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Tag: deepens

  • Ogun PDP crisis deepens

    Ogun PDP crisis deepens

    The crisis rocking the Ogun State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has escalated as the pro-Obasanjo faction led by Senator Dipo Odujinrin has distanced itself from the activities of the Adebayo Dayo-led executive committee.

    Although Dayo, an engineer, has waved the olive branch to the faction, reconciliation nhas not taken place.

    The faction is said to be irked by the victory rally held at Ijebu-Igbo by the Dayo executive committee, where a party chieftain, Prince Buruji Kashamu, warned party members to be wary of “gerontocratic politicians masquerading as elder statesmen.”

    Since the court affirmed Dayo as the authentic party chairman, the other faction has been meeting, but its members have shunned the party activities organised by the state executive committee.

    The party chairman, sources said, has appealed to the Southwest Caretaker Chairman of the party, Chief Isola Filani, to broker peace between his exco and Obasanjo camp.

    Kashamu had fired salvos at the old PDP chieftains in Ogun State, saying that they should yield the space to younger elements and serve as their advisers.

    Sources said that he was reacting to Obasanjo’s warning to the party to beware of money bags, who he said, were bent on deceiving the people with the view of depriving them of a better future.

    Kashamu said that it was laughable that Obasanjo could denounce those he described as money-bag politicians, wondering whether they were not the ones that made him politically.

    “Was it not moneybag politicians that bankrolled his elections the first and second time? Was it not the same people he hobnobbed with when it was convenient for him to wrest the party structure from the immediate past administration in the state? Was it not the same set of people that he used to work for his candidate in the governorship election? This is the sort of inconsistency that Presidential spokesman Reuben Abati recently noted concerning Obasanjo,” he said.

    He noted that is a wise thing to re -unite the PDP family, but said that the former President should not pontificate on the re -union or how it should take place.

    Kashamu said: “it was not in Obasanjo’s place to set the parameters for such because he has continually shown his bias for imposition, do-or-die politics, injustice and illegalities – the very issues at the roots of the Ogun PDP crisis.

     

  • EFCC deepens ties with Ghana’s FIC

    EFCC deepens ties with Ghana’s FIC

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) and Ghana’s Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) yesterday resolved to deepen the level of cooperation between the two agencies.

    The agencies agreed to collaborate when FIC’s Chief Executive Officer Mr Samuel Thompson Essel, the agency’s Head of International Cooperation Edward Mussey visited EFCC’s chairman Ibrahim Lamorde, in Abuja .

    A statement by EFCC’s Head of Media and Publicity Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, said Lamorde called for synergy among anti-graft agencies in West Africa .

    The statement said: “While acknowledging the rich history of cooperation between Ghana and Nigeria, and the trans-national dimension to organised criminal activities in the sub-region, Lamorde stressed the need for law enforcement organisations in West Africa to build a synergy of lasting cooperation.

    “He expressed the willingness of the EFCC to assist the FIC in building its capacity through training and intelligence sharing, adding that joint training and frequent interface by officers of the two agencies should be encouraged to forge understanding and good relationships.

    “Essel thanked Lamorde for the warm reception and briefed him on measure already taken by FIC to enhance the fight against organised crime and money laundering in Ghana. He noted that his agency has faced challenges in compliance by Designated Non-Financial Institutions with Anti-Money Laundering Regulation especially as it affects the rendition of Suspicious Transaction Reports, STR.

    “He, however, acknowledged the fact that training received at the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, NFIU, by some of his analysts has been a catalyst for his organisation, Essel appealed to Lamorde to encourage his staff to visit the FIC, while also extending invitation to him to visit Ghana.

    “The FIC officials were guests of their Nigerian counterpart, the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU).

    Also yesterday, the EFCC arraigned one Patrick Fernandez, 50, before Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo of the Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja on a five-count charge bordering on obtaining money under false pretences and issuance of dud cheques worth N44.9million contrary to Section 1(1) of the Dishonoured Cheques Act Laws of Federation of Nigeria 2004.

    “In his ruling, Justice Onigbanjo granted the defendant bail in the sum of N2million and two sureties in like sum

    “He adjourned the matter till April 17 and 19 September, 2013 for commencement of trial.

  • Ogun PDP crisis deepens

    Ogun PDP crisis deepens

    The crisis rocking the Ogun State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has escalated as the pro-Obasanjo faction led by Senator Dipo Odujinrin has distanced itself from the activities of the Adebayo Dayo-led executive committee.

    Although Dayo, an engineer, has waved the olive branch to the faction, reconciliation nhas not taken place.

    The faction is said to be irked by the victory rally held at Ijebu-Igbo by the Dayo executive committee, where a party chieftain, Prince Buruji Kashamu, warned party members to be wary of “gerontocratic politicians masquerading as elder statesmen.”

