Sahara Reporters Latest News Monday 27th May 2019
Sahara Reporters Latest News Today and headlines on some of the happenings and news trend in the Country, today 27/05/19
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target=_blank>Mark My Words, I Will Become President Of Nigeria, Okorocha Vows
Rochas Okorocha, the governor of Imo State, has vowed that he will become the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria come what may.Okorocha made his conviction public on Sunday during his valedictory thanksgiving service held at the Government House Chapel in Owerri.He said that his current political travails, particularly the seizure of his Certificate of Return as the Imo West senator-elect, were only strengthening him for the exalted presidential seat in Aso Rock.The outgoing governor said the wishes of his political adversaries concerning him would not come to pass, saying “those who want me to go to prison will go to prison before me.” According to him, the elite hated him because he decided to approach the affairs of the state differently.
Describing himself as “the most criticised politician” in the country, Okorocha said that all the ploy to stop him from going to the Senate will fail.
Okorocha said, “I tell you, I am the most criticised person in Nigeria today. I don’t know why the entire elite hate me with cruelty.
“My Senate ambition is still a battle. More than 30 people have joined the suit to fight me. All these, I will overcome.
“They are only preparing me for the glory ahead.”
“Mark it, I will be president of Nigeria. I said this on this altar so that the kingdom of God will rise against those fighting to stop me.
“Also, those who think they will put me in prison will go to prison before me.
“They don’t want me to be at the National Assembly, but I will be there. I know I am the last man standing, but I will not give up.”
He said that 95 percent of Imo indigenes did not understand him and his style of governance.
“Only a few of them later realised that I meant well for the state. I governed the state with passion. I broke protocols and bent the laws, but I never broke laws.
“When I took over the office eight years ago, I wasn’t unmindful that a lot of people will misunderstand me and try to distract me.
“But today, I have left the state better than I met it. I am the architect of the new Imo. I am a satisfied governor.”
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target=_blank>You’re A Shameless Politician, Okorocha Fires Back At Uzodinma
Rochas Okorocha, the outgoing governor of Imo state, on Sunday, replied Senator Hope Uzodinma,the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last general election, and Senator representing Imo West Senatorial zone, over his recent media attacks against him.Okorocha decribed Uzodinma as a “shameless” politician who is a pliable tool in the hands of some politicians within and outside the state who are bent on ruining his political career.He said Uzodinma would do anything to please his political masters to be in their good booksA statement signed by Mr. Sam Onwuemeodo the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, read that, “within one week, Chief Hope Uzodinma, the governorship Candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), in Imo State, has had series of interviews in almost all the national newspapers. And his target in all the interviews was Governor Rochas Okorocha. He has also invaded the social media with his insults on the governor.
“Interestingly enough, the kind of courage and boldness Chief Uzodinma displayed or exercised in all his media outings against Governor Okorocha only showed that he has no shame. And he could do worst things if he has the opportunity”.
According to the statement, “Chief Uzodinma contested the governorship election in the State with the ticket of APC and he could not win in his own Oru East local government. He could not win in any of the 27 LGAs in the State, and never came second or third in all the LGAs but only came fourth and he has the audacity to be granting interviews and talking balderdash.“He has only confirmed that he was only used as tool to destroy Imo APC. And they have promised him Ministerial appointment and that is the reason behind his current media Campaigns and to be listened to, he has to be insulting Governor Rochas Okorocha.
“Chief Uzodinma and co told the world that governor Okorocha had finished politically, that they were the ones holding the ace of APC in the State. And today, Nigerians have seen or known who holds the franchise of APC in Imo and in the Southeast”.
It continued that, “at least, the outcome of the 2019 election spoke volume. It showed that like Governor Okorocha had said, Chief Uzodinma didn’t contest the 2019 governorship election in the State to win. He only came to be a tool in the hands of those who wanted to kill APC in Imo and South-East in general for reasons best known to them.
“The 2019 poll also showed that Ugwumba Uche Nwosu is loved by Imo people to a very large extent and he was the most popular governorship Candidate. He won the 2019 election with the real votes of Imo people but INEC decided to announce someone with fictitious figures winner.
“Chief Uzodinma could not produce even one House of Assembly member. But Ugwumba Nwosu produced about eleven House of Assembly members, two Federal House of Representatives members and one Senator for Okigwe zone on the platform of Action Alliance, (AA). And all those who won election on the tickets of APC are all Governor Okorocha’s men.
