Senator Iyorcha Ayu has been elected the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as Taofeek Arapaja also emerged the National Deputy Chairman (South).
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Ayu, who was the consensus candidate at the party national convention in Abuja, got 3,426 affirmative votes out of 3,511 accredited voters.
However, Arapaja secured a total of 2,004 votes to defeat his only rival, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, former Governor of Osun, who polled 705 votes, while invalid votes were 165.
Also, Umar Damagum scored a total of 2,222 votes to defeat his sole rival, Mrs Inna Ciroma, for the position of Deputy National Chairman (North), who polled 365 votes.
NAN reports that the position of National Youth Leader was won by Mohammed Suleiman with 3,072 votes, while his co-contestant, Usman Elkudan, had 219 votes.
Efforts to achieve consensus candidates for all 21 elective national offices of the party suffered a setback as agreement could not be reached for three offices.
The three offices were the Deputy National Chairman (South) and Deputy National Chairman (North), as well as the National Youth Leader of the party.
Those returned unopposed with uniform votes of 3,426 were Samuel Anyanwu as National Secretary; Ahmed Mohammed- National Treasurer; Umar Bature as National Organising secretary and Daniel Woyegikuro as National Financial Secretary.
Other returned elected by the Returning Officer, Gov. Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa, were Stella Effah-Attoe as National Woman Leader; Kamaldeen Adeyemi Ajibade as National Legal Adviser; Debo Ologunagba as National Publicity Secretary and Okechukwu Daniel as National Auditor.
Also elected were Setonji Kosheodo as Deputy National Secretary; Ndubisi David as Deputy National Treasurer; Ibrahim Abdullahi as Deputy National Publicity Secretary and Ighoyota Amori as Deputy National Organising Secretary,
Adamu Kamale was elected the Deputy National Financial Secretary; Hajara Wanka as Deputy National Woman Leader; Timothy Osadolor, as Deputy National Youth Leader, Okechukwu Osuoha as Deputy National Legal Adviser and Albdulraman Mohammed as Deputy National Auditor.
NAN reports that the new members of the National Working Committee are expected to assume offices after the tenure of the incumbent members expires on Dec. 9.
In his appreciation remarks, Ayu said that the PDP was back to take over Nigeria and develop it.
The national chairman-elect said the PDP did it before and would do it again.
“I want to sincerely appreciate the PDP family. Today is simply a “thank you“ address. When we started this party 23 years ago, we never in any way imagined that the journey would get us to this stage.
“A stage where we ruled for 16 years, we went into rough times, but for anybody who bother to see, PDP is back.
“I want to appreciate all of you who have taken time as delegates as observers, as supporters, as members of the media as members of the security services who have made this event such a wonderful event.
“Many people imagine that this convention will lead to the break up of PDP. Those people who are dreaming like that, their dreams were misplaced.
“Those who have lost hope should know that Nigeria is not a divided country. A small group of people decided to divide Nigeria.
“PDP will come back to unite our people, put them together, north and south, east and west.
“We will move ahead to develop this country. We did it before. We are going to do it again. I want to thank the governors,” Ayu said.
Presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, has said President Muhammadu Buhari’s threat, and subsequent implementation, of a divisive allocation of position and federal resources on the basis of 2015 election results was politically expedient.
“It is natural in politics,” Adesina told Vanguard when asked about the controversial approach in an interview published on Sunday.
Buhari faced criticism in July 2015 when he said he would be more attuned to favouring regions that gave him electoral victory during the March 28, 2015, presidential poll than those who voted for his opponent.
“The constituents, for example, that gave me 97 per cent [of the vote] cannot, in all honesty, be treated on some issues with constituencies that gave me five per cent,” Buhari said at a town hall organised by the United States Institute of Peace in Washington on July 22. “I think these are a political reality.”
The statement immediately elicited fireworks across Nigeria and has continued to define the legacy of Mr Buhari’s presidency. He has since sidelined the Igbo-dominated South-East from national security, economy and other critical areas of democratic governance.
Buhari did not apologise or walk back his comments more than six years on, and Mr Adesina’s response to Vanguard on the matter indicates the administration’s intention to dig its heels in.
“The highest place where Buhari got maybe about 20% was Abia due to Kalu’s influence, in Ebonyi because David Umahi even when he was in PDP had always loved the President,” Adesina said. “He didn’t score more than 20% anywhere even when what he required was 25%. So the southeasterners will need to readdress their politics, play more national politics.”
“You first take care of the needs of those who gave you 95% before those who gave you 5%, it is natural,” he added.
