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Tag: Adamawa State

  • 72hrs after two boats mishaps, another occurs in Adamawa claiming 11 lives

    72hrs after two boats mishaps, another occurs in Adamawa claiming 11 lives

    Barely 72hours of two boats mishaps, another boat accident has occurred in Adamawa State claiming 11 lives.

    This would be the second boat mishap in three days in Adamawa after an accident on Saturday where 10 persons lost their lives.

    The latest incident occurred Monday afternoon at Kwatan Mallam Adamu in Gurin village in Fufore Local Government Area where farmers, hurrying to reach home to escape a threatening rainfall, rushed into the ill-fated boat.

    According to a witness, Dahiru Gurin, “About 40 passengers crammed into the boat to get home before today’s heavy downpour. Unfortunately, midway, a strong wind and thunderstorm set in, causing the boat to capsize.”

    Indicating that quick intervention by divers reduced casualty, Gurin added, “A mother who held up her infant on the surface of the water drowned, but the baby was saved by a diver.”

    Another source said divers had so far taken out 11 bodies from the water.

    The Executive Secretary of Adamawa State Emergency Management Agency (ADSEMA), Mohamed Suleiman, confirmed the incident but could not be definite about casualty figures.

    He insisted late on Monday that rescue efforts were yet to ascertain details on the accident.

    After the earlier boat accident on Saturday morning in Rugange, Yola South Local Government Area, the state Deputy Governor, Professor Kaletapwa Farauta had visited the scene Saturday afternoon.

    She had promised provision of life jackets while warning boat operators to beware of unfriendly weather and to avoid overloading.

  • Nigerian Female soldier shoots Army captain at check point in Adamawa

    Nigerian Female soldier shoots Army captain at check point in Adamawa

    A female soldier enforcing the curfew imposed by Adamawa government has killed a senior colleague at a checkpoint in Yola, the state capital.

    The female soldier simply identified as Lance Corporal Nkiru shot a captain who tried to intervene in her altercation with civilians at Fire Service Round About in the state capital.

    It was learnt that the female soldier had insisted that motorists retuning home during the curfew hours must turn back. Some of them had identified themselves as workers on essential duty but she stood her ground.

    According to report by Daily trust,the victim was said to have been rushed to the Federal Medical Centre, Yola, where he was confirmed dead while the suspect was instantly arrested and whisked away by soldiers.

    The female soldier has been severally accused of harassing civilians, cocking her rifle at the slightest provocation.

    Recall that the state governor, Ahmadu Fintiri, had imposed the curfew after hoodlums broke into government warehouse and looted several items, including palliatives meant to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy.

  • PDP raises alarm over attempted attack on Atiku

    PDP raises alarm over attempted attack on Atiku

    Following the  reported foiled terrorist attack on Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) presidential candidate in the 2023 elec­tion and former vice president, Ati­ku Abubakar, the party has alledged that the plot has the pawmarks of  sponsors attempt who are unsettled by his bid to retrieve his mandate

    The PDP insisted that by the confession of the arrested assail­ants, the plot has the pawmarks of a sponsored attempt on the life of Atiku Abubakar, ostensibly by forces, who are unsettled by his bid to retrieve his mandate at the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC).

    PDP, in a statement by its spokesman, Hon. Debo Ologunag­ba, said that the party believes that the intent of the sponsors of the evil plot is to silence its presidential candidate, massacre innocent Ni­gerians and cause chaos, confusion and anarchy in the polity.

    The PDP asked: “Is this foiled attack on Atiku Abubakar and sensitive locations in Yola, Ad­amawa connected to the recent APC’s threats of chaos and an­archy in the country, if the PEPC upholds the clear provisions of Section 134 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) with regard to the mandatory and statutory requirements for which a candi­date in a presidential election can be declared winner?

    “Could it also be a plan to or­chestrate a sense of insecurity in the country, starting in Adama­wa State, the home state of our presidential candidate so as to justify the imposition of a state of emergency in Adamawa State as a precursor to a declaration of a state of emergency throughout the country?”

