Mugabe to go on exile

President Robert Mugabe last night agreed to step down.
A new government is to be formed within 48 hours, a twitter handle claiming to be speaking on behalf of the provisional government of Zimbabwe said.
Mugabe will then proceed on exile to South Africa.
Fresh elections will be held in the spring of 2018 once order and peace have been established.

The likely presidential election date is April 18, 2018, Zimbabwe’s independence day.
“The structure of government will remain the same under the provisional government of Zimbabwe. However, the introduction of new posts, such as ‘prime minister’ are being negotiated. “The new, provisional government of Zimbabwe will be formed within the next 48 hours. It is likely that vice presidential posts will remain vacant.
“Comrade R.G Mugabe is not going to be prosecuted for his actions and crimes throughout his tenure as Prime Minister (1980–1987) and President of the republic (1987–2017). He has accepted H.E Jacob Zuma’s offer and will depart to South Africa after the resignation.
“Mugabe is currently negotiating with the Zimbabwe Defence Forces. The provisional government will soon address the nation to update you all with the current situation.”
Mugabe’s wife Grace and two key figures from her G40 political faction are under house arrest at Mugabe’s “Blue House” compound in Harare and are insisting the 93-year-old finishes his presidential term, a source said.
The G40 figures are cabinet ministers Jonathan Moyo and Saviour Kasukuwere, who fled to the compound after their homes were attacked by troops in Tuesday night’s coup, the source, who said he had spoken to people inside the compound, said.

Zimbabwean intelligence reports seen by Reuters suggest that former security chief Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was ousted as vice-president this month, has been mapping out a post-Mugabe vision with the military and opposition for more than a year.
Fuelling speculation that that plan might be rolling into action, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who has been receiving cancer treatment in Britain and South Africa, returned to Harare late on Wednesday, his spokesman said.
He urged President Mugabe to resign in the interest of the country.
“In the interest of the people, Robert Mugabe must resign and step down immediately,” Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, told a news conference, reading from a statement.
The opposition called for the intermediate installation of an interim government.
“At the moment the transitional government is the best way to go,” said Douglas Mwonzora, Secretary-General of Tsvangirai’s MDC-T party.
“We back the military move but the country should quickly go back a constitutional government.”
Armoured vehicles that were stationed at key government buildings during the political upheaval on Wednesday remained in place.
The soldiers appeared relaxed, even smiling and chatting with onlookers.
Most people were going about their daily business and children went to school.
Special envoys sent by South African President Jacob Zuma were holding discussions on Mugabe’s fate with Zimbabwe’s leaders.
Officials from the Southern African Development Community were also meeting in Botswana’s capital Gaborone yesterday to discuss the situation in Zimbabwe.
“What is needed is an inclusive government to run the affairs of Zimbabwe until a time it is right to have elections,” said Didymus Mutasa, a long-time minister in Mugabe’s government, who was fired in 2014 for backing Joice Mujuru as the president’s successor.
Jacob Mafume, a spokesman of the People’s Democratic Party led by Tendai Biti, said that any interim government “should be inclusive of all the stakeholders, including the church and all parties.”
While the army has said Mugabe is safe, there were mixed reports in the media about his wife Grace Mugabe’s whereabouts, with some saying she had fled the country.
Speculation had been growing before the coup that 52-year-old Grace was preparing to take over from her husband.
The potential ascendency appears to have faced resistance from senior military officials.

There was an uneasy calm on the streets of Harare, after initial jubilation on Wednesday when the army announced it had seized control from Mugabe.

2018 budget: Govt votes N1b for State House Clinic

No details of National Assembly’s N125b
The Executive has proposed to spend N1,030,458,453 on the State House Clinic under the Presidency’s total estimate of N51,445,678,808 in the 2018 Budget proposal.
The clinic came under focus recently when the President’s wife, Hajia Aisha Buhari, criticised it for being without “ordinary syringe” and unable to treat anyone.
The breakdown of the State House Medical Centre’s expenditure includes the proposed allocation of N408 million for medical equipment, N146 million for the completion of the dental wing’s extension and N120 million for construction of two blocks of 24 units three bedroom flats.

