₦airaland Forum

Dr Bukola Saraki, President of the Senate and presidential aspirant on the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) platform, says the North Central deserves a chance come 2019.

Saraki made the statement while addressing party faithful and supporters in Jos on Sunday.

He said that the North Central had worked hard for the country and had remained loyal in spite of the seeming division in the country.

“This is our time in the North Central; this is our chance.

“We have worked hard for this country; we have laboured so much even with so much division we remain united and loyal.

“I believe that all of us in the North Central are one family.

“The people of Plateau are lucky; they have two presidential aspirants, myself and Baba Jang.



“I call Plateau my home state because I believe that everything that affects one member of a family affects the other,” he said.

The aspirant said that it was time to change the narrative in the country and have a government that would include everybody.

Saraki added that if elected as president, he would ensure that criminals who kill people in the villages in Plateau and all over the country were brought to book.

He said Nigeria needed youths to take over the mantle of leadership as they remained the only hope Nigeria had to be led in the right direction.

“Plateau people have gone through so much; so many lives have been lost.

“With your support if I become president, this will not happen again.

“I will fight day and night to protect everyone and ensure that any criminal that commits a crime is made to face justice.

“We need someone who can stand for the masses and not be intimidated because he is standing for what is right, that person is Bukola Saraki,” he said.

Saraki urged the delegates in Plateau to vote for him during the primary elections, promising to give them a Nigeria that they would all be proud of.

Responding, the state chairman of the party, Mr Damishi Tango, praised Saraki for being bold and courageous in spite of the challenges he was facing as president of the senate.

Sango also lauded the aspirant for his courage in defecting from the APC, sayng that the party in the state would support him in his desire to become the number one citizen of the country.

Nigerian music legend, Wasiu Ayinde, popularly known as K1 De Ultimate, has refuted reports that he is supporting the presidential ambition of Senator President Bukola Saraki.

In a statement released by his media manager, Kunle Rasheed, on Sunday, the Fuji legend restated his support for President Muhammadu Buhari.

According to the statement, the artiste threatened to sue anyone who uses his song to campaign for Saraki, noting that "he is already talking with his lawyers to seek redress on the matter”.

The statement read: “The only person he is rooting for to become the president in 2019 is no other than President Muhammadu Buhari. This he has shown by telling the world where his loyalty belongs at every occasion lately.

"K1 has also on countless occasions granted interviews to several media organisations that he is for Buhari till 2023.

"K1 is also using this medium to sound it clear that he will never ever endorse someone who has acted as a betrayal to his party right from when he assumed the office till the time he left the party for the opposition.

"I will liken that to artifice. I am highly disappointed that someone like the senate president can be involved in such a fraud because it is evidently clear that the only person I am rooting for to become the president in 2019 is no other than President Muhammadu Buhari.

"The only time I had an encounter with the senate president was at the marriage ceremony of Mohammed Mustapha’s son in Ilorin in 2015.

"So, he has no right to circulate any song without his approval; doing so amounts to fraud.

“I remain a strong party member and the only person I support to become the president in 2019 is Muhammadu Buhari."

ghuzy01:
What do you mean by he cares only about his pocket.this man was born rich and became a medical doctor before entering politics.Not everybody is like your bubu

thesicilian:
They're all unqualified.

thesicilian:
So shall it be.

Baawaa:
Only God can stop him, because they had tried death and it failed,so it is only God

Hon. Ibrahim Kasai is a former Nigerian Ambassador to Ukraine and Board of Trustees (BoT) member, Buhari Campaign Organisation. He spoke to GYANG BERE in Jos on topical issues that concern 2019 general elections, saying only death will stop Buhari’s re-election.

We have few months to 2019 general elections, what are the chances of President Muhammadu Buhari?

To doubt the chances of President Buhari is not the way to put the question, perhaps I should have been asked how bright is the chance of Mr. President, then I will pick on that positive perspective.

President Buhari is well known by Nigerians and he has done so well, his support base is in the grassroots and he is known internationally as an anti-corruption crusader and I believe that he will bring Africa to the limelight.

Therefore, I will categorically say that his chances are bright to win the 2019 presidential election.


But the President and APC keep losing top members of the party to the opposition each passing day, don’t you see that as a hurdle for Buhari ahead of the 2019 election?

Well, it is true some people are defecting but what we are looking at is the implication of such defection and the number of electorate such people control.

