₦airaland Forum

Director, Weights and Measures Department, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr Mohammed Sidi, says that oil dealers have been cheating Nigerians of N198,500 per truck sold.

Sidi said this in Abuja on Wednesday during a surveillance activity of the department to some fuel stations.

He said that the action was to ensure that all commercial transactions involving the use of weights and measures were accurate, fair and legal.

“Every weighing equipment in all sectors of the economy, whether oil and gas or non- oil and gas must be up to the required standard, ” Sidi said.

At Forte Oil Station, Maitama, opposite Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, the team found that customers lost 0.5 litres of fuel in every 20 litres they bought.

The team sealed three of the dispensing pumps and collected their certificate of clarification.

“This is because the officials of Weights and Measures discovered that for every 20 litres of fuel dispensed to customers of the filling station, not less than 0.5 litres was found to be a shortage to customers.

“We have 33 litres in a truck and when for every 20 litres, it is short with 0.5 litres which means that in a truck they will be making a profit of N198,500 per truck,” Sidi said.

The team also visited Forte Oil station at Ibrahim Babangida Boulevard, opposite National Universities Commission and found that customers were cheated by the same quantity of fuel.

The team sealed three dispensing pumps for oil and one for diesel.

At Dan Oil on Airport Road, the team found that customers lost 0.6 litres for every 20 litres bought and sealed three petrol pumps and one diesel pump.

At the filling station, the attendants quickly adjusted some pumps immediately they sighted the officials.

The managers at all the stations refused to comment.


The team also visited Mabushi District cement depot and certified bags of cement found in the place as having the right quantity.

The bags of cement checked were Bua, Dangote and Sokoto cement products.

The Chairman of the depot Mr Maxwell Nnamani said that the depot always maintained standards and urged other dealers to do same.

Nnamani said that although the issue of re-bagging had been a problem in the industry, it was being addressed.

The team also visited the 7UP Company at Idu Industrial Area to measure different products.

At ShopRite mall at the Jabi Lake, the team expressed satisfaction after measuring different products.

“We are happy because there is a lot of improvement from the non-oil sectors compared to what we witnessed before,’ Sidi said.

He appealed to members of the public report any suspected discrepancies by products’ dealers to the department to enable it to do its job better. (NAN)

By Musa Abdullahi Krishi



The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) may cede Senate President’s position to the northern part of the country and speaker to the south, Daily Trust has learnt.

The APC, which has so far garnered comfortable majority in both chambers with 64 senators-elect and over 200 ‎reps-elect, is said to be making serious efforts to avoid a repeat of what happened in 2015 when some of its members defied its directive on the National Assembly leadership positions.

It was gathered that some major stakeholders of the party are pushing for the Senate president’s seat to be zoned to the North, and most probably North-east, and the position of speaker to the South, particularly Southwest.

As for deputy Senate president, it was learnt that the stakeholders were pushing for it to go to the South South zone, while also making case for either the North-west or North-central to be given the position of deputy speaker.

Already, three senators from the North-east, Senate Leader Ahmad Lawan ‎(Yobe), Mohammed Ali Ndume (Borno) and Mohammed Danjuma Goje (Gombe) as well as one from the North Central, Abdullahi Adamu (Nasarawa) were reported to have indicated interest in occupying the seat.

As for speaker, only House Leader Femi Gbajabiamila (Lagos) has so far indicated interest from the Southwest, while the two from the North-east, are Mohammed Tahir Monguno (Borno) and Abdulrazak Namdas (Adamawa).

In the North Central, Ahmed Idris Wase (Plateau) and Umar Bago (Niger) have indicated interest, with Babangida Ibrahim (Katsina Northwest) also showing interest.

Meanwhile, it was gathered that Gov. Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State, who won election to the Senate last week, has indicated interest to vie for the seat of deputy Senate president. Yari was a member of the House of Reps before becoming governor.

Also, two reps-elect, Abdulrahman Kawu Sumaila and Aminu Suleiman, both from Kano State, have indicated interest to vie for the deputy speaker and speaker’s seats respectively.

Daily Trust learnt that those pushing for Kawu were of the view that‎ he should be paired with Gbajabiamila as the duo had good working relationship in the past as minority leader and deputy minority leader for eight years.

It was further gathered that both Kawu and Gbajabiamila had commenced talks on the collaboration to realise their ambitions, but that talks were still ongoing among the lawmakers and beyond.

The senator representing Delta Central Senatorial District, Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege says President Muhammadu Buhari will be actively involved in the process of selecting the next leadership of the Senate.

Speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Warri, Omo-Agege said the President and the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) would avoid the 2015 mistake that led to the emergence of Sen. Bukola Saraki as the president of the Senate.

‘‘Anybody who is going to be Senate President, in the 9th Senate, must be somebody who is loyal to Mr President, the party and the constitution.

‘‘The Senate President will be determined by Mr President. Mr President will indicate to us through the party who he want to work with,’’ Omo-Agege said.

The ruling APC is set to produce the next Senate president after winning the majority of senatorial seats at the upper legislative chamber in the Feb. 23 election.

Asked if APC has zoned the senate presidency to any geo-political zone, the lawmaker said ‘‘I do not know.’’

‘‘But what I can tell you is that we are going to have a Senate that will work with Mr President.

‘‘The era of allowing renegades who rode on the back of Mr President, who rode on the back of the party to go in there and trade the party’s mandate, I think that era is gone.

‘‘I am very hopeful that this time around, Mr President will step in and decide not only the zone that will produce the Senate president and the leadership but also who should be.

‘‘We don’t want to erect another opposition leader in the Senate, as we had in the 8th Assembly.

‘‘There are a lot of us in the Senate who are returning to the next senate who fits into that position. We are so many but any decision the President makes, we will all fall in line and abide.

‘‘We want President Buhari to succeed and it is all in our place, some of us who are close to him, to tell him certain calls he should not make because we know ourselves in the National Assembly and we do not want a repeat of the Saraki saga as we go back to the ninth Senate.’’ he said.

Speaking on the upcoming Saturday’s election, Omo-Agege said the APC stood a chance to win the March 9 governorship elections in Delta, saying ‘‘Delta people are determined not to be in the opposition again.’’

Abuja – Indications emerged on Tuesday that states prone to electoral violence and malpractices are going to be flooded with security personnel during the gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections slated for March 9.

This much was gathered after President Muhammadu Buhari met with all the service chiefs, including the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, and the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali.

Among states where security presence will be much visible are Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Edo and a number of states in the South-West that witnessed killing of the electorate during the presidential and National Assembly elections which held on February 23.

The Police IG, who spoke to State House correspondents on some of the security measures to be adopted, said the police would visit anyone who engaged in ballot box snatching and thuggery with ruthlessness.

Adamu revealed that over 300 persons had been arrested in connection with various irregularities in the recent polls, noting that as soon as investigations were concluded, they would be prosecuted in accordance with the law.

“In Bayelsa and other states within that zone, we have taken notice of the fact that people there are prone to violence, so we have increased the number of security personnel that will be posted there.

“Also, we have increased the intelligence outfit that will be posted there, so as to help us identify those people that are trying to cause problem, so that we can take them out of the environment before they cause any problem. Therefore, there will be increase in security personnel”, he said.

Asked to comment on alleged partisanship and over-involvement of security personnel, military inclusive, in the recently held presidential election, he said the report of local and international observers which adjudged the process free and fair was enough justification to submit that the election was transparently done.

According to him, Nigerians should not engage in voter apathy as security would be adequately catered for when they come out to exercise their franchise on March 9.

“Well, as I said before, everybody, the lives of Nigerians are secured in terms of provision of adequate security to come out and vote.

“If you judge what you have said with the report of the international observers and local observers, you will see that both the local and international observers have adjudged the process to be peaceful.

“So, pockets of challenges you get here and there did not affect the peaceful conduct of the elections. The process was peaceful and credible,” he explained.

On those arrested so far, he said: “Investigation is ongoing. There is an investigative team that has been setup, headed by the Commissioner of Police in charge of legal matters, they are compiling the case files, they are investigating them.

“At the end of the investigation, the police, liaising with INEC will prosecute them.”

The IG, while giving insight into what transpired at the meeting, said: “We are all aware of the fact that we just concluded the presidential and National Assembly elections and we want to congratulate Nigerians for the peaceful conduct of the elections and we are prepared now for the governorship and the House of Assembly elections in the country.

“We’ll like every Nigerian to come out and cast his or her vote. The security arrangement we provided during the presidential elections is being enhanced so as to provide enabling environment for everybody to come out and cast his or her vote for their preferred candidates.

“We will again advise those that will want to disrupt the process to rethink because during the presidential election, we had some few challenges here and there…, we’ll not allow those challenges to repeat themselves. We are taking more security measures to address those pockets of challenges we noticed.

“So, thuggery again is not allowed, ballot snatching is not allowed, disruption of the election process is not allowed.

“We, the security personnel, have resolved to deal ruthlessly with anybody that attempts to disrupt the process of this election. For that reason, we expect, in every state, the conduct of the election should be respected.

“We expect that electoral materials must not be tampered with, we expect that the INEC officials would do their work without fear or favour and without being allowed to compromise.

“The same thing, the security personnel are to perform their duties without allowing themselves to be compromised.

“So, we have heightened the security arrangement to make sure that the election goes without any hitch.”

While fielding questions on the discrepancies that trailed the presidential election in some states, especially on arrest of hoodlums who tried to disrupt the process, he said: “We’ve made a number of arrests all over the country but probably we shall come out with the number of arrest we have made in terms of those that disputed the process of the election in some areas within the country. We have a lot of arrests.”

Apart from the IG, other stakeholders present at the meeting included the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan Ali; Chief of Defence Staff, Abayomi Olonisakin; Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai; Chief of Naval Staff, Ibok Ekwe Ibas, and Chief of Air Staff, Abubakar Sadique, among other top security personnel.

Abuja – The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday resolved to report the actions of the military in the just concluded February 23 presidential and National Assembly elections through a petition to the United Nations (UN) as well as other global democratic institutions.

The PDP also resolved to file a petition at the election tribunal in Abuja today.


The party warned that there may be no election in 2023, given the manner the present government was running the affairs of the country.

Addressing newsmen shortly after the expanded caucus meeting of the party, the spokesman of the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, said, “Caucus commended Nigerians for refusing the harassment, intimidation, and militarisation of the electoral process and participating in the election but noted that the mandate that was freely given to our candidate was stolen and as such the party and the candidate jointly resolved to go to the tribunal, and reaching the end of what is permissible within our legal system to get back our mandate on behalf of Nigerians.

“Caucus further noted the role of the military in the February 23 election and resolved that we will report the action of the military through a petition to UN as well as other global democratic institutions on the role of our military in the February 23 election.


“Caucus also reviewed the situation in Kano State, particularly as it concerned the court decision and noted that an appeal had been filed against the judgment and we will continue to study and follow the situations as they arise.

“Caucus further raised issues about the harassment, intimidation, and cajoling of our members on the plot by the Buhari presidency as well as APC to intimidate the people’s president, former VP Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and the resolve of the PDP to go to court by insisting, blackmailing, and saying that he should not go to court. We insist that our party and our candidate have resolved to seek legal redress on the stolen mandate.

“On the forthcoming governorship election, we decry the militarisation of the South-South and the rigging, which the APC is plotting ahead of the election. We urge Nigerians to come out en masse and participate in the election and ensure they vote for the candidates of the PDP.”

Speaking earlier at the caucus meeting, the National Chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, who said that the party would file its petition today (Monday) or tomorrow (Tuesday), said the decision of the party to seek legal redress was largely informed by what he called the brazen rigging of the polls by the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Alleging that the staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were intimidated to carry out the bidding of the ruling party, Secondus said President Muhammadu Buhari-led government used “the military to harass the electorate in some parts of the country in the course of the elections”.


He added: “Nothing will make us waver in the pursuit of justice. The decision to go to court has been finalised and the process has begun.

