Politics Archives - Page 58 of 87

Police Accuse Aregbesola’s Bodyguards, Political Thugs Of Unprovoked Shooting In Osogbo

The police have debunked the claim by a faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Osun chapter, that some political thugs attempted to kill the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, during a roadshow in Osun State on Monday.

The Osun police command said contrary to APC’s claim, it was Aregbesola, his bodyguards and political thugs that attempted to disrupt the peace of the state by “shooting sporadically into the air without any provocation” while moving in a convoy in Osogbo, the state’s capital.

Earlier, the spokesperson of the APC faction, Abiodun Agboola, had claimed that Aregbesola’s convoy was attacked by armed political thugs at Orisunmibare, Osogbo while coming from Ilesa.

“Today’s attempt on the life of the minister is a confirmation that Osun is no longer a safe state.

“We can only pray that the Almighty would keep the good people of Osun and her well-wishers safe,” Agboola had said.

But reacting in a statement, the Osun police command refuted the claim and accused Aregbesola of disturbing public peace.

Aregbesola Seeks Ambode Treatment For Oyetola As Gov, Minister Clash Over Shooting

“Today, Monday, at about 5.40 pm, the Minister of Interior, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola was moving in convoy of personnel of NSCDC, Correctional Service, Immigration, as well as some unidentified armed people, suspected to be political thugs along Orisumbare/MFS Road, Osogbo.

“Suddenly, some of the security escorts of the minister started shooting sporadically into the air without any provocation nor attack, thereby causing members of the public to scramble for their safety.

“Thirteen empty shells of G-3, assault, and AK-37 rifle were recovered along the road after the minister’s departure. No casualty, however, was recorded,” the command’s spokesperson, SP Yemisi Opalola, said in a statement.

According to reports, the shooting incident happened shortly after Aregbesola, who is the immediate past governor of Osun State, openly declared support for the governorship ambition of Alhaji Moshood Adeoti, a former Secretary to the Osun State Government (SSG).

The minister was said to have indirectly attacked his estranged political godfather, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, while also calling on the people of the state to reject the re-election bid of the incumbent Governor Gboyega Oyetola in the July 16 governorship election.

“It is possible some share your ideals and it’s also possible some do not. This happened in Lagos recently. There was a governor, who wanted to seek re-election and the party declined and showed him the way out with their votes. So, the same way it was in Lagos then, is exactly the way it is in Osun today. What is good for the goose, is also good for the gander. It cannot be the turn of your younger brother now and you change the rules,” Aregbesola had said in reference to Tinubu’s alleged role in stopping Akinwunmi Ambode from being re-elected as Lagos governor in 2019.

Emefiele Is Focussed On Supporting President Buhari On Economy Not Runing For Office, Group Says

Friends of Godwin Emefiele, Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), have declared that he is not planning to run for president in 2023 but focused on delivering on his mandate as governor of the apex bank.

The group, which called itself Friends of Emefiele, said it met with the CBN governor following media reports urging him to run for president to clarify the true situation.

The group in a statement on Tuesday said Emefiele disclosed to them that he had no such plans, except what God has willed for him.

The statement urged those sponsoring a “campaign of calumny to impugn the character of the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria” to desist and allow him focus on his mission to support President Muhamnadu Buhari in reviving the Nigeria economy.

The group frown at what it called “sponsored media reports on the purported interest” of Emefiele, “in the 2023 presidential race, leading to stampede by interested parties and vested interests who are resorting to all sorts of blackmail, sponsored articles and choreographed comments on social media targeted at tainting Godwin Emefiele’s image, impugning his character and legacy.”

They noted that Emefiele has not confirmed to anyone he is running for President even as he is
constitutionally qualified to do so, and has been under pressure in the past few weeks due to “unsolicited campaign for his candidacy”.

The group explained that after meeting with Emefiele on Monday, he told them he remained focused on his job and will continue to support the President Buhari-led
Federal Government’s economic recovery drive.

According to the group, the CBN governor said he had never lobbied for a job in all his career trajectory.

Emefiele told the group that after his appointment as the CBN governor in 2014 by former President Goodluck Jonathan, he remained “humbled by President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to grant him an unprecedented second term as CBN Governor- again without lobbying.”

Emefiele told the group that he believed “it’s the prerogative of President Muhammadu Buhari to plan his succession in line with global best practices for good governance for the continuing peace and progress” of Nigeria, “as such he will play his part to stabilise the economy for an orderly transition.”

Taking a historical account of when Emefiele assumed the position of the CBN Governor in June 2014, the group pointed out that “he has calmed the waters and put
Nigeria back on the path of growth,” despite challenges.

After the sharp fall in crude oil prices and a 13-month recession, he initiated major monetary policies that supported the Buhari administration and all 36 State governments, ensuring salaries were paid to steer Nigeria away from crisis.

