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Tag: reject

  • ‘I didn’t reject post’

    ‘I didn’t reject post’

    Lagos State Chairman of Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) Teslim Adeshina aka Okanlomo, has debunked rumours he rejected his appointment.

    Adeshina’s appointment took effect on January 1.

     He said online reports quoted him as rejecting the appointment, and that he was a member of Lagos State Parks and Garages Administrators (LASPAGA).

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     He said: “Reports making the rounds that I rejected my appointment as RTEAN chairman in Lagos State is not true. I am also not a member of the Lagos State Parks and Garages Administrators (LASPAGA).

     “I accept my appointment as RTEAN chairman and urge the public to disregard the fabricated report.”

  • Money laundering: EU nations reject proposal to blacklist Nigeria, 22 others

    BRUSSELS–European Union member states have unanimously turned down a proposal by the EU executive Commission to blacklist Nigeria and 22 other countries described as posing a high risk of money laundering or terrorist financing.

    The EU member countries dismissed the blacklist recommendation as “not established in a transparent and resilient process.”

    Also on the discarded list are Saudi Arabia, North Korea and four U.S. overseas territories, which drew the ire of the U.S. government.

    The list is used to increase checks and investigations on financial transactions from those countries and territories to find suspicious money flows.

    The EU Commission will now have to set up a new list and take the concerns of the member states into consideration.

  • Reject desperate candidates, CAN advises Nigerians

    THROUGH its President, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) yesterday advised Nigerians not to vote for any desperate presidential candidate next year.

    Rev. Samson Ayokunle gave the counsel while briefing reporters after meeting with presidential candidates of 14 political parties in Abuja on their plans for Nigerians and the church.

    He was shocked by what he described as the high level of desperation among politicians in the run-up to the February election.

    The cleric warned of the likely breach of public peace during the election, if police, Army, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and other security agencies do not conduct themselves properly.

    His words: “The motive of the meeting is not to take for granted the 2019 general elections. The church cannot keep quite in this situation because the church can only prosper when Nigeria prospers. If the 2019 election is not free and fair all Nigerians will be in trouble including the church.

    “When I spoke with President Muhammadu Buhari and told him that when we conducted the 2015 elections, people didn’t expect it to be so free and fair but the way the then administration conducted it gave us a sense of pride in the international community.

    “If the 2019 election is not better, if the police are not better-behaved, if the Army is not better-behaved, if INEC is not better-behaved, then it will be a failure.

    “If politicians are not better behaved and they show desperation it will be a failure. We are again warning politicians. The desperation we saw at the intra-party election is given us concern. If they can be so desperate and they end up fighting what will they do when they contest with opposition? The desperation is too much. “Whoever knows that he do not have any other job then politics should forget about contesting. The person should go and look for a job that will last him his life time. It is not compulsory that you should lead us. “Leading Nigeria is a sacrifice. Why do you want to lead by force? You do not need to destroy the entire land. When you said you must lead us at all cost, then, we should suspect you.

    “You need to know that the world is not created for you alone. If you do not win the 2019 election, heaven will not fall. We have millions on Nigerians who can do what you want to do. Do not set this nation on fire.

    “So, we have decided to reach out to the stakeholders and the presidential candidates to ask them their credentials for aspiring to the highest position in the country, and also the plan they have for all, including the church.”

     

     

    “You will agree with me that in the past few years, we have witnessed bloodshed in an unimaginable proportion and we cannot afford to lose more lives any longer. So, we need to really confront them with questions that matter about the future of our country.

    “We have reached a stage where whoever will lead us must not complain for not repositioning our economy. We have a short time to live on earth and everyday matters. We must live a better tomorrow for our children. So those who want to lead us must get serious. They must also know what we want them to do.”

    Those at the forum included: former Anambra State Governor Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential running mate Peter Obi, Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi who represented the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the former Education minister and Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN).

  • Shekarau, Wali, Gwarzo reject Kano PDP exco dissolution

    Kano State stakeholders in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday rejected the dissolution of the executive (exco) of the party.

    Addressing thousands of party faithful at the state secretariat on Maiduguri Road, Kano State, on behalf of Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, Amb. Aminu Wali and Senator Bello Gwarzo, Sarki Labaran, an engineer, said the action of the national headquarters was illegal and could not stand.

    He frowned at the manner former Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso had been conducting himself since he defected to the party, saying “this calls for concern.”

    Labaran accused him of causing disaffection in the once peaceful party.

    The former commissioner during the administration of Malam Shekarau said PDP contradicted itself by the dissolution, noting that the state executive elected members of the National Working Committee, as such it should also be dissolved.

    Labaran wondered why such action should be taken by the national executive of the party, saying the exco’s tenure had not expired and they had not been found wanting in anything that could warrant the dissolution.

