Fulani are threatening me, says Ortom

John Charles, Makurdi

Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State on Wednesday said that he had received messages from Fulani threatening him over the anti-open grazing law recently enacted by his administration.

Ortom stated this when he addressed members of National Council of Tiv Youths who protested to government house over what they described as ‘outburst and unguided utterances against Tiv nation and the Indigenes of Benue state by leaders of Fulani cattle rearers’.

The governor said that he would not be intimidated by the threat coming from the Fulani, stating emphatically that the law has come to stay and that the full implementation of the law would commence latest November 2017.

Governor Ortom had a few weeks ago assented to anti-open grazing bill passed by the state assembly which prohibits open grazing of cattle and livestock.

The law had  among others  provided  that anyone who engages in open grazing in Benue State  and on conviction will now be liable to five years imprisonment and  provided  for monetary compensation  in case of any damage to a property and imprisonment of two years of the livestock owner or manager in case of injury to any person in the state.

The governor said that the enactment of the law was necessitated following the constant attacks on farmers in the state by suspected Fulani herdsmen, adding that he has the constitutional responsibility to protect lives and property of residents of his state.

According to him, ‘just this morning (Wednesday) one Fulani called my wife and asked her to warn me that I (Ortom) am joking with them (Fulani), but my response when my wife told me this, is that am not joking, this law has come to stay.’

“I challenge anyone who has superior solution to the senseless killings of our people other than anti-open grazing law should bring it forward,  before the passage of the bill by House of Assembly, due process was followed, every nationality living in the state;  the Igbos, Yorubas, Hausas/Fulanis and others were invited to the public hearing”.

Governor Samuel Ortom

“Whoever chooses to live in Benue must obey the law of the land, there is no grazing in Benue,  I was elected to protect lives and property of every resident of the state, not to preside over dead people”.

The governor expressed assurance that with the enactment of the anti-open grazing law peace would return to the state.

He also said that the enforcement of the law would commence between October and November 2017.

Earlier, the leader of the protesters, Mr John Akperachi while addressing the governor had regretted that no herdsmen have been prosecuted over the killings of farmers in the state since 2012.

Akperachi called on federal government to prevail on security agencies to arrest leaders of Miyeitti Allah for opposing the anti-open grazing law and laying claim to natural resources of the state.

The protesters carried play cards with various inscriptions;  ‘Security: call Miyeittii Allah to order’,  ‘Why value cows more that human lives’, ‘Our land, our ancestors, our possession!’, ‘ranch your cows now, respect the laws of our land,’ and ‘we say no to open grazing’ among others.

PUNCH

Welcome To Philip Nwelih's Blog: BREAKING: False Asset Declaration Charge: Saraki d...

Welcome To Philip Nwelih's Blog: BREAKING: False Asset Declaration Charge: Saraki d...: The Code of Conduct Tribunal has dismissed the case of false asset declaration against Nigeria’s Senate President, Bukola Saraki. Mr. Sarak...

BREAKING: False Asset Declaration Charge: Saraki discharged, acquitted

The Code of Conduct Tribunal has dismissed the case of false asset declaration against Nigeria’s Senate President, Bukola Saraki.
Mr. Saraki made a no-case submission on May 4, after the prosecution closed its case.
In the ruling, the tribunal chairman, Danladi Umar, said the prosecution had failed to prove its allegations.
Details later…
BACKGROUND
The Code of Conduct Bureau had in September 2015 slammed a 13-count charge of corruption on Mr. Saraki.

Bukola Saraki

In charge number ABT/01/15, dated September 11 and filed before the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Mr. Saraki is accused of offences ranging from anticipatory declaration of assets to making false declaration of assets in forms he filed before the Code of Conduct Bureau while he was governor of Kwara state.
According to the charges, the Senate President was also accused of failing to declare some assets he acquired while in office as governor.

Among other offences, including allegedly acquiring assets beyond his legitimate earnings, Mr. Saraki was also accused of operating foreign accounts while being a public officer – governor and senator.

