INSECURITY

Buhari orders security chiefs to step up anti-terror battle

President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday directed the security agencies to step up their battle to secure the country.

He gave the directive during the Security Council meeting at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

The meeting was held amid reports of security  threats ahead of today’s Eid-El-Kabir celebration.

Many states are taking steps to guarantee a hitch-free celebration.

The Kwara State Police raised the alarm of a security threat, accusing politicians of planning to disrupt the peace. They claimed to have intercepted a vehicle-load of knives.

The government of Yobe State announced a restriction of vehicles movement from 10pm last night till 10am today.

In Adamawa, the government banned the homage to traditional rulers usually made during celebrations.

Minister of Defence Mansur Dan Ali said the security situation in the Northeast “is worrisome”.

He explained: “We have looked into it critically and we have taken absolute decision.”

Apart from the minister, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gabriel Olonisakin attended the meeting alongside   National Security Adviser Babagana Monguno, Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, Chief of Naval Staff Ibok Ekwe Ibas and Chief of Air Staff Abubakar Sadique were also at the meeting.

There were also National Intelligence Agency (NIA) Director-General Ahmed Abubakar, Inspector General of Police Ibrahim Idris and Department for State Services Acting Director-General Matthew Seiyefa.

Gen Olonisakin.told reporters that the security chiefs briefed the President on the security situation, adding:

“We just had two and half hours meeting with the President and Commander-in-Chief. We reviewed the security situation across the country in all the geopolitical zones and, of course, we made all our comments, especially the new operations in Benue, Zamfara, Taraba Operation WISE Stroke, and Operation (Saradaji).

We gave the extent of successes in these operations and we are to continue in this line of action in these operations.

“All the operations were reviewed and all the issues concerning the operations were dealt with. And he directed that we should continue to step up our game to ensure that the nation is safe and people go about their daily activities in a very safe manner.The minister added: “This is a normal routine security briefing with Mr President; he just came back, so we briefed him on all the activities we had while he was away. It is an update of the August 2 meeting.

“The decision that has been taken is that we have seen that there is a lot of improvement in the security situation in the country, more especially in Zamfara and Benue states, and in the Niger Delta.

The Adamawa Government cancelled its usual Sallah homage to traditional rulers and other stakeholders due to insecurity and emergencies created by flooding.

Commissioner for Information Ahmad Sajo said: “After due consultation with the Chairman, Adamawa State Council of Emirs and Chiefs, the Adamawa State Government has directed that the usual Sallah homage be cancelled.

“The cancellation was due to a number of reasons which included insecurity and the emergencies created by flooding which washed away a number of bridges and rendered many families homeless.”

He however urged traditional rulers, prominent citizens and critical stakeholders in the state to use the Sallah period to sensitise the people on the importance of peace, unity and security.’’

A statement by Director of Information and Press Affairs to the Yobe State Governor Abdullahi Bego said the restriction on vehicle movement would begin by 10.00pm on Monday through 10.00am today when all prayers have been concluded on Eidgrounds.

“This is to inform members of the public that following a security meeting he had with heads of security, intelligence and law enforcement in the state, His Excellency Governor Ibrahim Gaidam has approved the placement of a 12-hour restriction on vehicular movement across the state as part of preparations for a peaceful and hitch-free Eid-el Kabir prayers tomorrow Tuesday 21st August 2018.

“The restriction begins from 10.00pm tonight to 10.00am tomorrow(Tuesday).

“The public is kindly advised that no vehicle will be allowed within or near Eid prayer grounds except those on special duties.”

Kwara State Police Commissioner Aminu Saleh said in Ilorin: “Feelers have it that the Sallah will be disrupted. We want to inform you that we are looking and we are watching. We already identified three modes of dressing that we will look out for.

“It was discovered that the plot is being coordinated by top politicians of the major political parties in the state. Checks also indicated that preparatory for the offensive, they have concluded to hire mercenaries from within and outside the state to meet at designated points.

“We have intercepted a vehicle loaded with knives. I don’t know whether they needed these knives to come and slaughter rams in Ilorin.

“I am sure every household has a knife to slaughter their animal. We don’t need fresh knives here. We don’t want to lose the life of anybody for the purpose of Sallah and Durbar celebrations.

“We are sounding this note of warning for those of them who are bent on disrupting the celebrations. They must take this warning very seriously as we are not going to compromise any disruption of both celebrations.” Saleh also cautioned against hate speech

HEALT

HEALTH

Why Nigeria is only African country with polio burden – UNICEF

The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has revealed why Nigeria is the only african counry with polio burden.

