SSS Detains Sanusi, Passport Seized In Lagos

 

It seems there is a co-ordinated effort to intimated the suspended Governor of CBN, Mallam Sanusi Lamido as he has vowed to release more facts about monumental stealing of Nigeria's oil money. Sanusi has have told a few persons close to him that what he discovered recently is "outright stealing of oil money".

And to keep him shut, the Presidency is said to be deploying all tactics at its disposal to intimidate him so as to remain silent. SSS operations have already seized his travelling documents immediately he arrived Lagos from Niger Republic, where he had gone for an official assignment.

Shortly after his plane landed at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, he was accosted by SSS operatives who detained him and insisted they must take his passport on orders from above...

Mark stop 11 PDP senators’ defection bid

 

There was a drama in  the Senate on Tuesday when five senators announced their defection from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress.

But they  were immediately  ruled out of order by the  Senate President,  David Mark, who cited a case they instituted against him.

The senators, who announced their  defection during  plenary in Abuja,  are   Bukola Saraki (Kwara Central);  Aisha Al – Hassan, (Taraba North);  Magnus Abe (Rivers South-East); Wilson Ake (Rivers West) and Abdullahi Adamu (Nasarawa West).

They are also  among the 11 members of the upper arm of the National Assembly, who forwarded  a letter to Mark informing him of their defection to the opposition APC.

Saraki mobilises support for PDP in Kwara

Former Kwara State Senator, Gbemisola Saraki, has begun to mobilise support for the Peoples Democratic Party in the state in order to strengthen the party after a massive defection of a faction of the PDP to the All Progressives Congress.

Saraki formed the Gbemisola Rukayat Saraki platform to increase support for the PDP and the new national leader of the party, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu.

 Speaking to journalists on Tuesday, the state leader of Kwara Democrats, one of the main affiliate groups of the GRS, Aliyu Ibrahim, said the GRS was also to support the programmes and policies of President Goodluck Jonathan.

 He said, “The current mobilisation and consolidation of all GRS groups under our leader’s PDP structure was informed by the recent political development in the state. You know that the GRS support base is widespread and highly diversified.

“With the exit of a faction of PDP, other party leaders in the state have all agreed to work together. It is therefore necessary that we consolidate our structure towards achieving a unity of purpose.

“The GRS organisation, being one of the backbones of PDP in Kwara State, will do whatever is required to strengthen the party. We have a clear directive from Saraki herself on the need to build a formidable PDP along with other party leaders in the state to provide an unflinching support to President Goodluck Jonathan.

“Of course, we know we cannot achieve that without giving our utmost support to our new national chairman, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu. This is what we are doing. In the next few weeks, Nigerians will witness a massive transformation of our party in Kwara State. PDP remains the party to beat in Kwara and GRS is a key factor in the party.”

Ojikutu, Ex Lagos State Deputy Governor for arraignment Thursday

 

 Former Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Alhaja Sinatu Ojikutu

A Federal High Court Lagos, on Wednesday, fixed Thursday for the arraignment of a former Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Alhaja Sinatu Ojikutu, for alleged N130m fraud.

The Special Fraud Unit of the Nigeria Police claimed to have arrested Ojikutu in her Lagos home on Tuesday, after months of declaring her wanted, but failed to produce her in court on Wednesday.

The prosecuting counsel, Mr. Bukola Durojaiye, only urged the court presided over by Justice Mohammed Yunusa, to adjourn the matter till Thursday to enable the prosecution to assemble necessary document.

APC Threatening Nigeria’s Stability – Tonye Princewill

                                                  PRINCE TONYE PRINCEWILL

A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Rivers State, Prince Tonye Princewill berated the leadership of All Progressives Congress, APC for directing its members in the National Assembly to stall the passage of the 2014 budget, confirmation of Security Chiefs and screening of the newly nominated ministerial candidates, saying the party has no right to hold the nation to ransom.

