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Tag: Muhammadu Buhari

  • DISCOs: MURIC calls for revocation of contracts

    The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), on Monday, called on the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola to revoke contracts of non performing power supply stakeholders.

    MURIC made the call in a statement issued to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

    The group accused the Electricity Distribution Companies (DISCOs) of sabotaging efforts of the Federal Government to boost electricity supply to Nigerians because it worked at cross roads with the interest of government.

    Prof. Ishaq Akintola, Director, MURIC making reference to a recent protest by electricity consumers in Lagos, said that protests were being staged in various geopolitical zones of the nation because customers were not satisfied.

    Akintola recounted the ordeal of electricity consumers on the Iba axis in Lagos where power supply was for about six hours daily.

    He accused the EKDEC, some DISCOs and greedy politicians of frustrating the impact of the good work which President Muhammadu Buhari administration had been doing.

    The director appealed to the Minister of Power, Mr Babatunde Fashola, to come to their aid.

    “We are really suffering. It is high time the Federal Government called the bluff of the DISCOs.

    “If it is true that the contract of the DISCOs will be expiring this month (November, 2018), we strongly advise that the contracts should be revoked. These DISCOs are not on the same page with the current administration.

    “They are cogs in the wheel of progress. Let them go back to their avariciously gluttonous politicians and superfluously voracious capitalist bourgeoisie.

    “For the sake of microscopic clarity, we affirm that the concern of MURIC is the welfare of the masses. We are greatly concerned that the DISCOs are supplying darkness instead of light.

    “We are concerned as socio-intellectual jihadists seeking 24-hour electricity supply to Nigerians, freedom for the oppressed, food for the hungry, healing for the sick, clothing apparels for the naked and shelter for the homeless.

    Read Also: Electricity supply: Edo condemns failure of BEDC

    “We remain oppressed until these welfare objectives are attained. The struggle for better life for the poor masses is a noble jihad and we will not abandon this great path,’’ he said.

    Akintola said the residents of Iba were suffering, adding that activities of the huge academia population on the axis were also distorted by lack of adequate power supply.

    “The case of Lagos State University (LASU) is pathetic. Although the university’s visionary, purposeful and dynamic leadership has taken the university to world class status with several initiatives; lack of regular power supply constitutes a potent threat to the sustenance of LASU’s current enviable status.

    “In an effort to ensure regular power supply in Ojo campus, the University management spends a humongous amount every month on diesel and maintenance of the big generators which are installed all over the campus. This eats deep into the coffers of the university.

    “Apart from students who are in the hostel and who must use electricity at night, LASU students also read on campus during the night and this poses another big challenge.

    “It is the height of sadism to give consumers light in the daytime only,’’ he said.

    He called on the EKDEC to turn a new leaf, describing the performance of the DISCOs as disappointing, adding that they worked at variance with the passion of Fashola.

    “MURIC will not hesitate to spearhead a massive but peaceful demonstration against them if they do not perform.

    “We urge the federal government to put an end to the DISCO’s contracts as quickly as possible because they have failed Nigerians,” he said.

    He said that MURIC delegation met with EKDEC management in Iba area about eight months ago to lodge complaints of having power supply for an average of six hours daily at night but the trend had continued.

    He explained that dissatisfied residents dragged EKDEC to court over a year ago.

    According to him, EKDEC treats consumers in high brow areas like Ikoyi with special respect but treats those in Iba area with contempt. That is class segregation.

  • APC built Train stations in villages of PDP chieftains – Amaechi

    The Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, on Sunday said that in the course of executing the Warri-Itakpe Rail line, stations were built in the villages of Peoples’ Democratic Party(PDP)’s chieftains.

    Amaechi disclosed this at the `Next Level Presentation’ at Presidential Villa Banquet Hall to signal the commencement of the campaign of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2019 general elections.

    The minister who made a presentation titled `What We are Building ’  said that President Muhammadu Buhari, upon assumption of office, directed that old and abandoned projects be completed.

    “The truth is that the country is compelled to make a choice between good and bad. When I was appointed the Minister for Transportation, the president warned–do not start new contracts, go and complete old ones.

