The Nation Newspaper

Tag: APM

  • 2019: Amosun, APM chairman present letter of adoption to Buhari

    Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun and the National Chairman of Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Alhaji Yusuf Dantalle, on Monday presented a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari adopting him as the presidential candidate of the party for the 2019 presidential election.

    Amosun, who is the senatorial candidate on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has been having running battles with the party’s national Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole over who succeeds him in 2019.

    Speaking with State House correspondents after meeting with Buhari, Amosun, flanked by the APM national Chairman said: “You will recall that just last week we made public that APM has adopted President Buhari as their presidential candidate.

    “I had promised to bring the letter they had given me to present to him and that is what we came to do today.

    “And you know Mr. President is a very gracious human being, he is a man with a good heart.

    “He said if a party has adopted him, it is only fair he acknowledges the party and the chairman. That is why we are here.

    “I have said that anybody that is for President Muhammadu Buhari is for me, we will embrace such party, such persons, such organization wholeheartedly and that is what I am doing and that is what we are doing in Ogun State.

    “Clearly Mr. President will have a massive vote in Ogun State in the coming election.”

    But he declined to comment on his status in the APC and threats by the national chairman of the party to expel him for anti-party activity.

    “I don’t want to comment on that. We came for this, let’s restrict ourselves to this. I want my president to win, what else do you want? We must win, that is it.”

    Dantalle said the adoption was just a formal thing.

    He said: “Personally I believe in him and reason being that I love my country and I don’t have any other country apart from Nigeria.

    “And Buhari is the only man with the sincerity of intent to take Nigeria to the next level.

    “This is not the Nigeria I was born into but I see that Nigeria coming back only though Buhari.”

     

  • Amosun: we fear only God, Buhari, nothing more 

    …Ogun APC gets caretaker committee

    Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun on Friday evening declared he does not fear forces within the All Progressives Congress (APC) working against his interests in the forthcoming general elections.

    He said he only fears God and President Muhammadu Buhari.

    He spoke when received a letter of endorsement from the Allied People’s Movement (APM) for President Muhammadu Buhari as its presidential candidate for the February 2019 presidential polls.

    Amosun, who took delivery of the endorsement letter from the governorship candidate of APM, Hon. Abdulkabir Akinlade, at the APC Secretariat on Abiola Way, Abeokuta, the state capital, for onward transfer to Buhari, also insisted the Chief Derin Adebiyi-led excos will serve its four years term in full.

    He spoke just as the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party appointed Yemi Sanusi (Chairman); Ayo Olubori (Secretary) and Tunde Oladunjoye (Publicity Secretary) to serve as caretaker committee of Ogun APC.

    The Adams Oshiomhole-led NWC last Wednesday dissolved the APC executives in Ogun state and Imo State but Adebiyi has since dismissed the dissolution as an exercise in “futility.”

    Amosun said: “You know me by now. For me, I fear God and I respect people. So, it won’t be because we are afraid or we don’t want to talk.

    “”We don’t fear them. All of them put together, we don’t fear anybody. We fear God and we fear President Muhammadu Buhari.

    “Where we are now, what we should concentrate in doing is to let them know is that here in Ogun State, this is the home of President Buhari and we must vote massively for him.

    “This is the home of APC. We must let them know that come February 16, 2019, by the benevolence of the Almighty Lord…

    “We are human. We are no God and that is why we are telling them that in this coming election, in this Ogun State, it is whoever all of you (people) decide to back that will win the election.

    “So, the best way to answer them is through our action. And what is the action? We will use our votes to let them know who owns this Ogun state.

    “So, if they are looking for state to destroy them, they should not think of Ogun State.  We are ready for them.

    “We have decided to let them be for the sake of President Buhari. If not for the President, we know what to do.”

    He went on:  “Just ignore them. Don’t engage them for anything. Let us be focused and redouble our efforts so that in the coming election, we are going to answer them with our votes.

    “I want to assure you that this executive that God has used you to put together, the executive will be there for the next four years. They will serve their term.”

