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YOUNGrapha:


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Guess you're commenting from Ekiti State Government House

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BREAKING: Supreme Court Affirms Obaseki As Governor Of Edo State

The Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal filed by the candidate of the PDP challenging the election of Governor Godwin Obaseki for lacking in merit.

The apex court said it will give its reasons for the judgment on July 24, 2017.

Details shortly…

http://newsnownigeria.com.ng/breaking-supreme-court-affirms-obaseki-governor-edo-state/

Ohaneze Ndigbo meets with Anambra State House of Assembly Menbers and Stakeholders.

Present at the meeting are Chief Nnia John Nwodo (Ohaneze Ndigbo President), Chief Damian Okeke Ogene (Anambra State Chairman), Barrister Rita Mmaduagwu(Speaker House of Assembly), Hon. Gabriel Onyenweife (Menber Rep Oyi/Anyamelum Federal Constituency house of Reps), Chief Sir Victor Umeh(Fmr. Apga National Chairman).

Ohaneze Ndigbo President General counters the utterances of Nnamdi Kanu over his Statement "That there will be no election in Anambra State come Nov. 18th" Addressing to people of Anmabra that he don't think that anybody has the right to stop them from choosing who will be their leader or who they will vote for. Ndigbo can't be treated like a conquered territory by the treatment been melted on them especially the Operations Python Dance,where policemen collects money from motorists along the Federal Highways in the South East.......

Ohaneze Ndigbo President General, Chief John Nina Nwodo..told a story of how he was driving from Abuja down to the South East, on getting to the Check point at Ugboloafor, the Road was blocked by Nigeria Police who is a small boy, was by the road collecting monies which the Policemen gave him, which they collected from motorists.. We told the acting President, these challenges as we met with him in Abuja...says Ohaneze Ndigbo President General.. We urge members of House of Assembly, while on transit,if they see such,they should stop and demand that such action must end immediately... This type of extortion, can't happen in the North, the Youths will mobilize themselves against such including the Motorist plying such route..This type of treatment can only happen in the South East says Ohaneze Ndigbo President General, Chief John Nina Nwodo..

On the threats by Arewa Youths, Ohaneze Ndigbo president general made a clear statement that a public declaration of another State from Nigeria is a treason and criminal offence and that we dont need this hit up. Further saying that our encounter with the north during the Nigeria Civil War, and that there is love for ndigbo in Nigeria and that the meeting with the Acting President Prof. Yemi Osibanjo converging the Arewa Youth threat to Ndigbo promised him that Igbos all over the country are protected and will be protected.

Chief Sir. Victor Umeh joined President General of Ohaneze Ndigbo that nothing is hidden anymore.

This interactive sessions with Anambra State House of Assembly members is first in the series, it will be done across the other South Eastern States.. assured by President General Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief John Nnia Nwodo.....

http://newsnownigeria.com.ng/nnamdi-kanu-not-speaking-ndigbo-says-nwodo-president-ohaneze-ndigbo/

HAPPENING NOW!!!

Long Convoy of Biafra Supporters Throng Nnamdi Kanu's Resident in Umuahia (See Photos)



http://newsnownigeria.com.ng/long-convoy-biafra-supporters-throng-nnamdi-kanus-resident-umuahia-see-photos/

Press Release - June 24, 2017 - *Budget 2017: Fashola Should Stop Spreading Half-Truths, Says Senate*

The Senate has cautioned Minister of Works, Housing and Power, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, to stop spreading wrong information and half-truth about the 2017 budget as the legislators worked to ensure equity across the country on all new and outstanding projects.

In a statement by its spokesperson, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, the Senate noted that Mr. Fashola did not give members of the public full details about the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, which has been on a private finance initiative from the beginning because he would prefer an arrangement that allows the Ministry to continue to award contracts and fund the project through Government budgetary allocation at a time when the nation's revenue is dwindling and at an all time low.

Abdullahi stated that the Bureau of Public Procurement, and the Federal Executive Council in 2013, approved the reconstruction, rehabilitation and expansion of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway as a Public Private Partnership project using the Private Finance Initiative, with the Federal Government providing about 30 percent of the funding while the balance shall be provided by the private sector. The project was on course for completion by end of 2017 when the private finance initiative was being implemented, with over 30 percent completion rate attained as at early 2015.

Abdullahi further noted that in a blatant disregard for existing agreements, constituted authorities and extant laws, Fashola on assumption of office got Government through the Ministry to start voting money for the implementation of the project.

