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As Anambra Prepares For Election…
On November 6, 2021, the people and residents of Anambra State in South Eastern Nigeria will file out to cast their votes in an off-season election expected to bring about the next governor of the state upon the cessation of the incumbent governor’s tenure, Willie Obiano. Hence, it is a national imperative for the poll to be effectively safeguarded.
Preparations for this election have attained a fever pitch. Essentially, politicians including the contestants for the coveted position, are in brilliant political manoeuvres, transcending one another in their endeavour to sway the electorate to their respective sides. Obviously, the people seem to be excited about this.
But the inhabitants of the state, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), politicians and even the Nigerian government have a disconcerting problem of insecurity. Among many citizens of this buzzing state, adjudged to be the commercial nerve centre of the South-East, the apprehension is not much about who wins the election, it is about who will be alive to do the voting.
The prevailing situation is that the tension preceded by the November 6 governorship election now perseverates across the state. The questions are: will the election hold out? If it is finally conducted, will it repercuss what the public and others choose?
These are pertinent questions currently disrupting politics and politicking in the state. The Anambra electorate need an answer to assure them that the election will indeed be held seamlessly. This is because what should normally pass as a peaceful exercise is rapidly weakening the state, severely exposing the underbelly of state security. Anambra has become a hunting ground with gratuitous destruction of state institutions and assets.
The state has grasped a glimpse of insecurity in its purest form, as many well-known citizens have been kidnapped or assassinated by unidentified armed men, inseminating fear in all and sundry. The abduction of the governorship candidate of the Labour Party, ObioraAgbasimalo, and the murder of the deceased husband of late Dora Akunyili, ChikeAkunyili, are two illustrations. Other imprudent killings have raised doubts about the November 6 poll.
Last April, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Prof Charles Soludo, escaped death by the whiskers when gunmen charged at him during a political meeting he convened at the Civic Centre in his hometown of Isuofia, Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State. But while he escaped unhurt, three police officers attached to him were killed.
There have been several other killings in recent weeks. Specifically, the Nnewi office of the Directorate of State Services (DSS) and the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) building were demolished. Unidentified gunmen persist in striking terror into the political class with gun attacks, and numerous innocent passers-by are also obliterated. The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has been spasmodically named in connection with the sprouting violence, particularly because of its professed undertaking to make certain that November 6, 2021 Anambra election does not hold.
IPOB’s sempiternal and economically enervating “sit-at-home” directives, which are brought to bear in a cataclysmic manner, fudge together a perdurable part of the pang in this area of the country. It has overwrought the people’s economic, educational, and political rights. This is certainly not acceptable.
INEC had expressed concerns over the November 6 governorship election in Anambra and warned against constitutional crisis that might engulf the state if the situation persisted. Its chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, conveyed the fears during an emergency meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) in Abuja recently. Recall that in May 2021, the INEC office in Awka was attacked and all the non-sensitive materials and vehicles assembled for the governorship election destroyed.
Despite the anxieties, this state of affairs is allowed to advance to a certain amplitude, and the South-East, which was predominantly one of the most non-belligerent areas of the country, is now a locality to circumvent due to insecurity. The run-of-the-mill inhabitants are flustered and solicitous over their future, owing to the ventures of some gunmen, who slink the nooks and crannies of the state, looking for targets.
According to sources, these armed men not only execute relentless onslaughts against politicians, but equally against chaste, irreproachable and defenceless citizens as well as policemen, and set fire to assets. In all those intrusions which today discommode the entire state and jeopardise the 2021 governorship election, no breakthrough has been chronicled by way of arrests.
Anambra people and Nigerians deserve peace and a sanctioning environment that will make the forthcoming gubernatorial election not only feasible but a huge success. We urge the federal and the state governments to ensure that the people are safe and ensconced and that the November 6 election comes about as scheduled.
If the proposed security workouts of the Nigerian Army will cover the three Southern regions and parts of the North Central as earlier presumed, it should be organised in a way to gain the full underpinning of the law-abiding citizens in the affected regions. The people must feel that the armed forces are there to protect them, not to exacerbate their situation.
Agitators in the South-East should commit themselves to the peaceful pursuit of their lawful aspirations. Recourse to violence will only result in superfluous death and destruction, notably for law-abiding citizens. IPOB should discontinue the threat of undermining the Anambra election. It is against the interests of the people to forcefully prevent them from freely electing their leaders. Any group that tinkers with the people’s educational, economic, and political rights cannot claim to be their emancipator.
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I’m Committed To Community Dev – Ajinwo
News
RSG Tasks Rural Dwellers On RAAMP …As Sensitization Team Visits Akulga, Degema, Three Others

Rivers State Head of Service, Dr (Mrs) Inyingi Brown, has called on rural communities in the State to embrace the Rural Access and Agricultural marketing project (RAAMP) with a view to improving their living conditions.
