Muawuya Zakariah Adam Gombe

Nigerian government, states, councils share N718.1bn revenue for June The sum of N7.617 billion was refunded by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as a result of its indebtedness to the Federation Account. The federal, state and local governments on Monday shared about N718.103 billion as statutory allocation for June 2013. The Minister of State for Finance and Chairman of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), Yerima Ngama, said at the end of the monthly meeting of the committee in Abuja that N623.767 billion was distributed as statutory disbursements. The minister said the federal government received N294.038 billion, or 52.68 per cent; while the 36 state governments received a combined cheque of N149.140 billion, or 26.72 per cent; and all the local governments got N114.981 billion, or 20.6 per cent of the statutory disbursements. Following the stand-off between the states and the federal government last month,  there was no augmentation for the mon...

Posted: July 14, 2013 - 23:44 By SaharaReporters, New York Tens of thousands people on Sunday gathered at Malam Aminu International Airport in Kano to welcome  Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, the former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late military despot, General Sani Abacha. Three days ago, a panel of the Court of Appeal headed by Justice Amina Augie controversially acquitted Mr. Al-Mustapha of a murder conviction in the 1995 assassination of Kudirat Abiola, a wife of Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election that was annulled by the Ibrahim Babangida regime. Several judicial sources accused the appellate justices of releasing Mr. Mustapha after accepting a significant bribe from the convict and his associ...

The Nigerian army have confirmed Al- Mustapha is still in the army, as a soldier of the Nigerian armed forces. Al- Mustapha will be resuming work at the army headquarters on Wednesday and will be decorated with his new rank of Brigadier General.

The Court of Appeal in Lagos has discharged and acquitted Hamza Al-Mustapha from the murder of Kudirat Abiola. The judgment overturns that of the Lagos High Court which sentenced him to death by hanging. The presiding judge accused the lower court of being “stroked to secure a conviction by all means.” Mr. Al-Mustapha was a former chief security officer to the late dictator, Sani Abacha. He was sentenced to death on January 30 for conspiracy and murder of Mrs. Abiola. Mrs. Abiola, 45, was shot in Lagos on June 4, 1996, as the lower court ruled, on the orders of Mr. Al- Mustapha.

Vice President Namadi Sambo has been described as the most loyal vice president in the history of Nigeria. Presidential adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, Ahmed Gulak who made the statement in Kaduna at a town hall meeting with tradition rulers yesterday, said God brought Sambo and Jonathan together so that Nigeria can develop. “We are in a zone of the Vice president. The most loyal Vice president in the history of this country. God has brought them together to develop Nigeria. Jonathan is in China he is happy and is watching us. Goodluck and Namadi Sambo’s administration has resuscitated the railway, the lines are now working, electricity has improved, the roads are being improved. It’s the only administration that wants to improve the Almajiri system,” he said,  Gulak said the President Jonathan led administration has fulfilled its promises to Nigerians with the disbursement of the SURE-P cash to thousands of youths. He said there are people w...

President Goodluck Jonathan said Thursday in Beijing that the increasing exploitation and utilisation of shale gas and other alternative sources of energy by the United States and other advanced nations of the world has made it more urgent for Nigeria to move faster towards the diversification of its economy. Speaking in an interview with China Television, President Jonathan said that the increasing utilisation of alternative sources of energy was a matter of concern for Nigeria and other oil exporting nations. “That is why we have to increase the pace of diversifying our economy and moving our country away from dependence on the oil and gas industry. “We must work towards greater industrialisation, add more value to our agricultural products, develop our solid minerals potentials and other sectors of our economy before the time comes when crude oil may no longer be dominant as a global source of energy,” the President said. At a meeting with the Nigerian community in China, Presiden...

Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, described the fracas in Rivers House as unparliamentary. The congress, in a statement by President, Mr. Bobboi Kaigama and General Secretary, Musa Lawal, said while Nigerians were yet to recover from the shock occasioned by the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, NGF, crisis, another one was coming from Rivers’ lawmakers. The statement said, “it was sad that the world watched agape as two factions in the assembly openly engaged in fisticuffs and used dangerous weapons. “The spectacle of honourable legislators turned pugilists can best be described as very dishonourable and a show of shame. They are proving that politics in Nigeria is seen more as a most lucrative business than a call to service.” The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, called on political actors in the Rivers crisis to “look at the bigger picture, which is the future of Nigeria’s democracy.” In a statement by its Vice President, Issa Aremu, said: President Jonathan should avoid a degeneration to...

