News
Intending pilgrims protest in Kano over exclusion from hajj
Many intending pilgrims on Tuesday in Kano protested over their exclusion from the list of those to perform this year’s pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia despite making full payments for the hajj.
The protesters stormed the head office of Jaiz Bank, the financial institution that processed their payment through a savings scheme, and the office of the Kano State Pilgrims Board.
The affected persons, numbering 284, said they were shocked to find out that after making payment, no seat was reserved for them, noting that some of them started the saving scheme since 2019.
Daily Trust reported that the first batch of the 400 intending pilgrims from Kano State had been airlifted to Saudi Arabia for the 2022 hajj exercise on Monday.
One of the affected intending pilgrims, Auwalu Jibrin, said, “We are the ones the National Hajj Commission asked to open an account with Jaiz Bank and deposit our money there. The state pilgrim board has collected our passport and screened us and now we learnt that we have no allocation.
“We are now left stranded without any assurance. Jaiz Bank has told us that of course there’s a problem and they are working towards ratifying the problem.”
Sources familiar with the development told Daily Trust that names of the aggrieved intending pilgrims had been sent to the state pilgrim board and documented but were not included in this year’s hajj because of the reduced allocation.
The state pilgrim board is said to be constrained by over 100 names sent from NAHCON to be given allocation while many who saved for years under the hajj scheme could not be accommodated.
Executive Secretary of Kano Pilgrims Board, Abba Dambatta, told Daily Trust that the board was doing its best to resolve the problem, noting that there was no allocation this year for those on savings’ scheme, especially those from Jaiz Bank.
He however said he was going to Abuja to make efforts in securing allocation for the 284 intending pilgrims.
News
JUST-IN: I’ll resign if Yahaya Bello is not prosecuted – EFCC Chairman
JUST-IN: I’ll resign if Yahaya Bello is not prosecuted – EFCC Chairman
The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has vowed to follow the prosecution of former Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, to logical conclusion.
Olukoyede disclosed this on Tuesday during an interactive session with media executives in Abuja
The anti-graft chairman sworn that he would resign as EFCC chairman if Bello is not prosecuted.
The EFCC boss said; “I called Yahaya Bello, as a serving governor, to come to my office to clear himself. I shouldn’t have done that.
“But he said because a certain senator has planted over 100 journalists in my office, he would not come.
“I told him that he would be allowed to use my private gate to give him a cover, but he said my men should come to his village to interrogate him.”
Olukoyede said the EFCC did not violate any law while trying to arrest the former governor from his residence.
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“Rather, we have obeyed the law. I inherited the case and I didn’t create it. Why has he not submitted himself to the law?” he asked.
“I have arraigned two past governors who have been granted bail now — Willie Obiano and Abdulfatah Ahmed.”
The EFCC chairman promised that anyone responsible for impeding Bello’s arrest from his home in Abuja will suffer the full force of the law.
“We would have gone after him since January but we waited for the court order,” Olukoyede said.
“As early as 7 am, my men were there. Over 50 of them. They mounted surveillance.
“We met over 30 armed policemen there. We would have exchanged fire and there would have been casualties.
“My men were about to move in when the governor of Kogi drove in and they later changed the narrative.”
He vowed that all those who have dipped their hands into the nation’s coffers would be investigated and prosecuted.
“If I can do Obiano, Abdulfatah Ahmed and Chief Olu Agunloye, my kinsman, why not Yahaya Bello?” Olukoyede concluded.
JUST-IN: I’ll resign if Yahaya Bello is not prosecuted – EFCC Chairman
News
Tinubu approves palliative for traditional, religious institutions
Tinubu approves palliative for traditional, religious institutions
Vice-President Kashim Shettima has revealed that President Bola Tinubu has approved that 20% of palliative food intervention go through religious and traditional institutions.
Mr Shettima made this known while delivering the keynote lecture at a High-Level Dialogue of Faith Leaders on Nutrition in Nigeria, which was hosted at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Tuesday.
“The Imam of Bayero University (BUK) mentioned about the exclusion of the traditional and religious leaders in the distribution of palliatives.
”The President has approved that 20 per cent of the palliative in terms of food intervention be routed through our religious organisations and the traditional institutions.
“The Tsangaya schools, the mission schools will be specially targeted for such intervention,” Mr Shettima said.
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The Vice-President said that government was working out logistics through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to ensure smooth implementation of the intervention programme.
“This intervention will be anchored in the office of the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Sen. Abubakar Bagudu, and he is going to anchor the programme.
“We are going to provide the overall supervision towards the implementation of the programme.
“Also 20 per cent of the funds for the School Feeding Programme is going to be channeled through the office of the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning to the religious bodies.”
Mr Shettima stated that government had already commenced engagement and working out modalities for the intervention to ensure a very transparent disbursement, taken into cognisance of all tendencies in our system.
He added that the intervention would include Tsangaya and Mission schools.
Tinubu approves palliative for traditional, religious institutions
(NAN)
News
Peter Obi was never a Labour person, LP just special vehicle – Doyin Okupe
Peter Obi was never a Labour person, LP just special vehicle – Doyin Okupe
Former director-general of the Labour Party presidential campaign, Doyin Okupe has said the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, never believed in the ideologies of the party.
Okupe stated this while answering questions in an interview on Arise Television’s flagship programme, The Morning Show.
The Labour Part, according to Okupe was just a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for the presidential election.
Okupe who resigned his membership of the Labour Party in January, on the grounds of ideological differences said his membership of the party ended the moment Obi lost the election.
“The LP for us — for Peter Obi and I — and those in the leadership of the movement… the party was a special purpose vehicle (SPV).
“I have never been a labour person, I have never operated on the left before but we needed a platform and this was the only platform readily available to us.
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“We thought that if we won the election… there are no fast and hard rules about ideologies. You can always find a shade between the left and the right. You can always move to the centre.
“We were hoping and praying that if we won we would find a way to come to some consensus with the labour.
“Peter Obi is not a labour person. He is not a leftist person, he is a trader, he is a businessman just like me. I am a liberal democrat, I believe in liberal democracy, I believe in free enterprise.
“I am not a social worker. As far as I’m concerned, my membership of labour expired the moment we lost that election.”
The former presidential aide said it was “unreasonable” for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to present a northerner as its candidate in the buildup to the 2023 election.
Peter Obi was never a Labour person, LP just special vehicle – Doyin Okupe
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