The Lumine News

Tag: #Nigerian Senate

  • ICYMI: Jarigbe Slams Senate President For Rudderless

    ICYMI: Jarigbe Slams Senate President For Rudderless

    By Mike Odiegwu, The Nation Newspaper

    A member of the House of Representatives, Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe, has described the Senate under Senate President Ahmed Lawan as rudderless.

    In an advertorial, Jarigbe said the problem of the ninth National Assembly is the Senate President whom he accused of desecrating the sanctity of the legislative institution through his actions and inactions.

    Jarigbe said: “The seeming epileptic nature of the legislature in Nigeria cannot be unconnected to a compromised leadership in the Senate. Nigerians attack legislators over the state of the nation, for not playing its role, as an arm of government. The House of Representatives has its role, separate from the Senate.”

    He explained that “the problem of the ninth National Assembly is the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan. It is not about protecting the ruling APC, because the APC’s House of Representatives members led by Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, are also very protective of this government and the APC.”

    He noted that “the Senate President’s shortcomings have nothing to do with loyalty to the APC-led government, but deliberate acts of compromise and incompetence.

    On the recent decision by the 17 Southern governors calling for restructuring of the country, Jarigbe questioned the Senate President’s opposition, asking “How can we have a Senate President that is opposed to the restructuring of a country that is at its precipice? The governors of the South came together and unanimously took a position and Lawan thinks that it can be swept under the carpet? It is impossible.”

    On the way forward, Jarigbe suggested that “all the governors in this country should meet with the leadership of the legislative arm, beyond party lines. This will provide for a proper interface. Let us remember that the governors of the south are a blend of APC, PDP and APGA. It is beyond Party lines. Let us be careful with sensitive issues.”

    On the refusal by the Senate President to inaugurate him as the winner of the Cross River North Senatorial by-election despite a subsisting apex court ruling, Jarigbe said “The Senate President has also shown clearly that he abhors legally by allowing an illegal occupant of a Senate seat, to be attending plenary, after the Supreme Court has given a judgment that ousted him.

    “A man is attending plenary with a Certificate of Return that has been invalidated by the issuance of a new Certificate of Return to a new Senator-elect by INEC, in line with a Judgment of Court. My greatest dismay, is the fact that, other Senators, of proven integrity, sit and watch the sanctity of the hallowed Chamber, desecrated.”

  • We Will Formally Transmit The Judgement Of The Supreme Court And Follow Procedures To Take The Oat Of Office As Senator Of FRN- Jarigbe

    We Will Formally Transmit The Judgement Of The Supreme Court And Follow Procedures To Take The Oat Of Office As Senator Of FRN- Jarigbe

    By Elijah Ugani

    The controversy and absolute quietness about the recent judgement of the Supreme Court where the appeal filed by Dr. Stephen Odey challenging the consequential orders granted Rt. Hon. Jarigbe Agom by the Court of Appeal was struck out by a majority judgment on the 25th of February, 2021 seemed to have had a lead way with Rt. Hon. Jarigbe Agom following the laid down procedures to enable him take the oat of office as Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    Rt. Hon. Jarigbe Agom has for the first time spoken after the judgment was delivered. He assured that having being a lawmaker for six years now, he should understand their procedures.

    His words “As a Law Maker and being in Parliament for 6 years, I should understand our procedures. We will formally transmit the Judgment of the Supreme Court and follow laid down beurocratic procedures for taking the Oath of Office as Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    “While we wait to get a Certified True Copy of the Supreme Court Judgment, which resolved the issue of- ” The Authentic Candidate for the PDP in the last CRNorth Senate By- Election “, I wish to throw some light, for the benefit of those who were not in Court and seek to know the truth. I will publish the Lead/ Majority Judgment when it is made available to us. Justice Nweze who read the Lead Judgment is yet to hand it in. The important thing here is that, the Appeal was Struck Out at the Supreme Court because of an Incompetent Notice of Appeal. That means there was no Appeal before the Supreme Court. The Decision of the Court of Appeal was upheld.

    “The Appeal Court had upheld the decisions of the Trial Court, which granted Consequential Orders in my favor. One of the issues sought for in my Counter Affidavit, was that I should be accorded all the Privileges as required by Law, due to me, as Candidate of PDP. This was granted by the Trial Court and affirmed by the Appellate Court. The Supreme Court received an Appeal against the Judgment from Stephen Odey but Struck it Out for being Incompetent. I have long been issued my Certificate of Return, which automatically invalidated the former, issued to Stephen Odey”

     

    The lesson to Learn;

    “We cannot supervise the shooting and killing of our people for a mere Senate Seat and expect that God will go to sleep. The blood of those murdered before and during the PDP Senate Primary Election will haunt the perpetrators, now and in the future. None of them has shown any remorse but go ahead to pay bribes for the Case to be compromised. Can we bribe God? The answer is NO! How can we get so brutish and inhumane?

    “May the Soul of Charles Onwe RIP, as vengeance is of the Lord”.

  • Court Of Appeal Declares Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe PDP Senatorial Candidate For Cross River North

    Court Of Appeal Declares Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe PDP Senatorial Candidate For Cross River North

     

    The battle for the Cross River North Senatorial seat which was won by the Peoples Democratic Party at the December 5, rescheduled elections has taken a different twit 24 hours after Dr. Stephen Odey was sworn in by the Clerk of the Senate.

