NAN Reporting

Thousands of All Progressives Congress (APC) members are reportedly massing up in Sokoto, ahead of the arrival today of Senator Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko, the indisputable leader of the party.

Wamakko, who is expected to be accompanied into town by Deputy Governor Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto and Senator Ibrahim Abdullahi Gobi, will address party supporters in the state capital in a mega rally, to show that chief defector Governor Waziri Aminu Tambuwal is a paper weight in APC affairs in the state.

The former governor had said, earlier in the week, that those who were writing off the APC, following the defection of Governor Aminu Tambuwwal and 18 members of the state’s House of Assembly to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), should wait till this weekend when he returns to Sokoto and see whether the APC is still in control or not.

The Nation reports that over the last few days, a lot of Sokoto residents have been expressing support for President Muhammadu Buhari openly, chanting pro-Buhari slogans.

Women and youth in particular displayed their joy amidst “Rarara’s” musical songs “Masu Gudu, Su Gudu (those who want to go can go).”

Similarly, posters of President Buhari, Senator Wamakko are displayed in many parts of the state capital.

Also accompanying Wamakko to Sokoto today are seven members of the House of Representatives from the state; the chairman of APC in the state, Alhaji Farouk Malami Yabo, and Alhaji Sadik Isah Achida, among other notable politicians.

UPDATE: Rally in Pictures

Former President OlusegunObasanjo has reiterated his unforgiving displeasure to his former deputy, Atiku Abubakar.

In an interview with Premium Times, Obasanjo swore he will never support Atiku and the doctor of theology also invoked God to buttress his position:

“How can I be on the same side with Atiku?” Mr Obasanjo asked. “To do what?”

“If I support Atiku for anything, God will not forgive me. If I do not know, yes. But once I know, Atiku can never enjoy my support,” he added.

Obasanjo’s pronouncement comes barely two weeks after Mr Abubakar declared his intention to run for president and weeks after a photo-op between him and Obasanjo at an event on China Africa relations, organised by Gusau Institute in Abuja.

“I do not have personal grudges with anyone,” Mr Obasanjo said. “If you do not do well for Nigeria, you do not do well for all of us.”

“It is not a question of working with or not working with an individual,” he said. “If you are working for the good of Nigeria, I am working with you. If you are not working for the good of Nigeria it does not matter who you are I am not working with you.”

“Most of you do not understand the way I operate,” Mr Obasanjo said. “And I thought your own paper will understand better.”

“I know Atiku very well. And I have mentioned my position with Atiku. My position has not changed,” he said.

On a personal note, he added, “If my children are getting married, he has sent representatives. If his children are getting married, I have sent representatives. That is social. That is not political.

But “on political ground, my position has not changed. If I support Atiku for a political office other than the one I supported him in the past when I did not know him,” maybe, but not “now that I know him, God will not forgive me.”

The Konrad Adenaeur Stiftung (KAS), a German Foundation, has revealed that Nigerians are the third largest asylum seekers in the country.

Dr. Gerhard Wahler, Head of Department, European and International cooperation of the foundation, made this known in Abuja during the celebration of 15 years of KAS operation in Nigeria.

Wahler explained that the lack of an enabling environment continued to make Nigerians, especially youths, seek a better life in Europe hence, embarking on illegal migration.

He, therefore, urged the Federaal Government to boost socio-Economic development and improve welfare.

Africa and especially Western Africa, plays a pivotal role for us in Germany; in many ways, Africa shows a lot of potential.

There is a new generation of entrepreneurs, digital natives and inventors that can and will shape the future of the continent.

On the other hand, the unprecedented population growth, the lack of economic development, increasing scarcity of land and resources, will continue to drive people away towards Europe.

Today, Nigerians are for example the third largest group of asylum seekers in Germany.

Wahler said that the prevalence of terrorist groups in the region negatively affects development in Nigeria and the African region.

He said that the forthcoming visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Nigeria at the end of August was an important sign that Germany stands with Nigeria in countering security threats like Boko Haram.

He said that while the challenges faced in the region were tremendous, Germany was ready to assist.
(NAN)

Dr Victoria Enape, Pro-tem President, Chartered Institute of Forensic and Investigative Auditors of Nigeria (CIFIA) says Nigeria stands to benefit a lot from the services of CIFIA.

