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  • APC leaders pass vote of confidence in Senator Tinubu

    APC leaders pass vote of confidence in Senator Tinubu

    ALL Progressives Congress (APC) chieftains have passed a vote of confidence in  Senator Oluremi Tinubu representing Lagos Central for effective representation.

    The party leader also endorsed her for another term.

    The leaders, who spoke yesterday at the Senatorial Town Hall Meeting in Lagos, said they were excited by her contributions at the Senate and her empowerment programmes that have impacted positively on her constituents.

    The APC Senatorial Leader, Prince Tajudeen Olusi, described her as the best senator we have ever had in Lagos Central.

    “She comes home regularly to brief us about the activities of the Senate. She spends her money to empower people. She has touched many lives. I don’t know of any senator that is doing what Mrs Tinubu is doing for us in Lagos Central,” he said.

    The state party chairman, Prince Henry Ajomale, said:”Senator Tinubu is unique in her style of representation. She has endeared herself to her constituents and the party leadership.”

    To former Lagos State Deputy Governor Femi Pedro,”what Mrs. Tinubu has done so far is extra ordinarily effective; she’s a unique senator, the first ever being produced in Lagos Central District”.

    Pedro described her as a passionate mother who loves people around her; a unique senator, the first ever produced in Lagos central district.

    Former Minister of State Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, who had represented the senatorial district, said he was excited that Mrs. Tinubu was hosting 22nd edition of her senatorial town hall meeting.

    He said doing a town hall like the one held yesterday was not easy.

    “What I admired her for is her motion on special status for Lagos. You have done well. I doff my heart for you,” Obanikoro said.

    Presenting her quarterly activities, Mrs. Tinubu said she procured 255 General Certificate in Education (GCE) forms to be distributed to the constituents aspiring to sit for the examination.

    She said the gesture was in furtherance of her commitment in making education accessible to everyone regardless of background and social status.

    Her words: “The 255 forms will be distributed to constituents aspiring to sit for the upcoming General Certificate in Education (GCE) Examinations. This is to enable them enrol for additional subjects required to further their education.”

    The senator reported that work had been completed on 18 of the 21 toilet facilities with motorised boreholes in 21 primary and secondary schools within Lagos Central that was facilitated by her.

    She noted: “At the last town hall meeting, it was reported that work on the zonal intervention projects for 2016, which I forwarded to the Federal Ministry of Education to provide toilet facilities with motorised boreholes in 21 primary and secondary schools within our senatorial district at a total cost of N213 million would commence as soon as the contracts were approved

    “I am glad to inform you all that the contracts have been approved and work completed in 18 of the 21 beneficiary schools; the toilet facilities have been commissioned.”

    The senator informed her constituents that the senatorial district would receive 25 tricycles from the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development for youth empowerment. She added that 52 sewing machines, 54 tricycles and 60 2.5 KVA generating sets applied for would be delivered, in furtherance of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) projects. The mode of picking the beneficiaries, she said, would be communicated through the senatorial zone’srespective leaders.

    She added that the Office of Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals made 200 forms available for digital training of the youths. The forms, according to her, were distributed while the training exercise took place at five local governments on May 12, 2017.

    The senator stated further: “Under our Youth Empowerment and Skills Acquisition Scheme (YESAS), five youth were nominated by our senatorial youth leader, Prince Ahmed Olanrewaju Mohammed, from the local governments that make up the senatorial district to attend the African Youth Initiative on crime prevention summit which took place in Lagos at the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs, Victoria Island on Thursday, May 25, 2017.”

    Mrs. Tinubu advised her constituents “to chart new courses, build new bridges, overcome barriers, beat the odds, break stereotypes and create history. Do not treat any opportunity as being demeaning or beneath you. Only then will you truly be able to say that you maximised your opportunities”.

    Ajomale hailed Mrs. Tinubu for her empowerment programmes that have impacted positively on many lives. He said if other lawmakers can emulate her, there would be less poverty in the society.

    According to him, Mrs. Tinubu has always said she should not be compared with other senators.

    “But everyone can attest to her performance in the Senate and how she has been carrying the people of her constituency along. It can, therefore, be concluded that this herculean task can only be performed by an iron lady of her status,” Ajomale said.

    The APC leader said it was not surprising that the senator has distinguished herself through accountability and touching peoples life because she represent the most disciplined senatorial district in Lagos State.

