*Kebbi APC youths berate Zamfara PDP over reckless comments on kidnapped students*

****urge security agencies to investigate opposition’s role in insecurity

The Kebbi APC Youth Forum has condemned the Zamfara State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for sabotaging the ongoing rescue of 24 female students kidnapped from Government Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga, inthe Talata-Mafara area of Kebbi state.

The youths, in a statement signed by their Chairman, Comrade Nasiru Maga, and circulated to newsmen in Birnin Kebbi, described the Zamfara PDP’s recent press statement criticizing the deployment of Minister of State for Defence, Dr Bello Mohammed Matawalle, to coordinate the rescue as “heartless, wicked, and tantamount to giving comfort to terrorists.”

“While our daughters are spending another terrifying night in the bush, Governor Dauda Lawal and his media thugs are busy typing press releases to frustrate the rescue mission just because the man leading the operation is their political enemy,” the statement read.

“This is no longer politics; this is dancing on the blood of innocent children.”

The group reminded Governor Lawal of his 2023 campaign promise to end banditry in Zamfara within two months, adding that two years later, the state has become “the undisputed capital of kidnapping, mass murder and highway robbery in the North-West.”

“Dauda Lawal has abandoned the people he swore to protect. His only achievement is turning Zamfara into a no-go area while he and his cabal loot the treasury,” the youths charged.

The forum specifically accused the governor of repeatedly plotting to have President Bola Tinubu sack Matawalle out of “sheer jealousy and bitterness,” and said the latest press release was the governor’s revenge for failing to remove the minister.

The Kebbi APC Youth Forum urged the Department of State Services (DSS), the Nigerian Army, the Police, and the National Intelligence Agency to immediately open an investigation into “Governor Dauda Lawal’s open romance with bandit elements and the treasonable conduct of his media team.”

“Criticising a rescue operation ordered by the President and executed by security forces while schoolgirls are still in captivity is a national security offence. We demand that Governor Dauda Lawal, his spokesman, and every PDP official who signed or endorsed that wicked statement be invited for questioning without delay,” they declared.

The youths praised President Tinubu for cancelling his trip to the G20 Summit in South Africa the moment he received news of the abduction, and expressed total confidence in Matawalle, whom they described as “the same man who crushed bandits when he was governor of Zamfara.”

“We are confident that within days, Dr Bello Matawalle will bring our 24 daughters home alive. No amount of distraction from failed politicians like Dauda Lawal will stop him,” the statement concluded.

*Zamfara APC Accuses PDP Government of Sabotaging National Security Efforts Over Kebbi Schoolgirls’ Kidnapping

The Zamfara State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has launched a blistering attack on the state’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration, accusing it of deliberately undermining federal efforts to rescue 24 female students abducted from Government Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga, Talata-Mafara Local Government Area of Kebbi State on Wednesday.

In a strongly worded statement issued Friday by the APC Publicity Secretary, Yusuf Idris Gusau, the party described a recent press release by the “dissolved” Zamfara PDP as “shameful, disgraceful and unpatriotic,” claiming it was designed to sabotage President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s directive to the Minister of State for Defence, Dr Bello Mohammed Matawalle, to personally coordinate the rescue operation.

The APC statement highlighted that President Tinubu cancelled a scheduled trip to the G20 Summit in South Africa immediately after receiving news of the abduction – a move the party contrasted with previous administrations under Presidents Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari, during whose tenures the Chibok, Dapchi, Jangebe, Kankara and Birnin Yauri abductions occurred without similar presidential cancellations of foreign engagements.

“Instead of sympathising with the people and government of Kebbi State, the Zamfara PDP chose to issue a statement that can only be described as felony,” the APC said, questioning whether the PDP-led state government has “a partnership with bandits terrorising the North-West.”

The party further accused Governor Dauda Lawal of abandoning security responsibilities, alleging that banditry has worsened dramatically in the two years since he took over from Matawalle in 2023.

