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Three members of the House of Representatives from Kogi State have dissociated themselves from the endorsement of late Prince Abubakar Audu’s son, Muhammed, as replacement for the APC governorship candidate in the state.  Some APC stakeholders from the state had on Thursday in a statement made available to Daily Trust on Sunday nominated Mohammed to replace his father as the party’s candidate in the governorship election that was declared inconclusive by INEC.  The statement, signed by chairman of the Audu/Faleke campaign council, Barrister Humphrey Abah, said the decision was reached after a meeting of some major stakeholders, including some members of the National Assembly.  However, Reps Kabiru Ajanah, Abdullahi Bello and Lawal Idris, whose names appeared among those who attended the meeting, said they were never consulted nor were they invited to any meeting.   Ajanah told our correspondent on telephone that he was in Lagos State for a committee ...

A member of All Progressives Congress (APC) and immediate past Senator representing Kogi Central Senatorial District, Nurudeen Abatemi-Usman, has hailed the decision of the party to nominate Alhaji Yahaya Bello, as its candidate to replace the late Prince Abubakar Audu, in the yet to be concluded governorship election in Kogi State. After the unfortunate demise of APC candidate, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, asked the party to provide a replacement for the supplementary election scheduled to hold on December 5, 2015. Bello was the first runner-up in the Kogi APC primary election held in August where Audu emerged as the flag bearer. In a statement issued at the weekend in Abuja by Michael Jegede, his Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Abatemi-Usman, who was second runner-up in the primary poll, praised the party's decision to respect the original primaries. The former Kogi Central Senator personally called Bello to congratulate him as soon as his no...

By Kabir Omolori Since the news filtered the air on the endorsement of Alhaji Yahaya Bello, popularly known as Fair Plus, some uninformed detractors and political foes have tended to promote hatred, animosity, jealousy and baseless innuendo against the endorsement. Indeed, these negative traits are expected from people who have clinched to power for years and do not expect, as a result of selfishness and avarice, that one day, such power would be surrendered willingly or unwillingly. It should be understood that for any one to be governor of any state, one must undergo some rudiments or processes ranging from expression of interest, participating in primary election to confirm or determine candidate before being endorsed by party as candidate to face others in the secondary election. The late Prince Abubakar Audu and Alhaji Yahaya Bello expressed their interest, collected and submitted nomination forms and participated in the keenly contested primary. The result of the primary clearl...

After extensive consultations, the All APC picks Yahaya Bello as Audu’s replacementProgressives Congress (APC) yesterday submitted the name of Yahaya Bello as the party’s new candidate for Kogi governorship supplementary poll. Bello replaces Prince Abubakar Audu, who died last weekend after leading the poll with 41,000. It was also learnt that the APC has retained Hon. James Abiodun Faleke as the party’s deputy governorship candidate. Mohammed Audu, the son of the late governorship candidate, was dumped by the party because the party felt that fielding him might vitiate the entire governorship poll in the state. But the people of Kogi West were mounting pressure on Faleke yesterday not to accept the nomination of Bello. Although they asked Faleke to withdraw from the race, the deputy governorship candidate was yet to make up his mind on the next step at press time. Investigation by our correspondent revealed that APC leaders, with the backing of some forces in th...

By Ismail Mudashir The replacement of the late Abubakar Audu by the All Progressives Congress (APC) will not cause any crisis in Kogi State, Senator Abdulsalami Ohiare (APC, Kogi Central) has said. Reports from the headquarters of the APC have it that party leaders have settled for Yahaya Bello as the replacement for Audu, who died on Sunday. Bello came second in the governorship primaries of the party. Addressing journalists yesterday, Ohiare dismissed the report that Audu’s replacement would cause crisis in the state. “The rumour going round that there would be problem whenever the replacement of our late leader is announced is wrong because we are one in Kogi State. All the stakeholders in the state will embrace the party’s decision. As far as I am concerned, there is nothing like that. We are brothers in the state,’’ he said. He also dispelled the report that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would defeat anybody that replaces Audu. “There ...

