Palpable fear has gripped communities in  Plateau State after unmen suspected to be bandits attacked Zurak and Bankalala villages in Bashar District of Wase local government area of Plateau State, killing more than 50 residents, including vigilantes, and injuring others in the process.

A LEADERSHIP investigation revealed that several houses were razed by the rampaging gunmen.

The residents of the community said the incident occurred at about 7pm on Monday when people in the community were going about their normal activities, but that they could not report the incident due to the poor communication network in the area.

Earlier, the death toll was put at 40, but last night, it increased to 50.

A traditional ruler in Wase, Alhaji Ahmed Lawal, said the death toll had risen to 50 persons, adding that the victims had since been buried in the area according to Muslim rites.

Sahpi’i Sambo, a youth leader in the area, who also confirmed the incident to our correspondent, said the bandits arrived at the community on motorcycles – two to a bike – armed with sophisticated weapons and started shooting sporadically at everyone on sight.

He said, “More than 40 people were killed while many others were injured. Residents of the village have fled to neighbouring communities. As of yesterday, security personnel had not yet arrived at the community. It was a deadly attack,” Sambo said.

Similarly confirming the killing to LEADERSHIP, the information officer of Wase local government area, Daniel Manwan, said from the information made available to im, over 30 people were killed in Bankalala village while operatives of the Directorate of State Services (DSS) pursued and killed three of the bandits at Zurak village.

“As I speak to you the entire villages are deserted for fear of the unknown,” he said.

Meanwhile, the spokesperson of the state police command, DSP Alabo Alfred, was yet to respond to the inquiry by our correspondent as of the time of filing this report. Also, the state government had yet speak on the incident as of the time of filing the report.

Deadly attacks on Plateau communities have been frequent in the last decade. One such attack in January left nearly 300 residents dead in more than 20 communities, showing the attack was well-coordinated.

 [Leadership]

Governor Similanayi Fubara of Rivers State has said he started taking decision as a governor in February, 2024.

Fubara, who spoke on Tuesday at Egbeda Community Secondary School field, venue of the inauguration of some internal roads project in Emohua Local Government Area, inaugurated by Delta State governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, reiterated that the projects people were seeing were accomplishments of four months.

He said good governance, service and projects were being delivered at a cost-effective rate.

He said, “We are just starting but I assure you of more attention. If in four months, we can do this, and we are getting this level of applause, you can imagine what will happen when we do one year of our record time, two years of our own record time, Rivers State would have experienced something different from the regular governance.

“I know why I said four months. We started full governance in February, 2024. That was when we started taking decisions, when we started confronting governance. And I am proud to say that our people are happy with what we have done.

“What we want to do is to bring governance to our people, service delivery at record time, and in a cost effective way.

“Everything that we are doing is in my white paper. I carry it along, so, there is no issue of any manipulation. Call me any day, anytime, it is there. Even the ones I did before this time, I still have all the records.

“If you call me any day, I will bring the records of all my activities in government, because I know that as a civil servant, what is most important is record keeping; so that if you are not there, and something happens, it is just for somebody to pick up the file and he will see the history.

“That is how I am trained, and I have that in my mind before I do anything. So, I am not scared of anything. Anybody who calls me any day, anytime, I have my records to show. I have all the approvals to show that I acted based on approval and not personal decision.”

The governor assured that his administration would continue to deliver projects that impact positively on the people directly while also empowering them to live better lives.

He stated that the Egbeda Internal Roads Project had been accomplished to both satisfy the needs of the people by making them happy and solving the perennial flooding problems experienced in the area.

The Governor acknowledged the support of the people before, during and after the elections, saying what his administration owes them is the dividends of democracy that included projects and social service delivery.

Performing the inauguration of the project,Oborevwori said he drove with Fubara on the road while accessing the venue of the event, and can testify of the commitment of his brother governor to sustain infrastructure development in the State.

He said, “This road project at Egbeda bears true testimony of the commitment of the Rivers State Government towards fulfilling its promise of sustainable infrastructure development of the State.

“It is reassuring that these all-season roads will economically empower, not only the people of Egbeda, but the entire Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers State.”

[https://newsdirect.ng]

A former Director-General of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, Akin Osuntokun, has said the only condition that can make the party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, consider returning to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is if he will be given the presidential ticket.

The PDP’s 2023 presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, had recently said that if in 2027, the party decided that it is the South-East’s turn and picked Obi as its candidate, he would readily offer his support.

“I have said repeatedly and I even said it before the 2023 general elections that if the PDP decides to zone the presidential ticket to the South or South-East specifically, I won’t contest it. As long as it’s the decision of the party, I will abide by it. But I contested the 2023 presidential ticket because it was thrown open to all members of the party.