Condemning what he described as an unpatriotic act and an attempt by the opposition to ‘Shut down the Country’, Princewill said, adding that “No man, woman or group of people has the right to threaten the stability of Nigeria. This is what this is”.
He recalled the incidence last year in the US when the Republicans tried to use their strength to hold the country to ransom.
“The repercussions of that move were obviously not in their favour, as the public came out in mass to reject the move. Citizens openly vowed never to vote for the party again, because of how immature their plans were”, he said.
Princewill predicted that the same will happen with APC, saying “Why is the National APC crying more than the bereaved?”
On calls for the redeployment of Police Commissioner, Mr. Joseph Mbu from Rivers State over his perceived antagonism towards the Rivers government, Princewill recalled that in the past, Governor Rotimi Amaechi used the police force to witch hunt, oppress and unlawfully harass the opposition.

Akin Osuntokun: Tambuwal lacks principle and political fidelity

The political misfortune that befell the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the South-west in 2010 gathered pace and momentum with the 2011 general election. In the space of one month the PDP governors of Ekiti and Osun States were relieved of their positions by two judgments of the appeal court under the leadership of Justice Ayo Salami. He presided over the panel that sat over the Osun State appeal and the earlier one of Ekiti State was heard by Justice Clara Ogunbiyi and others.
Asked why he tended to appoint the same set of justices to hear the cases, Justice Salami said they were the only ones he could trust. He more or less reiterated the same view at a forum organised by the Ikeja branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) two weeks ago. If those views are genuine reflections of the state of the judiciary, then Nigeria is in trouble.
The general election of 2011 took off from where the judgments of 2010 stopped and completed the rout of the PDP from governance position in the South-west. There was no let up to the misfortune as the PDP National Assembly members yielded to the candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on an industrial scale. The wholesale swap created a nuisance value for the new APC incumbents and they employed it to wreak maximum damage on the PDP. They colluded with PDP fifth columnists to install the current Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, against the express wish and directive of the majority party. By this action, they fomented disharmony and disequilibrium in the PDP (and by extension Nigeria itself) which had zoned the position to the South-west.
Beyond partisanship and in so doing, the APC legislators wilfully deprived the South-west of representation at the highest echelons of government and are directly responsible for the marginalisation of the Yoruba in the current political configuration in Nigeria. They should be made to account for this at the coming elections.
The understated definition of the behaviour of Tambuwal is anti-party activity and lack of political fidelity and principle — going against the explicit directives of his party and teaming up with opponents to undermine and destabilise the platform that brought him to office — in the first instance. The double tragedy of Tambuwal’s misdemeanour is the news floating around that he is set to defect to the APC and probably take the Speakership with him to his new destination. The rumour is thick in the air that he is one of the presidential hopefuls of the APC. If that is the case and he goes ahead to pick the ticket he will start his race against significant headwinds. The first important huddle of his obstacle race will result from his cruel insensitivity to the South-west — a zone he deprived of the opportunity to occupy a befitting seat at the national dining table. Some of us from the South-west will remind him of this self-centred opportunism and disregard when he comes to profess his love for the zone. One bad turn deserves another.
I have been severally told and it may well be the case that Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso has done well in his primary assignment of governing Kano State. In addition to his rich political resume, this is another good credential in aid of his presumed presidential aspiration. It is up to his party to decide on what becomes of his aspiration but I have two strong reservations on his prospects. They are encapsulated in his tendentious regionally hawkish and arrogant positions on national issues. The other day he was reported as saying ‘we’ will not allow an additional state to be created in the South-east zone. That is the first time I heard of anyone from another zone threatening to stop the creation of state in the other. Kwankwaso is not bound to share any antipathy against Major Hamza Al-Mustapha but going so far as to publicly spearhead a reception party to welcome him back to Kano is the height of indiscretion and insensitivity to the feelings of many Nigerians — for whom Mustapha is the anti-hero.
My position on the eligibility of General Mohammadu Buhari for the office of the president of Nigeria is too well known to warrant a recapitulation here but of course one man’s poison is another man’s sweet cup of tea.
