Nigeria’s President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, has pledged to do all possible to rescue more than 200 schoolgirls abducted from Chibok in Borno State, by Boko Haram militants, a year ago.

The girls were seized April 14, 2014 from their dormitories as they prepared for exams.

The current federal government has failed to rescue them, and has been widely criticised for not doing enough, until recently, to tackle Boko Haram.

In a statement marking the girls’ one year in captivity, Mr. Buhari said his government will act differently.
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Expectations by Nigerians that Saturday’s election would yield the first female governor in Nigeria’s history has been dashed.

The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Taraba, Aisha Al-Hassan, who put up a strong showing in the race and who was thought to have won as collation continued into the second day, has now been defeated.

At the end of collation of votes from all 16 local government areas in the state, Ms. Al-hasan polled 262, 381 votes to emerge runner-up in a keenly contested election.
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The Independent National Electoral Commission has declared the governorship election in Imo state inconclusive.

Due to the number of cancelled votes (144,715) in relation to the margin of win (79,529) by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Rochas Okorocha, the Returning Officer, Professor Ibidapo Obe, declared the election inconclusive.

He said a new date would be announced for a supplementary election in the cancelled wards spread across several local government areas.

Mr. Okorocha was initially thought to have won the election after he garnered 385,671 votes compared to the 306,142 votes scored by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Emeka Ihedioha.

The APC candidate is ahead of Mr. Ihedioha by 79,529 votes, which is by far lower than the 144,715 votes cancelled by INEC as a result of irregularities in some wards.
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The All Progressives Congress (APC) has alerted the security agencies to cases of violence and disruption of voting in several areas of Lagos, Rivers and Ondo states, urging them to swing into action to ameliorate the situation.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Saturday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said in many parts of Lagos, thugs armed by the PDP are on rampage, shooting sporadically to scare away voters and carting away voting materials.
It said the development confirmed earlier statements by the APC that the PDP has been engaging in gun running in Lagos, with a view to arming thugs to disrupt the polls.

APC listed instances as follows:

LAGOS
– PDP thugs on rampage in Abule Okuta area of Bariga LCDA. Their sporadic shootings have disrupted the accreditation exercise in the area as INEC officials, voters and residents scamper for safety.
– PDP thugs are harassing and intimidating APC agents, and INEC officials are refusing to show result sheets to APC agents who demand such. There are fears that those results sheets may have been handed over to PDP.
– PDP agents storm Polling Units in Apapa Ward A Unit 009 with persons who who do not belong to the PUs and they were accredited
– OPC thugs under police protection attacking voters and INEC officials all over Lagos.
– No Electoral Officers in PUs in Ogudu, a known APC stronghold.
– PDP Secretariat in Apapa (Lander Close) off Liverpool Road filled with OPC men from Ajegunle
– Police in Iyana Ipaja arresting intending voters holding PVCs and locking them up in police stations, thus preventing their accreditation
– Electoral materials hijacked in many Polling Units in Ibeju Lekki. PDP thugs waylay INEC officials, vowed to kill them if they come to the PUs.
– Ballot boxes snatched in three Polling Units in Eti-Osa LG
– Shortage of Card Readers in many Polling Units in Ikorodu.

RIVERS
– Over 50 soldiers have been posted to Nyesom Wike’s residence in Old GRA area of Port Harcourt. The troops have been harassing people in the area.
– Home of Commissioner for Women Affairs in Rivers State, Joeba West, set ablaze in Buguma.
– INEC registration area centre in Kalabari National College in Buguma also set ablaze
– Police patrol vehicle also burnt in Buguma by suspected PDP thugs.

ONDO
– Electoral materials hijacked in Ilaje LOcal Government Aread of Ondo State by His Royal Majesty, Oba FRederick Obateru Akinruntan, THe Okoro Ajiga 1, of Ugbo KIngdom, in collusion with the PDP. The Oba’s son is a candidate of the PDP.


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/04/apc-cries-out-over-pdp-instigated-violence-voting-disruptions-in-lagos-rivers-ondo/#sthash.CmsdH14B.dpuf

Additional reports from Rivers suggest that those who beat up the Channels TV reporters are not soldiers but political thugs.
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There was an incident in Terkaa Local Government Area of Benue state, Friday evening, when INEC officials were transporting election materials. Suspected hoodlums snatched three cartons of electoral materials and set them ablaze.
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Today, Nigerians vote in their fifth general governorship and state assemblies elections since the country’s return to democracy in 1999.