"Even as at last year the 2016 Appropriation Act voted N40 billion for the project on the insistence of the Ministry and only N26 billion was released. If we had known, the rest N14 billion could have been allocated to other critical roads across the country", he said.

"In the spirit of consensus building and effective stakeholder engagement, the Leadership of the Senate met with key relevant stakeholders, including the Ministries of Works and finance. It was agreed that we should give the Private Finance Initiative a chance to complement Government’s resources in the delivery of critical infrastructure assets across the country. Hence, in this year's budget, we have engaged with the Government and private sector groups who have assured that they will resume funding of the project. So, we only provided the fund in the budget that would ensure work does not stop before the funds from the private sector start coming in .What we reduced from Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in the 2017 budget estimate was spread on Oyo-Ogbomoso road in the South-west, Enugu-Onitsha road in the South-east, and two other critical roads in the North-east and North-west; and this was done to achieve equity. The Minister should realise he is Minister for the entire country and not just that of Lagos State.

"It is our view that the Federal Government cannot fund the reconstruction and maintenance of all the 34,000 kilometres of roads under its care. We are looking for private funds for some of these roads, particularly those with high potentials of attracting private investors. These include the Enugu-Onitsha road, Kano-Abuja road and Abuja-Lokoja road. It has been our hope that the Lagos -Ibadan road would be a model for private sector funding of infrastructure in the country", the spokesman stated.

He added that Fashola knew that Federal Government cannot fully fund this road for completion by 2019 as he is promising Nigerians. "It's deceit of the highest order. Just going by the last two years of funding where an average of about N30b per annum was released then the nation would have to wait for the next six years for completion of the work .But with Private sector Finance Initiative, this project can be completed on time because full funding will be provided and there will be more certainty", he stated.

Abdullahi noted that since Government did not have enough money and/or unlimited resources to provide all the needed road infrastructure on a sustainable basis, the use of funds from the private sector to complement Government’s resources would ease pressure on the annual budgetary provisions for infrastructure provision, as more money will be spent on less commercially viable roads that would not ordinarily attract private sector investment as well as other social services like education, health and human capital development.

"The Minister's statement is in bad taste and we believe he has been quoted out of context as an experienced public servant with over 15 years of high level responsibility will not be uttering such statements. He should desist from spreading half-truths. When he said the National Assembly imported projects into the 2017 budget, he did not mention that these include the 26 projects which the Federal Government approved in the 2016 budget, awarded contract for them in January 2016, but totally omitted them in the 2017 budget. One of them is the Abuja-Kaduna road. These ones would have become abandoned projects. We reduced funds across board to make provision for these omitted projects that are of critical importance to the socio-economic development of the country in line with equity and fair play.

"Mr. Fashola obviously wants the Federal Ministry of Works to have many construction projects it can award contracts for and that is why he would always oppose any attempt to allow the private sector financing initiatives through Public Private Partnerships or other levels of Government to fund construction of roads under the control of the Federal Government. That was why he waited until he was arm-twisted on the Lagos Airport road before he allowed the Lagos State Government take up the reconstruction, using private funds. Same thing happened to the proposal for the Apapa Wharf road, which was frustrated for over a year before the stakeholders reined in the Ministry to grudgingly approve that Dangote and Flour Mills should take over the project.

"It should also be explained that nobody introduced budgetary provisions for the sinking of boreholes and construction of clinics under the budget of the Works division of the Ministry. However, the Housing division would ordinarily have provision for such facilities in its estimate, so as to meet the Sustainable Development Goals as provided for by the United Nations . This is aimed at reducing slums and improve the well-being of our citizenry.

"The National Assembly already have an agreement with the Acting President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, that if for example, the Private Finance Initiative does not materialize to provide the needed funds for the completion of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, just as in other areas where government has issues with the budget, the instruments of Virement and supplementary budget can be used. This is as a result of our belief that it is one Government and we all share the gains of the successes and pains of the failure. However, with all these blackmail game and backbiting going on, they are already laying the foundation for the failure of the agreement with the Executive", he stated.

Abdullahi added that the National Assembly acted in the national interest to ensure equity and fairness is achieved in the distribution of projects and to ensure that all sections of the country have representation in the national budget as guaranteed by the Nigerian constitution.

Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi
Chairman,
Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs

http://newsnownigeria.com.ng/lagos-ibadan-expressway-lagos-state-minister-senate-lambast-fashola-press-statement/

10 Things You Should Know About The 2017 Budget Signed by Acting President Osinbajo (A Must Read)

1. The 2017 Budget Preparation process was a much more efficient process than the 2016 process. There was also less acrimony regarding it, between the Executive and Legislature.

