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Category: Nasarawa Update

  • Nasarawa Governor Speaks On Contesting Presidency In 2027

    Nasarawa Governor Speaks On Contesting Presidency In 2027

    Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule, has confirmed that he has no aspirations beyond his current role after securing a second term following the Supreme Court’s affirmation of his electoral win. 

    The 64-year-old leader expressed satisfaction with the resolution of the election litigation, emphasizing his commitment to his gubernatorial responsibilities.

    Sule, elected in 2019, assured his rival, David Ombugadu, that he harbours no ambitions for higher political positions. 
    “I came in only to be a governor. I did not come in to be a chairman, a senator or a member of the House of Representatives. I don’t have any dreams for those offices,” he stated.

    “I have no dream of becoming even president. I have no dreams of that. I can tell you categorically that Abdullahi Sule would not go for Senate after leaving office. By the time I finish my eight years I can do whatever I want to do.

    “You can take it from me confidently that I have no intention to run for the office of a senator. You can keep this tape and play it one day.”

    He also expressed his joy that the election litigation is over.

  • “Your protests won’t change anything” — Nasarawa Gov reacts to Supreme Court Judgment

    “Your protests won’t change anything” — Nasarawa Gov reacts to Supreme Court Judgment

    The Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule, has said that protests against his victory at the Supreme Court will not change anything.

    The governor said that the Supreme Court is the ultimate and final court in the country, adding that those who appreciate democracy should accept its verdict in good faith.

    Governor Sule said this during a visit to President Bola Tinubu at the State House on Friday.

    The governor was accompanied by  the immediate past national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Senator Abdullahi Adamu and the immediate past governor of the state, Senator Tanko Almakura.

    His words: “Nasarawa is a state where we had over 600,000 votes, and we won with over 340,000 votes, so you will know that over 200,000 people did not vote for us. So if out of these 200,000 people who did not vote for us and other sets of 1,000 people are protesting somewhere, then you will know because it’s a day that not everybody will be happy.

    “In every state where the Supreme Court passed judgment in every one of these states, you will find some people happy and some other people not happy.

    “But I think people who understand what democracy is all about will understand that the Supreme Court is the ultimate and is the final, and those who appreciate or respect democracy should leave it right there because protests or no protest will not change anything; the Supreme Court has already passed its judgement.

    “So in our case, when we lost at the tribunal, we told everybody that nobody should protest, and that’s why nobody protested, but that is the level of maturity that you will see from one political party or the other.

    “We are a very mature political party; we’re the ruling party in the country; we’re the ruling party in the state; and we’re showing a good example, so that’s why we will not protest.”

  • Nasarawa: Supreme Court Dismisses Appeal Seeking To Sack Gov Sule

    Nasarawa: Supreme Court Dismisses Appeal Seeking To Sack Gov Sule

    A 5-man panel of the Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by David Ombugadu of the Peoples Democratic Party seeking to upturn the electoral victory of Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State.

    Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission had declared Sule as winner of the election with 347,209 votes to beat his closest challenger, Ombugadu, who polled 283,016 votes.

    Not happy with the results declared by INEC, Ombugadu and his party, the PDP, filed a petition at the Nasarawa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal to challenge the outcome of the polls.

    On October 2, 2023, a 3-man panel of the election petition tribunal led by Justice Ezekiel Ajayi, in a split decision of two-to-one, declared Ombugadu, the validly elected governor of Nasarawa State.

    However, the Court of Appeal in Abuja, affirmed the election of Abdullahi Sule as Nasarawa State governor, after overturning the earlier decision of the election petition tribunal that removed him from office.

    Delivering judgement on the appeal filed by Sule, a three-member panel of the appeal court held that the Nasarawa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal was wrong to have declared David Ombugadu, as the winner of the 18 March election.

    Not relenting, Ombugadu appealed at the apex court.

    But in a lead judgment, Justice Kudirat Kekere Ekun dismissed Ombugadu’s appeal for being ‘devoid of merit, vexatious and incompetent.

    The panel unanimously held that all the sister appeals abide by the instant judgment.

    More so, the panel ordered parties to bear their respective costs.

    Recall that Governor Sule was initially declared the winner of the polls by INEC.

