PRESIDENCY MOVES TO REPLACE MU'AZU WITH S'SOUTH GOVERNOR

Despite threats of sanctions by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the leadership crisis in the party continues to deepen, as aides of President Goodluck Jonathan have moved to replace the embattled national chairman of the party, Adamu Mu’azu, with an outgoing governor from the South-south.
This is coming as the former governor of Ebonyi State, Dr. Sam Egwu, has warned against any leadership change that would remove Mu’azu or members of the NWC, cautioning that the problem of the PDP stems from lack of discipline and internal democracy, which the incumbent NWC was not allowed to enforce at both the national and state levels.
THISDAY gathered that the move by the presidential aides and associates of the president is aimed at altering the zoning of offices in the PDP, which would see the national chairman of the party coming from the South-south, while the presidential candidacy will be zoned to the North, preparatory to the 2019 election.

BUHARI WILL SHOCK NIGERIANS –APC CHIEF

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress and the party’s senatorial candidate for the Akwa Ibom North-West senatorial district, Chief Inibehe Okori, has said that the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, will shock critics with his pronouncements on May 29.
Speaking in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, on Sunday, Okori stated that Buhari would prove to Nigerians and the international community that corruption would be checked as soon as the president-elect settled down to work.
He added that Buhari’s proclamation, dedication and discipline will go a long way in restoring hope, faith and confidence of the citizens in the country.
He said, “Unlike other presidents who were not prepared for leadership but foisted on the country by individuals and interest groups, the President-elect has consistently presented himself to the electorate to lead the country on four occasions and had his visions well enunciated.

TROOPS ARREST INSURGENTS’ FUEL, FOOD SUPPLIER

A man who specialises in supplying fuel and food to terrorists was yesterday morning nabbed in Daban Shata in the suburbs of Baga, Borno state.
The military intelligence has been trailing him till he was eventually trapped in the early hours of yesterday. He is presently undergoing interrogation.
In another development, troops on patrol yesterday located 260 women and children in the outskirts of Chalawa village in Adamawa state where they had been held up while trying to escape from terrorists. They have now been conveyed back to their various communities in Madagali after undergoing the normal security profiling.

BUHARI TO PROBE SERVICE CHIEFS, DEFENCE BUDGET

A comprehensive probe of the prosecution of the war against Boko Haram and the spending of defence budget is the offing, New Telegraph has learnt. A top military source said at the weekend that the incoming administration of Major General Muhammadu Buhari, was planning to institute the probe during which some service chiefs, past and present, would be summon to defend their tenure, especially how defence budget was spent under their watch. The source said the incoming administration was considering setting up a truth and reconciliation committee on the six-year old terror war.
The Boko Haram insurgency, which started in 2009 in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, has claimed about 15, 000 lives, destroyed property and turned thousands of people to refugees. It was also gathered that some former service chiefs and military commanders that held strategic operational and command positions, might appear or be asked to appear before the panel, whenever it is constituted, to give account of what they did and knew about the fight against insurgency.

Boko Haram Fuel And Food Supplier Nabbed; 260 Women And Children Fleeing From Terrorists Recovered In Adamawa





A man who specialises in supplying fuel and food to terrorists was this morning nabbed in Daban Shata in the suburbs of Baga Borno State. The military intelligence had been trailing him till he was eventually trapped in the early hours of Sunday. He is presently undergoing interrogation.
In another development, troops on patrol yesterday located 260 women and children in the outskirts of Chalawa village in Adamawa state where they had been held up while trying to escape from terrorists. They have now been conveyed back to their various communities in Madagali after undergoing the normal security profiling.
Some of them disclosed that they had to abandon their homes to escape from the terrorists when Madagali came under their attack, while others were actually abducted and taken there. The terrorists were however sacked from the Madagali recently.

