Category: Politics

Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has given ex-governor Peter Odili a multi-million naira house in celebration of his 74th birthday. Odili governed the oil-rich state from 1999 to 2007, when Wike was Chairman of the Obi Akpor Local Government Area. Odili Day Wike praised the ex-governor at a ceremony in Port Harcourt on Monday to commemorate his 74th birthday. He claimed Odili had forewarned him about the possible outcomes of his ambition and had prepared him mentally for a possible betrayal by allies.
The Rivers governor also said he was not surprised at the happenings concerning his political career because he was well prepared for a worst-case scenario before executing the ambition to be Nigeria’s president.

Noting that Odili remains one of the greatest politicians in Rivers who raised every member of the current ruling class in the state, Wike said Nigeria missed a great deal by not having the ex-governor as a President.

He described Odili as a true leader of men who groomed many, and supported a lot of persons to political limelight, particularly in Rivers State and across the country.

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“There was a time every political class abandoned Dr. Odili. This is a man who gave us everything. Some people called him Mr. Donatus. There was no abuse he did not get. Everybody he tried to help their families, at the end of the day, all betrayed him,” Wike said.

“For us, we have used him as a school and we thank him for making himself available for us to use him to learn so that we won’t be shocked by whatever is going to happen.”

Wike expressed delight for the opportunity to have known Odili and be able to celebrate him. He pointed to the several support and the gains from the political tutelage under the ex-governor that had made him accomplish his political successes.

Disgruntled aspirants who attended the ruling All Progressives Congress’s National Convention on March 26 have vowed to sue the party’s leadership for failing to refund the fees they paid for their Expressions of Interest and Nomination Forms.

This comes four months after they were asked to step down by the party’s current National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, and other members of the National Working Committee.

In separate interviews, some affected politicians expressed concern that they had explored and exhausted all options, with the only impediment remaining the national chairman.
Depending on the category of the expression of interest and nomination forms, the 126 aspirants who contested various positions were made to cough up between N20 and N2.5 million.

At the end of the exercise, APC raked in well over N700 million with an additional N3 billion generated among stakeholders and party members ahead of the presidential primary.

There were also complaints that despite the huge revenue generated by the leadership of the party between March and August, ad hoc workers, staff and affected party members who were engaged were equally not paid their welfare allowances.

Aspirants asked to withdraw at National Convention

The affected aspirants who stepped down for Adamu in the category of National Chairman included Senator Umar Al-Makura, Salihu Mustapha, Muhammed Sani Musa, Abdulaziz Yari Abubakar, Senator George Akume and Mohammed Etsu.

Those in the category of National Deputy Chairman (North), who withdrew for the consensus candidacy of Senator Abubakar Kyari, were Yakubu Dogara, Faruq Aliyu, Sunny Sylvester Monidefe, Senator Ken Nnamani, Malam Isa Yuguda and Emmanuel Joseph.

For the post of the National Secretary, three aspirants which included former Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu; Oyedele Ifeoluwa and Prof Olaiya Olaitan were sacrificed for the candidacy of Senator Iyiola Omisore.

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In the category of National Vice Chairman (South-South), Yekini Nabena and Worgu Chambers were asked to step down for Victor Giadom.

Aside from the aforementioned aspirants, there are 113 other aggrieved politicians who are also yet to be refunded.

One of the affected candidates, who spoke with our correspondent in confidence, vowed to recoup their nomination forms before Adamu is kicked out of office.

Adamu ‘deliberately’ delaying refund

He said, “We know how much was raised at the convention and even the APC presidential primary. So what is the problem? We the party members are equally aware of how much was doled out for Osun and Ekiti elections. I still don’t get why Adamu is finding it hard to comply with the directive of the president.

“The only reason we delayed in taking this issue to court until now was to avoid putting our presidential candidate, Asiwaju, in a bad light. But as it stands, we have no option but to head for court. Everybody knows what took place at the convention where we had to step down cannot be called an election. Perhaps, that’s why some of them in the NWC including Adamu has been acting with impunity.”

In one of the letters written to Adamu dated June 21 and appended by 107 signatories, the aggrieved aspirants also accused the party leadership of excluding them from active participation and assignments at the last party primaries for the election of various candidates.

The letter partly read, “Your Excellency, recall that President Muhammadu Buhari in his speech at the convention directed that for those who agreed to step down, the party should refund the money they paid for the purchase of expression of interest and nomination forms.

