by our Reporter
It was indeed a clash of the titans as five selected vice presidential candidates
picked as a result of poll to debate on their plans for the nation. The party
featured on the NEDG/BON were APC,PDP ,YPP,ANN and ACPN. The debate which was
broadcasted live on all BON station members has Prof Osibanjo and Fmr.Gov Peter
Obi argued on policies and implementations.
According to Peter Obi, he noted that the focus All progressive
Congress since it took powers was to fight corruption in a nation whereby
majority are leaving in Poverty. “You cannot lock up your shop and be chasing
corruption”, Peter Obi noted.
In a swift response, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo noted that if
you allow the thief to steal all the goods in the shop, there wouldn’t be no
shop again saying the effort of government to fight corruption was to bring
sanity and allow for uneven development.
Other participants were: Umma Getso(YPP),Alhaji Abdulganiyu
Galadima(ACPN) and Khadijah Abdullahi-Iya(ANN)
My continuous watch on
activities of Ogun State Governor and others is a step to make them better but
further pointing out various heels. The media chat held on Sunday, 3rd
January,2016 is a disgrace to media profession because the Governor forcefully
use Executive powers to jettison core media practice by declaring without
consultation that the 2 hours Governors media chat will now end 3hours and not
the 2 hours advertised. He said,”2 hours cannot be enough so I declare that it
will now run for 3hours”. Bored! Where on earth a programme staged for 3 hours,
even, Nigeria films is don’t run for that long. 
As the nation awaits President Muhammadu
Buhari’s ministerial list, the President on Tuesday said he would head
the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
Buhari dropped the hint in one of the
interviews he granted one of the foreign media in his hotel shortly
before departing New York.
The President was in New York to participate in the 70th United Nations General Assembly.
“I will serve as the Minister of Petroleum Resources myself,” Buhari told his interviewer.
The
nation’s petroleum sector has been said to be enmeshed in corruption
with millions of dollars said to be missing in the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation.
Shortly after assuming office, Buhari sacked and replaced the management of the company.
The new management had started a general reorganisation of the firm.
Buhari had on Monday said the trial of those who looted the NNPC would commence soon.
Meanwhile, ministerial list that
President Muhammadu Buhari will submit to the Senate on Wednesday
(today)will not contain all the members of his proposed cabinet.
Buhari was inaugurated on May 29, having defeated former President Goodluck Jonathan in the presidential election held in March.
Investigation by one of our
correspondents on Tuesday revealed that what would be transmitted to the
Senate this week would not be a complete list of nominees.
A top government official familiar with
the arrangement confided in one of our correspondents that Buhari would
send the names of the nominees to the Senate in batches.
“What the Senate will be getting on
Tuesday or Wednesday will not be a complete list. The names will be sent
in batches but quite a number will be on this first list while others
will be compiled and sent later,” the source said.
The President may have decided to send
the names in batches in order to meet the September deadline he set for
himself rather than waiting to compile the full list and fail to beat
the deadline.
Efforts made by one of our
correspondents to get an insight into the list of the first batch of
would-be ministers did not however yield any positive result on Tuesday.
The issue of the list has however been
generating concerns among members of Buhari’s delegation to the 70th
United Nations General Assembly holding in New York.
Many of the politicians on the
President’s delegation who felt they might be considered for ministerial
positions were getting in touch with Nigeria intermittently on the
telephone for latest information on the list while they also kept making
themselves visible for Buhari.
Some of them who could not hide their anxiety were heard asking Nigerian journalists if they had latest information on the list.
Prominent chiefs of the All Progressives
Congress on the President’s delegation include a former Rivers State
Governor, Rotimi Amaechi; a former Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi;
and a former member of the House of Representatives, Abike Dabiri-Erewa
among others.
Meanwhile, the Senate President, Bukola
Saraki, said on Tuesday that his leadership would not employ vendetta in
the screening of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s wise men.
Saraki, who stated this in his welcome
address to his colleagues at a plenary after their six-week recess,
expressed confidence that Nigeria’s economy would experience a
turn-around with the appointment of ministers.
He said, “As we await the list of
ministerial nominees this week, I believe the presence of ministers will
create the space for greater policy engagement with the executive arm
of government.
“It will also enable us to begin to
respond in a more systematic manner to the various economic and social
challenges before us, especially through our various committees that
will also be constituted soon.
“On this note, I want to urge you all my
colleagues to ensure that what is uppermost in our minds as we begin
the constitutional task of screening of ministerial nominees is the
overall interest of our country, informed by the enormity and the
urgency of the challenges before us.
“Once the list is submitted, let us
ensure that we treat it with dispatch and thoroughness. We must not be
held down by unnecessary politicking.”
Source: Our reporter & Punch
House of Representatives members loyal to Speaker Yakubu
Dogara have agreed to concede the position of House Leader to the group
loyal to Femi Gbajabiamila, as part of efforts to restore peace to the
House.The House has been enmeshed in crises following Mr. Dogara’s election against the wish of his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC.