Besides, since I’m not a fan of APC, there is a sense in which my unsolicited assessment of their potential presidential candidates can be interpreted as that of an agent provocateur setting them up against the candidates who best stand the chance of coasting home to victory at the 2015 presidential poll! The logic that ties together all touted presidential aspirants on the platform of the APC is the adoption of the zoning formula originally enunciated by the PDP. The field is further narrowed down by the observation that the Middle Belt or the Christian North is not showing any particular interest in seeking to become president on either party platform. For the APC, it can be reasonably adduced that the ticket is reserved for the far (or Muslim) North. On this score, a situation has uniquely arisen that can best be understood by what sociologists call the theory of social reproduction which ‘refers to the emphasis on the structures and activities that transmit social inequality from one generation to the next’.
This phenomenon is often complemented by the inertia of power which ‘is a power of resisting-by which everybody endeavours to preserve its present state’. As contemporary presidential politics unfolds in the APC, it is discernable that, wittingly or inadvertently, the Hausa-Fulani, to the exclusion of other sub-nationalities, has the run of the field. Even within this politically dominant exclusive group, the charge is sometimes made that the North-west Fulani arrogate to themselves higher political reckoning over their North-east counterparts.
Personally I’m inclined to believe that this is inadvertent and not deliberate. The problem about social and political inequality is that without intending it as such, it has a way of perpetuating itself. If Chief Obafemi Awolowo and his lieutenants in the western regional government did not introduce the free primary education policy when they did, a caste system would probably have, by now, emerged among the Yoruba. If the century long struggle to acquire the right to vote and be voted for by African Americans did not succeed, Barack Obama would not have the opportunity to prove his mettle as an exceptional President of America. Before him were the world historic figures of Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela.
To suggest that the contemporary history of the defunct Northern region cannot be fully comprehended without reference to Hausa- Fulani hegemony is as true as to say that Shehu Usman Dan Fodio and his descendants founded the Sokoto caliphate on military and religious conquest. The subsisting Hausa-Fulani political predominance hacks back to the antecedence of the Sokoto caliphate and its Fulani-based theocratic hierarchy. And if the other ethnic and sub ethnic nationalities within the region are unperturbed and indifferent to their subordination then the caliphate and its standard bearers must be commended for exemplary political management skills in securing the happy and voluntary submission of others to the underlying socio-political order. Worthy of note in this regard is the 19th century legacy of the sophisticated statecraft displayed in the exchange of diplomatic demarches between the Shehu of Bornu and the Sultan of Sokoto to douse supremacist tension between the two.
The APC presidential politics was foreshadowed and foretold by the representative figures of Sir Ahmadu Bello, Presidents Shehu Shagari and Umaru Musa Yar’Adua who are all Fulani. With the exception of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, all elected Nigerian chief executives of Northern origin were Fulani. Balewa is actually the exception that proves the rule-when it is recalled that he explicitly served as proxy for his leader, Ahmadu Bello, as the Prime Minister of Nigeria. The latter famously snubbed conformity to the norm of the parliamentary system of government — where the leader of the majority party is expected to assume the headship of the government — in this case, the federal government of Nigeria and chose to send his deputy to stand in for him.
Kashim Ibrahim Imam is one of the few members of our generation who has successfully transcended the regional-national political divide. He has put to good use his early Lagos cosmopolitan exposure as a student of Kings College, Lagos, where he bonded with fellow students of different ethnic and regional background.
He has his legs well rooted and planted in Borno politics and has his head successfully mingling in the air of national politics. He is
perhaps the most successful farmer among his contemporaries all over Nigeria and knows how to navigate Nigeria’s casino economy. The fact that he was consecutively the governorship candidate of the PDP in Borno State in the 2003 and 2007 elections suggests he is a formidable grassroots politician. Perhaps in deference to the logic of his height, he does not do things in small measures. He is today the most passionate canvasser for the APC and has endeavoured to persuade me to join his party. This mission has ended in flare ups on two occasions and he has threatened to lead a public party delegation to overawe me at the next attempt.
The truth is that I increasingly tend to feel lonely in the PDP while I’m hedged all round at family and friendship levels by members of Labour party (LP) and APC. It has got so bad that it has steadily chipped away at my social life but I’m comforted in the belief that my present persuasion is a vocation, a calling. Somebody has to stand up in the public space to give balance to the near one sided hypocritical narrative in the media today. By the way, is it a coincidence that my earlier three presidential preferences from the North (Dangiwa Umar, Nuhu Ribadu and Aliko Dangote) are all Hausa-Fulani? With the potential candidacy of Kashim Imam, the cause of political equity and inclusiveness is better served within the North itself. And for me personally it will serve as atonement for my unintentional Hausa-Fulani bias.
———————————–

