12042019 - I N S E C U R I T Y: Buhari launches offensive; orders ruthless action

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42 — Vanguard, FRIDAY APRIL 12, 2019 WIKE’S VICTORY: Real owners, Rivers’ friends are mourning – Princewill By Olayinka Ajayi Prince Tonye Princewill, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Rivers State was spokesman of the Tony Cole Campaign before the courts axed APC candidates from the elections. The former governorship candidate, in this interview, speaks on the outcome of the governorship election and how it will affect Rivers among others. On the re-election of Governor Nyesom Wike What has happened so far teaches me a lot of things. One, some Nigerians do not care enough about our corruption; at least not enough to call a spade a spade when they see it. We all know what transpired even if we don’t know the details. Yet, we put it down to how things are in Nigeria and in Rivers State. Two, many Nigerians do not care how you win, as long as you win. You can kill and maim your way to power and it won’t matter to them, they will gladly shake the bloodstained hands of the winner and bow down in loyalty. Our moral compasses have so ossified to the point where winning is more important than how you win. The outrage of what led to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC’s declaration is shared by many, but not enough. Some of us have elected to do something about it. Your party, the APC did not participate but it adopted the African Action Congress, AAC candidate. Wike defeated the AAC with over 700,000 votes. What KWARA: Battle royale as Popoola, Danbaba fight for speakership By Demola Akinyemi ILORIN – IN every democracy lawmakers play very critical roles in delivering dividends of democracy to the citizenry. In fact, the legislature provides a platform for the people to be part of governance as stakeholders are invited to air their views on issues through public hearings. And bills are passed on crucial matters to make life better for the people. In Kwara, christened State of Harmony, the situation is not different. Since the creation Kwara in 1967, the state has had its own share of robust assembly with many of the heads coming from the northern part of the state. Kwara North, which accounts for 20 per cent of the electorate is a minority compared to Kwara Central which has about 50 cent of the electorate, and Kwara South that has about 30 per cent. Consequently, more often than not the governorship seat oscillates between Kwara Central and Kwara South senatorial districts, leaving the North with the speaker on many occasions. However, the zone produced the governor in the Third Republic when the strongman of Kwara politics, late Dr Abubakar Olusola Saraki, who used his political machinery to make Alhaji Shaaba Lafiagi governor. Since then, Kwara North has not produced the does that say about the people making a choice? There is no correlation between that result and Rivers people. Unless it is in the minds of the ignorant or the complicit. If like some, you believe that the end justifies the means, it i s •Princewill convenient to disregard how that result was arrived at. But those who know better aren’t fooled. You say 700,000 votes, yet you ignore that one LGA, Wike’s own, accounts for over 300,000 votes unchallenged after he stormed its collation centre where a soldier was shot, yet another was injured critically with a machete and AAC agents taken hostage while electoral materials where carted away. An LGA where such occurred really had no business being accepted by INEC. The list of high crimes by INEC and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, continued across the other LGAs, governor on account of the population disadvantage. But it has had a good share of speakers. During the days of National Party of Nigeria, NPN, and Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN, between 1979 and 1983, the first speaker of the state was produced by the NPN under the political guidance of Dr Olusola Saraki. In 1983 before the democracy was truncated by the military after three months, Barrister Ishmaila Sadiq was the speaker during the tenure of Chief Cornelius Adebayo as governor. In the botched Third Republic, Alhaji Issa Gomi from Asa Local Council in Kwara Central was the speaker because Lafiagi (Kwara North) was the governor. In 1999, Pastor Issa Benjamin Ezekiel was the Speaker, while Alhaji Mohammed Lawal from Kwara Central was the governor. Ezekiel was followed by Hon Razaq Atunwa (from Asa in Kwara Central) while Dr Bukola Saraki also from Kwara Central was the governor. The outgoing Speaker, Dr Ali Ahmad, is from Kwara Central while the outgoing governor Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed is from Kwara South. Following the election of Alhaji Abdulraham Abdulrasaq of the All Progressives Congress, APC, from Kwara Central as governorelect, the speaker in the next dispensation may come from Kwara North. While the zoning factor takes precedence, the issues of House Rules and loyalty of the contender but the APC Federal Government let it be. If we had taken matters into our own hands, people would have died and the neutral observer would have said we in Rivers State are savages. I don’t blame Wike, I blame his accomplices. They too must answer to this show of shame. They cannot escape it. This election was held on March 9, it took 24 days to fully collate and