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A former Senate President, Adolphus Wabara, has been named acting Chairman, Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party, following the resignation of Walid Jibrin at the ongoing Board of Trustees meeting in Abuja.
The 43 Muslim worshippers who were kidnapped at Zugu community in Bukkuyum Local Government Area of the state have been freed.
Sources told Channels Television that the kidnap victims were freed on Tuesday night September 6, at about 10:30 pm after the payment of five million Naira ransom.
It was disclosed that the bandits also requested and got supplies of several jerry cans of petrol.
Members of the Zugu community disclosed that 44 persons were kidnapped from the village but one person died in the bandits’ camp as a result of torture.
The other 43, however, returned to the village unhurt and have since been reunited with their families. While the police is yet to give full details of the release, however, after the abductions, the Zamfara command deployed additional tactical operatives to the area to ensure that normalcy returns.
Commissioner of Police in the state, CP Kolo Yusuf who reiterated that the command is committed to rid the state of criminal activities, appealed for continuous support and collaboration to all the security operatives in an effort to achieve this mandate.
A Niger state House of Assembly committee which was set-up to investigate contract financing loans of twenty-five local government councils, has recommended the suspension of fifteen local government councils chairmen.
Chairman of the committee, Abdulmalik Madaki Bosso said the decision to suspend the LGA chairmen will pave way for smooth and unhindered access by members of the committee to enable them to discharge their duties diligently.
The affected local government councils chairmen are those of Mokwa, Gbako, Suleja, Gurara, Tafa Paikoro, Bosso, Agwara, Borgu, Kontagora, Wushishi, Magama, Mariga, Mashegu, and Rijau.
He noted that this is in line with the provision of sections 128 and 129 of the Constitution of Nigeria 1999 as amended as well as the provision of section 90 Subsection one A B and C of local government 2001 as amended.
He alleged that most of the suspended local government chairmen collected the loan without following due process, an act he said is unacceptable by the Niger State House of Assembly.
According to him, the problem had added an extra burden to the smooth running of local government administration in the state. Channels Television reported that Abdulmalik Madaki Bosso added that the deduction of N8m each from local government councils for loan repayment be suspended for the failure of the ministry to obtain house resolution as provided in Section 97 Subsection One of the Local Government Councils 2001 as amended.
The chairman of Kanke LGA in Plateau state, Henry Jan Gotip, who was kidnapped on September 6 by unknown gunmen has regained his freedom.
A statement released by DSP Alfred Alabo, spokesperson of the state police command, says Gotip was released by his abductors unhurt yesterday September 7 at about 11pm.
The gunmen stormed Gotip’s residence at Kwang, shot sporadically and later abducted him to an unknown destination.
”The Kanke Local Government Council Chairman has been reunited with his family and will soon be debriefed by the Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the Command to build up to available intelligence that will lead to the arrest of his abductors.” Alabo said
Gunmen, on Wednesday, kidnapped the Executive Chairman, Kanke Local Government Area, Plateau State, Henry Gotip, from his residence around Kwang, in the Jos South area of Plateau State.
The kidnap of the council boss was coming barely two days after gunmen kidnapped a traditional ruler, Dauda Suleiman, in Pinau community, in the Wase LGA of the state.
Although the traditional ruler was said to have been rescued by troops of the military taskforce, Gotip’s abduction, according to multiple sources, occurred around 1am.
A family source said the council chairman’s whereabouts had been unknown, adding that the victim’s wife had been contacted.
“He was in his house in Kwang when some armed men came and abducted him on Wednesday around 1am.
I learnt that those who abducted the LG chairman allowed him to speak with the wife on the phone some moments ago.
I’m yet to get details of what the kidnappers discussed with her,” the source said.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Alabo Alfred, could not be reached on his phone. However, the Military Information Officer, Operation Safe Haven, Major Ishaku Takwa, said that the taskforce had commenced a rescue operation.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, on Wednesday, announced the commencement of recruitment of election staff for the 2023 general elections.
