N1.64Bn Fraud: Court Orders Nyame To Begin His Defence

A former governor of Taraba, Jolly Nyame, has been ordered by a Federal Capital Territory, FCT High Court, Gudu, to begin his defence on March 8, 2017 after Justice Adebukola Banjoko, on February 14, 2017 dismissed his application for a “no-case” submission.

This is contained in a statement signed by spokesman of the Economic and Financial crimes Commission (EFCC), Wilson Uwujaren.

Nyame, who is standing trial for a 41-count charge of criminal misappropriation of N1.64bn state funds, had on January 18, 2017 through his counsel, Charles Edosomwan, SAN, urged the court to “hold that the testimony of prosecution witnesses have been so damaged and can’t be relied on”, and “the crucial elements are missing in this case”.

At the resumed sitting Tuesday, the trial judge, citing Sections 302, 303, 357 and 358 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 noted that, it was in order for a defendant to apply to the court for a “no-case” submission, but the “court shall have discretion whether essential elements of the offence have been proven or not”.

Justice Banjoko, further noted that a prima facie case implies a ground for proceeding, “it doesn’t require proof beyond every reasonable doubt, as is required to find a defendant guilty or not”, and, “whether the prosecution has made some case requiring clarification from the defendant no matter how slight”.

“In relation to this court, having had a close look at the evidence and exhibits, I hold that this case requires him to provide information and give explanation with regards to evidence presented by the prosecution, and so he is ordered to enter into his defence in the interest of justice,” the trial judge held.

How Lasting Peace Returned To Taraba – Gov Ishaku

Darius Ishaku, an architect is the governor of Taraba State. He has not allowed the tortuous journey to the Government House to weigh him down. Having inherited a thoroughly balkanised state, Ishaku said his preoccupation is to unite every section of the state through the ‘Rescue Taraba Project’.

In this interview, he speaks on peace initiative in the state, plans to privatise government investments, the ambitious Mambilla hydropower project and opposition politics in Nigeria among other issues. Excerpts:

How far have you gone in implementing your rescue agenda?

The rescue agenda is on course and we thank God for the opportunity to serve our people. We came up with what I called the Green Book which stipulates the rescue agenda we have. The agenda is to attack all areas of the state. However, because of the lack of resources, we had to prioritise so that we can concentrate on certain areas of health, agriculture and education. We hope to work on these areas for two years before shifting to other areas depending on the resources available. However, that does not mean that we cannot intercede in other areas needing quick attention such as infrastructure, roads, water. We will attack these areas depending on the seriousness of the need. But we have started in the area of health because our health system has seriously decayed. I did not meet any functional hospital except the Specialist Hospital in Jalingo. That specialist hospital didn’t even have equipment to diagnose and treat people. Fortunately, we made it functional. But in other parts of the state, there is no functional hospital.

So, once somebody is sick even for a simple ailment, they have to rush him to Jalingo and I think that is a very bad situation. I decided to take one hospital per zone; one in Wukari, one in Gembu and the Bambu hospital; which is one of the oldest hospitals in the state. They are all located in the three senatorial districts and we are hoping that by December, work will start on them. By the grace of God, we got two containers of medical supply given to us free from abroad which we had to clear and pay the customs duties. In agriculture, we have not made much impact, but we are winning in some areas. One of the areas where we have made some level of impact is revitalization of the tea and the tea factory is running 24 hours right now because we had a small mini dam which was constructed with the help of the United Nations in collaboration with the state government. That dam is working providing 24 hours services.

We refurbished the old tea factory, removed the obsolete machines and replaced them with brand new ones and right now, it is working very well. That has made the people in Kakara village and the surrounding villages busy, providing the tea which hitherto was not in use before now, sell it to the factory and go there every week to collect their payment. That tea is said to be the second best in the world.

Areas of comparative advantage in Taraba

Taraba is blessed. In agriculture, I can boast of feeding the whole country with rice. We have a very huge rice project in Gashok. As I am talking to you right now, we would have been eating that rice, but for the problem we had with the investor and his American partner. The foreign partner moved out and has refused to come back despite my intervention and the Nigerian investor is looking for another partner to join hands and continue the project. That is a very huge rice farm lying in the Benue valley. We are working very hard and I am sure that before the end of this year, we should be able to resolve all the obstacles in that area. Taraba can also comfortably supply the whole country with sugar. We are working assiduously on that and have given a company about 10,000 hectare of land, but we are yet to agree on the modalities because the perception of the company is different from our thinking. They want 100 per cent mechanized farming with no benefit for our people, but I disagree completely with that.

That has stalled the whole project for about nine months now. But we are getting to the end of the disagreement and they have calmed down and we think that should take off before the end of December. But the problem with sugar is that it takes three years to plant and get matured before you have enough to feed the plant. But we are going on with that. Corn is another area where we have an advantage; if you go to areas like Baisa, you will plant corn for about four times a year and they don’t even need fertilizers there. That is the one we are exploiting now to bring in investors. All these are giant farms with multinationals that are coming. I am hoping that by next year, we should be able to produce things like corn and rice and selling them. Sugar may be a little bit delayed. The other front which we will aggressively pursue by next year is coffee. In Taraba State, we have the monopoly of tea and coffee because they are some of the plants that can only be grown on the highland. I want to pursue coffee aggressively and I hope to be in Kenya by the end of November because I understand that they have a very good model. I want to go and copy their model. In October, I was in India and went to virtually all the tea farms in India to see what they are doing correctly that we are not doing. Right now, four of our boys are in India, being trained. We want to pursue aggressive nursery for the tea. For coffee, we want to learn the model and from what I have read and heard, the Kenyan and Ethiopian model seems to be best suitable for our climate.