    PDP, has, however charged the Inspector General of Police to take the lead provided by the confession of the assailants to track down their sponsors and bring them to book in the interest of the security, unity and wellbeing of the nation.

    “The Federal Government has a duty and obligation to Nigerians and indeed, the whole world to en­sure that the perpetrators of these dastardly act and their sponsors are brought to book. This partic­ular investigation is important to the country because of the scope and dimension of the attempted attack.”

  • INEC to continue with prosecution of suspended Adamawa REC

    INEC to continue with prosecution of suspended Adamawa REC

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has received the green light to continue with the prosecution of the suspended Adamawa Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Hudu Yunusa-Ari.

    This is after a Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday declined to extend its July 10 interim order stopping INEC from prosecuting the suspended Adamawa REC, pending the hearing and determination of the substantive motion.

    Justice Donatus Okorowo, who refused to extend the order in a suit filed by Sen. Aishatu Dahiru, also known as Binani, adjourned the matter until July 24 for hearing of the originating summons served on the defendants in the open court.

    Binani had, in a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/935/2023, sued INEC, Inspector-General (I-G) of Police and the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) as 1st to 3rd respectively.

    Binani was the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the March 18 Adamawa governorship election.

    In the suit, the applicant is seeking the interpretation of Section 144 of the Electoral Act, 2022 and a preservative order seeking the maintenance of status quo in the matter pending the determination of the suit.

    Binani’s counsel, Michael Aondoaka, SAN, in the ex-parte motion earlier filed, drew the attention of the court to the fact that the matter was before a tribunal and it was time-bound.

    He, however, said that the star witness to his client, Hudu Yunusa Ari, was being harassed and prevented from giving evidence before the tribunal which if continued, would jeopardise the case of his client at the tribunal.

    He then urged the court to halt the harassment of the star witness in the petition before a governorship election petition tribunal challenging INEC’s declaration of the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Adamawa Governor, Ahmadu Fintiri, as winner on Sunday, April 16.

    Aondoaka told the court that according to the relevant laws, since Binani had  been declared by the INEC, the declaration could only be legally and authentically  reversed, if the need be, by a court of competent jurisdiction or a tribunal.

    Upon resumed hearing, INEC’s counsel, Mr Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, told the court that Binani had not served the defendants with the July 10 order of the court.

    Jacobs, who also told the court that, the defendants had not been served with the originating summons filed by Binani, challenged the competence and the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the matter in a counter affidavit to the motion.

    He told the court that the life span of the interim order elapsed on July 18 (today) but Aondoaka argued that the interim order had not elapsed as the defendants had not shown cause as directed by the court.

    According to Aondoaka, counsel to INEC cannot say he was not served with the processes of the court as he had joined issues in the matter.

    Justice Okorowo, who refused to extend the order, adjourned the case until July 24 for hearing.

    INEC is seeking the prosecution of the suspended REC for declaring Binani as the winner of the rerun poll on April 15.

  • Police arrest 2 Kuje jail escapees in Adamawa

    Police arrest 2 Kuje jail escapees in Adamawa

    The Adamawa Police Command has arrested two inmates who were among those who escaped from Kuje Correctional Centre in July 2022.

    SP Suleiman Nguroje, the command spokesperson said this in a statement issued on Monday in Yola.

    He said that the escapees identified as Atiku Ibrahim, 37, and Adamu Ibrahim, 40, were arrested by Police Crack Squad on May 19.

    “The escaped suspects were arrested for cattle rustling and other nefarious activities.

    “During interrogation they confessed to have been in Kuje Correctional custody since 2021, following allegation of arms dealing against them.

    “They also confessed to have escaped to Adamawa, until their arrest.

    “They further stated that they were awaiting trial in Kuje in a case of arms dealing and unlawful possession of firearms.”

    Nguroje said that the Commissioner of Police, Afolabi Babatola directed that the escapees be handed over to the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS), Adamawa Command.

