Rowland Nike

Former minister of aviation and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Femi Fani-Kayode has warned the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, against rigging Saturday’s governorship election in Ondo state. Fani-Kayode told the electoral umpire that any attempt to rig the Ondo election just like it did in Edo State would be consequential. The outspoken PDP chieftain while congratulating the PDP candidate, Eyitayo Jegede ahead of the poll,  urged the people of the Ondo to come out enmasse and vote for the ruling party in the state. He gave his warning in an article entitled: Ondo election – A warning to INEC Prince Adedeji Soyebi who is the INEC National Commissioner for the south west is leading the team for the Ondo state governorship election tomorrow whilst Professor Kayode Soremilekun the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University, Oye is the Returning Officer. This is a dangerous combination. Both men are anti-PDP and Soremilekun is the same i...

Today, November 26, the electorates in Ondo, the Sunshine State would march to polling booths across the state to elect the next Chief Servant of the State. The eventual winner of today’s contest would take over the mantle of leadership from Olusegun ‘Iroko’ Mimiko next year. Mimiko is expected to take the exit door from the government house, Alagbaka next year having successfully completed his two terms as enshrined in the constitution. The electoral body had released names of 28 successful candidates who have indicated interest in becoming the next governor of the State. The battle is, therefore, drawn along this line. However, among the 28 contenders, three persons have been tipped for the position. Among the three top candidates are: Rotimi Akeredolu of the All Progressives Congress, Olusola Oke of the Allaince for Democracy and Eyitayo Jegede of the Peoples Democratic Party, who is having the backing of the outgoing governor, Olusegun Mimiko. Today’s election ...

In what seems like end of the road for Jimoh Ibrahim, the fired governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the businessman says he has given up the fight for the party’s ticket. The Supreme Court had on Thursday affirmed Eyitayo Jejede as the candidate for the Saturday’s Governorship election in Ondo State. A five man panel led by the acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen struck out all appeals challenging the decision of the Appeal Court to replace Jimoh Ibrahim with Eyitayo Jegede. The latest order came 24 hours after the  Justice Ibrahim Saulawa-led panel explained reinstated Jegede as the authentic candidate of the PDP. In a tweet Thursday evening, Jimoh Ibrahim said, “I am humbled.” In series of tweets before the Supreme Court judgment, Ibrahim had said: “The truth is, I feel very relaxed than you can ever imagine until the Supreme Court says otherwise. So lets enjoy the moment. “The court did not make a consequential order askin...

The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Maikanti Baru, has stated Nigerian crude oil is not an abandoned commodity. Addressing newsmen after declaring open the 2016/2017 bid for crude oil grades, Baru said the nation’s crude is not struggling or stranded but remains a hot cake in the oil market. “Nigerian crude has continued to earn premiums and it is hot cake all over for refiners because of the light nature of the crude. “It induces very high yields on the valuable products that you produce from crude oil. Nigerian crude oil continues to maintain market. “In fact, contrary to a lot of speculation that a lot of Nigerian crude goes to China, they do not. “Most of them are consumed and refined in India and Europe, particularly this year and last year; most of Nigerian crude end up in European refineries.’’ He also dismissed as false, the report that the corporation operated a separate crude account. He said the corporation ...

The Senate on Thursday passed the Nigerian Peace Corps Bill into law, thereby giving approval for the establishment of the Nigerian Peace Corps as an agency under the Ministry of Interior. Presenting the report of the Committee on Interior on the floor of the Senate, the committee chairman, Senator Bayero Nafada urged the Senate to support the passage of the Bill, saying “the organisation will be of great benefit to the Nigerian youths”. “In response to increasing complexity of the factors responsible for insecurity and the method by which peace and security is being undermined in Nigeria, there is need to develop comprehensive, multi-sectoral, multi stakeholders and inclusive approaches in order to stem these threats,” he said. The Nafada-led committee recommended that the Nigerian Peace Corps and the National Unity and Peace Corps should be merged as one, since both formations appear the same. Speaking further, Senator Nafada said the committee received 237 written mem...

