Ugwuanyi Welcomes Bola Tinubu To Enugu Govrrnment House

 . Enugu State Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi welcome APC Presidential Candidate, Asíwájú Bola Tinubu, to the Michael Okpara Government House, Enugu.

APC Presidential Campaign Rally in Enugu.. Wednesday

2023: PDP Speaks On Crisis Tearing APC Apart In Enugu

 The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Enugu State has disassociated itself from a raging crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state and recent protest by some members of the party in Abuja. The spokesperson of the Enugu State PDP Campaign Council, Nana Ogbodo, stated this at a press conference on Tuesday in Enugu.

The APC in the state has been enmeshed in crisis over allegation of non-payment of their “convention allowances” to the tune of $1.5 million by the party’s leadership in the state.The convention to elect the party’s presidential candidate- which was won by Bola Tinubu – was held in June.

On Monday, some aggrieved members of the APC in the state under the aegis of “Concerned Enugu State APC” besieged the party’s national secretariat in Abuja demanding the payment of their convention allowances. The protesters accused the state APC chairman, Ugochukwu Agballah and the party’s governorship candidate, Uche Nnaji, of embezzling the convention funds.

Fidelis Edeh, the Director-General of State APC Campaign Council, has since denied the allegations of embezzlement against the party leaders. The State APC chairman, Mr Agballah, and other party leaders in the state, were said to have accused the PDP in the state of sponsoring the protests and crisis in the APC to destabilise the party ahead of the 2023 general elections

But Mr Ogbodo said the PDP in the state had no hands in the crisis rocking the APC, saying it was unfortunate that the party would drag the PDP into its internal squabbles and corruption allegations.

“We have, as usual, been dragged into a purely APC affair by the loquacious Ugochukwu Agballah, who has claimed that the protesters were sponsored by the PDP. Of course, Agballah’s penchant for looking for scapegoats rather than face his demons is legendary,” he said.

The PDP chieftain urged Mr Agballah “to go home and settle with his aggrieved party members and restitute to them whatever he has taken from them” rather than falsely accusing the PDP of sponsoring the protest and crisis in the APC.

He said the crisis in the APC has a long history and predated the current electioneering season. He recalled that some aggrieved APC members had “petitioned and physically” led a protest to the national chairman of the party in August, where they called for Mr Agballa’s immediate removal from office and appointment of a caretaker chairman.

“This is not a fight between the PDP and the APC; it is squarely a fight between angry and deprived APC members and a greedy and conceited party leadership,” he stated.

Call on EFCC for investigation

The PDP asked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate the allegations of financial misappropriation in the APC.

“Importantly, we call on the EFCC to step in to investigate the weighty allegations of embezzlement of well over N1,3 billion boldly made against the duo of Chief Ugo Agballah and Chief Uche Nnaji by well-known APC party leaders,” Mr Ogbodo said.

The party challenged Mr Agballah to carry out his threat of suing the PDP for defamation, saying such action would “afford his aggrieved party members the opportunity to further showcase his unclothedness” to the world.

“Ironically, if anybody deserves to be sued for defamation over this matter, it is Agballah, who has defamed the Enugu PDP and its governorship candidate by dragging them into a matter that has absolutely nothing to do with them,” he added.

Atiku/Wike Face Off Divides PDP In Cross River State

The face-off between the five governors of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) also known as G-5, led by Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and the Presidential candidate of the party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, over the refusal of its national chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, to step down has polarised members of PDP in Cross River State. 

Investigations reveal that if the party leadership does not move fast to resolve the crisis and goes into the 2023 elections divided, its chances of victory will be very slim.

Since PDP presidential primaries, which former Vice President Atiku Abubakar won, all has not been well with the party, as the G-5 have remained insistent that Ayu resigned for equity, fairness and justice.

This face-off is already taking its toll in the state, as its chairman Mr. Venatius Ikem and some members of his executive; the party’s governorship candidate, Senator Sandy Onor and his deputy Emana Duke; senatorial candidate in South, Ntufam Ekpo Okon; the incumbent Senator and senatorial candidate for the North, Agom Jarigbe Agom; House of Representatives member for Calabar Municipality/Odukpani Federal constituency and candidate for the party, Ntufam Eta Mbora; former governor Donald Duke; former deputy governor Mr Efiok Cobham (Onor’s campaign Director General in the South), a state lawmaker (Calabar Municipal), Mr. Efa Isua; all the state House lawmakers and almost all the House of Assembly candidates and many others have pitched their tents with G-5.

