News
Wike as FCT Minister is Tinubu’s greatest undoing – Kingibe
Ireti Kingibe, Senator representing the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), is sure that President Bola Tinubu’s ruination in office would either come from making Nyesom Wike Minister of the strategic area of Nigeria or be fast-tracked with it.
This is because the Minister has decided to take impunity to an all-time high at his job, by disregarding every form of official norm and the rule of law, preferring to act as if the city of Abuja is his private estate, where he could whimsically determine how to behave.
A guest of Prime Time, a public affairs programme on ARISE NEWS Television network, on Monday, Kingibe, one of the four Senators in the current 10th Senate, spared no unkind words in describing the former Governor of Rivers State, of not only disregarding the rule of law but corruption.
At loggerhead with the FCT Minister right from inception, Kingibe, told her host that naturally, the people of the area were usually not too bothered about which party was in power, but how they were treated, had taken particular notice of Wike’s level of impunity which had brought them monumental pain, adding that this had in turn de-marketed the administration of Tinubu.
Hear her: “It is my personal opinion that that is rather unfortunate, because if I were making a list of all the things President Bola Tinubu has done wrong, the greatest wrong he’s done to himself, the thing that has demarketed him the most, has been Minister Wike because is a mini-Nigeria. Even people who vote in other places, they live here and they come and go.
“When you watch the impunity, it doesn’t sell this government. The truth as I said is that people of the FCT ab-inition, were not really hostile to the President because we’re not inclined that way. We’re not focused on parties. We focus on actions and how did you govern us.
“Let me give you an example of the people you expect to vote for you. In Bwari, there is a land allocated for a government general hospital. Minister Wike revoked it and he’s having all sorts of markets or malls or something. Now how do you think the people will feel who expect that at the very least, you build that hospital and not take it and give it to your cronies?
“All these things are documented. They’re not done in a hidden manner. It is done in the open and you can do your worst manner. Minister Wike has been harassing all of the FCT people because of ground rent. In fact, he is not giving any time. If you don’t pay your N2,000 that you owe, we’ll revoke your whole house.
“For N80,000 or N2,000 or whatever your ground rent is, he revokes it, including embassies. Now, I have documents. If Minister Wike is so popular, how come it is easy to get secret documents of everything that is going on within the FCDA (Federal Capital Development Authority)?”
She recounted how the Minister unilaterally reduced the landmass from University of Abuja, from 11,000 hectres to just 4,000 hectres by revoking 7,000 without recourse to the Land Use Act, forbidding taking away land allocated to institutions for private usage.
“There are things that are no-brainers – that are obvious. For instance, Abuja university, has approximately, 11,000 hectres. But Minister Wike has revoked 7,000 of and left them with 4,000. It is definitely against the Land Use Act for you to take land from institutions and give them to individuals.
“Now, a lot of the things I bring up in public about what Minister Wike can do and not do, would have been best discussed privately. But as far as he is concerned, nobody should speak in the FCT and I say, it is not so. He therefore leaves me no choice for these things to be discussed publicly. The average person does not have access to him, but when the Minister does something and they’re offended, they bring it to me.”
Seriake Dickson, National Leader of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), on Wednesday showcased Peter Obi, its presidential candidate in the 2027 election, but gave a proviso – his importance would not be at the expense of the party.
A guest on Prime Time, a public affairs programme on ARISE NEWS Television, the former Governor of Bayelsa State, now Senator representing West at the National Assembly, maintained that the belief in some quarters that Obi’s entrance into the party was a favour was completely misplaced.
Instead, he argued that the opposite was the case, as it was the party that was doing its candidates a favour by giving them the opportunity to contest elective positions on its platform in the 2027 elections, a gesture that ought to be returned.
Hear him: “Don’t make it look like anyone is doing NDC a favour. No one is. Rather, the NDC and I and my colleagues are doing people a favour by granting our platform. If you are genuinely supporting Peter Obi and you are disparaging me, the leader, or the platform itself. That is nonsensical.”
Stressing that NDC had demonstrated confidence in Obi by adopting Obi as its sole presidential candidate and selecting a vice-presidential candidate without internal disputes, he said it was enough to earn its leadership the gratitude it deserved.
He added: “Nobody paid shishi. So, if a presidential candidate didn’t pay shishi to be made the sole presidential candidate and sole vice-presidential candidate, that same party cannot be the one saying that small people are underprivileged.
