Crime Facts

Favouring some while frustrating others will ruin this nation, Umar tells Buhari

Colonel Abubakar Dangiwa Umar (rtd) was the military governor of Kaduna State under the General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (Rtd) military regime. Umar who is a public commentator on national issues has written an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari urging him to address the issues of ethno-religious bias in his administration with the potentials of destroying the peace and stability of the nation. The letter was released on Sunday. The letter is reproduced hereunder : OPEN LETTER FROM COL. DANGIWA UMAR (RTD)  TO PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI Muhammadu Buhari,                                                         Sunday 31st May, 2020 President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Federal Republic of Nigeria. Dear Mr. President, PRESIDENT; PLEASE BELONG TO ALL OF US. “One of the swiftest ways of destroying a Kingdom is to give preference of one particular tribe over another or show favor to one group of people rather than another. And to draw near those who should be kept away and keep away those who should be drawn near” Sheikh Usman Dan Fodio. I have been prompted to write you this open letter, Mr. President, by the loud sounds of drums, singing and dancing that erupted within many groups in the last few days on the grounds that you attained the 5th year in office as President of Nigeria. It comes as no surprise that enthusiasm for the celebration is not shared equally by segments of the public. While your admirers and supporters believe you have performed well, many others believe the five years you have been in office as our President has not met the yearnings, expectations and change promised Nigerians. Umar Mr. President, you know me well enough and my position on issues to realize that I can be neither a rabid supporter nor a fanatical opponent of yours. I believe being a responsible citizen is enough reason to wish you well and to work for your success. As we have seen all too clearly these past few years, your success is ours as is your failure. We swim or sink with you! You might wish to recall that after the results of the 23rd of February 2019 presidential elections were announced, giving you victory, I addressed a press conference during which I urged the runner-up, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, to concede defeat. The reason was clear: tensions   were running high and little missteps by the leaders might ignite violence, as often happened after major elections. Some supporters of Abubakar Atiku disagreed with me and told me off. As it happened, Alhaji Atiku went ahead to mount a legal challenge to the outcome of the elections up to the Supreme Court. Mercifully, his actions did not result in an outbreak of violence as we feared. At the same occasion, I counselled the declared winner, your good self, to use the opportunity of your second term to redeem your pledge of being a leader and president of all Nigerians. On the occasion of the first-year anniversary into your second four-year term, I feel there is an urgent need to revisit this subject matter. Mr. President, you have often expressed the hope that history will be kind to you. It is within your competence to write that history. But you have less than three years in which to do it. You may wish to note that any authentic history must be devoid of myth. It will be a true, factual rendition of the record of your performance. And truth be told, Mr. President, there are quite a lot of things that speak to your remarkable accomplishments, not least of which is that for the first time in our democratic history, a sitting President was defeated. That feat was achieved by Muhammadu Buhari. The reason was the public belief of you as a man of integrity. The corollary to this is that at the expiration of your 8-year tenure in 2023, your achievements will not be measured solely by the physical infrastructure your administration built. An enduring legacy would be based on those intangible things like how much you uplifted the spirit and moral tone of the nation. How well have you secured the nation from ourselves and from external enemies? At this time and in the light of all that have happened since you took office, any conversation with you Mr. President cannot gloss over the chaos that has overtaken appointments into government offices in your administration. All those who wish you and the country well must mince no words in warning you that Nigeria has become dangerously polarized and risk sliding into crisis on account of your administration’s lopsided appointments which continues to give undue preference to some sections of the country over others. Nowhere is this more glaring than in the leadership cadre of our security services. Mr. President, I regret that there are no kind or gentle words to tell you that your skewed appointments into the offices of the federal government, favoring some and frustrating others, shall bring ruin and destruction to this nation. I need not remind you, Mr. President, that our political history is replete with great acts of exemplary leadership which, at critical moments, managed to pull this nation back from the precipice and assured its continued existence. A few examples will demonstrate this: In February, 1965, the NPC-led Federal Government was faced with a decision to appoint a successor to the outgoing Nigerian Army General Officer Commanding (GOC), General Welby Everard, a Briton. Four most senior officers were nominated; namely, Brigadiers Aguiyi Ironsi, Ogundipe, Ademulegun and Maimalari. The first three were senior to Maimalari but he was deemed to be more qualified due to his superior commission. He was the first Sandhurst Regular trained officer in the Nigerian Army. His being a Muslim Northerner like the Minister of Defense, Alhaji Muhammadu Ribadu and the Prime Minister, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa granted him added advantage by today’s standards. But to the surprise of even the Igbos, and opposition from some senior NPC members, Minister Ribadu recommended Ironsi, pointing to his

Mr. President, what would the Buhari legacy be?

