The death of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in Kogi State’s governorship election, Prince Abubakar Audu continues to put the party in distress as Audu’s running mate in the November 21 election, James Abiodun Faleke, has refused to pair with Alhaji Yahaya Bello, who has been named the party’s candidate for the supplementary election on Saturday. The APC looked set to win the election but the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared it inconclusive, following the inability of some registered voters to vote in 91 units, hence the organisation of a supplementary election. In a letter to APC National…
Author: Wale Adebayo
Labour and Employment Minister, Dr. Chris Ngige, has advocated stiff sanction for employers who defaulted in registering their employees under the Employee Compensation Scheme (ECS). The minister lamented the low level of compliance with the provisions of the law establishing the scheme. He, therefore, urged the Nigeria Social insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) to come up with stiff sanctions for such defaulters. Speaking at a meeting with the management staff of the NSITF in his office, Ngige said there was need to review the law establishing the scheme to include more stringent penalties for employers who fail to register their employees.…
Former Chairman of Police Service Commission (PSC), Chief Simon Okeke has cautioned some Igbo elders to “stop making pronouncements that can be very infuriating and dishonourable to the groups agitating for Biafra. He also urged them to speak out early when youths start derailing, instead of keeping what he called “criminal silence” and subsequently condemning them when things get out of hand. “The war is over, we have all integrated into Nigeria, there was the doctrine of ‘no victor, no vanquished,’ so the Nigerian experiment has been going on. I have served as PSC chairman and even after that, I…
Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, will today meet with the management of distribution companies (DISCOs), with a view to acquainting himself with them and also intimate them about his expectations from them on the way forward. The meeting will hold at the minister’s office this afternoon. Fashola had earlier met with Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, and later with the Chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and the DISCOs, to discuss the contentious issue of tariff. The minister had noted that the DISCOs needed to perform better, adding that there were several options open…
Former military president, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (rtd), has given one of his most incisive and in-depth interviews in recent times, during which he fielded questions on everything from Biafra to Buhari. He opened up in a two-hour interview he granted ‘The Interview’ at his hilltop mansion in Minna, the Niger State capital, in the December issue of the magazine out next week. On Biafra, he said, “We do not need this distraction now…” but added that, “I will vote for an Igbo president in 2019, if I find one”. On his relationship with President Muhammadu Buhari, who had accused…
The Director-General of the Goodluck Jonathan 2015 Presidential Campaign Organization, Senator Ahmadu Ali, yesterday at the eight day fidau prayer for Prince Abubakar Audu, had a close shave with death at Ogbonicha, Ofu local government area of Kogi State. Ali, who was former chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was among those who had been penciled down as one of the enemies of progress in Igala land and so when he came to Ogbonicha, the hometown of the late Audu, who was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the inconclusive governorship election in Kogi, was chased and…
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has urged Federal, State and local governments “to do more in the area of employment”. Speaking at the 10th anniversary and 6th and 7th convocation ceremonies of Tai Solarin University of Education (TASUED), Ijagun, Ijebu Ode in Ogun State, Mr. Obasanjo warned “If there is no job for the unemployed to feed themselves and also to contribute to the development of the country then, we will all be sitting on gun powder”. Obasanjo insisted “If University education was not for development then, it was not serving any useful purpose, insisting “It must be for development, personal,…
The trustees of Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) will tomorrow, Monday, be arraigned before a Lagos State High Court in Ikeja over the collapse of a six-story building in the church premises on September 12, 2014, which led to the death of 116 persons. Senior Pastor of the church, Prophet T.B Joshua, is one of the trustees. The trustees will be arraigned before Justice Lawal Akapo alongside the engineers who handled the building construction before it collapsed. A statement by the Deputy Director, Public Affairs of the Lagos State Ministry of Justice, Bola Akingbade, confirmed the scheduled arraignment. It…
President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday in Malta urged the international community to do more to support his administration’s efforts to curb corruption in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry. A statement issued in Abuja on Saturday by Garba Shehu, the president’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, said Mr. Buhari made the call at a group meeting of Commonwealth leaders on corruption. The meeting, which was chaired by Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, was attended by the leaders of Australia, Canada, Singapore, Malta, Sri Lanka, Botswana and Trinidad and Tobago. Mr. Buhari said that corruption in the oil sector…
The Human Rights Alliance has declared that the Nyesom Wike-led administration in Rivers State has turned Port Harcourt, the state capital from Garden City to Garbage City. The group, through its Executive Director, Ken Atsuwete, yesterday in Port Harcourt stated that since May 29, the government of Wike had been unable to put its act of containing environmental and waste management issues together. The Sole Administrator of the Rivers State Waste Management Agency (RIWAMA), Chief Felix Obuah, who is also the Rivers State Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), however, insisted that officials of RIWAMA had been putting in…
