Senator Shuaibu Lau, representing Taraba North-East senatorial district, has been named as the new deputy minority leader of the Senate following Senator Emmanuel Bwacha’s exit from the party.
The Senate PDP caucus communicated this decision in a letter addressed to the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, by the party’s national chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, on Tuesday.
Bwacha had dumped the party for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on Thursday.
“The PDP Senate caucus has duly informed the National Headquarters of the party, in view of which we so communicate to you. We believe that Lau will be an asset to the leadership of the Senate. Thank you and accept the assurances of our highest regards,” read part of Ayu’s letter.
Bwacha had hinged his defection from the PDP on the “huge division and factionalisation” of the opposition party in his state.
“I had to leave because I seek to breathe better. This day, I announce henceforth my exit from the PDP, and to join the governing party because of the visible presence of the party in my Senatorial District,” the senator had told President Muhammadu Buhari when he visited the State House to formally inform him of his defection.
Bwacha’s defection had brought the number of APC Senators to 70, while the PDP has 38 and the Young Progressives Party (YPP) has only one.
Joe Igbokwe, a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), on Monday condemned Omoyele Sowore, a former presidential candidate, for ‘wasting his precious gift of time on acrimony and division, pull him Down syndrome, armchair criticism, unsubstantiated allegations’ against oppositions.
Igbokwe was reacting to Sowore’s latest criticism of Bola Tinubu, the APC National Leader, who just returned from the United Kingdom (UK).
In photos circulating on the internet, Tinubu, 69, had appeared in a stylish wear, looking youthful.
Sowore took to his verified Facebook page to quote: “You can fool some people sometimes, but you can’t fool all the people all the time #WeCantContinueLikeThis,” to which Igbokwe responded: “it is not good to continue to waste your precious gift of time on acrimony and division, pull him Down syndrome, armchair criticism, unsubstantiated allegations etc.”
The former Lagos governor arrived the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos on Sunday.
Recall this newspaper had reported how Tinubu jetted out of the country in January after weeks of consultations across the country over his 2023 presidential ambition.
He was rumoured to have visited the European country to rest and undergo medical checkup, while a source in his camp said he went to visit his family in the UK.
Tunde Rahman, Tinubu’s media aide, later said his principal went to the UK for “meetings and consultations”.
While in London, he had meetings with the UK chapter of the APC.
In January, Tinubu visited President Muhammadu Buhari during which he announced his intention to contest the presidency in 2023.
Several reactions have trailed the return of presidential hopeful, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinibu, to the country after spending 10 days in London, United Kingdom.
Naija News reports that the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) returned to the country on Sunday afternoon ahead of the party’s national convention slated for February 26.
In a post released by his media aide, Tunde Rahman said the former Lagos governor arrived at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.
Rahman, while sharing a photo of his arrival on his social media page, said: “Asiwaju Tinubu on his return this evening from a trip abroad…”
Recall that Tinubu had in January declared his intention to contest in the 2023 presidential election after a visit to President Muhammadu Buhari.
Tinubu had after consulting widely travelled to the UK in what many reports claimed was for medical vacation.
His aides however debunked such reports, stressing that the former governor was in the UK for further consultation.
However, Nigerians have taken to Twitter to drop their views regarding the return of the former Lagoa governor to the country.
See some of the reactions below:
@NamebeKC wrote: “In other climes, presidential hopefuls go back to their ancestral home for consultations. But your Lion chose to go to the UK.”
@neneaboh wrote: “The UK is now the Capital of Nigeria where consultations pertaining to Nigeria is done?
Please give us lies that make sense.”
@DrAdamuGZang wrote: “We the supporters and card-carrying members of the APC heartily welcome our leader and presidential hopeful back home.”
@steveose wrote: “What kind of consultation? Is this how this country will progress? is Nigeria capital in the UK? Please stop supporting the mortgaging of Nigeria’s future. Same way Buhari went to consult in UK in 2015 and here we are.”
@LordJayvo wrote: “Liking this new Tinubu who so ever is advising him to look smart n younger by dressing like this just to fool the youth n the citizen that he is still healthy n firm deserves chocolate. But as for me ooo, na who I go vote for I don know if u like dress like 2pas e no go shake me.”
@akhator15 wrote: “Consultations indeed. Who did he meet with? The doctors and the nurses. Did you meet with Nigerians in UK? Stop telling lies as you will be caught one day.”
@nickleke wrote: “A sartorial consultation was taken too seemingly. Pet peeve for me…the people who’re on his campaign haven’t seen fit to adjust his clothing to fitting smart wear. This isn’t Lagos PDP vs APC. Make an effort to introduce some virility into the man’s outlook. It sells.”
Former Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, has said he might contest the 2023 presidential election.
He, however, said he was now engrossed in the governorship election holding in his state ( Ekiti) on June 18 and how his candidate, who is the Peoples Democratic Party flag bearer in the poll, Bisi Kolawole would win the election.
The former governor said he had been calling aggrieved governorship aspirants of the PDP to make them to see reasons to support the party in the coming poll. He added that he called former Governor Segun Oni after the primary election but he did not pick the calls
Speaking in an interview with SUNDAY PUNCH, Fayose said Bisi Kolawole is very popular and would win the coming election.
