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MBF asks Buhari to act fast, impress on security forces to defeat Bokoharam

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***Nigeria should not admit it has two sovereignties

The Middle Belt Forum has in its New Year message, challenged President Muhammadu Buhari to send a clear message to the security forces on why they must defeat Boko Haram and throw them out of Damboa LGA.
The forum spoke against the backdrop of the situation that the insurgents have taken over the Local Government for three years now to the extent of mounting road blocks.
A statement by the Forums President Bitrus Pogu said,

“In Damboa Local Government Area of Southern Borno, Boko Haram elements have completely taken over the LGA in the past three years without any challenge from the security personnel.
“It is from Damboa LGA that Boko Haram launched attacks on communities, including the recent attack that killed a military general. “Allowing the terrorist organisation to mount roadblocks in any part of Nigeria amounts to telling the world that there are two sovereignties in Nigeria.”

“The destruction of our communities and the unprovoked killings of defenceless citizens can no longer be tolerated. “When innocent and vulnerable people are left unprotected from the terror of criminals, there can be no option left than self-defence.
“The Forum calls on relevant security agencies not to relent in cleansing our communities of these terrorists who take pleasure in kidnapping, destroying our communities and dislocating our people. “The continuous wielding of arms by these criminals in daylight to intimidate locals must be stopped in order to protect our communities and not force then to embrace self-defence.

“In the previous years, Nigerians, especially ethnic nationalities of the Middle Belt, suffered severe and persistent attacks from marauding gangs of murderous herdsmen whose agenda has always been to exterminate our people.

“Recently, some of our people have come under severe attacks in many States of the Middle Belt, including Nasarawa where no fewer than 45 people were gruesomely massacred by coldblooded killer herdsmen.

“These killings have become the trend in many parts of the Middle Belt Region of Southern Kaduna, Niger, Plateau, Benue, Adamawa, among others.

“Closely tied to the horrendous attacks on our communities and the resultant displacement, with farmers abandoning farms in protecting their lives, is the problem of food security.
“We do not need a prophet to warn us of the dire consequences of what this massive displacement of our farming population holds for our people.
“In the face of these severe attacks that have not attracted commensurate responses from the security personnel, we call on security agencies to smoke out these murderous bandits from their holes and bring them to justice. 
“As an umbrella organisation of ethnic nationalities in the Middle Belt Region, we call on President Buhari to swiftly order the security agencies to stop the human carnage ripping across Nigeria, especially in the Middle Belt.”

The forum also drew the attention of the National Assembly to the charade going on in Bauchi State where a court recently dismissed a suit challenging the state lawmakers’ decision to relocate the headquarters of Tafawa Balewa local government to Bununu town. “Without any doubt, the court’s verdict and the state lawmakers’ decision violate the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution that confer such powers on only members of the National Assembly. 

“We call on the leadership of the National Assembly to wade into the matter and order an immediate reversal to forestall the breakdown of law and order.

“With Nigeria marching to another national election year, the Forum calls on President Buhari to rescind his earlier decision not to sign the 2021 Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
“The best this administration can offer Nigerians is to provide a platform where the votes of citizens count. Strengthening the electoral process for transparent polls should be an irrevocable focus of the present administration.
“No effort should be spared by the President to contain destructive forces lurking in the dark and plotting anarchy for the country ahead of the 2023 polls”
He expressed great delight in welcoming Nigerians to the New Year that is full of promises.
“That we are alive today to witness the dawning of a new year demonstrates God’s great mercy on us as citizens of a beloved country passing through challenging times.

Pogu said, It is known fact that Nigerians, faced challenges in 2021 however he called on President Buhari to ensure that no stone is left unturned to ensure peace and prosperity for the besieged communities.

“We join millions of our citizens in praying for the return of peace and prosperity to our Nation.”

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Okiro insists, State Police is not feasible under Nigeria’s current setting

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Mike Okiro
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***State govt can hardly pay workers salary

**may work only with the Canadian Model

The much talked about decentralisation of the Nigeria Police Force can not achieve its desired objective as the inherent factors that led to its failure in the past have not been addressed, Retired Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Mike Okiro has indicated

Okiro spoke with journalists on the sideline of the 2023 Convention of the Old Seminarians Association of Nigeria (OSAN), hosted by the Clerk to the Senate, Mr. Chinedu Akubueze, in Abuja.

The former IGP explained that at the inception of the Nigerian police, authorities of the sub regional institutions had their own police separate from the ones being controlled by the central government.

According to him, the state police idea can not work due to paucity of funds at both the state and local government areas.