    The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has just declared Hon. Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe as the duly nominated candidate of the PDP and the rightful winner of the election against Dr. Odey who was declared by INEC and sworn in by the Senate.

    The Court also ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC to immediately issue a Certificate of Return to Hon. Jarigbe and withdraw the one earlier issued to Dr. Stephen Odey.

    In its unanimous judgment, the court of Appeal upheld the judgment of the trial court that the primaries which produced Jarigbe was conducted with the correct and authentic list of delegates and that Hon Jarigbe having scored the highest number of valid votes in the primary election is the validly nominated candidate of the PDP.

    The Appeal Court also upheld the position of the Federal High Court that the primary election was duly monitored by the INEC in line with the law hence was a valid primary election of the PDP.

    This judgment has abruptly halted the seeming advantage Dr. Stephen Odey got yesterday when he was invited by the Clerk of the Senate to take his oath of office and allegiance. This is despite another order of the FCT High Court which restrained the Senate from swearing Dr. Odey in as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    By this judgment and until the Supreme Court gives its final judgment, Hon. Jarigbe is expected to be sworn in immediately to sit to represent the good people of Cross River North Senatorial District.

  • Just In: Senate President, Ahmad Lawan Swears In Four Senators, Excludes Stephen Odey

    Just In: Senate President, Ahmad Lawan Swears In Four Senators, Excludes Stephen Odey

    Culled from CrossRiverWatch

    The Senate on Tuesday swore in the immediate past Governor of Bayelsa State, Henry Seriake Dickson, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Bayelsa West.

    Also sworn in as Senators were Moses Cleopas, PDP, Bayelsa Central; Adetokunboh Abiru, All Progressives Congress, APC, Lagos East and Prof. Nora Dabu’t, APC, Plateau South.

    The oath of office and allegiance were administered Tuesday on Senator Olujimi by the Clerk of the Senate, Ibrahim El- Ladan during plenary.

    The President of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan, however, refused to swear in the Senator-elect for Cross River Northern Senatorial District, Stephen Odey.

    Odey had arrived the National Assembly complex as early as 8am with supporters from Cross River State in anticipation for the swearing-in.

    Odey who was the Senior Legislative Aide, SLA to Governor Ben Ayade as a Senator in the 7th Senator, was however disappointed when his name was not mentioned as one of those to take the oath of office.

    With the swearing-in, the number of All Progressives Congress, APC, Senators now stand at 63 while PDP now has 45 Senators.

    While Senator Seriake replaced Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo; Senator Cleopas is replacing Senator Diri Douye; Senator Abiru replacing late Adebayo Osinowo and Dadu’t is replacing late Ignatius Longjan.

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

    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.

  • Gakem Is The Symbol Of Nigeria’s Unity, Unfortunately Nigeria Has Not Deemed Necessary To Honor The Memory Of This Historic Town – Jalingo

    Gakem Is The Symbol Of Nigeria’s Unity, Unfortunately Nigeria Has Not Deemed Necessary To Honor The Memory Of This Historic Town – Jalingo

    By Agba Jalingo – Lagos

    On This Day In 1967, Gakem Spoke To The World…

    On this fateful and historic day, 6 July 1967, federal troops under the command of Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon, crossed over to Gakem which was then part of Biafra land, and fired the first shots at unarmed civilians at “Ushara Hills” and consequently ignited a bloody civil war that lasted for 30months.

    Gakem is a community in Bekwara LGA in northern Cross River state. The demarcation between Gakem and its Benue neighbours, Vandeikya is a line of Melina trees popularly known as the “Lugard Wall”, named after then colonial governor-general, Lord Lugard, during whose reign the trees were planted.

    In his book, The Forgotten Lunch Pad: Old Ogoja Province and the Untold Story of the Nigerian Civil War, Nkrumah Bakong-Obi drew attention to the abandoned relics that dot the epicentre of that war in Gakem Bekwara.

    According to Bankong-Obi, “These relics are potential incoming spinning resources that self-imposed blindness, denial of our past and short-sightedness have prevented us from tapping into. I have challenged Nigerian leaders and indeed others who have managed this country in various spheres to tell the world why Gakem, where the first shot was fired has remained a desolate town. Virtually all parts of the defunct Ogoja province still bear scars of the war that swept through the area. The trenches are filling up, the Elekpa pond which the soldiers appropriated from the natives and other scars of war are still in Gakem, Obudu, Yala, Yakurr and other places in the former province. The implementation of the reconstruction, rehabilitation and reconciliation policy didn’t get to Ogoja where the physical trouble began. No form of rehabilitation – physical or psychological has been extended to the area to help fix the problems that the war created.

    “It is disheartening that over fifty years after the civil war ended, not even a brick has been laid in Gakem to symbolize the recognition of that unfortunate event. It is even more sobering when one thinks that the bacons demarcating northern from southern Nigeria are still interred in Gakem, Ogoja, Obudu and other peripheral areas of the present Cross River State. It is only intelligent to say that Gakem is the symbol of Nigeria’s unity. Unfortunately, Nigeria has not deemed it important to honor the memory of this historic town.”

    Someday, we know that the deed will be done….

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

    #GakemToTheWorld
    #DontEraseHistory
    #OurHistoryOurHeritage