Asked if he thought the PDP could win the presidential poll in 2023, Fayose stated that things would become worse and Nigerians would be made to suffer more from the APC which had been in the saddles since 2015.
He said, “If PDP does not win the 2023 election, then Nigerians are doomed. From what I have seen since 2015, Nigerians are doomed. The kind of leadership that Nigeria has witnessed – insecurity, the economy – don’t forget that the impact of these things is more felt by the masses.
” It is the people that are at the receiving end. The cost of diesel today is about N400 per litre; during President Goodluck Jonathan’s (PDP) time, it was N140, N145. Whatever we are saying, it is either Nigerians want to remain in perpetual poverty or they save themselves. It is about Nigerians themselves.”
He also boasted that he would defeat Asiwaju Bola Tinubu if the later was picked by the All Progressives Congress to contest the presidential election in 2023 but said he was not sure if he would contest the poll.
Fayose said, “PDP government is far better than APC government in Nigeria. Would he ( Tinubu) leave the APC people and come to give me appointments or will he make me vice president, such that I work for the APC? It is not possible. Tinubu is for APC, I am for PDP. All these insinuations are just to call the dog a bad name to hang it.
“I have said it over and over, Asiwaju remains a Yoruba leader; I remain a Yoruba leader. We are in different levels of leadership. But if I am being misquoted for the fact that I said Asiwaju is a Yoruba leader, I am saying I am a Yoruba leader, but the Asiwaju in his own Yoruba leadership is in the APC; Ayo Fayose in his own leadership is in PDP.
” Who has told you that I don’t want to be President? Who has told you that if the PDP picks me that I will not defeat Asiwaju? Who has told you? You don’t know maybe I will still contest? If I come out and they zone it to South-West and they say it’s Fayose, if they pick Asiwaju, I will defeat him!”
Fayose also debunked the insinuations that he would trade away the candidate of the PDP in the June 18 governorship poll asking the people to discountenance such claims.
“You know we are politicians; we like to say things to destroy one another. I have served this state twice, if anybody should concede to anybody, it should be Fayemi conceding to me. It would not be a healthy election! What does Fayemi want to offer me? Even when I was supposed to be cowed as a sitting governor in the face of the federal might, I was never cowed; I faced the whole of them.
” Against the present APC government in Nigeria, I was and I am a major voice; nobody can take that away from me. What is in Ekiti that I will want to compromise? Is it the resources or what? What will Fayemi buy my conscience with or what will I buy Fayemi’s conscience with? If you are saying somebody is popular, there is no denying that they all know that I am on the ground.
“Let me give you an instance; the Governor of Akwa Ibom came to conduct the PDP election, he stayed in the Government House. The Deputy Governor of Taraba State came to conduct election, he stayed in the Government House, courtesy of the deputy governor, though in the APC. When the Akwa Ibom State Governor was leaving, his helicopter landed at the Government House’s helipad, and courtesy demands that as a former governor I should go and say goodbye.
” So, I went to the Government House, met Jigawa State Governor Abubakar Badaru, who came to conduct the APC governorship election. The four of us took pictures and I was the one who posted that picture – clear conscience fears no foes. If I had hidden agenda, why did I have to post the picture? I posted the picture and I stated before the fifth columnists start their wagging, I am in the Government House of Ekiti to see off Governor Udom and I saw Governor of Jigawa there and Fayemi and we took these pictures. That shows that I know them. They ( those insinuating compromise) are cheap blackmailers,” he added.
Ahead of the June 18 governorship poll in Ekiti State, former Governor Segun Oni and first-runner up in the just-concluded governorship primaries of the opposition People’s Democratic Party(PDP) has withdrawn his membership of the PDP.
The Director of Media and Publicity of Segun Oni Movement Adebayo Jackson confirmed this to The Nation in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti state on Saturday.
Oni has however not indicated the party he would be pitching tent with.
But speculations are rife that the Ex-Governor may join All Progressives Grand Alliance(AGPA) to contest the governorship poll.
A former Governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu says his perfect understanding of Nigeria, positions him as the right candidate for the 2023 presidency.
He stated this on Friday evening during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today, monitored by POLITICS NIGERIA, where he spoke about his plans for the country if elected to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari.
“I understand Nigeria. I know Nigeria. I have the Fulani brain, I have the Kanuri brain, I have the Yoruba brain, I have the Efik brain, I know everybody by communities, by homes. And Nigeria requires a Nigerian who will claim to be (truly) Nigerian,” he said.
Asked if he sees Bola Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos state and All Progressives Congress (APC) national leader, as a threat, Kalu answered, “No! and I am not a threat to his ambition. By the time we meet in Eagles Square, this issue will be settled.
“Mind you, politics is not only about money; it is about the people you are going to govern … the people of the north-west, the people of north-east, the people of north-central, the people of the south-east, the people of the south-west, and the people of south-south, and we have the people. I can move the people and the people are with me.”
