President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday inaugurated some projects in Jigawa State.
He earlier landed at the Dutse International airport on Monday, where he was received by the state Governor Badaru Abubakar, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State, Ministers of Aviation, Interior, Sate Minister of Budget and a mammoth crowd.
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President Muhammadu Buhari has arrived in Jigawa state for a two-day working visit.
He landed at the Dutse International airport on Monday, where he was received by the state governor, Badaru Abubakar, governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano state, Ministers of Aviation, Interior, state Minister of Budget and a mammoth crowd.
The President later proceeded to Hadejia where he is expected to inaugurate road projects done by the state government.
Later on, he is expected to return to the state capital to inaugurate other projects.
This is the President’s first state visit since he returned to Abuja on May 11, from a three-day medical trip to London, United Kingdom.
Read Also: I Just Went For Medical Check-Up, I Am Alright – Buhari
On arrival, the President told journalists at the airport that the trip was only for check-up purposes and on the instructions of his doctor.
He said: “I just went for a further medical check-up and I am alright, thank you”.
The move stoked fresh doubts about the president’s health and his ability to campaign for re-election at polls scheduled for February next year after he had spent some five months receiving treatment in the British capital, last year.
The main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said Buhari was clearly unwell and unfit to govern.
The PDP had previously claimed that he was being treated for prostate cancer but he maintained that the claims were untrue.
A Jigawa State Magistrate Court has remanded a former governor of the state, Sule Lamido, in prison custody.
The Chief Magistrate, Usman Lamin, ruled that Mr Lamido would be in the Dutse prison until May 4 when applications for his bail are decided.
Mr Lamido was arraigned by the Police on Tuesday, over alleged inciting comments.
READ ALSO: Police Arrest Ex-Jigawa Governor, Sule Lamido.
He was arrested by the police and whisked away from his Sharada residence in Kano on Sunday.
The Force Public Relations Officer, Jimoh Moshood, however, told Channels Television that Mr Lamido responded to the invitation of the police over statements asking his supporters to cause mayhem during the Local Government election in Jigawa state on July 1.
His home in Kano was said to have been thoroughly searched, while a team of policemen from Kano were dispatched to also search his home in Jigawa state.
Mr Lamido who was Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister between 1999 and 2003, was put on trial by the EFCC alongside his sons, for allegedly embezzling state funds while he was governor.
READ ALSO: Police Defend Arrest Of Sule Lamido
A former chief justice of the federation, Justice Dahiru Musdapher has advocated the decentralization of some aspects of government, especially in the areas of resource management, saying that the current federal appropriation system has bred laziness across many states of the federation.
He made the call in Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital while delivering a lecture titled ‘The Question of Nigeria’s Unity’ at the 75th birthday celebration of Chief Alani Bankole who is the father of a former speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole.
The former chief judge chronicled the many challenges facing the country and attempts by government towards resolving these challenges but regretted that despite all of the efforts, the country remains divided along ethnic, political and religious divides.
As if speaking on the current economic challenges facing the country, the former judge asked states of the federation to seek new and diverse avenues for economic transformation of their states.
He added that Nigerians must be brave in addressing the grievances and injustices committed on all sides that have pervaded the Nigerian society.
In his own contribution, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, was of the opinion that bad leadership remains the bane of Nigeria’s development.
He was, however, quick to also call for national cohesion and unity.
Also present at the event was the Governor of Ogun State, Ibikunle Amosun; House of Reps Deputy Speaker, Lasun Yusuf; Prince Bola Ajibola; Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu and other traditional rulers.
Among other dignitaries were former governors of Ogun and Jigawa states, Olusegun Osoba and Sule Lamido, Deputy Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Onyeka Chukwu.
Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, says members of the PDP are tired of old men running the party as they are responsible for its fall from power in 2015.
Speaking on Sunday Politics, Fayose said that the controversies surrounding the party’s zoning arrangement is not an indication that they were in crisis but that the party is in a period when critical decisions are being made and interests must be protected.
According to him, the most important thing is for the party to get things right and this they are already doing.
A member of the PDP Board of Trustees, Chief Bode George, had in an earlier interview described the PDP zoning as one capable of doing more harm than good and which would be resisted.
He was of the opinion that if the party zones its presidential candidacy in 2019 to the north, it is the right of the southwest region to have the party’s national chairmanship position.