Bayelsa State Governor Seriake Dickson, who is also the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the December 5 governorship election in the state has said federal might would not win election for his opponent and candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Timpre Sylva. According to Dickson, putting the people at the centre of development and accountability that is second to none will make the people of Bayelsa vote for him again. or example, every month we announce what we receive in terms of revenue and how we spend it to empower the people. “I believe this…
Activist and convener of the Niger Delta Self-Determination Movement, Annkio Briggs has blamed the Federal Government and the oil companies working in the Niger Delta for the devastation of the region. She has therefore asked for compensation for their actions, although she said the region would still continue to demand self-determination and the control of its resources. “In our requesting for self-determination, ownership of our land and resources is a basic right. We have been demanding for it for years now,” Briggs told Vanguard in an interview. According to her, the issue of compensation and self-determination are extremely important such…
The media head of the Abubakar Audu/James Faleke Campaign Organization, Dr. Tom Ohikere, has cautioned the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) against taking any action capable of plunging Kogi State into crisis. Ohikere, who gave the warning in Lokoja, the state capital on Saturday, specifically advised the national Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun not to allow his selfish interest to ruin the party. He also warned the party leadership against misrepresenting the party as an Islamic organisation, saying the APC was founded for all Nigerians irrespective of tribe and religion. He described the decision to replace…
Former Senate President David Mark yesterday reacted to the Federal Court of Appeal’s ruling, which nullified his election as the senator representing Benue South District and ordered a re-run election within 90 days, pleading with his supporters to remain calm and refuse to be discouraged. Mark in a statement issued by his Media Assistant, Paul Mumeh, said his constituents should be strengthened ahead of the re-run. The appellate court had handed down the verdict in the appeal filed by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the election, Mr. Daniel Onjeh. The Senate president in the statement, insisted…
Ebonyi State Governor David Umahi has restated his commitment and loyalty to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) even as he confirmed the decision of South-East governors to table the complaints of Pro-Biafra agitators with President Muhammadu Buhari. The governor was reacting to speculations in a section of the media that he was planning to defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC) when the leadership of the Abakpa Main Market Traders Association, paid him a courtesy visit at Government House, Abakaliki. He said, “When I said publicly that Ebonyi people will support Mr. President, they said, we have moved to the…
Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai on Saturday held a town hall meeting with stakeholders to deliberate on the proposed 2016 Budget before its formal presentation to the State House of Assembly. The meeting held at the General Hassan Katsina House in Kawo, Kaduna. The total estimate of the budget is N166bn, with a sum of N104bn voted for capital expenditure, while N62bn was set aside for recurrent expenditure. In his address titled ‘Putting the people first: Back to Budget Realism’, the governor accused previous administrations in the state of reducing the yearly budget into a “fictographic art with scarcely…
Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday advised the people of Bayelsa, his home state, to vote for development in the December 5 governorship election. He also appealed to the youth not to be deceived by what he termed the lies of politicians but to evaluate all the candidates based on their track record. Mr. Jonathan described most politicians as people of many words, who tell many lies just to get votes from the people. The ex-president spoke during the grand finale of the campaign of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and presentation of flag to Governor Seriake Dickson in Yenagoa, the state…
The Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu has dismissed reports that the president has cut salaries of ministers in half. In a statement released via Twitter, Shehu said President Buhari has not tampered with the salaries of the ministers. “They remain as they have been prescribed by the Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Commission under a law passed in 2008. “The President and the Vice President have voluntarily offered a 50 percent salary cut. This is voluntary and does not apply to Ministers and other political appointees. Reports to the effect that the President…
A report that a candidate had been picked by the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Saturday’s governorship supplementary election outside Kogi East, dominated by Igala people where the Prince Abubakar Audu, the late candidate of the party, hailed from thre the state into protest yesterday. According to the report, the APC leadership had picked Audu’s closest rival in the party’s primary ahead of the Kogi governorship election, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, to replace the deceased in the supplementary election slated for December 5. However, the APC leadership denied that the party had given the governorship ticket to Bello. Bello is Ebira,…
Former Aviation Minister Femi Fani-Kayode has lamented the decision of the presidency and the Nigerian Army to deny the alleged death of about 159 soldiers fighting insurgency in the northeast. He called the action “wickedness of the highest order. “Aside the 105 soldiers killed by Boko Haram, additional 34 soldiers were killed two days ago but it wasn’t in the news”- Deji Adeyanju. I concur with Mr. Deji Adeyanju. The most heartless and reprehensible thing that our government could have done is to cover-up the fact that 105 of our soldiers were killed by Boko Haram a few days ago.…