Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina has stressed the need for stakeholders in information management to ensure that accurate information is disseminated to the general public at all times.
Speaking at a meeting with members of the Forum of Spokespersons of Security and Response Agencies (FOSSRA) and the Centre for Crisis Communication (CCC) today in Abuja, Adesina said that it was only with accurate information that the public could have a better understanding of the actions and policies of government.
Adesina said that the establishment of FOSSRA and CCC was timely as they will help in building and fostering the much needed synergy among critical stakeholders in security and crisis management.
He gave an assurance that the administration of President Buhari will collaborate with the Centre in ensuring that activities of government, especially in the area of ameliorating the pains of victims of terrorism and insurgency are well disseminated.
The Chairman of FOSSRA, who is also the  Defence spokesperson, Major-General Chris Olukolade congratulated Adesina and the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu  on their appointments.
Major-General Olukolade also briefed the Presidential spokespersons on the activities of the Centre for Crisis Communication and FOSSRA. [myad]

The newly appointed Acting Chairperson of Independent National Electoral Commission, Amina Bala Zakari has pledged to continue to work towards the improvement of the electoral process in the country.
Amina Zakari who spoke today at a brief hand over ceremony, held at the INEC headquarters, Abuja said: “I accept this with humility and added dedication to serve. We hope to see the continued improvement of the electoral processes in the country.”
The acting chairperson of the electoral umpire said that the successes achieved under the leadership of the immediate past Chairman of the Commission, Professor Attahiru Jega, must be consolidated.
She prayed for God’s guidance to lead the Commission until a new Commission is constituted, saying: “we cannot rest on our oars until we deliver on that premise.”
The first female boss of INEC is a professional Pharmacist. She hails from Jigawa State.
She completed her Secondary Education from the prestigious Queens College Yaba, Lagos. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science (B.sc) Degree in Pharmacy with Second Class Upper (Best Graduating Student) in 1980 from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
After completing the National Youth Service Corps, she worked as a professional Pharmacist in various hospitals from 1983 – 1996. She then moved into the consultancy field to serve in various capacities as a consultant in Health and Social Services from 1997 up till her appointment as National Commissioner, INEC.
She has also served as a Special Assistant to former President Olusegun Obasanjo and was posted to FCT where she   served  as Secretary of Health and Human Services, Social Development and Agriculture and Rural Development from 2004 – 2007.
Her Consultancy services covered Federal MDAs (FMWH, NAFDAC, NPHCDA etc) MDGs and the Private Sector.
Amina Bala Zakari is a registered Pharmacist and Member of the Pharmacist’s Society of Nigeria as well as Member of Nigeria Institute of Management (MNIM).
Other qualifications obtained include: Certificate in Managing Drugs Supply for Primary Health Care from MHS Amsterdam in 1997, Certificate in Project Management 1998, Certificate in Senior Management from Crown Agents    London in 2005, Certificate in Executive Education in Business Management from Harvard Business School. [myad]

Former Nigeria Aviation minister and recently, Director of media and publicity to President Goodluck Jonathan’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential campaign organisation, Femi Fani-Kayode has rolled out series of criminal cases which have been made against him by those he called political detractors, even as he announced the change of his family name from Fani-Kayode to Olukayode.
Addressing newsmen today in Lagos while reacting to the court verdict earlier in the day, acquitting him of money laundering, Olukayode said that initially, he was accused of stealing N19.5bn of public funds when he was Minister of Aviation but that it was thrown out by the courts.
“Then I was accused of stealing N6.5bn. It was thrown out by the courts. Then I was accused of laundering N200m. It was thrown out by the courts. Then I was accused of laundering N99m. It was thrown out by the courts. Finally, I was accused of laundering N1m and N1.1m respectively, and today, both of these charges have also been thrown out by the courts.”
Olukayode said that in the last seven years, he had been subjected to the most malicious, vicious, sinister, well-orchestrated, insidious and devastating form of political persecution and wickedness, adding: “the whole process almost destroyed my life, my family, my reputation, my health and my career. I thank God for His goodness, His mercy and for the fact that today, the whole nightmare has finally come to an end.”
The former PDP Presidential campaign spokesman thanked God, his family members, leaders of the Body of Christ, intercessors, pastors, political associates and friends who never doubted his innocence and who stood by him through thick and thin “for today’s verdict.”
He thanked the judiciary “for refusing to send an innocent man to jail and for refusing to allow themselves to be used as tools for personal and vindictive vendettas or political persecution.”
Olukayode recalled that the whole nightmare started on 1st of July 2008 when he was arrested in the premises of the Nigerian Senate after the public hearing on the N19.5 billion Naira Aviation Intervention Fund.
“I was cleared of any wrong doing in the administration of that fund by the Senate Commitee on Aviation yet despite that, immediately after the sitting before the Comimitee, I was abducted and arrested in an unceremonious and shameul fashion and locked up by the Farida Waziri-led EFCC for 10 days and charged to a magistrate court in Abuja.
“Today, the 1st of July 2015, seven years to the day from that day when I was first arrested and first put into detention, I have been discharged and acquitted of all remaining charges by the courts.
“As a mark of honor and respect for the Lord and as an everlasting testimony of my love for and dedication to him, I wish to make it known to the Nigerian public that as from today my name will be changed.
“It will no longer be David Oluwafemi Fani-Kayode but instead, it shall be David Oluwafemi Olukayode. Olukayode means “the Lord has brought me joy” and today he has done precisely that.”
The former aviation minister said that he had sworn not leave the shores of Nigeria until the case was finally brought to an end and that since the courts had pronounced his innocence seven years after it all began “I shall be leaving the shores of my beloved country for the first time in seven years for a short holiday and a long overdue medical examination.” [myad]

The Deputy Leader of the Senate, Bala Ibn-Na’Allah has said that in democracy, there is no where political party can impose its decision on members of the Senate even though the party can influence its members to toe its line.

Na’Allah emphasized that the party can influence its members in the National Assembly and at the state level through the various caucuses, but not by imposition.

“I have not seen any issue here; it is just that people are trying to overheat the polity without knowing what the process is all about.”

The Deputy Senate Clark who spoke to journalists in Abuja today, stressed that it only a letter from the president of Nigeria can be read on the floor of the Senate or the House of Representatives, which was why the purported letter written by the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the National Assembly was not and will not be read at plenary.

“A lot of people do not understand; as a member of the National Assembly, the moment you step into the National Assembly, you either take the Bible or the Quran; and then you subscribe to the oath of allegiance and then take your oath of office.

“The oath of office says that you will uphold, protect and defend the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Law and then the Rules of the Senate.

“Outside these three documents, (a) senator does not have any leverage to do anything; there is no other document outside these three.

“And then if you carefully look at the rules of the Senate, the only letters that can be read on the floor of the House should a letter from Mr. President.

“And that is the convention not only in Nigeria, but in all other parliaments all over the world”.

He stressed the need for Nigerians to understand the workings of democracy before making attributions unknown in democratic circles. [myad]