Worries as Jonathan sacks IGP Abba six weeks to handover

Mikail Mumuni, Clement Nwoji

Solomon Aranse

 

Due for retirement on March 22, 2019  • We are studying what the law says –APC  • Nigerians demand explanation–Rights group

Concerns are being raised about yesterday’s sack of the Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abba, and his immediate replacement with Solomon Arese by President Goodluck Jonathan barely six weeks to the handing over of power to president -elect, General Muhammadu Buhari.

Abba, who is not due for retirement until March 22, 2019, was fired a day after he received in audience, the American Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr James Entwistle , who commended the police for a job well done during the 2015 elections.

Dr Reuben Abati, spokesperson to President Jonathan who announced the sack and replacement of Abba “with immediate effect,” did not give reasons for the actions taken by government, thus fuelling series of speculations and concerns.

Also, the National Publicity Secretary of All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said: “We are studying what the law says concerning hiring and firing of IGPs and the provisions of the Police Act. Not until we do that, we cannot comment on the issue yet.”

A university lecturer, Professor Lakin Akintola, in an interview with Newswatch Times, said the president needed to convince Nigerians that he meant well. According to Akintola, who is also Director, Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), “An outgoing president is not supposed to be making high profile appointment. He is supposed to be preparing his handing over notes. It is like digging holes for the incoming government. He has to give us explanation that he meant well for the incoming government and this country by that sack and appointment of a new IGP, whether acting or not.”

In a press statement he later issued on behalf of MURIC, Professor Akintola said: “Tongues have already started wagging. Is President Jonathan really getting ready to handover? If so, why is he in a hurry to appoint a new IG for the incoming regime? Why should an IG be sacked shortly after the ruling party lost a general election? Is it that he did not ‘play ball’ during the elections? Did he refuse to obey illegal commands? These questions are very vital because the opposition had alleged that the Nigerian government relied on using security agencies to thwart the will of the Nigerian people.”

The statement added: “MURIC, therefore, tasks Mr. President to reveal the offence or offences committed by Mr. Suleiman Abba. This matter must come to the public court of the Nigerian people who are the end-users and tax-payers. Mr. President must assure Nigerians that he is not just destroying peoples’ careers because he is on his way out.

“We appeal to the incoming administration to be on the tip-toes of watchfulness. The people’s mandate must be jealously guarded. Nigerians voted for change. Heads of state are known to change service chiefs to strengthen their positions. The question here is should President Jonathan be preparing his handover note or strengthening his position? This singular act appears to have been taken to consolidate incumbency. Nigerians must be on guard. It is not over until it is over. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

“The Buhari Transition Committee must declare clearly, unequivocally and unambiguously that no unnecessary eleventh hour appointment can be made otherwise such will be declared ultra vires and of no effect whatsoever. Outgoing state governors must avoid saddling incoming state administrations with emergency appointments. Such appointments are, ceteris paribus, made with sinister motives.”

Also commenting, another civil rights activist, Debo Adeniran, said the IGP may have been fired for “failure to carry out the bidding of Jonathan and People’s Democratic Party to rig the election.”

Adeniran, Executive Director of Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, told AFP that “the timing of (Abba’s) sacking, especially few weeks after the general election which Jonathan lost is food for thought. It is even more intriguing because Abba still has some 10 years to go before retirement.”

The Chairman of Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), Ibrahim Zikirullahi, said he was yet to understand what Abba has done to warrant his removal.

“For me, President Jonathan is still in charge up to the time he hands over to the president-elect. So, the question we should be asking is, ‘what has Abba done just few days after the general elections?’ We wouldn’t know if it is based on misconduct. So, until the picture becomes clear before we can say what and what,” he said.

On whether the appointment may tie down the hand of the incoming government, Zikirullahi stated that every appointment will depend on the incoming administration’s conviction whether to work with anyone or not.

“Well, the incoming administration will certainly have his own cabinet whether Jonathan sacks Abba or not. But either way, it is still hanging in the balance,” he added.

On her part, the Director of Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), Idayat Hassan, queried the basis upon which Abba’s sack was predicated.

She argued that the development was worrisome based on the fact that the US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr James Entwistle, even commended the sacked IG over the police conduct during the general elections a day before the sack.

