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Tag: All Progressives Congress

  • Buhari, Tinubu, APC Presidential council meet in Aso Rock

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday met with the Co-chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and other members at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    Speaking during the opening session of the meeting, President Buhari said that the meeting was convened to consider and approve structure and operation modalities of the campaign council.

    But before the meeting went into closed session, APC Governors were absent at the inaugural meeting of the Presidential Campaign Council.

    The APC governors are expected to serve as State Coordinators in their respective states while Gubernatorial Candidates in non- APC States will serve as State Coordinators in their respective states.

    The meeting was still in progress at the time of filing this report

  • I will not repeal the anti-open grazing law—Benue APC flag bearer

    The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benue State,  Emmanuel Jime, has indicated that he has no plans to repeal the state’s law prohibiting open livestock grazing, contrary to the propaganda in some quarters that he is sponsored by certain groups opposed to the law.

    He stated this at a thanksgiving service and reception organised in his honour at NKST Central, Zaki Biam. Jime told the people that he heard very clearly their cries as expressed by Solomon Wombo. He assured that his government would not tow the path of Governor Samuel Ortom, who instead of attracting democratic dividends to the state had brought untold hardship to the  people.

    He said: “When your son Gabriel (Suswan) was governor of this state and was working  closely with former President Goodluck Jonathan, he did not bring us excuses. He attracted quite a number of federal appointments to our children. One of the key beneficiaries of those appointments was Samuel Ortom, as he was appointed to serve in very key ministries (Trade and Investment, and Aviation). What has Gov. Samuel Ortom attracted to Benue State since he became governor three and half years ago?

    “Today, he goes about telling people that I am a Fulani man who is sponsored to repeal the state’s anti grazing law. I want to tell you in very simple language that neither I, nor my mother is Fulani. I am also not coming to repeal any law; instead I would strengthen the law to the benefit of Benue people and robustly engage security agencies and other stakeholders for full adherence, as opposed to what obtains now.

    “Between a lawyer with over 10 years experience in lawmaking and one with no knowledge of lawmaking who will guarantee a law to work?”

    Earlier, the Director-General of Jime/Ode Governorship Campaign Organisation, Senator Jacob Tilley Gyado, assured the governorship hopeful that Sankera people are very trustworthy people. He said: “They have stood behind me and have never denied me any favours since I joined partisan politics in the 1970s. Right now, I owe them a debt of gratitude. I have been looking for ways to pay and I believe Jime is better positioned to pay that debt on my behalf.”

    He,  therefore, urged the people to mobilise massive support for his victory at the poll.

    Others who spoke at the occasion were the senatorial candidate of the APC Zone A, Mrs. Mimi Adzape Orubibi, and her counterpart for the Katsina Ala/Ukum/Logo Federal Constituency.

    They charged the people of the area to vote for all the candidates to the APC, so that they will team up with the governorship candidate and Presidnt Muhammadu Buhari to attract positive development to the people of Sankera and the entire Benue State.

     

  • Group: Bindow will win

    A group, the Home Front, has urged the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Adamawa State to gird their loins ahead of the general elections.

    The group is mobilising support for the re-election bid of President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Mohammed Jibrilla Bindow.

    The group said the post-primary crisis will soon be over and that members should be optimistic about the prospect of unity.

    It said the president and the governor deserve second terms, based on their performances.

    Its coordinator, Wafarniyi Theman, told reporters that those opposing the candidature of Bindow would be reconciled  and that they will eventually lend their support to his re-election bid.

    Theman said: “Nuhu Ribadu is already in the presidential campaign team. Modi is a member of the APC and of the First Family. Adamawa and the APC belong to all of us.

    “Nuhu Ribadu, Ahmed Halilu Mahmood (Modi), the former Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF) and every other aggrieved member will work for the success of the APC and its candidate, Bindow.”

    Ribadu and Modi, the two governorship aspirants that lost to Bindow in the quest for the Adamawa APC governorship ticket, had described the October 2018 primary election as fraud and have still not withdrawn their opposition to hiss candidacy.