    Recall that the command had in July 2022 arrested another Kuje escapee and handed him over to the NCoS.

  • BREAKING: Adamawa REC, Hudu Yunusa-Ari granted bail

    BREAKING: Adamawa REC, Hudu Yunusa-Ari granted bail

    The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has granted administrative bail to Barr. Hudu Yunusa-Ari, the suspended Adamawa State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Yunusa-Ari was arrested by the police over what many described as electoral rascality after he declared the All Progressives Congress (APC) winner of the governorship election held in Adamawa State.

    Accused of impropriety in the course of supplementary gubernatorial polls in the State, the Adamawa REC was arrested by the Police Election Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation Team on Tuesday 2nd May, 2023 in Abuja.

    Yunusa-Ari was granted administrative bail after he was grilled to ascertain the motives and motivations behind his alleged improper actions during the supplementary elections in Adamawa State.

    “He is expected to report at the Police Headquarters every weekday while investigations are ongoing on the matter,” reads a statement by CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, Force Public Relations Officer, Force Headquarters, Abuja.

    TNG reports, in addition, other officials and individuals culpable in the saga were also interrogated by the police team.

  • Let’s not focus on what didn’t happen in Adamawa – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    Let’s not focus on what didn’t happen in Adamawa – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    THE Nigerian delight for inconsequential issues is highlighted again by the indifference shown in the disruption in the Adamawa State governorship polls which can stand as the strongest attack so far on our democratic processes. We saw people denied their right to vote. We heard allegations of the security agencies aiding and abetting illegalities around the elections. Thugs had a field day; BVAS was not used, and worse still lives were lost.

    We thought these were possibly the worst of the elections until Adamawa raised the bars of impunity to unimagined heights. Some called it a coup, executed by civilians to derailed the supplementary election to produce the Governor, an exercise that many experts deemed unnecessary since it was unlikely that Mrs. Aishatu Dahiru, affectionately called Binani, of the All Progressives congress, APC, could have won all the 30,000 votes at stake to over-take Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

    The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Hudu Ari, had no power to announce the winner of the election, a responsibility which by law belongs to the State Collation Officer appointed by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. Mr. Ari announced the winner while the results were being collated.

    Mrs. Dahiru in her acceptance speech said her election as the first female governor in the country would encourage other women to participate actively in politics. INEC was quick to deny the declaration which it termed illegal.

    “You’ve made history in electing the first female governor in our dear country, Nigeria. This will no doubt broaden political participation by encouraging our daughters, sisters, aunties, mothers and indeed the girl child,” Mrs. Dahiru told her supporters in 21-seconds clip the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, aired.

    Since the incidents on 16 April 2023, nobody has been arrested, except some aides of the Adamawa State Governor, and some PDP members, who reportedly assaulted a security officer. Attention has been swinging between the ownership of the private jet that took Mr. Ari to Abuja and his disappearance. Why is Mr. Ari in hiding?

    INEC summoned him to Abuja and asked the police and other security agencies to take him into custody. President Muhammadu Buhari also ordered his immediate arrest for the illegal declaration, which sparked nationwide anxiety. He is still a free man, merely suspended from his duties.

    He insists that Mrs. Dahiru won the election. He had the effrontery to write the Inspector-General of Police, Director-General of the Department of State Service, DSS, National Security Adviser, NSA, and INEC Chairman, accusing two National Commissioners, Baba Bila and Abdullahi Zuru, who assisted him with the supplementary election on April 15, of working with PDP to rig the results. His letter was dated 20 April 2023.

    INEC spokesman, Festus Okoye, said Mr. Ari should turn himself in to the Commission or police, who already have a file outlining the offences he committed in Adamawa.

    “He should report and answer to the electoral infractions and make his allegations, and it should form part of police investigation,” Mr. Okoye said.

    “The commission is not interested in his ‘fictional letters from hiding’,” Mr. Okoye added. “If he has a narration, he should make them to the police. Alternatively, he can report to the Commission and the Commission will take him to the police.”

