Don’t use army to protect anyone’s tenure, Oshiomhole warns

L-R: Brig-Gen O Laleye, Commander 4 Brigade Benin; Maj-Gen Sanusi Nasir Muazu, General Officer Commanding 2 Division, Nigerian Army and Governor Adams Oshiomhole

Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo state has charged officers and men of the Nigerian Army to remain loyal to the nation rather than be reduced to defending the tenure of an individual‎.

The governor who spoke while receiving the General Officer Commanding 2 Division of the Nigerian Army,Ibadan, Major General Sanusi Muazu, said presidents will come and go, governors will come and go, but the Nigerian nation will remain.
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He added that no political office holder should get so desperate and try to use the military to boost personal ambition. “The reason why this has become an issue is because of the nature of our politics and the way political actors have put their personal interest over and above the national interest. Presidents would come and go, governors would come and go, whether they are good or bad. Even the Armed Forces commander would come and go but the institution of the Nigeria Armed Forces would remain. Once we can distinguish between the person and the office, the institutions and the player, we may not have crisis.

“I believe that the forthcoming election with all the tension that people are raising, with all the speculation that Nigeria would have crisis, to me I have seen all these before and the God that created this country would ensure that after all the fog, the weather would be clear. Nigeria would stay.”

Oshiomhole who noted that it is the peace and security of a part that determine the character of peace and security of the whole, charged that the Armed Forces see themselves as the Nigeria Armed Forces and not the Armed Forces of the Commander in Chief, or of the Governor, adding that, the Commander in Chief is to be elected by very ordinary people.

“The right of the people to vote for who will be president is a right that must be defended and upheld. Once the process is clean, the outcome does not matter. In a democracy, the people deserve the kind of president they want. He is a product of election and not imposition.

“So I ask you to do everything you can to keep that confidence that the army understands that their mandate is to defend the territorial integrity of the Nigerian nation and not the security of tenure of any political office holder regardless of the level.

The governor while saying that he believes the country must be held together by all means, said, “sometimes when I listen to statements made by other countries especially, those that Nigerian rescued in the past, I begin to wonder that those Nigeria tutored on the art of democracy have now become our tutors.

“We will do our best to continue with the armed forces as an integral part of this state and we trust that you will ensure that the vote counts and that no selfish officer allows himself to be used to intimidate electoral officers. Nobody understands the need for peace and security more than the Nigerian Army.”

In his remark, Major General Muazu, commended the governor for his developmental strides and his support to the officers and men of the Nigerian Army in the state, assuring him, that the Division will discharge its constitutional responsibilities.

“I decided to visit Edo first among the eight states under my control because it is important to the Nigerian Army and the 2 Division and I promise to consolidate on the peace and security prevailing in the state. I know Edo state very well and I know what you have achieved here since you became Governor.

“I want to assure you that the Division will discharge on its constitutional responsibility. I want to thank you for your support to the army and that which the 4 Brigade is enjoying from the state government. I want to assure you that the Division will continue to provide security in the state,”‎ he said.

The GOC was accompanied on the visit by very senior officers in the Division including the Commander, 4 Brigade, Benin, Brig.-General O Laleye.

Fresh Bomb Attack In Potiskum, Many Feared Dead

A bomb has exploded at a market in Potiskum, Yobe State, with many people feared dead, the News Agency of Nigeria has reported.

The blast occurred on Sunday at the GSM market in the city.

Some survivors suspected that a female suicide bomber detonated the explosive, killing herself and others at the busy market.

Toyin Gbadegesin, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, confirmed the attack to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

"Yes, there was a bomb attack at the Potiskum GSM market and our men have moved to the scene for rescue operation and to get details of the incident," he said. "As at this moment, we do not have the details of deaths and injuries. Our men are still collating the details."

Other survivors said the bomb exploded after an argument between the suspected bomber and local security men at the market.

The blast was the second on the market this year, with the first killing seven people and injuring many others.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet, although jihadist group, Boko Haram, is suspected.

Yobe State has suffered several attacks from the terror group, with multiple bomb and gun attacks targeting the military and civilians.

Yobe lies next to Borno State, which is at the centre of a six-year long Boko Haram insurgency.

John Cardinal Urges Politicians To Stop Hate Speeches

John Cardinal Onaiyekan of the Catholic Church

John Cardinal Onaiyekan, has appealed to politicians to desist from hate speeches and comments capable of inciting citizens as they go about their campaigns, ahead of the general elections, slated for March 28 and April 11.

