₦airaland Forum

Basic123:
You can remain deluded 😆

Peter obi will die a former governor

Successlane:
Not at all, YOU and your IPOB wailers are.

olamike02:
Ignorance is a disease.

Basic123:
Are you the issuing authority?

By the way,use your brain and read the content of BBC write up

Why didn't your pethief OBi mentor,Atiku sue him for forgery abroad?

fergie001:
In his petition, Zango alleged that Salihu presented a forged primary school certificate and birth certificate. He asked the tribunal to order the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to issue him a certificate of return as he came second during the election.

YouandiAllofus:
The economy is heading for a total collapse.
Mainwhile, South Africa is preparing to displace Nigeria as Africa's biggest economy.

The Nysome Wike -led group of five Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Governors made up of four former and one serving governor, held talks with President Bola Tinubu late on Tuesday, Vanguard has learnt.

It was gathered that the meeting was preceded by a meeting held at the Abuja residence of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT Nyesom Wike.

Soon after the meeting, it was gathered that Wike led his former colleagues to meet with President Tinubu, at the Presidential Villa.

Although details of the meeting were sketchy as at the time of filing this report at 10:45 pm, it was gathered that a working relationship between the president and the former governors was what was tabled.

A source privy to the meeting who pleaded anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the issue said, “The G-5 PDP Governors first met in Wike’s residence for a few hours before heading to the Villa to meet with the president.

“Exact details of what was discussed isn’t available to me at the moment, but from discussions held during the initial meeting at Wike’s residence, it was all about finding accommodation for the former governors in the scheme of things and of course, how they can work together .”

The source noted that it was instructive that the former governors were meeting with President Tinubu barely 24 hours to the commencement of the Imo State PDP governorship campaign in Owerri and the growing tension over the occupant of the seat of party Secretary.

The former Governors who attended the meeting were: Nyesom Wike, immediate past Rivers State Governor and now FCT minister, former Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, former Enugu State Governor, Ifianyi Ugwuanyi, his Abia State counterpart, Okezie Ikpeazu and serving Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde

The federal government is at the verge of obtaining a $1.5billion budget support facility from the World Bank.

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, confirmed this at the Nigerian Delegation briefing on the sideline of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)/World Bank Annual Meeting in Marrakech, Morocco, yesterday.

Mr Edun said, “On the talks with the World Bank on $1.5billion budget support; that is correct.

The World Bank is the number one multilateral development bank helping developing countries or funding developing countries projects and programmes and sectors.


“It has free money through International Development Association (IDA). It is for the poorer countries; and right now, I think we qualify as one of the countries that can borrow in the normal window of World Bank funding but also some concessionary IDA funding, and that means that effectively, the interest rate will be zero.”

He, however, noted that there is no stigma attached to qualifying for World Bank funding to help finance development, saying, “In this particular case, it has long been in the pipeline, and we are hoping that funding would come through soon.

“There is a Federal Executive Council meeting on Monday that should be able to discuss this, as well as other initiatives for financing on reasonable terms. We have talked about the high costs of money, the World Bank money is the cheapest.”

On IMF’s advice to increase taxes and interest rate

The minister said the country had no loan programme in the offing with them, and so, not privy to where they proposed to Nigeria to increase taxes and interest rates.

Using the CBN to fund budget

Mr Edun said, “Regarding Ways and Means, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has a commitment not to go beyond the statutory limits.”

He assured that monetary and fiscal authority would work together.

“Monetary policy that’s talking about tightening the money supply that increases interest rates and on the fiscal side government expenditure includes paying the interest and the principal on government debt,” he said.


Speaking on Nigeria’s high debt service, the minister said, “I think that in terms of debt restructuring, I agree with you that you don’t have to wait; what you do is to look for opportunities to maybe lengthen debt, improve the condition under which that debt is borrowed.”

Oil marketers will soon resume importation of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly known as petrol into Nigeria as the Federal government moves to end the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL)’s monopoly of importation.

This sequel to a meeting the marketers: Depots and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) and Major Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) had with top officials of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Products Regulatory Agency, (NMDPRA) early this week.


The Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPCL, Mele Kyari, last week, lamented the inability of oil marketers to import fuel due to their inability to access foreign exchange, leading to the company becoming the sole importer of petrol once again.

With current exchange rate at over N1,000 per dollar, rise in crude oil price in the international market, currently hovering around $92 per barrel, the landing cost of a litre as at last week had risen to about N720 per litre.