“I could have run. There’s no one more qualified than me. There’s no one more qualified than me to run for presidential candidate. None. There is no crisis within the NDC. Peter Obi is a cherished member of our party. On our own, we have made him a presidential candidate. Sole presidential candidate. And that counts for something. We are working well together. There’s no crisis.”
Invoking its zero tolerance on issues of security breaches, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), has clamped down on aircraft and crew of the privately operated jet that landed on a roadway in the Ogwashi-Uku area near Asaba, Delta state.
Even with regulatory body for airline operations in Nigeria informed that no casualties were recorded in the incident, it still went for its sanctions in line with its sworn position of maintaining maximum safety at every point.
In a statement on Wednesday, Michael Achimugu, its spokesman said preliminary reports indicated that the aircraft conducted a missed approach while attempting to land at Asaba airport at about 7:43am.
Achimugu: Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, said: “Reports received from personnel at the scene indicate that all occupants safely exited the aircraft and were transported to Asaba by road,” Achimugu said. The aircraft had four (4) crew members on board. At this time, no injuries to passengers or crew have been reported.
“Preliminary information available to the authority indicated that the aircraft later departed the location and returned to Lagos without obtaining the required regulatory approval. Air traffic control was informed only after the aircraft had become airborne.”
Stressing that the action constitutes a violation of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations (Nig.CARs) and is currently under investigation by the authority, he said the NCAA immediately grounded the aircraft upon its arrival in Lagos pending the outcome of investigations.
He added: “The flight crew have been placed under regulatory review while the NCAA conducts further inquiries into the circumstances surrounding the occurrence and the subsequent unauthorised departure of the aircraft.
“The NCAA has formally notified the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) of the occurrence and is coordinating with relevant aviation stakeholders, including the operator and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency to establish the full circumstances surrounding the incident.”
Stating that the NCAA immediately suspended the operator’s permit for non-commercial flight (PNCF), he added that the authority would review all operational, airworthiness, maintenance and flight-related records as part of its statutory responsibilities and take further enforcement action in accordance with applicable aviation regulations.
Achimugu said the NCAA remains committed to maintaining the highest standards of aviation safety, security, and regulatory compliance within the Nigerian aviation sector.
Atiku Abubakar, candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), on Wednesday, swore to the integrity of the process that led to his picking the party’s ticket, saying it remained untainted and consistent with the wills of the members.
Against the backdrop of the insistence of Babachir Lawal, former Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF), that he stole the ticket by corrupting the process, Atiku, Vice President between 1999 and 2007, pooh-poohed the claim.
Before the former SGF Rotimi Amaechi, former Governor of Rivers State and Minister of Transportation as well as Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, former Chairman of Nigeria Economic Summit Group, both candidates in the contest for the ADC ticket, had rejected the process as flawed, even before the outcome.
Lawal, who had earlier announced his resignation from the ADC a fortnight ago and made sundry allegations of gaming the system against Atiku, had doubled down on Monday, while appearing on Politics Today, a public affairs programme on Channels Television, claiming he personally monitored the exercise and had evidence that the primary was rigged.
Hear him: “Don’t forget I was the National Vice Chairman (North-East). I was in the field during the exercise, so I have evidence. Atiku’s people are the ones trying to deny what they did. We are all human beings. We know what they did. I knew the primary was rigged at the point it was being done and the results declared.”
Regardless that neither Amaechi nor Hayatu-Deen had recanted their original position Atiku, insisted that nothing was amiss, adding that his opponents actually won in the areas of their individual popularity and stronghold.
Conveying his position through Phrank Shaibu, his spokesman, who appeared as a guest on Politics Today, a public affairs programme on Channels Television, the former VP said: “Anybody who claims rigging or irregularity in the last election should check the places and locations they won. Where are the states that Rotimi Amaechi won? If you check the figures and the margins he got there, you will know that those are his strongholds. It was not a fraudulent process.
Maintaining that the burden of proving any fraud rested on the former SGF Shaibu, Shaibu depicted his boss as the most popular among the contestants, arguing that the outcome of the event should not be surprising to anybody.
He said of the ex-SGF: “Babachir reminds me of a baby who is yanked off her mother’s breast while suckling. It is like a deprived suckling; definitely the baby will throw tantrums. He admitted on your show that his preferred candidate was Hayatu-Deen. He worked for him.”
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