announce the result. Is that normal, what happened? I t isn’t normal. And yet some expect a normal result to emerge from such an abnormal process. Like Our moral compasses have been so redacted to the point where we cannot call a spade what it is. INEC suspended a whole election in an entire state against the provisions of an electoral act and it stood. Our cries were dismissed and our voices ignored. Nobody listened. Rotimi Amaechi is one man. If PDP and internal saboteurs cannot forgive him, should the entire state be made to suffer? Do our elders and youths have to be subjected to a Wike administration for another •Popoola to party leaders will play critical roles in who will eventually emerge as speaker. Currently, the contest for the speakership is between Hon Saheed Popoola, who is representing Balogun/Ojomu constituency (Kwara South) in the outgoing assembly and Hon Haliru Danbaba from Kaima constituency in Kwara North. Popoola’s game plan Popoola was the only legislator who disobeyed the directive of Senate President Bukola Saraki and stayed back in the APC while the others ditched the party for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP before the 2019 polls. Thus, he is banking on his loyalty to the APC and experience as a lawmaker to clinch the plum office. He is also banking on his rich four years because of your hate for Amaechi? What did he do to you? What did we do to you? Every life in Rivers State is valuable and we will not rest until they are given the opportunity to realize their full potential. Some of the people lining up to stab Amaechi today were the beneficiaries of his good heart yesterday. In some cases, he even saved their lives. You once raised objections that the result should have been announced within 21 days, that INEC kept result sheets in its custody rather than with the CBN. What difference does this make? Our objections made no difference because they interrupted the agenda that was in play. There is a reason elections are covered by guidelines and transparency is the currency which INEC has to protect. In the Rivers State matter, they exhibited an arrogance of the highest order and made no concessions in our favour. None. The blatant disregard they showed is why we cannot let this matter rest. In a very short statement I issued after they declared Wike, I said they have murdered sleep and asked us to go to hell. We have heard them. They too will hear us soon. You issued a statement after the return of Wike by INEC saying the election will not stand the test of time, why? We have several options before us and each option will be scrutinized to the full. If this isn’t countered, it will become the norm. By our traditionally low standards, 2019 in Rivers State was a very new low. Therefore •Danbaba political background during the days of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, which he popularized in Offa as a one man riot squad and later elected as Chairman of Offa Local Council. Popoola was also at various times appointed special adviser to the governor and later commissioner for Sports. Danbaba backs on zoning On the other hand, Danbaba from Kwara North, and relatively new in the legislative business is banking on the current zoning formula. The Governor-elect, Alhaji Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq is from Kwara Central while his Deputy, Mr Kayode Alabi hails from Kwara South. Currently, political gladiators are divided on who to support between the duo. A chieftain of the party and there must be consequences. You can ignore a small party and maybe get away with it, but not the APC. My saying after the selection and declaration was “Fiat justitia ruat caelum” and I stand by it. Rivers state deserves better than such an organized oppression. We are way too big for that. You have severally accused Senator Magnus Abe, who is of your party and who was factional governorship candidate of APC of fraternizing with Wike. How did he do that? Let me quickly correct you. Abe was an aspirant, not a candidate. And the APC only recognized Tonye Cole as its candidate. So the use of the term factional candidate is like calling someone a factional parent. It won’t fly. I’m not going to discuss Abe at length except to say that when the baby is not your own, its death does not affect you. We saw it in the Bible when Solomon confronted the two women over the ownership of the child. We know those who are happy about this hollow victory and we know those who avoided bloodshed to allow it pass. The real owners of Rivers State are in tears. The real friends of Rivers State are sad. The real lovers of Rivers state are in mourning, while those without a stake or conscience are either indifferent or at peace. Let every man take his position. The time to be held accountable will definitely come. Any message for Rivers people? Yes. To all of you at home and away, I say that the night is darkest just before the dawn. Be hopeful. Wike is a cancer that has to be removed. We know how he got there, we know what has become of our state since he did. Rather than touch our people and develop our state, he has touched the media, developed propaganda and bribed our institutions just to remain as Governor. Far fewer people died in 2019 than in 2015 by a ratio of 50 to 1, but looking at media reports, you won’t see this. Just hold on to your faith. Our God is not sleeping. Tonye Cole means well. He is not here to settle