OSOBA, DANIEL SET TO JOIN APC

There are strong indications that former Governors of Ogun State, Aremo Olusegun Osoba, and Otunba Gbenga Daniel and their supporters are heading back to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Osoba and his supporters defected from APC to the Social Democratic Party (SDP) ahead of the 2015 general elections.
Osoba was a founding father of the APC but a disagreement with Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosu, also of the APC, and the inability of the national leadership of the APC to settle the quarrel led to his moving to the SDP with his supporters.
He also alleged marginalisation of his group by the national leadership of APC as the reason for the defection.
Osoba and his group contested and lost the last election on the platform of the SDP, though there were several last minute moves to reconcile with the APC.
P.M.NEWS reliably gathered that the reconciliation moves have been revived and delegations from the APC have met twice with Osoba in his Abeokuta home to ensure his return to the party.
Sources close to the two time former Governor of the Gateway State confirmed toP.M.NEWS that the first delegation led by the National Deputy Chairman of the APC and former Governor of Ekiti State, Engineer Segun Oni, met with Osoba immediately after the Presidential and National Assembly elections in Abeokuta.

JONATHAN GOVT INCURS N5TN DOMESTIC DEBT IN FIVE YEARS

In the over five years that President Goodluck Jonathan has been presiding over the affairs of the country, the Federal Government has borrowed N5.04tn from the domestic debt market.
Jonathan became Nigeria’s acting President on February 10, 2010 and substantive President on May 6,2010 following the death of President Umaru Yar’Adua on May 5,2010. On May 29, 2011, he was sworn in as an elected president.
Records at the Debt Management Office showed that the domestic debt of the Federal Government stood at N3,466,360,000,000 (N3.47tn) as of March 31, 2010.
The latest debt statistics from the DMO as of March 31, 2015 showed that the domestic debt had risen to N8,507,545,474,000 (N8.51tn).
This means that in the last five years, the Federal Government had borrowed N5.04tn from domestic lenders. It also means that within the period, the domestic debt of the Federal Government grew by 157.48 per cent.
A breakdown of the domestic debt profile of the Federal Government by instruments showed that FG Bonds accounted for N5.37tn or 63.13 per cent of the total domestic debt.
The Nigerian Treasury Bills, on the other hand, accounted for N2.87tn or 33.68 per cent of the Federal Government total domestic debt profile.
Similarly, the Nigerian Treasury Bonds accounts for N271.22m or 3.19 per cent of the Federal Government’s total domestic debt profile.
The DMO statistics also showed that the domestic debts of the states grew by 116.83 per cent within the same period.

2015 POLLS: AMAECHI WANTS BUHARI TO PROBE ARMY, POLICE IN RIVERS

Rivers State Gov¬ernor, Chibuike Amaechi, has urged the incoming Fed¬eral Government to probe the role of the police and the army in the last general elec¬tions in the state.
Amaechi made the ap¬peal yesterday at the Greater Together Campaign Organ¬isation (GTCO) of All Pro¬gressives Congress (APC) special thanksgiving service to celebrate God’s faithfulness throughout the electioneering period in the state held at the Obi Wali International Confer¬ence Centre, Port Harcourt.
He alleged that the police, army, militants and the Inde¬pendent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were used to rob APC of victory and cause electoral irregularities in the state.
Also, he requested that the police commission should dis¬cipline police officers indicted in the electoral crisis in the state, “whether they were pro¬moted and transferred out of the state or not.”
“Let us ask the Federal Government to investigate the crisis in Rivers State. Army should be investigated because they participated in the general elections,” Amaechi said.
The state governor ex¬pressed gratitude to God for saving him from the outgoing Federal Government, through the victory of the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari.
“Why do I have to thank God? For our lives! He an¬swered our prayers by making Buhari the president. Imagine if Buhari did not win? Just sleep and wake up and imagine that Buhari did not win, what would have happened?

Apple Buys Chinedu Echeruo’s Hopstop.com for $1 Billion

Apple has bought Mr. Chinedu Echeruo’s Hopstop.com for one billion dollars, The Wall Street Journal’s publication, AllThingsDigital has reported.

Founded in 2005, Hopstop.com makes mobile applications for both iOS and Android that covers over 300 cities and that helps people get directions or find nearby subway stations and bus stops. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed as at the time of this report.
Echeruo, formerly an analyst at the investment banks and hedge funds, founded Hopstop.com in 2005.

Echeruo is now Chairman of the Board for Hopstop, has been compared to Israel’s Waze, which was recently acquired by Google for $1 billion. The move is seen as Apple’s plan to bolster its map offering, especially given Google’s recent acquisition of Waze.
A serial entrepreneur, Echeruo grew up in the Eastern part of Nigeria and attended Kings College, Lagos.

