₦airaland Forum

The All Progressives Congress has said its governors supported Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State as Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum to disgrace President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party.

The spokesmen for the APC told SUNDAY PUNCH that the merger of major opposition parties was to oppose the interests of the PDP and the President in the NGF election, the way opposition did during the election of the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

The National Publicity Secretary of the Congress for Progressive Change, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, said the opposition parties were out to oppose any attempt by Jonathan to act as an authoritarian.

He said, “If you look at the actions of the progressives, you will notice that we have been consistent for quite some time. If you will recall that at the election of the current Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, the PDP had already zoned the position to the South-West, because they had nominated Mulikat Akande-Adeola, who is now the Majority Leader. But because of the cooperation of the lawmakers from the progressive parties, Tambuwal got the position.

“It is exactly the same thing we are witnessing now. With the cooperation of the progressive governors, Amaechi disgraced Jonathan, by winning the NGF election despite the federal might that was against him. Let it be clear to Nigerians that what happened at the NGF election is a dress rehearsal for 2015.”

Fasakin added, “The progressive parties will always do anything that will stop Jonathan from assuming an imperial status. We will continue to oppose Jonathan’s authoritarian tendencies. We supported Amaechi because Jonathan’s intervention in the governors’ forum election was self-serving. As a progressive opposition party, our duty is to oppose that. So, we have no apologises for that.”

When asked if APC was wooing Amaechi and the PDP governors in his faction of the NGF, Fashakin said some of the governors were afraid of openly opposing Jonathan.

“We saw that when the chips were down, some of the governors who were purportedly against Amaechi voted him in the secret ballot. Just wait, there are many more surprises awaiting Jonathan and the PDP,” he said.

Also, the National Publicity Secretary of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Mr. Lai Mohammed, said the decision to support Amaechi was taken at the APC governors’ forum, not at the party level.

He said, “All ACN governors are in support of Amaechi but the decision was taken at the APC governors’ forum. It was not discussed at the party. You know the APC has its forum and they discuss their affairs as it concerns the merger. Remember they were all in the Maiduguri and Yobe and they hold meetings regularly. So, they decided to vote for Amaechi at the NGF election. Is there anything wrong with that?”

Malam Nuhu Ahmed Ribadu, pioneer chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has just replied President Goodluck Jonathan’s outburst that Ribadu is suffering of ‘ethically challenge’ and series of vindictiveness against Jonathan instead of appreciation.

Ribadu in his reply to Jonathan said that it is Jonathan that is ethically challenged and struggling to redeem his lost morality and integrity.

Ribadu in a statement issued by his office in Abuja described Reuben Abati, Jonathan’s spokesman as fraud presidential spokesman, standing on crooked crutches of rehashed falsehood fabricated by corrupt politicians prosecuted by Ribadu while he was heading EFCC.

The statement said “Reuben Abati’s statement, typical of his increasingly desperate personality, has exposed him as a fraud of a presidential spokesman who does not have the simplest level of media literacy. It is unfortunate that he stands on crooked crutches of rehashed falsehoods fabricated by corrupt politicians prosecuted by Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, in his desperate attempt to hold on to his job.

“His conjectured statement is a sad commentary on the type of people we have in the helms of our affairs: even with the resources at his disposal, Abati could not conduct a little research to save himself from embarrassment before he set out barking.

“It is a huge gaffe for Abati to charge Ribadu of ingratitude as the latter has more valid stand to make similar accusation having been betrayed after his selfless service to the nation in the Petroleum Revenue Task Force committee. The question of who is ethically challenged, however, is left for Nigerians to answer.”

Wife of President Goodluck Jonathan, Patience, on Friday attributed the success recorded by her husband in the various sectors in the first half of his four-year tenure to the outstanding performance of the women in his cabinet.

Mrs. Jonathan made the observation in a short remark she made at a dinner she organised for women at the Presidential Villa, Abuja in commemoration of this year’s Democracy Day.

“Two days ago, the President read his mid-term report to Nigerians. He and his team have done very well. Women are the powerful people in that cabinet,” she said.

Mrs. Jonathan singled out the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, for her efforts to reposition the nation’s economy and the Minister of Aviation, Mrs. Stella Odua, for giving a facelift to the nation’s airports.

She said female appointees in the present administration have done the womenfolk proud with their brilliant performances.

She said the womenfolk should be held responsible for the success or otherwise of the present administration since women are well represented in the government.

She thanked the President for giving the women the opportunity to prove themselves.

