*PFN warns governor against licensing preachers
After demolishing large swaths of illegal structures in Zaria and Kaduna towns, with much more marked for further removal, many residents of Kaduna city are on edge, with the passage into law last week of an executive bill that legalises the pulling down of structures in Kaduna deemed to stand against the city’s envisaged Masterplan.
Simultaneously, Rev. Dr. Godwin Madu, Chairman of the PFN in Enugu State, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to call Governor Nasir El-Rufai to order as his move to licence religious preachers in the state is capable of throwing the entire country into chaos.
It is not clear when the new Kaduna Masterplan will come into being but Kaduna, being a colonial town, already has a Masterplan.
Already, many property in high brow and lowly residential and commercial areas in Kaduna town inhabited for decades, have been marked for demolition by the Kaduna State Urban Planning Development Authority (KASUPDA), for violation of extant building regulations, though many said they had official permission to build.
Gbagyi Villa is an old suburb of Kaduna, occupied by mainly middle class working families and senior retired civil servants.
It is estimated that there are over 1,200 homes there, and the area had been served demolition notices by the state government, after most of its structures were marked “illegal” about three weeks ago.
The notice expired last Monday.
“The new law is seen as an instrument that serves as a defence against all the lawsuits instituted by individuals and groups against the present government, seeking for compensation on destroyed property or restraining it from further destruction of marked ones,” said Barrister Gandu Idris of Idris and Co. Chambers in Kaduna.
Licence for religious preachers: PFN asks Buhari to caution El-Rufai
The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) has sent a petition to President Muhammadu Buhari over the bill seeking to license religious preachers in Kaduna State.
In a statement Wednesday in Enugu, Chairman of the PFN in the State, Rev. Dr. Godwin Madu urged President Muhammadu Buhari to call Governor Nasir El-Rufai to order as his move to licence religious preachers is capable of throwing the country into chaos.
According to Madu, “The situation in Kaduna State today calls for caution because this religious issue may bring problem in other states if not properly checked.
“The licensing of preachers is not in the best interest of the nation and it is contrary to the Constitution of the country.
“Are we being forced to have two countries in Nigeria or two constitutions? Mr President should intervene in this matter. Let there be caution and proper understanding between government, leaders and religious leaders; let us stop anything that will not make for peace.”
On the planned establishment of grazing reserves across the 36 states of the Federation, the PFN said it was a veiled plan to Islamise the country.
He said, “We frown at the impending doom that may befall the nation if Mr. President fails to check the incessant attempts to Islamise the states.
“We request the National Assembly not to consider such a bill; let the sponsors of such bill desist from it.
“The nature of attacks on the host communities of the Fulani herdsmen is so damaging; how can a grazing field be given to them whereas it is the cause of crisis in several cities across the country?”
The group, decrying the cases of rape, murder and arson linked to herdsmen, called on security agencies to rise in defence of helpless citizens, “whose farms are being damaged, their wives and daughters raped and murdered”.
-Vanguard/Leadership
