Tag Archives: Aggrieved

We’ve Paid Some Aggrieved Herdsmen To Stop Killings In Southern Kaduna– El-Rufai

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Kaduna State Governor Mallam Nasir el-Rufai has said his government has traced some violent, aggrieved herdsmen to their countries and paid them to stop the killings of Southern Kaduna natives and the destruction of their communities saying that the renewed violence is carried out by bandits.

El-Rufai made this known while fielding questions from some select Journalists in his office in Kaduna.

He said: “For southern Kaduna, we didn’t understand what was going on and we decided to set up a committee under Gen. Martin Luther Agwai (rtd) to find out what was going on there. What was established was that the root of the problem has a history starting from the 2011 post election violence.

“Fulani herdsmen from across Africa bring their cattle down towards Middle Belt and Southern Nigeria. The moment the rains starts around March, April, they start moving them up to go back to their various communities and countries. “Unfortunately, it was when they were moving up with their cattle across Southern Kaduna that the elections of 2011 took place and the crisis trapped some of them.

“Some of them were from Niger, Cameroon, Chad, Mali and Senegal. Fulanis are in 14 African countries and they traverse this country with the cattle. “So many of these people were killed, cattle lost and they organised themselves and came back to revenge.

“So a lot of what was happening in Southern Kaduna was actually from outside Nigeria. We got a hint that the late Governor Patrick Yakowa got this information and he sent someone to go round some of these Fulani communities, but of course after he died, the whole thing stopped. That is what we inherited. But the Agwai committee established that.

“We took certain steps. We got a group of people that were going round trying to trace some of these people in Cameroon, Niger republic and so on to tell them that there is a new governor who is Fulani like them and has no problem paying compensations for lives lost and he is begging them to stop killing.

“In most of the communities, once that appeal was made to them, they said they have forgiven. There are one or two that asked for monetary compensation. They said they have forgiven the death of human beings, but want compensation for cattle. We said no problem, and we paid some. As recently as two weeks ago, the team went to Niger republic to attend one Fulani gathering that they hold every year with a message from me.”

Credit:

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/12/weve-paid-fulani-stop-killings-southern-kaduna-el-rufai/

