Sahara Reporters Latest News Today Thursday 8th April 2021
Sahara Reporters Latest News Today and headlines on some of the happenings and news trend in the Country, today 08/04/21
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‘We Must Hold On To optimism’- Innocent Chukwuma; A Tribute By Okechukwu Nwanguma
12.39 pm, Saturday, 3rd April, 2021. That was when I last spoke with my friend, Innocent Chukwuma. My calling him was prompted by the disturbing information I just then received from Dr. Chidi Odinkalu that Innocent was unwell and that his condition appeared to be serious. I was alarmed and wasn’t sure if he was able to speak but I tried, reluctantly. I was glad he took my call, and I asked him if he was fine. He said he wasn’t quite well and I told him I was concerned about the information I received about his condition and hospitalisation. He responded in a shaky, distressed voice, betraying a man not in his normal state of wellness, and said ‘It’s actually a cause for concern, but, you know, we’re in the business of being optimistic’. I didn’t want to prolong the conversation because I didn’t want to keep him long on the phone. I asked him if I could come to see him in hospital. He said ‘that’s fine, you can come tomorrow… Chidinma (his first daughter) will send you the name of the hospital’.
I wished him well, asked him to remain strong, and I hung up.
By 9.48 pm on that same day, I received a call from his nephew who told me that the selfsame Innocent I spoke to, just few hours ago ‘is no more..’ it dawned on me afreh, how short and unpredictable life is. And how sure death is.
Innocent’s passing was sudden, speedy, shocking, tragic, untimely and devastatingly painful. Yet, he died a great man. He was good to me and to many others whose paths crossed with his. He left indelible marks. His fame grew global. His memory will forever live in my heart and in the hearts of many who cherish him.
I met Innocent Chukwuma for the first time sometime between 1987 and 1988 shortly after I gained admission into the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He was already in his second year in the department of Religion. What brought us together was our shared vision, passion and struggle as student union activists. It was later that I realised that he’s also from my home community, Mbaise and in fact, my maternal home. Ever since, we remained Comrades, brothers and friends. He impacted my life significantly.
Innocent was a brilliant student. His lecturers attested to the fact. Although he came from a poor background he was determined in his fight to defeat poverty and achieve great success early in life. By age 30, he won the prestigious Reebok Human Rights Award. In his success, he was humble and never distanced himself from his old friends. He was an activist par excellence, principled, passionate, courageous and ingenious. He was a visionary and strategic thinker, left-handed and extremely gifted. He was also compassionate and inspiring.
Innocent and I met Chima Ubani who was then the President of the students Union at UNN. Chima had been expelled, along with other leaders, arrested and charged to a military tribunal for leading a students protest against IMF economic policies. We also met Emma Ezeazu who was the President of the National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS). Emma was running his post graduate studies in history.
We all belonged to the Marxist Youth Movement (MYM) which was the dominant and most influential radical political platform through which student union leaders of that era were groomed and elected from. Radical lectures in the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) worked in solidarity with leaders of the movement and the students Union to organise weekend political education classes for students, especially members of the movement. This was why students Union leaders of that era were ideologically conscious, knowledgeable and visionary and patriotically and courageously challenged oppression and bad governance within the campuses, in the country and internationally. Students of our era were conscious and conversant with international affairs and worked in alliance with other democratic forces in the country and internationally. This explained, for example our interest and involvement in the liberation struggle of the south African people under the leadership of the African National Congress (ANC). That was also the era of the cold war. Students of that era read books.
Innocent was the speaker of the students Union house of representatives. He, alongside other radical student leaders in our time, provided courageous leadership. He was speaker when Nelson Mandela was released from prison and the University authorities decided to hold a freedom rally at the Ekpo refectory to celebrate Mandela’s freedom. Innocent Chukwuma and thirty eight other student leaders had been variously suspended, rusticated and expelled by the Vice Chancellor for their roles in mobilising students to protest against anti student and anti people economic policies for which the umbrella national students body NANS had directed campuses across the country to commence mobilisation for peaceful nationwide protests.