Politics is a game of number and those people defecting, I am sure you are referring to the Senators and a few governors; some of them find themselves in a dilemma and that is why they are using the defection threat to frighten

Mr. President and the APC but quite frankly, in an election like this, the calculation of an individual is that if I am not going to win here, if I try elsewhere, I might make head-way.

Most of those defectors are not quite happy with the President’s anti-corruption posture and if they are not comfortable with it, they will look for alternatives and even where they went, they are facing problems there.

We are not happy that they are going but we are not afraid that these individuals have gone to another party.

Interestingly, as they go, more are also coming into APC, I am sure you are aware of the numbers of people coming into APC from the South-South, South-East and other places in the North.

Are you referring to those leaving the party such as Bukola Saraki, Governor Aminu Tambuwal, Governor Samuel Ortom and other Senators as corrupt?

I wouldn’t say so easily because for you to declare somebody corrupt, he must be adjudged as such. That was why I said they are not comfortable with this administration and if Mr. President is fighting corruption and APC is fighting corruption that means this might not be their place.

Most Nigerians believe that the fight against corruption is lopsided and it is a deliberate attempt to witch-hunt the opposition PDP ahead of 2019, do you agree?

It is not so, it should be the other way round. If you say a person who has been apprehended or arrested is a member of the opposition party, then we should ask whether the person’s hands are clean.



Has the EFCC arrested anybody that is not being suspected? Or somebody who has not been in government? The principle of fighting crime is that the people who were in government before this administration are the first persons to be pursued because you can retrieve something from the person who stole soonest.

There were petitions against some governors who defected in 2015 to support

Mr. President but since then, they have not been tried and on this account, most Nigerians believe that Buhari’s government is more corrupt than Jonathan’s administration. Do you think otherwise?

Well, that insinuation is political because if EFCC is to release files of people that are billed for trials, you will notice that each case has its own peculiarities.

Also, Buhari is not sparing anybody because of party lineage; members of the APC are also being
tried, PDP people are being tried, be you in any party, if you are found wanting, you face the music and that is the standard.

For one to think that because somebody has defected to APC he will have his file removed from the EFCC and be forgiven, it doesn’t work that way; the President is fighting crime all across, he does not shield anybody.

Will you adjudge the fight against corruption as free and fair, and has he made any reasonable achievement in that direction?

I might not give you a straightjacket answer. In my opinion, there are frustrations in the struggle. First, there has been a problem between EFCC and other agencies, there has been a problem also with our courts.

I am a lawyer and I will tell you that so many things are happening; the delays are very unnecessary, the delay in handling anti-corruption cases is so much that it is becoming frustrating.

The EFCC will file a matter and the suspects will still be in government. We have about 21 former governors in the Senate and most of them have EFCC cases, they have money, they move freely because our law says you are innocent until proven guilty.

These people go about their businesses and interfere with investigations.

Sometimes, you will find that the President is fighting this anti-corruption alone despite the fact that he has his cabinet members and agencies, and that is why the fight against corruption has to be holistic.

Chibuzoc:
Hope you can understand from this ''Destiny, sometimes referred to as fate (from Latin fatum – destiny), is a predetermined course of events. [1][2] It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual.''

Nigeria has no future for the unborn generation, it's our task to make the way straight for them

Chibuzoc:
Destiny can only be delayed but can never be denied

Ifeanyi Ejiofor, lawyer to the ‘missing’ leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, has revealed final words he had with the pro-Biafra agitator before his disappearance in 2017.

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Ejiofor made the revelation while asking the military to explain his client’s whereabouts.

Kanu went missing following soldiers’ invasion of his home in Afaraukwu, Abia State, on September 14, 2017.

In a statement on Friday, Ejiofor recalled that he got a distress call from Kanu in the middle of the military operation at his home.

Ejiofor also urged international organisations to open “possible diplomatic channel” to probe “crimes against humanity.”

Ejiofor’s statement is titled, “Remembering the ‘Black Day’ at Afaraukwu and attendant unending agony,” and was made available to reporters on Friday.

He stated, “I remember vividly the last words of my client on this cursed day. It went thus: ‘Ejiofor, my house is under siege, soldiers are forcing themselves in, shooting at everything in sight, you can hear the sound of the sporadic gunshots from the background; please alert the world to the development in my house.

