We’ll Take Our Seats Back From Those Who Defected, PDP National Chairman Vows

April 15, 2014

National chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Ahmadu Adamu Hu’azu has vowed that they would take back the seats belonging to the party from those who recently defected to the opposition All Progressive Congress (APC).
Mu’azu was referring to the governors of Kano, Kwara, Sokoto, Adamawa and Rivers states as well as members of the House of Representatives who won elections under the PDP but dumped it for APC.
The chairman, who spoke today at a unity rally in Kano to receive the former state governor, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau into the party said that the honourable thing those defetors would have done was to resign from the party and their elective seats to test their popularity in the new party.
He said that through legal processes, PDP would unseat the defectors who have since forfieted the right to hold on to the seats that belonged to PDP.
Mu’azu said that PDP is the only national and broad based party that accommodates all shades of Nigerians, adding that entering PDP is like entering religion.
He said that in PDP there is enough for everybody without discrimination or superiority by one group over others.
The governor of Kano state, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, who jettisoned PDP for APC refused formally receive President Jonathan to Kano, even as the speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, who is still a member of the PDP caucus was conspicuously absent at the rally.
The new PDP chieftain, Ibrahim Shekarau, who defected from the All Progressives Congress (APC) described the unity rally to welcome him as “an occasion for democracy and an occasion for choice.”
He said that the return of key former members of defunct ANPP and later APC was to show solidarity and loyalty to the President Jonathan’s government, even as he promised to continue to be loyal to the party and his administration.
“Mr. President, I wish to pledge my commitment and that of other members who made the choice to join the PPD with me.”
He also pledged to work with the President in order to realise the objectives of the ruling party.
The former governor used the occasion to thank the President for the various federal projects that have been completed and ongoing in Kano state.
While promising to continue to re-dedicate his life to the service of the people, Shekarau called on the President to do more for the people of Kano state by way of empowerment, especially by boosting agriculture.

The Scene Of Bomb Blast In Nyanya, Abuja

Greenbarge Reporters

April 14, 2014

I Don’t Have Brain For Education, Says Timaya

Greenbarge Reporters

April 14, 2014

A Nigerian Pop singer, Timaya has confessed that though education is very important but it is not for him.

The hit artist who spoke at the third leg of Star Music Trek, which held in Uyo said: “I don’t have the brain for education but for those of you who do, please do it, it’s good. I scored 17 in JAMB, That’s when I gave up. Education is important, yes, but not for me for me.”

However, it is thrilling to note that despite this ‘lack,’ he has risen to become one of the most popular artistes in the country today.

Atiku Sympathizes With Victims Of Nyanya, Abuja Bomb Explosion, Queries Government’s sincerity Over Boko Haram

Greenbarge Reporters

April 14, 2014

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has expressed his sympathy for the victims of the bombings of the Nyanya Bus Park, in the suburbs of Abuja today, which left scores dead and many injured.
In a statement from his media office in Abuja, Atiku also queried the sincerity in the claim by the government of President Goodluck Jonathan, not long ago, that terrorists, represented by Boko Haram, have been driven out of the main centres of Nigerian.
The former Vice President, who called on well-meaning Nigerians in and around the Federal Capital Territory to heed the call of National Blood Transfusion Centre (NBTC) by voluntarily donating blood at the National Hospital Abuja to save the lives of Nyanya blast survivors said that this needless blood-letting should not be allowed to continue unabated.
Atiku recalled that government had in February this year, spoken about its successes in pushing Boko Haram to the “fringes” of the North East, where a state of emergency currently exists in a number of states, and where the Boko Haram terrorist group has carried out many recent and deadly attacks.
He noted that today’s bombing in the Nyanya motor park has cast doubts on the claims of containing the crisis to the fringes of the country.
He said that today’s bombing and latest bombings by insurgents should be a wake-up call to all Nigerians on the imperative of ending the trade-blame game and working together to end this scourge.
“As a country, we are not doing enough of focusing on and implementing solutions. We are all guilty of expending endless energy on hand wringing and the trading of blame, none of which is able to save lives or change the status quo.”
He insisted that the continued attacks by the insurgents requires new strategies, even as he described those behind the bombings as evil and callous and that they have scant regard for the sanctity of human life.
“There is an urgent need for the government of Nigeria to review its methods and strategies for dealing with terrorism.”
He called for a step up in intelligence, listening posts, picking up trends and conversations with a view to pre-empting terrorist attacks.
The former Vice President suggested that Nigeria should accept foreign assistance with fighting terrorism in the country.