Today, at a press conference on the state of the nation, Nigerian Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka and lawyer, Femi Falana, criticised Nigeria’s first lady, Patience Jonathan, accusing her of “being used by her husband” to destabilize Rivers State. Soyinka described Dame Jonathan as “a mere domestic appendage of power” who depends on state security apparatus to intimidate. In very strong words, he said, “Be a lady before being a First Lady. In fact you can’t be a First Lady without first being a lady. Is she the first 1st Lady we’ve had? The vulgarity has become intolerable. We’ve now reached the bottom of obscenity…” The press conference which was supposed to be on the Wole Soyinka Center Media Lecture Series coming up Saturday 13, July condemned the Rivers State House of Assembly crisis dwelt mostly on the Rivers crisis. Soyinka came down hard on Evans Bipi, who was elected by 5 out of 32 assembly members as speaker on Tuesday. He said to the journalists in the hall, “Stop tr...

The embattled governor of Rivers state, Rotimi Amaechi, has raised the alarm about his safety after military authorities abruptly withdrew soldiers detailed to the Rivers State Government House on Wednesday in a new twist to the political tumult that has enveloped the state. Mr. Amaechi told PREMIUM TIMES late Wednesday that while police and State Security Service operatives remained with him, he could not predict how things might turn out within the next hours in an utterly fast-paced set of events unfolding in the state since Tuesday. “Although I feel safe at this time, you never can tell what may happen even this night,” the governor said Wednesday night in response to a PREMIUM TIMES telephone enquiry. His fears resonated as the over more than two dozens soldiers attached to his office and residence were suddenly withdrawn on Wednesday, leaving behind a police detachment that has been accused of indifference, or even complicity, in the series of crises bedeviling the state for ...

The presidency describes the ACN’s statement as “the height of political rascality.” The Presidency has reacted angrily to the call for the impeachment of President Goodluck Jonathan over the Rivers House of Assembly crisis.The President’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs, Doyin Okupe, who addressed journalists in Abuja on Wednesday, said President Goodluck Jonathan was not involved in the Rivers crisis, and described the call as “the height of political rascality”. Mr. Okupe said the reaction of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, to the event in the Rivers Assembly, as contained in a press release, should be of concern to all patriotic Nigerians. The ACN statement had blamed Mr. Jonathan for the crisis and accused him of abhorrence for the rule of law, and for encouraging minority Rivers lawmakers to disrupt proceedings in the Assembly. But in a swift response, Mr. Okupe said the comment by the ACN was another “condemnable, extremist and fundamentally flawed position ...

National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur yesterday took a swipe at Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa state, stressing that when the time cTukur who warned that nobody should distract President Jonathan in his task of governance, stressed that he should be given time to deliver on his promises to Nigerians and let the people enjoy the dividends of democracy. According to PDP National Chairman, the emergence of who becomes the PDP presidential candidate will be decided by the delegates to the presidential primaries and the candidate would thereafter face the Nigerian electorate to decide who the President becomes. The PDP National Chairman who was reacting to statements credited to governor Sule Lamido on Monday that PDP ticket won’t guarantee Jonathan’s second term, however cautioned him against utterances that were capable of overheating the polity. Governor Lamido, while answering questions from journalists at the Jigawa State Government House, Duts...

Mr. Oritsejafor hailed the life imprisonment for Suleja bombers. The National President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Ayo Oritsejafor, has hailed the sentencing of four Boko Haram members to life imprisonment by an Abuja High Court. He also questioned the claim of a ceasefire agreed with the outlawed Boko Haram sect. Mr. Oritsejafor stated this at the presentation of a book, “Shunpiking: No Shortcuts to God’’, written by Reno Omokri, Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on New Media. The court, presided over by Justice Bilikisu Aliyu, on Tuesday sentenced four out of six persons accused of bombing INEC office in Suleja, Niger in April 2012. Many were killed and others wounded in the blast. The CAN President and chairman of the presentation, spoke in Abuja on Wednesday. He said although Christianity preaches forgiveness, the judgment will assuage the families of the victims of the attack. “We are Christians, we are taught to forgive, but what is...

