The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Peoples Democratic Party

  • PDP youths warn aspirants against causing crisis

    The People’s Democratic Party Youth Network (PDPYN) in Bayelsa State has cautioned governorship aspirants, including a former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Chief Timi Alaibe, against causing crisis in the party ahead of the November governorship election.

    The Secretary-General, James Oputin, said the youths were worried that activities of some aspirants was affecting the existing unity and strength of the party.

    Oputin said PDPYN observed sponsored articles in newspapers desperately trying to create a wrong impression of a non-existing strife within the PDP.

    According to him, the aspirants behind the sponsored articles claimed to be “preferred candidates” of political leaders in the state to resolve the phantom crisis.

    Read Also: Man loses teeth as APC, PDP youths clash in Makurdi

    He was shocked that some so-called ‘leading aspirants’ surreptitiously sponsored articles designed to malign the leadership of the PDP by portraying them as weak and losing grip of its dominance of Bayelsa politics.

    The president, therefore, urged the aspirants  to note that the PDP, which some of them abandoned when they were needed most in 2015, and which graciously admitted them back, was strong enough to win with or without them.

     

  • The Second Term: Ugwuanyi to build on laid foundation

    The Governor of Enugu State, His Excellency, Rt. Hon Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, was sworn-in for a second term alongside his deputy, Hon. Mrs. Cecilia Ezeilo on May 29, 2019.

    Ugwuanyi, whose journey to the Lion Building formally commenced in 2014, following his unanimous endorsement as the consensus candidate of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has remained grateful to God and also to the people of the state for their show of love, solidarity and support. Ugwuanyi, who later won the 2015 governorship election with a landslide, became the most popular political leader in the history of Enugu State.

    Consequently, he was sworn in as the third Executive Governor of Enugu State on May 29, 2015, when the nation’s economy was in recession and confronted with other economic challenges occasioned by the drastic drop in the crude oil prices in the international market. These economic adversities affected allocations to states from the federation account.

    More worrisome was that Enugu State was among the worst hit, considering its position as third from the bottom of the revenue allocation chart and predominantly a civil service state with high expectations for rapid socio-economic expansion in view of its enviable status as the historical capital of the Eastern Region, old Anambra State and old Enugu State.

    The governor was also faced with sundry issues of inherited debt profile and other huge wage bills to be serviced as well as management of the political space in the state, considering that his party, the PDP, lost power at the national level after 16 years. All these challenges were a source of worry, which required drastic approach and a clear-cut intervention to move the state forward.

    The governor, being a God-fearing leader, team player, bridge builder, peace-maker, finance management expert, consummate politician and visionary leader, remained undaunted and committed to the speedy actualisation of his administration’s well-thought-out programmes for the people of the state, as contained in its four-point agenda.

    The governor’s antecedents as a three-term member of the House of Representatives and two-term Chairman of the House Committee on Marine Transport as well as former Chief Executive Officer of Premier Brokers Limited – a prime insurance broking firm in the Southeast geo-political zone, owned by the five states of the zone and African Continental Bank (ACB) – also strengthened his courage to successfully guide the state through the economic crunch.

    For instance, Gov. Ugwuanyi in his 2015 inaugural address stated that the economic melt-down then was “another great opportunity for Enugu State and indeed Nigeria to look inwards and harness those potentials which free oil money has blinded us from exploiting,” resting his faith in God’s miracle of five loaves and two fish.

    Besides the nation’s economic challenges, the governor expressed gratitude to God for the grace to “take up the gauntlet of the struggle for the emancipation of the Wawa man from where our heroes past stopped”, saying: “It can only be God, for it is He who raises the poor from the ash heap and makes him to inherit a throne of honour”.

    In actualising these inspirational visions,  Gov. Ugwuanyi recommitted himself to his four-point agenda to take Enugu State to the next level and promised that his administration will “deploy government services to create fair and equal opportunity for every willing citizen to make a living and create wealth, educate our children, and enjoy life in a peaceful and secure environment”.

    Four years down the line, one is glad to state with great honour that Gov. Ugwuanyi, through his new ethos of leadership, anchored on peace and good governance, has religiously and effectively delivered on these promises. He has remained committed to the principles of transparency, accountability, due process and prudent management of the state’s lean resources.

    He has, through his administration’s adherence to fiscal discipline, peace and grassroots development initiatives, successfully delivered democracy dividends to the doorsteps of the people of Enugu State.