Enape made the submission at the pre-Induction Training/Mandatory Continuing Professional Education of CIFIA with the themeTransition to Forensic and Investigative Audit.

She said that CIFIA would save Nigerian government the cost of inviting Foreign Forensic Auditors for fraud investigation as it were.

To some large extent it takes only Nigerian Forensic Auditors who knows the terrain to be able to track or investigate fraud successfully in Nigeria. Therefore, it is important to patronise made in Nigeria to grow Nigeria.

It will help to train government agents and staff through to certification on the use of science and technology of forensic and investigative audit skills for auditing of financial statement and put in place some advanced mechanisms to prevent fraud in their various organisations to avoid reacting to fraud issues after taken place which has not yield results in our country over the years.

It will primarily train all her members and also the staff in relevant agencies to be proactive rather than just being reactive to fraud cases.

If we as a country must address the problem of corruption and corrupt practices, we must be seen to come up with better ways to assist our government and relevant agencies in preventing fraud, she said.

According to her, CIFIA will help to strengthen the nations institutional frameworks thereby bringing us at par with other developed countries, in line with global standards and competitiveness.

More so, CIFIA said it would stimulate public confidence, and enhance transparency and accountability in our economic system and our national lives.

The pro-tem president said CIFIA would also answer the question often posed by foreign investors as to the safety and guarantee of their direct foreign investments (DFIS) in our country.

She added that CIFIA could help Nigeria to develop skilled professionals to deepen the fraud prevention, detection and preserve money in government.

Enape urged Nigerians to disregard alleged conflict between the functions of the proposed Institute and other institute established by existing legislations.

She said that CFIA should not be seen as a rival institute or a threat to any existing professional bodies in Nigeria, because it was not out to attack existing professional bodies.

Source: NAN

Nigerias current power generation has reached 7000 Mega Watts, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, has said.

Fashola said this on Friday in Calabar at the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing 4th Edition Retreat for top directors, heads of units and chief executives of agencies and parastatals.

He said that although there was still more to be done, the ministry had moved forward from where it was three years ago.

Three years ago, the story was that power generation was the main problem of Nigeria. The story was that the distribution companies were complaining that they did not have enough energy to distribute to Nigerians.

We were distributing averagely 2,690 mega watts of electricity to Nigerians, but today, that story has changed, distribution has risen to 5,222 mega watts, an all time national high.

Transmission has reached 7,000 while generation has reached 7000. The problem has not finished but all we can say is that we have made progress.

The minister added that the Federal Government was constructing roads in virtually all the 36 states some of which were through collaborative efforts as well as direct interventions.

According to him, the present administration has spent over N300 billion on roads construction since coming to power three years ago.

Before this administration, there was no housing policy but now we have one.

Fashola commended members of staff of the ministry for their support and team work, noting that without team work, the ministry would not have been able to achieve much.

He said that the theme of the retreat which is Goal Setting and Goal Reaching for a Focused Team, was meant to reinforce the team spirit while setting out on its goals in the next 90 days.

It is a team that wins. We will go together as a team. If we bind together, everything is possible, he said.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Power, Mr Louis Edozien, said that the retreat was meant to appraise the performance of the ministry in the past 90 days.

Edozien, who was represented by a Director, Mr Ahmed Abdul, added that the retreat would also afford the top management the opportunity to strategise on the plan of action for the next quarter.

(NAN)

The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) in the July 14 election in Ekiti, Prof. Kolapo Olusola-Eleka late on Friday filed a 700-page petition before the Election Tribunal sitting in Ado Ekiti.

The News Agency of Nigeria, (NAN) reports that the candidate along with his running mate, Mr. Deji Ogunsakin and a member of his legal team, Mr.Ola Olanipekun, (SAN) and scores of others, arrived the state high court premises at about 6:00pm, armed with heaps of documents to justify their petition

Eleka, whose main prayer before the Tribunal was that he be declared winner of the election, said the APC candidate, Dr. Kayode Fayemi earlier declared the winner of the poll stole his mandate.

He had come to the Tribunal to beat the 21-Day deadline allowed under the Electoral Act, which expires tomorrow Saturday.

However, the leader of his legal team, Yusuf Alli, (SAN) and other lawyers were absent during thesubmission of the petition tothe court registry.