The decision of the zoning committee to zone the the party’s national chairmanship position to the northeast did not go down well with him.
Chief George warned that the PDP lost in 2015 because of its disregard for the opinions of some elders of the party who are custodians of the culture of the party and its logic in making major decisions.
Reacting to this, Fayose said, “I have a lot of respected for Chief Bode George, he is our leader, we will continue to respect him but when it comes to the nitty gritty, where is the interest? You must find out the underlining factors.
“Chief Bode George told me personally that he wants to be national chairman of the party, I told him no I won’t support him.
“With all due respect to the elderly people in this party, they must take the backstage. People are tired of seeing the same old faces again.
“I have been hearing Ahmadu Alli since 1976 when we sang ‘Alli must go’ in secondary school. Chief Bode George has been governor of Ondo State almost 40 years ago. They are our leaders and we love them but they should take the backstage.
Fayose also disagreed with the notion that the southwest had been divided over the zoning, dismissing the meeting reportedly held to discuss the zone’s seeming disapproval. He argued that the absence of PDP’s southwest governors at the meeting showed that it did not represent the opinion of the southwest.
“Chief Bode George was the convener of that meeting. Most people that came to that meeting did not know what they were coming for. We are in very peculiar times when we need to address issues differently,” he warned.
He blamed the PDP founding fathers for the party’s loss in 2015. “The grandfathers of PDP lost it in 2015, it’s (now) a new beginning, and they should pocket those stories.”
The Governor insisted that the old members do not have the capacity to rebuild the party. He mentioned Dr. Doyin Okupe as one of those who have approached him on the position and whom he would not support.
Fayose threw his weight behind the PDP zoning arrangement and the possible emergence of incumbent National Chairman Alli-Modu Sheriff as the party’s chairman at the national convention.
He revealed that every member of the party’s zoning committee voted for the northeast to retain the position of national chairman.
On allegations that he betrayed the southwest region where he belongs, Fayose said, “I was the very first person to look out for Senator Bode Olajumoke (as national chairman) mentioning that it must come to the southwest.
“But how many of them came or publicly said ‘I want to contest’? You don’t give positions to unwilling horses.
He went head to declare his support for Alli-Modu Sheriff, “He is the incumbent and he is still going to win this election.”
A member of the PDP Board of Trustees, Chief Bode George, has warned his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) not to let its zoning arrangement become another pitfall in the 2019 general elections.
George was the guest of Sunday Politics on Channels Television where he explained the controversies trailing the recent decisions made by the party’s zoning committee ahead of their national convention.
He warned that the PDP lost in 2015 because of its disregard for the opinions of some elders of the party who are custodians of the culture of the party and its logic in making major decisions.
“The moment you derail from what is expected to be, then you are heading to perfidy.
“This is why we are ringing the bell again; please let us correct the ills of the past, let’s move to a rational decision, democracy is about debating and discussing,” he warned.
The PDP has been attributing several reasons to its dismal performance at the 2015 elections and has vowed to bounce back to prominence in 2019 with its National Chairman, Senator Ali-Modu Sheriff also promising to reconcile members and consolidate ahead of 2019.
The party’s national convention is slated for May 21, 2016 where the leadership of the party is expected to launch its comeback, but the process to that ambition of the new leadership is not enjoying a smooth ride.
Some leaders of the party in the southwest had expressed the view that if the party zones its presidential candidacy in 2019 to the north, it is the right of the southwest region to have the party’s national chairmanship position.
But when the party released the zoning arrangement ahead of the convention, the national chairmanship position was zoned to the northeast.
This has not gone down well with some of the elders who believe that the move is capable of causing the party its peace.
Impostors
Olabode George, who is one of the elders of the party, noted that his main issue with the new arrangement is that the party had deviated from the concept of zoning which the party’s founding fathers created.
He noted that this is capable of doing more harm than good as the party puts efforts into winning back its relevance across the country and it would be resisted.
There are indications that members of the party from the southwest are divided over the matter as some have thrown their weight behind the zoning arrangement and the possible reemergence of the incumbent National Chairman, Ali-Modu Sheriff, at the national convention.
Chief Bode George would not consider such groups as leaders of the party. He dismissed meetings held to support the arrangement as those by impostors who do not really matter in the hierarchy of the party.
