The Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, has made it clear that his predecessor, immediate past governor of the state, Kukhtar Yero did not leave behind in the state treasury, the sum of eight billion naira as he earlier claimed.
The governor was reacting to claim by the deputy governor under Yero, Ambassador Nuhu Bajoga, at a reception organised for him by the Southern Kaduna’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) penultimate Saturday that the immediate past administration in the state left N8bn for the current All Progressives Congress (APC) administration.
Speaking through his Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Samuel Aruwa, the governor said the Yero’s government left behind N8bn counterpart fund and not “working money” capital as claimed by Bajoga.
El-Rufai’s spokesman said while briefing newsmen in Kaduna today that the former governor left the state’s treasury in deficit, and that the last administration had about N228.3m in its central account as of May 29, 2015.
He added that the amount(N228,333,371.67) represented a working capital that could be spent, adding that all other items in the bank balance were committed funds, and not available to be spent by the government. [myad]
Maiduguri, one of the most troubled states by the Boko Haram insurgents may be heading for some reliefs as the international airport in the state capital has been opened to traffic.
Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Saleh Dunoma announced today that the just re-opened Maiduguri International Airport is now free for commercial operations.
A statement by the FAAN’s General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Yakubu Dati, in Lagos, quoted the Managing Director as assuring Nigerians and airport customers that security had been beefed up within and outside the airport for passengers’ safety.
It would be recalled that operations at the airport were suspended in December 2014 after which the joint military task force took over the airport following a raid on nearby military units by Boko Haram.
Dunoma assured staff working at the airport, of management’s support as they operated in the midst of security challenges.
The FAAN chief urged them to keep supporting the federal government, especially the armed agencies that were using their facilities.
“I urge FAAN workers to remain committed to successful operations as the Maiduguri Airport opens for commercial operations.”
It also quoted Dunoma as commending the staff for ensuring that facilities and equipment of the authority were maintained throughout the period the airport was shut down.
The statement called on them to make safety, security and passenger comfort, their key objectives in line with the mandate of the Authority. [myad]
Former Governor of Benue State, Mr. Gabriel Suswam, has lamented over the blatant lie spewed around against him which presented him as having beaten his wife, Yemisi in London.
The former governor, in a statement today in Abuja, said that reports that he beat his wife were the handiwork of filthy politicians in the state, who were bent on tarnishing his hard earned reputation even as he called on Nigerians to disregard the latest propaganda against him “by those who have sworn to stop at nothing to belittle what” he had achieved in Benue State.
He cautioned that there should be a limit to falsehood, adding that the allegations were unsubstantiated.
According to the report in an online medium, Suswan was purportedly arrested in London for battering his wife.
He was reportedly booked into the London detention centre for several hours and before an unidentified judge set a £5,000 bail bound which he met before being released.
Suswam described the report as fictitious and denied ever going to London with his wife. He said he had been in Germany with his wife on vacation.
He said since he and his wife left Nigeria, they had never been to London.
Suswan also faulted a claim that Yemisi’s trauma was as result of the overbearing influence of his mistress, adding that the mistress existed in the imagination of the author.
The former governor faulted another report that alleged that his wife and her associates drove in two large trucks to the Benue State Liaison Office in Abuja, with the intent to cart away all the expensive furnishings.
“But I make bold to ask: Is it possible for one to destroy what he has spent his hard earned fortune and reputation in governance to build? Was it not the same government house that both me and the incumbent Governor Samuel Ortom met for inspection and stock inventory taken and issues of concern raised and resolved before I left?” [myad]
The Nigerian Presidency has alerted Nigerian and international communities that hackers had tampered with a twitter of the daughter of President Muhammadu Buhari, in the person of Zahra. The account which the Presidency said has been tampered with contains tweets disparaging some world leaders.
A statement from the senior special assistant to President Buhari on media and publicity, Mallam Shehu Garba said that the said twitter account – @Zahra_Buhari? – was no longer operated by the President’s daughter as it had earlier been compromised by hackers.
Garba Shehu explained that “Zahra’s authentic handle is @ZmBuhari and any handle other than this on Twitter should be considered as fake and therefore fraudulent.”
Shehu called on members of the public to disregarded any tweets emanating from the fake account as Aso Rock considers them the handiwork of hackers seeking to cause mischief between Nigeria and other friendly countries.?