“We will file our petition today (Monday) or tomorrow (Tuesday). No matter what anyone will do or what the APC will say, we will seek justice to the highest court of the land.

“What happened during this election has never happened in the history of this country. They are celebrating criminality, they are celebrating evil.

“Our leaders are not talking, and if you don’t speak against evil, it will consume everybody. The National Peace Committee is not saying anything.

“INEC and its ad-hoc staff were intimidated and everyone is quiet. If nothing is done, we will nosedive and go deeper and deeper in this situation we have found ourselves.”

Secondus, who expressed fear over the use of the military in the election, warned that the way and manner the security agencies were used in the election by APC, the ruling party would simply write the results of the 2023 elections.

Decrying the silence of the elders in the country, the PDP boss said the elders should speak out now, because keeping silence would boomerang in the nearest future.

Emphasising that the party would go to court, Secondus called on the Federal Government to release Babalele Abdullahi, the son-in-law of its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and his lawyer, Uyiekpen Osagie, that are presently in detention.

He said: “We are strong and resolute, nothing will make us change our minds. The decision to go to court has been finalised and agreed and the process is on. The lawyers have been assembled. We may be in court today or tomorrow. No one can stop us.

“No matter the propaganda of APC, we will seek justice till the last drop of our blood. We believe justice will be done and God almighty will give justice.

“Never has it happened in our country that INEC will be so compromised and our security will be so involved in election that is purely of civilians.

“People are celebrating manipulation, criminality, and rigging. This thing will consume us one day. We asked INEC if what happened on the 23rd would happen on the 9th? How would history and the next generation judge you?

“In 2023, there may be no election; they will simply write the results.

“If the military wants to contest in election they should say so. It happens in Thailand, where the military and civilian contest election.

“We want to put on record that in Lagos, certain sections of people were denied the opportunity to vote, is that what is going to happen on the 9th?

“The in-law of our presidential candidate and his lawyer are in detention and not released. And the leaders of the country, including the civil society, are keeping quiet.

“We ask that the personal lawyer of our presidential candidate, his son-in-law be released. We will not be intimidated and we will not keep quiet.

“The EFCC has become the suppression and oppression of the poor. I call on Nigerians to come out en masse to resist the intimidation.”

Secondus told the INEC boss that God, history, and the whole world were watching.

PDP Asks EFCC To Release Tanimu Turaki Immediately

Meanwhile, PDP on Monday demanded the immediate and unconditional release of the Deputy Director-General (Admin) of its Presidential Campaign Organisation, Tanimu Turaki (SAN), who was arrested on Monday by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The party, which said that Turaki was arrested for no cause, said that his arrest and detention was part of the grand plot by the Buhari presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to use state apparatus of power to intimidate PDP leaders and scuttle PDP’s determination to reclaim its February 23, 2019 presidential election victory in court.

The PDP, in a statement by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, said: “Since the people’s candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and the PDP expressed our unwavering determination to reclaim our victory at the tribunal, being armed with overwhelming evidence, our leaders have been subjected to escalated harassments, constant threats, blackmails, cajoling and contrivances by the APC to drop our legal option.

“It is instructive to state that Tanimu Turaki was arrested and detained upon invitation by the EFCC to endorse a bail document for the Finance Director of Atiku Abubakar’s company, Babalele Abdullahi, who was arrested earlier by the commission over flimsy allegations.

“The PDP, however, states in clear terms that the APC and the Buhari presidency are fighting a lost battle as no amount of harassment and threats will ever make the party to buckle in its determination to take back the mandate, in line with the wishes and aspirations of Nigerians.

“Nigerians are resolute on this struggle to reclaim the mandate freely given to Atiku Abubakar at the polls and the PDP will pursue this decision to its logical end and secure justice for the Nigerian people.”

By Emmanuel Aziken, Johnbosco Agbarakwu & Jimitota Onoyume


All Progressives Congress, APC, may have readjusted its plans to unleash President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory charm on five states it regards as strongholds of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, ahead of this weekend’s governorship and state Assembly polls.

Plans by the President to visit the five states, including Delta, Akwa Ibom, Sokoto, Kwara and Taraba, Vanguard learned, have been cancelled. Another state that had been included in the campaign itinerary of the President was Imo State.

Though controlled by APC, the party is under stress in the state on account of multiple crises among tendencies in the state chapter and the face-off between the governor and National Working Committee, NWC, of the party. Instead of the President, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo was on call in Delta and Akwa Ibom states, two states the APC is battling to pave the way for it into the heart of Niger Delta.

Further uncertainty about the Presidency’s plans surfaced, yesterday, as it was learned that tomorrow’s planned visits to three PDP-controlled northern states of Kwara, Sokoto and Taraba had been cancelled. APC A similar visit to Imo State earlier scheduled for yesterday, according to Presidency sources, was cancelled at the last minute.

It could not be confirmed at press time why the visits to the five states were cancelled. A senior official of APC contacted on the development feigned ignorance of the reasons for the cancellation. Presidency officials also did not respond to phone calls and text messages sent to them at press time.

Kwara and Sokoto states had been particularly on the radar of the APC, ahead of the presidential elections. The President won the two states albeit marginally, despite having PDP governors who recently defected from APC to the opposition party. His visit was expected to give further impetus to the plans to upend the political control of the two states.

However, the cancellation of the visit to Imo State was, yesterday, being framed on the need to avoid the Ogun scenario. Vanguard, however, gathered that plans for the president to bolster APC in Kaduna State on Thursday is expected to go ahead.


Osinbajo meet stakeholders in Delta, Akwa Ibom

Yesterday, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo took the president’s place in strategic meetings with chieftains of the party in Delta and Akwa Ibom states. A source present at the meeting noted that the vice-president also promised to look into complaints that officials of Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, compromised.

The source said: “He asked us to close ranks ahead of the governorship election and heard our complaints about lack of security during the presidential election that facilitated the violence and intimidation that characterised the presidential election. ‘’The vice-president also promised to expedite work on the railway project, East-West Road and the dredging of the Warri Port.”


President should not misuse his office — PDP

Ahead of the visit, Delta State chapter of PDP has, however, cautioned the president not to misuse his office for illicit political ends.

The state Publicity Secretary of the party, Dr. Ifeanyi Osuoza, in a statement, said the visit was in bad taste, wondering why the president chose to visit only Warri. The party also advised the president not to abuse his office, adding that he should not attempt to manipulate the electoral process of March 9 with the visit. According to the statement, “we urge the President not to get involved in sinister contrivances by working to use his office as President, to scheme and manipulate the electoral process.

“We say this because of the March 9, 2019 governorship and state House of Assembly elections, as we have it on good authority that Buhari’s trip is not altruistic, and has nothing to do with the good and progress of Delta State.

“It is, indeed, a thing of shame that President Buhari will ignore other very important and urgent state matters to come to Warri to be at the head of a despicable scheme to manipulate and swing votes in favour of the unpopular APC and its candidates.”

The vice-president was at press time expected in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital. “We condemn the president’s insensitivity to the sensibilities of the people of Delta State who have taken PDP as their party.

‘’We also decry the shameful, slimy drive of Buhari and his detestable mission to use the power of State to secretly get the various agencies of the Federal Government, namely, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the police, the military and other security agencies to intimidate and harass PDP supporters, voters and subvert their democratic will and foist on the State an unpopular APC and its candidate.”

Deji Elumoye writes that the Ninth Senate billed for inauguration in June will have 16 ranking senators who have spent between eight and 16 years in the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly

Every four years when elections into parliamentary seats are held in the country, more than 50 percent of federal legislators don’t get re-elected. This year is not an exception. However, there a couple of federal lawmakers, especially Senators who have been able to weather the storm in their senatorial districts and have consistently won re-election for a record three and five times. So, in the 9th Senate to be inaugurated in June, 16 ranking Senators will stand out among the 109-member Senate as having spent between eight and 16 years in the hallowed chambers.


IKE EKWEREMADU

Top on the list is Senator Ike Ekweremadu who has spent 16 solid years in the Senate and has been re-elected for a record fifth time by voters in Enugu West senatorial district. He has been Deputy Senate President since 2007. Ekweremadu, started his political career in I999 as a local government chairman in his home state, Enugu before contesting for the Senate seat in 2003. He is passionate about devolution of power and sponsored the state police bill along with 76 other Senators which is at the second reading stage at the Senate. Ekweremadu has been consistent with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on which platform he has been re-elected five times to the Senate.


JAMES MANAGER

Another fifth timer is Senator James Manager, representing Delta South since 2003. Well respected among his colleagues, Manager who is a PDP Senator, is Chairman of Senate Committee on Power. He had in the past sponsored many bills and he will bring to bear on the 9th Senate his legislative experience spanning over 16 years.


AHMAD LAWAN

Senator Ahmad Lawan was elected Senator in 2007 after serving as a member of the House of Representatives from 1999 to 2007. He is the Leader of the Senate. At the beginning of the 8th Senate in June, 2015, the APC Yobe South Senator was the choice of the Presidency for the coveted Senate Presidency seat but was outsmarted, by Dr. Bukola Saraki who emerged Senate President and Chairman of the National Assembly. As Senate Leader, he introduces debate on issues, motions and bills presented before the Senate.


ENYINNAYA ABARIBE

Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe has been representing Abia South senatorial district since 2007. He was deputy governor of Abia state during the first term of Governor Orji Uzor Kalu in 1999. Abaribe is Chairman of the South East Senate caucus. Last year, he was detained for days by the Department of State Service (DSS). The PDP Senator is usually critical of government policies and takes his time to fault many government appointments on the floor of the Senate.

ALI NDUME

Senator Ali Ndume represents APC Borno South in the Senate since 2011 having served as a two-time member of the House of Representatives (2003 to 2011). At the inauguration of the eighth Senate on June 9, 2015, Ndume emerged as Senate Leader before he was removed in February, 2017. He is a committed Buharist who defends the President’s policies at any point in time during plenary.

PHILIP ADUDAH

Senator Philip Aduda is Senate Minority Whip and has been in the Senate since 2011. Popularly called Landlord by his colleagues because the National Assembly is domiciled in his senatorial district, Adudah, a PDP FCT Senator had earlier served as a two-time member of the House of Representatives from 2003 to 2011.

DANJUMA GOJE

Senator Danjuma Goje is Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation. His committee will be busy once Senate resumes plenary on March 12 scrutinising the 2019 Appropriation Bill submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari to the National Assembly last December. Goje who represents APC Gombe Central has been in the Senate since 2011. He was a two-time governor of Gombe state from 2003 to 2011.

KABIRU GAYA

Senator Kabiru Gaya is APC senator representing Kano South and has been in the Red Chambers since 2011. He was a former governor of Kano state during the Third Republic.

ADAMU ALIERO

Senator Adamu Aliero has been a ranking APC Kebbi central Senator since 2011.He had earlier served as Kebbi state governor.

OLUREMI TINUBU

Senator Oluremi Tinubu, is also a third time Senator representing Lagos Central on the platform of APC. She is the wife of the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and is Chairman of Senate Committee on Environment. In the 7th Senate, she was the Chairman of the Senate committee on Women Affairs.


ABDULLAHI ADAMU

Senator Abdullahi Adamu has been in the Senate since 2011. The APC Senator from Nasarawa West senatorial district is Chairman of Senate Committee on Agriculture. At the inception of the Fourth Republic, Adamu served as governor of Nasarawa state for two terms (1999 to 2007).

AJAYI BOROFFICE

Senator Ajayi Boroffice has been in the Red Chamber since 2011 and he represents Ondo North senatorial district on the platform of APC.

TESLIM FOLARIN

Senator Teslim Folarin is staging a come-back to the Senate having earlier served in the fifth and sixth senate from 2003 to 2011. He was the Senate Leader during the sixth Senate from 2007 to 2011 when he represented Oyo Central on the platform of PDP. He had since defected to the APC under which platform he won the senatorial election.

GEORGE SEKIBO

Senator George Sekibo, like Folarin, is also staging a come-back having served in the sixth and seventh senate. He is coming to represent Rivers East on the platform of PDP.