The offences, the charge said, violated sections of the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as amended.
Mr. Saraki was also said to have breached Section 2 of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act and punishable under paragraph 9 of the said Fifth Schedule of the Constitution.
The charges were prepared by M.S. Hassan, a deputy director in the office of the Attorney General of the Federation.
The government later increased the charges to 17 on January 11, 2017. In February 2017, one more charge was added, bringing the charges to 18.
The Senate President pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
In a statement after the charges were filed, Mr. Saraki, said the processes were calculated to rubbish him, saying he was fully ready to assert his innocence.
“We therefore conclude that this is not an anti corruption driven case and cannot be part of the moves aimed at fighting corruption,” the senate president said. “It is simply a pure malicious and politically motivated prosecution aimed at undermining the person and office of the Senate President.”
He said the charges were based “on outright fabrication and mischief, will not and cannot stand the test of justice.”
PREMIUM TIMES

NBC Says Biafra Tv Illegal, Unable to Shut Down Station

Is’haq Modibbo Kawu, director-general of National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), has said that a media station, Biafra Television, is transmitting illegally on Nigeria airwaves.

The TV station is purportedly owned by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

Kawu also said the Boko Haram insurgent group had commenced radio transmission via a station located between Nigerian and Cameroonian borders .

He said that while security agencies have been able to stop the Boko Haram-owned station from transmission, Biafra Television is yet to be blocked.

Kawu said this is as a result of the international transmission system with which the station is using.

He warned against revolutionary transmission, saying such unlawful act could threaten the Nigeria’s unity.

“Last week, I was in the office of the inspector-general of police and they had a TV screen and what was being broadcast was on Biafra Television; they were saying some of the most outlandish things, showing videos from the 1960 s and abusing everyone,” he said.

“Now, this is happening and they were asking us (NBC) because our duty is to monitor and regulate such but the television is coming from outside of Nigeria.

“Our engineers have been making contacts with the international satellite organisation that does broadcast to Africa about the fact that you cannot allow subversive broadcast into Nigeria from other parts of the world.

“The Biafra Television in the south-east, we have been tracking the station . The broadcast is coming from outside Nigeria . We have been asking questions from international satellite test systems where they are coming from. That is how it is for now.

“Last June, Boko Haram was starting a new radio station, I think on 91 .00 megahertz on the FM band from the border between Nigeria and the Republic of Cameroon and so it was our duty to inform security organisations what was happening so they could take it up and which they did eventually.”

He further said the commission is currently owed about N3bn and that stations yet to pay their fees risk getting shut down.

Nigeria CommunicationsWeek

Welcome To Philip Nwelih's Blog: El-Rufai orders arrest of Northern youths for thre...

Welcome To Philip Nwelih's Blog: El-Rufai orders arrest of Northern youths for thre...: Governor Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna State has ordered the immediate arrest of all signatories to a statement issuing a three-month ultimatum ...

Security agencies on red alert over northern groups ultimatum to Ndigbo

The Federal Government on Wednesday said security agencies were already on the alert over the position of a coalition of Northern groups, including the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, which on Tuesday gave all Igbos resident in the 19 states of the North a three-month ultimatum to quit or be forced out after the expiration of the October 1, 2017, deadline.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said this while answering questions from State House correspondents after the weekly meeting of the Federal Executive Council at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Mohammed assured Nigerians that security agencies are on top of the matter, adding that the statement was capable of destabilising the country.

ALHAJI LAI MOHAMMED

He observed that such development did not start now.

He said, “The issue of one or two groups issuing statements that are capable of destabilising the polity and then being responded to by another group, I think did not just start today or did not start yesterday.

“What I want to assure you is that security organisations are very very much on top of this matter.”

When asked whether the issue of the ultimatum came up for discussion during the FEC meeting, the minister said it did not come up.

The National President, AYCF, Yerima Shettima, had handed down the ultimatum at a press conference in Kaduna on Tuesday.

“We are also telling our brothers (northerners) out there in the South-East to get prepared to come back home,” Shettima had said.

The ultimatum followed a successful sit-at-home order enforced by the Nnamdi Kanu-led Indigenous People of Biafra on May 30, 2017, which the five South-East states complied with.

The ultimatum was handed down at a well-attended press conference held at the Arewa House, Kaduna, on Tuesday.