“For the record, it is not worthy to envisage the reality of the huge expenses we incurred in our campaigns, which amount was far beyond the cost of purchase of forms.

“Our able chairman, we want to assure you and the APC leadership that we will give our best to ensure the party emerges victorious in the forthcoming 2023 general election.

“While yet not being discouraged, we wish to express that we were excluded from the lists of just concluded party primaries committee assignments for the election of our various party candidates for the general elections.”

Speaking with one of the affected aspirants from North Central, Yusuf Elaigwe, however, expressed optimism when he told our reporter that he is still keeping with Adamu over the issue.

“I can’t comment on it. But there is progress. I will be having a meeting with the national chairman on it next week,” he said.

Another aspirant, Sunny Sylvester Monidefe, who stepped down for Kyari confirmed that they have written to Adamu.

Monidefe, however, expressed frustration that the chairman has yet to reach out concerning details on how they hope to refund them.

According to him, it was hard having meetings with many of the affected candidates because the majority are not residents in Abuja and only come around only when they have official duties to attend.

In a separate phone conversation, former communications minister, Adebayo Shittu, told our correspondent that the APC national chairman has reassured them that they will be fully refunded.

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Shittu stated that though they are angry, there was no plan to file a suit against the leadership of the party as alleged.

“I don’t think that is true. Nobody will do that. I have spoken personally with the national chairman of the party too and he has reassured me that discussions are ongoing to pay us. We are still hopeful it will be resolved,” he said.

The matter is receiving attention – Spokesman

Responding to the development in a phone interview, National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Felix Morka, said the matter ‘is receiving attention and will resolve it soon.’

“I am sure the party will resolve it. The APC just came out of the primaries. They are dealing with it.”

In a related development, APC national vice chairman (North-west), Salihu Lukman, expressed regret over the delay, which he said was being looked into.

Lukman made the clarification in Abuja on Sunday.

He said, “It is part of the unfortunate internal challenges. Administratively, this should have been resolved long ago. For instance, in my case, about four people stepped down for me and they have been talking to me. I have been drawing the attention of the party and I think now it is clear that the party has to resolve it as quickly as possible. I can assure you that it is going to happen,” Lukman said.

Former Osun State Commissioner for Finance, Wale Bolorunduro, has described the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as a deceptive party.

Bolorunduro, who served as a Commissioner during the Rauf Aregbesola administration, stated that he became suspicious of the party after discovering that it had nothing to offer the people of the state.

Prior to joining the Osun Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bolorunduro was a member of both The Osun Progressives (TOP) and the Osun APC’s Rasaq Salinsile faction.

He is also an outspoken critic of the Adegboyega Oyetola administration, particularly in the areas of finance and the administration’s criticism of its predecessor.
Both TOP and the Rasaq Salinsile-led faction of the party had been in a running battle with the Osun State Governor, Adegboyega Oyetola and his faction of the Osun APC and his Ileri Oluwa group.

The quarrel has seen many TOP leaders being attacked and TOP meetings have also been attacked twice before the Osun 2022 gubernatorial election.

TOP and the Rasaq Salinsile faction of the party have the backing of Rauf Aregbesola, the Minister of Interior.

Bolorunduro, who was speaking at his official defection from the APC to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ijebu-Jesa on Saturday, stated that his decision was because the PDP is more of a progressives party and not deceitful.

In his words, “My followers and I are defecting today (Saturday) to the PDP because it is the party for the progressives. It is a party that is transparent and not deceitful as the former party I was.

“I left APC because my glory was being covered and my contributions trampled upon. APC is full of deceit. There is nothing called progressives in that party.”

Bolorunduro is the second high profile APC member in Osun State to officially decamp to the PDP.

The first to decamp was Kolapo Alimi, who was a former two-term Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affair in the Rauf Aregbesola administration.

He was made the Deputy Director-General of the Ademola Adeleke campaign organisation and is currently a member of the Transition Committee in the State.

In his remark, the Osun PDP Caretaker chairman, Adekunle Akindele called on other APC members who are still contemplating either to join the PDP or not to do so in the interest of the State.

Akindele noted that the outgoing government of Oyetola has wreaked havoc on the State.

Meanwhile, the Osun State Government has reacted to the claims by the former Finance Commissioner, Bolorunduro.

