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Ruga Settlement: Soyinka Speaks, Warns of Explosion
Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, on Tuesday warned the Federal Government that its handling of Ruga herdsmen settlements could spark an explosion in the country.
Soyinka, at the inauguration of the United Nations Solutions 17 SDG programme in Lagos, said the Ruga project of the Federal Government was not the best approach to resolving the herders-farmers’ clashes.
The Nobel laureate said this just as the Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom; the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Afenifere, the Middle Belt Forum and other groups clashed with the Presidency on Tuesday over the project.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, on Monday on The News at 10 on Channels Television, had said Benue was not among states where the Ruga project would be sited.
Shehu said the decision of the Federal Government to keep quiet about the project was deliberate because of the manner in which politicians were exploiting the Ruga controversy.
But Ortom, through his Chief Press Secretary, Terver Akase, said Shehu was not saying the truth when he claimed that the state was not included in the project.
In Lagos on Tuesday, Soyinka faulted the Federal Government over the project. He stated, “Ruga is going to be an explosion if not handled with care. But why do we not take our policies from good models?
“This is not the way people and countries deal with issues of cattle. I travel everywhere. It has to be handled in a way that is logical, comprehensible to the environment. When a cow walks up to the window of my house in Abeokuta, a house which is located in a residential area, then there’s a problem.
“When a cow goes to Ijebu Ode and eats up their seedlings and so on and you expect people to be quiet? People have been killed in hundreds just because of the failure of leadership at a critical time.
“And the cattle herders have been given a sense of impunity. They kill without any compunction, they drive away the farmers who have been contributing to the food solutions in the country, the cattle eat their crops and then you come up with Ruga.
“I think that there is going to be trouble in this country if this Ruga thing is not handled imaginatively and with humanity as priority. Any country where cattle take priority over human life is definitely at an elementary stage.”
In the interview with Channels Television on Monday, the presidential media aide, Shehu, had said opposition to the Ruga project was based on politics and blackmail.
The Punch
The Retired Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas-led Rivers State Government has announced the appointment of Administrators for the 23 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the state.
The decision, approved by the Administrator also includes the reconstitution of some Boards of Agencies, Commissions, and Parastatals that had earlier been suspended.
According to the statement by the Secretary to the State Government, Professor Ibibia Worika, the appointments are to take effect from Monday, April 7, 2025.
The administrators for the 23 Local Government Areas of Rivers State include:
1. Mr Okroiyobi Animiete – Abua/Odual LGA
2. Mr Goodluck M. Ihenacho – Ahoada East LGA
3. Mr Promise Jacob – Ahoada West LGA
4. Dr Tamunotonye Peters – Akuku Toru LGA
5. Surveyor Atajit Francis – Andoni LGA
6. Barrister Ibiapuve Charles – Asari Toru LGA
7. Mr Kingsley N. Banigo – Bonny LGA
8. Dr Sokari Ibifuro Francis – Degema LGA
9. Dr Gloria Obo Dibiah – Eleme LGA
10. Barr Franklin P. Ajinwon – Emohua LGA
11. Dr Onyemachi S. Nwankwor – Etche LGA
12. Prof. Gospel G. Kpee – Gokana LGA
13. Mr Isaiah Christian Nobuawu – Ikwerre LGA
14. Dr Barinedum Nwibere – Khana LGA
15. Dr Clifford Ndu Walter – Obio Akpor LGA
16. Dr Chukwuma Aje – Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni LGA
17. Eliel Owubokiri – Ogu/Bolo LGA
18. Mr Thompson Isodiki – Okrika LGA
19. Manager Ikechi Wala – Omuma LGA
20. Mr Fred Apiafi – Opobo /Nkoro LGA
21. Eletuuo Ihianacho – Oyigbo LGA
22. Dr Sam Kalagbor – Port Harcourt LGA
23. Mr Nuka O. S. Gbipah – Tai LGA
The following have also been appointed as Chairman and members of the Rivers State Electoral Commission:
1. Dr Micheal Ekpai Odey – Chairman
2. Mr Lezaasi Lenee Torbira – Member
3. Prof Author Nwafor – Member
4. Prof Godfrey Woke Mbgudiogha – Member
5. Prof Joyce Akaninwor – Member
6. Dr Olive A. Bruce – Member
7. .Prof Chidi Halliday – Member
This followed the judgment of the apex court, which declared the LG election conducted in the state on October 5, 2024, as invalid.
This development comes just hours after a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt scheduled April 14, 2025, to hear a suit filed by human rights lawyer, Courage Nsirimovu of Pilex Centre for Civic Education Initiative.
Nsirimovu is seeking to halt the appointment of LG Administrators in the state.
