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Mu ‘azu Calls For Soul Searching Among PDP Party Members

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Mu ‘azu Calls For Soul Searching Among PDP Party Members

The national chairman, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Adamu Mu`azu, has asked party members to sincerely assess themselves in order to know where they had got it wrong, admitting that the party has lost some grounds.

Mu`azu said this on Wednesday in Abuja when the governor of Delta State, Emmanuel Uduaghan, led a delegation of the party stakeholders in the state on a courtesy call on him.

“We know our party has lost some grounds, we must assess ourselves, we must mark ourselves and we must be truthful to ourselves,” he said stressing that with the absolute cooperation, collaboration and prayers of party members, PDP would regain its lost ground in record time.

He also emphasised that the party would not give automatic ticket to any aspirant in 2015.

“Ticket belongs to God. It is there; it is not here. If you want to be governor you have to be fair about it,’ he said.

Earlier, Uduaghan said the visit was to congratulate Mu`azu on his emergence as the national chairman of the party, and to pledge the loyalty and support of the people of Delta to him.

He pledged the support of the people of Delta State to President Goodluck Jonathan, adding that PDP in Delta was “united, in charge and on ground” and called on all Nigerians to continue to support him in spite of the challenges facing the country.

Elder statesman Edwin Clarke, who was in the entourage of the governor, described the defection of some PDP members to the opposition as an uneventful exercise.

He expressed hope that those who recently defected to the opposition would return to the party’s fold soon.

“I know that where they have gone to, when the fire becomes hot there, they will come back to you to say can we come back. When they do, admit them,” Clarke said.

Uduaghan was accompanied on the visit by the state PDP stakeholders, House of Representatives members, local government chairmen and commissioners.

Anambra To Get Two New Ministries

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Anambra To Get Two New Ministries

The Anambra State government says it will soon establish two new ministries to further improve its economy and service delivery.

Secretary to the State Government, Oseloka Obaze, announced the plan while speaking with newsmen in Awka on Wednesday.

Obaze said the new ministries that of petroleum and Information and Communication Technology, ICT.

He explained that the ministry of petroleum will help to harness the natural resources in the state to boost the employment of professionals in the field, while the ICT ministry would ensure that every school-age child in the state was computer literate.

“As an oil producing state, the need to actualise the goal of good life and poverty alleviation for the people has become imperative,” Obaze said.

According to him, schools in the 177 communities of the state have already received computers, adding that it is imperative that professionals are employed to improve computer education.

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13 Killed As Four Bombs Hit Central Baghdad

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13 Killed As Four Bombs Hit Central Baghdad

Four bombs exploded near Baghdad’s heavily fortified “Green Zone” and a busy square in the centre of the capital on Wednesday, killing at least 13 people, security sources said.

The blasts came a day after two rockets were fired into the Green Zone, home to the prime minister’s office and Western embassies, heightening concerns about Iraq’s ability to protect strategic sites as security deteriorates.

Security sources said on Wednesday that two parked car bombs were detonated opposite the ministry of Foreign Affairs, killing five people.

The interior ministry said in a statement that the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber who blew himself up as he was being searched.

The other car was driven by a suicide bomber who blew himself and the vehicle up outside a restaurant, close to a checkpoint one street away from the Green Zone, killing four people, the security sources said.

Another explosion near Khullani Square in central Baghdad left four others dead.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Sunni Islamist militants have been regaining ground in Iraq, particularly in Anbar province, where they overran two cities on January 1.

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2014 Appropriation Bill Scales Second Senate Reading

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2014 Appropriation Bill Scales Second Senate Reading

The 2014 Appropriation Bill passed its second reading at the Senate on Tuesday but suffered setback at the lower chamber.

Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over the plenary, commended the lawmakers for the successful passage of the Bill which has now been forwarded to the committees on Appropriation and Finance for further legislative work.

The joint committee has three weeks to conclude its work and report back to the House.

However, the Bill did not make it through at the House of Representatives as debate on the draft law halted after two members presented opposing views on its consideration.

Consequently, the Speaker of the House, Aminu Tambuwal, set up a six – man committee to look into the views and present a position that will guide the House.

Yobe traditional Rulers Condemn Monday’s Attack In Gulani

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Yobe traditional Rulers Condemn Monday’s Attack In Gulani

Musdapha Ilo, in Maiduguri

The Yobe State Council of Chiefs has condemned Monday’s attack on innocent traders at the Ngalda local market in Gulani local government area of Yobe State which resulted in the death of 18 persons.

