TheNewsGuru

Tag: Zamfara

  • Force commander issues 24-hour ultimatum to bandits in Zamfara

    The Force Commander, Operation Hadarin Daji, Maj.-Gen. Jide Ogunlade on Tuesday issued a 24-hour ultimatum to bandits in Zamfara state to either surrender or face “unprecedented fire-fight”.

    Ogunlade issued the warning at a news conference at the command headquarters of the force in Gusau.

    He noted with disappointment how the bandits refused to surrender and denounce their unacceptable ways in May when the state’s governor, Alh. Bello Matawalle offered to give amnesty to those, who surrendered.

    “It is disheartening that when the state governor offered them amnesty, within few hours we recorded 20 separate attacks on communities.

    “This showed that the criminals were not ready to surrender; that is why I am now giving them the next 24 hours.

    “The only option left for them is to immediately cease fire, drop their arms, and surrender or have themselves to blame,” he said.

    The force commander said that the bandits had always taken advantage of the cover offered by the terrain of the community whenever the operatives, who he said conducted themselves professionally chased them, but warned that “this time around we will go to their enclaves and hideouts where there will be collateral damage and neutralise them.

    “l want to assure the people of the state that banditry will very soon be history in Zamfara after this operation that will come up in the next 24 hours.

    “We will ensure that farmers carry out their farming activities and displaced villagers return home under conducive atmosphere.”

    He expressed appreciation to the Federal Government for establishing the operation and praised President Muhammadu Buhari for his support.

    News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Operation Hadarin Daji, which is now focused on Zamfara alone was inaugurated on May 10, thus replacing the expanded Operation Sharan Daji.

  • Rampaging bandits abduct Zamfara community leader, three wives, children

    Rampaging bandits on Friday kidnapped the head of Yan Buki community in Kaura Namoda local Government Area of Zamfara State, Buhari Ammani, along with his three wives.

    The bandits also abducted the community leader’s children and six others.

    A resident of the area who spoke on condition of anonymity said the bandits struck at about 1.30 am on Friday.

    Chairman of the local government Alhaji Lawal Isa, also confirmed the raid.

    He put the number of the kidnapped at nine and said it was the first attack in the area by the gunmen who have been causing trouble in the state.

    Although the spokesman for the state police command, Muhammad Shehu also confirmed the attack, he debunked the number of people said to have been kidnapped.

    He said the matter was still being investigated and the police would make public the actual number of people kidnapped.

    More details later…

  • Gunmen launch fresh attacks in Zamfara, kill 18

    Gunmen launch fresh attacks in Zamfara, kill 18

    Suspected gunmen have killed 18 persons in some communities in Tsafe Local Government Area of Zamfara, the Emir of Tsafe, Alhaji Muhammad Bawa has disclosed.

    The Emir made the disclosure on Friday while receiving a House of Representatives member representing Gusau/Tsafe Federal Constituency , Alhaji Kabir Mai-Palace in Gusau.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mai-Palace was at the Emir’s palace to condole with him and entire people of the area over the attacks.

    The emir said that the attackers invaded Bamamu, Danmale and Sako communities, Thursday evening and killed 18 persons, adding that they came with over 50 motorcycles shot sporadically on the air.

    The emir thanked the lawmaker for the visit and his concern for his people.

    Earlier, Mai-Palace had described the attack as unfortunate and worrisome.

    He said: ”I had earlier visited general hospital, Tsafe to sympathise with the victims who are receiving treatment.”

    ”Security is the major area I am giving priority to, it is very disheartening the way these bandits are attacking our communities.

    “If I go back to Abuja, I am going raise these issues in the House with the aim of finding solutions to the problems.

    ”As a representative of the people, I don’t have any commitment beyond the interest of my people.

    ”l am also going to present this incident to the Governor, Muhammad Matawallen-Maradun.”

    The lawmaker, however, urged the people of the state to remain calm and continue with prayers to seek Allah’s intervention to end the problem.

