The Independent National Electoral Commission (APC) has presented Alhaji Yahaya Bello of the All Progressives Congress (APC) with the certificate of return as the duly elected governor of Kogi State.
Represented by INEC National Commissioner, Professor Anthonia Okoosi-Simbine, the commission chairman said the exercise followed the conclusion of the governorship election and in accordance with section 75(2) of the Electoral Act (as amended). The certificate of return was presented to Bello by the INEC Chairman, Prof. Yakubu Mahmud, at about 4:00pm, at INEC’s office in Lokoja.
This was even as the APC today said that it might be constrained to replace its deputy governorship candidate in the recently concluded Kogi state governorship poll if the need arises.
In apparent reaction to the threat by the estranged deputy governorship candidate, Hon. Biodun Faleke, that he would boycott the swearing-in ceremony of the governor-elect, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, the National Chairman of APC, Chief John Oyegun said that if all reconciliatory moves fail, the party will have no alternative but to seek for his replacement.
Addressing Journalists at the party’s national secretariat on Wednesday in Abuja, Oyegun said the leadership understood the frustrations that most of the stakeholders in the Kogi governorship tussle underway due to the sudden demise of it late candidate Audu Abubakar, and as such is ready to allow things to simmer.
“On the Faleke issue, it is rather a straightforward and easy issue. We have replaced a governorship candidate. If the need arises and subject to what the law says, we will also get another deputy governorship candidate but we will cross those bridges as they arise but they have not arisen yet,” he said. [myad]
A prominent Igbo politician and member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Sam Nkire, has described those who are encouraging Igbo people to seek for a new nation by seceding from Nigeria as their enemies who want their economy to be destroyed.
The Igbo chief who was reacting to Professor Wole Soyinka who was said to have declared support for the resurrection of the Republic of Biafra, said that it was only a way of fanning the embers of discord in Igboland. Nkire. who is a member of the Board of Trustees of the APC, said in Abuja that only those who want Igboland’s economy destroyed would encourage Igbos to go on fighting for secession from Nigeria. He said that he was disappointed to read that the highly respected Nobel Laureate could at this tensed period of Nigeria’s existence be “lending his leperous hand in the affairs of Igbo people in other to lead them to destruction”. The APC BoT member said that he was aware that even the Yoruba tribe has had its own unfulfilled dreams since the creation of Nigeria, but has never gone to war. He therefore advised Professor Soyinka to switch his support for Biafra to the Republic of Oduduwa if he really means well. Nkire further said no amount of incitement would make the Igbos go to war again for the sake of Biafra, adding that Igbos would remain in Nigeria and negotiate their way to power. According to the APC chieftain, Igbos were wise enough to know those who wish them well and those envious of their industry and prosperity, adding that anyone who tries to incite Igbos at this point in time only wishes to see the zone return to being a theatre of war. [myad]
President Muhammadu Buhari has sought both local and international None Governmental Organizations (NGOs) towards rehabilitating the over two million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs, especially in the country’s North East. This was even as he said that the return of persons displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency to their home communities will begin in earnest next year.
Speaking at an audience with a delegation from the International Rescue Committee (IRC), led by former British Foreign Minister, Mr. David Miliband, President Buhari said that his administration will do all within its powers to facilitate the quick return and resettlement of over two million internally displaced persons in their towns and villages.
The President said that his government will welcome the support of the IRC and other local and international non-governmental organizations for the rehabilitation of internally displaced persons.
“In 2016, the return of the IDPs will start in earnest. They will return to their communities to meet destroyed schools and other infrastructure which have to be rebuilt.
“With agriculture being moribund in the region in the last two years without cropping, hunger is already manifest. We will welcome all the help we can get to assist the returnees.”
Responding to a request by Mr. Miliband for the Federal Government’s priorities as to the nature of assistance required for the IDPs, the President said that there was an urgent need for support in the areas of agricultural inputs, health, nutrition, water and sanitation.
President Buhari urged the IRC and other international agencies to work with the Presidential Committee on the North-East and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) which, he said, were already doing a lot to cater for the IDPs and restore some basic infrastructure in communities affected by terrorism and insurgency.
Mr. Miliband assured President Buhari that the IRC will intensify its ongoing work in Nigeria which has assisted over 350,000 displaced persons, mainly in Adamawa and Borno states.