    “We met Itakpe –Warri Rail line which had been in existence for 34  years uncompleted; it would have been the first Standard Guage line in Africa if it was completed.

    “Based on the president’s instruction, I did a memo; I thought we will borrow money from China; but the president refused. He said we should use our internal funds to execute the project.

    “People saw me on social media on Train service from Warri to Itakpe. I got to Warri 8pm because I was going from one station to the other—almost all the villages and most  prominent members of PDP made sure that train stations were in their villages.

    “So, I am compelled to do those stations in villages of members of PDP; it is okay; it is the instruction of the president that you must go and finish the old work.’’

    He said that the tradition in the past was that once one was elected, one left the old things for the old people and awarded new contracts.

    According to Amaechi, the ministry will start commercial service from Itakpe to Warri.

    On PDP’s argument that it started the projects, Amaechi said that Buhari made it clear on commissioning the Abuja –Kaduna rail project that the project was started by the former government of President Goodluck Jonathan.

    “We completed it but two things are remarkable—we borrowed 500 million dollars to start that project at the time oil was selling at 114 dollars per barrel.

    “ We should not have borrowed; you mean this country could not have afforded 500 million dollars?

    “I will show that we can; when I wrote a memo to the president and to the cabinet requesting that he should allow me borrow 500 million dollars from China to buy locomotives and coaches for Lagos-Ibadan, the cabinet under the directive of the president refused.

    Read Also: PDP kicks as APC wins by-election for House of Reps

    “He(the president) said 500 million dollars; we can get from here and we are funding it from here; so we did and completed Kaduna to Abuja quickly.

    “We spend N56million per month and we get N16 million; so we are augmenting for both rich and poor—N40 million per month under the directive of the president because he fears that the poor might not be able to afford it. So, everybody is using it.’’

    According to him, Lagos to Ibadan railway is almost complete—a distance of 156kms.

    The minister said that application had also been made to construct Kano to Kaduna railway as approval for funds is being awaited.

    “We are about to award the central line from Abuja to Niger to Baru from Baru to Itakpe to Warri; the president had approved a new seaport in Warri. We are negotiating with a Chinese company which will build it.

    “Do not forget that N2.7 billion dollars is N1 trillion. So, we are looking for money to commence already awarded work on the coastal rail.

    “The coastal rail starts from Lagos, from Lagos; it passes through Ogun State, Ondo, Benin, Asaba, and Onitsha. From Benin again, it passes through Warri, Sapele, Ughelli, to Bayelsa, in fact, it goes to Utuoke. From Otuoke, it goes to Port Harcourt.

    “ Then from Port Harcourt, it goes to Aba, Uyo, and ends up in Cross River State.

    “We are almost ready to award Port Harcourt to Maidugiri. The difference between us and the last award is that the last award was 1500km but under the directive of Mr President, it was extended to 2000 km.

    “ The last award was Port Harcourt straight to Maidugiri but in order to satisfy everybody at the directive of the President, we must get to every state capital,’’ he said.

    On his part, Mr Babatunde Fashola, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, said that it would require a long journey into Nigeria’s history to recall when last it had massive investment in infrastructure.

    “It is no coincidence that we look to the 1970s and the 1980s when we built new airports, new seaports, new refineries, new highways and bridges.

    “The closest you will have to that era is the 1990s when petrol-money was also being applied to upgrade infrastructure under the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF)incidentally chaired by Buhari.

    “We lost an enormous opportunity when recently oil money rose to $114 dollar per barrel and stayed there for almost a decade and we have no new airport, refinery, bridges, petrochemical plants,   no new seaports to show accountability to how all the money went,’’ he said.

    The event also witnessed the unveiling of Buhari-Osinbajo 2019—A Basic Guide-The Campaign Manual in Brief.

    NAN

  • President Buhari must deliberately decelerate this boiling cauldron

    Time has come when the president, and the nation’s number one citizen, Muhammadu Buhari, must take the lead in reducing the decibel of the country’s social disequilibrium.

