CONFUSION ! NIGER : Un avion “non identifié” bombarde un village et fait… 36 morts

Abadam se situe à la frontière entre le Niger et le Nigeria. ( GOOGLE MAPS / FRANCETV INFO )

  Plusieurs responsables locaux accusent le Nigeria voisin, qui pourrait avoir confondu le village avec des positions du groupe terroriste Boko Haram.

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Fresh 315 Nigerian Soldiers Flee to Niger As Boko Haram Takes Control of Another Borno Town

The extremist group Boko Haram group reportedly seized control of Malam Fatori, a Borno town near the Nigerien border, leading soldiers to flee into the country.

The insurgents were said to have taken control of Malam Fatori after fighting on Wednesday and Thursday, a senior official in the Niger town of Diffa near Nigeria told AFP on the condition of anonymity.

The fighting killed dozens and…

New Post has been published on http://www.voiceofarewa.com/2014/06/30/nobody-can-stop-modu-sheriff-from-leaving-apc-hon-kangar/

Nobody Can Stop Modu Sheriff From Leaving APC – Hon Kangar

The planned defection of former Borno state governor, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff from the opposition All Progressives Congress(APC) has generated a lot of frenzy. Party leaders are said to be making frantic efforts to dissuade him and his teeming supporters. But one of his close associates, Honorable Isa Lawan Kangar, member representing Kukawa/Guzamala/Abadam/Mobar Federal constituency from Borno state in the House of Representatives told UGOCHUKWU IROKA that Sheriff’s departure from the APC is a fait accompli as the APC has lost focus.

Your party the APC recently conducted her first national convention, but we understand many party members are aggrieved, including its strongman and former governor of Borno state, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff. What is the likely implication of such developments to the party’s future?

To be honest with you, I cannot sit down here and pretend that I am happy with what happened at that convention. Nigerians had expected more than what they saw from the APC, which prides itself as the epitome of internal democracy. I am disappointed with that sham called national convention. What happened was worst than what may have ever happened at the conventions of all other political parties, including the PDP which the APC criticizes. Shamelessly some people, including those who were witnesses to the charade are giving it a pass mark.

Let me confess to you that, the APC convention was nothing short of the endorsement of the agenda of a cabal that has hijacked the party from its true founders and supporters. I assure you, the party has shot itself in the leg by allowing vagabonds to take control of the party machinery.

The APC is a sinking ship as it is. I want you to quote me that Ali Sheriff is leaving the APC, and he will be relocating the soul of the APC to any party he may choose to go to.

But we are made to understand that, although some of you were aggrieved, you are staying on. That is talking about the group loyal to former Borno state governor Ali Sheriff. What is the truth?

I want to state it here that whoever said we were staying on did not speak our minds; neither was he speaking the mind of Ali Modu Sheriff. To say Senator Ali Modu Sheriff is staying put in the APC is either to be ignorant of the current issues on ground or to be speaking about a different Sheriff from our own leader.

As I speak to you, Senator Ali Sheriff who is the indisputable leader is virtually out of the APC. You may have heard that some of us have gone home and made consultations, and even made arrangements for the formal announcement of our departure.

We have just finished consulting with Sheriff and we have agreed that we are not going to be associated with the shame that has become of the APC. It is not only the Sheriff group that is going. Many others from all the states of the federation are set to dump the APC.

It may interest you to know that, in Borno alone, five members of the national Assembly, twelve members of the state House of Assembly, serving and former commissioners and special advisers, twenty of the 48 members of the state executive of the APC, as currently constituted, three quarter of the leadership of the APC at the Local Government and ward levels, are all leaving with us.

There will be no politician of substance in Borno state that has not been consulted and are not ready to leave. We have already made up our minds. We are aware that efforts are being made to either block our defection or discourage us, but we also know that those trying to sabotage it were the same people who caused the problem in the first place.

So why are they now worried because we are going? Let me confirm to you today, that Senator Ali Sheriff is departing from the APC. The man who said we are still remaining in the party, APC did not say our minds.

Are you saying he did not have your mandate to have made those remarks?

It is true one of our friends was quoted to have said we were still in the APC, but certainly he did not consult before he said that. I was in touch with him and he confirmed to me that the interview was conducted immediately after the controversial convention, and by then we have not taken some of the decisions.

Since he granted that interview, a lot have happened and that argument does not hold any water again. As much as we do not want to disown that interview, I want to tell you that it was informed by the exigencies immediately after the convention.

