Efforts by the embattled Chairman of the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) and Yobe StateGovernor, Mai Mala Buni to meet President Muhammadu Buhari over the crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC) hit the brick wall.
Naija News had earlier reported that the embattled APC Chairman had left Dubai for London to meet Buhari in a bid to regain control of the ruling party.
According to sources, the embattled APC leader was expected to return to Nigeria last Wednesday after his medical trip to Dubai, but he changed his mind.
A source had said, “He will now travel to London to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari on the situation in the party.”
However, sources have now told The Guardian that Mai Mala Buni has not been able to see Buhari since his arrival in the UK.
It was gathered that the Yobe governor was blocked from having access to the President.
The source said: “As we speak, Buni is still struggling to find a way to see the President. He can’t see him and you know why it is so. Anything can still happen though before the end of today.”
According to the sources, Governor Abubakar Sani-Bello of Niger State has also jetted to London to meet Buhari.
It was gathered that Sani-Bello, who has the backing of Governors Nasir El-Rufai, Rotimi Akeredolu of Kaduna and Ondo respectively and others, travelled to London to prevail on Buhari not to give Buni a listening ear.
“The Bello group is equally not taking chances. They wont take the risk of allowing Buni to get to the President first before them. Even if Buni ends up telling his stories, Bello would be there to let the President know the facts according to the group. They see this as a campaign to save the soul of the APC,” the source added
Fast rising musician, Habeeb Okikiola, better known as Portable, has put a smile on the faces of motherless babies as he celebrated his 28th birthday.
Naija News understands that the controversial music star added a new age on Friday, March 11, and to celebrate his big day, the singer took to a motherless babies home to shower the kids with some love and gifts.
The singer, alongside his friends and family, paid a visit to Little Saints Orphanage Home at Abule Egba part of Lagos.
Before his visit, Portable had wished himself happy Birthday on his Instagram page.
He wrote, “Dr Zeh Nation ZAzuu If I could make a wish right now, it would be to be heard screaming across the universe just to show how happy I am. Happy birthday to me Portable omolalomi.”
Presidential hopeful, Dele Momodu has slammed the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) over the creation of a directorate of politics and governance.
In a memo dated February 28, which was signed by the Assistant General Overseer (Admin/Personnel) Pastor J. F. Odesola, the church announced the creation of the directorate for politics and governance ahead of the 2023 general elections.
The RCCG stated that the newly-created directorate, which will be headed by Pastor Timothy Olaniyan, is to coordinate the affairs and activities of members interested in seeking political offices in 2023.
In a statement on Friday, the church denied setting up its directorate to support the purported 2023 presidential ambition of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo or any church member.
Reacting to the development, Momodu said the creation of the directorate by the leadership of the church was nothing but an invitation to Armageddon.
The media entrepreneur said the setting up of the political arm of the church was unnecessary, warning the church leadership not to mix religion with politics.
Momodu, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), also linked the purported presidential ambition of Osinbajo to the setting up of the directorate.
The full statement reads below:
“Fellow Nigerians, let me state clearly that I consider myself a bonafide member of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) even if I don’t attend church services regularly due to my absence from home arising from my enforced itinerant lifestyle as an international journalist. For clarity, I have lived partly in England since about 27 years ago when I was forced into exile by the Abacha military regime in July 1995. Once we settled into our home in Cricklewood more than two decades ago, my Family and I attended the JESUS HOUSE in Brent Cross, the headquarters of the RCCG in the United Kingdom, ably led by Pastor Agu Irukwu, a respected and respectable gentleman. Indeed, I celebrated my 50th birthday at JESUS HOUSE on May 16, 2010, and I felt truly blessed. My Family still attend the Church to this day and whenever I am in England on Sundays, I venture to attend too.
“Beyond this, I have been a son of our General Overseer Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye and his very selfless wife, our Mummy G O, Mrs Foluke Adenike Adeboye for many years. I take this opportunity to congratulate Daddy G O on the occasion of his 80th birthday which occurred on 3rd March 2022. I pray for longer life in good health with much happiness, prosperity contentment and peace. Their first son, Adeolu Adeboye, is also very close to me, right from our time in England. I have had the privilege of sailing on.a cruise ship with Daddy and Mummy for a full week from Florida to Cozumel in Mexico to Cayman Island to Ocho Rios in Jamaica. Mummy had given me tips on that exquisite trip on how to improve the sales of Ovation and I was truly gratified and grateful.