He called for an increased security presence in recovered towns and territories, saying that most prospective returnees still feared for their safety on their return home. [myad]
The Chairman of Daar Communications, Chief Raymond Dokpesi
A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the remand in prison, of the chairman emeritus of Darr Communications Plc, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, over alleged N2.1 Billion arms deal fraud and money laundering. He is to remain in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. Justice Gabriel Kolawole who gave the order at the opening of the trial of Dokpesi today, asked EFCC to retain him in their custody pending the hearing of his bail application on December 10 by noon.
Dokpesi had pleaded not guilty to the charges. He was arraigned on a six-count-charge of contract fraud and money laundering amounting to N2.1 billion. He was charged along with his company, Daar Holding and Investment Limited. In the charges read in the court, the defendants were alleged to have fraudulently obtained N2.1 billion through a purported media contract for the purpose of 2015 presidential campaign. The defendants were alleged to have received the money through the bank account of the office of a former National Security Adviser (NSA), retired Colonel Sambo Dasuki, with First Bank of Nigeria Plc. After taking his plea, Dokpesi’s lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), told the court that he had filed an application seeking to admit his client to bail. “My lord, we got the charge yesterday. We filed bail application this morning and we are ready to argue our bail application.” Prosecution lawyer, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), however, told the court that he was yet to file a reply to the bail application and would need a short adjournment to do so. After listening to arguments of the two lawyers, Justice Kolawole adjourned the case for hearing of the bail application. He also fixed February 17 and 18 as well as March 2 and 3, 2016 for hearing in the substantive trial. Kolawole warned journalists covering the case to be mindful of what they write and be objective in their reporting. He said this had become necessary because of the vantage position of the defendant in the media. The judge warned that any journalist that reports anything outside what happened in court or publishes his or her opinion regarding the court proceedings will face the wrath of the law. [myad]
The International Boxing Federation has stripped Tyson Fury of the world heavyweight champion’s belt because he failed to set up a bout with mandatory challenger, Vyacheslav Glazkov. The 27-year-old’s next fight will instead be a rematch against the Ukrainian veteran. Fury held the IBF title for less than two weeks following his point’s victory over Klitschko in Dusseldorf, but retains the WBA, WBO and IBO straps. The heavyweight division that Klitschko dominated for nine years has become fractured, with American scrapper Deontay Wilder holding the WBC belt. Glazkov will now fight Chris Martin for the vacant IBF title. The governing body’s ruling could pave the way for a title shot for Anthony Joshua, who faces amateur rival Dillian Whyte this Saturday, within the next 12 months. Fury has been embroiled in scandal outside of the ring and is currently under investigation by Greater Manchester Police over hate crime allegations. More than 40,000 people have signed a petition to remove the fighter from the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year Award shortlist. [myad]
President Muhammadu Buhari has prayed for an elder statesman, Lt. Gen. Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma (rtd) as he clocked 78 today.
In a statement by special adviser to Buhari on media and publicity, Femi Adesina, the President described General Danjuma as a renowned philanthropist who he said serves as the Chairman of the Presidential Initiative for the Rehabilitation of Internally Displaced Persons in the North East.
“President Buhari believes that the exemplary dedication of the elder statesman to giving back to the society and making life better for the less privileged is worthy of emulation by all.
“The President prays that Almighty God will grant the elder statesman many more years of good health and fulfillment in the service of the nation.” [myad]
To borrow from Senator Ben Murray-Bruce’s tweet last night, he wrote: ‘As I tweet, one Dollar sells for over ₦250. The economy is no respecter of All Progressive Congress party or People’s Democratic Party, we need to put aside differences and face this economy.’
But this would seem his personal business and opinion because Nigerians are yet to wake up from the political divide created in the wake of epic victory that not just upstage the PDP but also President Goodluck Jonathan. The most traumatized, ridiculed, demonized, judged, but yet to be crucified president and now also labeled the most inexperienced to have ruled this country.
On the train to Aso Rock, professionals, especially the media and its practitioners, were torn against each other in a coliseum of gladiators built, developed and controlled by them. They pitched tents and picked holes in the policies of the Jonathan administration, convincing the electorates that there is no hope but on the hurricane that is bringing change to Nigeria. What they didn’t picture in all their analysis and conclusions was the structures that make up government, governance and the defect that exists in the Nigerian federation.
