INEC chairman, Jega stamps results sheet The former minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Elder Godsday Orubebe, has denied any involvement in the alleged plot to kidnap the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega at the presidential results collation centre in Abuja. A report by Reuters had linked Orubebe to a plot to abduct Jega which was connected to his outburst at the collation centre follopwing the March 28 presidential election. However, in an interview with LEADERSHIP, the former minister wondered why a section of the media will indulge in such “slanderous, libelous, derogatory and deliberate…
Author: Wale Adebayo
President of Niger Republic, Mahamadou Issoufou, has expressed confidence that Nigeria’s president-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, would deliver the dividends of democracy to Nigerians. Speaking through the majority leader of the Nigerien National Assembly, Mr. Zakari Umar, when a delegation from Niger Republic paid a congratulatory visit to the Sokoto State Governor, Alhaji Aliyu Wamakko at his residence in Sokoto, Issoufou said he had no doubt that Buhari would meet the expectations of Nigerians based on his antecedents. He described Buhari as a man of integrity and an incorruptible leader that has what it takes to take Nigeria to the next…
The presidency on Sunday denied the allegation that it spent N2 trillion on the 2015 general election. In a statement by President Goodluck Jonathan’s spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati, the presidency had not set up any committee to conduct an audit of how the funds were disbursed by party members and state officials, as alleged in that story published in the front page of The Punch newspapers on Sunday. “It is also not true that the presidency and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) used state funds, or spent N2 trillion during the campaigns. The innuendoes are wrong-headed; the motives behind the…
Controversial Vanguard columnist, Femi Aribisala says the Permanent Voters’ Card (PVC) is presently a problem for Nigeria’s democracy. He said this was because the way it has been distributed has already given one region supremacy over the other in deciding who leads the country. “… we will have a situation where same people will decide again that the North will produce the president as long as we are dealing with these so-called PVCs. They have permanently ensured that one region has supremacy over others. Let us not pretend that it is not what has been achieved. So we need to…
An Ijaw group, the Ijaw People’s Development Initiative (IPDI) in Delta State has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to grant presidential pardon to the former governor of the state, Chief James Ibori, before he leaves office. Speaking with newsmen, National President of the group, Austin Ozobo, said: “Chief Ibori has suffered enough and there is no justification for not granting him clemency, as had been done to others.” Ozobo said Ibori was not the only corrupt leader in the country, but he has suffered for years more than others ever faced. “Ibori should be freed. Hundreds of persons, who looted…
Kano State governor and Senator-elect, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso has cautioned the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) against further delays in the zoning of federal elected offices. He said that was the mistake made by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in 2011 which resulted in the obstruction of the zoning arrangement and the crisis that affected the party. The governor who spoke with newsmen in Abuja, said “my advice to my party is that they should quickly do it. Those of us who witnessed what happened in 2011, I don’t believe that that party should waste any more time.…
The Director General of the Citizenship and Leadership Training Centre (CLTC) Michael Fawole says president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, is a representation of the people’s will. Fawole said this while congratulating the President-elect. He noted that his victory showed that majority of Nigerians saw him as the illumination on their march to a new nation. “The Citizenship and Leadership Training Centre sincerely congratulates the president- elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari on his well- deserved victory. Gen. Buhari’s victory after nearly 12 years of consistent struggle and perseverance is a clear testimony that with commitment and dedication, one would achieve his or her dreams.…
Prof. Pat Utomi has described the series of defections by politicians in recent weeks as unfortunate, saying is not good for our democracy. He said he may join the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in order to build a strong opposition party. Speaking on Sunday in Abuja at the sixth graduation ceremony of Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD) after presenting a topic on: ‘Leadership and Societal Development’, Utomi stressed the need to have a strong opposition that would put the new ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) on its toes. The centre has graduated 441 students in…
PRINCE BURUJI KASHAMU Senator-elect for the Ogun East Senatorial District, Alhaji Buruji Kashamu, has accused former President Olusegun Obasanjo of instigating foreign security agencies to apprehend him in Nigeria and extradite him to the United States to answer to drug related charges which he earlier claimed had been dropped. He has therefore sent a letter to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), insisting that the plot to ‘capture’ him has thickened. He prayed the Commission not to stand by and watch his fundamental human rights being trampled upon at the behest of former President Obasanjo. The petition to the NHRC…
Xenophobic attacks in South Africa has so far cost Nigerians living in the country more than N20 million, the Nigerian Consul-General in South Africa, Amb. Uche Ajulu-Okeke, said on Sunday. Speaking from Johannesburg, South Africa, the ambassador broke the loss down into looted shops, burnt shops, two burnt mechanic workshops, 11 burnt cars and two stolen cars, among others. “Nigerians have compiled damage to their property and it is totalling about 1.2 million Rand or N21 million, which will be sent to the Federal Government for further action,” she said. Speaking further, the ambassador noted that in Durban, two of…
