09042019 - Insecurity worsens

4—Vanguard, TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2019
Osinbajo to media: Hold us accountable
through Investigative journalism
By Ikechukwu
Nnochiri, Michael
Eboh, Levinus
Nwabughiogu &
Dirisu Yakubu
A BUJA—VICE
President Yemi
Osinbajo, yesterday, in
Abuja asked Nigerian
media to use investigative
journalism to hold the
government accountable to
the people.
This came as the
Director-General of the
Voice of Nigeria, VON, Mr.
Osita Okechukwu; his
counter-part in the
Broadcasting Organisation
of Nigeria, BON, Godfrey
Ohuabunwa, Chairman,
COMMEMORATION:
Vice-Chancellor,
National Opening
University of Nigeria,
NOUN, Prof. Abdalla
Adamu (left) and the
Head of Department
of Planning Research
S t a t i s t i c ,
Environmental
Health Officers
Registration Council
of
Nigeria,
EHORECON, Mr
M u h a m m e d
Kamahddien after a
public lecture to mark
2019 World Health
Day organised by
Faculty of Health
Science, NOUN in
Abuja, yesterday.
Photo: NAN
Mass protest in Birnin-Gwari over Killings
...as El-Rufai, IGP visit village attacked by bandits
By Ben Agande
KADUNA—NO fewer
than 200 indigenes of
Birnin Gwari, Kaduna
State, took to the streets with
placards, protesting the
incessant killings and
unabated kidnapping in
the area.
Governor Nasir el Rufai’s
visit to the area where two
policemen were killed in
Kakangi village, yesterday,
sparked a riot by the
residence.
El-Rufai and Inspector
General of Police,
Mohammed Adamu
visited the village.
It will be recalled that five
persons, including two
policemen were killed by
armed bandits in the attack
on Kakangi community on
Saturday, with the bandits
razing houses and the
community’s market.
The protesters stormed
the streets ahead of the IGP
and the governor’s visit,
chanting that, killings and
kidnapping in the area
must be brought to an end.
Daily Trust Foundation,
Mallam Wada Maida; Mr.
Femi Falana; Mr. Kole
Shettima, Director (Africa)
MacArthur Foundation;
Mr, Mannir Dan-Ali, Chief
Executive Officer, Daily
Trust and Mr. Charles
Odenigbo, Director
General, Centre for Media
Law and Development,
among others tasked
Journalists on the accuracy
of their reportage.
Speaking at the Editorial
Conference on Legal and
Ethical Issues in
Investigative Reporting in
Nigeria, organised by the
Daily Trust Foundation, the
centre for Media Law and
Development and the
Some of the placards
carried by the protesters
read “We want peace, stop
killings of innocent people
of Birnin Gwari,” “Mr.
President, we need your
special intervention,” “Stop
the killings, el-Rufai
respond,” among others.
The IGP later met with
the Emir of Birnin-Gwari,
Alhaji Zubair Maigwari
and elders of Birnin-Gwari.
Meanwhile, Governor el-
Rufai on a separate visit to
Kakangi village described
the attack as inhuman and
ungodly.
He assured the residents
of his government’s
commitment to restoring
peace and security to the
area and other troubled
parts of the state.
The governor also visited
the injured during the
attack at the hospital to
commiserate with them
over the unfortunate
incident.
On its part, the IGP
assured the people of North
West and North Central that
the Nigeria Police Force was
working assiduously in
MacArthur Foundation in
Abuja, Osinbajo who was
represented by his Senior
Special Adviser on Media
and Publicity, Mr. Laolu
Akande said, the media by
the virtue of its roles and
functions was a veritable
avenue to keep the
government alive to its
responsibility.
He said: “We are living
in the interesting time. The
free press has arrived at its
best time. Everyone of us
can have access to our own
media. This is the age of
social and fake news can
spread like wild fire. The
press can make
government more
accountable through
investigative journalism.”
collaboration with the
Military and other security
agencies to bring the
incessant attacks in the
areas to a permanent end.
Speaking at a Security
Town Hall Meeting which
took place at Government
Science Secondary School,
Birnin Gwari in Kaduna
State, where he addressed
relevant stakeholders,
including government
functionaries, community
heads, women leaders,
etc., during an on-the-spot
security assessment of the
area.
The IGP, who
commiserated with the
people over the attacks,
called for increased
supports from the
community for the security
forces deployed in their
area, noting that it was only
through concerted efforts of
all concerned stakeholders
that victory over the armed
bandits can be achieved.
