Author: society_admin

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, abruptly called an end to a stakeholders’ meeting in Yenagoa on Wednesday as an argument between political leaders threatened to boil over into physical violence.

INEC had organised the meeting as part of its preparations for the governorship election coming up on November 16 in Bayelsa State.

In attendance were INEC officials led by Mr Yakubu, security officials including the Deputy Inspector-General of the Police (Operations), Abdulmajid Ali; community and political leaders, including many governorship candidates.

The argument was ignited by the Chairman of the Bayelsa State Elders Forum, Francis Doukpolagh, who said many people were displaced from some communities in Nembe Local Government Area by violence during the 2019 general elections.

He said since the elections, the people were yet to return home, calling for the assistance of the authorities to get them back to their communities.

Mr Doukpolagh said some residents in Peremabiri and BasabirI communities affected at the time were still living in neighbouring communities.

But he was interrupted by other community leaders who told him to speak on behalf of Bayelsa and not for his own political gains.

The confrontation led to a violent exchange of words as many of the stakeholders approached each other, shouting “Sit down and keep quiet.”

In the face of the tumult, Mr Yakubu abruptly brought the meeting to an end.

PREMIUM TIMES could not authoritatively confirm the reasons behind the confrontation.

The candidate of the United Patriot Party, Kenny Sotonye, told PREMIUM TIMES that the antagonists were members of the two major parties, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC). He said the confrontation has roots in the previous elections in the state.

“The national ruling party (APC) chased the persons (agents of other parties) in their communities in order to take charge for their party.
“We the opposition parties do not want such, we want people to come to vote with their conscience and vote with there interest,” Mr Sotonye said.

The governorship candidate for the All People’s Party (APP), Samuel Izibeyamadu, described the incident as a shame to democracy.

He said such incidents had become a tradition in the politics of Bayelsa State.

“What we saw here is a show of shame and this has been the tradition in the state,” he said.

“Even the military has found it difficult to curtail the scourge here when it comes to elections

“In the last elections, a deputy commissioner of Police was beaten up by a particular party for allegation known to them.

“If the military and other security personnel cannot bring calm to the state elections, there is no need for fielding candidates to be part of the elections,” he said.

Crisis is allegedly brewing in the Senate over the employment slots allocated to  the lawmakers  by some federal agencies.

Some aggrieved senators have vowed to resist the sharing method  allegedly adopted by the leadership of the Senate to allocate  the slots.

Investigations by our correspondent revealed that  the agencies  gave the legislators the   slots  through their leaders.

But  the slots were allegedly shared among the 10-member body of principal officers.

According to sources, many of  the lawmakers   are particularly bitter that their leaders allegedly shared   the 100 slots allegedly given the Senate by  the Federal Inland Revenue Service among themselves.

An aggrieved senator from the South-West,  said on condition of anonymity, “We  were given  100 slots by  the FIRS but our  leaders   shared the slots  among themselves.”

A ranking senator  from the North-West said,  “We have information that one of the leaders gave  26 slots to people in his senatorial district. There is a problem in the Senate already, because the leadership has cornered jobs meant for the entire Nigerians.

“Does it mean that you must know a senator  before you get a job?  Nothing is being done on  merit. How will you get the best brains?

“The implication of this is that many people are being offered employment without undergoing any interview.

“They give them appointment letters because they know the leaders of the Senate. How can a single senatorial district get 26 slots when others have nothing?”

But a Senator from the South-East, who also  spoke on condition of anonymity, told our correspondent that he expected every legislator to have been  given a slot.

A  member of the Senate Committee on Federal Character, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, also confirmed that there was a crisis in the Senate following the development.

He said, “The fact that the leaders allegedly collected 100 slots and share  them  among themselves has  shown that we cannot win the war against the lopsidedness that we talk about in this country.

“Some of our colleagues are already coming to lobby us to take it easy with the probe but we are going ahead with it.”

Speaking with journalists on Tuesday, the Chairman,  Senate Committee on Federal Character, Danjuma La’ah, said  he was aware that some agencies  had been  boasting that nothing would come out of the (secret recruitment)  probe because they had allegedly reached out to the leaders of the Senate.

The committee is probing the allegations that some agencies had been secretly recruiting without  advertising the jobs.

La’ah said, “We are hearing that some agencies will not honour our invitation because they have connection with the Senate leadership.  I am not aware that any agency gave out employment slots to the Senate.

“The leadership has not told us that they received any slot.

“As the chairman of this committee, who is also representing Kaduna South,  I am  not in any way aware that we have been given any employment slots, so we are going ahead with our probe.

“I have taken it upon myself that I will probe deeply into the agencies’ claims and carry out an extensive investigation.  We are going to expose all those that are tarnishing the image of the Federal Government.

“We are aware that some of the agencies are selling employment slots  for as much as N1.5m when we have children who have not got  jobs since they graduated.

“Some have become bandits and terrorists because the jobs meant for them have been cornered by some greedy people. Young educated Nigerians are joining Boko Haram because of  a lack of jobs.”

On when the agencies  would  appear before the committee to defend themselves,  La’ah said, “Never mind, they will appear soon.”

He added, “President Muhammadu Buhari is not happy with what is going and he has been looking for a way to sack people with bad records. I even want him to use this as a yardstick to sanitise the system.”

La’ah said on Friday  the committee  had  asked the officials  of the affected agencies to appear before them  this week.

The  committee last week started investigating  the allegations of secret recruitment  by some of the federal agencies.

They include the FIRS, National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency, National Space Research  and Development Agency, the National Open University and the Federal Civil Service Commission.