I can swear in Oba shrine PDP did not offer us money —Edo Dep Speaker

Suspended Deputy Speaker of Edo State House of Assembly, Mr. Festus Ebea, has said that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, did not offer any of the members that defected to PDP from the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, money to defect.

He added that he was ready to go to the Oba of Benin shrine to swear that they were not offered money to dump the APC.

Ebea, who spoke with Aviation reporters at the Muritala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, said it was the state governor, Adams Oshiomole, who offered him money not to defect to PDP, adding that the current crisis rocking the Edo Assembly was due to the high handedness of the APC leadership in the state.

Edo State Assembly has been unable to sit as a full House since June when thugs evaded the premises and members engaged in a free-for-all.

Two factions of the House have emerged with 15 APC members belonging to one faction, while the other nine members, who are now PDP members in another.

Ebea, who is the leader of the PDP said “We are challenging him,(Oshiomole), let’s go to the Oba’s palace. I am a Christian, a communicant. I now said God because we are Africans, let me get to the level that people will really say, he is trying to prove his innocence. Let’s go to the Oba shrine and swear on who collected money. You heard that I collected N50 million from PDP or N75 million.

“I will swear that if PDP ever offered me money, I will swear even with my family, then Governor Oshiomhole too will swear if PDP actually gave me money and after that I will equally asked him to swear if he offered me money or not, because I was offered money by APC and I refused. Yes, Oshiomhole shared money to the so-called APC members. He offered them money and they know it.”

He accused the governor of high handedness and betraying APC’s founding members in the state.

“Before, people used to say Oshiomhole is the man of the people but he automatically changed. When they shout President Goodluck Jonathan is ruling with impunity or that ‘they stopped my plane,’ don’t listen to them. Governor Oshiomhole is the greatest peddler of impunity.”

We stopped Ikimi because of his awful past – Tinubu

The All Progressives Congress, leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has dismissed the recent umbrage raised against him by former party associate, Chief Tom Ikimi as the fury of a political profiteer frustrated from an ignoble enterprise. 

Ikimi had last week walked away from the APC, alleging that Tinubu had turned the party into a personal estate and accused him of assuming powers and influence through political subterfuge.

Ikimi had in the statement resigning his membership of the party, expressed his revulsion at the strong opposition mounted against his move for the chairmanship of the APC expressing outrage that Tinubu was a low ranking political operative when he was already the national chairman of one of Nigeria’s two political parties in the early nineties.

In his riposte yesterday, Tinubu said that the APC hierarchy had, in consideration of what he described as Ikimi’s awful past sought to reform him within the camp of the progressives but over time saw that he was unredeemable as he claimed he continued to play the script of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

He said:

I ordinarily would not have responded to Tom Ikimi’s lengthy chronicle of falsehoods, cheap blackmail and abuse. My only reason for this response is that I know Tom Ikimi’s style. He subscribes to the view that no matter how unbelievable a lie may sound if you brazenly assert it and repeat it often enough you may persuade many that it is in fact true. I have seen Ikimi perpetrate this deviousness in his years in public life.

lRegarding Ikimi’s bid for the Chairmanship of the Party

It was clear to practically everyone who had the interest of the party at heart that we simply could not have a man of Tom Ikimi’s antecedents as Chair of the party. As chairman of the NRC, one of the only two political parties in the country under the military transition programme, Tom Ikimi not only connived with the then military regime to annul the elections, terminate the democratic process and sell off his party, he became Abacha’s foreign minister, convincing the world that heinous state murders like the hanging of Ken Saro Wiwa were just acts!

If Ikimi were the Chair of APC, the party would have to sleep with both eyes open lest its chairman sell off the party before day break.

No matter what anyone may say about me, it is unlikely that I can be accused of supporting incompetent or morally light-weight individuals for important political positions. My philosophy is to put the best forward, men and women of competence and integrity, who can stand up to us politicians to challenge us and say no when necessary.

Such people are not noisy or able to gain attention by being loud, I believe my role is to do all I can to project them. Who in their right mind would compare the highly-principled Chief Bisi Akande, or Chief Oyegun with a Tom Ikimi?

Either of these two men are known for their no-nonsense styles, not once in their careers would you hear that they betrayed a cause or were anybody’s stooge.

lIkimi also concocts a story of a meeting he claims I had with Diezani on the Oando/ ConocoPhillips transaction on the eve of the APC Convention.

Only a Tom Ikimi can come up with the absurd falsehood that on the eve of the APC Convention when I was in crucial meetings practically round the clock, I was meeting with the Minister of Petroleum!

What exactly would have been the point of such a meeting especially on the eve of the Convention? Was it to prevent Ikimi from emerging as APC Chairman?

To what end? Of what value would it be to anyone except Ikimi himself? Besides, if this was so, why he is back to the same party that purportedly planned his downfall?

What is the Oando/ConocoPhillips transaction anyway? For those who do not know this is a private sale of the assets of ConocoPhillips to Oando.