By Jibrin Ibrahim Today is the anniversary of President Buhari’s fifth year in power and he has three more years to go before retiring to Daura to take care of his cows. In another year or two, the campaign for 2023 will take over the attention of the political class and governance would stop. This means the president has less than two years to leave his legacy, from a eight-year rule. One of the problems the president has been facing is the mediocrity of his communications team, which has been unable to explain to the people what the president has really been doing. Members of the team are in the media continuously attacking all those who have been attacking the president, and I concede that as part of their day job. What they have not succeeded in doing is communicating the priorities and achievements of the administration, so that data is provided to the people on the evidence by which citizens can assess the regime. As the countdown commences, President Buhari has to reflect on what he has done with power and how he can communicate his legacy to citizens. I still remember that just before the beginning of the administration five years ago, the All Progressives Congress Policy Directorate held a major conference in preparation for the implementation of their strategy of “hitting the ground running” as soon as their party took over power. The buzz at the conference was that major policy decisions, especially politically difficult ones, must be made immediately and quick-wins obtained by the end of the first hundred days in office. The idea was that by riding on the crest of a newly acquired legitimacy and popularity, significant gains could be made before expected criticisms begin to affect the credibility of the government. The underlying assumption was that all new regimes coming into power in a context of very high expectation, start losing their popularity on assuming office, even if for the sole reason that people’s expectations are unreasonably high. President Buhari rejected the road map of hitting the ground running and did not start constituting his governance team until after five months. Years later, he explained to Nigerians that he was aware that people were calling him “Baba Go Slow” but they should understand that being older and wiser, he had decided to reflect and consider before taking executive decisions. I have said it repeatedly that the president was wrong to have thought that he had a lot of time; four years plus another four is a very short period and his team was right to have advised him to move fast. Today, the issue is with the countdown clock ticking; can he move fast enough to leave a respectable legacy of his leadership? This is difficult because his style of delayed action has led to the development of a body of critical opinion that paint him in a very negative light, leading many to assume nothing positive can come from his administration. Therein lies the opportunity, as a believer in miracles; I feel that if “Baba Go Slow” can transform into “Action Baba”, he might still save the day. One legacy Nigerians have been crying for four decades is the improvement of power supply, the requirement for rapid development. I doubt that there is any country in the world that has invested as much as we have in power and yet we have nothing to show for it. In 2015, I wrote a number of articles on this column urging the president to prioritise the implementation of the 2012 Oronsanye Report on restructuring and rationalising federal parastatals, so as to reduce the cost of governance through mergers and dissolution of parastatals with cross-cutting mandates. It was one of the low hanging fruits he could have harvested because the reality is that there are many more parastatals than what could be funded to do their work, leaving the country with the wasteful legacy of tens of thousands of top civil servants who are paid but have no work to do. The president took no action until a couple of weeks ago when the project was resurrected. Meanwhile, the situation is today much more serious because the Eighth Senate, which ran between 2015 and 2019, considered 213 establishment bills for the creation of new federal agencies, and currently the Ninth National Assembly is already considering over 100 bills for the creation of new agencies. The mood in the National Assembly is that each legislator creates a new federal agency for his/her constituency. It is important that the president convinces them to give up their individual “pet” projects and act in concert with the executive to restructure and merge the 102 agencies identified in the Report. The most important legacy the president should leave is an improvement of the security situation in the country. The expectation of Nigerians was that Boko Haram would be vanquished within the first year or two of his presidency. It did not happen. For over ten years now, the insurgency has endured and become entrenched as an existing reality, while the security agencies appear to have been at their wits end all through. There has been some progress over the past couple of weeks but Nigerians are still waiting for the decisive victory. Meanwhile, under President Buhari’s watch, farmer-herder conflicts blossomed into rural banditry, which has developed into a major challenge in many states in the country. Today, peasant farmers are regularly attacked and massacred by armed bandits and many can no longer farm and feed their families. Another, dimension of the crisis is the spread of kidnapping for ransom, which is rapidly becoming the money-making occupation for the unemployed youth. The problem today, as SBM Intelligence explained in a recent study, is that between January 2016 and March 2020, kidnapping gangs have made over $11 million, in addition to killing hundreds of their captives. The 100 million poor, hungry and angry youth are waking up to the fact that

