News
MURIC to FG: We join Falana in seeking pardon for jailed 54 Soldiers
Sequel to a letter written by human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), to President Muhammadu Buhari, seeking presidential pardon for soldiers jailed for refusing to fight Boko Haram, the Muslim Rights Concern has added its voice to the call for pardon for the soldiers.
MURIC’s call was made on Thursday in a statement through its Director and Founder, Prof. Ishaq Akintola.
MURIC said: “We endorse every sentence in the letter written by foremost human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), asking President Muhammadu Buhari to pardon soldiers jailed for refusing to fight Boko Haram with poor weapons. This case has unassailable merit and Mr. Falana’s letter has addressed all the necessary issues.
“We strongly believe that the punishment meted out to the soldiers were a miscarriage of justice. We also frown at the way the soldiers were discharged from prison after serving their term without any concern for their welfare. It is an invitation to anarchy. These are soldiers trained as members of the special forces. They were not ordinary soldiers. Releasing them into the society was therefore a most dangerous move. They may fall into wrong hands.
“However, we appeal to the released men to continue to be of good conduct, to remain law abiding and to always remember that Allah has a reason for everything. While they were in jail, many soldiers died fighting the insurgents. Some lost their limbs. But Allah has preserved them. It is also worthy of gratitude to Allah that none of them died in jail.
“Therefore our message to the 54 soldiers is this, ‘Have faith and thank God. It is possible that the Supreme Creator, in His divine wisdom, decided to keep you in jail in order to keep you alive or to keep you away from a worse fate.’ Afterall Prophet Yusuf (Joseph, peace be upon him) was imprisoned for no just cause and he came out victorious (Glorious Qur’an 12:35; Genesis 39:20).
“The Muslims among them should remember what Allah said in the Hadith Qudsy, ‘Whoever is not pleased with what I have decided, let him get out from under my sky. Let him look for another sky other than mine. Whoever is not pleased with what I impose on him, let him leave my earth. Let him seek another earth other than mine.’
“But is there any other sky apart from the one above our heads? Is there any other earth where homo sapiens can live other than the one created by Allah? Where can we go if we decide that we will no longer live under Allah’s sky or on His earth? Has any of the super powers succeeded in producing its own sky or its separate earth? Nay, there is no other sky and no other earth apart from what the Supreme Creator has made. This is why we should always accept our fate.
“Christians among the jailed soldiers should reflect on the words of Paul in his letter to the Thessalonians, ‘Let us thank God in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you’ (1 Thessalonians 5:16 – 18).
“We therefore beseech these men to accept the fate that the Supreme Creator allowed to befall them. They should not seek vengeance from society by hurting innocent people. They should not use their special training negatively. Vengeance is a square peg. Justice is a round hole. What you seek to get is not what you obtain in the long run.
“MURIC commends leading human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, for his role in the struggle to get justice for the jailed soldiers. He has consistently defended the oppressed, sometimes pro bono. Once again, Falana has put humanity on the driving seat in the practice of his profession. We have no scinttila of doubt that posterity will write his name in letters of gold.”
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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
Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has vowed to follow to a logical conclusion the prosecution of former Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello.
He states this on Tuesday during an interactive session with media executives in Abuja.
The EFCC chairman said he would resign if Bello escaped prosecution.
He 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 would face 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 7am, 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.
Olukoyede said, “If I can do Obiano, Abdulfatah Ahmed and Chief Olu Agunloye, my kinsman, why not Yahaya Bello?”
Just in: I’ll resign if Yahaya Bello is not prosecuted – EFCC chairman
News
Updated: FG to route 20% of palliatives through traditional, religious leaders
FG to route 20% of palliatives through traditional, religious leaders
President Bola Tinubu has directed that 20 per cent of palliative food intervention should go through religious and traditional institutions.
Vice-President Kashim Shettima made this known on Tuesday while delivering a keynote lecture at a High-Level Dialogue of Faith Leaders on Nutrition in Nigeria held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He said, “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.”
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The Vice-President said that government was working out the logistics through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to ensure smooth implementation of the intervention programme.
“This intervention will be anchored by 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 channelled through the office of the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning to the religious bodies.”
Shettima said government had commenced the engagement and working out modalities for the intervention to ensure a very transparent disbursement.
He added that the intervention would include Tsangaya and Mission schools.
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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