GOVERNORSHIP Candidate of the Progressive Peoples Alliance, Mr. Emmanuel Enesi Ozigi, has promised to ensure the defeat of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and All Progressives Congress, APC in the November 21 governorship election in Kogi State by leading his party to victory. Ozigi said PPA has built a team of volunteers who see the future of the state as being more important than party affiliations, saying November 21 will herald a new era in the political history of the state. He said: “Everyday, we are faced with new reasons to liberate our state from bad governance. Everywhere I have been, I see hundreds of young men and women who have volunteered to help build a new Kogi where the people will take the centre stage of development and where opportunities abound for true transformation. “The people of Kogi have accepted our determination to lead our state into prosperity through quality education, world class healthcare delivery, commercial agriculture, massive ...

By Boluwaji Obahapo The Governorship candidate of the Labour Party for the November 21 governorship election, Dr. Philip Salawu, has alleged that one of the two leading parties for the election has stock piled arms and ammunition it intends to use to manipulate the election. Salawu who make the allegation at his campaign office in Lokoja said the party in question has also connived with the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to make the card readers malfunction during the election in order to revert to the manual method to carry out their rigging plan. Salawu said he and his party is crying out now because all their notification to the security operatives and INEC over the development and purchasing of cards from the electorate have not been given necessary attention. His words: “We have it on good authority that the party in question has bought heavy weapons and ammunition to be given to their thugs. After accreditation, they (thugs) will shoot guns, scare ...

- Manufacturing plant to be located in Okene. In its bid to actualise steady power supply in the nation, the Federal Government has announced plans to commence the construction of Nigeria’s N4 billion transformer manufacturing plant in Kogi State. The executive vice chairman (EVC) of the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), Prof. Mohammed Haruna, made the disclosure when he received a high-powered delegation from the Chinese Great Wall Corporation, China Railway Corporation, Huaye Group and Bank of China who was on a facility tour of the agency’s headquarters at Idu Industrial Estate, Abuja. It would be recalled that the federal government through the agency signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Chinese Great Wall Corporation in 2013 to establish a local transformer manufacturing plant to be sited at one of NASENI’s development institutes, the Power Equipment and Electrical Machinery Development Institute (PEEMADI), Oken...

By Jude Enesi Salau writerswithoutwalls@yahoo.ca 09091234101; 08080229900 Anebira, actuated by envy, have turned against Abubakar Audu just because he is marching “unstoppably to victory” as governor of Kogi State. So cried some pack of misguided children lately vide advertorials carried in The Nation on Sunday and Daily Trust newspapers of Sunday October 25, 2015, sponsored by a KOGI EAST APC YOUTH FRONT and captioned: “Prince Abubakar Audu’s Candidature and the Ebira Question”. What comes across from their rather winding patchwork of delusion and outright falsehood couched in bellicose words is that Kogi Central citizens are threatened by Audu’s intimidating credentials by which, contrary to the wishes and scheming of Ebira people, he is cruising to electoral victory in the governorship election billed for November 21, 2015. This is however far from the truth. Abubakar Audu knows in his heart of hearts that he is an electoral liability to any g...

Published on Greenbreporters.com on Nov 11, 2015. By Yusuf Ozi-Usman One doesn’t know whether to rejoice with or pity the former governor of Lagos state, Babatunde Raji Fashola when President Muhammadu Buhari, today, announced the portfolios attached to him as a minister. As a matter of fact, the reality of the challenging tasks ahead of Fashola when three powerful and demanding ministries – Power, Works and Housing- were placed on him, did not begin to dawn on some analysts until a few hours after the Presidential pronouncement. Of course, those who wanted to be pleasantly mischievous referred to him as the Prime Minister of the Buhari’s government, by virtue of the vital and tough ministries he is to supervise. This was even as many of his fans believed that he has all the pedigrees to accomplish the multiple tasks ahead of him. Whatever clout Fashola possesses, there are concerns in many quarters that for one man to handle any one of the three ministries could ...

