₦airaland Forum

The National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has appointed a new chairman to head the Bayelsa State gubernatorial primary election committee.

The party’s NWC on Tuesday approved the appointment of retired Brigadier-General Mansur Dan Ali as the new chairman of the committee

Dan Ali replaced Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, who supervised the previous primary that was later cancelled by the party

The election is expected to hold on Wednesday at Samson Siasia Stadium

Oshiomhole had in his report to the national headquarters of the APC that election did not hold last week Tuesday as thugs took over the electoral process even as the police were helpless.

Meanwhile some members of the panel were scared of heading to Bayelsa for fear of their lives.

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Foremost technocrat and boardroom Czar, Mr. Gamaliel Onosode, 82, is dead.

Vanguard learnt Mr. Onosode died Tuesday morning at Gold Cross Hospital, Ikoyi Lagos at about 8:15am after a protracted illness.

Onosode was flown home yesterday from London.

According to Wikipedia:

Gamaliel Offoritsenere Onosode (born 22 May 1933) (Died 29 September 2015) is a Nigerian technocrat, administrator and a former presidential candidate of the All Nigeria People’s Party of Nigeria. Educated at the Government College, Ughelli and the University of Ibadan, he emerged in the 1970s, as one of Nigeria’s leading educated chief executives, when he was at the helm of NAL merchant bank of Nigeria. Over the years, he has risen to become a leading boardroom player in Nigeria’s corporate environment. He was also a former presidential adviser to President Shagari and a former president of the Nigerian Institute of Management.

Life and career

An Urhobo man, born and raised in Sapele , a suburban city in the current Delta State by a disciplined father, he sometimes credited the strict family background and practice as being a complementary factor in his success as a disciplined civil servant and corporate administrator.

Throughout his career, Dr. Gamaniel Onosode has chaired several private and public sector businesses and initiatives. He was the Chairman of Dunlop Nigeria Plc (1984–2007), a former chairman of Cadbury Nigeria Plc (1977–93), the Presidential Commission on Parastatals (1981), Nigeria LNG Working Committee and Nigeria LNG Limited (1985–90) and the Niger Delta Environmental Survey (since 1995). He is also the Chairman of Zain Nigeria, a GSM telecommunications company, the oldestGSM operator in Nigeria.

Mr. Gamaniel Onosode was Presidential Adviser on Budget Affairs and Director of Budget (1983). He is a Fellow of the Economic Development Institute of the World Bank, the Nigerian Institute of Management, of which he was President (1979–82). He is also a Fellow of The Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, having been elected to membership of its Board of Fellows in 1998.


[img]http://cdn1.vanguardngr.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/400x263xOnosode1.jpg.pagespeed.ic.Pu6xDIyI15.webp[/img] Deacon Gamaliel Onosode(left)


In addition, Mr. Onosode is immediate past and inaugural President of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers, immediate past Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of the University of Uyo and immediate past and inaugural President & Chairman of Council of the Association of Pension Funds of Nigeria. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters and holds Honorary D.Sc. degrees of Obafemi Awolowo University (1990), the University of Benin (1995), and theRivers State University of Science and Technology (2003) as well as Honorary D.D. degree of The Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary, Ogbomoso (2002).

Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, on Wednesday said the party’s primary for the Dec. 5 governorship election in Bayelsa had been rescheduled.

Odigie-Oyegun told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in a telephone interview in Abuja that the primary earlier scheduled on Tuesday was cancelled due to security challenges.

‘’The primary has been rescheduled; it had to be called off due to security challenges,’’ he said, adding that leadership of the party would meet to choose a new date for the exercise.

NAN reports that the attempt by the party to conduct the primary at the Samson Siasia Stadium, Yenagoa, on Tuesday was frustrated by fracas involving supporters of most of the 19 aspirants.

The situation led to the walk-out of 14 aspirants, including Chief Timi Alaibe, from the venue after Chairman of the Primaries Committee, Adams Oshiomhole, was reportedly whisked out of the place to avoid being attacked.

Confirming the postponement of the primaries, Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr Timi Frank, said the primary did not hold in Bayelsa on Tuesday.

According to Frank, fracas marred the exercise but one of the aspirants and former governor of the state, Timipre Sylva, held a member of the committee under duress to declare him winner of the exercise.
Frank said that neither the chairman of the primary committee nor the secretary was part of the purported primary, which he described as ‘’kangaroo primary’’.