The other huge potential we have now is that we can easily boast that over 70 per cent of the beef you eat in this country comes from Taraba State and we want to better it. We have gotten a German firm that is interested in processing the beef. We want them to come and set up the farm where they will grow the cattle from where they will get milk and beef and turn the waste to electricity. Without electricity, everything I am saying will not be possible. The tea factory is successful because they have electricity.

The money they were using for fuel is exactly the profit they were making. That model seems to catch my fancy because the waste is used to produce electricity which in turn is used to milk the cow and bag the milk and put the beef in freezers. So, it will be like a circle of production. Three months ago, they came around to see the place; they have gone back and we hope they will soon return. We also grow cocoa in my state. I have also set up a kind of marketing board that will buy up all the excess, store it and sell at reduced price and if possible, sell them outside and get more money to help our farmers.

Source of funding  for the projects

In fact, people have asked me this same question over and over again; where do you get the resources to do even what you have done in one year? I do very simple planning and allotment of resources. We have very lean resources and what that means is that we must manage it well. When I became governor, I discovered that we had a lot of leakages, particularly in salaries. One person could be collecting about 40 people’s salaries. We have been able to reduce these leakages substantially.

I wish I could eliminate it completely. That has helped me with free money that I am now investing in infrastructure and other areas. The other thing is I do not believe that government has any business in business because all the companies set up by the state government in the past have all gone under; including the tea factory that I talked about. It is my intention to privatize most of it since it is working well now so that the private sector can take over the place while we use the funds we have for other things. What we are doing right now is attracting investors from the private sector as many as possible. Maybe the state government will hold about 20 per cent shares.

My major concern is that I do not want 100 per cent mechanized farming or 100 per cent mechanized industrial set up, but a set up that has a trickle-down effect that the people living around the area can have input and benefit from whatever establishment that is located there. I feel that if the ordinary man is benefiting, the purpose would have been achieved. Every week, the people living there go to the company to collect their money for the tea leaves they have supplied. They pluck these leaves every day and take it to the factory. With the light there, they are able to rear chicken which is an added source of income for them. This is the kind of effect I want for my people and that is why I want to attract private investors because I believe they are the key people to turn this country and Taraba State around for good, for the benefit of all of us.

On peace initiative 

I inherited a state with crisis in different facets. There was war virtually everywhere. There was inter-tribal war, religious war, those based on sentiments and political crisis. I had to initiate policies that will bring about peace. What I did was to reach out to all the different people. I reached out to the traditional leaders, visited stakeholders, community leaders, talked to political leaders and became aggressive in the preaching of peace. I even gave some examples of what peace will bring for us and what lack of it has denied us. I reached out to the religious leaders and thank God that they all keyed in and reached out aggressively and helped me greatly in preaching the message of peace to the people.

Aside that, I did not sit down but try to make sure that the law enforcement agencies are up to the task; we made sure that anywhere we found breakdown of law and order, we take a decisive action against those involved. By the grace of God, we started eliminating them gradually and today, I can tell you that we have relative calm in the state and peace has returned to the state and development is beginning to spring up. What I told them earlier when I came on board which was ‘give me peace and I will give you development’, is beginning to manifest. Somebody who has no light in his home before, now has 24 hours light, somebody who has no means of livelihood could go to a factory and be depositing his tea leaves and at the end, get some money; somebody who has no road before to his village now has one.

The road that used to take about 45 minutes or more now takes you about five minutes. So people are becoming excited and know that peace is indeed golden and lack of it is evil. This has worked and I thank God for this; we are still working hard because we have not reached the apex yet. We are also trying to aggressively pursue enhancement. We have gone to the wards; picked some people that we are training on simple things which people neglected in the past. For example, there is a kind of cloth that our people used to weave with pure cotton. It was a tradition that was passed down from generations, but virtually forgotten. We are gradually reviving it and people are becoming excited because they were buying the fake ones before. The women and children are now engaged in it. We are also training tailors, soldiers and also manufacturing simple machines that are already available and are being distributed for drying fish and you can see the happiness in people. I can tell you that a lot of things are helping us in that regard. I must tell you that I inherited a very poor civil service in the state. We are completely reorganizing it and retraining them because they are the engine room of governance.

But what I inherited was terribly poor. One thing I discovered is that a lot of people believe that they are engaged in government to collect salaries and not to work. So, if you ask me of percentage, I will tell you that less than 10 per cent of people in my civil service believe that they are there to be productive while the rest believe that there are there to earn the bonus that the government will give. I am trying to retrain and refocus their mind-set that they are here not only to collect free bonus, but to work and produce for government. We are achieving some results. Those who are dead woods, we have to do away with them because we don’t need dead woods if you are trying to achieve results.

Mambilla hydropower project and expectations

Mambilla hydropower project is going to be the biggest power project in Africa and not just in Nigeria because it is going to have 3050 megawatts which is more than the power we are generating now. So, we are going to almost double the power that Nigeria is producing now. It is going to take between five to seven years to complete. I am happy that Mr. President has taken the bold step of awarding this contract and I am working assiduously to clear the encumbrances; which is the act of getting to the site. As I speak to you now, the Federal Government has done nothing in terms of remuneration and compensation for the people and getting the site cleared of encumbrances. Right now, I can’t take you to the site of the project because the access is not there.

