BREAKING: Prominent Nigerian Senator from Lagos Bayo Osinowo aka "Pepper" is dead
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Monday, 15 June 2020
BREAKING: Prominent Nigerian Senator from Lagos Bayo Osinowo aka "Pepper" is dead
President Buhari Condoles With Pastor Itua Ighodalo On Loss Of Wife
PRESIDENT BUHARI CONDOLES WITH PASTOR ITUA IGHODALO ON LOSS OF WIFE
President @MBuhari expresses shock at the passage of Mrs Ibidun Ituah-Ighodalo, wife of Pastor Ituah Ighodalo of Trinity House, based in Lagos.
The President shares the pain and sorrow of the family at the sudden death, and prays God’s comfort for the entire family, friends and members of Trinity House.
He recalls that Pastor Ighodalo is one person who faithfully prays for the country, and the government, noting that he sent him a personal letter of condolence when his former Chief of Staff, Mallam Abba Kyari, passed away in April.
“Please accept my condolence. May God give you the fortitude to bear the loss, and strengthen you at this trying time,” President Buhari says.
Edo: PDP in tight corner over Obaseki’s ticket bid
EDO State Governor Godwin Obaseki’s bid to join the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and pick its ticket to contest the September 19 election has put the party in a dilemma.
Obaseki was last week disqualified from bidding for his party – the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket.
Expatiating on reasons for Obaseki’s disqualification while submitting its report, the party’s screening Appeal Committee Chairman, Dr. Abubakar Fari, at the weekend said: “In the affidavit sworn to by Godwin Obaseki before the High Court Abuja, he stated under oath that he graduated from the University of Ibadan with a BA degree in Classical Studies in 1976. However, the university certificate he attached to his nomination form bears 1979 which is a material contradiction.’’
The committee also said it found it hard to believe Obaseki gained admission to study at the university with three credits without a proper A-levels or a diploma.
It added that the governor was in possession of two separate voter cards which is illegal. Fari added that the attestation letter of the Institute the governor claimed to have attended after secondary school, was not on the letter head of the school.
The committee said it found inconsistencies in the forms Obaseki submitted for scrutiny.
The PDP’s nomination process closed on June 2 while screening of aspirants closed on June 5. Three aspirants have been cleared by the party to vie for the ticket.
Legal pundits said last night that only those cleared within the stipulated time, are qualified to contest in the primary. “Obaseki was not screened and so cannot participate”, a renowned lawyer said.
The PDP primary will hold on Friday. The Independent Electoral Commission (lNEC) option only allows parties seeking to field candidates for the Edo governorship election to replace candidates not later than July 13, but with a caveat: the new candidate must have participated in the primary.
“PDP should forget about Obaseki or risk serious litigation over his eligibilty and breach of its own rules”, another lawyer said last night.
The PDP guidelines indicate the following timelines for its governorship primary election: Notice of election to state chapter (May 15); Sales of expression of interest and nomination forms(May 20 –June 01); Last day for submission of forms (EOI and NOI) June 02; Screening of aspirants (June 05); Appeals on screening outcome (June 08); and Ward Congresses to elect a three-man Ad Hoc delegates (June 09).
Others are Ward Congresses Appeals(June13); Local Government Congresses to elect National Delegates and persons Living with Disability per LGA(June 16); LGA congresses Appeals(June 18); Publication of delegates’ list(June 18); Gubernatorial primary(candidate nomination) –June 19-20; Appeals on governorship primary(June 23); Certification of Deputy Governorship candidate by NWC and compilation of documents(June 25); Last day for submission of names of candidate and deputy to the Independent National Electoral Commission (June 29); Last day for withdrawal and replacement of withdrawn candidates( July 13); and last day for submission of agents names to LGA offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission (September 01).
The aspirants cleared for the governorship primary are a member of the House of Representatives (Oredo Federal Constituency), Hon. Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama(Edo South); Mr. Gideon Ikhine (Edo Central), an engineer; and a foremost Educationist, Kenneth Imasuagbon (Edo Central).
As at last night, none of the candidates had shown interest in stepping down for Obaseki.
A PDP source said: “We are in a serious dilemma and our party is facing integrity test. Obaseki is trying to have his way at all cost to secure the PDP governorship nomination ticket.
“This is a governor who has not formally defected to the PDP. The options available are to ask all the aspirants to step down for him or to allow the primary election to hold and ask the eventual candidate to step down.
“But are we going to be fair to all the aspirants, especially the winner of the primary? And Obaseki is overstretching his luck by seeking to retain Deputy Governor Phillip Shaibu as his running mate.”
Another party leader said: “The issue at stake is beyond meeting with PDP governors for our ticket. How about discrepancies in his documents.
Some leaders are saying he will be prevailed upon to plead only his secondary school certificate. Yet, he said he has lost the certificate.
“But there is another allegation of having two voter cards. Can we take this huge risk as a party? Is Obaseki bringing an asset or liability to the party? Some of our leaders are already warning the party.”
The aspirants have been on the field canvassing for votes for Saturday’s primary election.