    NAN reports that the lawmaker donated cash and 20 mattresses to the victims in the hospital and held close door meeting with Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Tsafe Division, Nigeria Police.

  • We’ll end banditry in Zamfara soon, Matawalle assures residents

    We’ll end banditry in Zamfara soon, Matawalle assures residents

    Governor Bello Muhammad Matawalle of Zamfara State is optimistic that an end to banditry is in sight in his state, following the outcome of his meeting with leaders of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association.

    The meeting, according to the governor, was fruitful based on the agreement reached with the association at the Government House, Gusau Tuesday night.

    Matawalle said the Fulani leaders told him that bandits were willing to surrender their weapons and be law-abiding.

    The governor said he gathered that the bandits were tired of their activities, especially because they lacked freedom of movements, access to social needs and others.

    He pledged to embrace any bandit, who surrendered and willing to integrate into the society.

    Matawalle added that he would provide basic social amenities to repentant bandits and ensure that their children go to schools among others.

    He said his government has achieved a lot in the area of security in the last five days after his meeting with President Muhammad Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osibanjo and the Inspector General of Police Mohammed Adamu.

  • Bandits strike again in Zamfara, kill 16 on Sallah day

    Bandits were said to have allegedly killed 16 persons in Kanoma District of Maru Local Government Area of Zamfara on Sallah day.

    Confirming the attack in a press statement in Gusau on Wednesday, the Director-General on Media to the state governor, Yusuf Idris, said “the governor visited the community and sympathised with them”.

    “During the visit, the governor also directed security agencies to immediately “swing” into action and bring the perpetrators to book.

    “The governor also directed the movement of 14 persons, who sustained injuries from gun shots from Kanoma General Hospital, to the Federal Medical Centre, Gusau, for better medical care.

    ”The bill should be charged to the state government,” he said.

    He then expressed the state governor’s resolve to join hands with well meaning individuals and groups in the state to bring an end to armed banditry in the state.

    He said the District Head of Kanoma, Yahaya Mohammed, had told the governor that the bandits invaded the area in the evening and fired gunshots sporadically, which led to the death of the 16 persons, with 14 injured.

  • APC expels Marafa, others over alleged anti-party activities

    APC expels Marafa, others over alleged anti-party activities

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Zamfara state has expelled Senator Kabiru Garba Marafa for alleged anti-party activities.

    Marafa is representing Zamfara Central in the outgoing Senate.

    Others expelled along with the Federal lawmaker for the same alleged offence are Hon Aminu Sani Jaji and Mal Ibrahim Wakkala Liman.

    In a statement signed by its State Publicity Secretary, Shehu Isah, and made available to newsmen in Abuja on Monday, the decision followed the activation of the provisions of Article 21 (A) ii and (D) V which spells out the punishment for members who violate the APC constitutional provisions and engaged in acts inimical to the interest of the party.

    The statement reads “For the avoidance of doubt, the said Article 21 (A) (ii) and (D) (V) of the APC Constitution (2014 as amended) provides as follow:”

    “A(ii) Anti-Party activities or any conduct, which is likely to embarrass or have adverse effect on the party or bring the party into hatred, contempt, ridicule or disrepute”

    “D (V) Any member who files an action in Court of law against the party or any of its Officers on any matter or matters relating to the discharge of the duties of the party without first exhausting the avenues for redress provided for in this Constitution shall automatically stand expelled from the party on filling such action and no appeal against expulsion as stipulated in this Clause shall be entertained until the withdrawal of the action from Court by the members.”

    “We are therefore by this notice informing the general public that from the date of the said resolution, the aforementioned members cease to be members of the All Progressives Congress and consequently are disentitled from enjoying right, privileges and benefits from the party, the statement added.

  • Ayanruoh support Sagay’s comment on Supreme Court verdict on Rivers, Zamfara

    Mr. Felix Ayanruoh, a United States and Nigeria licensed attorney and recipient of the United States Congress, Congressional Recognition Award has put his weight behind Prof. Sagay’s comment on the apex courts recent decision on Rivers and Zamfara.

