Headlines
Groups Condemn Northern Governors’ Silence on Kaduna Attack As death Toll Hits 51
The Northern States Governors’ Forum was on Tuesday condemned over its silence on the killings, which took place in Southern Kaduna a few hours before it met in Kaduna State on Monday.
Groups, including the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the Middle Belt Forum and civil rights organisations, in separate interviews with The PUNCH, described the forum’s silence on the killings in Kaduna State as insensitive.
The organisations said this as the death toll in the bandits’ attack on Southern Kaduna increased to 51 on Tuesday with the recovery of three more corpses.
The NSGF had in a communiqué issued after at its meeting on Monday berated southern governors for insisting that the presidency should shift to the South in 2023.
The northern governors also faulted moves by Lagos and Rivers states to collect the Value Added Tax.
How could govs meet in Kaduna and silent on killing of 48 people, says SOKAPU
Between Sunday and Monday, no fewer than 48 people were killed by bandits in Zango Kataf and Kaura local government areas of Kaduna State within 24 hours of unrestricted bloody violence.
Commenting on the governors communiqué’s silence on the killings and their preoccupation with the 2023 presidency and the Value Added Tax, the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union spokesman, Luka Binniyat, carpeted the governors, saying they were “still in yoke with the obsolete mentality of one North.”
He specifically knocked the governors from the Middle Belt whom he described as “mere pawns to be used to further the interest of the core North.”
Binniyat said, “SOKAPU sees the Northern State Governors Forum as nothing other than an assembly of governors from the former Northern Region (today’s 19 northern states) who are still yoked in with the obsolete mentality of one North.”
“Unfortunately for governors of the Middle Belt states among them, who do not have the courage, wisdom and vision to pull out and form a “Middle Belt Governors’ Forum like their counterparts in other parts of the country, the agenda of every meeting of the NGF always proves that they are mere pawns to be used to further the interest of the core North.
“If not so, how could a meeting of the NSGF take place in Kaduna State where at least 48 persons were murdered on Sunday in cold blood in the Christian Southern Kaduna, and nothing was mentioned of it?
“Was it not the same NSGF that made so much fuss over the killing of 22 Fulani commuters in Jos recently and threatened fire and brimstone because the Fulani were alleged to have been killed by Christians?
“Are the 48 Christian women and children killed in their homes in Madamai and Adum villages in the Kaura LGA in Southern Kaduna not supposed to raise emotions of the so-called NSGF to elicit even a mention in their meeting?
“But, the lives of non-Hausa-Fulani natives of an enclave they claim as part of their North do not qualify to be that of humans.
“SOKAPU condemns such cold, snobbish and inhuman attitudes of these governors to the latest tragedy that hit us.
“Kaduna State cannot be used as ground for bickering over power sharing while the citizens of the states are being massacred as selfish and unfeeling governors meet while we are deeply mourning.
“We reject membership of such a body. We do not identify with those who don’t care about us.”
He also condemned the role played by the Governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong.
“He (Lalong) seems to carry his curious role as Chairman of the NSGF not caring whether he is being used or not. He does not seem to bother about the opinion of our Plateau neighbours who are openly embarrassed and miffed by his poster face of anti-Middle Belt and Southern Nigeria.
“Southern Kaduna and Plateau State do not only share a very wide physical boundary, we have had centuries of inter-communal relationship and share almost the same problems of insecurity and mass murder of our people. Yet he did not have the courage of calling the attention of his colleagues to the ongoing genocide that took place less than 24hours before their meeting.”
Also berating the northern governors, the Middle Belt Forum described their opposition to power shift as selfish.
The Presidency has dismissed claims that Vice President Kashim Shettima’s recent comments were directed at the political situation in Rivers State or President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s constitutional decisions on the matter.
In a statement on Friday by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Communications (Office of the Vice President), Stanley Nkwocha, the Presidency described the reports as a “gross misrepresentation.”
The statement clarified that Vice President Shettima’s remarks at the public presentation of a book by former Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN), were misconstrued by some online platforms and individuals.
“These reports have distorted the Vice President’s comments in pursuit of a mischievous agenda,” it stated.
“They twisted his account of how the administration of former President Jonathan considered removing him as Borno Governor during the insurgency to falsely link it with current events in Rivers State.”
The Vice President, who spoke at the launch of OPL 245: The Inside Story of the $1.3 Billion Oil Block in Abuja on Thursday, was said to have referenced the past solely to commend Adoke’s professionalism while in office, and to reflect on Nigeria’s constitutional evolution regarding federal and state relations.
“For the avoidance of doubt, President Tinubu did not remove Governor Fubara from office. The constitutional measure implemented was a suspension, not an outright removal.
“This action was taken in response to the grave political crisis in Rivers State at the time, with the governor facing a looming impeachment and the State Assembly complex under demolition,” Nkwocha clarified.
The Presidency insisted that the action taken by President Tinubu in declaring a state of emergency and suspending the Governor was fully in line with Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which authorises such measures when there is a breakdown of public order requiring extraordinary intervention.
According to the statement, the President’s proclamation invoking Section 305(2) was subsequently ratified by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in the National Assembly, confirming the legitimacy and constitutional propriety of the decision.
“The action of President Tinubu in suspending Mr. Fubara and others from exercising the functions of office averted the governor’s outright removal. To conflate suspension with removal is misleading,” the statement further noted.
Nkwocha also stressed that Vice President Shettima’s comments were delivered extemporaneously and intended to underline the importance of public accountability and historical documentation.
He referenced the Vice President’s mention of past public servants, including Adoke and former Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, to illustrate principled leadership.
“His remarks were not in any way a criticism of President Tinubu’s actions, which the Vice President and the entire administration fully support and stand by without reservation,” the spokesman stated.
The Vice President, the statement added, remains in “loyal concert” with President Tinubu and is committed to implementing all constitutional measures necessary to safeguard democracy and uphold order across the country.
Concluding, the Presidency called on media organisations and political actors to desist from misrepresenting public remarks for sensational or partisan purposes.
“We urge media organisations and political actors to desist from the destructive practice of wrenching statements from context in order to fabricate nonexistent conflicts,” Nkwocha said.
Headlines
Akpabio Relieves Natasha of Committee Chairmanship Position, Appoints Akwa Ibom Senator As Replacement
Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, has replaced suspended Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, as the Chairman, Senate Committee on Diaspora/Non-Governmental Organisations.
In her place, Akpabio named Senator Bassey Aniekun Etim (Akwa Ibom -East).
The Senate President, who made the announcement on the floor in Abuja on Thursday, did not give any reasons.
The committee position had remained vacant since March when the Senate suspended the Kogi-Central Senatorial District lawmaker for six months for flouting the Senate’s rule on the seating arrangement and seat allocation.
The suspended lawmaker, at a point, chaired the Senate Committee on Local Content before Akpabio reassigned her to the Committee on Diaspora/NGO, shortly before she ran into trouble with the Senate over her conduct on seat allocation.
The Supreme Court has affirmed the 2024 governorship election victory of Governor Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC), dismissing the appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Asuerinme Ighodalo.
In a unanimous decision by a five-member panel led by Justice Mohammed Garba, the apex court ruled that the appeal lacked merit. It upheld the earlier judgments of the Court of Appeal and the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which had both declared Okpebholo the validly elected governor.
