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Why I’m fighting Governor Fubara-Wike

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Nyesom Wike, former governor of Rivers State, on Wednesday, threw more light into the reasons for his fight with his successor and former ally, Siminalayi Fubara.

Wike, the current minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), after a meeting with some Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors in Abuja, accused Mr Fubara of hobnobbing with his political enemies.

“You cannot work, and people will begin to bring enemies; those who fought you when you were struggling for the person to be in office. Nobody does that,” Wike said.

The former governor, who denied that he was seeking financial gratification from his successor, suggested that Fubara was trying to take control of the PDP structure in Rivers.

“I am not a political ingrate but don’t touch the political structure of the state. I will not shut my eyes,” Mr Wike said.

This is the second time in less than 24 hours that Wike has publicly commented on the political crisis in Rivers.

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The crisis between Wike and Fubara worsened this week when the Rivers State House of Assembly attempted to commence impeachment proceedings against Mr Fubara.

Most of the state lawmakers are loyal to Mr Wike who helped install Mr Fubara before both men went their ways.

The state lawmakers, as part of their moves against Mr Fubara, had suspended the House Leader Edison Ehie and other three lawmakers – Victor Okoh (Bonny Constituency), Goodboy Sokari (Ahoada West Constituency) and Adulphus Timothy (Opobo/Nkoro Constituency) – said to be the governor’s loyalist.

A part of the Rivers House of Assembly Complex was destroyed by an explosion on Sunday, a day before the impeachment attempt.

On Monday, some police operatives fired teargas and water cannons at Mr Fubara as the governor, accompanied by security aides and some youths, apparently his political supporters, was walking towards the assembly complex to assess the extent of damage from the explosion.

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The police said on Wednesday that Governor Fubara was in the midst of “aggressive” people who were marching towards the Rivers House of Assembly Complex and that the operatives deployed “non-lethal crowd control equipment including tear gas and water cannon to disperse the riotous and uncontrollable protesters”.

“The presence of the Governor at the scene was of great surprise and shock as there was no prior communication to the Police on the visit of the Governor to the scene of the crime which ordinarily is the usual protocol and complimentary that we accompany his guard for proper safety considering the intelligence of security threat at hand then,” the police spokesperson in Rivers, Grace Iringe-Koko, said in a statement on behalf of the Commissioner of Police in the state, Polycarp Emeka.

In his earlier comment, Mr Wike had said that the Rivers crisis was a PDP affair and that the party was looking into it.

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Governor Fubara, on Wednesday, also attempted to play down the crisis and the rift between him and his predecessor, when he said the crisis was merely a problem between “father and son”.

“There is nothing wrong if a father and a son have a problem if there is any problem, but I don’t think there is anything; whatever it is, we will definitely resolve the issue,” Mr Fubara told a visiting military delegation led by the Chief of Defence Staff, Christopher Musa, at the Government House in Port Harcourt.

Before now, President Bola Tinubu, on Tuesday, had mediated the crisis during the meeting of the National Police Council at the presidential villa which was attended by Fubara and Wike.

 

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BREAKING: Ladoja withdraws suit against Olubadan-in-Council

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The Otun Olubadan of Ibadanland, High Chief Rasidi Ladoja, on Tuesday, finally withdrew the suit filed against members of Olubadan-in-Council.

 

High Chief Ladoja instituted a suit against the members of the Council over the beaded crown worn before the demise of the late 42nd Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Lekan Balogun.

 

The coast is now clear for the enthronement of the Olubadan-designate, Oba Owolabi Olakulehin, as the 43rd Olubadan of Ibadanland.

More to follow…

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State Police: Your Position unacceptable, Lagos Assembly slams IGP Egbetokun

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The Lagos State House of Assembly has kicked against the position of the Inspector-General of Police, IGP, Olukayode Egbetokun, that Nigeria is not ripe for the establishment of state police.

Speaker of the House, Mudashiru Obasa, directed the Clerk of the House, Olalekan Onafeko, to write the Inspector-General and the National Assembly stating that the state lawmakers reject Egbetokun’s position.

 

Recall that the IGP, represented at a recently held one-day dialogue on state policing, themed, ‘Pathways to Peace: Reimagining Policing in Nigeria,’ opposed the establishment of state police, arguing that it would increase ethnic tension and cause divided loyalty in states of the federation.

