SENATE PRESIDENCY: TENSION AS APC PICKS CANDIDATE

 THE criteria recently announced by the National Working Committee, NWC, of the All Progressives Congress, APC, on how the Senate President in the 8th Senate will emerge is generating ripples among senators.
Meanwhile, it was learnt last night that the meeting between the APC leadership and senators-elect where a consensus on the issue of the Senate President was to be resolved may have been shifted.
One of the two camps was said to have pressed for the shift because of the insufficiency of the support it was expecting to show to the party leadership.
The APC NWC, at its meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, Tuesday night, had listed certain criteria which the next Senate president must possess.
Some of the criteria stipulated that the party’s candidate for the post must come from the geopolitical zone with the second highest number of votes after the North-West during the Presidential election held on March 28.
It also said that the next Senate president must not have any corruption charges hanging on his or her neck and should be one of the most ranking senators in the current Fourth Republic.
A senator privy to the meeting said the leadership of the party was mandated to, within three days, present the most eligible aspirant as consensus candidate for the post based on the listed criteria during inauguration next week.

Two Anambra State University students allegedly die after an all night romp

Two students, a male and female of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, COOU, Igbariam, Anambra State, have reportedly died in a hostel room located near the school.

The students according to their counterparts who spoke to journalists said the girl who is from Imo state and a student of the institution visited his male friend who is also a student, and had gone to bed on Saturday but never awoke the next day.

One of the sources who spoke to our reporter said that they awoke on Sunday morning and there was no sign of the student, who is said to be a 300level student of public administration.

It was gathered that the students had both died after sex romp together unknown to their neighbors who never knew of their fate until their bodies started decomposing.

The bodies were said to have been found on Tuesday by another student who lives in the hostel and had promptly raised alarm, leading to the police being invited.

Gunmen Invade Orient Petroelum Refinery , Kill 3 Burnt 10 Caterpillars

Three persons were feared dead and property worth millions of naira, including 10 caterpillars and houses,
were destroyed when gunmen suspected to be from Ibaji Local Government Area of Kogi State invaded the facilities of the controversial Orient Petroleum Resources at Aguleri Otu in Anambra East Local Government Area of Anambra State.
The three dead persons were staff of the oil company, while several others injured in attack are receiving treatment in hospitals.
Orient Petroleum, commissioned by former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2012, had been in dispute between the neighbouring communities in Kogi and Anambra states, with both sides laying claims to ownership of the oil rich land.

AMBODE READS RIOT ACT TO LASTMA, KAI

Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, has read the riot act to officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA and the Kick Against Indiscipline, KAI to brace up to the task of traffic management and environmental hygiene.
Ambode who addressed LASTMA and KAI officials at the State House, Ikeja, Lagos, southwest Nigeria on Wednesday, said the feedback out there is that traffic had worsened in recent times.
He said LASTMA and KAI were the face of Lagos as whatever they do would affect the image of his government.
Ambode stated that all traffic blackspots must be identified and dealt with, saying that he wanted the LASTMA officers to offer 24-hour service to ease traffic gridlock in busy areas
He added that places like Third Mainland Bridge, Abule Egba, Dopemu, among others which had constituted traffic black spots must be decongested immediately to allow traffic flow.

NIGERIANS WON’T REGRET ELECTING ME, SAYS BUHARI

President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday assured Nigerians that he would do all within his powers to ensure that they do not regret entrusting national responsibility to him by electing him during the March 28 Presidential election.
He said his administration was capable of fixing the nation’s problems. 
Buhari made the submission in an address he delivered to members of the Nigerian community in Niger during his visit to the country.
A copy of his speech was made available to journalists in Abuja by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu.
Buhari told the Nigerian community that his government is just coming on board and is still in the process of setting out appropriate modalities on how to actualise its agenda of revamping Nigeria as contained in the manifesto of the All Progressives Congress.
He noted that Nigerians voted for him based on the party’s manifesto.
He however urged them to exercise patience because the task of rebuilding Nigeria is an arduous one.
He reiterated his position that to ensure accelerated development, his administration would concentrate on challenges of insecurity, near economic collapse, pervasive corruption and power shortages among others. 

