Destiny Channel

Borno State has no governor…

I read with amusement the statement credited to Gov Shettima of Borno State that it took 19 days before former President Jonathan called him to enquire about the Chibok girls kidnap.

What manner of governor is he that will make a governor who has internal crisis and instead of being the one calling the president was expecting that the president should call him?

If his kids were among those kidnapped, would he have waited for the presidency before swinging into action? Is he no longer the Chief Security Officer of the state again? That Jonathan is out of power does not give him the right to denigrate him. The kidnap of chibok girls is ENTIRELY the fault of Shettima who could not provide security for his people knowing that his state was and remains the hub of the dreaded sect.

The governor should hide his face in shame that blaming an innocent man of his failure. He should bury his head in the sand for attempting to drag Jonathan into his incompetent government.

Today the dumb as of a governor can rant because his kids are safe. Today the lazy governor can tell the world his gross laxity and claimed the presidency was responsible. Since Buhari came into power and Boko Haram has killed in Borno state, has he called him? Tomorrow if PMB leaves power, he will pass his failure to him.

Shame…

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Presidential poll: Northerners endorse Jonathan in Asaba

Penultimate Saturday, Febru­ary 28, Asaba, capital of Delta State was a beehive of activi­ties. Northern Nigeria literally relocated to the oil-rich city. The event was a solidarity and endorsement rally of President Goodluck Jonathan orga­nized by the Arewa Initiative for peace­ful co-existence in Southern Nigeria.

On the eve of the event, the influx of people of northern extraction to Asaba was overwhelming. Even a blind man was not mistaken that the state was playing host to ‘very important personalities’.

Though the event was billed for noon, as early as 8am, people from all walks of life especially members of the Arewa Initiative for peaceful co-existence in Southern Nigeria started trooping to the Cenotaph, G.R.A venue. Before noon when the rally was billed to kick-off with the arrival of the President, the venue had been filled to the brim with men decked in traditional Hausa/Fulani dress and women wearing hijab anxiously waiting for the arrival of President Jonathan. For all those who witnessed the colourful solidarity rally and endorsement, there was no gainsaying that it was a major boost to President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election bid.

The event was organised to draw attention to the widening divisiveness in the country ahead of the March 28 and April 11 general elections and to serve as a clarion call on Nigerians to embrace the spirit of unity in the interest of the country.

Another reason which was primary was to endorse President Jonathan’s re-election bid and clear the erroneous impression in some quarters that the PDP and by extension its presidential candidate are not popular in the North.

The venue of the event got immediately electrified when President Jonathan and his entourage alighted from their cars. Accompanied by the Director-General of his campaign organisation, Dr. Ahmadu Ali and Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, among others, he went round the venue waving at the teeming supporters and members of the Arewa Initiative. If the enthusiasm in the crowd of the Arewa Initiative members was anything to go by, it would be preposterous to imagine that President Jonathan will play second fiddle to any candidate in the North during the election.

Speaking at the rally, Jonathan who was obviously overwhelmed with joy thanked the leaders of the organisation for the initiative, saying that the issue of peaceful co-existence was key to Nigeria’s development.

He promised to fully implement the 2014 National Conference report if re-elected, asserting that only that would encourage peaceful co-existence among Nigerians. His words: “A full implementation of the Confab Report is the only thing that can bring an enduring change. We must work together to restore peace and we should not allow politicians to divide us on the basis of ethnicity and religion. PDP believes in one Nigeria. Nigeria is a great country because of the diversity of the people, religion and geography.” Jonathan also pledged to ensure the enactment of an anti-discrimination law against non-indigenes if re-elected. “I am not somebody who discriminates against other Nigerians. I am somebody who believes in Nigeria. God could have decided to place me in Zamfara or Sokoto or Oyo but He decided to place me in Bayelsa. While I was governor of Bayelsa State, I sponsored Muslims on holy pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia even though the state is overwhelmingly Christian.” The President said that it was cause for concern that a Nigerian born in America acquires American citizenship and enjoys the full rights of American citizens while his compatriot born in another part of his own country is not regarded as an indigene.