One of the aspirants, Imasuagbon, said: “Obaseki is welcome to PDP any time.”
Asked if he is ready to step down for Obaseki, he swiftly added: “Step down for who and why? To step down for what? Are we in a jungle? Are there no rules and regulations guiding a party in a democracy? Forget it, my brother. I am on a campaign tour.”
Ikine said there is nothing wrong with Obaseki visiting his colleague governors but that he is not ready to quit, adding: “I have my eyes on the ball.”
He declined to comment further on Obaseki in his interview on Channels TV, because “he is not a member of the PDP.”
Deputy Governor Shaibu has been busy making frantic appeals to some PDP governors to allow him to be the party’s running mate.
But some leaders in the party were toying with the idea of Obaseki joining the party to assist it to defeat the APC instead of being the PDP governorship candidate.
A chieftain of PDP, Kassim Afegbua, a former Commissioner for Information, said: “The idea of having Governor Obaseki in PDP is already causing some ripples within the party because it will amount to political ambush.
“First, the purchase of nomination forms has closed. We have three viable aspirants running. I am supporting Hon. Ogbeide-Ihama for the primaries and hopefully he will emerge as the candidate.
“If a candidate emerges on Saturday, are you expecting the candidate to step down for someone who did not participate in the process, simply because he is a Governor? That will not only be an ambush, but an unfair reading of the situation.
“The governor is free to join the party. It is his constitutional right, but joining is one, becoming a candidate is another. He should join to support whoever emerges as the candidate, to face the APC candidate.
“Rather than be the candidate, which appears difficult at this injury hour, he should join hands with other party loyalists to ensure the APC is defeated. That would be like some kind of soft landing for him.
“Again, the Party has to understudy the report of the APC screening committee especially the obvious discrepancies in his submissions. You cannot have two certificates from one university bearing inconsistent dates with all manner of contradicting submissions.
“Beyond politics, the APC might have derived inspiration from the Bayelsa scenario, which the PDP must take notice of, so that we do not fall into another cul-de-sac. “Please tell Obaseki to drop his ambition, and join hands with whoever emerges on Saturday in PDP primary to give a good fight to the APC.
Making him a candidate will be an exercise in overkill, an ambush, and an abuse of process in terms of our party constitution, our rules and regulations.”
Source: The Nation
Don’t cry, Mr. Godwin -By- Sam Omatseye
“We are behind you, keep dancing ahead,” they reassure him. As he advances, he is not looking forward but at himself, impressed by the finery of his apparel and the bouquet of applause.
Suddenly, he reaches a precipice and falls over. Before he knows it, there is no more choir, no more drum rolls or applause. All silence. He alone, crestfallen, wounded, comically belly up.
Edo State Governor Obaseki is in such grand deception. He still struts in denial. He thinks he is just. His flatterers and court jesters inflate his pride. The screening committee belongs to Beelzebub. He will meet them, like Caesar, in the Battle of Philippi.
His story is not new in our politics. When Timipre Sylva was governor of Bayelsa State and eyed the second term, he was at odds with President Goodluck Jonathan and his cabal. They did not want Sylva to have a second term. They also deployed the National Working Committee against him, but in a different manner. He could run, but he could not win. They invoked the police, air force, army and navy. It was a farce of force, an onslaught to win a nomination. This column wailed and chided. The journalism world, dead from the neck up, even kept mute in complicity. The PDP did not care about law. They had force and they used it. It is the tyranny of democracy. The system lied against itself.
The elephant fell over the precipice. It was a republican carapace covering a stench of dead men’s bones.
In the case of Obaseki, he inflicted his own woes. Why is he blaming the screening committee for lack of fairness? Did the committee ask him to get his name wrong on the NYSC certificate and made no effort to correct it? Did they ask him to make only three credits in his school certificate exam? Or did they ask for the inconsistencies in his university of Ibadan degree? By the way, I thought he attended Edo College, because I saw a picture a few years ago with Nduka Obaigbena – also an old boy of Government College Ughelli – and Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa.
He presented a certificate from Eghosa Anglican Grammar School. Is it also his fault, or that of Adams Oshiomhole, that he lost his certificates and the court registrar could not vouch for any sworn affidavit?
The issues at stake are grave for Obaseki. It is not about APC. It is about the Nigerian constitution. He is expected to present genuine certificates or evidence to INEC and later, if challenged, to the court of law. Happily, the law does not expect him to have a university degree. He is supposed to scale secondary school. He might do that. That will mean he will have to contend with the issue of his NYSC certificate, and pray that the courts will accept that Obasek is the same as Obaseki. The avenging angels of technicality are fluttering above.
It is not a matter of whether he served but whether he served right. The law has its way of defining justice. It may be justice on the streets. It may not be in the vault of law. If Obaseki indeed did well in high school, the law did not see it. If he did well to enter the university and the law did not see it, who will see it? It is not a matter of who is on Obaseki’s side or Adam’s side. It is who the law sees. The constitution prevails. That is the definition of the rule of law. That is why Douri is governor today and not Lyon in Bayelsa State.