    Mr. Ari defended his actions in the drivel to the security agencies. “I want to categorically say that my action is within the responsibility vested on me and within the ambit law, particularly of the Electoral Act 2022 as amended.”

    Where is Mr. Ari that the security agencies cannot find him after the President’s orders? Are there no sanctions for Mrs. Dahiru, who read an acceptance speech and filed processes in court asking that she be affirmed the winner of the election? Who are protecting them?

    These grievous matters would be soon forgotten as the focus shifts to the more profitable ventures of who holds what office in the emerging governments across the country. We are pretending that nothing serious happened in Adamawa to warrant a search for Mr. Ari except the “man-hunt” the police have promised.

    It would not surprise many if Mr. Ari emerges a key member of the government being formed when he decides to come of hiding. The President thinks he has done his part by giving the orders. He is tired. Are his appointees also tired?

    Finally…

    NIGERIA continues excelling in making a mess of simple things. Getting stranded Nigerians out of Sudan has set up series of scandals, including festering the insecurity and suffering of the stranded. Most of the stranded are Muslim Northerners, sustaining the point that incompetence of governments is not restrained by religion, and region. With a month to the end of the administration, it would appear that its officials have extended their absence in the affairs of Nigeria. This does not suggest any strikingly remarkable performances for good in their eight years.

    IS fuel subsidy still a scam? President Buhari’s inaction appears to be the final word. Out of office he said it was a scam. For eight years the cost of subsidy kept rising. Every promise to remove subsidy was followed with its retention and higher votes for subsidy. There must be some good scams. Government knows better.

    TUESDAY 2 May 2023 will be a great day at the University of Calabar, according to an official statement by Prof. Patrick Egaga, Director of SERVICOM at the university. The day marks ban of some dresses. “Specifically, short skirts or gowns, above the knee, open backs, crap tops, braless tops and gowns, spaghetti finger, sleeveless tops, handless gowns, bikinis, see through, transparent, apparels and revealing contours are no longer tolerated on campus.

    “Others are handless gowns, bum short revealing laps, slit skirts, body hugs, V-necks exposing breasts, tubes, strip-less, rag jeans, shorts above the knee, sleeveless shirts, singlets, lingeries, sagged trousers and others.

    “All of these will no longer be tolerated on campus with effect from Tuesday May 2, 2023.”
    WE have been reading about the fatal consequences of blind religious beliefs in Kenya. Are we sure similar situations do not exist here? Or what are we doing to stop them?

    HOW important is oil to Nigeria’s economy? One is not calling for a debate. When at official fora it is frequently stated that Nigerian crude is stolen in quantities that damage the economy, and government does nothing about it, there are doubts if we understand these things the same way. Nigeria has lost an opportunity to produce and sell about 65,700,000 barrels of oil in the last one year due to issues bothering on pipeline vandalism and the resultant oil theft. This translates to about N2.3tn loss in oil revenue.

    The Chairman of Shell Companies in Nigeria, Dr Osagie Okunbor, said at the just concluded Nigerian International Energy Summit in Abuja, that the 180, 000 barrels per day Trans Niger Pipeline had remained shut for more than one year – March 2022 to March 2023 due to massive oil theft on the pipeline. Last year, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company said it detected an illegal connection on the Trans Escravos pipeline looped to the four-kilometre Afremo test line. Nothing is likely to be done about the thefts, soon, with these statements that could be invitations to new thieves.

  • Elections as crime scenes: Decriminalising the electoral process – By Owei Lakemfa

    Elections as crime scenes: Decriminalising the electoral process – By Owei Lakemfa

    TWICE did I hear Aisha Dahiru, alias Binani, of the All Progressives Party, APC, declared the winner of the Adamawa State gubernatorial elections and the first female to be elected governor in the country. Twice did this turn out to be a hoax – a sick joke played on Nigerians. The first time was the product of propaganda; the diet on which Nigeria is run.