    Read also: PDP urges Plateau people to vote out Lalong for poor performance

    Modi, a brother to President Muhammdu  Buhari’s wife, has a staunch supporter in former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Babachir Lawal, who, among other people, have consistently expressed opposition to Bindow’s re-election, even though they are campaigning for Buhari’s second term.

    Theman, the APC state secretary,  has waved the intra-party wrangling aside, insisting that the APC would mend its fences in Adamawa State and retain the governorship seat through the party’s flag bearer for the March election, Bindow.

    He said: “The APC remains one family. All the voices will merge into one. We will work together to deliver Adamawa for our party.”

     

  • I will defeat APC, PDP- Moghalu

    Prof. Kingsley Moghalu, the presidential candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) says he would defeat the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Feb. 16 presidential poll.

    Moghalu, at a town hall meeting tagged ‘The Candidates’ organised by the MacArthur Foundation in collaboration with NTA and DARIA media in Abuja, expressed confidence that he would emerge president.

    He said that Nigerians were “tired of recycled politicians’’ and that the Peoples Democraric Party (PDP) was not an option.

    “We will defeat President Muhammadu Buhari and the reason is very simple, Nigerians are tired of recycled politicians and the PDP is not an option.

    “Going for the PDP from the APC is like jumping from frying pan to fire,’’ he added.

    Moghalu said when elected, his administration would tackle root cause of corruption which is the broken value system in the country.

    According to him, no matter what we do, as long as we do not have a philosophical foundation, we cannot make progress.

    The candidate said that when elected, he would introduce the teaching of ethics in schools and ensure transparency in the budgetary system and the process of awarding of contracts.
    Moghalu, a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said that he would ensure forensic checks in the process to enhance transparency.

    On corruption, Moghalu said that if anybody commits a crime, the law must take its cause irrespective of creed or political party.

    According to him, our approach will not focus on the past but create a system to make corruption difficult.

    He said the judiciary would be allowed to do its job and that corrupt persons would not go free.

    The candidate said that to ensure sufficient power supply, his administration would disintegrate the national grid.

    According to him, this boils down to restructuring, when this is done, things will change and price of items will reduce.

    Moghalu said his administration would focus on industrial areas and renewable energy and that about 50 per cent of power will be sourced from renewable energy.

    On insecurity, Moghalu said if elected, he would change the leadership of security agencies and intelligence gathering units.
    He said the appointment of heads of security agencies would not be based on sentiment but on competence and professionalism.

    Moghalu said that when elected as president, he would put mechanism in place to address desertification which would stem farmer/herders’clashes.(NAN)

  • Details of loots will alarm Nigerians -Rep

    A member of the House of Representatives, Ehiozuwa Agbonnayima, has said that Nigerians would be alarmed with details of loot if released by President Mohammadu Buhari.

    Agbonayima, a candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), for Ikpoba-Okha/Egor Constituency in the House, stated this in an interview with newsmen in Benin on Monday.

    He said Nigerians would be so alarmed that they would want to kill some of the looters.

    Agbonnayima said it was worrisome that Nigerians failed to realise that it was not Buhari that stole their money.

    He said those fighting against Buhari’s re-election were doing so because their oil wells licenses would not be renewed.

    He alleged that there were some Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members in Buhari’s cabinet that do not want him to succeed because the credit would go to the ruling APC.

    Agbonnayima disclosed that a foreign lawyer engaged by the Nigeria government told him that some Nigerian lawyers engaged by same government were working against their own country to sabotage the return of stolen fund.

    According to him, this election is about development. If Buhari decides to release names of looters, Nigerians will want to kill them.
    “The U.S. gave us comprehensive details of the crude oil that left the country illegally.

    “We invited the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and they brought bags full of evidence. In all those documents from the NNPC, there was no record of any oil transaction being taken to the U.S.

    “It was as if nothing left the country but the U.S., Custom gave us what landed through the Port of Houston.

