Buhari Suspends SGF, Babachir Lawal, NIA DG; Orders Investigation Into Grass-cutting Scandal, Ikoyiga

VICE PRESIDENT HEADS INVESTIGATION PANEL

President Muhammadu Buhari has suspended the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, even as he ordered an investigation into the allegations of violations of law and due process made against the SGF in the award of contracts under the Presidential Initiative on the North East, PINE.

According to a statement issued on Wednesday by presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, the suspension of the SGF from office is pending the outcome of the investigations.

The statement added that Buhari also ordered a full-scale probe into the discovery of large amounts of foreign and local currencies by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, in a residential apartment at Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos, over which the National Intelligence Agency, NIA, has made a claim.

The investigation is also to enquire into the circumstances in which the NIA came into possession of the funds, how and by whose or which authority the funds were made available to the NIA, and to establish whether or not there has been a breach of the law or security procedure in obtaining custody and use of the funds.

The President has also directed the suspension of the Director-General of the NIA, Ambassador Ayo Oke, pending the outcome of the investigation.

“A three-man Committee comprising the Hon. Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, and the National Security Adviser, headed by the Vice President, is to conduct both investigations.

“The Committee is to submit its report to the President within 14 days.

“The most senior Permanent Secretary in the SGF’s office, and the most senior officer in the NIA, are to act, respectively, during the period of investigation,” the statement concluded.

Buhari's resignation: FORGIVE ME, KOFA BEGS BUHARI,APC & NIGERIANS

The suspended Lawmaker, Abdulmumini Jibril Kofa, Friday, appologized to President Muhammadu Buhari, All Progressive Congress (APC) and Nigeriansa over his recent statement calling for president's resignation.

Addressing a press confrence in his home town Kofa in Bebeji local government, Kano state, honorable Kofa, who withdrew the statement, also said his statement was twisted by his political enemies to radicule him.

"Please, President Buhari, Governor Ganduje, my party APC, my colleagues in the National Assembly and the entire Nigerians accept my apology. I have made a mistake and I hope you will acept my sincere apology.

"My statement which I posted on my twitter handle was mischieviosly twisted by some politicians in order to dent my image. The perpetrators wanted to spoil my political carrier because they have tried various ways to achieve that but failed.

''They have spearheaded my suspension from the House and when they realized that I am still vibrant, they now changed their tactics by twisting and publicising my comment. All I will say is that they will also fail," he said.

PDP CRISIS TAKES ANOTHER PLUNGE AS MODU SHERIFF STORMS OUT OF MEETING CALLED BY JONATHAN

The leadership crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may have worsened as Court-backed National Chairman of the party, Ali Modu Sheriff, stormed out of a peace meeting convened by former President Goodluck Jonathan as the meeting ended in disarray.
Sheriff came into the Yar ‘Adua Centre, Abuja, where the meeting held on Thursday, long after Jonathan, the governors and other party chiefs had taken their seats which caused a little stir as the sitting arrangement had to be hurriedly adjusted in order to find him a place close to the former President.
It was learnt that the disagreement at the meeting started when Sheriff declared that as the most senior member of the PDP, a meeting of that nature ought to have been convened by him which was further fuelled by Jonathan’s refusal to allow him address the meeting in his capacity as the National Chairman.
Sheriff also insisted that Makarfi, who was billed to speak based on the programme of events, would not speak since his committee had been sacked by the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt Division.
His proposal was rejected by the Governor of Rivers State, Mr. Nyesom Wike, who allegedly insisted that Makarfi should also be allowed to speak if Sheriff would speak leading to a ferocious face-off to the extent that Sheriff and Wike had to stand up to each other while Sheriff stormed out moments later.
Speaking with reporters shortly after he walked out with his team, Sheriff said he would not be party to any arrangement that seemed to deviate from the recommendation of the Dickson committee insisting that the meeting was at variance with the recommendations made by the committee.
“We were here for PDP stakeholders meeting and the PDP has only one National Chairman, which is Ali Modu-Sheriff. There is no PDP meeting that will take place under whatever arrangement that I will not open the session as National Chairman. Today, I am the most senior member of this party,” he stated.
“I think Governor Dickson made a proposal for reconciliation. And we have accepted. Some people want to deviate from this programme, to bring agenda which was not part of it.
“And as national chairman of the party, what I told you people in my office when Dickson brought the report is the only thing that we have agreed at this moment. And I will not be party for anybody using me to do another programme. I’m not going to be part of it.
“Well, I respect Jonathan for the meeting. He is a former president. But as of today, I am the most senior member of the party. Therefore, if I respect him, the respect must be reciprocated.
“You can’t call me for a meeting of PDP and say I cannot address the meeting as national chairman of the party.
“As the National Chairman, we move on. We have a programme initiated by Dickson. And we are continuing with that. Anything outside that, I am not a party to it.”
Jonathan also spoke with journalists after the exit of Sheriff and his team and described what happened as unfortunate but said the meeting would go ahead with the hope of ending the crisis in the party.
He announced that he would set up of a 40-member committee, which he said he would head but revealed that in his absence, either his former Deputy, Namadi Sambo, or Mark would stand in for him to lead the meeting.
At the meeting, which was chaired by Jonathan, were some of the party’s governors, Ayo Fayose (Ekiti), Nyesom Wike (Rivers) and Darius Ishaku (Taraba) while the Deputy Governors of Gombe and Ebonyi states were also there.
Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu; a former President of the Senate, Senator David Mark; the Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT), Senator Walid Jibrin; Chairman of the party’s Caretaker Committee, Senator Ahmed Makarfi; some PDP chieftains such as Prince Uche Secondus, Olisa Metuh, among others were also in attendance.
Curiously, the Chairman of the party’s reconciliation committee and Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson, was among the party’s governors who did not attend the meeting and were not represented by their deputies.