The group pointed out that the second recession the country entered in 2020 was as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, yet CBN under Emefiele supported fiscal authorities with N100 billion health sector credit facility, one-year extension of a moratorium on principal repayments for CBN intervention facilities and reduction of the interest rate on intervention loans from 9 percent to 5 percent.

According to the group, Emefiele also strengthened Loan to Deposit ratio policy, created N400 billion target credit facility for affected households and small and medium enterprises, granted regulatory forbearance to banks to restructure terms of facilities in affected sectors among other interventions.

The Friends of Emefiele noted that ‘those behind the sponsored negative reports are afraid of Emefiele’s towering personality and
service to Nigeria.

“But they must understand that he cannot be stampeded any way. He is focused on delivering the mandate of the Central Bank; he is rebuilding the economy of the country through import substitution policies and using agriculture to create a new rural middle class from ground up.

“Those who continue to criticise the rice pyramid are too ashamed of giving glory to whom it is due.

“Emefiele is focused on his unfinished job and should not be distracted.”

Tinubu’s Camp Speak On Alleged Pee On Cloth

A pro-Tinubu coalition, the Support Groups Management Council has released a statement concerning the alleged pee on the APC chieftain Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s attire.
Recall that the politician had visited some top traditional rulers in Ogun State with the goal of consulting on his 2023 presidential ambition.

However, after the meeting a video had surfaced on social media of the chieftain in a wet dress which some alleged to be pee.

In a statement signed by its Director of Media and Publicity, Biodun Ajiboye, the group stated that the picture was a plan cooked up by the politician’s haters to discredit and question his health. They maintained that Tinubu is healthy and ready to win the 2023 election.

“This time it is that he wetted his dress!

“Assuming without conceding that is the case, so is it the back of his knees that would be wet and not the bum area? So if he wetted his babariga, he would not cover it and would still move to be flat to greet the Awujale of Ijebuland in the full glare of everyone present?” The coalition wondered.

“It was the usual photoshop manipulations and shallow mental agility that pushed them to dispense a feeble narrative that made no iota of sense.

“Yet as their video showed, it was after their wetting incident that he went ahead and prostrated to Kabiyesi.

“We want to assure Nigerians that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is healthy and strong enough to undertake the responsibilities involved in the expected rigours of campaigns and politicking when the time comes.”

EXPOSED: APC Convention: Gov. Fayemi, Badaru, Bagudu Plot To Impose Stooge As National Chairman

A group, the All Progressives Congress (APC) Youth Development and Solidarity Forum (APC- YDSF) has alleged that it has uncovered a plot by Governors Mohammed Badaru of Jigawa, Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi and Dr. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti state to impose Senator Sani Musa as the next national chairman of the party ahead of the February 26 convention.

The Secretary General of the Forum, Mr. Tobias Ogbeh disclosed this while addressing a press conference on Sunday in Abuja.

He warned that the alleged imposition may lead to imposition of the party.

The group noted that the plots perpetrated in the past months by the said governors are geared towards illegally winning public offices at the highest level.

It added that it was for this reason that it was raising the alarm so that Nigerians would know that people with less than sincere interest are on the verge of hijacking the APC and consequently impose a presidential candidate on Nigerians, while using the popularity of the APC to win election and then capture power to the detriment of Nigerians.

The APC stakeholders stressed that Nigerians are all witnesses to how the APC has been plunged into a needless crisis because of the overbearing activities of some governors.

The group also alleged that some governors of the ruling party have hijacked before the party’s national convention before by the way they fixed a February 26, 2022, date for the event, which it said was in flagrant disregard for the preferences expressed by stakeholders.

The group stated: “Governor Mohammed Badaru Abubakar of Jigawa State, Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, Governor Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi state and their other desperate allies that include serving ministers have perfected plans to ensure that Senator Sani Musa is imposed as APC National Chairman alongside other lackeys that would be named to other positions at the convention.

“Senator Sani Musa would in turn deliver Bagudu as APC presidential flagbearer and Kayode Fayemi as his running mate. They have cooked up what they called “unity list” to package their plot as something positive and desirable for the party and the country when the contrary is the case.”

“Sadly, things are now clearer. The governors in question never bothered about what stakeholders thought, wanted, or demanded, because for them the National Convention is a fait accompli.”

The group stressed that the convention envisaged by these political actors was one at which they would merely coerce delegates to rubber stamp the decisions that have been taken.

“At this point it is fair to point out that the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami is with them alongside a few unpatriotic ministers that are equally playing overlords in states that are not controlled by the APC.”

2023: Zulum Reveals Those That Will Decide APC Presidential Candidate

Governor Babagana Umara Zulum of Borno State has revealed those who will decide the presidential flag-bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 general election.
He said President Muhammadu Buhari, APC governors and other party leaders will decide who becomes the party’s presidential candidate in 2023.