“It is coming as a surprise and on what basis was his sack predicated? After all just yesterday (Monday), the US ambassador commended him and his men for a job well done during the elections. While the president has got the power to hire and fire or rather appoint and remove, this must be done with due process followed,” Hassan said.

The President of Children and Youth Awareness Development Foundation (CYAD Foundation), Mrs Temilola Odetola, was also not in support of the sack.

According to her, such a move was not a good signal for this nation.

“This is so because, for us, Mr Abba has done well in the 2015 general elections. He and his team were able to arrest those violent youth and it was as a result of the support of the stakeholders, especially the Nigeria Police, that we were able to succeed in the polls. INEC wouldn’t have performed without the stakeholders’ support. I think on a general note, the man should have been given a handshake, not a sack,” Odetola said.

IGP Abba was the 17th indigenous inspector general of police and hails from Gwaram Local Government Area of Jigawa State. He holds a degree in History and Law and has attended several management and security courses within and outside Nigeria. He is also an alumnus of the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Jos.

IGP Abba was known and respected for his vast experience in criminal investigation, intelligence-led policing and crime fighting operations which he put to bear immediately he assumed office as the nation’s police boss in August last year.

Until his appointment as the acting IGP yesterday, Mr. Arase was the head of Force Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Department. He holds bachelors and masters degrees in Law, Political science and Strategic Studies. He is also a fellow of the Nigerian Defence College.

The sack of the nation’s police boss seemed to have caught men and officers at the Force Headquarters unawares as they all wore thoughtful look on the sudden development. When Newswatch Times visited the Louis Edet House (Police Headquarters), Abuja, yesterday, both junior and senior police officers were seen going about their duties quietly tactically trying to avoid any discussion with newsmen. The Force image maker, CP Emmanuel Ojukwu, was said to be attending a meeting, but when he was contacted on phone and asked to comment on the removal of IGP Abba, he said” “I don’t have any comment on that.”

SOURCE: News Track.

Lagos has nothing to show for N23bn monthly IGR-CACOL

The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) has insisted that the Lagos State Government under the present administration has little or nothing to show for the huge amount of Internally Generated Revenue realized every month.
CACOL in a statement by Debo Adeniran, Executive Chairman, declared that its earlier position was necessitated by the declaration of the Lagos State Government that its average monthly IGR has soared from N20 billion in 2013 to N23 billion in the first quarter of 2015.
Adeniran noted that the Special Adviser, Taxation and Revenue, Mr. Bola Shodipo, and the Chairman, Lagos State Internal Revenue Service, Mr. Tunde Fowler, had during a ministerial press conference to mark the fourth year second term in office of Governor Babatunde Fashola in Alausa, Ikeja, noted that taxpayers increased from 3.8 million in 2013 to 4.5 million as of first quarter of 2015. Continue reading “Lagos has nothing to show for N23bn monthly IGR-CACOL”

Xenophobic Attack: CACOL Calls For Job Creation

 

4/17/2015

 

The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) calls on the Nigerian government to address the problem of unemployment in order to stem the tide of migrant workers streaming out of the country.

This call is necessitated by the recent xenophobic attacks on some African nationals living in South Africa.

At least, five people have been killed in the country in recent days as some South Africans who accused immigrants from Nigeria, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and other African countries of taking jobs and opportunities away from them, and began attacking their homes and places of business. Many of these attacks have reached worldwide attention with graphic videos being shared on social media of victims being stoned and burnt alive. The violence has forced foreigners, including Nigerians, out of their homes with many ending up in transit camps set up by nonprofit groups. Continue reading “”

‘Fashola hasn’t improved Lagosians’ lives’

   

Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola

The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders has criticised the Governor Babatunde Fashola’s administration in Lagos State for failing to improve the lives of residents in spite of the huge amount of money generated monthly by the government.

The Special Adviser, Taxation and Revenue, Mr. Bola Shodipo; and the Chairman, Lagos State Internal Revenue Service, Mr. Tunde Fowler, during a ministerial press conference to mark the fourth year of Fashola’s second term in office in Alausa, Ikeja, on Wednesday had noted that taxpayers increased from 3.8 million in 2013 to 4.5 million as of the first quarter of 2015.

