AN ADDRESS BY THE GOVERNOR OF ANAMBRA STATE, HIS EXCELLENCY, GOVERNOR WILLIE OBIANO ON THE OCCASION OF THE SYMBOLIC MEMORIAL CEREMONY FOR NDIGBO THAT PAID THE SUPREME SACRIFICE FOR NATIONAL UNITY, JANUARY 12, 2015

 

Protocol

Ndi Anambra ekenem unu!

Nke onye chilli ya zelu o!

My brothers and sisters, today is a great day in our collective memory. Today, we begin the symbolic effort of casting a long look backwards, beyond the immediate horizon of our national experience, to honour the memories of our loved ones who lost their lives to the various dark chapters of our national history. In doing this, we are guided by our belief that life itself is an unbroken stream of experiences stitched together by memory. Without memory, life assumes the attributes of a futile gaze into the void of time! Now before I go any further, let us observe a moment of silence in honour of our brothers and sisters in whose shadows we stand here today.

Violence Continues: Suspected APC Supporters Raze PDP Property In Gombe

Despite the pledge by Nigeria’s two main political parties to violence free general elections, violent acts by their supporters appear to be on the rise.Two days after campaign buses of the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation were set ablaze in Jos, Plateau State, several property belonging to the Peoples Democratic Party in Gombe State were burnt down on Sunday.The Gombe incident occurred in Gona Village of Akko Local Government Area.A resident of the town, Mijinyawa Ahmed, informed PREMIUM TIMES that a convoy of the APC governorship candidate, Inuwa Yahya, instigated the violence in which the PDP office, two vehicles and several shops were burnt down. “The APC candidate was on his way to Billiri town for a rally and his convoy suddenly stopped in the town and some of the youth in the convoy began to destroy the billboards of Governor Dankwambo and other PDP property,” Mr. Ahmed said.The spokesperson of Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo, Junaidu Abubakar, confirmed that property belonging to the party and the governor were destroyed.“In their quest to destroy the billboards of the governor and burn PDP office, peoples shops were also burnt down completely,” Mr. Abubakar said. He also said the incident caused serious panic in the town because residents thought they were under attack from members of the Boko Haram sect.“Many people began running into the bush thinking that Boko haram are attacking them,” he said.However, the secretary of the APC in Gombe State, Umar Mohammed, told PREMIUM TIMES that the attack was instigated by PDP members“We were on our way to Billiri to receive decampees and as usual advanced party were asked to move ahead of the candidate’s convoy,” he said.“PDP members then blocked the road in Gona and refused to allow our members passage which led to a fight between them. “One of our members was even seriously wounded with a knife and is presently in hospital receiving treatment.”He said even after the programme in Billiri, words reached the APC that PDP supporters in Gona were armed and ready to ambush them on their way to Gombe.“When we heard what happened, we had to divert through Deba to go back to Gombe,” he said. The APC secretary also said the residence of the

Fulani, Kanuri Behind Boko Haram, Archbishop Says In Jonathan’s Presence

A senior Nigerian cleric has accused the Fulani and Kanuri ethnic nationalities of being behind the jihadist group, Boko Haram, which has killed more than 13,000 Nigerians in five years.
Speaking Sunday at a church service as part of activities to mark the Armed Forces Remembrance Day at the National Ecumenical Centre in Abuja, the prelate of Methodist Church of Nigeria, Samuel Uche, said Fulani and Kanuri have engineered the Boko Haram insurgency to seize power.
The comments came amid rising tension and fears over violence as Nigeria prepares for general elections about a month away.

PDP Lambast Maku, Calls Him An Ingrate

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described the immediate past Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, as a destroyer and an ungrateful party member.

Speaking at a re-conciliatory visit to PDP members who lost the primary elections in Niger State, the party’s National Vice Chairman (North Central), Alhaji Yussuf Ayitogu, took a swipe at Maku for defecting to the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

Ayitogu said that Maku was on a mission to destroy the PDP in Nassarawa State with his defection APGA after he lost out in the party’s gubernatorial primaries in the state.

Fire rages at Balogun Market

Property worth millions of naira have been consumed by fire at the Balogun market on Lagos Island.

