Three days after the Bishop of Sokoto Catholic Diocese, Mathew Kukah, preached a sermon against nepotism to commemorate this year’s Christmas, the North has been divided by the homily, which also accused President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration of failing to provide security, among other lapses. Kukah had, in his 2020 Christmas message, titled, ‘A nation in search of vindication’, lamented that nepotism characterise the present administration. He noted that there could have been a coup or war in the country if a non-northern Muslim President did a fraction of what Buhari did. The cleric said under Buhari’s government, Nigeria appeared to…
Author: Ifeanyi N.
Niger State Governor, Abubakar Bello, has assured that the government was doing its best to forestall attacks by bandits. His comment was in reaction to the incidents at Maitumbi and Kuchi communities in Bosso and Munya Local Government Areas. No fewer than 20 people were allegedly abducted by dozens of assailants, and scores wounded. In a statement on Monday by his spokesperson, Mary Noel-Berje, Bello urged the people to support authorities’ efforts against the criminals. He told them to give security agencies information that would help arrest the perpetrators. Bello added that the recent meeting of the North Central State…
Reno Omokri, former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, on Monday, said Tunde Bakare, the overseer of Citadel Global Community Church should not be taken seriously for lying against the Holy Spirit. Omokri disclosed that Bakare lied against the Holy Spirit in a prophecy he issued on ex-President, Olusegun Obasanjo, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, IBB, and Atiku Abubakar. He made the remark in response to Bakare’s attack on Yoruba leaders not comfortable with Bola Tinubu, National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, running for president. The clergyman had said God does not need anyone’s permission to put Tinubu in the hall…
The Northern Elders Forum, NEF, has described Nigeria’s presidential system of government as “totally useless,” and expressed its readiness to engage other parts of the country in a debate on Nigeria’s future, saying it was ready for the restructuring of the country. Convener of the Forum, Professor Ango Abdullahi, stated this in a telephone interview with Vanguard, weekend. Abdullahi, who expressed the preference of the North for a return to the parliamentary system of government, said the current presidential system had caused more division than uniting the country. Abdullahi said: “Today, we may appear to have a federal system of…
Edo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Deputy Governor of the state, Rt. Hon Philip Shaibu has engaged in a war of words over a pre-election matter in the court as Shiabu alleged that the former National Chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole had recently said that the Supreme Court would give his party victory like the case of Imo state. But in a statement yesterday by the State Publicity Secretary of the APC, Chris Azebanmwan, the allegation which he described as weighty was false and that Shaibu was engaging in a smear campaign against…
The Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN), on Monday, said it stood by Bishop Matthew Kukah’s Christmas Day message wherein he claimed that Nigeria was on the verge of becoming a failed state. In a press release made available to journalists in Abuja, the National Director of CSN’s Social Communication, Fr. Mike Umoh, raised the alarm over the incessant attacks on the Bishop by those alleging he sought to instigate violence and hinder national integration with his message. Umoh, however, maintained that with the prolonged security and economic challenges facing the country, the Catholic Church in Nigeria stood by Kukah’s position…
Nasarawa House of Assembly Speaker, Ibrahim Balarabe Abdullahi said on Monday that the State and Toto LGA remained the dependable home of APC as a party to beat in 2023. Speaking at an extraordinary APC stakeholder meeting in Toto LGA, the speaker said the efforts of Governor Abdullahi Sule as an APC leader has dared the party into the heart of other party and called on the people to give the ruling party and governor all the needed support to succeed. The Speaker informed the major stakeholders across the Twelve(12) electoral wards in Toto LGA the passion, concerns, and love…
The Council of Ogbos, in charge of the organisational structures of the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC), Worldwide, has announced the removal of the acting Chairman of the council’s Eastern Zone, James Tobin, following his push for the immediate removal of the Sole Administrator, of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Effiong Akwa. The Ogbos, known as the Council of Organisational Leaders (COOL), averred that Tobin had no authority to issue statements using IYC since his leadership had been dissolved in a stakeholders’ meeting. The Leader of COOL, John Amos Benjamin, described the publication that called for the removal of Akwa…
Members of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly have explained that the loans so far approved for Governor Douye Diri were legitimate and tied to specific items on project interventions and development of the state. Bayelsa people had criticised and lampooned the state’s lawmakers for their swift approval of loan requests from the governor, which have so far amounted to N21b in the last 10 months. Speaking after the last plenary for 2020, the House led by its Speaker, Abraham Ingobere, through its Chairman, Committee on Information, Tari Pori (Ekeremor 1) dismissed the claims of unnecessary loan approvals to Governor…
Southeast Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said the Court of Appeal Abuja judgment of December 16, 2020, which quashed its former National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh’s conviction renewed hope for the PDP and all Nigerians, who believe in constitutional democracy. National Vice Chairman of the party in the Southeast, Chief Ali Odefa, in a statement, yesterday, stated that a careful examination of the High Court processes and judgment that sentenced Metuh to a seven-year jail term was a predetermined decision from Justice Okon Abang’s innermost recess to please some undemocratic forces. “In building a progressive democratic society, patriots pay heavy…
