Appeal Court sacks Jimoh Ibrahim as Ondo PDP governorship candidate, reinstates Eyitayo Jegede
Justice Ibrahim Saulawa of the Appeal court in Abuja has ordered the reinstatement of Eyitayo Jegede as the rightful candidate of PDP in this Saturday, November 26th, Ondo state governorship election.
This judgment nullifies the candidature of billionaire businesman, Jimoh Ibrahim, who before now was recognized by INEC as the party's candidate.
Delivering judgment in an appeal filed by Jegede, Justice Saulawa set aside the October 14th ruling by Justice Okon Abang which recognized Jimoh Ibrahim as the PDP candidate for the election.
Jimoh belongs to the Ali Modu Sheriff-led faction of the party while Eyitayo Jegede belongs to the Ahmed Makarfi-led faction of the party
Kidnapped 75-year-old woman in Benue State regains freedom
Mrs Monica Agaku, a 75-year old woman who was kidnapped in Tse Agbaragba village in Konshisha Local Government of Benue State, has been released. Mrs Agaku was abducted on Thursday, November 17th, by unknown gunmen, who stormed her house at about 1am and forcefully took her away. According to Benue.com, the elderly woman was released in the early hours of Tuesday, November 22.
Atiku Abubakar denies berating undergraduates in Nigerian public universities, says I’m a proud product of Nigeria’s public school
Former VP Atiku Abubakar, has denied media reports that he recently berated undergraduates in public Nigerian Universities and compared them with his private secondary school students.
According to the report, at a birthday party hosted for him by students in his secondary school, Atiku allegedly said that no Nigerian public University undergraduate can compete with students in his secondary school, American University of Nigeria (AUN) Academy.
In this statement released by his media organization today, Atiku denied making such a statement. According to him, he is a proud product of public schools in Nigeria. Read his statement below ...
On Wednesday, 16 November I was at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, as chairman of the annual Zik Lecture Series, where I delivered remarks titled “Crisis, Education and Africa’s Recovery”. The speech, as with many I have made in recent times, has been focused on the roles of government and private sector in providing world class education in Nigeria.
Here is a small part of that speech:
“I could not have gone to school if my parents were required to pay for it. That and the importance of education to nation building is the reason why I strongly believe that primary and secondary education should be free and compulsory in our country and indeed across Africa. That way every child gets to acquire basic education to help them improve their lives and help us produce an enlightened citizenry. That is how it is in the countries that we look up to as models of development.”
On Friday, 18 November I was at the AUN Academy, the secondary school I founded in 1989 (back then as ABTI Academy). While remarking on the eloquence of the head boy, I noted that I was in Unizik as well as AUN (the university I founded) a few days before, and this boy was eloquent as the students I met in both institutions. I encouraged the young man to keep up studying. My statement was clearly a compliment to the brilliance of this exceptional child.
It was surprising to me to see headlines the next day from various publications, including The Cable andBellaNaija, among many others, with headlines declaring Atiku had insulted public universities. There were quotes in the papers which were so unfairly misrepresented; I had no option but to publicly call them lies. I expected more from our press – usually, journalists would refer back to the subject of a report for comment before publication. No one contacted me or my media office. Of course the lie spreads far and wide, in spite of my denial on social media.
So there is no doubt, I am a proud product of Nigerian public schools, and would never insult the institutions which made me.
That episode was still ongoing when I saw a report from Premium Times that I blasted the president as ineffectual in the fight against Boko Haram. A very shocking report.
To clarify, here are a few experts from my remarks:
The insurgents still occupy a specific geographical space. They (Boko Haram) still retain the capacity for occasional deadly attacks. Many citizens in the zone still remain vulnerable and live in fear.
We cannot say that the problem is over until every displaced person is able to return home, to the office, to the market, to the farm, and resume normal activities. We cannot say it is over until we rebuild the schools, the churches, the hospitals, the markets, and the homes that had been destroyed. And we cannot say it’s over until the survivors of this insurgency receive the help they need, including psychological therapy to deal with the trauma that they have been through.
I visited an IDP camp on Saturday and had the privilege of teaching a math class to some children. But the site of hundreds of children running around and unable to attend school was very gut wrenching. It still breaks my heart. So we cannot say the insurgency is over until all the displaced children return to their schools.
And, as I indicated last year, it would not be enough for people to simply return to their pre-insurgency lives. We must do better than that otherwise we would only have papered over the wound without really treating it.
Looking through the remarks, I do not understand how this is a criticism of the president or anyone. Without a doubt, I am from Adamawa State, a state badly affected by the insurgency. I am a stakeholder in the welfare of the people of my state and the north east. I have been supporting the insurgency effort since the last administration, including funding local vigilante operations, which helped repel the insurgents’ attempts in various parts of the state.