Onaiyekan, who is also the archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja, spoke on Sunday in Abuja.

Onaiyekan in his homily at the mass to commence the first week-long plenary meeting of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), stressed that politicians should not forget the objective of governance.

“Politics is very much in the air, it is a noble and sacred task meant to serve the common good of the family that is the nation.

“The hot competition between political parties should not make them forget the common objective of justice, peace, prosperity, harmony, good governance and building a nation that we can all be proud of.

“There should, therefore, not be room for negative campaigns. Insolent insults and caricatures should give way to rational discussion of issues that will serve all of us.

“Truth must be sacrosanct even in politics; lies, deceit, calumnies cannot move us forward, they are all hallmarks of the bad politics that is a bane to development,” he said.

The cleric commended all the political parties for accepting the shift in the dates of the polls which he said must have disrupted their plans and budgets.

He urged them to use the extra time to change tactics, build relationships and trusts among parties.

He urged Nigerians to take President Goodluck Jonathan by his words that the elections would now hold on March 28 and April 11 respectively and that May 29, Democracy Day, remained sacrosanct

He assured President Jonathan who was present at the mass, that the church had been praying for the nation and will continue to pray for the nation.

Onaiyekan speaking on the theme of the conference, “A good family makes a good nation,” urged Nigerians to uphold the unity and sacredness of the family for a truly united country.

The cardinal said that the importance of the family in nation building could not be over emphasized, adding that, that was why, Pope Francis had since 2014, been calling on all Christians to pray for the family.

He advised families to always uphold the sanctity of marriage and that of the family for them to be able to uphold the sanctity of the nation.

The cardinal urged the citizens not to be swayed by modern ideas, which he said, were coined to erode the moral structures of our families and the nation. “We thank God that our traditional values on this matter have not yet been totally overrun by crazy ideas posing as modern and progressive.

“A perfect example is the moral madness of same sex marriage which we thank the National Assembly for rejecting.

“This should be a matter of national concern since the family is the basic sphere of every society; the bishops need to do more to promote family life, especially for the youth.

“Those who neglect their families because of business or politics will regret their short-sighted priorities.

“The growing rate of marriage breakdowns and a lot of dysfunctional homes especially among our elite should be a matter of grave concern.

“We should ask ourselves how people who cannot manage their homes can pretend to rule our nation; a good family makes a good nation.

Election Postponement, A Blessing In Disguise, Says David Mark

Senate President, David Mark

Senate President David Mark, says the postponement of the general election has provided millions of eligible voters an opportunity to collect their permanent voter cards.

Mark, who made the remark at the opening of the plenary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria in Abuja, said the postponement had turned out to be “a blessing in disguise”.

According to him, if the elections had held on Feb. 14, many Nigerians would have been unable to vote.

“I want to be re-elected back but I do not want to go through the back door, I want to be re-elected with many Nigerians accepting that this is their choice.

“Whatever we can do to enable few more Nigerians to vote on their appointed days, I think it is proper that they do it,” he said.

Mark also restated that there was no place for an interim government in the Nigerian Constitution, saying that it was “absolutely alien to the current constitution”.

“We will not allow that,” he said.

In his remarks, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, the President of the Christian Association (CAN), said that the theme of the conference challenged every Nigerian to nurture their family.

NAN reports that the theme is titled “Good Families Make Good Nations.”

Oritsejafor appealed to government to continue to work hard to create employment opportunities for young Nigerians.

He also appealed to church leaders to ensure that their followers imbibe sound moral values needed to raise responsible families.

“We must along with other stakeholders continue to assist in creating an enabling environment for families to grow and mature, respect constituted authority, be honest and love one another.

“I am pleading for cooperation, unity and brotherhood; efforts must be made to denounce worldliness, to build families that imbibe godly and enduring values,” he said.

Oristejafor advised that in spite of diverse doctrines and other means of expressing faith, Nigerians should remain united.

Also, the Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh, appealed to the Anglican Roman Catholic Commission (ARCC), to give a definite agenda to the commission.

Most Rev. Ignatius Kaigama, Archbishop of Jos, and President, CBCN, said that the Church had used different associations to enlighten its members to shun acts of violence.