    As he has done  over the years, Tatalo once again played the prophet when in: ‘Falcons without Falconers’ (The Nation, Sunday November 11), he  wrote: “So as the nation turns and tumbles in the ever widening gyre of anarchy, we will be deceiving ourselves if we imagine for one second that these are little local difficulties without much impact on national politics or without a multiplier effect on the endemic twin-crisis of the postcolonial state and nationhood that has hobbled the polity since independence. The truth is that this horrific bloodletting is driving the nation towards perdition and sure electoral disaster come next year”.

    I recall Tatalo warning the nation months ahead of the conflagration that erupted after  the 2011 Presidential election, especially in the North, during which Human Rights Watch reported that over 800 people died.

    It was reported that no sooner had the protesters started burning tyres than it turned into riots. The rioting quickly degenerated into sectarian and ethnic bloodletting across the northern states. Muslim rioters targeted and killed Christians and members of ethnic groups from southern Nigeria, who were perceived to have supported the ruling party, burning their churches and shops while Christians retaliated by killing Muslims and burning their mosques and properties in return . No serious person would suggest that Nigeria was this divided in 2011 with the total maelstrom  now literally consuming  the country – be it the needless killings arising from the protracted confrontation between the state and members of the Shiite Islamic sect  which we  recently watched, helplessly,  in  Kaduna and Abuja, the rolling cauldron in the Middle belt states of especially Benue, and Plateau  where, in the latter state, the remains of a murdered retired military general was recently pulled out of a pond. This is not to mention Zamfara state  which  a rampaging army of murderers has  literally turned  to a killing field or Boko Haram which remains a constant source of our  country  harvesting death in their numbers.

    Nor is the South totally without its own share of the troubling spectacle. Niger Delta militants may very well have sheathed their swords  but urban mayhem, as showcased in kidnappings, muggings etc  remain.

    Events preceding the 2015 Presidential election were not this dire when eminent citizens like former Head of state, General Abdulsalam Abubakar and Bishop Matthew Kukah came up with the National Peace Committee.

    Time has come when the President, and the nation’s number one citizen, Muhammadu Buhari, must take the lead in reducing the decibel of the country’s social disequilibrium. And this he can begin to do in a number of ways.

    There can be no gainsaying the fact that security must  now take the pride of place in governance in our country today, but so also must respect of the rule of law. I  have no idea where Nigeria would be today if the former National Security Adviser, Colonel Sambo Dasuki, were to have an army of  followers, as does El Zak- Zaky, choking our roads, asking for the release from incarceration, of  their leader  who had severally been granted bail by the court. What Sambo misses in not having a horde of followers, it would appear, he is  now trying to seize with two hands through a rather logical, indeed reasonable, recourse to his fundamental human rights.

    Refusing to stand any further trials, Col Dasuki  this past week, addressed a letter to the Registrar of court 5 where he is standing  trial  in which he wrote, inter alia: “The directive to continue detaining me, against the several orders of court (5 at the last count) and in brazen violation of the Constitution, is wrongful and arbitrary. It has inflicted physical, emotional and psychological torture on my family and me”. “The decision of the Federal Government of Nigeria is not only high-handed, it is also arbitrary and in violation of both domestic and international laws on human rights” “… at this point, I strongly believe that there must be an end to this hypocrisy and lopsided/partisan rule of law. Since the Federal government has resolved not to comply with judicial orders directing my release, it is better for the court to also absolve me of the need to submit myself for further prosecution”.

    How the Federal Government proposes to counter this logical demand is beyond me since releasing Dasuki on bail is not the same thing as discontinuing his trial. There are, of course, much more dangerous dimensions to the Federal Government’s unexplainable, resolve to habitually disrespect decisions of courts  especially when it is, in many instances in court, seeking decisions which,  if favorable, it would do everything to see  complied with.

