A leaked audio tape has revealed one of the moments when Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State planned with his officials to frustrate the Nigeria Labour Congress protesters and “neutralize them.”

The 16-minute audiotape, obtained by SaharaReporters on Friday, was believably captured on Tuesday by one of El-Rufai’s kitchen cabinet members.

The audio captured the governor’s anger with the NLC.

El-Rufai and other voices in the tape were caught insinuating that the NLC leaders first camped in Kano State before they reached Kaduna and were mobilized from there by the Kano State government, making a veiled reference to Governor Abdullahi Ganduje’s officials.

In the tape, the governor was also briefed on the activities of alleged hired thugs and the plan to disrupt the peaceful protest on Wednesday and he was excited about the development.

They also discussed the police personnel whom they accused of giving protection to the NLC protesters and not siding with the state government.

“We pray they come out tomorrow, let them come out. We will mobilise,” one of those with him said.

Answering a phone call believably from the Minister of Transportation. Rotimi Amaechi, as captured in the tape, the governor said, “Oh Amaechi, excellency, how now? Oga sir, how are you doing? Hello, can you hear me?

“Oga sir, I may not be able to come today because I still have a situation on my hands. I think we will have neutralised them by tomorrow or next. I don’t know whether you are still in town.

“Give me today and tomorrow. Let’s plan for Thursday evening. Thursday afternoon, we will be in economic summit. It will be virtual but I will be busy. Thuraday evening will be fine.

“Politicians…nobody wants to confront the unions. I am the only North politician in Nigeria. This whole thing is being financed. They came from Kano right? They brought aides from Kano. They went to Kano.”

El-Rufai had accused his fellow governors of abandoning his administration in its crisis with the Nigeria Labour Congress.

The Punch reported that El-Rufai said this during a virtual meeting of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum on Wednesday, May 19.

He also accused an unnamed governor of providing mobilisation funds for the NLC to destabilise the northwestern state.

Workers in the state workers had on Monday begun a five-day strike over  El-Rufai administration’s retrenchment of 45,000 workers and his alleged anti-labour policies.

Addressing fellow governors at the meeting, he said,  “I would like to inform the forum that one of our colleagues, a state governor actually gave the NLC money to come to Kaduna to do this because people think everything is politics. This is not politics. This is a monster that will consume all of us. It will not consume Kaduna I’m confident of that.”

When reminded that the NGF issued a statement from the office of the chairman on the subject, El-Rufai replied, “That press release with the greatest respect was unhelpful. It was unhelpful. It said nothing. It was trying to play both sides.”

SaharaReporters on Tuesday reported that hoodlums reportedly loyal to El-Rufai disrupted the peaceful protest embarked upon by the NLC in Kaduna State.

The governor in a tweet had earlier said the labour union leaders were declared wanted for “economic sabotage and attacks on public infrastructure under Miscellaneous Offences Act.”

He said there would be a “handsome reward” for anyone who knows the whereabouts of the union leaders.

A source said while the protest was going on in Kaduna on Tuesday, some suspected thugs in different vehicles, started stoning the protesters.

The NLC later on Thursday ended the five-day warning strike.

Forty-two northern youth groups have endorsed the ban on open grazing in the country.

The northern youths disclosed this after its 27th delegates’ conference in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, on Saturday.

Southern governors had penultimate week issued a ban on open grazing in the Southern part of the country.

Addressing journalists in Yola, the National Chairman of Northern Youth Leaders Forum (NYLF), Comrade Elliot Afiyo, also condemned the Minister Justice and Attorney General, Abubakar Malami, for his utterance on the ban on open grazing.

He said, “We have taken time to study the communique issued by the southern governors, especially on the ban on open grazing.

“We want to state clearly that open grazing has been the greatest threat to the environment of the northern region and also a major threat to the security of lives and property in the entire country.

“To the ban on open grazing, we call for the establishment of Herders Commission or Agency to cater to the needs of the herders.

“We also condemned the statement credited to the Attorney General of the Federation on the ban on open grazing.

“We, therefore, appeal to the President to caution his ministers and aides who, despite being in government for six years, are still having opposition mentality.”

Afiyo also disclosed that NYLF would unveil its endorsed candidate for Nigeria’s presidency in 2023 on June 5, 2021.

Rights activist Aisha Yesufu has doubled down on her resolve not to link her mobile number to the National Identification Number (NIN), a project championed by Isa Pantami, Nigeria’s communications and digital economy minister.

Mr. Pantami has an unassailable link to extremism documented in print, audio, and video in which he demonstrated his avowed sympathy for the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. He also described Boko Haram terrorists as his “Muslim brothers.”

On Friday, Ms. Yesufu stated that if it cost her not using a phone, she would not let her private data fall into the hands of terror-linked Mr. Pantami.