On the other side, former Governor Liyel Imoke, Cross River caucus chairman in the National Assembly, Senator Gershom Bassey; Cross River Central Senatorial candidate, Mr. Bassey Ewa; the Abi/Yakurr Federal Representatives candidate, Mr. Eko Atu; former Bakassi Local Government Council chairman, Mr. Emmanuel Etene and others have publicly expressed their support for Atiku. 

Only recently, Wike donated 25 branded buses to Cross River PDP, which did not have Atiku’s pictures. The buses carry pictures and campaign messages from the governorship to House of Assembly candidates. Onor’s campaign offices in Calabar and other parts, billboards and banners by the Wike team showcasing their candidates in the state are also without Atiku and other candidates supporting him.

Similarly, in Atiku’s campaign office in Calabar, posters and banners pasted on the walls do not carry pictures of the candidates loyal to Wike. 

Both sides in the state are running divided campaigns and programmes and do not speak with one voice as the usual one big family. But top party sources said candidates loyal to Wike discretely solicit for votes for themselves and Atiku since they are the ones in the 2023 race.

When the Wike camp took delivery and commissioned the 25 branded bus in Calabar in November, the group loyal to Atiku was not there. In same vein, when the Atiku’s camp performed the inauguration of Atiku/Okowa campaign council office in December, Wike camp was absent.  

Observers of events in the party say this division among party members will weaken the party in the 2023 elections. The crisis caused Senator Gershom Bassey from South Senatorial District the governorship ticket. He lost to Senator Onor from Central.

Ordinarily, PDP would have leveraged on its past, as the most dominant party in the state but the defection of Governor Ben Ayade in 2020 to APC, and the current crisis may affect the party’s chances.

Imoke and Bassey had, during the inauguration ceremony of the Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Office in Calabar in December warned that if Atiku failed in the presidential election, all the PDP candidates in the state contesting other positions will fail and vice versa, if he wins.

But Imoke, who is the Deputy Director (Operations) of the Atiku/Okowa National Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), spoke with certainty that the PDP family in the state is set to win all elections with the calibre of people inaugurated into the Youth and Women wings of the PCC.

At the inauguration ceremony, the Vice Presidential candidate of the party, who is the incumbent governor of Delta State, Sen. Ifeanyi Okowa and some of his South-South counterparts boasted that PDP is in-charge in the state, “PDP will win, recover, rescue and rebuild Cross River State, the South-South zone and the nation from the sinking ship of the APC,” they emphatically stated. 

On his part, the Chairman of Atiku/Okowa National Presidential Campaign Council and Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, who inaugurated PDP National Youth Campaign Council and Women Wing of the Presidential Campaign Council, said the party has never lost any election in the state since the advent of democracy in1999 and 2023 will not be different, as South-South governors are united with PDP family to win again.

Speaking in the same vein, the Chairman of Cross River State Presidential Campaign Council, Senator Bassey, assured everyone that the party is already in the trenches working to win the general elections, asserting that the state has never lost any presidential election in the state because winning is a culture for the PDP family in Cross River.

He said: “APC in the state is trying to learn the game of electioneering from PDP and will never know it enough to outclass the masters. The PDP will cruise to victory and Atiku Abubakar will win Cross River State convincingly.”

Until recently, Duke, Imoke and Bassey were the three musketeers running the affairs of the state under one big umbrella.

Efforts to get the state chairman of PDP and Publicity Secretary, Mr. Mike Ojisi failed.
However, the national coordinator of Atiku/Okowa Unifier Next Door support group, Mr. Peter Ofuka, in an interview with The Guardian, said: “The 2023 race will be difficult to succeed under this circumstance because a house divided against itself can not stand. We are trying our best to see how we can get out of the troubled water. By now if not for the crisis, PDP would have done very well. A lot of people have started taking positions and many people are supporting APC because of this crisis. So, it has been a difficult task for PDP in Cross River State.”

On the chances of Atiku winning in the state, he said: “Atiku will win in Cross River but I don’t know of the governorship on how it’s going to look like, because I believe a lot of people have taken sides to support the Cross River South senatorial candidate in the state.”

Though Wike has been accused of being unnecessarily overbearing, a top PDP chieftain in Calabar, Mr. Moses Oko, rose in his defence, saying the Rivers State governor has done nothing wrong, rather he should be honoured for standing for truth and justice.
“I am very certain that the crisis will not effect us in the state. What happens at the higher level may not happen at the lower level in the sense that at the higher level, it is too remarkable but here, we are closely knit. I am for Sandy Onor and he will win.”