Voters in Nigeria’s 29 states would elect governors while new state assemblies would be elected in the 36 states.

There are no governorship elections in Edo, Ondo, Ekiti, Bayelsa, Kogi, Anambra and Osun because the tenures of their governors are yet to expire.
The Peoples Democratic Party is going into this election with an advantage. It is in control of 20 of Nigeria’s 36 states while the All Progressives Party is in control of 15. The remaining one state is being governed by the All Progressives Grand Alliance.
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A new document has detailed a plot by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to influence the electorate, and elaborately rig Saturday’s Governorship and State House of Assembly elections in Kaduna State.

A document, entitled “The Task Before PDP and Governor Yero” obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, detailed the “means, measures and ways” to be adopted by the party and its candidate, Governor Ramalan Yero, to win the election based on the voting behaviour of the electorate in the state.

It also recalled that in the previous analysis for the Presidential and National Assembly elections, almost all the projections came to pass and “therefore, the need to implement this very submissions becomes imperatives because all the findings contained herein are like gospel truth”.

Mr. Yero is the governorship candidate of the PDP in the state. He is facing a stiff challenge from the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Nasir El-Rufai.
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Ekiti State lawmakers have directed the state Chief Judge to immediately set up a committee to investigate Governor Ayodele Fayose, inching closer to impeaching the governor.

Sixteen members of the All Progressives Congress, APC, on Thursday directed the Chief Judge to commence the process of probing allegations of gross misconduct against the governor and his deputy governor, Ojo Eleka.
Since coming to power in 2014, Mr. Fayose and the lawmakers have been locked in a row. The governor later reportedly staged a purported impeachment of the speaker of the assembly, Wale Omirin.
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Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has been named one of the world’s 50 greatest leaders by the American magazine, Fortune.

Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala, listed 33rd, was recognized alongside such world leaders as the Liberian President, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Pope Francis, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, U.S. billionaire, Bill Gates, and wife, Melinda, as well as Facebook Founder, Mark Zuckerberg, and Apple Chief Executive Officer, Tom Cook.

The magazine described Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala, as “a fearless promoter of sound economic policies” and singled her out for working hard to usher in a decade in which Nigeria’s gross domestic products trebled.
Annually, Fortune Magazine identifies men and women in various spheres of life, who, through their activities in government, business and philanthropy, have transformed lives.
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A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has restrained Multi Choice Nigeria Limited, operators of the Digital Satellite Television, popularly known as DStv, from implementing its new rates and increase in tariffs payable by its subscribers across board.

The restraining order was given by Justice C.J. Aneke sequel to a suit filed by two Lagos-based legal practitioners, Osasuyi Adebayo and Oluyinka Oyeniji.

In the class action suit, with number FHC/L/CS/404/2015, Justice Aneke granted the interim orders till the hearing of the motion on notice for injunction on April 16, 2015.

He also ordered for the suit and the Interim injunction to be published in national newspapers.