In a communique issued at the end of their 7th council meeting held in Damaturu, the monarchs commended the security agents for efforts in restoring peace to the state but regretted the unnecessary loss of lives in Monday night attack.

The Emir of Fika, Mohammad Abali, called on the people of the state to corporate with security agencies in the fight against terror.

The Yobe state police commissioner, Sanusi Rufai, who confirmed Monday night’s attack, said 18 traders were killed by masked armed bandits wearing army uniform.

He said the bandits attacked and killed 18 traders, ten from Kukawa and eight from Dokshi vilages, who were returning from the Ngalda local market and took away their monies running into millions of naira.

An unlucky lecturer with the College of Agriculture Gujba, who was said  to be returning from Asaka in Gombe state, was shot dead by the fleeing assailants at Buni Gari.

The Yobe police boss also explained that the attackers also ran into a quarry and attacked  policemen attached to the quarry plant in the area, killing one policeman.

So far, as it is with previous attacks, no arrest was made but the Joint Task force, JTF, and police are now combing the bush and, security agents across the state were on red alert for fleeing members.

Kano Assembly Speaker Resigns

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Kano Assembly Speaker Resigns

The Speaker of Kano State House of Assembly, Gambo Sallau, on Tuesday announced his resignation from the position.

This is coming barely 24 hours after 26 legislators defected from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP to All Progressive Congress, APC.

Sallau said in a broadcast on Freedom Radio, Kano, that his decision to resign as Speaker, was political.

“I, Gambo Sallau, the Speaker of the Kano State House of Assembly, hereby announce my resignation as the Speaker. Now that the PDP has become an opposition party, I will not continue to be the Speaker of the House,” he said.

By implication, Sallau refused to join his colleagues but decided to remain in the PDP which is now a minority party in the assembly.

He commended members of the House, the state government and the public for the support given him in the last two years.

The defection of the 26 legislators to the APC on Monday, gives the party a majority of 33 out of 40 members.

Council Of State Approves National Conference

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Council Of State Approves National Conference

Caption: Liyel Imoke, Gov Of Cross River; Attorney General Of The Federation, Mohammed Adoke; Godswill, Akpabio Gov Of Akwa Ibom and Peter Obi, Gov Of Anambra, at the National Council Of State meeting in Abuja/Photo: NAN

The first National Council of State meeting for this year has approved the convocation of a national conference as suggested by President Goodluck Jonathan.

The meeting which was presided over by the President at the Presidential Villa, Abuja also approved the appointment of Eze Duruiheoma, as the new chairman for the National Population Commission, NPC.

At the end of the meeting, the Benue State governor, Gabriel Suswam, told journalists that the council is worried about the insecurity in the country.

He said the council attributed the situation to the unguarded statements by some politicians which are capable of inciting the people.

It therefore warned politicians to be careful and to to avoid issues that would incite the generality of the people.

Present at the meeting were former military heads of state Yakubu Gowon, Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar, former Presidents Shehu Shagari and Ernest Shonekan as well as Senate President, David Mark, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, some state governors, and former chief justices of the federation.

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Borno APC Gains Over 2000 PDP Members

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Borno APC Gains Over 2000 PDP Members

Musdapha Ilo, Maiduguri

The depletion of the ranks of the Peoples Democratic part continued on Tuesday as it lost  2,000 members in Guzamala Local Government, northern Borno State, led by the chairman, Lawan Kuru, and former secretary, Tijjani Goni, to the All Progressives Congress, APC

The defecting members who assembled at the Maiduguri Government House alleged that their loyalty to the PDP for about 12 years has not impacted on them positively as they remain neglected and their area underdeveloped.

Goni who spoke on behalf of the decampees lamented that many of their children were yet to be employed after completing their academic studies in various tertiary institutions and that their was nothing at all to show for all their years of service to the ruling party.

“They are not getting the benefit of dividends of democracy, we want our children that have gone to school to get employment. We want adevelopment for our people. We are decamping to APC for better,” he complained.

Continuing, Goni stated: “We are leaving PDP because of what the government in Borno is doing now. We decided to join the government on our volition; nobody persuaded us or forced us. We were not induced at all.”

Governor Kashim Shettima hailed the defecting group for the decision and welcomed them warmly to the APC fold, while urging them to patiently support the party to achieve great success in the state in the forth coming elections.