To this effect, the electoral umpire said it had opened its portal for recruitment, adding that eligible applicants should begin applying for the role.
INEC made the announcement in a post on its Facebook page on Wednesday. It said the portal which opened on Wednesday (today) would be closed on November 30, 2022.
The statement read,
“The Commission has approved the re-activation of INECPRES both the Mobile App for Android phones only and the web portal (laptops only).
“To this end the portal will be open to eligible applicants for registration of all categories of ad-hoc staff (SPO/PO/APO/RATECHS/RAC Managers) except the Collation officers.
“The portal opens on Wednesday the 14th of September and ends on the 30th November, 2022.”
The PUNCH reports that electioneering for the 2023 election will kick off later this month, signaling the commencement of activities that would culminate in next year’s general elections.
Gunmen suspected to be kidnappers have abducted the Chairman of Kanke Local Government Council in Plateau state, Hon Henry Gotip.
It was gathered that gunmen stormed the residence of the council boss in Jos South local government council of the state in the early hours of Wednesday, September 7, shooting sporadically to scare off residents before whisking the victim to unknown destination.
Spokesperson of the police in the state, Alfred Alabo, who confirmed the incident said the command has dispatched a tactical team to rescue the victim.
He explained that the signal came in the early hours of Wednesday that there was a robbery gang operating along the area which took the intervention of the security but it was later discovered that a Council Chairman was kidnapped.
“The Police Commissioner is on top of the situation as he has sent a team of police officers to the area who are working in collaboration with the vigilante to rescue the Council Chairman,” he stated.
He urged the public to go about their lawful businesses and report any suspicious movement around their communities for swift response from the security agencies.
Gotip is the Secretary of ALGON, Plateau State.
Britain’s new Prime Minister Liz Truss convenes her senior ministers for an inaugural cabinet meeting on Wednesday on her first full day in office before she faces a barrage of questions in parliament.
Truss, who officially became leader Tuesday at an audience with head of state Queen Elizabeth II in Scotland after the resignation of Boris Johnson, is set to meet her top team at a morning meeting.
They include the most diverse top team in British history ever: Kwasi Kwarteng as Chancellor of the Exchequer, James Cleverly as foreign secretary and Suella Braverman as interior minister.
They face a daunting in-tray of issues, most notably decades-high inflation and how to deal with energy bills set to rise by 80 percent next month and then again in January.Meanwhile, the Bank of England has tipped the country to fall into recession later this year.
She must also navigate the combustible issue of post-Brexit trading arrangements in Northern Ireland, and in one of her first calls with a foreign leader late Tuesday, she agreed with US President Joe Biden “on the importance of protecting” peace in the province.
In its readout of the call, the White House also said Truss and Biden addressed “the challenges posed by China (and) preventing Iran from ever acquiring a nuclear weapon.”
But Truss was bullish as she entered Downing Street for the first time as premier, narrowly avoiding a heavy downpour.
“I am confident that together we can ride out the storm,” she said.Her new ministers may be asked to sign off immediately on a plan to freeze energy bills for the coming winter, possibly longer, a measure that would cost tens of billions of pounds, according to reports.
Tax cuts and diverting some health funding to social care could also reportedly be on the agenda.“I will cut taxes to reward hard work and boost business-led growth and investment,” Truss promised, while also vowing “action this week” on gas and electricity bills and broader energy policy.–
‘Almost ungovernable’ –After Cabinet, Truss will travel to the House of Commons to spar with opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer, in the rival pair’s first Prime Minister’s Questions session.
The often rowdy weekly session, which sees the prime minister quizzed by MPs, will test Truss’s political mettle and rhetorical skills as well as her level of Conservative support.
The 47-year-old won an internal ballot of Tory members on Monday, securing 57 percent of the vote, after a gruelling contest against former finance minister Rishi Sunak that began in July.But the initial stage of the contest saw her net the support of less than a third of the parliamentary party.