The National Assembly is expected to begin the screening of the budget next week. Approval is likely to be end of the year so as to return the country to the January-December budget cycle.
The details of the National Assembly’s N125 billion estimate remain undisclosed. That has been the case since 1999 in spite of the leadership’s transparency promise.
Some expenditure to be undertaken at the Presidency include N145 million for food stuff / catering materials supplies, N165 million for maintenance of motor vehicle / transport equipment, N132 million on fuel & lubricants, N67 million for vehicles’ fuel, N45 million for generator fuel, N18 million on gas, N135,668,651 on refreshment & meals while honorarium & sitting allowance is to take N478,313,996.
Also, ongoing rehabilitation work on the Presidency’s animal enclosure and procurement of its veterinary  lab equipment is to cost N12,489,655, upgrade of the presidential villa ranch and construction of wildlife mini-zoo is proposed at a cost of N28,908,625 while N24 million is for local flowers’ nursery, irrigation and upgrade of a helipad grass field.
Also, annual routine maintenance of mechanical/electrical installations at the Presidential villa is proposed for N4,860,392,146, outstanding liabilities on routine maintenance and other services for 2016 is allocated N565. 6 million while N83. 7 million is allocated for the purchase of tyres for bullet proof vehicles, trucks, jeeps, ambulance and other utility vehicles.
The routine maintenance of State House Lagos facilities (Dodan Barracks, VP Residence/Guest Houses at Ikoyi) is to be undertaken at a cost of N145,869,150 under the 2018 national budget.

Also proposed is over N25.5 billion to be spent on surveillance activities across the country.
Nigeria will be strengthening its security architecture with some high tech surveillance infrastructure in 2018.
In the vanguard of this intense surveillance operation is the Directorate of State Security Service (DSS) that plans to purchase a social media minning suite for N2,213,456,360.
Also in 2018, the DSS has proposed to spend N 1,006,200,000 on surveillance drones with precision camera and IMSI payload capabilities.

Soldiers chased weapon-laden truck into Kanu’s home, says Buratai

•Court hears case on Kanu’s whereabouts
Soldiers chased a truck laden with weapons into a house said to belong to the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu’s father   in Afara-Ukwu Ibeku, Umuahia, Abia State, on September 14, Chief of Army Staff Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai has said.
Gen. Buratai said owners of the truck detonated the explosives on the day Kanu was last seen in public.
He said the suspects’ intention was to frustrate the move to arrest them by the troops

Gen, Buratai stated these in a counter-affidavit he filed in reaction to a suit before the Federal High Court in Abuja in Kanu’s name by his lawyer Ifeanyi Ejiofor.
The suit seeks, among others, an order to compel Gen. Buratai, listed as defendant, to produce the IPOB leader, who the plaintiff claimed was in the custody of the military.
IPOB claimed, in the suit filed shortly after Kanu went missing, that the soldiers, who allegedly invaded his father’s house on September 14, took him away.
But, in the counter-affidavit deposed to on his behalf by Col. A.A Yusuf, attached to the COAS’s office at the Army Headquarters, Abuja, Gen. Buratai denied the plaintiff’s claim. He said the soldiers had no contact with Kanu
He said: during “a peaceful movement” which was part of the “Operation Python Dance II” on September 14, some soldiers saw a truck and flagged it down, but the truck and its occupants ran over Army’s barricade and defied soldiers’ order stopping them to be searched.
He said the soldiers pursued the fleeing truck, loaded with arms and ammunition, into a compound.

Buratai said the compound turned out to be the one Kanu later claimed, in the suit, to belong to him and his father.
He said soldiers, who pursued the truck into Kanu’s father’s  house, did not fire any shot but that the occupants of the fleeing truck deliberately ignited the ammunition in the truck.
“It was the legitimate attempt by the officers and men of the Nigerian Army to arrest the fleeing occupants of the truck and impound the truck that precipitated the deliberate igniting of the ammunition in the truck by persons now believed to be IPOB members.
“The act of the IPOB members resulted in sporadic explosions within the said applicant’s compound.
“The applicant (Kanu) is not and has neither being in our custody nor in the custody of any person, officer or institution receiving instruction directly or indirectly from him.
“The applicant was not at any time whatsoever arrested, taken into custody or detained by the Officers and men of the Nigerian Army.
“The officers and men of the Nigerian Army did not have any contact whatsoever or confrontation or any operational engagement with the applicant on September 12 or 14, 20l7 or any other date thereafter, contrary to the  allegations in the affidavit in support of the  application.
“The allegation of invasion of the South-Eastern part of Nigeria by officers and men of the Nigerian Army, especially the applicant’s home and or residence is totally false,” the COAS said.
He added that his men, acting in compliance with “approved Rules of Engagement and Code of Conduct which prohibit any form of human right abuses” did not kill scores of people during the military operation in the South East as alleged in the suit.
“The allegations of firing of live bullets on the applicant’s relatives, killing of scores of persons, wounding and arrest of many, attack and invasion of applicant’s home, barricade at Isialangwa, arrest and torture of civilians by officers and me of the Nigerian Army, as stated by the deponent, are a figment of his imagination as same are not true,” he said.

The case is expected to come up today for hearing before Justice Binta Nyako.