The Minister of Transportation, Hon. Chibuike Amaechi, has said President Muhammadu Buhari will perform the groundbreaking ceremony for the Eastern rail corridor in the country’s ongoing railway modernisation on March 9.

Amaechi, while on an inspection tour to all the stations from Mobolaji Johnson Station at Ebute Metta to Ibadan station yesterday, also said Buhari had approved the redirecting of the Eastern line to two new spurs.

The minister, in a statement yesterday by the Director of Press of the ministry, Mr. Eric Ejiekwe, identified the two spurs as Abakaliki, Ebonyi State and Awka, Anambra State.

He added that the federal government has approved the commencement of the Port Harcourt – Kano rail project and is also negotiating loans for the Lagos-Calabar rail project.
On the take-off of the Ibadan-Kano rail project, Amaechi said the government was seeking approval for a loan to enable it to take off.

On the Lagos-Ibadan rail project, Amaechi stated that he had challenged Messrs. China Civil Engineering and Construction Company (CCECC) to deploy global acceptable safety and security standards for the project.

He directed that the central cooling system be installed in all the major train stations along the route.
Amaechi also urged the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to punish truck drivers who fail to comply with government’s directives when the rail end of the Apapa Port Spur line is completed.

He added that Buhari has specified the tonnage of cargo that should be allowed on the roads and the directive will be complied with.
According to him, the directive has not been implemented as there are no viable alternatives yet.

During the inspection, the minister took the train to the completed southward 8.72 kilometres of the Apapa Port Spur Line end of the Lagos-Ibadan rail line, where he expressed displeasure at the outrageous number of trucks parked on the rail tracks, making work difficult to complete.

The minister, therefore, directed the NPA to ensure that the trucks are moved out and that only registered trucks moving goods are allowed into the ports.

Parents and guardians of the abducted but now freed Government Science College, Kagara students in Niger State could not hide their joy as they were finally reunited with their children on Sunday.

Twenty-seven students and 15 staff members and their families were kidnapped and taken into hiding in the Allawa forests on February 17, but government secured their release from the clutches of their abductors 11 days later.

It was an emotional atmosphere as the parents embraced their children after they were released to them at the Niger State Development Company Hotel opposite the Government House in Minna where they were accommodated since Saturday during which medical examination and their profiling took place.

Some of the parents shed years of joy, while the students on their part laughed gleefully in the warm embrace of their parents.

The state Commissioner for Education, Hajiya Hannatu Salihu, was saddled with the responsibility of handing over the kids to their parents by Governor Abubakar Sani Bello.

In a brief remark, Salihu assured the parents and the school boys that government has taken a decision to secure all schools in the state to forestall a reoccurrence of the incident.

“Niger State Government will secure all its schools from criminal elements to allow students and pupils pursue their education,” Salihu said

She asked parents not to be discouraged by what had happened by stopping their wards from going to school, emphasizing that government has taken precaution to make the schools safe.

The commissioner also disclosed that arrangements have commenced to allow SS3 students, who are in boarding schools now closed by government, to write their final examination like other students.

“We are in contact with the SS3 students and working out how best we can help them so that they will write their exams, I am sure at the end of the day, we will come out with something productive for them,” she said.

She expressed gratitude to the parents for their patience during the trying period and urged them to remain strong and always trust in God.

Most of the parents spoken to expressed their readiness to return their children to the school when they are reopened.

The state government, as a precautionary measure, announced the closure of all boarding schools in Rafi, Mariga Shiroro and Munya Local Government Areas where banditry and kidnapping are high following the abduction of people from the Government Science College, Kagara.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and a human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), has condemned the arrest of Salisu Tanko-Yakasai, a former Special Adviser on Media to Kano State Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, who was arrested by the Department of State Services (DSS) shortly after criticising President Muhammadu Buhari on Twitter.

Falana, who is the Interim Chairman, Alliance on Surviving COVID-19 and Beyond (ASCAB), said this in a statement yesterday titled, ‘Asking Buhari to Resign is Not An Offence’.

The senior advocate said retired military officers and political party leaders, including chieftains of the All Progressive Congress (APC) have repeatedly asked Buhari to call it quits due to the worsening insecurity in the country, adding that there is no justification for the arrest and detention of Yakassai.

He noted that in the National Assembly, there had been calls by legislators for Buhari’s resignation or removal on the grounds that criminal gangs have taken over the monopoly of violence in the country.

Falana said, since such concerned citizens were never arrested, the harassment of Yakassai is high-handed, discriminatory, and illegal.

The statement read in part, “It is on record that the APC and its leaders including Buhari; National Leader, Bola Tinubu; Malam Nasir El-Rufai and Alhaji Lai Mohammed repeatedly called for former President Goodluck Jonathan’s resignation between 2013 and 2014 yet they were never subjected to any form of intimidation for exercising their freedom of expression at the material time.

“Since the call for President Buhari’s resignation is likely to continue to be made by other concerned individuals and groups over the virtual collapse of the security architecture of the neo-colonial state it is pertinent to draw the attention of the State Security Service to the case of Arthur Nwankwo v the State 1985 6 NCLR 228 where the Court of Appeal charged the Nigerian people to engage in relentless criticism of democratically elected governments”.

“In particular, Olajide Olatawura JCA (as he then was of blessed memory) had this to say: The decision of the founding fathers of the present constitution which guarantees freedom of speech which must include freedom to criticise should be praised and any attempt to derogate from it except as provided by the constitution must be resisted.”

The ASCAB chairman called for the immediate and unconditional release of Yakassai from illegal custody.

Meanwhile, the PDP has also asked for the immediate and unconditional release of Yakasai, son of elder statesman, Tanko Yakasai, from security custody.

The party in a statement by its spokesman, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan described the reported arrest of Salihu by security operatives as well as his alleged detention in a secret facility, just after his “criticism against the Buhari administration’s failures in the fight against banditry in our country”, as completely unacceptable.

“Salihu Yakasai’s ordeal is a sad reminder of the sudden disappearance of another known critic of the Buhari administration, Abubakar Idris, popularly known as Abu Hanifa Dadiyata, since August 2019.

“The PDP reminds agents of the APC-led administration that Nigeria is a democratic nation and that the rights of citizens, including their freedom of expression, within the ambit of the law, are firmly guaranteed in the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and as such, must be respected.

“Our party, therefore, rejects the arrest of Salihu Yakasai, for joining other patriotic Nigerians in demanding a Presidential commitment of decisive action to rescue the abducted Zamfara schoolgirls as well as to end all acts of terrorism in our country,” the opposition party stated.

The PDP also condemned the decision of the Governor of Kano State, Ganduje, in summarily relieving Yakasai of his appointment as his Special Adviser on media, on the ground that his patriotic demand for a decisive action to end terrorism, was contrary to the stand of the APC government.