2. The 2017 Budget was collated using — for the first time ever — a web-based application developed by the Budget Office of the Federation (BOF). Instead of the traditional method of hard copy submissions of budget proposals, Ministries, Departments and Agencies were asked to upload their proposals to the new budget preparation portal, resulting in a more efficient and transparent preparation process.

3. More than 4,000 staff of the MDAs were specially trained to use the new application, across multiple locations nationwide. To support the deployment of the budget portal, the Budget Office set up a Helpdesk, accessible by telephone and email, for authorised users.

4. President Buhari presented the 2017 Budget Speech to a Joint Session of the National Assembly on December 14, 2016.

5. The National Assembly passed the Budget on May 11, 2017, five months after it was submitted by President Buhari.

6. The next step, which should have been the signing of the Budget by the Executive, was delayed because of disagreements regarding some alterations the National Assembly made to the submitted document — for example the National Assembly reduced proposed budgets for a number of critical infrastructure projects (the standard gauge railway projects, the Mambilla Power Project, the Second Niger Bridge, the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway etc), and applied the difference to fund some new projects introduced by the legislators.

7. What followed were four weeks of painstaking engagement between Executive and Legislature, to resolve the differences.

8. The conclusion of the matter is that the funding deductions on those critical projects will all be restored during the course of the budget year. The leadership of the National Assembly has assured the Executive that this will be done.

9. The Executive and the National Assembly have reached an agreement to return the Federal Government to a January–December budget calendar, starting from the 2018 budget. To ensure this happens the Executive has committed to submitting the 2018 budget to the National Assembly by October 2017, and on its part the Assembly has committed to passing the budget into law before the end of 2017.

10. Budget Highlights:

a. Total expenditure of N7.44 trillion, comprising N5.08 trillion in revenues and a projected deficit of N2.36 trillion which will largely be financed by borrowing.

b. N2 trillion for capital expenditure (principally infrastructure).

c. More than N500 billion for investments in roads, and power and housing projects

d. N46 billion for Special Economic Zone Projects to be set up in each geopolitical zone.

http://newsnownigeria.com.ng/10-things-know-2017-budget-signed-acting-president-osinbajo-must-read/

Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar has declared Saturday May 27 as the first day of Ramadan following the sighting of the new moon in numerous places.

He said the moon was sighted in many places across the country and as such Muslims are expected to commence a month-long fasting as recommended by the Almighty Allah in the Holy Quran.

"I have the greatest pleasure to announce to you that today May 26, 2017 marked the end of Shaaban and therefore Saturday May 27, 2017 marks the beginning of Ramadan" he stated.

The Sultan added:“Reliable reports from Muslim leaders across the country show that the new moon of Ramadan has been sighted in various parts of the country. I urge you all to use the opportunity to offer prayers for peace and development of this country.”

He urged Muslims to use the period to pray for the success of the leadership of the country as well as peace and stability.

He urged them to maintain a harmonious relationship with one another irrespective of religion and tribal differences.

http://newsnownigeria.com.ng/breaking-sultan-declares-saturday-may-27-first-day-ramadan/

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This is another Wordfence public service announcement (PSA) that describes new WannaCry ransomware variants that have emerged in the past few hours and describes how to protect yourself against the WannaCry ransomware, also known as the WannaCrypt ransomware. We occasionally send out alerts that are outside the WordPress space when we feel that they are in the interests of our WordPress publishers and the broader global community. This is, unfortunately, one of those alerts.

How to protect yourself against WannaCry ransomwareOn Friday we alerted you to a global ransomware campaign a few hours after it started. That campaign has now infected over 10,000 organizations and 200,000 individuals in 150 countries. This includes the UK National Health System which saw ambulances divert from affected hospitals.

On Friday a researcher accidentally stopped the ransomware from spreading by registering a domain that served as a kill switch for the ransomware.

A few hours ago new variants of the WannaCry ransomware started emerging. One of the variants was also stopped today by registering a kill switch domain, the same way the ransomware was stopped on Friday. A second variant is not encrypting infected machines due to an error in programming, but it is spreading.

