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  • Buhari condemns attack on Kogi community

    Buhari condemns attack on Kogi community

    President Muhammadu Buhari has condemned the murder of 19 people by unidentified gunmen in Tawari community of Kogi Local Government Area, Kogi State.

    “There is no excuse or justification for killing innocent people by anybody or group, and for whatever motive,’’Buhari said in a statement by Malam Garba Shehu.

    “The killings and revenge killings will only aggravate the cycle of violence, creating neither safety nor security for any side.

    “People should avoid taking the law into their own hands because doing so could make a bad situation worse and undermine the government’s efforts to tackle security challenges.

    “I am gravely worried about frequency and temptation of using violence to settle disputes instead of following lawful and amicable means to avoid needless destruction of lives and property,’’ the President added.

    The President’s response came few hours after he reassured Nigerians about the planned withdrawal of the military from areas where peace had been restored.

    He said it will not be done in a manner that will expose communities to more risks of attacks.

    The president said the withdrawal will be gradual and carefully planned, not abrupt or arbitrary to jeopardise the success already recorded by the military.

    Reacting to concerns and appeals from governors and community leaders over the proposed withdrawal, President Buhari said the “administration will not abandon citizens in need of protection.”

    He urged Nigerians, especially public affairs analysts, to carefully study the statement following a security council meeting with service chiefs that the withdrawal of troops will be done after an “assessment” to determine areas where peace had returned to enable civil authorities assume full control.

    President Buhari said where it is determined that the withdrawal will not in any way jeopardize peace already achieved, the military pull out will be in a careful and gradual way.

    “You don’t need to worry. We will not expose our people and their communities to harm or danger,” the President assured.

    “The withdrawal is to allow the military focus on its primary duty of defending the nation against external aggression. It is the duty of the police to handle internal security since Nigeria is not at war.

    “The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps will support the police to provide internal security. When it is time to withdraw, nothing will be rushed,’’ he added.

  • BREAKING: 19 killed, houses burnt as gunmen attack Kogi community

    Gunmen have killed no fewer than 19 people in Tawari community in the Kogi Local Government Area of Kogi State, burning buildings, including the palace of the king of the community.

    The Public Relations Officer of the Kogi State Police Command, Mr Williams Anya, confirmed the development in an interview with the newsmen on Friday.

    He said that a police assessment team had visited the community and that many buildings, including places of worship had been burnt.

    Tawari community is a few kilometres off Gegu town along the Lokoja-Abuja highway.

    A resident of Tawari community, Mrs Comfort Solomon, who survived the attack, told NAN that the gunmen, numbering about 100 invaded the community late on Thursday.

    She said the gunmen came in their numbers on motorcycles and descended on the village, killing and burning buildings until the early hours of Friday.

    Solomon said that many places of worship, including the palace of the Akuma of Tawari were burnt down by the invaders. ”The gunmen were up to 100 in number.

    They came into the community with motorcycles around 11:15 p.m. when villagers were sleeping. “They entered selected houses, packed foodstuff and motorcycles and burnt selected houses, including homes of clerics.

    ”They killed more than 15 men. The attackers were communicating with each other in Hausa language,” Solomon stated, weeping profusely.

    Similarly, in Minna, Niger, Mrs Rita Nuhu, an indigene of Tawari, who also spoke to NAN on telephone on the development, said that her father’s house was completely burnt down during the attack.

    ”My people have been calling me from home that my father’s house was burnt down by the attackers.

    “My mother and her sister were ordered out of the house after which the house was set ablaze, while about 15 men were killed. Nuhu told NAN that latest information she got from her village was that the death toll would rise.

    ”We are calling on security agencies to bring the perpetrators to justice. We appeal to the federal and state governments to come to our aid,” she pleaded.

    The king of Tawari, Chief Idris Yusuf, who also spoke to NAN on telephone, confirmed the incident, saying it was the first time the community was experiencing such attack.

    “This is the first time we are witnessing such deadly attack in our community. Our community has been very peaceful.

    Yusuf, who is the Aguma of Tawari, said that he would provide details on the development as he was busy attending to sympathisers.

  • Over 100 gunmen invade Kogi Community, massacre 19

    Over 100 gunmen invade Kogi Community, massacre 19

    Gunmen, numbering about 100 have sacked a community in Kogi State, massacred 19 people and burnt several houses.