scores or take sides. He is here to make peace. I am ready to fight for that. And I know I am not alone. former Chief Whip in the state assembly, Chief Iyiola Oyedepo, in an interview with Vanguard favoured zoning in the determination of who becomes the next speaker, even though he is also from Kwara South as Popoola. Oyedepo, who recalled his days in the assembly said that the speaker then, Pastor Issa Benjamin, was a green horn in legislative business but so far, has remained the best speaker the House has ever produced. However, a political group, the Kwara Youths Democratic Alliance, KYDA, urged the leadership of APC in Kwara State to consider Popoola as the next speaker of the state house of assembly, by allowing core legislative and political experience, and rules of the House to guide them in the emergence of the leadership of the 9th assembly. Speaking at a news conference in Ilorin , the Spokesperson of the group, Mallam Yakub Bello, said the consideration of Popoola as the next Speaker has become imperative in view of the need for merit and loyalty because of the high expectations of Kwarans from the incoming administration. According to him, “the expectations of all Kwarans in this forthcoming administration are enormous and the only way to articulate the yearnings and aspirations of the residents is to have a capable, experienced and competent speaker that would help the governor-elect to achieve all the needs and aspirations of the people of the state.’’
Vanguard, FRIDAY APRIL 12, 2019 — 43 Why APGA lost to PDP in Imo – Njoku, chairmanship aspirant By Chinonso Alozie, Owerri Ahead of the May, 2019 National Convention of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, a national chairmanship aspirant, Edozie Njoku, has said that the party lost the Imo State governorship election to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, because of lack of internal democracy. Njoku, a former national vice chairman of APGA, disclosed this at the party’s state secretariat in Owerri, while declaring his intention to vie for the National chairmanship position. He said among other things that he would restore internal democracy in APGA at all levels adding that with internal democracy, the people would believe in the party again. Njoku argued that the position of national chairman should be allowed to go to other states, adding that Anambra State should not be the only state producing the national chairman. He also called on leaders of the party to allow due process by allowing delegates choose who they want as their leaders. Njoku said: “We in the South-East believed that in 2023 there must be a strive for Igbo to produce the president. What I am Parliamentary staff rally support for Nasarawa speaker's return By David Odama AHEAD of the inauguration of the Sixth House of Assembly in Nasarawa State, the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria, PASAN, Nasarawa State Chapter, has called on members-elect to re-elect Alhaji Ibrahim Abdullahi as Speaker considering his achievements and leadership qualities. saying is that I am here in my state and I have the passion to drive the party to a greater height. I am here to declare my intention to contest for the National chairmanship of APGA. “My main interest is to put APGA back to it’s position. Anambra must not hold the position alone. The position of the National The Chairman of the association, comrade Nuhu Daudu Illiyasu made the appeal in Lafia, the state capital, in a chat with newsmen. According Dauda-Iliyasu in the last 20 years the state has never had it so good in legislative activities as being witnessed in the current fifth assembly. “I challenge the press to go and verify whether any of the past speakers sponsored personal bill as chairman should move out of Anambra State. We must give it that coloration that it is a party for all. We must make sure that we put APGA back on track. “There will be a backlash if the right thing is not done this time around. They should allow the congress to be without undue interference.” a presiding officer apart from the present speaker who has two personal bills to his credit. “Let me also inform you that this is the first speaker that under his watch, many bills and resolutions have been passed as he even embarked on an oversight functions personally. He described Balarabe- Abdullahi as the best performing speaker in the history of the state. “The re-election of the He continued: “The work of the National chairman is to build relationships and continue to mobilize the people for APGA, let me say this, APGA, needs a direction so that it can give the people what they need. APGA lacks internal democracy that is why the whole thing is going the way you are seeing it. If not for lack of internal democracy in APGA, Emeka Ihedioha would not have won Imo. We must rebuild APGA, so that our people will believe in us again.” speaker will guarantee consolidation and continuity as well as to ensure good governance and will bring more democratic dividends to the people of the state... “We are proud and excited over his leadership qualities as he has united the fifth Assembly and brought about a good working relationship between the executive and the legislature in the state.’’
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12042019 - I N S E C U R I T Y: Buhari launches offensive; orders ruthless action

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