    Since the court affirmed Dayo as the authentic party chairman, the other faction has been meeting, but its members have shunned the party activities organised by the state executive committee.

    The party chairman, sources said, has appealed to the Southwest Caretaker Chairman of the party, Chief Isola Filani, to broker peace between his exco and Obasanjo camp.

    Kashamu had fired salvos at the old PDP chieftains in Ogun State, saying that they should yield the space to younger elements and serve as their advisers.

    Sources said that he was reacting to Obasanjo’s warning to the party to beware of money bags, who he said, were bent on deceiving the people with the view of depriving them of a better future.

    Kashamu said that it was laughable that Obasanjo could denounce those he described as money-bag politicians, wondering whether they were not the ones that made him politically.

    “Was it not moneybag politicians that bankrolled his elections the first and second time? Was it not the same people he hobnobbed with when it was convenient for him to wrest the party structure from the immediate past administration in the state? Was it not the same set of people that he used to work for his candidate in the governorship election? This is the sort of inconsistency that Presidential spokesman Reuben Abati recently noted concerning Obasanjo,” he said.

    He noted that is a wise thing to re -unite the PDP family, but said that the former President should not pontificate on the re -union or how it should take place.

    Kashamu said: “it was not in Obasanjo’s place to set the parameters for such because he has continually shown his bias for imposition, do-or-die politics, injustice and illegalities – the very issues at the roots of the Ogun PDP crisis.

     

     

     

     

  • PDP crisis deepens as Clark attacks governors, Obasanjo

    PDP crisis deepens as Clark attacks governors, Obasanjo

    Prominent Ijaw and South-South leader Chief Edwin Clark launched yesterday a verbal attack at former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) for “rising against President Goodluck Jonathan”.

    He said the activity of the Governors Forum, which he described as an “oppressive and dictatorial forum”, is “getting more worrisome by the day.

    “The quality of governance in most of the PDP controlled states is very poor,” Clark said.

    The former Minister of Information said “the PDP is sitting on a keg of gun powder, which can explode at any time”.

    Specifically, he accused Obasanjo of destroying the party’s supremacy because he wanted control by wresting the powers of the party’s leader from the National Chairman.

    He also lambasted the governors for bastardising the slogan of the party from “power to the people” to “power to the governors”.

    Besides, Clark denied insinuations that Jonathan signed any pact with the former president that he would have only one term in office.

    “It is not true. It is not the former president who decides how many terms a president should do. It is the constitution,” Clark said.

    Clark’s Abuja news conference was tagged “open letter to the governors forum”.

    Recalling his political experience from the First Republic, the elder statesman said he had no regret attacking the governors because the matter affects the peace and stability of Nigeria.

    According to him, “the governors forum is now acting as an opposition party to the Federal Government”.

    “It deliberately breaches with impunity, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Constitution of the PDP, without any challenges. The Forum has now become a threat to the peace and stability of Nigeria. Most of the governors today are more dictatorial than the then military governors,” the chief said.

    Comparing the NGF with the United States’ National Governors Association (NGA), the octogenarian said Nigerian governors abuse the constitution with impunity and are using the platform to manipulate the polity.

    “I have seen and made enquiries about your counterparts in the United States of America, USA. A governors’ association called the National Governors Association, NGA, does exist, but their existence and operations are practised and operated within the confines of the law of the land. This body, which was formed as far back as 1908 has never been a thorn in the flesh of the country. They are not politically ambitious. Each of the governors of the 50 states in the USA, who want to become the President of the country, does not use the forum to achieve this ambition,” Clark said.

    Going down memory lane, the nationalist said the overbearing influence of the NGF started when former Kwara Governor Bukola Saraki became its chairman.

    Clark accused the forum of double standards in the way it reacts to national issues.

    Questioning the sincerity of the governors, the elerstatesman said “Whereas the governors forum is said to have a peer review mechanism, the Forum is not known to have ever prevailed upon any of its erring members to do what is right. The governors made no comments about Chief James Onanefe Ibori, former Governor of Delta State, all through his trial and conviction, based on corruption both in Nigeria and in London. Neither did they condemn their colleague, who was accused of beating up a fellow Nigerian worker in this civilised world. But conspicuously support their colleagues for no good reasons.”

    “The recent action of the National Working Committee, NWC, of the PDP in which 10 of the members met to take a decision even when the National Chairman was available and did not authorise his deputy to act for him, clearly showed that there was problem in the party. Instead of the Forum to join other party leaders to resolve this problem, it arrogantly supported one side of the dispute.

    “The controversy in Adamawa State is being fuelled by the governors forum by declaring its unholy support for the Governor of the state, Murtala Nyako. The Forum did not see anything wrong with Governor Nyako’s ambition of nominating his wife as the Chief Judge of the state.”