In a statement signed by Funke Egbemode, the Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, the State government stated that the claims by the former Commissioner regarding the State’s finance under Governor Adegboyega Oyetola was a misrepresentation of facts and outright lies against the person of the governor and the government he superintends over.

The statement also challenged the former Commissioner to be courageous enough to tell the whole world the truth about his inglorious years in Osun where one-month salary was paid four times at intervals.

The Ghana High Commission in Nigeria has asked Nigerians to keep Ghanaian President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo out of Nigeria’s internal affairs and politics.

The Ghanaian president, according to the High Commission, never advised the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to abandon his ambition to rule Nigeria and instead support Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) on health grounds.
The statement with title, “Fake News Alert: President of Ghana Disowns Post Asking Tinubu to Give Peter Obi a Chance,” read that: “The attention of the Ghana High Commission in Abuja has been drawn to an online news publication alleging that the President of the Republic of Ghana, His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has written to the 2023 Presidential candidate of the All-Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Asiwaju Bola Tinibu, to “give Peter Obi a chance and seek treatment for his health.”

“The Ghana High Commission wishes to state categorically that the publication is completely false. The public should, therefore, disregard the misleading publication, which has no basis.”

As a matter of emphasis, the President of the Republic of Ghana has not written any such letter to the APC Leader.

“Ghana and Nigeria boast of decades of cordial, solid, and fraternal relations, underpinned by the belief in the tenets of democratic governance, rule of law, respect for, and adherence to the principle of non-interference in the internal political mechanisms of other countries.

“To that end, the President of the Republic of Ghana will not interfere in Nigeria’s internal affairs and politics, as captured in the series of tweets of Tuesday, 9 August 2022, from His Excellency’s Twitter handle (@NAkufoAddo). It is hoped that this added perspective would serve to dispel misconceptions created by the online publication.”

The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Ebonyi State, Chief Chukwuma Odii at the weekend said he went to the supreme court against the purported use of fake delegates by Senator Obinna Ogba at the June 4th and 5th primary election of the party in the state.

Recall that the first primary election of PDP in Ebonyi held on 28, 29th May 2022 produced Odii as the governorship candidate while the second primary election held in June produced Ogba.

Odii, who spoke in Abakaliki, capital of Ebonyi State, through his media aide, Chief Abia Onyike, expressed optimism of getting victory at the supreme court ahead of the forthcoming general election.

According to him: “Well the appeal court said the matter should be retried. There are two main cases; the first ruling of the Federal High Court which gave his judgement on the 7th of June 2022, that ruling was the one that senator Obinna Ogba Appealed against, then the court of Appeal now decided that the matter be retried at the Federal High Court once again.

“The second one is the judgment of the Federal High Court sitting in Abakaliki delivered on the 19th of July 2022. In that particular case, the Primaries held on the 28 and 29th May 2022 which produced Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii as the governorship candidate of PDP was upheld. But the second primaries, conducted by Obinna Ogba on the 4th and 5th June 2022, was not upheld.

“It was cancelled because of two main problems; one is that primaries was not monitored by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. And secondly, the delegates that participated in the primaries were fake people.

“The authentic delegates who were elected on the 7th May 2022 during the state PDP Congress boycotted the Primaries of 4th and 5th June 2022, who produced Obinna Ogba. They boycotted it because, in their own argument, they had earlier participated in the first primaries of 28 and 29th May which produced Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii, so there was no need for them to go again.

“The judgement of the Federal High Court on the 19th July 2022 upheld that first primaries and nullified the second one on the basis of these two basic inadequacies. And so, Anyichuks is at the supreme court to challenge the ruling of the Court of Appeal that talked about retrial and also to challenge the process in which Obinna Ogba was joined in that matter.

“It is quiet necessary and possible most of the time, if a court delivers a judgement and there is an aspect of the matter that you don’t accept, you can go to a higher court of Appeal against that aspect. That’s actually what happened” he stated.

The gubernatorial candidate, Odii further revealed that the Primaries conducted on 28,29th May 2022 was monitored by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, while that of the second primaries conducted on 4,5th June 2022 was not monitored by the commission.”

He said: “Certainly we are sure of victory at the supreme court because the Primaries that produced Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii was highly transparent and INEC has written a report validating the outcome of the primaries held 28/29 May 2022. And that very report was very unequivocal in stating that the Primaries were conducted legally and lawfully. And that the Primaries was eventually very conclusive.