    He has, through his administration’s rural development policy, one-community-one-project initiative and a great deal of passion for the wellbeing of the masses, remembered the long-neglected communities in the state in line with his firm belief that the greatest objective of government is to alleviate the suffering of the people. His government has also made a veritable mark in all other sectors of development, which have impacted the lives of the people positively.

    While workers’ salaries and pensions are paid regularly with or without receipt of statutory allocations from the federation account – even at the time 27 states could not pay – the 13th month salary was also extended to them as Christmas bonus.

    On road construction and rehabilitation, the Ugwuanyi administration has covered about 400 kilometres, spread across the state with signature projects such as the remodeled ancient, historic and undulating Milliken Hill road – a tourist attraction and state’s natural roller coaster; the Opi-Nsukka dual carriageway; the Ebonyi River Bridge, Ikem; the Udenu Ring road; Iva Valley road, Enugu. Others include the Nkalagu-Eha Amufu road, neglected for over 35 years and the Amurri road in Nkanu West Local Government Area constructed for a hitherto neglected community that has not experienced any form of government development on its land in the past 100 years, etc.

    The state government’s infrastructural revolution has been unprecedented and indeed recorded a huge success in expanding development to the frontiers of the rural areas.

    Recently, Enugu State was rated by the World Bank Group as the second most advanced state in Nigeria towards the frontier of global good practices with regards to Ease of Doing Business. Through the impressive increase in the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) profile, as a result of far reaching reforms introduced in the sector by the governor, Enugu State has remained on top as one of the few states in the country that can survive without allocations from the federation account, among other outstanding ratings.

    Other areas the governor has left visible impact include the monthly traders’ empowerment scheme, in which 3,600 genuine traders of the state have so far been empowered with the sum of N50, 000 each, to grow their various businesses; the empowerment of over 750 youths in skills acquisition under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) programme; the engagement of over 2000 youths to clean up the state under the Enugu Clean Team Project; recruitment of over 4000 primary and secondary schools teachers, with additional 1,500 for primary education among others.

    In view of these, which represent just a tip of the iceberg of the great achievements recorded so far by the Ugwuanyi’s administration, the good news about his second term inauguration is that the governor, through the details of the 2019 budget and his post-election actions has displayed renewed vigor and firm commitment to continue and consolidate on the solid foundation laid in the last four years.

    It is therefore, expected of the people of Enugu State to continue to pray for the governor and give him the usual maximum support and cooperation to take the state to greater heights. This is in line with the dreams of the founding fathers for Enugu State is truly in hands of God.

    • Amoke writes from Enugu

  • Second Term: Ugwuanyi set to build on laid foundation

    On May 29, the re-elected Governor of Enugu State, His Excellency, Rt. Hon Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, will be sworn-in for a second term alongside his deputy, Hon. Mrs. Cecilia Ezeilo.

    The event, which renews the governor’s mandate to continue with his sound vision for the state and consolidate on the solid foundation laid by his people-oriented administration in the last four years, calls for celebration and thanksgiving to God.

    Ugwuanyi, whose journey to the Lion Building formally commenced in 2014, following his unanimous endorsement as the consensus candidate of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has remained grateful to God and also to the people of the state for their show of love, solidarity and support. Ugwuanyi, who later won the 2015 governorship election with a landslide, became the most popular political leader in the history of Enugu State.

    Consequently, he was sworn in as the third Executive Governor of Enugu State on May 29, 2015, when the nation’s economy was in recession and confronted with other economic challenges occasioned by the drastic drop in the crude oil prices in the international market. These economic adversities affected allocations to states from the federation account.

    More worrisome was that Enugu State was among the worst hit, considering its position as third from the bottom of the revenue allocation chart and predominantly a civil service state with high expectations for rapid socio-economic expansion in view of its enviable status as the historical capital of the Eastern Region, old Anambra State and old Enugu State.

    The governor was also faced with sundry issues of inherited debt profile and other huge wage bills to be serviced as well as management of the political space in the state, considering that his party, the PDP, lost power at the national level after 16 years. All these challenges were a source of worry, which required drastic approach and a clear-cut intervention to move the state forward.

    The governor, being a God-fearing leader, team player, bridge builder, peace-maker, finance management expert, consummate politician and visionary leader, remained undaunted and committed to the speedy actualisation of his administration’s well-thought-out programmes for the people of the state, as contained in its four-point agenda.