The APC had supported Mr. Gbajabiamila to emerge speaker.
After losing the speakership election, the party nominated the lawmaker as the House Majority Leader, a proposal since opposed by Mr. Dogara.
The concession follows a meeting, which held Tuesday evening between Mr. Dogara and some members of the House, with the immediate past Speaker and current governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal in Abuja.
APC governors had, after their meeting last week, formed a committee led by Mr. Tambuwal to mediate and find a solution to the crisis in the House.
“There was a consensus that in order to achieve peace and accommodation in the House, that the position of the House Leader be conceded to the
Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila Group to nominate a candidate,” he said.
He added however, that “considering the constitutional requirement of equitable representation and federal character, such candidate should be from any zone other than the North East and South West Zones that had already produced the Speaker and Deputy Speaker respectively”.
Our source added that the members informed Mr. Tambuwal that there were already pending suits from members and groups from the South East and North Central Zones on the matter and that only a fair resolution that carries every zone along would be acceptable.
Source: Our Repoter &Premium Times
A formal request for extradition from the Embassy of the United
States of America triggered the siege laid by operatives of the National
Drug Law Enforcement Agency on Buruji Kashamu’s house in Lagos,
Saturday, the anti-drug agency has said.According to the NDLEA, Mr. Kashamu’s house arrest was to pave the way for his arraignment before the Federal High Court on Monday.
“Kashamu has been a target of both the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for over 20 years and was indicted in the Northern District of Illinois, United States, on charges brought against him by ICE,” the NDLEA said in a statement Saturday.
“Kashamu, who U.S. court documents allege was known in his days as the leader of a prolific heroin trafficking ring based in Chicago, Illinois as ‘God,’ ‘Daddy,’ and ‘Kasmal,’ is wanted to stand trial on charges of conspiracy and importation of controlled substances, namely heroin, into the United States dating back to 1994.”
A special team of NDLEA narcotic operatives stormed Mr. Kashamu’s home at about 5 a.m. on Saturday to keep an eye on the Ogun East District Senator-elect.
Mr. Kashamu had blamed some members of his political party, including Bode George, a party chieftain, and his wife, as being behind the raid by NDLEA.
A U.S federal grand jury, in 1998, charged Mr. Kashamu and 14 others for their alleged involvement in an international conspiracy to smuggle heroin into the U.S.
While Mr. Kashamu, a prominent member of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, had continued to deny the charges, he had refused to heed the advice of a U.S Court of Appeal to come and clear the allegations against him.
Last month, Mr. Kashamu accused former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, of plotting with the Nigerian government and U.S agents to extradite him to America to face the criminal charges against him.
Several weeks later, the Senator-elect filed a suit at the Federal High Court, Lagos, dragging 12 individuals and government agencies of conspiring with his political opponents to abduct and forcefully transport him to the U.S.
The respondents in the suit include the Inspector General of Police; the Chairman of the NDLEA; the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC; the Director General, Department of State Services; the Interpol National Central Bureau; and the Attorney General of the Federation.
Others are the Clerk of the National Assembly; the National Security Adviser to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission; Nigeria Customs Services, Nigeria Immigration Service; and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.
Alh.Muhammadu Buhari on friday travel to London boarding a British Airways flight for private reasons.
The media team of the President-elect issued a statement confirming that the president-Elect visit to Britain was private.
In a statement signed by the head of
Buhari’s media team, Malam Garba Shehu, this was the first of such visit
outside the country since winning the March 28th presidential election.
The President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, on Thursday confirmed claims by his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, that the incoming administration has yet to receive any briefing from the Goodluck Jonathan government as the country prepares for the transfer of power in a week.
Mr. Buhari opened up while receiving the Interim Report from the 19-man Transition Committee he set up under the Chairmanship of Ahmed Joda.
The APC has repeatedly accused the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, administration of withholding information and seeking to frustrate the transition.
The party’s claim was however disputed by Mr. Joda, who said last week that his team had received enough cooperation from the outgoing government. The APC maintained its position.
But speaking Thursday, Mr. Buhari said the government’s committee, headed by Vice President Namadi Sambo, had yet to furnish the committee with any information.
Mr. Joda also backtracked, and said his committee managed to prepare the report based on guesswork.
Mr. Buhari expressed disappointment that the incoming government was misunderstood.
“The incoming government was misunderstood. It is not that we are preparing for indictment. What we are trying to get is a starting point, where we are exactly going to start from,” the president-elect said.
“We have seen the debt profile and the performance of the economy.
“The question is what can we do about it especially the urgent ones like social security, lack of fuel in the country and fraud. The list is endless.
“I thank you for what you have done and I hope that the subsequent submission by the government will make your job easier and more efficient and tell us where to begin from.”
The president-in-waiting thanked the committee and assured that he
would read the initial report before the final report comes in.
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