TheNewsGuru

Tag: Abaribe

  • Eyinnaya Abaribe: No Nigerian should kneel for anybody – Owei Lakemfa

    By Owei Lakemfa

    In a land sycophancy struts. A clime truth is forced to walk on its head. A terrestrial men and women say yes to power. In a climate of distrust where fake and false news are in unholy matrimony. A place the Rubber Stamp Assembly (RSA) proclaims itself the patron saint of accountable governance. It is the patriot that stands to speak truth to power.

    In a country leaders assure the people of ‘adequate measures in place’ where in reality there are no measures. Where the masses are assured of ironclad security whereas the guardians are sleeping on duty or squabbling. It takes the guts of the patriot to call a spade by its true name.

    In a nation where the people are admonished to deify rather than defy the leader, and falsehood is spread like butter over hot bread to feed the hungry with false hopes, it beholds on the patriot to stand for the truth and point at the clay feet of the god. Indeed, no man is ripe enough to be a god or be worshipped.

    In this land and milieu, the word spread from Udi Hills to Jos Plateau, Olumo Rock to Aso Rock, the Sahara Desert to the Niger Delta that Enyinnaya Harcourt, the son of Abaribe, the Senate Minority Leader, stood up in the hallowed chambers of the Red Chamber in the Three Arms Zone where transient power built its sanctuary.

    He raised his frame in the National Assembly where lots of buying and selling take place, and the Distinguished and the Honourables on behalf of the masses, eat and drink the fine wines from the orchards of Constituency Projects and the lush green farms of Over Sight Functions. Abaribe bellowed above the din and cacophony of power- drunken voices to tell truth to power.

    In the culture of the prophets of old, Abaribe said: “We did not vote the IG of police, we did not vote the Chief of Staff, or other security chiefs, we voted the government of APC in 2015 and re-elected them in 2019 because they told us they have the key to security. Today, the APC government has failed because people are being killed anyhow. If you want to deal with a matter, you first go to the head. We can go to the APC government and ask this government to resign. And we want to tell the government that if it does not resign, we shall have no option than to go with stones to pursue it.”

    He went on: “When I was coming, I saw a newspaper headline of THISDAY, the Commander-in-Chief expresses shock at the level of violent crime, in other words Mr. President was expressing surprise… I can only say in pidgin English ‘this surprise, surprise me.”

    Home – THISDAYLIVE

    As trained local and foreign fighters run around the country terrorizing, kidnapping, carrying out unspeakable massacres and building safe havens for banditry, Abaribe said this is because: “… certain people did not do their work but preferred to cover the eyes of Nigerians with propaganda and trying to find all these excuses for non-performance…Those who live by propaganda will die by propaganda.”

    He would not be quietened by shouts of “Order! Order!! Order!!!” because he was in order and those who were out of order are those leading the country to the abyss. Nor did he give heed to the interruptions by Senate President Ahmad Lawan that this was “Hate Speech”

    Abaribe’s words like an earthquake, shook the foundations of the National Assembly and the nearby Aso Rock Presidential Villa. The Presidency, one of whose senior officials called Abaribe a “Buffoon” replied, not with explanations, but squad missiles: “President Buhari to resign on what basis? Just because some characters think that President Buhari should resign, then they expect him to quit. That call does not represent the opinion of the country. This is the opinion of an arm chair critic, known for making stray comments. If a leader like President Buhari needs to resign, there are millions of other Nigerians who need to resign, including Senator Abaribe who unlocked the door to enable the escape of traitorous and treasonable suspects. He signed the bond for the court to release Nnamdi Kanu on bail, from which moment the suspect disappeared into the thin air. Senator Abaribe has failed repeated deadlines to return Kanu to the court for trial, yet he has the effrontery with which to accuse someone of failing to the bidding of the law. This is a man who should have replaced the suspects he failed to produce in the correctional facility. Abaribe’s party raped the nation and left it collapsing in 2015 and President Buhari is fixing things up all the years he is in office. ”

     

    The Presidency followed these claims with its usual fairy tales: “President Buhari is working hard to keep Nigeria and Nigerians out of the harm terrorists have unleashed in the entire Sahel and Sub-Saharan Africa with the support of Nigerians and our foreign friends, he is going to finish off these terrorists. He alone can do it.” You see, our superman President alone, without the armed forces, police, security forces and fellow Nigerians, he alone, can finish off the terrorists who for over ten years, have engaged our country and neigbours.