PDP Faction, Aggrieved APC Members To Form New Party Against 2019 Election

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Amidst the unresolved intra-party crisis within its fold, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may have decided to chart a new course by setting in motion a process that would eventually lead to the formation of a new political alliance ahead of the 2019 general election.
In this regard, the main opposition party under the leadership of the National Caretaker Committee chairman, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, will today inaugurate a committee known as the Strategy Review and Inter-Party Affairs Committee under the chairmanship of Professor Jerry Gana.
The new committee, which is made up of 85 prominent leaders of the PDP, also has the former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Austin Opara, as its secretary.
PDP’s move is a reflection of the new thinking among its key leaders who having been frustrated at resolving the differences with the factional national chairman, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, and are now looking for an alternative platform.
According to sources at the secretariat of the Makarfi-led PDP in Abuja, the inauguration of the committee will formally open up the process of dialogue and consultations with other political parties, including former members of the PDP who left to join the All Progressives Congress (APC), with a view to building a formidable platform.
Although the terms of reference for the committee were not published along with the membership of the committee in the newspaper advertisement published last week, it was gathered that the list of prominent politicians that make up the committee was indicative that the party was looking towards a re-alignment ahead of the 2019 elections.
Some of the members of the committee include Senators Adolphus Wabara, Ibrahim Mantu, Sam Egwu, Ibrahim Kazaure, Stella Omu, Iyiola Omisore, Adamu Gumba, Emmanuel Bwacha, Saidu Kumo, Ayo Adeseun, Tunde Ogbeha, Ibrahim Ida and Hon. Emeka Ihedioha.
Others are former Governors Attahiru Bafarawa, Peter Obi, Liyel Imoke, Gbenga Daniel, Abdulkadir Kure, Sule Lamido, Idris Wada, Boni Haruna, Babangida Aliyu, Jonah David Jang and Mukhtar Yero.
Others include Mukhtar Shagari, Salimot Makanjuola Badru, Chief Tom Ikimi, Chief Onyema Ugochukwu and Chief Dubem Onyia.
The move to form a new political alliance is coming just as more facts have emerged on why the recent peace initiative in PDP collapsed.
It was gathered from reliable sources in the factions of the party led by Senators Makarfi and Sheriff that both sides disagreed on the composition of the reconciliation committee and who will chair it.
It was learnt that soon after Makarfi and Sheriff accepted to forge peace and settle their differences, the feuding sides accepted that one of the founding fathers of the party and the former National Security Adviser, Alhaji Aliyu Mohammed Gusau, should be the one to mediate on the crisis.
Both Sheriff and Makarfi attended several peace meetings in the residence of Gusau where ideas were canvassed on how to go about setting up the reconciliation committee.
The party leaders had initially settled for 12 nominees on both sides to the committee, but had to review it to 15 at the request of Makarfi.
A source said Makarfi later changed his mind and suggested that the committee be slashed to just three representatives each from both sides of the divide, which Sheriff accepted.
According to another source from the Sheriff camp, the disagreement arose when the issue of who would chair the reconciliation committee was to be decided.
He noted that while Sheriff proposed that he and Makarfi should both step down to allow members of the reconciliation committee to choose a chairman from among themselves to pilot the affairs of the party till the next convention, Makarfi was reluctant to give up his position and objected to the idea.
“It was at this stage that Sheriff then proposed that the reconciliation committee should be headed by former President Goodluck Jonathan, but Makarfi also rejected the idea, leading to a stalemate,” the source revealed.
The source, who claimed to have monitored the proceedings closely, spoke of how Makarfi kept most of the stakeholders of the party on his side in the dark about the true picture of things regarding his talks with Sheriff.
For instance, the source alleged that Makarfi failed to relay to the leaders of the National Assembly Caucus of the party the offers made by Sheriff to step down if Makarfi was ready to do likewise.
According to the source, it got to a point where the former Deputy Senate President Ibrahim Mantu arrived from his South African trip and enquired to know the progress on the peace talks, only to discover from Gusau that Sheriff had indeed been forthcoming with offers on how to end the lingering dispute in the party.
However on his part, Makarfi blamed Sheriff for reneging on the agreements they reached.
He had told journalists in an interview in Kaduna at the weekend that the key area where they had a problem was the issue of the terms of reference for the reconciliation committee.
He said: “What we agreed was that the other side (Sheriff’s faction) will join the caretaker committee (Makarfi’s committee). And that was the basic agreement that was reached.
“We should set up an equal number of party men and women that would sit down and look at the modality for integrating the two sides into a new caretaker committee and also draw the modality for the withdrawal of all court cases or consensual settlement of the cases.
“We agreed that in withdrawing all cases, let it be something that we all consent to so as to prevent future litigation.
“Later, I was the one that sent a message that we needed to expand it to 15 because instead of two governors we wanted to include three governors in order to carry everybody along.
“So, that was how we hit the figure 15 on each side. And the issue now became who will chair that committee and the terms of reference. On who to chair the committee, there were names that were mentioned.
“In my opinion, I thought of the person who was able to convene us without dispute should be able to chair the committee. In suggesting any other name you don’t know how it would be received by other people.
“On the choice of former President Goodluck Jonathan to chair the reconciliation committee, Makarfi said the advice against it was that the former president should not be dragged into the crisis at the moment but that he can continue to play an advisory role.”

