TheNewsGuru

Tag: kogi

  • Angry youths attack Gov Bello, orders him to pay workers’ salary

    Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State on Wednesday escaped mob attack on his convoy at Idah Local Government area of the state.

    He was on his way from Ibaji, the hometown of his deputy.

    According to an witness who spoke on condition of anonymity to Daily Post, Bello was in town to flag off a road construction.

    It was gathered that the youths of Idah town sighting the governor, immediately mobilised and blocked the road waiting for his return.

    On his return, security agents attached to his convoy, having seen the road block, immediately began sporadic shooting and in the ensuing melee, people scampered for safety.

    But those who were fearless, descended on his convoy and battered vehicles while chanting “pay Kogi workers’ salary.”

    The report also showed that the Governor was to supervise demolition of a house belonging to the father of an alleged kidnapper, but had to quickly rush out of Idah having seen the audacity with which the attack on him was being carried out.

    As at the time of filing this report, Idah town was said to have been deserted for fear of reprisal attack

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the government is yet to issue official reaction on the matter.

     

  • Kogi Govt opens bidders’ conference for PPP projects

    Kogi Government on Saturday opened bidders conference for pre-qualified investors to undertake Public/Private Partnership (PPP) projects in the State.

    Mr Bob Achaya, Director-General, of the Kogi State Bureau of Public/Private Partnership Procurement (BPPP), disclosed this at a meeting with pre-qualified investors in Lokoja.

    He said the bidders’ conference was the first of its kind in the history of the state.

    “Kogi State has started the BPPP implementation and we are having PPP procurement bid open to be followed by technical and financial proposals in fortnight.

    “We have previously received Expression of Interest (EoI) from investors through advertisement, and opened a bid which allows us to pre-qualified companies that are interested in those projects.

    “The projects include Confluence Beach Hotel, Lokoja, Mega Bus Terminal, Mega World Class Business Mall, Consolidated Billings, Environmental Revenue Levy, Sanitary Inspection of Premises, among others.

    “Today, the BPPP office is engaging the Ministry of Environment, which by its mandate, procures every PPP in the state; we had earlier received seven PPP requests of no objection from the ministry.

    “After review, we had only three out of the seven projects with no objection for advertisement while others go through the formal conventional procurement process”, he said.

    The director named the three categories of bidding as consolidated billings, sanitary inspection of premises and environmental revenue levy, adding that a bid fee was N350, 000 per investor.

    “This bidders conference is also to intimate the bidders with issues arising, challenges, prospects and stages that will lead to the final close of the deal.

    “The close of the deal is the concluding part of the business with private sector proponents who will manage and operate whatever scheme agreed upon.’’

    Mr Suleiman Babanawa, one of the investors, told NAN that the government of Kogi deserved commendation on the issue of BPPP for giving every investor a level playing ground.

    “Initially, I was not interested because I thought it was going to be business as usual that those projects had already been awarded before advertising them.

    “We are, however, proved wrong because we have been going through the normal process since we applied, we are happy that confidence is being restored which is good for the state.’’

    Mr Abolaji Femi, Desk Officer, Ministry of Environment, told NAN that the bidding process has been smooth due to the cooperation of the investors coupled with commitment of the state government.

    NAN reports that ten companies were pre-qualified by BPPP for the bidding but seven were present at the bidder’s conference.

     

    NAN

  • Kogi guber ticket: Faleke floors PDP in court

     

    The Federal High Court in Lagos has dismissed a suit by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its member Mutiu Okunola challenging James Faleke’s nomination as the All Progressives Congress (APC) Deputy Governorship candidate in Kogi State.

    The suit complained that Faleke’s nomination constitutes double nomination as he retains his seat as a member of the House of Representatives, representing Ikeja Federal Constituency in Lagos.

    The plaintiffs asked the court to compel Faleke to vacate his seat as a member of the House.

    According to a report by Daily Post, Okunola and PDP sought a declaration that the transfer of Faleke’s membership from Lagos to Kogi by INEC automatically terminated Faleke’s membership of the Ikeja Federal Constituency and consequently extinguishes his continued representation of the Constituency in the House.

