A group, the Taraba Mandate Group has told the National Chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC), John Oyegun, that his argument that APC has lost Taraba state to Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was in bad faith, saying that APC could not have lost what it did not have in the first place.
The Group was racting to a recent CHANNELS TV interview by Oyegun in which he said the APC has lost Taraba state alongside others to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Oyegun was quoted as lamenting the loss of the APC at the courts in the flurry of recent verdicts that saw the opposition losing some states. In a statement today by its Public Relations Officer (PRO), Gani Bako, the Taraba Mandate Group said that Oyegun was not been honest about the political reality in the state.
The statement reads in part: “how can he (Oyegun) says that APC lost Taraba when the APC never got the state in the first place? Oyegun is giving the impression that the APC even had a good showing in Taraba at the polls or even won. Yes, APC lost Taraba but not in the way Oyegun is saying it. APC lost because it was never on ground in Taraba in the first place and the party’s governorship ambition came in dead on arrival. APC had no structure or support base to win any major poll.”
The group added that Taraba has continued to remain a PDP state throughout its association with the former ruling party.
It said that any cursory look at the state showed that historically, culturally and by sociological inclination, Taraba is PDP.
“And our commitment to the party is not like a case of fair weather friends. We can’t stop being PDP now because of some spurious wind of change. So APC claiming to lose the state in the way Oyegun puts it is deception. APC, we repeat did not win, couldn’t have won Taraba in any major polls. At the governorship election, we can grudgingly concede that it did well in four or five local government areas which are traditionally opposition sites in the state. But beyond that, PDP did tremendously well in all the other eleven local government areas. In fact, today, both at the state and national assemblies, PDP has produced a majority of members.” [myad]
Information reaching us in Greenbarge Reporters has indicated the entry of Lassa fever into Kuje, one of the Area Councils in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
Investigation by our team of reporters showed how some medical doctors treated the case of a middle age man who reported at the Kuje General Hospital with suspected case of Lassa fever.
It was found out that the victim who came from Nasarawa state has been referred to another hospital even as the head of the hospital removed the medical history of the suspected victim from his file.
Efforts by our reporters to get the Medical Director of the hospital to speak on the incident was unsuccessful as she was said to have gone out of the premises at the time the Greenbarge Reporters’ team arrived.
Other medical staff in the hospital struggled to keep their distance from our reporters.
This is even as the Lassa fever is confirmed to have killed no fewer than 101 people in Nigeria over a time span of six months since the outbreak was first reported.
According to the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) in a statement today, cases of the hemorrhagic disease, both confirmed and suspected, stood at 175 with a total of 101 deaths.
The NCDC said that as of today: “19 states, including Abuja, are currently following up contacts, or have suspected cases with laboratory results pending or laboratory confirmed cases.”
Health authorities say the virus is under control, but that there are fears that the actual scale of the outbreak is under-reported.
Large quantities of drugs, including Ribavirin tablets, and bottles of hand sanitizers have been distributed across the country to stop the spread of the deadly virus.
The epidemic was first reported in January, but the first case of the disease occurred in August 2015.
Last year, 12 people died in Nigeria out of 375 infected, while in 2012 there were 1,723 cases and 112 deaths, according to the NCDC.
In neighboring Benin, at least nine people have died of Lassa, with a total of 20 suspected cases, health authorities said February 2. [myad]
The United States of America astronaut, Edgar Mitchell, one of just 12 people to have walked on the Moon, has died aged 85.
His family and NASA said that he died in Florida after a brief illness late Thursday at the eve of the 45th anniversary of his lunar landing.
NASA which described Mitchell as a “pioneer,” paid glowing tribute to him.
The late astronaut was a member of the 1971 Apollo 14 mission along with Alan Shepard Jr. and Stuart Roosa. Mitchell was the last Apollo 14 survivor: Roosa died in 1994 and Shepard in 1998.
Speaking in a 1997 interview for NASA’s oral history program, Mitchell said that he was drawn to spaceflight after President John F. Kennedy’s call to send astronauts to the Moon.
“That’s what I wanted because it was the bear going over the mountain to see what he could see, and what could you learn, and I’ve been devoted to that, to exploration, education and discovery since my earliest years, and that’s what kept me going,” Mitchell said.
NASA Administrator, Charles Bolden recalled Mitchell marveling at the stunning view of Earth from space.