The Supreme Court  on Thursday  affirmed Eyitayo Jegede as the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in  this Saturday’s  governorship election in Ondo state. A five-man panel led by the acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen struck out all appeals challenging the decision of the Appeal Court which ordered the  reinstatement of Jegede as the PDP candidate in the Ondo election.   The Onnoghen – led panel said all the issues raised by factional Chairman of the PDP in Ondo State, Biyi Poroye, against Jegede had been overtaken by yesterday’s ruling of the Court of Appeal. Poroye, who is of the Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff’s faction had appealed against the ruling of the appeal Court that reinstated Jegede as PDP governorship candidate. “The decision of the lower court on the substantive matter yesterday 23/11/2016, that decision has rendered the instant interlocutory appeal academic as appellant has the right to, against the ...

The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has lambasted the North and Western Nigeria for being silent over the alleged illegal detention of its leader, Nnamdi Kanu. Recall that Kanu has been in detention since he was  arrested by the Department of State Services, DSS ,  last year. In a statement by its spokesman, Emma Powerful, the pro-Biafra group frowned at Yoruba and the Hausa people for not speaking against the injustice meted out to Kanu. The group claimed that Nigeria’s current crises is because God is angry with the nation over the alleged illegal detention of its leader. The statement reads: “The indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) worldwide and the Directorate of State (DOS) want to use this medium to let Nigerians and the world understand that the leader of the indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), the director of Radio and Biafra television, Prophet Nnamdi Kanu, committed no crime against the government of Nigeria and her citizens.“Nevertheless, the peo...

Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi, a staunch loyalist of the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has refuted the claim by the Plateau State Governor,  Solomon Lalong, that the former governor of Lagos is sick. Lalong said it was the reason that stopped Tinubu from attending last Saturday’s Ondo State APC governorship rally. In press release on Tuesday, Afikuyomi said Lamont’s claim was false. Afikuyomi, who claimed that he travelled to the United States of America with Tinubu to witness the recent US elections, said that the former governor “Is in a remarkable state of mental and physical wellness.” He said, “It is therefore absolutely incorrect and most embarrassing for anyone to attempt to invent such a laughable reason for Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s absence at the rally. The fact that somebody went for medical check-up does not mean he is ill. “In the likely event that Asiwaju, like all mortals, was ill at all, I doubt if Mr. Lalong would...

Justice Mohammed Idris of a Federal High Court Lagos, on Tuesday refused to restrain a fellow judge from taking steps in relation to the  frozen $15.5 million allegedly belonging to Patience Jonathan. Mr. Idris declined an application by counsel to the former first lady, Ifedayo Adedipe, who sought an order to restrain Justice Babs Kuewumi from taking further steps on the frozen sum. Mr. Adedipe had urged the court to stop Justice Kuewumi from making any forfeiture orders, in respect of the said sum, which was frozen by the EFCC, until the determination of an interlocutory application on the subject. It will be recalled that Mrs. Jonathan had instituted a fundamental rights suit against the EFCC, claiming the sum of $200 million as damages for inconveniences suffered. In her suit, she had joined the EFCC, Skye Bank plc, and a former aide to ex-president Goodluck Jonathan, Warampo Dudafa, as respondents. Also joined in the suit are four companies: Pluto Property Ltd...

Kwara State Personnel Database Development committee says it has uncovered a total of 8,863 suspected ghost personnel on the payroll of both the state and local governments. The alternate Chairman of the Committee, Alhaji Isiaka Gold, said this yesterday while submitting the Committee’s report to the Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed at the Government House, Ilorin. He said the 8, 863 personnel could not be verified in the just concluded staff biometric verification exercise, noting that the development could potentially save both the State and local governments N437, 500, 513.56 monthly. Alhaji Gold said at the time of commencing the verification exercise, the total number of staff on the payroll of both the State and local governments was 81, 446, but only 72, 583 of the workers and pensioners scaled through the verification process. Giving a further breakdown of the report, the alternate chairman revealed that of the 35, 656 workers on the State government payroll, only 31, 6...