It was deliberate that it was used at the height of our decisions to defect. A similar interview was planted about the deputy governor, whom we understand is being blackmailed to affirm his loyalty somewhere away from where his heart is. But in due course we shall address all that.

By what you have said so far, are you implying that you are rejecting the overtures from the party leadership and even the governors that you should tarry?

It is not only the leadership. Several people, including state governors and other stalwarts have tried talking us out of moving. Like I said earlier they are just playing the ostrich, as we know this is what they will do after achieving their goals.

This is not the first time that we have been slighted, only for the key actors, to come and be pleading for forgiveness. We are no longer prepared to entertain any further deception. We made the APC what it is and we shall unmake it.

We are conscious of the fact that we built the APC, we are also aware that the party needs us, but we are not fools. A political party that plays to the whims and caprices of select selfish individuals is not worth its salt as an organization. Sheriff is a victim of desperate ingrates who have been playing tricks even as greenhorns in politics.

Having put a government in place in Borno state, and having worked to bring political activities in the state to the present level, don’t you think the sacrifice will be too much for sheriff to abandon the APC for others?

I agree with you that we fought to put a government in place. It is also true that Sheriff was outstanding in terms of building the APC to this level. But where personal integrity is at stake, and where there is need to prove to the world that things are not as being painted, no sacrifice will be too much.

Ali Sheriff has laboured for the past thirty years or more to build the structure some people now claim to control. He has often lent his political structure to people to actualize their ambitions, and has always been paid in strange coins.

You will agree with me that, even if only to prove a point, he will be justified to leave the APC and see whether the house can make any impact without him in areas he is influential over.

When people who parade fake credentials as being gentlemen go behind to work against mutually agreed issues, when virtual greenhorns try to crawl, walk and run the same day they were born, then there are signals of something fundamentally wrong somewhere.

It may be painful, having to pull down your own structures, but before a beautiful dress is made, the cloth must be torn into shreds. That is what we may have to do to save our country from the deceptive tendencies of a party like the APC.

Were brought up on board on its platform, but that platform is presently unsuitable for our type of dreams for a prosperous democracy. Whatever sacrifices we make in moving out of the APC is worthwhile, and there are no regrets.

Are you likely defecting to the PDP?

Where we are defecting to may not be too important now but you can read our body languages to know the likely party we are moving to. The wind is already blowing and some of us have not hidden our destination.

Our people at home, on whose behalves we are moving, have already pitched camps, awaiting our formal pronouncement to that effect. We have been consulting, we have been approached and in a matter of days, you will know our position on that.

One thing I can confirm to you again is that we are moving with our leader, Senator Ali Sheriff out of the APC, and no amount of dissuasion can stop that. We will fight the APC in 2015 that I can also confirm to you and no amount of grandstanding can stop us.

We shall work to ensure democratic ethos, and degree of manipulation can stop Nigeria’s march to greatness. It is a matter of time and you will see all that I have told you come to pass.

Should you defect to the PDP as it is being speculated, you are likely to meet your long term political foes. How do you hope to address the issue of rejection from that end?

Even if we eventually end up in the PDP as you say public perception indicates, we are going with the firm belief that, there is no permanence in political rivalry. Those we fought against on the political pitch before remain our citizens and our own brothers.

We have been discussing with some of them, and past political rivalries did not even seem to be an issue, rather, we are committed to aligning forces with them to make maximum impact in future politics.

For the first time Borno is not going to be in opposition to the party at the centre. Political party membership is an open invitation to every Nigerian, so it is not possible for anybody to even reject an entrant.

Besides, Ali Sheriff and his supporters are going to be assets to the party. We are coming in with a whole structure to complement what is on ground. In Borno state in particular, they have never tasted the sweetness of government and we shall provide that opportunity.

We are going into the next level of the politics with a team spirit and we are determined to win as we have always won. Sheriff will be in the vanguard and we shall be the worthy foot soldiers.

As a member of the House of Representatives, are you aware that you need to vacate your seat in parliament if you defect?

If that is the ultimate sacrifice we have to make, so be it. But then, it depends upon the circumstances. The APC is embroiled in crisis, which has resulted into the defection by some of our leaders and we have sufficient justification to defect in such a circumstance.

Besides, the platform that brought us was not APC, it was the ANPP, and that party is now defunct. So even by virtue of the extinction of the ANPP, we are justified to look for alternative forums.