    The state Deputy Chairman of the party, Alhaji Ibrahim KT, also condemned the sudden dissolution, saying: “We are not in support of such dissolution. We are in support of the Masaud El-jibrin Doguwa- led leadership of the party.

    “We cannot allow somebody to come and hijack the party, which we suffered to build. We will not support the dissolution of the 484 wards.”

    Doguwa said on the phone that he remained the chairman of the party.

    He said: “I’m yet to be communicated over the said dissolution.

    “Nobody has the power to unilaterally dissolve our exco. This cannot stand and will never stand, because it is unconstitutional.”

    On the court order restraining the national headquarters from dissolving the state exco, Doguwa said: “The court action wasn’t instituted by my exco, some loyal party members whom I’m in support of approached the court.”

     

  • Abe: reject imposition in 2019

    A GOVERNORSHIP aspirant on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Senator Magnus Abe, has called on the people to reject imposition of candidates on them.

    Abe, according to his spokesman, Parry Benson, yesterday in Port Harcourt, spoke while addressing the people of Rivers Southeast, who reside in Diobu waterfront in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital.

    He reiterated that he declared for governor against the decision of supposed leaders of APC to meet the yearnings and aspirations of the people.

    Abe, a former secretary to the state government (SSG), admonished the people and electorate to shun inducement from moneybags, urging them to support individuals that will deliver on their promises.

    The senator  noted that the state is in dire need of development in many areas, but said it could not be achieved without the right leadership in place.

    He lauded his constituents for their support, admonishing the people not to be intimidated.

    Abe said: “I have no godfather, but I have God on my side. So, you must remain resolute in your support for what is right and for the APC, and we shall win.”

    Ex-Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice Worgu Boms stressed that the 2019 elections will not be about ethnicity, but about truth and capacity to deliver.

    Speaking for Diobu waterfront residents, Eze Owabie Tobin stressed that the people are supporting Abe because they believe in his ability to bring development to Rivers.

    Tobin said: “We have decided to support you, because we believe in your ability to develop the state and not to punish the poor people and allow them to continually live in abject poverty.”

     

  • State assemblies yet to reject LG autonomy – NULGE

    State assemblies yet to reject LG autonomy – NULGE

    State Assemblies will still vote to grant local government autonomy in the ongoing constitutional amendment, the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) has stated.

    It said contrary to speculations that about 26 State Houses of Assembly were yet to consider the bill sent by the National Assembly.

    Speaker Yakubu Dogara had lampooned state legislators for throwing out the local government autonomy bill when considering the constitutional amendment bills sent to them for concurrence, saying they disappointed Nigerians who elected them.

    But National President of the union, Comrade Ibrahim Khaleel, said only Imo and Edo Assemblies voted against the bill.

    About 26 states were yet to take a definite position on the issue of local government autonomy, while eight others have voted in favour of the bill, he stated.

    Khaleel said since most states were yet to consider the bill and take a definite stand, it will be out of place to send the wrong signals the bill has been rejected describing the issue as work in progress.

    He said what was presented to the National Assembly by the Chairman of the Conference of Speakers of State Houses of Assembly was the position of the state legislators on other items of the constitutional amendment, which they have all taken a position on.

    According to him: “Among the 10 states that have considered it, eight states Kwara, Benue, Niger, Plateau, Bauchi, Cross River, Bayelsa and Ogun states voted for local government autonomy while only two;  Edo and Imo, rejected it by voting against it.”

    Khaleel, who said he had sought clarification from the Chairman, Conference of Speakers and senior officials of the National Assembly, pointed out that Rivers and Lagos states have not even worked on the Local Government Autonomy Bill while the remaining 24, who joined the other 10 states to transmit it to the National Assembly, said they have stepped the bill down for further consultation.

  • 2019: Ijaw leaders threaten to reject anti-restructuring candidates

    2019: Ijaw leaders threaten to reject anti-restructuring candidates

    After hours of deliberation, Ijaw leaders rose from a meeting at the Kiagbodo country home of Chief Edwin Clark with a definite position on the raging call to restructure the country – to support pro-restructuring candidate in next year’s presidential election.

    They resolved that any candidate without sincere belief and genuine commitment to restructuring should perish the idea of seeking their ballot in the election.

    The meeting was attended by Clark; Bayelsa State Governor Seriake Dickson; Delta State Deputy Governor Kingsley Otuaro; former Aviation Minister Alabo Graham Douglas and former Police Affairs Minister Broderick Bozimo

    Others include: Ambassador Godknows Igali; Prof. Dagogo Fubara; Prof Nimi Briggs; Prof Joe Ajienka; Prof C. Dime; Prof Steve Azaiki; Dr. Pius Sinebe; Chief Wellington Okrika and Bayelsa State Commissioner for Culture & Ijaw Affairs, Dressy Dressman.