The text of the press conference signed by Nastura Ashir Sharif (Arewa Citizens Action for Change); Alhaji Shettima Yerima (Arewa Youth Consultative Forum); Aminu Adam (Arewa Youth Development Foundation); Alfred Solomon, (Arewa Students Forum); Abdul-Azeez Suleiman (Northern Emancipation Network), as well as Joshua Viashman, who signed on behalf of the Northern Youth Vanguard.

The National President of the Northern Emancipation Network, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, who read the text of the press conference, noted that the Igbo had become a threat to national unity.

He noted that the action of the North was necessitated by the persistence for the actualisation of Biafra by the Igbo, saying this had led to the impediment of other people’s rights in the South-East by ‘the Indigenous People of Biafra and its overt and covert sponsors’.

Suleiman said, “With the effective date of this declaration, which is today, Tuesday, June 6, 2017, all Igbo currently residing in any part of northern Nigeria are, hereby, served notice to relocate within three months and all northerners residing in the South-East are advised likewise.

“All northern civil societies and pressure groups are, by this declaration, mandated to mobilise for sustained, coordinated campaigns at their respective state Government Houses, state Houses of Assembly, local government council secretariats and traditional palaces.

“Our first major move shall be to reclaim, assume and assert sole ownership and control of these landed resources currently owned, rented or in any way enjoyed by the …Igbo in any part of Northern Nigeria.”

PUNCH NEWSPAPER

El-Rufai orders arrest of Northern youths for threatening Ndigbo

Governor Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna State has ordered the immediate arrest of all signatories to a statement issuing a three-month ultimatum to all Igbos to leave northern Nigeria.

Gov. Nasir El-Rufai

The governor, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant-Media and Publicity, Samuel Aruwan, on Wednesday also assured residents in the state of “their freedom to reside where they choose”, adding that the “constitutional right of every Nigerian to own property, move freely and to live in peace and harmony is sacrosanct”.

A coalition of Northern groups, including the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, had on Tuesday, gave all Igbos resident in the 19 states of the North a three-month ultimatum to quit or be forced out after the expiration of the October 1, 2017, deadline.

The group also asked Northerners in the South-East to get prepared to come back home.

The group’s grievance had been over the success of a recent sit-at-home order enforced by the Nnamdi Kanu-led Indigenous People of Biafra on May 30, 2017 which the five South-East states complied with.

Reacting the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the apex socio-political body of the Igbo, demanded ‘urgent action’ from the country’s security agencies.

The group also urged the Igbo in the North to be ‘vigilant’ while going about their activities.

The Kaduna State Government, however, condemned the youths’ action in the statement, insisting that it has been consistent in taking action to punish hate speech and incitement.

The statement reads in part, “The Kaduna State Government condemns in the strongest terms the press statement by some self-appointed “northern youths” that threatened the safety and property of our citizens of Igbo extraction. Government assures every resident of our state that their constitutional and human rights to live peacefully and own property wherever they choose is sacrosanct. Even people who may feel unhappy about irresponsible comments or actions that have taken place in other states must know that two wrongs cannot make a right.

“The Kaduna State Government believes in and will uphold the right of every Nigerian to live safely and develop his/her full potentials within its territory.

“Reckless disregard for the rights of other citizens drips through the press statement by these “northern youths” who have chosen to use the discourse around restructuring to promote their own agenda of hate, division and incitement. This sort of opportunists cannot be allowed to distort debate, or turn it into a pretext for a barely-disguised agenda of displacement and dispossession of some citizens.

“We will not tolerate such irresponsible statements and conduct in our state. The statement issued by the “northern youths” violates the laws of Kaduna State. Therefore, the Kaduna State Government has directed that its Ministry of Justice should prepare charges and prosecute the signatories and anyone complicit in arranging this egregious assault on the rights of fellow citizens.

“Preparatory to prosecution, the police have been directed to immediately arrest, interrogate the signatories to the statement and investigate all the circumstances and persons that may be implicated in the matter.

“The Kaduna State Government urges all residents to ignore the threats from the “northern youths”. We are in contact with the leadership of the Igbo community in Kaduna, and we delighted to say that this community, like all our other communities, believes in the strength of the constitutional order to protect all citizens.

“KDSG wishes to encourage all our people to celebrate the diversity with which the Almighty has blessed us, to continue to shun agents of division, and to stand firm in upholding a common humanity. Everyone has a right to live in peace and harmony.”

PUNCH NEWSPAPER