    Continuing on what he describes as a ‘political fog gradually settling in on the country’, Tatalo writes in reference to the detention of El Zak -Zaky: “Chief among this is the Shiite imbroglio.The Shiite conundrum reminds one very much of a local saying that he who is ready to die has met the one that is willing to kill. It is a perfect recipe for continuous mindless slaughter of fellow citizens, however ideologically irascible and politically obdurate they may seem. If the slaughter continues on the scale that we have witnessed, it is likely to attract severe reprisals from the international Shiite community or an attempt by its more ferocious military storm troopers to destabilize the nation”. To disdain this apocalyptic warning is to say we are unreasonably under rating a major source of destabilization, worldwide, be it in the boiling Middle Belt, or elsewhere.

    I doubt much if these needless distractions are what we need  on top of our economic problems; with a GDP growing at under 2% and interest on our ballooning loans, soaring. Elections come with their own challenges, and with a thieving party like the PDP more than eager to return Nigeria  to the undertaker’s table having had the treasury door shut against  them for well over three years, President Buhari owes us all the  absolute necessity of concentrating his mind on not allowing that rogue party the narrowest path back to power. They are desperate for power and would do just about anything to get it. It’s Presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who for  a far longer time than President  Buhari has hunkered after that office, knows only too well that this, at over 70, is his last chance. The desperados that populate the Peoples Democratic Party will not demur from incinerating Nigeria should they lose an election they are guaranteed to lose given Nigerians’ disdain for a party that recently had to apologise for its consuming depravity while  in office.

    President Buhari must close the door to any chance of  that possibility. These two men, and other Nigerians, already granted bail by courts of competent jurisdiction must be released forthwith. It is in our national interest that his be done without any further delay if we do not wish to aggravate our current delicate situation going into a general election.

    He must do more.

    He must now deliberately step out to stop all these aspring emperors within his party; those  who believe that their word must  always be law even if a political dynasty is what they crave, or they think they must always have the last say, even if it means running roughshod over the party.

    I, therefore, conclude this piece with the words of Tatalo in his  referenced article:”Given the current fluidity of party affiliations in the Nation, President Buhari ought to exploit the vacuum to find the moral will and the reserves of patriotic energy to rise above the national melee so as to address the fundamental problems facing the country and rein in the centrifugal forces threatening the polity with an apocalyptic meltdown”.

    This we demand..

  • Buhari congratulates Super Eagles for 2019 AFCON qualification

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday congratulated the Super Eagles of Nigeria on their qualification for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.

    The team’s  1-1 draw against the Bafana Bafana of South Africa in Johannesburg on Saturday had secured the team the ticket.

    In a statement by the Special Adviser on Media and publicity, Femi Adesina, the President joined millions of football-loving Nigerians in commending the team for their spirited and disciplined performance against a very formidable opponent which earned them qualification with the final match against Seychelles a mere formality.

    Read Also: Super Eagles invitation shocks Afelokahi

    Having keenly followed the senior national football team’s progress in the qualifying stages, President Buhari was enthused by their confidence, sense of patriotism and professionalism, and recommended these attributes to other Nigerians.

    He equally commended the coaching crew, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and the Supporters Club, especially Nigerians residing in South Africa who turned out in great numbers to cheer the players, for a job well-done, and assured them of the unflinching support of the Federal Government going forward.

    The President wished the young Nigerian football ambassadors more successes as they prepare for the AFCON tournament in Cameroon.

     

  • Adopt only use of direct primary, lawyer tells Oshiomhole

    A Benin based lawyer and former Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Barr. Eddy Ehi Osifo, has urged the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress to adopt the use of the direct primary for picking of its candidates in the future.
    The use of direct primary, according to Barr. Osifo, would stop manipulations, rigging and all forms of corruption in the choice of picking candidates.
    Barr. Osifo noted that what birthed the present confusion into the APC primary was the adoption of three method of election in its primary.
    In a press statement issued in Benin City, Barr. Osifo said the Directorate of State Security (DSS) overreached itself and meddled in the internal politics of the APC.

    Read Also: Anti-Oshiomole protest rocks Imo

    Osifo stated that President Muhammadu Buhari should have sacked the DSS officials involved in the detaining of Comrade Oshiomhole.
    He said the APC would always be riddled with problems if President Buhari appealed to sentiments or emotions.
    Osifo said the solution to the feud between Oshiomhole and some APC governors is to upheld arguments more in the interest of the country and the party.
    According to him, “Mr. President has nothing to worry about with finding a solution to the current intra party problems in the APC.
    “If only Mr. President can apply sound and unassailable principles to solve every party problem, he will discover that there is no insoluble problems facing the party.”