“And we used the authentic delegate list. And so, we have no problem for whatsoever reason. We want to believe that everything will go smoothly as expected. I’m not meant to go in detail because the matter is still pending in court.”

The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Matthew Hassan Kukah, has condemned the All Progressives Congress, APC, Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket.

Bishop Kukah called the ticket reprehensible and unacceptable.

In an interview with Channels Television on Thursday, the Catholic Bishop insisted that the ticket was a setback to the country’s national integration.

Despite the protests of Nigerians, APC presidential candidate Bola Tinubu chose Kashim Shettima as his running mate.

Tinubu is a Muslim from the Southwest, whereas Shettima is a Muslim from the North.

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Kukah, on the other hand, wondered if Muslims would accept a Christian-Christian presidential ticket.
He said Nigerians would wait to hear what they have to say when the campaign starts.

He said: “But moving forward, the question I have asked my friends who are Muslims, especially those who are from northern Nigeria, is a simple question: ‘Would Muslims in Nigeria or northern Nigeria be ready to make the same concession that Christians made in 1984 and 1993?

“I think that as a Christian, this is totally reprehensible. It is not acceptable to me, but that is the decision of the APC as a party. Perhaps, when the campaign starts, we will hear what people have to say.”

Rivers State governor Nyesom Wike has asked a court to declare him the winner of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) primary election and sack Atiku Abubakar from being the presidential candidate.
Wike and a PDP chieftain, Newgent Ekamon also sued Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal; and the PDP over the conduct of the presidential primary of the party that was held was in Abuja on May 28 and May 29, 2022.

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Atiku was declared winner of the primary election with 371 votes ahead of his closest challenger, Wike, who polled 237 votes. Former Senate President Bukola Saraki got 70 votes. Tambuwal withdrew from the contest and endorsed the former vice president before voting commenced.

In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/782/2022, Wike Ekamon, are listed as the plaintiffs with the PDP listed as the first respondent while the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is the 2nd respondent. Tambuwal and Atiku are listed as the 3rd and 4th respondents respectively.

In the originating summons, Wike and his co-applicant asked the court to determine eight issues including whether the purported transfer of Tambuwal’s votes to Atiku by the PDP was illegal and void.

The plaintiffs asked the court to determine if Tambuwal lost his claim to votes the moment he stepped down for Atiku.

He asked the court to determine whether Tambuwal “having stepped down during the primaries ought to lose his votes.”

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Wike and Ekamon argued that should these issues be determined in their favour, the court should grant nine reliefs including a declaration that the purported transfer of Tambuwal’s votes to Atiku be declared null and void.

The plaintiffs are also seeking a declaration that the PDP acted negligently and in bad faith by assigning the Sokoto governor’s votes to Atiku at the primary.

They prayed the court to “cancel the transfer of votes and a corresponding order restraining the 3rd respondent (Tambuwal’s) withdrawal in the primary was done after voting had commenced.”

The applicants also prayed the court to declare that the PDP and Atiku took undue advantage of Tambuwal’s withdrawal when they allowed the Sokoto governor to persuade delegates to vote for the former Vice-President in the primary.

Wike and Ekamon asked the court to order INEC to reject or remove Atiku from “its list of candidates in the 2023 presidential election.”

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They are also seeking an order commanding the PDP to recount the votes of the primary that was held on May 28 and May 29.

Lastly, the applicants are seeking an order of the court “directing the 1st respondent (PDP) to declare the 2nd applicant (Wike), a presidential aspirant in the May 28 and May 29 primary as the winner of the aforesaid primary with a corresponding order directing the 1st respondent (PDP) to forward his name as the candidate to contest the presidential election in 2023.”

In a supporting affidavit he deposed to, Ekamon noted that he was a member of the PDP and attested to the fact that Wike won the presidential election.

He maintained that Tambuwal withdrew from the contest after voting had commenced and directed that his votes be assigned to Atiku.

“The 1st (PDP) and 4th (Atiku) respondents who also wanted the votes desperately agreed with the 3rd (Tambuwal) and assigned 3rd (Tambuwal) respodnent’s votes to the 4th (Atiku) respondent and increased his votes to win the 2nd applicant (Wike).

