Muawuya Zakariah Adam Gombe

General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) It began with a handful of politicians opening a Facebook page to interact and chat with admirers. Now the massively popular networking site attracts hordes of politicians as we approach 2011 general election. What’s the allure? Weekly Trust sought some answe rs. Apart from being the first black to become the United States president, the emergence of Barack Obama also made popular the crucial role of internet-based social networks, particularly Facebook in socio-political and economic development. Obama engaged the social networking utility during his campaign, particularly targeting students and youths. Nigerian politicians and public office-holders are not left out either. Some of the prominent politicians that have signed on include President Goodluck Jonathan, Speaker Dimeji Bankole, Vice President Namadi Sambo, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, former Head of State General Muhammadu Buhari, and the N...

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar The former Vice President and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential aspirant, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar , has written the Adamawa State’s chapter of the party, seeking for a waiver, the spokesperson of the former vice president, Malam Garba Shehu, told Sunday Trust last night. Atiku, according to his spokesperson, has written the party leadership in his home state of Adamawa and copied the party’s national headquarters. Alhaji Musa A. Yahaya, who is the PDP Chairman of Jada II Ward, Atiku’s ward in Jada local government told Sunday Trust that Atiku had been re-admitted into the party. “Vice President Atiku Abubakar has been formally re-admitted into the PDP from his ward of origin, Jada II ward in Jada Local Government Area, Adamawa State. And we stand by it,” Yahaya told our reporter. A member of the party’s National working Committee (NWC) that met last week told this newspaper in confidence that “no member of the NWC objected to the granting of waiver to the...

Suspended Emir of Bakura Engr. Mohammed Bello Sani The Emir of Bakura, Engr Bello Mohammed Sani, has been suspended indefinitely by the Zamfara State government for alleged “misappropriation of emirate’s fund”. The state Commissioner for Local Governments and Chieftaincy Affairs, Alhaji Isiaka Zurmi, said the suspension of the emir was made following a petition against him. Zurmi said a seven-man committee has been set up by the government to investigate the emir, adding that his suspension was to enable the committee to investigate him thoroughly. “You can’t investigate someone while he is in office and that was why he was suspended,” the commissioner said, adding that the committee will commence work immediately. He denied that the suspension was politically motivated but did not disclose the amount of money the suspended emir was accused of misappropriating. Zurmi, however, said that the emir undermined the constituted authority by refusing to attend a...

The Federal Government yesterday said President Jonathan would not be rushed into rubberstamping the electoral act, in response to complaints by Professor Attahiru Jega that delays in approving the election legal framework was threatening to scuttle the 2011 polls. Jega on Wednesday said the supremacy tussle between the Presidency and the National Assembly over the amended constitution and failure of the president to assent to the new electoral act and the commission’s budget bill have already delayed the commission’s plans by two weeks. But Minister of State for Information and Communications Labaran Maku said yesterday the delay in signing the electoral act was to allow the bill undergo the normal process through various government departments so as to ensure that the law is operable. “If a law is passed to a sitting President, it is not just for rubberstamping,” Maku told State House reporters in Abuja. He said the president understood the anxiety of N...

Alh. Atiku Abubakar The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday explained that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar is yet to be granted waiver because the state chapter of the party has not brought the case to the national leadership. But in a swift reaction, Atiku’s campaign office dismissed the insinuation that the former Vice President’s ambition may be threatened by his present status, saying the Ekwueme report granted a waiver to him. The statement said Turaki Adamawa is entitled to a waiver like all other returnees to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), pointing out that “We do not believe that the party is adopting a different sort of rules in the waiver for Atiku and his associates. We believe that the PDP will make a proper announcement on the issue when it deems fit, as we have been repeatedly assured.” The case of Atiku Abubakar was raised by journalists when Alkali read out the names of party members who returned to the PDP and whose requests for waivers were granted and ...

President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan Top Presidency officials yesterday gave conflicting signals over President Goodluck Jonathan’s candidacy for next year’s election, with his spokesman saying the president had not said he would run nor did he say he won’t. Confusion reigned in the afternoon at the State House in Abuja after Reuters news agency posted a story shortly before 2pm saying that Jonathan may not stand for election in January because of the PDP’s decision to retain the zoning policy. However, hours after Reuters posted the story, presidential spokesman Ima Niboro issued a statement saying that the president had not committed either way on the presidential race. Reuters quoted a presidency source as saying, “He (Jonathan) is not likely going to run, simply because his party has retained the zoning of the presidency to the north for the next four years. “Though his party said he can run despite the zoning, the party said this because they didn’...

The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Usman Babayero Nafada, Ministers of Federal Capital Territory, Bala Mohammed; Tourism, Abubakar Sadiq, led Senators and members of House of Representatives from different states in the North-East, party supporters, including a board of trustee member, Kaulaha Aliyu, to a rally and commissioning of office organized by the Jonathan/Namadi Movement for 2011, which held in Gombe yesterday. Speaking at the rally, the Deputy Speaker said, the crowd that came out en mass to witness the occasion indicated that Jonathan had got the necessary support for the actualization of his bid to contest the forth coming general elections. He added that Jonathan should be allowed to complete the two terms they had started with the late President Umaru Yar’adua, arguing that if the late President were alive, he would have been given the chance to run for a second time, maintaining that it’s only natural that such grace is extended to Goodluck Jonathan. ...