Aggrieved PDP, APGA Members Form New Party

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The disagreement within the Peoples Democratic Party came to a head Tuesday as some members of the party teamed up with others in the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, and other parties to form a new party. The group, which held its maiden meeting in Abuja Tuesday, unanimously adopted Chief Perry Opara as the protem chairman of the proposed party which is named Peoples Mega Party, PMP. Chief Opara was an aide to

Chief Opara was an aide to former political adviser to Goodluck Jonathan, Alhaji Ahmed Gulak, who recently filed a suit against the PDP and the then acting national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, and secured a judgement ordering Secondus to vacate office as acting chairman on ground that his acting role had elapsed. Addressing the meeting, Chief Opara said the leadership crisis within the PDP which had impacted negatively on its glory and future, had necessitated the need for the Peoples Mega Party, PMP. He explained: “The major people who are in the party are former members of the PDP who are disenchanted by the high level of corruption, high level of impunity and high-handedness in the PDP. ”They have decided to form something very new and they are of the opinion that they should hand over the party to younger elements who are less corrupt and who can fight for the interest of the people. “It does not mean that it is only people from the PDP, we have APGA chairmen from many states of Nigeria identifying with the new party, people from Labour Party, LP, and the Accord Party, AP.

”There are also disenchanted people from the APC that feel that they want a new place and that is what it is. Today marks the birth of this new party.” The proposed party adopted the picture of a human being as its logo, while its slogan is: “Forward Nigeria.”

Credit: Vanguard

Over 7,000 Aggrieved APC Members Dump Party, Defect To PDP

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Some 7,000 aggrieved members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Thursday defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at Otukpa, Ogbadibo Local Government Area of Benue State.

The defectors who also dumped their APC membership cards were led to the opposition by Mathew Ochigbo a one time chairman of the party in Ogbadibo.

Ochigbo said they were leaving the APC for the PDP in order to support the aspiration and wishes of the people of Idoma land and to lend their support to the reelection bid of the former Senate President, David Mark.

Receiving the defectors, Director General of the David Mark reelection campaign organisation, Abba Moro lauded the consistent support of the people of the area to the PDP.

Moro said: “What over 7,000 of you have done today in Otukpa clearly shows that those who recently left the PDP after riding on the crest of the party and the goodwill of Senator David Mark are standing alone even in their own localities.

“The coming rerun election will be an opportunity for all Idoma sons and daughters to move against the wicked plot of some external forces to demean our people.

“It will also be a better platform for us to publicly demonstrate our unalloyed support to a course that holds a better prospect for our people in general.”

Credit: Thisday

#Pausibility: Of Nominal, Normal and The Extreme by Adebayo Coker.

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Just as the common example, Ramadan has come to an end and a sharp upsurge in the patronage of brothels and beer parlors are noticeable.  Do not get me wrong, same could be said of quadragesimal period. A great number of us display piety louder than the Pope and the chiefest of Sheikhs just around those periods that we observe our religious abstinence, but other than those times, we are just as evil as the devil can be.

Yours truly was Ebuka’s guest at Channels TV last Sunday. It was a live cast of the famous programme for youths, Rubbin’Minds (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJmy8Q_xx2Q), immediately after which I was appealed to by Victor of Channels Beams to wait for a recording of his programme, claiming that Sunday was the only window left for him, else he may have to do a repeat of one of his old recordings. Just as a part of me will always want to go out to put smiles on peoples’ faces, sometimes to my own detriment; I did wait. Both Seun (the producer of Rubbin’ Minds) and Victor (the presenter of Channels Beam) promised to be on my trail as I left their Studio around 5pm to travel to Ife that Sunday, but to my utmost amazement, none of them have called me till date.. I have spoken to Seun after then (I called him) and if you wonder why I’m saying this in spite of an honorarium, I have news for you: there is nothing like that. I drove myself to their studio. They must have thought I would be glad to be on TV but it was all in honor of a noble friend and brother, Lanre Lagunju , who prevailed upon me the previous week to be on the programme. I felt a bit slighted but my understanding of human nature has taught me that we all have a covert use-and-dump attitude in us.