She now faces a tough challenge reuniting the ruling Tories following a bitter leadership battle.Conservative MPs are “almost ungovernable” and have “no appetite to cope with difficult decisions,” according to a government insider quoted by the Financial Times on Monday.
“They did for Boris and they may do for Liz, too,” the source told the paper.Truss will likely face a volley of hostile questions from Starmer and the Labour ranks, as they look to capitalise on months of Tory disarray.
Labour has opened up a double-digit lead in the polls but may have to wait two years for the next general election.Truss vowed Monday to lead the Conservatives to victory “in 2024”, with an election due by January 2025 at the latest.
– ‘Dreadful policy’ –Truss, who pitched herself to the Tory grassroots as a tax-cutting free-trade champion ready to slash taxes immediately to turbo-charge growth, faces warnings that these moves could make inflation worse.
The UK has already seen prices rise this year at their steepest rate for four decades, driven by spiralling energy costs.Under her mooted plans to tackle the situation, gas and electricity bills for both households and businesses would be capped near current levels for the coming winter at least.
The government would lend or guarantee private sector loans to energy providers to make up the difference they pay with soaring global wholesale prices.
It remains unclear whether the government will pay for the plan through extra borrowing or ask consumers to pick up the tab over the next two decades through levies on their energy bills.
Paul Johnson, of the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think-tank, said it was “a dreadful policy” but likely necessary.“Hugely expensive, untargeted, increases risk of shortages,” he noted on Twitter.
But he warned the scale of the problem “means there may just be no practical alternative.”
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has explained why it is yet to publish a comprehensive voters’ list for 2023 polls.
Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman who spoke at a stakeholders’ validation meeting on the 2022 revised framework and regulations for voting by internally displaced persons (IDPs), held in Abuja on Tuesday September 6, said claim of them not being willing to display the comprehensive voters’ register as provided by section 19(1) of the Electoral Act, 2022, is false.
He disclosed that the list would be released soon and will integrate fresh voters registered under the last CVR.
Yakubu said;
“This claim is incorrect. What the commission displayed for claims and objections in our local government area offices nationwide for a period of one week — from August 15 to August 21 — was not the entire register of voters.
“It was the list of fresh registrants at the end of the fourth and last quarter of the continuous voter registration exercise, covering the period from April 11 to July 31.“This has been the practice for several years.
“We wish to assure Nigerians that the commission will display the comprehensive register in all the 8,809 wards and 774 local government areas/area councils nationwide as envisaged in section 19(1) of the Electoral Act, 2022.
“The date will be announced as soon as the commission completes the ongoing automated biometric identification system (ABIS) to weed out all double/multiple as well as ineligible registrants.
“We appeal to some of our friends in civil society organisations to be guided accordingly.”
The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, on Monday, hosted the United Kingdom High Commissioner, Ms. Catorina Liang, other diplomats and dignitaries, at his office.
He said photos from the visit on his Facebook page, saying,
“Today I welcomed to my office a delegation of diplomats, foreign and Nigerian dignitaries led by the amiable UK High Commissioner, Ms. Catorina Liang.”
Liz Truss is officially Britain’s 56th Prime Minister after Boris Johnson tendered his resignation before the Queen asked her to form a government.
The newly-installed PM emerged from the monarch’s Balmoral residence in Scotland after completing the handover of power, a process known as ‘kissing hands’. In a statement, Buckingham Palace said:
‘The Queen received in audience The Right Honourable Elizabeth Truss MP today and requested her to form a new administration. Ms Truss accepted Her Majesty’s offer and kissed hands upon her appointment as Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury.’
The grand moment came shortly after Mr. Boris Johnson – accompanied by wife Carrie – left Balmoral following his final 40-minute audience with the Queen.
A statement from Buckingham Palace said the monarch had been ‘graciously pleased’ to accept. Ms. Truss will have little time to celebrate as she must head back to London to thrash out plans for curbing soaring energy bills.