President Jonathan Visits Nyanya, Abuja Bomb Blast Site, Says Boko Haram Is Temporary

Greenbarge Reporters

April 14, 2014

Residents of Nyanya, a settlement just ouskirt of Abuja, the nation’s federal capital territory, were brutally woken up this morning by bomb blast that sent many people to their early graves, even as President Goodluck Jonathan described the issue of Boko Haram as temporary, with assurance that “we will get over it.”
He had earlier canclled his visit to Ibadan to visit the scene of the incidence as well as the hospitals where the injured have been taken.
Information had it that no fewer than 200 people died in the early morning explosion, though there has not been any official pronouncement yet.
It was gathered that many vehicles, including about 12 government-owned high capacity buses operated by the Abuja Mass Transit Company Limited, were destroyed in the attack.
Some of the buses which were caught in the middle of the explosion were said to be loaded with passengers.
The bomb exploded in a highly populated motor park in Nyanya and at the peak of time when workers were going to their workplaces in the Abuja city, especially, in what is usually thick vehiculer traffic holdup.
Eye witnesses suspected that the bomb might have been planted by a suicide bomber.
Some of the dead victims and the injured have been taken to hospital by ambulances and vans belonging to security agencies, including police, Vehicle Inspection Office, Federal Road Safety Commission, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and the National Emergency Management Agency.
President Jonathan, at the site of the bomb blast in Nyanya and Asokoro General Hospital today, assured that his government will continue to work very hard.
“The issue of Boko Haram is temporary. Government is doing everything to make sure that we move our country forward in spite of all the distractions that want to take us backward.
“We promise that we will get over it.”
While acknowledging the pain in losing so many people through the explotion, the President however, commended security services ‎for their prompt action.
He expressed condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in the explotion, even as he appealed to the media and other Nigerians to come up with enlightenment programme for the people.
According to him, countries that face similar terrorism used to take time to develope great awareness, adding: “if there are unusual movement of vehicles and bags, they called security and base on this, a lot of incidences are contained.”
Jonathan believed that if people would become observant and they become security conscious by the movement of people, their would be reduction in some of these incidences.
“We will do our best‎. The security services will continue to work very hard. God willing, we will get over it. The issue of Boko Haram is temporary, surely we will get over it.”
He had earlier ordered heightened security in Abuja following the Nyanya bombing.

The President was accompanied by the Senate President, David Mark, Chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, Chief Of Defence Staff and other service chiefs, Ministers and other very senior government functionaries.

Senator Cries Out: ‘Boko Haram’ Speaking English, In Army Uniform, Invades 4 Towns, Kills 210

Greenbarge Reporters

April 12, 2014

Gunmen posing as Boko Haram and in military uniform were said to have invaded four towns in Borno state in the early hours of today, killing no fewer than 210, Senator representing Borno Central in the Senate, Zannah Ahmed has lamented.

The senator claimed that the attackers were speaking in English language which was a departure from the Hausa and Kanuri language spoken by the Boko Haram insurgents.

According to him, the military post in Gamboru which received a distress call from the people of Kala Balge avoided the town, claiming that it was not under its area of command.
The senator who said he was compelled to speak out because his people were being killed on a daily basis and felt obliged to raise his voice, said that what is happening in Borno is beyond understanding.

“It is a must for me to speak since peoples’ lives are involved and they are my people. All these are happening in my constituency and it will be wrong to keep quiet. I feel so much pained and would have not love to speak but definitely my conscience will not let me do that”, he lamented.
He said 210 people were slaughtered by the marauders who dressed in military uniform and attacked the towns in two armoured personnel cars and seven double cabin pickups.

According to him, they attacked a Teachers College in Dikwa and killed seven people, burnt down the school library and administrative block.

He claimed that Kala Balge was the worst hit, where 60 people were killed by the armed men who went on rampage killing everything in sight.

He said after they left Kala Balge, they went berserk and attacked three other towns in the area where a total of 150 persons were killed.

Though he could not give exact names of two of the town at the time of filing the story last night, among the towns attacked was Gambulga.

He said his people told him that: “Those people who attacked them were speaking English and could either be machineries from within the country or from outside.”
He stated the people spoke with some level of surety that those that attacked “did not look like Boko Haram”.

He lamented that as he was presently speaking, the people of the area were fleeing to neighbouring Cameroon while some have already fled to Gamboru Ngala in the country.
“It is unfortunate that when the Army post in Gamboru Ngala were informed, they went back after covering few kilometres as the soldiers insisted that it was outside their command area.”