There is no road to where the dam will be built. People are still living in the valley of the dam as we speak. There is a Bible College right where the dam is going to be built. Will you just come and start the dam and clear the people? The people must be sensitized and made aware of what is coming. I am going to resettle 150,000 people in five different local government areas. The area of this dam is bigger than the area of Lagos State. When people talk about the dam, they talk as if you will just drive there and start work. It is not done like that. Processes of compensation take a long time, the same thing with sensitization.

As at the moment, the Federal Government has not done anything. We have held meetings with the Minister and up till now, I have not seen any result and this will take us about one year. So, if you say the project will take seven years of construction and for one year nothing has been done especially in trying to get to the site, it means a lot still needs to be done. I am happy with the project and we will do everything possible to make sure the project is realized to the benefit of the country in general and Taraba State in particular. But a lot needs to be done in terms of moving to site because there is no accessibility to that site. So many things that need to be in place before the contractor can move to site have not been done. As I speak with you now, the road to Gembu is virtually cut off at Likitaba and it is a federal road. The Federal Government is telling us not to intervene in their road. So, the people who want to build dam can’t even go on the existing road. I am going to see one of the contractors to go and rescue that road because if I don’t rescue that road, our people will be completely cut off. We have reported this to them, but they have not come.

Due to this talk about the Mambilla project and opening up Taraba State, the first thing I did when I came on board was to open the Taraba airport. Before, you cannot access Jalingo by air, but right now, you have Overland on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and we are hoping that by December, it will be a daily flight. All the engineers and contractors that will come to the state should have easy access. It is one hour flight from Abuja to Jalingo and it takes you six hours from Jalingo to go up the mountain. The airport is supposed to be a cargo airport and so, we are looking at expanding it so that from there, we can export agricultural produce. If I package beef, it needs to be in the market immediately; the same applies to fruits and other agricultural produce. So, the first step to opening up the state was to reopen the airport which is working now. These are the things I did to unlock the state, otherwise, we are stuck in a corner of the country. In terms of travelling by road, it takes you between nine to 10 hours from Abuja to Jalingo depending on how many road blocks you have on the way.

Opposition in Taraba

We have opposition in the state; but if you ask me I will say they are bad opposition. They are not opposition that criticise based on facts or based on showing government better ways of doing things. They are opposition for the mere fact that they want to smear the names of people and insult people for the sake of it. Most of the time, I don’t bother to listen to them. For example, the APC chairman once came out criticising government because of somebody who was removed from office, saying the man was removed for voting APC. How would the Head of Service know who voted for which party? This was a corrupt school principal, who was found guilty by a panel that recommended his dismissal, but the Head of Service pleaded that he be demoted instead and he was demoted and sent to a smaller school.

They just went on air without verifying anything. These are the kind of opposition we have in the state. Somebody will just wake up, go to the press and start insulting the governor without having basis for that. I wish the opposition will come and ask, why are you constructing road from A to B and what purpose will it serve? When I came in, there was no water and people were going from one place to the other with buckets on their head looking for water. If you go to Jalingo now, we have more than seven tanks and we are doing one of the biggest water projects and even the blind man can see that tanks are being built. If you want to criticise, do that based on facts. Constructive criticism means that you have a better solution to what is being done. But I do not have constructive criticism from the opposition.

I will say that we have a lot to learn about politics in this country. Imagine, when they declared Donald Trump as winner of the US elections, Hilary Clinton who we all thought was on the popularity list congratulated the winner and said she was ready to work with the winner. What happened in my case in Taraba? I was taken to all the courts in the land and given the most ridiculous judgement you can think of until we got to the Supreme Court. Thank God there are still people that fear God; otherwise, the state would have lost hundreds of lives. That is to tell you the kind of politics we play in this country. I won a clear election in the first instance and they said no, there should be a rerun, cancelling all the polling units where I won. Despite that, I won more votes in the rerun than in the first election because my people were very angry.

Crisis in the PDP

The crisis in PDP is sponsored from outside; but we are working hard to make sure we end the crisis. Prominent Nigerians have approached us that we have to solve this problem in the PDP because you need a vibrant opposition in any democracy; a democracy that does not have a strong opposition is running for tyranny and dictatorship. Whether you believe it or not, we have Presidents in Africa that stayed in office for 40-50 years because of no vibrant opposition. You must, as a necessity have a vibrant opposition. We copied the American constitution, but left out the vital parts. As a governor, the police are not under me. That doesn’t make sense. In the US, they have the federal, state and local police. If we want to copy, we should have copied everything. If I had my own police, I would have gotten that peace in the state far earlier than now.

On restructuring

A lot of people are talking about restructuring; we will get there, but first, you have to have vibrant parties; the restructuring should start from the political parties. By the time you have a governorship candidate, you should ensure that he is the best candidate so that the people going for the final selection process should be the best to rule that state and the country and any of them should be the best to rule. So, it is not only the country that should be restructured. The parties also should be restructured because if they have the system already in place, it will help the country to come out with better people. Nigeria is blessed with intelligent people, but getting there is like passing through the eye of the needle.