Something dramatic happened. Innocent was presiding over a house session to debate whether and when UNN should commence its own protest. Chima Ubani, although had eventually graduated after his travails in the hands of the university authoritaties and the militay regime, visited Nsukka that period and attended the house session.
Debates raged passionately in the house with the progressive and reactionary factions sharply divided over if and when UNN should commence action. Some said we should wait for other campuses in the country to move first – some based their argument on the reasoning that UNN was one of the few federal institutions in the Southeast and therefore, we should not do anything capable of destroying the most significant federal presence in the east. But how could that be? We were not planning a violent protest. It was intense, prolonged and contentious.
Caught in between mainly two diametrically opposed positions, innocent brought his ingenuity as a student of religion and a quickwited genius into play. In response to those who argued that we needed to wait to see other universities move first, innocent reminded them that key federal universities like Uniben, UNILAG, Unibad, and ABU had commenced mobilisation or actual action and quoted the biblical part which said when you begin to hear rumours of war from the west and from the east and from the the north, then know that that is the sign that the time has come. And he ruled that UNN should provide leadership by commencing mobilisation for the national action.
Chima Ubani used to recall this story a lot about how Innocent resolved a knotty situation deploying what he described as biblical parabolical metaphorism.
It was following the action that ensued following the parliament’s decision to call out the students for the national protests that Innocent and 38 other union leaders were victimsed. Gani Fawehinmi offered free legal services to the victimsed student leaders to challenge their victimisation in court. But while the legal action was still on, opportunity showed up for a political action to force the hands of the university authoritaties to reverse their illegal actions against the student leaders.
While the University authorities were planning the Nelson Mandela freedom rally, Innocent and others, including my humble self, held a meeting and planned the ‘hijack’ of the occasion to advance our demand for freedom for our victimsed leaders. We mobilised some movement members clandestinely, printed and handed them placards bearing different messages demanding for justice for our leaders.
On the day of the freedom rally, we positioned the students involved in the plan in different positions in the hall. As the vice chancellor picked up the microphone to address the mammoth crowd of students gathered in the hall, those bearing the placards simultaneously raised their placards from their different corners and we began to chant our solidarity song. Then the President of the students Union, accompanied by Innocent Chukwuma and others walked up to the rostrum and snatched the microphone from the vice chancellor with a clear message that you cannot unjustly suspend, rusticate and expel 39 of your students, deny them justice and at the same time purport to celebrate freedom.
There was commotion and panic and the VC was scurried away by the university security. Of course, there was no intention to harm anyone, just to send a hard message across to despots that injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere; injustice anywhere must be resisted and you cannot be celebrating freedom for Mandela when you have subjected your students to the same type of injustice that Mandela was subjected to by the racist regime in South Africa. If not for stubborn struggle, Mandella would not have regained his freedom.
Days after this courageous action, Chukwuma and his comrades were recalled by the university authorities.
I succeeded Innocent Chukwuma as the speaker of the students Union Parliament in 1991, the year he graduated.
Innocent joined the staff of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) during his national youth service in 1992. He was acting Executive Director while Abdul Oroh, the substantive ED was in jail during the dark days of military dictatorship.
Few months after I finished my youth service I joined Innocent in Lagos. I lived under his roof and care for one year before he employed me to work in his project, the Police Research Project. I count myself as one of Innocent’s legacies. Innocent recruited me into CLO upon my graduation and completion of my national service, just as Chima Ubani and Emma Ezeazu recruited him. My venturing into police reform was by virtue of my working under Innocent in the Police Research Project in CLO. He influenced my trajectory. I became the head of the project upon his exit to found CLEEN Foundation, where he broke new grounds in Police reform in Nigeria, winning awards.
It was while he was in CLEEN and I was in charge of Police project in the CLO that Innocent came up with the idea of a CSO consultative meeting on police reform. It was in that meeting in Abuja that the idea to set up a network on police reform to provide opportunity for civil society involvement in police reform came up. Innocent was to later invite me in 2008 while I was about concluding a democracy fellowship in Washington DC to come and build NOPRIN’s profile. I obliged him.