“Naturally, I feel that I owe it a duty to tell our Church leaders, and our Church in general, the Gospel truth and nothing but the absolute truth. In the light of my relationship with the RCCG, this duty is even more imperative and compelling. I believe the leaders of the RCCG have laboured so hard to build one of the most formidable churches in the world. Nothing must be done to inadvertently cause a cataclysmic storm in the House of God. And the easiest way to create trouble in Nigeria today is any attempt to mix religion with politics. It goes beyond lighting the blue touch paper. It is like combining some highly combustible ingredients together in a chemical laboratory. It is not just that the effect may not be too pleasant, it is that the result and consequences will be catastrophic. God forbid.
“As soon as I read the memo establishing a political arm of our Church, I realised this was nothing but an invitation to Armageddon, if true. For that reason, at first, I assumed the memo was a joke, a fake document that was merely meant to stir the hornets’ nest, so I did not pay too much attention to it. However, when it started flying in from every direction to my phones, I knew someone had touched the tiger by the tail. I started working the phones to speak to a few contacts who should know about it and be able to confirm the veracity or otherwise of the document. The outcome was a resounding yes, the document had emanated from the Church and was acquiesced to by the upper echelons.
“I asked for what the motive(s) could have been, and the general conspiracy theory was that our church was setting up an extensive network for the obvious Presidential ambition of the current Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, although couched in terms which ostensibly suggested that the Church wished to support all of its congregation who wished to contest the next general elections and made their aspirations known to the newly formed Church department. Personally, that theory didn’t jell with me. To the best of my knowledge, Professor Osinbajo is not the only member of the church contesting the Presidential election. And it was not the church that nominated him as running mate to President Muhammadu Buhari. He got the job primarily because of his closeness to his former Principal, then Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and also because of his admirable credentials, ability and capacity. His religion was necessarily a factor, because a Northern Moslem must perforce pick a Southern Christian as his running mate in the current Nigerian clime. That was the only reason religion came into it, I believe. It had nothing to do with the fact that he is a senior pastor of the RCCG.
“Even if the Vice President has now decided to bear his own father’s name.by dropping that of his avuncular godfather, the church will still face a moral crisis if it wishes to jump on the bandwagon by drumming up support for Professor Osinbajo on religious grounds alone for many reasons, some of which I will now highlight.
“Although Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a Muslim, his dear beloved wife, Senator Oluremi Tinubu is a staunch member of the Redeemed Christian Church of God and one of the leading lights of the Church. Asiwaju, her husband, is a frontline Presidential aspirant on the platform of APC, just like his godson, the Vice President. Even if the RCCG has a preference in Professor Osinbajo, mainly because of his status in the Church and his current position in Government, I expect the RCCG to “pretend” a little and behave as if it is not so. Not to do that would be tantamount to picking a child out of one’s children and say, “this is my favourite!” It is simply not right or proper for the RCCG to demonstrate such blatant and flagrant partisanship.
“As if that is not a tough cookie to handle, there is the fact that that there is a third contender, yours truly, Dele Momodu, who’s also a member of the RCCG and the youngest of the contending Church aspirants so far. I’m also the only member of the RCCG aspiring on the platform of PDP, as far as I know. Would the Church then ask its congregation to vote for one party over the other merely because it has decided to support one candidate in preference to the other regardless of the strong points one may have over the other? What a conundrum and crisis this portends for the Church and its unity and peace.
“The church cannot even afford to ostracise any aspirant on the basis of religious persuasion or denomination. It is the job of the church to seek out and promote the best candidates and then pray for them and galvanise support for them perhaps clandestinely.
“I also imagine that there is some degree of unconstitutionality to this attempt by the RCCG to descend into the political arena. Nigeria is a secular state as the constitution provides. To suggest that one candidate is the preferred candidate of a particular church or religious group and is being effectively sponsored by that church will breach not just the morality and ethos of the Church but also the deeply enshrined principles and grundnorm of our constitution, which are embedded and engraved for good reason.
“Furthermore, there are no guarantees that being a church Pastor or otherwise would make you a competent and truthfully honest leader. The church is too massive and extremely influential to reduce itself to such a level of myopia. Since what most Nigerians desire today is good and accountable leadership, our Churches should smartly work towards identifying the best materials in different political parties and support us spiritually and materially from the humongous resources it has pleased God to bless them with.