Sanusi Insists $20 billion Is Missing, NNPC Denies Allegation

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Sanusi Insists $20 billion Is Missing, NNPC Denies Allegation

The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, on Tuesday insisted that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC was yet to remit $20 billion to the nation’s account in the apex bank.

Sanusi made this position known when he appeared before the Senate committee on finance investigating the alleged missing $49.8 billion.

He said the unremitted $20 billion was part of $67 billion oil proceeds between January 2012 and July 2013.

“It is established that out of the 67 billion dollars crude shipped by NNPC between January 2012 and July 2013, $47 billion was remitted to the Federation Account. It is now up to the NNPC to prove that $20 billion unremitted either did not belong to the federation or was legally and constitutionally spent. There is no dispute that $20 billion out of the $67 billion has not been paid into any account with the CBN,” he said.

But the NNPC has dismissed the allegation as baseless.

The acting group general manager public affairs, Omar Farouk Ibrahim, expressed surprise that in spite of extensive clarification on the matter, Sanusi was still confusing the role of Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC as part of NNPC’s.

He said: “Let me make this point clear that CBN is a banking outfit, not a petroleum outfit. It is therefore understandable why they keep making unsubstantiated claims, which a little understanding of the technicalities of the oil industry would have saved them from making. The CBN is not an auditing outfit but what it is doing now is auditing.”

The NNPC is expected to make its own presentation before the Senate committee on February 13, 2014.

Earlier, the director-general, Budget Office of the Federation, Bright Okogu, pleaded with the committee for a week to reconcile and conclude accounts with the CBN and NNPC.

He said that reconciliation had been going on with the Federation Account Allocation Committee, FAAC, and that after the first meeting, the groups discovered that the outstanding payment was about $10.8 billion against $49.8 billion announced in the media.

“We request that the chairman of the committee should give us another one week to finish on the documents we already have,” he said.

Chairman of the finance committee, Ahmed Makarfi, directed all the parties involved in the remittances and reconciliation to ensure that the verification and reconciliation were concluded before the adjourned date.

Group Cautions Gov Al-Makura Against Dividing State

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Group Cautions Gov Al-Makura Against Dividing State

Godwin Ojoshimite

A concerned group known as the Nasarawa State Concerned APC (All Progressive Congress) members has berated Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura not to divide the state
along religious lines.

The Chairman of the group, Nathaniel Isa Nathaniel gave the warning at a press briefing in Lafia, Tuesday.

He accused the governor of prejudice against his deputy, Dameshi Luka Barau, saying the governor has been looking for opportunity to impeach his deputy because he went on pilgrimage to Israel in the president’s entourage.

The chairman also said the governor was infuriated when he saw on the television, the deputy governor together with the president at the Living Faith Goshen church.

Nathaniel described the suspension of the deputy governor on Monday for faulting the decision of the National Executive members of the party to block executive bills as laughable and devoid of rational reasoning.

“If the APC directed her legislators at the National Assembly to block the 2014 budget because they are in majority at the lower chamber and the APC in our state is excited about that, one might wish to ask; how many members does APC have in the NSHA? Should the PDP who control 19 out of 24 legislators in the House of Assembly direct their
legislators to block the state budget that is before the state Assembly? Whose interest should those in authority serve? Their political parties or the people?”he querried.

Nathaniel however, accused the state government of sponsoring an EXCO from the deputy governor’s ward to betray him.

He said: “It is a disgrace that poverty has become an asset in Nasarawa State. It is regrettable that the government had to pay an innocent ignorant young man from the ward to betray the deputy governor in a so called letter of complaint which the party wrote for him in Lafia.”

According to him, six out of seven members of the EXCOS from that ward did not know anything about the letter nor did they sign it. They have been on air
disassociating themselves from the ignorant betrayer who is wondering
what to do with the money he has been given.

He continued: “why didn’t Stanley Buba (interim chairman of APC in the state) allow the secretary of  the party to announce the suspension of the deputy governor since he could act on a letter from the secretary of a ward to suspend the deputy governor of a state.”

Nathaniel added that “common sense, reasoning and conscience have been thrown away in exchange for hatred, falsehood, and political rascality that is fast gaining the ascendancy in the state.”

He dared any attempt by the state interim leadership of the party to expel the deputy governor stressing that they gave their lives to build the party from scratch and would not allow intruders to destroy their work.

The group however, declared its loyalty to the APC and refused to be drawn into the governor’s personal war against the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

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