It claimed all major roads in the state are now closed by 6:00 pm, many have become “death traps,” and travellers are forced to detour through Sokoto State to reach Gusau, the state capital.

The APC also repeated earlier allegations that the PDP government harbours bandits and that some armed political thugs travel in the governor’s convoy, citing past incidents where innocent citizens were reportedly shot.

In a direct challenge, the party asked the PDP spokesman, Halliru Andi, to tell Zamfara residents “whether the security situation has improved or escalated” since Governor Lawal took office, noting that the governor had promised during his 2023 campaign to end banditry within two months.

The statement praised former Governor Matawalle’s past efforts against banditry and expressed confidence that, in his current role as Minister of State for Defence, he will successfully coordinate the rescue of the 24 abducted Kebbi schoolgirls.

APC’s Era of Bad Governance Will Soon End – Aregbesola

The National Secretary of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, and the former Governor of the State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has completed his ADC membership revalidation today at Ward 8, Unit 1, Ifofin, Ilesa East Local Government Area of Osun State saying this phase of bad governance in Nigeria will soon end.

Ogbeni Aregbesola who was in company of other top ADC party leaders in the state
completed this exercise around 12:44pm to become first person in Nigeria to perform the exercise.

Earlier, the Osun State Chairman of ADC Membership Mobilization, Registration and Revalidation committee, Kamir Akinlabi Modashiru, had charged members of the Party on the need to revalidate their membership cards and also called on those who just joined to try and obtain one as early as possible.

Also reacting, National Chairman of Membership Mobilization, Registration and Revalidation committee, Senator Sadiq Yaradua, said ADC National body decided to start the membership registration and revalidation exercise in Osun State because of the symbol of Omoluabi that the citizen of the state portrays.

He said, ‘ we are here to declare the registration open in Osun, and not just Osun but here in Ilesa East. We have a leader that the whole nation respects here in Osun. A man that has the symboll of transparency, honesty, good character, and integrity and that was why the National Chairman of the party approved that the exercise should start from here.”

Yaradua said, ” everything we do here is transparent and therefore this process is also transparent. Everyone is expected to pay registration token of just #500, but no cash collection. We want to show Nigerians that we are not like other parties who deceives Nigerians and their members over registration. We want Nigerians to own the party and choose their leaders from different wards when the time arises.”

He said the card has 10 visible and invincible security features, so that there won’t be fake or imitation of the card.

After his registration and revalidation, the elated scribe of ADC, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, who addressed his teeming supporters and members of the Party that had come to witness the occasion enjoined the joyous supporters to pay a minute silence for the repose of Brigadier General Musa Uba, Commander of the 25 Task Force Brigade in Borno State, who was kil*led by ISWAP after previously surviving an ambush.

Ogbeni Aregbesola said, “today is supposed to be happy and joyous day for me, but im not happy at all because, our nation is going through pain and anguish. My deepest sympathy goes to the families of Brigadier General Musa Uba. It’s a story of shock, pain and sorrow for Nigerians to lose such a courageous man while defending the integrity of his nation. Let me also send my deepest sympathy to the families of the 30 abducted girls in Kebbi and the Church that was attacked in Kwara State few hours ago.”

“One of the major components of governance of the nation is to secure the nation and revive the economy if such nation but, in this very important aspect, the government in power has failed Nigerians. I pray that God should end this bad phase in our nation.”

Ogbeni Aregbesola also seized on the occasion to address the misinformation and misrepresentation of his move to ADC. He said ” I did not defect as it was being said in some quarters. I only joined other Nigerians to adopt ADC to bring the nation out of the present problem it has found himself. I was among those who kept complaining of the wrong moves of APC, telling them that all their moves are anti-people. I kept complaining but they refused. And to cap it all, I was expelled from APC along witht tose who were with me, those who were complaining about the abnormalities going in the party. So i matched on, I’m matching on, with courage, dedication and will to bring Nigerians out of this quagmire. With faith in God and the support of our unwavering people i know this phase of bad governance will soon end.”