IBRAHIM GOBIR

Senator Ibrahim Gobir is a third time Senator representing APC Sokoto East. He is Chairman of the Senate services committee.

EMMANUEL BWACHA

Senator Emmanuel Bwacha has been a PDP Senator representing Taraba South since 2011.He is Senate Deputy Minority Leader

Who becomes the next Senate President? This is not an easy question to answer, writes Onyedi Ojiabor, Abuja.


The battle for Senate President is in top gear, it was learnt yesterday.

Front runners for the exalted seat, including Senator Ahmed Lawan, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, Senator Mohammed Danjuma Goje and Senator Abdullahi Adamu, are said to be on top of their game.

Others are expected to join the race in the days ahead.

A source said the front runners have started reaching out to Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senators.

The source noted that with about 66 new senators out of 109 coming to the upper chamber, the battle would be tough.

He said if the APC failed to put its house in order before the inauguration of the 9th Senate in June , “the scenario of June 9th, 2015 when out going Senate President Bukola Saraki emerged Senate President with the active help of PDP senators would repeat itself.”

He also listed Lawan ( Yobe North), Ndume ( Borno South ), Goje (Gombe Central) and Adamu (Nasarawa West) as the leading contenders in the race for the seat of Senate Presidency.

According to the source, “Saraki factor in who takes over from him as Senate President should not be over looked.”

He added that “it is obvious that most of the re-elected senators are loyalists of Saraki. You cannot over look that factor. It may play out in the choice of who emerges as Senate President. Already, high wired politics is going on among the top contenders. People are reaching out and wooing both old and incoming senators.”

The source, who said that PDP senators must not be allowed to exploit any division among APC senators, noted that “the battle is still very much open and up for grab.”

On PDP factor in the Senate, he said with APC 65 senators and PDP 41, the opposition party must not be underrated.

He said:“Anybody PDP senators with their expected block vote back for the race will carry the day.”


The APC and the Presidency, he said, should consider all possibilities before endorsing any senator for the top job.

For him, “The APC should conduct proper and indebt profiling of the contenders. Their strength and weaknesses should be considered. Their track records are likely to come to play in the choice of who becomes the Senate President.”

To prevent a dark horse from emerging Senate President, the APC must not allow all comers affair, Chairman Senate Committee on Labour and Productive, Senator Abu Ibrahim, has said.

Senator Ibrahim told reporters in Abuja that APC should immediately meet on the matter.

The Katsina South Senator said APC should set in motion the process of endorsing its candidate for the Senate President to avoid what happened in 2015 when Saraki emerged Senate President against the Party’s position.

Ibrahim is upbeat that the APC will do what is necessary in the interest of the party.

Results of the last National Assembly elections released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), shows that the APC won 65 of the 109 (about 59%) senatorial seats in the country, leaving the PDP with 41 senatorial seats (37%) and Young Progressives Party’s (YPP) one seat (1%).

The APC secured 61 seats in the Red Chambers in 2015 before the PDP infiltrated its ranks to secure the office of the Deputy President of the Senate for Senator Ike Ekweremadu.

A report in this paper at the weekend quoted a source as saying: “The horse-trading to lead the Senate and the House of Representatives has begun.

“It is going to be a tough contest because all the candidates are ranking. For example, Ndume has been in the National Assembly for 16 years with eight years spent in the House and another eight years in the Senate. Lawan has been a Senator since 2007 with Adamu and Goje joining in 2011.



“Some governors and APC stalwarts are gambling with the choice of Governor Ibikunle Amosun to lead the Senate as a bosom friend of the President. They have linked the suspension of the governor to the plot to install him as Senate President.

“This jostling for power is despite of the fact that the APC is yet to define its zoning or power sharing formula. Those aspiring to lead the National Assembly are banking on the 2015 formula of the APC, which ceded the Senate Presidency to the Northeast and the Speaker to the Southwest, before the President of the Senate, Speaker Dogara and some APC lawmakers revolted.

“The lack of zoning formula made ex-Governor Abdullahi Adamu from Nasarawa State in the Northcentral to join the race. As the chairman of the Parliamentary Support Group which resisted the outgoing Senate President to save President Buhari, he believes he should lead the Senate.

Responding to a question, the source said: “All the candidates are already lobbying not only to have the Senate presidency and House Speaker zoned to their areas but to be anointed.

“Unless it is carefully managed, the Senate may witness a repeat of the 2015 crisis which PDP took advantage of.”

“The only challenge APC is facing is about likely imposition of the Senate President and the Speaker. Most of the candidates want the race left open equitably.

“This is why some APC leaders are pleading with President Muhammadu Buhari and party leaders to meet and work out an equitable power sharing module.”

The source added: “I think in the next two months, the game will be more interesting. If Dogara’s candidacy does not fly, PDP might sponsor another ranking member from the Southwest to be the Speaker.”

A source in government said: “President Buhari has really not shown interest now on those who will lead the National Assembly. Maybe he has a mindset but he is yet to discuss with party leaders.”

Lawan is spending his 20h year in the National Assembly having being elected into the House of Representatives between 1999 and 2003 before becoming a Senator.

Set up zoning mechanism for NASS leadership to avoid 2015 scenario, Nabena tells APC

The Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Yekini Nabena, urged the leadership of the party to zone and select preferred principal officers of the incoming 9th National Assembly.

He added: “The Peoples Democratic Party has lost the presidential election and they have now adopted a plan B from their infamous Dubai strategy meeting.

“The plan is to hijack the incoming National Assembly leadership by repeating their heinous coup in the previous Assembly.

“The APC must prevent a repeat of a situation where despite our overwhelming majority in the outgoing 8th Senate and House of Representatives, its leadership was hijacked by saboteurs and their opposition PDP collaborators.”

Maryam Umar, a mother of two, knows the joy and challenges that come with raising her children. But her life is much more complicated than just such emotions. She also has been embedded in the daily pandemic of wrestling against afflictions, frustrations and poverty. She has been the mainstay of her aged mother who is stricken with cancer. She has lived a lifetime of drinking agonizingly from the broth served by sorrow and wretch.

Married off at a very young age, she hungered desperately to submit her life to a privilege of education. The side of her life that desired education also ushered her into irretrievable struggle that ultimately cut short her marital life. She obtained a higher national diploma, but was thrown out of marital home. Currently on national service in Damaturu, Yobe state, she has been supporting her children since Boko Haram abducted and killed her ex-husband when the terror group first invaded Gwoza and declared it as their caliphate.

On the threshold of victory over the subduing wretch of her life, a mere breath of a distance from recognizable honour, the tragic happened. Travelling to Gwoza mid January to see her children, the vehicle in which Umar was traveling was ambushed by Boko Haram. Other passengers made a dash into the nearby grooves. Umar was not so lucky. She has been in captivity, making the number among the hundreds of anonymous Nigerians in captivity in Boko Haram hands.


https://f5p3e9e4.stackpathcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/maryam-nysc.jpg
Maryam before her abduction by Boko Haram



According to Maryam’s brothers, they are yet to tell her ailing mother that one of her favorite daughters has been abducted by Boko Haram and worse of all, the family is not sure if she is dead or alive. Investigations by our reporter revealed that there are between 600 to 700 young women, without a name, face and hashtag, spread across the three main factions of Boko Haram operating in the Northeast. This number does not include older women and children in captivity. Both the captives and their loved ones despair of any likelihood that there will ever be any rescue or negotiated settlement for the captives to reunite with their loved ones.

“Maryam is poor, she is not the daughter of any influential person, she does not fit into the profile of those that people will create hashtags on her behalf,” said a family member.

For instance, across the north-east, hardly any week in the past five years goes by without communities being invaded, burnt down, with scores of captives taken away, never to be accounted for by officials. The Nigerian army has rescued thousands of captives over the years. However, many of the victims, especially young women, remain in captivity because Boko Haram insurgents place importance in securing them, as they have done with the likes of the Chibok Girls, Leah Sharibu etc.

Recently, dozens of men and women were abducted after the convoy of Kashim Shettima, governor of Borno state, was armed bushed, Tuesday, February 18, 2019 by the Islamic State affiliate of Boko Haram. Till date, no official confirmation of the actual number of those killed and abducted in that incident, let alone, a mention of their identities and background.

Another set of Nigerians were abducted on the eve of the postponed elections on February 15, 2019 on their way to discharge their civic duty in Gwoza LGA. These missing persons, alongside hundreds of other captives of Boko Haram rot in captivity, unheard, unaccounted for by officials while their families grieve endlessly.

By CECILIA OGEZI


Cohabiting or unmarried adult male and female living together is now a tradition in Abuja and it is gradually becoming acceptable these days. As the numbers of new comers into the city, mostly females (age 20-30) continue to increase every year, so is the practice gaining ground.

The new comers to the city who had come with the hope and excitement of changing their fortunes, soon find that the grass is not greener in the other compound. Here, they have neither home nor job and nowhere to go.

They are trapped. This is so because they have been seduced with attractive tales about life in the city by friends or relatives residing in the city. Now they are in the city, the story is different, it is not the bed of roses they were earlier made to believe. Worse still, they cannot afford to go back home where there is even no hope at all for them.

Although there have not been an official data from any statistics body, findings from LEADERSHIP Weekend have shown that, cases of unmarried couples living together in the FCT is on rapid rise, and about 80 per cent of this figures can be found in satellite towns and slums in the nation’s capital and the figure is expected to continue to rise in the years to come.

LEADERSHIP Weekend upon investigation discovered that there have been incidences of some of these greener pastures seekers ending up having their hopes shattered. In some cases the helpless ladies are thrown out by the same people who initially lured them into the city, leaving them vulnerable to the exploits of men who take advantage of their circumstances. These men take them in under ‘arrangement’ and turn them their sex mates.

It is common in Abuja today to find spinsters and bachelors living together as husbands and wives, and having children therefrom without official customary or religious solemnisation of the marriage. In most cases, it is even without the knowledge or approval of parents of the couples.

This practice has generated the catchy phrase, ‘’Abuja Marriage’’. Some have described it as a way of life and a survival strategy in a city where accommodation is not within the reach of the poor. There are multiple reasons that have contributed to this type of marriage. First is the issue of accommodation.

Most girls and boys come into the city in the name of hustling without knowing anybody who can accommodate them and so they are forced to hook up. Like other normal couples, this particular couple live a typical life. They do what normal married couples do and share ordinary moments with each other.

They watch movies together, go to parks, play together and travel together to attend village festivals, but their story did not end on a good note. Eshiofure Yakubu left her home town in Edo State when a family friend who visited the village during one of the Christmas holidays some years back gave her a phone number and promised to give her a job.

The man in question, a business man whom she later realised had eyes on her but could not make his way into her, had to deploy another strategy by inviting her to Abuja with the promise of a good job. Sadly, this was not the case; she came to Abuja only to discover that her would-be connection had faked his intention and had left her to her fate after one week of her stay in Abuja.

At this time, going back to the village was no longer an option for Eshiofure who had dreamt of returning to the village after some time polished like other city dwellers. What will she tell her friends? At this point, it is no retreat, no surrender. Three months later, with the help of an old friend who took her in, she was able to secure a job in one of the fast food joints in the FCT.

Sadly, three years later, she was thrown out of her friend’s house. She was left again with no choice but to call one of her regular costumer she had become fond of and was offered a temporary space till she could rent an apartment of her own but this was the beginning of another chapter of her life.

‘’I have hardly spent two months in his house, when he started asking me out. We started dating but few months later, I discovered that he had a child with another lady,” Eshiofure told LEADERSHIP Weekend. “We spent quality times together for three years and I was committed to the relationship but at a point he no longer treats me with respect.

‘’It was like I was under some spell but I was not. It was the accommodation. I lost my job and I have no other place to go. I could have gone into prostitution but I thought it wise to stay with one man who gave shelter but I regret the decision.