“Edgar spoke poetically about seeing our home planet from the Moon saying, ‘Suddenly, from behind the rim of the Moon, in long, slow-motion moments of immense majesty, there emerges a sparkling blue and white jewel, a light, delicate sky-blue sphere laced with slowly swirling veils of white, rising gradually like a small pearl in a thick sea of black mystery.
“‘It takes more than a moment to fully realize this is Earth… home.’”
Bolden added: “He is one of the pioneers in space exploration on whose shoulders we now stand.”
Buzz Aldrin, the second person on the Moon, echoed that on Twitter, calling Mitchell a “lunar pioneer.”
The Apollo 14 mission — Mitchell’s only spaceflight — began when the trio blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 31, 1971.
Mitchell was in charge of piloting the Antares lunar module, which landed in the Fra Mauro region of the Moon.
It was the third manned mission to the Moon and Mitchell became the sixth human to walk on the lunar surface.
During the mission, the astronauts collected 100 pounds (40 kilos) of lunar rock samples and carried out a series of experiments.
The mission ended when the astronauts, traveling aboard a space capsule, splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on February 9, 1971.
In 1972, Mitchell retired from NASA and the following year he founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences, dedicated to the study of consciousness and paranormal phenomena.
He said he believed that extra-terrestrial unidentified flying objects (UFOs) had visited the Earth, but acknowledged that he had never seen one.
Mitchell was the author of several books, including his 1996 memoir, “The Way of the Explorer.”
Two daughters, three adopted sons and nine grandchildren are among family who survive him.
The family told The Palm Beach Post newspaper that Mitchell died at a West Palm Beach hospital after a short illness. [myad]
Wife of Edo State Governor, Iara Oshiomhole, has described as ‘most wicked and malicious’ rumors making the rounds, especially on social media that she filed for divorce from Governor Adams Oshiomhole.
Former Miss Iara Fortes, a Cape Verdean, got married to Oshiomhole, a widower, last year May at a private marriage registry at Iyamho, Etsako West LGA of Edo State.
Less than one year into the marriage, rumors surfaced online this week that Lara had filed for divorce from the governor on claims that he is fetish and diabolic.
She was also alleged to have accused her husband of being responsible for the death of his former wife, Mrs. Clara Oshiomhle, who died in 2010, after a protracted battle with chest cancer.
Reacting to the unconfirmed reports, Lara said she is currently enjoying her marriage and that there was no reason to divorce her husband.
In a statement signed by Executive Director, Media and Public Affairs, Governor’s Office, John Mayaki, the governor’s wife said that she was in her office throughout the week holding meetings and brainstorming on how to better the lots of the less-privileged women and children in the state through her pet project: “We Care Trust.”
Mrs. Oshiomhole added that she followed her husband on project inspection to the World-Class Central Hospital, Erosion Control sites, Road Construction sites as well as visited four Orphanage homes in Benin metropolis, in demonstration of her milk of kindness, drawing from the support of her husband.
“We Care Trust,” Mrs. Lara Oshiomhole’s pet project is embarking on training of Edo Youths under a programmed christened “Project Focus”.
“This is part of her efforts to uplift the socio-economic life of Edo people just as details of this event would soon be made public”, the statement said.
Mayaki, however, advised those he called rumor mongers “to engage in more productive engagements to deploy their energies rather than market inanities about public personalities all in their bid to sell their medium”.
“Which Court of Law was the alleged divorce initiated and to whom was it served? Which country, state, municipal or county, if any, is the Court situated? And when was the action/suit filed? Of course the writers didn’t bother to inform their readers. The truth however is that the answers only exist in the warped imagination of the purveyors of the lies.” [myad]
A former President of the Nigerian Senate, Ken Nnamani, has announced his resignation from the Peoples Democratic Party, a political platform to which belonged since 1999, and which, in 2005, made him the third most powerful man in Nigeria.
In a statement today, Nnamani said he was quitting the party because the platform had abandoned “the path of its noble vision and values.” This is even as he recalled that the virus of corruption of values and mission was what his colleagues and him set out to cure through the formation of the PDP Reform Forum in 2010/11.
“We worked hard to draw up a new direction for the Party,”Nnamani who was elected as Senate President in 2003, and was senate president between 2005 and 2007 said.
In his statement today, entitled: “PDP, the Burden and My Conscience,” the politician said he was fed up with the current status and direction of the PDP, and was therefore quitting “without any iota of bitterness” in his heart.
