Agency Report

By Sani Idris

Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, has commended the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing (FMWH) for ensuring quality work on roads construction across the country.

He restated legislative support to Federal Government in this regard.

Ado-Doguwa gave the commendation on Thursday along Abuja-Kaduna highway, on his way back to Abuja, where he coincidentally met the Minister of State for Works and Housing, Mr. Umar El-Yakub and his entourage on oversight of road projects.

In an interview with newsmen, Ado-Doguwa said as a commuter, good samaritan and a representative of the people, he decided to stop and check what was happening on the road.

Ado-Doguwa said he was surprised to see a minister in full force, conducting an oversight function to ensure diligence and quality work by contractors.

He said that some months ago when he plyed the Abuja-Kaduna highway, some sections were virtually unpassable, noting that it was one of the reasons that exposed commuters to security threats.

Doguwa noted that the palliative work that resumed on the Abuja-Kaduna highway would give road users some relief, especially knowing that it was a major route connecting Southern and Northern parts of the country.

“Abuja-Kaduna highway is like a trans-saharan road that connects Nigeria with some neighboring countries like Niger Republic and others,” he said.

He further said that to them, being on the other side of government as legislators, the FMWH was easing their responsibility and duties by engaging on oversight visit to ensure the contractors and other stakeholders were doing the right thing.

“This is of course a relief to the oversighting institution of the legislature; this will be my take home to the floor of the house, I have seen the ministry and minister so concerned about the plights of the people,” Ado-Doguwa said.

He also said that the President Buhari’s administration had been working tirelessly to ensure security and had recently achieved great feat, amounting to zero incident of insecurity on the Abuja-Kaduna highway.

Doguwa also said that for them at the legislature, they were also doing their best to encourage the government and its agencies to ensure proper funding of its projects.

According to him, road and other infrastructure were key comittments of the president Buhari’s administration.

“The President has delivered a lot of the commitments, the left, right and center of the country is like a construction site, and we will continue to support them especially through funding,” Ado-Doguwa said.

He also noted that in the 2023 appropriation bill presented by President Buhari, they provided sufficient and strategic funding for projects, especially to the ongoing ones.

He said that one of the key words of President Buhari, on the submission of the 2023 appropriation bill was that it was a budget of sustainability and transition.

He explained that the budget would ensure sustainability of key projects such as the ongoing road construction and rehabilitation across the country through proper funding.

“Buhari will not want to handover to his suscessor with a chunk of ongoing projects, this is his mission as well as ours, because we are a partner to the executive arm of the government,” he said.

He commended the minister for the palliative work inspection, noting that it was part of the Federal Government’s efforts in ensuring accountability.

“It is worth commendation that the minister sees reasons to come to the areas which hav dangerous potholes and a lot of exposure to insecurity, to bring palliative measures,” he said.

The Minister of State, Umar El-Yakub, among other areas of the projects he inspected were the ongoing 48 Kilometres Eastern bye-pass in Kaduna, awarded in 2002.

NAN also reports that the minister began the road inspection from section one (Abuja-Kaduna), where he would on Friday, inspect section two (Kaduna-Zaria) and section three ( Zaria-Kano), among other sections.(NAN)

Calling Lekki shooting 'massacre' is debatable - Obi's running mate, Datti

NURUDEEN SHOTAYO

October 20, 2022 9:42 PM

Datti said the word 'massacre' has different technical meanings, none of which may be apt enough to describe what transpired at the Lekki Toll Gate.

Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed is Peter Obi's running mate. (PM News)

Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, the running mate of Labour Party Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has raised concerns over the description of the shooting incident at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020, as a 'massacre.'

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The Labour Party Vice Presidential candidate expressed this view during a popular Channels Television program, Politics Today, on Thursday, October, 20, 2022.

The Lekki shooting: Pulse reports that today makes it two years that armed security officers invaded the Lekki Toll Plaza in the dead of the night and opened fire at the #EndSARS protesters who had peacefully gathered to demand an end to police brutality in the country.

Massacre or no massacre: There have been claims by many Nigerians and also international organisations that some protesters were killed on that night but the Military have argued that its men only fired blank bullets at the protesters and that couldn't have resulted in any fatality.

Govts denial: Also, both the Lagos state and Federal Government have repeatedly stated that nobody was killed at the toll plaza and challenged anyone whose relatives may have been killed in the shooting to step forward.

Nigerians divided: Although many survivors of the shooting have come out to tell their experience, but no one has been able to identify any fatality yet. However, opinions are still divided among Nigerians as many people believe that a massacre had taken place.

Datti questions massacre claim: Commenting on the issue, Datti said even though there were abuses of procedure and there were civil rights violations, using massacre is highly debatable.

Datti's word: "There was abuse of human rights. There was abuse of procedure. And if some people interpret those as massacre, then yes.

"However, massacre has different technical meanings. I can't say I know all of it but I know massacre requires the assailants to have first of all, no advance notice was given before the attack and people, the victims must have been attacked in their own areas.

"Now, these are well-meaning Nigerians who brought themselves out to a public area and were attacked by security forces that are meant to be protecting their lives and property.

"The use of massacre is highly debatable, but I can say for sure that there were abuses of procedure and there were civil rights violations."

The memorial: Pulse had earlier reported that Nigerian youths organised a memorial protest on Thursday to commemorate the second anniversary of the October 20, 2020, shooting incident and honour the memories of the victims.

Popular comedian Debo Adebayo, also known as Mr Macaroni and musician Folarin Falana, better known as Falz, were among notable Nigerians that joined the procession at the Lekki Toll Gate.

However, the protesters were later dispersed when men of the Nigerian Police Force fired tear gas into the crowd.

Although, the police have come out to explain that it resorted to that action when some protesters became aggressive and started blocking free flow of traffic around the corridor.