    In a recent telephone call from New York he said the purpose of democracy is to preserve and promote personal liberty including the right to vote, be voted for and the said vote count.

    Ayanruoh stated that he is aligning his constitutional philosophy with the learned SAN – he argued that the court should prioritize the protection of voting rights so that Nigerians themselves can decide at the ballot box who should lead them instead of judges or justices.

    In light of Prof Sagay’s mirroring critiques, what account for the staying power of democracy and justice? The answer I think is the fact that Nigeria from independence, excluding military regimes is built on representative democracy.

    Democracy also known as a Representative Government is an electoral system where citizens vote to elect people to represent their interests and concerns. Those elected meet to debate and make laws on behalf of the whole community or society, instead of the people voting directly on laws and other debates.

    The fact that the constitution central value is democratic participation is non sequitur – all of the words of our constitution are used to set the ground rules for democracy.

    The core of our system of government appears to consist of both the central value of our constitution as democratic and participatory and therefore in searching to the limits on how to interprete the open-ended provisions of the constitution and our electoral laws, judges should be guided by the principle of democratic principles and participation

    There is logical inconsistency between establishing a basically democratic system with substantial side constraints where constraints is to be found in guardians (judges) as against millions, but if overtime the guardians, pursuant to their ostensibly unlimited role of enforcing the side constraints, increasingly remove the most vital right from the domain of the voters and their representatives, then the point of the constitution’s democratic provisions will be lost and accordingly we ought to reject it at the outset an interpretation of the open ended provisions that authorize the guardians to proceed down that part

    The Supreme Court’s decision in Rivers and Zamfara are certainly interventionist decisions that must be reversed for democracy and justice to stay supreme.