“I do not believe I should continue to be a member of the PDP as it is defined today,” Nnamani said, and added: “this is certainly not the party I joined years ago to help change my country. I do not also believe that the PDP as it is managed today will provide an opportunity for me to continue to play the politics of principles and values which I set for myself as a young man on leaving graduate school and working for a large multinational in the United States in the 70s and 80s.
“Therefore, today I resign my membership of the PDP. In stepping out of partisan politics for the meantime, I will continue to be politically engaged. I will also continue to support the government and all the elected officers in Nigeria to repositioning the nation.
“I will also constructively criticize them when by commission or omission they take actions that could damage the prospects of transforming Nigeria into a productive, merit-based and honestly governed country.”
We reproduced here, the full text of Nnamani’s statement
PDP, the Burden and My Conscience
Without any iota of bitterness in my heart, I have decided to disengage from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and consequently step aside from partisan politics in the interim. I wish to express my profound gratitude to the party that gave me the platform with which I attained the height I did in the politics of our country.
How I wish the efforts I mounted with some of my colleagues (many of whom have left the party) to keep the PDP on the path of its noble vision and values had been supported by those who were privileged to be at the helm of affairs of the party, it would have been a different day for the PDP. It would have been a day of victory and pride not of defeat and shame.
I recall that the virus of corruption of values and mission was what those my colleagues and I set out to cure through the formation of the PDP Reform Forum in 2010/11. We worked hard to draw up a new direction for the Party.
This was to help steer the party away from illegality and impropriety so that PDP can fulfill its promise of being a vanguard of Nigeria’s political and economic development. A direction defined by strict adherence to basic rules and morality in the management of party affairs. Chief of these values is respect for choice of party members in electing party candidates for elections.
With more than half a decade of championing such a fundamental but simple idea, I regret that the PDP leadership continues to rebuff internal democracy. The party allowed itself to be blinded by hubris to believe that it will remain in power and influence for 60 years in spite of several gross missteps and grievous misnomer. We foresaw this ditch and prescribed how to avert falling into it. But we were dismissed as idealistic. Today the idealists have become realists.
Recently, even after our avoidable abysmal electoral defeat, I continued to believe that we can still chart a new course and retrieve victory from the jaw of defeat. I continued to urge the leadership of the party to believe that the time of defeat could be the time of renewal, and that renewal requires strategic thinking and bold actions.
I urged that this is a time to reembrace internal democracy and principled leadership to reposition the party for new politics. We are living in different times and we need new tools, ethos and codes of conduct. We need to become a party of technocrats and professionals and not a party of mercenaries and rent seekers.
We need to become the party of young men and women with new ideas and not a party of political dinosaurs. It is clear now that these pleas have fallen on deaf ears. Every day the crisis of confidence and the contradictions in our party deepen. We continue to lose members and morale. The rebuilding some of us had urged on the leadership is not happening. Those who led us to defeat are determined to continue to lead the party as undertakers.
I do not believe I should continue to be a member of the PDP as it is defined today. This is certainly not the party I joined years ago to help change my country. I do not also believe that the PDP as it is managed today will provide an opportunity for me to continue to play the politics of principles and values which I set for myself as a young man on leaving graduate school and working for a large multinational in the United States in the 70s and 80s.
Therefore, today I resign my membership of the PDP. In stepping out of partisan politics for the meantime, I will continue to be politically engaged. I will also continue to support the government and all the elected officers in Nigeria to repositioning the nation. I will also constructively criticize them when by commission or omission they take actions that could damage the prospects of transforming Nigeria into a productive, merit-based and honestly governed country.
As I leave PDP, I wish the leaders a new awakening and ethical revival. I cherish all the friends I made while in PDP and hope the friendship will continue to flourish.
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Muhammad Musa Bello has promised to give special award to any of the six area councils which is adjudged to maintain cleanest environment.
The who spoke today at the flagging-off exercise of the Household and Community Sanitation exercise in Kwali, the headquarters of the Kwali Area Council of the FCT said that his Administration has considered the policy of reward and punishment for environmental sanitation as a way of encouraging the residents to clean their immediate environment.
Muhammad Bello said that the chairman of the cleanest Area Council at the end of the year, would not only be recognized but enjoy certain privileges even at the national level through representing the territory.
The Minister reiterated that the issues of improved personal hygiene and removal of environmental nuisances in the Area Councils and Satellite Towns in the Federal Capital Territory, is on the front burner of the current FCT Administration.