“Specifically, it is my belief that our churches should avoid anything that could further escalate the huge religious and socio-political conflagration already ravaging our long-suffering nation. Just imagine what would happen if other church denominations or other religions decide to support their own members only. It would be palpable anarchy in the making. Nigeria will then end up with a Babel of voices and a cacophony of noises which would not augur well for the wellbeing of us all, but only cause misery and upheaval.
“I sincerely hope and pray that our Church, the RCCG, will douse this unnecessary fire and recant and retrace its steps before it is too late.”
The Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, has given further clarification to a memo it issued directing the creation of a political department in the church with the objective to help ” coordinate the engagement of our people who are willing to be involved in politics as well as mobilize support for them.”
The memo which leaked online came as political parties and politians gear up for electioneering campaigns ahead of the 2023 general election.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, a pastor of the RCCG, is believed to nurse a presidential ambition, but he is yet to officially declare his intention.
Comments on social media insinuate that the directive from RCCG, a leading pentecostal church in Nigeria with about 32,000 parishes, is geared towards rallying support for the VP.
According to him, the directive existed long ago and is targeting at getting people involved in politics.
“There is nothing connecting Osinbajo with the directorate; RCCG has been mobilising, creating political awareness long since transition from military to civil rule. RCCG has made it a policy to educate its members on political education – get voter cards, no violence.
“The directorate has nothing to do with Osinbajo or anybody. I don’t know why people are linking something the church has been doing which every organisation should be doing to him,” he said to The Punch.
Liverpool manager, Jurgen Klopp, has reacted to the current challenges faced at Chelsea.
The United Kingdom government had on Thursday frozen the assets of Chelsea owner, Roman Abramovich.
The billionaire is one of seven wealthy Russian individuals who had sanctions placed on them by the government on Thursday.
The development has restricted the Blues from selling any ticket or merchandise and also stopping them from offering new contracts to players.
Feeling sorry for Thomas Tuchel’s side, Klopp said Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is responsible for Chelsea sanctions.
The German professional football manager while addressing the media on Friday, insisted no employee at Stamford Bridge is to blame.
Klopp has now agreed with the decision taken by the government.
He said: “I feel for him (Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel) and the players. It’s not a situation all the employees at Chelsea are responsible for.
“One man is and that’s Putin. I don’t know about Roman Abramovich’s role in all this, but you can say he is close. I think what the Government did is right.”
Hon. Temitope Adewale, Chairman of the House Committee on Transportation, who made the position of the Assembly known, said the legislative arm had been very proactive as it already has a law creating the Lagos State Parking Authority, which should now oversee activities at all the parks in the State.
According to Hon. Adewale, the House is fully aware of developments in the transportation union and now that the crisis has resulted in the banning of NURTW activities in Lagos, “it is clear to state that all parks, garrages and parking activities would be under the Lagos State Parking Authority as stipulated by law.”
The House said at the stage the NURTW has found itself, the State has to take charge of the situation to avoid a breakdown of law and order.
The House said, by law, the state’s Parking Authority has a General Manager on whose shoulders the responsibility now falls to manage the parks at the moment.
“The law approves a General Manager for the Parking Authority.
“Lagosians should be calm. The situation is under control as the government takes necessary actions,” he said in a statement.
The Lagos State Government had, late Thursday, announced the suspension of all NURTW activities in the State.
The Government has also denied appointing suspended chairman of the NURTW, Musiliu Akinsanya, alias MC Oluomo, as General Manager of Lagos Transport Parks and Garages Committee.
There are indications that people from more countries than earlier envisaged are warming up for the upcoming Healing Streams Live Healing Services with Pastor Chris which comes from Friday, March 18, to Sunday, March 19, 2022. The event is already riding on the wings of the positive feedbacks and loads of testimonies from other Healing Streams Live Healing Services with Pastor Chris cutting across geographical, cultural and political divides globally.
Millions of people all over the world are sharing the great news of the event, as signs through billboards, advertorials on buses, trains, and other sources have got every home, every street, every community, every city, and every nation into a grip of expectations hoping for the great moments with Pastor Chris.
The Live Healing Services have become special times of signs and wonders, postmarked with remarkable miracles and testimonies. Paralysis, cancer, HIV, tuberculosis, mental disorders, and all manner of sicknesses and diseases are healed when the power of God touches those who need healing.