“Let me repeat categorically what I have said before,” said Ms. Yesufu, “I will not be linking my NIN to my phone number!”

Explaining why, she stated, “I will rather not have a phone line than willingly give my information and have it in the control of a terrorist sympathizer and his cohorts.”

Despite public opprobrium directed at Mr. Pantami over the damning revelations of his association with terrorists and murderous plots to wipe out unbelievers in Jos, President Muhammadu Buhari has continued to back him.

Mr. Buhari had acknowledged that Mr. Pantami supported terrorist organizations and incited the Muslim communities against the Christians in the North through the declaration of jihad and fatwa but insisted that the “apology” of the minister was enough to heal the wounds and console the victims of his divisive past.

Garba Shehu, a presidential spokesman, had said the position of Buhari’s regime on the extremist views of Mr. Pantami would have been different if the communications minister was involved in a certificate forgery like ex-minister of finance, Kemi Adeosun.

Human rights activist, Omoyele Sowore, has said President Muhammadu Buhari and Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, are not interested in the release of 39 abducted students of the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka, Kaduna State.

He also accused them of being insensitive to the plight of the parents who have been traumatized as a result of the incident.

“As a person who has been kidnapped before by the Nigerian government, I know what it means to be in captivity. I know what it means to have zero expectations of when you will leave and when you will join your family.

“Nobody is doing anything about your plight. They are not interested. The Federal Government does not care about you. The Kaduna State Governor does not care about you, I heard him say he will never negotiate with terrorists. The same El-Rufai who was blaming former President Goodluck Jonathan for not negotiating with the Boko Haram when Chibok girls were kidnapped has suddenly realised that he can’t negotiate with terrorists.

“I am not here to appeal to the government. The Nigerian government has failed the Nigerian people. It is up to the Nigerian people to decide how long they want to continue to tolerate this failure. Don’t be afraid of security agents because they have failed too. Soldiers are being kidnapped. A DSS operative was kidnapped, they paid the ransom and they killed him and nothing happened.

“The reason they will not negotiate with terrorists is that the government itself is a terrorist government. Otherwise, they don’t know how to negotiate with terrorists.”

He pointed out that Nigeria was the only country in the world where people were being beaten and not allowed to cry.

He accused the government of bias and not being proactive enough in their approach towards making efforts to rescuing the students unlike similar cases in the past.

Sowore queried the discrimination against abducted students in Afaka, noting that if the Buhari government can pay the sum of N800 million as ransom for the release of kidnapped schoolgirls in Niger and Katsina states within a week, same should be done for Afaka.

“There is discrimination against Afaka forestry students; there is something there and it has to do with hardened hearts and wickedness of Kaduna state government and Federal Government. This government said they don’t know how to negotiate with terrorists. There was a time Boko Haram appointed Buhari to be their negotiator. If he can be trusted enough by Boko Haram, he should trust himself enough to lead negotiation to release the Afaka and Greenfield students.

“They love it when people are suffering; they love it when there is pain. Blood and tears are flowing in the land. That is why I am not here to appeal to any government, the truth is that you don’t have a government, and the earlier you accept there is no government, the better for you.

“We must not live in the nightmare that these students have died in the captivity. May it never happen to any of us.”

The rights activist appealed to the abductors to have a rethink and release the students, adding that they were holding innocent and poor people who were not part of their problems.

The African Action Congress (AAC), in the buildup of the upcoming Ondo state Gubernatorial election, has publicly denied its involvement in the endorsement of the People’s Democratic Party, Eyitayo Jegede.

This was released in a press statement signed by the party’s National chairman, Omoyele Sowore.

According to the release, claims of endorsement by AAC was a false publication as such an act went against the principles of the party.

“Our attention has been drawn to a false publication across the media about 11 political parties endorsing PDP’s candidate, Eyitayo Jegede, in the forthcoming Ondo gubernatorial election in which our dear party, AAC, was also falsely reported to be part of the unholy endorsement.

We want to make it categorically clear and loud that as a revolutionary party, we are not and will never be part of an alliance or endorsement which only objective and goal is to continue to weaponise poverty and keep Nigerians in 21st-century slavery. We distance our party completely from this unholy alliance and also want to use this opportunity to appeal to all members and supporters of our dear party including the general public to disregard the information being peddled around the media space.

The African Action Congress is a party of oppressed Nigerians (poor and working people) and will continue to fight and stand with the masses.

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The Presidential vote count is finally over. Although we fell short of our goal of placing a committed and courageous leader at the helm of affairs in Nigeria, there is much that we can be proud of.

Omoyele Sowore ran a long, hard campaign that captured the hearts and minds of Nigerians. We created a movement and established a political party within a year. We recruited candidates to run for over 150 positions from the Presidency through to gubernatorial, senate, House of Representatives, state house of assembly, local government chairmanship to local councillorship positions.