However, it was gathered that the federal government is working on a number of short term measures to enable the oil marketers’ access to foreign exchange at a rate that will not cause serious dislocation in the price of fuel.

“For strategic reasons, the details of these short term measures will be kept off the public space for now. But rest assured that the government is not comfortable with a situation where NNPC will be the sole importer of the product as this will defeat the essence of the deregulation policy of the government,” a source of the meeting disclosed.

It was also learnt that the Federal Government, as a long term measure, is working on some fiscal and monetary re-engineering that will help to firm up the Naira, going forward.

“Of course, it is obvious that the speculative exchange rate of N1000 to a dollar cannot be the actual value of the Naira. A multi-pronged approach is being adopted which will help to firm up the Naira and which, ultimately will enable the marketers to access the dollar at a rate that will not only be sustainable, but will also be profitable for them to import fuel to ensure seamless supply and distribution throughout the country. NNPCL cannot be the sole importer of fuel in a deregulated market,” the source added.


Oil marketers have consistently called on the government to establish a level playing field by giving oil marketers access to foreign exchange at the official CBN window to ensure smooth transactions and create opportunities

DAPPMAN Chairman, Dame Winifred Akpani, had lamented, saying that without a level playing field, especially the one that guarantees access to dollars for all marketers at official rate, marketers’ ability to import petroleum products would be continually and severely hampered as significant portion of their operations and critical operational and capital expenses were denominated in US dollars, urging the government to consider the request a most urgent one.


“This is a passionate appeal to the government as we can confidently state that accessing foreign exchange rate through the CBN window will significantly enhance capacity and facilitate seamless supply of PMS and ultimately birth the regime of sustainability in terms of storage, distribution and supply across the nation. Getting access to foreign exchange at official CBN window and paying for levies, fees in our local currency will markedly transform service levels and spur product availability to a new height across the nation,” she said

The Department of State Services, DSS, has linked insecurity in the Southeast to criminality wrapped around Biafra agitation.

Imo State Director of DSS, Wilcox Idaminabo, disclosed this during a one-day stakeholders roundtable organised by Centre for Transparency Advocacy (CTA) on the November 11 governorship election in Imo State.

Idaminabo said the destruction and killings were simply criminality and not Biafra agitations.

He urged traditional rulers, clergymen, and Igbo leaders to speak up against the evil of insecurity in the southeast.

According to the DSS Director: “What is going on in the Southeast is criminality wrapped around the ideology of Biafra. Biafra is not to kill or destroy because some traditional rulers and religious leaders cannot even stay in their communities. There is no Biafra anywhere.

“See, when I led operations to Orsu, what we saw was gory, headless bodies, vehicles that had become abandoned, it was terrible.”

Idaminabo queried why during elections in the zone, threats of no elections arise, saying it fuels allegations that it is sponsored by political parties.

Over the past few years, the Southeast has been a theatre of insecurity linked to the continued detention of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, and Biafra agitation.

The insecurity in the Southeast has led to the killing and kidnap of several people of the region.

President Bola Tinubu has asked the Supreme Court to dismiss an appeal the 2023 candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, filed to nullify his election.


Tinubu, in a 42-paged brief of argument filed through his team of 17 lawyers, comprising 10 Senior Advocates of Nigeria, urged the apex court to affirm what he termed as a “well-considered decision of the Court of Appeal,” which, while sitting as the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, on September 6, dismissed the joint petition Atiku and his party entered against him.

While insisting that he was validly returned by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, as winner of the February 25 presidential poll, Tinubu told the apex court that by statistics, he garnered 25% of the total votes cast in 29 states of the federation.

He told the court that the former Vice President and the PDP only managed to secure 25% of the total votes in 21 states of the federation “as against the constitutional requirement of 24.7 states, which is the mathematical results of two-thirds of the 36 states of the federation and the FCT (making 37).

Tinubu maintained that having secured the highest number of valid votes cast and having fulfilled all constitutional requirements in that regard, INEC had no option than to declare him as the winner of the presidential contest.

He told the court that Atiku and the PDP, dissatisfied with the outcome of the election, on March 21, approached the PEPC “on trumped-up allegations of non-compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022, corrupt practices, non-scoring of majority of lawful votes cast at the election and non-qualification of the Respondent.”