Even though Buhari’s cabinet appointees and federal projects concentration failed to reflect the ethnic and religious balance of Nigeria, Adesina said the president should not be seen as a sectional leader.
Adesina said the President stated that the Constitution handicapped him “from side-lining any part of the country,” and he won’t go against the Constitution.
“Mischievous people took only the earlier part of the statement and cut out the rest just because they wanted to generate controversy,” Adesina said, arguing further that a list of federal appointees under Buhari showed there were more people from Ogun and Imo than other states.
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Saturday debunked a report attributed to him that terrorists were collecting taxes in the northern parts of the country just as “Area Boys’’ extorted commuters in the southern parts.
The minister said in a statement issued in Abuja by Mr Joe Mutah, his Chief Press Secretary, that the report was “a figment of the warped imagination of the author.’’
The statement said the report, attributed to the minister after he addressed a news briefing on the distorted report of the Economist Magazine on Nigeria, was twisted by the author who was not even at the event.
“It’s inconceivable how a reporter, who was not even at the event, extrapolated the comments of the minister to manufacture his or her conclusion on the minister’s remarks.
“For clarity, the minister never mentioned what was dishonestly attributed to him,’’ the statement said.
It said the reporter twisted the response of the minister to a question on a news report that some bandits imposed taxes on some communities in Sokoto State.
“The minister remarked that, assuming without conceding that the report is true, the claim that some bandits imposed taxes on some communities was not an indication that the communities were effectively under the control of the bandits.
“He only provided some examples, which the reporter twisted to fabricate a misleading caption for the story.
“I will refer you to the original recording of the minister at the event in order to put the report in the correct perspective,’’ Mutah added.
He stressed that the report was twisted and fell under the categorisation of fake news.
Former Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim, says he will contest for presidency in 2023 irrespective of whether the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) zones the ticket to the South-East.
In an interview with journalists on Saturday, Anyim said, “Posters of my presidential bid and agitations by groups for me to contest flooded the social media in 2020 and I disassociated myself from such calls.
“I felt that it was too early for such a declaration, to enable the present administration concentrate on governance.
“Such calls resurfaced in the early part of 2021 and I chose to be quiet over the issue.
“We currently have less than 18 months to the next elections, and I feel the time is ripe to indicate my interest,” Anyim said.
He said that the zoning committee instituted by the party was only saddled with zoning party positions and not other positions.
“Zoning of such positions was deferred but nothing stops anyone from South-East Zone from contesting the presidency even if it is not zoned to it,” he said.
The former Secretary to the Government of the Federation noted that the party’s national convention would signal the commencement of its political activities.
“The most important thing is that the party’s national convention is a sort of rebirth for a group of people who have recovered from a setback,” he added.
Anyim said that in spite of the party’s seeming conflict with its former Chairman Uche Secondus, he remained a friend to many members.
“He is particularly my friend and we do not have any problem with him. The issue is that the party needed to move but be assured that he is not going into wilderness,” Anyim said.
Nigerians have cried out to President Muhammadu Buhari over the high cost of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), otherwise called cooking gas, in the country, urging him to take drastic measures to crash the price of the product in the interest of the masses.
From Lagos to Kano, Kebbi, Bayelsa, Cross River, Port Harcourt and Benue, many households lamented that the cost of the product has risen beyond their reach, urging the President, who doubles as the Minister of Petroleum Resources, to take urgent steps to make it as affordable as it once were if he loves poor Nigerians as he claims.
Recall that earlier this month, marketers of LPG expressed concerns over the supply shortage and persistent increase in the price of cooking gas and cylinders in Nigeria.
The marketers had warned that the 12.5kg cylinder of cooking gas, which then sold at between N7,500 and N8,000 could rise to N10,000 by December if the government fails to address the crisis.
Executive secretary of the National Association of LPG Marketers, Mr. Bassey Essien, who gave the warning, blamed the hike in the price of the product on the recently introduced import charges and Value Added Tax (VAT) by the Federal Government, saying, “the price of cooking gas may as well reach N10,000 for a 12.5kg cylinder.”
In Kebbi State, a National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member serving in Jega, Francis Oluwayomi, said the product has become a luxury in the area.
“Here, it is 700 per kilogramme (kg) and the marketers are threatening that that the prices would still go up. In the past, I used to fill the gas up, but now, I just go there and tell them to sell N3,000 worth of gas, because I can’t kill myself. A lot of people have retired their cylinders and started using coal to cook but that one is even becoming expensive. I am fed up.”
A resident of Port Harcourt, Seyi Abidoye, said a 12.5kg cylinder retails for between N8,500 and N9, 000, saying the situation was unbearable.