“We thank God for Mr. President for giving women a chance. Since independence, this is the first time women can walk tall and talk where men are talking. So, we thank this administration. We will continue to support this administration and make it succeed,” she said.

On the security challenges being witnessed in parts of the country, Mrs. Jonathan urged women to take the front seat in changing the situation.

She said, “On the issue of security, women are more involved. Soldiers are our children, Boko Haram members are our children, militants are our children.

“It is high time we talked to our children at home to shun evil behaviours and make sure we desist from anything that can bring the country down. We should be proud of our country.

“We should preach peace and be peaceful in our homes, local governments, states and the country. Our watchword should be peace. We should move from door-to-door to preach peace.

“Without peace, there will be no development and we need development. Women are saying enough is enough. We don’t want our children to die again.”

Among dignitaries that attended the dinner were a former First Lady, Hajia Ajoke Murtala Muhammed; wife of the governor of Anambra State, Mrs. Margret Obi; Majority Leader, House of Representatives, Mrs. Mulikat Adeola-Akande; wife of the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mrs. Fatima Tukur; PDP’s National Women Leader, Mrs. Kema Chikwe; business tycoon, Hajia Bola Shagaya; Mrs. Stella Okoli; female members of the Federal Executive Council, female presidential aides, female lawmakers, wives of service chiefs and representatives of different women groups, among others.

Adejoro74: Topic should read ''In SW Nigeria, it's no crime selling human parts - Suspect''

THE Federal Government may soon commence a clampdown on “extremist groups”, especially the Oodua People’s Congress and the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra.

President Goodluck Jonathan has said the OPC, MASSOB and the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram, constitute threats to national security.

“The Nigerian state faces three fundamental security challenges posed by extremist groups like Boko Haram in the North; the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra in the South-East; and the Oodua People’s Congress in the South-West.

“The activities of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra and OPC, though not as violently intense as those of Boko Haram, they still pose a serious security challenge to the Nigerian state,” Jonathan said in his 234-page mid-term report presented to Nigerians as part of the activities marking the nation’s Democracy Day, a copy of which was obtained by our correspondent on Thursday.

But both factional leaders of the OPC, Dr. Fredrick Fasheun and Chief Gani Adams, on Thursday denied the allegation that their group constitute security challenges to the country. They spoke separately to one of our correspondents on the telephone.

While Fasheun described the allegation as unfair, Adams said such assessment did not take into consideration the activities of the group in the last eight years.

“OPC does not constitute any security threat to any people let alone Nigeria. So, anybody that ties the rope of insecurity around our waist is being unfair to us. We love Nigeria but we love social justice more,” Fasheun said.

Adams added that rather than constituting a security threat to the country, OPC had for the past eight years, helped to promote peace in the South-West Zone of the country and by its festivals, helped to develop Nigeria tourism.

The MASSOB also denied that its members constituted threat to national security.

Its Director of Information, Mr. Uchenna Madu, told our correspondent on telephone that the President could not have said MASSOB had been a threat to national security.

He said this was because MASSOB supported and voted for Jonathan in the last election because of the role he played in the burial of the late Biafran leader, Chief Emeka Ojukwu.

Madu said, “MASSOB is not a threat to Nigeria’s security. We have been conducting ourselves in a non-violent manner in line with the Constitution of Nigeria.

“If they are looking for those that are threatening national security, they should go after Boko Haram. They should go after government officials who through corruption have become the greatest threat to national security,” he said.

Already, The PUNCH learnt that the Federal Government had put both OPC and MASSOB under security watch while a full-blown military offensive against Boko Haram is ongoing under the emergency rule declared in the three northern states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.

Curiously, Adams was among the dignitaries at the event where Jonathan presented the document on Wednesday in Abuja. Some former Heads of State, including ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, had shunned the event.

The President stated in the document that the Nigeria Police Force was upgrading its intelligence and counter-violence infrastructure across the country to respond appropriately to the threats being posed by the groups.

He said, “… the greater challenges are in the North where Boko Haram continues its intense violent campaign against citizens that have led to loss of lives and the destruction of poverty in Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Kano, Bauchi and Gombe states.

“While attacks have been launched on government and international institutions like the Nigeria Police Force Headquarters and the United Nations House in the Federal Capital Territory, government has contained the violent activities of the Boko Haram sect by restricting it to communities in the North-East where the Joint Task Force, of our national security agency, is currently engaged in anti-terrorism battle.

“The challenge of containing a group with no identifiable structure is huge: but within our broad counter-terrorism coordinated framework, government has scored several successes with the arrests and trials of many insurgents.”