TANKER DRIVERS BANNED FROM NIGHT TRAVELS

The Petroleum Tankers Drivers (PTD) of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) yesterday banned its members from driving at night. It said any member who flouts the order may have their vehicle impounded.
A statement by PTD’s National Public Relations Officer, Comrade Atanda Adebayo, warned drivers to stop night travels.
He said: “In the light of the worrisome increase in accidents
involving petroleum tankers, all branches of the union have been directed to impound any petrol tanker operating at night. This directive has long been in existence, we have always been warning our members to stop driving at night but we would now take it more serious.”
He added that all measures would be put in place to deal with the menace.
According to him, PTD believes it is safer for petrol tankers to move at daytime because such would always minimize casualties anytime an accident happens.

PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI IN NIAMEY

President Muhammadu Buhari being received by President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger Republic on arrival in Niamey for bilateral discussions between the two country on the menace of the Boko Haram insurgents in North-eastern Nigeria

TOMPOLO DENIES RECEIVING N1.5BN MONTHLY

High Chief Government Ekpomupolo, also known as ‘Tompolo’ has denied allegations made against him by the pioneer chairman of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Alhaji Tijani Ramalan, that he was paid N1.5billion monthly for the protection of the nation’s maritime domain.
Speaking through his spokesperson, Comrade Paul Bebenimibo,Tompolo said Ramalan is merely seeking desperate attention in the hope of getting a job.
The statement reads in part: “My attention has been drawn to a publication in the Leadership newspaper of Wednesday June 3, 2015. In the said publication, one
Ahmed Tijani Ramalan made very wild, unsubstantiated allegations against my person that the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety
Agency (NIMASA) pays me the sum of N1.5 billion monthly for the protection of the nation’s maritime domain.

NVESTIGATION: How Nigerian, AU officials maltreated, cheated Ebola volunteers in Liberia, Sierra Leone

Nigerians who volunteered to help fight the deadly Ebola disease in Sierra Leone and Liberia, returned home a fortnight ago, after spending about six months on the frontline against a virus that ravaged several countries last year, killing over 20,000.
The volunteers returned alive and well, although they are yet to complete an expected 21-day quarantine period.
But they have sad tales of deprivation and maltreatment, and accuse officials of the Nigerian government and the African Union of stealing from them while they risked their lives.
On Wednesday, some of the volunteers were locked in a hotel in Abuja where they had camped since returning to Nigeria, after days of bickering with health ministry officials.
PREMIUM TIMES’ investigation, interviews with officials of the Nigerian government and the AU, and several volunteers since their arrival in Abuja, show a programme that was beset by crisis, poor management and fraud, worse than the hotel scandal.

CHOIRMASTER RAPES FEMALE CHORISTER IN LAGOS

 A bricklayer and choirmaster, Adewale Babalola, who allegedly had unlawful carnal knowledge of a 16-year-old chorister in his church, was on Thursday brought before a Yaba Chief Magistrates’ Court in Lagos.
The accused, 36, who lives at No. 11, Maxwell Ijeh St., Aguda in Surulere area of Lagos, is facing a charge of unlawful sexual intercourse.
According to the prosecutor, ASP Godwin Anyanwu, the accused committed the offence on Dec. 2, 2014 at his apartment.
He said the accused took undue advantage of his relationship with the teenager as her choirmaster at Christ Our Light Glory Church, Sanya in Surulere, to commit the crime.
“The girl told her father, who is also an evangelist in the church that the accused lured her into his room and forcefully had a carnal knowledge of her.
“The father reported the matter to the General Overseer of the church, but no action was taken which compelled the victim’s father to report the matter at the police station,” Anyanwu said.
The offence, Anyanwu noted, violated Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.
Babalola, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.