“The 2nd applicant (Wike) won the primaries if the votes of the 3rd respondent (Tambuwal) had not been transferred or assigned to the 4th respondent (Atiku).

“If I wanted to scuttle the convention, I could have done that and I told them… I have never seen how people can violate procedures and guidelines. Somebody had spoken. It is only at that point he was speaking that he could say I have withdrawn. You don’t call him back,” Wike had said.

PDP spokesman Debo Ologunagba said he was unaware of the case and thus could not comment on it.

Wike has been at loggerheads with Atiku and Tambuwal since his defeat in the presidential primary.

He had criticised the PDP for allowing Tambuwal to canvass votes for Atiku after he had already been allowed to speak earlier at the convention.

Wike last week accused Atiku of lying and sending ‘attack dogs’ after him.

The Rivers State governor said he will speak on the issues between him, the PDP, and Atiku before the general elections.

“When the time comes, I will speak and Nigerians will know what actually happened. And they will decide for themselves,” Wike said.

Atiku’s decision to allegedly ditch the recommendation of a PDP committee to pick Wike as his running mate for Delta State governor Ifeanyi Okowa further strained their relationship.

Speaking at an TV interview last week, Atiku denied receiving a recommendation from a PDP panel vote to choose Wike as running mate and stated that he chose Okowa because he wanted someone he could work with “amicably”.

Former Sports and Youth Development Minister Bolaji Abdullahi urged Nigerians on Wednesday to vote out the All Progressive Congress in the 2023 elections, claiming that the current ruling party has ruined the country.

According to the former minister, the 2023 general elections provide Nigerians with another historic opportunity to make Nigeria work again.

He stated that the dream of making Nigeria great could only be realised if citizens, through elections, chased away politicians affiliated with the APC.

Abdullahi, the PDP’s Kwara central senatorial candidate in the upcoming general election, stated this while speaking at the 33rd edition of the ‘Media Parliament’ of the Kwara State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists in Ilorin.

He spoke on ‘Retooling Nigeria For the Task Ahead’.

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Abdullahi said, “The APC government has brought this nation to its kneels. All the things we thought could not happened had happened in the last seven years. There is no way we can exonerate APC from the problems of this country.

“APC has ruined this country. Nigerians should say no to any politician seeking elective office under APC. 2023 presents historic opportunity to make Nigeria work again.
“Every Nigerian lives in fear today because of the problems of insecurity and poverty. The poorest of the poor are 90 million in Nigeria today. But we seem not to understand the magnitude of the problem facing us. We carry on as if all is well. We are treating cancer with wrapping bandage on it.”
Abdullahi also traced Nigeria’s problem to 1966 when the nation had its first coup plot, said that no nation can have peace without justice.

He added, “After the civil war our leaders ought to realise that the Nigeria that the British gave us could not work. We should have restructured the country then.

“Another opportunity we missed to make Nigeria a real nation was the annulment of June 12. We diagnosed the issue as if it was a Yoruba problem and decided to make one of them a president in 1999. We had a lot of opportunities in June 12 debacle but we bungled them.”

Speaking on the lingering ASUU strike, the former Minister called for an urgent resolution to save the nation’s education sector from total collapse.

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According to him the issue in contention should be resolved amicably to enable students resume academic activities.

He expressed worry over the security challenges in the country, adding that all hands must be on deck to bring a lasting solution to the problem.

Abdullahi also urged the youths to contribute their quota to ensure better development of the country.

Earlier in his address of welcome the Chairman of Nigeria Union of Journalists Kwara state Council, Ahmed Abdulateef, called for the collaboration of all stakeholders to make the country better.

Bishop David Oyedepo of the Living Faith Church has urged Nigerian youths to be cautious when making decisions ahead of the 2023 elections.

Oyedepo stated that any decision made by the youths during this period will have an impact on their future.

He warned them against selling their birthright.

He spoke at the church’s headquarters in Ota, Ogun State, during the International Youth Alive Convention 2022, titled ‘Destined for Dominion.’

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“The youths must understand the times and seasons of life,” Oyedepo says. If you miss your planting season as a farmer, you will miss out on the harvest for the year.

“We serve a God of times and seasons, so we must be conversant with His timings not to lose the beauty ordained for each season in our life.

“This is the prime time of your life; please be sensitive. The season you are in, now according to scriptures, is where your future is determined. Therefore, don’t sell off your birthright.”