PDP GOVS TO BOYCOTT NGF MEETING • New leadership may emerge —Okauru

GOVERNORS elected under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may not attend today’s meeting of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), convened by the Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s-faction of the group.
The PDP-faction led by Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State has kicked against the meeting, saying that it was self-serving and an attempt to foist an unacceptable leadership on the body.
The administrator of the Jang-faction Osaze Onaiwu confirmed to Nigerian Tribune in Abuja on Sunday that the PDP governors would not attend the meeting.
He said that those convening the meeting were the same people that caused problems in the NGF leading to its split.
Onaiwu argued that if the PDP governors were to attend the meeting, it would be an indictment on President Goodluck Jonathan, who would then be seen as the person behind it’s crisis.
The factional NGF Administrator alleged that the All Progressive Congress (APC) governors’ motive for calling the meeting was indeed to indict Jonathan.
He added that the next set of governors must be allowed to reorganise the governors’ forum and choose their own leaders.
Onaiwu also rejected the role of the Director-General of the Amaechi-led NGF, Ashihana Okauru, saying that he has no right to write letters inviting the PDP governors to the meeting.
Onaiwu said if such letters were to be written, he would have been the one to do it or write them in conjunction with Okauru.

HOW JONATHAN OUTSMARTED APC – ABATI

The Special Adviser, Media and Publicity to the President, Mr. Reuben Abati, says President Goodluck Jonathan was able to outsmart the All Progressives Congress by quickly conceding defeat and congratulating the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari.
Abati said prior to the presidential election, the APC had threatened to form a parallel government and had even predicted that Jonathan would be like former Ivorian President, Laurent Gbagbo, who refused to leave office despite losing and was eventually dragged before the International Criminal Court.
However, Abati said in an article titled, ‘Right of Reply: Olusegun Adeniyi’s Trip to Babel,’ which was published on his official website, that Jonathan would forever be remembered as a hero who put his opponents to shame.
He said, “By his very unusual and highly symbolic act of graceful concession, President Jonathan snatched glorious victory from the jaws of seeming defeat. He outsmarted his traducers and became, overnight, a hero of global proponents of true democracy in Africa.

MASSOB DECRIES MEMBERS ARREST OVER NUMBER PLATE

The  Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), yesterday decried the arrest of its members by the police over Biafran Plate Number.

Addressing newsmen in Onitsha, Anambra State, the MASSOB Regional Administrator for Awka South, Chief Arinze Igbani expressed surprise that MASSOB members should be arrested over plate number when the law allows anybody to own plate number names.

“Why must they arrest our members over Biafra plate number when individuals and groups have their names as plate numbers”
“Our leader, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, directed us to put Biafra plate number which we did and the police are disturbing us.
This is a slight on us and we will not continue to allow them to disgrace us”, he warned.
The MASSOB administrator recalled that one of their members was arrested by the Fegge Police Station and transferred to Awka, State capital where he has been detained over use of Biafra plate number.

EFCC RE-ARRAIGNS SYLVA FOR N2.45BN FRAUD

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Monday re-arraigned a former governor of Bayelsa State, Mr. Timipre Sylva, before a Federal High Court in Abuja for fraud involving about N2.45bn.
The accused allegedly committed the offence between October 2009 and February 2010 as governor of Bayelsa State.
He pleaded not guilty to all the six counts when he was re-arraigned before Justice Evoh Chukwu on Monday.
The former governor also has similar charges pending against him before Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Sylva had earlier pleaded not guilty to the Monday’s six counts when he was first arraigned for the offences before Justice Adamu Bello (retd) on June 5, 2012.
The matter had to start de novo (afresh) following the retirement of Justice Bello, a development which prompted Sylva’s re-arraignment before Justice Chukwu on Monday.

The prosecuting counsel, Mr. Festus Keyamo, who signed the charges, accused Sylva of offences, including conversion of various sums of money belonging to the state with the aim of concealing their illicit origins.

OIL PLATFORM FABRICATION: IJAW YOUTHS DRAW BATTLE LINE

The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) on Sunday reacted to the controversy between the presidency and the owners of the multi-million dollars Egina Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) facility over the decision of the federal government to relocate the fabrication from LADOL yard in Lagos to Agge in Bayelsa State.

They said they would not allow materials fabricated in Lagos to be used in the platform in the Niger Delta region.
The IYC’s reaction is subsequent to an interim order of the federal High Court, Lagos, stopping the federal government from implementing the directive.
According to the IYC in a statement by its spokesman, Comrade Eric Omare, "We want to make it clear that whether court injunction or no court injunction, we would not allow materials to be fabricated in Lagos and used to build oil platform in the Niger Delta region. Niger Deltans have been taken for granted for too long and we would no longer accept it.

COURT ORDERS GTB TO REFUND CUSTOMER’S N5.3BN

A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Apo, Abuja, on Monday ordered Guaranty Trust Bank Plc to refund N5.3bn illegally withdrawn from the account of one its customers, Dr. Ted Edwards.
Justice Valentine Ashi, in his judgment, ordered that the N5.3bn should attract 10 per cent interest from Monday, when judgment was delivered, till the time the money was paid back to the owner.
The court also ordered that the money should attract another 21 per cent interest from December 12, 2014 when GTB allowed the illegal withdrawal, until the fund was eventually paid back to Edwards.
The judge, while reviewing the case in his judgment, held that the bank did not have any defence to its action of the withdrawal of the total sum of N5,240,516,186.21 from the customer’s account and thereby ordered the bank to pay the money to the owner through his Zenith Bank Plc account.
Edward, a lawyer of Edwards and Partners Law Firm, had initiated the suit, FCT/HC/CV/939/2015, in January 2015 following the alleged illegal withdrawal of the money on December 12, 2014.
The money was paid into the plaintiff’s law firm’s account with the GTB on January 2, 2014 by the Accountant-General of the Federation, Jonah Otunla.