So, the good people don’t want to bother themselves because they know they won’t get there. We need to change the system and put in place a system that will better serve us. But unfortunately, we are not doing that. I want to assure you that the problem in the PDP will soon be a thing of the past. I also assure you that the PDP as it is now will not be the PDP that it used to be because the PDP has learnt its lesson of putting round pegs in square holes and putting square pegs in round holes. The PDP has suffered and the PDP that will evolve will be a better PDP and a party prone to serve the country.

APC Tackles PDP in Taraba Over Ambassadorial Nominee

While the Taraba PDP celebrated and hailed the President for nominating the former executive secretary of TETFUND, the APC condemned the nomination. 

It said that Jeji does not deserve the appointment and called on the president to reverse his nomination. Taraba State PDP Chairman, Mr. Victor Bala Kona, told reporters on Tuesday that the party is happy with  Jaji’s nomination.

In an interview with journalist at his residence in Jalingo, the Taraba State capital, Kona said the PDP was very happy and commended President Buhari for considering a worthy son of Taraba State to be on the ambassadorial list, which shows that Taraba state was also considered in the scheme of things in Nigeria.

High  profile 

Kona said anyone opposed to the decision of President in nominating Jaji is against the interest of Taraba State. “Mustafa that I know is well educated, he is a Nigerian, he is experienced. He has a high profile that qualifies him to represent Nigeria in any part of the world. Therefore, I don’t know why some quarters would like to associate his nomination with political insinuations. “President Buhari has made a brilliant choice from Taraba State, we the PDP here are very happy with his choice and we celebrate with the nominee as we look forward to support him to succeed when he is finally appointed and posted to any part of the world for his assignment.” 

Buhari short-changed APC members in Taraba – Jika

Countering,  the Chairman of APC in Taraba State, Mallam Ardo Jika, in a telephon chat with Vanguard, said the nomination of Mustafa Jeji was against the promise of President Buhari to APC members not only in Taraba state but also across the country. He said the president did not consulted the state executive or representatives of the APC in Taraba state at the national level before the nomination. Recalling that the President had promised to reward party loyalists for their hard labour before the election, he wondered why the president would dump those who worked for him and the party to reward those who worked against the party in the last general elections.

His words: “As far as APC is concerned in Taraba State, nobody contacted us or informed us. Again, Mustafa Jeji has never, by error of commission or omission,  been a member of APC in Taraba State. From his ward, everybody knows that Mustafa Jeji is a registered member of PDP” “We are repeating president Buhari’s statement, which he made to us that there will never be a situation where someone will be taking drugs on behalf of a sick person. So I believe this nomination did not come from Buhari, somebody might have suggested the name to him wrongly” 

“I believe Mr. President will reverse the name because we know him as a man of his words because he said whoever suffered for APC and voted for APC would be rewarded. That was what we heard him saying at our last NEC meeting. All our party executives, members of our state assembly and National Assembly are not in support of the nomination because the nomination will dampen the moral of  APC supporters.’’

APC Taraba: No ill Feelings Towards PDP

The Taraba State chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Alhaji Hassan Jika Ardo has said the APC in the state has no personal grudges against the People’s Democratic Party in the state.


Ardo, who stated this yesterday in Jalingo while briefing journalists in his office said the recent call by state chapter of the All Progressive congress demanding for governor Ishaku’s resignation was made to make certain records straight.

He noted that Ishaku during his electioneering campaign made numerous promises and was yet to fulfil one.

“Imagine, the governor told Tarabans during his campaign that he was the one who drew the Mambilla hydro power project. The project started in the 1960 when Ishaku was still in primary school at Wusasa in Zaria” he said.

He explained that the money for the completion of the Mambilla Hydro power project was paid to the governor during president Goodluck Jonathan’s era when he was the minister of state for power, adding that Tarabans and indeed Nigerians are eager to know of how the fund was

“It doesn’t end at that,Ishaku when he assumed office wrote President Buhari requesting for a bailout of 30 billion to pay outstanding salaries of workers in Taraba State, out of which the federal government released 9.4b, within the same period, allocation of 3.5 billion was released and a loan of 10 billion was collected by the governor to be paid in twenty years of which the whole total sum is 22.9 billion he collected within one month without accounting for” he stressed.

Reacting, the chief press secretary to the governor, Alhaji Hassan Miginyawa said it is a fact the governor Ishaku played tremendous role in bringing the Mambilla Project this far, adding that history has acknowledged that so it is, an exercise in futility for someone to seek to distract the government that is rightly performing credibly well.

Taraba APC Ask Governor Ishaku To Resign

The All Progressives Congress (APC), Taraba state chapter, has advised Governor Darius Ishaku to resign if he can’t handle the problems in his state. 

Speaking with newsmen in Jalingo on Monday, September 26, Alhaji Hassan Ardo, the Taraba state chairman of the APC said the government of Governor Ishaku lacks focus, Leadership reports.

According to Ardo, over 12, 000 Taraba workers have been languishing in abject poverty since Ishaku assumed office. He said that all the policies and programme of the present administration has no direct bearing to the people of the state, adding that the decision of the state House of assembly to reduce the tenureship of local government chairmen from three years to two years was not what would solve the problems of the state rather would add to more problems.

Ardo said: “If want to solve the problem of the state, let him pay teachers, local government workers and as well address the problems of pensions.” 

The APC state chairman, who condemned the action of the lawmakers as counterproductive, said that two years was not sufficient for any elected local government to chairman to record any appreciable achievements.