Community Policing: South-East Governors, IGP settle rift

Southeast Governors and other Igbo leaders, yesterday settled their rift with the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu over the modalities for Community Policing planned for the region. Chairman of Southeast Governors Forum, and Governor of Ebonyi state, Chief Dave Umahi stated this after a virtual meeting of the governors and Igbo leaders  with the IGP. Among those in attendance in the the virtual meeting were the Ohaneze Ndigbo Chairman, Nnia  Nwodo,  Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, Jim Nwobodo, Traditional Rulers, General Obi Umahi(rtd) amongst others. The Governors had on Sunday rejected a proposed template for setting up community Policing in the South-East zone. The governors, at the Sunday meeting in Énugu, expressed disappointment with  Adamu for reneging on an earlier agreement they had with the police on the practice and composition of community policing for the region They also asked the five state Houses of Assembly in the region to commence enactment of state security laws that would  give legal backing to the establishment of a regional security outfit in line with its joint security programme for the zone. But after the virtual meeting on Wednesday, which also had other Leaders and stakeholders from the region in attendance, the Governors and the Inspector-General of Police  resolved their differences and agreed to forge ahead on community policing in south east. Speaking in Abakaliki after the meeting, Umahi blamed the Commissioners of Police in the region for the disagreement. “The meeting centred on the communiqué we issued after our Sunday meeting of Governors of Southeast at Enugu. “We the governors of Southeast and our leaders, were the first to accept community policing because of the beautiful ingredients of the community policing the IGP explained to us when we had the meeting at Enugu. “We saw that the idea in the policy would assist us and so when the CPs made a mistake by going to do the composition by themselves and asked the governors to inaugurate, we felt that something was wrong somewhere and we had to contact IGP”. “The IGP agreed today that the CPs made a mistake, and that anyone that had gone ahead to do the selection process made a mistake. That it was entirely for the governors and stakeholders to sit down and do the selection. “Today, we met again, discussed and reached an agreement”, Umahi said. The Governor said the  IGP agreed with the position of the governors that the various community security apparatus already in existence at the local government and community levels be included in the new scheme. “The IGP said we should give him those selected and the Police will train them they will then do the community policing and of course the Advisory Committee is to be headed by the Traditional Rulers of the various communities with some selected stakeholders as members” “This is at the community level and this is acceptable to the governors of South-East and leaders”, Umahi said. Umahi said the meeting unanimously agreed that there will be a local government advisory committee to be headed by the local government Chairman at each local government area. “The membership includes all the DPOs and heads of other security agencies, the traditional rulers in each local government and other stakeholders”  Umahi said that at the state level the governor, the security chiefs, traditional rulers council chairmen, selected stakeholders and interest groups will be members of the Advisory Committee. “This is what we have agreed and we also agreed that the states will implement theirs and inaugurate in their various states. When next we meet at Enugu, we will harmonize our views in line with these agreements we reached”, he said. The Governors, according to Umahi also agreed that each state should pass a similar law which will be called SouthEast security law based on the guidelines agreed at the meeting. Source: New Telegraph