The story of my life and career trajectory cannot be told without a copious mention of innocent Chukwuma. I have lost a friend, a brother, a comrade, a boss and inspiration.
Innocent has played his part in the drama of life and taken his exit. Although the suddeness and speed of Innocent’s death sent shock waves, confusion and grief beyond Nigeria, it also throws up some lessons. The outpouring of grief and great testimonials about his life is comforting and a source of lesson to the living. What matters is what you will be remembered for, not how long you lived.
Innocent was a genius. He was a great soul. His type comes only once in a generation. I’m happy I was lucky to cross your path.
Good night Innocent
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Imo Jailbreak: How Villagers Burnt Escaped Prisoner Who Returned Home
Angry residents of Umuawom village, Ihodimeze community in Ikeduru council area of Imo State on Wednesday set ablaze a fleeing prisoner, who returned home from the Owerri Correctional Centre which was attacked on Monday.
According to the Nation, the fleeing prisoner, whose identity could not be ascertained as at press time, was said to have hailed from the nearby Ogwa community in Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo State but grew up in Umuawom village, which is his maternal home.
He was said to have been involved in a kidnap activity that involved one of the families in Umuawom village but was eventually apprehended and remanded in custody for over one year.
However, when he escaped from the Correctional Centre on Monday, he was said to have gone straight to one of the families that testified against him and threatened to deal with them.
It was gathered he attempted to carry out his threat by attacking a member of the family in Umuawom village with a gun.
Village sources told The Nation that his daring move prompted villagers to pounce on him and immediately set him ablaze.
Spokesman for the Police Command, Orlando Ikeokwu, said he had heard about the incident but could not officially confirm it.
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Imo Jailbreak: Freed Inmates Taking Up Menial Jobs To Survive, Aiming For Fresh Start
Some of the 1,800 inmates who escaped during the Owerri jailbreak have taken up cleaning and menial jobs for survival, a report by Vanguard stated.
According to the report, the escapees took up majorly hawking and cleaning jobs in brothels, motor parks and market squares to raise money for their feeding and survival.
Eyewitnesses also told Vanguard that the inmates have taken refuge in uncompleted buildings as their home as well as mingle around nightlife hotspots.
Areas affected as stated in the report, include the Control post along Onitsha road, Whethdral Roundabout up to Poly Junction, IMSU junction as well as Irete axis on Owerri/Onitsha Road.
Many of the respondents said some of the freed inmates were hard-working and peaceful people.
There are, however, allegations that some notorious inmates do not want to go to their village, because they are afraid that they would be reported to the security agencies.
Therefore, they engage in pick-pocketing at night to raise money quickly for themselves.
Some on the other hand are looking to raise little money through cleaning jobs as part of starting afresh, just as some of them said they needed money to go back to their villages, as their people are not even aware that they were in prison for many years and that they were imprisoned by intimidation and false allegations against them.
Those who said they had an encounter with some of the inmates, one Chike, known as Iron said: “Our happiness is that my guy is back from prison thanks to the people who released them. My brother from Ebonyi came to do the hawking business and was arrested that demolished Eke Ukwu market in Owerri. He committed no crime. We did not know he was in prison.”
Another drama was said to have played out in Control post when a group said to be “bad boys” jubilated over their freed friends one of whom was said to have been arrested in connection with an alleged robbery/kidnapping between Control post, World Bank and Hospital junction along Owerri/ Port Harcourt road.
One of them said: “Our men are back. We are drinking and enjoying ourselves. Work begins, who be police? Signal my man is back. They can’t come out now, later in the night. Men can’t go back to the village. That one no-follow.”
A businessman in Irete, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “Some of these inmates are innocent. Two of them were on my friend’s business premises. They opened up and said they were among those freed and explained how they got into prison. My brother, you will shed tears.
“Our people are suffering. They pleaded with my friend, that they want to join his boys in offloading bags of cement and clean up his business premises in order to raise money and go home. They said they are from Ngor Okpala local government area and had been in prison for more than 15 years. But my friend gave them N5,000 and food, and that they should go home.”