Really, Do ‘All’ Northerners Not Like President Jonathan? By Yusuf Ozi-Usman

Yusuf Ozi-Usman

April 12, 2014

Where did the idea that ‘all’ Northerners don’t like President Goodluck Jonathan emanated from and is now gaining ground around the country?
To many people who have been unfortunate to witness such notion being floated, it is an idle talk by those who have no particular things doing, but to others who understand the long-term implications of such notion, it is a recipe for disunity.
At a cyber cafe yesterday in one of the Area Council’s headquarters in Abuja, the Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT), a middle aged man, in what looked like a ‘street’ taIk with another Nigerian, blurted out that President Jonathan has been finding it difficult to rule this country because, he said “all the Northerners don’t like him.”
This pronouncement jolted me up from the story I was editing on my laptop and the question that reverberated in my mind is: All the Northerners??? What a dangerous and sweeping generalization!!!
In deed, it was the third time and in three different places across the country that I have heard such statement made on the President.
The first time was last year in Lafiya, Nasarawa state capital whereas the second one was in Kaduna in January this year. The curious thing about it is that the three persons who made this statement at different places and different dates are christians.
While the level of spread of such notion is yet to be known, it would be foolhardy to dismiss it with the wave of hand, especially as the country prepares for the 2015 elections in which President Jonathan is likely to be a principal participant.
This same ethnic and, to a large extent, religious sentiments developed shortly before the 2011 election in which also, President Jonathan was the major candidate for the Presidency.
As a matter of fact, many die-hard supporters of Jonathan had at one time or the other, went into fist-scuffs with those who dare to as much as oppose the idea that he was being hated by people from the North because of the region he came from and the religion he belonged to. Not many of them would even see the point that Jonathan needed as much the votes of the Northerners, many of who, of course, are christians, to win the election as any Northern Muslim needed the votes of Christian South to win election.
It is unfortunate that the old song is now being rehearsed and made to fly, even when President Jonathan is surrounded by Northerners who are more loyal and devoted to him than the so-called South South or South East people. As a matter of fact, the man in whose care the President’s life is entrusted (his Aide-De-Camp), a fine, loyal and committed military officer, is a Northerner (from North Central), aside from the fact that his number two man, described as a symbol of loyalty, Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo, is from the North West.
In deed, the President’s die-hard loyalist, who would ‘scatter’ any opposition with mere words of mouth (information minister) is also from the North, just in the same way his two security strategists: the Minister of Defence and the National Security Adviser are from the North. Even the President’s Principal Personal Assistant is from the far North.
There are many other Northerners, inside his government, in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and outside the political and government systems, that so much love President Jonathan that they would fight in public against his opponents.
Evidences are abound to show that the President has people in the South South, South East and South West who have displayed open dislike for him and what he represents.
This is saying that in the nature of man, and as part of democratic behaviour, a man and, for that matter, a leader would always have to contend with two sides of the divides: those who like you and those who do not like you.
The function of any of the two divides has nothing to do with the circumstance of where you come from and what you are doing. In fact, while you may have some people within the same family not liking themselves, there could be a situation where people from different backgrounds and settings would like you beyond human imagination.
So, as the dangerous idle talkers would want us to believe, is it the preoccupation of “all” the Northerners to dislike President Jonathan and the preoccupation of the people from the Southern parts of the country to like him? That simplistic idotism!
Of course, the first thing one would argue on is that it is only the ignorants that would be lured into that group of negative idle talkers. However, the very unfortunate thing, within the context of poverty-ridden citizenry now is that, Nigeria is filled up with millions of ignorant people, some of them, educated mischief makers.