    Other dignitaries present on the occasion include Senator Munir Muse, Hon Hakeem Bamgbala, Lagos State Commissioner for Local Government Musiliu Folami; one time Commissioner of Finance, Hon. Wale Edun; Hon. Alawiye King; Chairman, Apapa Local Government,  Hon. Ayodeji Joseph; Otunba Tayo Oyetunde, Alhaja Latifat Gbajabiamila, Hon. Oyinlomo Danmole, Hon. Mutiu Are, Hon. Luqman Ajose, Hon. Toun Adeniran, Oba of Lagos Oba Rilwan Akiolu represented by Chief Ismail Oladeinde, Oba Owolabi Adeniyi of Igbobi-Sabe and Pa G.O. Adenekan.

  • Wike criticises Buhari, APC leaders on change agenda, credible polls

    Wike criticises Buhari, APC leaders on change agenda, credible polls

    Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has challenged President Muhammadu Buhari and other leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to show the impact of the party’s change agenda.

    The governor also called for credible elections in Nigeria, ahead of the December 10 legislative rerun across the three senatorial districts of the state.

    Wike, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and a former Minister of State for Education, said he would not be frustrated to implement his agenda for Rivers State.

    The governor said APC’s governorship candidate in during last year’s election in Rivers State, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, lacked experience in governance.

    He also said the party’s candidate for Rivers Southeast Senatorial District, Senator Magnus Abe, as well as other APC candidates would be defeated during the rerun.

    Wike, who was a guest at the weekend on a phone-in programme, Viewpoint, on Rhythm 93.7 FM in Port Harcourt, the state capital, said there was relative peace in the hitherto volatile Niger Delta state.

    Peterside, who is also the Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), had said based on privileged security information, Rivers had been leading in insecurity in Nigeria in the last 10 months.

    The former House of Representatives member said Wike had no political will to fight crimes, adding that having failed to ensure good governance, he should resign and return to his Rumueprikom, Port Harcourt hometown in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area.

    The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) chief noted that criminal activities, especially kidnapping, cultism, robbery and sea piracy, had been on the increase in Rivers State since May 29, last year, when Wike became governor.

    He said his party did not have any record of violence, unlike the ruling PDP.

    Peterside urged APC members and other Rivers residents to vote without fear of attack or molestation for APC on December 10.

    But Wike said: “President Buhari should show Nigerians what he means by change. I have not seen any change in Nigeria. I want Rivers State to be peaceful. I will support free, fair and credible elections in Rivers State on December 10. They (APC leaders) should not cause crisis in Rivers State and run to Abuja.

    “All the strategy of the APC is to rig elections. Everybody should be mobilised and come out fully. Nobody can intimidate you with arrest or detention. There will be no opportunity for APC members to rig elections on December 10. We (PDP members) have the capacity to resist rigging. I am campaigning because I want PDP candidates to win.

  • Rivers PDP, APC leaders disagree on December 10 rerun

    The leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State have disagreed on the December 10 fixed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conclude the legislative rerun.

    The state governor, Nyesom Wike, of the PDP, was not convinced that INEC would conduct the elections on December 10, stressing that insecurity would again be cited as reason to further postpone the rerun, despite the Senate’s directive to the electoral commission that the polls must be held on or before December 10 or plenary would be suspended indefinitely.

    Wike, while speaking yesterday in Port Harcourt, noted that the fact that the new date was announced less than 24 hours after the Senate’s ultimatum was an indication that INEC had been lying to the people that insecurity was behind the repeated postponement of the elections.

     He alleged that INEC and its anti-democratic elements would adduce reasons why the election might not be conducted, on the same premise of security consideration.

     The rerun will hold in eight of Rivers 23 local government areas, spread across the three senatorial districts of the state, where elections were suspended by INEC on March 19, 2016. The polls could not be held on July 30 and in October, earlier fixed by the electoral commission, in view of insecurity and the July 22 burning of INEC office in Bori-Ogoni, the headquarters of Khana LGA of the state.

    The governorship candidate of the APC in the 2015 general election in Rivers state, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, however, welcomed the directive of the Senate to INEC to conduct the legislative rerun in the state not later than December 10.

    Peterside noted that the APC in Rivers was ready for the elections and would use the opportunity to prove that the party would win any election in a free and fair atmosphere, devoid of threats, killing and intimidation.

    He called on INEC to ensure that it made necessary arrangements for the rerun and to put in place measures that would make it difficult for electoral thugs to cause violence and intimidate the voters.

