Kano State chapter of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kano state has suspended its chairman, Haruna Doguwa, for alleged gross misconduct.
Also suspended was the party’s organizing secretary, Sunusi Suraj.
According to Abbas Sani-Abbas, the party’s secretary, while addressing a news conference in Kano on Saturday, the party took the decision in order to allow the seven-man disciplinary committee it set up to investigate the alleged misconduct.
He said the party had appointed Abdullahi Abbas, special adviser on political affairs to Abdullahi Ganduje, governor of the state, as the acting chairman.
Sani-Abbas said the suspension was endorsed by the former and serving members of the national assembly and all the chairmen of the 44 local governments in the state.
The suspension, he added, was equally endorsed by 30 out of the 39 members of the house of assembly, vice chairmen and secretaries of the local governments.
He said the committee had been given one week within which to submit its report to the executive committee of the party for further action.
“If the disciplinary committee establishes any evidence to the fact that the suspended officials were culpable or not, it is left to the executive committee to take appropriate action,” he said.
Sporadic Shooting In Port Harcourt
As the results of the federal and state legislative rerun elections are being expected in Rivers State, gunmen, believed to be political thugs Sunday, shot sporadically at Abonnema area of Port Harcourt.
The shooting which lasted for 40 minutes caused pandemonium around Mile 1 and Azikiwe as residents scampered to safety.
The Rivers state Governor Nyesom Wike visited the Mile 1 police station this morning.
The situation in Rivers is reportedly tense, according to residents.
CBN Secret Recruitment: ‘There Must Be Equal Opportunities For All Nigerians’
The Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), a coalition of over 400 civil society organizations, weekend, described the recent shady recruitment exercise conducted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as a grand betrayal of a change mantra of the Buhari’s administration.
The Chairman of TMG, Com. Ibrahim Zikirulahi, in a statement in Abuja, said that the scam is a clear manifestation that vestiges of the discredited and corrupt old guard still dominated the system in the country.
The group called on President Muhammadu Buhari to fish out the perpetrators and punish them according to the law of the land, adding that the reasons given by the apex bank to embark on secret recruitment exercise was not acceptable.
The statement reads: “TMG is dismayed by recent revelations of outright cronyism and favouritism in a shady recruitment exercise conducted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). It is indeed very strange that impunity of this magnitude would be associated with the nation’s apex bank at a time Nigerians are hoping that the change mantra of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, would translate into better ethical standards for conducting government business.
“TMG is not unmindful of the fact that this scandal is a clear manifestation that there remains within the system vestiges of the discredited and corrupt old guard, which would always be against a people centred philosophy of governance. For us, the recruitment scandal points to a culture of lax corporate governance, which has seen the CBN under the leadership of Godwin Emefiele canonize itself as a do-nothing institution in the face of criminal assaults on due process.
“The CBN which has elected to sacrifice openness, merit and fairness in its recruitment is the same institution, which silently conspired with looters and plunderers of the nation’s financial resources, during the locust years of the last administration.
“TMG is amazed that the current government has not deemed it a matter of utmost urgency to halt the desecration of an institution as vital as the CBN. On the basis of the litany of sleazes that were made possible by the acquiescence of the current CBN leadership alone, it is crystal clear that a clean sweep of leadership at the apex bank, is long overdue.
“TMG is unimpressed by the lame excuse the CBN spin doctors are adducing for deciding to embark on a secret recruitment drive. Even if ‘targeted’ employment or head hunting was the basis for making the process secret, there are thousands of young Nigerians who need jobs, who could have been targeted. But because the CBN was working towards a pre-determined outcome, it filled the list with names of children and relatives of prominent politicians, government officials and other influence peddlers.
“We insist this is not the proper way to do things; the outcome of the recruitment must therefore be immediately jettisoned.
“TMG calls on President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene and put an end to the attempts by well-heeled people in government to rubbish his efforts at rescuing Nigeria from the abyss of corruption, nepotism and favouritism.
“There must be equal opportunities for all Nigerians” TMG added.