    The gunmen were said to have stormed Tawari community in the Kogi Local Government Area of Kogi State around 11:15pm on Thursday and unleash mayhem on the sleeping community.

    Several buildings, including the palace of the king of the community were razed.

    Williams Anya, Police Public Relations Officer, Kogi State Police Command confirmed the tragedy, saying that a police assessment team had visited the community and that many buildings, including places of worship had been burnt.

    NAN reports that Tawari community is a few kilometres off Gegu town along the Lokoja-Abuja highway.

    A resident of Tawari community, Mrs Comfort Solomon, who survived the attack, said that the gunmen, numbering about 100 invaded the community late on Thursday.

    She said the gunmen came in their numbers on motorcycles and descended on the village, killing and burning buildings until the early hours of Friday.

    Solomon said that many places of worship, including the palace of the Akuma of Tawari were burnt down by the invaders.

    ”The gunmen were up to 100 in number. They came into the community with motorcycles around 11:15 p.m. when villagers were sleeping.

    “They entered selected houses, packed foodstuff and motorcycles and burnt selected houses, including homes of clerics.

    ”They killed more than 15 men. The attackers were communicating with each other in Hausa language,” Solomon stated, weeping profusely.

    Similarly, a NAN correspondent in Minna, Niger, Mrs Rita Nuhu, an indigene of Tawari, said that her father’s house was completely burnt down during the attack.

    ”My people have been calling me from home that my father’s house was burnt down by the attackers. My mother and her sister were ordered out of the house after which the house was set ablaze, while about 15 men were killed.

    Nuhu said the latest information she got from her village was that the death toll would rise.

    ”We are calling on security agencies to bring the perpetrators to justice. We appeal to the federal and state governments to come to our aid,” she pleaded.

    The king of Tawari, Chief Idris Yusuf, confirmed the incident, saying it was the first time the community was experiencing such attack.

    “This is the first time we are witnessing such deadly attack in our community. Our community has been very peaceful.

    Yusuf, who is the Aguma of Tawari, said that he would provide details on the development as he was busy attending to sympathisers.

  • Publish names of ghost workers – Kogi Labour challenges HoS

    Publish names of ghost workers – Kogi Labour challenges HoS

    The Organised Labour in Kogi State has challenged the Head of Service, (HoS), Mrs Deborah Ogunmola to publish the names of ghost workers allegedly discovered by the state government.

    The challenge was coming on the backdrop of reports credited to the head of service that the state government uncovered 300 ghost workers allegedly planted by senior civil servants in the state.

    A statement by the state chairman, Nigeria Labour Congress, (NLC), Comrade Onuh Edoka and his Trade Union Congress (TUC) counterpart, Comrade Ranti Ojo described the allegation as disheartening especially in the face of series of verifications that trailed the civil service in the last three years.

    The statement noted that aside the normal verification exercise, the government also organised pay parade for all workers and had their biometric data captured. It challenged the Head of Service to publish the names of the ghost workers, their MDAs and the senior civil servants involved in the criminal activities. The labour leaders said the government’s statements since after the screening indicated that the payment system has been made watertight and only the governor could order the inclusion of any names in the payroll and wondered how senior civil servants could gain access to the payroll again.

     

  • Kogi, Bayelsa polls were peaceful – IGP

    Kogi, Bayelsa polls were peaceful – IGP

    Mohammed Adamu, inspector-general of police (IGP), says the governorship elections in Kogi and Bayelsa states were peaceful.

    Adamu said this while speaking at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) inter-agency consultative committee on election security (ICCES) meeting in Abuja on Wednesday.

    The elections, conducted on November 16, were marred by cases of violence, thuggery, ballot box snatching and intimidation of voters and electoral officials.

    At least four persons were reported dead in separate attacks in the two states.

    But speaking at the meeting which was held at the INEC headquarters, Adamu, who was represented by Bashir Makama, an assistant inspector-general of police (AIG), said the polls were “relatively peaceful”.

    He, however, admitted that there is a need to improve election security.

    “In the whole, despite the related infractions or some sort of thuggery observed and other challenges that were faced, the election could be said to be relatively peaceful,” he said, adding that “there is still room for improvements.”

    He said the police arrested at least 43 suspects in connection with violence and violation of electoral laws during the elections in the two states.

    In his remarks, Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, asked for proper identification of all police officers deployed in polling units “so that they will be held responsible for the conduct of elections in those locations”.