According to UNICEF, religious beliefs and ignorance were the major factors responsible for Nigeria’s status as Africa’s only country with high polio cases.

This was disclosed during an engagement with media practitioners in Yola, organised by UNICEF and the Adamawa State Primary Health Care Development Agency (PHCDA).

In  a presentation on a ‘paradigm shift in media engagement on oral polio vaccines administration’, Dr. Amos Ujulu of PHCDA noted that ignorance, misconception and beliefs were among the factors affecting the eradication polio in Nigeria.

Explaining further, Ujulu said “Nigeria is the only country where polio is still raging on the continent of Africa”, adding that “only three out of 10 children have been immunized in Adamawa State”.

Speaking further, he gave the background of the National Immunization Coverage Survey, NICS, stating that low coverage was recorded due to ignorance.

In Adamawa State, the coverage was 59 percent, but we are targeting additional 29 percent before the end of the year,” he said.

Politics

OPINION

Femi Fani-Kayode: Buhari – The desperate agenda of an evil tyrant

Much has been brewing in the circles of power of our nation in recent weeks. Permit me to share just some of my findings with my readers today. The rest wll come later.

Key players and leaders in the international community have warned President Muhammadu Buhari not to run for a second term but he has refused to listen. That is why he was in the United Kingdom for 16 days.

He was not ill and he was not getting treatment for any ailment but he was consulting with and trying to convince the representatives of various foreign governnents, including the American, British and French, that he can still run in 2019 and win.

My sources have confirmed to me that those he interacted with are not convinced but he has resolved to run regardless of their skepticism.

They have asked him to probe and jail Godswill Akpabio, Tunde Fashola, Rotimi Amaechi, Rochas Okorocha and Bola Tinubu and they claim that these five, together with a number of others in his own party and government, are very corrupt. He has promised to do that after getting a second mandate.

It is at that time that he will also move against President Olusegun Obasanjo, General Ibrahim Babangida, President Goodluck Jonathan, General Aliyu Gusau, General T.Y. Danjuma, Vice President Atiku Abubakar and many others who have dared to oppose his second term bid.

As regards Governor Ayo Fayose his plan is to arrest him immediately after he steps down as Governor in October, literally during the handover ceremony, and lock him up until after the 2019 election. He intends to give him the Sambo Dasuki treatment.

Senate President Bukola Saraki, Senator Dino Melaye, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso and all the others that decamped and left the APC with them to return to the PDP will not be spared.

His plans for them are equally reprehensible. He has resolved to break them, humiliate them and teach them the lesson of their lives.

And those of us that have been on the receiving end of their cruelty for the last three years will not be left out.
He has more plans for this writer as well as others like Olisa Metuh, Sambo Dasuki, El Zak Zaky, Nnamdi Kanu and all his other traducers and critics.

I gather that even Church leaders and clerics like Bishop David Oyedepo, Apostle Suleman, Bishop El Buba and others have been marked down for persecution and destruction whilst visible and loud players, commentators, writers, politicians and activists like Senator Ben Murray-Bruce,
Pastor Reno Omokri, Prince Deji Adeyanju, Hon. Boma Goodhead, Mr. Charly Boy Oputa, Mr. Yemi Adebowale, Mr. Shaka Momodu and others have also been added.

I have been reliably informed that they intend to rig the Osun, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Kwara, Plateau, Benue and Kogi state governorship elections through a perfected method and ensure that the APC wins those states regardless of the choice and preferences of the people.

After Buhari has finished with all these individuals and effecting this agenda and there is no-one left to challenge him he will turn on the Nigerian people themselves with all his vindictiveness, bitterness and venom.

He will reduce them into servitude and turn them into slaves and zombies. He will impose his Fulanisation and Islamisation agenda, bury the idea of restructuring and destroy its proponents, enthrone and empower the Fulani herdsmen and Miyetti Allah, enter a peace accord with Boko Haram and accomodate some of their demands.

He will also reduce CAN and Christians to nothing, bring the Church to its knees, wipe out Shiite Muslims and decimate IPOB members, silence all dissent, establish cattle ranches in every state of the Federation, change the constitution to make himself life President and turn Nigeria into a North Korean-style totalitarian state where his word is law and where he must literally be worshipped as Nigeria’s third and final Muslim Mahdi.

Those that applaud Buhari as he violates the rights of others and inflicts pain and injury on them are naive and shortsighted.

They forget that those of us that are his critics, that oppose him, that are in the opposition and that he seeks to destroy are the only ones standing between them, the establishment of a police state and total destruction.

By the time he has finished with us he will strip the Nigerian people of all their dignity and all that is dear to them and turn them into broken souls, street urchins, filthy almajiris and the biggest beggars in Africa.