If he decides to apply this time through another political party, and does not present his certificates for university and higher school certificate, et al, Obaseki will unwittingly confirm the conclusions of Adams and the screening committee and make them heroes. That will make Obaseki disingenuous and make mockery of his own mockery of the process that disqualified him. If he presents the same papers and affidavit in another party, he will go through the same questioning that gave him the red card in APC. The worst is if he wins in a guber poll and has to go through the courts and meets a Napoleonic waterloo.
Whether he goes to PDP, or SDP or any party, he will have to contend with the same issues that have led his flatterers to cry foul. The matter will not only become a technical goblin for Obaseki but also a moral one. Is he sincere or is he dodgy? The public will face a candidate who will not only answer the lingering question of an ungrateful beneficiary, but whether he told the law the truth or told the public a lie.
So I ask, if he knew he had all these chinks in his armour, why did he go to battle? If you knew you had certificate booby-traps and a big mole in the eye, why dangle the dagger? He had seen this in the same party, in Bayelsa, yet he did not settle in silence. Maybe he thought he had a charmed life. He was following the lines in scripture that says, “Blessed are those whose sins are covered.” His sins were covered once, and he became governor.
He ripped it open of his own accord and exposed a leaky sore. He did it when he ordered Adams to seek permission to enter his state, when even a farmer does not need it. He banned gatherings, hectored the opposition, sacked party members, banded with the opposition and supped with Oyegun. He began with a kangaroo legislature. He wanted to be a constitutional emperor. He speaks good English but lacks the polish of his sentences.
He did not learn from Ambode. “To stumble twice against a stone is a proverbial disgrace,” crooned Cicero. He thought he could be king in a democracy. Napoleon’s mother told her son that kings will always remain with us in different guises. Obaseki probably thought he would be Oba Ewuare the Great in the 21st century.
This essayist painstakingly reported how efforts towards reconciliation took place between stakeholders and Obaseki. This included fellow governors, men of means and lawyers. Obaseki would not listen. At a certain time, when all the parties gathered for him in Abuja, he had flown out of town. I made this revelation in this column, but rather than being solemn, Obaseki sent his errand boy after me on this page without addressing the reconciliation efforts I reported. When the fire came, he started seeking the help of those he pooh-poohed, including fellow governors.
If he has a way out, this essayist will wait and see. But the man has shot himself in the foot. He is limping, but he thinks he is dancing. (The Nation)
Northern Elders Forum Mere Irritants, Featherweights - Presidency
Femi Adesina, presidential spokesman, has described the Northern Elders Forum led by Ango Abdullahi as “a mere irritant”.
Reacting to the group’s criticism of President Muhammadu Buhari over the rising insecurity in the north, Adesina described the group as a “one-man army” which is driven by political interests and its dislike for the president.
Abdullahi had said the constant attacks by bandits and Boko Haram insurgents are indications that the Buhari administration “has failed woefully” in terms of security and welfare of citizens.
But reacting via a statement, Adesina said the presidency continues to see the forum as nothing more than Abdullahi.
“We are not surprised by this latest statement by Prof. Abdullahi, and our past position on what his group represents remains unchanged: a mere irritant and featherweight,” he said.
“The former vice chancellor signed the statement under the banner of Northern Elders Forum (NEF). Hearing that title, you would think the body was a conglomeration of true elders. But the truth is that NEF is just Ango Abdullahi, and Ango Abdullahi is NEF.
“It is a quasi-organization that boasts of no credible membership and its leader is akin to a General without troops.”
The presidential spokesman added that the “one-man army called NEF” had shown its “antipathy” against Buhari before the 2019 presidential election, but was “beaten together” with its preferred candidate.
“NEF is merely waving a flag that is at half-mast. President Buhari steadily and steadfastly focuses on the task of retooling Nigeria, and discerning Nigerians know the true state of the nation. They don’t need a paper tiger to tell them anything,” he said.
No missing N23bn in SDGs office- Presidency
Orelope - Adefulire, who is a former deputy governor of Lagos State, described as reckless and mischievous the claim that the alleged missing N23 bn was traced to the personal account of a former worker in her office.
A statement on Sunday by the Head of Communication, OSSAP- SDGs, Janet McDickson, urged Nigerians to ignore the reports of the missing N23 bn.
“ It must also be stated that the National Assembly, amazed by the spurious allegations in the reports , had also debunked insinuations that the allocation to OSSAP-SDGs in the 2020 budget was padded with the sum of N 33bn and absolved both the person of Princess Adejoke Orelope - Adefulire and OSSAP- SDGs of such financial Impropriety .
“ The statement signed by the House Committee Chairman on SDGs, Hon . Rotimi Agunsoye , read in part , ‘The House Committee on SDGs got records from the OSSAP- SDGs and Appropriation Committee, which shows the said additional N33 bn was not appropriated for SDGs Office among provisions of the 2020 budget earlier assented by Mr President .’
“ The Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs is committed to the discharge of its core mandates , including President Muhammadu Buhari ’s fight against corruption ,” the statement said. (Punch)
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