Zulum made this known on Friday when he received members of the Progressive Consolidation Group (PCG) at his office in the Government House in Maiduguri, the state capital.

Zulum said: “I am solidly behind initiatives aimed towards enhancing the unity of our party and progress of Nigeria; at this crucial time, no one and nothing will prevent the party from moving in unison.

“We have to identify the right individuals to lead the nation and the task requires governors, party hierarchy and the President working together in concert.

“Individual aspirations may have to be downplayed because we all have to concur with the decision of the leader of our party.

“Borno state under me will promote unity and all efforts to ensure the success of APC; we shall work with the party hierarchy, our leaders at the National Assembly and our party leaders at ward and state levels, to arrive at the best solutions for taking the country forward.”

Earlier, the Chairman of the PCG, Aliyu Rabiu Kurfi, stressed the need for Zulum, other state governors, and party leaders at the ward, state and federal levels to forge a consensus towards making Professor Yemi Osinbajo Nigeria’s next president.

“The Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo deserves the right of first refusal and even in a crowded race with great individuals, he stands out as an insider with the right level of competence and intellect to do the job better than all others,” he said.

Leave Emefiele out of politics, Economists warn propagandists

The North-South Economists’ Forum, NSEF, a focus group of development economists, has warned propagandists and information hawkers feasting on a phoney ‘Emefiele for President’ campaign not to drag the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, governor into the murky water of partisan politics.

Recently, some online news platforms flew a kite purporting that a group of top private sector players and some sitting governors were working on a script to install Mr. Godwin Emefiele as the next Nigerian president in the 2023 presidential election.

The report claimed that Emefiele may likely resign his appointment as CBN governor this month to throw his hat into the Presidential ring.

But the CBN has stoutly rebutted the story as disingenuously false, lacking in substance and therefore a figment of the imagination of its purveyors.

CBN spokesman, Osita Nwasinobi, described the report as a distraction from the CBN’s focus on its mandate of minding monetary policies, financial stability and supporting government programmes.

“I don’t know where that platform got their news from. We discuss monetary policies at the Central Bank and how to support the government, we don’t discuss politics. All these distractions, they should leave us out of them so that we can do our job,” Nwasinobi said.

However, the North-South Economists’ Forum said having done its independent investigation and consultations among highly placed Nigerian entrepreneurs some of whom were said to be among those promoting the Emefiele for President movement, it has discovered that the story was false in its entirety.

The body of Economists in a statement on Wednesday signed by its Chairman, Malam Ahmed Abdulkadir and Secretary, Dr. Chima Eboh, noted that “what was perceived to be a political meeting promoting Emefiele Presidential ambition was actually a meeting of governors, ex-governors, non-political actors, business people with proven economic management background, civil society organisations and the media, whose sole aim was to forge a new pathway for the growth and development of the nation.

“Emefiele was not on the agenda neither was he singled out for discussion at the meeting,” NSEF said.

The Economists urged the CBN governor to stay focused on his economic reengineering of the nation’s monetary policy framework to engender financial stability especially at these times when the nation is facing grave economic challenges.

NSEF charged those calling for Emefiele’s head and accusing him of playing partisan politics on the basis of a fake news to desist from such ill-advised adventure, adding that it ‘was childish and logically infantile to base their conclusion on a faulty premise.

“We have watched how the CBN under Emefiele has constricted the space for economic vampires who take advantage of the nation’s weak primary sector to import all manner of commodities into the country using forex sourced from CBN for local production of goods only to divert same to importation of the same products they originally claimed to manufacture in Nigeria.”

The group linked the renewed attacks on Emefiele to the economic crooks whom he has through the CBN policies of zero-forex for importation of commodities that can be easily grown in Nigeria and dozens of economic interventions by the CBN. It urged Emefiele not to be deterred by the headwinds created by this brood of economic saboteurs who have found easy recruits in some faceless organisations.

“Dragging Emefiele into politics is a show of aberrant mental indolence which does not advertise the propagandists as intelligent or persons given to critical thinking. As a body of Economists with strong bias for development, we consider it an effusion of ingratitude to ever imagine or conjecture that CBN under Emefiele is favouring one political party over another. That is the height of unreason,” the statement said.

2023: Tinubu Appoints Northerner As National Media Coordinator (PHOTO)

Society gazette reports that the National Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), and presidential aspirant, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has appointed Muhammad Mahmud, from Borno State, as his National Media Coordinator.

While addressing newsmen recently in Maiduguri, Mahmud, 31, solicited support from everyone to ensure that the ambition of the former Lagos State Governor, is actualized ‘in order to consolidate on President Muhammadu Buhari’s unprecedented transformation and development’.