Shehu’s statement reads: “The attention of the Presidency has been drawn to unauthorised and unexpected Tweets by an account falsely linked to Zahra Buhari, one of the daughters of President Muhammadu Buhari.?
“Following enquiries by a few foreign missions on the raging online controversy about unsavory comments against some foreign leaders purportedly made by her, we wish to state categorically that Zahra is indeed on Twitter but the offending handle@Zahra_Buhari? ?has stopped being her own for a long time since it was compromised by hackers.
“Tweets by this handle are therefore not her own and should be disregarded and considered as the work of hackers seeking to cause mischief between this country and other friendly states.
”Zahra’s authentic handle is@ZmBuhari and any handle other than this on Twitter should be considered as fake and therefore fraudulent.
“It also pertinent to state at this point that neither the wife of the President, Mrs. Aisha Buhari nor the other children are presently on Twitter, Facebook or the various other platforms.
“As they the explore the possibilities on this new territory, we request the general public to ignore the many accounts on various platforms in their names that currently exist.
“Such accounts, beside the authentic one cited above in the name of Zahra are unauthorized and therefore fake.” [myad]
A team of psychologists and medical doctors associated with the Technische Universität of Berlin, has announced today, that they have proven, through clinical experimentation, the existence of some form of life after death.
Their discovery, according to the team of scientists led by Dr Berthold Ackermann, was based on the conclusions of a study using a new type of medically supervised near-death experiences, which allow patients to be clinically dead for almost 20 minutes before being brought back to life.
This controversial process that was repeated on 944 volunteers over that last four years, necessitates a complex mixture of drugs including epinephrine and dimethyltryptamine, destined to allow the body to survive the state of clinical death and the reanimation process without damage.
The body of the subject was then put into a temporary comatic state induced by a mixture of other drugs which had to be filtered by ozone from his blood during the reanimation process 18 minutes later.
The extremely long duration of the experience was only recently made possible by the development of a new cardiopulmonary recitation (CPR) machine called the AutoPulse. This type of equipment has already been used over the last few years, to reanimate people who had been dead for somewhere between 40 minutes to an hour.
Near-death experiences have been hypothesized in various medical journals in the past, as having the characteristics of hallucinations, but Dr Ackermann and his team, on the contrary, consider them as evidence for the existence of the afterlife and of a form of dualism between mind and body.
The team monitored the operations and compiled the testimonies of the subjects. Although there are some slight variations from one individual to another, all of the subjects have some memories of their period of clinical death. and a vast majority of them described some very similar sensations.
Most common memories include a feeling of detachment from the body, feelings of levitation, total serenity, security, warmth, the experience of absolute dissolution, and the presence of an overwhelming light.
The scientists say that they are well aware the many of their conclusions could shock a lot of people, like the fact that the religious beliefs of the various subjects seems to have held no incidence at all, on the sensations and experiences that they described at the end of the experiment.
Indeed, the volunteers counted in their ranks some members are a variety of Christian churches, Muslims, Jews, Hindus and atheists.
“I know our results could disturb the beliefs of many people” says Ackermann. “But in a way, we have just answered one of the greatest questions in the history of mankind, so I hope these people will be able to forgive us. Yes, there is life after death and it looks like this applies to everyone.” [myad]
The Chief of Army Staff, Lt General Kenneth Minimah has vowed that the Nigerian Army would soon crush the Boko Haram terrorists and restore peace to the North East region of the country.
The Army Chief made the commitment at the passing out parade of Direct Short Service Commission Course 22/2015, held at the Nigeria Army School of Infantry, Jaji, Kaduna State.
He said that the insurgents “have been seriously degraded” and pledged that the army would not relent until it ensures peace and stability in the region.
Minimah challenged the new officers to be prepared to join the war “to crush those bigoted miscreants. You are aware of our current national security challenges, particularly in the North Eastern part of the country.
“As we continue to make progress towards ending the Boko Haram insurgency, you will be joining the rank of officers and men who have demonstrated tremendous gallantry and valour in defence of our fatherland against the terrorists.
“Therefore, you must be ready to contribute your quota towards taming these bandits.
“You will be leading men who have firmly resolved that “Never Again” will a band of bigoted miscreants be allowed to unleash havoc on our country and its citizens,“ he said.
