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We didn’t threaten to ban traditional worship – Anambra Govt
Anambra State Commissioner for Culture, Entertainment and Tourism, Mr Don Onyenji, has said it is not true that the state government threatened to ban traditional worship.
Onyenji made the statement at a stakeholders meeting organised in partnership with ASHOKA Africa, a non-profit organsation and social change agent, in Awka on Thursday.
He said that Gov. Charles Soludo only called for the registration of all traditional religious leaders and custodians of shrines in the state.
The commissioner described religion as a collection of social and cultural systems involving core beliefs, practices, morals that were needed in human society.
“The governor wants to have that compilation as a way of discouraging crime. Let’s not forget that some people who do unlawful businesses patronise these places.
“Armed robbers, fraudsters, kidnappers and other criminals go to native doctors and shrines to seek for powers to do evil,” he said.
Onyenji said that the activities of some native doctors and custodians of shrines in the state encouraged criminality.
He said that any native doctor or shrine worshipper found to be preparing charms for robbers or fortifying kidnappers would be prosecuted.
The Commissioner for Education, Prof. Ngozi Chuma-Udeh, said that the partnership with ASHOKA Africa was aimed at promoting social behaviour reformation among the youth.
The Commissioner, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Dr Ify Agbaizu, said that the correct orientation about core Igbo values should be given to the younger generation in order to put them on the right track.
“We must preach the values of hard work, respect and honesty. This will save the youth from indulging in the social ills that are rampant in the society today,” she said.
She urged youth in the state to imbibe good social behaviours and hard work as they grew in life, saying,” nothing good comes without hard work”
The Leader, ASHOKA Africa delegation to the meeting, Mr Okechukwu Uzoechina, said that the organisation’s “Everyone is a Change Maker”vision was a social transformation tool needed in human society.
“We foresee a world where everyone has the confidence, freedom and support to identify and design solutions for the common good of the society.
“A world where people are equipped to tackle challenges, and to create a better future in both small and bold ways,” he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the meeting also attracted the attendance students drawn from select secondary schools in the state.
Speaking to NAN, the Head Girl, Anglican Girls Secondary School, Awka, Miss Makuochukwu Umeh, described the engagement as enriching and well thought-out.
“We all are grateful to be part of the programme, we have learnt a lot from the resource persons, if for nothing, I have learnt that quick and illegal wealth is not good
“I also learnt that farming, craft making and other lawful engagements are good and dignified sources of making wealth,” she said.(NAN)
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has denied being partisan in handling the failed recall of the Senator representing Kogi Central, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.
The Chief Press Secretary to the Chairman of INEC, Rotimi Oyekanmi, who was on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday, explained how the Commission handled the process.
“In the case of the Kogi Central District, we received a petition and a cover letter and of course what Nigerians were saying was that we were taking sides,” Oyekanmi said on the programme.
“But what happened was that in the covering letter, the representatives of the petitioners did not include their address as required in our regulations and guidelines and what we just did was to ask them to supply their address, it has nothing to do with the petition.
“And of course, there is nowhere in the law where INEC is asked to reject a petition just because the cover letter did not contain the address. So, there was no hanky-panky in what we did.”
Earlier on Thursday, INEC rejected the petition to recall Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan, saying that it has not met the requirements.
The electoral commission said the petition to recall Senator Natasha did not meet constitutional requirements.
Senator Natasha was suspended for breaching Senate rules, prompting some of her constituents to initiate her recall. They claimed the move was to ensure their constituency did not lack representation following the suspension of the 45-year-old senator.
Asked whether there could be a repeat of the recall process, the INEC spokesperson said the law did not specify if the process could be repeated and how many times.
“The law just talks about the threshold, the threshold meaning that if you want to recall, you must have, in addition to your petition, 50 per cent plus one signatures. The law did not specify how many times you can undertake that,” he said.
The lawmaker has made headlines in recent months after she accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio of sexual harassment, a claim the Akwa Ibom lawmaker has equally denied.
She was thereafter suspended by the Red Chamber for violation of its rule of conduct.
The National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, has handed over 19 kidnapped victims rescued by the security agencies to the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa.
The brief ceremony took place on Thursday at the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), Office of the National Security Adviser in Abuja.
The victims included Ambassador Gideon Yohanna, the former Director-General of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier-General Maharazu Tsiga (retired) who had spent 56 days in captivity and 17 others, including a child.
Both Ribadu and Musa pledged to remain relentless until the criminals are wiped out and normalcy restored in the country.
“As a result of the work of our armed forces and other security services, we are able to rescue and bring back our own people,” he said.
“This time, it involves important personalities who served this country. We thank God for their lives, we are grateful to those who made it possible.
“This is an ongoing operation and we are doing it quite silently, we will go after the bad ones.”
Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan on Thursday applauded the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for rejecting a petition to recall her as the lawmaker representing Kogi Central Senatorial District.
The female lawmaker, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today, said the electoral umpire should have thrown out the petition long before it did on April 3, 2025.
“I’m a lawyer. I’m a senator and I understand how Nigeria works. For me, the most important thing is this recall process has been stalled.
“I give kudos and credit to INEC even though I believe they should have thrown it away from the get-go.
“I think it was void ab initio because there is no law in the Electoral Act that says a petition should be discarded just because there is no address but again, what if the address is false?”
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain argued that most of the addresses provided in the petition for her recall were false because most houses in her district weren’t labelled.
“Even though INEC did count 208,000 signatures, I bet you if they had gone into the verification stage, they would have struggled to even have 500 people come out to attest to signing that,” she added.
She accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Governor Usman Ododo and ex-governor Yahaya Bello of sponsoring her failed recall.
In a much-awaited statement on Thursday, INEC said the petition for the recall of the lawmaker did not met the requirement of Section 69(a) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).
“Therefore, no further action shall be taken on the recall of the Senator,” INEC declared.