    “We have documents of who brought the oil, who bought it and the bank through which the money was paid.

    “Former Vice President Abubakar Atiku should tell Nigerians the business he has done. He has only been a custom officer and Vice President of the country.

    “He said he is an investor but he took INTEL that belonged to Nigerians. Congressman Jefferson has been jailed in the U.S. and the document the U.S. Attorney General sent to former President Olusegun Obasanjo to investigate Atiku is there,” he said.

    Agbonnayima added:”Who committed same crime with Jefferson want to become president whereas his accomplice has been jailed. We must shine our eyes.

    “I do not think I have an opponent. Go and look at my last antecedent. Let them bring their records if they really care about the people.

    “I am in APC because Buhari is not corrupt. That is the simple reason I stand with Buhari,” he said.(NAN)

  • APC will win in Akwa Ibom – Akpabio

    The former Senate Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio, on Monday said that victory for the All Progressives Congress (APC), in elections in Akwa Ibom State was a “done deal”.

    He spoke on the sideline of the inauguration of the APC presidential campaign council by President Buhari at the International Conference Centre, Abuja.

    Akpabio, who is the immediate past governor of Akwa Ibom State, said that apart from the massive infrastructure going on in the state, the APC campaign will be based on the integrity of the President.

    He said, “I thank the APC family for giving us (Akwa Ibom APC) the opportunity to kick-start presidential campaigns in 2019 like what you saw, that shows indeed the future is very bright for the party, the prospects are very strong.

    “We have a lot to campaign with, the social infrastructure, the SEED programme, a lot has been achieved by this President as never done before. In the past, we had so much of recurrent expenses but today, we are now seeing infrastructure on ground like the railways, the roads and other infrastructural programmes of this administration.

    “But over and above that, we have so much confidence in the integrity of Mr. President and I think most of the campaigns in 2019 will be based on integrity. There is need for Nigeria to take its rightful place in the comity of nations. So for me in Akwa Ibom, it’s a done deal.” he said

    The former governor of Delta state, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan has also said that the achievements of President Buhari in the Niger Delta area and Delta state, in particular, would make his re-election in the February presidential election very easy.

    According to him, the efforts of the President Buhari-led government have brought relative peace in the Niger Delta region.

    Read Also: Amaechi: PDP mocks Buhari over leaked tape

    He said “We are sure of delivering because Mr. President has done a lot for Delta state. Don’t forget that Delta state is like the nucleus of the crisis in Niger Delta and of course when Mr. President came in, we had this Niger Delta Avengers that came up in 2016.

    “When Mr. President came in and it took the ingenuity of Mr. President and the Vice President to manage that crisis, the Vice president has to come to the state, the Minister of Petroleum had to come to the state, to the heart of the creeks in Niger Delta to do engagement processes.

    “In fact, the Vice President went round every state in the Niger Delta; it has never been done before. For Delta, in particular, he was there, he went to see traditional rulers, he went to see some of the youths, he went to see those that were involved in the crisis and that helped significantly in managing the crisis.

    “Apart from that, Mr. President also has done a lot in terms of infrastructure and human capital development in Delta state and across the Niger Delta. The railway to Alaja is now functional and of course they have started carrying passengers.

    “As at today, there is a lot of work going on at Escravos bar. That was the entry to the Delta state port that was not passable but by the time they finish with it, it will be passable.

    “Of course, a lot of roads have been done by the NDDC (Niger Delta Development Commission), the number of roads that have been done by the NDDC in the last three years have never been done before.

    “From the human capital development area, we have the N-Power, we have the feeding of our school children, we have the tradermoni and also the empowerment programmes that are being done by the Federal Government. So we have a lot to campaign within Delta state.” he said

  • PDP not a threat to Buhari’s re-election — Keyamo

    Festus Keyamo (SAN), Spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Presidential Campaign Council, says the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is not a threat in the 2019 elections.

