***Berate Tinubu over Poor Policies

By Ahmed Rufa’i, Dutse

Thousands of members of the ruling All Progresdives Congress (APC) have decamped to the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) in Jigawa state citing President Bola Tinubu’s poor policies as the cause of excruciating poverty that has befallen the country

Receiving the decampees in Dutse the State Capital, the New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP) gubernatorial candidate in the 2023 election in the state, Malam Aminu Ibrahim Ringim accused the ruling APC government at the center and in the state for poverty of ideas that can engender good governance.
He said they lack the competence that can deliver vibrant policies and programs with positive impacts on the electorate after one year in office.

Malam Ringim pointed out that president Tinubu’s administration is unprepared and incapacitated to handle the current economic and security challenges.

According to him “The present devastating economic and security hardship has rendered every Nigerian incapacitated

According to him, despite all the woes, the federal is coming up with more devastating policies that are adding to the sufferings of the citizens and the common man in particular that voted them in to power”.

“Some of the policies include the recent hike of electricity tariffs, introduction of cyber security levy in addition to the removal of fuel subsidy which was the folcrum of the economic crises and increase in security challenges”.

The gubernatorial candidate also faulted the Jigawa state governor, Mal. Umar Namadi for allegedly neglecting his responsibilities but rather pursuing misplaced priorities for good one year in office.

He accused governor Umar Namadi for abandoning agricultural sector which accommodated over 90 percent of people that engaged in farming

“The Governor failed to fulfill his promises on agriculture, youth employment and education. He had promised to pay scholarship allowance, registration fees, for the state indigenes in tertiary intitutions.
According to him, he failed woefully on his promise to support irrigation farming for large scale Rice and Maize dry season farming etc”.

“As opposition party we have been silent and watching for almost one year now, yet nothing to show any where in terms of human or infrastructure development by either president Bola Tinubu or governor Umar Namadi.
“We have concluded all arrangements to challenge the ruling party both at national and state level on why this unnecessary hardship mist be addressed”, he said.

Malam Aminu explained that, the purpose for the gathering is to meet with the leadership of NNPP in the 27 local governments in Jigawa state to discuss and design how to save Nigerians from the hardship.

“Our party NNPP as an opposition party, we wouldn’t allow things to continue to derail like that, we must challenge and called the ruling party APC to do the right as Nigerians are entitled to survive without this untold hardship”, Malam Aminu stated.

He called on Nigerians to avoid repeating mistake of ‘collecting bribes to vote’ in the next general elections to save the future of the country.

He welcome the new party members to the New Nigerian People Party (NNPP) and commend their courage, national patriotism and commitment to bringing positive changes under the NNPP.

Speaking on behalf of the decampees, one Malam Abubakar Lawan Kafi said “We took this decision in order to express our concern with the present hardship and APC led administration with their deception of palliatives distribution to people and number of bad policies and programs.

Malam Abubakar Lawan Kafi added said they are optimistic and confident that the ANPP will lead to positive changes if given an opportunity.
“We are all living witnesses of the good governance and quality leadership in Kano state under NNPP. We believe that is going to happen in the country if Engineer Rabi’u Musa Kwankoso become president of Nigeria and my humble self become the governor of Jigawa state”.

***Demands outright cancelation, repeat primary

Apparently still dissatisfied with the conduct of the April 20 Ondo State governorship primaries of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Ondo State, Senator Jimoh Ibrahim took his protest to the National Assembly in Abuja on Tuesday where he accused Governor Usman Ododo of Kogi State and Ovie Omo-Agege of complicity in the shoddy exercise

Ibrahim while speaking to the senate Press corps made fresh allegations against Governor Usman Ododo, and a former Deputy President of the Senate, Sen. Movie Omo-Agege, accusing them of changing the venue of the state collation centre abruptly without giving contestants prior notice.

Ododo and Omo-Agege were the chairman and secretary respectively of the election committee sent by the APC to conduct the primaries.
According to him, Ododo and Omo-Agege changed the date of collation of results midway to allow them perfect the electoral fraud in favour of the incumbent governor of Ondo State, Lucky Aiyedatiwa who had contested the primary election with them.

To buttress his point, Jimoh who was a contestant in the election pointed out a letter written by Ododo Ahmed Usman which was addressed to the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Akure purportedly changing the date of collation on the day of primary election.

Part of the letter which was sighted by our correspondent reads: “Please refer to our letters on the above stated subject matter, dated 5th April, 2024 with Ref. Number APC/NHDQ/INEC/19024/016 wherein we requested for a change in the State Collation Centre.

“We are writing to further inform the Commission of the postponement of the collation of election results for the All Progressives Congress, APC primary election, which is scheduled for 20th April, 2024. The postponement became necessary due to unforeseen circumstances regarding the submission of results from the Local Government Collation Centre Officers.