He said that the need to go back to the old ways of keeping the environment clean necessitated the introduction of the FCT Household and Community Sanitation Exercise, even as he called on the Council Chairmen, Traditional Rulers and community leaders to key in.
He also promised that the traditional ruler in whose domain is the cleanest Area Council would also be adequately rewarded, giving assurance that the FCT Administration would support the Area Councils financially and with quality policies to drive this laudable programme.
“It is our duty individually and collectively to safeguard and maintain our environment because nobody can do it better than us.”
Muhammad Bello used the occasion to call on all the residents of the Federal Capital Territory to imbibe the Change Agenda of the Federal Government, by changing their attitude as political, traditional, community, religious leaders, civil servants and citizens.
The Minister noted that the community-based approach to environmental sanitation would lead to a more realistic and sustainable effort in maintaining the environment.
Chairman of Kwali Area Council, Mr. Ibrahim Daniel commended the Minister for introducing the Household and Community Sanitation exercise, saying that it would go a ong way in reducing incidences of avoidable diseases in the Territory.
He called on the FCT Administration to complete the Kwaita road under construction since 2004 as well as the Kwali Township roads.
The FCT Permanent Secretary, Dr. Babatope Ajakaiye, the Executive Secretary of the FCDA, Engineer Adamu Ismaila, several directors of the FCT Administration and all the four graded traditional rulers in the Kwali Area Council led by the Etsu Kwali also attended the flag-off ceremony. [myad]
President Muhammadu Buhari has said that there is no evidence before his government to prosecute the immediate past Minister of Petroleum Resources, Deizani Alison-Madueke and other petroleum workers.
In an exclusive interview with Peter Okwoche of the BBC, President Buhari was quoted as saying “to prosecute corruption successfully we need evidence. That’s not easy especially in petroleum sector.”
The President had earlier came smoking with anger that his government would prosecute all those who dipped their hand into the nation’s wealth for private use and among those brandished and suspected to be prosecuted is the immediate past petroleum Minister.
In the search for evidence, the President seems to have been convinced that there was no form of evidence privy to his government against Mrs. Madueke and as such vindicated her from diverse alleged corrupt malpractices leveled against her by Nigerians.
Meanwhile, Diezani had earlier debunked the report that she is seeking asylum in some foreign countries in order to avoid been probed, saying that the consistent malicious and libelous attacks on her person was due to the reforms she brought to the oil and gas sector which was not favorable to some cabals in the country.
“Let me state it clearly for the records that Nigeria is my country and am not going anywhere. I love my country and I do think that I have done the best for my country.
“For everything that has a beginning there is an end and that is not a surprise. What is the surprise is the sort of malevolence bordering on personal malicious libel to my person during this period of time.
“I do believe that I have done the best for Nigeria in this job and I have attained many firsts in the history of oil and gas, especially in the reforms that we have done. In this period of time, I have stepped on many big toes, particularly the feet of the cabal in the industry when we came in.
“I have said severally that we will open up the industry to all Nigerians and we have, but that is not to the pleasure of certain cabal. And I have been continuously maligned because of this and we have taken millions and in fact, billions of dollars out of the hands of multinationals and their sub-contractors and put them in the hands of Nigerians through Nigerian content.
“Hundreds of thousands of Nigerians have come into the oil and gas industry because of our reforms.” [myad]
As dwindling oil prices take their toll on oil industry operations, Royal Dutch Shell has announced that it will sack 10,000 workers from its global staff strength this year.
It also announced in its fourth quarter of 2015 financial report that it would defer its final investment decision (FID) on the Bonga South-west deepwater project in Nigeria, saying that its operating costs and capital investments had been reduced by $12.5 billion with further reductions expected in 2016.
Shell’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr. Ben Van Beurden, made the announcement on the cost-cutting measures in a webcast presentation with analysts. A transcript of the presentation was released yesterday in Abuja.
“The completion of the BG transaction, which we are expecting in a matter of weeks, marks the start of a new chapter in Shell, rejuvenating the company, and improving shareholder returns.
“We are making substantial changes in the company, reorganising our upstream, and reducing costs and capital investment, as we refocus Shell, and respond to lower oil prices.
“As we have previously indicated, this will include a reduction of some 10,000 staff and direct contractor positions in 2015-16 across both companies,” said Van Beurden.