    Peterside, the Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), also tasked Wike to stop intimidating INEC officials and ad hoc staff with death threats, but to rather cooperate with the commission and its officials to ensure successful poll.

    He said: “Threats to the electorate by a governor is demeaning of the office and smacks of the height of uncouthness and you can be sure that the people will resist him.”

    The APC chieftain also gave an assurance that his party would win all outstanding elections in the state, insisting that APC was on the ground in Rivers state and had credible candidates that had been tested and proven.

    Peterside, a former member of the House of Representatives, also called on the Senate to look into issues in the Rivers House of Assembly, where two members of the APC: Victoria Nyeche and Andrew Miller, had been refused inauguration into the state’s House of Assembly, despite winning their respective elections and issued certificates of return by INEC, while urging the members of the National Assembly to call Wike to order.

    The director-general of NIMASA pleaded with the Senate to compel the Rivers House of Assembly to inaugurate the members of APC, without further delay.

    The Rivers Chairman of the PDP, Chief Felix Obuah, also toed the line of the state’s governor, by not having confidence in INEC and its officials to conduct free, fair and credible rerun on December 10.

    APC Chairman in Rivers, Chief Davies Ikanya, however, expressed optimism that the good and more acceptable candidates of the party would emerge victorious during the elections, stressing that PDP members only knew how to win at the polls through rigging and violence.

  • No imposition, by APC leaders

    No imposition, by APC leaders

    The Oyo State House of Assembly will soon pass a Primary Health care bill to promote health care delivery at the grassroots.

    The Deputy Speaker, Musah Abdulwasi, spoke yesterday at a one-day interactive retreat on the newly established State Primary Health Care Development Agency with stakeholders in collaboration with the House of Assembly in Ilora.

    Abdulwasi said: “The focus of this bill is to make health care available to everyone in the state, especially at the grassroots.

    “We have passed bills on health insurance and other health related matters because health is wealth while the primary health bill has gone through first and second reading.”

  • 700 APC members join PDP in Ovia

    700 APC members join PDP in Ovia

    …..PDP Reps stormed Edo for Ize-Iyamu

    No fewer than 700 members of the All Progressive Congress (APC) Wednesday defected to the People’s Democratic Party in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State.

    The defectors who were from various communities in Ovia North East were led by a leader of APC in the locality, Friday Ighodaro.

    Other APC leaders that defected with their supporters were Stephen Osagie, Ifeanyi Okolie, Iredia Samuel and Peter Igbinedion.

    Friday said they left the APC because ‘it is a one-party.’

    Osagie on his part said the APC supporters from his Ulakpa community decided to quit the APC because the road leading to their community was graded by the lawmaker representing Ovia Federal Constituency, Barr. Omosede Igbinedion.

    The former APC members announced their defection at a campaign rally of the PDP held at Okada, hometown of Chief Gabriel Igbinedion, the Esama of Benin Kingdom.

    Barr. Omosede in her remarks said it was her father, Chief Igbinedion that turned Okada village into a town and the Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu will turn it into a city.

    Omosede told her kinsmen that the APC stopped some of her pet projects including rural electrification and road project at Okun community.

    She urged the people to show the ‘short man’ that he failed them through the ballot papers.

    Seven PDP members in the House of Representatives stormed the campaign rally to drum support for Pastor Ize-Iyamu.

    They included Minority Leader, Leo Ogor, Hon Uzoma Abumka, Hon Ladi Adekoto, Hon Sambo Garuba, Hon Oghene Ego and Hon Tunji Soyinka.

    Ogor urged the people to use their vote to send what he termed negative government  out of the system.

    State Chairman of the PDP, Chief Dan Orbih, accused Governor Oshiomhole of spending N90m monthly to maintain water fountain at the Oba Ovoranmwen Square in Benin City at a time residence lacked water to drink.

    Pastor Ize-Iyamu told the people that contents of his ‘Simple’ agenda document was his convenant with the people of the state.

    Ize-Iyamu said Oshiomhole was behaving as if he was pursuing a third term agenda.

    His words, “I feel sad when I hear Oshiomhole insults people like Chief Igbinedion when it was Chief Igbinedion that helped him to power.

    “He should have tell the people what he did in the past eight years  he he resorted to insulting elders.”

    Ize-Iyamu promised to improve the people lives as well as partner with businesses to develop the state.