Imo lawmaker’s thugs batter journalist

.By Jennifer John A journalist and publisher of Newsfield Magazine/Newspapers, Mr Finian Chucks was on Thursday manhandled beaten up in Owerri, the Imo State capital by men said to be loyal to the member representing Obowo in Imo State House of Assembly, Hon. Kennedy Ibe. Our correspondent understands that Ibe and Chuks who was once his media aide have been having a running battle over their previous association. The present problem was said to have arisen from a story published by Chuks in his Magazine/Newspaper in which Ibe was accused of being behind the running battle between the Speaker of Imo State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon Chiji Collins and a former member of the House, Hon Lawman Duruji which has largely scandalised the Speaker. Ibe was said to have seen the publication as malicious and injurious to his person. The publisher, Chuks who claimed to have been getting threat messages from Kennedy Ibe narrated how the alleged thugs of Ibe, led by one Innocent Okoro on sighting him at the Imo State All Progressive Congress (APC) office where he had gone to cover the decamping of some PDP members to the APC, grabbed him, took his handset, smashed it on the ground while brutally beating him to stupor.  Chuks told our correspondent that multiple injuries were inflicted on his body. “This is exactly the same thing I wrote in my publications, that Kennedy Ibe is a violent man who harbours thugs. The record of the people he recently sent to kill me has been electronically documented and my people recorded it. He said they should gun me down. It was captured and the record has been sent to the State Security Service. “I call on the Governor of the State, Senator Hope Uzodinma to please intervene in this, my life is in danger.  “Does it mean that we cannot report the happenings in our society or tell people to amend their ways. This assault his usual antics deployed to shut public scrutiny of his questionable antecedents”.

COVID-19: 25 new cases ascribed to Imo, not resident in the state – Iwu

By Jennifer John The Imo State action Committee on Covid 19, led by Prof. Maurice Iwu has given further insight into the reported 26 new cases of Coronavirus in the state. Briefing newsmen on Tuesday May 26, Prof Iwu informed that the new cases were diagnosed from 96 passengers who were on transit through the state and whose samples were taking, tested and 25 returned positive, even when they were allowed to continue their journey to their destination. He said only one of the positive case, the 26th person stayed back in Imo and currently in isolation while the committee have notified authorities in the areas where the 25 positive ones were traveling to. He described them as silent spreaders who do not know they were carrying the virus, a situation he described as very dangerous as they easily spread the virus without also knowing. The action committee chairman frowned seriously at the flouting of the federal government approved ban on inter state movements and warned that henceforth jail terms await people who trespass into the state. Responding to a question why the 25 cases should be ascribed to Imo when they did not stay back in Imo, he said, “Because the samples were taking from here and belongs to the state. That is why we should not allow them to trespass into the state, this is the first and last time that such thing should be allowed to happen”. On the issue of Policemen who intercepted them, he said their samples have been talking for testing to find out if any of them were infected.

Imo:Ihedioha’s former aide dumps PDP, may join Uzodinma in APC

Following the gale of defections that has hit the Imo state chapter of the People Democratic Party(PDP), the former Senior Special Assistant to the immediate past governor of the state, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, on Public Enlightenment, Prince Eze Ugochukwu may have joined the list of decampees to the All Progressive Congress (APC).  His exit from the party came less than a week after the State Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Imo state chapter, Hon. Damian Opara left the party for the All Progressive Congress (APC).  Though Prince Ugochukwu had through a statement released by his media aide, Alvan Chinaka, announced his resignation from the PDP, he however did state his next political destination.  He simply noted that after more than a decade of diligent and committed  service to the PDP that it was time to pull out and ‘heal’.  The statement read in part: “I hereby announce my resignation from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Imo State. “My resignation is to allow myself heal after many years of active and selfless service to the PDP.”  Prince Eze Ugochukwu who was popularly known as ‘warlord’ (Ochiwar), had for the greater part of a decade been the Director General of the PDP Senatorial Campaign in Imo West.  It will be recalled that few days ago also, the State Youth Leader of the PDP, Comrade Aburi Williams Chibueze Ahanonu also resigned his membership of the party for the ruling APC.  Also in the defection train is the State Assistant Financial Secretary, Hon M. I Okedu who also dumped the PDP for APC recently. Source: New Telegraph

“Tracking Rwandan fugitive, Felicien Kabuga, was risky business”