Amid the crisis, another PDP chieftain and a former commissioner in the state, Rev. Grace Ekanem, said: “Anywhere the house is divided, you know there is a problem, so, they have to sort themselves out if they want to succeed else they will fail at the national level. If they are sensible they should sort themselves out. A divided house cannot stand. Let them forget about their ego and sort out things. For the party to succeed, they must be united.”

Also, the former lawmaker for Calabar Municipality/Odukpani Federal Constituency of Cross River State, Mrs. Nkoyo Toyo, said: “It is true that the party is divided, but between its rank and file every member wants the party to win and return to governance.

Toyo said that it is dangerous for the PDP to go into the 2023 elections divided, warning: “Today, access to power and all the instruments to power are in the hands of APC and it is competing against PDP. For me, to put it mildly, it will be fool hardy to think that we in PDP as a whole to think that we can face this election, first as opposition, second without the resources of the state, as well as the support of the state organs and institutions that hitherto we used to have and then decide that it is okay for us to split ourselves in the middle.

“I think there is sense in which some candidates owe their success to Wike, I can name them, Jarigbe in the North, Sandy Onor as governorship candidate, and by extension, few other persons here in the South got their tickets courtesy of that arrangement. Wike has been the source of funding for them.

“In the absence of other funding sources that are dedicated to their elections, they have to be careful about which direction they take their anger and concerns to. Like we say in politics, one day is a very long time as so many things can change in one day. If you go beyond these persons that have had direct contact with Wike on the basis of their candidacy, you would hardly find anybody that is split between Wike and Atiku.

“So, this crisis we are dealing with is an artificial construct because we in the PDP are not in doubt as to how we would win this election. We know for certain that if for example, Atiku wins the first election, the bandwagon effect of his victory would be such that in two weeks, a lot of states would begin to support on their own. 

“For anyone to come in the middle or less than quarter to the election, saying that there is such a friction between us to the extent that we cannot come together will be stretching the argument too far. I may be wrong about this but to my own understanding so far, Wike has been the source of support for certain persons in this election and it is only natural for them to stay loyal.

“If you watch their election campaign pattern, they have been quiet on the candidacy of Atiku and not to propagate the candidacy of any other person. And the hope is that at some material time, some wisdom or revelation will come on everybody and make us realise that it is more important that we unite and win this election.”

Reacting to allegations that the Wike group may give their support for the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, Nkoyo said: “They cannot do that. It is totally impossible and a figment of the person’s imagination because how would they do it?”

Dayo Duyile, 80-year-old Veteran Journalist, Bags Phd From UNILAG

 Dayo Duyile, a veteran journalist, is one of the students to be conferred with a doctorate as the University of Lagos (UNILAG) holds its 53rd convocation ceremony.

The schedule of activities for the convocation will begin on January 13 and end on January 22. Speaking on Tuesday at a pre-convocation media briefing, Folasade Ogunsola, vice-chancellor of UNILAG, said Duyile is the oldest male graduating student.

Duyile, born in October 1942, is a former provost of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ). He obtained a PhD from the department of mass communication.

According to the vice-chancellor, Duyile “was the Daily Times of Nigeria journalist who covered the opening ceremony event of the University of Lagos on October 3, 1962″.

Speaking with Lekan Otufodunrin, executive director of Media Career Development Network, in 2018, the veteran journalist had said he always wanted to get a doctorate.

Il have always wanted to get a Phd in mass communication that I teach and journalism that I have practised for 55 years since twenty-five years ago. It’s never too late to get an additional qualification, including a Phd,” he had said.

Giving a breakdown of the statistics of graduating students, Ogunsola added that a total of 2,251 students will receive degrees at different levels.

“A total of 2,251 graduating students will receive their degrees, diplomas and certificates. Out of this number, 67 will receive postgraduate diplomas, 2,119 will receive masters degrees, while 65 will receive doctorate degrees,” the vice-chancellor said.

Meanwhile, “Okonjo Bridget Obiageli who obtained her M.Ed. in guidance and counselling at the age of 82 years” is the oldest female graduating student

Enugu APC Chieftains Plan To ‘Rent’ Crowds Ahead Of Tinubu’s Rally

 Ahead of today, Wednesday’s presidential rally of the All Progressives Congress in Enugu State (APC), a body, the Concerned Enugu APC Members, says it has observed massive renting of crowds from neighbouring states by the Chairman of the Enugu State chapter of the party, Chief Ugochukwu Agballah.