Messrs. Adebayo and Adeniji are challenging the arbitrary increase in tariffs.
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The Lagos State House of Assembly has introduced a bill seeking to provide lavish post-retirement benefits to the Speaker and Deputy Speaker, with proposals for extravagant life pension, accommodation, security and medical cover for the two officials and their families.
The bill is seeking to amend the state’s Public Office Holder Law of 2007 which already provides those benefits to past governors and their deputies.
The existing law was pushed through by Ahmed Tinubu who was governor between 1999 and 2007.
The lawmakers now want to extend the largesse to themselves, and the amendment seeks to insert the words “and includes the Speaker (and) the Deputy Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly” after “State” in the interpretation of “Public Office Holder.”
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The opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, has accused the Nigerian government of planning to deposit a large sum of money into the bank account of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Attahiru Jega, in order to frame one of its leaders, Bola Tinubu.
The Spokesperson of the APC, Lai Mohammed, who addressed a press conference Wednesday in Lagos, made the claim.
APC said the goal of the plot was to use that as a reason to sack Mr. Jega so that he will not preside over the rescheduled elections slated for March 28 and April 11.
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A couple of days ago, I announced that I was going to unfriend – on Facebook – any friend who’s a supporter of President Jonathan. Some friends found fault with my action. They implied that what I purposed was extreme – it’s only politics, they said.
But they’re mistaken. The forthcoming presidential election is not politics. The gubernatorial contest in Lagos State between Jimi Agbaje and Akinwunmi Ambode is politics, since it’s a choice between two credible candidates. Obama versus Romney was politics. The gubernatorial contest in Jigawa is politics, since people have a choice to elect a candidate from a party (PDP) which has done well for them at state level or a candidate from a party (APC) that promises to revolutionize their lives positively.
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President Goodluck Jonathan has said he is confident of winning the forthcoming presidential elections later this month.
The president said in an interview with television channel, Aljazeera, that he has done enough to guarantee victory for him and his ruling Peoples Democratic Party. He said there was no way he could lose the elections.
“I will not lose the election,” the president said when asked whether the decision to postpone the election was informed by the suspicion that he was afraid of losing if the election was held on the previous date.
Asked again if he would accept defeat and bow out gracefully if he loses, the President declared “I will win the election”.
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Nigeria’s finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has blamed the ongoing fuel crisis on “disruption of pipelines and logistical issues”, apparently invalidating earlier reasons given by the government agency responsible for pricing and regulation of petroleum products.
The minister also contradicted the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, which accused the opposition All Progressives Congress of compelling marketers to either divert or refuse to sell petrol to embarrass the government.
At a news briefing Tuesday, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala strongly denied any link between the scarcity that has left long queues at filling stations across the country, and a failure by the government to pay fuel marketers — a reason given by the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency, PPPRA.
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President Goodluck Jonathan has said that the perception that Nigeria’s corruption has worsened under his leadership is an overblown assessment with political undertones.
The President, who spoke Monday night in an interview with Aljazera, said despite the country’s position in the global corruption perception index, the perception that corruption has worsened under his administration is inaccurate.
In 2014, Transparency International ranked Nigeria was ranked 136th out of 175 countries and territories, with a score of 27.
According to TI, a country or territory’s score indicate the perceived level of public sector corruption on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).
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The House of Representatives said it has uncovered what may turn out Nigeria’s biggest fraud yet, accusing the Jonathan administration of spending N16 trillion on its super offices yearly, while the entire country is given a meagre budget of about N4 trillion.
The claim was made Sunday by the House Public Accounts Committee.
The committee said while the Nigerian government complains of revenue for key projects, the same government has allowed dozens of powerful offices, graded as “statutory and extra-ministerial departments” to spend a minimum of N16 trillion yearly.
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The Ebonyi State House of Assembly has agreed to serve an impeachment notice on Governor Martin Elechi, after accusing the governor of corruption and gross misconduct.
A motion for the notice to be served on the governor was approved after the acting Majority Leader of the House, Francis Nwifruru, on Friday, read details accusing Mr. Elechi of undermining the integrity of the House and committing fraudulent acts.
The Ebonyi Assembly had last Wednesday, February 18, set up a panel to investigate allegations of financial misappropriation against the governor and some of his aides.
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Nigeria’s active 120 million GSM subscribers need to know this: The Nigeria Police, the Department of State Services [DSS] and the Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited [NIGCOMSAT] are, on behalf of the Nigerian government, possibly hacking your phones and listening in to your conversations.
The three state agencies are able to do this with the aid of an over N11 billion sophisticated equipment procured and installed for them by President Goodluck Jonathan.
Knowing what Nigerians are discussing over the telephone was too important a necessity for Mr. Jonathan that he awarded two different contracts for the same purpose in less than two months interval.
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President Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign has earmarked $20,000 to hire protesters in London Thursday as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Muhammadu Buhari, speaks at Chatham House.
According to an internal memo seen by PREMIUM TIMES, the money would be spent on mobilising the crowd, refreshing them and defraying other logistics.
The memo, which originated from the campaign’s Assistant Director, Civil Society and Support Groups (Diaspora), Peter Mozie, explained why the anti-Buhari protest is necessary, and requested the campaign’s Director in charge of Civil Society and Support Groups, Nick Eze, to immediately release the funds.
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Despite dilly-dallying on whether or not to make public the full report of the forensic audit on the operations of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, President Goodluck Jonathan has approved the disbursement of the $1.48 billion (about N249 billion) recovered from the national oil company.
The return of the money by the NNPC is one of the major recommendations of the audit conducted by global firm, PriceWaterHouseCoopers. The full audit report is yet to be made public despite protests by Nigerians including civil society groups and opposition parties.
However, on Tuesday, officials stated that Mr. Jonathan had asked that the money, once returned by the state oil firm, be shared among the tiers of government.
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1. INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTERS wanted for a one year renewable contract with Premium Times.

