CONFUSION IN ABIA GOVT HOUSE AS IKPEAZU’S AIDES DEFY CABINET DISSOLUTION

Confusion has taken over the Abia State Government House, Umuahia, following the decision of some of the aides of the governor who were sacked in the recently announced cabinet dissolution to return to their offices.

Some of the aides who were relieved of their duty but are still sighted in their offices are the immediate past Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Enyinnaya Appolos; ex SA on Special Duties, Mr. Erondu Junior Erondu ; former Chief Press Secretary to Governor Theodore Orji, Mr. Ugochukwu Emezue and the ex Special Assistant on New Media, Mr. Newman Ubani.

Governor Okezie Ikpeazu had on Friday, June 16, dissolved his cabinet through a statement signed by the Permanent Secretary, Government House, Mr. Onyi Wamah. The statement retained the Governor’s Chief of Staff, Chief Chijioke Nwakodo; the Special Adviser, Aba Urban Renewal, Engr. Solomon Ogunji, Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Obinna Oriaku , Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General, Chief Umeh Kalu ( SAN) , including former Commissioner for Works, Hon. Eziuche Ubani, who was demoted to serve as Special Adviser on Works and Project Monitoring.

Abia Facts learned that the development has caused huge confusion at the Abia Seat of power as civil servants no longer know who to deal with since the affected aides have been relieved of their appointment by the governor.

A staff of Government House, who pleaded not to be mentioned, said, “Some of the governor’s aides who we think were affected by the dissolution, have resume work.  The situation has created confusion as we don’t know who to deal with since they relieved of their appointments. Everybody is afraid to talk because these are the Governor’s Boys, they are very powerful. Anything you say can land you in trouble. We prefer to keep quiet and tread softly until the governor returns. Since they were not excluded from the dissolution, the right procedure would have been to do a follow up announcement to bring them back to office, but in Abia State anything goes.”

Immediate past Chief Press Secretary, Enyinnaya Appolos was sighted at his office yesterday where he signed a statement quoting Governor Ikpeazu calling on the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to investigate the petition of alleged threat to life levelled against the governor by a contender in the 2014 governorship primaries, Sir Friday Nwosu.

Source: Abia Facts

Govt Removed Religion Studies From School Curriculum — CAN

Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) on Thursday insisted that Christian Religious Knowledge (CRK) was removed from secondary school education curriculum.

This is despite Malam Adamu Adamu, Minister of Education, and the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) saying that the school subject was not removed.

Rev. Samson Olasupo Ayokunle, CAN President, in a statement on Thursday insisted that the present Federal Government had planned removing the subject and dared the ministry and NERDC “to publish the full details of the controversial new curriculum of education if they have no hidden agenda. ”

According to Ayokunle, the removal of religious subjects from the secondary school curriculum will in the end undermine the sound moral values that existed among children in public schools in the country.

“This undermines the sound moral values that these two subjects had imparted in the past to our children which had made us to religiously and ethnically co-exist without any tension. “Islamic Religious Knowledge was equally made available as a subject in another section without any corresponding availability of Christian Religious Knowledge. Is this not a divisive curriculum that can set the nation on fire? Is this fair to millions of Christians in this nation?”

Th e CAN president cited a case in Kwara State where a student was punished for refusing to register for Islamic Religious Knowledge.

“A Christian student in a secondary school in Kwara State had his body lacerated with cane by the Arabic teacher because the pupil refused to do Islamic Religious Knowledge when French teacher was not available and Christian Religious Knowledge, Hebrew or Greek were not part of the options at all. “The chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria in Delta State has also called to complain that students are calling him to say that their teachers are saying that they will no longer be doing CRK as a subject again. Who is deceiving whom?” The statement read.

Recall that Adamu faulted the position of CAN over the matter when he spoke to newsmen after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in the State House on Wednesday. Adamu said dummy was sold to CAN by the social media and probably by an individual who wanted to add to the growing tension in the country.Source: Independent

Workers protest unpaid 15 months salaries in Asaba

Workers in the 25 council areas of Delta State under the aegis of Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) Wednesday disrupted socio-economic activities in Asaba, the state capital in protest of unpaid salaries for 15 months.

The protesting workers, marched through major streets of the city, before stopping over at the Government House, Anwai Road and House of Assembly complex on Okpanam Road where they had audience with government authorities.

Apart from the salary arrears being owed them, the workers also vehemently rejected the clocking system recently introduced by chairmen of the councils to track attendance at the council secretariats in the state.

Besides, the protesters led by the national president of NULGE, Alhaji Ibrahim Khaleed and the state president of the union, Comrade Ziko Okwudi, fully backed autonomy for local councils in the country.

One of the protesting council workers from Isoko North Local Government Area, Obukovwo Victor said the workers were aware that the Acting President had already approved the disbursement of the Paris Club refund, adding that Delta State got a whopping sum of N27.6 billion from the refund.