“I was already pregnant for my boyfriend before I got to know through one of his friends, that I called to complain about the way he was maltreating me that the lady who has a child for him had stayed with him and was sent out the moment she took in. I didn’t know he impregnated her in his house and sent her out and he did the same thing to me.”

Eshiofure who disclosed that she is ashamed to go back to the village with her condition since she left her boyfriend who no longer cares for her. ‘’I am working in a bar now and my baby stays with a family friend who offered to help, so I can raise some money for our up keep,” Eshiofure said with a tone of regret.

Although a few among them have been fortunate to end up with the right person with such relationship leading to marriage, the case of Eshiofure is only one of thousands of sad stories from unmarried couples staying under the same roof. Their stories may differ, but surely, the bottom line is that, most often than not these relationships does not end well.

Mrs Komolafe lives with her supposed husband in Lokogoma area of Abuja, her story is a tragic one. The woman who at first looked happily married, only voiced out on the arrangement when she had a problem with her supposed husband.

LEADERSHIP Weekend gathered that, when all attempts for the said husband to formalize their marriage failed after having had a boy with another on the way, she could no longer hold her anger and in the process revealed to all those who cared to listen that he only went to her people to introduce himself and has not paid a dime for her dowry.

The case of Jennifer (30) is a different ball game. She had lived with her boyfriend in Abuja for over a year with no cause to worry as she was confident that it was a relationship that will march her to the altar.

But her story changed when her boyfriend travelled home for Christmas and did not come back to Abuja, leaving her stranded and frustrated. “I have been calling him he picked for a while and stopped picking after some time. We did not have any problem before he travelled for Christmas” she said.

She lamented that she had recently started working in a bakery but fears that she might not be able to continue to live in the house as what she earns cannot pay the rent just as she revealed that the landlord has been in the house severally to demand for his rent.

Rebecca Etang (25) who left her state, Cross River, to Abuja in 2015 was gang-raped by a young man from the same state. Rebecca said she was living with her cousin before he was transferred from Abuja to Enugu just few months after she came to Abuja. ‘’He took me to one of his friends, although I don’t know the arrangement he made with him,” she said. “I help them in running house chores.

We started sleeping together few months later and I fell in love with him when he promised to marry me. When my brother got the news and called me, I told him it was okay, after all I am an adult.” Rebecca who told LEADERSHIP Weekend that she never knew she fell in love with a monster.

‘’Our relationship got sour when I noticed Jacob was a drug addict. He beats me as a 10 year old child and sometimes forces me to sleep with him. One night, he came back home drunk with his friend, this time I was already suspecting that he wanted me out, but I was thinking I could control it because he was not like that before. Before I knew what was happening, he gang raped me with his friends.

” Asked what happened after, she told LEADERSHIP Weekend that her brother took the case up and they were all invited to the village where family members descended on her boyfriend. She said she could not go to the police because of stigmatisation.

‘’It worked out well for me, though I never in my imagination believe that we were going to get married,” said Chinelo who appeared to be among the lucky few.

‘’I met him in the beer parlour I used to work, then I was sleeping in one of the rooms with some of my colleagues at the bar. When he said I should come and stay with him then, I only saw it as an opportunity of have some privacy because we were about five sleeping in one room.

‘’In less than two years, we got engaged and married. That is my story.” Zephinaya Bala, another Abuja resident, said ladies go into such relationships just to be accommodated and the man shouldering her responsibilities as a lover. But the truth is that most often, things don’t happen as expected leading to serious problems and sometimes death of either of the couple A respondent, Ifeoma Agwu, who runs a beauty salon, told LEADERSHIP Weekend that most of the time young ladies who engage in such arrangement do so in the attempt to secure good jobs to better their lives, and rather than going into prostitution, they live with these men till when they find their feet. Dr Ogi Osadalo, a marriage counsellor, described the practice as unethical for any responsible adult.

‘’There is nothing wrong with two grown-ups courting, which is understandable, but for a young girl to park into a man’s house when they are yet to marry, is not only morally wrong but also dangerous,” he said.

‘’I have heard ugly stories like young girls being raped, some go missing, either used for ritual purposes or they end up with unwanted pregnancy.

‘’It is not only on one side, the men too are sometimes victims because they don’t know so much about these strange girls they take in. Bad things are happening but people don’t know of this. A young man in this town was duped by a strange lover he haboured for almost a year.

‘’These are the kind of dangers associated with this kind of relationship. No woman should feel trapped in the city when she has a home to go back to and men should stop exploiting innocent girls in the name of accommodating them. Yes they may both consent but it is morally wrong.’’

‘’No tradition encourages such marriages and the Bible made it clear about marriage,” Pastor Chikwendu Alex told LEADERSHIP Weekend. “It is fornication and the Bible disapproves of it. It is not something to be subjected to any form of debate because both traditions and religion do not support it.”

A group, Forward With Buhari (FWD) has called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC), the police and other sister security agencies to beam their search light on the sources of campaign funds for the presidential election of the Peoples’ Democratic Party(PDP).

A statement on Friday in Abuja by the National Secretary of FWB, Dr. Kayode Ajulo, said the opposition party had recently called for the probing of the electoral processes, adding that the probe should be total and holistic.


According to Ajulo, “The opposition has also called for the probing into the election processes, which we believe is not out of place.

“However, probing must be wholesale and thorough. Probing must also involve the PDP with regard to the sources of its election finances and allied transactions.

“We have it on good authority that a bulk of the finances of the PDP was drawn from the stolen monies from our commonwealth– particularly of interest is the information that some of those who ran out of Nigeria were loitering in the neighbouring countries during the just concluded presidential election.

“This corrupt means of election funding must be captured in the imminent probing efforts of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and sister agencies.

“We shall not hesitate to forward our petitions to these bodies to ensure a thorough and comprehensive investigation into the cooked books of the PDP to expose the sources of funding of their clandestinely shrouded flamboyant campaign.

“While these processes are unfolding in the interest of the country that is fast progressing under President Buhari, all hands must be on deck to check excesses and democratic oversteps of the actors in PDP, which include its persistent plans to rubbish the majority of votes which Nigerians freely and fairly gave to President Buhari.”

On the attempts by PDP to discredit the just concluded presidential election, Ajulo chided the party and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, describing the bid to discredit the processes of election which conferred victory on President Muhammadu Buhari, as “sweeping up porous pontifications about the results of the Northern states where President Buhari enjoyed exceeding votes.”

He said, “When political participation is not done with some measure of fairness, it suffers any claim to patriotism.


“And this is exactly what the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) apparently suffers with regard to the just concluded presidential election.

“The opposition party has been relentless in its foul bid to discredit the processes of election which conferred victory on President Muhammadu Buhari, and in so doing, sweeping up porous pontifications about the results of the Northern states where President Buhari enjoyed exceeding votes.

“The big hypocrisy on the part of PDP is accepting that elections were flawless in states where it enjoyed swelling votes – particularly in the South East and South South regions – and calling corrupt the process that gave the ruling party an edge in some states within the Northern enclave.”

A forceful takeover of Lagos is a “consolation prize” being contemplated by the camp of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Atiku Abubakar after a crushing defeat by President Muhammadu Buhari in last Saturday’s presidential polls, it was learnt last night.

The move was one of the resolutions at an emergency strategy meeting held by the Atiku team when it became apparent that President Buhari had won by a wide margin, the first being a formal rejection of APC’s victory as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Buhari polled 15,191,847 votes to defeat Atiku, who scored 11,262,978.

Even as the PDP flagbearer is still mulling his legal team to challenge Buhari at the tribunal, his strategists believe that taking over Lagos, the nation’s commercial never centre, will enable the opposition party become an effective countervailing force to APC controlling Abuja, the political headquarters.

A similar bid was launched for Lagos in April 2015 by the then President Goodluck Jonathan with the deployment of dollars to induce voters after the PDP lost the presidential poll to the APC. The bid failed.

“To actualise the new plot, we can confirm that a huge war-chest has been mobilised by Atiku’s camp to finance ahead of the March 9 state election a vicious smear campaign against the National Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, believed to have coordinated PDP’s defeat as the Co-Chairman of the APC Presidential Campaign Council,” a source said last night.

The source went on: “Specifically, Atiku’s hatchetmen are to spread anti-Tinubu messages in the traditional media and social media, deploying any ‘means necessary’.

“The first leg of the strategy meeting, it was reliably gathered, held at highbrow Intercontinental Hotel on Kofo Abayomi, Victoria Island, Lagos Saturday night where the PDP governorship candidate in Lagos, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, met with Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi and a few others to perfect the plan to recruit a faction of Afenifere and willing human rights activists to create a facade that the anti-Tinubu campaign is the initiative of civil society organizations (CSOs).

“The support of the likes of Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, Mr. Yinka Odumakin has been secured in this connection.

“In fact, the inaugural press conference is to be addressed by Mr. Agbakoba and Odumakin, whose relentless media offensive against Buhari had failed to sway Yoruba votes to Atiku across the Southest last Saturday.

“Afikuyomi, described last night as a ‘Judas’ after benefitting politically from Tinubu in APC, was said to have been part of the ‘Dubai retreat’ hosted late last year by the Atiku camp after winning the PDP presidential ticket to draw up a ‘war plan’ against Buhari.

To evade public scrutiny or being accused of ‘anti-party activity’ by APC, Afikuyomi was said to have opted out of the Dubai-Abuja flight and rather adopted a decoy by flying to Lagos through Uganda.



“Interestingly, Afikuyomi had been the chief coordinator of the second term bid by the outgoing Governor Akinwumi Ambode of Lagos which crashed in the APC primaries held in October in 2018.

“Furthermore, the involvement of another Ambode’s core supporter, Mr. Wale Oluwo, in the latest plot against APC interest in Lagos set tongues wagging again last night.

“Oluwo, who resigned as the Lagos State Commissioner for Energy, has been described as commander in the anti-Tinubu plot, having superintended over the multi-billion Naira street lights projects exclusively under Ambode and has serially been fingered as the secret ‘emissary’ between Ambode and Agbaje.”

After his exit from the Lagos cabinet last October, Oluwo declared support for Agbaje’s governorship ambition.

But Governor Ambode has consistently denied any link whatsoever with the funding of Agbaje’s campaign.

Party elders, it was further learnt, were incensed following startling revelations of mouth-watering patronage Ambode had doled out to Afikuyomi even while most of them were shabbily treated.

“Among Ambode’s largesse to Afikuyomi is an eye-popping mansion located in the highbrow Ikeja GRA, the furnishing of which was said to have cost nothing less than N400 million”, the source claimed.

By Maryam Ahmadu-Suka, Kaduna


The Kaduna state gubernatorial candidates of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) Dr. Polycarp Gankon and that of the Liberation Movement (LM), Comrade Ezekiel Habila have stepped down from the race and declared their support for the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Isa Ashiru Kudan.

Addressing a joint press conference amidst party supporters, APGA guber candidate, Dr. Gankon said they made the decision after due consultation with their members to rescue the state from numerous challenges bedeviling her.

He said, they made the decision not under any form of duress or monetary influence but to ensure that Kaduna State get the best going forward.

“In view of this decision, we are calling on all our supporters to massively support the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the governorship election on the 9th March, 2019.

“We also appeal to our supporters not to be discouraged with the outcome of the Presidential election which was rigged in favour of the ruling party, we must be resolute and determined to come out enmass and vote PDP.

“We still have candidates contesting for State Houses of Assembly for some constituencies, kindly support and vote for them but for the governorship we should all vote for PDP.

The LM guber candidate, Comrade Hahila said, ” in our opinion and those of our party members and teeming supporters, this is the best thing to do to move Kaduna state forward and checkmate effectively the re-occurrence of what happened during the Presidential election in the state”.

The duo said, they will mobilize all resources both material and human to support the candidate of the PDP to victory and further urged all well meaning citizens of the state to do same.

By Abbas Jimoh


There was fear of a repeat of the 31 March 2015 ‘Orubebe drama’ during the collation of last Saturday’s presidential election results held at the National Collation Centre, located at the International Conference Centre (ICC) in Abuja.