Ardo noted that the decision of governor Ishaku to influence Taraba lawmakers to reduce the three years tenure of LGAs chairman was not only selfish, but against the tenant of genuine democracy in the state. The call for Governor Ishaku’s resignation comes barely two weeks after he said that his state has diversified into tomatoes, rice and tea production.

The governor speaking to State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa noted that Taraba state is known for agriculture, mining and tourism. According to him, President Muhammadu Buhari  has set the course by diversification and Taraba is working on diversification.

Source: naij.com

Hon. Abel, Taraba Speaker Felicitates With Muslim, Seeks More Supports for Gov. Ishaku.

The speaker of the Taraba state House of Assembly, Rt.Hon. Peter Abel Diah,has beckoned at the people of the state to continue to extend the much needed helping hands to the state governor, Arc. Darius Dickson Ishaku, to carry out his dream of making the state a better place.

In carrying out this demand, the much needed growth and dividends of democracy, he believed would be extended to the nooks and crannies of the state as the much desired peace, according to him would no doubt prevail.

The speaker who spoke through his Special Adviser on Media Matters, Baba Jen, also congratulate Moslem faithful in the state and the country at large on the occasion of Eid-El-Kabir,

Certain that Taraba and Nigeria, would no doubt be great, he admonished all a sundries irrespective of religion and political party affiliations to hold tenaciously to peace by eschewing vices that are inimical to the development of the state and the country.

On the ongoing insurgency in the north-eastern parts of the country and the continuous bombing of oil installations in the Niger Delter by the Avengers, he called on the militants and the Boko Haram members to lay down their arms and accept the hands of friendship presently being extend to them by the federal government.

According to him ” Taraba and Nigeria as a whole will be great if peace and s given a chance. So I am using this medium to plead with the militants in the Niger Delta and the Boko Haram members in this part of our country to drop their weapons mad embrace the opportunity presently being offered them by the central government.”

The speaker who said he has seeng a ” greater Taraba” believed if all hands are on deck by giving the governor the maximum supports he need to herald the much needed growth to the state, Taraba, according to him ” would soon be competing with states like Lagos, Port-Harcourt etc.”

Citing Taraba as one of the leading states that offset civil servants month remuneration as at when due, the state under the leadership of the incumbent governor, is at the verge of becoming one the leading tea producing state in the world.

Taking steps further to enumerate the abundant human and natural potentials scattered in the entire axis of the state, should the people of the state continue to give the governor the much needed peace ” to work” such resources, he said would be tap into by the governor.

Using the opportunity to applaud the governor for lifting the ban on employment, the problem of unemployment which was necessitated by the by ban placed on employment by the past governors of the state, he said is ” almost coming to an end because our governor has lift the ban.”

He enjoined qualified youths who have being perambulating the streets seeking for employment to take advantage of the opportunity by applying for the positions of their choice.

Contrary to the ongoing rumour that said employment opportunities have been cornered by politicians, the speaker said the employment would be done on merits. He enjoyed the people of the state to have fate on the governor whom he said will continue to work tirelessly round the clock to dread smiles on the faces of the people.

The House of Assembly which he is presiding upon, he said would continue to work ” as one family” to catapult the state to the greatest height, adding that ” we will continue to avoid any act that will bring disaffection between the Executive and the Legislative arms of the government.”

Unlike other states legislators, who derives pleasure in dragging the number one citizens of their states into the mud, Taraba assembly, according to him, would continue to toy the paths of dialogue stressing that ” crisis will only bring down the state and make the masses to suffer.”

Taraba House Of Assembly Approves Replacement For Deceased Government Officials.

The Taraba State House of Assembly has Monday, approved the appointment of Prince Gubairo Joel Danfulani as member,Taraba State Independent Electoral Commission (TSIEC), and Zelani Hamawa Yana as Councillor, Titon Ward of Sardauna LGA.

In a letter sent to the House from the Office of the Executive Governor, and dated 12th July, 2016, has it that the move was to replace Hon Musa Dyegbea as member, Taraba State Independent Electoral Commission (TSIEC), who ‘unfortunately’ is deceased. Likewise, Zelani Hamawa Yana is to replace the Councillor of Titon Ward of Sardauna LGA, who is said to be deceased.

‘In order to fill the vacuum, I have nominated Prince Gubairo Joel Danfulani, after due consultation with the stakeholders from Kurmi Local Government’.

Also, the letter further added that ‘In the last approval by the House, the name, Hon Ishaku Adamu of Sabin Gida ward from Gassol Local Government was mistakenly omitted. Kindly grant approval to the Honourable Councillor’.

In a plenary presided over by Speaker, Abel Peter Diah, the House, by a unanimous decision, approved the appointments.

Taraba Assembly Passes Fiscal Responsibility Commission Bill Into Law.

The Taraba state Fiscal Responsibility Commission (Amendment Bill) 2016 had Tuesday, been passed by the Taraba state House of Assembly, in order to enhance the powers of the commission in the performance of its functions.

In a plenary presided over by Speaker, Abel Peter Diah, the House had considered the Bill the third time and by a unanimous decision passed it into Law thereby amending the former Law- The Taraba State Fiscal Responsibility Commission Law No.7 of 2011.

According to the amended Law, the Commission shall among several others, have power to: Request for and obtain information relating to public revenue, expenditure and related matters from any person, department, public institution or body or arm of the government of the state.