    In the Presidency’s unguarded responses were loads of threats including to take over the functions of the Judicial arm and send Abaribe to prison on a matter the Federal High Court, Abuja had freed him. However, the African warrior who fought three impeachment proceedings against him when he was Abia State Deputy Governor, would neither retreat nor surrender. He looked the Presidency in the eye, and gave a memorable response: “The Igbo man doesn’t kneel for anybody except his Chi” The Chi, being his god. He implied that patriotic Nigerians will not worship any human being because we are all equal before God. In other words, that we bow only to God, not any mortal. The Buhari Presidency which is quick to retort to everything, is yet to respond to this; it is in a long search for a response.

    In This Day of Our Lord, I rise to join my Fellow Nigerians in saluting the uncommon courage, sense of purpose and manifest patriotism of Enyinnaya Harcourt, the son of Abaribe. I assure him that as long as he does not deviate from the principles he is associated with, WE THE PEOPLE of the Federal Republic of Nigeria having firmly and solemnly resolved to promote the good government and welfare of all persons in our country on the principles of Freedom, Equality and Justice, and asserting our sovereignty above all persons, powers and principalities, assure Abaribe: “You shall not walk alone!”

     

  • Insecurity: Group tackles Senate over inclusion of Abaribe in probe panel

    The Coalition for Nigeria has rejected the inclusion of the lawmaker representing Abia-South, Enyinnaya Abaribe, in the Senate’s adhoc committee on security challenges, describing it as an “abomination”.

    The group alleges that there are overwhelming evidence indicting Mr Abaribe as sponsor of proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and a known ally of its fugitive leader, Nnamdi Kanu.

    Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, Convener/National President, Patriot Sabo Odeh, said it is morally unacceptable, an attempt which may jeopardise the military with the inclusion of Abaribe, a “known terrorist sympathiser”.

    Recall that the Abia lawmaker stood in as shorty for Kanu in 2017 and only recently called on President Muhammadu Buhari to resign over security concerns.

    Abaribe shouldn’t be placed in such critical position, as the Coalition believes that he has openly displayed hatred, disdain and total lack of patriotism in his financially induced sponsorship of bills and motions to pull the administration down.

    The group, therefore, said it totally rejects the Senator Abaribe led committee, which according to them is “ a charade, premeditated evil and a clear sign that the Senate is out to ruin the efforts of the Buhari led administration”.

  • IPOB warns FG against arresting Senator Abaribe

    The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has warned the Federal government against arresting the Minority leader of the Senate, Enyinnaya Abaribe or risk its wrath.

    The group was reacting to a statement by a presidential spokesman that Abaribe should be in jail for standing as surety for its Leader, Nnamdi Kanu’s bail in 2017.

    Abaribe had on Wednesday called for the resignation of President Muhammadu Buhari for failure to protect the country and its citizens from Boko Haram and bandits.

    He made the call on the Senate floor during deliberations on the rising insecurity in the country.

    But the Presidency in a swift reaction by spokesman, Garba Shehu, said Abaribe deserves to be in jail for failure to stop Kanu from jumping bail.

    But spokesperson to IPOB, Emma Powerful in a statement on Friday said Kanu’s home was invaded in a bid to kill him forcing him to flee the country.

    “The recent incoherent and roundly childish tirade by the presidency of Nigeria against Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, unarguably the only distinguished senator in the whole of Nigeria, is confirmation of the paranoia that has gripped the government in Aso Rock.

