IT IS my honour and privilege to respectfully welcome you, the distinguished sons and daughters of Zone C, to this august occasion of the second Benue Rebirth Movement (BRM) Stakeholders Meeting. We must also recognise that our political marginalisation is not a reflection of our worth, but rather a testament to an unjust system. Our relatively low population should never be a reason to deny us fair representation. We are citizens, and we have the same rights as anyone else. The size of our community should never be a determining factor of our political significance and fortune. Before I proceed,…
Author: Editor
By Amos Aar THE National and State House of Assembly Elections Petition Tribunal sitting in Makurdi, Benue State capital on Sunday upheld the election of Senator Patrick Abba Moro of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) representing Benue South senatorial district having struck out the petition filed by Daniel Onjeh of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Onjeh had filed a petition at the three-person panel of justices alleging that Senator Moro was not qualified to contest the election and that he was not elected by majority of lawful votes cast. Onjeh Onjeh further alleged that the election was invalid owing to…
THE OFFICE of the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has denied any plan by the minister, Nyesom Wike, to invite the nation’s anti-graft agencies to investigate his predecessor, Malam Muhammad Bello. The Director of Press, Mr Anthony Ogunleye, made the rebuttal in a statement in Abuja on Saturday, stating that the rebuttal was in response to a claim by an online media platform (not National Record) that Wike plans to invite EFCC and ICPC to investigate Bello. He said that the false media publication alleged that Bello would be investigated for alleged irregularities in the award of contracts and…
Cancelled Votes Not Valid For Senator Udende, Evidence For Nullification Grossly Insufficient – Minority Opinion Udende Heads To Appeal Court By Amos Aar THERE were conflicting judgements on Friday at the National/State Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Makurdi as the justices delivered majority and minority judgements in the case involving Sen. Gabriel Suswam and Sen. Emmanuel Udende. Former Benue State governor, Gabriel Suswam, who had served at the 9th Senate, is challenging the victory of Emmanuel Udende as senator for Benue North-East on the ground that he (Udende) did not score majority of lawful votes during the 25th February…
THE MINISTER of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has rejected the repeated variations of the Ushafa-Bwari Road project contract amount. Wike stated this rejection while briefing journalists after a visit to the project sites along with the Minister of State, FCT, Dr Mariya Mahmoud, and other government officials in Abuja on Thursday. He described the consistent variation of the contract cost of the project as “very embarrassing”, saying “this is not what we are going to take. “The job was awarded in 2017 at N20 billion. In 2020, the contract was revised to N50 billion. As I speak…
By Amos Aar A BILL to amend the last piece of legislation under the administration of former Governor Samuel Ortom, which awarded huge pensions to ex-governor of Benue State and their deputies has been passed for second reading on the floor of the State House of Assembly. Recall that the immediate past Governor Samuel Ortom had, at the twilight of his administration last May initiated the bill entitled: “A Bill for a Law to Make Provisions for the Maintenance of Former Governors of the State and Their Deputies and for Other Matters Connected Thereto”. The executive bill, which made provision for…
By Amos Aar THE chairperson of the Benue State chapter of the Nigeria League of Women Voters (NILOWV), Mrs Irene Awunah-Ikyegh, has decried the low inclusion of women in governance in Nigeria in general and the state in particular. Awunah-Ikyegh made her feelings known at a two-day stakeholders’ consultation on women inclusion and effective Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) organised by NILOWV with support from Palladium and USAID-Scale on Thursday in Makurdi. She also lamented that despite research evidence that the more women are included at all levels of leadership and decision-making, the better developmental gains for states and nations, the…
FRANCE is a problem. In Africa, it is a man-child fighting hard to retain its feeding bottle. The United Kingdom-based Socialist Labour organised a virtual conference of Africans to discuss this and the current crises in Africa, with an emphasis on the Francophone countries. Co-ordinator Tokunbo Oke, in commenting on the theme, “The Niger Coup: Imperialism and the Crisis of Francophone Africa”, lamented that to discuss, the African people have to surmount the obstacles of various European languages as they are either Anglophone, Francophone, Iberiaphone, or Luxophone. My submission at the August 26, 2023, conference was that since France invaded…
FOR WEEKS, there have been videos and audios sent out to warn people of some women that go to houses to ask for water to drink, and if you give them the water you would fall down and die and the women would go away or varnish. In another version, the water may even turn into blood, and you would have severe headache. This has created fear and become the topic of discussion. The acts were said to have happened in Kano and Katsina where one man in a video said it happened in his house in Katsina where a…
THE MANAGEMENT of the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), on Thursday announced the death of one of its students, Modupe Atanda. The Registrar of the University, Mr Mufutau Ibrahim, disclosed this in a statement issued in Oye-Ekiti. “It will be recalled that earlier today, the management had made public the disturbing development about the deceased and assured that investigation was ongoing as to unravel her whereabouts. “But current information reaching the security outfit of the university has disclosed that the said student is dead. ALSO READ: Atiku, Obi Head To Supreme Court As PEPC Unanimously Upholds Tinubu’s Victory “While the university…