Newspaper Review: Northern Governors In Fear Over Biafra Agitation

The five newspapers under review today, Friday, December 4, focus on the issues of the agitation for the sovereign state of Biafra, the probe the anti-graft agency launched on Bode George, Peter Odili and Yaki Bello; the minimum wage and the governorship election coming up tomorrow, Saturday, December 5, in Bayelsa state.

According to Daily Sun, governors of the 19 northern states on Thursday, December 3, took undisclosed security measures with a view to ensuring that Wednesday’s violence which included burning of places of worship in the commercial city of Onitsha, in Anambra state, does not spread to the northern part of the country.

The paper further reports that speaking on behalf of the 19 governors, the Borno state governor and chairman of the Northern States Governors’ Forum, Kashim Shettima, whose statement was issued by his spokesman, Isa Gusau, in Maiduguri, said that the governors, particularly those of major cities, were in touch with one another yesterday and had taken some firm measures which aim at averting any spill-over.

The Nation has ‘$2bn arms: EFCC probes Bode George, Odili, Bello’ as the front page major headline. The article asks: ‘How many Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftains got a slice of the “phoney” $2billion arms contracts cake?’

This is the riddle the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is battling to resolve. Its detectives are probing the role (if any) of Chief Olabode George, the former deputy national chairman of the PDP, the former Rivers state governor, Peter Odili and a former general officer commanding 82 Division, Maj.-Gen. Sarkin-Yaki Bello.

Also on the EFCC probe, Vanguard leads with ‘EFCC uncovers another N600m scam’, reporting that yesterday the EFCC continued its arrest of high profile politicians and top military officers over the $2bn arms contract allegedly disbursed by the office of the national security adviser.

It further reports that the suspects arrested included the former chairman of the Presidential Implementation Committee on Marine Safety, Air Vice Marshal Salihu Atawodi.

The headline has other riders: ‘I didn’t implicate anyone, says Dasuki’… ‘FG gets another lawyer to prosecute him’… ‘Court rules on application to revoke his bail December 8’.

For The Punch, its major headline is on the issue of minimum wage and the governors’ consideration of job cuts.

It reports that there are strong indications that some state governors are considering reducing their states’ workforce as the downturn in the economy worsens.

Speaking on Thursday, December 3, on the N18,000 minimum wage, the chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari, said it was important that government representatives met with labour unions to take a decision on whether to review the wage or to downsize.

‘We can’t stop fake voters in Bayelsa, says INEC’ is the major headline in The Guardian.

It reports: ‘Notwithstanding its resolve to conduct a credible election in Bayelsa state, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) does not have the powers to stop suspected hired and fake voters as long as they present valid permanent voter cards (PVCs).

The commission added that it was in the process of distributing sensitive materials to all local councils of the state. The commission spoke in response to allegations of the presence of fake voters in the state, who were said to have been brought by politicians to distort the outcome of the governorship election in the state.’

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