The Lumine News

Category: Press release

  • Citizens’ Solution Network’s Press Release On The Arrest Of Lance Corporal Idiakpeni Martins By The Leadership Of Nigerian Army

    By Admin

    CITIZENS’ SOLUTION NETWORK’S PRESS RELEASE ON THE ARREST OF LANCE CORPORAL IDAKPENI MARTINS BY THE LEADERSHIP OF THE NIGERIAN ARMY

    Date: 6/7/2020
    Time: 8am

    Today we wake up to a very depressing information concerning the arrest of Lance Corporate Idakpeni Martins of 8 Division of the Nigerian Army in Sokoto, Nigeria.

    In a video sent to us last week, Lance Corporal Idakpeni Martins criticised the leadership of the Nigerian Army and accused Lt. Gen Tukur Buratai of betraying Nigeria by not supplying the Army men fighting the insurgency in the North better and adequate fire arms.

    In the said video within our custody, Lance Corporal Martins accused the Army Chief of Staff of arresting and locking up innocent Nigerian Army personnel who are demanding better and adequate arms to fight insurgency in the North.

    Lance Corporal Martins went on to demand that in a case where he is arrested following the release of the said video, we should endeavor that his Court Marshall should be opened for all Nigerians to see, and not to be allowed to be tried in secrecy.

    At Citizens Solution Network, we expect that if officers who are willing to fight and die for this country demand weapons, they should be given and not to be rounded up, arrested and locked up in secret detention facilities as exposed by Lance Corporal Martins.

    From the foregoing, there is a depressing and serious implication to this. Which simply means, Nigerian Military Personnel are sent to die at battle front without proper and adequate supply of firearms, and in event where they are seen to complain, they are arrested, and locked up in secret detention facilities rather than issued the right article of combat (AoC).

    At Citizens’ Solution Network, we find this sort of arrest unfair, unjust and unacceptable, and call for the review of the conditions and on what ground an army officer or rank and file should be arrested, tried and detained. Hence the need for the National Assembly to speedily intervene and get involved into reviewing the extant laws surrounding same.

    That said, we are first and foremost condemning the arrest of Lance Corporal Martins and demanding that his Court Marshall, if the military deems it necessary to have him tried, be done fairly and transparently outside the purview of secrecy.

    Finally, we wish to call on the leadership of the Nigerian Military and the President of Nigeria to ensure that nothing unjust happens to Lance Corporal Martins.

    Let it be on public registry that there is genuine and broad need for all Nigerians, lawyers and human right activists to rally in defence of Lance Corporal Martins and his ultimate release.

    Thanks!

    Signed.

    Richard F. Inoyo
    Country Director, Citizens Solution Network.

    For: Military Population and Civilian Council.

    CC:

    President and Commandant-in-Chief, Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    The President of The Nigerian Senate.

    The Speaker of The Nigerian House of Representatives.

    The Chief of Defence Staff.

    The Chief of Army Staff.

    The National President, Nigerian Bar Association.

    Coalition of Civil Society Organizations in Nigeria.

  • Jerry Unimke Dissociates From Controversial CRS Gov’t Facilitation Of N-Power Initiative.

    By Elijah Ugani – Calabar

    A renowned scholar and fine gentleman per excellent, Mr. Jerry Unimke, who is also the Examination Officer of the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Calabar has dissociated himself from the controversial meddling of the Cross River State Government in the ongoing batch C N-Power registration whose portal has just been stabilized today.

    In a memo issued and signed by the Director General, Migration Control, in his verified Facebook account @Prince Michael Nku Abuo, https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=3507260515967944&id=100000520910186&sfnsn=scwspmo&extid=miDnC25nxBHNDQGI, appointed Mr. Jerry Unimke as coordinator for Obudu.

    Unimke took to his verified Facebook account @Jerry Unimke, https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1977152885753508&id=100003764479493  to disclaim appointment.

    The release reads “My attention has been drawn to a certain publication with my name and phone number (07038317497) circulating the social media space, assigned to issue forms and collect the sum of #2500 from applicants in connection with the State government facilitation process of the Federal Government N-power Initiative.

    “I wish to state categorically that the said publication was fronted without due consultation with me. I think I was dragged into it by error, which I have addressed. Whether the facilitation scheme is genuine or not, it’s not in question to me but my intention is to discountenance my person from such controversial schemes. I have worked hard for myself and I hold my name and integrity in high esteem and do not wish to meddle in such affairs”

    Thanks

    Jerry Unimke

  • Press statement By The Niger Delta activists Forum Over The Delibrate punishment Of The Niger Delta People By Babatunde Raji Fashola In The Willful Neglect Of The Odukpani-ITU-Ikot-Ekpene Road

    By Admin

    Good morning Comrades, and gentlemen of the press.

    Seven months ago, issues surrounding this same Odukpani-Itu-Ikot-Ekpene road was on the national spot light. The Niger Delta Activist Forum agitated, vigorously and mobilized a massive protest, against the Federal Government to dramatize our pain.

    Fashola quickly released the sum of three billion and five hundred million naira, for immediate mobilization to site. We engaged further with him and the entire Ministry of Works and on the 24th December, 2019 at their Ministry headquarters in Mabushi, Abuja and a truce was brokered.

    Some of the agreements reached were;

    1. That all ongoing Federal road projects within the Niger Delta region would be completed within the 2020 fiscal year save for a few with overlapping design timeline.

    2. That Federal Executive Council approval would be sort for the Odukpani-Itu-Ikot-Ekpene road.

    3. That the Odukpani-Itu-Ikot-Ekpene road would be placed, on the list of projects to benefit from priority funding. Meaning that execution was to draw monies from SUKUK bond which the Federal Government would be accessing by January of 2020. And work was expected to commence before the end of February 2020
    etc.

    Weeks after this engagement, the Federal Executive Council did approve the sum of fifty billion and three hundred million naira for this project.

    But regrettably, the Honorable Minister for Works Fashola, and the Ministry of Works have demonstrated no integrity in this regard.

    We are fully aware, how they deliberately chose to prioritize and fund, other projects over this one, forgetting that Oil flows from here and not from those other places. The immediate environmental consequences are born here and not in those other places where they have prioritized over our region.

    The road in context has now become a national wreath of sorrows, tears and pains on our people and an emblem of shame, hanging over Fashola’s neck and the Ministry under his watch.

    The Federal Ministry of Works and the Federal Government must as a matter of urgency devote funds immediately to this project and save us, the untold pain.

    Seven months gone bye and no sign of Work on this road. The gridlocks, the pains and sufferings, the robberies, the loss of man hours and the economic sabotage has recommenced in full force.

    *OUR DEMANDS*

    1. We demand that the Honorable Minister quickly allocate the next tranche of cash inflow to address the Odukpani-Itu-Ikot-Ekpene road.

    2. The Honorable Minister must address us and the entire Niger Delta people on the genuineness of Federal Government’s commitment to fixing the Odukpani-Itu-Ikot-Ekpene road, to be followed with immediate action.

    3. That failure to undertake the aforestated actions within the next twenty one days, the Niger Delta people will respond in the loudest way possible, including but not limited to sustained mass action.

    For the Niger Delta people,

    Comrade Success Jack
    (National President)

    Comrade Bernard Okori
    ( National Treasurer)

    Comrade Paul Abang Ajie
    (Chairman, Cross Rivers State Chapter)

    Comr.(Hon) Ogar Emmanuel Oko
    (State Public Relations Officer)