According to President Tinubu, “the hyperbolic character of the foregoing allegations was exposed by the petition itself, which had no facts in support thereof.

“Starting from the allegation of non-qualification of the Respondent, all that the Appellants submitted to the lower court through their petition was that the 2nd Respondent (Tinubu) was at the time of the election not qualified to contest the election, not having the constitutional threshold.”


He told the Supreme Court that Atiku and his party failed to explain what they meant by “constitutional threshold” till all the Respondents in the matter were done with filing of their replies to the petition.

‘Cooked-up allegations’

“It was at this point they rolled out their drums of cooked-up allegations of discrepancies in the 2nd Respondent’s academic qualifications, dual nationality and sundry bemusing allegations from the back door.

“While they also claimed to have won the highest number of votes cast at the election, as against INEC’s declaration, throughout their petition, they did not suggest an alternative score which they considered correct, whether for themselves or the Respondent.

“Though they had alleged that the election was riddled with non-compliance and corrupt practices, the paragraphs of their petition putting up these allegations were nothing short of vague, imprecise, generic and nebulous.


“For these allegations which ought to have been specifically demonstrated through facts and figures, such as polling units and numbers, the Appellants, through their petition, chose to regale the lower court and the Respondents with breath-taking suspense, by stating that the said facts will be disclosed in their statistician’s report which was not part of the petition filed.

“It is commonsensical that the Respondents will only be able to respond to the facts in the petition and not on the crucial, albeit anticipated statistician’s report, since even the devil himself knows not the heart of man.”

Continuing, President Tinubu told the apex court that out of 27 witnesses that Atiku called, 13 did not have their witness statements front-loaded with the petition.

“With these, it was obvious that the Appellants did not intend to prosecute a petition but rather, to venture into some form of blockbuster, laced with thrilling suspense, stunning surprises and ecstatic hide-and-seek recreational activities; and these necessitated series of objections from the Respondents,

challenging the competence of the petition, as well as the itemised nebulous paragraphs of same, the statement on oath of these subpoenaed witnesses, which were not front-loaded with the petition and tons of documents sought to be tendered, which were either irrelevant or unconforming to the mandatory rules of admissibility.”


President Tinubu told the apex court that whereas Atiku raised issue of non-transmission of results, all the witnesses he brought before the PEPC, “agreed that the election went very smoothly, where INEC complied with all the prescribed procedures.”

‘Dismiss Atiku’s appeal’

He, therefore, urged the Supreme Court to dismiss Atiku’s appeal as lacking in merit and to affirm the election and return of the Respondent by INEC as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, having scored highest number of lawful votes cast and fulfilling all constitutional requirements.”

Tinubu contended that the Appellants did not demonstrate any reason the Supreme Court should disturb any of the findings of the lower court, “which with all modesty, are rooted in law and perfect demonstration of scholarship.”

More so, President Tinubu noted that even though Atiku challenged his qualifications, however, in his alternative prayer in court, he requested to have a run-off election with him.


“The logical conclusion from this approbative and reprobative posture of the Appellants is that deep down in their hearts, they are convinced that the 2nd Respondent won the election, but have decided to embark on this voyage of abuse of court process,” Tinubu added.

Consequently, he prayed the Supreme Court to dismiss Atiku’s appeal marked: SC/CV/935/2023.

Cited as 1st to 3rd Respondents in the appeal, were; INEC, Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress, APC, respectively.

Meanwhile, no date has been fixed for the Supreme Court to commence hearing on the presidential dispute.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities ((ASUU) has kicked against the plan by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to include private universities as beneficiaries of its projects.

ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, made this known at a two-day interactive session between TETFund and all unions of beneficiary institutions in Abuja on Wednesday.


Osodeke said that the move to include private varsities in the fund’s project would lead to proliferation of private universities devoid of quality.


He charges the fund to work more on its project monitoring method saying that the level of performance by the beneficiary institutions are not in tandem as some of them receive the same amount of money.

He called for sanctions against non-performing institutions while also advocating for the abolition of what he referred to as “stakeholders fund”.

“ASUU will continue to embark on strike untill the right thing is done in our tertiary institutions. Stakeholders fund should be abolished,” Osodeke said.

In his address, the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Sonny Echono, said the interactive session was conceived as a proactive engagement against the backdrop of the prevailing challenges in the subsector.

Echono said that the engagement was also for the purpose of sustaining steady growth and development of tertiary education.