The PDP agent and spokesperson for the Atiku Abubakar Presidential Campaign Organisation, Mr Osita Chidoka, early Wednesday, tried unsuccessfully to trigger the suspension of the declaration of the result by INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.

It all started when Mr. Chidoka reminded Prof. Yakubu about the petition his party, the PDP wrote to INEC.

He alleged that the INEC Chairman promised that details of accreditation captured by the card reader across the country would be provided during collation of results.

“Yesterday (Monday), our colleague raised the issue and we thought that when we come in this morning as we are listening to the states, we will be seeing the accreditation from the states,” Chidoka said.

“Please, Mr. Chairman, we will like it to be on record that we want to see the accreditation by the card readers for Bauchi, Borno, Yobe in particular and then of course for the rest of the country because the numbers we are seeing seem to be like we live in two countries,” he said.

He said they were not comfortable with the alleged failure of the INEC boss to use projector and show the results from the smart card reader despite spending N27bn in this year’s budget alone for technology.

Chidoka also said they observed that there were 1.6 million people missing in the voter register besides the cancellations that during the election that allegedly affected 2.7 million voters.

He prayed Prof. Yakubu to suspend the announcement of the results until all observations were addressed.

Responding, The INEC chairman brushed Chidoka aside saying all the observers including those made by other agents would be useful for future elections.

Mr Yakubu said while the commission noticed that the figures of accredited voters in relation to vote-cast did not add up in one or two instances, preliminary investigation revealed that the cumulative disparity was less than two per cent.

In 2015, a former Minister of Niger Delta, Godsday Orubebe who was the PDP agent during the collation of the president election, accused the then INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega of being biased against his party.

He also said Prof. Jega was tribalistic in handling the process of the collation, saying Jega had set up a committee to investigate results from Rivers State after the APC raised objections but refused to do same when PDP complained about results from Kano, Katsina, Kaduna, Jigawa and three other states.

Rotimi Akeredolu, Governor of Ondo State, has given a "marching order" to members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in the state to begin mobilising for the next week state house of assembly election.

SaharaReporters gathered that the essence of the mobilization by the NURTW members is to prepare them for “war” if candidates of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) do not emerge victorious in the House of Assembly election.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) rescheduled the state houses of assembbly election in the country for Saturday March 9, 2019, with no less than 250 candidates from the different political parties in Ondo fielding candidates for the 26 constituencies that make up the Ondo House of Assembly.

Many of the candidates have been campaigning vigorously and wooing the votes of the electorate in Ondo State with food stuffs and money.

However, it was exclusively learnt on Thursday that Akeredolu held a secret meeting with the Chairman of National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Mr. Jacob Adebo, popularly known as ‘Idajo’, where the plan to rig the poll was perfected.

SaharaReporters can report that Idajo has been a machinery of destruction for Akeredolu’s APC government of Akeredolu led APC in Ondo State.

A source confirmed to our correspondent that the meeting was held inside Government House in Akure, the state capital, and that it held at the instance of the Governor. He added that Kayode Fayemi, Governor of Ekiti State, was also at the meeting.

According to the source, the secret meeting was summoned as a result of the defeat suffered by the ruling party in the Saturday's election in the state.

"Having realised that they lost in the presidential election and with their poor performance in the National Assembly election, Mr. Governor decided to call the secret meeting with the view to plan and also probably strategise ahead of the coming House of Assembly elections in the state.

"In fact, the Governor of Ekiti State Kayode Fayemi and some of the top government officials such as the SSG, Ifedayo Abegunde, were at the meeting, which was held right in the Government House in Akure from about 11am to 12 pm on Wednesday.

"They invited the NURTW Chairman, Idajo, and some executive members of his union to the meeting with the concluded plan that they should go and work for the victory of the APC in the forthcoming election.

“The two governors concluded that it is a 'must' for APC to win the House of Assembly election in all the LGAs and constituencies area so that the ruling party can still have the numbers to control the parliament.

"So, they have instructed ‘Idajo’ to begin mobilise thugs and members of the NURTW for the elections, and their mandate is to cause violence on election day and even snatch or destroy ballot boxes where APC is not popular.

"They even forced ‘Idajo’ to sign a post-dated resignation letter, which would come to effect if his boys do not help APC win next week, and they instructed him to begin clamp down on any stubborn members of the opposition parties in the state.

"Don't forget that Mr. Akeredolu was not happy about the results of the last week Saturday's presidential and national assembly election in the state because he failed to deliver the state for Buhari despite his promises to the President.

"The Governor and his counterparts in Oyo have been mocked by some Abuja cabals for failing woefully to deliver their state to Mr. President, even when he got to Abuja shortly after the secret meeting, some of the governors were jokingly mocking him for his faliure.

"And since the President has been re-elected for a second term in office, Akeredolu wants to make up and have all his foot soldiers in the Ondo House of Assembly so that it will not be a double loss.

However, a source at the NURTW local branch office in Idanre could not immediately confirm the story when asked by SaharaReporters. But he confirmed that a meeting of chairmen of all local branches had already been summoned by Idajo.

"Well, I cannot really tell if they held that meeting with the Governor but I received a call yesterday night that our State Chairman, Idajo, would be meeting with all the branch chairmen today

"And as I am speaking with you now, I am in Lagos to attend to my family but I have told my branch Secretary to attend the meeting and give me feedback later in the day. But I know the meeting is about the house of assembly elections in the state because the State Chairman told us on Monday evening that the Governor was not happy over last weekend’s election results."

Tobi Aworinde, Abuja



Former Senate Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio, has promised to challenge his loss in the February 23 National Assembly elections.

The Independent National Electoral Commission, on Tuesday, had declared Dr. Chris Ekpenyong of the Peoples Democratic Party as winner of the senatorial election in the Ikot-Ekpene Senatorial District of Akwa Ibom State.

According to the result declared by the INEC Returning Officer, Prof. Peter Ogbang, Ekpenyong, who is a former deputy governor, scored 118,215 votes to defeat the incumbent senator, Akpabio of the All Progressives Congress, who secured 83,158 votes.

The result was announced at the INEC headquarters in Uyo instead of Ikot-Ekpene because of alleged security threats in the area.

But Akpabio, who spoke on The Verdict, a live programme of Channels Television, on Wednesday, vowed to challenge the collation of the results, adding that he could not lose the election.

The senator said, “I won. It’s a temporary setback. That is why there are processes. For instance, if you feel that you were cheated or there was wrong collation, you have recourse to the courts. I did not fail; I can’t fail.

“I believe strongly that there must have been some wrong collation somewhere. Those things will be corrected. We have processes in the election. It’s from one stage; we have to do registration, vote and collate.

“As far as there is a mistake anywhere, you go to the court and get your mandate. My mandate is somewhere waiting for me. My people know that I can’t fail elections.”

Fred Itua, Abuja


Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has revealed how he lost his third term re-election bid to the chamber.

According to the Kwara Central senator, inadequacies, including Card Readers not used in over 70 per cent of his polling units, multiple voting, over-voting and other discrepancies, aided his defeat.

He stated that in spite of the reported inadequacies that attended the presidential and National Assembly elections in Kwara State, he wishes the candidates who emerged from the election the best of luck.

Saraki, in a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Yusuph Olaniyonu, stated that while the election was generally peaceful, he still had issues with the outcome.

He added that the state chapter of his party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), will take a position on the right response to these inadequacies.

“However, whatever the final outcome of the election, I wish the candidates that have emerged all the best in their attempts to serve our people. It is my prayers that the good people of Kwara state will always have the best from any government both at state and federal levels.

“As a product of a family and a political structure that is, from its foundation, devoted to the service and development of our state and its people, it is my wish that our people will always have a good deal at all times. The new development will even provide the people the opportunity to compare and contrast. After all, the people who have emerged from last Saturday’s election are not my enemies. They are fellow Kwarans.

“As we prepare for the March 9, governorship and House of Assembly elections, let me reiterate my position that the candidates of the PDP in the election represent the best materials for our dear state, Kwara.

“Therefore, I enjoin our people to come out en mass on election day and vote for them. I am going to work with our party leaders to further sell the PDP candidates to the public.

“I thank all Nigerians for their goodwill and to enjoin all of us that as we patiently await the outcome of the Presidential election, we pray for peace, unity and genuine development in our country. It is also our prayers that, at all times, the wish of the people would always prevail in the choice of the leadership and the electorate will always enjoy the benefit of good governance,” Saraki stated.

Nicholas Ibekwe


After a gruelling campaign that saw him travelling to all the states of the federation plus the federal capital, Abuja, canvassing for votes, despite concerns in some quarters over his health, President Muhammadu Buhari emerged winner of last Saturday’s presidential election.

Mr Buhari scored 15,191,847 votes to upstage his closest rival and candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, who managed to score 11,262,978 votes.

Though the result of the election, which suffered a postponement due to logistical problems, has been rejected by the PDP, which alleged widespread irregularities and malpractice, Mr Buhari and his team will be expected to hit the ground running, proffering solutions to some of the most pressing challenges that beleaguered the country.

In 2015 when he was first elected president, after trying and failing three previous times, it was thought that Mr Buhari, whose campaign of tackling corruption and securing the country resonated with many, would work immediately but all they got was a tepid leadership.

It took the president six months to form a cabinet. The weakened economy needing tethering was left unmanned and the country soon drifted into a recession.

To make things worse, the government also adopted a protectionist exchange rate at a period many economists were of the view that a market-determinate regime would have hastened recovery. Unable to keep heads above water, factories and other companies soon began to go under.

Job loses spiralled out of control. By December 2018 the rate of unemployment has risen from 18.2 per cent when he took office in May 2015 to 23.1 per cent. In June 2018, Nigeria had made global news after it overtook India as the country with the highest number of poor people in the world.

With an estimated 87 million Nigerians, which is about half of the country’s population, believed to be living on less than $1.90 a day, the country was tagged the poverty capital of the world.

Mr Buhari was either unwilling or unable to mend a country deeply divided along ethnic lines. Adopting a winner-takes-all attitude, many of his earliest appointments were tilted in the favour of the northern region where he is from – a move which he himself justified with the now infamous five per cent vs 97 per cent gaffe during an event at the United States Institute for Peace in July 2015.

However, from the outset of his administration, the military quickly rolled back the gains of the terrorist group, Boko Haram, recapturing large swathes of territory seized by the insurgents, and returning thousands of displaced people back to their homes.

But it soon slipped into doldrum allowing the insurgents to stage a comeback and inflicting heavy losses on the military. While the military campaign in the North-east could be described as hit and miss, bloodier violence broke out in other parts of the country. In the North-central, the herdsmen and farmer crisis cost thousands of lives, and the north-west became a haven of bandits.

The long breaks the president took to tend to his failing health in the United Kingdom, also didn’t help.

However, through all of these, the government managed to undertake major infrastructural projects across the country. Most notable of them was its road construction and rail projects. Its social intervention policies, such as the school feeding programme, N-Power, Trader Moni, the Conditional Cash Transfer put smiles on the faces of millions of Nigerians.

To Mr Buhari’s credit, at the end of his first time the economy, which has slipped out of recession began to show signs of recovery – inflation was stalled and in fact, pushed back. In December 2018, for the first time in what seemed like ages, the economy grew by 1.81 per cent.


Next level

If the Buhari government was proud of anything, it was its social intervention programmes. Years after this administration might have ended some of its supporters will still be trumpeting the gains of some of these programmes.

Despite sharp criticism of some of these programmes by the opposition, which canvassed for market-driven policies, the government had kicked off its re-election drive, with the promise to not only continue, but to expand these programmes.

In its re-election manifesto, which it christened, Next Level, it made clear that these programmes are the quickest approach to economic revival. The government promised to create 10 million new jobs part of which will include increasing the number of N-Power graduates from just over 200,000 entrants to one million.

It also pledged to expand its hit-and-miss flagship agricultural programme, the Anchor Borrowers Programme, to one million beneficiaries. It claimed another 1.5 million jobs would be created through agriculture mechanisation.