    “The commission believes that the purpose of security deployment during elections is to protect the voters, election officials and materials, accredited observers, the media and to safeguard the integrity of the processes generally, including the polling units and collation centres,” he said.

    “Therefore, the deployment of security personnel in all future elections should be tied to specific locations and activities.

    “All security personnel deployed to polling units and collation centres should be identified by name as is the case with INEC officials.

    “This will not only enhance transparency, but the commission and security agencies will know who to contact in specific locations during elections when the need arises.”

  • Police parade suspected killers of PDP woman leader in Kogi

    The Kogi state police command has announced the arrest of six persons in connection with the killing of Salome Abuh, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) woman leader in the state.

    She was burnt alive in her house during the collation of the November 16 governorship election result.

    While parading the suspects in Lokoja, the state capital, on Tuesday, Akeem Busari, commissioner of police, said his men in collaboration with local vigilantes arrested them on November 22.

    He identified the six suspects as Ocholi Edicha, Adamu Haruna, Onu Egbunu, Musa Alidu, Attai Haruna and Attah Ejeh.

    Busari said Edicha confessed he led the gang to Abuh’s house and also revealed that they had been masterminding a series of robberies in the state.

    The commissioner of police said all those involved in the act will not go unpunished as investigation was ongoing.

    The suspects, however, denied killing Abuh but admitted being thieves operating in the area.

    Abuh was buried during the weekend. At her funeral, Abuh’s widower said she paid the ultimate sacrifice for unity.

  • Kogi: Bello presents 2020 Appropriation Bill of N176.123bn

    Kogi: Bello presents 2020 Appropriation Bill of N176.123bn

    Gov. Yahaya Bello of Kogi on Wednesday presented an Appropriation Bill of N176.123 billion to the state House of Assembly for approval.

    Bello, represented by his deputy, Chief Edward Onoja said the budget was based on conservative projections.

    The governor said the budget represented an increase of N17.951 billion or 10.19 per cent over the 2019 figure of N158.172billion.

    He said that the budget was made up of N78.969billion recurrent expenditure representing 44.84 per cent and N97.153 billion capital expenditure representing 55 per cent.

    He said that the budget had recurrent revenue of N92.932billion consisting of N21.032 billion Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and N50.428billion Federation Account allocation.

    The governor added that N17.5 billion was expected from Value Added Tax (VAT), N120 million from excess crude account and N100 million from exchange rate differential and N130.8 billion as refund from Federal Government.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that economic sector with N61.907 billion representing 35.1 per cent got the highest sectoral allocation, while administration got the second largest allocation with N57.234 billion representing 32.5 per cent.

    Others were social sector with N49.3 billion, representing 28 per cent; law and justice with N7.6 billion representing 4.3 per cent.

  • We’ll save N290m for conducting governorship, Kogi West senatorial polls same day – INEC

    We’ll save N290m for conducting governorship, Kogi West senatorial polls same day – INEC

    The Independent National Electoral commission (INEC) said it would be saving the country over N290 million for conducting both the Kogi West Senatorial District and the governorship election on Nov. 16.

    The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this at the commission’s quarterly consultative meeting with political parties in Abuja, on Tuesday.

    Yakubu said that the senatorial election would have cost the country N300 million, if conducted as a standalone election.

    He, however, said that conducting it same day with the governorship election would cost less than N10 million.

    The INEC chairman also disclosed that the Brass I state constituency election, holding in six polling units in Bayelsa, would also be conducted on the same day with the governorship election.

    According to him, INEC has already made arrangements for the elections.

    “In the case of Kogi West, it is a whole senatorial district that the Election Petitions Tribunal and the Court of Appeal had nullified the election conducted on Feb. 23 and ordered INEC to conduct a re-run.

    “By coincidence, the judgment of the Appeal Court came very close to the governorship election. So the commission decided to combine the election with that of Kogi West Senatorial district.

    “As a standalone election, the senatorial district election in seven local government areas of the state would have cost the nation over N300 million.

    “ We have to get ad hoc staff, make arrangements for transportation, accreditation of observers and also the cost on the part of the political parties and others.

    “But because we are combining the election with that of the governorship, it is going to cost the nation less than N10 million, instead of over N300 million.

    “So, the commission decided to combine the two elections in order to save cost and for convenience,’’ he said.