  • Ohanaeze’s endorsement of Atiku all chaff – Buhari

    President Muhammadu Buhari has revealed that many well-meaning Igbo leaders asked him to ignore the so-called endorsement by Ohanaeze Ndigbo of the PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

    Buhari said he was told that the action by the Ndigbo apex group was all gas, lacking substance.

    The President made the revelation on Friday at the Presidential Villa, when he hosted a group of Igbo leaders in Abuja, who pledged to mobilize votes for him in next year’s election.

    Buhari said, based on assurances by Igbo leaders, he was not surprised about the split within the Ohanaeze Igbo socio-cultural group after the so-called Atiku endorsement.

    Buhari said that the moment the so-called resolution was announced, he got calls from well-meaning leaders from the region asking him to disregard it as it was without any substance.

    “From that moment, I knew that the resolution would not stand, and alas, there it was,’’ he added.

    The President said that his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), got it right from the very beginning that the major problems facing the country were mainly on security, corruption and the economy.

    He said: “We have done so much. Given the chance, we will do more. Given every chance, we will tell Nigerians where we were in 2015 and what we have achieved up to now.

    “We will not get tired of speaking about the golden opportunity Nigeria lost during 16 years of the PDP. We earned money, which we didn’t use.

    “The state of infrastructure we inherited was terrible – no roads, the railway was killed and power. They lacked conscience because anybody with conscience will not do what they did.

    “We will report them to Nigerians. Let anybody lead this country but not the PDP. They were so reckless with the resources of the country.’’

    Read Also: Again, Buhari assures of credible elections

    “If you ruin the economy, send your children abroad to get education, won’t they come back?” he asked, adding: “I said it 30 years ago that this is the only country we have. We must stay here and salvage it together.”

    The leaders of the delegation, Engineer Emeka Ekwuosa and the National Chairman of the United Progressive Party (UPP), Chief Chekwas Okorie, informed President Buhari that the Igbos and South-easterners generally understand the good things he is doing for Nigeria which they said, had unfortunately been misunderstood.

    They promised to mobilize support for him in the south-east, saying that his re-election will be a national consensus.

    NAN

  • 2019: Our campaign will focus on candidates’ integrity —Oshiomhole

    President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, yesterday met behind closed doors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    Speaking with State House correspondents after the meeting, Oshiomhole said that the APC was fully ready to flag off the campaigns soon.

    According to him, the party’s campaign for the 2019 presidential election will focus on character and integrity of the key candidates.

    He said, “We are fully ready. We have done our primaries and filled our nominations.

    “As you know, INEC still has a window between now and First of January to deal with issues of substitution.

    “As of campaigns, we are ready.

    “We are going to announce the date and programme for our campaigns, and speak on the issues.

    “My idea of kick-off will be the day we will do our first presidential rally where Mr. President, as our candidate, and other candidates and party leaders will assemble in a venue that will be agreeable to all of us.

    “There will be two sets of messages; one on what we have done in the past, without failing to remind people of where we were before, what we are going to do in the next three years, and a couple of things we believe we will be doing differently.

    “Why we are a better choice? President Buhari, if compared to the rest of the aspirants, there is no basis to compare day and night.

    “The real issue in this election is not going to be religion. It is not going to be about political party. Central to the issue and given our past experience as a country, we know that what makes a difference is the character, the integrity of the candidates.

    “All those issues of character, especially looking at the past, the key candidates in the election are not strangers to governance. They are not even strangers to this villa. So, we will be able to ask a couple of questions about what they know now that they didn’t know then when they had power.

    “This edition is going to be focusing on character, integrity of those who want to govern us. In addition to what and how they will do things differently.”

    Oshiomhole also dismissed the allegations of corruption levelled against him by Senator Shehu Sani.