2015: Jonathan Ignores South East Calls To Declare Second Term Interest

Greenbarge Reporters

April 11, 2014

President Goodluck Jonathan, today, simply ignored the request by people of the South Eastern Zone of the country to use the unity rally of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), held in Enugu, hours ago, to publicly declare his 2015 second term interest.
Leaders of the Zone had, one after the other, mounted the soapbox and made two requests on the President: to declare his second term interest for the 2015 election and not to leave the venue of the unity rally without declaring such interest.
The South East leaders insisted that Jonathan must run for the 2015 election so that when he wins the second term, he would complete the job on the second Niger Bridge which he flagged off last month.
“We are not talking about the achievements of Mr. President since he became President and we are not talking about his plans for more development. The two things we are requesting the President to do for us in this zone is that he should declare his interest to go for second term in 2015 and the second one is that he should not leave here (Enugu) today without making such declaration,” almost all the leaders who spoke trode the same line.
However, when it was his turn to speak and respond to the South East leaders, President Jonathan carefully avoided the issue of his second term interest but instead, launched attack on opposition political party, apparently All Progressives Congress (APC).
The President took members of the opposition who described themselves as progressives to the cleaner.
“I don’t see anything ‘progressive’ about some of the opposition political parties.
“One party tags itself as progressives but where are they progressing to. It is only in such progressive party that you find an ex-governor determining who gets what and how. Is that what you mean by progressives?”
He also took a swipe on APC over ward congress and candidates’ selection, saying that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is the only democratic party in Nigeria because it is the only party that would not cancel ward congresses across the states without considering the wishes of its members.
He said that PDP is not like another party where a local government chairman can cancel a ward congress for no justifiable reason and without the peoples’ opinions.
Jonathan said the PDP is the only political platform in Nigeria where the voice of the people could count and decisions were taken based on the majority and popular vote.
“We are not like one party in this country where one man or a group of people determine how the party is run.
“The national chairman of the PDP or any of its governors can’t cancel a ward congress of the party just like that and with impunity. I, as the President, don’t even have the powers to do so, but it is happening in a political party in this country.”
Jonathan advised Igbo people to support the PDP, assuring them that the party “would not disappoint you.”
According to him, PDP is the only democratic party that could take Nigeria to join the rest of the democratic world.
“It is the only party where the President would not impose a candidate. It is the only party where people like me from a non-privileged background can stand here and talk.”
The President vowed that the PDP would capture Imo State in 2015 and complete the circle in the South-East.
“In the South-East, the PDP is total. Every state has a maximum of three senators and a minimum of three senators. It is now clear the South-East is a PDP zone.
“We will take over the governorship seat of the other state in the South-East come 2015. We have been very magnanimous but we are going to clear the seats totally.”
The Senate President, David Mark had earlier advised the President to ignore people that are criticizing his government and that he should remain focus in the transformation programme of his government.
Mark comforted President Jonathan by saying that if he stomach to criticisms, he would not be distracted, but would rather make him better.

Precious Orji Sets New World Champion Powerlifting Record In Dubai

Greenbarge Reporters

April 11, 2014

Precious Orji, a Para-powerlifter and Nigeria’s representative at the ongoing IPC Powerlifting World Championships in Dubai, today, set a new world record in the female +86kg weight category.

The Head Coach of Nigeria Para-powerlifting Federation, Are Feyinsetan, who made this known in a telephone conversation from Dubai, said that Orji lifted 151kg to clinch gold in the +86kg category at the championships.

The new record has now erased the previous world record of 140kg, set by Grace Anozie also of Nigeria at the 2013 Asian Open Championships in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

“Orji gave a good account of herself with a brilliant performance in her category. She broke the world record in her first attempt by lifting 145kg.

“She finally won the gold medal by breaking the world record twice with her last lift of 151kg to set a new world record,’’ he said.

Yakubu Adesokan of Nigeria had earlier won the first gold for Nigeria after breaking his own world record of 178kg in the 46kg weight category.

Adesokan had set the record at the 2012 London Olympic Games, by lifting 181kg in the same weight category in the ongoing Dubai Championships.

Meanwhile, Esther Onyema won the second gold after she had also set a new world record in the 55kg category.

The new record erased her previous record of 122kg she had set in the 2013 Asian Open Championships in Malaysia with a lift of 125kg.

The third gold medal was won by Ijeoma Ihurobiem in the female 73kg weight category, while Anthony Ulonnam won the bronze in the male 54kg.

Abdulazeez Ibrahim also clinched the fourth gold in male 97kg category with a lift of 235kg, while Loveline Obiji won silver with a lift of 142.5kg in the female 86kg weight category.

Nigeria is being represented at the championships by eight male and five female athletes.

The competition which commenced on April 5 will be concluded later today.

European Champions League: Battles In Semi Finals Begin April 22

Greenbarge Reporters

April 11, 2014

The first legs of the ongoing European Champions League will be played on April 22 and 23 while the return legs will be held April 29 and 30. The tournament is scheduled to be concluded in Lisbon on May 24.

In the draw today for the semis, Chelsea will battle Atletico Madrid while Real Madrid face Bayern Munich. Jose Mourinho’s side, chasing a third final in seven seasons, is away at the Vicente Calderon in the first leg.

Atletico has a one point lead at the top of La Liga and defeated Spanish rivals Barcelona in the quarter-finals.

Nine-time winners, Real are at home to holders Bayern in the first leg, to be played April 22-23.

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