Mrs Awoniyi, wife of the deputy governor of Kogi State, Yomi Awoniyi, and three others escaped death on Saturday after an early morning explosion rocked her residence in Lagos. The building located on HFB Way, at no 19B Dolphin Estate, Ikoyi area of Lagos, was said to have collapsed following the explosion, trapping the deputy governor’s wife and three others, while the driver who was outside washing cars was injured from the explosion. An eyewitness told Thisday that the explosion rocked the nearby building to its foundation and was followed by the crumbling of blocks but no life was lost.…
The Governor-elect of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, on Sunday urged residents of the state to live in peace and not allow anyone incite them to violence based on religious differences. In a statement signed by his spokesperson, Samuel Aruwan, the governor-elect said he was determined to work with all residents of the state to restore its glorious past. “Our good people of Kaduna State, we are again grateful for the mandate you gave us on 11th April, 2015. I am begging you in the name of Almighty God to live in peace and work together for a new Kaduna…
National leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Sunday raised alarm that the All Progressives Congress (APC) was plotting to impose a one-party system in Nigeria by approaching some senior members of the PDP with phantom promises and threats designed to destabilize the party. “We are aware that as part of the plot, the APC in the past few weeks, has been luring and encouraging some of our members to issue derogatory statements against the leadership of our party. While some of their accomplices have openly decamped, we know that others have been instructed to stay back and cause…
The North Central caucus of All Progressives Congress, APC, has hailed the decision of the National leadership of the party to officially zone the office of the Senate President in the 8th Senate to the geo-political zone. The North Central caucus is made up of APC State Chairmen of the North Central geo-political zone namely; Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger and Plateau States. In a statement signed on its behalf by Alhaji Hadi Ametuo, the Kogi APC Chairman, the caucus described the zoning arrangement as fair and just. “The North Central caucus of our great party, the APC, wishes to…
The Senator representing Kwara Central and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Dr. Bukola Saraki, has clarified his statement on public declaration of assets and war against corruption. Senator Saraki had while speaking with journalists in his home state in Ilorin, Kwara State on April 14 following the success of the APC where the party won all contested seats in the state, said that public declaration of assets would not reduce corruption. The statement was interpreted in some quarters to be a contradiction of President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari’s commitment that he, alongside all political appointees in his government, would publicly…
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Ambassador Yahaya Kwande, has stated that the incoming administration of General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), cannot afford to disappoint the youths given the support they accorded the party at the national and state elections. He stressed that the greatest challenge to be faced by the Buhari administration when sworn-in on May 29 would be job creation for teeming Nigerian youths. Kwande, who made this assertion while speaking with some reporters in Jos, the Plateau State capital yesterday, said, “We have been challenged by Nigerians and must accept the challenge. Thousands of young men…
HON. PHILIP SHAIBU All Progressives Congress (APC) youths from the South-South have made a case for the speakership or deputy speakership position of the House of Representatives to be zoned to Edo State so that the impact of the APC-led National Assembly will be felt in the region. To that effect, the APC youths suggested the name of the current Majority Leader of the Edo House of Assembly and candidate of the APC for Etsako Federal Constituency in the just concluded National Assembly elections, Hon. Philip Shaibu, as the one suitable for that position. It would be recalled that the…
A Magistrate’s court in Yelwa, Bauchi State, has sentenced a 25-year-old man, Ya’u Ismaila, to six months imprisonment for acquiring multiple Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs. According to the First Information Report (FIR) presented before the court by police prosecutor, Inspector Zakka Ayi, the convict was arrested around noon on the day of the presidential and national assembly election at a military check point by Rafin Makaranta, on Ningi Road, Bauchi with three different PVCs bearing three different names. The PVCs belonged to the convict, who registered for them under different names, but with the same picture. The police prosecutor told…
Some Abuja based professionals have joined the call to President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to appoint Kano State governor and Senator-elect, Musa Rabiu Kwankwaso, as the next minister for the Federal Capital Territory. The call came on the heels of a similar request by a group under the aegis of Abuja Residents Forum, ARF, for the incoming president to appoint Kwankwaso, who they described as a person of “high pedigree” as FCT Minister. Spokesperson for the professionals, Ben Agarry, explained that Abuja was in dire need of a hardworking man, who will replicate the achievements of a former Minister of…
The Ondo State Government says a strange disease that has killed some people since its outbreak on April 15 in Ode-Irele, Irele Local Government area of the state, is not contagious. Dr Dayo Adeyanju, the Commissioner for Health in the state, made this assurance on Sunday at a news conference in Akure. He said findings from post-mortem carried out on the victims and other laboratory tests revealed that the disease was neither epidemic nor contagious. According to the commissioner, preliminary report shows that ethanol poison is found in the systems of all the victims. “Our investigations revealed that the victims,…