     

     

  • Amosun’s loyalists endorse Buhari as APM begins campaigns

    Loyalists of Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun yesterday kick-started the campaign of the Allied People’s Movement (APM) in Abeokuta, the state capital.

    They handed the party’s emblem to the party’s governorship candidate, Adekunle Akinlade.

    Other candidates of the party for various electives offices also got their flags as APM candidates.

    The party’s National Chairman Yusuf Dantale   led the campaign kick-off at the MKO Abiola Stadium.

    APM also declared President Muhammad Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as its adopted presidential candidate for next year’s presidential poll.

    Addressing the rally attended by transport unions and association’s drawn from across the state, Dantale said it was a collective decision to adopt President Buhari.

    Curiously, the national chairman presented the party’s flag to Akinlade with instruction to pass it on to the President, who the party said was impressed with his performance.

    Akinlade collected the flag on behalf of President Buhari, assuring the party that he would hand it over to him through the state APC Chairman Chief Derin Adebiyi, and Governor Amosun.

    The APM candidate justified his defection from APC, saying it was driven by the need to forestall plans by some forces to truncate the achievements and legacies of Governor Amosun.

    He described his new party as a new movement which would fight for freedom and ensure welfare of the people.

    Akinlade said: “We kick-start this campaign to continue the good work of Governor Amosun. We have enough resources and they should be used for the welfare of the people.

    “Ogun people have the right to choose their leaders without the input of anyone outside the state.”

    The Director-General of Abdulkabir Akinlade Campaign Organisation, Tunji Sarafa Ishola, said the state needed continuity in governance.

    He added: “We need continuity in Ogun State and that continuity and orderly succession residing in our son and candidate, Abdulkabir Akinlade.

    “APM has decided to adopt President Buhari. In APM, we have adopted Senator Amosun as senatorial candidate in Ogun Central.

    “We don’t have a senatorial candidate in Ogun East and we have adopted Lekan Mustapha as our candidate. Other candidates will be discussed later.”

     

  • Ogun: Majority leader, Chief Whip, two others defect from APC to APM

    Four members of the All Progressives Congress(APC) in the state House of Assembly, have defected to the Allied Peoples Movement (APM).

    The defectors are the Majority leader, Yinka Mafe, Chief Whip, Idowu Olowofuja, Tunde Sanusi an ordinary member from Obafemi Owode state constituency and Ganiyu Oyedeji.

    The quartet announced their defection at the floor of the Ogun Assembly chamber, on Thursday morning, during plenary presided by the Speaker, Suraj Adekunbi.

    The lawmakers cited “party injustice and mandate theft in the APC direct primaries conducted on October 7” as part of reasons for dumping their party.

  • APM Terminals raises awareness on plastic pollution

    Concerned about experts’ report that by 2050, there could be more plastic than fish in the oceans by weight if concerted efforts are not made to address the issue, the Managing Director of APM Terminals, Apapa, Martin Jacob, has made a case for the proper disposal and recycling of plastic wastes to reduce its harmful effect on the oceans, wildlife and humans.

    Jacob spoke during a cleanup exercise organised by his firm in partnership with Wecyclers at the Ogogoro Island, a riverine community in Apapa, Lagos.

    The exercise was part of the company’s 2018 “Go Green” campaign. No fewer than 120 employees of the company, Wecyclers volunteers and residents of the community took part in the exercise, collecting trash and other litters from the shoreline of the island. The total waste collected weighed 228kg.

    “Go Green” is a worldwide campaign set up by a number of leading container terminal operators and port authorities, with the aim of raising awareness of the global natural and social environment and improving conditions in these areas. The campaign is carried out annually through volunteer activities such as creating and upgrading local green spaces, launching educational programmes, adopting waste recycling measures and community engagement.

    Jacob said the clean-up was aimed at raising the awareness of APM Terminals’ members of staff and the general community on the importance of environmental care through proper management of plastic waste.

