Lawmakers from the south in the House of Representatives have endorsed the position of the Southern Governors’ Forum on the 2023 presidential election. The governors had after a meeting in Lagos, resolved to support 5% operation expenditure for host communities in the PIB, rotation of presidency to the south and others. The Senate passed a version of 3% operation expenditure, while the House passed 5%. The governors endorsed the House position. In a statement issued by Victor Nwokolo, the chairman of the southern reps caucus, the lawmakers backed the governors on those issues. “We note that the demand that the…
Author: Ifeanyi N.
Four members of the House of Representatives, who were elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), from Zamfara State on Tuesday defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC). They are Bello Hassan Shinkafi, Ahmed Bakura, Ahmed Shehu and Suleiman Gumi. The lawmakers cited the crisis within the PDP for their action. In a letter signed by Rep. Suleiman Gumi and read at plenary, they said they were leaving the opposition party because of the crisis which led to dissolution of the state chapter by the national leadership of the party. This comes after Governor of the State,…
As the Taliban stepped up attacks to gain control over Afghanistan in the wake of the withdrawal of the US troops, militant groups opposed to Pakistan and China have also increased their assaults, according to a media report. Amid the chaos, previously defeated insurgent groups with bones to pick against both Pakistan and China are once more on the rise, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which has been waging an insurgency against Pakistan for several years, has become active in tribal areas as well as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province with efforts to take control…
The All Progressive Congress (APC) in Abia State has expressed worries on the continued occupation of the office of the Speaker of Abia State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon Chinedum Orji, following his alleged involvement in the misappropriation of the Paris Club Refund currently being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Recall that the anti-graft commission had grilled Governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s former Commissioner of Finance, Mr.Obinna Oriaku. Oriaku revealed, in the course of the investigation, that ex-Abia governor, Theodore Orji’s government received the sum of N8.2 billion Paris Club Refund during his tenure without any record to…
Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara, on Monday, approved the reappointment of eight Special Advisers who were earlier relieved of their posts. This is contained in a statement issued in Gusau by Yakubu Haidara, Permanent Secretary, Cabinet Affairs, on behalf of the Acting Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Kabiru Balarabe Those reappointed included Aminu Abdullahi-Alkali, Sustainable Development Goals; Ahmed Muktar-Mohammed, Housing and Urban Development and Junaidu Aminu-Kaura, Judicial Service and Legal Matters. Others are Ibrahim Ma’aji-Gusau, Political Affairs and Inter Party Relations; Dr Aslam Aliyu, Skills Acquisition; Yusuf Abubakar-Zugu, Chieftaincy Affairs; Danyaro Abdullahi-Wuya, FADAMA III and Abubakar Musa (Mainera), Commodity Board.…
The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has rejected the position of the Southern governors that the South should produce the President come 2023. According to the Forum, the North would not be compelled into yielding a democratically elected office. The Northern Elders Forum through its Director of Publicity and Advocacy, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, observed that as far as the North was concerned, the idea that it would be indirectly threatened or intimidated or blackmailed into yielding an office which ought to be settled democratically is not acceptable. The NEF sees the decision of the southern governors as an expression of sentiment…
Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President, has said it is high time the President Buhari-led government began to live up to its responsibilities. The former Vice President said this while condemning the abduction of an unspecified number of students from Bethel Baptist High School, Damishi, Chikun local government area of the state, describing it as one too many. He stated that it is time to stop pretending that all is well with Nigeria and time for the government to perform its primary responsibility which is protecting lives. Atiku on his Twitter page wrote: “This is one abduction too many. We cannot…
Congress must act to restore fundamental voting rights after the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday backed voting restrictions in Arizona, U.S. President Joe Biden said, adding that legislative safeguards were needed to repair the damage and safeguard democracy. “The attack we are seeing today makes clearer than ever that additional laws are needed to safeguard that beating heart of our democracy,” Biden said in a statement. “Democracy is on the line.”
Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) has supported Southern governors’ position next president must emerge from the Southern part in 2023. InfoStride News earlier reported that the governors from Southern states of the country jointly agreed that its region must produce the next President. Sagay warned that zoning the presidency to the South in 2023 is the only way to avoid the country plunging into crisis. Speaking with newsmen, he said, “I agree absolutely with the South governors. That is the only way it has to be in a country like this. When…
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the National Assembly will pass the 2010 Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, 2021 already slated for final consideration next week. This was even as the leadership of the parliament denied taking any preconceived position in the amendment. The media was at the weekend awash with news that electronic transfer of results from the 8, 809 wards direct to the portal of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has been removed from provisions of the bill. The report made some of the civil society organisations put the telephone numbers of the presiding officers of the National Assembly on…
The Southern Governors Forum has kicked against the removal of electronic transmission of the election result from the electoral act. The Governors made this known in a meeting on Monday in Lagos State. The meeting was attended by Governor of Ondo State, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu Gov Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State, Gov Emmanuel Udom of Akwa Ibom State, Diri Duoye (Bayelsa), Willie Obiano (Anambra), Ben Ayade (Cross Rivers), Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta), Gov David Umahi of Ebonyi State, Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu), Gov Hope Uzodinma Imo State, Dapo Abiodun (Ogun), Adegboyega Oyetola (Osun), Oluwaseyi Makinde (Oyo), and Nyesom Wike (Rivers).…
Olasoji Adagunodo, the embattled former chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun has accused his successor, Sunday Bisi, as having no honour and a willing tool ready for the highest bidder. Adagunodo who took the swipe at Sunday Bisi expressed shock that he could still attempt to blackmail him despite the fact that some of his antics had been exposed. In an interview with journalists on Sunday in Osogbo, the state capital, the embattled former chairman maintained that Sunday Bisi is still the Publicity Secretary of the party having been elected on 25th March, 2018 with a four…
Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s former president, on Sunday announced his refusal to serve his 15-months prison sentence. On Tuesday, the 79-year-old former president was sentenced to 15 months in jail for contempt of court. Zuma, who ruled the country between 2009 and 2018, failed to comply with a court order to appear before the state commission and give evidence in a corruption inquiry. On Friday, Zuma filed an appeal where he asked the court to annul its decision calling the sentence he received “cruel and degrading.” “The sentence reminds our people of apartheid days, sending someone to jail without trial…
The Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has opened up on why he would not contest the 2023 presidency. El-Rufai said he would not contest due to his age. Speaking with BBC in Kaduna over the weekend, the governor said he cannot rule Nigeria at 62 because he is too old. He said Nigerians now see him in a bad light due to speculations that he would contest for the presidency. There has been speculation that El-Rufai was jostling for the presidency or the position of the Vice President in 2023. Dismissing the speculations, El-Rufai said ruling Nigeria would have effects…
A traditional ruler in Osun State, Olowu Of Owu-Kuta, Makama Oyelude has advised Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, to turn himself in for arrest and drop the agitation for the Yoruba Nation. The Department of State Services had declared Sunday Igboho wanted and asked him to surrender himself for arrest at any security agency after raiding his residence in Ibadan and killing two of his supporters. Fielding questions from journalists on Sunday, Oba Oyelude, who described rising agitations for secession in Southern Nigeria as “dead on arrival,” called on Adeyemo to leave his hideout and…
Former President Olusegun has debunked rumour making the rounds that he is planning to form a new political party ahead of the 2023 general elections. Obasanjo said on Monday that his attention was drawn to the unfounded report published by a national newspaper, with claims that he would be picking three former governors as the coordinators. Obasanjo, who is currently in Kabul, Afghanistan, as a guest of President Ashraf Ghani declared that this report is false, maintaining that “there was no plan to float a new political party now or in near future.” He said that the fabricated story hardly…
A chieftain of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Plateau State and Director of Research and Documentation of Professionals in the party, Salama Plangshak, has declared that come 2023, no governor would decide the fate of the electorates. He equally said the masses will rise against “bad governance, against impunity, against bad economy, against hunger and insecurity” that had continued to bedevil many States across the country. According to him, governors leaving the PDP for the ruling APC were doing that for their selfish interests, “as none of them has left on account of factions in the party…
Former South African president Jacob Zuma said that sending him to jail during the COVID-19 pandemic at his age would tantamount to a death sentence. Zuma was addressing a media briefing from his home in Nkandla on Sunday evening after he was ordered by the country’s apex court to hand himself over to police to start his 15-month prison sentence. “Sending me to jail during the height of a pandemic at my age is the same as sentencing me to death. The death sentence was declared unconstitutional in South Africa in 1995,” he said. On Saturday, the Constitutional Court agreed…
One week after the conduct of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Governorship primary election in Anambra State, a party chieftain, Dr Obiora Okonkwo has raised questions about the credibility of the election. The Deputy Governor of Edo State, Mr Shaibu Philip who worked as the chairman of the election committee had announced former Mr Valentine Ozigbo as the winner of the election. Valentine Ozigbo had polled 62 votes to beat his closest rivals, Obiora Okonkwo who polled 58 votes. But Okonkwo in a press statement made available to the newsmen in Awka on Sunday said the election committee was yet…
As the All Progressives Congress, APC, begins its elective congresses, Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama, assured on Sunday that no one will be imposed on the party members at any level in Enugu State. InfoStride News reported that the party had rolled out a time table for the conduct of congresses, with the ward election coming first, after which the local government and the State elections would follow. At a meeting he convened on Sunday for members of the party in Enugu West Senatorial Zone, Onyeama said the decision of the people would be respected. The minister, who…