    But Ombugadu challenged the election outcome at the tribunal, arguing that he won the majority of valid votes during the contest.

    In a split decision of the tribunal on October 2, two members, forming the majority, declared Ombugadu the winner of the election, while the minority opinion of the only other member affirmed Sule’s victory.

    Sule subsequently appealed against the majority decision of the tribunal, and won.

  • S’Court reserves judgment on Nasarawa guber appeal

    S’Court reserves judgment on Nasarawa guber appeal

    The Supreme Court of Nigeria, Tuesday, reserved judgment in the
    Petition seeking to sack the incumbent governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule of the All Progressive Congress (APC).

    The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate, Hon Emmanuel David Ombugadu, is praying the apex court to set aside the November 23 judgment of the Court of Appeal which upheld Sule as the lawfully elected governor.

    The Petitioners, through Kanu Agabi SAN submitted that the October 2, 2023 judgment of the Nasarawa State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal in favour of PDP and Ombugadu be restored.

    According to him, the Court of Appeal unjustly nullified the Tribunal’s judgment and unjustly declared Sule as winner of the March 18 gubernatorial election.

    Agabi specifically called that the Supreme Court should allow the votes of Nasarawa state people to count and be meaningful be declaring PDP and Ombugadu as winners as rightly done by the Tribunal.

    However, Sule and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and APC, prayed court to dismiss the appeal for want of merit.

    APC lawyers, led by Akin Olujinmi SAN while adopting his brief of arguments asked the apex court to carefully looked into the cited authorities to back up their request for dismissal of the case.

    After taking arguments from lawyers, Justice Kekere-Ekun announced that judgment has been reserved and that the date for its delivery would be communicated to parties involved.

    The Appeal Court had on November 23 last year reversed the sack of Gov Sule by the State Election Petitions Tribunal in its judgment delivered on October 2.

    The Appellate Court held that the Tribunal headed by Ezekiel Ajayi acted in grave error in using witness statements on oath, not front-loaded as required by law to arrive at the unjust conclusion of nullifying the election of the governor.

    In a judgment delivered by Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam, the Court of Appeal had said the Tribunal was legally bound to act on witness statements filed along with the petition or front-loaded within 21 days stipulated by law.

    The Court held that no petition can lawfully be amended outside the 21 days allowed by law as wrongly done by the Tribunal.

    “Since the statements used by the Tribunal to sack the Governor were not front-loaded in compliance with the law, the statements were a product of illegality with no probate value for a law Court to act upon”.

    The Court also dismissed the over-voting issues used to annul the election, adding that the allegations were not established by law.

    Justice Onyemenam held that the petition by the Governorship candidate of the PDP was a nullity and invalid on the grounds that the jurisdictional issues raised by the governor were unlawfully ignored by the Tribunal.

    The Court of Appeal ruled that the Tribunal denied the Governor a fair hearing by not considering and making findings on the issues of jurisdiction raised at the hearing of the petition.

    Justice Onyemenam agreed that the denial of a fair hearing against the governor was fatal and tendered all decisions of the Tribunal invalid.

    In all, the Court of Appeal reversed all orders made against the governor and INEC and affirmed Sule as the lawfully elected governor of the state.

    INEC had declared Sule the winner of the governorship election on the grounds that he polled a total of 347,209 votes to defeat his closest opponent David Emmanuel Ombugadu who secured 283,016 votes.

  • Kidnappers Demand N50 Million Ransom for Release of Nasarawa LG Chairman

    Kidnappers have demanded a whooping N50 million for the safe release of the chairman of Akwanga Local Government Council in Nasarawa, Alhaji Safiyanu Isah Andaha.

    Isah was abducted alongside his associate, Adamu Umar Tanko on Monday night.

    Confirmation of the abduction came from Haruna Kassimu, the Special Adviser on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs to the Nasarawa State Governor, who acknowledged the distressing situation.

    According to a family source, negotiations between the family and the abductors are underway, shrouded in anonymity for safety concerns, as the state police command are intensifying efforts to secure their release.

    The Nasarawa State Police Command, led by Commissioner of Police Umar Nadada, has swiftly mobilized personnel for a potential rescue operation. 

    DSP Ramhan Nansel, the Police Public Relations Officer, stressed the collaborative efforts between the police and other security agencies in tracking down the kidnappers.