He stressed the need to consistently engage and challenge one another on how best to improve the situation.

“It is our fervent hope that this interactive session will provide an enabling environment for us to understand some of our challenges and difficulties in the delivery of quality education in our institutions.


“Thereby making meaningful contribution to the successful execution of the objective of the fund.


“As you all know our primary mandate is to rehabilitate, restore and consolidate tertiary education in Nigeria, using funding alongside project management.

“The session is also expected to serve as a platform to discuss and mitigate incidences of industrial disputes in the tertiary education sector and look at ways to prevent and avoid their occurrences,” he said.

Echono also explained that the interactive session would bring the opportunity to build and solidify cooperation among the fund, its beneficiary institutions and the unions on matters that affect the growth and development of tertiary education.

“I believe that this interaction will bring up issues of concerns that will not only enable us address the areas of intervention in our institutions.

“It will also espouse gaps and shortcoming that have resulted in strikes and interruptions of academic sessions, with a view to mitigating them,” he said.

He called for urgent need for all stakeholders to unify efforts to reposition our tertiary institutions for the challenges of the times, especially in dealing with strike actions in the institutions.

“Studies have shown a link between poor student performance and industrial strike by unions. The arguments generally are that the quality of teaching and learning will significantly improve when teaching and learning are uninterrupted.

“Furthermore, building world class institutions requires a consistent and regular academic calendar and this is often affected by industrial strikes.

“However, a closer look will also show that many industrial strikes by the unions were for the improvement in teaching and learning conditions for both staff and students.

“It is for these reasons that sessions like this are organised to deliberate and find common grounds on issues of mutual interest and benefits,” he added.

Also, the former President, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Ayuba Wabba, who spoke on ‘The Role of Trade Unions in TETFund Intervention Activities”, commended the fund for its commitment to the elevation of university education.

Wabba noted that the NLC had benefitted a great deal from the ideological clarity and consistency of the unions in the tertiary institutions.

“The patriotic and historical resistance of the Congress against the debilitating influence and impact of neo-liberal policies of the successive government in Nigeria drew a lot of inspiration.

” This is as well as drawing verve from the intellectually sound positions advanced by unions in our tertiary institutions,” he said

Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Nyesom Wike on Monday hit out at the European Union (EU) over its report on the 2023 Nigerian presidential election.


Wike said the report failed to give the true position of the last election held in the country but created a wrong impression in the minds of the electorate especially in Rivers State.

Wike expressed his dissatisfaction when EU ambassador to Nigeria Samuela Isopi paid him a working visit in his office.


The minister said the EU was supposed to serve as an observer during the last election and not to present a report that would not give the true picture of Nigerian democracy.

European Union Election Observation Mission (EUEOM), through Chief Observer Barry Andres had in June presented its final report on the last Nigerian general elections, and highlighted six priority areas with recommendations.

Wike, however, said Nigerian laws cannot be the same as those of the European Union because they have different environments.


He said: “I didn’t agree with the European Union over the last report on the election in Nigeria.

“They are to observe. Nigerian laws can’t be the same as EU laws because they have different environments.

“In Rivers State, EU’s report was different from what transpired there. How can people who believe in democracy and practice it, be portrayed as people who don’t understand democracy?


“Our concern should be how to make the economy grow better. We have to cooperate and agree on specific areas of development in the Federal Capital Territory and the entire country.

“Foreign partners should be concerned with strategic development irrespective of the areas.”

Responding, Samuela Isopi, said the report was put together by independent observers and has nothing to do with her own operations.


She pledged commitment to work with the minister to boost development in the territory and beyond.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has opened up on the issues surrounding the letter in circulation signifying the commission stand not to participate in the appeal against the Kano Governorship Election Petition Tribunal judgement sacking Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).

The Head of legal Department in Kano, Barrister Suleiman Alkali, who signed the letter in circulation, told Daily Trust in a chat that it was the tribunal secretariat that requested the electoral umpire to write the said letter.


Speaking behind the issuance of the letter in the first place and later withdrawn, he said the tribunal requested the letter.

“The letter was mischievously requested by the Tribunal Secretary and I wrote to them for a purpose and they deliberately escalated it. The letter had been withdrawn. It no longer has legal backing,” he said via a text message.



While the tribunal secretary did not respond to inquiries, an official at the tribunal registry, who asked not to be identified, told our reporter during a visit to the registry on Saturday that the letter was never submitted.