Candidates must:

– Be a change agent

– Possess strong writing skills

– Have aversion for corruption

– Have good interpersonal relations skills

– Possess an inquring mind and logical reasoning

– Have 3-5 years investigative reporting experience?
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The Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, has demanded investigation into the Ekiti rigging audio, which appears to show how the military hierarchy and some members of the Peoples Democratic Party, including Governor Ayo Fayose, planned the rigging of the June 21, 2014 governorship election in the state.
In a statement on Tuesday, Mr. Soyinka asked the Independent National Electoral Commission to work with the international community to conduct the investigation and make the findings of the exercise known to save Nigeria’s democracy.
He said brushing the issue aside as just electoral malpractice approaches criminal subversion and treason.
Mr. Fayose defeated the All Progressive Congress candidate and then governor, Kayode Fayemi, in the election.
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The global drop in crude oil prices continued to affect Nigeria, as the country recorded about N48.7 billion loss in revenue from oil exports in November and December, 2014.
The Accountant General of the Federation, Jonah Otunla, stated this in his revenue report during the January Federation Accounts Allocation Committee meeting held in Abuja on Tuesday.
According to Mr. Otunla, the country suffered a substantial loss in revenue of about $77.53 million (about N13.025 billion) in November as a result of the massive drop in crude oil price at the international oil market.
He said the loss dropped to about $52.34 million (about N8.79 billion) in December, in addition to a 33 per cent decrease in the volume of export of the country’s oil for the two months, which translated to a loss of about $159.88 million (about N26.9billion).
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UPDATE: The Kano state Commissioner of Police, Ibrahim Idris, has confirmed the death of 12 persons, including two suicide bombers, in today’s bomb attack on Kano Line Motor park on Zaria Road, Kano.

He did not say how many people were injured.

Read our earlier report of the incident below.

=============

An explosion has gone off at one of the busiest motor parks in Kano, residents and security officials have told PREMIUM TIMES.

An unknown number of people are feared dead in the blast, which occurred at Kano Line, located at Naibawa Area, along Zaria Road.
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The ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has stated that it will not be drawn into the ongoing controversy regarding the visit of former head of state and candidate of the opposition All Progressives Congress, Muhammadu Buhari, to the United Kingdom.
Mr. Buhari’s campaign office had stated that the former head of state was in the U.K. on a working visit.
However, Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti state and other supporters of the PDP have claimed that Mr. Buhari is in the U.K. for medical treatment.
Mr. Buhari has already met with former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, on Saturday, a meeting Mr. Blair’s office confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES.
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Contrary to President Goodluck Jonathan’s dismissal of the Ekiti rigging audio recording as a fabrication that is not worth his attention, the spokesperson for his campaign, Femi Fani-Kayode has admitted that the tape is genuine but that the characters involved in the meeting captured in the recording were not discussing how to rig the 2014 governorship election in Ekiti state.
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja, Mr. Fani-Kayode said his team had listened to and reviewed the recording and that it came to the conclusion that the opposition All Progressives Congress turned fact on its head by claiming that Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state; former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro; and the Minister of Police Affairs, Jelili Adesiyan, who featured in the recording, planned how to rig the election.
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The controversial new Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of Zone 2, Joseph Mbu, on Thursday, February 12, made an official visit to the Ogun State Police Command, which is under his zone.
While briefing men and officers of the command, Mr. Mbu made it clear he is working hard to get to the top of the police hierarchy.
Our reporter, Dimeji Kayode-Adedeji, brings you details of the briefing.
Excerpt:
“I have come here to restore hope in all of you and to blow air into you. You know when you just have a male child, you blow air into his mouth and nose so that he can be like you.
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Some of Nigeria’s wealthiest industrialists, former government officials and their relatives, were amongst thousands of individuals around the world who operated highly secretive foreign accounts with the Swiss branch of banking giant, HSB​C, concealing their identities for years and using codes perhaps to shake off tax authorities from accounts, some of which held illicit assets from criminals, traffickers, arms dealers and other outlaws, secret files published last week by a consortium of journalists around the world have shown.
The trove, released by the French Daily, Le Monde and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, in partnership with PREMIUM TIMES, and a host of other major media organisations around the world, showed how HSBC profited doing business with people who stole from their countries and some of the world’s most notorious con artists, including people who made a fortune fuelling wars in Africa.
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