  • Sanction Melaye, Ajide tells APC leaders

    Sanction Melaye, Ajide tells APC leaders

    Erstwhile chairman of Surulere Local Government, Hon. Tajudeen Ajide has called on the chieftains of All Progressives Congress (APC) to sanction Dino Melaye, the Kogi West Senator for improper conduct, following Tuesday’s verbal abuse on Senator Remi Tinubu, representing Lagos Central.

    Speaking from London, Ajide said the first time senator should be disciplined for going against party rules by disrespecting a two-time senator and senior in the house and in the same party.

    He said: “Discipline is a fundamental issue in every party and there is hierarchy that must be respected. We have leadership ladder in APC and for Melaye to verbally assault his leader on the open floor of the house is going against party etiquette.”

    He noted that appropriate sanction would serve as deterrent for offending party members in the future.

    “This is not to say the least about gender discrimination displayed by Senator Melaye in reaction to opinion expressed on the floor of the house by a woman senator and leader. I don’t know if he would have attacked a male senator like that. It is gender discrimination and he (Melaye) should face the music.”

    Hon Ajide added that Melaye’s action has further dented the image of the parliament and the country at large in the eyes of the rest of the world.

    “Commentaries in the U.K have been unanimous that gender discrimination still exists in our parliament and country. You can imagine in a week when a woman became the new Prime Minister of the U.K and in Nigeria, a junior male senator threatens to beat up a senior female senator. It is bad enough,” Ajide added.

  • How to develop Ondo, by APC leaders

    How to develop Ondo, by APC leaders

    SOME leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo town at the weekend convened a political summit ahead of the November 26 governorship election, urging the people to ensure change in governance for Ondo State’s growth.

    Speakers at the summit organised by the Ondo Kingdom Leaders Assembly (OKLA) included its coordinator, Brig-Gen. Funsho Oyeneyin (rtd); a columnist with The Nation, Prof. Ropo Sekoni and a university teacher, Dr. Theophilus Adebowale.

    They urged the people to vote the right candidate as the next Ondo State’s governor.

    They condemned the past orientation of voting based on monetary inducement and primordial sentiments.

    Two lectures were delivered by Sekoni and Adebowale to sensitise the people.

    In his lecture entitled: ”Yoruba People- Where Are We Today?”, Sekoni advised Yoruba people to go back into the past and examine what led to the eroding of the high moral values that the race was known for in the past.

    He said this would enable them to inculcate high moral value in the new generation of Yoruba political leaders, so that the ethnic group can once again go back to the top of the ladder as leader of developmental efforts.

    Sekoni criticised what he called “cronyism” in government and urged the people to put in efforts aimed at ensuring that the right people always get into position of governance rather than government of cronies.

    The scholar took a swipe at the situation in the Southwest states, where issues of unpaid salaries had become a norm.

    He advised Southwest governors to stop paying lip service to the provision of qualitative education.

    Adebowale, who delivered a lecture on “Good Governance – Whither Ondo State”, said any serious “governor desirous of good governance should be able to create a viable economy unlike what is obtainable in the state with its vast resources”.

    The don, therefore, challenged the people to wake up and be ready to ask those desirous of ruling the state in the next dispensation very important questions on how they intend to ensure growth of industries.

    The former Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Alani Akinrinade (rtd) slammed some top political office holders in the APC, whom he said kept on exhibiting high level of indiscipline.

    Akinrinade said: “APC had taken over in the last one year, but there had been so much indiscipline on the part of some of its elected officials, especially in the legislative arm.”

    Akinrinade urged the officials to exhibit high level of discipline needed for the APC to succeed and for Nigerians to continue to have confidence in its administration.

    The APC state chairman, Isaac kekemeke and other dignitaries attended the meeting.

  • APC leaders under gun attack in Rivers

    APC leaders under gun attack in Rivers

    National and Rivers State leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC), top politicians and reporters yesterday came under gun attack from suspected thugs of the Peoples Democratic Party in a near ambush in Rivers State.

    But the heavy presence of security forced the assailants to take to their heels.

    The attack came between Omoku, the headquarters of Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers state and Big Elele, on the way to the Port Harcourt International Airport Road.

    Rivers State PDP Chairman Felix Obuah, hails from the local government.

    The National leaders of the APC, lead by Deputy National Chairman (South) Chief Segun Oni, who represented National Chairman Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, and state leaders led by the deputy governorship candidate during the April 11 last year’s election, Asita Honourable, were in Omoku to sympathise with the victims of the politically-motivated killings and beheadings. Most of them are members of the APC.