“I can see it clearly from my room that they have gunned down many of my people downstairs, as they advance rapidly to my room; my life is no longer safe; tell the British Government, the United States and the world that the Nigerian government should be held responsible if anything happens to me.’”

Ejiofor asked the military to release his client.

He said, “We use this moment of sober reflection to once again call on responsible international organisations, foreign governments, United Nations, European Union, the British government and the comity of nations, to immediately activate possible diplomatic channel that would ensure prompt probe of this crime against humanity and accurate inventory of murderous military onslaught in the home of Nnamdi Kanu and his whereabouts till date.”

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Despite the order for a substituted service of contempt proceedings on Senate President, Bukola Saraki, over the suspension of a senator, Ovie Omo-Agege, the senator has approached the court with another application.

Mr Omo-Agege wants the court to allow him serve Mr Saraki and the National Assembly with Form 49 by placing the notice of court in the media.

The form contains an order for the respondents to explain why they should not be sent to prison for alleged contempt of court

Following his suspension by the Senate for 90 days in April, Mr Omo-Agege approached the court with an application to nullify his suspension.

The Delta State senator also asked the court to invalidate the investigation carried out by the Senate Ethics and Privileges Committee, which resulted in his suspension.

Although the court partially refused the request for the invalidation of the Senate’s investigation and Mr Omo-Agege’s punishment, the judge, Nnamdi Dimgba, said the suspension was wrongly carried out by the National Assembly.

In a ruling on May 10, Mr Dimgba ordered the Senate to reinstate Mr Omo-Agege and ensure the full payment of his entitlements.

After the order, Mr Omo-Agege’s lawyer, Alex Izinyon, explained that they served the respondents with copies of the court’s decision and expected that his client will be called back and his salaries promptly paid.

He however noted that Mr Omo-Agege has not been paid since he was asked to resume office.

Mr Izinyon, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, then asked the court to invoke Form 48, which borders on alleged contempt of court.



He also prayed the court to allow him serve Form 49 on the respondents.

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Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, Delta-APC. [Photo credit: THISDAYLIVE]

At the opening of session on Thursday, Mr Izinyon explained that his client was still unable to serve the respondent, despite the June 28 court order for substituted service of the contempt proceedings on the respondents.

He therefore asked the court to allow them serve the respondents through the media.

The court adjourned until September 25 to rule on the application.

Johnnyessence:
out of 17 full months Ogbeni owed, he quickly paid 4 months cos' of the election that is fast approaching. Atigbon ni ipinle osun.

The Osun State Government has disbursed a whooping N19.8‎ billion for the payment of salaries of staff and pensioners in the state.

‎This huge amount, according to the Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Bola Oyebamiji, covers the full salaries of August 2018, backlog of the salaries and pensions of September to December 2015‎ and leave bonuses.

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Oyebamiji revealed that Governor Rauf Aregbesola gave the directive after consultation with the labour unions and other stakeholders in the state.

He stated this Thursday while addressing the media at the Ministry of Finance, state Secretariat, Osogbo.

Oyebamiji disclosed that the payment was made with the N16.6 billion latest Paris Club refunds received by the state from the federal government.

He said the state added N3 billion accrued from other sources to the Paris Club refunds to ensure the payment.

The commissioner said this is not the first time the Aregbesola administration will commit such lump sums received from the federal government to pay salaries and pensions of workers.

He stated that in November 2016, the state government received N11.4 billion Paris Club refunds and the following month disbursed N13.6 billion ‎to pay active and passive workers as salaries, pensions, leave bonuses and other emoluments, with N8.5 billion covering salaries of September to December 2016.

Similarly, he noted that N924 million was paid in the same 2016 to cover the leave bonus of September to December, adding that from this same Paris Club refund, N2.5 billion was paid to cover pensions from September to December of the same year.

He explained further: “‎Again, in July 2017, the government received N6.3 billion as the second tranche of Paris Club refund and paid N6 billion as salaries, pensions and leave bonuses. The breakdown is as follows: N3.76 billion as workers’ salaries, N504 million as leave bonuses, N791 million as pension and N935 million as salaries in the local governments.

“Since the commencement of the Aregbesola administration in November 2010, salaries, pensions and workers’ emoluments had taken not less than 80 per cent of the total revenue of the state. Indeed, a sizeable portion of the state’s debt was incurred on salaries.