In another encounter, a source, owner of a business/entertainment outfit around one of the nightlife areas in Owerri, who chose to remain anonymous said: “Is it not the prisoners that now work as cleaners? They are responsible ladies just that they look famished and malnourished, but with time they will be Ok. What they need is just rehabilitation as some of them complained that they did nothing that should warrant their imprisonment.
“Some of them are now in market places, motor parks as cleaners, some doing hawking business. It is not everything we see we say sometimes. You see, they are ready to wash plates. Some of them have repented. Some of them did not commit any offence. This is a wicked country.”
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E2%80%93governor-uzodinma BREAKING: Aggrieved Politicians Behind Imo Attacks –Governor Uzodinma
Hope Uzodinma
Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma, has said aggrieved politicians sponsored the attacks on police headquarters and correctional centre in Owerri, the state capital, on Monday.
Uzodinma spoke on Wednesday during a programme on Channels Television, monitored by SaharaReporters.
A correctional centre and a police command were attacked by gunmen, who made use of explosives and also burnt many vehicles.
The Nigerian Correctional Service has said 1,844 inmates were set free during the attack on its facility.
Meanwhile, the police have accused the Indigenous People of Biafra and its security outfit, Eastern Security Network of being responsible for the attack, an allegation the group has denied.
But Uzodinma on Wednesday said aggrieved politicians were behind the attacks to destabilise his party, the All Progressives Congress.
He said, “Their tactics is that they try to identify grievances of people in a particular area. If it is in Imo State and probably there are some IPOB people who are not happy, they hire hoodlums from outside Imo State, they bring them in pretending to be IPOB and they commit these crimes and they go away.
“So, it is not about IPOB. Yes, we agree, we have aggrieved IPOB members but I can tell you those who are doing this destruction, most of them were brought in from outside Imo State.”
Also blaming it on politicians, the governor said, “What is important for Nigerians to know is the plot by a group of aggrieved politicians to destabilise the government of APC (All Progressives Congress).
“I have done some thorough investigation and I have some credible leads as to those who are sponsoring these activities of these hoodlums.
“I don’t want to pre-empt the investigations of other security agencies but I can tell you we are working hard to ensure the sponsors of these dastardly acts must be brought to book.”
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How We Regained Our Freedom From Bandits’ Den, Freed Kaduna Student Narrates, Contradicting Army
An abducted student of Federal College of Forestry Mechanization, Afaka, Mando, Kaduna State, has narrated how they were released from captivity, Daily Trust reports.
The Nigerian Army had claimed that its troops “recovered five of the students”, who spent over three weeks in captivity.
Samuel Aruwan, Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, was the one who first announced the release of the students but he did not go into details.
However, in a statement on Tuesday, Brig. Gen. Yerima Mohammed, Army Spokesman, unveiled the identities of the “recovered students”, and showered encomiums on the troops.
“The rescued students are currently receiving medical attention in a military facility in Kaduna. The GOC 1 Division, Maj Gen DH Ali-Keffi has commended the troops for their effort and charged them not to rest on their oars until all kidnap victims are rescued and returned to their families,” he had said while giving the impression that the military rescued the students.
But speaking shortly after the freed victims were reunited with their families on Wednesday, Francis Paul, a 200 level student of Agriculture Technology at the institution, said the bandits released them voluntarily.
“One afternoon, they (the bandits) came and started selecting us… I was very ill that day. So, they asked me to sit aside and they added some girls and put us on motorbikes. They dropped us at a village close to the main road and said we should walk towards the road and we did,” he said.
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Kogi Police Secretly Arraign Buhari-Must-Go Protesters, Remand Them In Prison
The Kogi State Police Command has secretly arraigned two Buhari-Must-Go protesters, Larry Emmanuel and Victor Udoka, in court, without giving them access to their lawyers.
The police in their desperation to harass the peaceful protesters also ensured that they were remanded at the Kabba Prison – without the knowledge of their lawyers or family members.
SaharaReporters learnt that neither the charges on which they were arraigned were made to the public or the identity of the Magistrate handling the trial.
SaharaReporters had earlier today reported that the police in Kogi State refused to produce the two Buhari-Must-Go protesters who were mobbed by hoodlums sponsored by the state government and thereafter taken to the police command.