Earlier in his keynote address, chairman on the occasion and former governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa, had set the stage rolling by outlining the reasons for the formation of the Arewa Initiative and why the members were unanimous that President Jonathan deserves and should be re-elected for another term. His words: “The organisation, for the avoidance of doubt, is my initiative. It was borne out of a deep and sober reflection on some of the contradictions and drawbacks of the Nigerian condition. Any patriotic Nigerian who has spared a thought for our nationhood will readily recognise the fact that citizenship and its adjunct, indigeneship, are some of the sore points of our federal arrangement. A situation where a bonafide citizen of the country is discriminated against and denied certain rights on account of indigeneship is worrisome, to say the least. We have a country where children born and brought up outside their ethnic origins are denied certain rights and treated as strangers because they are seen as non-indigenes. This is apartheid of some sort. But we have come to live with it for decades.

“This state of affairs has had a lot of negative effect on Nigerians who would, ordinarily, have contributed very meaningfully to the growth and development of the fatherland.” The former governor, who noted that the objective and mandate of the organisation were unique given that it was the first of its kind in Nigeria, said he felt a sense of repulsion each time he reflected on the damage the discriminatory policy had inflicted and continues to inflict on Nigerians’ quest for a just and equitable country. “To a very large extent, the Nigerian born and bred outside his ethnic enclave is a dislocated entity. He does not fit in very well into his place of abode because he is seen, more or less, as a stranger. He is also not very much at home with his ancestral homeland because he is not in tune with its customs, traditions and mores, having been brought up in a cultural setting that is not strictly his. Yet, the land that nurtured and nourished him is not prepared to accord him the rights and privileges that he deserves. This unpalatable condition constitutes a dilemma to the Nigerian so affected. It makes him a Diaspora Nigerian in his own country. “It was in the light of this ugly situation, and in recognition of its negative implications for our nationhood, that I, in conjunction with a few other concerned northerners, came up with the organisation under whose auspices we are gathered here today. “The idea behind this initiative is to organise and galvanize northerners living in southern Nigeria into an organic whole so that they will have a voice in the affairs of their country. Since they have been operating like sheep without shepherd, the initiative has taken it upon itself to manage and organise them not just for their own benefit, but also for the benefit of the country. “Available records indicate that there are about three million northerners living in southern Nigeria. Today, we are taking the very first crucial step to ensure that our brothers and sisters living in southern Nigeria are no longer left out in the scheme of things. We want to ensure that they not only play their civic roles, but also do so to the benefit of the fatherland. That informs the reason for our rally today.” On the second and primary purpose of the rally, Bafarawa explained: “The elections are here and many Nigerians, especially the not well-informed, do not know the way to go. Such people need to be properly guided in order for them not to fall into wrong hands and waste their votes. “As well-informed Nigerians who recognise and appreciate the good work our President, Dr. Goodluck (Mainasara) Ebele Jonathan has been doing, we feel duty-bound to take the good message to our people and urge them to vote massively for the President on March 28, 2015, to ensure his re-election. Mr. President, that is the main reason for our gathering today. It is a solidarity rally in support of your good works and an endorsement for your continuity. “Our objective is to ensure that you remain in office up to 2019.” He further added: “You will agree with me, Mr. President, that the mass of the people we have here constitute a very critical voting population. We have brought them here so that you will come face to face with them. We have brought them here so that you will hear them out and they will hear you out. We have brought them here because we believe that their proper integration into the mainstream of the nation’s affairs will be beneficial not only to your administration, but also to the country at large. Mr. President, here are your people. Take them. They are here for you. And they are ready to work for you.”

Delighted with the massive turnout at the event, Delta State Governor, Emmanuel Uduaghan, described the rally as a celebration. He said: “It is the celebration of a united Nigeria; it is the celebration of a man who has ensured that Nigeria remains united. Some members of the Arewa community were born in southern Nigeria; some of them are also working in southern Nigeria.