    The governor’s antecedents as a three-term member of the House of Representatives and two-term Chairman of the House Committee on Marine Transport as well as former Chief Executive Officer of Premier Brokers Limited – a prime insurance broking firm in the Southeast geo-political zone, owned by the five states of the zone and African Continental Bank (ACB) – also strengthened his courage to successfully guide the state through the economic crunch.

    For instance, Gov. Ugwuanyi in his 2015 inaugural address stated that the economic melt-down then was “another great opportunity for Enugu State and indeed Nigeria to look inwards and harness those potentials which free oil money has blinded us from exploiting,” resting his faith in God’s miracle of five loaves and two fish.

    Besides the nation’s economic challenges, the governor expressed gratitude to God for the grace to “take up the gauntlet of the struggle for the emancipation of the Wawa man from where our heroes past stopped”, saying: “It can only be God, for it is He who raises the poor from the ash heap and makes him to inherit a throne of honour”.

    In actualising these inspirational visions,  Gov. Ugwuanyi recommitted himself to his four-point agenda to take Enugu State to the next level and promised that his administration will “deploy government services to create fair and equal opportunity for every willing citizen to make a living and create wealth, educate our children, and enjoy life in a peaceful and secure environment”.

    Four years down the line, one is glad to state with great honour that Gov. Ugwuanyi, through his new ethos of leadership, anchored on peace and good governance, has religiously and effectively delivered on these promises. He has remained committed to the principles of transparency, accountability, due process and prudent management of the state’s lean resources.

    He has, through his administration’s adherence to fiscal discipline, peace and grassroots development initiatives, successfully delivered democracy dividends to the doorsteps of the people of Enugu State.

    He has, through his administration’s rural development policy, one-community-one-project initiative and a great deal of passion for the wellbeing of the masses, remembered the long-neglected communities in the state in line with his firm belief that the greatest objective of government is to alleviate the suffering of the people. His government has also made a veritable mark in all other sectors of development, which have impacted the lives of the people positively.

    While workers’ salaries and pensions are paid regularly with or without receipt of statutory allocations from the federation account – even at the time 27 states could not pay – the 13th month salary was also extended to them as Christmas bonus.

    On road construction and rehabilitation, the Ugwuanyi administration has covered about 400 kilometres, spread across the state with signature projects such as the remodeled ancient, historic and undulating Milliken Hill road – a tourist attraction and state’s natural roller coaster; the Opi-Nsukka dual carriageway; the Ebonyi River Bridge, Ikem; the Udenu Ring road; Iva Valley road, Enugu. Others include the Nkalagu-Eha Amufu road, neglected for over 35 years and the Amurri road in Nkanu West Local Government Area constructed for a hitherto neglected community that has not experienced any form of government development on its land in the past 100 years, etc.

    The state government’s infrastructural revolution has been unprecedented and indeed recorded a huge success in expanding development to the frontiers of the rural areas.

    Recently, Enugu State was rated by the World Bank Group as the second most advanced state in Nigeria towards the frontier of global good practices with regards to Ease of Doing Business. Through the impressive increase in the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) profile, as a result of far reaching reforms introduced in the sector by the governor, Enugu State has remained on top as one of the few states in the country that can survive without allocations from the federation account, among other outstanding ratings.

    Other areas the governor has left visible impact include the monthly traders’ empowerment scheme, in which 3,600 genuine traders of the state have so far been empowered with the sum of N50, 000 each, to grow their various businesses; the empowerment of over 750 youths in skills acquisition under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) programme; the engagement of over 2000 youths to clean up the state under the Enugu Clean Team Project; recruitment of over 4000 primary and secondary schools teachers, with additional 1,500 for primary education among others.

    In view of these, which represent just a tip of the iceberg of the great achievements recorded so far by the Ugwuanyi’s administration, the good news about his second term inauguration is that the governor, through the details of the 2019 budget and his post-election actions has displayed renewed vigor and firm commitment to continue and consolidate on the solid foundation laid in the last four years.

    It is therefore, expected of the people of Enugu State to continue to pray for the governor and give him the usual maximum support and cooperation to take the state to greater heights. This is in line with the dreams of the founding fathers for Enugu State is truly in hands of God.

    • Amoke writes from Enugu

  • Assassins after my life, says AAC’s Awara

    The governorship candidate of African Action Congress (AAC) in Rivers State, Biokpomabo Awara, has raised the alarm on plots to assassinate him.