He wondered how the states and local government areas that cannot effectively pay the salaries of their workers would be able to fund their own police.

Okiro, however said the only way the state police could work was for Nigeria to adopt the Canadian model.

The Canadian model, according to him, would involved the states recruiting the police personnel who would be funded by the Federal Government.

He said, “The only way we can have state police in Nigeria is to adopt the Canadian model, where every region has its own police employed by the region and paid by the federal.

“For example, in Nigeria every governor wouldl employ their own police, equip them while they would be paid by the Federal Government.

“Before the advent of what we have now, we had ‘dandoka’,  we had police in the West, we also had police in the East.

“Local governments had their Police, but because of the behaviour of the local police officers, during the time of former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon in 1971 or thereabout, he turned it to the Nigeria Police Force.

“I am opposed to the state police because of the benefit of hindsight, how they behaved in those days, unless you want to throw away the benefits of history”, he said.

The former IGP lamented that the police is going down the drain, confronted with so many problems.

He said, “There is no equipment, no manpower, no welfare. They are demoralized, and  frustrated.

“We need to ginger the police to do something, by encouraging them”.

“I have equally said time without number, everything has advantages and disadvantages, merits and demerits.

“If you adopt state police, the state government that cannot pay teachers, nurses and doctors, can they pay the police?

“You cannot afford to owe police one month salary, insecurity will be at the highest level in that state. If the state governments can’t  pay the civil servants, I wonder how they can pay the police.”

He appealed to the Federal Government to invest heavily on equipping and training of the police in order to tackle the current insecurity in the country.

Okiro said, “There is gross insecurity in the country. You know Nigeria is part of the world. Insecurity is a global issue, but every country sits down to plan and to devise methods to check   insecurity.

“In Nigeria, the government is equally trying to check insecurity. You cannot get 100 per cent but you can be sure you have done your best and leave the rest to God.

“The government should ensure that security agencies are well equipped and trained. Police is short of manpower, they should recruit more people and give them equipment to solve the problem.

“You cannot solve the problem of insecurity with bare hand. We are in a modern, digitalised world.

“So, you fight insecurity with technology. The government should do something to ensure that security agencies are well equipped to confront these criminals, because the criminals go to the internet, they read. So, they are ahead of the security agencies.

“For you to succeed, the security agencies should be ahead of them and tackle them before they do what they want to do.”

The Clerk to the Senate in his welcome address, identified lack of patriotism among Nigerians as a major ill bedeviling the country.

Akubueze said, “The Nigerian society is bedeviled by self-imposed ills. occasioned by our lack of collective sense of patriotism which, ordinarily should emphasize love for the nation rather than undue recourse to ethno-religious cleavages and clannish leanings.

“Here in OSAN, we are set to chart a new course of national consciousness aimed at cementing the bonds that hold us together as Nigerians rather than the dissimilarities that tend to tear us apart.

“Our sense of fraternity is one that recognizes the fact that we are of diverse ethnic extractions, yet bonded together by a common heritage, a scenario that has helped in fostering love, camaraderie and collective sense of responsibility and purposefulness within our rank and file.

“Of course,we have no doubts whatsoever that OSAN is an Association whose future prosperity is guaranteed, a brotherhood of likeminded individuals whose members would, within the next few years, seize the opportunities open to them to advance their wellbeing as well as that of the larger Nigerian society.

“To actualize our dreams within a record time, all hands must be on deck. We must pull resources together, both human and material in order to create a prosperous and glorious future.”

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Nabena asks Security agents to arrest Sheik Gumi over attack on Wike

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***Says Niger Deltans are not inferior to Northerners in Nigeria

.Former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon. Yekini Nabena, has charged security agencies to swing into and arrest a Kaduna based Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, inciting the public against the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Wike.

The APC chieftain condemned what he called sense of entitlement by some ‘ethnic and religious bigots’ in the Northern part of Nigeria.

Nabena warned that no evil must befall the minister throughout his tenure, adding that Sheik Gumi and others like him will be held responsible by the Niger Delta people if anything goes wrong.

On Thursday, the Cleric had in a video sermon of over 14 minutes posted on his official Facebook page, labelled Wike as “Satan” for receiving the Israeli Ambassador to Nigeria in his office. The cleric in the sermon also asserted that President Tinubu would be stopped from serving for eight years.

Reacting to the development through a statement released to newsmen on Sunday in Abuja, the Bayelsa born APC chieftain said some Northerners’ sense of entitlement is not only dividing the Nation but making them to see Southerners as inferior to them in a country where everyone supposed to have equal rights.

