The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Aso rock

  • Buhari, Amosun, Ogun APM candidate meet in Aso Rock

    President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday met behind closed-doors with Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun and the state governorship candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Adekunle Akinlade, at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

    Before he moved to APM, Akinlade was a governorship aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), but he lost to Dapo Abiodun.

    But the Presidency said last night the President will lead the campaigns of all APC candidates but welcomed endorsement from other parties.

    Before yesterday’s visit, Amosun had, on December 24, led the APM National Chairman, Alhaji Yusuf Dantalle, to the Presidential Villa to submit a letter adopting President Buhari as APM’s presidential candidate.

    Addressing State House correspondents after submitting the letter to the President, Amosun said: “You will recall that just last week, we made public that APM had adopted President Buhari as its presidential candidate.

    “I had promised to bring the letter they gave me to present to him; 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 who is for President Buhari is for me. We will embrace such a party, such persons, such an organisation wholeheartedly. 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.”

    Apparently to counter the APM’s romance with the President, a former governor of Ogun State, Aremo Olusegun Osoba, on December 28, also led the governorship candidate of APC, Dapo Abiodun, to President Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

    After the meeting, pictures of the President lifting the hand of Dapo Abiodun immediately hit the social media.

    Addressing State House correspondents at the end of that meeting, Osoba said: “Secondly, we have come to present our candidate in Ogun State; the candidate of the President; the candidate of APC. The President has raised his hand and told the world that his candidate in Ogun State is Prince Dapo Abiodun; that he has no other candidate. His party in Ogun State is APC. He has no other party in Nigeria other than APC.

    “He has assured us that he will personally come to Ogun State to formally present Prince Abiodun as his candidate. He assured us that this is clearing the air about any ambiguity whatsoever on any name-dropping, blackmail or misinformation that anybody may be peddling. He said all elections throughout Nigeria, not just in Ogun State, people must vote for APC and no other party.”

  • Buhari, IGP meet in Aso Rock

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday met behind closed doors with the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris.

    The meeting took place at the President’s office shortly after the Jumma’at prayer at the State House mosque.

    Idris was expected to retire from service on attainment of the mandatory 35 years in service on Thursday.

    A source on Friday said that the fate of the police boss will be known after the meeting.

    “We are optimistic, but all will be known after this meeting,” the source said.

    Idris at the end of the meeting did not speak with journalists and no official statement yet on the latest development.

    Read Also: Presidency: PDP is clutching at straws

    Idris was appointed by President Buhari on 21 March 2016, to replace Solomon Arase, who retired from the police force on 21 June 2016.

    The 59- year old Ibrahim Idris enlisted into the Nigerian Police Force in 1984, after graduating from the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria with a bachelor’s degree in Agriculture.

    Speculations are rife that at the attainment of the Idris’ mandatory retirement age of 60 years of service in the police on Wednesday, January 3, the President may extend it for some period of time given that the country is on the verge of a national elections in few weeks time.

  • Economy in bad shape, says Buhari

    President Muhammadu Buhari has told Governors of the 36 states of the federation that the economy of the country was in a bad shape.

    The President met with the Governors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja for about 30 minutes on Friday.

    Speaking with State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), Abdulaziz Yari said the President told them to tighten their belts ahead.

    On what the President’s response was, he said: “The President responded by thanking and telling us that the economy is in bad shape and that we have to come together and thinking and rethinking on way forward.”

    Read Also: Buhari, governors meet in Aso Rock

    He also said that the governors thanked the President for releasing the Paris club funds to them without any discrimination.

    In attendance at the NEC are David Umayi (Ebonyi),Abdullahi Umar Ganduje (Kano), Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara), Kashim Shettima (Borno), Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi), Emmanuel Udom (Akwa Ibom), Simon Lalong (Plateau), Abubakar Sani Bello (Niger), Gboyega Oyetola (Osun), Rotimi Akeredolu (Ondo), Nasiru El-Rufai (Kaduna) and Yahaya Bello (Kogi).

    Some Deputy Governors are also in attendance including the Deputy Governor of Katsina State, Mannir Yakubu.

  • Buhari, governors meet in Aso Rock

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday met behind closed doors with the 36 states governors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    The meeting, which started around 12.40p.m, was held at the Council Chamber.

    The governors were in Abuja for the extended National Economic Council (NEC) meeting chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

    Buhari, had on Nov.19, held similar meeting with representatives of Nigerian Governors Forum at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, where the same issue of national minimum wage was deliberated upon.

    Representatives of the Governors forum, who met with the president over the issue then, included governors of Zamfara, Lagos, Kaduna and Enugu, while the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige was also in attendance.

    The Amal Pepple Tripartite Committee on the Review of National Minimum Wage, had on Nov. 6, submitted its report to President Buhari where it recommended N30,000 as the new national minimum wage.

    While receiving the report, the president expressed his commitment to ensuring the implementation of a new national minimum wage and pledged to transmit an Executive Bill (on National Minimum Wage) to the National Assembly for its passage within the shortest possible time.

    However, the 36 state governors had since expressed reservation over the proposed N30,000 new minimum wage by the Amal Pepple committee, saying the state governments were not in a stable financial position to pay the new minimum wage.