“If the party decides that it’s the turn of the South-East and Peter Obi is chosen, I won’t hesitate to support him,” Atiku declared in a recent interview with BBC Hausa Service.

He also said that a merger between the PDP and Labour Party is possible.

Responding to the development, Osuntokun said that with Obi’s large support base in the last general elections, the only chance of him accepting to join the PDP is if he would be offered the party’s presidential ticket.

He said, “Peter Obi going back to the PDP would have to depend on the circumstances and the assurances from the political godfathers of the PDP. The thing is that it’s unrealistic to expect someone who has run for the president to now accept to be a running mate for whoever assumes the superior position.

“That’s because Obi has a unique political appeal among Nigerians. If it’s possible to do it like the way they do in the United States by analyzing the demographic groups that support each candidate, we would find a situation in which Obi carried about 90 per cent of the youth population. And if he chooses to be a running mate, those people are going to be disappointed and offended.

“The only way that Peter Obi could consider returning to the PDP is if he would be given the party’s presidential ticket. Otherwise, he would not embark on a futile exercise. Because if he becomes a running mate in PDP, he will lose a lot of his support. He would be demonized as a sellout.

“So I can’t see the point of his going back to the PDP other than being its presidential candidate.”

[DailyTrust]

The governorship candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 elections in Enugu State, Barr Chijioke Edeoga has described as scary and unconstitutional, the gale of demolitions recently carried out by the Enugu State Government in some parts of the state.

Edeoga, who accused the state government under the administration of Governor Peter Mbah of disobeying court orders and usurping the constitutional powers of local government areas, said demolishing people’s places of business without plans for alternative places will increase the suffering of the people.

Recall that the Enugu State Government recently demolished many parts of Enugu.

The demolitions, which have affected the Holy Ghost transport hub in the state capital and the Ogige Market in Nsukka, among other places, are being embarked upon to build standard motor parks in the affected areas.

But in a statement he issued on Thursday morning, the Labour Party governorship candidate also lamented the destruction of a private polytechnic belonging to a charismatic preacher and founder of Madonna University, Rev. F. Emmanuel Ede, expressing dismay that the government went to demolish the institution of higher learning in defiance of an order of the court.

“If there have been suspicions that the administration in Enugu State is insensitive to public sentiment and disdainful of the rule of law, the demolition of OSISATECH tended to validate it.

“It is scary that a government that swore to uphold the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is routinely disobeying court orders,” Edeoga said in the statement

He also lamented the demolition of a foremost hotel in Nsukka belonging to a nationalist and pre-independent politician, the late Chief Charles Abangwu, saying such actions were indicative of the insensitivity of the government to the plights of the people.

“The demolition of shops, a section of the Ogige Market, and Premier Hotel are also quite troubling.

“This is because of the dislocation of hundreds of businesses on which the livelihoods of ordinary people and their families are dependent.

“Interestingly, these businesses were forced, only a few months ago, to pay huge taxes and levies on those shops. It is curious that the Enugu State Government waited until it had collected these levies and taxes before destroying the sources of those funds,” the statement continued.

Continuing the LP governorship candidate said: “While it is understood that some of those areas demolished have constituted challenges of congestion and are due for some form of urban renewal, it must be recognized that no urban renewal activity has ever happened in one fell swoop.

“Development, especially as it affects urban renewal is an incremental activity that takes cognizance of impacts on persons and businesses.

“A government that is genuinely focused on renewal approaches such changes with the well-being of the people as its priority.

“This is why it raises serious concerns that the government of Enugu State began these activities without any form of consultation with the people and communities affected.

“More serious is the fact that there was no plan for relocation of those businesses to other locations before the demolition.”

While admitting that many parts of the state needed renewal, he wondered why the government failed to make a relocation and compensation plan before demolishing the properties.

“The essence of government everywhere in the world is the aggregation of the needs of the people into a pool where common solutions are incubated; it is the building of consensus on what constitutes the common good bearing in mind the social, economic, and even personal sensitivities.

“Democratic legitimacy ultimately belongs to the people, and that is why everything governments do must factor in the sensitivity of all concerned.

“But it appears that in Enugu State, under the current administration, the government considered its needs to be higher and more important than those of the people.

“There is no clearer sign that the needs of the people were not considered unimportant by the government than the lack of consultation that preceded these actions.

“The disobedience by the government, of a court order against the demolition, is also viewed by every right-thinking member of society as inherently tyrannical,” Edeoga continued.

He called on the government to take urgent steps to compensate all the people affected by the demolitions, build new markets and accommodate them without cost, and demonstrate respect for the laws and orders of the courts.

“The Enugu State Government must take immediate steps to respect court orders as is the practice in every civilized democratic country.

“A culture of disrespect to the judiciary is tantamount to disloyalty to the Constitution which provides for three independent arms of government that act as checks on one another,” Edeoga concluded.