We expect new variants to emerge all week that continue to exploit the vulnerability in SMB that WannaCry has been using. It is critical that Windows users protect themselves immediately against this threat.
WannaCry Ransomware: How to protect yourself

If you use Windows, install the patch that Microsoft has released to block the specific exploit that the WannaCry ransomware is using. You can find instructions on this page in the Microsoft Knowledge Base. You can also directly download the patches for your OS from the Microsoft Update Catalog.
If you are using an unsupported version of Windows like Windows XP, Windows 2008 or Server 2003, you can get the patches for your unsupported OS from the Update Catalog. We do recommend that you update to a supported version of Windows as soon as possible.
Update your Antivirus software definitions. Most AV vendors have now added detection capability to block WannaCry.
If you don’t have anti-virus software enabled on your Windows machine, we recommend you enable Windows Defender which is free.
Backup regularly and make sure you have offline backups. That way, if you are infected with ransomware, it can’t encrypt your backups.
For further reading, Microsoft has released customer guidance for the WannaCry attacks and Troy Hunt has done an excellent detailed writeup on the WannaCry ransomware.

Get the word out

The second wave of attacks appears to have just started within the past few hours. This is going to be a rough week for Windows users. We recommend you get the word out by sharing this post to help keep friends and family secure.

http://newsnownigeria.com.ng/new-wannacry-ransomware-protect-must-read-webmasters/

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President Buhari is pleased to announce that negotiations to release more of the #ChibokGirls have yielded results.

Today, 82 more #ChibokGirls were released.

After lengthy negotiations, our security agencies have taken back these girls,in exchange for some BokoHaram suspects held by the authorities.

The released #ChibokGirls are due to arrive in Abuja tomorrow Sunday May 7, and will be received by the President.

President @MBuhari expresses his deep gratitude to all who played a part in ensuring the success of this operation, as follows:
Security agencies, the military, the Government of Switzerland, the International Committee of the Red Cross, & local and international NGOs.

The President has repeatedly expressed his total commitment towards ensuring the safe return of the #ChibokGirls , and all other BH captives.

The President has received detailed briefings from the DG of the Dept of State Services (DSS) at every stage of the negotiations/operation.

https://newsnownigeria.com.ng/update-presidency-confirms-release-of-82-chibok-girls-read-press-release/

Excerpts from chapter one of Facts Versus Fiction: (The True Story of Jonathan Years, Chibok, 2015 and The Conspiracies)

This is not the full chapter. It is an excerpt. It will be continued tomorrow and on subsequent days until the chapter is concluded. Facts Versus Fiction: (The True Story of Jonathan Years, Chibok, 2015 and The Conspiracies) by Reno Omokri will be released on the second week of July 2017.

Chapter 1 – THE CONSPIRACY TO REMOVE JONATHAN

The recent revelations from Segun Adeniyi's book, Against the Run of Play: How an incumbent president was defeated in Nigeria, have promoted reactions and counter reactions to some of the more astounding accounts detailed in that book.
Former President Jonathan in his interview with Segun Adeniyi, gave some detail of a conspiracy to remove him from office due to patriotic policies and actions he undertook which might have set him at variance with foreign powers.

Amongst other things, Adeniyi quotes Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as saying "I got on very well with Prime Minister David Cameron but at some point, I noticed that the Americans were putting pressure on him and he had to join them against me. But I didn’t know how far President Obama was prepared to go to remove me until France caved into the pressure from America.”

Since these revelations came to light, a former Governor of Niger state, Mr. Babangida Aliyu has also been quoted making comments in Segun Adeniyi's book that corroborate the statements by Dr. Jonathan.

According to Mr. Aliyu, the Obama administration had invited twelve governors from Northern Nigeria to sound them out on their commitment to the plot to unseat Dr. Jonathan.

Mr. Aliyu is quoted in Segun Adeniyi's book as saying "I have no proof of course, but I think the idea was to ascertain what the disposition of the north would be to the idea of another term for President Jonathan. That was my reading of the situation. I believe it was all about the 2015 election for which the Americans had resolved not to support Jonathan. They just wanted to size us up for the level of commitment to regime change.”

Mr. Aliyu was referring to a series of meetings that twelve Northern governors had in the U.S. in March 2014.

Why did the Obama administration organize those meetings? What occurred at those meetings? Who said what, where, when and why? The answer to those questions will help throw light on whether or not there was a conspiracy by the Obama administration (not the United States) to remove then President Jonathan from office.

I tracked down Mr. Matthew T. Page who until his resignation in 2016 was the U.S. State Department's top intelligence analyst on Nigeria. Matthew Page also served as Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Africa with the National Intelligence Council. He sat in on each of the meetings the twelve Northern Nigerian governors attended, beginning from their meetings at the United States Institute for Peace and thereafter their meetings at the State Department.

In 2016, Mr. Page left the State Department and moved to Cambridge in the United Kingdom from where he spoke to me. He was adamant that Mr. Babangida Aliyu’s version of the events at those meetings where not accurate and was keen to set the records straight.