    They include: Dan Ekpebide; Chief PY Baipara; Joel Bisina; Chief David Pere; Chief Robinson Ogunkoru; Pastor Imeleye Emmanuel; Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) President Rowland Pereotubo; Bishop Godwin Soroaye; Chief Francis Doupkolagha; Chief TK Okorotie; Justice Francis Tabai; government functionaries, National Assembly members, royal fathers and other leaders of thought. Governor Dickson, who briefed reporters after the meeting which lasted four hours, Dickson said that the leaders took a critical look at restructuring and took further steps to reaffirm their position that the issue remained a matter of survival to the Ijaw people.

    A statement signed by the governor’s Special Adviser on Media Relations, Mr. Fidelis Soriwei, said the leaders vowed to reject anti-restructuring presidential candidates.

    It said the decision was unanimously taken at the meeting in Kiagbodo, Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State.

    Dickson was among the leaders, who attended the meeting.

    The leaders urged President Muhammadu Buhari to demonstrate the political will and ensure the restructuring of the country before the 2019 elections.

    They insisted on a “restructured country within the context of a corporate, united and peaceful Nigeria that guarantees equal right for all.”

    According to them, only restructuring could guarantee peace in the country.

    The statement quoted Dickson as saying that the 2019 election would be a referendum on restructuring with its derivatives of resource control, devolution of power, state police and fiscal federalism.

    He said: “Restructuring is about our existence as a people, it is not about APC or PDP. We as Ijaws, want a Nigeria that is fair, just and equitable and this is what restructuring represents.”

    According to Dickson, the leaders commended the Governor Nasir El Rufai-led All Progressives Congress (APC) Committee on Restructuring for making far-reaching recommendations on the burning issue.

    He said the leaders, called on the APC and President Buhari to show the requisite courage to ensure the implementation of the committee’s report before the 2019 elections to proof their sincerity.

    The governor said that the leaders urged Buhari to show statesmanship and the courage to commence a process of legislation to implement the party’s position on restructuring.

    The leaders also set up a committee to present a coherent position on the restructuring from the Ijaw point of view.

    The committee which has five representatives each from the three Ijaw zones of the west, the central and the east was given three weeks to submit its reports.

    The statement said: “Leaders of Thought of the Ijaw Nation held an emergency meeting at the country home of Ijaw National Leader, Chief Edwin Clark, Kiagbodo.

    “We have discussed a lot of issues ranging from the need for peace and stability in the Ijaw communities, the Niger Delta and the Nigerian Federation.

    “We have also examined the subject matter of restructuring. People shouldn’t play politics with the issue of restructuring. It is about the survival and well-being of our people, it is about the stability of Nigeria. It is far more beyond politics. The Ijaws are passionate about it.

    “We commend all Nigerians from wherever they come from who are in support of his issue of restructuring.

    “Concerning the recommendations of the APC committee; we call for sincere commitment; we call on the President to lead the charge to restructure the country which will lead to an equitable just and fair Nigeria.

    “A high powered committee had been set up on this issue of restructuring, the APC report and other matters.”

    Clark said the issue of restructuring was beyond politicking, insisting that any presidential candidate opposed to restructuring would face rejection in Ijaw land during the election.

  • Okun Yoruba reject cattle colonies

    Okun Yoruba reject cattle colonies

    The Yoruba people in Kogi State under the aegis of the Okun Development Association (ODA) have rejected the proposal to establish cattle colonies for Fulani herdsmen in any part of their six local government areas.

    Rising from an  emergency national congress in Kabba at the weekend, the Okun people said the idea of opening cattle colonies as disclosed by Agriculture and Rural Development Minister, Chief Audi Ogbeh was repulsive and repugnant to equity, fairness and natural justice.

    The Okun people who are in Kabba-Bunu, Ijumu, Lokoja, Yagba West, Yagba East and Mopamuro local government areas of the state said any proposal to appropriate their land for the promotion of the private business interests of Fulani herdsmen would deny them their right to their ancestral land and would amount to an avoidable time bomb.

    In a communique issued at the end of the congress, the ODA said the cattle colony concept was a disservice to the people’s past, present and future and was as such unacceptable.

    Described in whatever way, the document said the cattle colony was distasteful, dangerous and with a huge potential to snowball into a major national disaster.

    The state government, last week, announced that it had embraced the new policy and volunteered to pioneer the model.

    Governor Yahaya Bello also invited the Fulani who may be facing difficulties elsewhere in the country to feel free to relocate to the state with a directive to the different levels of administration in the state to accommodate them and issue certificates of indigeneship to those among them who want it.