    After the March 18, 2023, elections, it was announced on some media outlets the next day that Binani had won the elections. Many, including Great Britain, fell for the hoax. The British High Commissioner in Nigeria, Catriona Laing, took to her verified Twitter handle, screaming: “Great news! Huge congratulations to Aisha Binani! I hope you will be a trailblazer for other elected female governors.”

    When the reality dawned on Laing that she had fallen victim to an orchestrated disinformation campaign, the envoy deleted her tweet. The facts were that the elections were inconclusive and Binani’s rival, incumbent Governor Umaru Ahmadu Fintiri of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP,  in the results so far declared, was actually leading with 421,524 to Binani’s 390,275. Despite these facts, the APC, perhaps based on false information from its Adamawa State branch, insisted that Binani had won the elections.

    Its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, issued a statement claiming that: “election results show a clear and decisive victory for Senator Aishatu Dahiru (Binani), the All Progressives Congress, APC, governorship candidate. Faced with the imminent and certain prospect of losing the election, thugs and political actors led by the incumbent governor and candidate of the PDP, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, have unleashed heavily armed thugs to disrupt further collation of results and subvert the will of the Adamawa people as expressed at the polls.”

    The Harvard-trained lawyer and former human rights advocate claimed, without providing any evidence, that “the governor is reported to have torn result sheets at the collation centre in a show of unprecedented impunity and executive brigandage.” The APC insisted that Binani: “holds a clear, unassailable lead, only awaiting final collation and declaration by INEC.” However, the results with the INEC were contrary to the APC’s claims, and it directed that supplementary elections be conducted.

    The supplementary elections were held on Saturday, April 15, and  the results were being collated and announced when, at 1.00 a.m. the next day, with half the results declared, the INEC announced a break and that the collation and announcements would continue at 11.00 a.m. However, at 9.00 a.m., two hours before the exercise was to continue, Yunusa Hudu-Ari, the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC; Mohammed Barde, the Police Commissioner on election duty in the state wearing camouflage uniform, the State Director of the Directorate of State  Services, DSS, and the head of the state’s Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, wearing a well ironed uniform, returned to the collation venue.

    REC Hudu-Ari, Commissioner of Police Mohammed Barde, and the other security chiefs who had militarised the collation centre were aware that the collation of the results was in progress and knew that only the Returning Officer, Professor Mohammed Mele, was empowered to announce the results and the winner of the elections. Despite these and the protests of representatives of political parties and election observers, the REC, backed by the security chiefs, went ahead to announce Binani as the winner of the elections. They then fled the crime scene with the assistance of well-armed policemen and security operatives. It was nothing short of an attempted electoral coup, and the action almost set the state on fire, with angry residents taking to the streets in search of the conspirators.

    In a redeeming move, INEC quickly nullified the announcement and ordered the REC and its officials in the state to report to its headquarters in Abuja. Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, followed by removing Barde and replacing him with his Gombe State colleague, Etim Equa.

    On Tuesday, when the INEC concluded the collation and announcement of the supplementary election results, Fintiri was declared the winner. It was clear to me that the REC was aware that Binani had lost but had deliberately moved to declare her the winner. The move may seem bizarre, but not in Nigeria, where much crazier things happen in elections. For instance, the APC candidate in the 2019 Imo State gubernatorial elections, Hope Odidika Uzodinma, who came fourth in the INEC-supervised elections, was elevated on January 14, 2020, to the first position by no less an institution than the Supreme Court of Nigeria. In the 2023 elections, candidates who did not contest in the statutory primaries ran in the elections, with some of them declared elected.

    The Adamawa coup attempt was a simple one. The strategy amongst the political class, is to get declared the winner of an election and let the court do the rest of the job. Even if the court were to rule in favour of the actual winner, the loser would have been in office for some time, even years before the actual winner would take over.

    So, perhaps in accordance with the script, the REC illegally declared Binani the elected governor of Adamawa State. She immediately made an ‘acceptance’ speech carried on public network television, thanking President Muhammadu Buhari for her alleged victory as the first female governor. Next, she ran to the Federal High Court in Abuja to stop INEC from doing anything about her announced victory.

