The Unimaginable!!

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has revealed that he congratulated President Muhammadu Buhari after the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal confirmed his election because he is not a hypocrite like other Governors.

Wike said it is better to offer public congratulations than visit the President at night.

Governor Wike said that unlike some Governors of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP who visit President Muhammadu Buhari at night, he made his declaration public because it came from the heart.

The Rivers State governorship offered the explanation Thursday, at the Funeral Service in honour of Late Madam Blessing Awuse, Mother of Chief Sergent Chidi Awuse, at the St Luke’s Anglican Church, Emohua.

Governor Wike said politics is a game of interest, noting that Rivers people in the All Progressives Congress are under obligation to attract Federal benefits to the state.

He said: ” I am sure all of you are surprised that I congratulated Buhari. Is it not good for me to congratulate him, than to go to his house in the night?”

“So many PDP Governors go to see him in his house in the night. I have never gone and I will not go. I won’t go.

“We are the only state that the Federal Government refused to pay us our money used to execute Federal projects because I don’t go to see him in the night and I won’t go. He is not my friend, he is not doing well, but he won in court, should I say that the court did wrong, no.

President Buhari, congratulations and carry Nigerians along. Unify the country, the country is too divided. I am saying what is right. What I will do, I will do, what I will not do, I will not do.

“Politics is a game of interest. And my only interest is Rivers State. Anything that is against the interest of Rivers State, I will not agree.

“These people sold us out, thinking that they are doing Governor Wike. It is the State that you are offending because I am just one person.

He, therefore, expressed displeasure that Rivers State has key links to President Muhammadu Buhari from the State, yet the East West Road, the seaports and other Federal projects have been completely neglected since 2015, adding that nothing indicates that Rivers State has prominent APC members working with President Muhammadu Buhari.

“We produce oil. They should not punish Rivers State because of me. I am just one individual. We have not benefited anything from the Federal Government. The only thing we have benefited is the abuse they heap on me.

“They turned the NDDC into a cash cow to sponsor elections against us. Nobody protested that anomaly. Now they want us to protest because someone did not nominate the management of NDDC this time.

President Muhammadu Buhari Thursday in Abuja said placing women in strategic positions of his government, like the financial sector, is to ensure effective management of limited resources available, and promote a stronger sense of inclusiveness.

President Buhari said he preferred women to oversee the economic and financial hub of the country, Ministry of Finance, as they can readily deploy their experience in aligning resources with the needs of the country, explaining that the nation also had many female technocrats with local and international experiences on economy and finance.

The President gave the insight into his preferred choice for Minister of Finance while receiving a delegation of National, Zonal, State and FCT Women leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) led by the party Women Leader, Hajiya Salamatu Umaru Baiwa at the State House.

“I am happy that I can defend myself very effectively on this issue. The APC party leader is my witness. Since the coming into power of this administration I have handed over the treasury to women.

“Even at household level, you hand over the money to women to manage. It can be taken to the level of managing the country’s treasury as well. I have consistently given it to women. It is strategic.

I am conscious of the leadership roles of women in the society and by my action I have justified my belief,’’ President Buhari said.

The President reiterated that his administration will ensure inclusiveness for women and youths, especially in the second term, by providing more access to facilities that will enable spread of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, and encourage more interest in agriculture.

President Buhari said the traditional and subsistence style of farming should be replaced with commercialized and business oriented techniques.

We have to move away from the traditional ways of farming that were practiced in the pre-colonial and colonial era,’’ he added.

The President said he instructed the ministers to work with traditional institutions to encourage interest in farming, with the Central Bank of Nigeria readily providing loans at low interest rates and longer periods of repayment.

“On unemployment, I know there is no able bodied person that went back to the farm in the last three years that regretted the action,’’ he added.

In her remarks, the APC Woman Leader congratulated the President for his victory at the polls and the tribunal, commending the administration for its efforts in managing the affairs of the country, which provided the impetus for the vigorous campaigns.

Baiwa said women were particularly pleased and willing to vote for the President because the government deliberately formulated some policies to favour and empower women, like the social intervention Trader Moni.

She said the APC had many resourceful and loyal women that would contribute to the success of the administration while commending the President for giving women strategic positions in the government.

“Our prayer is that God will give you the tenacity to overcome all obstacles,’’ the Woman Leader said.

The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) Thursday carpeted the wife of Ekiti State Governor, Erelu Bisi Fayemi, over the death of two students of the Federal University, Oye Ekiti (FUOYE) on Tuesday during a protest.

It said the manner in which Mrs Fayemi absolved herself of any blame over the tragedy was a total disappointment coming from a public figure like her.

NANS accused Mrs Fayemi of dishing out untruths in her bid to deflect the burden of blame over the death of two of its members during the protest over poor electricity supply.

It declared the “Almighty God is the biggest judge and will dispense judgement as due to her.”

NANS PRO, Comrade Adeyemi Azeez, spoke in Abeokuta.

He also implored the Federal Government to probe how their promising colleagues were cut down prematurely.

Adeyemi described the fate that befell the ‘FUOYE two’ as something akin to “planned assassination” and urged all students in Ekiti and beyond to remain calm as the national leadership of NANS would take all necessary and lawful steps to compel the government of Ekiti State to tell Nigerian Students the motive behind the killing of their colleagues.