“The truth is that falsehood does not endure. But truth endures. Even at the moment, only Governor Okorocha has the capacity to rebuild APC in Imo and in the South-East generally with the support of the AA Chieftains led by Ugwumba Uche Nwosu.
“In case men like Hope Uzodinma do not know, Governor Okorocha will outlive them, outlive their mischievous politics and their gang up. In their effort to destroy Okorocha’s politics, they messed up the entire State with their Collaborators.Uzodinma had on Friday in an interview he granted the Nation Newspaper fired a barb at Okorocha by calling him a saboteur.
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target=_blank>APC Is Responsible For Rising Suicide, Misery In Nigeria, Says PDP
The Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) has described the escalated despondency, depression and misery in the country as a national tragedy caused by the All Progressives Congress(APC) administration.Lamenting what the party dubbed ‘rising social degeneration’, the opposition party urged Nigerians to show empathy and brotherly love to one another at this trying time . The party also ascribed the high incidence of suicide in the country to the depression and hardship foisted on the country by the Buhari-led administration.PDP, in a statement by its national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said the “rising spate of suicides, slavery mission abroad, divorces, child abandonment and other social degeneration” are occasioned by the “worsening economic hardship, poverty, hunger and rising insecurity under the incompetent, corrupt, divisive and manipulative APC administration.” According to the statement, the PDP said Nigerians became more despondent after the electoral heist that happened in February 23, 2019 when Atiku Abubakar, the party’s presidential candidate, was robbed of his mandate “In the last few months, the news media has been awash with horrible reports of teenage suicide in our country. “Banditry, insurgency, marauding, bloodletting and kidnapping with unmentionable ransoms, have almost become daily occurrences. Our citizenry is now battling with the worst kind of siege mentality.
“Constitutional violations, human rights abuses, arbitrary arrests, extra-judicial killings, assault on perceived dissenting voices and attempt at annexation of our institutions of democracy, particularly the judiciary, signposts a nation in dire strait. “Misery has set in. This is evident in the shrinking of our nation’s Gross Domestic Produce (GDP) to 2.1percent in the first quarter of 2019. “It is saddening that at the time Nigerians ought to be celebrating, they are rather forlorn, committing suicide and exiting the country in droves. “Most Nigerians have become downhearted in the face of an administration that wrecked our once robust economy and divided our people; in the face of worsening joblessness, piling bills, hunger and diseases; in the face of incompetence, lies, and unfulfilled promises of free homes, monthly allowance to unemployed youth and the poor, bringing the naira to the same value as the US Dollar, creating of 5 million new jobs, ending of insurgency in three months and myriad of other false promises. “Instead, what our nation has witnessed is an official entrenchment and elevation of incompetence, deceit, propaganda, failure and cabal mentality on the corridors of power; a situation where the only achievement is the foisting of economic recession and mortgaging of the future of our nation with the accumulation of N24.39 trillion debt, with no tangible project to show. “It is instructive to state that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC administration has obstinately refused to allow any scrutiny of its books, knowing that they are catalogues of corruption, treasury looting, violations, impunity and acts that have brought our nation to its knees.”
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target=_blank>Lagos Task Force Officers Assault Journalist, Detain Him For Hours
Abdul-waheed Usamah, a journalist , was assaulted on Saturday by officers of the Lagos Task Force for confronting the officers to stop harassing innocent people.The incident occured at the Police College in Ikeja during a victory party organised for the Lagos Governor-Elect Babajide sanwo-Olu on Saturday. Usamah, who is the Managing Director of an online news portal called ‘The Guild’, was not just beaten black and blue but also bundled into a Black Maria and taken to the Task Force Headquarters in Oshodi. He was detained at the headquarters for two hoursAccording to Usamah, “I attended the Victory party organized for the Lagos Governor-elect, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and his deputy, Dr. Obafemi Kadri Hamzat, by Sanwo-Olu’s ICG, and held at the Police College in Ikeja. During the event, I noticed how police officers attached to the Lagos State Task Force have been harassing and embarrassing APC party members and other guests who were trying to access VIP session of the party, and I drew the attention of the organizer and the ICG’s security to the men.
“During the process of trying to advise and made suggestions to the ICG’s security so as to save guests from the embarrassment coming from the police officers, one the officers, violently pushed me and we got into arguments, and others, including their superior started threatening.
“While I was trying to talk them out, one officer came from the crowd, and punched me in the face, and the next thing I knew, five of the officers started dragging me and forcefully pushed into the Task Force truck. I was kept in the Black Maria for an hour, and was later driven, inside the Black Maria to the agency’s office where I was kept inside cell.”
