President Buhari Heads to South Africa for AU Summit after receiving Joda Report

The Transition Committee led by Ahmed Joda on Friday at the Defence House, Abuja finally submitted an 800-page report to President Muhammed Buhari.

The President is expected to leave for South Africa today for the 25th African Union (AU) Summit in Johannesburg.

Also, Buhari assured that his government would closely study the report released recently by Amnesty International (AI), which indicted top ranking officers of the Nigerian military of gross abuse of human rights.

Speaking to State House correspondents after the submission of the report, Joda said: "For about five weeks, we went through memorandum, listening to presentations from all over this country.

"Today, we submitted about 800 pages of the report to Mr. President. It is now his property and I believe in due course, he will begin to act on it."

On the report that the submission of the report delayed political appointments, he said: “One of the terms of references for our committee is to receive the handover note of President Jonathan and this we did not receive until 25th of May after our inauguration. 

"We received the handover note on the 25th of May and that report was about 18,000 pages and it took time to even sort them out, make sense from them, read them, analyse them and come up with recommendations."

Joda noted that political appointments were entirely at the prerogative of the president, adding that Buhari will go through the report and understand the committee's recommendation.

He said he was of the opinion that the president deserved a little bit of more time.

"This is not an ordinary transfer of government from one President to the other. In this country, we have never witnessed this kind of transition from one political party to another; the political party in opposition won the election.

"Previous transition from one president to the other did not require long process like this. I think this is part of the evolution of democracy. The country has to be a little bit more patient. It cannot be with immediate effect."

President Buhari leaves for South Africa today…
Meanwhile, the President will leave for South Africa today for the 25th African Union (AU) Summit in Johannesburg.

This was contained in a statement issued by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina.

According to the statement, Buhari will be undertaking his first continental assignment since taking office by chairing the meeting of the Peace and Security Committee of the AU summit, which will hold today.
He will also be holding a number of bilateral meetings that will consolidate his ongoing drive to secure Nigeria and the neighboring countries from Boko Haram, the statement added.

The theme of this year's AU meeting is itself the issue of security. The president is expected to return to Nigeria Tuesday morning.

Buhari Promises to Take Action on Amnesty International Report….
The President friday assured that his government would closely study the report released recently by Amnesty International (AI), which indicted top ranking officers of the Nigerian military of gross abuse of human rights.

Buhari's assurance was contained in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu.

According to the statement, "the president is quite disturbed by the allegations contained in the report.

"The next step is to look into the allegations and confirm or disprove the disturbing details."

It added that Buhari had already determined that one of the first assignments of the incoming Attorney-General of the Federation would be to look into the Amnesty International report and advise the government on an appropriate course of action.

"This is in addition to the internal inquiry he asked the armed services to undertake by themselves," he stressed.

The statement noted that the president's commitment to human rights and his promise that there would be no human rights abuses under his government remains unshaken.

"Any allegation of human rights abuse that takes place during the tenure of President Buhari's government will be swiftly investigated and dealt with," the statement said.