Category: General News

The Court of Appeal in Abuja on Monday gave an order barring the arrest of Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Mahmood Yakubu.

Delivering the ruling, Justice Abdul Aboki leading a three-man panel suspended the enforcement of the arrest warrant issued by the Federal High Court in Abuja on Aug.1.

Aboki held that the injunction was aimed at compelling the police from activating the order of the lower court pending the hearing of the appeal fixed for Sept. 17.

“It will be prejudicial for the trial court to proceed with hearing of the matter scheduled for August 14.

“Consequently, the panel unanimously orders the stay of proceeding pending the hearing of Mahmood’s appeals,” he said.

The INEC boss had filed an appeal challenging the arrest warrant issued against him by the trial court.

In the appeal, Yakubu is challenging the validity of the arrest warrant that was issued against him by the court.

The appellate had maintained that he could not be arrested on the basis of a bench warrant that was legally defective.

He urged the Court of Appeal to invoke its powers and void the arrest order made by Justice Stephen Pam.

Pam had in a bench ruling ordered the Police to arrest and produce Yakubu in court on Aug. 8 to face contempt charges.

The order followed Yakubu’s failure to honour a summons the court issued for him to appear in respect of a suit involving the Anambra Chapter of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The INEC chairman had between July 5 and July 10 allegedly failed to honour the court’s summons to defend contempt proceeding.

Yakubu, however, denied disobeying any order of court, adding that he was denied fair hearing by the trial court.

The INEC boss said there was no evidence that any court summons was enrolled and served on him. (NAN)

TUNJI OLANIYI
An Islamic group, Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) , has commended the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) for banning the ‘Shaku Shaku’ dance video which was released by Folarin Falana (Falz the Bad Guy) in May this year. (more…)

All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that any Nigerian who violates the law, no matter how highly placed, must be brought to justice.

The APC Acting National Publicity Secretary, Mr Yekini Nabena, said this in a statement on Monday in Abuja.

He was reacting to the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) recent allegation that the APC-led Federal Government planned to arrest Saraki and his Deputy, Sen. Ike Ekweremadu.

“We had thought that by now the PDP would be tired of its lame opposition strategy of false alarms, baseless and frivolous accusations.’’

It maintained that the Buhari administration had repeatedly demonstrated its strict adherence to the rule of law.

The party, therefore, said the alleged plan to arrest or harass the mentioned leaders as claimed by the PDP was “hogwash and baseless”, adding “a clear conscience fears no accusation.”

He wondered why PDP leaders were afraid of arrest if their conscience was clear.

He gave an assurance that all law-abiding citizens or residents of the country had nothing to fear about arrest.

“However, nobody no matter how highly placed, will escape the full wrath of the law. if he or she runs fowl of our laws.

“If the Senate President and the tree-climbing Senator are facing criminal charges in our law courts and his Deputy have explanations to make to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for acquisition of numerous properties in Nigeria and abroad through questionable sources, the Buhari-led APC administration has nothing to do with them.

“The laws of the country are only being applied and they should answer for their alleged acts of infamy,’’ Nabena said. (NAN)

Mr Benjamin Adanyi, former Majority Leader of the Benue House of Assembly, has said that the non-payment of salaries by the state government was “surprising”.

Adanyi told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Makurdi that the state government had collected more than N300 billion from the federation account and had no reason to owe workers

“If you look at the receipts from the federation account from June 2015, N300 billion has accrued to Benue. At the beginning, the state was receiving N3 billion monthly, while the wage bill was N5 billion.

“We defended the governor at that time because the price of crude oil at the international market was less than 40 dollars per barrel.

“The situation has since changed with improved oil prices; allocations to Benue from the federation account sometimes go beyond N15 billion monthly. To gather this much in the state coffers and still owe salaries is inexplicable,” he said.

He accused Gov Samuel Ortom of illegal transfers of monies from state coffers to “other accounts”, saying that such situation forced the lawmakers to begin impeachment proceedings against him.

“When we discovered that N20 billion was being moved from one particular account to another in a manner we considered fishy and questionable, we asked Ortom to show cause why he should not be impeached.”

Adanyi accused Ortom of throwing Benue into massive debts by “his constant borrowing habit”, and wondered where such loans were being deployed to, since workers were being owed while projects were non-existent.

“The State House of Assembly has graciously allowed Ortom to take loans; we granted bonds and all these monies were accessed, but there is nothing to show for it,” he lamented.

Adanyi, who is aspiring to be Benue governor on the platform of the APC, said that his aim was to “take the people out of poverty and underdevelopment”.