He explained further: “When we got to the agency’s office, I was handed over to the officers on duty who after, seizing my two phones, asked me to removed my belt and shoes, and locked me inside a cell where I met about 17 people in bad condition.
“After about an hour and half, one officer came in announcing my name and directed his colleagues to open the cell iron gate for me and led me to the Task Force Chairman’s office, where I met him. He ordered for my belongings in agency’s care and released me.”
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target=_blank>Trailer Crushes Female LASTMA Officer To Death In Lagos
Arogundade Remilekun, a female officer of the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency(LASTMA), has been crushed to death by a trailer.It was gathered that the tragic incident occured in Apapa area of Lagos on Sunday morningThe late Remilekun was said to be from Apapa Zone 36 station baseIt was gathered that the officer was at the back of the truck when the tragedy occurred. The trailer crushed her to death as the driver was trying to reverse.Eyewitnesses said the driver of the trailer was oblivious of the deceased’s presence.She was said to have died right on the spot.Her remains have been evacuated from the scene of the tragedy
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E2%80%99t-end-making-jonathan-obasanjo-ibb-look-heroes-your-failure-fredrick target=_blank>Dear Buhari, Don’t End Up Making Jonathan, Obasanjo, IBB Look Like Heroes By Your Failure By Fredrick Nwabufo
Fredrick Nwabufo
Fredrick Nwabufo
In Nigeria, governments come and go, but each one outpaces the other in impunity, non-performance, corruption, and incompetence. Before the administration of President Buhari, that of Goodluck Jonathan was knocked as the archetypal highhanded, clueless, corrupt and wasteful government. But before Jonathan’s reign, Obasanjo’s administration was pilloried as a corrupt and iron-fisted “regime”, and before that, the military administrations were adjudged the “portmanteau of all evils”.
I must say, most Nigerians still consider the military administrations as the “portmanteau of all evils”. And I assent this view. But lately, I chanced on some conversations with the pesky question: “20 years of democracy, how well we have done?” For me, democracy is a rudimentary system of government, essentially for its freedoms, that cannot be bartered for any other system. But in the past 20 years, our practice of democracy has not resulted in improvements to infrastructure and general well-being. However, there is something to be said for the relative freedom enjoyed by citizens.
The Buhari administration came in the saddle with so much hope for citizens. The hope of better security; of a strong economy, of better welfare for citizens and of an end to corruption. But these hopes have taken flight like the summer birds. The administration has failed uninhibitedly in tackling insecurity. This is, perhaps, the biggest failure of this government.
In April, Mohammed Adamu, inspector-general of police, disclosed that 1071 Nigerians have been killed and that 685 have been kidnapped since January. A few days ago, about 24 persons were killed in Katsina, the president’s state. The jagged appendages of insecurity have even stretched far to claw some traces of the first family with the kidnap of the district head of Daura, who is said to be an in-law of President Buhari.
Really, I found the response of Prof Ango Abdullahi, the chairman of Northern Elders Forum, to the presidency’s statement that the insecurity crushing Katsina in a feisty grip was a confirmation that the president is not partial to his own state on matters of security.
Abdullahi said: “They (presidency) should be concerned that the security failures are everywhere, including the hometown of the president.”
Even now, the killings are unabated. But there appears to be no plan or strategy to halt them, except for wishes and feeble promises. And after four years, the president still says, “I will fulfill my promise on addressing insecurity.” After four years?
Really, casting off every pretension and sentiment, what exactly has this administration achieved in four years? I find it hard to put my finger on any. The much vaunted Social Investment Programme for which N500 billion was budgeted has turned out to be a fatal fraud. According to Aisha Buhari, wife of the president, the “programme failed in the north.” So, if it failed in the north where exactly did it succeed?
Hear her: “…I don’t know where the social investment worked… I was expecting that the N500 billion to be utilised in different methods in the north for the aim to be achieved. I don’t know the method they used but most northern states did not get it.”
Ordinarily, the wife of the president’s allegations should spur some serious investigation into the spending of the programme. But I have little faith that this will happen. If corruption was democratised under Jonathan, it has been privatised under Buhari.
As a matter of fact, Mr. President’s failure in his first four years is making the administration he deracinated look good. It has been a full-term of comparing failures and of outpacing impunity, corruption, and incompetence.
Mr. President has another four years to show competence, sensitivity, integrity, and even-handedness, because, at the current pace of low-hanging failures, Nigerians may have better things to say about the administrations of Jonathan, Obasanjo and even Ibrahim Babangida than his own when the day is done.I wait with measured optimism for “Next Level”.