More school children should expect to get fed as the government has promised to increase the number fed from 9.2 million to 15 million. It also estimated that this increase will create an additional 300,000 jobs for food vendors and farmers.

The government hopes its feeding programme will work as an incentive for indigent parents to send their kids to school which will in turn help erase the country’s abysmal number of children out of school. According to the executive secretary of Universal Basic Education (UBEC), Hammid Bobboyi, there are 13.2 million out of school children in Nigeria.

In the months leading to the election, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, travelled across the country preaching the gospel of Trader Moni, the government soft loan scheme that hands N10,000 to petty traders.

Though this attracted sharp criticism with the opposition accusing the government of using the scheme as a ploy to buy votes, the government said it intends to expand the scheme into what it called People Moni, the scheme, which would target artisans, promises to give a soft loan of up to N1 million each to vulcanisers, barbers, Keke riders, mechanics etc.

Industrialisation also plays a major part in the government’s economic plan in the next four years with the promise to build Regional Industrial Parks and 109 Special Production and Processing Centres (SPPCs) across each senatorial district.


Infrastructure

In the next four years, Nigerians should expect to see the government push ahead with its infrastructural drive, which has been one of its highpoints. Top among its infrastructural projects is the completion of the controversial Second Niger Bridge, the completion of the Lagos-Kano rail, the Eastern rail and the Lagos-Calabar rail.

The government made a big show of the newly commissioned Lagos Abeokuta rail, but perhaps with dwindling revenue, the rail tracks may not be entering into other cities as quickly as the government wants, people to believe. In fact, the minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi admitted this much.

“Doing Lagos-Kano, we are looking for about N3 trillion and N4 trillion. Is that a money you get easily? The budget is between N7 trillion to N8 trillion if we give only Lagos-Kano the sum of N4trillion then we will be giving half of the budget and we won’t be able to pay salaries.

“So, it is a gradual process, that’s why we want to rehabilitate the narrow gauge so that while we are slowly constructing the standard gauge, things will be running on the narrow gauge,” he told reporters in Kaduna on November 22, 2018.


Security

The government will continue its quest to truly and completely rout the insurgent group in the North-east. Mr Buhari suggested in an interview with Arise TV in January, he was not impressed with the manner the war was being prosecuted. According to him, he has not changed the military leadership because he does not want the scrambling for positions that usually follows such changes close to an election. Therefore, changes in the military command structure in the coming weeks would not come as a surprise.

The pastoralist conflicts in the North-central seems to have been tamed, though belatedly by the military’s Operation Safe Haven, a lasting solution to the conflict should not be expected until a lasting solution grazing issue is found.

Tit-for-tat attacks are still rife in Kaduna, and in the North-west states of Zamfara and Katsina, bandits still unleash terror on communities unhindered. Mr Buhari will be expected to address these issues although he has not outlined any concrete plan to do so.


Anti-corruption war

Mr Buhari’s anti-corruption war recorded limited success in his first tenure. In his second term, he may be more bullish in prosecuting the war. His animosity with the judiciary, which he sees as the hurdle toward bringing many of those accused of corruption to book will continue.

Ironically, he may likely shield members of his government and top party members accused of corruption from prosecution or when even if they are charged, the charges against them may be devoid of the usual prosecutorial bite.

For instance, a former Senate minority leader, Godswill Akpabio, who defected from the PDP to the APC party is likely to be shielded from corruption charges against him. If his loyalty were to be rewarded, like the president is wont to do, it is unlikely, that he would see the inside of a courtroom in the next four years.

Atiku Abubakar will not concede the presidential election to President Muhammadu Buhari as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has assembled a team of lawyers to challenge the result in court, TheCable understands.

Buhari, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), is projected to win the election with the results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

PDP sources told TheCable that Kanu Agabi, former attorney-general of the federation, is leading the team of lawyers that will challenge the result at presidential election petitions tribunal of the federal court of appeal, Abuja.

Other members of the legal team, TheCable can report, are Joe Gadzama, who has always served as a lawyer to the party, and Chris Uche, among other senior advocates of Nigeria.

“We are currently collating evidence to challenge the results being announced by INEC. We have been asking them to give us the date of of the card readers used in Borno, Yobe and Nasarawa states but they have so far refused. This is daylight robbery,” a PDP executive told TheCable.

“I can also tell you that Atiku will not make any call to Buhari to concede the election.”

The legal team was inaugurated by Bukola Saraki, the director-general of the PDP presidential campaign, on Tuesday evening at the Legacy House, Abuja.

TheCable had reported on Monday that the legal team had summoned an emergency meeting to review complaints about the presidential election and decide on the way forward.

Atiku could not attend meeting as he was observing “bed rest”, according to source in the know.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the All Progressive Congress (APC) of working with officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to cancel and manipulate the figures of results where it (PDP) had commanding votes It specifically alleged that INEC IT server was hacked by the agents of the APC to manipulate results. PDP National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, at a press conference yesterday, said some of the results announced at the ongoing collation of presidential election by INEC were incorrect and, therefore, not acceptable by it. The party also called for the cancellation of results in many states in the North because elections in these states were allegedly conducted in breach of the INEC guidelines.

“The PDP is forced to take a stand and make the following pronouncements at this crucial point because our democracy is under threat of derailment,” Secondus said.

According to him, the results of Sarkin Dawaki and Doka wards in Doma Local Government areas of Nassarawa State were manipulated while 10,000 illegal votes in Agyaragin- Tofa ward were allegedly added to already announced results in Wurno Local Government Area of Sokoto State.

Secondus said: “With the INEC IT server hacked by agents of the APC to manipulate results, we can with certainty state that results from the following polling units have, for example, been tampered with, note: “i. Sarkin Dawaki ward in Doma LGA – Nassarawa State; ii. Doka ward in Doma LGA – Nassarawa State; iii. Agyaragin – Tofa ward; iiii. 10,000 illegal votes added to already announced results in Wurno LGA in Sokoto State. “Additionally, violent and destructive attacks have been meted out to officials while counting at Lafia Street and Police Barracks polling units.

“As if these provocations are not enough, our agents and officials are constantly arrested and, in many cases, locked-up for complaining that card readers were not in use in many Northern states, implying that all results from the Northern part of the country where card readers were not used should be voided in accordance with INEC guidelines.”

He noted that results that trickled in on Sunday clearly put the PDP in the lead, but regretted that the ruling party and President Muhammadu Buhari dispatched high-ranking officials to allegedly forcefully influence the outcomes in different geopolitical zones of the country.

According to him, “The Minister of the Interior, Lt- Gen. Abdurahman Danbazau was dispatched to the North-West of the country. “The Secretary of the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, was dispatched to the North- East of the country; while the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) were dispatched to the South-East and South-South regions.” The PDP said it has the original results from every polling unit, in every ward, in every local government area in the country.

His words: “First, I want to categorically state that our collation centres have all original results from every polling unit, in every ward, in every Local Government Area (LGA) in Nigeria, of which the international community is well aware, implying all results currently being announced by the INEC is incorrect, thus unacceptable to our party and people.

“Second, officials of both President Buhari’s government and the APC, working with INEC officers, have tried to alter the course of history and disenfranchise our people through the cancellation and manipulation of figures for results already announced at polling units, nationwide, in LGAs where our party, the PDP, had commanding votes; this must now be resisted by every well-meaning Nigerians.

“Third, the ruling party’s strategy has, indeed, been murderous, undignified, and disrespectful of the wishes of the electorate, our people and the international community who have been in solidarity with our nation as we attempt to strengthen our democracy and its institutions.

“Fourth, in full view of the watching world, and despite efforts by our great party and its agents to adhere to every laid down provision for the 2019 general elections, the APC, in collusion with INEC, have taken aggressive steps, mostly through inducements, manipulation and incarcerations, using the elements of state power, including the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigerian Army in particular, alongside other organizations, including the Department of State Security (DSS) and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to silence the voices of our long suffering people.

This is disheartening, considering the terms of the Peace Accord, which called for impartiality and non-partisanship by members of our security organization with constitutional roles to play during this civic exercise.”

Kamarudeen Ogundele, Bauchi



An angry man tore ballot papers in Zaki Local Government Area of Bauchi and thereafter assaulted the female official at the polling unit.

Trouble began for the female Presiding Officer (name withheld) when the man (name withheld) stormed a polling unit in the area seeking to vote with his wife’s permanent voter cards.

The Collation Officer for the local government and Deputy Registrar, Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi, Mr. Hassan Abubakar, who spoke with our correspondent on Monday, said the man got angry and turned the polling unit upside down.

He said, “A man came to the polling unit with his wife’s PVC and demanded to be allowed to vote.

“The presiding officer, who is a lady, said no. Her response angered the man who started destroying INEC properties. In fact, he destroyed all used ballot papers.

“It was the intervention of the village head that saved her because they wanted to mob her.

“That report was given to us by the Presiding Officer. We cancelled the election there and reported the matter to the REC.”

Abubakar, while presenting his report at the state collation centre in Bauchi said elections were cancelled in five polling units fraught with irregularities like faulty card readers and disruption of voting.

He said 5,455 registered voters were affected in the five polling units scattered across four wards in the local government.

“The case of faulty card reader was not reported to the Electoral Officer, so the result cannot stand,” he added.

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In 2005, Chris Ekpenyong made history in Nigeria: he was impeached as the deputy governor of Akwa Ibom state but was hurriedly returned to that position in less than seven days. The members of the state house of assembly reversed the impeachment after the intervention of then-President Olusegun Obasanjo, although Ekpenyong was forced to resign afterwards.

Fourteen years later, he has bounced back to secure a place at the senate, defeating Godswill Akpabio, an “uncommon senator”, in Akwa Ibom north-west senatorial district. Akpabio’s defeat was shocking to say the least: Apart from being being an incumbent senator, he was a two-time governor who practically had Akwa Ibom as his chessboard.

And – you wouldn’t believe – Ekpenyong defeated him with more than double his votes, after securing 136,373 votes as against the senator’s 67,487.


So, who is Chris Ekpenyong?

Born on September 29, 1954, Ekpenyong is a HND holder in electrical and electronic engineering. He holds a master’s degree in business administration from Kensington University, Glendale, California, in America. He was the deputy governor during Victor Attah’s tenure until 2005 when he was impeached on grounds of “abuse of office, gross misconduct and disregard for constituted authority.”


HOW HE FELL OUT WITH ATTAH

Attah is believed to have masterminded Ekpenyong’s impeachment. The two fell out after his then deputy endorsed Obasanjo to become the PDP presidential candidate at the party’s presidential primary in January 2003, contrary to Attah’s wish. The former governor had instructed Akwa Ibom delegates to support Alex Ekwueme, late former vice president, who was challenging Obasanjo for the PDP ticket.

In addition to this, Attah was said to have been paving way for Udoma Ekarika, his son-in-law, to succeed him as governor in 2007, a position Ekpenyong was eyeing as well.

He was impeached not long after the PDP presidential primary but Obasanjo quickly intervened. He sent a powerful delegation led by Tony Anenih, then-chairman of the PDP board of trustees, to resolve the issue leading to the reversal of the impeachment. Ekpenyong eventually resigned but was unable to secure the PDP nomination for the governorship election.


HOW HE FOUGHT FOR AKWA IBOM AS DEPUTY GOVERNOR

In an interview in 2017, the senator-elect spoke of his struggles as the deputy governor of Akwa Ibom state. He recalled how he pleaded with Obasanjo over the state’s allocation. The PDP candidate said he knelt down before Obasanjo, begging for the state to get its due share of the federal government allocation.

He had said: “Between the periods I was with Obong Attah, we were receiving only about N600M as our monthly allocation. I remembered vividly kneeling down for 45 minutes, begging former President Obasanjo when we were short-changed from what was accrued to the state and he approved N600 million for us. That was when I got to know the wage bill of the state at that time as the deputy governor.