I was involved in an accident around Gbongan that evening as I ran into one of the road bumps, thanks to bad street lighting. The alternator belt gave way, invariably affecting the charging system of the car. It took the grace of God and the help of three men, Mr. Animashaun and his son, whom I had given a ‘lift’ around Wasimi before the incident, and a commuter bus driver, Moses, for my car to be towed to destination around 11pm. It was an agonizing experience for me. May God bless them all. I doubt if they will ever get to read this piece, but I will encourage them as we have become pals since that day, talking on the phones almost every day.

The mechanic saw a kill on Monday morning as he exploited the situation to the fullest. I had to dance to his tune as I had no choice. Am back to base. Thank God for journey mercies.

The road to Ife has always been bad, even during my university days, but to my astonishment, the good roads that have been built /completed by this government were nowhere to be seen as I had to be extra-cautious of the many death traps on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

I sat with the erudite Professor of Pharmacy, Professor Adebayo Lamikanra, in his office and he chatted me up on his frustration about Nigerian roads, without having heard of my experience of the previous night. He told me how he had gone to Osun State College of Education and found that the roads within the school premises had totally given way, obviously, from non- maintenance since they were built. I can’t describe the dissatisfaction on this gentleman’s face. He is in his mid 60s so he told me how happy some of them were when the military took over in 1983 due to the bastardizing of the system by the then politicians. He said he later became psychologically brutalized when the ‘khaki boys’ wouldn’t behave as human beings, but that they (intellectuals) continued to write (writings that would have been frowned at by the then military government) at the risk of their lives. The Professor expressed his depression when he came to the conclusion that these present day politicians are much worse than the pre- 1983-Military-takeover politicians.

I met with some of my lecturers in Ife. The same offices. The same toilets. The same ‘black boards’. Nothing has changed except that younger lecturers have been employed to take the place of some retired academics. I met one of the new recruits who was so full of himself and yours truly did cut him to size. He expected me to roll on the floor in the name of greeting him. I made him understand that I just greeted the VC the way a gentleman should: handshake. He took me to be one of his students (I am an El-Rufai-like person). I later found out we bear the same surname and he was just 3yrs my senior. We made up.

I am sure you are wondering why this travelogue? Well, I will like you to read between the lines. If I had been asked to tell where Mr Animashaun hails from, going by his physique, I would have taken him to be an Easterner because he was decked in suit and had a briefcase in his hand. When we got talking I found out he is a Moslem from Gbongan. I would have taken Moses to be a Moslem judging from his intonation. I never would have thought Professor Lamikanra could offer me a seat in his office let alone a chat. I could never have imagined moving close to the VC’s office, not to talk of a handshake from him. But I would have expected Seun and Victor to show the same affection they have for their programmes to the people they invite onto their respective shows, especially as we are of the same generation. I would have expected the mechanic to be lenient in milking me particularly as I spoke to him in an undiluted Yoruba tongue, having seen that his tribal marks wouldn’t have belonged to any other tribe than Yoruba ; instead he said, ara eko ni yin, e san owo nla. I would have expected the newly recruited lecturer to be open-minded because he is youthful. In all, I learnt that a person is a person and a race is a race.

I would have expected this government to stop this ‘lying lying thing.’

Ill-timed.

That Brother Jonathan declared his nimble intention amidst great fanfare the day after many pupils were bombed in Potiskum should not be a surprise to anyone who has been following the development around here, unless the person was asleep when the PDP went dancing in Kaduna the day after over 200 girls were abducted from Chibok. Read #Pausibility: Your Daily Bomb-o-scope, Don’t Go Out Without It to understand the overall thinking capacity of a typical Nigerian politician.

And those Aggrieved Peoples Consortium members should go and sit down jor. All we hear are commentaries by their media handler(s) which at times causes one to question their preparedness to stand as a true opposition party. Let them set their house in motion. By now we should be seeing posters; watching resourceful adverts, and hearing inspiring jingles of their Presidential candidate, They should call their ‘lying’ Mohammed to order jor.