Fredrick is a media personality.
Twitter:@FredrickNwabufo
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target=_blank>Buhari’s Wife Questions Logic Behind Expending $16M On Mosquito Nets By Nigerian Government
Aisha Buhari, wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, has questioned the logic behind spending $16M as counterpart funding for the purchase of mosquito nets by the Nigerian government.She expressed her reservations about the matter during an interractive session with women at the State House, Abuja on Saturday.She also flayed the Nigerian government on the poor implementation of Social Investment Programmes(SIP) in the north.
“I have heard about mosquito nets, Nigeria paid its counterpart fund, $16m. I asked them to give my own share of the net to send it to my village people. I didn’t get it.
“They have spent, $16m on buying mosquito nets, I did not get it, maybe some people have gotten it. But I feel that that’s my personal opinion, $16m is enough to fumigate mosquitoes in Nigeria. That’s my opinion,” she said.
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target=_blank>Police Arrest Three Kidnappers In Military Uniform
The Nigeria Police Force has arrested three fake soldiers who allegedly abducted one Uchenna Ezeonu in Ekwulobia, Anambra State.
The police said the suspects were arrested inside a forest in Anambra where they held the victims captive.
The suspects, Obasi Peter, Benjamin Nicholas, and Ojiegbe Obinna were nabbed in military vests together with three other accomplices.
It was gathered that the suspects had abducted their victim and taken him to an unknown destination before they were rounded up inside the bush.
Confirming the arrest, the police spokesperson, Haruna Mohammed, said the victim was rescued unhurt.
He said, “On the 24/05/2019 at about 11: am, there was a distress call along Isuofia road in Aguata council area that three persons in military uniforms abducted one Uchenna Ezeonu ‘m’ of Omeke village around Ekwulobia roundabout and whisked him away to an unknown destination.
“Following distress call, Police operatives attached to Operation Puff Adder in conjunction with Joint Patrol teams rushed to the scene and cordoned off the entire area in search of the hoodlums along the bush path by Uyo-Eke market road.
“Consequently, three suspects in military attires who abducted the victim were rounded up and arrested inside the bush.
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target=_blank>Southeast Representative Backs Gbajabiamila Against Disqualification Suit
Raphael Igbokwe, a member of the House of Representatives and Leader of the Southeast Caucus of House of Representatives, has applied to the Federal High Court Abuja to be joined in a suit challenging Femi Gbajabiamila to be Speaker of the 9th National Assembly.
In his deposition before the court, Igbokwe stated that as a member of the House of Representatives, who swore to an oath to defend the law and the nation’s Constitution, he is duty-bound to ensure that the institution of legislature is not brought into disrepute on the basis of baseless fabrications.
As such, he applied to be joined in a case by Philip Undie challenging the suitability of Gbajabiamil for the Speakership position.
Joined as respondents in the suit filed yesterday at the Federal High Court, Abuja are the House, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and APC.
It would be recalled that the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Wednesday, was urged by Undie to bar Femi Gbajabiamila from contesting as the Speaker of the 9th House of Representatives, on the grounds that the lawmaker was convicted for fraud to the tune of $25,000 which he allegedly failed to disburse to his then client in 2003 in the United States (US), where he was practising as a lawyer.
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Insecurity In Kaduna, Zamfara Setback For Northern States, Says COCIN President
COCIN President, Dachollom Datiri
COCIN President, Dachollom Datiri
Dachollom Chumang Datiri, President of Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN), says that the insecurity in Kaduna and Zamfara state is a setback for northern states.
Datiri made the statement in a communique issued in Jos at the end of the 96th General Church Council held at the church headquarters, Jos, the Plateau state capital.
He observed with dismay the increasing rate of suicide cases in the country and called on the church and Government to sensitize the public on the need for contentment.
He said: “Council Condemns in strong terms the recent attacks on some communities in parts of Nassarawa, Kaduna, Zamfara and Borno states by Kidnappers, armed bandits and Boko Haram.
“Calls on the Federal and state governments, to take proactive measures to forestall these inhuman acts as human life is too precious to be wasted casually.
“Enjoins government at all levels to take seriously their constitutional responsibility by restoring and rehabilitating Internally Displaced Persons as many of them are left to fend for themselves in terms of feeding and accommodation.”
The clergy decried federal government’s nonchalant attitude towards the release of Leah Sharibu who has remained in the hands of Boko Haram because of her faith and urged the government to do all it takes to ensure her release and the remaining Chibok school girls
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