On May 16, an 84-year-old Rwandan by the name of Felicien Kabuga was arrested from a flat in Asnieres-sur-Seine, on the outskirts of Paris. He had been on the run for 26 years. The Hutu businessman was once one of Rwanda’s wealthiest people. He stands accused of funding militias that massacred at least 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus during the course of 100 days in 1994. Al Jazeera reports that Kabuga was also a co-founder of Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), a radio station that many believe played a significant role in inciting the genocide. The station regularly referred to Tutsis as “cockroaches” and, once the genocide had begun, broadcast the names of people to be killed and information on where they could be found. In 1997, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), an international court established by the United Nations Security Council to judge people responsible for the genocide, indicted Kabuga on seven criminal charges including genocide. But the ICTR, which had been located in Arusha, Tanzania, was closed at the end of 2015. It had concluded 55 cases. After its closure, the ICTR’s responsibilities were transferred to the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT). Hassan Bubacar Jallow was the chief prosecutor of the ICTR from 2003 to 2015. From 2012 to 2016, he was also the prosecutor of the IRMCT. He is currently the chief justice of the Gambia. Bubacar Jallow spoke to Al Jazeera about the significance of Kabuga’s arrest. Al Jazeera: At what point did you first become aware of Felicien Kabuga? Hassan Bubacar Jallow: He came to our attention very early on in my mandate for a number of reasons. He was a big fish because of his involvement in the establishment of the RTLM and his involvement in the purchase and distribution of arms. He was certainly one of our top fugitives. Al Jazeera: How far were you able to get with your investigation into Kabuga? Bubacar Jallow: By the time I left the ICTR, we had gone very far. The case had been very well investigated. The indictment had been confirmed. We had witnesses testifying before a single judge as part of the rules for preservation of evidence in case Kabuga was arrested at a time when the witnesses were no longer available, whether because they had died or for some other reason. By 2014, we had referred the case to the new mechanism, the IRMCT. Al Jazeera: Did you know where Kabuga was? Bubacar Jallow: We had clear evidence that he left Rwanda after the genocide and had gone to Kenya. We had immigration records to confirm that. His bank accounts in Kenya confirmed that. The evidence showed that he went to Nairobi and he was granted a visa. We had been advised by the Kenyans that he had left the country at some point. We became aware of this quite late in 2012. But there was no information on where he went and in which direction he had gone. So we continued to look for him in Kenya and other places such as Europe. We also looked for him in Central Africa. After 2004, we changed the strategy of the tracking team and we spent a lot of time looking around in countries where we suspected the fugitives could be. Our tracking team went to Kenya many times. Al Jazeera: Had Kabuga travelled to Kenya under his own name? Bubacar Jallow: The visa to go to Kenya in 1994 was under his own name. In 1994, many of the Rwandan fugitives did not think it was necessary to change their names. A dozen or more of the accused went to Kenya. We carried out an investigation in Nairobi called Operation NAKI. Many of the fugitives were arrested and transferred to Arusha for trial. It was only Kabuga who escaped arrest at that time. Al Jazeera: Who else was looking for him? Bubacar Jallow: The ICTR worked hand in hand with Interpol in tracking the fugitives. It was mainly our tracking team that was working on the case. The tracking team really work very hard. They were on the ground. They develop sources and informers and so on. Its a dangerous, risky business. They remain anonymous of course. Al Jazeera: Has the ICTR tracking team found other fugitives? Bubacar Jallow: We indicted 93 accused. All of them had left Rwanda. The tracking team had located all but about six of them. Kabuga was one of two that were still outstanding. The former commander of the presidential guard at the time, Protais Mpiranya, was the other. Al Jazeera: The United States had put a $5m reward on Kabuga’s head. How did that work? Bubacar Jallow: It is part of their policy to help the cause of international criminal justice. They set up the Rewards for Justice programme. It was very helpful. It encouraged a lot of people to come forward with information which led to the arrest of many fugitives. Al Jazeera: How do countries get word that a fugitive might be attempting to flee? Bubacar Jallow: Once the ICTR indicted a person, it issued an arrest warrant directed at all member states. The warrants were directed at all countries to locate these persons and surrender them. Because the ICTR was established by the UN Security Council there was an obligation on all members of the UN to comply with these arrest warrants. Al Jazeera: Is there an element of unfinished business until all those who have so far evaded capture are caught and brought to justice? Bubacar Jallow: The ICTR indicted 93 fugitives. Most of them were arrested. The cases were transferred to Rwanda and Rwanda was tasked with tracking them, arresting them and bringing them to justice. Many of the indicted were tried, including a former prime minister, government ministers, media people and clergy. It was a gallery of very high profile genocidaires that the tribunal tried. Many of the victims I spoke to, as