    He said that the PDP would never serve as a threat to the re-election bid of President Muhammadu Buhari

    Keyamo made the claim on Thursday during the inauguration of the Women and Youths Wing of the APC Presidential Campaign Team in Abuja.

    However, he called on APC supporters to intensify efforts towards ensuring that the party recorded massive victory at the polls.

    “ They are no longer a threat to President Muhammadu Buhari because their effort is collapsing.  They have more than four hundred groups but the groups are now dropping on a weekly basis.

    “ It clearly shows that they cannot function without public funds and they discovered that it is no longer business as usual,” he said.

    Keyamo also said that the opposition party has been disseminating false information to tarnish the image of President Buhari which would not help them at the polls.

    Read also: NAF neutralises scores of bandits in Zamfara

    Also speaking, the former Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abba, commended the role of Wife of the President, Aisha Buhari for galvanizing support for the re-election of the President.

    Abba assured the President of their determination to mobilise women and youths to ensure victory in the 2019 elections.

    On her part, Mrs Pauline Tallen, expressed confidence that the women and youths of the party would do their best to ensure Buhari’s victory.

    “ Women and youths are the backbone of every electioneering campaign and we will engage them door-to-door.

    “ Mr President, we believe in you, as women we believe our hard work will be the reward,’’ she said.

    On his part, the Chairman of Board of Trustees of Buhari Support Organisation (BSO) Col. Hameed Ali (rtd), said that President Buhari was contesting for second term to save Nigeria from unpatriotic set of people.

    Ali however, charged members of the Buhari Support Organization to re-double their efforts to ensure that the President was re-elected (NAN).

  • Buhari urges APC supporters to embark on door-to-door campaign

    President Muhammadu Buhari, has urged members of All Progressives Congress (APC) Women and Youths Presidential Campaign Team (PCT) to embark on a door-to-door campaign for the success of the party in the coming general elections.

    The president gave the charge on Thursday while inaugurating the campaign team at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    He said “ In carrying out this assignment, I expect from members of this team the same loyalty and support which you exhibited in 2015.

    “Let us remind Nigerians about our plans, our good work and achievements: Tell the people why they should give us another four years’’.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the PCT  comprises of politicians, artistes, APC grassroots mobilisers, captains of industries, entertainers, retired senior military and police officers.

    The campaign team chaired by the wife of the president Mrs Aisha Buhari, is expected to engage in massive campaign to ensure the re-election of Buhari/Osinbajo in the presidential election.

    Buhari called on the APC supporters to redouble their efforts towards victory for the party in the coming general election.

    “ I call on you to redouble your efforts and re-elect us in February, so that you can witness the next level of change.

    “ To all Nigerians, I appreciate your love and support. I hope you will renew the mandate you overwhelmingly gave us in 2015.

    Read also: Buhari commiserates with victims of Makurdi fire incident

    “Please do not be distracted, our country is on course, I am very pleased to inaugurate the Women and Youth Presidential Campaign Team.

    “I charge you to reach out to all Nigerians door-to-door and remind them why we need another four years.

    “ I am happy to tell you that we have made numerous landmark achievements.

    “The change remains unshaken and continues until we return Nigeria on track to assume its rightful place among the comity of nations,’’ he said.

    He said the campaign team was constituted to support the existing APC Presidential Campaign Council, which he chaired.

    He underscored the importance of women and youths in electioneering campaign, urging them to remain steadfast in the task of consolidating the gains recorded by the APC administration.

    “ My association with you has been for very long and is characterised by loyalty to the cause of change.

    “This shows the importance with which we view the role of women and youths as the backbone of the Nigerian electorate.

    “As such, they should be the drivers of our campaign; more so, they are the major direct and indirect beneficiaries of our social investment programmes,’’ he said.

    The president expressed determination to lay a solid and sustainable foundation for a better future for a generation of Nigerians.

    “ Our dream is to sustain CHANGE so that all systemic distortions can be corrected and we can enjoy the fruits of being Nigerians under the banner of freedom.