Obukovwo said: "We understand that the Acting President has approved the Paris Club refund and our state got a whopping sum of N27.6 billion, yet we have not heard anything from the state government.

"We are also saying no the clocking machine system introduced by the authorities. We will resist this obnoxious system until our arrears are paid in full before negotiating whether or not to key into the clocking system. We are not afraid of coming to work every day."

Our correspondent who monitored the protest observed that human and vehicular activities were brought to a halt while it lasted, causing traffic gridlock in the major roads of the metropolis.

It was gathered that the state governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa held a meeting with the leadership of the union when the protest train berthed at the Government House.

Okowa was quoted to have told the aggrieved workers that though the federal government had approved the Paris Club refund, the share of the state was yet to hit its account, assuring that once the money is received, the share of the councils will be used in offsetting the arrears.

Source: Daily Trust

PRESS STATEMENT: CHRONIC WRONG DOING AT THE NIGER DELTA DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION (NDDC) MUST END

PRESS STATEMENT: CHRONIC WRONG DOING AT THE NIGER DELTA DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION (NDDC) MUST END

Moved by the misfortunes occasioned by the relentless retardation of progress by a barbarous NDDC leadership in plundering and bringing extreme poverty, destruction and death to the peoples of the Niger Delta region, rather than intervention to develop and sustain the peoples, we make bold to say that these characters who have fearlessly engaged in open corrupt activities have broken the most solemn agreements that enabled their existence in the first place.

Justice therefore, demands end to the impunity of these bureaucrats, and necessity compels us to call for a complete purge and punishment of those who have within a brief time frame engaged in primitive accumulation at the expense of the fundamental objectives of the NDDC as an intervention agency as originally proposed.

We call on the Federal government to take this latest rude awakening most seriously. The Supervising Ministry must move beyond lamentation, and deal decisively with the chronic wrong doing of this so-called intervention agency and the personnel involved: the monsters who have infested the region, that continue to drench it in blood by reaping from where they never sowed, be urgently cast out, and given the punishment equal to the enormity of their perfidy. It is time we begin to eradicate what has become a permanent feature of the Commission, which simply translates into a mission to rob and decimate the unsuspecting peoples of the region.

For the avoidance of any doubt, NDDC has never truly been that intervention agency that was set out to improve and strengthen democratic institutions through the acceleration of economic and social developments, thus rapidly bringing about a substantial and steady increase in the average income in order to narrow the gap between the standard of living in the Niger Delta region, as envisaged by its founders. Instead, the region has remained grounded into retrogression and abject poverty at every given point. It has remained that agency where management bicker against one another, contracts are shared without due process, mobilizations collected, non-performance and absence of accountability is all pervading. 

The sheer incompetence, greed and penchant for absolute corruption of the NDDC management over time continue to give the poor in the region a cause to engage in deviant and devilish habits. The impotence of NDDC management has been to a large extent responsible for political, social and economic exclusion, humiliation, and alienation – a poverty of dignity and voice. Tragically, poverty and insecurity in the region are mutually reinforcing, leading to what Susan Rice, a Brookings Scholar rightly called a “doom spiral.” Young people of the region continue daily to suffer extreme poverty, lack of educational and economic opportunities, capacity, jobs, poor health, crime and armed conflict, while NDDC bureaucrats smoothly walk away shamelessly with same resources meant to improve the livelihoods of citizens.

Signed:

Anyakwee Nsirimovu

Chair, NDCSC

________________________________________________________________
Humanity House: 1, Human Rights Close, Off Port Harcourt Int. Airport Road, Rukpokwu Town, Obio/Akpor LGA. P.O. Box 2292, Port Harcourt. Rivers State. Niger Delta Region. Nigeria.

PRESS STATEMENT: CHRONIC WRONG DOING AT THE NIGER DELTA DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION (NDDC) MUST END

PRESS STATEMENT: CHRONIC WRONG DOING AT THE NIGER DELTA DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION (NDDC) MUST END

Moved by the misfortunes occasioned by the relentless retardation of progress by a barbarous NDDC leadership in plundering and bringing extreme poverty, destruction and death to the peoples of the Niger Delta region, rather than intervention to develop and sustain the peoples, we make bold to say that these characters who have fearlessly engaged in open corrupt activities have broken the most solemn agreements that enabled their existence in the first place.

Justice therefore, demands end to the impunity of these bureaucrats, and necessity compels us to call for a complete purge and punishment of those who have within a brief time frame engaged in primitive accumulation at the expense of the fundamental objectives of the NDDC as an intervention agency as originally proposed.

We call on the Federal government to take this latest rude awakening most seriously. The Supervising Ministry must move beyond lamentation, and deal decisively with the chronic wrong doing of this so-called intervention agency and the personnel involved: the monsters who have infested the region, that continue to drench it in blood by reaping from where they never sowed, be urgently cast out, and given the punishment equal to the enormity of their perfidy. It is time we begin to eradicate what has become a permanent feature of the Commission, which simply translates into a mission to rob and decimate the unsuspecting peoples of the region.