    Awara, an indigene of coastal Kula-Kalabari in Akuku-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers state, told our correspondent on phone he was robbed of his well-deserved victory during the March 9 election by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    He accused the officials of collaborating with leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    The governorship candidate of AAC, who is being backed by the All Progressives Congress (APC), said: “Information reaching me is that some boys have been dispatched to trail and assassinate me, even in Abuja, since I have refused to give up on my March 9, 2019 mandate.”

    Read Also: Navy arrests three suspects with 416 bags of contraband rice

    Awara maintained that as at the time the collation of results of the polls was suspended by INEC headquarters in Abuja on March 10, he had 281,000 votes as against Wike’s 79,000 votes.

    He also expressed displeasure his agent, Dr. Lawrence Chuku, was prevented on April 2 and 3, from accessing the collation centre inside INEC office on Aba Road, Port Harcourt.

    He alleged the commission’s compromised officials and security personnel allowed Nenye Kocha, who was accused of impersonating AAC, as the party’s collation agent, despite AAC’s protest.

  • NASS: Igbo won’t beg for positions, says Iwuanyanwu

    Prominent Igbo leader and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, has said that the Southeast region will not be subjected to begging for the position of President of the Senate or Speaker of the House of Representatives.

    Iwuanyanwu, who spoke with The Nation in Owerri, the Imo State capital, argued that it is the right of the Southeast to produce the Senate President as a major stakeholder in the Nigerian project.

    This, he said, was after the North and the South West have emerged President and Vice President respectively.

    According to him, the current arrangement in the sharing of principal offices in the National Assembly by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is to further undermine the Igbo as one the three major tribes that make up the country.

    He observed the Igbo have made great contributions in the development and unity of the nation and should not be treated with levity at all times.

    His words: “The Southeast will not beg for the position of the Senate President or Speaker of the House of Representatives.

    “Igbo are not fools, Igbo have talented people. We have no doubt in our mind that we are being marginalised.

    “Let me tell other parts of Nigeria how the Igbo feel about issues, Igbo feel they are part of the success of Nigeria right from the time this country was founded.

    Read Also: Cut NASS salaries; no VAT hike

    “The Igbo have done better than most tribes in Nigeria, Igbo have distributed their resources across the nation.

    “Right now the Igbo are very unhappy. We have been pushed to a point of contempt and ridicule.

    “There are some people in this country who just ridicule us, some even say that the Igbo have been sacked from this country.

    “Take for instance the issue of the railway, none passed through Igboland and this is being financed with a loan that all of us will repay”.

    Iwuanyanwu also disclosed that the Igbo do not have anything against President Muhammadu Buhari as insinuated.

    According to him: “The Igbo have nothing against Buhari at all but a fundamental mistake was made in 2015 when a son of the Eastern region, Goodluck Jonathan was running for a second term. The Igbo felt he needed a second term but that does not mean that they hated Bubari in anyway”.

  • You are jittery, PDP tells APC, Buhari

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to stop their “unnecessary fabrications, smear campaign” and prepare to face the opposition’s legal team at the Presidential Election Tribunal.

    Responding to a petition by the spokesman for the President’s campaign, Mr. Festus Keyamo, the PDP said Buhari is overweighed by the burden of “illegitimacy”, following overwhelming evidence before the tribunal that he “stole” the presidential mandate.

    In an email exchange with our correspondent Monday night, the spokesman for the PDP, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, described the allegation as “a lame one”.

    Ologbondiyan described it as an attempt at blackmailing the tribunal by engaging in clear acts of subjudice.

    The party spokesman said the facts and issues touching on the INEC server were already within the public domain.

    Read also: Buhari moves to prevent National Assembly hijack

    Ologbondiyan continued: “By resorting to shadow-boxing outside the tribunal, President Buhari and the APC have shown that they have no defence to present to the court against PDP’s submission that they stole our mandate.

    “It is even more appalling that Festus Keyamo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and a member of Buhari’s legal team, who should know better, would engage in this act of subjudice designed to distort facts already known to Nigerians, that our presidential candidate and former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, clearly won the February 23 presidential election.

    “Since it has become clear that President Buhari has no defence to present to the court, we counsel him to save the nation further stress by surrendering our mandate, which was freely given by majority of Nigerians to Atiku Abubakar.”

  • State independence

    Despite the bumps, Nigeria’s democracy appears to be maturing. As the supplementary elections in five states have shown, the political elites who were bickering and manipulating the ordering of elections were wasting precious legislative time. The belief across the board that any political party that wins the presidency will sweep the state elections is perhaps erroneous. That fear explains the tug-of-war between the federal and state officials about which election comes first.