It shall interview any person it deems necessary with regards to government revenue and expenditure; Monitor and enforce the remittance of revenue by all corporations and government agencies into the consolidated revenue fund as is herein provided and publish same at the commencement of every fiscal year; Collaborate and cooperate with all or any of the Nigeria Police, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission or any other agency, public body, Ministry, Extra-Ministerial Department of the State.

The Commission shall also, ‘without prejudice to the powers of the Auditor General of the State, review or verify the financial records of any Government Agency, Corporation,Ministry, Extra-Ministerial Department of the State.

Meanwhile, the Speaker of the House, Abel Peter Diah, in his remarks after the Bill has been passed into Law, stated that the only way the State could look inwards was by passing the Bill into Law in order to generate revenue for the State. He however, warned MDA’s who were alleged to not cooperating with the Committee on IGR to desist henceforth in order not to incur the wrath of the House.
The amended Law would be sent to the Governor, Darius Dickson Ishaku, for his assent.

EFCC Investigates Garba Umar(UTC) For Alleged Stealing Of Taraba State Fund

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has begun investigation into the alleged looting of Taraba States treasury by the sacked Acting Governor, Garba Umar, popularly called UTC.

Ibrahim Lamorde

Umar’s name is on a list with 10 former governors standing trial for alleged corruption.

The anti-corruption agency invited him in a letter dated June 6, signed by the Head of Economic Governance, Olufunke Adetayo-Ogumbode.

The letter, entitled: “Investigation Activities –Letter of Invitation”, was received by the Taraba State government on July 17, requesting the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Anthony Jellason, to ask Umar to report to the EFCC for “an interview.”

Jellason was fired by Umar when he (Jellason) was the commissioner for Agriculture. Jellason’s sack, including that of ex-Governor Danbaba Suntai’s loyalists, by Umar, was believed to be political.

Our Source learnt that the majority of Taraba indigenes demanded the probe of the former acting governor, for allegedly stealing billions of the state’s funds and leaving Taraba in a debt of over N20billion, mostly incurred from bank overdrafts.

Following the plane crash involving ex-Governor Suntai on October 25, 2012, Umar, his deputy, became the acting governor between November 14, 2012 and November 21 last year when he was sacked by the Supreme Court for “illegally and unconstitutionally occupying the office.”

It was reported that “Umar, during his illegal reign, threw to the dogs, financial and administrative instructions with impunity.” He was also accused of lack of accountability and fiscal recklessness.

Umar is to answer questions on three-count charge, including conspiracy, theft and abuse of office, according to the EFCC.

Its letter reads: “The commission (EFCC) is conducting an enquiry into a case of conspiracy, abuse of office and diversion of public funds.”

Court Of Appeal Dismiss Mr David Kente Case Against Taraba Gov. Ishaku

The Court of Appeal sitting in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, today struck out the appeal of a governorship candidate, Mr. David Kente, against the governor of Taraba State, Mr Darius Ishaku.

The petitioner had gone to the appeal court to challenge the eligibility of the Taraba Governor to contest the 2015 elections, on the grounds that he did not contest the primary election.

Mr. Kente, who was a PDP aspirant, contested the primary in December 2014 and lost but later defected to the Social Democratic Party (SDP), to contest the same governorship election in 2015.

In her ruling, Justice Jummai Sanchi of the Appeal Court, Yola, struck out the case, stating that Mr. Kente has no locus standi

400 Taraba PDP Delegates Reject Appeal Court Judgment On Primary Election

The Appeal Court sitting in Yola on Wednesday dismissed the appeal by delegates of the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, seeking the court to declare all candidates in the last election illegal and order a fresh primary election.

The decision was, however, rejected by over 400 delegates elected from 168 electoral wards in the state who said the ruling was highly tainted.

In a statement by the state chapter of the party and a delegate from Gassol local government area, Bala Ahmed, the aggrieved delegates said the judgment failed consider delegates’ rights to lawfully elects candidates that will represent its party in an election.

Ahmed said it’s disturbing that the appeal was not allowed based on its merit but was struck out based on technical ground, saying the delegates will seek justice at the country’s Apex Court.

According to Ahmed, the party’s members in the state were clearly and brazenly denied their right to elect candidates of their choice for the 2015 general election, adding that several elections have been nullified based on irregular conduct of primary election by the opposition party and other pre-election matters.

He said, “They were several allegations that the state governor moved several millions to Yola, we are now forced to believe that the judgment was bought over with money, money that should be used to pay workers salaries are now spent by Taraba Government to sustain their illegality against PDP delegates and members.”

Ahmed maintained that if primaries were held without the knowledge of relevant authorities and lawful delegates, such should appropriately be declared unconstitutional, null and void.

“The ruling of the Election Tribunal is very explicit and unambiguous; there was no PDP primaries in Taraba, simple, We were denied our voting rights to choose a candidate for our party, we strongly believed that the Supreme Court will restore these rights.”

He further disclosed that, “the delegates will seek redress at the Supreme Court because nothing can supersede the rights of party members through their elected delegates to elect their candidates for an election.”

Culled : Naija247news

PDP Urges Members To Desist From Creating Disaffection In Taraba

The leadership of the Taraba State chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has admonished those trying to create disaffection among members of the party to as a matter of urgency desist or face the wrath of the law.

Reacting to a news item claiming that PDP in the state has been factionalized, the leadership of the party, beckoned on its teeming supporter to dispel the rumour as “ PDP in Taraba is intact and would continue to be one.”

