Agony Of Chibok Parents

By Aniebo Nwamu

Until now, I didn’t believe any representative of the Nigerian government would raise their voice during a conversation with parents of the missing Chibok schoolgirls. Government exists to protect life and property, and, where it fails as in the case of the Chibok schoolgirls, it should at least feel guilty. I thought no Nigerian leader could look the distraught parents in the face and still speak words that hurt. 

I was proved wrong on Thursday, as I read with disbelief what “Mama Taraba” Aisha Alhassan told the Chibok parents during a meeting in Aso Villa. Here were agonising parents transported from Chibok by the #BringBackOurGirls (BBOG) movement to receive consolation from the powers that be. Here were parents expecting the presidency to tell them when to expect their long lost daughters. The presence of Hajiya Alhassan, who is also Nigeria’s minister of women affairs, must have reassured them that there was a mother who would protect their interests. How then could Alhassan, a mother and grandmother who is still hoping to be awarded the governorship of Taraba State, have spat on their faces?

“Mama Taraba”, first, told the grieving parents they were not invited to the villa. Then, she reportedly told them that the girls were not kidnapped under the current government, “so why are you harassing us?” As if the diatribe was not enough, Minister Alhassan reminded them: “You wanted schools, you wanted hospitals, you wanted this and that… you wanted so many things.”

Taraba: PDP Is Paying The Price Of Impunity - APC

Press Statement

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said Saturday's judgement of the Taraba State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal is the clearest indication yet that the PDP has started harvesting what it sowed in its years of impunity and recklessness, hence it should blame itself for whatever tragedy has now befallen it...

*Hajia Aisha Jummai Alhassan

In a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the PDP has always been a party of anything goes, hence it is a matter of time for the party to come to grief, first by tumbling from the pinnacle of power and now by losing, incrementally, whatever remains of its crumbled empire.

It said the PDP was only trifling by attributing the judgement to a supposed manipulation from the Presidency.

''President Muhammadu Buhari as well as his party, the APC, are strong believers in the rule of law, as against the rule of impunity, hence will never manipulate the judiciary for whatever reason.

''The PDP is clearly aware of this, but has chosen to blame everyone but itself for the fate that has befallen it. The PDP should have known that it will pay for its years of impunity and recklessness. For this party, the chicken has now come home to roost,'' APC said.

Taraba: Another Evidence Of Executive Interference In The Judiciary

Press Statement

Taraba; Conclusive Evidence Of Judicial Double Standard Against The PDP

Hajia Aisha Jummai Alhassan

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says Saturday’s judgment of the Taraba state gubernatorial election tribunal in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Hajia Aisha Jummai Alhassan is another evidence of executive interference in the judiciary.

The party said the reason given by the tribunal for arriving at the bizarre decision is intriguing and further exposes the contradictions and double standards inherent in most tribunal rulings against PDP interests recently.

PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh said in a statement on Saturday that the Taraba state tribunal ruling again brings to the fore the organized plan by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC Federal Government to deploy all unorthodox means to decimate the opposition.

“It is rather curious and a great conflict of irony that the Taraba tribunal sitting in Abuja on security grounds faulted the conduct of PDP primaries shifted to the same Abuja on security reasons”, the party stressed.