    “Garba Shehu has not only showcased his ignorance of the law as it pertains to bail forfeiture proceedings in a law court, but his pathetic attempt to rewrite the history of the unprovoked bloody invasion of the home of our leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu by soldiers which directly resulted in his inability to attend Binta Nyako’s court is well documented.

    “It doesn’t matter how many times Aso Rock rehearsh this purile line of ‘jumping bail’ argument, the facts are very clear and in the public domain for any sensible person to comprehend.

    “If you went to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s house to kill him, is it a court in Abuja, where judges are impotent, that he won’t be attacked?” Mr Powerful said.

    The spokesman said that it speaks to the intellectual vacuousness of this APC regime that a seemingly high ranking presidential spokesperson is blissfully ignorant of the constitution they swore to uphold.

    “Does it mean that Garba Shehu, Malami the Attorney General of Nigeria and the Tanko Muhammad the Chief Justice of Nigeria are ignorant of the section of the constitution that stipulates by law a senator is not allowed to stand surety for an accused person?

    “Therefore Abaribe has no case to answer, that is why neither Binta Ntako’s court nor the Court of Appeal is willing to entertain the bond forfeiture case any longer. Garba Shehu should stop disgracing himself and his government with their nauseating ignorance of judicial process.

    “This same Garba Shehu who said they don’t take advice from the likes of Abaribe were the same people that publicly called for Goodluck Jonathan to resign. Why is it that Senator Abaribe’s legitimate call for the resignation of Buhari is suddenly treasonable felony.”

    The pro-Biafran group said that any plans against Abaribe and others will fail because ordinary people are now wiser thanks to the gospel of liberation being preached by its leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

    “Since the failure to eliminate our great leader during the invasion of his country home at Afaraukwu in Umuahia Abia State, Aso Rock with their truth averse misguided friends in some sections of the cash and carry news media in Nigeria, have been scrambling to see what false allegation against Enyinnaya Abaraibe will stick”.

    “Each time they have failed as they will also fail in this latest charade. We are now all familiar with the usual rage and fury anytime their corrupt regime in Aso Rock is held publicly accountable. They cannot fool the masses anymore, we are all wiser”.

    “We should remind Garba Shehu and Nigerians alike that Federal High Court in Abuja presided over by Justice Binta Nyako granted our leader bail on 23rd of March 2017 and a few months after that, the Federal Government of Nigeria on 14th of September 2017 to be precise ordered the Nigeria Army, Police, Navy, Air Force and DSS to invade kill and maim our leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

    “The fact they failed in that murderous mission that took the lives of 28 Biafrans is the reason why there is so much meaningless vitriol directed at Abaribe to cover up their murderous intent against our leader”.

    On the state of insecurity in the country, Mr Powerful said the government of Buhari has failed woefully and should be removed.

    “It is important we let the masses that inhabit the colonial contraption called Nigeria know that any government that fails to protect the lives and properties of her citizens is a total failure, therefore this regime is a complete and utter failure and should be removed.

    “It is unfortunate that Nigerians do not know what democracy and opposition politics is all about. An opposition party is there to oppose and that is what Abaribe did but surprisingly this rudimentary requirement of democratic governance is lost on the government hence their hysteria”.

    “We are warning and cautioning any person, persons or group who are making frantic efforts to endear themselves to the caliphate by issuing unguarded press statements to retrace their step because Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe is not to be toyed with or his name ridiculed by any faceless, non-existent Igbo group.

    “IPOB is still in court challenging the Nigeria Army, Police, Navy and DSS invasion of our leader’s compound in 2017. Garba Shehu and his colleagues in Aso Rock should always be mindful of these irrefutable facts before opening their mouth again in public,” he said.

  • Abia South: Tribunal upholds Abaribe’s election, APGA candidate, Nkwonta kicks

    The National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Umuahia, the Abia State capital has upheld the declaration of the Senator representing Abia South Senatorial District, Sen. Enyinnaya Abaribe by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    Delivering the judgement, a member of the three member panel, Justice Wasiu Animahun faulted the decision of the petitioners to rely on card reader accreditation.