    However, the ODA in the communique signed by its National President, Chief Femi Mokikan and the National Secretary, Mr. Ayo Abereoran rejected the state government’s position which it said was not in the best interest of the Okun people.

    It said cattle rearing was a private business and that the nation’s statutes had adequate provisions guiding the way owners should conduct their businesses.

    The cattle colonies, it added, were a thinly veiled way of subsidising the private businesses of herdsmen.

    The ODA said most of the herdsmen in Okunland had at will and usually unprovoked, launched attacks on their hosts adding that the situation arose because of the general belief that they were emboldened by the tacit support they seemed to enjoy in certain official quarters.

    As a result of such continued threats, it said Okun farmers had almost abandoned farming for fear of attacks by herdsmen.

    The association said there were ranches in Kabba, Mokwa (Niger State) and Akunnu in  Ondo State.

    ODA advised government to take steps to revive such facilities and encourage herdsmen to set up similar ones for their use.

    Such ranches, it said, would reduce tension between the herdsmen and farmers, encourage the establishment of allied industries to produce cattle feeds and promote the application of modern technology.

    The ODA also enjoined the state government to, in future, take into consideration, the long term overall interests of the people above other interests in its decisions and actions.

  • Why Anambra should reject Obiano, by APC

    Why Anambra should reject Obiano, by APC

    The All  Progressives Congress (APC) in Anambra State has urged the people to reject Governor Willie Obiano at the poll.

    The party said the governor has failed to rebrand the state.

    APC candidate  Tony Nwoye’s running mate Dozie Ikedife said Obiano has failed to maintain the infrastructure in the state.

    He lamented that roads constructed and rehabilitated by his predecessors have not been maintained.

    Ikedife lamented the governor’s failure to give attention to infrastructural development, “except the three fragile flyovers built in Awka, which many people have said should be dismantled before they cause national calamity.”

    Ikedife said instead of channelling  resources into the development of human capital, Obiano was busy employing scores of special assistants and personal aides on whom he  spent over two billion monthly as salaries.

    He said the scores of appointees never added any value to Obiano’s administration, adding that  most of them did not have the governor’s contacts.

    Ikedife said the APC government in Anambra would empower the youths through skill acquisition and establishment of cottage industries that would absorb thousands of unemployed youths, irrespective of their party affiliations and background.

    He said the APC would revolutionalise the industrial sector  by backing up its investment in the sector by regular power supply.

    He added: “This did not mean that aides and personal assistants would not be employed under the APC administration, but greater attention would be paid to empowerment of a greater number of youths substantially, who would even get to the level of employing others.

    “All the promises of the APC would be easy to achieve since the incoming governor and his deputy belong to the youth generation and  they are coming to take over with the passion to alleviate the sufferings of the people of Anambra State.

    “We have a young man as our candidate and the youths of Anambra State have embraced our campaign across the State.”

  • Group to Nigerians: reject PDP, others in 2019

    •13 political parties plan merger •INEC to register Freedom and Justice Movement soon, says Interim National Chairman

    Nigerians have been urged to reject the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Party (APC), among others in the 2019 general elections.

    Thirteen  registered political parties  have agreed to collapse into one mega party to be known as Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), its interim national Chairman, Dr. Onwunbuya Breakforth, has said.

    Briefing reporters yesterday, in Abuja on the state of the nation, Breakforth said the planned merger is coming as a result of the ‘failure’ of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to rescue Nigerians from the various challenges bedeviling the nation.

    He however, declined to mention the names of the parties, saying their names would be made public when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), announced the registration of the new party adding that all arrangements have been conclude.

    “This movement has been consulting with different political parties and 13 of them have agreed to come together and merge as one mega party. It’s a merger not alliance. We are going to merge like the ACN, CPC, ANPP, New PDP and part of APGA merged to become APC and seized power in 2015.

    “We have approached INEC for registration of the 13 parties as Freedom and Justice Party and the commission has already approved the name and our logo. We have met all the requirements and INEC has 30 days by law to do this.

    “The arrangement is that each of the 13 political parties will organise a national convention and the decision to collapse into the mega party would be taken at the convention which remains the highest decision-making body of all political parties in Nigeria.

    “Our decision to merge is premised on the fact that there is no need having too many political parties that cannot win elections. So we are forming a merger that is bigger than that of the APC. Our plan is that after 2019, there will be no more PDP or APC because the APC is a party with a head but without body, while the PDP has body without a head,” he said.

    He claimed that Nigeria’s exit from recession as announced by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) recently was a “paper work aimed at deceiving Nigerians” explaining that it has no effect on the poor man on the street.