Emir Sanusi Lists How Nigerians Contributed To Economic Crisis
The Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II, on Saturday listed some of the ways Nigerians contributed to the present economic downturn, saying that Nigeria must stop importing what it has in order to boost local industries and create jobs.
He stated this in Kaduna while inaugurating the new Council Secretariat of the Kaduna Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (KACCIMA).
Sanusi, a former Governor of Central Bank, CBN, said the current economic crisis induced by the crash in global oil price, should serve as a wake up call for the country to utilise its resources judiciously.
“Nigeria is full of experts in importing what we have and exporting what we do not have.
“We have cotton but we import textile materials from China; we have crude oil but we import fuel refined from our own crude from Russia and other countries.
“We have gas but we let it flare away instead of utilising it to produce power, yet import generators from outside.
“We eat our hides and skin and import shoes from outside, and we eat our tomatoes and import canned tomatoes paste from China.”
The Emir said things must change, and advised the Federal Government to give priority to education, industries, power and agriculture.
Sanusi noted that the textile industries in the past had employed more than 600, 000 people at a time.
He further advised industrialists to always draw the attention of government when it derails from targeted national goals.
The Emir stressed that the persistent conflicts in the country were largely due to economic hardships and not religion or tribal sentiments.
School Vice Principal Slumps, Dies In Ebonyi
The Vice Principal of Community Secondary School, Noyo Alike in Ikwo LGA of Ebonyi state, Mr. Benedict Kalu at the weekend slumped and died along the Gunning road meat market square, Abakaliki.
Confirming the incident on Saturday, the State Police PPRO, ASP George Okafor said when the command got hint of the incident, some policemen from the Ekumenyi Police Division were sent to the scene for help but the policemen met Kalu already dead before their arrival.
According to the PPRO, the man had been sick for five years and that he died of high blood pressure. Okafor added that the deceased immediate family members had been contacted and that they revealed that the man was very sick and had suffered high blood pressure for five years.
The PPRO maintained that the corpse had been deposited at the Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki (FETHA).
SON Gives Fake Tyre Dealers 24-Hour Ultimatum Or Go To Jail
Standards Organisation of Nigeria, SON, has given Tyre dealers in the country a 24-hour ultimatum to destroy the fake products in their stores or risk a 10-year jail term.
Acting Director General of SON, Paul Angya, gave the warning after the Federal government recently empowered the agency by giving it the backing to jail dealers in substandard products.
It will be recalled that a report released by the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC on causes of accidents in 2015, hinted that the fake Tyres were responsible for most accident. The report stated that out of 8,986 accidents recorded in 2015, 722 were caused by tyre bursts, resulting in the death of 446 persons.
Angya’s position on the report is that the fake tyre dealers are directly responsible for these deaths. He has therefore threatened that dealers of fake tyres would equally be charged for murder.
“We are going to stamp out corruption among the tyre dealers. We are going to set up a taskforce and we will not sleep until we confirm that accidents in this country are not traced to substandard tyres again,” says the SON acting DG who also made it known that the agency also has the legal authority to close any outlet or store displaying substandard tyres for at least three months without taking the matter to any court.
According to him, the ultimate punishment for such dealers has now been upped to 10 years imprisonment. “If you have fake tyres in your shop, make sure you get rid of them before the next 24 hours before our team visits you and we proceed go ahead to charge you for murder,” Angya warns.
Being fully aware of corruption within the system at SON, he disclosed that it would soon be eliminated when e-payment, e-invoice and e-receipt is introduced.
Before now fake tyre dealers had only gotten slaps on the wrist punishment for their actions by having their fake goods destroyed.
Troops kills 7 terrorist recovers 20,000 litres of fuel
Troops of 7 Brigade have ambushed and killed 7 Boko Haram terrorists at Dawashi early this morning. The gallant troops that laid in wait at the terrorists suspected crossing point engaged them on sight, killed the 7 terrorists and recovered 1 Peugeot Station Wagon loaded with 2,010 litres of Premium Motor Spirit packed in 67 Jerri cans, uniforms, some materiels and Improvised Explosive making Devices (IEDs). Others items recovered include, dry cell batteries, 1 AK-47 rifle, tools and fish.
Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman
Acting Director, Army Public Relations.
