(UPDATED) KANO EMIR WEEPS IN GOVT. HOUSE

Kano Emir, Sanusi, Weeps

The Emir of Kano, Alhaji Lamido Sanusi, on Saturday in Kano wept at the Government House, while reflecting on life-after-death.

As beads of tears rolled down the cheeks of the Emir, he reminded his subjects of the need to exhibit good character, honesty, good compassion and transparency while dealing with their compatriots.

While paying homage to Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, as part of events to mark the Hauwan Nasarawa in the ancient city, the monarch urged Ganduje to explore his wealth of experience in the task of developing the state as well as promoting peaceful co-existence among residents in Kano.

Also, the monarch advised Ganduje against relenting in his efforts to provide adequate security to the residents of the state, pointing out that education, health, agriculture and water were critical areas for the governor to focus his attention on.

In his brief remarks, the Emir stated further, “we have a big burden on our shoulders in the service to humanity. We need to remain trustworthy, honest and transparent in our actions and relations with humanity, because on the last day, we shall account for all our dealings before the Almighty Allah.”

The Emir also implored leaders to use the period of Eid-el-Fitri to reflect on the teachings of Prophet Mohammed by resolving that some time, some day, “we shall stand before our creator and answer for all we have done in our life time.”

Furthermore, he called on the indigenes of Kano to always remain law-abiding, irrespective of religion or ethnic differences.

He urged the authorities to stand up and face the security challenges bedevilling the society.

Responding, Ganduje said that his administration was determined to transform the state through the introduction of new projects and the completion of other projects inherited from the past administration.

Ganduje, who expressed dismay over a new method of begging in the state, described begging under false pretence as unIslamic. He said his administration will resist all attempt to make Kano the headquarters of street begging.

Copyright PUNCH.

RAID: DSS ‘FINDINGS’ HOGWASH, DISSERVICE TO NIGERIA, SAYS APC

The All Progressives Congress has dismissed as hogwash the position of the Directorate of State Security after its raid on the party’s offices in Lagos, describing the DSS “findings”, presented to the media by the agency on Wednesday, as “a great disservice to Nigeria and an embarrassment to all intelligence-gathering organisations around the world.”

In a statement in Abuja on Wednesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party also alleged that the timing of the release of the findings was a plot orchestrated in collusion with the ruling Peoples Democratic Party to distract the APC from its ongoing campaigns for next month’s elections.

It described as “disingenuous, flimsy, premeditated, partisan and an irritant” the DSS premise that the APC had an ”articulated plan to inflate the party’s membership data as well as hack into INEC’s voter registration database through the creation of party membership forms and cards to match INEC’s voters register across the country.”

The APC said, ”First, the DSS and the PDP said the APC was cloning Permanent Voter Cards at the raided office, without a shred of evidence. Now, after a ‘painstaking’ investigation, the DSS has found out that the APC was only planning to inflate its membership data and then hack into INEC’s database. And this is the outcome of its massive, months-long investigations?

”This would have been funny if it were not from a primary domestic intelligence agency saddled with a great responsibility. Can this wish-washy report stand any serious scrutiny? Can any serious intelligence gathering agency anywhere else in the world take this report seriously?

“With these kind of findings, one can now understand why Boko Haram has continued to strike at times and places of its own choosing without any prior knowledge by our all-powerful DSS.

”Even the presentation of the report by a poorly-trained and highly-politicised spokesperson of the DSS worsened the so-called findings. Why would the spokesperson for a national agency sound like a megaphone for the ruling party, freely castigating the opposition spokesman and ”a number of uninformed members of the public”? Why does she have to go personal in presenting a report that supposedly is in the national interest?

”We have always warned that our democracy is in clear and present danger, not just from desperate politicians, but also from institutions of state that have compromised in their roles and resorted to crass lawlessness. The DSS’ findings today have given us another reason to repeat this warning.

”While we are willing to meet the DSS in court, we can confidently say that the ‘confessions’ extracted from the arrested persons, after they were subjected to incredible acts of torture, cannot even stand in any court of law.”

TELL THE WHOLE WORLD BOKO HARAM IS LYING ABOUT BEHEADING A NIGERIAN PILOT…SAY NIGERIAN ARMED FORCES

Air Commodore Dele Alonge

The Nigerian Air Force, NAF, yesterday, dismissed the claim of the beheading of its pilot by Boko Haram terrorists as a cheap and senseless propaganda intended to cover up the killing of the Abubakar Shekau’s impostor, Mohammed Bashir, by the Nigerian troops.

Speaking through its Director of Public Relations and Information, DOPRI, Air Commodore Dele Alonge, NAF told our correspondent in Abuja that the claim in the said new video was not only false, but also very weak such that anyone who took a closer view of it with a good sense of analysis, would surely have every cause to doubt them.

A new Boko Haram video showed the beheading of a man who was identified as the pilot of a missing Nigerian Air Force jet and burnt out parts of a plane. It also allegedly featured Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, a man Nigeria’s military insists that had been killed.

Two weeks ago, the military said it had killed in battle an impostor of Abubakar Shekau, who had posed in the sect’s videos.

The video was made available to The Associated Press through the same channels used previously and seems to show the same man claiming to be Shekau.

In the latest video, he said they were prosecuting in accordance with Shariah law in areas under their control. Examples of punishments are shown, including the stoning to death of a man apparently accused of adultery; the amputation of the hand of a young man accused of theft; the flogging of a man and what appears to be a girl covered in the hijab.

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