It had been reported that the lawyers of the protesters since Monday had not been able to set eyes on them, as the police who claimed to be in custody of the two men, refused to bring them to their lawyers.
This is sequel to the torture which violent youths on Sunday gave the middle-aged protesters who were pasting Buhari-Must-Go posters in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital.
SaharaReporters had reported that the irate mob flogged the two youths, filmed them and brutalised them before they were later handed over to the police.
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It had been gathered that the police thereafter quizzed the two protesters and detained them when they insisted on seeing their lawyer before making a statement.
“The lawyers have been there for two days now and the police haven’t produced them. The police commissioner in Kogi could not produce anti-Buhari protesters he claimed were in his custody after two days.
“We are hearing they were never returned to police custody after the police handed them over to thugs,” a source in Lokoja had told this newspaper.
“They arranged a Magistrate to secretly try the two guys without legal representation.
“They are reportedly in Kabba prison. The police have refused to release the charges to the public and all efforts by lawyers to get the charges have not been fruitful,” a human rights activist following the case revealed to SaharaReporters.
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Adamu Listed On Police Website As Inspector-General 24 Hours After Sacking By Buhari With Immediate Effect
Mohammed Adamu still remains the Inspector-General of Police on the Nigeria Police Force website, more than 24 hours after he was sacked by President Muhammadu Buhari, SaharaReporters has gathered.
President Buhari had on Tuesday sacked Adamu and subsequently approved the appointment of Alkali Usman Baba as the new acting IGP.
He was in Owerri, the Imo State capital, when the Minister of Police Affairs, Muhammed Dingyadi, made the announcement.
Adamu had visited the state following attacks on the Imo State Police Command headquarters and the Owerri Correctional Prison.
He had charged men of the state police command not to spare members of Indigenous People of Biafra, adding that there was no hiding place for criminals in the state.
Dingyadi had communicated the president’s replacement of Adamu with DIG Usman Alkali Baba, to State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa on Tuesday.
The president said Alkali should replace Mohammed Adamu with immediate effect.
Buhari had on February 4 extended the tenure of Adamu as the IGP for three months. Adamu, who was appointed in 2019, had clocked the mandatory 35 years in service on February 1 and was expected to have been replaced by the president. His tenure extension had elicited widespread criticism and a resultant lawsuit.
A check on the police website at exactly 6pm on Wednesday showed that Adamu was still listed as the most senior police officer in the country while Alkali was listed as Deputy Inspector-General of Police in charge of Force Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Department (FCIID).
Earlier in the day, Alkali resumed office after being decorated by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
Adamu, the outgoing IGP, handed over to him at the Force Headquarters in Abuja.
The Yobe State-born cop was born on March 1, 1963 and bagged a master’s degree in public administration from the
University of Maiduguri, Borno state in 1997 and a Bachelor of Arts from the Bayero Usman University, Kano in 1985.
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E2%80%95-civil-defence-boss Over 50 Armed Herdsmen Arrested In One Week ? Civil Defence Boss
The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps has stated that more than 50 armed herdsmen were arrested last week.
This came as the corps granted operational licences to 17 new private security companies to provide additional security for the lives and property of Nigerians.
The Commandant-General of the corps, Ahmed Audi, while presenting the licences to the owners of the private guard’s companies at NSCDC headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday, called for synergy among the companies, Tribune reports.
He tasked them to provide credible intelligent security information that would complement the corps’ mandate of providing safety and enhance security for the nation.
He warned them against the use of firearms while urging them to exhibit high professional conduct in the discharge of their duties.
The CG, who revealed that more than “50 armed herdsmen were apprehended across Nigeria in the last week”, urged the companies to gather credible information and form a synergy with the Corps in the fight against insecurity in Nigeria.
He added the guards would become a central part of the implementation of the soon-to-launch School Safety Initiative to provide and deliver the needed security around various schools in the country.
He said: “We are facing a very serious conflict in Nigeria, let us come together and collaborate as your position is central to the delivery of the needed security for the nation as this is the first time Nigeria is facing this kind of asymmetric warfare.