    Sani had accused him of collecting bribe up to $2 million to manipulate the senatorial primaries of Kaduna Central zone.

    On the crisis facing the Imo APC governorship candidate, Senator Hope Uzodimma, he said there was no crisis.

    He said: “What is the crisis? That somebody won and somebody lost and the person who lost said no, no, no, I am the son-in-law to the governor, I can’t lose, and therefore we have crisis?

    “Go to Imo and find out. Go to the markets, mechanic workshops or even the civil servants in Imo and ask how they think on the issue of son-in-law.

    “Look at the crowd that received Senator Hope Uzodimma. It was a mixture of both rejection of dynasty vis a vis the natural support base that Hope has.

    “Haven’t you seen on social media how excited Imolites erected the statue of Oshiomhole, although the body is big.”

  • FG approves N60bn for rice subsidy programme – Minister

    The Federal Government has approved N60 billion in support of its rice subsidy programme aimed at bringing down the price of the commodity across the country.

    The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr Audu Ogbeh stated this when he briefed State House correspondents on the outcome of the meeting of the National Food Security Council.

    The meeting was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Friday.

    He disclosed that a committee would be constituted by the ministry of agriculture in collaboration with ministry of finance for smooth implementation of the rice subsidy programme.

    “There is a subsidy programme coming up. Government has approved some money, N60 billion to support the rice industry to bring down prices. But we are going to handle it differently.

    “We don’t want to get into petroleum subsidy problem, so a committee is looking at it with the ministry of finance.

    “We think that it is better for us to loan money to the millers, farmers and distributors at a very low interest rate, so that the capital doesn’t disappear, and if they have cheaper credit to do their business that should impact on the price of rice in the market.

    “Every country does it for food, we will use a different method to do it and it will be cheap credit to the farmers, millers and the marketers, not outright cash subsidy for their product,’’ he said.

    Ogbeh, who announced that the Bank of Agriculture would soon be restructured, expressed the hope that farmers would be able to buy shares in the bank after the restructuring exercise.

    The minister also expressed optimism that the restructuring process would bring down the bank’s interest rates to five per cent.

    He added that the objective was to make agriculture more attractive so that people could raise capital to invest in profitable business ventures.

    “The Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) is about to restructure the bank of agriculture after which farmers are going to be able to buy shares in the bank, so eventually it will become the farmers bank.

    “And we hope in the process that it will bring down interest rates reasonably maybe 5 percent or a little higher, so that agriculture will become attractive and people can raise capital to invest,’’ he said.

    The minister revealed that the Council called for ban of fertilizer NPK 15-15-15, saying recent research had indicated that the fertilizer had no value for any crop or soil.

    He said: “We call for the ban of fertilizer NPK 15-15-15 which has been used in the country for many years but recent research revealed its not useful for any crop or any soil.

    “Soil differs and so does crop, to believe there is one uniform fertilizer you can spread for every crop is a fallacy.

    “And it’s because we have done soil test and change the formulations of fertilizers, local blenders, that is why some of the yields we are getting now are rising from two tonnes per hectares to five and six.

    “So, the president is looking into that and to see how we can deal with it.’’

    The Deputy Chairman of the National Food Security Council and Kebbi state governor, Alhaji Atiku Bagudu, who also spoke on the outcome of the meeting, said that the council may subsidize the price of rice with N5 billion.

    He said the subsidy would enable Nigerians to buy rice at a cheaper rate during the forthcoming yuletide as obtained in 2017.

    The governor dismissed the reports by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) World Market and Trade which suggested that Nigeria has been importing rice to the tune of about three million tonnes.

    “Certainly, that is an erroneous report,  in spite of the flooding the upland rice production has been quite strong this year.

    “Even though prices have increase in response to flooding, we still have adequate paddy rice in Nigeria,’’ he said.