“I received with joy my appointment as the National Coordinator, Tinubu Media Support Group.

“Without doubt, this is a daunting assignment taking into account that our principal is a game-changer of Nigerian politics. He is as well a man of many flanks.

“Therefore, our approach shall be very tasking, as we aren’t oblivious of the fact that with the support of well-meaning Nigerians and prayers, we will wither the storm insha’Allah (By God Grace),” Mahmud said.

Pastor Ighodalo Reveals Why Tinubu Cannot Succeed Buhari In 2023

The Senior Pastor of the Trinity House, a non-denominational Christian centre headquartered in Lagos, Pastor Ituah Ighodalo has said a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu can not succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.
Speaking in an interview with Mediaroomhub, the cleric, who is a close friend of Tinubu, said the former Lagos governor is only ambitious and not ready to offer anything to Nigerians.

He stated that what the country needs after Buhari is someone who is really ready to serve, adding that the nations doesn’t need someone who sees the presidency as a personal ambition.

Ighodalo said: “Tinubu is my personal friend, as a person, I love him very much, he has been very kind to me, he is a good man, but leadership today in Nigeria is greater than any personal ambition, the kind of leader we want is not someone who says being president has been my life ambition, no, you must do better than that. What are you offering the people? What are you giving the people, where are you taking them to, do you have the interest of the people at heart? Or you are just trying to put on your CV that you became president of Nigeria?

“We don’t have time for that anymore in Nigeria, we want people who really want to serve the people, people who are really ready to lay themselves down for the people, people who have vision for Nigeria, people who are bold enough to take the right decision and not going to offer us on the altar of politics and compromise us just because they want something or the other and take us back to square one again and we are suffering all over the place.”

Speaking further, the popular clergyman said the National leader of the APC has done well producing many leaders.

Pastor Ighodalo stated that Tinubu should instead be thinking of how to unite Nigerians to select a person who will be able to take the country forward .

He said: “I am looking for that righteous person who is ready to stop all these corrupt practices and not dashing people money, but using the money to educate them, build schools, hospital and laying infrastructures.

“What drives an economy is production, the ability to transform raw materials into finished goods. When you continue producing, there will be more than enough for everybody to consume.

“We want leaders that will encourage production, it means that the constitution of Nigeria must be changed and fashioned in such a way that there can be complete production of all the resources of Nigeria.”

POLITICS2023: Pastor Adeboye declare Support For osinbajo Presidential ambition

Speculations have emerged that the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye supports the presidential ambition of the Vice President of Nigeria, Yemi Osinbajo.
The report is coming after rumour had it that Osinbajo would declare his presidential ambition in the 2023 race after the National Convention of the All Progressives Congress.

Osinbajo in a statement released on Monday, however, denied the claim that he would officially announce his plan to contest in the general elections.

A support group for ‘Osinbajo 2023’ in a post on Instagram wrote, “Despite the ongoing campaigns against his currently rumoured bid for the presidency by some interests in the southwest, where he hails from, Osinbajo had made up his mind to give the presidency a shot.

“Even more instructive was the fact that Osinbajo had received the blessing and the charge to go ahead with his ambition from Pastor Adeboye.”

If Osinbajo decides to contest in the forthcoming presidential election, he would be hoping to first clinch the presidential ticket of the party ahead of the National Leader of the APC, Bola Tinubu, who many see as his benefactor.

Audit: Reps Panel Summons Fashola, Aregbesola, Others

Four ministers, their permanent secretaries and their heads of finance and procurement departments have been given a seven-day ultimatum by the public accounts committee of the House of Representatives to appear before it.
The committee threatened that failure to appear before it within the given time will see relevant laws invoked against them.

The affected ministers are Rauf Aregbesola (Interior), Ali Pantami (Communications and Digital Economy), Prof Osagie Ehanire (Health), Sharon Ikeazor (Environment), Babatunde Fashola (Works and Housing).

The Chairman of the committee, Oluwole Oke summoned the ministers during an investigative hearing held on Tuesday over the alleged refusal by the ministers and officials of their ministries to respond to audit queries issued by the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation over the years.

Oke while addressing the former Governor of Osun State, charged him to appear before it with the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, and the head of the Federal Fire Service.

He directed the clerk of the committee to dispatch the notice to the affected ministries and a copy to be sent to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha; Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN); and the Chief of Staff to the President, Ibrahim Gambari, respectively.

Oke said, “Today makes it the fifth time the Ministry of Works and Housing will be asking for another extension of time on the audit queries raised against it over the years. For how long shall we continue like this? Mr President honoured some people with public appointments but to pay him back, they will not be alive to their responsibilities. This is very unfortunate.

“We are only asking them to make appearances before the committee to clarify issues on financial infractions raised by the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation, nothing more!”