Kaigama said that the Church had gone beyond political or religious difference in promoting the common good of the nation.

Emir Of Mubi Called Displaced Persons Back Home

The Emir of Mubi, Alhaji Abubakar Isa-Ahmadu, has called on persons displaced from his domain by Boko Haram insurgents to return home.
The call was contained in a statement issued on Sunday in Abuja by Mr Sani Datti, Senior Information Officer, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
The statement quoted the Emir as saying this when he received a Federal Government delegation led by the Minister of Youths Development, Mr Boni Haruna, in his palace.
The delegation also included officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
The Emir called on the resident of the community to give the necessary cooperation to NEMA personnel in their efforts to assess the level of damage caused by the insurgents in Mubi.

Alhaji Abubakar Isa-Ahmadu, Emir of Mubi

Isa-Ahmadu called on the people of Mubi to be vigilant, law abiding and assist the federal government toward maintaining peace and security in the area.
The Emir thanked President Goodluck Jonathan for his concern towards the condition of the displaced persons.
Haruna had told the Emir that the delegation was in Mubi to assess the level of peace and security in the area.
“The commander of the Battalion based in Mubi has assured that soldiers have cleared the town and made it safe for law-abiding citizens to return home,’’ the minister said.
Also, Mr Musa Zakari, leader of the NEMA team, said they would conduct thorough assessment of the level of damage in the town and recommend to government on appropriate support to victims.

Card Reader Will Reduce Voting Time – APC

James Abiodun Faleke

APC said on Saturday that if the electronic card reader was properly used during the upcoming elections, it would reduce voting time.

Mr James Faleke, a member of the House of Representatives and Lagos Coordinator of the Buhari /Osinbajo Presidential Campaign Organisation, made the statement at news conference in Lagos.

Faleke said the APC was not afraid of the card reader, describing it as a facility that would eliminate rigging, proxy and multiple-voting.

He advised voters not to give out the number of their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) in exchange for money.

“Nigerians, please stop selling your future and don’t give out the number on your PVCs to anybody.”

The APC stalwart also stressed that the party was against the call for the use of Temporary Voter Cards (TVCs) to vote.

He said that the migration from TVCs to PVCs had detected double registration of more than four million people.

“Those insisting on the use of TVCs have something up their sleeves; we say no to the use of TVCs.

“After all, the PVCs were used in the governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun States,” he said.

Faleke appealed to Nigerians who had not collected their PVCs to get it from their respective wards.

“The voter card is the people’s power that is stronger than the federal might.”

He also appealed to the military not to involve itself in partisan politics but to focus on protection of Nigeria’s territorial integrity.

The campaign coordinator said the armed forces should restrict their involvement to ensuring the safety of Nigerians from external aggression and invasion.