PDP Crisis: President Jonathan’s Men Produce Evidence Of Corruption By NWC Members



President Goodluck Jonathan's associates have released up documentary evidence that members of the National Working Committee of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) stole funds belonging to the party's treasury shortly after President Jonathan lost the presidential election on March 28, 2015. President Goodluck Jonathan at the PDP fundraiser State House Photo
Two close associates of the president spoke to SaharaReporters on what one of them described as "shameless stealing of party funds by officials entrusted with running the affairs of the party."
The two sources disclosed that President Jonathan felt betrayed by the "greedy actions" of the NWC members. The Presidency sources gave SaharaReporters internal vouchers showing that the party's NWC members shelled out over a quarter of billion naira in unexplained fees to themselves on April 8, 2015.

PDP National Secretary Cautions Bode George Against Divisive Politics

My attention has been drawn to a communiqué purportedly issued by some PDP leaders in the Southwest calling on me, the National Secretary Prof. Adewale Oladipo and the National Auditor, Alhaji Adewole Adeyanju to resign from the National Working Committee. Prof Adewale Oladipo National Secretary of the PDP
According to the communiqué, the resignation was to pave way for the dissolution of the National Working Committee as a fall out of the 2015 general elections.
However, a very careful examination of the inherent breaches in the procedures adopted in the convening of the meeting as well as the content and tone of its resolution shows an orchestration by a few individuals bent on sowing a seed of discord within the PDP fold in the zone.
This is evident in the fact that the said communiqué in no way reflected the views of majority of those who attended the meeting, neither did it tally with the opinion of the generality of our party members in the region.

14 TIME BOMBS AWAITING BUHARI

The curtains at Aso Rock Villa, Nigeria’s seat of power, will be closed against incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan on May 29. The mega opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) will thereby emerge as the new ruling party with the president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, taking over the reins of governance. But it will not be a tea party because of over a dozen challenges ahead of him.
Chibok Schoolgirls’ abduction saga
On the night of April 14, 2014, about 276 female students were kidnapped from the Government Secondary School, Chibok in Borno State. The dreaded terrorist sect, Boko Haram, later released a video on May 5, 2014 claiming responsibility for the abduction which drew national and international condemnations. There was a measure of confusion that trailed news of the abduction.
While initial reports had said 85 students were kidnapped in the attack, the military authorities released a contradictory statement claiming 100 of them had been freed, a statement that was later retracted. Over one year after their abduction, the schoolgirls remain in the captivity of the insurgents despite several assurances of rescuing them by the outgoing PDP-led government. One of the dashed hopes raised by government over their rescue came via a purported truce with the insurgents

US SHUNS NIGERIA, GIVES $35M TO FRENCH-SPEAKING NEIGHBOURS TO FIGHT BOKO HARAM

The United States seems to have again shunned Nigeria as it said it would provide $35 million in military and defence support services to France as part of America’s investment in the war against Islamist terrorist group, Boko Haram.
The countries that are fighting the Boko Haram and which are Nigeria's neighbour---Chad, Niger and Cameroon--are French speaking countries and have close relations with France. Cameroon was, however, not part of the deal.
The American support, contained in a press statement issued by the White House, is to provide assistance to France which has been actively supporting Nigeria's French speaking neighbours as well as Mali, which is battling Islamist extremism.

BUHARI UNDER PRESSURE OVER MINISTERIAL NOMINATIONS …

The heat of leadership is already being felt by the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari as pressure mounts over ministerial nominations from party leaders and state governors from across the 36 states of the federation.
Prior to his election, Buhari had vowed to prune the cabinet, insisting that 42 man cabinet as operated by the Goodluck Jonathan administration is not to the best interest of the nation.
Buhari also said his cabinet will not be for patronage, as only people of integrity and with professional backgrounds will be considered.
But barely a month to the inauguration of the All Progressives Congress, APC, government on May 29, Buhari is now being inundated with pressure by notable political leaders, who aided his victory and are now hoping to reap where they sown.
The party had requested three nominees per each state for Buhari to make final choice but it appears that the request is being spurned by some of the leaders who are insisting on hand picking their nominees.
Among these leaders, Sunday Mirror learnt include the APC national leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu; former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, some oil moguls and APC state governors, among others.