The Presidential Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of the Security Challenges in the North has said that the Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, is involved in the current ceasefire deal. The chairman of the committee and Special Duties Minister, Kabiru Tanimu Turaki, who disclosed this to State House correspondents in Abuja after yesterday’s Federal Executive Council meeting, said though the ceasefire was not declared in a video, it could be relied on as his committee had been discussing with the right leadership of the sect. According to him, “When a minister speaks on behalf of the federal government, you wouldn’t say you must see the president or the vice president there. We’ve spoken with somebody who is second in command as far as Boko Haram is concerned, and he has informed the media that he has been discussing with us with full knowledge and authority of Imam Abubakar Shekau. So, we’ve no cause to doubt him. We’ve done checks on him just as they (the sect) hav...

The Laudable feat in the performance of the incumbent administration in Kano State was re – commenced last Wednesday (26th June, 2013) during the 104th Executive Council Sitting at which an expenditure of Fifteen Billion, Fifty Six Million, One Hundred and Ninety Seven Thousand and Eight Hundred and Seventy Five Naira, Thirty Kobo (15,056,197,875.30) was approved for the execution of Seventeen (17) Projects. Two (2) Sectors prominently stood out in the approvals granted for the execution of projects during the 104th Executive Council Sitting. These include; SN Sector Number of Projects Cost (N) i. Education 06 8,617,124,410.34 ii. Water Resources 03 4,188,670,238.70 Total 02 09 12,805,794,649.04    This was characteristic of the second incumbency of the present administration. Credence has been relentlessly accorded to the transformation of the educational, infrastructural development and maintenance sectors from inception as depicted in the ...

Governor, Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, of Nasarawa State yesterday, said since he assumed office in 2011, he had been taking after policies and programmes of the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, during his tenure as the Premier of the Western Region. Al-Makura said what pushed him into politics was to promote egalitarianism, with ordinary people of the state at the centre of developmental programes of his government.  They gave this remark at the Government House, Lafia, while receiving the Management team of the African Newspapers of Nigeria (ANN) Plc, publishers of the Tribune titles, led by its Managing Director/Editor-In-Chief, Mr Edward Dickson. The governor, who hailed the ideologies of our heroes past, urged the current political leaders to take after their leadership lifestyles. “My vision, philosophy, ideology is not different from that of the sage, Chief Awolowo and I’m very sure that with these values, Tribune and the government of Nasarawa State will be partners and they will ne...

May I ask all the Dankwambos in leadership positions today, where were you when the number of less privilege were piling up in your states? Why are all the Dankwambos considering to share Ramadan provisions to the less privileged people today, could this be part of their responsibilities as a Governors today and what part of the Budget is the money coming from? In essence, what are you trying to gain by given those less privileged that are fasting, will there be another provision to the less privilege that are not Fasting alongside the Muslims? For how long have you been part of this old system, what is the difference between today and that yesterday when things were much better than today? In the case of my own state, the political gimmick started when Goje declared Hashidu a failure, but, we have come to realize that Hashidu did not fail, he was building institutions and decentralizing political structures which is far more expensive than building physical structures and he refused...

Rivers state House of Assembly sealed by police. Inset: House Leader Chidi Lloyd in the clinic after he was beaten by thugs in Port Harcourt, yesterday. An attempt by five lawmakers of Rivers state House of Assembly to impeach the Speaker, Otelemaba Dan Amachree failed but he and many others ended up in hospital for injuries sustained in the fight that ensued. The five members of the House belong to a faction of the ruling PDP which few months ago suspended the Governor Rotimi Amaechi and are now angling to take control of the house allegedly to oust him. They are aligned with the Minister of state for Education, Barrister Nyesom Wike, and thought to be backed by the Presidency which, however, had since denied the allegation. The members belong to the PDP faction under the leadership of Felix Obuah who were not suspended along with other 27 lawmakers announced the impeachment of Dan Amachree and directed Evans Bibi, representing Ogu/Bolo Constituency to take over the seat of the Spea...

All Progressives Congress (APC) has been registered as a political party, says the National Chairman of the party, Chief Bisi Akande. He spoke with journalists at Abuja after receiving a delegation of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at the National Secretariat. The INEC officials who in compliance with the civil service rule came to inspect the party secretariat, were only seen and never heard by the reporters. INEC is yet to confirm Akande's claim if it has truly registered the party.