    Nansel implored the public, particularly residents of surrounding villages, to provide credible information that could aid in the safe recovery of the victims and the swift arrest of the perpetrators.

  • Gov Sule, Deputy inaugurated for 2nd term

    Gov Sule, Deputy inaugurated for 2nd term

    Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State and his deputy, Dr Emmanuel Akabe were on Monday sworn in for the second term in office by the State Chief Judge (CJ), Justice Aisha Bashir.

    In his inaugural speech at the Lafia Square, the governor expressed gratitude to the people of the state for overwhelmingly voting him in for the second term on March 18.

    He reaffirmed his loyalty to the Nigerian Constitution and promised to continue to do his best to better the welfare of the people and develop the state in the next four years.

    Sule listed his achievements to include the attraction of the organized private sector to invest in various sectors of the economy, the construction of urban and rural roads, construction of schools, and markets in Akwanga, Keffi and Nassarawa-Eggon.

    Others are the construction of bus terminals in Lafia and Karu, employment of over 3,000 teachers, confirmation of appointment of over 2, 000 teachers, and regularisation of the appointment of casual staff in all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).

    “We also implemented outstanding promotions of over 10 years, trained and retrained civil servants within and outside the state,” he added.

    Sule governor also said his administration had commenced the construction of a state secretariat to address the challenges of office accommodation and would finish the project before the end of his second tenure.

    He added that the state government had also invested heavily in security and supported security agencies with needed logistics to function properly and would sustain it.

    The governor promised to dedicate the next four years to the development of the state.

    Sule also lauded former President, Muhammadu Buhari for a successful tenure of eight years and his development strides especially in Nasarawa state.

    He said that Buhari gave appointments to sons and daughters of the state into federal positions and executed numerous transformative projects in the state.

    The governor also congratulated the newly inaugurated President, Sen.  Bola Tinubu and his vice, Kashim Shettima, and wished them well as they began their tenure of four years.

    “We have no doubt that his antecedents and past achievements in the development of Nigeria will be brought to bear in his present leadership for the benefit of all Nigerians,” he said.

    He expressed optimism that very soon Nigeria and Nigerians would begin to witness prosperity and development in all sectors under the new administration.

    Earlier, John Mamman, Nasarawa State Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), said the party was aware that the governor would win the March 18 election because of his achievements.

  • ‘Shine Your Eye’, NCC sensitises traders on fraudsters’ tactics

    The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has sensitised traders on how to avoid falling prey to fraudsters in the country.

    The commission did the sensitisation at the Market Square, Kasuwar Rusau, Keffi, on Wednesday in Nasarawa State.

    The programme was tagged: “Shine Your Eye, No Fall Mugu”.

    The Executive Vice-chairman, NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, was represented by Mr Clement Omife, Head, Consumer Protection Advocacy Unit of the NCC.

    Danbatta said that the awareness was to promote initiatives such as to empower telecom consumers with knowledge and advocate for their protection within the telecom industry.

    He said that the menace, which follows wide acceptance of new methods of mobile money, electronic banking and payment systems has been discovered to cost the country whopping sums of money.

    Danbatta said that a lot of people were highly ignorant of how losing their phones to fraudsters can lead to a complete clean-up of their bank accounts. 

    He said|: “These fraudsters do this by stealing victims’ identities; names, addresses, bank information, which they use in gaining access to their bank accounts.

    “They also use the stolen identity to defraud other people and even apply for loans, leaving the victim with debts.”

    According to him, as the telecom industry evolves, there is a growing concern over the rising trend of fraud on telecom (electronic fraud) across sectors of the Nigerian economy.

    Danbatta added: “CBN rates electronic fraud as the biggest risk in the sector which has widely incorporated electronic payment solutions such as ATMs, Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBBS) Instant Payment and mobile banking.

    “The telecommunications sector is not also spared in the raging storm stoked by cyber fraudsters across the country.

    “Attackers are now targeting telecom networks with the intent to disrupt service delivery and infiltrate their data bank SIM swaps and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD).

    “USSD e-payment frauds are currently some of the sensuous cyber threats in the telecom industry. Fraudsters conduct SIM swaps of individuals and then conduct USSD-based transactions which cost victims huge losses.”