She is expected to cap the typical household bill at £2,500 a year with costs further offset by keeping the £400 handout that had already been committed. That would leave the level only slightly higher than the £1,900 existing cap, and a thousand pounds below the figure it was due to hit next month, according to Mail Online.
Ms Truss will deliver her own speech on the steps of Downing Street around 4pm. The foreign secretary becomes the nation’s third female after she secured just over 81,000 to Mr. Sunak’s just over 60,000.
A Nigerian soldier has come out to appeal to Nigerians to vote wisely in the 2023 general elections.
In the video, the soldier stated that if Nigerians fail to vote for the right leaders, a war that is supposed to last for just 24 hours, will go on for years.
He added that voting right determines the peace of a nation.
According to him, soldiers take orders from their commanders while citizens have the power to vote in their leaders.
The Edo State Governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki, has said the government will begin the arrest and prosecution of parents and guardians of out-of-school children from the next academic session which begins on September 12, 2022.
Obaseki told journalists in Benin on Monday that arrangements had been concluded for the enforcement.He said,
“If we find any child under the age of 18 years being used for manual labour, such parents will be prosecuted.
We thank the Chief Judge for providing special courts which will be used to prosecute any offender who perpetrates violence against any child or involves in sexual defilement or physical abuse in our school system.
“From September 12, when school resumes, any child found loitering or hawking during school hours will be arrested and the parents or guardians will be prosecuted and seriously dealt with.
We have specially trained people to observe and watch over our children to ensure no child is abused in Edo State.
“School resumes on Monday, September 12, 2022, and teaching must commence the same day. I will send out a special squad to monitor schools across the State; I will also monitor the schools myself, alongside with the Commissioner of Education.”
Harping on the infrastructure development in schools across the state, Obaseki said,
“I have instructed the Ministry of Education to demolish all dilapidated buildings in our schools.“For those schools that are dilapidated, we will move the students to other schools and rebuild the schools.
“We will be spending a lot of resources to ensure no child sits on the ground to learn. By the time the Commissioner of Education will be completing her term, no Edo child should sit on the ground to learn.
“Commencing from September 12 when the new school calendar will start, I have also directed the Ministry of Education to set up a cleanup system to clean all Edo Schools.”
Search and rescue operatives combing the rubble of the seven-storey building that collapsed at Oba Idowu Oniru Street, Lekki, Lagos State, have recovered four more corpses.
The Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu, in a statement on Monday, confirmed the development 24 hours after emergency responders had recovered two corpses at the scene of the incident on Sunday.
Oke-Osanyintolu said,
“The agency alongside other first responders has been working for over 24 hours at the seven-storey building which collapsed yesterday.
Another four bodies have been extricated from the rubble bringing the fatalities to six. The process is ongoing.”
Similarly, the Lagos Territorial Coordinator, National Emergency Management Agency, Ibrahim Farinloye, in a chat with our correspondent, also confirmed that four corpses including that of an adult male were recovered.He said,
“Six corpses including that of an elderly man have been recovered from the rubble as recovery efforts continue.”
NPG had reported that some persons were sleeping in the seven-storey building under construction when the building collapsed around 3am on Sunday.
While some of the occupants escaped death, it was learnt that some other persons, who were unlucky, were trapped in the rubble of the collapsed building.
Emergency responders including officials of the LASEMA, the NEMA, and the police, among others, had been engaging in a search and rescue operation to rescue the trapped victims.
Reacting, the state Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Dr Idris Salako, had in a statement, ordered the arrest of the developer and other professionals involved in the collapsed building.
However, a series of building collapses that claimed the lives of residents had been recorded in the state.
Angered by these tragic developments, residents alongside experts in the building industry had slammed developers, among others, for using substandard materials and not conforming to standard building regulations in Lagos State.