    With Oni from Abuja were the National Women Leader Ramatu Tijani and National Youth Leader Ibrahim Jalo, among others.

    The sympathy meeting took place at the APC’s local government secretariat in Omoku, a town now deserted for fear of attacks ahead of Saturday’s run off elections.

    The trip started from the party’s state secretariat in Port Harcourt, around 8 a.m when party leaders, headed for the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, to receive the visitors from where they all moved to Omoku.

    Travelling to Omoku in a long convoy, the normal speed of about 100 kilometres per hour was observed, but the return journey witnessed a snail speed of 20 kilometres per hour.

    While at Omoku, the APC leaders got information from undisclosed persons that suspected PDP thugs had laid ambush on the route they took to Omoku, to attack them. They were told to consider taking another route to Port Harcourt.

    The APC deputy national chairman, however, called the bluff of the rampaging gunmen and insisted that the return journey must be through the same route (Big Elele to Port Harcourt International Airport). Security was immediately beefed up.

    Rather than speeding during the return journey, the convoy drivers opted for slow movement, with many fully-armed and battle-ready soldiers, operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) and riot policemen on hand to protect the convoy

    But the assailants remained in the bush from where they were shooting sporadically. They could not move to the busy highway, and instead ran into the bush.

    The NWC members were received by APC’s National Vice Chairman, Southsouth, Hilliard Eta, and the party’s Assistant National Secretary, Oji Ngofa, who is a former Chairman of Eleme Local Government of Rivers State, among other chieftains of the party.

    Speaking in Omoku, the National Chairman of the APC described the situation in Omoku and other parts of Rivers state as genocide and called on President Muhammadu Buhari to take immediate action to halt the madness.

    Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike and the Rivers Chairman of the PDP, were directly accused of being behind the politically-motivated killings across the 23 Local Governments of the state, which the PDP leaders described as supremacy battle among cult groups.

    The APC leader said: “I am surprised that innocent people are being killed, beheaded, maimed and annihilated on a daily basis, while Wike is describing it as a cult war. The killings are politically-motivated, not cult war. I feel very sad, angry and ashamed that people are being gruesomely murdered and beheaded in Rivers State.

    “This is the height of barbarism, wickedness, criminality, debasement and bestiality. I never thought Nigeria would degenerate to this level. We must not allow the killings to go on. We will speak for you (relatives of the victims) and we will not abandon you. Public inquiry must be put in place.”

    Asita, who was weeping while speaking at Omoku, stated that the victims were killed for being members of the APC, declaring that heavens would not fall, if President Buhari took drastic action to halt the killings of political opponents and others in Rivers State, to show the presence of government.

    The Rivers deputy governorship candidate of the APC wondered for how long the members of the party would be paying with their blood, their loyalty to the APC, declaring that they would prefer to be members of the party and still be alive.

    Asita noted that when the Supreme Court, on January 27 pronounced Wike as the duly-elected governor of Rivers, the APC members thought that would be the end of the killings in the state, but said they were wrong.

    Welcoming members of the NWC of APC to Omoku, a former Rivers Commissioner for Power, Augustine Wokocha, said killing of APC members had been a daily occurrence in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government and other parts of the state.

    Wokocha stated that the Federal Government must rise up to the security challenge in Rivers State, describing the killings as the height of criminality, a deliberate attack on the members of the APC and an attempt by Rivers PDP chairman to deliver Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni LGA to the PDP, in spite of Obuah’s unpopularity in the area.

    Addressing the teeming members of the APC at The Arena in Port Harcourt, the deputy national chairman urged them to come out en masse on Saturday and vote for only the candidates of the APC, to restore sanity to Rivers.

    Oni noted at the meeting, which was also attended by a member of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the APC, Chief Sam Sam Jaja, that the horrendous bloodletting must stop forthwith.

    Former governorship candidate Dr. Dakuku Adol Peterside, the newly-appointed Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), said: “Wike’s government is reckless. When you have a government that is foisted on you, what you (NWC members) saw in Omoku would be what would be experienced. The violence was foisted on Rivers people. We sought redress at the tribunal and in court, but the Supreme Court said the current government was validly elected.

    “We accepted the verdict of the Supreme Court. We thought it would bring an end to the madness in Rivers State. Quite unfortunately, Rivers people are now being subjected to a lunatic government. Our people are being slaughtered on a daily basis.