According to Mr. Page, the meetings were attended by twelve Northern governors of whom the most vocal was the then governor of Adamawa state, Admiral Murtala Nyako. Others at the meetings who voiced anti Jonathan sentiments were then Kano governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Aliyu Wammako of Sokoto and Kashim Shettima of Borno. The then governors of Kwara and Kogi were in attendance but were non-committal.

Mr. Page noted that the meetings at the United States Institute for Peace were innocuous but that when the governors proceeded to the closed-door sessions at the US State Department, things changed.

According to Mr. Page, present at the State Department meetings were Ambassador Linda Thomas Greenfield who was then the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs in the Department of State's Bureau of African Affairs. Also present at the meeting was the then number three man at the State Department, Ambassador Thomas Alfred "Tom" Shannon Jr., acting Deputy Secretary of State of the United States and the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs.

At that meeting, Admiral Murtala Nyako read out a memo he had written itemizing the case against Jonathan. He was so openly and almost violently against the Jonathan administration in his speech that he had to be openly rebuked at the meeting by the then Nigerian ambassador to the US, Ambassador Adebowale Adefuye of blessed memory.

Admiral Nyako's belligerence against the Jonathan administration was so venomous that it prompted a rebuttal from the Gombe state governor, Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, who showed loyalty to the then Nigerian President. According to Mr. Page, this prompted most of the other Northern governors present to turn on him.

In my interview with him, Mr. Page revealed to me that after the anti Jonathan tirades by these governors, they were shepherded to the White House on March 18, 2014 for more meetings. Even though Mr. Page attended the reception at the White House for the Northern governors, he did not make me privy to who were at that particular meeting other than stating that the governors met with then National Security Adviser, Susan Rice. Ms. Rice is however a known Nigerian specialist and was the person who on July 7, 1998, allegedly made the tea that the presumed winner of the June 12, 1993 Nigerian Presidential election, chief MKO Abiola, drank minutes before passing away after reportedly foaming at the mouth.

After the meeting, the Obama White House released a statement which said, amongst other things;

“Rice and the governors discussed the need to bring an end to the violence and insurgency in northern Nigeria; create broad-based economic opportunity in the north and throughout Nigeria; protect and respect human rights; strengthen democratic governance; and ensure that the 2015 election in Nigeria are free and fair.”

What the White House statement did not say, but which I verified from other sources, was that at that meeting, Admiral Nyako accused then President Jonathan of being behind Boko Haram, the Islamic terrorist group that is behind the insurgency in Nigeria’s Northeast (the same accusation was publicly made by Nasir El-rufai in 2014. El-rufai was one of a handful of All Progressive Congress party officials that related directly with David Axelrod’s firm as AKPD Message and Media prepared the APC for the 2015 elections).

One question arises though. When sub national officials from a nation that is friendly to the United States espouse comments that undermine the President of that friendly nation, why would such persons be honored with very high level meetings that stretched from the State Department to the White House?

When I asked Mr. Page if he thought that the Obama administration was opposed to the re-election of the then Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan, he paused and said “my objective opinion is that it was not as if the administration was against Jonathan. There were a few issues. The Obama administration was a bit disappointed (I know that sounds paternalistic) but there were some issues they felt let down on, and you have to remember that the Obama administration supported the transfer of power to Jonathan in 2010. The issues were the human rights situation in the Northeast which has still not changed under Buhari and Diezani Alison-Madueke who they felt should have been removed. Washington also took issue with some clauses in the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Bill 2013, even though they understood that Nigerian cultural values were more conservative on the issue than American ones".

Mr. Page continuing said “the U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria at the time was actually anti-Buhari, believing he failed to call his followers to order during the post-election violence of 2011.”

Although he listed three reasons why the Obama administration felt let down on by Dr. Jonathan, my conversation with Mr. Page gave me a sense that the first two reasons were just excuses and that the main reason was because of the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Bill 2013.

That issue was a deal breaker for the Obama administration because of the strong support they had from the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgender) community for Mr Obama’s re-election campaign of 2012.

Per the New York Times, the gay vote was “crucial” to Obama’s re-election, whereas to CNN, the LGBT community not only made the difference in 2012 by trooping out to vote for Obama, they were also his top donors.

In Tracy Baim’s book, Obama and the Gays: A Political Marriage, she details the influence that the former American President wields with the LGBT community. Very few voting blocs have the get out the vote power that the LGBT community has, being that they are great at organizing for the purpose of advancing their agenda.

To be continued tomorrow.

http://newsnownigeria.com.ng/ex-president-goodluck-jonathan-releases-memoir-titled-facts-vs-fiction-read-chapter-1/