At the press briefing, it was announced that the government’s internally generated revenue had increased from N20bn in 2013 to N23bn in the first quarter of 2015.

In a statement on Thursday by the Executive Chairman of CACOL, Mr. Debo Adeniran, the anti-corruption group maintained that the state government under Fashola had “little or nothing to show for the huge amount of internally generated revenue realised every month.”

The statement read in part, “The reiteration of our earlier position is necessitated by the declaration by the Lagos State Government that its average monthly Internally Generated Revenue had soared from N20bn in 2013 to N23bn in the first quarter of this year. As a responsible Coalition, we do not object to people paying taxes but a case of multiple taxations, as it is evident in the case of Lagosians, is highly reprehensible.

“More so, it is no news that many of Lagos State government’s projects are elitist in nature. Some of the projects are sited where users have other options whereas the areas where the mass of Lagosians reside are groaning under the burden of infrastructural development. A ready example is the Lekki-Ikoyi cable bridge, which was constructed for about N29bn whereas areas like Ayobo-Ipaja, Aboru and Agboyi-Ketu, etc are still making do with make-shift bridges.”

Adeniran noted that Aboru dwellers, for instance, were usually cut off from other parts of the metropolis whenever it rained because of the poor access roads.

SOURCE: The Punch

 

Chibok girls: One year gone

By Chukwudi Nweje  –  Acting Features Editor

 

Today, April 14 makes it 365 days, exactly one year the Chibok community of Borno State, North East Nigeria was thrown into confusion. More than 200 secondary school girls had gone to the Government Secondary School in the town to write their final examination high with hope that they are preparing themselves for the future, a future in which they will be useful members of the society. But rather than write the examination which would have catapulted them to greater heights, they were abducted by the Boko Horam militants.  365 days after mum remains the word on the fate of the girls.

Abducted schoolgirls, chibok

To make matters worse, the news of their abduction became an issue. Some people believed it while other doubted. Believers demanded their return, while those in doubt demanded proof of their abduction. It was not until Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, a former minister of Education launched the #BringBackOurGirls campaigners that mobilised Nigerians and drew international attention, support and commitment towards finding the girls that the Federal Government sprung into action. Continue reading “Chibok girls: One year gone”

Oba Akiolu’s threat and fury of Ndigbo

By Akinwunmi King Snr Reporter, Lagos

Until recently, many Lagosians did not know that the Oba of Lagos, Riliwan Akiolu, could be very passionate and at the same controversial when it comes to issues that have to do with the state, whether politics, governance or otherwise.

Akiolu  and OhazulikeHis recent threat to the Igbo in Lagos, in which he insisted that they (Igbo) will die in the Lagos Lagoon if they refused to vote for Akinwunmi Amobode, the All Progressives Congress (APC)  candidate for Lagos in the governorship election, scheduled to holding today came to many as a rude shock.

Many may have forgotten, before Ambode emerged as the APC governorship candidate, this same paramount ruler referred to one of the aspirants as an outcast that can never become a governor in the state.

Akiolu who bragged that he can’t beg the Igbos to vote for Ambode, whom he claimed to have picked, said “on Saturday, if any one of you goes against Ambode who I picked, that is your end. If it doesn’t happen within seven days, just know that I am a bastard and it is not my father who gave birth to me.

“By the grace of God, I am the owner of Lagos for the time being. This is an undivided chair. The palace belongs to the dead and those coming in the future. On Saturday, if anyone of you, I swear in the name of Almighty Allah, goes against my wish that Ambode will be the next governor of Lagos state, the person is going to die inside this water.

“For the Igbos and others in Lagos, they should go where the Oba of Lagos heads to. When they were coming to the state, they didn’t come with all their houses. But now they have properties in the state. So they must do my bidding. And that is the bidding of the ancestors of Lagos and God. I am not ready to beg you.

“Nobody knew how I picked Ambode. Jimi is my blood relation and I told him that he can never be governor in Lagos for now. The future belongs to God. I am not begging anybody, but what you people cannot do in Onitsha, Aba or anywhere you cannot do it here,” he said.