The Academic Staff Union of Universities  on Tuesday  announced that it had ended its one week nationwide warning strike over the non-implementation of a 2009 agreement with the Federal Government. The President of   ASUU , Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, told newsmen in Abuja, that lecturers should  immediately return to work. “We are making progress, especially with the intervention of the Senate. In the next one or two meetings, if we are able to get a clear path to the matter, we will avoid elongation of the strike action,” Punch quoted him as saying. “I have been receiving these reports that ASUU says strike continues. No. The strike ends today ( Tuesday ). All lecturers are to go back to work  Wednesday  morning.” Ogunyemi said ASUU was hopeful of a positive outcome, going by the response coming from the Federal Government.

Former Minister of Interior, Comrade Abba Moro, has described the immediate past President, Goodluck Jonathan as one of the greatest Presidents Nigeria has ever produced. In a statement he personally signed, Morro said Jonathan was a great leader, who contributed in no small measure to the advancement and sustenance of democracy in Nigeria and Africa. Felicitating with the former President on his 59th birthday, the Benue-born grassroots politician said Jonathan recorded tremendous achievements as President through his transformation agenda. He recalled how the former President created a solid foundation in the country’s electoral system by conceding defeat to President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015. The ex-Minister further noted that the current clamour and appeal by Nigerians for the return of Jonathan to power, was an indication that the people have come to realize their mistake in voting him out in 2015, despite efforts he was making to take Nigeria to the ‘promised’ land....

The All Progressives Congress, APC, candidate for this Saturday’s governorship election in Ondo, Mr Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, has promised that if elected, he would relocate the headquarters of the Ondo State Oil Producing Development Area Commission, OSOPADEC, from Akure, the state capital, to Igbokoda, the headquarters of Ilaje local government area with an Area Office at Igbekebo, the headquarters of Ese-Odo Local Government Area. Akeredolu, who made this pledge on Monday when his campaign train visited the palace of the Olugbo of Ugbo land, Oba Fredrick Akinrunta, stated that the headquarters of the commission would be closer to the people and more effective and useful at Igbokoda than in Akure where it is presently sited. According to him, “The administrative headquarters of Niger/Delta Development Commission, NDDC, is situated in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, not in Abuja, the federal capital city of Nigeria. “Therefore, I want to say expressly that the headquarte...

Governor Solomon Lalong of Plateau state, who chairs the All Progressives Congress, APC, Governorship Campaign in Ondo State, has declared that the absence of one of the party’s national leaders, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and some Southwest governors at the party’s mega rally in Akure on Saturday did not make any difference. He asserted that there was no cause for alarm since President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, were present at the rally. Recall that Tinubu and Governors Rauf Aregbesola, Abiola Ajimobi and Akinwunmi Ambode of Osun, Oyo and Lagos states respectively were  conspicuously absent at the grand rally of the APC   held at the Democracy Park in Akure on Saturday for its flag bearer in November 26 governorship poll. But addressing State House correspondents on Monday shortly after he and the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, met Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Lalong st...

Efforts by the Senate to mediate between the federal government and the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) could not yield the desired results on Monday. Rising from a meeting which lasted for 8 hours, Senate Committee Chairman on Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), Barau Jibrin said the Senate could not reach compromise on a particular issue, hence the adjournment. According to him, the Senate and the concerned parties have agreed on almost all the issues raised, except that of the “earned allowances” that needed to be paid the Lecturers. “We have spent about 8 hours in this very important meeting. We have deliberated and thank God we have dealt with all the issues and agreed with all the issues, except 1. “We have adjourned to make consultations and every section of this meeting would get back to its domain and report to its constituency what transpired. At a later date, we would reconvened to trash out the remaining issue. Explaining further...

The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, Monday, said that the Federal Government has spent N3.577 trillion as at September out of the   N6.06 trillion budgeted for 2016. Udoma made this disclosure yesterday in Lagos at the KPMG CFO Forum. According to him, “The Federal Government has spent about N3.577 trillion as at September 2016 out of the full year budget of N6.06 trillion for the 2016 fiscal year. This translates to a 79 percent performance of the prorated budget for the first three quarters. “In addition to the total of N2.44 trillion so far released for capital expenditure, non-debt recurrent and service-wide vote expenditure, a total of N1.138 trillion has also been paid out in domestic and foreign debt service expenditures. This includes N44 billion transferred to the sinking fund to retire maturing obligations.” On the oil sector, the minister said, “after liberalisation of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, otherwise known as petro...