  • As Zamfara joins Rivers in APC’s debacle, By Ehichioya Ezomon

    In one of the greatest ironies of Nigeria’s political development, the “defeated” candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 general election in Zamfara State were on Monday, May 27, and Friday, May 31, 2019, issued with certificates of return by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
    It’s in consummation of the judgment of the Supreme Court, which voided the votes, and victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February 23 and March 9, 2019, polls, respectively.
    Having determined that the APC didn’t conduct “valid primaries” to merit its “landslide triumph,” the apex court on Friday, May 24, “declared elected” the runners-up (political parties) in the governorship, and national and state assembly ballots.
    As the votes cast for the APC were “wasted votes,” the INEC, as the court ordered, recognized the political party with the second highest votes, and required spread in the elections, and the lot fell on the main opposition PDP, and its candidates.
    Recipients of the certificates of return were the Governor-elect, Bello Matawalle; Deputy Governor-elect, Mahdi Gusau; the three Senators-elect; seven House of Representatives Members-elect; and 23 House of Assembly Members-elect.
    Also recognized as a Member-elect, and given a certificate of return was the candidate of the National Rescue Movement (NRM), Kabiru Hashimu, representing the Maru South state constituency.
    Novel as the Supreme Court verdict is, and shocking to many members of the APC, keen watchers of the polity had anticipated the political melodrama in the Zamfara chapter to end like its counterpart in Rivers State.
    Both chapters were enmeshed in alleged manipulation of the congresses/primaries to select candidates for the governorship and legislative seats in the general election.
    While the courts barred the Rivers chapter from fielding candidates, the Zamfara APC got a last-minute reprieve from the state High Court, enabling it to present candidates for the polls, which it won.
    It’s a gamble, though, that crumbled on Friday, May 24, at the behest of the Supreme Court, which, in concurrence with the lower courts, ruled that the Zamfara chapter didn’t conduct valid primaries in line with the party guidelines.
    Because the APC placed “something on nothing,” as the legalese goes, the court voided its victory in the national and state assembly, and the governorship contests.
    Thus, in absolute terms, the APC, without a fight, lost Zamfara and Rivers, as the courts punished the chapters for breaching the party guidelines, and injunctions that put the primaries on hold.
    Yet, the case of Zamfara is pathetic, as the APC was given a “lifeline” by a high court to field candidates for the elections, and it won all positions, beating the PDP to a distant second place.
    For instance, in the governorship, APC’s candidate, Mukhtar Idris, polled 534,541 votes to defeat PDP’s Mutawalle, who got 189,452 votes – a margin of lead of 345,089 votes.
    Ironically, Mutawalle is the new governor of Zamfara, as the Supreme Court ruled that the governorship and legislative seats be inherited by the runners-up at the polls. This gave the PDP the chance to proverbially “reap where it did not sow.”
    That’s why the APC national chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, described as devoid of justice, and undemocratic the court verdict he said relied on “technicalities” to “impose strangers,” that the people didn’t vote for, to govern Zamfara.
    As usual, the PDP has joined the fray, unabashedly claiming that “justice” was done in the matter. Which justice is it parroting? That of losing woefully at the polls even when the odds were stacked against the APC in Zamfara throughout the campaign season? Or is it another case of a “stolen mandate” for the PDP?
    Were APC’s “wasted votes” not discountenanced to meet the new realities, the PDP knew its candidates had no chance in hell of meeting the thresholds to be declared, and returned elected.
    Surely, the party can gloat, as it’s got “justice” through the back door, courtesy of the supremacy fight between former Governor Yari and Senator Marafa, none of whom cared for the party’s fortunes.
    Indeed, in the lead-up to the polls, Marafa declared: “I don’t give a damn if APC loses the elections in Zamfara… It will be better to have another (governing) party in Zamfara than to have APC.”
    And that’s happened. So, rather than Yari and Marafa to lower their heads in shame, show contrition, and apologize for their anti-party activities, they’re busy, invoking the “will of Allah,” or “justice being served” to rationalize the outcome of their do-or-die for power for themselves or their cronies.
    Without a doubt, the APC problems in Zamfara and Rivers began when Yari and former Governor Rotimi Amaechi wanted to “impose” anointed candidates, but met their match in former Senators Marafa and Magnus Abe, who also aspired to be governors.
    As leaders of the APC in the states, Yari and Amaechi accusingly sidelined the Marafa and Abe factions in the congresses/primaries of the chapters.
    And with a common thread binding them, Marafa and Abe took the APC to court, and in the process, acted as if they belonged in the PDP. Their factional members not only sat with PDP members in the gallery, but also celebrated together all rulings against the APC.
    Theirs resembles the two biblical women, who claimed ownership of a child. While the biological mother wanted the child spared, and given to the other woman, the latter urged that it be divided so both women would have one-half each of the (dead) child.
    Relate this scriptural scenario to the claims by Marafa and Abe: that their factions mainstreamed the APC in Zamfara and Rivers. If that were so, why would they want the party divided, barred from contesting, defeated, or its “victories” voided, as in Zamfara?
    Which raises a frightening possibility: Marafa and Abe could have pursued, “to a logical conclusion,” if the presidential primaries to validate the nomination of President Muhammadu Buhari were part of their claims in the courts!
    This is despite their professed loyalty and support to Buhari, whose interest, as the leader of the APC, and running for re-election, they didn’t consider in their pursuit of the court cases that resulted in APC’s “zero participation” in the 2019 polls in both states.
    Still, the Zamfara (and Rivers) chapter’s debacle isn’t what Senator Marafa ascribed to the “non-interference” of the president in the party matters or legal issues therefrom.
    Buhari never wanted a division in the APC that he’s using for his second term bid. But his appeals fell on the deaf ears of the likes of Marafa and Abe, and Yari and Amaechi – all of whom Karma has visited with “political failures” in the elections.
    * Mr. Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
  • Insecurity: Zamfara Governor leads operation against bandits

    Insecurity: Zamfara Governor leads operation against bandits

    Gov. Bello Matawalle of Zamfara on Sunday led security agencies in the state on an operation against bandits in their bush camps and hideouts near Wonaka town in Gusau Local Government area of the state.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the governor was accompanied by his deputy, Mahadi Aliyu-Gusau, heads of security agencies in the state on his way to Lilo community in Mada district of Gusau local government area.