Although SaharaReporters could not independently ascertain veracity of the claim, the group said such plot was part of the efforts to give the national leaders of the party and the presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, a false sense of electoral security and inexistent efforts to boost the party in the state “whereas Agballah was in actual sense killing the party.”

The group revealed this in a statement issued by its Leader and pioneer Deputy State Chairman of the APC in Enugu, Comrade Adolphus Ude, in Enugu State on Tuesday.

The Concerned Enugu APC said it was another sign of failure for Chief Agballah to embark on crowd renting whereas the party could grow and showcase organic support base across the State if well administered by credible persons.

The statement partly read, “Faced with the reality of an empty venue, the Chairman of the APC in Enugu State has embarked on a crowd-shopping drive to deceive our national party leaders, particularly our presidential candidate, Senator Bola Tinubu and his running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima.

“We can authoritatively disclose that Agballah and the governorship candidate, Chief Uchenna Nnaji, have engaged contractors to ferry rented crowd from Ebonyi, Anambra, Abia, Imo, Benue and other nearby states to come here and answer Enugu people at tomorrow’s rally for Asiwaju and Senator Shettima in order to save themselves the impending embarrassment of an empty venue. The national leadership of our party and the people of Enugu State should watch out of this fraudulent act by Agballah and his cohorts.

“It is a shame that they still have to shop for crowd beyond the borders of Enugu State even after they settled for Okpara Square, which is a very small venue compared to the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium. But can the people they are mobilising to Enugu tomorrow cast votes for our party during the general election? The answer is ‘No’.

“But we have an overwhelming population in Enugu, which if harnessed will give our party the support and result Asiwaju needs in Enugu State. In fact, there is no result we cannot achieve if the stakeholders and the leaders of the party come together in Enugu. But this is exactly what Agballah cannot deliver and does not also want," he said.

SDP to form alliance with Tinubu

 Ahead of the 2023 presidential election, the factional National Publicity Secretary of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Alpha Mohammed, has disclosed that the party would welcome an alliance with the All Progressives Congress (APC).

POLITICS NIGERIA reports that Mohammed said the SDP had done its assessment and discovered that the presidential flag-bearer of the ruling party is the best.

“Soon, our party is considering an alliance with Tinubu because we have found him to be the most successful candidate,” Mohammed told Punch.

“Look at all the revelations he did in the Chatham House meeting; he built a modern state that is capable of standing as a country of its own.

“Nobody has contradicted that. We all know what he had done in Lagos.

“We need a man with an idea that can transform a nation, using economic resources – generating resources. Revenue generating strategy, nobody is better in terms of generating resources than Tinubu.

“We have made an assessment and we found out that the best is him.”

Nine EndSARS Protesters Arrested Three Years Ago Regains Freedom In Oyo

 Nine END SARS protesters arrested and detained at Correctional Centre Ibadan since 2020 have regained their freedom on Tuesday, January 10, 2023.

The 'Oyo9' whose names are:
Adeshina Muyiwa, Ikechuckwu Eze, Ariyo Sodiq, Ikenna Amaechi, Oyewole Olumide, Ariyo Afeez, Taoreed Abiodun, Adekunle Moruf, and Rasheed Tiamiyu, were charged for offences ranging from murder to stealing of police rifles, setting the police station ablaze, among others, in connection to the 2020 protest against the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad unit of the Nigeria Force.

The development comes barely 24 hours after the Oyo State Chief Judge ordered the release of 58 detainees who had spent long periods in the state prisons.

Releasing some inmates on Monday, the Oyo State Chief Judge, Justice Munga Abimbola, had declared that prolonged detention was a breach of people's constitutional right, reiterating that the stand of the law is that a “person is presumed innocent until proven guilty.”

The CJ made this declaration at the Agodi Custodial Centre of the Nigerian Correctional Service, where he visited, as part of a three-day tour of prisons within the state.

Confirm the release of the nine persons, an activist and the Oyo State leader of the Take It Back Movement, an organisation that had been calling for the release of the Oyo nine, Solomon Emiola, said; “We are just returning from the prison, the nine of them have gone home with their families.”

The TIB members had yesterday protested the continued detention of the Oyo9 following the release of the 58 detainees. They argued that Oyo9 should have been part of those freed.

The state's Attorney General and Attorney General, Professor Oyelowo Oyewo, could not be reached for comment because his known line did not go through.

The Nigerian News Agency also told correspondents he confirmed the release of the nine, noting that the release was part of decongestion of the prisons implemented by the chief justice of the state Supreme Court.