“We have listened to the challenges they are facing as itemised by the leader of Arewa Initiative for Peaceful Co-Existence in Southern Nigeria, Attahiru Bafarawa. We want to assure you that such challenges would be dealt with not only in southern Nigeria but also all over the country. To achieve this, we need to re-elect our darling President, come March 28. So, we should all go and collect our Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and vote for PDP first on March 28 and then on April 11,” he said.

Part of the highlights of the event was the motion for the endorsement of Jonathan as the “sole candidate” of the organisation in the March 28 presidential election. It was moved by its Zonal Coordinator, South-West, Alhaji Danlami Isah. Moving the motion, Isah said that Jonathan’s Transformation Agenda has endeared him to northerners, adding that after a careful soul search, they decided that “he is the best man for the job.”

Another member of the organisation, Alhaji Gidado Saddik, Sarkin Fulani, Awka, adopted the motion on behalf of the entire members of the group amidst cheers.

Rivers PDP alleges plot to set up Jonathan, Wike


PORT HARCOURT— PEOPLES Democratic Party, PDP, in Rivers State has called on the Inspector General of Police to disband a wing of the Police in the state called C4I, saying it had allegedly uncovered a plot by All Progressives Congress, APC, to connive with the security body to implicate some chieftains of the party in phoney criminal activities.

Chairman, Media and Publicity of the PDP Campaign Organisation in the state, Mr Emma Okah, who briefed newsmen, yesterday in Port Harcourt, alleged that the APC had concluded arrangement with the C4I to release arms illegally to some youths for nefarious acts, adding that they would later be arrested and forced to implicate the governorship candidate of the party, Mr Nyesom Wike, President Goodluck Jonathan and other chieftains of the party to their callous activities.

Urging the Inspector General of Police to thoroughly investigate the allegation and ensure those behind it were brought to book, the party alleged that among other things those to be allegedly equipped with arms illegally by the special unit of the Police would carry out indiscriminate kidnappings and cause chaos in the state before their arrest.

He said: “We have uncovered a heinous and shameful conspiracy by the said C4I and APC to arm some young men who would thereafter, be arrested while armed with the very weapons given to them by the C4I and APC. After their stage-managed arrest, false confessions would be obtained from them in consonance with the orchestrated plan to the effect that they were armed by the President and the governorship candidate of the PDP in Rivers State, Chief Wike, to commit sundry criminal acts including kidnap, armed robbery, and political assassinations.

“As a means of suppressing evidence and concealing the false confession, the young men would thereafter be killed by the C4I through administering poisons on them. The C4I and their APC co-conspirators would then falsely allege that the President in concert with Wike and the PDP are responsible for the murder of the young men.

“Prior to this time and just to mention one out of several cases, the C4I had attempted to abduct and possibly eliminate a member of the PDP in Rivers State, Mr Tonye Ayella. Mr. Ayella, who is the PDP’s candidate to represent Port Harcourt constituency 2 in Rivers State House of Assembly in the 2015 general elections, was saved from abduction and possible elimination by security men attached to Mr Evans Bipi, the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly. This matter was reported to the Commissioner of Police, Rivers State Police Command, who has refused to investigate the issues.”

Meantime, the APC, in a statement by its Publicity Secretary in the state, Mr Chris Finebone, dismissed the allegation by the PDP as laughable and ludicrous.

He said: “For the APC, this is yet another contrivance from the deep box of propaganda of the PDP in Rivers State. It simply flies in the face.

“While not speaking for any organ of state like the Police or any other security agency, the APC in Rivers State believes that it is unthinkable for any sane mind or group of sane individuals to imagine that the Nigeria Police or other security organisations would attempt what the PDP is charging. That can only be possible between the PDP and any unscrupulous federal agency.

“The Rivers State chapter of the APC would like to urge the PDP to approach the various federal government controlled security agencies with the facts of its findings for proper investigation to ascertain the veracity of their claims.”

Rivers PDP alleges plot to set up Jonathan, Wike - Vanguard News PEOPLES Democratic Party, PDP, in Rivers State has called on the Inspector General of Police to disband a wing of the Police in the state called C4I, saying it had allegedly uncovered a plot by All Progressives Congress, APC, to connive with the security body to implicate some chieftains of the part…