  • 2019: UPP, Igboezue adopt Buhari

    The electoral support for President Muhammadu Buhari towards the 2019 general elections was boosted on Friday with the endorsement of his candidature by an Igbo group, Igboezuo and the United Progressive Party (UPP).
    The national Chairman of UPP, Chief Chekwas Okorie  briefed State House correspondents after meeting behind closed-doors with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
    According to him, the Igbo nation had put their eggs in one basket for too long and would not do it again in the 2019 general elections.
    He said that the Igbos had not benefited anything apart from the benevolence of President Buhari to bring some infrastructure to the South East.
    He said that he decided to support President Buhari for 2019 in order to ensure Igbo presidency in 2023.
    Okorie, who is also the coordinator of ‘Igboezue’ socio-cultural group, said, “It is not good that Igbo nation has put all their eggs in one basket for 16 years. In spite of this, Buhari has not stopped development in the region.
    “This is time to get them to earn Igbo presidency by voting for him in 2019.” he said
    Speaking on the Enugu declaration of some Southeast leaders for the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, the UPP boss said that the adoption of Atiku was not by the Ohaneze Ndigbo leadership.

    Read Also: Buhari, President Vaz meet in Aso Rock

     He said “Only four founding members of Ohaneze Ndigbo are alive today and we have never met to endorse Atiku. We are poised to change the narrative.
    “Just as Zik and Igbo leaders led Igbo people into coalition in the First and Second Republics, that is what Igboezue is determined to do now.” he stated

  • PDP calls on Buhari to fire Amaechi

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has challenged President Muhammadu Buhari to demand the immediate resignation of Mr. Rotimi Amaechi as the Minister of Transportation to demonstrate the President’s integrity.

    The opposition party accused Amaechi, who is the Minister of Transportation and Director-General of the Buhari Campaign Organisation of using government fund to campaign for Buhari.

    In a statement on Friday by the spokesman for the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party noted that through his actions,  Amaechi has demonstrated the height of corruption both in Buhari administration and the person of his campaign DG.

    The PDP wondered how Amaechi will compare President Buhari to the PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar, who the party said, has been generally accepted as the next President of Nigeria, stressing that Amaechi has finally lost touch with Nigerians.

    The statement said, “If Amaechi has not lost touch with reality, how would he be comparing Atiku Abubakar, who is widely celebrated by Nigerians across board, due to his integrity and proven competence in managing resources, to President Buhari, who Nigerians know is responsible for the grinding hardship, hunger, starvation and escalating insecurity in the nation in the last three and half years?

    “How can Amaechi compare Atiku Abubakar, a known and tested nationalist, who has become the rallying point for national rejuvenation and reawakening to President Buhari, who has sunk the nation deeper into the sea of nepotism, divisiveness, dissensions and agonizing despondency?

    Read Also: Amaechi to unveil book on Niger Delta

    “How can any one compare Atiku Abubakar, an epitome of wealth creation and youth empowerment to President Buhari whose tenure will only be remembered by Nigerians for hardship, unemployment, job losses, wealth destruction, economic frustrations and destruction of institutions that engender good governance and freedom?

    “Is it not an aberration to attempt to compare Atiku Abubakar, who played key role in a government that paid our nation’s foreign debt, to President Buhari, whose administration specializes in accumulating debts, borrowing money to service debts and plunging our generations yet unborn into bondage?

    “How can Amaechi compare Atiku Abubakar, a promoter of democracy and fundamental human rights to President Buhari whose administration has stood down all known democratic virtues, and relishes in violation of human rights, disobedience to court orders, disdain for constitutional order and condoning extra-judicial killing, harassment and illegal detention of citizens as detailed in reports by international bodies?

    “While it is a settled fact that President Buhari cannot be a match to Atiku Abubakar, we understand Amaechi’s frustration as a beleaguered salesman of a derelict product, but he should have known that for Nigerians, Atiku Abubakar represents light and a brighter future whereas President Buhari and his All Progressives Congress (APC) represent a national misfortune.

    “Amaechi is aware of the murmurings and frustration even in the Presidency regarding President Buhari’s failures in governance and that most of his ministers, aides and political associates no longer believe in his re-election since Atiku Abubakar emerged as PDP Presidential candidate.

    “Finally, the PDP counsels Amaechi to prepare to return to Rivers state to face his multiple corruption indictments instead of trying to promote a failed candidate”.