Of note is the policy on subsidies on refined petroleum products, most of which is imported. The previous administration received a lot of bashings and was castigated but still, the new government of President Muhammadu Buhari has persisted with the same fuel subsidies despite dwindling resources due to the about 60 percent fall in the price of oil in the past year and the accompanying strain on public finance.
The most ridiculous of these issue is the over 413 billion naira paid by this administration in six months in dressing up the leprous drenches of subsidies quietly as it watches the countenance of Nigerians on the way to go so as not to incur their wrath, having rode with the APC into Aso Rock through both promises to, sympathies and hopes from the people in reducing the hardship brought about by the umbrella party who ruled the country for 16 years.
This I feel is atrocious as it beclouds the fate of the nation’s economy that is pitched in incalculable social infrastructural deficits and economic deficiencies. Media houses have long sunk into their shells and the great ‘Lugulas’ who held sway on social media and the civil societies are now mouths without tongues because they mortgaged their morals to emotions. Now that their morality is required to save the masses their faces are wrinkled in shame. Still reeling in revulsion over the roles they played at the time they should have supported the removal of subsidy but didn’t and instead insisted on a subsidy must stay campaign. Posterity didn’t wait long to judge us for our conscious or unconscious recruitment into the political battle that began in 2012 at the Ojota shrine where the ‘Occupy Nigeria’ dance silenced subsidy, emanating with the support of yesterday’s oppositions but today’s ruling party.
In all, the Lagos controlled mainstream media is the most culpable and has suffered serious knocks from which it is yet to awaken in the aftermath of the charade that has unfortunately glued its feet to the ground like the man suffering elephantiasis; weighing the options of standing on the fence or disagreeing on the subsidy subject.
Should we then continue on this path of continued subsidies that is draining our commonwealth in the face of dwindling resources because we are turned or tilted to angles of argument on the way forward for the country? Capital No! Elections have long been won and lost. There is a president, those who are being prosecuted over one allegation or the other are facing the music alas the economy must not be allowed to collapsed as it does not have a boundary line for the two major political parties and their supporters. A crumbling economy has the signature of every Nigerian on it, a reason no Nigerian citizen here or in diaspora has the right to remain aloof while the naira turns to paper money or even pretend that the country will remain a force to be reckon with in the comity of nations or pride as important within the West African subregion.
We must put a stop to the divestments that is ongoing over fear of the unknown by major investors in the country. We can’t pretend that Aliko Dangote is finding ease at investing in Zambia, Cameroun and other African nations against his own Nigeria over higher returns, dividends or the fun of it but for the lack of policy direction on the economy that has set in. It is a bad signal for everyone including foreign investors that are willing to berth in our ports, unto our lands. Even the World Bank, though often misunderstood by lay men like us, is begging Nigeria to remove subsidy especially in the absence of refineries that won’t be turned around just tomorrow.
Before my birth the Chinese have started hanging their corrupt officials and are yet to stop doing so but corruption still thrives in China at any loop created to sustain such inordinate practices. All that Nigerians need is an increasing supply of the human essentials against demand and the reductions of restrains in obtaining services to ease the burden of pains from arrows struck at government and its officials who are today’s magicians to the masses.
A reason I am in support of the removal of fuel subsidy so that the same books President Buhari once revealed can be easily manipulated by Nigerians should no longer be the case as he has also started paying subsidy claims. A call on the president to also act in the full insignia of his office and cabinet, telling Nigerians on where he stands at the time of its trials including that of fuel subsidy or its removal and not the fever with which National Planning and Budget Minister Udoma Udo Udoma and his colleagues announced to journalists last Monday that the Federal Executive Council is still considering its position on the matter amidst uncertainties in the operation of petroleum marketers and biting fuel shortages.
I also call on everyone saddled with responsibilities of making things right in the country to take their duties seriously to ensure we do not retrogress but surpass our previous attainments as a nation. Not even a room at remaining stagnant on pretenses of an overwhelming cesspool of corruption despite foreseen impressions and indications before the ruling party’s ascension to power will be accepted.
Moses Okpogode Resides in Abuja and can be reached on @MOkpogode. [myad]
The World Bank has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to scrap fuel subsidy now before it is too late.