    In 2015, the federal legislators forced a three-legged elections on the country with all the debilitating effect on socio-economic activities in the country. The economic and social losses from staggered elections is made worse each time INEC fumbles as happened in 2015 and now 2019. In the current dispensation, after INEC released the guideline for the just concluded elections, putting the presidential and National Assembly elections first, the opposition parties were so afraid of the bandwagon effect that it clamoured for another amendment to the Electoral Act, to strip INEC of the power to order elections.

    But with the opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) winning in Sokoto, Benue and potentially in Bauchi states, despite the triumph of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the presidency, the perception of federal power as a cyclone at elections will begin to wane. Despite this gain, the obtrusive powers of the federal government in our unbalanced federation still leaves the states dependent on the whims and caprices of the federal government. This imbalance, especially in economic and coercive powers of a modern state are made worse by the excessive concentration of power of the state in hand of the state executive at the detriment of state legislature and judiciary.

    The result has been the making of governors as state autocrats. With the resources of state substantially in his control, the governor has overbearing influence on the other arms of government in the state. That explains why aspirants to the federal legislature are mortally afraid of the influence of the governor even as they would do all in their power to ensure the presidential elections don’t checkmate their ambition. So to strengthen our democracy, there is the urgent need to free the states from the vice-grip of governors.

    The fear of governors in the state has been so ingrained that a previous constitutional amendment to grant the state legislators autonomy were rebuffed by the legislators. The state legislators were too afraid to contemplate their freedom such that the amendment was defeated by the state legislators. But the result has been the gross inefficiency that many state governments represent. While the judiciary is relatively insulated from the malicious abuse of power by state executives, most of the state legislatures are mere rubber stamp. With the legislature the engine room of presidential system of government stripped of its powers and influence in the states, what we have is a caricature of democracy at the state level.

    Thankfully President Muhammadu Buhari has set up a committee to implement the autonomy of state judiciary and legislature. As a guide to the committee, the words of Earl Warren CJ of the U.S. Supreme Court in USA v Brown is important. He said: “the separation of powers under the American constitution was obviously not instituted with the idea that it would promote government efficiency. It was on the contrary, looked at as a bulwark against tyranny.” Without doubt many of the states in the federation operate under the tyrannical manipulation of state governors. Because of their misguided influence, the state budgets for instance, become a huge joke instead of a serious matter of statecraft.

    So we need to practice the separation of powers as enunciated by the founding fathers of the presidential system of government. Again in the words of Justice Louis Dembitz Brandeis of the U.S. Supreme Court in Myers v USA: “The doctrine of separation of powers was adopted by the Convention of 1787 not to promote efficiency but to preclude the exercise of arbitrary powers. The purpose was not to avoid friction, but, by means of the inevitable friction incident to the distribution of the governmental powers among three departments, to save the people from autocracy.”

    Without checks and balance, we had a governor dedicating state resources to moulding meaningless statutes. Without checks and balance another state executive drove a bulldozer to pull down the house of his opponents. Because of the absence of checks and balance, a governor built a poultry without chicks, while another prefer to build flyover in unlived part of the state while ignoring the more essential needs of the state like salaries. Because of the absence of checks and balance, a governor went to upturn files and desks in the high court without consequences.

    Indeed, because of the absence of checks and balance, many government houses in the states have become mere cash centres for sharing of monthly allocations, instead of nerve centre for policies and programmes to free citizens from poverty and ignorance. We need to make changes at the state level, if we hope to make progress as a nation-state. That is why I commend the committee raised by President Buhari to take the assignment as an important national assignment. We need to free the states from the vice-grip of governors. That dream will be impossible if the judiciary and the legislature in the state are not granted their financial autonomy.

    The importance of the autonomy of the legislature cannot be overemphasised. Theirs is to lay down the rules of engagement, and without independence in this onerous assignment, governance will become autocratic. In Yakus v USA, the Supreme Court of United States describe legislative powers thus: “The essentials of the legislative function are the determination of the legislative policy and its formulation and promulgation as a defined and binding rule of conduct.” Without independence in making the rule of conduct, what we will have is chaos.

    Also important is the work of the judiciary as the organ imbued with power to interpret the rules made by the legislature. Considering its powers as arbiter between citizens and states, the need for its independence cannot be over emphasised.  Section 6(6)(b) of the 1999 constitution as amended captures it. It provides: “The judicial powers vested in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this section – shall extend to all matters between persons, or between government or authority and to any person in Nigeria, and to all actions and proceedings relating thereto, for the determination of any question as to the civil rights and obligation of that person.”