 

The IGP also suggested that the Federal Road Safety Corps and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps be merged with the police force.

However, speaking at plenary on Monday, Obasa, who noted that the FRSC and the NSCDC have not been able to solve the problems of accidents on roads and pipeline vandalism respectively, wondered how effective they would be if they are merged with the police force.

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“In Lagos State, we have the Security Trust Fund through which successive administrations starting from that of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu have provided enormous support to the police command in Lagos State. Yet, crime of different dimensions has continued.

“This shows that no matter what Egbetokun has proffered as solution, such won’t solve our problem. The position of the IGP is unacceptable.

 

“We strongly believe that if we have state police, we would be able to solve the issues of crime in our nation or reduce it to the minimum.

“As we have seen in other climes, the United Kingdom has different levels of policing just like the United States of America. So why should ours be different?

 

“The lives of our people are very important and we must do everything possible to make sure we protect lives and property. We want to state categorically that we believe in state police and we want to urge the National Assembly to continue with its intendment to establish state police through the process of constitutional amendment,” Obasa said while praising President Tinubu for his resolve to end insecurity in the country.

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Commending the Speaker for his stand on the issue of state police, the lawmaker representing Badagry Constituency 1, argued that with its current structure, it would be difficult for the Nigeria Police Force to effectively secure the country.

Also declaring his support for state police, another lawmaker, Hon. Sa’ad Olumoh (Ajeromi/Ifelodun 1), said each Nigerian state currently has a local security outfit in the semblance of state police.

 

“Today, which state does not have state police one way or the other? This is a cause that should be supported. For the IG to come out and say state police is not in the interest of Nigeria shows he is not considering the reality of insecurity on Nigerians,” he said.

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2024 UTME: JAMB releases more results

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The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has released an additional 531 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination results.

JAMB said the newly results were the 64,000 earlier withheld because the candidates were suspected to have committed infractions

The board disclosed this in a statement, by its spokesman, Fabian Benjamin.

 

The said: “As promised, the Board is proceeding with the screening of over 64,000 withheld results. It has, however, released additional 531 results taking the total number of results released to 1,842,897. In the course of the exercise, other cases of examination misconduct were also established to make a tally of 92 from the 81 initially discovered.

 

“The Board is also looking at cases of unverified candidates and would soon come up with a position.

“Similarly, the attention of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board(JAMB) has been drawn to some fallacious publications purporting that an unknown candidate, who did not sit the Board’s 2024 UTME, obtained scores.

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“This is fake, malicious and a calculated attempt to undermine the integrity of the Board. The public is urged to disregard such irresponsible publications.

 

“To underscore the fact that the publication is crafted by mischief makers to paint the Board in bad light, the publication, which levels such a grievous allegation, has no details of the candidate for proper verification.

“The Board is not surprised as this is the season of mischief makers, who would want to deceive gullible candidates. The examination template of the Board is designed with the highest sense of responsibility and is not an allocation platform where scores are doled out to candidates.

 

“It is most unfortunate that anybody could even believe such narration or that the story could even gain traction given the Board’s integrity.

“This again has gone to further vindicate the Board’s stance that candidates should desist from disclosing their classified details to third-parties.

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“In investigating some of these allegations, the Board discovered that some of these mischief makers copy results sent to other candidates, edit the details sent to themselves and then parade this as emanating from the Board.

“The Board challenges any candidate, parent or anybody with such a claim or information to prove it wrong by coming forward with the details of such claims and the phone number with which such results were conveyed.

 

“The attitude of these mischief makers would only propel the Board to further tighten the process of checking its results to make it more personalized and sure would be stringent when it should actually be a simple and straightforward exercise.

“The Board reiterated that neither its results nor any of its processes have been compromised. Hence, it will continue to protect the integrity of its systems against such malicious actors, who are hell-bent on creating confusion where none existed.

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“Consequently, the Board is primed to adding more features like registration number to the existing UTME Result checking process going forward to make it extra difficult for anybody to edit.

“Candidates are, therefore, urged to securely keep their details secure for if they are found associating with any of these mischievous elements, they would be treated as collaborators.

“For now, the method of checking the 2024 UTME remains sending UTMERESULT to 55019 or 66019 and not through any other process. The result, at the moment, is not on the Board’s website.”

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