18042019 - PRESIDENTIAL TUSSLE:I always beat you in every election, Buhari tells Atiku

Vanguard, THURSDAY, APRIL 18 , 2019 — 13
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SUMMIT: From left —Uche Gob-Agundu, Chairman, Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS),
Nigeria; Sam Achampong, Regional Director, CIPS Middle East, North Africa and West Africa; Aku Adi, Ghana
Country Chairman CIPS; Babs Omotowa, VP. Shell Upstream Exploration and Production (key note speaker)
and Patrick Umoh, Contract Manager, Solewart Nigeria Ltd Port Harcourt, during the Chartered Institute of
Procurement & Supply (CIPS) Nigeria Summit 2019 tagged "Raising the bar: Deriving business value through
supply chains" at Radisson Blu Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos. Yesterday. Photo: Bunmi Azeez
8 LGAs in Kaduna facing security
challenges — PEACE COMMISSION
•As ACF tells FG to do more to safeguard the North
By Ben Agand
K
A D U N A —
CHAIRMAN of
Kaduna State Peace
Commission, Reverend
Josiah Idowu-Fearon has
raised the alarm that not
less than eight out of 23
local government Areas,
LGAS, in Kaduna State are
bedeviled by security
challenges and appealed to
the people to cooperate
with the security agencies
to tackle insecurity in the
state.
At a briefing in Kaduna
yesterday, Bishop Idowu-
Fearon said the security
challenges in the
affected local governments
were “worrisome”.
According to him: “While
efforts were focused on the
Southern Senatorial Zone,
new areas of violent
confrontation surfaced in
the central zone particularly
in Kajuru and parts of Igabi
LGA. The most worrisome
is the recurring violent
confrontations in Kajuru
local government area.
While we commiserate with
all the victims, we assure
the people of the state that
these unfortunate crises
will soon be curtailed.
“The Challenges of
insecurity in many parts of
the state are quite
worrisome. This is most
prevalent in Birnin Gwari
local government as well as
many parts of Chikun,
Giwa, Igabi, Kachia,
Kajuru, Kagarko and
Kauru local governments.
We appeal to the people of
the state , as well as the
security agencies to join
hands to address this
unfortunate situation of
armed robberies, raiding of
villages, kidnapping,
rustling of cattle and other
forms of rural crimes.”
He however expressed
confidence that with the
commitment shown by the
people of the communities,
especially in Kajuru local
government area, peace
would soon be restored.
By Boluwaji
Obahopo
L
O K O J A —
CONSTRUCTION
works on the 16 Km Ganaja
-Otokiti dual carriage bypass
have been
abandoned following nonrelease
of fund by
government for the
completion of the project.
The road awarded in 2014
was part of the N20 billion
bond project by previous
administration of Governor
Idris Wada and had not
received the needed
attention despite its
importance to the security,
and socio-economic growth
of the state and the country.
Speaking at the site
yesterday, the contractor
handling the project,
CeeZali Limited appealed
to the state government to
offset its indebtedness to the
firm and release fund to
enable it continue with the
project.
Public Relation Officer of
the company, Jethro Daniel
who spoke with newsmen,
Meanwhile, the Arewa
Consultative Forum,ACF,
has called on the Federal
Government and security
agencies to “do more” to
safe guard the north, which
has been described by the
Northern Elders Forum,
NEF, as bandits land.
In a Communiqué at the
end of its national
executive council
meeting in Kaduna, the
ACF said government
must evolve strategies to
address the peculiar
security challenge of each
zone in the country.
The communique by
Ibrahim Biu, ACF’s
Publicity Secretary said
the security agencies
should take the fight to
the bandits.
The forum condemned
the crisis between the Tivs
and Jukun in Benue and
Taraba states, respectively
and called for an end to
the bloodletting.
Lack of funds stalls work on
16km Ganaja-Otokiti road
•Contractor, community urges Kogi govt to release funds
said unless fund was released,
completing the project would be
a mirage.
He said the company had
completed the earth work twice,
done the culvert and divider on
both sides following the appeal
from the state government for it
to return to site four weeks ago
with the promise of making
payment.
Also, the Ganaja community
where the project took off
appealed to the state government
to release fund so that the road
could receive quick attention.