We introduced the concept of town halls to Nigerian politics – where candidates engage the electorate in intimate settings that allow for deeper interaction. Our disruptive and innovative approaches to campaigning helped to force the introduction of Town Hall sessions to the national stage – culminating with The Candidates forum featuring just four selected parties. With your help, we raised about N150 million – with donations that ranged from N50 to N1 million, demonstrating that a politics devoid of godfathers and special interests is possible in Nigeria.

If elections are won based on hard work, engagement with the electorate and passion – then we would have prevailed. In the end, we were unable to overcome the establishment this time around. To begin with, there was the outright vote buying and wholesale rigging that occurred. Furthermore, we had a President who openly advocated the shooting of “ballot box snatchers” on Election Day and, as we expected, that threat of violence at the polls depressed the votes and made this the election with the lowest turnout since 1999.

In the final analysis, we did not win this time because the Nigerian people ultimately decided that they would rather choose the lesser of two evils; electing to go with the DEVIL THEY KNOW, rather than the ANGEL THAT THEY DO NOT KNOW.

While many of us might be disappointed that the elections ultimately came down to this false choice between the APC and PDP, we must listen to what the Nigerian people are saying. Their votes for Atiku and Buhari were cast reluctantly. Despite the billions of naira spent on these elections by the APC and PDP, only 27 million people voted, a paltry 32% of the total number of registered voters. The overwhelming majority chose NOT to participate.

THERE ARE TWO LESSONS THAT WE MUST LEARN

1. NIGERIANS MUST GET TO KNOW THE ANGELS in TIB & AAC: Since 1960, our people have experienced cycles of hope followed by massive disappointment. Leaders have made promises during election cycles and they have failed to deliver. The restoration of democracy has brought nothing but economic misery and growing insecurity. No matter who has been elected – from Obasanjo, Yar’adua, Jonathan and then Buhari – nothing seems to have changed. It is therefore understandable that cynicism would set in. When a people lose faith in the expectation that changing leaders will improve their lives, they settle for the familiar. They choose the lesser of two evils. They go with the “Devil they know” rather than the angels that they do not. Our task is to ensure that by 2023, every Nigerian would have been touched by the activities and actions of the TakeitBack movement and the African Action Congress. They must have seen our impact in their lives. We must roll up our sleeves and engage. We must help shore up our schools, organise medical missions to various communities, develop policies and push for bills to be passed at state and national legislative bodies. We must call out corruption wherever it occurs and lead the Nigerian people to demand their rights in the courts and in the streets. We must practice what we preach! If we do all these things, and remain true to our mission, the Nigerian people will see us as partners who are in this fight for the long run – not just opportunists looking for votes. When they have seen us work to improve their lives in their own communities, they will trust us to do so at the national level.
2. WE MUST STRENGTHEN OUR REACH AT THE GRASSROOTS: Although we have a commendable geographical spread, our movement and party will need to extend our reach to the grass roots. We must be present in every ward and in each of the 774 local government areas in Nigeria. Our members must be in every one of the 120,000 polling units in the nation. We must have active chapters in every tertiary institution. Our engagement in churches and mosques, market squares and community centres must continue. It is how well and how deeply we engage when there are no elections that will determine our reach and acceptance.

MARCHING FORWARD – MARCH 9th and BEYOND

Over the next few weeks we will be engaging with all of you in a series of conferences, meetings, town hall sessions – virtually and in person – to chart a way forward. However, in the short term, we still have elections to win, and we must remain focused on them.

On March 9th, we have 96 Candidates that will be running for various offices at the state level – 20 for Governor & Deputy Governor, and 76 for various State House of Assembly seats. They need our support, now more than ever. We cannot and MUST NOT abandon them.

Sowore will be holding sessions on the couch on Thursday February 28th, and on March 7th and 8th to help raise funds for the candidates. They have campaigns to run and agents to support. They need resources and encouragement. Let us continue to support them financially.

Funds donated to the party account from now through March 8th, will be allocated to the candidates. Anyone interested in making donations to candidates, can find a list of Gubernatorial candidates here:
https://aacparty.com/gubernatorial-candidates/
and state house of assembly candidates here:
https://aacparty.com/state-house-of-assembly-candidates/

Donations to the party should be made to:

AFRICAN ACTION CONGRESS
Zenith Bank
Account Number 1015977493

CONCLUSION

It was my great honour and privilege to serve as the Director General for the Sowore 2019 campaign and I want to thank all of you for your impassioned support for our great candidate, Omoyele Sowore. He is the leader Nigeria needs and we are fortunate to have him at the head of our movement and party.

Aluta Continua. Victoria Acerta – The Struggle continues. Victory is certain!!

Dr Malcolm Fabiyi
DG, TakeItBack Movement
Deputy National Chairman (Admin), AAC Party