This follows the ongoing sensitization campaign by the State Project Implementation Unit (SPIU) visits to Degema, Abonnema, Afam headquarters of Degema, Akuku Toru and Oyigbo Etche and Omuma local government areas respectively.
Dr Brown who was represented by the Deputy Director, Special Duties in her office, Mrs Dein Akpanah, said RAAMP was initiated by the Federal Government and World Bank to economically empower rural dwellers.s
She said the World Bank understands the plights of rural farmers and traders in the State, and therefore came up with the programme to address them.
According to her, RAAMP will improve the conditions of farmers, traders and fishermen, and therefore, behoves on every rural communities in the State to embrace the programme.
The Head of Service also said the programme would support the youths to be gainfully employed while bridges and roads will be built to link farms and fishing settlements.
Also speaking, the State project coordinator, Mr Joshua Kpakol, said the programme has the potential of creating millionaires among farmers and fishermen in the State.
Kpakol who was represented by Engr. Sam Tombari, said RAAMP would help farmers and fishermen to preserve their produce.
According to him, the project will build cold rooms and Silos for preservation of crops and fishes while access roads will also be created to link farmers and fishermen to the market.
He, however, warned them against any act that will lead to the suspension of the projects by the World Bank.
Kpakol particularly warned against acts such as kidnapping, marching ground, gender based violence and child labour, adding that such acts if they occur may lead to the cancellation of the project by the World Bank.
During the visit to Oyigbo local government area, Mr Joshua Kpakol, said the team was there to let them know how they will benefit from the Raamp.
The coordinator who was personally at Oyigbo said the World Bank introduced the project to check food insecurity in the State.
He said already 19 states in Nigeria are already benefitting from the project and called on them to embrace the project.
Meanwhile, stakeholders in the three local government areas have commended the World Bank for including their areas in the project.
They, however, complained over the incessant attacks by pirates on their waterways.
At Degema, King Agolia of Ke kingdom said land was a major problem in the kingdom.
King Agolia represented by High Chief Alpheus Damiebi said many indigenes of the kingdom are willing to go into farming but are handicapped by lack of land.
Also at Degema, the representative of the Omu Onyam Ekeim of Usokun Degema kingdom, Osoabo Isaac, said Degema has embraced the programme but needed more information on the implementation of the programme.
Similarly, while High Chief Precious Abadi advised that the project should not be narrowed to only crop farming, a community women leader, Mrs Orikinge Eremabo Otto, called for the construction of cold rooms in all fishing settlements in the area.
At Abonnema, Mr Diamond Kio linked the problem of the area to incessant piracy along waterways.
He also expressed fears over the possibility of the project being hijacked by politicians.
Also at Abonnema, a stakeholder, Ikiriko Kelvin, called on the World Bank to design an agricultural project that will suit the riverine environment, while at Oyigbo, HRH Eze Boniface Akawo expressed satisfaction with the project.
John Bibor
News
Senate Replaces Natasha As Committee Chairman

The political mudslinging between the Senate leadership and Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan continued yesterday as the Senate named Senator Aniekan Bassey as the new Chairman of the Committee on Diaspora and Non-Governmental Organisations.
Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, announced the appointment during yesterday’s plenary, confirming Bassey’s replacement of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, who is currently on suspension.
Akpoti-Uduaghan was reassigned to the Diaspora and NGOs Committee in February after she was removed as Chair of the Senate Committee on Local Content during a minor reshuffle.
Bassey is the senator representing Akwa Ibom North-East Senatorial District.
Although no reason was given for her removal yesterday, the change is believed to be connected to her unresolved suspension.
In May, Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court ordered her reinstatement and directed her to tender an apology to the Senate.
However, the Senate has insisted it has not received a certified true copy of the court judgment.
Akpoti-Uduaghan who represents Kogi Central, has yet to resume her legislative duties despite a recent court ruling that voided her suspension.
In a televised interview on Tuesday, Akpoti-Uduaghan said she was awaiting the Certified True Copy of the judgment before officially returning to plenary, citing legal advice and respect for institutional process.
Although the Federal High Court described her suspension as “excessive and unconstitutional”, a legal opinion dated July 5 and attributed to the Senate’s counsel, Paul Daudu (SAN), argued that the ruling lacked any binding directive to enforce her reinstatement.
Akpoti-Uduaghan, one of only three female senators in the current assembly, said the continued delay in allowing her return was not only a denial of her mandate but also a blow to democratic representation.
“By keeping me out of the chambers, the Senate is not just silencing Kogi Central, it’s denying Nigerian women and children representation. We are only three female senators now, down from eight,” she said.
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