On the possible emergence of Ali-Modu Sheriff and Uche Secondus as the party’s national chairman and deputy national chairman, Mr George said that emergence of persons as leaders should be based on their impacts on the party and their acceptability from their zones.
Beyond 2017
Chief Bode George, however, said that this arrangement could be allowed but those elected at the national convention based on it should not be in office beyond March 2017.
He explained that this is to ensure that a new chairman emerges who would midwife the emergence of the party’s presidential candidate for 2019.
“The former Governor of Jigawa had come out to say he has a presidential ambition because of the report by Ekweremadu that the Presidential candidate will come from the north.
“So, he (Sheriff) cannot continue to be the Chairman. How can the north now midwife their own presidential ambition? It doesn’t work out.”
He said further that this would also ensure that the party has two years to prepare for the 2019 comeback plan without internal issues.
“It is when you have a stable platform that you can build,” Chief George said.
The Nigerian Army 3rd Brigade troops deployed on Operation Salama in Jigawa State North-West Nigeria have intercepted and destroyed poisoned fish allegedly brought to the region by suspected Boko Haram terrorists from Baga in Borno State.
Addressing reporters after the destruction, the Brigade Spokesperson with Headquarters in Kano, Captain Eze Ikechikwu, said that 11 suspected were being interrogated.
Following the repeated attacks on Boko Haram fighters by troops attached to Operation Lafiya Dole in the Northeast, Boko Haram is said to have devised another means of attacking members of the public through a sort of traditional biological weapon.
According to the Army Spokesperson, 80 bags of assorted poisoned fish was apprehended in Hadeja Local Government Area of Jigawa State with intent to sell it to unsuspected members of the public in the North West region.
Captain Eze said that after all the necessary examination on the fish, the Army found it poisonous, hence would not be allowed to enter markets in the region, stressing that 80,000 naira and 11 mobile phones were also recovered from the suspects.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Army is urging members of the public to remain vigilant on most of the frozen fish they purchase from their respective markets to avoid being victims of Boko Haram’s innovative biological weapons.
He urged them to report suspicious food items to the nearest security formations.
The Nigeria Army Operation Salama operatives attached to Jigawa State in the North West Nigeria, have arrested some suspected Boko Haram Insurgents transporting fuel.
The suspects were arrested with fourty jerry cans filled with 33, 000 litres of petrol suspected to be transported to Sambisa Forest.
Parading the suspects in Birniwa Local Government Area of the State, the Commander of the 3 Brigade Nigeria Army Kano, Brig. Gen. Hamisu Hassan, said the suspects were arrested at a filling station near Jigawa-Yobe boarder axis with additional 180 empty jerry cans.
Our Kano correspondent, Idris Jibrin reports that the suspects were arrested at the late hours of Thursday while attempting to cross from Jigawa State to Yobe State in the North East.
According to the Commander, this fuel tanker with Registration Number KANO WDL 270 SL and a Land Cruiser Jeep with registration number LAGOS AQ 432 AAA were recovered from the suspects, some of whom are from the neighbouring Niger Republic.
Brig. Gen. Hassan says Operation Salama will not take any chances in supporting the effort of the combat troops of Operation Lafiya Dole in the North East, adding that the army will not rule out possibilities of Boko Haram sending their suppliers to get fuel in the North West due the Military’s fire power in the North East.
Brig. Gen. Hamisu said the suspects will be handed over to other relevant agencies for appropriate investigation and prosecution where necessary, as joint security forces continue their aggressive patrol along all border towns, exit and entry points from the North West to the North East region.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has re-arraigned the former Governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido and his two sons, Aminu and Mustapha, before the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Wednesday.
The former Governor entered fresh plea to an amended 27-count criminal charge against him by the anti-graft agency.
Mr Lamido and his sons were previously arraigned on July 9 and remanded in prison custody by Trial Justice, Evelyn Anyadike of the Kano division of the High Court over a 28-count charge that bothered on his alleged complicity in money laundering.
Justice Gabriel Kolawole, who entertained the case as a vacation judge, had in his ruling granted Lamido bail on self-recognition owing to his status as a former Governor.
The court, however, ordered his sons and their alleged accomplice, Wada Abubakar, to deposit 25 million Naira each.
