Tambuwal asks court to jail IG for contempt

Speaker, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal
| credits: File copy

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, has asked a Federal High Court in Abuja to summon the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Suleiman Abba, to explain why he should not be jailed for disobeying the court order.

Tambuwal accused Abba of consistently disobeying the court order made on November 7, 2014, which directed parties in his substantive suit filed to stop his removal as a member and Speaker of the House of Representatives.

The Speaker had on Thursday filed the fresh application before Justice Ahmed Mohammed, alleging that Abba’s instruction to the men of the police to deny him access into the premises of the National Assembly preventing him from carrying out his lawful duties on November 20, amounted to flouting the court order.

Fayose blasts Obasanjo for criticising Jonathan

Ayo Fayose

The Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayo Fayose, flayed former President Olusegun Obasanjo for allegedly criticising   Jonathan’s administration on corruption and insecurity.

Fayose, who spoke at a summit in Ife, said that Obasanjo had no moral justification to criticise Jonathan’s administration because the former President’s government was far more corrupt than the one he criticised.

The attack from Fayose came just as notable leaders of the Yoruba race present at the summit endorsed Jonathan for a second term in office.

The Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, led notable traditional rulers from many Yoruba towns majority of who are from Ekiti State to the summit.

120 killed in mosque bomb explosions

120 killed in mosque bomb explosions

No fewer than 120 died and 270 were injured on Friday as the violent Boko Haram sect bombed the 10,000 capacity Kano Central Mosque where the Emir, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, usually leads prayers.

About 10 gunmen went on a shooting spree after the blast at the mosque, which is close to the Emir of Kano’s palace.

A rescue official, who spoke with Agence France-Presse, put casualty figures at almost 400, adding that 120 were killed and 270 hurt in the three explosions that rocked the mosque.

The emir was said to have travelled to Saudi Arabia late on Thursday night from Paris.

Witnesses said the incident happened just as residents were getting set for Friday prayers.

“The attackers have bombed the mosque. I saw people screaming,” a local reporter who resides in Kano, Chijjani Usman, told Reuters.

APC ticket: Senator asks Buhari, Atiku to withdraw

 

former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Head of State, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.)

The senator representing Kano South Senatorial District, Kabiru Gaya, on Thursday, appealed to a former Head of State, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.); and a former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, to step down for Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso in the struggle for the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress.

Gaya, who was also a former governor of Kano State, stated this in an interview with journalists in Abuja.

He said since Buhari and Atiku were elder statesmen, they should allow a younger Kwankwaso to be the candidate of the APC.

Gaya said, “I am not trying to introduce politics into the situation but we have to tell ourselves the truth. Governor Kwankwaso was a minister of defence, and now a serving governor. He was a legislator, once being a deputy speaker of the House of Representatives.

“He was also Special Adviser to the President on Dafur. He was a member of the Niger Delta Development Commission, hence he has the credentials. He is a young man too. He can work for 18 hours a day.

“I believe that all our elders and leaders in the APC would support him. If you look at the situation in other countries, their citizens are going for young people to become their president.

President’s wife shuns Dickson at Jonathan’s birthday

Mrs. Patience Jonathan
| credits: kenetomagazine.blogspot.com

                                                                                          

Wife of President Goodluck Jonathan, Patience, tactically avoided the Bayelsa State delegation, led by Governor Seriake Dickson, who came to rejoice with the President on his 57th birthday in Abuja on Thursday.

No member of the National Assembly from the state was also on the delegation.

There has been no love lost between the governor and the President’s wife over an alleged plan by Mrs. Jonathan to stop Dickson from being re-elected as the state governor.

The PUNCH had reported exclusively on Thursday that Bayelsa senators and members of the House of Representatives at the National Assembly had joined forces with the First Lady against Dickson.

The report had it that the federal legislators had formed a strong alliance to counter the moves by the governor and his loyalists to re-elect them in the 2015, through zoning, allegedly orchestrated by Dickson.

Assembly crisis: Oshiomhole, Fayose exchange hot words

Edo State governor, Adams OshiomholeEdo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole and his Ekiti State counterpart, Governor Ayodele Fayose, on Thursday exchanged hot words over the state of the legislature in their respective states.

Edo While Oshiomhole told Fayose not to drag his (Oshiomhole) name into the “political gangsterism that has become peculiar with the Ekiti State Governor,” the Ekiti governor said his Edo counterpart lacked the moral right to question developments in Ekiti when he had not managed well the crisis in his state legislature.

The Edo governor, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Peter Okhiria, said there was no crisis in the Edo State House of Assembly, and that 15 of the 24-member Assembly were members of the All Progressives Congress, while the other nine were of the Peoples Democratic Party.

He explained that out of the nine PDP members, three were on suspension while the seat of another member had been declared vacant.

Commotion at National Assembly

Commotion at National Assembly

There was commotion at the National Assembly on Thursday as a plot to stop the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, from entering the assembly complex failed.

Riot policemen   tear-gassed angry lawmakers, who were protesting against the development.

Although the general belief was that the security operatives were deployed in the assembly to prevent Tambuwal from   presiding over Thursday’s “special plenary,”The PUNCH gathered that it was to stop some   lawmakers, especially those in the All Progressives Congress Caucus,   from   tabling a motion for President Goodluck Jonathan’s impeachment.