    He noted that it may be difficult to abolish the use of plastic bottles, but nonetheless said there is an urgent need to take action against plastic pollution in the country to protect the marine environment.

    He said: “In Nigeria, very often you see the whole place flooded. This is all because of the plastic bottles we throw in the drains. So we just want to spread the message among our communities and also our employees to inculcate the culture of disposing plastic waste in a proper manner, in other words, recycle it.

    “We can’t stop using plastics. Plastic nowadays has become part of our lives. Even if you buy chocolate in the supermarket, they give nylon and you accept it and that is the reason we find it everywhere. This in turn causes more damage to our environment. Plastic gives us a lot of benefits but careless usage is what is giving us the problem we face today.

    “There are islands of plastic bottles floating around the ocean. Depending on how we handle plastics, we can avoid the dangers in our environment. So this is not just going to be a one-day thing for us, it is what we should take home, at work and in our families. We have spread the culture, so this should become a movement to prevent abuse of plastic.”

    A community leader in the Ogogoro Island community, Alade Isaiah, expressed appreciation to APM Terminals for taking up the clean up exercise, even as he urged other port operators to emulate the good gesture of the port operator.

    “We love what APM Terminals has done by cleaning our environment. Our women and children have also supported them in this cleaning exercise. We will emulate this fine example by keeping our environment clean so that the dirt around do not go inside the water,” he said.

    Environmental pollution caused by plastics is capable of causing harm to land, waterways and oceans. Living organisms, particularly marine animals, can be harmed either by mechanical effects, such as entanglement in plastic objects or problems related to ingestion of plastic waste, or through exposure to chemicals within plastics that interfere with their physiology. Humans are also affected by plastic pollution, such as through disruption of various hormonal mechanisms.

    About 380 million tonnes of plastic is produced worldwide each year. From the 1950s up to 2018, an estimated 6.3 billion tonnes of plastic has been produced worldwide, of which less than 10 percent has been recycled and another 12 percent incinerated.

  • APM set to invest N70b in Lagos terminal

    APM set to invest N70b in Lagos terminal

    • To link Kano by rail

    The management of APM Terminals (APMT), Apapa, said it has invested about N70 billion in upgrading the facilities at its terminal.

    The operator also said it would soon commence evacuation of cargoes from Apapa port to Kano by rail as part of efforts to boost quick cargo clearance from the port.

    Its Chief Financial Officer, Sunil Bansal, who spoke when the Executive Secretary, Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Mr Hassan Bello visited the terminal, said the terminal remains the only terminal in Lagos connected to the rail line through to the hinterlands.

    He noted that when the rail tracks which will move cargoes from Lagos to Kano becomes fully operational, importers whose cargoes are destined for the hinterlands will no longer have to come to Lagos to clear their consignments.

    “We are ahead in the process of connecting Kano which is another business hub to Lagos by train. We expect to start operation very soon. We are having some little challenges but we are almost set to start. This is the only terminal in Lagos which is connected to rail through to the hinterland.

    “We have two lanes inside and two trains can come simultaneously and with this. Importers don’t need to come to Lagos to clear their cargo, it can be cleared at their doorstep. Those are the kind of investment and processing that we are coming with,” Bansal said.

    He said the company has so far invested about N70 billion in modernising and upgrading its terminal.

    “When we started the terminal nine years back, the dream was to make it a world class facility and we are happy to say the terminal is equivalent to any other terminal in Europe in terms of infrastructure and processes,” he said.

    The NSC boss lauded APM Terminals’ commitment to the development of the port especially in the areas of infrastructural development and acquisition of modern cargo handling equipment which he said has brought about efficiency and increased tonnage at the port.

    “We are  happy and appreciate the continued investment you have made in the operations of your terminal.When the port was concessioned to the private sector, it shows that the private sector is the engine room of development. We have also seen growth of increase in the tonnage which shows there is some efficiency,” Bello said.

    Bello said for terminals to achieve a sustainable increase in productivity, there is need for collaboration with relevant government agencies.