With the participation of over 6.5 billion people in the last edition of the healing services that took place in October 2021, many are confident in their expectations for this program. One such person is Bishop Janice Best of the United States of America, and she eagerly shares her expectations: “I am anticipating an increase in miracles and healing of all manner of sicknesses and diseases. During the last edition, we saw people get healed and I am looking forward to this again, and I urge you to join in and partake. Get ready to receive and carry healing grace to your world.”
Elisiva Falekaono was deaf for 17 years. This made communication and getting through each day a difficult task. She needed constant support from her family. This was her condition until she took a step of faith and participated in the #HealingStreams Live Healing Services last year. She touched her ears while Pastor Chris prayed and they popped open. Her hearing is perfect now. Glory to God!
Pastor Antonina Boltersdorf from Ukraine testifies, “For about a week, I had this pain in my shoulders, spine, and hand. The pain was so much that I couldn’t even lift my hands to pray. As we worshiped during the Healing Streams Live Healing Services, I suddenly discovered I could lift my hands freely without pain. The pain is completely gone. My spine, my shoulders, and my hands are back to normal.”
This is just a foretaste of what is to come for the March 2022 edition of the Healing Streams Live Healing Services with Pastor Chris. “Anyone anywhere can receive a miracle,” says Evangelist Dr. Eddy Owase, a senior minister of the Healing School. “Testimonies are the Word of God clothed within stories. When they are told, they communicate faith and power for the miraculous.”
How true. Even now, with the program still several days away, miracles are taking place already all over the world. As the testimonies pour out, the excitement and anticipation are heightening. You can register now and play your part in getting others to participate in the Live Healing Services at www.healingstreams.tv/3days. You can also sponsor the program and ensure its reach to 7 billion people all over the world.
The coronation of Oba Lekan Balogun as the 42nd Olubadan of Ibadanland is underway at the ancient Mapo Hall Ibadan.
The new monarch is being ushered into the venue where he will be officially presented with instruments of office by Governor Seyi Makinde.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Chairman, Nigerian Governors’ Forum, Dr Kayode Fayemi, and the Ogun State Governor , Dapo Abiodun are present .
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar; Ondo State Deputy Governor, Lucky Ayedatiwa and Osun State Deputy Governor, Benedict Alabi are also present.
The Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi; Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, the Olugbo of Ugbo, Oba Obateru Akinruntan; Olugbon of oarile Igbo, Oba Francis Alao, are also present.
Hours after his infinite suspension from NURTW, MC Oluomo has reportedly been appointed as the GM/MD of Lagos State Transportation Parks and Garages Management Committee.
This was disclosed by his son, King West, on Instagram. The state government is yet to announce this appointment.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has denied knowledge of the leadership change in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
It was gathered that INEC made this known on Thursday in a letter sent to Governor Abubakar Sani-Bello of Niger, who is the acting chairman of the party’s caretaker committee.
The officials pleaded not to be named disclosed that Sani-Bello had on Wednesday written to INEC in his capacity as the acting national chairman of the APC’s Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) inviting the commission to their National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting scheduled for next week Thursday via zoom.
Sources confirmed to Daily Trust that the APC had send a letter to the electoral commission revealing a change of guard from Governor Mai Mala Buni to Sani Bello.
“Yes, there was a letter from the APC, which the commission replied because there were legal issues…They did not do the right thing,” one of the officials of the electoral body said.
Another official said INEC in the reply told the ruling party that it was only the national chairman and national secretary of the party that could write such a letter.
This means that the commission was yet-to-be be formally notified of the leadership change in APC.
Which in-turn means the new leadership led by Governor Bello cannot formally write INEC for official matters.
The Electoral Act 2022 in Article 82 (1) recently signed by President Muhammadu Buhari stated that: Every registered political party shall give the commission at least 21 days’ notice of any convention, congress, conference or meeting convened for the purpose of “merger” and electing members of its executive committees, other governing bodies or nominating candidates for any of the elective offices specified under this Act.
Recall that the Niger State Governor had on Monday take over the leadership of the APC, claiming he has the backing of President Buhari
Confirming the change of leadership, Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State said Buni who is on a medical trip in Dubai had been removed and won’t return as chairman.
El-Rufai accused the Yobe governor of widening crisis in the party, claiming that those loyal to Buni had obtained a court order to stop the APC convention from holding.
Also, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State had accused Buni and some ‘yahoo yahoo‘ governors of trying to destroy the APC.
Backing Buni, Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State had said the Yobe governor will return as the party chairman after his medical trip.
Speaking to his supporters, the embattled governor insisted that there was no crisis in the ruling party.