Rivers crisis: APC set for showdown with FG …directs members in N’Assembly to block budget passage

 

Interim National Publicity Secretary, All Progressives Congress, Lai Mohammed

 The All Progressives Congress is set  for a showdown with the Federal Government as it has directed its members in the National Assembly  to block all legislative proposals, including the 2014 Appropriation Bill, until constitutionalism is  restored in Rivers State, in particular and the nation in general.

 Other issues pending before the National Assembly that APC wants its  lawmakers to stand against are the  confirmation of the appointment of  the Chief of Defence Staff, the  service chiefs  and the  ministerial nominees.

 This  directive was contained in a statement  issued by the APC at the end of its  8th  National Executive Council meeting   in Abuja on Thursday.

The  APC  has 172 members in the House of Representatives as against the 171 by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party. Labour Party has eight, the All Progressives Grand Alliance, five;  the Accord Party, two; and Democratic Peoples Party, one

 In the Senate, the APC has 33 members while the PDP has 72. Labour Party has three  and  APGA has  one.

The Senate is expected to begin consideration of the 2014 budget on Tuesday. Its Committee on Defence,Army,Navy and Air Force, in conjunction with that of the House of Representatives, is also to start the screening of the ministerial nominees, the CDS and the service  chiefs from next week.

 The  APC, in the statement   read to journalists by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, noted that the level of impunity by federal authorities in Rivers State, could no longer be tolerated.

 The party said   it might  no longer restrain its members nationwide, especially in Rivers State, from taking whatever step necessary to protect themselves and their property, if the Federal Government failed to stop the growing culture of lawlessness in the state.

 It observed that the manner in which the rights of citizens of the state was being breached by persons and institutions saddled with the responsibility of protecting them, was no longer acceptable.

 The statement  reads in part, “Following the forgoing and in view of the joint resolutions of the National Assembly on Rivers State, and other constitutional breaches by the Presidency, the APC hereby directs its members in the National Assembly, to block all “legislative proposals, including the 2014 Budget and confirmation of all nominees to military and civilian positions to public offices until the rule of law and constitutionalism are restored in Rivers State in particular, and Nigeria in general.

   “The NEC  of the APC has now resolved that if these acts of impunity and lawlessness continued unabated and the Police persist  in being as an enforcement arm of the PDP(Peoples Democratic Party)  to the detriment of our members, it will have no alternative but to ask our teeming members all over the country, and especially in Rivers State, to take whatever steps that are necessary to protect their lives and property.”

The APC said any cursory observer of events in Rivers State since February, 2013, would be left in no doubt as to the culture of impunity being promoted and supported by the Presidency, and executed by the State Commissioner of Police, Joseph Mbu.

 It accused Mbu of acting like a de facto military Governor of Rivers State and sole administrator of the PDP in the state.

 The party listed the “forceful” dispersal of 13,201 newly recruited teachers in the Port Harcourt Stadium; blockading the entrance to the Government House in Port Harcourt and forcing the State governor(Rotimi Amaechi) to use another entrance, as instances of the brazen lawlessness and violations of the 1999 Constitution by agents of the Federal Government.

 It also cited the blockade of a chartered aircraft by Amaechi from taking off without  apology to him.