    “ It is also our hope that our unborn children will inherit a better nation,’’ he said. (NAN)

  • Group seeks recall of impeached Deputy Speaker

    A group loyal to the All Progressives Congress under the aegis of APC Youth Disciples has called on Governor Godwin Obaseki to wade into the impeachment of the Deputy Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Hon. Victor Edoror.

    It said the intervention of Governor Obaseki had become necessary “to avoid laying of bad precedence” in Edo politics.

    The group in a letter addressed to Governor Obaseki signed by its Director of Administration, Comrade Ojieaga Kingsley and General Secretary, Miss Ojoko Rosemary said Honourable  Edoror, representing Esan Central constituency, is the only lawmaker not being paid salary.

    In the letter, the group appealed to Governor Obaseki to intervene in the feud between Speaker Kabiru Adjoto and Hon Edoror.

    Read Also: Group urges monarchs to shun politics

    According to the letter, “This is not a good time for crisis at all. What we are concerned about now as youths is how to win more seats for our great party in the forthcoming election into the state house of assembly.

    “Your intervention into the crisis is important, in order to ascertain the legality of the action carried out. Your Excellency this is expedient in order to avoid laying of bad precedence.

    “From information available to us, there are accusations and counter accusations. We believe that you can find the truth and ensure that justice prevails. Mosty worrisome is that they (two of them) are all members of our great party, they deserve equal and fair treatment”.

    Edoror was impeached in October last year for allegedly engaging in acts that may cause disaffection in the House.

  • APC alleges anti-Buhari plot as PDP knocks rally

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) continued their war of words yesterday.

    The ruling party alleged that the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, hired foreign conmen to spread fake news about President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC-led government.

    It said the PDP opted for blackmail and false alarm as its campaign strategy just to drag the President’s name in the mud to make up for its campaign that crash-landed before it reached any threatening altitude.

    The APC insisted that Senate President Bukola Saraki, House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara and all those who joined  the PDP from the ruling party were a clog in the wheel of progress in their days in the APC.

    But Atiku fought back, listing job losses and abject poverty as what the APC-led government had on its scorecard for more than three and half years in the saddle.

    He disagreed with President Buhari’s claim during the kick-off of his presidential campaign in Uyo, Akwa Ibom, last Friday that his administration had delivered on all its electoral promises to Nigerians.

    Atiku warned, in a statement by his media adviser, Paul Ibe, that Nigerians should not return Buhari to office on February 16.

    At a news conference in Abuja yesterday, APC National Publicity Secretary Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu said the PDP had practically given up on the chances of winning next month’s presidential election.

    He said that accounted for the opposition party’s resolve to blaming institutions of government, such as the police and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), accusing them of working for the APC.

    Issa-Onilu said the PDP was trying to create an impression that it was being rigged out ahead of the elections, adding that nobody was planning to rig anybody out because there was no reason to do so.

    He said: “When we promised change, we did not mean a change from PDP to APC, but about changing the way we do things, including the application of the justice system.

    ”The year 2018 was significant in many ways. Importantly, we witnessed in this past year the shameful attempt by the political predators to launch themselves back into reckoning.

    “Those who were roundly rejected by Nigerians in 2015 for their grievous crimes of corruption, impunity, and maladministration once again struggled to rise up from the dungeon the people of this country had dumped them.

    “They were fierce and reckless in their wicked attempt to return to power to continue their primitive appropriation of our commonwealth for themselves and their immediate family.

    “The actions from these elements who have raped our nation for close to two decades were disruptive to the course of progress being vigorously pursued by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.

    “The year 2018, particularly, was a tough year for the APC government as we had to confront the monsters who have found their way into the ruling party during the merger in 2014, pretending to have cured themselves of their insatiable greed and callous selfish disposition.

    “These enemies of our country found out that the beats have changed and their strenuous efforts to steer the APC administration towards their ignominious ways, as they practised under the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), had become impossible under President Buhari. Predictably, the forces of evil finally gravitated towards themselves and are now ensconced in their wicked nest, called the PDP.