Working with my charity organisation, we supported displaced people who flowed in large numbers into Yola, as the insurgency hit their homes. We still support the feeding and housing of thousands of IDPs who call Adamawa home. As one of the leading sons of Adamawa, I see this as my responsibility (although being politically active citizen, many have misconstrued my efforts as part of some grand political drama). In order to keep these events non-political, we do not invite the press to our weekly food deliveries; neither do we promote our seed and farmland distribution events for IDPs.
We do what we do, because the North East is our home. Even if the state institutions fail, we have a responsibility to stand in the gap. The reported starvation in many camps around the country is an example of what could happen if private efforts don’t fill the institutional gaps.
FUNAAB Vice Chancellor arrested, to be arraigned for alleged misappropriation of funds
The Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, FUNAAB, Prof Olusola Oyewole, has been arrested by EFCC operatives for alleged misappropriation of funds of the institution.
A statement by the antigraft agency says the Vice Chancellor, Pro-Chancellor of the school Senator Adeseye Ogunewe, and the Bursar, Moses Olusola Ilesanmi will on Friday November 25th, be arraigned in court over an alleged case of Abuse of Office and misappropriation of funds reported against them and some members of the Governing Council.
According to a petition submitted to the EFCC by the Concerned Stakeholders of the Federal University of Agriculture, it is alleged that the Pro Chancellor, the Vice Chancellor and the Bursar engaged in an “unbridled corruption and betrayal of public trust”.
Donald Trump appoints first woman to cabinet as ‘Ambassador to the UN’
US president elect, Donald Trump will be announcing South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley as his ambassador to the United Nation. The 44 year old Republican governor who is currently serving her second term, having worked on trade and labor issues, has reportedly accepted the President elect’s offer to serve in his administration, according to CNN report. She's the daughter of Indian immigrants
She is being described as the establishment’s choice to represent a sensible side of Republicanism, despite her criticism of some Donald Trump’s proposals in the past. If confirmed, Ms Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants will be replaced in her current role by Henry McMaster, a top Trump ally.
Morocco walks out of Arab-Africa summit, other Arab countries follow suit in support
9 Arab countries, including Morocco, have pulled out from the 4th Arab-African Summit in Malabo (Equatorial Guinea), in protest against the participation of the so-called Desert Polisario separatist delegation.
The countries that withdrew from the summit in solidarity with Morocco are Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Sultanate of Oman, Jordan, Yemen and Somalia.
Others are also expected to follow suit according to Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Desert Polisario separatist delegation talks of a ‘Sahrawi rebel national liberation movement’ aiming at ending Moroccan presence, in the Western Sahara. Western Sahara is home to the Algerian-backed Polisario Front in the region. The ‘Sahrawi people’ are however, the people living in the western part of Sahara desert which includes Western Sahara, other parts of southern Morocco not claimed by the Polisario, most of Mauritania, and the extreme southwest of Algeria.
According to a press release issued by the Moroccan Foreign Affairs ministry;
“All these countries back Morocco in conformity with the principles of international law including the respect of sovereignty of countries and their territorial integrity, its high esteem” for the “brotherly African country” of Equatorial Guinea, Morocco recalls the “shared commitments” made by Arab and African countries during the 2nd and 3rd Arab-African summits held respectively in Libya in 2010 and Kuwait in 2013. During these summits, Arab and African countries agreed that “only UN member countries” should be allowed to participate in the Arab-African summits.
The withdrawal of Morocco and its powerful Arab Gulf Countries has weakened the gathering which some countries used to undermine Moroccan sovereignty and territorial integrity but their plot blew up in the face.
They forgot that North African Kingdom is one of the strategic partners of the Arab rich Gulf monarchies. These countries support Moroccan territorial integrity and back its sovereignty over Sahara, hailing autonomy plan for the Moroccan Sahara.
Last April, Morocco and GCC convened in Riyadh their 1st summit meeting, a historical event that ushered in a new era in partnership between Rabat and the six-member powerful regional economic bloc, sharing common geostrategic, economic, and religious interests.
Meanwhile, Morocco withdrew from the AU in 1984, when the mineral-rich and sparsely populated Saharan Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), commonly known as Western Sahara, was accepted as a member. Morocco however requested to join the African Union again in September after 32 years, before its current reported withdrawal.
Pres. Buhari at the Africa-Arab Summit
President Buhari participated at the opening Ceremony and Working Session of the 4th Africa-Arab Summit in Malabo Equatorial Guinea today November 23rd
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