    In granting the state judiciary and legislature autonomy, the federal government must also consider giving the states greater economic power by amending the exclusive legislative list. To even successfully implement the new minimum wage, there is the urgent need to amend the revenue sharing formula.

  • Alleged hack into INEC server: You are jittery, PDP tells APC, Buhari

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to stop their unnecessary fabrications, smear campaign and prepare to face the opposition’s legal team at the presidential election tribunal.

    Responding to a petition by the spokesman for the President’s campaign, Mr. Festus Keyamo, the PDP said President Buhari is overweighed by the burden of “illegitimacy”, following overwhelming evidence before the tribunal that he “stole” the presidential mandate.

    In an email exchange with our correspondent Monday night, stage spokesman for the PDP, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan the allegation was a lame one.

    Ologbondiyan described it as an attempt at blackmailing the tribunal by engaging in clear acts of subjudice.

    The party spokesman further stated that the facts and issues touching on the INEC server, were already within the public domain and Nigerians are already at home with them.

    Read also: Kano rerun: Prosecute electoral offenders, observers tell INEC

    Ologbondiyan continued, “By resorting to shadow-boxing outside the tribunal, President Buhari and the APC have shown that they have no defence to present to the court against PDP’s submission that they stole our mandate.

    “It is even more appalling that Festus Keyamo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and a member of Buhari’s legal team, who should know better, would engage in this act of subjudice designed to distort facts already known to Nigerians, that our Presidential Candidate and former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, clearly won the February 23 Presidential election.

    “Since it has become clear that President Buhari has no defence to present to the court, we counsel him to save the nation further stress by surrendering our mandate, which was freely given by majority of Nigerians to Atiku Abubakar”.

  • I didn’t pay N200m for AAC’s Yeeh to defect, says Wike

    Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike on Monday denied insinuations he induced the deputy governorship candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) Chief Akpo Bomba Yeeh to defect to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with N200million.

    Governorship candidate of the AAC Biokpomabo Awara had alleged Wike paid N200m to Yeeh, who resigned and joined the PDP on Monday.

    Wike, who spoke through the Commissioner for Information and Communications, Emma Okah, described the N200 million allegation as untrue.

    Okah said: “The allegation that Govermor Wike gave AAC’s deputy governorship candidate (Yeeh) N200 million is not correct, it is untrue and it is absolute nonsense.

    Read also: My life in danger, says Rivers AAC gov candidate

    “Chief Yeeh is a respected elder from Ogoni Kingdom and his action by removing himself from being used to destabilise Rivers State and cause pain to the people is commendable.

    “Everything is not about money, as there are lots of good people around.

    “We should commend him (Yeeh) for taking the bold and historic step, instead of calling him names.

    “Future generations of our people will remember the moral lesson of his present actions.”

  • Atiku congratulates Tambuwal, Ortom

    The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 23 presidential election, Atiku Abubakar, has said that the victory of the candidates of the party in Sokoto and Benue states was an acknowledgement from the people that PDP is the only truly national party in the country.

    In a congratulatory message to Governors Aminu Tambuwal and Samuel Ortom who have been re-elected in Kano and Benue states respectively, Atiku assured Sokoto state made the right decision that will see them continue on the path to peace, progress and prosperity.

    Atiku described Governor Ortom’s re-election as well deserved, adding that his re-election was not just a credit to the PDP but also a fact that the governor remained an epitome of servant leadership who he urged electorate in the state to emulate.

    “With him (Ortom) again at the helm of affairs in Benue, the people of the breadbasket of the nation can look forward to times of refreshing and deliverance,” a statement by his media Adviser, Mr. Paul Ibe said.

    “Atiku Abubakar shares solidarity with Alhaji Bala Mohammed and Engr. Abba Kabir Yusuf, who have made a great showing in Bauchi and Kano states, respectively.

    “Victory is within reach. They have shown that they are men of the people and we are convinced that much good will come out of these men of enviable talents and leadership ability”

    The PDP presidential candidate also congratulated his party leaders and members on the gains so far recorded, affirming that the PDP is the true bastion of democracy and should be encouraged by these victories.

    According to him, with unity within the party, it will together continue to extend the boundaries of democracy and shrink the space occupied by tyranny.