The leadership crisis bedeviling the major opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Southwest, took a new twist recently as the fight for supremacy between former governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose and Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, hit Ondo State badly. In a development that shocked many members, five party chieftains, including a former PDP state chairman and a current House of Assembly member, Ebenezer Alabi and Rasheed Elegbeleye respectively, were suspended last Tuesday, shortly after the rebuilt party secretariat was commissioned in Akure. Their suspension is deemed an aftermath of a visit to the Lagos State residence…
President Muhammadu Buhari has reacted to the death of Senator Saido Umar Kumo, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Gombe State. Buhari described Kumo’s death as “a major loss to the APC”, adding that the deceased was the pillar of strength in Gombe State. Kumo defected to the ruling party in 2019 and Buhari noted that his move had energized the supporters for change. Buhari said this in a condolence message made available to TheInfoStride in Abuja on Sunday, signed by his Spokeman, Garba Shehu. “I have received the news of the death of Senator Kumo with…
The All Progressives Congress, APC, on Sunday insisted that Nigeria is not a failed state. APC said despite the challenges facing the country, Nigeria is nowhere closed to a failed state. Sen. John James Akpanudoedehe, Secretary, Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee of the ruling party stated this in a statement he issued. According to Akpanudoedehe: “While naysayers and opposition partisans chorus their doomsday wishes for Nigeria; our dear country is nowhere close to becoming a failed state. “The President Muhammadu Buhari government is not oblivious to the country’s challenges and is visibly and frontally addressing them. “From the economy to security,…
Timothy Oyasodun, All Progressives Congress (APC) chairman in Bariga Local Council Development Area of Lagos, is dead. The politician, a reverend, passed away on Saturday. Senator Tokunbo Abiru, in a statement, described the loss of Oyasodun, popularly known as ‘Iyo’, as heart-breaking. The lawmaker noted that the deceased was a committed progressive. Abiru recalled the role Oyasodun played in his emergence as winner of the Lagos East Senatorial by-election. “We all submit to the decision of God, our Creator, to call him home at the early hour of Dec. 26, 2020,’’ he noted. Abiru condoled with the family, APC leaders,…
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and one of his former commissioners (Chieftaincy and Community Affairs), Dr. John Bazia, were taking no prisoners in interviews with TheInfoStride, when the governor called him a thief, and he promptly responded that the governor was the biggest thief. Bazia defected from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the All Progressives Congress, APC, which Governor Wike attributed to his refusal to reappoint him (Bazia) into his cabinet, wondering who would appoint a thief. Governor Wike said Bazia stole the ‘kola’ a presidential candidate brought for Rivers monarch, but Bazia told Vanguard that he didn’t…
Elder statesman and Second Republic Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, has upbraided the National Assembly over its rubberstamp posture towards President Muhammadu Buhari. Mohammed wondered why the National Assembly did not drag President Buhari to the Supreme Court over his refusal to offer explanations about the appalling security situation in the country. Mohammed’s position was reinforced by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) and the Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA), which predicted that hard days await Nigerians due to the National Assembly selling out on their constitutional mandate of making Buhari accountable to the…
Dr Festus Adedayo’s column in the Nigerian Tribune of Sunday, December 20, 2020, titled ‘Tinubu, Please Run, Run From The SWAGA Gang’ makes interesting and most times amusing reading. Although he admits that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State and one of the leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC), “has not told anyone he is interested in the presidency”, Dr Adedayo goes on to adumbrate at length not just on why Tinubu is unqualified to run for Nigeria’s presidency in 2023 but why the South West should not support his aspiration if he decides to…
Ikpeazu says he would rather be a conductor in a moving vehicle than be the driver of a stationary vehicle. Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State has refuted the claim that he plans to dump the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the ruling party. The governor in a radio programme recently said he has not seen any reason why he should leave the PDP There have been rumours that the governor and his loyalists would defect to the ruling All Progressives Party (APC) before the end of the year. While reacting to a question on the claim during the programme,…
A source said House has decided to drop the invitation because of the body language of the presidency. The House of Representatives is no longer interested in inviting President Muhammadu Buhari to address a joint session of National Assembly on the security issues in the country, TheNation reports. The initial invitation extended to the president was reported to have assumed ethnic and political dimension. Some of the lawmakers behind the motion to invite the president have also reportedly apologised to the presidency, saying they did not intended to embarrass the president. Recall that following the killing of 48 farmers in…
Passes 18 Bills, 10 Motions, Resolutions In 2020. The Leadership of Sixth Bayelsa State House of Assembly has rendered account of its leadership in the second session of 2020, declaring that a total of 18 bills were passed into law with 10 motions and resolutions. The Chairman of the House Committee on Information, Tari Pori said despite the challenges faced during COVID-19 lockdown, flood disaster that sacked legislators from their homes and the # EndSARS protest nationwide, Bayelsa Assembly had been pro-active under the leadership of Abraham Ingobere, as Speaker. Pori said 18 bills passed into law are expected to…