South-East leaders step up moves to free Nnamdi
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Igbo leaders on Wednesday sustained their pressure on the Federal Government for the release of the embattled leader of the Independent Peoples of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, with a visit to the Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, in Abuja.
Senators from the South-East numbering 15, led by a former Abia State Deputy Governor, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, met with the AGF to plead with President Bola Tinubu for Kanu’s release.
They also submitted a letter to the AGF seeking a political solution to the criminal charges against Kanu.
The visit happened 24 hours after the South-East Governors’ Forum at its meeting resolved to approach the President to rethink the continual detention of the IPOB leader.
The clamour for a political solution to Kanu’s case has heightened recently with Igbo political and traditional leaders, including the apex Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, pressing the Federal Government to drop the terrorism charges against the IPOB leader.
Kanu, who pleaded not guilty to the charges, has been in the custody of the Department of State Services since June 2021after he was repatriated from Kenya.
The Federal High Court in Abuja on March 19, 2024, rejected the IPOB leader’s bail application.
However, the trial judge, Justice Binta Nyako, granted an accelerated hearing instead.
At the same time, Kanu’s counsel, Alloy Ejimakor, stated that his client’s health condition was deteriorating, adding that his continued detention by the DSS was a threat to his life.
In collaboration with other Igbo leaders, the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma and his Abia counterpart, Okezie Ikpeazu, have also been involved in the push for Kanu’s release, citing the need for peace and stability in the South-East region.
Ohanaeze Ndigbo, in a statement last Sunday, tasked all the five South-East governors and traditional and religious leaders to work as a team to push for Kanu’s release from custody.
Also, the lawmaker representing Ikwuano/Umuahia North/Umuahia South Federal Constituency in Abia State, Mr Obi Aguocha, sought the intervention of former President Muhammadu Buhari to secure Kanu’s freedom.
Obi meets NLC today over conflict with Abure
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The 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, will hold a crucial meeting with the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress on Thursday as part of his reconciliatory move to resolve the crisis rocking the party.
The move comes one week after the former Anambra governor sued for peace following the invasion of the LP headquarters in Abuja by members of the NLC National Transition Committee set up to take over the control of party affairs.
The committee headed by a former NLC President, Abdulwaheed Omar, was put in place by the NLC Political Commission to reposition the party two months after the NLC rejected the re-election of Julius Abure as the party’s National Chairman.
Omar and scores of the NLC supporters had on Tuesday stormed the national secretariat of the Labour Party in Utako to demand Abure’s resignation.
The protest and threats to bring down the gates of the secretariat disrupted an ongoing meeting of the National Working Committee of the LP being presided over by Abure.
Obi, who was also at the secretariat, however, intervened, calling for peace between the LP and the NLC.
Obi also spoke on the reconciliation of Abure and the Lamidi Apapa faction reported by The PUNCH, stressing that the two camps came together for the greater good of the party.
Senate scores FG low on 2024 budget performance
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The Senate has scored the executive low in the implementation of the capital component of the 2024 budget, saying there is a need for the government to get Ministries, Department and Agencies of the Federal Government to implement the budget.
The Senate on Wednesday also urged the Federal Government to intensify efforts in funding the capital components of the three national budgets which are running concurrently in the country.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Solomon Adeola, gave the task when the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun and the Accountant General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Madein, appeared before the panel over the budget performances.
Adeola lamented the poor funding of the capital components of the budgets and urged the Coordinating Minister for the Economy to improve on it.
Adeola said, “It is the capital component of the budgets that will showcase this government largely in terms of performances.
“The capital components tend to showcase various projects that will be executed by this government and people can say, oh, the government is doing this, it’s doing that. That is why we are emphasising the performance of the 2024 capital component of the project.”
Adeola added, “The N1.84bn achieved so far out of a N9tn capital expenditure component is nothing to write home about.
N423bn theft: Kaduna protesters ask ICPC to arrest El-Rufai
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A group, the Kaduna Citizens Watch for Good Governance, on Wednesday, formally submitted a petition to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission against ex-governor Nasir El-Rufai.
The group asked the anti-corruption agency to commence an immediate probe of El-Rufai towards his prosecution for alleged N423bn theft.
The petition by the group comes on the back of a report by the Kaduna State House of Assembly indicting El-Rufai and his appointees for alleged misappropriation of loans and theft to the tune of N423bn.
Last week, El-Rufai commenced legal action against the Assembly and the state government, seeking to quash the incriminating report.
He contended that the Assembly violated his rights to a fair hearing by failing to invite him to defend himself in the course of the probe leading to the report.
On Wednesday, members of the Kaduna Citizens Watch for Good Governance marched to the ICPC office on Wurno Road, Kaduna to demand El-Rufai’s immediate arrest and probe.
The PUNCH reports that the same group had on June 20, 2024 led a protest to the Kaduna State Government House asking Governor Uba Sani to invite anti-graft agency to arrest his predecessor.
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