“I called the accountant general of the State who told me that the wage bill of the state was N1.1 billion. Probably, that was why people said I exercised so much influence on the government of Obong Attah. I wrote to former President Obasanjo, appealing to him for increase in our allocation, while also playing the role of a mediator. Probably, at the federal level Obong Attah was misconstrued.”


KNOCKED GOODLUCK JONATHAN

Ekpenyong was also a critic of Former President Goodluck Jonathan who he once accused of “wasting” the six years of his administration. In an interview with Sun, he said this was because the former president neglected the people of the south-south region.

According to him, “I blame my political party that when we had a chance with our son from the South South for six years, we did not make good use of it. It was six years of wasted service as far as I am concerned. Yes, (it was a wasted period).

“Where is the road to even his village? Not to talk of other major roads that should have been a priority to him. Today, when people are criticising Buhari for not looking at us, I laugh. Somebody has to look at where he comes from. That is Nigerian politics for you.”


THREATENED THE EXPOSE AKPABIO

In the build up of the elections, Ekpenyong threatened to unleash Akpabio’s ‘secret deals”. The former governor was alleged to have said Ekpenyong deceived him into defecting from the PDP to the APC. But the former deputy governor had denied the allegation and said he would “expose” the senator if he continues to “attack” him.

“Assuming someone gave that kind of advice and agreed, it means someone can ask him to go and jump into the river and he would obey? If he continues to attack me, I will unleash his records of secret deals,”he had said.

“I am happy that generally, people know Akpabio to be an uncommon liar; he cannot continue to fool everybody all the times with his lies. I want to implore all of you to go back to your various local governments to begin your campaign for effective change in our zones.”

The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) says President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) are mounting pressure on the Independent National Electoral Commissioner (INEC) to declare FCT results inconclusive.

The parties claim that Buhari lost all the wards in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and is seeking to manipulate the results.

CUPP also claimed that the APC is attempting to inflate figures from the northwest and northeast to counter the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) victory in the southern region of the country.

“The CUPP is in possession of irrefutable evidence that APC Governors of the northwest and some of North East geo-political zones are working assiduously to inflate the number of votes scored by President Muhammadu Buhari in those regions so as to neutralize the landslide lead of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in the other four geo-political zones,” a statement by Ikenga Ugochinyere, read.

“They have most shockingly secured the ignoble collaboration of the Nigerian Army which has begun to give cover to APC Chieftains and compromised electoral officers to hold back the results from the areas and to later attempt to smuggle in the inflated results.

“Also having confirmed from their situation room that the numbers do not add up and that President Buhari also failed to secure the constitutional 25% of the votes cast in each of two thirds of the states of the Federation, the President and his Party are mounting pressure on the Enugu State Governor and the State Resident Electoral Commissioner including other South East States to alter some results so as to award at least 25% of the Votes to the President.”

CUPP also claimed that the incumbent President did not secure the necessary 25 percent in the southeastern part of the country.

“It is instructive that President Buhari did not secure the 25% votes in any of the States of the South East. It is also in this same light that the outgoing administration is plotting to frantically to declare the results of the FCT as inconclusive so as to order a rerun where they will use security and thugs to intimidate the people,” CUPP said.

“We hereby call on the Electoral Commission not to cancel any results already declared where no incidents were recorded but only for the President to have the opportunity to have an unmerited second chance.

“The opposition Presidential Situation Room has completed compilation of Polling Unit result sheets and tabulation of all results and we have called the election for the incoming President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. We may, however, be compelled to release these results to the public to forestall INEC from playing the games the APC is prodding them to play.

“Our candidate won in a vast majority of the almost 120, 000 Polling Units across the country. We wonder how INEC would now cancel results of elections where even agents of the ruling party signed and where they lost.

“The credibility of this election must be maintained and not tarnished because of the undeserved extended ambition of a man who failed woefully in office.

“Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has won the elections. President Buhari and the APC know this hence their desperation to attempt to overturn the will of the people. But we sound this note of warning to them; we shall successfully resist any human force that wants to tamper with the victory of our candidate and the will of the majority of Nigerians.

“The attempt to foist on Nigerians an illegitimate President through inflation of electoral figures have failed. The People have elected a legitimate President in the Person of Atiku Abubakar going by the Polling Units results in our firm custody and we have no fear or doubt about our ability to defend the sacred mandate Nigerian people have given to Atiku Abubakar.”

Abuja – The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Saturday won all in the 15 voting points in the Presidential and National Assembly elections at Mpape Central polling units marked 006 and 007 situated at Mpape Primary School, Abuja.

A correspondent who monitored voting point one of polling unit 006 reports that PDP polled 92 votes against 64 of the APC in the presidential election; PDP got 95 votes against APC’s 60 in the senatorial, while PDP got 91 votes against APC’s 62 in the House of Assembly election.

At voting point two of 006, PDP polled 120 votes against APC’s 23, while PDP polled 117 votes against APC’s 24 in the senatorial. PDP also got 110 votes against APC’s 23 in the House of Assembly election.

Also, in voting point three in the same polling unit, PDP got 118 votes as against APC’s 33 in the presidential; PDP got 125 votes against 34 in the senatorial and PDP got 120 votes against APC’s 33 in the House of Representatives election

Also in voting point four in the same polling unit 006, PDP polled 111 votes against APC’s 51 in the presidential; PDP got 112 votes against APC’s 51 in the senatorial; PDP polled 91 votes against APC’s 62 for the House of Representatives,

Also, at voting point five, PDP got 131 votes against APC’s 12 votes in the presidential; PDP got 135 votes against APC’s 15 for the senatorial and PDP polled 133 votes against APC’s 13 for the House of Representatives.

At the voting point six of the same polling unit 006, PDP got 123 votes against APC’s 24, for presidential; PDP got 120 votes against APC’s 27 in the Senatorial and PDP got 121 votes against APC’s 26 for the House of Representatives.

However, at voting point seven of the same 006 polling unit, PDP got 100 votes against APC’s 38 for the presidential; PDP got 96 votes against APC’s 41 for the senatorial and PDP scored 93 votes against APC’s 40 for the House of Representatives.

The PDP also defeated the APC in voting point one of the polling unit 007 with 58 votes against APC’s 40 in the presidential; PDP got 60 votes against APC’s 36 in the senatorial and 57 against 36 in the House of Representatives.

Also, in voting point two of the same 007, PDP got 95 votes against APC’s 18 in the presidential; PDP got 90 votes against APC’s 21 in the senatorial election and PDP got 90 votes against APC’s 18 for the House of Representatives.

At point three of 007, PDP got 109 votes against APC’s 9 votes in the presidential; PDP got 116 votes against APC’s 12 in the senatorial and PDP got 116 votes against APC’s 9 votes for the House of Representatives.

At voting point four of the same polling unit, PDP got 108 votes against APC’s 28 votes for the presidential; PDP got 104 votes against 27 for APC in the senatorial and 95 against 28 for the House of Representatives. At voting point five of polling unit 007, PDP scored 115 votes against APC’s 34 votes in the presidential; PDP got 119 votes against APC’s 34 votes in the senatorial and PDP polled 113 votes against APC’s 34 for the House of Representatives.

At voting point six of 007, PDP got 91 votes against APC’s 7 votes in the Presidential; PDP got 92 votes against APC’s 7 in the senatorial and PDP got 87 votes against APC’s 7 for the House of Representatives.

Also in voting point seven of the 007, PDP got 77 votes against APC’s 13 votes in the presidential, PDP got 78 votes against APC’s 11 for the senatorial election and PDP scored 76 votes against APC’s 13 votes for the House of Representatives.

While in voting point eight of the same 007, PDP got 72 votes against APC’s 23 for the presidential election, PDP got 74 votes against APC’s 26 in the senatorial and PDP got 77 votes against APC’s 25 for the House of Representatives election. (NAN)

Senate President Bukola Saraki may lose his seat in the Senate, investigation by our correspondent reveals.

Sources close to Saraki’s camp confided in our correspondent that the Senate President is ‘struggling’ to control the loyalty of his constituents.

According to the sources, many voters have expressed several agitations that could not be resolved within a short period of time.

“We never knew that things have got this worst. We were confident to the extent of allowing the Senate President go and campaign freely for Atiku. The few weeks that we stayed at home fully for campaign made us realise that a lot happened behind us,” one of his aides said.

Another source told our correspondent Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed was trusted with the “responsibility of keeping the home for Oloye (Saraki)” but failed to do so.

“We are doing everything possible to salvage the situation. We are hopeful that we will win even if it will be with a small margin,” the source said.

Our correspondent gathered that Saraki’s structure in Kwara State was weakened by grassroots mobilisers for two groups sponsored by Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Vice President of Nigeria.

The groups – All Progressives Youth Forum and Kwarans Act Now – were said to have been in active operation two months after Saraki emerged as the Senate President against the will of his then party, APC.

It was also gathered that the defeat of Saraki is one of the major mandates given to Lai Mohammed, the leader of the party in the state.

On the eve of election, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) deployed one security helicopter to Kwara for air surveillance operation during the Presidential and National Assembly elections scheduled to hold on Saturday.

The Commander of the 203 Airforce Headquarters in Ilorin, Air Commodore Patrick Obeya, disclosed this at a press conference in Ilorin on Friday.

He explained that the helicopter would be patrolling the airspace to provide security for residents of the state.

Obeya urged residents not to panic, saying that the helicopter would particularly hover around some flash points.

“ We shall communicate information to our sister security agencies for necessary action.

“We, therefore, urge residents of the state to be rest assured of our maximum readiness for the exercise,” he added.


We are ready for Saturday’s general elections in Kwara — REC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Kwara assured the people of the state that the commission is set for the Presidential and National Assembly elections on Saturday, Feb. 23.

Malam Garba Attahiru-Madami, the state’s Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) disclosed this on Friday after a review of the deployment of sensitive materials like Ballot Papers, Smart Card Readers, and Form EC8 series (Result Sheets), called on voters to come out en masse to cast their votes for candidates of their choice at the elections.

According to him, a total of 1, 149, 969 which is about 82 per cent of the total registered voters of 1, 406, 457 will be allowed to vote in the elections, having collected their Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs).

The commissioner said that 256, 488 uncollected PVCs were packaged according to local governments and returned to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), for safekeeping, in the presence of political parties, security agencies, international observers and journalists.

Attahiru-Madami said that batching of the materials into the Registration Areas had since commenced in the various local government area offices.

He said the Smart Card Readers had been appropriately reconfigured and delivered with backup batteries and charging materials.

The REC said activities at the Registration Area Centres (RACs) commenced from 9:00 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 22, adding that refresher training of the ad-hoc staff would be carried out on the same day.

“The re-visited list of ad hoc staff has also been delivered and pasted at our respective Area Offices. This is to allow prospective ad hoc staff to cross check the details of their records and proceed to immediately submit their account details to their supervisors,” he added.

The REC added that he had directed that the Registration Area Centres must be properly activated with all the required facilities put in place to make ad hoc staff comfortable.

He warned that any ad hoc staff caught in any untoward activity would be made to face the music.

“As far as the Independent National Electoral Commission, Kwara State, is concerned, I can say we are good to go.

“INEC Kwara will conduct free, fair, transparent and credible elections, which will be accepted by all stakeholders and applauded by the International Community.

“All Political Parties will be given a level playing field and all votes must count because our Card Readers are 100 per cent functional and no one will be disenfranchised,” he said.


Kwara police warn residents against carrying weapons during elections

The Kwara Police Command has warned residents of the state against carrying weapons during Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly elections.

The state Commissioner of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, gave the warning on Friday while briefing newsmen in Ilorin.

According to him, anybody found with weapons would be treated as a hoodlum.

“We are ready for those that are prepared for violence. We have been equipped to protect the lives and property of residents,’’ he said.

He said the police were partnering with sister agencies to ensure that the elections were conducted in a peaceful atmosphere.

The commissioner implored members of the public not to panic, saying that everyone would be protected.

On the arrest of a PDP senatorial candidate in the state, Sen. Rafiu Ibrahim, the police boss said he was linked with Tuesday’s attack on the APC senatorial candidate, Lola Ashiru, in Ojoku.

