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A former Senate President, Adolphus Wabara, has been named acting Chairman, Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party, following the resignation of Walid Jibrin at the ongoing Board of Trustees meeting in Abuja.
John Odigie Oyegun has emerged as the chairman of the screening committee of the ruling All Progressives Congress, according to party insiders familiar with the development.
Mr Oyegun has started supervising the screening of APC presidential aspirants in Abuja, our sources said.
A source said Mr Oyegun’s emergence as the head of the committee could be problematic for Bola Tinubu. The top APC aspirant had openly led a fight that toppled Mr Oyegun as the party chairman in 2018.
Mr Tinubu then backed Adams Oshiomhole for the position, and the former Edo governor’s ouster in 2020 was seen as part of the game plan to cut Mr Tinubu to size ahead of 2023 politics.
Mr Oyegun also published several statements condemning Mr Tinubu’s dangerous political antics. Both politicians have stayed largely apart ever since.
The development could deepen concerns within Mr Tinubu’s camp that there were plots to frustrate his efforts to clinch the party’s ticket at its convention on June 6.
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has suspended the chairman of its caretaker committee in Gombe State, Rev. Sunday Congo, over a congratulatory message he sent to the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami.
Rev. Congo had in the letter, congratulated the minister on his promotion to the rank of Professor in the Department of Cyber Security at the Federal University of Technology, Owerri.
However, a letter dated September 15, 2021, and signed by its General Secretary, Joseph Daramola, CAN directed Congo to immediately release all the body’s property to his deputy.
The Christian umbrella body described the cleric’s action as provocative, overzealous and tantamount to a unilateral decision made without authorisation and necessary clearance.
The statement read: “Following the recent publications of your congratulatory message to the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, we write to inform you that your action has generated a lot of concerns amongst members of the Christian Association of Nigeria.
This action of yours in publishing and release made on behalf of the association is tantamount to a unilateral decision of you and overzealousness on your part, which was done without authorization and clearance.
“It is not only provocative but undermines the CAN NEC executive. It does not in any way represent their position. In view of the above, you are hereby directed to relinquish your position in Gombe CAN executive with immediate effect and hand over all CAN’s property to your next in line in your bloc.
“In future, you are advised to consult and get approval from the authority of CAN national level so we all may speak with one voice.”
President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed former Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Salamatu Suleiman as chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
The appointee, Mrs Suleiman was a minister of women affairs and also minister of state for foreign affairs in the administration of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua.
The appointment which awaits the confirmation of the Senate was read out in a letter from the country’s president by the chamber’s President, Ahmad Lawan, at the start of plenary on Tuesday. Mr Lawan said the appointment is pursuant to Section 2(3) of the National Human Rigthts Commission Act as amended.
The president also appointed 14 other members of the board of the NHRC which include Beatrice Jedy-Agba, Umar Salisu, Dafe Adesida, Joseph Mmamel, and Ahmad Fingilla, Kemi Asiwaju-Okeyonda, Abubakar Muhammed, Femi Okeowo and Sunny Daniel.
Others are Agabaidu Jideani,Nella Andem-Rabana, Azubuike Nwakwenta, Jamila Isah, CDD director, Hassan Idayat and former chairman Anthony Ojukwu as secretary.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has defended the newly appointed chairman of the commission, Abdulrasheed Bawa, claiming that there is no truth in the allegations of corruption levied against him.
The anti-graft agency’s defence is coming amidst allegations that Bawa was arrested and detained while serving as the zonal head of the EFCC in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital for allegedly selling off about 244 trucks seized from looters.
According to the allegations, Bawa sold the trucks that should have gone for between N20 million and N30 million each for a paltry sum of N100,000 each to his cronies, depriving the nation of N4.8 billion in recovery of looted funds.
The commission, however in a statement by its spokesman, Wilson Uwajuren on Tuesday, claimed Bawa has no corruption record.
The statement read in part: “The commission wishes to state categorically that Mr Bawa was never arrested or detained over sale of any assets.
“As zonal head of the Port Harcourt office of the commission in 2019, Bawa’s responsibilities did not include the sale of assets as the commission has a full-fledged Directorate of Assets Forfeiture and Recovery Management, which remit such matters.
For the avoidance of doubt, the disposal of finally forfeited trucks in the Port Harcourt zonal office through public auction, was conducted after the exit of Bawa as zonal head. It is therefore illogical for him to have been indicted over an auction that was not superintended by him.
“The auction of trucks at the Port Harcourt Office was among the issues examined by the Justice Ayo Salami Panel, leading to the suspension of some officers of the commission. The commission, therefore, enjoins the public to disregard the false publication which is believed to be sponsored by mischief makers to impugn the integrity of the EFCC chairman-designate.”
It would be recalled that the alleged diversion and sale of the trucks formed part of the allegations levied against the former acting Chairman of the agency, Ibrahim Magu, who was suspended by President Muhammadu Buhari, and faced the Justice Ayo Salami-led Presidential Panel of Inquiry.
Reports that surfaced online after the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina announced Bawa’s appointment, have it that he was briefly detained in Port Harcourt before he was ordered to report at the EFCC Academy in Abuja, from where he was transferred to Lagos as the zonal head.
(NBA) in Owerri, Imo State, Ndieonyemah Nwankwo.
Nwankwo lifeless body was found with a machete cuts on his neck inside his office in the Imo State capital on Saturday.
The spokesman of the Imo State police command, SP Orlando Ikeokwu, who confirmed the incident in a statement on Saturday, said the command received a report on the gruesome murder of the lawyer and quickly deployed police operatives to the scene.
He added that the lifeless body of the NBA official was found in a pool of his own blood inside the office.
The spokesman said: ”Taking a further look around the office, a machete with blood stains suspected to be have been used in inflicting the cuts on him was found on the floor.
“We also discovered that his car and other yet to be identified items were taken away.”
Ikeokwu added that the Imo State Commissioner of Police, Nasiru Mohammed, has ordered an investigation into the killing of the lawyer.