Speaking at the launch of the latest edition of Nigeria Economic Report, the World Bank Lead Economist, Mr. John Litwack said that the best time to act is be now that global crude oil price is at its lowest level.
The World Bank chief, who presented the economic outlook of the global economy and the crude oil market, said that the Bank foresaw continuous decline in global crude oil price.
He admitted that scrapping of the subsidy would not push retail pump price beyond an average of N100 per litre, or generate the kind of pressure that would negatively impact on the people beyond what they are currently facing.
“The fuel subsidy appears to have vast modest benefits for the majority of citizens, but the costs are quite high. There is a strong tendency for the cost of the fuel subsidy to increase over time as increasing domestic demand for petrol outpaces growth in oil output or revenues.
“The $35 billion cost of the fuel subsidy during 2010 – 2014 was one of the reasons why Nigeria was unable to accumulate a fiscal reserve n the Excess Crude Account that could have protected the country from the recent oil price shock.”
Litwack stressed that fuel subsidy obligations are expected to reach 18 per cent of all government oil revenues in 2015, adding that if the current regulated price regime of N87 per litre is maintained, subsidy would be projected to increase to more than 30 per cent by 2018. [myad]
Chairman emeritus of Daar Communications Plc, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, has been taken to court by Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) with six count charges, one of which is money laundering
Also charged to court with Dokpesi is Daar Holding and Investment Limited. He and his company were accused of violating the money laundering act, the EFCC Act and the public procurement Act.
The charges were filed today at the federal high court in Abuja. The owner of AIT and Ray Power Radio had earlier been arrested during which time he admitted to have received the sum of N2.1 Billion from former National Security Advisor (NSA), Colonel Sambo Dasuki (Rtd.).
Dopkesi, who is currently on bail, played very prominent roles in the presidential campaigns. He used AIT to campaign against the candidacy of Muhammadu Buhari through paid documentaries that were produced by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). [myad]
The Kogi State Governor-elect, Alhaji Yahaya Bello has described his embattled deputy, James Faleke as his brother and that All Progressives Congress (APC) has the capacity to resolve the misunderstanding thrown up by the death of Prince Abubakar Audu during the election period.
Faleke was reported to have said that he would not attend the inauguration of Bello and not support him.
In a statement today in Abuja by his media assistant, Suleiman Abdulmalik, the governor-elect said that he believed in dialogue remains, saying that he has absolute confidence in the leadership of the party to end the disagreement.
He made it clear that the development remains a family affair, adding: “I will continue to appeal to him and others to join hands with me in moving Kogi State forward. In politics, we agree and disagree, but dialogue remains the only solution to issues.
“But what happened in my state is an act of God.”
Bello said that most of the supporters of the late governorship candidate of the APC, Prince Abubakar Audu, are now with him.
“Those who matter in Audu’s camp are already working for me even before the supplementary election and the reconciliation effort greatly helped in defeating the Peoples Democratic Party.”
The statement also advised Faleke to accept the outcome of the election as the wish of God.
“All hands must be on deck and we must rally round our candidate and the governor-elect, Alhaji Yahaya Bello. No winner no vanquished; we must continue as one united family that we are.
“Hon James Abiodun Faleke and other aggrieved party members should accept the new development as the wish of God. We plead with them to cooperate with Bello to develop the state in line with the vision of our late icon, Prince Abubakar Audu.
“The governor-elect is a humble man who will not discriminate against anyone within the party. All Kogites should pray for and work towards peace, stability and progress of the state. We are using this opportunity to emphasize the need for the people to support their leaders for the benefit of all.” [myad]
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The Independent National Electoral Commission (APC) has presented Alhaji Yahaya Bello of the All Progressives Congress (APC) with the certificate of return as the duly elected governor of Kogi State.
Fuel Subsidy In A Collapsing Economy? By Moses Okpogode
But this would seem his personal business and opinion because Nigerians are yet to wake up from the political divide created in the wake of epic victory that not just upstage the PDP but also President Goodluck Jonathan. The most traumatized, ridiculed, demonized, judged, but yet to be crucified president and now also labeled the most inexperienced to have ruled this country.
On the train to Aso Rock, professionals, especially the media and its practitioners, were torn against each other in a coliseum of gladiators built, developed and controlled by them. They pitched tents and picked holes in the policies of the Jonathan administration, convincing the electorates that there is no hope but on the hurricane that is bringing change to Nigeria. What they didn’t picture in all their analysis and conclusions was the structures that make up government, governance and the defect that exists in the Nigerian federation.