Responding, the
representative of the
community, Mr Awalu
Inusa called on the Federal
Government to provide
“We should be careful of
over regulation of the
media. Self-regulation is
the best mode of regulating
the media. If this is enough,
we would have less or no
government regulation.
“The media should set for
itself an ethical benchmark,
by appointing an
ombudsman that would be
paid by the media
organisations and not by
the government. This
would help the media to
hold itself accountable and
ensure fair reporting. With
self regulation, media
practitioners can check fake
news and address the
failings of news reporting.”
adequate funding and
better logistics for the Police
to enhance their
performance.
Bill on modernisation of agriculture
will transform Nigeria —Senate
By Henry Umoru
ABUJA—THE Senate,
yesterday, declared
that when passed into law,
the Bill on Agriculture,
Industry
and
Modernisation currently
before the Senate would
transform Nigeria.
According to the Senate,
the bill when passed into
law, will give the required
legal framework for
mechanised farming in the
country, particularly in the
area of land to be used for
that purpose by interested
Nigerians.
Speaking in Abuja after
he received a Merit Award
from the Agricultural
Extension Society of
Nigeria, AESON, during
PDP queries FG,
Presidency over
N24.38tr debt profile
By Dirisu Yakubu
A BUJA—PEOPLES
Democratic Party, PDP,
has chided the All
Progressives Congress,
APC-led Federal
Government and
Presidency over alleged
unwholesome borrowings
leading to the escalation of
the nation's debt stock from
N12.12 trillion in 2015 to
N24.38 trillion in 2018.
The party described as
saddening and devastating
that President
Muhammadu Buhari’s
administration, relied on
heavy borrowings and
unbearable tax regimes,
“which have crippled
productivity, caused untold
hardship and mortgaged
the economic future of our
nation.”
In a statement by its
spokesman, Kola
Ologbondiyan, the party
noted that “Since President
Buhari assumed office in
2015, there have been a
culture of unexplained
borrowings leading to a
steep rise in the debt stock
from N17.5 trillion in 2016
to N21.72 trillion in 2017
and a huge N24.387 trillion
in 2018.
“It is shocking and
completely insupportable
that our nation’s debt had
risen from N21.72 trillion in
December 2017 to N24.387
trillion in December 2018,
showing an accumulation
of a staggering N2.66
trillion in a space of one
year.
“President Buhari-led
administration therefore,
has a serious explanation
to make to Nigerians for its
borrowing spree, especially
as it cannot point to any
meaningful development
project into which the
their 24th annual
conference, Chairman,
Senate Committee on
Media and Public Affairs,
Senator Aliyu Sabi
Abdullahi (APC Niger
North), said: “A number of
young boys today are not
ready to do the kind of
agriculture their parents or
grandparents did, that is,
using hoe and cutlass.
“They want a modern
agriculture that uses all the
necessary modern
agricultural tools. And that
is not possible without the
necessary laws. Based on
the research I conducted,
knowing what happened
in countries such as
Philippines, Malaysia,
Singapore, India, Srilanca,
borrowed funds were
invested.
“This is particularly
against the backdrop of
allegations in the public
space that the borrowed
funds, which were taken as
development funds, were
diverted to 2019 general
election campaign activities
of the APC, a huge part of
which ended in private
pockets of corrupt APC
leaders.
“This is in addition to
direct frittering of public
funds through the alleged
N1.4 trillion sleazy oil
subsidy regime, the looted
N9 trillion detailed in the
leaked Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation,
NNPC memo, the alleged
N33 billion fraud in the
handling of funds meant for
the welfare of Internally
Displaced Persons, IDPs, in
the North East, among
other sleazes.”
It called on the National
Assembly to commence a
system-wide investigation
into the borrowings by the
Buhari administration,
particularly the terms of the
borrowing and the
handling of the funds.
The statement also urged
the Federal Parliament to
save the future of the nation
“by restricting the Buhari
administration from taking
further loans on behalf of
our country until
explanations are provided
on the terms and handling
of the borrowed funds.
“Nigerians cannot afford
to continue to bear the
burden of an incompetent
and insensitive
administration and that is
why they eagerly await the
retrieval of our stolen
mandate at the Presidential
election petition tribunal.”
Thailand and so many
other South East Asian
countries, I am convinced
that if this bill come to play,
definitely it will contribute
in moving the agricultural
sector forward interns of
modernisation.”
Sabi Abdullahi, who
incidentally was the
sponsor of the bill waiting
for second reading, said
that the Agriculture,
Industry
and
Modernisation Bill seeks to
place agriculture as the
fulcrum of industrialisation
through modernising the
way agriculture is practised
in the country, adding,
“What this means is that
within the context of the bill,
there will be policy
formulation."