    In court, she claimed the fake result that declared her the winner, is authentic, that INEC voiding the result announced by the REC is an usurpation of the power of the Returning Officer and that only the petition tribunal has the power to void her declaration as the governor-elect. Binani failed to acknowledge that it was not the Returning Officer that declared her winner, and since she claims it is only the election tribunal that has powers over electoral matters, why did she not head there rather than the High Court?

    So why did Hudu-Ari, a lawyer, and his fellow conspirators engage in the attempted electoral coup? An alleged security officer in a viral video claimed they were paid N2 billion. But Binani, in a reaction, said this is false. Perhaps  REC Yunusa Hudu-Ari would help clarify whether he staked his reputation, job, and freedom for free or was paid to do the job. But the problem is that he seems to have disappeared from the radar screen. However, one person who is certainly not on the run is the strong woman, Binani; she is ready for any eventuality.

    So long as politics remains the most lucrative business in Nigeria and impunity reigns, it will be run like a criminal enterprise and our elections will be crime scenes to be trampled upon.

  • From Adamawa, a redeeming opportunity for NBC – By Okoh Aihe

    From Adamawa, a redeeming opportunity for NBC – By Okoh Aihe

    It is difficult to forecast a closure to the sustained drama happening in Nigeria. In the manner of all beautiful or bizarre shows, before one scene comes to an end, the other is loading with more complicated suspense and details beyond the imagination of any script writer. Or tell me, how would you ever put the script of the Adamawa governorship election together except from a warped mind with infinite capacity for evil? 

    The story is in the public domain. A supplementary election was held. While the process was going through some challenges as it headed towards a resolution, a usurper in the name of Hudu Yunusa, who is the Regional Electoral Commissioner, flanked by full security apparatus, announced the candidate of the All Progress Congress (APC), Aishatu Dahiru, popularly called Binani, as winner. The result was scribbled on a crumpled paper, probably torn from one of his children’s notebooks.  

    Bedlam is a light word to be used under the circumstance. Perhaps I should use a more high sounding word, hugger-mugger. A nation already traumatised by INEC’s failure to conduct a credible and acceptable election, was fearing for the worst. NTA that has failed to pursue the cause of modern broadcasting, got a scoop, an exclusive, as it was on the other side of town, taking a live acceptance speech of the winner. 

    Binani hailed the Adamawa people for making political history by electing the first female governor in our dear country, saying this will encourage the female folks in Nigeria and across the continent.  

    Thankfully, INEC cut short the pipe dream and saved the nation from such elevated ignominy and perfidy. The REC was wrong to usurp the functions of the Returning Officer, it said. The election body followed the process through and declared the right winner, proven with figures, PDP’s Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, who is being returned to office. 

    However, the role of the NTA in this drama of the absurd, has exposed the broadcast regulator, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), to a new level of scrutiny, with a number of people asking, why the regulator has not been so fast in sanctioning the NTA as it has done recently, dishing out fines to broadcasters seemingly trapped on the wrong side of the law. 

    NTA is the public broadcaster funded with tax payers’ money. In the days of yore, it prided itself as the biggest network in Africa, chose when to open daily broadcast, whose voice should be heard and whose face should be seen. NTA was a de facto regulator, to the extent that when broadcasting was deregulated in 1992, its officials refused to accept the status of the NBC established by Decree 38, now an Act of Parliament, National Broadcasting Commission Act CAP N11, Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 2004. 

    Broadcast writers have, in the past, encouraged the regulator to rein in the NTA by issuing it with a broadcast license, even if symbolically, without paying the license fee; this writer is not aware that this has been done. So, NTA remains a failed eagle unto itself, living in expired glory whose currency has been fully appropriated by the razzle dazzle of modern day broadcasters. NTA’s primary audience remains the government whose purpose it serves. 

