The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, on Friday, opened up on events that led to the emergence of Atiku Abubakar as the Peoples Democratic Presidential candidate during the PDP primaries.
The PUNCH reports that Wike, who lost the presidential ticket to Atiku in the May primaries, has so far refused to be swayed by entreaties to work with Ayu.
He said if not for the love he and others in his camp had for the main opposition party, they could have prevented the PDP convention from holding.
Wike, who revealed this in an ongoing media parley, alleged that the PDP’s National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, played a vital role that was detrimental to other aspirants in the emergence of Atiku as PDP flagbearer.
The governor alleged that Ayu called several presidential aspirants to step down for the former vice president during the convention.
“He was calling aspirants to withdraw for Atiku. I was there, Saraki and others were there.
“He manipulated the delegates. There was nothing Ayu did not do to ensure Wike didn’t emerge,” Wike said.
The governor added, “Meetings upon meetings were going. Pressures were being mounted on people to step down.
“Even on the night of the convention meetings were going on. That is why we started our convention late.
“Some of the retired generals were involved. Some of the meetings were held in their houses. There is nothing they didn’t do for me to step down.
“Those who know me, know that I would have stopped the convention, even if heaven falls.”
The PUNCH reports Wike camp announced their plan not to participate in the campaign council which was scheduled for inauguration next Wednesday after a meeting at Wike’s private residence in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Wednesday morning.
Reacting to the withdrawal from his campaign council on Wednesday, Atiku in a statement he personally signed reiterated his decision not to interfere in the demands for Ayu’s removal.
kokoA: Somebody that doesn't listen to his own wife, na your own he wan hear? The truth is that Buhari isn't aware of so many things going wrong in Nigeria maybe due to age or ill health, the cabal took advantage of this. He'd have many regrets after may 29th 2023.
The Unification Church in Japan pledged Thursday to prevent followers from making “excessive” donations, after criticism of its practices following the assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe.
Abe’s alleged assassin is believed to have resented the sect over massive donations his mother made to the church, leaving his family bankrupt.
He reportedly targeted Abe believing he was linked to the church, whose followers are sometimes known colloquially as “Moonies”.
The group has denied any wrongdoing and disavowed Abe’s murder, but church executive Hideyuki Teshigawara said it would now “take into consideration the financial situation of followers and ensure that donations are not excessive”.
The church will “respect the independence and free will of followers” on donations, Teshigawara, who heads the group’s new reform committee, told reporters.
The group says it took measures to regulate donations in 2009, but will now bolster them.
The announcement comes after a wave of accusations about the church’s practices, including from former members who say they were pressured into making enormous donations under the guise of “spiritual sales”.
The mother of the man accused of killing Abe donated around 100 million yen (then around $1 million) to the church, according to a relative.
Japan’s National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales says it has filed suits seeking 123.7 billion yen ($850 million) in damages for former followers since 1987.
The church, however, says just four civil lawsuits were filed since 2009 and they have all been settled, for a total of 38 million yen.
Experts say Japan serves as a financial hub for the church, which is known officially as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification and was founded by Sun Myung Moon in Korea in 1954.
Japanese believers are taught that they need to atone for their country’s wartime occupation of Korea, in part through hefty donations, according to former members and experts.
Teshigawara said the church would review the use of money raised in Japan for missionary work overseas and would look to use the funds to support domestic efforts instead.
Anyone found violating the church’s policies would be “strictly punished”, he added.
The reforms are unlikely to dissipate the widening controversy over the church, particularly after the revelation that it had links with around half the ruling party’s lawmakers.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who has seen his government’s approval ratings slip over the issue, has pledged his party will cut ties with the church.
He faces additional controversy over a planned state funeral for Abe on September 27, with polls showing more than half of Japanese people oppose the event.
Racoon: Correction: "All is not well with Nigeria under the disastrous President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC govt. How can a party that has kept our youths, the students, at home for more than half a year get votes from the same people, who have been denied their right to education, the same group of Nigerians, who have no jobs, people who are pauperised, how can they vote for the APC?
“How can the youths, whose parents and relatives, have been killed by terrorists and bandits, who have been displaced, give their votes again to failed promises? This is simply impossible.”
Following the decision of Governor Nyesom Wike’s camp to pull out of the campaign council of the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, the former Vice President has said that he cannot force Dr Iyorchia Ayu to resign as the party National Chairman.
Daily Independent had earlier reported that the group loyal to Rivers State Governor after a marathon meeting held in Wike’s residence in Port-Harcourt resolved to pull out of Atiku’s campaign if Ayu do not resign as the party chair.
Reacting to the development, Atiku in a statement titled, “On the calls for the resignation or removal from office of our national chairman” said that Senator Ayu can resign from office on a personal ground, not by anyone’s decision..