Jonathan said whenever any group organised itself against the prevailing laws and established democratic institution, government would stand up and effectively remove such threat to ensure that the protection of lives and property was not compromised.

Abdul Adam56: Front @mode pls

vallycan: Wat a tragedy,poverty kill's faster dan HIV;
u murder ya belove wife over #500(keke change) wen odas are murderin an fadarin for million:
God shall judge u?

A man identified as Gbadebo Elegbede, in Abule Egba area of Lagos State, on Monday morning, allegedly beat his wife to death over a disagreement that started from missing N500 note.

Nigerian Tribune gathered that the incident reportedly occurred at Oronna Street, Off Puposola Street, Abule Egba area of the state, where the 60-year-old Elegbede raised the alarm over his missing N500, which he claimed to have kept in their room.

He had reportedly accused one of the sons of the deceased of being responsible for the missing money, after which the deceased defended her son, which then led to a serious argument between duo and subsequently to a fierce scuffle between them.

It was gathered that the man allegedly hit the woman with an unnamed object, which made her to fall to the ground with blood gushing out of her mouth, and the 17-year-old son, Johnson, who the father accused of stealing the N500 came in and met the lifeless body of his mother.

The suspect was said to have locked the lifeless body of his wife in his apartment and prevented even her relatives from seeing the body, insisting that she owned her “whether dead or alive.”

A relative of the deceased, who spoke with the Nigerian Tribune, said “since he did not allow us see the corpse, we are now back in Ogun State. We are confused as to what to do whether to report the matter to the police in Ogun State or in Lagos State.

The Emir of Daura in Katsina State, Alhaji Umar Farouk Umar has rejected the house-to-house search embarked upon by the Army and other security agents in his domain after the attack on the ancient city by terrorists suspected to be from Niger Republic.

The emir described the action as inhumane and unwarranted, insisting that the people in his domain were peace-loving people and should not be subjected to such experience.

The emir, who spoke when he received members of the National Assembly from Katsina State, on the platform of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), who visited his palace to commiserate with him over the unfortunate incident, said such things had never happened in Daura Emirate because the emirate council had a comprehensive data of all the people residing in the domain.

He said the policy that the security agents had adopted to checkmate the insurgents in the country would not address the security challenges, but would rather compound the security challenges.

“We traditional rulers are the custodians of the people and are ready to support and cooperate with security agents with a view to achieving a common goal,” he said.

He commended the three senators from Katsina State and the 10 House of Representatives members from the state for their concern, and appealed to them to come up with laws that would transform the lives of the people.

Speaking with journalists after the visit on behalf of the lawmakers, Honourable Mansur Abdulkadir Funtua said lack of good governance by the ruling party was the major problem affecting Nigeria.

He said for almost 15 years, the ruling party had failed to address the problems of poverty, unemployment, corruption and insecurity while no good government in the world could fold it’s arm and watch criminals kill innocent souls.

FBI/CIA:
I laugh in chinese.......... All these tins are waste of Government Money, Osun state manages like 3 to for radio station without significant importance in their poo_ish programes and yet they are still creating more (OSBC radio and TV haven't developed since her establishment in 1992 talking about graphics it will look black and white, the clour in the fonts will Be conflicting the only thing they have successfully manage to get right is there LOGO, programs is -0,

NDTV is another TV station where they just play around with short coverage

Reality TV was Bola Iges Project while he was the OYO state Government and Osun was still under OYO, it was Bisi Akande dat started the Project, Oyinlola did his best and Aregbe is now commissioning it.....

So is radio there is OSBC, ORISUN, DIAMOND, GOLD and nw Odidere?
I think I 4got to add the fact that NTA that was the best TV Station in Osun had problem with Gov. Aregbe and their certificate of Occupancy was revoked and nw lesser ppl can watch NTA


I think this ppl lacks creative ideas, what if Osun State keeps one of these numerous TV station and they can lease the rest to private stations that are willing start TV business in Osun........
Osun can get more revenue
OSBC can still use the money (leasing) to make the station better
And thus create competition


Note Don't get me wrong I didn't say Aregbe isn't doing well infact he's doing great but I think in terms of TV/Radio stuff he's doing bullshiit

ninja4life: Lol so u dey attend those kind church revivals i do remember when i used to pray all those kind of useless funny prayers now looking back i call myself a fool.

pistol: Rip to the departed.

Am yet ti get a comprehensive report about what really happened.
Take heart to the families and may God give u the fortitude to bear the loss.