“Despite our best efforts to ensure timely collation, most of our Local Government collation officers will arrive late, as a result of logistic challenges which have led to a delay in the collation processes.”
Jimoh insisted that the primary election did not hold in 159 out of 203 polling units across the three Senatorial districts in Ondo State, insisting that Kogi State governor, Ododo Ahmed Usman who was the Chairman of Ondo State Primary Election Committee fraudulently declared Lucky Aiyedatiwa winner in cahoots with the former Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege.

He maintained that his ground, reseeking a repeat of the governorship primaries of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on the grounds that election was not conducted in 15 out of the 18 local government areas in the state.
Ibrahim, who was a contestant in the primaries, accused the APC’s electoral committee, chaired by Ododo, of allocating votes, as against conducting genuine polls.

“It was mere allocation of figures, no election. I was not even able to vote”, he said.

Ibrahim called for a repeat of the primaries or the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should bar the APC from participating in the main election.

Ibrahim, who brandished a document he said was the certified true copy of INEC’s report on the election, claimed that the primaries didn’t take place in up to 127 wards in the state, including Ilaje, the local government of the governor.

Armed with the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC’s report, the lawmaker disclosed that he has filed a complaint at a Federal High Court in consonance with provisions of Electoral Act, which stipulates that, “complaints arising from primary election be filed within 14 days.”

In the INEC report which Jimoh personally made available to journalists, it was observed that APC primary election did not hold in 15 out of 18 Local Government Councils in Ondo, thus, the report did not reflect the controversial areas.
He recalled how he informed the National Chairman of the APC, Alhaji Abdullahi Gaduje, of his predicament, whereupon Ganduje directed that the election team should be sent to his house just so that he could vote.

He disclosed that when the team arrived at his house, he sent the members away “because my house was not a designated voting area”, adding that the development was a pointer to the fact that internal democracy hardly thrived in the country.

“We will fight to the Supreme Court .
In 127 of the wards, there was no election. Results were merely allocated. ..15 out of 18 local governments, no election, meaning that in 80% of the state, there was no voting”, he added.

***Alerts President Tinubu over Kwankwaso’s scheming to destabilize APC

From Mohammed Abubakar Minjibir

A Kano-based political think-tank, the CONCERNED KANO PROGRESSIVES, {CKP} has vowed to do everything humanly possible to support ongoing efforts of the national Chairman of the All Progressives Congress(APC), Alhaji Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, to reposition the party and encourage all elected representatives on the platform of the APC to manage the gains of their respective, electoral successes.
Similarly, the KCP, have also vowed to checkmate, what its members, have described as , “the infantile and highly dysfunctional thought-processes being elicited by one-time civilian Governor of Kano State, Alhaji Kwankwaso, in his drift towards political mischief-making against the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu “.
These views, were contained in a Media statement issued to newsmen on Sunday, by the National Coordinator of CKP Alhaji Mohammed Z. Abubakar.
The CKP stated that, “Anybody who knows Alhaji Kwankwaso and his conditioned behaviour towards matters of political socialization processes and mentorship, can attest to his high affinity for not only being domineering, high-handed, self-opinionated but abnormally dictatorial in the way and manner he relates with his peers, eminent political leadership figures and sundry loyal party members.”
The statement explained further that, “Alhaji Kwankwaso, is believing that he has the nationwide capacity to swing the sociology of the voter-behaviour of the larger Nigerian voting electorate come 2027, to actualize his animated ambition of becoming the President of Nigeria.”
The CKP, said that Alhaji Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso’s self-inflated ego, is what is perhaps, leading him into nursing the faulty impression-formation disposition that, apart from the entire northern electorate, “voting” massively for him under the NNPP, the social and political rating which President Tinubu presently enjoys, is far below his self-proclaimed social and political stratification rating, which, has given him the pseudo courage to embark on his ongoing secret plans to destabilize the All Progressives Congress by using his NNPP political party platform to achieve his ambition of becoming president of Nigeria in 2027.
According to the CKP spokesman, Alhaji Mohammed Z. Abubakar, “Alhaji Kwankwaso’s hope of executing his plan of action is largely reliant and premised on the funding from his political stooge, the current Governor of Kano State, who will never dare defy the directives of Alhaji Kwankwaso, his father in-law and mentor.
Alhaji Kwankwaso, according to the Progressives, “uses the Kano State Executive Governor, Alhaji Abba Yusuf, as a willing instrument to prosecute his current thinly disguised agenda to blackmail and demonise the APC National Chairman, Alhaji Ganduje, and his party in such a way as to destroy the APC brand before the next general elections in 2027.
The Progressives, have therefore humbly advised President Tinubu and APC members nationwide to be on the alert about the scheming of Alhaji Kwankwaso.

The organisation indicated that, “the unfolding pockets of mischief-making ploys, antics and deviant behavioural traits being orchestrated by the former Governor of Kano State, Dr Kwankwaso and the current NNPP government led by Alhaji Abba Yusuf, to tarnish the good image and reputation of both the ruling APC and its National Chairman, Dr. Ganduje, will fail. “We stand resolutely in solidarity with Dr. Ganduje”, the statement concludes.