“Rent, food, school fees are all going up everyday. The cost of living is getting out of hand. I bought it at N7, 500 just last month, and it has gone up by N1, 000 in less than a month. The dealers are adding money every other day. This is not sustainable for us. Early this year, this same cylinder was less than N4, 000; today it is more than double the price. Only God knows how much we would buy it towards Christmas when gas is usually scarce here,” he said.
According to Nancy Adenike, who resides in Ipaja area of Lagos State, “two weeks ago, I bought my 12.5kg for N7,200; the same day by evening it had become N7,500.”
Oluseun Olofin, a resident in Ayobo area of the state, said: “It is really sad, which way is the country going? The cost of practically everything you need for survival is on the increase. The country is becoming unbearable for the masses.”
Adebusola Ishola, a resident in Ikotun area of Lagos, also said: “A kilogramme of gas, which used to cost N300, now goes for N700. This is getting unbearable for us. I wonder what would happen as we approach the festive season.
“I just bought gas yesterday at N8, 200 for 12.5kg,” he added.
Investigations by The Guardian in Kano State showed that a sizable number of residents have resorted to using firewood and charcoal as an alternative to cooking gas due to the new price regime.
A resident, Alhaji Kabir Muhammad of Tudun Wada quarters, Kano metropolis, said the hike in the price of the product has taken a heavy toll on his life as an average income earner.
Muhammad said he had been using the product for over a decade now due to its affordability and accessibility but could no longer afford it now.
Another resident, Labaran Habib of Jaen Quarters in Gwale local council area, said it has practically become impossible for him to fill his 12.5kg since the price shot up. He explained that a 12.5kg cylinder sold at N3,500 in the state six months ago as against the current price of N8,000.
Residents of Calabar, the Cross River State capital, also decried the continuous rise in the price of cooking gas, stating that it has never been this bad in the history of Nigeria.
A resident, who identified herself simply as Mrs. Affiong, lamented the constant increase, saying she filled her 7kg cylinder last week for N5,600 at the rate of N800 per kg.
“In the past three months, I have been spending more than usual on filling my cylinder. Every time you go to gas station, they give you a new price. It is frustrating and my gas only last for one month. How do we cope with this in this country?” she asked.
A spinster, Anabel Ojong said: “I can no longer fill my 3kg cylinder since the price of gas increased to N700 per kilogramme and now N850. Most times, I only fill a kilogramme that would last me for one week. And it’s not just gas. The price of foodstuff is increasing on a daily basis; the masses are suffering. I wonder why the government derives pleasure in punishing the citizens.” She lamented.
One Mr. Benedict Ekpenyong claimed that because of the increase in the price of gas, his family cooks once a day.
“I have told my wife to cook just once a day. We no longer warm our food; we eat our lunch and dinner cold. I cannot afford to be filling 12.5 kilogrammes at N800 and sometimes N850 and that will not even last for one month. To tell you the truth, in the past three months, I could only afford to fill four kilogrammes. It has never been this bad,” he lamented.
It was the same tales of lamentation in Benue State, where a woman, Josephine Tsueka, told The Guardian that due to the daily rise in the price of cooking, she has resorted to the use of firewood and charcoal to cook.
But she lamented that even charcoal and firewood were gradually getting out of hand. The situation in Bayelsa State was not different.
A visit to some of the gas refilling plants in Yenagoa revealed that the sale of cooking gas has reduced drastically as customers now patronise those selling kerosene obtained from illegal refining outlets known as ‘kpofire’.
The Guardian checks revealed that a kilogrammme of cooking gas, which was sold at N360 in October last year was sold at ₦720 as at yesterday.
This means that a three-kilogramme gas cylinder which was refilled at between ₦1, 080 to ₦1,180 now goes for between ₦2,700 to ₦3,000, while 12.5kg normally which was refilled at N4,500 now costs between ₦8,500 and ₦9,000.
Residents who spoke with The Guardian said they could no longer afford to buy at that price, so they had to go back to kerosene stove while some of them now use charcoal and firewood.
Also, most food vendors and restaurants that could not use firewood and kerosene because of the peculiarity of their environment have increased the prices of their food.
At a popular eatery in Ekeki area of Yenagoa, a plate of food that was sold at ₦500 now costs ₦700. A housewife, Mrs Tessy Binaowei, said: “I was so happy when my husband brought home the cooking gas three years ago because it saves time and I don’t have to wash the back of my pots every now and then. But it’s has become too bad that I had to go back to where I was coming from.
“I have to wake up as early as 4:00am now to look for other alternatives to see how I can boil water for my kids to take their to bath before going to school. The cold weather here and the incessant blackout are not helping matters. “I am calling on the government to quickly do something because the suffering is becoming unbearable and suffocating.”
Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi, on Friday, has said a free and vibrant press possesses powers more potent than all the arms of government combined, thus must be careful in exercising its mandate.
”A truly free and vibrant press is more powerful than the three traditional arms of government combined.
”In fact, the world would be a scary and dark place without the mavens who collect, curate and communicate information in a timely and responsible manner.
”In so doing, they dispel falsehood, eliminate dangerous assumptions and provide societies with the basic premise upon which governance and other decisions can be made,” Bello said at the opening session of the 29th edition of the Nigerian Media Merit Award (NMMA), at Government House, Lokoja.
The governor noted that modern society cannot do without journalists as they were helping to bring order to society and engender human cooperation.
He, however, noted that lives and whole societies had been ruined by the irresponsible practice of journalism by some media practitioners, or quacks who impersonated them.
The governor stressed that the use of the tools of the journalists’ trade to deal in hate speech had set off many on fire which ultimately consumed whole polities and their people.
“Fake news is ubiquitous nowadays, whether it is rumour-mongering, dangerous innuendos, character assassination or other forms of inaccurate reportage.
“The problem is so endemic that in Q3 2020 alone, statistics showed that there were 1.8 billion engagements with fake news on Facebook alone! Nigeria, like many countries, has fallen victim to it many times, sometimes with devastating loss of lives or properties.
“The Press is, therefore, one of the inescapable hallmarks of modern society and in particular, the custodians of public perception. What a divine responsibility!
“However, the Press is useful only to the extent that it functions within the ambit of verity and veracity and in line with demands of propriety. It must regulate itself with the help of the Law to avoid malfunctioning,” he said.
Bello stressed that practitioners must recognise that as a result of the incredible powers which society had entrusted to them, there should be a corresponding exhibition of responsibility, ethics and professionalism in the exercise of those powers by journalists.
He added: “Necessity is, therefore, laid on the real journalists to stand up and be counted when it comes to taking back their profession from the quacks and the hacks, specifically the myriad of unregulated persons armed with Internet-enabled devices who haunt the media space, especially social media.
“These malicious persons wreck lives and reputations by the millions simply because someone paid them, or because they have real or imagined grouse against an individual or institution. Worse, they proceed without a care in the world because no one regulates them.”
He, therefore, enjoined the NMMA as the most important institution to reward merit in the way individuals and media houses practice journalism, while providing critical motivation for the real journalists to do their work professionally.
“In this way, the NMMA will help to promote sanity in the industry and simultaneously function as an accountability partner for most professional journalists,” the governor said.
Bello’s political party, the All Progressives Congress, has been pushing for regulation of the Nigerian media over accusations of fake news and threats to national security.
Nonetheless, government officials, including Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, and Bello, have themselves been caught dishing untruths on national and public interest issues.
The National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Emmanuel Osodeke, has revealed how the union, during its last negotiations, rejected Federal Government’s plan to increase school fees of all university students to N1m.
He said government’s plan was to open an education bank and give each student a loan of N1m annually at five per cent interest rate to sponsor themselves in school and then pay back when they graduate and start working.
Osodeke stated this while answering questions from participants at a one-day ‘state of the nation summit’ organised for ASUU members by the Bauchi zone of the union.
He said, “At the last negotiation, the first thing they told us was that we should negotiate for our allowances and salaries but we said no, let’s discuss funding first. When we know how much you’re going to pay, then we can negotiate salary. Reluctantly, they went on.
“Then, they raised another issue which was why we delayed for four years, that students must pay N1m as school fees every year; the government said 70 per cent will be paid to the university while the student keeps 30 per cent.
“We asked them where and how the students would source the money and they told us not to worry. They said they would open an education bank and the students would go there and take the N1m every year.
“And by the time you are graduating, you would have been owing N5m or N6m. If it takes you 20 years to get a job, that five per cent interest on that loan would be building.
“We said we will never allow that, and that was why we went on strike and we delayed in calling off the strike.
“If we had accepted that students pay N1m as school fees, they would have increased our pay easily and who would the public and the students blame? It is ASUU.”
Osodeke said that if they had accepted the offer, people would have accused them of fighting for their personal interests and not the collective good of Nigerians.
On Wednesday, a federal jury awarded 17 million dollars for damages to the family of a mentally disabled man who was fatally shot by an off-duty Los Angeles police officer inside a Costco in Corona.
The jury’s verdict came a day after U.S. District Judge Jesus G. Bernal found that Officer Salvador Sanchez used excessive and unreasonable force in June 2019 when he shot and killed 32-year-old Kenneth French.