 The APC also made reference to the disruption of a peaceful rally during which Senator Magnus Abe was allegedly shot with rubber bullets, the   disruption of Save Rivers Group rallies, and the unlawful detention of persons  perceived to be  Amaechi supporters.

 The party however commended Amaechi’s  conduct, saying   it  represented  its  maturity and compliance with the rule of law.

“The NEC  commended the courage, maturity and political sagacity of   Amaechi of Rivers State even in the “face of serial unprovoked and unwarranted assaults on his person, his constitutional rights and those of the government and people of Rivers State,” the party said.

Earlier in an interview, the national leader of the APC, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, had said the party discussed “Land mines of anti-democratic forces in the country, particularly the case of Rivers State where freedom is being hindered and   human lives are  not respected.”

 Tinubu added that “while we are still working, praying and struggling with the North- East emergencies,” the APC  did not  want “a government that cannot be tolerant of  opposition at the centre.”

He warned that the  abuse  of power must stop in order not to encourage people to resort to self help.

  Tinubu  also said his desire  was  to see that the PDP  was wrecked  since it  had already  wrecked the country.

Those who attended the NEC  meeting included Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari,   Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, the governors of Rivers, Lagos, Edo, Nasarawa, Kwara, Borno, Adamawa, Yobe, Sokoto, Ekiti, Ogun and the Deputy Governors of Oyo, Imo, Kano and Zamfara states.

 Other APC leaders also attended the   meeting that was chaired by the Interim National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande.

The Presidency  however  flayed  the APC for the directive and advised it to stop playing politics with everything.

The Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Mr. Ahmed Gulak,   in an interview with one of  our correspondents, said that the APC  and its members should be patriotic.

Gulak said he was not surprised by the party’s directive  because its leaders had not for once hidden their disdain for the present administration.

He said, “The leaders of the APC have not for once hidden their disdain for the present administration and the Federal Government.

“I am therefore not surprised by their antics as well as their actions and utterances.

“We can only appeal to them to be patriotic and resist the desire of playing politics with everything.”

The PDP also   described the directive by the  APC as a clear   call for anarchy and a confirmation of its  earlier  claim  that the  main opposition party was out to destroy  democracy  in the country.

 The party  added  that Nigerians  could   now see that it  was not crying wolf when it alerted that the APC did not mean well for the nation.

“In asking that service chiefs should not be confirmed by the Senate, the APC has revealed its devilish plot to undermine the nation’s security system, create a state of anarchy and pave the way to unleash mayhem on the people,” it said through its  National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh.

It added that, “In trying to frustrate the passage of the 2014 budget, the APC has also exposed its plot to cripple the nation’s economy and plunge the people into untold hardship.”

According to the  party, by attempting to cause confusion in the National Assembly,   it is now clear to all Nigerians that the APC has commenced the implementation of its orchestrated plot to truncate  democracy and  push the country into chaos.

Gani Adams: Unpatriotic Nigerians Planning To Sabotage Confab

DR. FEMI OKUROUNMU PRESENTING THE REPORT OF THE PRESIDENTIAL COMMITTEE ON NATIONAL DIALOGUE TO PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN

National Coordinator of the Oodu’a People’s Congress, OPC, Otunba Gani Adams has raised alarm over alleged plans, by those he referred to as unpatriotic Nigerians, to sabotage the proposed national conference.

Adams in a statement, yesterday, reaffirmed the OPC’s resolve to support the conference initiated by President Goodluck Jonathan noting that it “will go a long way to solve most of the problems that are presently besetting our nation”.

The OPC leader added that; “We are also aware that the president has publicly declared that there would be no go areas for the NDC in its attempt to make sure that all the problems that have stood in the way of the country from developing would be discussed”.

Amaechi, others can’t be APC states’ leaders – Shekarau

A former  Governor of Kano State and a leader of  the All Progressives Congress, Ibrahim Shekarau,  said on Tuesday in Kaduna that there was no ‘agreement’ between the five Peoples Democratic Party governors that defected to the APC and his party to make them leaders of the party in their various states.