He promised to provide visionary leadership that would put Benue on the path of industrial revolution, and accused the governor of converting some state industries into private companies.

Reacting to the allegations, the Chief Press Secretary(CPS) to Ortom, Mr Terver Akase, dismissed the claims as “mischievous”.

“Adanyi should prove the allegations. He is desperate to paint the governor black and should not be taken seriously,” he said.

According to him, Adanyi, as the Majority Leader of the House, had presented many executive bills and was in a good position to know how much Benue had received from the federal account and internal sources.

“It is shocking to us that people that should know better have thrown honour to the winds and adorned the toga of falsehood.

“We challenge Adanyi to tender evidence to prove that the Ortom administration has received and spent 300 billion in three years as he claims. He should also show proof that Ortom has acquired government companies for his private use.

“If he is referring to the plastic industry, Ortom acquired it long before he became governor and resigned from his position as its chairman, even before he became a minister,” he explained. (NAN)

APC spokesman Yekini Nabena: accuses PDP of plot to harm APC senators

The All Progressives Congress said it has uncovered a sinister plot hatched by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to attack APC Senators as part of a desperate bid to ensure that Dr. Bukola Saraki clings to the position of Senate President.

APC publicity secretary Yekini Nabeena made the claim in a Statement Tuesday in the wake of the indefinite postponement of resumption by Saraki and Speaker Yakubu Dogara. The two houses were scheduled to reconvene today for consideration of urgent national matters.

“By this statement, we call on security agents to protect APC Senators. If any Senator is harmed, the PDP and Saraki should be held directly responsible. We call on security agencies to also closely monitor the activities of some PDP leaders including Saraki because the plan to attack APC Senators is real and imminent.

“We were informed that the plot was hatched in the private residence of a PDP leader in Maitama-Abuja on Sunday night. The meeting was attended by 15 pro-Saraki Senators including the Senate President himself.

We learnt that the PDP expressed worry over the APC’s Senate majority and considered several options to stop the APC from taking over the Senate leadership among which is attacking some APC Senators to ensure their inability to attend legislative sittings.

“The PDP have recruited thugs for this purpose, we have now learnt.

“During Sunday’s meeting, the PDP Senators planned several types of attack, one of which is to lure some of them (APC Senators) out at night in the guise of inviting Senators to a political settlement meeting and thereafter instigate a violent confrontation during the meeting and unleash standby PDP thugs on APC Senators. Our source privy to the meeting informed us.

“This revelation has not come to us as a surprise because the Senate President through proxies has made several failed attempts to buy over APC Senators with N100million each.

“As a Party, we don’t believe in inducing lawmakers to achieve our legitimate goal of removing Saraki as Senate President. We will get the support of some PDP Senators to get the required 2/3 vote and impeach Saraki. We are already talking to some of PDP Senators who believe and support the direction of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to achieve our legitimate goal.

“We reiterate our call for Saraki’s immediate resignation as Senate President. He cannot lead the APC majority Senate. But if he fails to resign honourably, we will impeach him. The PDP’s propaganda and threat of violence cannot save him,” the APC said.

The APC also described the decision of Saraki not to reconvene the National Assembly as high treason.

“As Chairman of the 8th National Assembly, Saraki’s decision not to reconvene the National Assembly done with the support of the Speaker, House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara further buttresses our position the Saraki is ever ready to pursue his selfish interests over National Interest. This is another brazen display of his penchant for abuse of powers and sabotage of government, however the cost and implication.

“While Saraki and his cohorts continue to postpone their doomsday regarding the imminent Senate leadership change, the yet-to-be considered 2019 budget of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is dangerously delayed.

“Clearly, Saraki’s actions as Senate President now bother on high treason.”

The Police in Kaduna State on Sunday confirmed that Malam Ahmad Garko, known as Al-Garkawy, an Islamic preacher in Kaduna and his two sons have regained freedom at about 6.30 pm today.

The Command’s Public Relations Officers, DSP Mukhtar Aliyu disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in an interview in Kaduna State.

Aliyu said two suspects were arrested in connection with the clecic’s abduction, saying the cleric was released due to the pressure mounted by the security operatives.

“The two suspects are under investigation and the other suspects are under our trail.

“No ransom was paid as far as I know, he was released unhurt and he has reunited with his family.”

NAN recalled that the Islamic preacher was abducted on Aug. 2 while working in his farm in Maguzawa village in Igabi Local Government area in Kaduna State.

NAN report that the police confirmed the incident in a statement on Aug. 3. (NAN)