source:The Wills

US UNLEASHES DIRECT MILITARY ATTACK ON SYRIA

President Trump unleashed airstrikes on Syria on Thursday to punish its strongman, Bashar Assad, after a chemical attack this week that killed dozens of civilians, including children. The barrage amounted to the most significant military operation ordered by Trump, a newcomer to governing who had warned, before taking office, against escalating America’s involvement in the Middle East.

“Tonight, I ordered a targeted military strike on the airfield in Syria from where the chemical attack was launched,” Trump said in Palm Beach, Florida. “It is in this vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons.”

The operation — the first known direct American strike on Syrian government assets since the start of the country’s civil war — rained at least 50 cruise missiles from U.S. Navy ships in the Mediterranean on a Syrian airfield thought to be the point of origin for the chemical attack, U.S. officials said. The attack took place at 8:40 p.m. Eastern time.

The decision risked confrontation with Russia, Syria’s patron, which reportedly had troops stationed at the air base, and could mean increased dangers for hundreds of U.S. troops now in Syria to prepare for the assault on Raqqa, the capital of the Islamic State militant group. But it also sent a dramatically different message about Washington’s willingness to use force in Syria after Barack Obama shied away from enforcing his self-imposed “red line.”

The decision to dramatically escalate America’s role in a conflict that has left some 500,000 dead, according to human rights groups, was arguably the new president’s biggest decision yet, with many unknown consequences. At home, the early response from Congress suggested strong bipartisan support for the strikes but deep concern about the way forward. Some in Congress, including Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, said Trump should have sought authorization from Congress for a military operation that was not in response to an attack on the U.S.

Trump explained his decision by describing the horrific images from Tuesday’s chemical weapons strike in a mostly rebel-controlled area near the Turkish border, saying “there can be no dispute” that Assad’s forces were responsible.

“Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad launched a horrible chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians,” he said. “Using a deadly nerve agent, Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children. It was a slow and brutal death for so many. Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack.”

So “tonight I ordered a targeted military strike on the airfield in Syria from where the chemical attack was launched,” Trump said. “It is in this vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons.”

The president also urged “all civilized nations to join us in seeking to end the slaughter and bloodshed in Syria.”

Congressional Democrats offered measured support for the onslaught but warned that lawmakers would need to weigh in on any sustained escalation of the conflict. Some of the lawmakers delivering that message stood idly by while Barack Obama escalated America’s role in Iraq and Syria.

The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Ben Cardin of Maryland, said in a statement that “any longer-term or larger military operation in Syria by the Trump administration will need to be done in consultation with the Congress.”

Cardin also pressed Trump “to inform the legislative branch and the American people about his larger policy in Syria, as well as the legal basis for this action and any additional military activities in that country.”

Trump had huddled with top advisers, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary James Mattis and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster in Palm Beach, Fla., where he was to hold meetings Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping. In a sign of how quickly events were unfolding, White House officials had said just a day earlier that McMaster would not travel with Trump.

Tillerson told reporters that the president had begun a long, difficult and potentially fruitless effort to push Assad from power.

“The process by which Assad would leave is something that I think requires an international community effort, both to first defeat ISIS within Syria, to stabilize the Syrian country, to avoid further civil war, and then to work collectively with our partners around the world through a political process that would lead to Assad leaving,” he said. Pressed on whether he and Trump were working to assemble an international coalition to achieve that goal, Tillerson replied: “Those steps are underway.”

The secretary of state also had tough words for Moscow, Assad’s patron. “It is very important that the Russian government consider carefully their continued support for the Assad regime,” he said.

And he reaffirmed what senior U.S. officials have said since the world first saw footage and photographs of gasping, dying or dead children in Khan Sheikhoun in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province: Assad is to blame.

“There is no doubt in our minds and the information we have supports that Syria, the Syrian regime under the leadership of President Bashar al-Assad, are responsible for this attack,” Tillerson said.