    The Chairman of the Governors’ forum and Governor of Zamfara, Alhaji Abdul’aziz Yari, had on Nov. 15, told newsmen at the end of an emergency meeting of the governors in Abuja that payment of N30, 000 wage was not practicable.

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

  • ‘No vacancies in Aso Rock, Alausa come 2019’

    A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Lanre Razak has said there are no vacancies in both Aso Villa in Abuja and Alausa Government House in Lagos State, asserting that, “APC will walk over other parties in 2019 elections.” Razak, who was the former Commissioner for Public Transportation in Lagos State explained that, what people view as crisis in the APC camp is never a crisis, saying, “it is just as a result of individuals struggling to get a viable and sure platform to win elections.”

    Speaking further, Razak insisted that, “in Lagos State also, there is no threat to the APC either from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or any other party,” expressing confidence that, “we will over run them. We have very solid and effective crisis management mechanism that would be deployed to resolve all the issues before the elections. APC is the only viable platform for people ctowin elections. That explains the steam you notice in those struggling to have the ticket to contest elections on the its platform.”

    He hinged his confidence on the leadership prowess of the APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and APC’s performances across the country in the last three and a half years. “I have absolute confidence in Tinubu’s leadership and I don’t have doubt in his ability to lead us to the promise land. He is a God sent leader that other leaders ought to emulate. I am fully in support of all actions he has been taking so far because the actions are in the best interest of democracy and humanity.”

    In conclusion, Razak asserted that the Lagos State APC governorship candidate, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, will win convincingly because of what the electorate in Nigeria and Lagos State know about Tinubu’s leadership and APC performance in Lagos State. Nobody, according to him,  either in Lagos or anywhere in the country would give his vote to the PDP because they know the atrocities the party committed during its16 year’s rule during the period they drained the nation’s economy.

  • Video: Buhari receives Prince Charles in Abuja

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday received British Royals Prince Charles and his wife, Duchess Camilla at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    News Agency of Nigeria reports that Prince Charles and members of his entourage arrived the State House at about 2.20p.m.

    Buhari, who welcomed the Prince at the fore court of the presidential villa, introduced some members of his cabinet and presidential aides to the prince.

    The President later went into closed door meeting with Prince Charles.

  • Buhari’s Chief of Staff, INEC Chairman meet in Aso Rock

    The Chief of Staff (COS) to President Muhammadu Buhari, Abba Kyari, on Friday met behind closed doors with the National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu.

    Read Also: Nigeria can’t blindly sign agreements, Says Buhari

    The meeting, which was held at the COS office, lasted for about thirty minutes.

    He didn’t speak to journalists when the closed doors meeting ended.

     

    Details Later...

  • Buhari, Amosun meet in Aso Rock

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday met behind closed doors with the Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    The meeting started around 11.30a.m when he arrived the President’s office.

    The governor was among state governors that had issues with the primaries held in their states.

    He had accompanied other eight governors to see the President on Thursday over the issue.

    Read Also: Plateau gets new Police Commissioner

    After meeting with the President last Thursday, Amosun had also met with the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo the same day.

    His meeting with President Buhari on Tuesday was still in progress at the time of filing this report.

  • Jang congratulates Atiku, pledges total support

    Former Plateau governor, Sen. Jonah Jang, has congratulated Alhaji Atiku Abubakar for picking the presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2019 general elections.

    Jang, who also contested alongside Atiku and 10 others, said in a statement issued on Monday in Jos that the victory was well-deserved and he would support the party’s candidate to win in 2019.

    Our reporter reported that  Atiku polled 1,532 votes to defeat his closest opponent, Aminu Tambuwal, who had 693 votes at the party’s elective convention held in Port- Harcourt.

    Read Also:Bindow embraces Buhari as Atiku’s victory divides Adamawa

    “On behalf of my campaign team and teeming supporters, I hereby congratulate Atiku Abubakar for a deserved victory and accept in totality the outcome of the Primary Elections.

    “As a loyal member and responsible stakeholder of our party, I hereby pledge to support and work for the actualisation of the anticipated Atiku Abubakar presidency; a presidency which I strongly believe will have answers to the multifaceted problems confounding the current occupant of Aso Rock, ” Jang said.

    The former governor urged Atiku to pay special attention to the challenges confronting the people of Middle Belt, particularly the countless killing of innocent citizens by ” faceless” gunmen, when he becomes president.

    He advised the candidate to make the security and welfare of the middle belters his top priority.

    Jang commended the Uche Secondus-led National Working Committee and the Dr Ifeanyi Okowa-led Convention committee for organising a hitch-free and transparent convention.

  • Buhari meets Anyim, Uduaghan, Marafa in Aso Rock

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday met with the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Anyim Pius Anyim, former Governor of Delta State and senatorial candidate in the 2019 election, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan at the State House Abuja.

    Also meeting with the President after the Friday jumat service at the State House mosque is Senator Kabiru Marafa who is a governorship aspirant in Zamfara State.

    The three came separately and were still at the President’s office at the time of filing this report.

     

    Details Later…