The army chief commended the resilience and sacrifice of soldiers in the field, saying they have demonstrated uncommon courage in the fight against the insurgents.
Minimah urged the officers to be patriotic and committed to the nation, adding that the Army would demand nothing short of the very best from them.
“We operate zero tolerance for misconduct and cowardice, you must eschew any behaviour that could tarnish your honour and diginity as commissioned officers.”
The army chief commended the school for the quality training it offered the cadets, and advised the management and instructors to remain focused on their job. [myad]
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Amina Zakari as the new acting chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as a grand design to win the forthcoming governorship elections in both Kogi and Bayelsa states, which are currently under its canopy.
The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, in a statement, said the party was privy to the fact that “Mrs. Zakari who has a strong relationship with President Muhammadu Buhari and a very prominent APC Northwest governor, is collaborating with the ruling party to post Resident Electoral Commissioners of its choice to Kogi and Bayelsa ahead of the forthcoming governorship elections in those states.”
The PDP claimed there were moves to use the period of Mrs. Zakari’s stay as head of the commission to tinker with electoral personnel and materials for the two states in favour of the APC.
“President Buhari, in appointing Mrs. Zakari, failed to take into cognizance the moral call to detach himself from the operation of the electoral body thereby completely eroding the independence of the commission.”
The party said the issue at stake is not that of Mrs. Zakari’s competence or performance in office but the fact of nepotism and her closeness to the President and some key APC leaders, which calls into question the independence of the electoral body under her.
“We want Nigerians to know that with this appointment, INEC has been stripped of its independence and can no longer command the confidence and respect of the citizens and all other critical stakeholders in the nation’s electoral process.
“We, however, find it astonishing, discouraging and disheartening that the spokesperson of the President will address Nigerians and lie to the entire citizenry that Mrs. Zakari never had any relationship with the President or an APC Governor in the Northwest. This is the height of deception coming from the respected office of the President of our dear country.
“We ask, is the spokesperson of the President, oblivious of the public fact that the Acting Chairman of INEC was once a staff of Afri-Project Consortium, a company well associated with the President?
“Is he by any means feigning ignorance of the fact that Mrs. Zakari also worked in the past as Secretary of Health and Human Services, Social Development and later, that of Agriculture and Rural Development in the Federal Capital Development Authority, then under a current APC governor of the Northwest?
“How much of Mrs. Zakari’s roles in the last general elections does the spokesperson of the President, who has just been appointed, know to warrant his brazen defence?
“Even where we concede to the worn-out argument that the President has the powers to appoint any person he deems fit as the INEC Chairman, does moral obligation not demand that in doing so he should take into cognizance the sensitivity of the position? Otherwise he can as well appoint his wife or brother as the electoral umpire on an argument of merit.
“Whilst the PDP might not be opposed to Mrs. Zakari becoming one out of the numerous national electoral commissioners to be so appointed, we completely reject her being an executive chairman who takes major decisions in an independent electoral commission while having a strong relationship with the President and a prominent APC Northwest governor.
“Indeed, never in the history of Nigeria has there been an executive chairman of the electoral body with such strong relationship with the president of the country.
“If, therefore, the stance and choice of words of the Presidential spokesperson, which apparently fall short of the civility of a democratic setting, reflect in any way those of President Buhari, then there is serious question on his credentials as a converted democrat.
“Conversely, we caution that presidential spokespersons in representing the President, must note that the psychology of their personal sudden flight to political limelight should not engineer a trauma of monumental deceit to our great nation,” the PDP said.
Insisting that Mrs. Zakari must be removed, the PDP said having in the last 16 years reformed the nation’s electoral system to an enviable status that is being commended by the international community, it cannot sit back and watch too early in the day, its gradual destruction by partisan interest.
The party, therefore, urged Nigerians, “to rise above sectional, religious, gender and partisan biases and put the independence of INEC, the credibility of the electoral process and the overall interest of the nation above every other consideration in their comments and views on the appointment.”
The PDP stressed that as long as the Acting Chairman remains in office, it would not recognize the electoral body as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), but as the National Electoral Commission (NEC). [myad]
President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed that he will prosecute all those who were found to perpetrate political assassinations, intimidation and kidnappings in the country, irrespective of political affiliations of such people.