Nabena said the people of Niger Delta and Southerners in general will no longer fold their arms while the likes of Sheik Gumi spit on their faces irrespective of political or religion beliefs.

According to the APC chieftain, No Nigerian is more a Nigerian than anybody in Nigeria.

He said: “My intervention in the recent controversial statement is not about the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike alone, it is about the right of the Niger Delta people and the Southerners in general. At this stage, we expect all the voices of reasoning to speak out because the sense of entitlement of the likes of Sheik Gumi is becoming more satanic.

“How can you justify the rationale behind some Northerners heading some positions that are naturally meant for the people of Niger Delta and the South? Up till date a Northerner is still the GMD of NNPCL.

“If religious and ethnic bigots like Gumi and others are saying a Southern Christian, especially from the oil rich Niger Delta, can not hold the positions of FCT Ministry and the Senate President, we demand explanations on what qualifies a North Muslim in the leadership of agencies like NIMASA, NNPCL, NPDC, NLNG, NPA, and so on”

While cautioning against “reckless public comments” that could lead to a more divided country, Nabena called on the presidency to urgently make a bold statement and reaffirm the right of any Nigerian to hold public office anywhere in Nigeria.

“I will call on the presidency to deliberately caution Sheik Gumi and his co-travellers against statement that is capable of causing disunity and encourage sense of entitlement.

“I will also call on the security agencies to take Gumi’s reckless but deliberate statement serious. Sheik Gumi should be arrested, questioned and prosecuted.

“Let it also be on record that we the Niger Delta sons and daughters will hold Sheik Gumi responsible if any evil befall Nyesom Wike throughout his days in office as FCT Minister,” Nabena wa

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Gov Radda gives reasons why citizens should be allowed to bear arms

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Governor Dikko Umaru Radda of Katsina State has urged the federal government to allow citizens to allow citizens to buy arms to protect themselves since bandits freely buy weapons such as AK-47 and RPG in the market illegally

He said governors should not be blamed for the security challenges bedevilling their states because they are chief security officers without the authority to command the military forces, the police and other security agencies to deal with security issues in their states.

Governor Radda asked the federal government to play a more critical role in the security of lives and property in the country adding that his administration had legally established a ‘community watch corps’ to deal with banditry in conjunction with the military.

The governor, at a media parley on Thursday in Abuja, said bandits are hardened criminals who must be eliminated in Katsina, stressing that his administration would not leave any stone unturned in ensuring they are exterminated.

He said some traditional rulers in the state are under investigation over their alleged “romance” with bandits, stressing that whoever is found to be a sponsor or ally of bandits would not be spared no matter how highly placed.

He said, “We governors are so-called chief security officers of our states, but we don’t have the authority to command the military, police or civil defense. They receive orders from above.

“In our efforts, we have come up with the intelligence unit within the Katsina Community Watch Corps. This intelligence unit, even the corps members don’t know them. The reason for setting it up is to check the excesses of the Watch Corps and also to gather information.

“There are some traditional rulers who have been identified, adding that they are already under scrutiny. So, we are not sparing anybody even commissioners in my regime, we are not going to spare anybody found to be involved in one criminal activity or the other.

“We are talking about the lives of over 10 million people not one single individual. No single individual is more important than 10 million people or the lives of an innocent person in the village. We are trying as much as possible to gather a lot of information together with the intelligence we are getting from the DSS so that we can build a network that we can arrest and prosecute any person found wanting.

“It is a double-edged sword. We cannot fold our arms and say we will not protect ourselves because we don’t have the sophisticated arms that these bandits have. We have the numbers, we have the zeal and the determination, and you should remember, if they are going for any outing, it is just like the way it was done in Borno through the Civilian JTF.

“They will be covered by the police and the military who are heavily armed. So, I think it is a concerted and joint effort. And I think gradually, we are working within what the law allows us to possess.

“We are driving towards that, and we are seeking reforms within the federal government in that regard. If a bandit can go to the market and buy AK-47, RPG, and all of those weapons, what of the people that want to protect themselves? They, too, should equally be allowed to do so. These people are holding it illegally, we are trying to hold it legally. Why can’t the government allow the people to hold this thing and equally confront the challenges?

“Negotiations with bandits is a no go area in my perspective but I said if I am at the point of advantage, if the bandits come out and say look, ‘we are dropping arms, let us sit down and talk’, we could reintegrate them back into the society.

“But I will not go begging bandits to come for negotiations. Let us deal with the situation. If they are weak, let them come out, let us negotiate, and we will reintegrate them back into society. They are our people, our brothers, but we cannot protect a criminal.”

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