Also, the Lagos State Government, particularly the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, had also been under heavy criticism for the reoccurring building collapse killing people in the state.
Amid the criticisms, a statement by the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotoso, confirmed Salako’s resignation, noting that the commissioner’s resignation was part of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s efforts to restructure the ministry and its agencies.
“Governor Sanwo-Olu thanked the Commissioner for his services to the state and wishes him success in his future endeavours.
“The Governor warns all players in the sector to respect the law or face the consequences of any indiscretion, no matter who the perpetrators are,” the statement said.
The Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, on Monday, said he would not leave his political opponents for God, but he would deal with them himself.
Wike said he would flog “the small boys.” Governor Wike spoke on Monday when he inaugurated the Okezuo Abia Flyover along the Aba -Enugu Expressway in Osisioma Ngwa Local Government Area, and the rehabilitated Aba- Owerri Road in Aba South Local Government Area of Abia State.
“God has given me what it takes to crush these people, for me to crush my enemies,”
Wike, who appeared to be throwing bants at the National Chairman of the party, Iyorchia Ayu, said, describing his enemies as “small boys” who he would not hesitate to deal with.
“No relationship can be bought with money. When I read some newspapers, they say some people are making attempts to break ranks. I said do you understand the modus operandi of what we are doing? If they understand the modus operandi, they will not waste their time.
“If you like, go and meet Ikpeazu, if you like go and meet Seyi, if you like go and meet Ortom, if you like go and meet Ugwuanyi. You don’t even understand what we are doing…you are making mistakes,” Wike said.
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, has congratulated Liz Truss on her election as the leader of the Conservative Party of the United Kingdom.
We reported earlier that Truss, who was elected Monday, will formally take office on Tuesday, and become the new UK Prime Minister after Johnson tenders his resignation to Queen Elizabeth II.
“The UK has proven, yet again, the resilient power of democracy. The election of MP Liz Truss as leader of the Conservative Party was a hard-fought process, but the ultimate winners are the people of the United Kingdom,” Atiku.
The PDP standard bearer also said he looked forward to working with Truss in the areas of human capital development, trade, and democracy.
“I join all other friends of the UK to celebrate this moment. I equally look forward to an enhanced partnership of the new leadership of the Conservative Party with Nigeria and African countries in the areas of human capital development, trade and strengthening democracy and the integrity of elections. -AA,” Atiku posted on his Facebook page, Monday afternoon.
Lagos Planning Commissioner resigns after Oniru building collapseLagos State Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Idris Salako, has resigned.
Gbenga Omotoso, the Commissioner for Information made the announcement in a statement on Monday, September 5.
Omotoso said Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has accepted the resignation. The official noted that Salako’s exit “is a prelude to the restructuring of the Ministry and its agencies”.
Sanwo-Olu thanked him for his services and wished him success in his future endeavours.
The governor warned all players in the sector to respect the law or face the consequences of any indiscretion.
Salako leaves the position after multiple building collapses in Nigeria’s commercial hub in the last few years. The most recent occurred in Oniru on Sunday, September 4.
A seven-storey building under construction collapsed. Two died and some are still trapped in the building.
Salako suggested the developer was a powerful man. While addressing the media, Salako recalled how the developer chased state officials away during enforcement.
He also disclosed that the developer broke the seal of the site on three separate occasions.
Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah, has declared that there is no problem between the two major religious groups of the country, the Christians and the Muslims.
Bishop Kukah, who was speaking on TVC News Breakfast show on Monday morning, said that the problem of the country was with leaders irresponsible leaders who used religion as a tool of oppression rather than for liberation.
He said,
“There is no problem between Christians and Muslims. There is a problem between irresponsible leaders who don’t want to govern properly, irresponsible Christian religious leaders who have now seen religion as a tool of oppression instead of a tool for liberation.
“This has been the thrust of my argument, because these are two areas of study. With all sense of modesty I have spent a good part of my life studying theology and studying religion and society,” he noted.