    “The irresponsible government that we have in Rivers State cannot defend the people of the state. The Federal Government should rise up and defend Rivers people, who want to cast their votes for their preferred candidates for the first time in five years. In free and fair election, APC candidates will win 80 per cent in Rivers State’s 309 wards.”

    No fewer than 100 members of the APC were gruesomely murdered by thugs working for the PDP, before, during and after the 2015 general elections, across the 23 LGAs of the state.

    PDP leaders in Rivers also claimed that many members of the party were killed by rampaging gunmen, who they alleged were members of the APC.

    Most pathetic among the APC members killed before last year’s general elections was the case of a former Chairman of Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Council of Rivers state, Chief Christopher Adube, who was assassinated in his Obrikom home in the LGA on April 3, 2015.

    Chief Adube, who was buried on December 12 last year, was assassinated along with three of his biological children: Lucky, Joy and John, as well as a family friend, Mr. Iyke Ogarabe, and the Adubes’ driver, Samuel Chukwunonye.

    Two of the children of Chief Adube: Paul and Ogechi, who survived the gunshots, and their mother, Patience, were among the persons at yeaterday’s meeting in Omoku.

    Paul, who was still in a wheel chair yesterday, because of spinal cord injury, caused by the assassins’ bullets, could not defecate by himself, while someone must assist him to pack the faeces, with iron rods used to support the legs of Ogechi.

    In the same Omoku on February 12 this year, no fewer than 24 APC members were again killed and mostly beheaded, with their heads taken away by the gunmen.

    At 9 p.m. on March 5, masked gunmen shot dead and beheaded a chieftain of the APC, Franklin Obi, and also killed his wife and 18-year-old son, Bestman, at his residence on Rutachi Street, Omoku.

  • Foundation hails APC leaders’ maturity

    A group, the Eko Foundation, has praised All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders for handling the National Assembly leadership crisis with maturity.

    It said they displayed sterling leadership qualities in the manner they handled the “fragile situation” to douse tension in the polity and keep the party united.

    Speaking at the extra-ordinary general meeting on the state of the nation, the chairman, Hakeem Danmola, called on Nigerians to support the Federal Government through prayers and constructive criticisms.

    In a statement by its spokesman, Aramide Noibi, the group said the opposition has been put to shame by APC’s magnanimity, and urged the party members to embrace peace.

    “In as much as we do honestly appreciate the electorate’s determination to have change, it behooves us all to genuinely justify such determination with a common front as compatriots,” the statement added.

     

  • Speakership: APC leaders’ decision will be final- Famurewa

    Speakership: APC leaders’ decision will be final- Famurewa

    ONE of the contenders for the position of Speaker of the 8th Assembly of the House of Representatives, Hon. Ajibola Famurewa, has dismissed media reports that he was going ahead with his ambition with or without the support of leaders of his party, All Progressives Congress (APC), in the South West.

    In a telephone chat with our correspondent, the lawmaker said he has been endorsed by some of his colleagues from the north for the seat, but appealed to his supporters to exercise restraint in the manner they carry out their campaign on his behalf. He, however, added that he would abide by the decision of his party on the matter.

    He said: “As a party person, I have leaders both at the state and zonal levels, and I have to wait on the party’s decision on the zoning arrangement. Even if the Speakership position is zoned to our zone (South West) and the leaders say no, we prefer my brother, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, as a core progressive who has imbibed the norms and values of the movement, I will bow to their wishes. Not only that, I would equally mobilise all my supporters to rally round the party’s preferred candidate.

    “At the senatorial and state level, Governor Rauf Aregbesola will determine who gets what, while the National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, holds sway for whatever position in this region. Do you think I will raise an eyelid against the decision of these two experienced men? That is not possible! They are my political leaders, who I hold in very high esteem.”

    Famurewa, who is a member of the House Committee on Diaspora, argued that the major challenge before the 8th Assembly is far beyond the issue of zoning of positions, saying that part of the core values of its mission is to ensure that it refocuses the nation’s foreign policy in order to stop the maltreatment of Nigerians in foreign lands.

    He said, “We must re-address our foreign policies so that Nigerians outside the shores of the country would not be subjected to slavery like we just witnessed in South Africa and Indonesia. We must collectively work together to ensure we bring sanity and discipline back to the system.

    “We must, as a matter of urgency, boost the power generation, so our teeming unemployed youths can get jobs when new and collapsed companies come on stream. Our economy must be rejuvenated and infrastructure all over the country must be functional to the extent that the common man will know that government exists.”