    Looking at the antecedents of NTA, the question in the wind is, was NTA a part of the big script put together to throw Nigeria into confusion starting from Adamawa? Answers will come from the ongoing investigations but human rights lawyer and activist, Femi Falana (SAN), has asked for the scrutiny of Binani as well in the entire saga. 

    For the sins of NTA, the NBC is being pilloried by quite a number of people who want to see justice served democratically instead of peacemeal dispensation of punishment to perceived enemies. And they have a point. 

    In the past, or let’s circumscribe it to the election period, several stations, including AIT, Channels, Arise TV, TVC and a host of others, have been sanctioned for “severe infractions.” And lately, Channels got another hit because of an interview with Datti Baba Ahmed, Vice Presidential candidate of the Labour Party. 

    In capturing the litany of fines on broadcasters, the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON)wrote in their letter to the NBC: “We dare say that imposition of fines on Channels Television and many other cases in the recent past are not only arbitrary but smacks of high handedness which is already suffocating the broadcast media in the country.”

    In the heat of this protestation, why are people suggesting another punishment for one of the BON members, NTA?

    The answer I get is very straight forward. The offence is grave because NTA was part of an intricate civilian cum political coup to cause mayhem in the country, and should therefore not be let off easily.

    I have also asked, will NBC sanction NTA? The answer I get is lucicrous. What do you think? they retorted. 

    What do I think? Let me paint a little picture that may look very ordinary but harbours some truth. The NBC is the regulator of the entire broadcast industry. However, both the NBC and the NTA belong to the Ministry of Information and Culture superintended by Alhaji Lai Mohammed. If you look at the history of sanctions since the coming of Mohammed as minister , nearly every sanction, except the one on TVC, carries his imprimatur. This writer is aware that the minister is still railing at that particular sanction on TVC. 

    Under the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, some agencies were blanketed or captured by their supervising ministers. The NBC is one of those agencies. It looks unimaginable to me that the minister would sanction the NTA irrespective of its poor performance at Adamawa and the extensive outrage and condemnation such performance attracted from a concerned populace. 

    However, I expect something to shift as the NBC has to begin a recalibration of its self respect, relevance and worth as the life of this administration ebbs out. It has to be a long way back to the top which perhaps will begin with how it handles the NTA “severe infraction,” if I am permitted to borrow that phrase from its sanction letters.

    At the time of the drama in Adamawa, some top management members of the Commission were attending the National Association of Broadcaters Conference (NAB) in Las Vegas in the United States. No. It wasn’t a jamboree. NAB is home to the latest broadcast equipment exhibition and about the biggest broadcast conference in the world. Any regulator worth its salt must attend NAB annually to refresh and just learn. I am very excited that in spite of being in very dire straits in recent years, the NBC was still able to fund some of its staff to attend. 

    But I welcome them back home. There is a job to be done. Nigerians expect to hear from the NBC and perhaps be comforted by the kind of decision it will take concerning the NTA. They want to see some similitude of action to determine whether the NBC is ready for the next phase of its journey which begins in just over a month. 

  • Adamawa guber election: How Fintiri defeated Binani

    Adamawa guber election: How Fintiri defeated Binani

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Tuesday declared Gov Ahmadu Fintiri of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the governorship election in Adamawa State.

    Fintiri polled 430,788 votes to defeat his closest opponent, Sen. Aishatu Binani of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who scored 398,788 votes.

    Recall INEC had declared the governorship election held on March 18 in the State as inconclusive due to some irregularities. A supplementary election was subsequently scheduled for April 15.

    However, controversy trailed the purported declaration of the APC’s Binani as the winner of the supplementary poll by the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner. The commission, thereafter, declared the pronouncement null and void.

    Announcing the results of the governorship election on Tuesday in Yola, the Returning Officer, Prof. Mohammed Mele, said that the supplementary poll was conducted in 69 Polling Units across 20 local government areas of the state.

    “Ahmadu Fintiri of the PDP, having satisfied the requirements of the law and scored the highest number of votes in the election is hereby declared the winner and returned elected,” he said.