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There’s No Alternative To Restructuring – Atiku

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A former Vice-President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, on Tuesday, countered President Muhammadu Buhari’s stance on the restructuring of the country, saying there was no alternative to restructuring if Nigeria must make progress.

Atiku stated that he remained resolute in his support for the restructuring of the country, positing that there was “too much power” in the hands of the Federal Government, a situation he said had made governance in the country less competitive particularly among the states.

President Buhari had on Monday told a delegation of Urhobo Traditional Rulers and Urhobo Progress Union, who visited him in Abuja, that the calls for the restructuring of the country was parochial and laced with self-interests, hence discussions and arguments on the matter failed to capture his attention.

But the former VP disagreed with Buhari, saying that the country must be restructured for Nigeria to rapidly move forward.

Atiku spoke in Asaba, the Delta State Capital, during his consultative visit to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa and leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state on his presidential ambition ahead of the 2019 general elections.

He stated that he had been in the forefront of the calls for the restructuring of the country since 2004 while still serving as VP because restructuring would bring out the best among the federating units and lead to economic development across the board.

The PDP presidential aspirant also called on the Federal Government to review the current security architecture to meet the emerging security threats in the country, adding that he would always support any cause that would move the country forward.

Atiku, who also vowed to tackle unemployment in the country when he becomes President, noted that he was in the presidential race because of his burning desire to ensure that Nigeria made progress and was united irrespective of its religious and ethnic diversity.

He decried the situation where security agencies didn’t take orders from the state governors, saying “as an individual, I don’t think this is true federalism, we must restructure the security architecture.”

He said, “I will have a very small Federal Government with powers and resources devolved to the states to manage the affairs while they pay taxes to the Federal Government. With this, each zone can survive on its own without leaning on oil money.

“I’ll create jobs; you must liberalise the economy, support the private sector, create incentives to make the private sector boom and open up the economy to foreign direct investments. The security architecture of the country must be reviewed and decentralised to meet modern-day security challenges.”

He, however, thanked the people of the Niger Delta region, particularly Okowa, for the return of peace which in turn had led to increase in oil production, appealing that the peace in the area should be sustained.

Also speaking in a similar vein, Okowa stressed that restructuring would help to resolve the myriad of challenges currently confronting the country.

“I strongly believe that the way out of the challenges of the country is to have stronger states, stronger federating units,” he stated.

Punch

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The British Left Two Devils Behind When They Left Nigeria -Bode George

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“I have said it before, there are two devils left behind when the British left Nigeria. The first was tribalism. They planted it as a devil and the second is Religious bigotry. What has these issues got to do with managing people.

“Nobody selected himself that I want to be Yoruba, Igbo or Hausa man. No. You just popped out and whether you are a Muslim or Christian is irrelevant.

“In all religions that I know, you are told to love your Neighbor as yourself. What you will not accept, don’t do it to another neighbor because if you pack up and die, that’s the end. Let us have an impact of governance.” -Chief Bode George On AriseTV News

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After years of evading arrest, NDLEA nabs most wanted Lagos drug baron, Temo

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After many years of wearing the toga of invincibility, the overall head of the Mushin, Lagos drug cartel, 57-year-old Alhaji Sulaiman Jimoh (alias Olowoidiogede, populary known as Temo), has been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, at his enclave after an initial resistance from him and his horde of hoodlums.

In the last two years, the NDLEA had intercepted large consignments of illicit drugs worth billions of naira owned by Temo but he has remained largely evasive while a few encounters with him and his armed gangs in his Mushin enclave had resulted in gunfight.

Some of the recent seizures of his shipments include: a 14, 524.8 kilograms of Ghana Loud, a strong strain of cannabis sativa, smuggled into Lagos from Ghana in two trucks and a J5 bus intercepted at Ojuelegba area of Lagos in the early hours of Sunday 28th January 2024; two truck-loads of the same substance weighing 8,852kg intercepted at Eleko beach, Lekki Lagos on 4th May 2023 and 252kg of Loud seized from his enclave in Mushin on Wednesday 26th July 2023. Indeed, in the last two encounters, his men engaged NDLEA operatives in gunfight.

The drug kingpin was very notorious for always being on the move to evade arrest but with persistence and determination of the Agency aided by modern tools and intelligence, the concerted effort to get him paid off at 10am on Monday 22nd July 2024 when NDLEA’s surveillance teams on his trail tracked and pinned him down at Igbarere street, Mushin. A reinforcement of about 50 operatives was immediately mobilized to the area while he was attempting to escape in a Mercedes Benz SUV GLE 350 marked 01G-300G. His attempt to escape by mobilizing hoodlums to engage and distract the operatives however failed after which he was overpowered and whisked away from the chaotic scene while his men surrendered to the superior firepower of the anti-narcotic agents who also succeeded in recovering the Mercedes Benz SUV the suspect was found in.

In his reaction to the arrest of Temo, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) commen

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Peter Obi Writes Onanuga, Demands Apology, N5bn within 72 Hours

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The Presidential Candidate of our Labour Party in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi has demanded from the Special Adviser on Communication and Strategy to the President, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, the retraction of his wild allegation, linking him as behind the planned mass protest being planned for August.

Obi, writing through his counsel, Chief Alex Ejesieme, SAN of the MADIBA Chambers, said that the allegation which was widely published in social and mainstream media and read by many within and outside the country maligned his hard-earned reputation as a man who indulges in violence when all his antecedents are vivid that he abhors violence even in the face of extreme provocation.

“It’s our client’s conviction that the publication was a calculated plot to demean, ridicule, humiliate and embarrass him by the estimation of every right thinking member of the society”

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