“When the administration came, monthly workers’ salaries was N1.4 billion, while pensions was N200 million. However, with the increase of minimum wage from N9,000 to N19,000 and hiking of monthly pensions to N500 million, monthly salaries and pensions rose to N3.6 billion.

“Though there was a steady increase in revenue till the late 2013, however, by 2014, oil price commenced a steady decline, dropping to as low as $22 in 2015 from the height of more than $100 in 2013.”

According to the commissioner, the decline in oil revenue had affected revenue accruing to the state from the Federation Account which in turn affected workers across the states of the federation.

He noted further that the option available to the government was to rightsize the workforce of the state, but consultation with labour leaders and stakeholders under the leadership of veteran labour leader, Hassan Sunmonu, came up with an ingenuous arrangement of modulated salary whereby workers on grade level 1-7 were paid full salaries, levels 8-12 were put on 75 per cent, while level 12 and above received 50 per cent of their salaries.

Oyebamiji added that the modulated salary sustained the state till July this year when rise in oil price led to an increase in revenue to the state and the state promptly responded by resuming payment of full salaries for the month of July.

“For the second month, we have now paid full salaries to all our workers. It is my hope and prayers that this will be sustained, and we will never have cause to modulate workers salaries in Osun again. ‎

“Therefore, on behalf of Governor Rauf Aregbesola, I will like to commend and thank all the workers in Osun for their sacrifice, resilience and unflinching support to the government and dedication to duty, even in the midst of daunting challenges. I have no doubt that workers, in their demonstrable good nature and Omoluabi spirit, will reciprocate this good gesture from the government,” Oyebamiji said.

Nura Ilyasu, the man who climbed a telecommunications mast in Abuja on Wednesday to protest the re-election bid of President Muhammadu Buhari, has finally descended.

He came down from the mast on Thursday.

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Ilyasu touched ground at 11:25am voluntarily, after security operatives acceded to his request that he must address the press upon his descent.

According to Ilyasu, he climbed the mast to protest the economic hardship in the country, just as he stated that President Muhammadu Buhari does not deserve another four years in office.

Security agents had made entreaties to him since Wednesday when he mounted the mast, but their efforts proved abortive, as he had vowed not to descend until President Muhammadu Buhari resigns from the office.

However, this morning, they were able to communicate with him via his mobile telephone, and they appealed to him. He later told them that he would come down on the condition that he must speak to the press.

He said: "My name is Nura Ilyasu. I am 28 years old. What I did is within the purview of the law. My human right is to protest peacefully and I never threatened my life or any other person

"What we are going through in this country is not from God. Some microscopic-view individuals hijacked all that God endowed Nigeria with for decent life, and we can't continue like this. I climbed up for seven days hunger strike to protest the incompetence and cluelessness, to protest presidential impunity and general docility displayed by the masses. We can't continue like this.

"Other competent candidates are there; even Saraki, Atiku, Kwankwaso, Tambuwal, Dankwambo and others. At least one of these [men] will make a good President.

"I don't believe General Buhari deserves another four-year term in Nigeria because the pervasive hunger and poverty in Nigeria is inexplicable. I don't have mental disorder as being insinuated by some people."

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When asked how he felt now that he had come down from the mast, Ilyasu said he was full of life and mentally stable.

He said he came down because some lawyers spoke to him while he was on the mast. He was later taken away by security operatives.

Ilyasu climbed a mast with the approval number AB0099 belonging to Airtel Nigeria, located few metres away from the presidential villa and Lungi Army Barracks, on Wednesday.

Johnnyessence:
Omo babaoloye winning his court cases. oshiomole should contest for next year senatorial poll and let us see who will impeach omo babaoloye.

Crisis was narrowly averted in the Ekiti State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday, as loyalists of Governor Ayodele Fayose and a chieftain of the party, Dr. Tope Aluko, engaged in a
tussle over the state congress to elect the national delegates for the presidential primary.

The delegates are to be elected to participate in the national congress leading to the election of the party’s presidential candidate for the 2019 general election.

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The battle was fiercer in Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government, where Fayose and Aluko hail from, as the party members, including a serving member of the House of Assembly representing constituency 1 of the council, Hon. Posi Omodara, ward councilors and elected party officials rejected the choice of a former Minister of Aviation, Mr. Babatunde Omotoba, as a national delegate.

However, members loyal to Fayose from all the 11 wards, who were also opposed to Aluko, boycotted the congress.