Eleka, while addressing journalists claimed his petition contained empirical evidence, to show that figures were falsified in favour of Fayemi. He also alleged that ballot boxes were either stuffed or snatched, while there was intimidation of voters and party agents from polling booths.

The election was openly manipulated by political desperadoes, using instruments of the Federal Government, he claimed.

I am challenging the election results not out of desperation to be governor, but for reasons of future and posterity, and largely on behalf of the people of Ekiti, who were taken aback by the outcome of the election

Without doubt, the will of the people was subverted by those who have chosen to take Nigeria back to the dark days of ballot stuffing, ballot boxes snatching and outright falsification of election results and I believe they deserve to get justice

As law abiding citizens of our country, the only path of honour to take in a situation like this is the process that we have initiated today, to seek redress against the use of security forces and other instruments of the federal government to suppress the will of our people

The mood of Ekiti people when the beneficiary of the electoral robbery was declared winner and up till today is a pointer to the resolve of the people not to accept the subversion of their will and we have answered their calls to use the judiciary to get back their mandate

In doing this, I have presented overwhelming discrepancies in the results declared by INEC to the tribunal to adjudicate upon and I am confident that the popular mandate of the people of Ekiti will not go unrestored

I therefore want Ekiti people to keep hope alive, remain strong and resolute in their belief in God

While we go through this judicial walk to exposing the electoral thievery of July 14, 2018, we urge the good people of Ekiti State, especially my teeming supporters to remain calm, peaceful and prayerful, bearing in mind that those who stole their mandate will not enjoy the benefits for long

Source: NAN

Congolese opposition leader Moise Katumbi was refused entry into Congo via the countrys land border with Zambia on Friday when he tried to return from exile to submit his candidacy for Decembers presidential election, he said in a tweet.

The millionaire businessman and former governor of the copper-mining Katanga region was sentenced to three years in prison the following month for real estate fraud. Katumbi denies the charges and says they are aimed at preventing him from contesting the election on December 23.

The regime has forbidden me from landing and barricaded the border, Katumbi tweeted. My crime? Wanting to enter my country and file my candidacy. In trying to block me, they want to deny the rights of the Congolese to a real election. I will fight!

Footage from his campaign team sent to Reuters TV showed him with a crowd of thousands of supporters at the border town of Kasumbalesa, on the Zambian side.

His treatment contrasts markedly with that of Kabilas other main rival, former warlord and runner-up presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba, who was allowed to land his plane and given police protection for his return to town.

Both pose a real threat to Kabila or his chosen successor in the upcoming election, especially since the presidents popularity has waned over the years.

I hope for a unity of the opposition. I have started meeting with opposition leaders, Bemba told journalists in Kinshasa on Friday, in an apparent attempt to galvanise Kabilas opponents. The principle is how to choose the best candidate who could represent the opposition at the election.

In power since 2001, Kabila has refused to step down since his mandate ran out in 2016. This has raised fears he will defy constitutional term limits and spark a violent backlash by the population and militia groups active in the countrys east.

Source: NAN

The appearance in court of Nigerian journalist, Mr. Jones Abiri, has put paid to speculations that he may have died in detention.

Abiri was on Thursday remanded in a federal prison in Nasarawa State after appearing in court for the continuation of his trial.

He is being tried by the Department of State Services (DSS) for alleged militancy, two years after he was arrested.

He was charged with the offence on July 27.

At the resumed trial at the Chief Magistrates Court in Wuse Zone 2 in Abuja, Abiri told the court of his experience while being detained by the DSS.

He was later granted bail in the sum of N2 million and two sureties who must be civil servants not lower than level 12.

His lawyer, however, asked the court to vary the bail conditions, saying they were too stringent and cannot be met by him.

The trial Magistrate Chukwu Emeka Nweke then adjourned the trial to August 8 to hear the application and ordered that Mr Abiri should be detained at the Keffi Federal prison instead of the facility of the DSS.

Mr Abiri, the publisher of Weekly Source magazine, was arrested on July 21, 2016, at his office in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, on allegations that he was a key militant terrorising locals and expatriates in the oil-rich Niger Delta, an allegation he denies. () reported

Malam Garba Shehu, the on Media and Publicity had clarified that Abiri, was not a journalist and does not belong to any chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists.