The shooting followed a brief confrontation between the two men while in a line to sample sausages.
Mr Sanchez was awaiting trial on manslaughter and assault charges filed by the California attorney general’s office after a Riverside County grand jury declined to indict Mr Sanchez a few months after the killing.
He was fired by the LAPD last year after the L.A. Police Commission’s finding that he violated department policy in the shooting of Mr French and his parents, who were gravely wounded.
After four hours of deliberations at the federal courthouse in Riverside, the jury of six women and two men found that Mr Sanchez acted within the scope of his LAPD employment when he fired 10 shots at the French family while they were shopping at Costco.
The suit was filed by Mr French’s parents, Russell and Paola French, against Sanchez and the city, but Los Angeles is liable for most, if not all, of the damages, according to Dale K. Galipo, their attorney.
The damage award was unusually high for a police shooting case, said Galipo, who frequently represents victims of police shootings and their families.
“They’re hoping that now that they’ve received some justice on behalf of Kenneth, they can start the healing and closure process,’’ he said.
Rob Wilcox, a spokesman for City Attorney Mike Feuer, said. “We will review all our options, including appeal.’’
Sanchez was not in the courtroom Wednesday for closing statements or the verdict in the civil case. His attorney, Andrew C. Hubert, declined to comment.
Some suspected supporters of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) have booed the campaign team of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in Anambra State, Valentine Ozigbo.
In a video circulating online, the PDP members were stopped from holding a campaign rally at head medicine market, popularly known as Ogbo Ogwu Onitsha.
They had visited the market to hold their campaign ahead of the November 6 governorship election in the state.
Rather than being welcomed, the politicians were disgraced and booed off by the traders who were heard saying there would be no campaign in the market.
In the video, the traders were seen singing in support of the detained leader of IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu.
They were heard chanting, “Holy, Holy, Nnamdi Kanu is another saviour.”
The Nigerian government had in June announced Kanu’s arrest and extradition from Kenya to continue to face trial in Nigeria.
He is facing charges bordering on treasonable felony instituted against him at the court in response to years of campaign for the independent Republic of Biafra through IPOB.
The IPOB leader was granted bail in April 2017 for health reasons but fled the country after his house in Abia State was attacked by the military.
Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State has given reasons the Ekiti State governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, was absent during the recent visit of the South-West governors to the residence of former Lagos State Governor and National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Akeredolu said that Fayemi was with them at the meeting held earlier at Lagos House, Marina, but had to leave to catch a late flight to Port Harcourt where he was a guest speaker at the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) yearly general conference dinner.
In a statement signed by Chief Press Secretary to Ondo Governor, Richard Olatunde, Akeredolu stressed the need to make some clarifications, following various insinuations and reactions in the media.
He said the visit to Tinubu was to show their love for him and wish him well after his return to the country.
In another development, Fayemi has said that the impending state awards to be conferred on former Governors Ayodele Fayose, Niyi Adebayo, Segun Oni and 45 others, including a legal icon, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), have no political undertone. He said that the 48 awardees were picked on merit for their contributions to the state’s development in all facets.
Fayemi, who spoke through the Commissioner for Special Duties, Alhaji Ayodele Jinadu, stated this yesterday at a press conference heralding the maiden edition of a state honour tagged ‘Oni Uyi Awards 2021’, slated for October 30, 2021. He said that two former state’s military administrators, Col. Inua Bawa and Commodore Atanda Yusuf, would benefit from the new honours designed by the state government to recognise those he categorised as ‘Architects and Builders’ of Ekiti. Fayemi said honouring Fayose and Oni, who are PDP chieftains shows the awards are without any political undertone.
The governor said that the categories of honours that would be bestowed on them included Ekiti Exceptional Achievers (EEA), Member of Ekiti Exceptional Achievers (MEEA), Member of Ekiti Meritorious Service (MEMS), Distinguished Friends of Ekiti, Member of Distinguished Friends of Ekiti (DFE) and Ekiti Reputable Entrepreneurship (ERE).
Other distinguished Ekiti indigenes to be honoured are the Chairman, Committee for the creation of Ekiti State, Chief Deji Fasuan; the Secretary to the State Government, Biodun Oyebanji; Secretary of Yoruba Council of Elder (YCE), Dr. Kunle Olajide and the late Mrs. Bola Omojola.
Also to be garlanded with awards are top-rated traditional rulers like the Ewi of Ado Ekiti, Oba Rufus Adeyemo Adejugbe; the Ajero of Ijero, Oba Joseph Adewole; Alaaye of Efon, Oba Emmanuel Aladejare and the Obanla of Ijesa Isu, Oba Gabriel Adeniyi.