    Bandits had on Saturday attacked Lilo community which resulted in the killing of eight persons while 18 others were injured.

    The bandits were chased away at their camps during the governor’s unannounced visit to the area.

    They abandoned their hideouts and crossed a near by river and disappeared from the operatives who were on the governor’s motorcade.

    The governor said , “As Chief security officer of the state, l have to show a good example, I have no option than to lead security agencies for this operation.”

    “As a leader, I have to show commitment to my people toward addressing this problem.”

    The entourage also included the Emir of Gusau, Alhaji Ibrahim Bello, Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Bello Bala, State Chairman of People Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Ibrahim Mallaha and other top government officials in the state.

    The District Head of Wonaka, Alhaji Kogo Balarabe, thanked the governor for the visit.

    Balarabe said “we are happy with this visit, for over eight years, we have no any concern from the authorities like this, we cannot express our feelings today.

    “We are happy with the efforts of government, we thank security agencies intervention during yesterday’s attacks which helped in containing the situation,” he said.

    Chairman of Vigilance Group in the area, Sani Danmudi, appealed to government for more intervention to address the security challenges in the area, saying that many villages in the area had been sacked by the bandits.

  • Zamfara: PDP blasts Sagay over comments on S/Court verdict

    The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Sunday upbraided the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Prof Itse Sagay over his comments on the recent Supreme Court judgements on state elections in Zamfara and River States.

    Prof Sagay had, in a recent press interview, described the apex court’s judgments as “national tragedy” and “unimaginable injustice”.

    The PACAC chair had gone ahead to say that the judgments should not be allowed to stand, comments which the PDP considered a call for “anarchy and rebelliousness against our constitutional democratic order and rule of law”.

    In a statement by its national spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP flayed Sagay’s frontal attack on the justices of the apex court and the judiciary as a critical institution of government.

    It described the Professor’s comments as “resort to incitement and hate language against the Supreme Court Justices”, adding that they have exposed the mindset of the Buhari administration.

    According the the main opposition party, the Presidency and the governing All Progressives congress (APC) are desperately plotting to “cow, blackmail, intimidate and attempt to annex the judiciary, particularly, the Supreme Court”, ahead of the determination of PDP’s presidential election petition pending before the Court of Appeal.

    “The PDP notes that Prof. Sagay’s comment has also revealed the level of condescension, derision and contempt the Buhari Presidency and the APC have for the Justices of the Supreme Court.

    “By declaring the upholding of justice by the Supreme Court as a ‘national tragedy’ and ‘unimaginable injustice’, and suggesting that, ‘we (probably, his party members) should not allow’ the judgment as delivered, Prof. Sagay is calling for anarchy and rebelliousness against our constitutional democratic order and rule of law.

    “Our party believes that such intentional attack on the integrity of the Supreme Court can only emanate from feverish apprehensions by the Buhari Presidency and the APC that they might not have their way in the Presidential election petition, hence this resort to blackmail”, the party added.

    Stating that the PDP is law-abiding party, the party said it would continue to hold the integrity of the justices as well as the institution of the judiciary very high.

    It vowed never to support this attempt by “agents of the APC” to clip and sequester the judiciary for their partisan interests.

    The party insisted that there is no way Prof. Sagay, a professor of Law, can justify his call for the rejection of the Supreme Court judgments on Zamfara and Rivers states.

    The judgments, PDP said, were in protection of rule of law, democratic ethos, as well as the wishes and aspirations of the people.

    It accused the APC of attempts to take control of the various states through manipulations and awarding of fictitious votes to their candidates.

    The PDP called on the Supreme Court Justices to note the machinations of the APC and continue to be firm in upholding justice.

    According to the opposition party, which benefited handsomely from the two cases, the judgements should serve as lessons to political parties on the need to adhere strictly to rules of internal democracy in the electoral process.