“We have a place in the history together that we must guide jealously. While it is my duty to ensure the utmost performance of the industry, special attention would be paid to the recipients of today, towards
ensuring that you perform exceptionally in line with my dream to upbeat the corps operational activities as well as the Private Security Industry in order to play our expected role in the face of the present-day security challenges.”
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E2%80%94-abdulsalami-abubakar Over 6 Million Illegal Weapons In Circulation Across Nigeria — Abdulsalami Abubakar
A former Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar, has raised an alarm over the proliferation of weapons in the country, saying an estimated six million arms are circulating illegally.
Abubakar, who is also the chairman of the National Peace Committee, disclosed this at a dialogue session of the committee with key stakeholders in Abuja on Wednesday.
He stated that the proliferation of weapons has heightened insecurity in the country and led to over 80,000 deaths.
Abdulsalami said challenges facing the country is not only insecurity in the narrow sense of the military definition but that it has assumed an all-encompassing nature.
He listed these challenges to include the Boko Haram insurgency, banditry, kidnapping, increasing poverty, calls for the balkanisation of the country from different quarters, threat of hunger arising from the insecurity that farmers have faced and continue to face, increasing sense of collective despair and despondency among the populace.
“The proliferation of all calibre of weapons not only in our sub-region in general and in Nigeria, in particular, is worrying. It is estimated that there are over six million such weapons in circulation in the country.
“This certainly exacerbated the insecurity that led to over 80,000 deaths and close to three million internally displaced persons,” Abubakar said.
The ex-military Head of State, while assessing the security situation, said the security forces are not just overstretched but underfunded.
He said the security agencies can perform better with more sophisticated weapons, equipment and funding.
He said, “We believe Nigeria must find a way out of these problems. Our hope is that perhaps among us, by listening to your different perspectives, we can begin to build up confidence among our people so that we can hold together.
“So our hope is that we shall not only share our collective lamentations about the current situation but propose some concrete suggestions that can point the way forward, suggestions that can inspire more confidence among our people and ensure that our country remains one.”
He added that President Muhammadu Buhari was aware of the meeting and that he supported it.
The meeting was attended by the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III; John Cardinal Onaiyekan; Ekiti State governor and chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, Kayode Fayemi; Plateau State governor and chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, Simon Lalong; religious leaders, service chiefs, top military brass, police chiefs, among others.
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Court Sentences Ex-Bauchi Accountant General To One Year In Prison Over N108million Scam
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Gombe Zonal office on Wednesday secured conviction for Yusuf Ibrahim Gokaru, a former Bauchi State Accountant General.
Gokaru was jailed for one year with an option of fine by Justice Muazu Abubakar of the Bauchi State High Court on charges bordering on obtaining money by false pretences, concealment of the source and origin of the money.
This was stated by the EFCC on its official Twitter handle on Wednesday.
According to the anti-graft agency, Gokaru’s troubles began in August 2019 when the Bauchi State Government, in a petition to the Commission, alleged that the convict abused his office as Accountant General and obtained one hundred and eight million, three hundred and sixty-three thousand, two hundred naira only (N108,363,200) for personal use.
The agency in the statement said, “The money was diverted from the World Bank assistance to Bauchi State Government under the State Education Programme Investment Project, SEPIP. The defendant transferred the money from Bauchi State Consolidated naira account domiciled at Polaris Bank to a Unity Bank account
“The offence is contrary to Section 1 (1) (a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1 (3) of the same Act
“In the course of investigation, thirty-one million naira (N31 million) was recovered from the defendant. However upon arraignment on March 13, 2020, he pleaded not guilty to the charges preferred against him, setting the stage for trial.
“The prosecution counsel, A.Y. Muntaka in the course of trial presented witnesses and tendered documents which were admitted in evidence.
“When the case came up today, April 7, the defendant changed his plea and pleaded ‘guilty’ as charged.
“Consequently, the judge pronounced him guilty and sentenced him to one year imprisonment with an option of fine.
“Justice Abubakar also ordered the convict to pay the sum of seventy-seven million naira (N77 million) as restitution to Bauchi State Government within one year.”
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