The Oba came under a very heavy attack after this comment as groups, individuals, even politicians criticised him for issuing such threat. Reacting, Aka Ikenga, an Igbo think-tank group, urged residents of the state to vote for the candidate of their choice without fear or intimidation.

The group in a statement by its President, Chief Goddy Uwazurike, expressed shock at the Oba’s statement, insisting that they will perform their civic responsibility without fear ot favour.

Also, Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, through its Catholic Caritas Foundation of Nigeria (CFFN), reminded Akiolu that Nigeria remains a republic, not a monarchy, insisting that the statement be withdrawn.

Secretary of CCFN, Rev. Fr. Evaristus Bassey, in a statement issued in Abuja, said Akiolu’s comment amounted to threat and intimidation. “At the national offices of Caritas Nigeria and Justice Development and Peace Commission, we are totally shocked to read about the threat handed down by Oba Akiolu to the Igbos in Lagos.

“While it is understandable that a royal father would want his wishes carried out, we are deeply concerned that the royal father is missing the point that Nigeria is a republic and a democracy and not a monarchy,” CCFN said.

Also commenting, Ohanaeze Youth Council (OYC), the youth wing of Oha na Eze Ndigbo, the apex socio-cultural organisation of Ndigbo, gave Akiolu, 48 hours to retract and unconditionally apologise to Ndigbo.

The group reminded him that democracy conferred on the electorate, the freedom of choice and right to dissent, describing Oba Akiolu’s statement as “a despicable insult on the Igbo nation, home and abroad, least expected of a royal father in the rank of Oba of Lagos.”

However, the APC had last Tuesday distanced itself from the Oba’s statement, saying that the monarch is not an APC member and cannot speak on behalf of the party.

National Leader of the APC,  Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, explained that he was the first Yoruba governor to ever appoint an Igbo commissioner, alleging that the Peoples Democratic Party, having lost the presidential elections were desperately trying to pull the APC into the Akiolu controversy.

He said the Coordinator of the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria, Ifeanyi Ubah, and the PDP leader, Bode George, were only making baseless accusations against the ruling party in Lagos.

According to the former Lagos governor, “the Oba is not a politician. His job is to accommodate all political parties, whether PDP, APC or SDP. So, what did he (Ubah) go and do at the palace?

“To you Igbos, don’t we pay your children’s school fees like others? Or is it the palace that pays for it? When we conducted an exam and a spelling competition, an Igbo boy, Ebuka, from Anambra, came first and he became the governor for one day.

“Those that won the competition three times in a row were Igbo. Ebuka was sent to Switzerland computer school and then Obafemi Awolowo University. We did not say he was an Igbo boy and he would not enjoy. He became an executive in Oando and he is now in Canada.

“Another boy, Felix, won and went to Switzerland and OAU. We paid his scholarship; we did not deny him because he is Igbo,” Tinubu said. Chief Lateef Aderibigbe Ajose, Opeluwa of Lagos had also said that the Oba was speaking in proverbially and not literally.

Though, some Igbo groups have come out to still pledge their support to Ambode, observers believe that the comment is enough to jeopardize the chances of the APC governorship candidate on Saturday.

But despite the rebuttals political leaders in Lagos Island condemned the remarks credited to the Oba. The former Lagos Island Local Government Area Chairman, Mr. Lukman Ajose and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, Chief Babatunde Olorogun Etti both urged the monarch to stop using his power, position and influence to deepen the crisis in the state.

They urged that instead of teaching non-indigenes to hate, we must socialize with them so that they learn cooperation and peacefulness. They expressed the view that the Oba should stop politicking, arguing that “if he is interested in politics, he should remove our crown, keep it safely and join a political party of his choice.”

Ajose and Etti who spoke at a stakeholders meeting in Lagos Island said the action of the monarch raises concerns over rights and freedoms of non-Yoruba in Lagos State, as they accused the monarch of overstepping the mark and acting as a policeman, urging him to promote peaceful behavior.

“This is not a village where the head can tell his subjects to vote a particular candidate or political party. The people are determined to end Bola Tinubu’s reign in Lagos State. PDP has a bright chance. Even many All Progressives Congress (APC) members want Jimi Agbaje to be governor of the state.