    But, the defendants said the subject matter of the action was academic as it was already decided at the election tribunal and the Court of Appeal where the plaintiffs lost.

    In his judgment, Justice Abdulazeez Anka held that the intention of the draftsmen as it relates to Section 37 of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) is to the effect that double nomination is as regards one candidate being nominated to contest an election under two different political parties.

    The judge said where a candidate is nominated for an election while still holding an elective position under the same political party does not amount to double nomination.

    According to the judge, only a member of the same political party that made the nomination can challenge the nomination of a candidate.

    Justice Anka held that the issue of whether the transfer of data by INEC of a registered voter from one constituency to another can constitute a ground to disbar a person from holding an office was academic as no law was provided by the plaintiffs’ counsel to show that a candidate or a voter whose data has been transferred by INEC would be disbarred from continuing to hold the office.

  • Gov. Bello lavished over N230bn within 1yr in office, runs Kogi like personal property, Kogi APC alleges

    The leadership of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Kogi State chapter has lambasted the governor of the state, Alhaji Yahaya Bello for his alleged reckless spending and refusal to pay entitlements of civil servants and pensioners since assuming office a year ago.

    The party accused the governor of running a government that is bereaved of transparency, accountability and justifiable financial conducts.

    “The responsibility of any responsive leader is to be transparent, accountable and justifiable in its financial conducts.

    “Governor Yahaya in defiant to this standard rule of good governance has never deemed it necessary to render public account since his assumption of office. All the other Governors that just spent one year in office accounted for their stewardship nationwide.

    “This has led to gross public financial failure and reckless spending by the government, as we have it on record that Governor Bello has wasted and lavished over N230bn in one year.

    “This represents thirteen months Federal Allocations to the state; N10bn infrastructural development funds, N30bn bailout fund, over N11bn Paris Club excess refund. We also have the N16bn refunded for federal government roads built by the past administration of Alh. Ibrahim Idris, N700m ecological fund.

    “All these above exclude an average of N600m internally generated revenue monthly,” the party said.

    On the alleged failure to pay state workers and pensioners, the party was furious with the Governor, stressing that such act has made the people of Kogi to start disliking the APC.

    “The political leaders of Kogi State and the APC stakeholders have resolved unequivocally to give 4 weeks ultimatum to Governor Yahaya Bello, to reconcile the ongoing staff audit in the state with the realities on ground, pay our civil servants, the pensioners and others,” APC said.

    The party also threatened “peaceful revolution” across the 21 LGAs of the State,” should the governor refuse to do the needful within the stipulated time.

    Some of the posers the party wants the Governor to address also include, the reason he “sacked medical Doctors in all the public hospitals”; “why he has decided to run the affairs of the state without the political party he claims to belong”; whether it is “possible for a state like Kogi to function without teachers in schools, ” among others.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the Press Briefing was attended by the Kogi APC Senator in the 8th Assembly, Dino Melaye, 5 former Senators, serving and past House of Reps members of APC extraction and elders of the party drawn from across the LGAs.

     

  • Don’t appoint Faleke as Ocholi’s replacement, Kogi APC tells Buhari

    Don’t appoint Faleke as Ocholi’s replacement, Kogi APC tells Buhari

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kogi State has called on President Muhammadu Buhari not to nominate or appoint Hon. James Faleke as Minister from the state as such move will bring serious crisis to the party in the state.

    This was contained in a statement jointly signed and issued by the leaders of the party from Kogi West, Alhaji Suleiman Ejibunu and Chief Richard Asaje, which copy was made available to journalists yesterday in Lokoja.

    According to the statement, the case in question was the case of the state ministerial slot as it was claimed in some quarters that Faleke, a serving member of Federal House of Representative representing Lagos State, who lost power in the state will fill the vacant position of state ministerial slot.

    “If at all Faleke and his godfather, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, deserve any post, it is not the ministerial slot of Kogi State in order to avoid serious crisis in the state APC as such move may lead to exit of prominent, loyal and committed members of the party while also aggravating the fractionalisation of the party along many divides.