As the dust raised following the Kogi state APC governorship primaries continue to settle and the reality of the people of Kogi Central (KC) missing out on the ticket remains a constant reminder of the pains bottled in our heart, there is the need to continue to reflect on that political event which promises so much but deliver so little. This is particularly necessary, so that the lessons learnt from that political journey can be properly analysed as it will help to shape our future conduct and provide a guide to our plans if such opportunity ever present itself again. Several issues had been thrown up, many reasons had been given for the zero report card, blame games had been traded, curses had been rained and yet, not much light has been beamed on the “real enemies” within our political system.

BEING A PAPER DELIVERED AT THE 2ND NANS KWARA UNITY WEEK  IN COMMEMORATION OF THE 20TH CORONATION ANNIVERSARY CEREMONY OF HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS ALHAJI  (DR.) IBRAHIM SULU GAMBARI CFR, MAIMARTABA, EMIR OF ILORIN ON THE 7TH NOVEMBER, 2015 AT AL-HIKMAH UNIVERSITY, ILORIN, KWARA STATE BY ALHAJI MAMMAN ABUBAKAR YUSUF, PRESIDENT, CBN STAFF MULTI-PURPOSE COOPERATIVE SOCIETY LIMITED. Introduction I am pleased to be part of this event which I consider a moment of reflection with mixed feelings of joy and sadness. Firstly, I am happy for the opportunity to celebrate yet another moment of greatness with our beloved Royal Father, His Royal Highness, Alhaji (Dr.) Ibrahim Sulu Gambari CFR, Emir of Ilorin, who turns twenty years on his exalted throne.  I say a hearty congratulation to you, Your Majesty. May the Almighty God preserve your reign. Secondly, I am sad because our country Nigeria has been held down by the evil called corruption. Corruption as the item of our discussion...

NON-ACADEMIC STAFF UNION OF EDUCATIONAL AND ASSOCIATED INSTITUTIONS (NASU) PRESS RELEASE The non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institution (NASU), Kogi State council on Thursday, 29 th October, 2015 at its year 2015 Quadrennial Delegate Conference/Election held at Lokoja elected some officers in a carnival-like atmosphere that put the whole of NASU State Secretariat and its environs in total lock-down. The much awaited and publicized election held at the NASU State Secretariat Conference Hall witnessed a huge turnout of branch delegates and observer delegates. From 8.00am., branch delegates, observers and electoral official began to funnel into the Union Secretariat. The election presiding officer, Comrd. Emmanuel Okonkwor, Deputy General Secretary ( Research Institutes) from the Union’s National Headquarters, Abuja welcomed guest and delegates to the conference. He thereafter read out the names of contestants, and election guideline...

Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki on Wednesday announced the names of lawmakers that would chair the different senate committees for the 8th Senate. The list as read out by Saraki during Plenary has Senator Ben Murray Bruce as the chairman of the Senate Committee on Privatization. Senate Committee on Defence is to be chaired by Sen. Ahmed Lawan, while Senator Dino Melaye heads the committee on Federal Capital Territory. Below is the full list of the committees and their chairmen: Water Resources: Mohammed Shittu Women Affairs: Oluremi Tinubu Poverty Alleviation: Ali Wakil States and LG: Abdullahi Abubakar Gumel Trade and Investment: Fatimat Rasaki Police Affairs: Abu Ibrahim Power: James Manager Privatization: Ben Murray-Bruce Science and Tech: Senator Ajayi Boroffice Land Transport: Gbenga Ashafa Marine Transport: Ahmed Sani Public Procurement: Mohammed Ohiare Nat’l Identity: Kabiru Marafa Health: Dr. Lanre Tejuoso ICT: AbdulFatai Buhari INEC: Abubakar Kyari ...