He said, “On the calls for the resignation or removal from office of our national chairman, however, I must reiterate what I have said severally in public and in private; the decision for Dr Iyorchia Ayu to resign from office is personal to Dr Ayu and, neither I nor anyone else can make that decision for him.”
Gistsme1: Nigerians Reacts to a video shared online captioning the moment a Young man was crying and rollibg in mud water after being dumped by his girlfriend
Roll more bro. You reach to cry. Breakfast no be small thing.
Lastma officer stops man from boarding a bus because he looks like a yahoo boy.
The man identified as Ibrahim Koletowo recounted how lastma officers stopped him from boarding a bus on his way to work.
According to a post on the victim's twitter account, he said he was about boarding a bus from berger Iyana Oworo when a lastma officer (Mr. Bakare) accused him of looking like a yahoo boy because of the way he dressed. The officer equally ordered the driver not to move the vehicle or he will arrest the driver too
LASTMA will deny that man and say he is an impostor! So LASTMA now arrest yahoo boys!
Dsalvo: Maybe so but we have not managed that diversity well at all as others have done worldwide.
Instead we have used it to impede each other's progress to turn Nigeria into a 'crab in a bucket' nation. Our own diversity is used to frustrate, cheat and undermine each other's. It is totally fraudulent.
If the sultan of Sokoto and other prominent Northerners are sincere then let them join us agitating for what is shown below.
You cannot just continue producing rhetoric about “Let us continue to talk to one another, let us not get tired of talking to one another” while people die and suffer needlessly.
Everybody is now sure there is problem and Buhari is just more of it!
iwaeda: A youth group under the aegis of Presidential Support Council, has rejected the appointment of Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, as the National Youth Coordinator of the All Progressives Congress presidential campaign council for the 2023 general election.
The APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu had approved the Bello’s appointment to lead youths of the party into the presidential campaigns which is expected to kick off September 28, 2022.
Speaking during a press conference in Lafia on Monday, the national leader of the group, Kassim Muhammad, said they were not in support of the appointment because it was to be given to a person not more than 40 years of age.
The group then urged the Kogi State governor to openly reject the offer in order to pave way for youths of the party to also contribute their quota to the presidential campaign council.
He added that Governor Bello, who was a presidential aspirant in the recently conducted primary election of the party, should rather be given a higher role to play in the campaign council instead of occupying the Youth Coordinator position.
Muhammad, a former member of the Nasarawa State House of Assembly said, “There are capable youths within the party who have the capacity and capability to handle that position in the Presidential Campaign Council, and that would have given Nigerian youths a better hope in the incoming APC administration under Bola Tinubu.
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“We recognise the antecedents of Bola Ahmed Tinubu to grow and develop youths. He has done well to several youths across the country who are today great men and women, and doing well in their various endeavours.
“But appointing a serving governor into a position that should be occupied by a youth is unacceptable. Governor Yahaya Bello is too big for such a role, so the appointment should be reconsidered.
“The party and its presidential candidate should give the youths an assurance that the incoming government will be that of inclusivity, and the only way to do that is to ensure that a youth is given the National Youth Coordinator position.
“Nigeria’s latest population estimate stood at 198 million, and half of the population is made up of the youths between ages 15-40. So the youths should be given top priority by any leadership in the country for inclusivity.
“We have over 300 youth groups under the Presidential Support Council, and we have all decided that we are not in support of Governor Yahaya Bello to lead the youths into the APC presidential campaigns for the 2023 general election.”
The Debt Management Office has disclosed that Nigeria’s total public debt stock has increased from N41.60tn as of March 2022 to N42.84tn as of June of the same year, showing an increase of N1.24tn in three months.
This is according to a press statement published on the DMO’s website on Monday.
The statement read in part, “The Total Public Debt Stock, representing the Domestic and External Debt Stocks of the Federal Government of Nigeria, the 36 State Governments and the Federal Capital Territory, was N42.84tn ($103.31bn) as of June 30, 2022. The comparative figures for March 30, 2022, was N41.60tn ($100.07bn).”
The DMO noted that external debt remained the same at N16.61tn ($40.06bn) from Q1 to Q2 2022, adding that 58 per cent of external debts were concessional and semi-concessional loans from multilateral lenders such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, Afrexim and African Development Bank and bilateral lenders including Germany, China, Japan, India and France.
It also noted that domestic debt rose to N26.23tn ($63.24bn) due to new borrowings by the government to part-finance the deficit in 2022 Appropriation {Repeal and Enactment) Act, as well as new borrowings by State Governments and the FCT.
The DMO further said that the Total Public Debt to GDP as of June 30, 2022, was 23.06 per cent compared to the ratio of 23.27 per cent as of March 36, 2022, adding that the Debt Service-to-Revenue Patio remained high.