    Clark blamed the controversy in Adamawa on the selfish interest of the PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur; Nyako and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, who all want their sons to be the governor.

    “Clark recalled that the conflict between the National Chairman and the President over who the party leader is started in the days of Obasanjo. According to him, the former president “punctured and destroyed” the party’s supremacy.

    “..somewhere along the line, the incoming President Chief Olusegun Obasanjo used his military antecedents, indoctrination and perceptual conceptualisation to obliterate the known practice of the distinction of the party chairmanship with the leadership, and office of the President.

    “He prevented the late Chief Sunday Awoniyi from becoming the Chairman of the great party on the reason that Chief Awoniyi was a Yoruba man like himself. He preferred Barnabas Gemade, who actually became the National Chairman of the party. Much sooner and for no justifiable reason, he decided to replace Gemade with young Audu Ogbeh, who used to be a Miniter in the Alhaji Shehu Shagari government.”

    Clark recalled that Obasanjo removed Ogbeh and imposed Senator Ahmadu Ali over the disagreement on the kidnap of former Anambra Governor Chris Ngige and the politics of the state’s godfather, Mr. Chris Uba.

    “We witnessed the bastardisation of the party by former President, Olusegun Obasanjo and former National Chairman of the Party, Sen. Ahmadu Ali, who for their own interest frustrated all the founding fathers of the party and party faithful by de-registering most of the founding members of the party. Chief Obasanjo installed himself the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, BOT, of the party as a former President of the country. With all these actions, the party’s supremacy was punctured and destroyed. Members and all concerned reluctantly accommodated this unilateral attitude of the president in office at that time, while he got himself consolidated for the period he served.

    “Concurrently, the governors in the various states also assumed the same posture and in all circumstances seized the soul, the heart and disciplinary features of the party.

    “There is no more justice in the party due to the greed and corrupt attitude of the heavy weights of the party who made money, using the party. Today, they are using the same money to destroy the party.”

    “There is no unity in the party, it is fragmented everywhere.”

    He went on: “The Party’s progress in the country is accidental based on past glory and also due to the presence of petty, tribal and ineffective opposition Parties.

    “The slogan of the party has been turned upside down. The PDP members at the grass root no longer control the party and the power of the party no longer belong to the people. The people have lost the power, reluctantly accepting the slogan ‘Power to the governors’.”

    He added: “The PDP governors who now regard themselves as the leaders of the Party, are using their own structures to entrench corruption, lack of internal democracy, imposition of candidates within the structures of the party over the recognised structures as entrenched in the party’s Constitution.

    “The over-bearing influence of the governors forum in the polity has become a matter of serious concern. The activities of the PDP governors forum in particular have become very disturbing and calls for urgent correction as it is fast eroding the authority and the supremacy of the party and posing a serious threat to our democracy. The forum has become a powerful tool in the hands of the governors who now use it to pursue and promote their individual and collective interests with little or no regard to the letter and spirit of the party’s Constitution and supremacy.

    The octogenarian accused the governors of thwarting efforts to raise funds for the PDP because they want the party to continually depend on them for finances.

    He said most governors have hijacked their local government councils and have deliberately failed to conduct elections so as to impose their stooges in contravention of the 1999 Constitution and the Amended Electoral Act 2011.

    He added that they have seized the control of Houses of Assembly by appointing Principal Officers who have no financial independence.

    He wonderedwhy state lawmakers are afraid to adopt the Constitution amendment that grant them financial autonomy.

    The over-bearing attitude of the governors, he said, might be the reason people are opposed to State Police, which ideally should exist in a Federation.

    “Quite simply, the people no longer trust the governors. Our democracy is today imperiled because of the excesses of the governors who have put themselves and their interest over and above the interest of the nation.”

    The Director General of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) Mr. Asisana Okauru did not respond to text messages last night. He also did not pick calls to his mobile phone.

  • Jonathan fights back as land grab row deepens

    Jonathan fights back as land grab row deepens

    President lashes protesters who accused him of backing Bayelsa against Rivers

     

    The tension between Rivers and Bayelsa states over allegations of land grab and oil royalties boiled over yesterday, with the President joining the fray.

    President Goodluck Jonathan denied backing the alleged move to cede Soku oil wells in five Kalabari communities of Rivers State to his home state, Bayelsa.

    Community elders under the auspices of Kalabari National Forum, on Monday, alleged that there were moves by some Federal Government agencies with presidential acquiesce, to cede Kula, Soku, Ehem-Sargama, Idama and Abose Rivers communities whose oil well produces 300,000 barrels of crude daily, to Bayelsa.

    The Kalabari leaders’ protest was led by former Minister Alabo Graham-Douglas. They marched on Abuja on Monday with placards.

