‘Herdsmen Stormed My Farm, Threatened Workers’ – CJN Onnoghen Writes IGP

Embattled Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen has
written a petition to the acting Inspector General of Police, Mr.
Mohammed Adamu, over alleged threat to the lives of workers on his
farm in Masaka, Nasarawa State.

According to Thisday newspaper, the petition written filed
yesterday by his counsel, Mr. Ogwu Onoja, SAN, alleged that men
suspected to be herdsmen were at the farm on February 1, during the
afternoon and also later at night, inquiring about the owner of the
farm and issued frightening threats to the farmers.

Onoja stated that the workers are now living in dreadful fear
and have consequently stopped all farming activities.

According to Onoja, the farm, which belongs to the family of
Onnoghen, is a large commercial venture that provides employment to
a large number of people who live on the farm and tend to the
commercial poultry, piggery, livestock as well as cash and food
crops on the farm.

While the petitioner said the threat of the herders was being
considered as an indication of imminent attack on the lives and
property on the farm, he called on the IG and police to urgently
move in and forestall any possible destruction of lives and
property at the farm.

He said in part: “We implore you, in the discharge of your
constitutional duty as the Chief Police Officer of the nation, to
deploy your men to secure the farm to avoid a breakdown of law and
order, the possible unleashing of mayhem on the workers,
destruction of the farm, including the property thereon and the
disruption of ongoing farming activities particularly in this
season of harvest.

“We also call for a thorough, exhaustive and stringent
investigation into this matter so as to unearth the identities of
the persons behind this menace.

“We trust that you will use your good offices to quash this
impending threat and help restore confidence of the people in the
farm and its immediate environ.”

PDP in Gombe an opposition in waiting -Dr.
Gwamna

Dr Jamilu Isyaku Gwamna, A Chieftain of the All Progressives
Congress (APC) in Gombe State says President Muhammadu Buhari’s
visit to Gombe has finally paralyzed the Peoples’ Democratic Party
(PDP) in the state and made it an opposition in waiting.

Gwamna who made this disclosure while fielding questions from
newsmen in Gombe said the PDP was yet to recover from the colossal
damage that the visit of Buhari to Gombe has inflicted on them.

According to him, since the return of democracy in 1999, no one
has pulled the kind of crowd that President Buhari got over the
weekend when he visited the state.

He said that the visit of the president to the state had proven
to all stakeholders and the world that APC had become a political
religion in Gombe, adding that the victory of APC at all levels in
Gombe would be a landslide.

“Today, I can tell you that PDP has become an opposition in
waiting. After the general elections, many will forget if we ever
had PDP in the state. Majority of those in the PDP now have their
hearts in the APC but for fear of losing their daily bread, they
have remained in the party to mourn silently,’’ he said.

“The visit of the president to Gombe State has paralyzed if not
finally buried PDP in Gombe. Many now see what I saw then that made
me defect to the APC and now they are coming in their numbers to
join the winning team.

“We have lived and risen with the political knowledge of Gombe
politics and governance. But I can tell you that never in the
history of Gombe state, since its creation, has she welcomed such
an ocean of gathering. The support as well as the kind of crowd
that the APC is putting up in Gombe State is heart-warming.

The APC chieftain said he was confident that Alhaji Inuwa
Yahaya’s chances of becoming governor were enhanced by over 70 per
cent by the president’s visit. He added: “Alhaji Inuwa Yahaya is a
lucky man and his victory has been guaranteed by over 70 per cent.
This is the first time a seating president was campaigning for
Inuwa; so, you see that he has received the mantle of leadership by
that jinx’’.

Dr. Gwamna however, cautioned that all APC supporters should use
the remaining days to collect their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs)
so as to speak loud and clear that Gombe electorates have divorced
the PDP in the state.