A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Umar Na’abba, on Monday in Abuja, faulted the elevation of Senate above House of Representatives. According to him, the development is a misrepresentation of fact. Na’abba made this known during a debate on a sub-committee report by the National Conference Standing Committee on Politics and Governance. He said that the two Houses of the National Assembly were co-equal. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the report of the sub-committee among other things, recommended a Unicameral Legislature for the country as opposed to the current Bicameral Legislature. The former speaker…
Author: Wale Adebayo
The Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, flag bearer in the August 9 governorship election in Osun State, Senator Iyiola Omisore, yesterday threatened to drag his arch-political rival, Governor Rauf Aregbesola to court over a statement allegedly credited to the All Progressives Congress, APC, candidate, that he (Omisore) was an ex-convict. But Aregbesola remained defiant, challenging the PDP guber candidate to go to court if he was uncomfortable with his statement. Reacting to Omisore’s threat through the state Commissioner for Information and strategy, Sunday Akere, Gov. Aregbesola said Omisore was free to go to court on any issue, saying it was an…
Alhaji Shuaib Oyedokun, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Board of Trustees, on Monday expressed optimism that all aggrieved members of the party would be appeased before the August 9 governorship election. Oyedokun told the News Agency of Nigeria in Osogbo that resolving the disagreements within the party was in the overall interest of the state. NAN reports that Oyedokun was on Thursday named as the Chairman of a 27-man reconciliation committee of the PDP in Osun. “We know we are dealing with individuals who in their own rights are peace makers. “Each and every one of the aspirants…
Fourteen Senior Special Assistants (SSA) to Gov. Adams Oshiomhole of Edo, three directors and one board chairman in the state, have resigned their appointment and membership of the All Progressives Congress (APC). The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the officials openly resigned their appointment and membership of the party on Monday in Benin during an enlarged meeting of some aggrieved members of the party. More than 3,000 members of the APC in the state also resigned their membership of the party during the meeting. Mr Tony Omoaghe, the former chairman of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN)…
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will use Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) for the Ekiti and Osun States governorship elections. This is contained in statement signed Mr Kayode Idowu, the Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega. The statement, made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja, said the commission would not deploy card readers for the elections. It said that card readers would be used along with PVCs for the 2015 general elections. Kayode said the clarification became necessary to correct reports in some sections of the media on May 1, that…
Eight girls between the ages of 8-15 have been abducted by members of Islamist sect, Boko Haram. According to residents of Gwoza in Borno State, gunmen suspected to be members of the sect stormed the village on Sunday night and attacked homes taking money, foodstuffs, property and girls. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau had in a video released by the sect threatened to sell the abducted girls. According to Shekau, there is a market where humans are sold. No word yet from the military on the attack in the state currently under emergency rule.
Less than 72 hours after President Goodluck Jonathan assured Nigerians that government would do everything possible to locate and bring back the Chibok schoolgirls, it was learnt that two of girls have reportedly died. According to a statement released by the Associated Press, on Monday, a members of the Boko Haram sect was quoted as saying that two of the schoolgirls abducted from their school in Chibok, Borno State, died from snake bite. AP also quoted a member of the sect as saying that 20 others are currently sick. The statement came on the heels of a video by the…
FILE PHOTO The uproar generated by news of the abduction of over 200 schoolgirls from a secondary school in Chibok, Borno State has barely subsided than reports have indicated that another eight teenage girls, between the ages of 12 to 15 have been taken by suspected Boko Haram insurgents in Warabe village of Gwoza Local government area of Borno. The gunmen reported carted away foodstuff and livestocks belonging to the villagers in the northeastern state before fleeing into the bush with their victims. Gwoza is about 160 kilometres from Maiduguri the state capital. The council had been a hotbed of…
The former Chairman of the Northern States Christian Elders Forum, Evangelist Mathew Owojaiye, said NOSCEF, an affiliate of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, did not give the go-ahead for the release of the document containing 180 names of the schoolgirls abducted from Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State. In a statement on Monday, Evangelist Owojaiye said he made the comments strictly in his personal capacity and not on behalf of CAN or NOSCEF. “I would like to clarify some of the comments I made over the weekend as they have been reported in the media. My comments were made…
Factional Chairman of Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) and Plateau State Governor, Jonah Jang, has expressed confidence that President Goodluck Jonathan would return to the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in 2015. Jang also assured the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, that he would do everything within his capacity to ensure the party wins in Plateau at the 2015 general elections. Jang who led a delegation of Plateau State PDP members to the national secretariat of the party in Abuja on Monday to discuss issues of development with its national chairman, Adamu Mu’azu, and members of the National Working…