    He noted that the machine could not take the place of the voters’ register as it was only complimentary.

    The panel held that if the number of over-voting claimed by the petitioners was removed from the figure with which Abaribe was declared winner, he would still maintain a reasonable margin of lead over the petitioners.

    Dismissing the petition for lack of merit, the tribunal held that the petitioners failed to prove their allegation of irregularities.

    It, however, awarded the cost of N500, 000 against the petitioners in favour of the second (Abaribe) and third PDP respondents.

    But the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, candidate Chief Chris Nkwonta, has faulted the judgment of the election petition tribunal.

    But In an interview, Nkwonta said the tribunal erred in law when it failed to consider that the fact that the INEC guideline on the use of smart card readers for accreditation of voters, was part of the electoral process.

    He alleged that going by the total number of accredited voters by the card reader, the results announced by INEC is higher than what is recorded in the card readers.

    The APGA chieftain lamented that the tribunal also ignored the various cases of over voting and numerous mutilations results entered in favour of his opponent and expressed hope that the Court of Appeal would rectify the matter.

    “The tribunal erred in its judgment. It ignored the major flank of the petition which was the issue of use of smart card readers to accredit voters. The use of smart card readers as an INEC guideline to accredit voters is part of the electoral process meant to ensure the integrity of the system. The tribunal also ignored the serial mutilation of results across polling units in the zone, especially in Obingwa where my opponent comes from. The question is, if my opponent is popular, why did he have to resort to rigging in his local government?

    “Our judicial system must check the issue of desperation among political office seekers. The issue is that during election, a candidate will manipulate the system to be declared winner because he knows that his action will be rendered a fait accompli by the tribunal. This is unfair. There is no doubt that the Court of Appeal will not ignore such facts.”

  • Ministerial screening: Abaribe commends Mamora for rejecting Buhari’s offer

    Senate Minority Leader, Sen. Enyinnaya Abaribe has commended Adeleke Mamora for rejecting President Muhammadu Buhari’s offer.
    Buhari had in 2018 appointed Mamora as the chairman of the Abuja Investment and Infrastructure Centre, but he turned it down.
    Abaribe said: Mamora “was offered a position and he looked at this senate and he said if he accepts it, it will demean it, so he rejected it. On behalf of the senate I want to thank you for that.”
    Mamowora has just taken his turn for screening and confirmation after which he was asked to take a bow and go.

    Details shortly…

  • Abaribe emerges new Senate Minority leader

    Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, representing Abia South Senatorial District, has been named the Minority Leader of the Ninth Senate.

    Emmanuel Bwacha from Taraba South also retained his position as Deputy Minority Leader, while the Senator, representing the Federal Capital Territory, Phillip Aduda, retained his position as the Minority Whip.

    Abaribe was born on March 1, 1955. He earned his WASSCE from Government College Umuahia in 1974. He went on to the University of Benin, where he received a bachelor’s degree in Economics in 1979 and a master’s degree in Economics in 1982. He lectured at the Edo State University from 1982 until 1985.

    Abaribe became Abia State’s Deputy Governor after Orji Uzor Kalu’s 1999 election to the Governorship. The state’s House of Assembly impeached the deputy governor twice in 2000 and a third time in 2003; as he was facing his third impeachment, he resigned on March 7, 2003, sending his resignation via DHL so as to have written record of it.

    The House of Assembly formally voted him out of office several days later, in a move Abaribe called “medicine after death.” He was succeeded as deputy governor by Eric Acho Nwakanma. Abaribe ran for the governorship on the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) platform in 2003, but lost to Kalu.

  • Biafra: I can’t continue to stand as surety for Nnamdi Kanu, Abaribe tells court

    Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe has told the Court of Appeal in Abuja that his standing surety for the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, is illegal.

    He therefore urged the court to relieve him of standing as as surety for the embattled IPOB leader.

    Abaribe also asked the court to set aside the November 14, 2018 order of the Federal High Court in Abuja which gave him and two others a two-month ultimatum to, each pay N100m bond for their inability to produce the Biafran activist.

    Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja, had in her November 14, 2018 ruling, held that Abaribe and the two other sureties owed the court the duty of producing Kanu, whose absence since 2017 has halted his trial on charges of treasonable felony.

    But the senator, through his lawyer, Mr Chukwuma-Machukwu Ume (SAN), had on January 3, 2018, filed an amended seven grounds notice of appeal and a brief of argument to challenge the Federal High Court’s decisions.

    Relying on sections 55, 165(3), 167(3) and 488 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, and other provisions of the constitution, Ume argued that a public officer such as a senator was legally exempted from standing surety for a suspect.

    He blamed the Federal High Court for making a senator to be part of the sureties Kanu must present in April 2017.

    Ume said, “The honourable trial court failed and or refused to take judicial notice” of the relevant provisions of the ACJA and the Nigerian constitution.

    “Thus the honourable trial court had not done the needful under the law, otherwise it would have found that by law, the appellant (a senator) is legally exempted, ab initio from giving security for the good conduct or behaviour of a suspect.

    “It is trite law that where a valid Act or law clearly states something, it is not within the powers of the court to go contrary to it.

    “We therefore can see that the involvement of Senator Abaribe in the whole bail and surety quagmire was invalid, ab initio.”

    Kanu slipped out of Nigeria after soldiers deployed under the Operation ‘Python Dance II’ in the South-East to quell agitation for a Biafra republic, invaded his home in Afara-Ukwu, Umuahia, Abia in September 2017.

    Abaribe and two others had stood as sureties for Kanu before he was granted bail by the Federal High Court in Abuja on April 25, 2017.

    They are now grappling with the burden to produce him to enable his trial to continue.

    The three sureties’ inability to produce Kanu, made the judge, Justice Binta Nyako, to order them on November 14, 2018, to each pay into the court’s account the N100m bond within two months.

    The two-month ultimatum lapses on January 14.

    But before the ultimatum expires, Abaribe and the two other sureties – Emmanuel Shallom-Ben and Tochukwu Uchendu – had filed separate appeals against the November 14, 2018 order.

    Abaribe canvassed among other grounds of appeal that the Federal High Court on its own made “an order of interim forfeiture without considering or evaluating” all the applications filed before it by the sureties.

    He added that the trial court acted without jurisdiction when it suo moto (on its own) made an interlocutory order that in substance rendered nugatory the core issue in the substantive matter.

    Meanwhile, the Federal High Court has fixed March 28 for the sureties to return for hearing.

  • Nnamdi Kanu: Court can’t compel us to prosecute Fani-Kayode, Abaribe, other sureties – DSS

    The Department of State Service and its Director-General, Mr. Yusuf Bichi, have said they cannot be compelled by the Federal High Court in Abuja to prosecute those accused of aiding the escape of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, from Nigeria.

    They stated that not even the President of Nigeria could tell them how to contain national security threats.

    They stated these in their notice of preliminary objection which they filed in response to a suit seeking an order of mandamus to compel them and the police to arrest and prosecute some named individuals, including a former Minister of Aviation, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode, for alleged culpability in the escape of Kanu who reportedly surfaced in Israel recently.

    Others proposed for prosecution also include those who stood sureties for the bail granted Kanu by the Federal High Court in Abuja in April last year – Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe, Tochukwu Uchendu and Emmanuel Shallom Ben.

    Also listed for the proposed prosecution are Kanu’s lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor and the IPOB leader’s relatives – Emmanuel Kanu and Uchechi Kanu.

    The rest, according to the plaintiff, are “all those who worked together to propagate and spread the inciting lies and falsehood that Nnamdi Kanu was abducted, arrested, kidnapped, detained, killed and assassinated by the Nigerian Army when indeed they were well aware of his whereabouts because they played roles in helping Nnamdi Kanu to disappear from Nigeria.

    The suit was filed by Mr. Isiah Ayugu, who described himself as a tax-paying, responsible Nigerian and lawyer.