“We did not receive anything here and if they claim that, they should produce the acknowledged copy.

“When he (the HOD legal) approached us with the issue via phone we said no and asked him to put it formally in writing.

“However, we are not the ones to entertain that but our head office in Abuja. We also work under directives of our superiors,” one of the officials, who asked not to be mentioned confirmed.


Daily Trust, however gathered that a Notice of Appeal was filed on behalf of INEC on October 3 by the law office of Dikko & Mahmoud, the law firm of A.B Mahmood (SAN), a former president of the Nigeria Bar Association.

The Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, has announced a ban on the use of laterite as a base in road construction.

He directed that henceforth, contractors should use lumps, sharp sand and stone base to form the base before laying of concrete or asphalt pavement.


The Minister gave this directive while inaugurating a committee for the supervision of the Reconstruction of Benin – Warri dual carriageway and the dualization of East – West Road, Port Harcourt – Onne Port junction road in River State.


This was contained in a statement signed by the Director (Information), Press and Public Relations of the Ministry, Lere-Adams Blessing, in Abuja, on Friday.

According to her, Umahi noted that laterite has a limited load bearing capacity, susceptible to erosion and weathering especially in areas with heavy rainfall and this can lead to degradation of the road surface overtime, maintenance challenge and does not last long.

She quoted the Miniater as saying, “We are giving very serious attention to the roads between Benin and Warri. The road between Eleme and Onne Port, we are mindful of the site conditions of these roads, the water conditions and the boreholes instead of pot holes on these roads.

“No more laterite, contractors are now to use lumps, sharp sand and stone base in place of laterite”

The Minister also directed the newly inaugurated Road Taskforce Team that there must be a continuous maintenance of all the roads under construction until the end of the project.

He enjioned them to ensure that the contractors are duly informed of the development, and that they should remember that the ministry is under a matching order given by Mr. President,
to fix Nigerian roads for the citizens to have ease of movement from one location to the other.

Umahi said, “The committee must implement the contract agreement with maintenance culture as key. Committee members are to monitor the contractors closely to make sure things are done right.


“Our contractors can now understand that we are not insisting that things have to change without a reason, but that the society is demanding for sustainability and integrity of the work they are doing”.

Umahi disclosed that road infrastructure is one of the key factors for the revolution of our commerce, education, security and power in this country and that Mr. President is committed to our road infrastructure improvement and thus the Ministry is on a mission to uphold the renewed hope agenda of this administration on road infrastructure provision.

“I want to say that road infrastructure is one of the key factors for the revolution of our commerce, education, security and power in this country and Mr President is committed to our road infrastructure, so we are on a mission and we must take back our country.
He added.

The Minister equally mandated the committee to ensure daily proper supervision and documentation of what the contractors are doing and that they must ensure the new methods of construction are followed including maintenance because it is part of the elements of the project and anything contrary to this will attract appropriate sanctions.

Umahi said, “We are not at war with the contractor but contractors should not put the public to suffering. Proper daily supervision and documention of what the contractor is doing is compulsory.


“They must ensure the new method of construction is followed and maintenance follows too because it is part of the elements of the contract and any offence is punishable.”

Umahi ordered that contracts must be stable; no variation (VOP) on the contract will be accepted.

He charged the contractors using asphalt pavement to ensure that their contracts are stable, sustainable and can stand the test of time and warned that the ministry will not go to Federal Executive Council (FEC)to ask for increment because of the fluctuating price of bitumen, insisting that the ministry will not go beyond the N6trillion set aside for the ongoing projects completion.

He also said, “Those contractors using asphalt concrete and have achieved 80 percent completion can go ahead but no cost variation because I cannot be going to the National Assembly on weekly basis asking them for increment of contract sum”

The Minister added that before mobilization fund can be released to any contractor, the contractor must have mobilized 50% of its equipment and personnel to site.


He noted that the ministry will respect the rights of contractors and contractors have to also respect the right of the citizens.

Meanwhile, the committees constituted are as follows :
• Reconstruction of Benin-Warri Dual Carriageway (Section 1 : By Levant Construction Company Ltd)
Engr. C. Oke, Deputy Director HSSI; Engr. B. W. Hassan; Representative of the Honourable Minister; Representative of Highways MG&QC; Representative of Human Resources Department, FMW; Representative of Legal Department, FMW ; Representative of COREN; Representative of NSE. Among others.