    He said that the commission also collaborated with critical stakeholders such as the CBN, the Nigerian Police Force (NPF), EFCC, ICPC and others relevant in the fight against e-banking fraudsters.

    Danbatta said that effective collaboration between government agencies, private organisations and individuals was pivotal in tackling this scourge of electronic fraud.

    He assured consumers that the commission would intensify its regulatory efforts in protecting the interest of telecom consumers.

    Danbatta said that the development and deployment of robust infrastructure to support innovative technologies and services had no doubt positively transformed the socio-economic space.

    “One of the critical mandates of the NCC is the protection and promotion of the interests of consumers, which is majorly domiciled with the Consumer Affairs Bureau of the commission.

    “As part of the strategy to actualise this mandate, the department collaborates with Consumer Advocacy Groups and relevant stakeholders in creating consumer awareness.

    “By promoting initiatives such as this to empower telecom consumers with knowledge and advocate for their protection within the telecom industry.

    “Today, telecom consumers are enjoying broadband and other services driven by the quest to establish a digital economy,” he said.

    He urged traders to avail themselves of the necessary information required to avoid falling prey to cybercriminals.

    Danbatta also urged consumers to be careful not to open unfamiliar emails or respond to unfamiliar inquiries and report suspicious E-fraud to their bank and telecom service providers.

    The Chairman, Keffi Traders Association, Alhaji Musa Yakubu, called on traders to learn about financial frauds and the strategies to tackle them.

    “We appreciate NCC for coming to enlighten our people on how to manage our money.

    “I have mandated my members to be here to be able to learn how not to fall victim to financial frauds,” he said. 

  • FMC Keffi conducts open heart surgeries on 14 indigent patients

    Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa has described as a rare feat the open heart surgeries which the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Keffi, Nasarawa had on 14 indigent pediatric patients suffering from different heart ailments.

    Sule, in his remarks on Monday after a tour of the operation theatre and the intensive care unit, lauded the management of hospital.

    Represented by his deputy, Dr Emmanuel Akabe,  the governor called for the feat to be sustained.

    “I am quite impressed with what I heard and what I have seen. I have thanked the team handling this project for what they are doing in Nasarawa State.

    The governor, who called for more collaboration with other organisations to complement government’s effort in healthcare delivery, said that his administration would support the health facility to enable it to succeed.

    Similarly, Dr Yahaya Adamu,  the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the medical centre, said the project, which started on April 28, 2023, would be concluded on May 26 with more surgeries to be carried out.

    He, however, said that so far 14 surgeries had been successfully done on 14 indigent paediatric patients suffering from varying heart diseases.

    The CMD appreciated “Hospitals For Humanity“, an international non-governmental organisation, for collaborating with the hospital in carrying out the surgeries.

    He also praised the combined efforts of paediatric surgeons, nurses and other health specialists in the health centre for the success achieved so far.

    “This is the second phase of the project. We started the first phase on April 28. The team that did the first set of surgeries came from Saudi Arabia. They were volunteers, they did theirs and left.

    “Now we have a second set of team from the US and India. So far, in this second phase we have done five surgeries. In the first phase we did nine surgeries. We hope to do more before the project is concluded on May 26,” he said.

    Adamu explained that the ailments suffered by the patients included various anomalies within the heart, as well as both simple and complex cases.

    He listed the diseases to include ventricular septal defect, double chamber right ventricle and a patient who had a device placed somewhere in his body but moved to his heart.

    Adamu said that the medical centre planned to collaborate with the state government and well-meaning Nigerians to fund the project.

    He also said that there were plans by the health centre to develop capacity through periodical heart surgeries thereby affording the surgeons the opportunity to perfect the skills learnt from foreign partners for the benefit of Nigerians.

    Meanwhile, Dr Myna Shegos, Executive Director, Hospitals for Humanity, Geogia, US disclosed that the organisation had been in Nigeria since 2021.

    Shegos explained that the organisation  had been operating in the Garki General Hospital, Abuja; Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), Plateau;  Ibom Specialist Hospital and University of Uyo Teaching Hospital; Akwa Ibom State.

    She said that the organisation was focused on providing free pediatric open heart surgeries and cardiac catheterisation for children.