The National Emergency Management Agency is collaborating with the Jigawa State Government to distribute relief materials to the victims of flood disaster across the state.
27 Local Government Areas of the state were affected by the flood as over 100,000 people were displaced, while farm produce worth billions of naira were washed away.
The State Government has set up an Emergency Response Team to assess the situation for early stage intervention.
Jigawa State is among the front line states in NIMET’s prediction of worst affected states by this year’s flood disaster.
So far, according to NEMA, seven Local Government Areas of the state were affected and more devastation is expected in the future.
The State Governor, Abubakar Badaru, has expressed concern over the situation of the affected victims.
He said that his government was partnering with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to see the possibility of providing a special arrangement for the affected farmers.
Governor Badaru said that the state’s town planners have also been directed to supply a master plan for the reconstruction of affected villages.
Although, there was no loss of life from the flood, few people were said to have been injured as NEMA supplied food items, medical facilities and other equipment required during emergency situation.
Meanwhile, NEMA said that a team of experts has been assigned to liaise with the State Emergency Management Agency in re-evaluating the situation for the second stage of its emergency response relief materials for the victims.
Internally Displaced Persons, who have found shelter and education at the Christian home for the needy managed by the International Christian Centre in Edo State, have rejected a government plan to relocate them to Kano and Jigawa.
They said the Federal Government should bring the help it intended to render to them to Benin City, as they were not willing to move.
The Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) took the decision when about 40 buses arrived the camp accompanied by security officials, with an instruction to relocate them from Edo State to the north.
“Right To Live Wherever We Choose”
The news stirred an uproar in the centre, followed by weeping while some of the IDPS fainted.
They said they are comfortable in the centre and asked the security officials to leave them.
“Let them help those that are still suffering. Those hiding in the mountains. We that have been rescued should be left here. They should bring the help to us here,” one of the IDPs said.
“We are Nigerians and we have the right to live wherever we choose to live,” another said.
Over 1,400 Internally Displaced Persons are in Edo State housed in an IDPs camp in Uhogua camp in Benin City in south-south Nigeria.
Most of the persons at the camp are children numbering over 900 with the youngest said to be four months old.
Channels Television’s correspondent in Edo State, Peter Okonkwo, said a team of Nigeria Police , Civil Defence and Department of State Security arrived at the camp around 9:00am local time.
Addressing reporters after the IDPs voiced their displeasure with the plan, the Edo State Commissioner for Women Affairs, Maimuna Momodu, said she was not aware of the plan to relocate the IDPs even though the security team told her that the instruction was from the Presidency.
The IDPs have escaped from the volatile north-east where Boko Haram terrorists have sustained attacks on communities for over five years and they said they were not willing to go back to the north-east where they have been deprived of their freedom of movement and of their studies.
Counter-terrorism operations have been on to contain their activities.
On Saturday, the Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshall Sadique Abubakar, said more platforms of the Air Force would be deployed to Yola in Adamawa State to boost the war against terrorism.
Air Vice Marshall Abubakar gave the hint on Saturday in Lagos during an inspection of logistics and facilities of the force ahead of the deployment.
A Federal High Court in Abuja has granted bail to a former governor of Imo State, Mr Ikedi Ohakim, who is standing trial on charges of corruption, abuse of office and money laundering.
This came one day after he was remanded in the custody of the EFCC.
Justice Adeniyi Ademola released the former governor on bail on the condition that he will provide one surety in the sum of 270 million naira and who must be a resident of the Federal Capital Territory and also own a property in the nation’s capital.
He, however, said that the surety can in the alternative swear to an affidavit of means which must be verified by the Deputy Chief Registrar of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
He also ordered the former governor to deposit his passport and all travel documents with the court.
Mr Ohakim, who pleaded not guilty to the 3-count charge of corruption, abuse of office and money laundering was surrounded by his lawyers and family members as he appeared in court
In his application for bail, Mr Ohakim, through his counsel, submitted that the offence for which he is standing trial is a bailable offence and since the prosecution has concluded investigation, there is no reason to keep him in custody.
He urged the court to grant him bail in the most liberal terms.
In his ruling, Justice Adeniyi Ademola said that the court exercised its discretion in favour of the accused because the offences for which he is standing trial are bailable and an accused person is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