Kassim Afegbua, spokesperson of former military president Ibrahim Babangida and one-time campaign spokesman for ex-Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, says the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) rigged the 2019 presidential election.
It will be recalled that on February 27, 2019, Atiku lost the presidential election to incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari of the APC by over 3 million votes. Atiku subsequently described the election as the “worst in Nigeria’s democratic history.”
Asked in a recent interview with Punch if he aligns with the claim that Atiku was rigged out as claimed by the former VP and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the time, Afegbua accused the APC of rigging the last presidential election through Borno and Yobe states.
“Of course we were rigged out,” he said. “They used Borno and Yobe states to rig the election. Yobe state recorded close to 84 per cent attendance; such a curious figure where insurgency has been ravaging, same goes for Borno, about 86 per cent attendance. The figures we scored in those two states affected us badly, and we felt the military under Buratai (Tukur Yusuf) might have compromised. Don’t forget that there was this issue of bullets for ballot during that election. It was like a threat and the rest, as they say is history.”
The All Progressives Congress faction loyal to the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, has blamed Governor Gboyega Oyetola for the attack carried out by some gun-toting men on the old campaign office of the minister.
The attacked which happened on Thursday evening has triggered a fresh allegation and counter allegation between the two factions of the APC in Osun State.
The chairman of Aregbesola’s faction of APC in the state, Rasaq Salinsile, in a statement on the attack said the Thursday attack was the climax of the numerous attacks on those of them opposed to the style of governance of the incumbent governor.
But in a swift response to the allegation, the state government dissociated itself from any involvement in the attack.
Salinsile, in his statement, declared that the state was fast descending into anarchy under the watch of Oyetola.
The statement read in parts, “The Thursday attack climaxed a litany of others on members of the APC who are opposed to the style of governance and party administration of Governor Gboyega Oyetola in the state.
“On the 18th of November last year, a similar attack was carried out in the daylight when gunmen shot into the crowd of members at the same Oranmiyan House. Till date, nothing has been heard of that incident.
“Just on Tuesday, thugs were sent after party members in Ikirun during a Federal Constituency meeting. The police, rather than arrest the thugs that unleashed mayhem on elderly women and men, went from house to house of our leaders and members to arrest them in a midnight raid.
“They were on Wednesday sent to Ilesa correctional centre. At this stage, all we can do is to alert the whole world to the fast descent into anarchy under the watch of Governor Oyetola and in particular, the devilish plot to mow down APC leaders and members who refuse to go along with him on his misadventure.
“We call on the security agencies to, as a matter of urgency, be alive to their duties before more havoc are wreaked by the desperation of the governor.”
However, the state government has also condemned the attack on the Oranmiyan House which housed Aregbesola Campaign Office in 2007.
The Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Funke Egbemode, in a statement called on the police to fish out the hoodlums who carried out the attack.
The commissioner also strongly dissociated the state government from any involvement in the attack, saying that it was wicked for anyone to attribute such mischief to a government that had invested heavily in the peace of the state.
Egbemode said, “The accusation that the government of Mr Adegboyega Oyetola had anything to do with Thursday’s attack on the Oranmiyan House is sad and laughable. It defies reasoning that a man who has invested so much in the peace of Osun in the last three years will descend that low.
“This government is united, it has all its ducks in a row. The Party is also united and its status and activities have been ratified by the national secretariat. There are no reasons to join issues with anyone, let alone engaging in violent act.
“Those who are grabbing at straws to stay afloat, especially because their rebels’ den has fallen like a pack of cards, should try to fix their fortunes instead of blaming everybody, but themselves, for what has happened to them,” the statement partly reads.”
President Muhammadu Buhari (middle) receives Emmanuel Bwacha, Deputy Senate Minority Leader, to the APC.
The Deputy Minority Leader of the Senate, Emmanuel Bwacha, has defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on Thursday.
Governor Mai Mala Buni, Chairman of Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) of the APC, led Bwacha to President Muhammadu Buhari who received the senator to the ruling party.
The Gombe offices of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Atiku for President 2023 were on Tuesday attacked by hoodlums.
They looted the office, razed furniture and carted away valuable property, including air conditioners among others.
The North East Coordinator of Atiku for President 2023, Dr. Adamu Bappayo, who addressed journalists in Gombe, expressed shock over the incident.
He said he could not give any reason for the attack because former Vice President Atiku Abubakar is a peace-loving gentleman.
“I received a call on my phone around 2 am informing me of an attack on the building by hoodlums I do not know what can warrant his kind of attack because my principal, Vice President Atiku Abubakar is a peace-loving man.
“He has a smooth relationship with the Governor of the state, Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya and many other personalities across the state,” he said.
According to him, the matter has already been reported to Commissioner of Police and the DSS, which requested for a comprehensive statement on it.
As at the time of filing this report, Gombe PDP chairman, Abnon Kwaskebe is holding a meeting with the State Commandant of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
Gombe Deputy Commissioner of Police, Adamu Ngorjin, said the Commissioner of Police, Ishola Babaita, has visited the PDP office to ascertain the situation.
Ngorjin said it was too early to make any comment on the incident because the police were still investigating it