In a press statement made available to reporters yesterday morning in Jalingo, the state capital, the party chairman, Victor Bala Kona, said: “In view of this, the PDP hereby warn all person or group of persons who are parading themselves as PDP group in whatever name with the sole purpose of discrediting the party to immediately desist.”

The statement which was signed by the state Publicity Secretary, Inuwa Bakari, said that the “ so called group seemingly lacks the ability to understand simple English as presented by the party chairman while recently receiving defected members of the All Progressives Congress to our great party.”

A group recently claimed that they are a faction of the PDP known as the Uticiya The group, which went ahead to disassociate themselves from a call made by the party chairman for all the aggrieved members of the party to as a matter of urgency return to the party, said they have resolved to form a different PDP in the state.

Stressing that the party is not aware of any group other than the Victor Bala Kona led PDP, the statement noted that ‘’the fact of the matter was that the state chairman, Kona while receiving the APC decampees at the state secretariat used the forum to call on all aggrieved members to come back to the party and further assured them of a better things ahead in the party and not as portrayed by the so called Uticiya group.”

Kona told the chairman of the group, Philip Hamza to as a matter of urgency desist from creating “ disaffection among members of our great party” adding that “ PDP in the state is always one and will always be one.”


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Taraba APC Accuses Defectors For Accepting Money To Join PDP

The Taraba State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has accused its former scribe, Tony Suleiman, of accepting money to join the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state.

Mr. Suleiman and the Chairman of the APC in Sardauna Local Government Area of the State, Yusuf Tanimu, on Tuesday defected to the PDP citing lack of ideas on the part of the leadership of their former party and “petty politics of sidelining members” among others.

In his reaction, the Taraba APC Chairman, Hassan Ardo, on Sunday alleged that Suleiman collected a huge amount of money as price for his defection to the PDP.

“We all know they decided to defect because they are money politicians and APC has no money to give”, he said of Mr. Suleiman and his supporters. “They were promised cash money before signed to leave our party”.

Mr. Ardo, however, said the former scribe’s exit was of no political consequence to the APC in Taraba.

“Ask the former secretary, how many votes was he able to score in his own unit, in his own ward in Jaen, Karim Lamido Local Government? He had only one vote in that unit! One vote!

“We are not bordered about them because what we are doing in APC is not for money. We are not doing money politics. It’s PDP that is using government money for its activities. So if they feel that they are not being carried along because we are not having money to share to them, they are very correct. We cannot carry them along because we don’t have the money to share”, he stressed.

READ ALSO : Taraba APC Secretary, Others Dump Party For PDP

In his response to the claim that his defection was financially induced, Mr. Suleiman denied receiving “one single Kobo” to join the PDP.

However, he confirmed that he was offered huge sums of money in the past to join the PDP, which he turned down.

“It is a different thing this time around, PDP has not given me one single kobo”, he said.

“PDP gave me about N8 million during the presidential campaign, I refused to take. If I’m after money I would have compromised”.

Mr. Suleiman insisted that his decision to dump the APC was because of its poor management

“The state chairman (Mr. Ardo) is very greedy”, he said. “Whatever comes into the party, he always claims that the party is indebted by him; that he used his money to take care of the party, whereas it is a complete lie”.

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EFCC Fails To Win 7-year Case In Taraba Against Chairman Of Gassol LGA

For its inability to prove a case of criminal breach of trust against the former chairman of Gassol Local Government Council of Taraba state, Alhaji Illiyasu Goje, beyond reasonable doubt, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFFC) has suffered a major setback in court.

Delivering judgment on the case, which has lingered for the past seven years, Justice Nuhu Adi of the Jalingo High Court, said he was left with no option than to “discharge and acquit the accused person.”

In the one hour judgment, Adi, lamented that all the witnesses presented by the plaintiff could not prove to the court that the defendant breached the trust reposed on him by the public while serving as the council chairman.

He stressed that the “accused person is not in any way linked with the exhibits” presented before the court, as the complainant failed to prove his case that the accused actually deserved to be punished following his alleged involvement in criminal breach of trust.

The EFCC action against the former Gassol boss, it was reliably gathered, followed petitions to the commission by some people, which compelled the commission to carry out an investigation.

BREAKING NEWS! Taraba APC Secretary, Others Dump Party For PDP

The Secretary of All Progressives Congress, Tony Suleiman, and the party’s Chairman in Sardauna Local Government Area, all of Taraba State, Alhaji Yusuf Tanimu, on Tuesday defected to the Peoples Democratic Party.

Suleiman announced this at a reception organised for them and their supporters at the PDP state secretariat in Jalingo.

He accused the leadership of APC in the state of lacking ideas and had been sidelining them and their supporters from the party’s affairs.

Suleiman urged the people of the state to team up with Governor Darius Ishaku to enable him to deliver on his campaign promises.

“I call on the people of the state to support the rescue mission of Governor Ishaku to enable him succeed in the interest of the state,” he said.

Victor Bala, the Chairman of the party in the state, welcomed them and expressed delight that the good works of the PDP-led government in the state was yielding results

Reacting to the development, the Chairman of the APC in the state, Alhaji Hassan Ardo, described the allegations as baseless.

Ardo said the party chieftains were money mongers and were offered money by the PDP to defect.

Taraba State Government denies donating grazing land to Fulani Herdmen

Taraba state Government has denied donating any piece of land to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to be used as a grazing reserve.