Shehu said Abiri was arrested for pipeline vandalism and crude theft, including militant activities in the Niger Delta.

The presidential spokesman was reacting to a statement at the World Congress of International Press Institute in Abuja that a journalist, known as Jones Abiri was arrested in the course of his work.

On the issue of the arrest and continued detention of Mr Jones Abiri, who allegedly parades himself as a journalist, by the Department of State Services (DSS), it is instructive to note that the accused is a guest of the security agency because of his alleged involvement in militant and criminal activities.

Admittedly, the issue of Abiri had been brought to the attention of the Presidency by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

As a true believer in the rule of law and the integral role of the media in a democracy, the Presidency did interface with the security agency involved in the matter and our findings confirmed that the suspect is in custody because of alleged involvement in pipeline vandalism and theft.

Abiri is not a registered journalist with any of the media professional bodies in the country.

Shehu further stated that there was no evidence to show that Abiri belonged to any chapel or membership of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) or payment of the unions check-off dues.

Abiris stock-in-trade and notoriety in the liberalised Nigeria media industry include fronting as a spokesman for militants engaged in economic sabotage in the Niger Delta region, he added.

According to the presidential aide, President Buhari is resolutely and his administration will ensure that media personnel in the country discharge their duties without let or hindrance.

He, therefore, frowned at those individuals or groups insinuating that President Buhari was in support of restrictions on freedom of expression and the media.

It is therefore very uncharitable for anyone or group to suggest otherwise or infer that the President is in support of restrictions on freedom of expression and the media.

The presidential spokesman maintained that the Buhari administration would continue to promote the freedom and safety of journalists.

He reassured that the administration would also do nothing untoward to damage the credibility it had demonstrated in promoting press freedom since coming into power in May 2015.

Source: NAN

Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has asked the Court of Appeal to vacate the arrest order issued against him.

He made the request in an appeal filed on Thursday in Abuja, through his lead counsel and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr Adegboyega Awomolo.

Justice Stephen Pam of the Federal High Court in the nations capital had issued the warrant of arrest against Yakubu on Wednesday for allegedly disobeying court orders.

In the notice of appeal, the INEC Chairman claimed that Justice Pam acted in bad faith in the issuance of the arrest order.

He explained that he had already filed a pending appeal against the order while the attention of the judge was drawn to the appeal.

Yakubu submitted among other claims that up till date, no order was enrolled and served on him for his personal appearance in court as required by the law.

He noted that the warrant of arrest against him was a nullity because none of the parties in the contempt case applied for issuance of a bench warrant, except the judge who reportedly did so on his own.

The INEC boss stressed that he has not disobeyed any court order since he was not present before the court when the alleged order directing his personal presence was made.

He added that Justice Pam who has no jurisdiction to punish him for the alleged disobedience of court order committed ex-facie curie (outside the court).

Yakubu said he was no longer a contemnor at the Federal High Court under the strength of his appeal lodged at the Court of Appeal challenging the justification of the contempt charge against him.

He argued that the trial court breached Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution by striking out his motion without hearing it, thereby denying him his right to fair hearing in the determination on the merit of his application.

Justice Pam issued a bench warrant against the INEC boss on Wednesday, following his alleged failure to appear before the court.

The INEC boss was to defend himself in the contempt charge brought against him by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Anambra State.

Source: NAN

Liberia has obtained a $500 million World Banks loan for the completion of the Coastal Road Project within three years.

The Liberia Minister of Information, Minister Eugene Nagbe, said in his regular press conference,n Monrovia Thursday, that government would pay a concessional interest rate of 0.5 per cent over a reasonable timeframe.

Nagbe added that following the ratification of the loan agreement by the government, the World Bank would propose a consortium comprising it, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the African Development Bank (AFDB), that will provide an additional $500 million, bringing the agreement to $1 billion.

The Information minister told journalists that President George Weah is insistent that the loan agreement, when ratified, should see off the completion of the Coastal Road Project within three years.

President Weahs insistence on road construction is based on empirical and scientific evidence and data presented to him by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) in its Constraints Analysis following an assessment of Liberias development challenge, he emphasized.

According to the MCCs Constraints Analysis, the lack of good road network and energy are the two most development constraints hampering the growth and development of Liberia. ()

Source: NAN