INFORMATION MINISTER DISPELS RUMOUR ON DISSOLUTION OF JONATHAN’S CABINET

Lagos – The Minister of Information, Mrs Patricia Akwashiki, on Tuesday dispelled some media reports that the Federal Executive Council would be dissolved on Wednesday.
The minister made the clarification at a familiarisation visit to the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) in Lagos.
“I just want to seize this opportunity to say that I noticed in the Daily Trust of today (Tuesday) that it was said the minister confirmed that the executive council will be dissolved by tomorrow.
“At no time did I say anything like that.
“There was no reason for me to say anything like that, because all of us know that we are terminating together with the President on the 29th.
“At no time last week, did I say to anybody, especially, the Trust reporter that this government is terminating on the 20th.

Buhari’s election altered ‎negative perception about Nigeria – Gemade

FORMER National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and  Senator representing Benue Northeast senatorial zone, Senator Barnabas Gemade‎, said yesterday that the major threat to the nation’s unity, tolerance and peace was  lack of deep understanding and appreciation of one another by Nigerians.
Speaking yesterday in Abuja at  the official unveiling of a book, ‘Fragrance of Diversity’, Senator Gemade noted that the election of Muhammadu Buhari as President- elect during the March 28 Election has altered what he termed, negative perception about Nigeria, especially at the global stage.
The former PDP National Chairman , now a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC  urged Nigerians to sustain the momentum brought up by the successes recorded in the elections as that would help move the country forward.
‘Fragrance of Diversity’, a book which is written by Mr. Nosike Ogbuenyi, the Special Assistant to the FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed on Media, demonstrates how some of Nigeria’s cultural traits and diverse names which have often been misapplied as divisive tools can be transformed into positive instruments of unity.

Open letter to all Igbo elected politicial leaders

YOUR Excellences, Kindly permit me to use this medium to congratulate all of you on your most deserving but hard earned victory at the polls. I thank God for finding you worthy to occupy this position of responsibility and pray for wisdom and good health to enable you succeed in this national assignment.
It is very obvious that by this victory, you have been elevated to a position of honour and political leadership of both the Igbo nation and Nigeria as a whole. It is by this recognition that I wish to draw your kind attention to some critical issues which I consider pertinent to the political and economic development of Nd’Igbo in this new dispensation.
I believe that the political environment in Nigeria today has not only placed Nd’Igbo at a cross-road but at the same time at a political strategic advantage depending on how we play our card. There is no doubt that today the Igbo nation has become a powerful bloc that can influence, if well managed, the direction of political and economic activities in Nigeria to the advantage of our people in particular and Nigeria in general. You therefore need to be very creative in thinking and exhibit a high sense of political sagacity in order to discover the best route and a new role that will re-launch us into political reckoning in this new dispensation. I believe that the first test of this new political alignment shall be consummated with your role in the upcoming election of the Leadership of the 8th National Assembly.

Suicide bomber kills 9, wounds others in Adamawa market

A suspected male suicide bomber yesterday afternoon attacked the Garkida Cattle Market in Gombi Local Government Area of Adamawa State, killing no fewer than nine persons and wounding several others.
Reports from the area indicated that the incident occurred in the afternoon when the suspect who posed as a cattle dealer detonated the explosives on entry into the market.
Another version of the story however, had it that the bomb had earlier been planted within the area of vegetable sellers in the market from where the explosive went off.
Garkida town shares borders with Borno State and the Sambisa forest, the dreaded base of the Boko Haram insurgents.

Nigeria is ours to rebuild, Oyegun, Atiku, Onu tell APC Governors – elect

National Leaders of the All Progressives Congress, APC, have taken the task of rebuilding Nigeria to the doorsteps of the incoming governors elected on party’s platform, urging to bring change to the country.
The leaders who included the national chairman of the party, Chief John Oyegun, former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and former governor of Abia State, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu gave the charge to the governors-elect at a retreat organized by the APC governors forum to bid farewell well to the outgoing governors of the party whose tenures would elapse on May 29th.
The governors are Chibuike Ameachi(Rivers), Aliyu Wamakko ( Sokoto) Rabiu Kwamkwaso( Kano) and Babatunde Fasola of Lagos State who have served out by constitutional mandate of two terms.
Speaking at the event that ended about 10:30 pm, Oyegun who extolled the legacies of the outgoing governors enjoined the incoming ones to ensure that the expectations of Nigerians were be met in their various states.