For the avoidance of any doubt, NDDC has never truly been that intervention agency that was set out to improve and strengthen democratic institutions through the acceleration of economic and social developments, thus rapidly bringing about a substantial and steady increase in the average income in order to narrow the gap between the standard of living in the Niger Delta region, as envisaged by its founders. Instead, the region has remained grounded into retrogression and abject poverty at every given point. It has remained that agency where management bicker against one another, contracts are shared without due process, mobilizations collected, non-performance and absence of accountability is all pervading. 

The sheer incompetence, greed and penchant for absolute corruption of the NDDC management over time continue to give the poor in the region a cause to engage in deviant and devilish habits. The impotence of NDDC management has been to a large extent responsible for political, social and economic exclusion, humiliation, and alienation – a poverty of dignity and voice. Tragically, poverty and insecurity in the region are mutually reinforcing, leading to what Susan Rice, a Brookings Scholar rightly called a “doom spiral.” Young people of the region continue daily to suffer extreme poverty, lack of educational and economic opportunities, capacity, jobs, poor health, crime and armed conflict, while NDDC bureaucrats smoothly walk away shamelessly with same resources meant to improve the livelihoods of citizens.

Signed:

Anyakwee Nsirimovu

Chair, NDCSC

________________________________________________________________
Humanity House: 1, Human Rights Close, Off Port Harcourt Int. Airport Road, Rukpokwu Town, Obio/Akpor LGA. P.O. Box 2292, Port Harcourt. Rivers State. Niger Delta Region. Nigeria.

“Biafra Agitation Is Not Illegal, Osinbajo Should Be Ashamed Of Himself” – IPOB

We the members of the indigenous people of Biafra (IPOB) under the leadership of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu condemn unequivocally the distasteful statement credited to the acting President of Nigeria Professor Yemi Osibanjo, to the effect that Biafra agitators who through the instrumentality of IPOB are exercising their God given and inalienable right to self determination, is in violation of the provisions of the General Abdulsalami Abubakar 1999 Constitution of Nigeria.

For such a statement to escape the lips of a learned fellow like Prof. Osinbajo confirms the widely held view that African leaders lack the mental capacity and discipline to operate a constitutional democracy in a modern world. If the corrupt ruling class in Nigeria cannot distinguish between those rights that are sacrosanct, such as freedom of association and freedom of expression under which IPOB operates, then the entire political edifice in Nigeria is a monumental mess.

It is very shameful that a professor of law cannot situate the Nigeria constitution within the context and meaning of the right to self determination as recognized in international law. Somebody should please draw the attention of Professor Yemi Osibanjo to the provisions of the Africa Charter on Human and Peoples Rights which Nigeria ratified and went ahead to domesticate into her local laws.

How can a professor of law threaten jail term for those exercising their right to self determination under laws adopted and ratified by Nigeria? This confirms again the widely held view that legal practice in Nigeria is one almighty joke. We are challenging Prof. Osinbajo to show the whole world how, where and when IPOB committed this offence he alluded to since the inception of the current phase of the agitation. The criminal political cabal that led President Buhari astray on the issue of Biafra agitation are at it again.  By assuring Osinbajo that threatening language, mass arrests, illegal detention, killings and brutal crackdown will frighten IPOB into submission, this same group of corrupt criminals are setting up Osinbajo to fail the same way they caused Buhari’s failure.

If Osinbajo continues to heed their evil counsel by using threatening language when addressing IPOB he will end up a failure like Buhari. Nigeria must understand how ready we are to go to prison. They should build more illegal detention facilities because we cannot stop agitating for our right to self determination until the Nigerian government accepts the need for a date for referendum on the question of Biafra.

Professor Yemi Osibanjo should have consulted superior legal minds to advice him before coming on air to make such misleading comments. The Nigerian Constitution and its provisions cannot supersede international charters and treaties freely entered into by the Nigerian state where such treaties appear to render null and void the obnoxious provisions of the Nigerian Constitution.

Those that wrongly advised Prof. Osinbajo to embark upon the citation of the ill conceived constitutional reference to the indissolubility of the Nigeria, should refer to the landmark Nigerian Supreme Court judgement on the case of Abacha Vs. Fawehinmi. United Nations charter on the rights of indigenous people and African charter which was ratified and signed by Nigeria is still in place till today and overrides the Nigerian Constitution on the rights for the indigenous people to the self determination.

We are warning the vocal few rented saboteurs and uneducated public commentators in Nigeria to stop the perverse insinuation that Biafra agitation is all about war. IPOB is not asking for war, rather what we are asking for is self determination and the only way to achieve that is through the internationally recognized instrument of referendum or plebiscite.

–

COMRADE EMMA POWERFUL MEDIA AND PUBLICITY SECRETARY FOR IPOB.

Source: 247ureports

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