    He joined the DSS, its Director-General, Mr. Yusuf Bichi, the police and the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, as the defendants.

    But the named individuals have filed various applications seeking to be joined as additional defendants in the suit.

    Justice John Tsoho had on November 22 fixed January 11 for the hearing of the various joinder applications.

    On November 9, 2018, Justice John Tsoho granted leave to the plaintiff to proceed with the suit and serve same on the respondents.

    He said in the suit marked, FHC/ABJ/CS/1254/18, that due to Kanu’s escape from Nigeria, the IPOB leader’s trial on charges of treasonable felony had remained stalled before Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja.

    He said as a Nigerian, his image had been damaged “by the character assassination, lies, falsehood, evil propaganda made against the Nigerian Army that the Nigerian Army has abducted, arrested, kidnapped, assassinated and killed Nnamdi Kanu.”

    But responding through a notice of preliminary objection filed on November 23, the DSS and its Director-General, asked the court to strike it out on among other grounds that the court lacked the jurisdiction to hear the case and that the court lacked the power to mandate the doing of a discretionary act.

    They also contended that the plaintiff lacked the locus standi (the legal right) to initiate the suit.

    According to them, containing national security threat is a matter of discretion which the court and even the President of Nigeria cannot interfere with.

    They added that the DSS “must act within the latitude of available resources” and as such they would only allocate resources to investigate matters “based on the situation on ground.”

    Further hearing in the suit has been adjourned till January 9.

     

  • Biafra: Judge orders Abaribe, others to pay N100m over Kanu’s absence in court

    The Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the three persons, including Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe, who stood sureties for the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, to within two months, pay the sum of N100m each into the court’s account for their inability to produce the missing Biafran activist in court.

    Justice Binta Nyako gave the order on Wednesday in a ruling in which she amended the conditions of the bail she had in April 2017 granted Kanu.

    Kanu is being prosecuted before the court on charges of treasonable felony.
    His trial had been earlier separated from that of his co-accused following his disappearance after a military invasion of his home in Afara-Ukwu, Umuahia, in Abia State, on September 14, 2017

    The three sureties who guaranteed his bail had been made to sign a bail bond of N100m each which was backed by their landed assets whose documents were deposited in court.

    But with the amendment ordered by the court on Wednesday, they are now required to deposit cash of N100m in the bank account of the court.

    Justice Nyako ruled that the three sureties had two months to pay the sum of N100m each into the court’s account.

    The judge reiterated that the order directing the sureties to pay the money was an order of interim forfeiture.

    She fixed March 28 for the hearing of the motions filed by the sureties to challenging the duties imposed on them to produce the IPOB leader.

    Details later …

  • Court varies Nnamdi Kanu’s bail condition, threatens to arrest Abaribe, other sureties

    The Abuja Division of the Federal High Court has threatened to order the arrest of a senator, Eyinnaya Abaribe and another surety who undertook to produce Nnamdi Kanu ahead of his bail in April, 2017.

    Apart from Abaribe, two others who stood surety for Kanu are a Jewish priest, Immanuel Shalom; and an accountant and Abuja resident, Tochukwu Uchendu.

    On Wednesday, the court also varied the bail condition given to Kanu in his trial for alleged treason.

    The court presided by Binta Nyako said it was varying the bail conditions because Abaribe’s lawyer, Chukwuma-Machukwu Ume, told the court that the senator was attending an oversight function and could not attend the trial.

    “I have taken the view that the oversight function is more important than this hearing.

    “I do not have a proceeding against the sureties. All I want is for them to produce my Nnamdi Kanu.

    “In this proceeding where this men have lost my Nnamdi Kanu, they are going to be in my trouble, because I gave him to them.”

    Among the three sureties who had undertaken to produce Mr Kanu, only one was in court on Wednesday.

    On the varied bail condition, the judge ordered the three sureties to deposit the bond of N100 million each to the court registrar within two months.

    Nyako said the court would make further directives after hearing the current applications by the sureties.

    Kanu was recently seen in Isreal in a video intended among other things to prove his existence.