    “Unfortunately, they did a lot of damage to our determined efforts in the last three and half years, by constituting themselves into a stumbling-block, using their vantage position in government in conjunction with their associates outside of government who have been deploying their ill-gotten wealth to pervert justice, create a state of insecurity, propagate falsehood and promote dissent. It was a callous strategy design to pull the wool over the eyes of the people of this country.

    “As frustrating as their activities were in 2018, they met more than their match in President Muhammadu Buhari. Their Dubai-made strategy has collapsed like a pack of cards.

    “The plan was to recreate the 2014/2015 scenario when APC pilloried them for their crimes, which woken the electorate to the reality of the disaster we were headed under the PDP government.

    “PDP, led by their discredited presidential candidate, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku paid huge sums of money to some foreign con men in Dubai who posed as strategists.

    “They began to spurn daily fake news and make spurious and unsubstantiated allegations against our President, the family members of our President, the vice president, the APC national chairman, notable government officials, and public institutions to deceive Nigerians. Their strategists did not tell them that such would not work when the allegations cannot be proven.

    “Unlike in 2015 when the APC allegations were based on facts, which have been validated by revelations upon revelations of heist committed during the inglorious 16 years of PDP rule, the opposition’s disgraceful recourse to false alarm as a campaign strategy this time is a wrong approach. Facts are sacred. Falsehood, no matter how fleet-footed, would be overtaken by the truth in no time.

    “The reality has dawned on the fortune seekers in PDP that it is not possible to tag a label of corruption on President Buhari as a demarketing strategy. Neither is it possible to campaign based on issues of governance as the achievements of this administration have shown. It is obvious that the PDP has found itself in a fix.

    “Many in the leadership of the main opposition party are finding it difficult to identify with a character like Atiku and many of the charlatans running the PDP campaign are unsellable.

    “It is worthy of note that a few of the PDP leaders, with some residual credibility, are battling with their conscience as they are increasingly becoming uncomfortable with the level of immorality that underlines the PDP’s politics.

    “Anyone with a modicum of decency cannot be proud of the odious reputation of PDP. When this is added to the fact that the PDP campaign has failed to present any programme to Nigerians, we can see clearly why the party’s campaign has become a stillborn.

    “Like a lion, PDP roared, but it didn’t last. It has joyfully ended up as the bleating of a goat. Perhaps, the pun is intended as PDP is actually a goat that spent 16 years eating our yams.

    “What has the PDP to offer Nigeria? Or rather, why does the party want to return to power? It is simply to return Nigeria to the past, the past, when our collective wealth was being stolen by a few wicked elites. The past when monies meant for the development of our economy were being pocketed.

    “The past when no road, no railway, and no power plant were ever completed, even though huge sums of money were being allocated and released every year. The past when labour was stripped of dignity; when the harder you worked, the poorer you became.

    “The past when people with no defined business raked in billions of dollars from our economy, acquiring mansions as if they were buying shoes they never had while growing up.

    The past when our country had become the butt of a joke amongst the comity of nations. The past when dubious characters were acquiring fleet of private jets.

    “It is heart-warming to see the PDP campaign crash-land before it reached any threatening altitude. It has become apparent that PDP is technically out of the race before the elections start considering the level of disdain and apathy being demonstrated by the voters across the country towards the party.

    “As the ruling party on a rescue mission, we call on all well-meaning people of this country to keep the faith with this administration. The graphs are on the positive upward swing.

    “President Buhari is laying a solid foundation for a prosperous future. We must endure and be steadfast. We have already turned the corner, leaving behind the years of the locusts under the PDP.

    “We are headed towards a future that guarantees stability, economic buoyancy, world class infrastructure, reward for hard work and for honesty, and the security of our nation. PDP remains our collective national vomit. We shall never go back to it.”

    Issa-Onilu said it was a defeatist approach for the PDP to keep attacking INEC and the police, adding that the party was busy creating an alibi so that after the election which they are going to lose, they will have something to hold on to because Nigerians have rejected them.