Poverty, tyranny, evil, ethnic cleansing, genocide and mass murder will stalk the land whilst the judiciary, the legislature and the fourth estate of the realm (the media) will simply do his bidding.

He will bring the entire nation to heel and Nigeria will end up being a worse place to live than Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union.

In all this there is only one consellation and that is the fact that Buhari is not God. As they say, “man proposes and God disposes”.

Buhari’s plans will fail, his evil agenda will be thwarted and by the time this is all over he will know that we serve a mighty God who rules in the affairs of men.

His word says “who is he that sayeth a thing and it cometh to pass when the Lord of Hosts has commanded it not?”

As long as God has not commanded it or permitted it Buhari’s purpose will not stand and his evil intentions will melt like an iceburg approaching the tropics. That is why the righteous and those of us that are the children of light and the sons and daughters of the Most High God need harbour no fear.

Those that need to fear are those that have shed innocent blood, betrayed the counsel of the Living God, tormented and robbed the Nigerian people, bowed before the tyrant and dined at the beasts table.

Those that need to fear are the useful idiots and accursed slaves that have sold their heritage for a mess of pottage and that have opted to assist the tyrant in his ungodly and unholy mission of slaughter, decimation and destruction.

As long as Jesus sits on the throne Buhari’s evil plans for all those that have taken a leap of faith and have courageously opposed him shall not stand.

Those of us that have been the voice of the voiceless and stood for truth must not relent. We must continue to stand firm and strong because we have a divine obligation to resist the tyrants evil.

And no matter the price that has to be paid, that is precisely what yours truly intends to do. I urge you to join me. Together we shall bite the bullet, take the pain and endure in the knowledge that, though our oppressors may have today, we shall have tomorrow.

Dark may be the night but joy comes in the morning. Our joy will surely come, God shall prove Himself mighty and, in the end, He will make all things beautiful.

Education

NECO releases June/July 2018 SSCE result

The National Examinations Council (NECO) has released the June/July 2018 Senior Secondary Schools result, a statement issued on Monday in Minna said.

The Acting Registrar, Alhaji Abubakar Gana, said in the statement that 1,041,536 candidates registered, while 1,032,729 candidates actually sat for the examination.

Gana said that 939,733 candidates representing 90.47 per cent scored five credits and above without English and Mathematics.

He also said that 875, 464 candidates, representing 84.77 per cent scored credits in English Language while 850,331 candidates representing 82.34 per cent, scored credits in mathematics.

Furthermore, he said that a total of 742,455 candidates representing 71.48 per cent scored five credits and above including English language and Mathematics.

Gana said that in 2017, 70.85 per cent of the candidates had five credits and above including in English and Mathematics as against 71.48 per cent in 2018, showing 0.63 per cent improved performance in the current result.

According to him, a total of 20,181 candidates were involved in examination malpractice — 3,269 candidates in mathematics and 2,177 candidates in English Language.

He decried the fact that 838 candidates were absent from the examinations, yet had answer scripts.

POWER TUSSLE

I have what it takes to challenge Buhari under APC – Tambuwal

Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, on Monday said he has what it takes to contest against President Muhammadu Buhari under the All Progressives Congress (APC) platform if he wanted.

Tambuwal in his reaction to a statement that he defected from the APC to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) because he feared it will be a tall dream for him to get automatic ticket, insisted that he could have challenged President Buhari under the APC if that was what he wanted.

He noted that if he did, only the votes of delegates could have produced a winner.

Tambuwal stated this in his Tweeter handle “@Sokotogovthouse” as his reaction to widely publicized statement that he hurriedly left the APC for fear of Buhari.

He said, “If I wanted to and if the Presidency is what Ahmed Tinubu thinks I defected, I could contest with President Buhari under the APC. I have what it takes to have contested with Mr. President.

Read Also: Tinubu: Saraki, Tambuwal left APC for fear of Buhari

“Tinubu tried to rock the boat when he was denied Buhari’s vice Presidency. He thinks every other person could behave his way. If I wanted to contest under the APC as president, I could have done so and only the votes could have produced a winner”.

“In any case, Tinubu is confessing that there is no level-playing ground for all members of the APC; that there is no internal democracy in it and that some people were denied their right to internal democracy”.

Tambuwal stressed that “while addressing the people of Sokoto State and by implication, Nigerians, he stated his reasons for leaving the party (APC) none of which was “automatic ticket.”

“I adduced reasons of my defection to the PDP. The reasons are still on record. Automatic ticket by the APC is certainly not part of that,” he said.