Former First Lady, Hajiya Turai Yar’Adua, yesterday said that her husband, the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was passionate about the peace, unity and corporate existence of the Nigerian nation. Speaking at the 2nd Yar’Adua Memorial Lecture, organised in memory of the late president, Hajiya Turai maintained that her husband was “a practical leader who wanted peace in the entire country”. In her words: “Umar may mean different things to different people but, to me, he was a humble, loving and caring husband with an unmatched love for the nation”. Turai, who condemned the abduction of female students of the Government Girls…
The member representing Kwara Central Senatorial District in the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly, Senator Bukola Saraki on Monday disowned the campaign posters pasted in Abuja, indicating his interest in the 2015 presidential election. Saraki, who first indicated his bid for the presidency in 2007, in a statement issued in Ilorin by his Personal Assistant, Mr. Bankole Omisore, also dismissed an online report linking him with the latest bid. He described the story as “totally false”, adding that those pasting his posters were “mischief makers”, who were out to tarnish his reputation. The statement said: “We are all aware of the present…
The House of Representatives on Monday locked horns with the Presidency, saying there was no limit to the number of times the legislature could summon any minister of the Federation to appear before it and answer questions on issues bothering on accountability. It said the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, “or any minister or official of government” could be summoned to answer questions “over 1,000 times” so long as there was need for it. The green chamber was reacting to comments attributed to President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday night during a media chat where he claimed that Mrs.…
The Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, on Monday faulted the directive by the Federal Government that all government offices and institutions in the nation’s capital, Abuja, be closed for the World Economic Forum Africa. A statement issued by the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation also ‘advised’ private organizations with large number of employees to consider shutting down too throughout the duration of the WEF-A, citing the need to ensure smooth flow of traffic in the nation’s capital for the shutdown. The directive, however, excluded those providing essential services. But Gbajabiamila…
The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), on Monday, inaugurated the campaign committee for the re-election bid of its candidate, Governor Rauf Aregbesola, ahead of the August 9, 2014 governorship poll, admitting that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) standard bearer, Senator Iyiola Omisore, remains the major challenge to the ruling party. The acting chairman of the APC in the state, Elder Adelowo Adebiyi, who inaugurated the committee, at the party’s secretariat, said the major challenge for the party was Senator Iyiola Omisore, declaring that “confronting Omisore was like confronting a violent organisation.” He alleged that the PDP…
President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday said he received, with a deep feeling of immense national loss, the death of a retired Supreme Court Justice, Chukwudifu Oputa. In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, the president extended condolences to the eminent jurist’s family, relatives, associates and friends on behalf of himself and the Federal Government. Jonathan urged them to be comforted by the knowledge that the deceased lived a long and fulfilled life. The statement read, “On behalf of himself, the Federal Government and people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the President extends…
President GOODLUCK Jonathan (R), RECEIVING 2013 HAJJ report FROM THE HEAD, FEDERAL government DELEGATION AND Sultan OF SOKOTO, ALHAJI SA’AD Abubakar III, AT THE PRESIDENTIAL VILLA IN ABUJA ON MONDAY (NAN). The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, on Monday expressed optimism that the country’s security challenges would soon be a thing of the past. The Sultan made this known in an interview with State House correspondents shortly after he presented the 2013 Hajj report to President Goodluck Jonathan at the State House, Abuja. The Sultan was the head of the Federal Government delegation to the 2013 Hajj (Amirrul Hajj). “We submitted…
TRADEMORE ESTATE, Airport ROAD, IN Abuja FLOODED DUE TO A DOWNPOUR ON MONDAY MORNING (5/5/14). No fewer than 50 houses were flooded on Monday at the Trademore Estate, along Airport Road in Abuja, as a result of torrential rainfall. According to the Estate Manager, Mrs Edwina Aniakor, the flooding was caused by resident’s continuous dropping of refuse around the drainage, which then resulted in a blockage. She said, “Only a few houses were affected and management has decided to clear the drains and to maintain strict measures within the Estate to avoid future occurrence”.
Borno governor’s wife, Hajiya Nana Shettima, said on Monday that her absence at Sunday’s meeting with the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, over the abduction of schoolgirls in Chibok, was not to disrespect the office of the First Lady. Mrs. Shettima’s explanation is contained in a statement signed by her spokesperson, Aisha Hassan, released to newsmen in Maiduguri, the Borno capital. The statement said that the governor’s wife was represented at the meeting to enable her prepare for a long scheduled visit to Chibok on Monday, to meet with aggrieved parents of the abducted girls and give them moral support. The statement noted that Mrs. Shettima had…
A female student of Ebonyi State University has been arrested by the police after a middle-aged man (name withheld) slumped and died while having marathon s*x with her last weekend. It was learnt that the incident happened at the girl’s hostel room at the Presco campus of the university, Abakaliki, the capital of Ebonyi State. The girl was said to have taken the body of the deceased to his car, before proceeding to report the incident to the police. She was immediately arrested and is currently helping the police in the investigation of the incident. “It threw the entire hostel…