Hell will freeze before I apologize to APC, Fani-Kayode says

Femi Fani-Kayode

Mr. Fani-Kayode called Lai Mohammed, the APC spokesperson “a pathological liar and a shameless coward.”

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A former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has reacted strongly to demands by his former party, the All Progressives  Congress, APC, that he retract his recent comments about the party or face legal action.

During an interview on a Channels TV programme on Monday, Mr. Fani-Kayode described Boko Haram as the armed wing of  the APC, a reason, he claimed, made the party to be sympathetic of the terrorist group

Yobo retires from Super Eagles

Yobo scored an own goal in the match against France.

The Captain of Nigeria’s national team, the Super Eagles, Joseph Yobo, has announced his retirement from the national team.

Yobo’s retirement is coming on the heels of the Super Eagles’ ouster from the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil having suffered a 2-0 defeat against France in the second Round.

The 33-year-old defender will go down in history as the first Nigerian to play 100 international matches

He also is the first Nigerian to play 10 World Cup matches but sadly capped it with an own goal in added time against Les Bleus on Monday.

World Cup: Keshi hints at quitting Super Eagles

Coach Stephen Keshi

Keshi said that he would be going to rest for about three months with his family.

The Head coach of the Super Eagles, Stephen Keshi, on Monday in Brasilia blamed the U.S. referee, Mark Geiger, for the outcome of the match against France. He also hinted the World Cup could be his last with the Super Eagles.

He said the referee should not have ruled off Emanuel Emenike’s 16th minute goal.

“This is the first time I will blame the referee for bad handling of a match. There is nothing I can do about that. He was the Alpha and Omega at that point in time,’’ Keshi said.

Osun Election: Jonathan, Oyinlola in closed-door meeting

“All I am telling is that Oyinlola in the face of the law remains the authentic secretary of the PDP.”

Perhaps buoyed by its performance in the Ekiti governorship election, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has begun moves to resolve the crisis in its Osun chapter with a view to winning the coming governorship election in the state.

As part of the strategy, President Goodluck Jonathan on ‎Tuesday held a closed-door meeting with a former Osun State governor, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Although the agenda of the meeting was not disclosed, PREMIUM TIMES learnt that it is part of efforts by Nigeria’s ruling PDP to win the August 9 governorship election in Osun.

The PDP’s candidate in the election, Iyiola‎ Omisore, is the major challenger to the incumbent governor, Rauf Aregbesola, of the All Progressives Congress, APC.

Mr. Oyinlola was accompanied to Tuesday’s meeting by the National Chairman of the PDP, Adamu Muazu.

How Saraki, Tinubu, Odili, others rob their states blind through obnoxious pension laws

Sen. Bukola Saraki

A massive public outcry forced Akwa Ibom Governor, Godswill Akpabio, to backtrack on a scandalous multibillion pension plan for himself and other former governors of the state this week.

But a review of similar pension laws in at least half a dozen states shows how Nigerians have spent a fortune maintaining their profligate former governors, and ex-deputies, with pensions for life, free health care, security, transportation, cars, accommodation and jobs- the same needs other citizens are deprived of daily.

The worst cases yet examined by PREMIUM TIMES are in Kwara, Lagos, Gombe, Zamfara, Akwa Ibom and Rivers States.

Kwara

The Kwara pension law was first passed in 2003 and approved by former governor, Mohammed Lawal.

The Lawal law merely stipulated that qualified former governors and their deputies be paid pension for life, without other perks  like accommodation, cars and other perks.

The law was reviewed in 2010 by Bukola Saraki, a former governor of the state and a serving senator, who, with the support of the state House of Assembly imposed outrageous raises on all the benefits.

The 2010 law gives a former governor two cars and a security car, replaceable every three years. The governor is also entitled to a “well-furnished 5-bedroom duplex”, furniture allowance of 300 per cent of his salary (which totals over N6 million).

The law also gives the governor five personal staff paid for by the state, eight policemen, three SSS operatives(of which one must be a female), free medicals for the governor and the deputy

I can’t be poor again, poverty is like HIV —Okorocha

 

Governor Rochas Okorocha
| credits: File copy

The Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, has described poverty as worse than the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, adding that nothing would make him, his family and generation return to poverty.

He said this at the fourth Nigeria Governors’ Forum retreat in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Friday.

Okorocha stated that it was not necessary for governors and other political office holders to pretend they were poor, adding that paraphernalia of political offices had nothing to do with poverty.

“I was poor and I decided to fight against poverty and nothing will make me, my family and my generation to go back to poverty again. Poverty is worse than HIV. You can’t pretend to be poor.

Jonathan’s war against media enters second day

CLAMPDOWN: An empty newsstand
| credits: Olanrewaju Smart

The President Goodluck Jonathan regime on Saturday continued its onslaught on the media by impounding packs of major newspapers, their circulation vehicles and arresting drivers.

The clampdown, which began on Friday, entered its second day on Saturday with greater ferocity. Our correspondents, who monitored developments round the country, report that early on Saturday morning, soldiers stormed newspaper distribution centres in the Federal Capital Territory and other parts of Nigeria.

In Abuja, Saturday Punch could not distribute early because soldiers barricaded the newspaper distribution centre at Garki, ‘Area One’, marching out newspaper marketers, distributors and vendors around 2am.

This was similar to what happened on Friday when soldiers and officials of the State Security Service tore wrappers of The Punch at the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, damaging copies of the newspaper in the process.

On Saturday, the armed soldiers prevented marketers from offloading newspapers from distribution vans that brought the papers to the centre.

The military men searched each of the marketers, distributors and vendors, before allowing them to enter the centre.