread international condemnation and outcry for justice.

Of course, no one thought that the trigger-happy traitors were just rogue elements. It doesn’t take rocket science to figure out those who gave the green light. What has never been in doubt is how the Nigerian armed forces and the entire State Security apparatchik are notoriously anti-Nigeria. Each time they had the chance to be on the side of the people, they chose to run with the oppressors instead, leaving no one in doubt whom they serve and where their loyalty lies.

 

 

The Lekki massacre mirrored the events of the Shiites killing in Zaria, Kaduna State, on Saturday, 12 December 2015 where allegedly about 348 defenseless civilians were killed and their bodies secretly buried by the army in a mass grave, according to one news source.

An army that appears helpless and forlorn in the face of Boko Haram’s rag-tag fighters, all of a sudden got her mojo back.

The big question is why would anyone orchestrate an attack against unarmed young people simply exercising their constitutionally protected freedom. It turns out that the same cabal that are perennially profiting off of a failed system got panicky. They live every day with a morbid fear of not just losing their firm grip on the levers of power but what would become their fate in a new Nigeria. First, they recruited daredevil criminals who were ferried to the protest scene on luxury SUVs, driven by men dressed in bespoke-tailored designer suits. When that failed to deliver, they upped their antics and went all out to brazenly mow down peaceful protesters. That a government could outsource criminals and street urchins to attack and murder those she swore to protect, speaks to the calibers of men in power and their Machiavellian mindset.

A wise man once said that when plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it. Corruption has been likened to a mosquito that sucks the blood of common man and is the reason why our roads are death traps and our hospitals are unable to offer basic lifesaving treatments. It is why our schools are churning out half-baked graduates and our economy is in a free fall. Nigerian youths are leading a peaceful revolution to salvage the soul of this nation. It’s a total war against kidnapping, armed banditry, terrorism, money laundering, sex trafficking and many more.

Lest we forget, the sole trigger of the latest chaos with widespread looting and brigandage was the Lekki Toll massacre. Most regrettably, the Nigerian government had to stop a peaceful movement by any means necessary even if it had to spill the blood of many Patriots. But this time, they got it all wrong. Corrupt people unite among themselves to constitute a force and so honest people must do the same, said said Leo Tolstoy. Nigerian youths are down but definitely not out. Rest in Power, brave heroes of the struggle.

Mali’s junta names ex-Minister as interim president, coup leader VP

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Mali’s former minister of defence Ba N’Daou has been named president of the country’s new transition government.

His appointment was announced on state television on Monday with the leader of the coup, Colonel Assimi Goita appointed as vice president.

According to a road map backed by the military junta, the new president is to lead the country for several months before staging elections, returning Mali to civilian rule.

Mali’s ruling junta has come under intense pressure from its West African neighbours to return power to civilians following the August 18 coup that overthrew President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

Ndaou’s appointment comes days after the African Union (AU) has backed calls urging the military junta in Mali to quickly appoint civilian leaders to manage an 18-month transition towards elections following last month’s coup.

The call was made on Friday by the AU Peace and Security Commissioner Smail Chergui who demanded for a return to constitutional order.

Cameroonian soldiers jailed for killing women and children

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Four Cameroonian soldiers received 10-year prison sentences on Monday for the killing of two women and two children in an incident that sparked international outcry, their lawyers said.

They and three other soldiers were arrested after a video surfaced on social media in July 2018 showing uniformed men levelling rifles and firing at the victims, one of whom had a baby strapped to her back.

The video was one of several to emerge in recent years of alleged atrocities by Cameroonian forces during operations against Islamist Boko Haram militants in the north and Anglophone separatists in the west.

The trial started in January and has been conducted behind closed doors. On Monday, the court found three of the soldiers guilty of murder, while their commander Etienne Fabassou was found guilty of complicity in murder, according to his lawyer Sylvestre Mbeng.
All four were given ten years.

Another soldier received a two-year sentence for violating orders, while two others were found not guilty on all counts and released, Mbeng told Reuters.

Under Cameroonian law, some of the defendants could have faced the death penalty, although Cameroon has not executed anyone since 1997.

Mbeng said Fabassou would likely appeal the verdict as witnesses gave contradictory accounts of whether he gave the order to shoot.

Government and army officials initially dismissed the video as “fake news”.

But the soldiers’ eventual arrest and prosecution were welcomed by activists, including Amnesty International, who accuse government soldiers of repeatedly engaging in torture and extra-judicial killings in the far north.

The government denies systematic abuses.

“All victims of human rights violations perpetrated by Cameroonian security forces in the fight against Boko Haram deserve fair justice granted by ordinary courts,” said Amnesty’s regional director Samira Daoud in response to the ruling.