He said: “We read yesterday with dismay, the reaction of the suspected assailant where she made baseless claims but for us as students and young people who have what it takes to fight her, considering the quantum of our population, we know that God almighty is the biggest Judge and will dispense judgement as due to her.

“In fact, Ekiti people have coined a new name for the woman which is ‘ a woman with 9 mouths’ considering the spate at which she was telling lies through her release yesterday.

Firstly: the Ekiti first lady said she was in the hall when the student started rampaging and allegedly destroying people vehicle.

“This statement is too sweet to be true; can such riot act be going on outside a hall to the extent that peoples vehicle were being damaged and the owners of the vehicles remained calm in the hall?

“Secondly as the first lady, she claimed to remain in the hall while the damages were being done, why not address the students instead of ignoring them, if truly she wasn’t wishing and praying evil for the students.

“If truly she regard the students as her children why not speak to them instead ordering the police to be ruthless with them.

Also, if truly you have a heart of gold you should be concerned about what happened to the students and not running away.

“You and your husband have the state powers and as result should be able to restore normalcy to any uproar, that is why you were elected.

“Her husband, who used to be one of our well respected elders in NANS, is also gradually losing our respect as he has not said anything since this crises started instead he is busy fighting for security votes.

“If we have our way we would suggest that Ekiti state security vote be removed since the governor has not been making judicious use of the ones he has been collecting which is evident in his inability to secure our students.

We must however note that even if your security votes is increased to N5 billion on a monthly bases, we would not still surrender the lives of our students to you.

“We however call on the federal government to probe this killing of our students in Ekiti as this can best be described as a ‘state planed assassination.

“Even when the rich oppresses the poor in Nigeria, it is not done in the open but the reverse was the case of Mrs. Fayemi who threw two families into sorrow and gnashing of teeth without remorse.

And against the expectation of mothers, Erelu as fondly called, could still lie even when the lives of two promising young Nigerians were involved.

“This pitiable situation which has been on between the rich and the poor might graduate into a revolt of the poor in this country.

“Despite our respect for Governor Fayemi, his wife has successfully turned our backs against each other as we would not toy with the life of any of our students.”

The Special Assistant to the President on Justice Reform, Mrs Juliet Ibekaku-Nwagwu, has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to redeploy Dr Emeka Ononamadu as Resident Electoral Commissioner in Enugu over alleged bias.

Ibekaku-Nwagwu, who contested the seat of the Enugu West Senatorial District in the 2019 elections under the platform of All Progressive Congress (APC) made the call in a petition addressed to Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, INEC’s National Chairman.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the petition dated March 13 and signed by the petitioner was made available to newsmen on Wednesday in Abuja.

“I write on behalf of Enugu APC Candidates who participated in the 2019 elections, but with particular reference to those who filed petitions against the Feb. 23 Presidential and National State Assembly Election Election Tribunal.

“On behalf of the candidates, I wish to inform the chairman that we no longer have confidence in the Resident Electoral Commission in Enugu.

“We are by this letter asking for his removal from Enugu state and redeployment of another Resident Electoral Commission to the state.

According to her, Ononamadu is presently colluding with her opponent in the National Assembly election, Sen. Ike Ekweremadu of the PDP to further rob her at the tribunal.

Ibekaku-Nwagwu’s petition is titled “Petition against the use of Sen. Ike Ekweremadu’s law firm as INEC’s Legal Representatives in the suit filed by APC Candidates in Enugu Election Tribunal and Request for Redeployment of the REC’’.

Our attention has been drawn to the fact that INEC hired Mr Peter Eze, Managing Partner of Eze, Ekweremadu law firm based in Enugu and Abuja to represent it in the Enugu State Election Petition Tribuna.

“Find attached, documents confirming that Eze is not only a partner in the law firm, but that in the absence of Ekweremadu, he has been managing the law firm.

“This is not only a conflict of interest given that Sen. Ekweremadu is one of the Candidates that contested the Enugu West Senatorial District election on the platform of the PDP petitioned against.

Players and officials of the Flying Eagles ,Nigeria’s U-20 side have been at The Monarch Hotel in Bad Goegging Munich, Germany.The team are said to be in financial distress.This follows the inability of the Nigeria Football Federation to pay their bills.

Paul Aigbogun’s team have been in Germany since April 28 preparing for the upcoming FIFA World Cup starting later this month in Poland.

Further information from Tribune Sports reveals that top officials of the Nigeria Football Federation are brainstorming on how to raise cash to settle the accumulated bills.

The Flying Eagles squad and the coaching crew will leave the hotel on Sunday, May 19 for Poland where they will begin their quest for the world title against Qatar on May 24.

Further findings by the thebreakingtimes.com also revealed that top officials of the NFF are currently in a legal battle over alleged corruption charges by the federal government of Nigeria.The officials had thought that Monday’s federal high court ruling will have given them  a respite against the Special Presidential Panel  who had charged the federation’s president,Amaju Melvin Pinnick and five others on a 17 count charge,but the court’s ruling gave the special presidential panel the power to trial them.

The football ruling body has been faced with financial distress in recent time,as dommestic league, the League Management Company (LMC), which is overseeing the running of the elite football league, the NPFL, for sometime now, has not been living up to its financial responsibilities to the match referees.

Match referees are being owed backlog of indemnities by the LMC and the body was only able to pay the indemnities of referees who officiated Week 14 matches last week.