Fever of Defection

Akpabio Makes U-Turn, Brands Udom 'A Mistake That Must Be Corrected In 2019'

Udom is a mistake that must be corrected in 2019. All hands must be on deck to ensure that the mistake is corrected for a people-oriented leadership under the ruling All Progressives Congress at the centre," Akpabio stated.

Godswill Akpabio, former Senate Minority Leader and representative of the Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District at the National Asembly, has expressed his determination to work against the re-election of Governor Emmanuel Udom in 2019.

Expressing regrets on “imposing” Udom on the people of the state, Akpabio said the current Akwa Ibom State Governor “is a mistake that must be corrected in 2019".

Akpabio stated this in an apology to a crowd of supporters at Ikot Ekpene Plaza.

The supporters were on their way back from attending Akpabio’s mother-in-law’s burial at Enugu on Sunday evening.

He said: “Udom is a mistake that must be corrected in 2019. All hands must be on deck to ensure that the mistake is corrected for a people-oriented leadership under the ruling All Progressives Congress at the centre.”

Alleging that hunger and deprivation had become the situation in Akwa Ibom since the present administration assumed power, Akpabio called for holistic action to liberate the state.

According to him, “Emmanuel’s administration has failed the people".

In the run up to the 2015 elections, Akpabio had declared Emmanuel, then Secretary to the State Government, next in line to succeed him, and worked towards the latter's emergence as Governor even when more than 20 aspirants expressed interest in the position.

Barely two weeks ago, precisely on August 9, 2018, the day the All Progressives Congress (APC) held a rally to officially announce his defection from the Peoples Democratic Party  to the APC, Akpabio, when asked on a television programme about his relationship with the Akwa Ibom Governor, had stated that they had no issues.

“No, no, no. I don’t have any issue with the current Governor of Akwa Ibom State, His Excellency Udom Gabriel Emmanuel. He remains my Governor, and a godfather to my children," he had said.

"I don’t have any issue with him. If there are local issues, these are things we can sit down on the table and resolve. And, for me, I think of the national interest. I believe strongly that with the challenges we’re having now, all hands should be on deck."

APC: Saraki Will Rather Rule In Hell Than Serve In Paradise

"The only politics that Bukola Saraki plays is self, himself only and only himself. The interest and welfare of the people of Nigeria do not mean anything to him. Now it is the Presidency Saraki wants. And we ask with what antecedents is he doing this? Conspiracy, blackmail, treachery and vaulting ambition which overleaps itself and falls on the other, as rightly captured by William Shakespeare. Bukola Saraki will rather rule in hell than serve in paradise."

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BY SAHARAREPORTERS, NEW YORKAUG 20, 2018

The All Progressives Congress (APC) says Senate President Bukola Saraki is so selfish with his political ambitions that he "will rather rule in hell than serve in paradise".

Outlining a list of corruption allegations levelled against him, the party urged Nigerians to be wary of Saraki, describing him as a man "whose personal ambition will always supersede the interest of the majority and national interest". 

In a statement by Yekini Nabena, its Acting National Publicity Secretary, the APC blamed the Senate President for refusing to reconvene the National Assembly, an action it said could "sabotage INEC’s ability to conduct free, fair, transparent and credible elections in 2019".

The statement read: "Nigerians should be wary of a man whose personal ambition will always supersede the interest of the majority and national interest as currently displayed in the National Assembly. While Saraki refuses to reconvene the National Assembly, the 2019 election budget of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is dangerously delayed, an action deliberately taken to sabotage INEC’s ability to conduct free, fair, transparent and credible elections in 2019.

"While Saraki refuses to step down as Senate President as rightly and severally demanded by the APC-dominated Senate, he is bent on foisting a PDP-minority rule (Senate President and Deputy Senate President) in the Upper Legislative House.

"The only politics that Bukola Saraki plays is self, himself only and only himself. The interest and welfare of the people of Nigeria do not mean anything to him. Now it is the Presidency Saraki wants. And we ask with what antecedents is he doing this? Conspiracy, blackmail, treachery and vaulting ambition which overleaps itself and falls on the other, as rightly captured by William Shakespeare. Bukola Saraki will rather rule in hell than serve in paradise."

Restating its earlier position on its call to anti-graft agencies to "check the use of stolen public funds to finance elections in this country," the party also emphasised that the "Nigerian electorate must have the opportunity to choose from candidates that can pass the integrity and anti-corruption test."

The APC called on Nigerians to exercise their voting rights in the 2019 elections to ensure that they "never again entrust the leadership of this great country to thieves, whose sole aim is treasury looting and returning us to the dark ages where impunity and institutionalised corruption was the order of the day."

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