This was disclosed to newsmen by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku, Sylvanus Yakubu Giwa in his office while reacting to a publication of the DailyTrust Newspaper of 3 June 2016, page 4, captioned, 11 States donates 55,000 hectares of land each for the implementation of grazing reserves credited to the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Audu Ogbe.

The Senior Special Assistant maintained that there was no time that Taraba Government and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture had any discussion bothering on the provision of land that would be used as a grazing reserve and disassociated Taraba State from the list of states as contained in the DailyTrust Newspaper publication.

He reiterated the resolve of Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku to partner with the Federal Government through constructive dialogue that is aimed at bringing succour to the people of the state and the country at large.

He also noted that Taraba State Government cannot go into any form of understanding without carrying the people of the state along as this may in the long-run result to grave consequences among farmers and grazers in the State.

Sylvanus Giwa categorically stated that the state government does not subscribe to the idea of the creation of grazing reserves but would prefer where animals are domesticated through ranching and called on the Federal government to come to a negotiating table with Taraba State Government for a more holistic and purposeful discussion that would be beneficial to both parties.

The States purported to have donated lands as published by the DailyTrust Newspaper includes; Adamawa, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Jigawa, Plateau, Niger, Sokoto and Taraba as well as the FCT.

Taraba Lawmaker Empowers 5, 000 Constituents

The member representing Wukari/Ibi federal constituency at the National Assembly, Hon. Danjuma Usman Shiddi has empowered over 5, 000 constituents with working tools.

Presenting the tools to the beneficiaries yesterday in Wukari, the federal legislator explained that his intervention was a fulfillment of his campaign promises, adding that  the empowerment materials were equally meant to justify the confidence the people reposed on him.

He informed that since his assumption of office as a federal lawmaker, he has placed over 15 students on scholarship at the NTA Television College Jos, facilitated the employment of some youths at the University of Jos and the Federal University Wukari, secured employment for youths into the Nigerian Navy and other para-military organisations among others.

“My achievements within this few months as a legislator didn’t end at this. I provided skills acquisition training for over 110 youths at the federal government vocational centre in Lafia, Nassarawa State,” he informed.

He further added that he has put in place strategies to rehabilitate some streets in Wukari and environs and also enrolled some youths into the Petroleum Training Institute, Delta State.

We will bring DSK and other aggrieved members back to PDP - Hon. Bala Kona

Taraba state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has been working hard to bring back aggrieved members of the party preparatory to the state Congress which is scheduled to hold in Jalingo the state capital.

 This was revealed to newsmen by the Chairman of the peoples Democratic Party, Hon Victor Bala Kona recently as part of the state party plans to get back all members on board for a more purposeful and successful outing in 2019.

We Will Reposition PDP for a Better Outing in 2019 Elections – Senator Bwacha

Senator representing Southern Taraba in the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly, Senator Emmanuel Bwacha, said the ongoing re-organisation embarked upon by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is meant to reposition the party for a more purposeful outing in 2019.

Senator Emmanuel Bwacha said this recently during the just concluded Ward Congress delegates election of the PDP in Takum, which is one of the areas that constitutes his Constituency, saying that, the challenges before the party are enormous and there is the need to reorganise and make it wax much more stronger so that it will take its rightful place in the country’s polity.

He maintained that since 1999 the PDP has been the ruling party until 2015 when it lost the position to the All Progressive Congress, APC, and said there is need to sensitise party faithfuls on the new role the party now found itself.

The law maker explained that the PDP is now in the opposition and it is important to be very effective in the new found role so that it will translate into good governance that the people have been yearning for in the country.

Senator Bwacha disclosed that though the re-organisation is a difficult task, he  assured that all avenues such as dialogue and continous negotiation will be explored to ensure that the party regains its position come 2019.

Speaking on the journey so far by the present administration of Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku, Senator Emmanuel Bwacha said what every society desires most is peaceful coexistence and commended the effort of the present government for reducing the hitherto restiveness which was prevalent in some parts of the state to the nearest minimum, asserting that with peace Taraba will witness massive transformation in all facets.

He maintained that, though the issue of insecurity was a global phenomenon, he lamented that the administration that was sacked by the Supreme Court failed in its responsibility to provide the needed security for the citizens of the state which culminated into many deaths and destruction of property.

On the issue of the invasion of Taraba state by Bokoharam insurgents and cattle herdsmen which generated lots of heated debate in the Senate chamber of the National Assembly and resulted into a serious misconception by the ruling party, the APC, Senator Emmanuel Bwacha said he has been proven right and his opponents put to shame and expressed happiness with the manner both Federal and state government are working hard to stop the menace.

The Senator however expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the Ward Congress delegates elections. He pointed out that it was an opportunity for every card carrying member of the PDP to exercise their civic duty as members of the party in order to rejuvenate the party by giving all sense of unity and oneness, stressing that, he took it upon himself to go round his Constituency, Southern Taraba to ensure a hitch free exercise.

Gov Ishaku Vows to Tackle Unemployment, Insecurity in Taraba

Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku, has promised to continue tackling the high rate of unemployment and security challenge in accordance to the mandate  given by the people of Taraba.

This was made known by Ishaku while addressing supporters at his residence in Takum local council of the state.

He also reiterated his determination to harness the state's abundant natural resources.Citing the tourism potentials available in the entire axis of the state. He has great plans to diversify Taraba economy.

 According to him, his government which has assembled the best formidable team of experts, would work to discourage the idea of waiting for crude oil money from the central government before paying workers and embarking on meaningful projects.