Of note is the policy on subsidies on refined petroleum products, most of which is imported. The previous administration received a lot of bashings and was castigated but still, the new government of President Muhammadu Buhari has persisted with the same fuel subsidies despite dwindling resources due to the about 60 percent fall in the price of oil in the past year and the accompanying strain on public finance.
The most ridiculous of these issue is the over 413 billion naira paid by this administration in six months in dressing up the leprous drenches of subsidies quietly as it watches the countenance of Nigerians on the way to go so as not to incur their wrath, having rode with the APC into Aso Rock through both promises to, sympathies and hopes from the people in reducing the hardship brought about by the umbrella party who ruled the country for 16 years.
This I feel is atrocious as it beclouds the fate of the nation’s economy that is pitched in incalculable social infrastructural deficits and economic deficiencies. Media houses have long sunk into their shells and the great ‘Lugulas’ who held sway on social media and the civil societies are now mouths without tongues because they mortgaged their morals to emotions. Now that their morality is required to save the masses their faces are wrinkled in shame. Still reeling in revulsion over the roles they played at the time they should have supported the removal of subsidy but didn’t and instead insisted on a subsidy must stay campaign. Posterity didn’t wait long to judge us for our conscious or unconscious recruitment into the political battle that began in 2012 at the Ojota shrine where the ‘Occupy Nigeria’ dance silenced subsidy, emanating with the support of yesterday’s oppositions but today’s ruling party.
In all, the Lagos controlled mainstream media is the most culpable and has suffered serious knocks from which it is yet to awaken in the aftermath of the charade that has unfortunately glued its feet to the ground like the man suffering elephantiasis; weighing the options of standing on the fence or disagreeing on the subsidy subject.
Should we then continue on this path of continued subsidies that is draining our commonwealth in the face of dwindling resources because we are turned or tilted to angles of argument on the way forward for the country? Capital No! Elections have long been won and lost. There is a president, those who are being prosecuted over one allegation or the other are facing the music alas the economy must not be allowed to collapsed as it does not have a boundary line for the two major political parties and their supporters. A crumbling economy has the signature of every Nigerian on it, a reason no Nigerian citizen here or in diaspora has the right to remain aloof while the naira turns to paper money or even pretend that the country will remain a force to be reckon with in the comity of nations or pride as important within the West African subregion.
We must put a stop to the divestments that is ongoing over fear of the unknown by major investors in the country. We can’t pretend that Aliko Dangote is finding ease at investing in Zambia, Cameroun and other African nations against his own Nigeria over higher returns, dividends or the fun of it but for the lack of policy direction on the economy that has set in. It is a bad signal for everyone including foreign investors that are willing to berth in our ports, unto our lands. Even the World Bank, though often misunderstood by lay men like us, is begging Nigeria to remove subsidy especially in the absence of refineries that won’t be turned around just tomorrow.
Before my birth the Chinese have started hanging their corrupt officials and are yet to stop doing so but corruption still thrives in China at any loop created to sustain such inordinate practices. All that Nigerians need is an increasing supply of the human essentials against demand and the reductions of restrains in obtaining services to ease the burden of pains from arrows struck at government and its officials who are today’s magicians to the masses.
A reason I am in support of the removal of fuel subsidy so that the same books President Buhari once revealed can be easily manipulated by Nigerians should no longer be the case as he has also started paying subsidy claims. A call on the president to also act in the full insignia of his office and cabinet, telling Nigerians on where he stands at the time of its trials including that of fuel subsidy or its removal and not the fever with which National Planning and Budget Minister Udoma Udo Udoma and his colleagues announced to journalists last Monday that the Federal Executive Council is still considering its position on the matter amidst uncertainties in the operation of petroleum marketers and biting fuel shortages.
I also call on everyone saddled with responsibilities of making things right in the country to take their duties seriously to ensure we do not retrogress but surpass our previous attainments as a nation. Not even a room at remaining stagnant on pretenses of an overwhelming cesspool of corruption despite foreseen impressions and indications before the ruling party’s ascension to power will be accepted.
Moses Okpogode Resides in Abuja and can be reached on @MOkpogode. [myad]