Man murdered by siblings over money realized from mother’s burial

A former Director General of the Imo Broadcasting Corporation (IBC), Mr. T.C. Okere, aged 86, has allegedly stabbed his wife to death. Okere who is largely believed to be mentally unstable allegedly killed his wife Monday morning, in Imerienwe community, Ngor Okpala Council Area of Imo State. The deceased, 77 was a retiree of the Imo State Polytechnic, Umuagwo. Though the Imo State Police Public Relations Officer, Orlando Ikeokwu confirmed the incident, He however did not give details of the incident. The police spokesman also informed that the octagenarian has been arrested and is still in custody. Community sources informed that ‘Pa Okere was suffering an advanced stage of dementia’ and was not even aware that his wife was dead. He noted that Okere’s health status was public knowledge to members of their community. “When he was asked about his wife, he said his wife was sleeping. In the same way, Pa Okere had only recently gone to church to announce that his car was missing forgetting that he left his car in the house. Ultimately, he was mentally unstable and efforts to get him medical help was thwarted by the COVID-19 lockdown”, the source said.

Alleged ‘mentally unstable’ octogenarian stabs wife to death

A former Director General of the Imo Broadcasting Corporation (IBC), Mr. T.C. Okere, aged 86, has allegedly stabbed his wife to death. Okere who is largely believed to be mentally unstable allegedly killed his wife Monday morning, in Imerienwe community, Ngor Okpala Council Area of Imo State. The deceased, 77 was a retiree of the Imo State Polytechnic, Umuagwo. Though the Imo State Police Public Relations Officer, Orlando Ikeokwu confirmed the incident, He however did not give details of the incident. The police spokesman also informed that the octagenarian has been arrested and is still in custody. Community sources informed that ‘Pa Okere was suffering an advanced stage of dementia’ and was not even aware that his wife was dead. He noted that Okere’s health status was public knowledge to members of their community. “When he was asked about his wife, he said his wife was sleeping. In the same way, Pa Okere had only recently gone to church to announce that his car was missing forgetting that he left his car in the house. Ultimately, he was mentally unstable and efforts to get him medical help was thwarted by the COVID-19 lockdown”, the source said.

Imo: Activist wants EFCC to recover pensions paid to ex-Speakers, their deputies

…ex-Governors’ pension restored Following last Friday’s abrogation of the law that empowered former governors, their deputies, former Speakers and their deputies to receive pension and gratuity, reactions have continued to trail the legislative action. Reacting to the development also, a constitutional democracy activist and Executive Director of Legislative Watch, Hon. Ngozika Ihuoma called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to go after former Speakers and former Deputy Speakers of the Imo State House of Assembly and recover every pension paid to them. On the removal of pension for former Governors and their deputies, Ihuoma differed with the Imo State House of Assembly. He argued that the right to enact a pension law for former Governors and former Deputy Governors was captured vividly in the 1999 constitution, as amended, and as such, should be reinstated. As for the ex-Speakers and ex-Deputy Speakers, Ihuoma maintained that they were not captured or covered by any constitutional provision. He said the lawmakers merely conspired against the state and included themselves, perhaps, as a condition for passing the pension law for former governors and their deputies. Ihuoma said: “I can tell you as a matter of law, that the ex-Speakers and the ex-Deputy Speakers are not covered by Section 124 (5) of the 1999 constitution, as amended, which listed ex-Governors, their deputies and other categories of workers as eligible for pension. Having collected 300% of their annual basic salary as severance package approved by RMAFC, it is fraudulent to include themselves in a constitutional incentive intended to encourage serving governors and their deputies to offer the people honourable and selfless service. That the Imo State House of Assembly had to enact the law in accordance with guidelines from the RMAFC does not permit them to include the former Speakers and their deputies in the law.” Ihuoma stressed that the governors and deputy governors are the symbol and image of a state and cannot be seen to be wallowing in poverty after serving out their tenures meritoriously. He continued, “Beyond that the constitutional provision explicit in Section 124(5) that, ‘Provisions may be made by a law of a House of Assembly for the grant of pension or gratuity to or in respect of a person who has held office as Governor of Deputy Governor and was not removed from office as a result of impeachment; and any pension granted by virtue of any provision made in pursuance of this subsection shall be a charge upon the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the state.’ “Consequent upon that, it is my informed opinion that Governor Hope Uzodinma and the Imo state House of Assembly will do well to quickly restore the pensions provision for former governors and their deputies.”