The clergyman who was responding to questions on the roles of religion and ethnicity in the politics of Nigeria, explained that the country had failed at building a governance that put the welfare of citizens over anything else.He said,
“If you are watching a football match or any game at all, that’s why there are referees. If the referee does not do what needs to be done and allows supporters to jump onto the field, you can see for yourself that referees are punishing coaches who overreach themselves by stepping even if it is just one inch, into the field. They are punished; sometimes they are taken off the pitch.
“Now, this is really what a state is supposed to be. Because without the state, it will be all of us against each other.
And that is why the state is called a leviathan. You put so much power so that the state can protect us.
The Nigerian state has proved itself to be incompetent, grossly malfunctioning, unable, and unwilling to commit the welfare of citizens as the principal basis of governance.”
The cleric further asserted that citizens must carry a ‘Nigeria land’ mentality, which presupposes the knowledge of shared interests, adding that the Nigerian system was only about politics, and not science. He also spoke emphatically about the need to have a country where the rule of law was placed over religious or ethnic sentiments, noting that Nigeria operated as a democracy and not a theocratic government.
He added that the role of religion must be scientifically defined, noting that the lack of definition emboldened leaders to privilege a religion or ethnic group over another.Kukah said,
“The constitution guarantees us freedom of religion and freedom to decide what we don’t want. Religion is an association. I’m free to opt out of an association.
“But if we have these unresolved issues as to the boundaries of the power of the state, how much can be appropriated in the name of religion, then you’re going to have the chaos that we have. And this is why we’ve not been able; we’ve refused to scientifically define and address the role of religion.”
Superstar, David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, has congratulated Kenya’s president-elect, William Ruto, on his victory in the country’s supreme court verdict.
Kenya’s Supreme Court on Monday upheld William Ruto’s election as the country’s president-elect.
Ruto, Kenya’s Deputy President, was declared the winner of the August 9 election by the Independent and Electoral Boundaries Commission, but his rival, Raila Odinga, had filed a suit challenging the election results.
Delivering the ruling Monday morning, Chief Justice Martha Koome struck out Odinga’s suit and upheld Ruto’s election as the Kenya president-elect.Shortly after the ruling, Davido tweeted,
“Congratulations to Dr William Samoei Ruto on being declared 5th President of the Republic of #Kenya @WilliamsRuto. Also, Congratulations to the people of Kenya! DEMOCRACY WINS AGAIN.”
During the ruling, Koome said, “This is a unanimous decision. The petitions are hereby dismissed, as a consequence we declare the first respondent (Ruto) as president-elect.”
The court dismissed all nine issues of contention in the suit.
Koome declared that the alleged irregularities in the election “…were not of such magnitude as to affect the final results of the presidential election.”
By the apex court’s judgement, the 55-year-old incumbent deputy president, Ruto, will now assume office as Kenya’s president on September 13, 2022.
Liz Truss will become the next prime minister after defeating Rishi Sunak in the Conservative Party leadership contest on Monday, September 5.
The foreign secretary will succeed Boris Johnson on Tuesday September 6, and become the nation’s third female. She secured just over 81,000 to Mr. Sunak’s just over 60,000.
Ms Truss is expected to make a speech outside Number 10 once she takes office and will then get to work on appointing her cabinet.
In a break from tradition on Tuesday, Mr. Johnson and his successor will go to Balmoral rather than Buckingham Palace to meet Queen Elizabeth, who will ask the new leader to form a government. The pair would fly there in separate planes for security reasons.
Boris Johnson was forced to announce his resignation in July after months of scandal and will travel to Scotland to meet Queen Elizabeth on Tuesday at Balmoral Castle in Scotland to formally tender his resignation.
Ms. Truss has promised to announce further help to shield consumers within a week of taking over.
She plans to deliver £30bn in tax cuts through an emergency Budget later this month, arguing the UK’s tax burden is behind sluggish growth.