Justice Adamu Mohammed, presiding over the matter did not issue an explicit restraining order, instead directed that the Administrator of Rivers State be put on notice to appear and show cause why the request to stop the appointments should not be granted.
“I am of the view that it will serve the interest of justice to order the application to put the respondent on notice to appear and show cause why the application (to stop the appointment administrators in the 23 LGAs) should not be granted,” the judge stated.
Channels TV
Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, has vowed that those who financed the attacks against Tesla will go to prison.
Last month, multiple Tesla vehicles were set ablaze in Las Vegas.
Musk condemned the act, calling it an “evil attack.”
Eventually, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced charges against three people responsible for setting Tesla properties on fire in Las Vegas.
Bondi described the violent attacks on Tesla property as “nothing short of domestic terrorism.”
However, several weeks after the incident, Musk revealed in a tweet on X that those who financed the attacks against Tesla will go to jail.
“Those who financed the attacks against Tesla will go to prison,” Musk tweeted on Tuesday.
Arsenal stormed to a stunning 3-0 win over Champions League holders Real Madrid as Declan Rice’s free-kick masterclass left the Gunners within touching distance of a place in the semi-finals.
Rice scored two majestic free kicks in the second half of the quarter-final first leg at the Emirates Stadium.
Mikel Merino added Arsenal’s third goal before Real’s Eduardo Camavinga was sent off for kicking the ball away in the closing minutes to leave the Spanish giants in disarray.
The brilliance of Rice’s brace cannot be understated, with even Real keeper Thibaut Courtois — usually so inspired on Champions League nights — unable to get anywhere near the England mid-fielder’s thunderbolts.
Incredibly, Rice had never scored a free-kick in his career before the first of his missiles hit the back of the Real net.
It was no more than Arsenal deserved for a mature performance that exposed injury-hit Real in ruthless style.
Mikel Arteta’s men will travel to the Bernabeu for the second leg on April 16 as firm favourites to advance to a semi-final tie against Paris Saint-Germain or Aston Villa, who meet in their quarter-final first leg on Wednesday.
The Gunners have not reached the Champions League semi-finals since 2009, but that target is now within their grasp after an evening that will go down as one of the most memorable in the club’s storied history.
Arteta had labelled the clash with Real as the “biggest night” of his career as he urged his players to write their own history by winning Arsenal’s first Champions League crown.
They rose to the challenge so successfully that even Arteta might have been surprised.
Arsenal trail Premier League leaders Liverpool by 11 points and look destined to finish as runners-up for a third successive season.
But the Champions League now offers Arteta genuine hope of a first major trophy since the 2020 FA Cup, providing they can finish the job in Madrid next week.
Beaten by Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals last season, Arsenal’s only Champions League final appearance ended in defeat against Barcelona in 2006 — a run that included a last 16 victory over Real.
For Real, it was a chastening defeat as the 15-time European champions were punished for the flaws that had already seen them beaten 10 times in all competitions this term as they lag four points behind La Liga leaders Barcelona.
Jude Bellingham was largely anonymous and Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior posed only sporadic threats after a promising start.
Vinicius Junior threatened in the opening stages, curling wide after Mbappe picked him out inside the Arsenal area.
Mbappe’s electric pace took him clear of the Arsenal defence in another lightning raid, but the France star shot straight at David Raya.
Arsenal showed no signs of being cowed by Real’s star-studded attack and Rice’s towering header from Jurrien Timber’s cross forced a fine save from Thibaut Courtois, who scrambed across to keep out Gabriel Martinelli’s effort from the rebound.
Mbappe lashed into the side-netting from an acute angle, but Real were unable to match Arsenal’s intensity in the second half and the Gunners deservedly took the lead in the 58th minute.
Rice stepped up 25 yards from goal and whipped a sublime free-kick around the Real wall and into the far corner.
It was a stunning strike that even former Real defender and set-piece maestro Roberto Carlos, watching from the Emirates stands, would have been proud of.
Arsenal almost struck again in a remarkable sequence that saw Courtois save Martinelli’s blast before Merino’s shot from the rebound was hacked off the line by David Alaba and Courtois again denied Merino.
Real were on the ropes and Rice landed another devastating blow in the 70th minute, lashing an unstoppable free-kick into the top corner from 20 yards as Courtois grasped at thin air.
As the ecstatic Arsenal fans roared “Declan Rice, we got him half praise”, that reference to his £105 million fee didn’t seem like hyperbole for once.
Arsenal weren’t finished yet and Merino put Arsenal in dreamland five minutes later with a clinical finish from 12 yards as the Emirates turned into a roiling red sea of celebration.
AFP