Zamfara Insecurity: We
don’t want ‘fire brigade’
solution — Miners
By Gabriel Ewepu
A BUJA—MINERS
under the auspices of
Miners Association of
Nigeria, MAN, yesterday,
said security measures put
in place to curb illegal
mining and criminality in
the mining sector led to ban
on mining activities in
Zamfara and Kano States
by the Federal Government
and should not be a ‘fire
brigade’ solution.
This appeal was made by
the National President,
MAN, Kabir Kankara,
while commenting on the
recent assurance given by
the Minister of State for
Mines and Steel
Development, Abubakar
Bwari, to miners and
investors that the ban
imposed by the
government was
temporary.
Kankara said: “Some
INEC blames wrong account
numbers for delay payment
of ad-hoc staff
By Marie-Therese
Nanlong
J OS—INDEPENDENT
National Electoral
Commission, INEC in
Plateau State has blamed
some adhoc staff it engaged
during the general
elections for the delay in the
payment of their stipends
saying the Commission has
no intention not to pay.
The State INEC Head,
Publicity and Voter’s
Education, Osaretin
Imahieyerobo brought the
issue to the fore during a
town hall meeting on post
election dialogue in Plateau
State organized by Search
for Common Ground, a civil
society organization.
According to him, “We
did our best before, during
and after the elections, we
Kwara speakership: APC foundation
members support house rules, endorse
Saheed
By Demola
Akinyemi
I FOUNDATION
L O R I N —
members of the All
Progressives Congress,
APC, in Kwara State under
the aegis of Legacy and
Foundation group,
yesterday claimed the
groups have been
marginalized.
The group urged the
leadership of APC in the
state to compensate the
group with Speakership
position, in the person of
Saheed Popoola .
At a briefing in Ilorin,
spokesperson of the group,
Ganiyu Saka while
alleging marginalisation
said, “ 96 per cent of
candidates that emerged
during the primaries were
decampees from the PDP
and therefore left out
legacy and foundation
members without any
ticket(s)to either state and
national assembly positions
including the governorship
and deputy governorship
positions”.
“ We decided to agree on
this during the period as
most of us who were
foundation members of
APC could afford the
nomination forms to seek
elective positions during
the time as the decampees
leaders hijacked all the
nomination forms for their
members that decamped
with them to APC.”
He added, “ I want to say
that these decampees
including the governorelect,
Alhaji Abdulrahman
Abdulrazaq, his deputy,
Mr. Kayode Alabi and some
of the elected members to
both state and national
assembly have enjoyed
political patronage in the
name of ensuring that the
party “sacked” the Saraki
political dynasty in the
state”.
persons are waiting to see
this ban, it is not like they
are scarring people, and
this is a protective measure.
They are trying to correct
the problems that have
been there.
“Before the ban on mining
activities in order for security of
lives and properties can be
restored, people who have been
scared away will come back and
invest. So with this, when
government sorts this out it will
be a very encouraging situation
for miners.
“It is a call and it is an appeal to
the government that the security
measures put in place right now
does not become a ‘fire brigade’
approach where criminals or
bandits who have turned to
illegal miners will just be pushed
to some other places, and
thinking everything is now
normal and better, which our
miners who are legitimate mining
license owners return to start
operations, this criminals will also
come to perpetrate their
criminality again."
started the sensitization
very early and we
collaborated with diverse
stakeholders but the
political parties didn’t do
much in term of voter’s
enlightenment. The people
should demand good
governance from the
people they voted for.
We are appealing to
those at the tribunals
should accept the verdict
of the tribunals, four
years is not a long time.
Nigeria is the only
country where the
system is shut down and
sealed off because of
elections it is because we
don’t trust ourselves. It
is not INEC’s fault but
our fault as Nigerians.
“For the adhoc staff, I
know that even the NYSC
members are not happy
with us but it is not our
fault but that of the adhoc
staff who didn’t give
correct account numbers.
Please go to our office and
rectify your account
details with us so that you
will be paid as soon as
possible.”
Stakeholders from the
civil
society
organizations, CSOs,
security agencies,
traditional and
community leaders, the
media and others
present at the event
reviewed what transpired
in the elections,
identified the
shortcomings and called
for improvement ahead
of the 2023 elections.