NAN also recalls that Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo’s convoy was attacked on Friday at Isale Aluko area of Ilorin.

Egbetokun said one person died and eight people were injured in the two incidents.

“We are determined to bring all the perpetrators to justice while eight suspects have been arrested so far,’’ he said.

Eniola Akinkuotu, Abuja

The presidential candidate of the Save Nigeria Congress, Ayo Da Silva, has vowed to sue the Presidency for claiming that he had endorsed Buhari and had withdrawn from the race.

Da Silva said this during an interview with our correspondent on Friday.

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, had said in a statement that the “candidate of the Save Nigeria Congress, Ahmed Buhari,” had endorsed the President.


However, it was learnt that Ahmed Buhari was the candidate of the Sustainable National Party and not the SNC.

Speaking with our correspondent on Friday, however, Da Silva described the incident as deliberate mischief on the part of the Presidency and lamented that it was capable of confusing voters on Saturday.

“I have taken the decision to sue them because it was nothing but a mischievous lie. I have not stepped down and I will be contesting in the election.”

National leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on Wednesday appealed to Igbo in Lagos State to vote APC candidates in the February and March elections.

In the same vein, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo solicited the support of Hausa community in the Southwest for the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari and other APC candidates in the zone.

While Tinubu made the appeal in Ikeja at a stakeholders’ meeting, Osinbajo spoke at a Town Hall Meeting with the Hausa community, also in Ikeja.

Both meetings took place on Wednesday in separate venues.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Tinubu’s meeting with Igbo was called to perfect the party’s preparedness for the rescheduled elections on February 23 and March 9 in the state.

The party leader noted that the APC government never discriminated against people from the South East and others in the state in the delivery of democratic dividends, saying the party expected them to support its candidates at the polls for progress.

“We appeal to our Igbo brothers from the East, this is the state where you conduct your businesses, your children are in our schools, we don’t discriminate against them in our WAEC fees.

“We don’t discriminate against them for NECO fees. We don’t discriminate against them for JAMB fees. Even in our universities, they take the benefit of our tuition and allowances and all that.

“Now, this time, we say, help us. We say vote for us and our candidates,” Tinubu said.

He reminded them of the time the popular ASPAMDA market and other markets dominated by the Igbo faced threats of demolition, recalling that he took necessary steps to save the markets, thereby protected the interests of the traders who were mainly from the South East.

He warned that the party would monitor election results in Igbo-dominated areas such as Amuwo-Odofin, Ojo, Ajeromi-Ifelodun, and Surulere in anticipation of votes for APC.

Recall that in the 2015 elections, the APC lost some legislative seats to the PDP in the areas mentioned, though some of the winners later defected to the APC.

Meanwhile, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Wednesday solicited support of the Hausa community in the Southwest for the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari and other APC candidates in the zone.

Osinbajo, who made the plea at a Town Hall Meeting with the Hausa community in Ikeja, Lagos State, said that some former leaders did not like Buhari because of his stand against corruption.

NAN reports that Arewa community leaders, drawn from Lagos State and other Southwest states, were present at the meeting.

“What we are hoping to see on Saturday is an affirmation, a vote for a man who has proved through the years to be a man of truth and honesty.

“The problem of our country is not that we don’t have enough money; the problem is that of leaders that we put there. Many of them stole the money meant for the people.

“We are able to do more than even when they (previous administrations) are even earning more because the President is not a thief. Even his worst enemies, those who hate him, know that he is a man of truth. They know he is a man who will not steal the money of the people,” the VP said.

He added: “Let us not have any doubt in our minds, the battle for power in this country is the battle between good and evil.

“This is not a religious matter. You find thieves among the Christians, thieves among Muslims; you will find honest men among Christians, we find honest men among Muslims.

“This next level that we are talking about by the Grace of God, the people of this country will begin to enjoy the fruits of all the sacrifice they have made in the last four years.”

Continuing, Osinbajo said, “Muhammadu Buhari has done a term now; by May, it will be four years.

“In another four years, I promise you by the grace of God, this country will be a different place; it will be a country that all of us will be proud of.”

The vice president, who said that he didn’t doubt the sincerity of the Hausa leaders to vote, charged them to mobilise the Arewa community to come out en mass to vote.

Chairman, Arewa Community in Lagos State, Ahmed Kabiru, who commended Osinbajo for recognising the community, said that Buhari remained a “sell-able product.”

“The principal thing I am selling is President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. I have to sell it to this audience.

“On behalf of the entire Arewa community across the nooks and crannies of the South West Nigeria, I want to reassure you of our support, our unflinching support for APC.

“We are going to vote APC from the very top to the lowest position. I assure you, we are going to do this,” Ahmed Kabiru said.

Hausa leader in Akure, Sadiq Babangida, said that the community would not change its decision to support APC, adding that the country needs honest and sincere leaders.

Also at the meeting were Chairman, Hausa Community, Ondo State, Umar Abdullahi; National President, Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, Ado Suaibu; and Sarkin Hausawa, Abeokuta, Ibrahim Hassan.

(NAN)

By Joseph Erunke


THE Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Buratai, Wednesday, picked hole in Tuesday’s statement attributed to the presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, asking the Nigerian Army to disregard President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive they they deal ruthlessly with ballot box snatchers in the coming general elections.

Buratai, who said Atiku’s statement was most unfortunate given that he was in the highest level of government in the country before and knows fully that the Nigerian Army in particular and the military, in general, are meant to obey the orders of the Commander-In-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces to the latter, said they will treat Buhari’s latest order with exception.

To this end, he asked the former Vice President not only to withdraw the statement but to also apologise for attempting to invite the army against what he termed as “constituted authority” it was meant to fully obey.

Speaking at a meeting he held with the Principal Staff Officers, General Officers Commanding and Brigade Commanders ahead of the polls billed to commence this Saturday, Buratai warned politicians and their supporters against testing the will of the army, insisting that those found to have violated the law, will be treated in line with President Buhari’s directive.

Although he did not categorically mention the former Vice President’s name, his description of his target pointed to the Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate.

The army chief disclosed that personnel attached to retired Army Generals, especially those who have become politicians will be withdrawn just as he said no political actors will be allowed army escort. He warned officers against playing partisan roles, saying those with such feelings had up to Friday, February 22 to resign.

By Shittu Shola


A former vice president and the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, on Tuesday raised alarm over alleged plans to slow down car readers in his stronghold regions.

Mr Atiku raised the alarm at the party’s emergency National Executive Committee meeting in Abuja.



The meeting was called to review the postponement of the presidential and National Assembly elections from February 16 to February 23, by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

According to the candidate, some people were trained in China and are equipped with a gadgets that look like mobile phones.

He said the plan is to slow the card readers in North Central, South South and South East, but to fasttrack the processing of card readers in the North West and North East.



“We have just discovered that the APC have hired many of their operatives and have taken them to China to be trained, and they have been so trained, and they are back, and they are equipped with devices that are meant to slow or fasten our card readers,” Mr Atiku said.

“So, if you are in the South-South, South-East and North-Central, you are likely to get your card readers to be slowed by those APC operatives. We have seen the machines; we have interviewed some of those who have gone on this training, and we have passed that information to the campaign council to pass to you.



“But if you are from the North-West or North-East the tendency is that they will use these machines to fast-track the readings of your card readers, so that many of their supporters can vote while disenfranchising the other three zones.

“I thought you should know that we have supplied the information to the campaign council, and you will even see the copy of the machine which each and everyone of those operatives is to hold. It is like a telephone but that is its job. I felt I should let you know, and you should be guided accordingly

The Department of State Services (DSS) has dropped its invitation to Okechukwu Ibeanu, the national commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in charge of logistics, TheCable understands.

He had been asked to report to DSS office in Abuja at 2pm on Tuesday.

Also invited by the DSS were Chidi Nwafor, the director of ICT; Ken Ukeagu, director of procurement; Osaze Uzzi, director of voter education and publicity; and Bimbo Oladunjoye, the assistant director of ICT.

TheCable could not confirm why DSS rescinded its decision but sources hinted that some prominent Nigerians intervened.

This invitation was initially believed to be related to the fiasco that led to the postponement of the general election by one week.

Mahmood Yakubu, a professor and INEC chairman, had blamed the postponement on sabotage and logistical issues.

However, security sources informed TheCable that the invitation had to do with a tape circulation in which a south-south governor allegedly made statements that suggested some INEC officials were working for him.

https://www.thecable.ng/breaking-dss-drops-invitation-to-inec-commissioner

Timi Frank, the erstwhile Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has raised the alarm over an alleged plot to destabilise the rescheduled polls after the postponement of the presidential elections last Saturday.

According to frank, there is “a plan to bomb the INEC headquarters in Abuja”.

In a statement made available to newsmen on Monday, he noted that the plan is being orchestrated by those who are “bent on destroying democracy in Nigeria at all cost, even if it amounts to total breakdown of law and order, or the loss of lives in achieving their agenda”.

His words: “Top among the planners includes three serving Ministers from the Niger Delta, two former governors and three businessmen all within the ruling party and benefiting from its largesse.

“Following the postponement of the February 16th polls and realizing that the plan for staggered elections may have been busted, these desperate political crooks are at it again, devising yet another grand plan to carry out this evil plot against the Nigerian people.


“Nigerians may recall the mysterious arson on INEC facilities and buildings all around the country happening simultaneously days before the elections.

“Starting off with the burning of the INEC office in Qua’an Pan, Plateau State, to the burning of card readers in Anambra State, to the burning of INEC materials in 5 buses at Akwa Ibom and other INEC facilities nationwide, it will be safe therefore to note that these events are not a coincidence, but rather a grand plot to disenfranchise the opposition strongholds which is currently underway.”

He also alleged that there were plans to seek the services of militants in the Niger Delta region, noting that the militants would have the backing of the Nigerian Army.

“Having realised that the grand scheme of rigging the polls may have been busted by the INEC chairman giving to the postponement of the elections, these desperadoes are bent on doing everything possible in achieving their aim, including the truncating of our hard-earned democracy for selfish gains. We are also aware that the services of some Niger Delta militants are being sought after to carry out this dastardly act, even at a time when the region is being faced with its worst times under the current administration.

“These militants are being promised the backing of the military authorities as well as being rewarded handsomely should they succeed in carrying out these attacks. I am, therefore, urging all true sons of the Niger Delta to desist forthwith from allowing themselves to be used by these agents of darkness, as no true son of the region will volunteer for such doom, irrespective of any pecuniary gains.


“I would like to thank our foreign partners (EU, UK, US, ECOWAS monitoring group) on the electoral roles already carried out in Nigeria and also urge the US, UK and the EU to continue with its good works and to further beam its satellite on Nigeria in the wake of this grave revelation at a time when the country prepares for its general election.

“The desperation by these individuals for their paymasters is as deadly as treason committed on the Nigerian nation. Furthermore if this plot is true, then we may be faced with the likely scenario of the ‘body bags’ as suggested by a chieftain of the ruling party on all who may be present at the INEC office including the foreign observers.”

Frank urged security agencies to beef up security and surveillance around the INEC headquarters and appealed to the INEC chairman to remain resolute in the delivery of duty.

“We are aware of the happenings in INEC including the role to be played by Amina Zakari, who is now in charge of Collation and RACTEC unit under the IT Department. Let it be known that any move to frustrate the wishes of Nigerians will be resisted by all peace loving Nigerians,” he added.

By John Owen Nwachukwu


The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Adams Oshiomhole has alleged that the Independent of National Electoral Commission, INEC, and its officials shared the news of planned postponement of the presidential and National Assembly elections with the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, before taking the action.

Oshiomhole spoke at the emergency caucus meeting of the APC held in Abuja Monday following the postponement of the elections.

The former Edo State Governor said, “I can put my hands on the quran and swear that INEC and its officials informed the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, before postponing the election.

The PDP were well acquainted with the plans to move to the elections.

“This is why they did not receive the news with shock. They made us look like fools, because we were busy preparing for the elections while they were relaxing.”