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said the fire started at about 4.36am from an unknown source and has been raging despite efforts by the Fire service to put it under control.

NEMA spokesman Ibrahim Fariloye said in a text message that efforts to put the fire under control is still on-going.

Read Prof. Wole Soyinka Letter To General Buhari

The grounds on which General Buhari is being promoted as the alternative choice are not only shaky, but pitifully naive. History matters. Records are not kept simply to assist the weakness of memory, but to operate as guides to the future. Of course, we know that human beings change. What the claims of personality change or transformation impose on us is a rigorous inspection of the evidence, not wishful speculation or behind-the- scenes assurances. Public offence, crimes against a polity, must be answered in the public space, not in caucuses of bargaining. In Buhari, we have been offered no evidence of the sheerest prospect of change. On the contrary, all evident suggests that this is one individual who remains convinced that this is one ex-ruler that the nation cannot call to order Buhari? Need one remind anyone – was one of the generals who treated a Commission of Enquiry, the Oputa Panel, with unconcealed disdain. Like Babangida and Abdusalami, he refused to put in appearance even though complaints that were tabled against him involved a career of gross abuses of power and blatant assault on the fundamental human rights of the Nigerian citizenry. Prominent against these charges was an act that amounted to nothing less than judicial murder, the execution of a citizen under a retroactive decree. Does Decree 20 ring a bell? If not, then, perhaps the names of three youths – Lawal Ojuolape (30), Bernard Ogedengbe (29) and Bartholomew Owoh (26) do. To put it quite plainly, one of those three Ogedengbe – was executed for a crime that did not carry a capital forfeit at the time it was committed. This was an unconscionable crime, carried out in defiance of the pleas and protests of nearly every sector of the Nigerian and international community religious, civil rights, political, trade unions etc.

US War College Confirms Buhari Graduation

General Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, graduated from the United States Army War College in 1980, the college confirmed on Thursday.
In an email response to Sunday Iwalaiye, a US-based Nigerian who contacted the institution in view of the controversy about the General’s academic credentials, Carrol Kerr, the school’s Public Affairs Officer, said that Buhari earned a diploma.  He was at that time a colonel.

It is instructive that the American public institution’s response to Iwalaiye arrived within 17 minutes of his inquiry.  Ms. Kerr also confirmed that the college began to award Masters degrees with the class of 2000.

Boko Haram Attacks Cameroonian Military Base

Nigerian Islamic fundamentalists, Boko Haram, has launched an attack on a military base in Cameroon with at least one soldiers killed, local media reports

The attack occurred early Monday, about a week after Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, threatened attacks on Cameroon after the country’s military launched repeated assaults against the sect.

Chief Victor Umeh’s March to the Senate

 

Chief Victor Umeh is no stranger to the politics of Anambra state and Nigeria in general; over the years, he has demonstrated a brilliant ability to stand firm in the rescue of the Igbo nation from the hands of political jobbers and misfits whose major interest in politics is the acquisition of lucre while offering poor representation.

As we get set for the forthcoming general election, the people of Anambra Central Senatorial Zone are once again faced with the daunting option of electing a man of strong moral and political fibre to be their voice at the Senate of the Federal Republic. Interestingly, we have an array of individuals stepping forward to be counted in the race to the hallowed chambers of the senate. Where then is our choice and what are the qualities we should be looking out for in electing an individual that would speak for us?

Chief Victor Umeh’s March to the Senate

 

Chief Victor Umeh is no stranger to the politics of Anambra state and Nigeria in general; over the years, he has demonstrated a brilliant ability to stand firm in the rescue of the Igbo nation from the hands of political jobbers and misfits whose major interest in politics is the acquisition of lucre while offering poor representation.

As we get set for the forthcoming general election, the people of Anambra Central Senatorial Zone are once again faced with the daunting option of electing a man of strong moral and political fibre to be their voice at the Senate of the Federal Republic. Interestingly, we have an array of individuals stepping forward to be counted in the race to the hallowed chambers of the senate. Where then is our choice and what are the qualities we should be looking out for in electing an individual that would speak for us?