    Chairman of the Akukutoru Local Government Area Traditional Council of Rivers State, Emmanuel Awoyesuau-Jack, who spoke for the forum, said: “The self-explanatory effort was perceived to assuage the initial provocation of the Rivers State government. While Rivers State government patiently awaited the promised correction, of the error-laden 11th edition of the Administrative map of Nigeria, which ordinarily should have redressed the acknowledged fundamental misrepresentations, the RMAFC surreptitiously released all revenue accruing from Soku Fields and Wells, previously kept in an Escrow Account, to Bayelsa State without recourse to Rivers State.”

    But the President denied being part of any plot to cede the communities to Bayelsa. Besides, the Bayelsa State government also accused Rivers State of illegally collecting revenue due to it since 1999.

    It said there are outstanding issues of derivation between the two states.

    In a statement by presidential spokesman Reuben Abati last night, Dr. Jonathan decried Monday’s protest by Kababari leaders. He urged them and their “hidden sponsors” to avoid “the temptation to instigate conflict between the Nembe and Kalabari people of Rivers and Bayelsa states – who are of the same Ijaw stock”.

    The statement said: “Our attention has been drawn to a publication in some newspapers today about a protest staged by the Kalabari National Forum and some monarchs in Abuja, in which the so-called protesters accused President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan of interfering in a boundary dispute between Rivers and Bayelsa states.

    “The protesters alleged directly and through innuendoes, that there are plans to cede five Rivers State oil communities to Bayelsa with the connivance of various Federal Government agencies under the watchful eyes and supervision of his Excellency, Mr. President whose home state, most ingloriously, is the direct beneficiary.

    “We consider these allegations irresponsible and most unfortunate, considering the status of the persons who reportedly championed the protest. The statutory agencies being referred to by the protesters do not take orders from the President; they are independent bodies.

    Besides, there are laid down procedures for resolving inter-state boundary disputes. In this particular case, the dispute between Rivers and Bayelsa states predates the Jonathan administration, and has been a matter for consideration by the National Boundary Commission, the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) and other relevant agencies, long before now. The matter has never at any time been brought before either the President or the Vice President. The school-boy style protest is an attempt at cheap blackmail. We find the motive deplorable.

    “It is all the more surprising that a man of Alabo-Graham Douglas’s stature, a former Minister who ought to know what is right, will team up with a group intent on causing disaffection between the President and his Ijaw kinsmen.

    “We advise the Kalabari National Forum, its members and hidden sponsors, to avoid the temptation to instigate conflict between the Nembe and Kalabari people of Rivers and Bayelsa states, who are both of the same Ijaw stock. The statutory agencies assigned the responsibility of resolving boundary disputes should be allowed to do their work.

    “President Jonathan appeals to the good people of Rivers and Bayelsa to refuse to be dragged into the politics of conflict being orchestrated by individuals pursuing a hidden agenda.

    “The Federal Government, under President Jonathan’s watchful eyes and supervision, remains committed to the promotion of fairness and justice in the interest of all parties concerned.”

     

  • Okorocha’s, Imo Speaker’s row deepens

    The reported rift between the Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha and Hou-se of Assembly Speaker Benjamin Uwajumogu has worsened.

    It was learnt that the leadership the ruling All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) is bent on changing the Speaker.

    It was learnt that the governor is angry with the Speaker for caving in to pressure and swearing in a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Chief Eugene Dibiagwu, as the member representing Oguta Constituency in the Assembly.

    Okorocha, a source, who spoke in confidence said, has started shopping for a replacement for the Speaker.

    The Nation gathered that the rosy relationship between the Governor and the Speaker took a plunge immediately Dibiagwu was sworn in last month after the lawmakers returned from their controversial South African trip.

    Dibiagwu had received the Certificate of Returns from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) but was disallowed from being sworn in on two occasions by the Speaker.

    Another source close to theAssembly said Okorocha wanted Uwajumogu to frustrate the swearing-in but was disappointed when the Speaker bowed to pressure and swore in Dibiagwu.

    This, it was learnt, caused the strained relation between the governor and the Speaker.

    Uwajumogu was said to be responding to a court order, which directed that Dibiagwu be sworn in.

    The Speaker was said to be wary of a case between Okorocha and the 27 local government chairmen in the state. The Appeal Court reversed the verdict of a lower court in favour of the sacked council chairmen in the matter.

    It was also learnt that the Speaker wanted to avoid the PDP, his former party, which reportedly has a pending case in court against his defection to APGA.

    The source said: “PDP has instituted a case against the Speaker and other members, who won election on the platform of the party but defected to APGA.

    “The Constitution of Nigeria is against any candidate defecting to another party after winning an election on the platform of another party. Though the court process is slow now, but those of them who defected to APGA will lose their seats very soon.”