The PDP members at the congress conducted at the local government headquarters in Igede Ekiti, elected Aluko with 80 votes out of the accredited 84 delegates in defiance to Fayose’s preference for Omotoba.

Most of the party members, who spoke at the congress conducted by party’s Vice-Chairman in Ekiti Central and Returning Officer, Mr. Tunji Kayode, said Aluko’s election as a national delegate was meant to save the party from undue slavery and for political emancipation.

Addressing the party members, Aluko promised that he would continue to serve the party in the most committed way by the election he described as fight for political liberty and freedom.

“The boycott by those rooting for the former minister of aviation didn’t vitiate the process. About 126 persons are to participate in this local government and 84 turned up out of which I polled 80 votes to emerge as a national delegate in this council.

“A serving House of Assembly member, councilors and party executives were all present here, so the quorum was formed.

“Aside from that, the police, men of the Department of State Services and officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were present to monitor the election. There was no underhand tactics and my victory represented the wish of the party members.

“I promise that I won’t betray the confidence reposed in me. I will continue to fight for the party’s cause and fight for its advancement all the times,” Aluko promised.

The Returning Officer in the council Tunji Kayode after conducting the election said: “Our party had been damaged and we are praying that God should restore our lost glory. So we are not going to act in any way that would infract on the party’s constitution.

“The election was not manipulated, it was an open thing and since it was only one candidate that is on ground and he got all the election, he is hereby declared elected as a national delegate of our party.”

A former PDP chairman in the council, Hon. Jinadu Isiaka, said the election of Aluko was targeted at saving the party from ruin occasioned by alleged imposition in the party.

“What our people wanted is liberation and we are fighting for it in the interest of our party. We have seen that somebody was trying to impose a certain individual and we have revolted against that through our votes.

“Some people have been piloting the affairs of this party in Ekiti and this council for long, but they were sidelined by certain authority, so time has come to fight for our liberty.

“In democracy, majority is in control but this case was different. How can the minority be controlling the majority? This is not possible. We won’t allow anyone to impose in the PDP because that may lead to total collapse of our party and that we won’t allow to happen,” he said.

A former governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, has responded to a statement in which former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, said Mr Lamido would step down for him in the presidential race.

Both men are running for the ticket of opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) alongside about ten other aspirants.

At a meeting with PDP leaders in Dutse, Jigawa State on Monday, Mr Abubakar said he believed Mr Lamido would step down for him as his elder brother.

He said he believed Mr Lamido would concede the ticket to him because the former governor is his younger brother and shares the same political ideology with him.

Mr Abubakar based his prediction on the scenario in the aborted Third Republic when the Yar’Adua brothers initially sought the tickets of the defunct Social Democratic Party.

The late Shehu, who was the elder, was running for president while the late Umar sought the ticket of the same party for governorship of Katsina State.

Mr. Atiku recalled that the late Musa was eventually persuaded to sacrifice his ambition so as not to jeopardise the chances of his elder brother.

“But with the intervention of elders in the state, the junior brother Umar Musa stepped down for another aspirant so that the politics will not be a family affair, leaving Shehu Musa to contest for president while someone from another family vied for governor,” Mr Abubakar said.

Mr Abubakar told the gathering that his mother was from Jigawar Sarki, a village in Dutse Local Government Area of Jigawa State before her family migrated to Adamawa State where Mr Abubakar was born.

Responding to Mr Abubakar’s comment through a statement on Tuesday by his media aide, Adamu Usman, Mr Lamido said he would not step down.

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“While it is true he (Mr Abubakar) is older than me age-wise, I’m senior to him politically because I was in the House of Representatives in 1979 when he was an employee of Nigeria Customs Services.

“And if age is the criterion for standing election then he should drop out for Buhari.”

According to Mr Usman, Mr Lamido had been “patient, loyal, committed and consistent” in politics despite all the odds and his travails.

“Even if Lamido did not shows interest to contest, PDP should have called him to be the flag bearer and if there is anyone the other aspirants should step down for, it should be Sule Lamido because he has the goodwill, political experience and capacity to confront the ruling party, APC.

“Also if Lamido is to step down, why would he aspire in the first place? Sule Lamido is out to run for the president come 2019 God willing,” Mr Usman stated.

Juliusmalema:
Oga u over reacting....i don't know when u joined nairaland but this Op is a yoruba man and pedddler of fake news.