He went on to state: “In 2015, we significantly curtailed spending by reducing the number of new investment decisions and designing lower-cost development solutions.”
In 2016, he said Shell had exited the Bab sour gas project in Abu Dhabi, and was postponing final investment decisions on LNG Canada and the Bonga South-west in deepwater Nigeria.
“Operating costs and capital investment have been reduced by a total of $12.5 billion as compared to 2014, and we expect further reductions in 2016,” he added.
Van Beurden explained that as a result of Shell’s actions in 2015, the company retained a strong balance sheet position, with 14 per cent gearing.
According to him: “Shell will take further impactful decisions to manage through the oil price downturn, should conditions warrant that. Shell’s dividends for 2015 were $1.88 per share, and are expected to be at least $1.88 per share in 2016, as previously announced.” [myad]
President Muhammadu Buhari has disclosed that his government had as at January this year succeeded in mopping up over N2.2 trillion through the Treasury Single Account (TSA) arrangement. President Buhari spoke in London while addressing members of the Nigerian community in the United Kingdom, admitted that though the TSA was introduced by the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, but that it did not implement it for reasons best known to its officials. He said that his government decided to implement the arrangement when he came on board and discovered that the country was broke. “You know the condition we are in now. I am sure with demands from home, in spite of what your effort is, you know we are really in trouble. “We have tried to impose what we call Treasury Single Account. The reason is simple. This government did not initiate it. It was initiated by the previous government. But it was so unpopular to the bureaucracy, so the previous government for its own reasons, could not impose it. “But when we came and we found out that we were broke, we said this is the way to do it. “I will tell you two examples to convince you. Firstly, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation had more than 45 accounts. Ministry of Defence had more than 70 accounts. Tell me which Accountant-General can trace all these accounts? “So, we imposed TSA. By the end of December, coming to January 2016, we mopped up more than N2.2 trillion which would have been used through bureaucratic system to raise vouchers and sign cheques so that they don’t go into the next budget.” The President said Nigeria owed the United States and Britain a lot of appreciation for stopping the former administration from rigging the last presidential election. He recalled that ahead of the elections, the former National Security Adviser (NSA), retired Colonel Sambo Dasuki , directed the service chiefs and the then Inspector-General of Police to tell officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that they could not guarantee their safety during the polls. He said the then Chairman of INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega, however, gave a comprehensive report at a meeting of the National Council of State, where he said he would be able to deliver, at least, 60 per cent free and fair election. The President said that as of that time, the country had never gone beyond 45 per cent, adding that it took the intervention of US Secretary of State, John Kerry, for the last administration to conduct credible election. “Then we insisted that election must be done according to the constitution. At this point again, I must hasten to thank the United States for sending the Secretary of State, Kerry, to go and read the riot act to the previous government and speak to Prof. Jega, the Chairman of INEC and speak to us as opposition that the US would not tolerate any election outside the Nigerian constitution. “They maintained the pressure from that date until after the election and the formation of the new government. I think Nigerians honestly should thank the US for this. The same thing with Britain, they used all their experience and their powers to make sure that the Federal Government did not rig the last election. “We thank God, we thank these super powers and we thank technology. Why we thank technology is because of the permanent voter cards and the card readers.” [myad]
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has expressed joy that Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lost power at the centre in the last year’s general elections.
Obasanjo, who spoke yesterday at an event organized by the Staff Club of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, said that it was better for Nigerians that PDP lost the last presidential election, adding that with someone like Jonathan at the helm of affairs, it was better the party lost. “Power is still the same way I left it in 2007. Railway is the same way and other sectors. “It was best that PDP stopped ruling us. It was a thing of joy to me that the earlier declaration of 50 years governance for PDP did not come to pass.”
The former President blamed Jonathan for the plight of the over 200 female students of the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok in Borno state who were abducted by members of Boko Haram in April 2014 to forget about ever finding them.
“The former President (Jonathan), heard about the kidnap of the girls by 8.00 in the morning of the abduction, but failed to act until 72 hours later and by then it was too late.” Obasanjo made it clear that there is no way the girls could be brought back after spending almost two years with their abductors, saying: “anyone saying they will return is telling lies. May be some of them will return to tell their story.” [myad]
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A group, the Taraba Mandate Group has told the National Chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC), John Oyegun, that his argument that APC has lost Taraba state to Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was in bad faith, saying that APC could not have lost what it did not have in the first place.