    “We are also unequivocally resolute to stop Tinubu’s expansion into the state or any state in the North-central; we are determined to push out all his consults from the state in 2018/2019. It is a task that must be done through all legal/political means. They have failed and they will continue to fail,” the statement noted.

    “Faleke, representing Lagos State in the National Assembly was known to Kogi State APC only during the governorship struggle when “Tinubu imposed him on the state APC as the deputy governorship candidate to late Prince Abubakar Audu.

    “This generated a lot of discomfort to the founding member of APC who built the party and fought the then sitting government in all national election and won. However, we swallow the pains to fight and win the governorship election in the state.

    “Faleke took the party to court up to Supreme Court and lost while some leaders have remain from begging to support and build APC in the state, if those leaders’ efforts are left to this ugly power play with humiliation of this nature, what type of party and country are we building? APC asked.

    APC added that party reconciliation was propose as Faleke rejected any form of reconciliation with the state Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, at one-year anniversary prayer for late Audu at Ogbonicha confirming his determination to continue to fight APC.

    “Giving him such an appointment will amount to providing him fuel to fire up the disintegration of APC in the state. Faleke alongside Hon. Buba Jibril in the West Senatorial Area of Kogi State have formed illegal party structures and lay claim to illegal stakeholder structure for which a petition is already before the national leadership of the party on Jibril,” the party leaders added.

  • Breaking: Gunmen kidnap Kogi traditional ruler, demand N20m

    Breaking: Gunmen kidnap Kogi traditional ruler, demand N20m

    Some unknown gunmen have abducted a traditional ruler in Kogi, a family source said in Lokoja on Sunday.

    The monarch, whose name was given as Alhaji Isah Achuja, the Ohi of Ajaokuta, was returning from Lokoja, the state capital, on Saturday when his vehicle was intercepted on the Lokoja-Ajaokuta road at gunpoint and the ruler taken to an unknown destination.

    A member of the royal family, who did not want his name in print, told newsmen that an aide to the traditional ruler and his driver narrowly escaped being hit by the bullets of the abductors.

    He said the abductors had already contacted the family and demanded a N20 million ransom.

    Contacted by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the State Police Command’s spokesman, ASP Williams Aya, said the incident had not been reported to the command.

    He, however, promised that police would swing into action in a bid to to rescue the monarch as soon as the details of the abduction were available.

  • Melaye blows hot over vacant ministerial slot, says Kogi has been ostracized

    Melaye blows hot over vacant ministerial slot, says Kogi has been ostracized

    …threatens to carry out “alternative measures” if President Buhari failed to make the replacement as soon as possible.

    The Senator representing Kogi West, Senator Dino Melaye on Wednesday lamented the continued delay in the replacement of the Kogi State Ministerial slot after the demise of the late Minister of State for Employment, Labour and Productivity, James Ocholi, SAN.

    Recall that Ocholi died in March alongside his wife and son in a ghastly auto-accident, along Kaduna-Abuja road.

    Melaye while raising a Point of Order told the Senate during the plenary that Kogi has been completely ostracized from President Muhammadu Buhari’s government.

    He said it was an injustice not to replace the deceased minister nine months after.

    According to him, Kogi people had been deprived of economic, social and political goodwill that go with the ministerial slot.

    “We, Kogi People have been ostracized; nine months is too long a time to replace a minister. We have lost so much, we don’t want to lose again,” Melaye said.

    The Kogi Senator, however, threatened to carry out what he called “alternative measures” if President Buhari failed to make the replacement as soon as possible.

    “Kogi people are not begging. It is our right. If it (replacement) is not done, we will take alternative measures. We have a right to civil disobedience,” he added.

    He, therefore, called on the Senate to intervene on the matter to ensure that Kogi got its ministerial slot.

    The Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu who presided over the plenary, described the development as “unjust and a violation of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended)”.

    Ekweremadu, however, called on Buhari to ensure the replacement was done as soon as possible.