CHIBOK GIRLS LIVING IN BUNKERS — GOV SHETTIMA

Borno State governor, Kassim Shettima, said yesterday that there was every tendency that the female students of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, abducted by members of the Boko Haram sect, in April 2014, were being held in bunkers, inside Sambisa Forest.
To this end, he has asked the military, which is currently combing the forest not only to fish out members of the sect but to also liberate the over 200 girls.
Shettima, spoke in Abuja, while presenting a paper at a two-day post election conference on security and governance, organized by the Savanna Centre, a Non Governmental Organisation, NGO, established by former Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari.
The governor, who was represented at the occasion by the Secretary, Borno Elders Forum, Dr Bulama Mala Gubio, said the sect, having operated in the large expanse of the forest for so many years unchallenged, were able to build a bunker, large enough to accommodate many people in the area.
He said, “We are suspecting that Chibok girls are living with the insurgents in bunkers, I think the military must carry out their operations beyond the surface earth. They (Boko Haram) were also known to have dug tunnels to enable them move from house to house. So, having been left unchallenged for such a long time, such possibility cannot be ruled out which poses serious obstacles within the forest, “the governor added.

DON'T PAY MORE THAN N6,350 FOR DRIVER'S LICENCE, FRSC BOSS TELLS NIGERIANS

Mr Boboye Oyeyemi, Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), said original Driver's Licence (DL) in the country IS N6,350 and applicants must go to any DL office of their choice for biometric capturing.
Oyeyemi said this in Abuja on Tuesday at a one-day workshop organised by the commission for members of security agencies in the country on verification procedure of DL and number plates.
According to him, authentic licence is produced in all the licensing offices in the country and that the process is thorough and saves costs for applicants that follow it up.
"Members of the public who give money and passport size photograph to anybody in order to collect driver’s licence are doing disservice to themselves.
"Going through third party costs more money and produces fake licence to unsuspecting applicants, which is an offence. Cost of original driver’s licence is N6,350 and the applicant must go for biometrics at any licensing office across the country to obtain the licence.

LAWYER THREATENS TO SUE BUHARI FOR DROPPING GENERAL TITLE FROM NAME

Lagos lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegoruwa has threatened to drag president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari to court, for asking Nigerians to stop calling him “General” from May 29.
A statement by his Media Director, Mallam Garba Shehu, had stated that: “From May 29, 2015, the President-elect and Vice-President-elect are to be respectively known and addressed as Muhammadu Buhari, President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Federal Republic of Nigeria and Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, Vice President, Federal Republic of Nigeria”.
Reacting, the lawyer described the statement as shocking and unacceptable.
He argues that by virtue of Buhari’s membership of the Nigerian Army, he became Head of State, and earned salaries and benefits even when he contested elections in 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015.
Adegboruwa warned that should Buhari ignore his appeal, by insisting on denying his past, whilst he continues to earn salaries and benefits through the same rank that he seeks to jettison, “I shall file a suit before the Federal High Court, to seek an injunction to restrain the President-elect from denying his official and legal titles, or alternatively, to give up, pay back and restore, all the pensions, salaries and benefits that he has so far earned, either as a commissioned officer of the Nigerian Army, or as a former military Head of State.”
The letter reads:

COURT DISMISSES AMAECHI’S SUIT AGAINST WIKE’S INAUGURATION

Efforts by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Amaechi, to stop the inauguration of the State governor-elect, Chief Nyesom Wike, as the state governor on May 29 suffered a set-back yesterday as the Federal High Court sitting in Owerri Imo State, struck out a suit instituted by the governor.
The state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Worgu Boms, and the APC had in suit number FHC/OW/CS/100/2015 asked the court to stop the inauguration of Wike and the deputy governor-elect, Dr. Ipalibo Harry-Banigo, on May 29.
But at the sitting of the court yesterday, the presiding judge, Justice S. M. Shuaibu, struck out the matter on the grounds that his court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the matter.
Counsel to Amaechi and the APC, Beluolisa Nwofor (SAN), had argued that the court could hear the suit as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that was listed as the third defendant, the police (listed as the eighth defendant) and the Department of State Security (DSS), listed as the 10th defendant, all had offices in Owerri.

OKONJO-IWEALA BAGS HONORARY DOCTORATE DEGREE FROM YALE

Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has received an honorary Doctorate degree from Yale University, one of the United State of America’s most prestigious institutions of higher learning.
The Minister was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters at Yale’s 2015 Commencement Ceremony in New Haven, Connecticut Monday.
She will be only the second Nigerian in the university’s 314-year history to receive its highest honour after Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka who received an honorary Doctor of Letters in 1980.
Giving out the award, the President of the University, Professor Peter Salovey described Okonjo-Iweala as “a brilliant reformer and dedicated public servant.”