Shekarau, on a Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria Kaduna’s Hausa programme, Hanu da yawa monitored  in the state capital, said there was no existing agreement with the G-5 governors and the leadership of the APC to become automatic leaders of the party in their states.

He challenged the leadership of the APC to produce such an agreement, saying that the governors could not lead the party in the states.

The G-5 governors that defected to the APC from the PDP are – Murtala Nyako(Adamawa); Musa Kwankwaso(Kano); Aliyu Wamako(Sokoto); Abdulfattah Ahmed(Kwara); and Rotimi Ameachi(Rivers).

He noted that there was no meeting where such an agreement was reached  that the defected governors from the PDP  should be automatically made leaders of APC in their states.

Shekarau, who is also a  presidential candidate of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party in the 2011 general elections,  added that he wouldn’t have disputed the idea if it had followed the due process or if all the party leaders had met to agree on it.

He said, “I challenged our northern APC chairman Bello Masari to tell us the time, date and at what meeting it was agreed that the said state governors should be made chairmen of the party in their states. Is it at a meeting of 35 party members which was never held or was it at a meeting of party elders?

“Our National Chairman, Bisi Akande, only went with a few APC governors to meet with some PDP leaders and now they are talking of an agreement. Let him (Masari) provide the copy of the said agreement to newsmen to enable the public to know the content of the agreement and where it was agreed upon.”

Shekarau, who expressed concern over the development, explained that before he and other aggrieved members of the party complained on the said agreement, he had sought clarification from some party elders who told him there was no such an agreement.

But when contacted, the Interim National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said there was a subsisting agreement, to allow governors drive the process in the states.

He said, “We did agree with the new PDP governors that whatever rights our APC governors enjoy they would enjoy and prior to their coming, we agreed that governor in our states would drive the process and that the governors in the states would appoint interim chairmen.

“To that extent whatever our governors enjoy as soon as they became APC governors they will enjoy them and nobody can deny that.”

President Jonathan appoints Tukur NRC chairman

President Goodluck Jonathan has approved the appointment of the Immediate-past Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur as Chairman of the Nigerian Railway Corpration.

The President also approved the appointment of Dr. Ghaji Ismaila Bello as Director-General, National Population Commission.

A terse statement by the Special Assistant (Media) to the secretary to the Government of the Federation, Sam Nwaobasi on Tuesday said both appointments took effect from January 8, 2014.

Dozens Of Homosexuals Flee Bauchi State As Gays In The North Get Arrested

 

Human Rights activists have cried out that dozens of gay men have fled while some have been arrested in northern Nigeria because of the draconian anti-gay law that makes same-sex marriage/relationship a crime .

According to them, the witch hunt in Bauchi State all began after a wild rumor circulated that the United States had paid gay activists $20 million to promote same-sex marriage in Nigeria.
First the police targeted the gay men, then tortured them into naming dozens of others who now are being hunted down.

Dorothy Aken'Ova, whose organization is helping with legal services for the arrested men, also said a law enforcement officer pretending to be a gay man joined a group being counseled on AIDS. Police ended up detaining four gay men and then tortured them until they named others allegedly belonging to a gay organization, adding that police now have a list of 168 wanted gay men.

But Chairman Mustapha Baba Ilela of Bauchi state Shariah Commission, which oversees regulation of Islamic law, told the AP that 11 gay men — 10 Muslims and a non-Muslim —  were arrested in the past two weeks. He however denied there was any force involved:

''They have never been tortured, they have never been beaten, they have never been intimidated.''
He said community members helped ''fish out'' the suspects. Adding that all 11 arrested signed confessions that they belonged to a gay organization, but that some of them retracted the statements in court

Shock photo: Meet the guy born with no butt

Meet the guy born without butt cheeks. He has some kind of genetic disorder..and proudly shows it to the world. He shared the pic on Instagram. See the graphic uncensored pic HERE