    Yakubu appealed to political parties to advise their candidates and supporters to shun hate speech, inciting statements, physical attacks on opponents, destruction of electoral materials and other violations of the Electoral Act.

  • PDP faults removal of Kogi deputy governor

    PDP faults removal of Kogi deputy governor

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has faulted the impeachment of the Kogi State Deputy Governor, Mr Simeon Achuba, describing it Governor Yahaya Bello’s desperate and underhand measures to forcefully remove Achuba from office.

    Achuba was on Friday impeached by the state’s House of Assembly against the recommendation of a report of an investigative panel by the state’s Judiciary that cleared him of allegations of wrongdoing.

    In a statement on Saturday by the spokesman for the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, the main opposition party said the governor was clinging on straws.

    The PDP said that by coercing the state House of Assembly against the deputy governor even when the State Judiciary Panel acquitted him of all allegations, Governor Bello only confirmed that he has lost public trust and now desperately resorting to dirty politics and crafty methods for survival.

    The statement said, “This action of trying to remove the deputy governor via unconstitutional methods and in total disregard to the verdict of the judicial panel is, in itself, a gross misconduct and grave constitutional violation for which the state assembly, as an institution, ought to have removed Yahaya Bello as the governor of the state.

    “The PDP however alerts that the next victim of such underhand methods would be the state assembly itself, which now appears to be on the way to being used to enact draconian rules to suppress and intimidate the people of Kogi state, since there is no way Yahaya Bello will win the November 16 election and return to office.

    “It is however instructive to state that the action of the House of Assembly, in yielding to Yahaya Bello’s antics, has further reduced Kogi state to a butt of jokes among compatriots in other states of our federation.

    “What it means is that Yahaya Bello can wake up tomorrow morning and shut down institutions of government, including the state legislature, the judiciary and even the civil service and become a law unto himself.

    “However, whether the State House of Assembly has any morsel of courage left in its chamber to protect the state and her people or not, Governor Bello will surely face the judgment of the people on November 16, where he will be kicked out of office through the ballot box”.

    The party further stated that it’s also public knowledge that the governor seeks to repress the deputy governor over the latter’s decision to expose the impunity and corruption in the Bello administration, which the PDP said, had brought so much suffering to the people of Kogi state in the last four years.

    “What Nigerians expect is for Governor Bello to respond to the allegations by the deputy governor instead of this resort to bullying and attempts to remove him through unconstitutional method; a scheme that cannot stand.

    “Our apprehension is that Governor Bello, in his desperation to cling unto power, even when he has been rejected by the people, is now turning Kogi state into a state of “anything goes.” We, therefore, call on all compatriots to condemn and resist the reprehensible actions of Governor Yahaya Bello.

    “Nigeria is a nation governed by law and nobody, no matter the desperation, should be allowed to turn her, or any part thereof, to a Banana Republic”.

  • Impeached Deputy Governor not under house arrest – Police

    Impeached Deputy Governor not under house arrest – Police

    The Police authorities in Kogi State have debunked claims that impeached Deputy Governor, Elder Simon Achuba, has been placed under house arrest.

    Kogi Police Commissioner, Mr. Hakeem Busari, on Saturday, said that the presence of security personnel at the official residence of the Deputy Governor in the Government Reservation Area (GRA), Lokoja, was to prevent looting of government property.

    This, he said, followed advice to Achuba to relocate from the official residence since he is no longer the Deputy Governor and has not lost the entitlement to residing there.

    According to reports, the official residence on Saturday morning, noticed the presence of armed security personnel manning the gates.

    The CP said that the security personnel at the gate will remain until the impeached deputy governor finally moves out.

    Achuba was impeached on Friday shortly after the seven-man committee investigating allegations of gross misconduct against him submitted its report to the state house of assembly.

    Achuba has however described his removal as an exercise in futility and will not stand.

    “As I speak to you, I am under house arrest. My security aide has been withdrawn.

    “Currently in my house, security operatives from government house have taken over my residence.

    “Nobody can come in and nobody can go out,” he had claimed.

    He described the action exhibited by the Kogi Assembly as a rape of democracy, which he said will not stand.

    But the newly appointed Deputy Governor, Edward Onoja, would be screened on Monday by the House of Assembly.

    He is also expected to be sworn-in on the same day.

    The Assembly is made up of 25 members, who are all members of the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC).