Rivers Election: Widow Drags SARS Commander To Court, Demands N800m Damages

Widow of the late Dr. Ferry Gberegbe, Ronke, has dragged the
Nigeria Police and Commander of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad
(SARS) in Rivers State, ACP Akin Fakorede, to court over the death
of her husband allegedly killed in the 2019 general election.

SARS officers reportedly killed Gberegbe on March 10, 2019 when
they allegedly opened fire at the INEC collation centre in Bori,
Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State. He was a PDP collation
agent in the 2019 general election in the local government
area.

Counsel to Ronke Ferry Gberegbe, Lezina Amegua, said on Monday
that his client filed the lawsuit in a Port Harcourt High Court and
that she has asked for N800million damages from the defendants in
the case for the violation of her husband’s right to life.

He said that the first defendants in the suit were the Nigeria
Police while the second defendant was Fakorede.

Amegua said that his client filed a fundamental rights suit
through a fundamental rights procedure, which is a special
procedure to file a lawsuit in court involving fundamental human
rights.

He explained that the fundamental rights procedure is used when
someone’s rights has been “infringed upon”, explaining that his
client is asking for damages because her husband’s right to life
was violated.

Witnesses had alleged that Fakorede allegedly gave an order for
the shooting on March 10, 2019 at INEC collation centre in Bori.
They made the allegation when they testified before the State
Judicial Commission of Inquiry, set up by Governor Nyesom Wike to
investigate the “remote and immediate” causes of the violence and
killings and other related acts that led to violence in the
February 23rd and March 9, 2019 general elections in Rivers
State.

However, Fakorede had since denied that SARS operatives killed
Gberegbe.

The commission, among other terms of reference, was to also
identify sponsors and perpetrators of the various acts of violence
and killings, which occurred in the state in the 2019 general
election

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Udoma: Nigeria to Achieve 7% GDP growth by
2020

The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo
Udoma has expressed hope that the country can achieve 7% GDP growth
target.

Senator Udoma stated this on Tuesday in Abuja during an
interactive session with the press while giving an overview of the
achievements of the Ministry since the inception of this
administration in 2015.

Udoma said, ‘’The President has indicated that he intends to
stay focused on the implementation of the ERGP so as to ensure that
we can achieve the 3.0 % growth target for this year. It is my hope
that the seeds we are currently sowing will propel us to achieve
our 7% GDP growth target in the course of Mr. Presidents’ second
term”.

On the latest GDP numbers just released by the National Bureau
of Statistics on Tuesday, the Minister said that the performance in
the first quarter of 2019 is the strongest first quarter growth
since 2015, as well as stating that starting the year with a GDP
growth of 2.01% is encouraging because the first quarter of the
year often records the slowest growth in GDP.

He also said that the focus of the NEXT LEVEL agenda of
President Muhammadu Buhari will be on job creation for the teeming
youths of Nigeria.

He highlighted a number of measures the Ministry has put in
place to stop the economic decline that the country faced during
the early days of the Buhari administration.

These Include, the introduction of an expansionary budget in the
2016 fiscal year christened the Budget of Change, development of
the ERGP, implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA), the
Efficiency Unit within the Ministry of Finance and the Presidential
Initiative on Continuous Audit.

Other initiatives include the Whistle Blowing Policy, the
Integrated Payroll Personnel System (IPPIS) and the Investors’ and
Exporters Foreign Exchange window by the Central Bank of
Nigeria.

According to the Minister an important strategy the Ministry
embarked on in order to exit recession was to seek to reflate the
economy, this according to him was why they increased the capital
budget and budgetary allocations to capital expenditure- from 16.1%
in 2015 to 30.2% in 2016, 31. 7 % in 2017, 31.5% in 2018 and 26% in
2019- with priority given to the key execution priorities of the
ERGP.

He added that the Ministry of Finance was able to release, for
capital spending, the sum of 1.2 trillion under the 2016 Budget,
the sum of N1.58 trillion under the 2017 budget, and as at 8th May,
2019, the sum of NI.55 trillion has been released under the 2018
Budget.

He stated that the implementation of the ERGP resulted in the
economy exiting recession in the second quarter of 2017 and
returning subsequently to the path of growth with most economic
indices showing a positive momentum.

Signed
Victoria Agba-Attah
Director (Information)
Tuesday, May 21, 2019