The President, who addressed State Chairmen of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at a parley in the Presidential Villa today, made it clear that he is fully committed to providing a level playing field for all Nigerians to get on with their daily lives or participate in electing their leaders, without fear of intimidation.
He said that his administration will continuously strengthen Nigeria’s criminal justice system to curb the reign of injustice and impunity in the country, adding: “at every point, the law must be supreme and everyone must respect the law, if our democratic system is to survive.
“Injustice cannot survive for long. Justice will ultimately prevail. We will make sure that those saddled with the responsibility of ensuring justice and equity do not rest on their oars.
“The only way we can sustain our democracy is to ensure that the law remains supreme at all times. If the law is upheld, people will have confidence that they can vote for who they want to vote for, without intimidation or threats. People must have protection to exercise their rights freely or we could be headed for anarchy.
“The police and the judiciary must ensure that justice is done in the country. We won’t allow impunity to continue in certain states, where the rights of the people are being violated.
“I have a personal commitment to fair play and respect of personal rights. This government will do all that is possible to enforce that.
“My address to National Executive Council of the APC was very clear. We are now in the frontline. We are the party in government. We must lead by good example and consolidate on the gains of our democratic system.”
The President advised the APC State Chairmen and other political leaders in the country to keep to the prescribed legal processes for the resolution of political disputes and never resort to violence, criminality and other forms of unacceptable behavior in seeking redress for any perceived injustice.
He also called on the state chairmen to work with the party’s elected officials to ensure that the APC delivers on its promise of better living conditions for all Nigerians.
The leader of the delegation and Chairman of the APC in Kano State, Umar Doguwa, said that the APC State Chairmen were on a visit to the Presidential Villa to reaffirm their support for President Buhari and his administration.
Doguwa assured the President that the state chairmen would uphold the values of the party, promote peace and unity in the country, and also ensure that APC elected members live fulfill their promises to Nigerians.
Some of the APC State Chairmen in states controlled by other parties had complained to President Buhari of political intimidation and harassment. [myad]
Special adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on media and publicity, Femi Adesina has warned members of Boko Haram to embrace dialogue with the government before it was too late as the government is set to flush them out. “The machinery put in place, and which will be set in motion soon, can only devastate and decapitate insurgency. It is multinational in nature.” In a statement today, Adesina justified the government’s decision to dialogue with Boko Haram, saying: “most wars, however furious or vicious, often end around the negotiation table. So, if Boko Haram opts for negotiation, the government will not be averse to it.” Assuring that relief is on the way for Nigeria and her neighbours, Adesina stressed that President Buhari is resolute. “He has battled and won insurgency before, he is poised to win again. It is a promise he made to Nigerians, and he is a promise keeper.” The Presidential spokesman explained that if the insurgents want to negotiate, no decent government will be averse to such, asking: “didn’t the Taliban and Americans also negotiate in Afghanistan?” He made it clear however that the government would not be negotiating from a position of weakness, but that of strength. [myad]
The All Progressives Congress (APC), Kogi State chapter, has lamented that six months to the end of the tenure of the incumbent governor, Captain, Wada Idris, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is yet to blow whistle for political activities to begin in the state.
Media Adviser to the State APC Chairman, Dr. Umar Akwu Goodman, who spoke to newsmen on behalf of the state party chairman, Alhaji Haddy Ametuo said: “the handover date from the current administration in Kogi State is scheduled for 27th January, 2016, which is just six months away, yet there is no political activity going on in the state as the time table is being awaited.”
According to him, INEC’s Public Relations Officer in the State had recently confirmed that there has not been any official communication from the INEC headquarters in Abuja in respect of the time table.
“Electoral law 2012 as amended stipulates various time spaces between electioneering campaign, primaries election and general elections and also between general elections and handing over, which should not be less than 3 months.
“Kogi state has 21 local government areas and about 239 wards, all of which the aspirants need to visit to canvas for delegate votes prior to the primaries; but there is no time table to determine the electioneering campaign timing that ushers in primaries.”
He, therefore, called on the INEC to speedy up the process of releasing the election time table and save the state and other stakeholders the frustrations arising from the usual fire brigade approach in general elections in the state. [myad] .
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