Debo Adeniran, Executive Chairman Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) said that “If the statement credited to the Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu, is true, then it is very unfortunate. Threatening people all in the name of campaigning for a candidate or a political party is the highly reprehensible.

“All the necessary security agencies should sweep into action, investigate this threat by the Oba and prosecute him for encouraging violence, if found culpable.”

 SOURCE: Daily Independent.

Congratulations, Nigeria

 

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By Chukwudi Nweje

Acting Features Editor

A new Nigeria has been born, and a jinx broken. It had been taken for granted in Nigeria that every sitting president would win re-election.  Former President Shehu Shagari won re-election in 1983 before the military truncated his second term. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo also won re-election in 2007 after serving the first term from 1999 to 2003. For the first time in the history of electioneering in Nigeria, a sitting President has lost his re-election bid.  He has also gone ahead to congratulate his main challenger, something that has not happened before. The norm has been for the candidate that lost to reject the election result. But President Goodluck Jonathan, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2015 presidential election, has accepted defeat and congratulated Major General Muhammadu Buhari, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Continue reading “Congratulations, Nigeria”

Group task Tinubu to come clean on ABC saga

on   /   in News 3:26 pm   /   Comments

Following the injunction obtained by leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu restrainning media houses from broadcasting a documentary titled Lion of Bourdilion that was aired by African Independent Television (AIT), the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) has called on Sen. Tinubu to address Lagosians on the lingering issue of his relation with the consultancy firm.

The convener of the group, Comrade Debo Adeniran, further called on Lagosians not to vote any candidate that refuses to address the 15% deduction of Lagosians annual revenue, ‘we are equally flabbergasted at Sen. Bola Tinubu’s unwarranted silence on Alpha Beta issue.

We are also surprised that the APC leader went to court, to obtain an injunction, stopping the airing of the documentary about him on African Independent Television (AIT) and other media houses. He sought protection under the law that gives him respite that can sustain him for a very long time.’

He continued: ‘Beyond getting an injunction to stop the airing of his alleged misdemeanor, as an elder statesman, Sen. Tinubu is expected to come out in the open to defend the allegations if they are true or false’, CACOL stated.

The group further called on the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) to make public their findings on the allegations on the True Face of Lagos as contained in its petitions.

SOURCE: Vanguard

Akiolu’s unguided Utterances

By Chukwudi Nweje / Acting Features Editor

The Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu’s alleged threat to make life miserable for people of Igbo extraction if the governorship candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode is not elected as the next governor of the state is condemnable and tactically calling for and endorsing post election violence should the outcome of the governorship polls not go the way of the APC. Oba Akiolu is reported to have summoned all the Eze-Ndigbo in Lagos State to his palace on Sunday April 5 where he literarily threatened to drown any Igbo that voted against Ambode in the lagoon.
He warned: “On Saturday (April 11 governorship election), if any one of you goes against Ambode who I picked, that is your end. If it doesn’t happen within seven days, just know that I am a bastard and it is not my father who gave birth to me. By the grace of God, I am the owner of Lagos for the time being. This is an undivided chair. The palace belongs to the dead and those coming in the future. On Saturday, if anyone of you, I swear in the name of God, goes against my wish that Ambode will be the next governor of Lagos state, the person is going to die inside this water. Continue reading “Akiolu’s unguided Utterances”

CACOL commends Jonathan for conceding defeat

The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) has congratulated President-elect, Major General Muhammadu Buhari, and also commended President Goodluck Jonathan, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate for his spirit of sportsmanship. The group, in a statement by its chairman, Comrade Debo Adeniran, commended President Jonathan for calling his All Progressives Congress (APC) counterpart, on phone to congratulate him on his victory at the polls.

“This spirit of sportsmanship as displayed by the incumbent president is highly commendable and worthy of emulation.

“We also want to congratulate President Jonathan for successfully conducting, though a keenly contested, but free, fair and credible election in the annals of Nigerian history. “CACOL is hereby calling on whosoever may be planning to benefit from post-election crisis to sheath their sword and give peace a chance.”

SOURCE: New Telegraph