Nigerian Troops Recapture Baga

Nigerian soldiers on patrol in a northern town

Nigeria’s military on Saturday claimed to have recaptured the town of Baga from Boko Haram, more than a month after it was overrun in what is feared to be the worst massacre of its six-year insurgency.
Defence spokesman Chris Olukolade claimed that “a large number of terrorists” drowned in Lake Chad as they tried to flee bombardment from air force jets.
The town, a fishing hub on the shore of Lake Chad in the far north of Borno state, northeast Nigeria, was recaptured on Saturday morning after the assault began the previous day, he added.
There was no independent corroboration of the claim, as thousands of Baga residents had fled the town after Boko Haram attacked on January 3 and hundreds, if not more, were killed in the following days.
Much of the town and 12 surrounding settlements were burnt to the ground.
Boko Haram’s capture of Baga — and a military base used by a multi-national force in nearby Doron Baga — was seen as a strategic coup for the group, giving them control of Borno’s entire border area.
It raised fears of attacks in neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, whose frontiers converge with Nigeria’s on Lake Chad, but also a possible push south to the state capital, Maiduguri.
– Niger attack –
Nigeria’s military this week announced the recapture of Monguno, a garrison town 65 kilometres (40 miles) from Baga, after ground and air strikes, and a push northeast was expected.
Troops from Nigeria have been joined by soldiers from Niger, Chad and Cameroon in recent weeks as a result of fears about the group’s threat to regional security.
Olukolade said troops had to clear landmines before they were able to storm the town.
“Many of the terrorists died while an unknown but substantial number of them fled with various degrees of injury in the series of encounters along the routes of advance as troops headed for Baga,” he added.
As in Monguno, the military said it seized and destroyed the insurgents’ arsenal, including five anti-aircraft guns and rifles, as well as 34 motorcycles and five vehicles.
A cordon had been thrown around the town and 12 other locations nearby to allow soldiers to track down arms and ammunition as well as catch militants in the vicinity, he added.
Nigeria’s apparent success in Baga came after Boko Haram attacked the village of Karouga near Lake Chad in southeastern Niger on Friday night, killing seven soldiers and losing 14 of its own fighters.
A Chadian security source said Boko Haram members later tried to cross into Chad across the lake but aircraft destroyed their five boats.
More than 13,000 people have been killed and over one million people left homeless since 2009, as the rebels try to carve out an Islamic state in northeastern Nigeria.
Since the attack on Baga, they launched their first raids on Niger and Chad to the north and also intensified assaults on the far northern region of Cameroon to the east.
– French support –
Presidential and parliamentary elections in Nigeria scheduled for February 14 were delayed by six weeks to March 28 because of the multi-national operation against Boko Haram.
Many, though, have viewed as unrealistic the deadline to secure and stabilise the northeast by polling day, to allow those displaced by the violence to return to vote.
Residents of Gamboru, on the border with Cameroon, on Friday returned to their homes for the first time since Chadian troops recaptured it.
“We met a ghost town strewn with burnt vehicles, destroyed buildings and emptied homes,” Kachalla Moduye told AFP by telephone from Fotokol after a two-hour tour of the town.
In a sign of the growing international interest in the conflict, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius began a tour of west African countries involved in the fighting.
In Chad’s capital, N’Djamena, he met President Idriss Deby and praised the country’s contribution but said France did not envision any direct intervention in its former colonies.
Instead, France, which has a military base in N’Djamena, can provide tactical support and “coordination among the countries” as well as intelligence information.

UN ‘ urges ’ Nigeria Not To Postpone Elections Again

UN ‘strongly urges’ Nigeria not to postpone elections again  

United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon strongly urged Nigeria on Friday to avoid another delay in holding elections and expressed concern over election-related violence.
Nigeria pushed back the presidential and legislative polls from February 14 to March 28 because of security fears as the army battles Boko Haram. Regional and parliamentary elections were moved to April 11.
Ban called on Nigeria’s government and the elections commission “to ensure these new dates are maintained,” his spokesman said.
The UN chief urged political leaders to “refrain from inflammatory statements and to immediately condemn any statements from their supporters that amount to an incitement to violence or subversion of the electoral process.”
Ban has sent his special envoy, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, to Abuja for talks on the upcoming elections and efforts to fight Boko Haram.
Led by Chad, countries in the region are putting together an 8,700-strong force to battle the insurgents, but Nigeria has been criticized for its weak response to the violence.
Chambas last week said Nigeria’s military needed to “demonstrate greater resolve” in the fight against Boko Haram.

demolition of burnt Balogun Market

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Lagos begins demolition of burnt Balogun Market

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State

The Lagos State Government on Friday began the demolition of the three buildings gutted by fire on Jan. 12 at the popular Balogun Market in Central Lagos.

NAN reports that the demolition was being carried out by a firm, Blackrock Construction Company.

Fire gutted the buildings housing about 100 shops and destroyed goods worth millions of naira.

Officials of the company who spoke to NAN on condition of anonymity said that it was the government that gave directive for the buildings to be demolished.

The head of the demolition team who did not state how many days the demolition would take, said that the work would take some time to finish.

Mrs Uju Agunna, a trader who sold clothes in one of the shops gutted, told NAN that she would rent the same place anytime the shops were rebuilt.

“I will like to go back to my shop. I have been in this Balogun for over 15 years so it is difficult for me to go and rent somewhere else.

“We hope that when the demolition exercise is completed the owners can start building. But now I am sharing a shop with my friend as you can see,” Agunna said.

She, however, said that she had to begin retail trading to find her feet again because she lost up to five million naira worth of goods to the fire.

Another victim, Mr Aliu Gbadamosi, said that since his two shops got burnt, he was yet to rent a place to display his wares.

“I have goods worth over N25 million but they are still in a warehouse. I have not been able to sell them since the incident happened in January.

“I borrowed money to import the goods and now it will be difficult for me to pay as at when due.

 

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