It was not patronage of any kind from the Federal government. The Federal Government’s involvement was merely to formally consent to the sale. I was not involved and I have never been involved in any of Oando’s transactions.

Typically he plays on the fact that Wale Tinubu of Oando is my nephew. Oando has been thoroughly investigated by South African and British authorities in the past five years as part of the process of listing the company on the stock exchanges of those countries.

Those rigorous and comprehensive investigations conducted by the governments and risk control investigators are to discover the actual ownership of shares in the company. Politically-exposed persons like me are prime targets of those investigations.

All these investigations have shown that I have no investments in Oando. My public position on the entire transaction is that if an indigenous Nigerian oil and gas entity run by young, serious-minded Nigerians raise money transparently in the international capital markets to purchase private assets of a multi-national, the Federal Government ought to give its consent.

That it took so long is shameful. The Conoco/Phillips transaction was a $1.7 billion dollars investment in Nigeria that would create more jobs, witness the establishment of allied industries and make the Nigerian Economy more attractive. I would have been extremely proud to have made such a transaction possible.

lRegarding the nonsense about selling out on Ribadu.

I think common sense should dictate that if ever such a deal were reached we would have had to inform our members in all the states. How could that have been done secretly? How do you tell hundreds of thousands of people not to vote for your own party without it becoming public knowledge?

At the formation of the APC, a crucial debate ensued about what to do about persons like Ikimi who had done awful things in the past, but are now of the mind to align with the progressive tendency in Nigerian politics. Should we forever blacklist them?

This would have been the easiest route, but it would have kept rancour alive. It would have made us slaves to the bleakest chapters of our past. Instead, we opted to extend the hand of brotherhood, reconcile and put the past behind us.

This would enable a broader political consensus, while also giving the likes of Ikimi an opportunity to atone for their grievous wrongs against the people and be rehabilitated.

We know that many leading Nigerians had committed acts of shame, some for private profit, others who were otherwise decent people who had become prisoners to a terrible system.

Not surprisingly, Ikimi acting true to type abused that magnanimity. He was never sincerely committed to the party. He was always playing out a PDP script. He only wanted the chairmanship of the party as a bargaining chip for negotiations with his benefactors.

His defection purportedly on account of the loss of the chairmanship of the party is a mere subterfuge, once his ploy failed he had no other objective within the party. I knew he would go back to his sponsors. He is back in the company he deserves. And APC is better for it.

— Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

VANGAURD

Atiku to declare presidential ambition September 24

Barring any last minute change of mind, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar will, on September 24, formally declare his intention to contest the 2015 presidential election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The party will commence the process of picking its presidential flag bearer through direct modified primaries in October. The presidential election holds on February 14.

According to a news agency, Abubakar’s decision to signify his intention to seek election to the nation’s highest political office was reached at a meeting by his aides on Monday in Yola, the Adamawa State capital.

Details of the meeting are still sketchy because the politician was in Imo State on Monday to chair a lecture organised by the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF).

Atiku, reputed to have built impressive political structure across the country, served as vice president between 1999 and 2007 in the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

When he finally declares his intention, it would be the fourth time the former vice president has shown interest in the nation’s highest office.

He bided for the presidential ticket of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP) ahead of the annulled 1993 presidential election. The late multimillionaire businessman cum politician, Moshood Abiola, won that primary election.

In 2007, Atiku was the presidential candidate of the defunct Action Congress (AC) but lost to the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, who was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

In 2011, Atiku contested the PDP presidential primaries, but was beaten by the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan. He had returned to the PDP in 2009 and was granted waiver to run for the position.

But the former vice president again resigned from the PDP in February and defected to the APC a few weeks after the leadership of the opposition party, led by its then interim National Chairman, Bisi Akande, visited him at his Abuja home, asking him to join the party.

Ex-militants want Amnesty Beyond 2015

Former Niger Delta agitators under Third Phase Amnesty have called for the continuation of Presidential Amnesty Programme beyond 2015.

They said the programme must not be discontinued until critical areas identified by the Niger Delta Technical Report were addressed.

The Leader of Third Phase Amnesty, Ramsey Mukoro, said this in Yenagoa on Monday. He also appealed to the Federal Government to integrate the militants that were denied in the programme.

He said, “The Federal Government should ensure that those denied are enlisted into the programme because it will bring about lasting peace and contribute meaningfully to the development of the region.

“Also, the government should develop the communities, clean up oil spills and ensure that the impact of the 13 per cent derivation and ecological fund are felt in the communities.”

Commending the Federal Government on what had been achieved so far, he said more emphasis should be placed on community development and remediation of the environment.

He also urged the National Assembly to without delay pass the Petroleum Industry Bill into law, saying, “This is expected to benefit our communities in the long term.”

According to him, it will be a shock to ex-militants who are studying abroad under PAP to return home and see their communities still underdeveloped and the youth without jobs.

He lamented that ongoing gas flaring in the Niger Delta region was not only wasting the natural resource but also poisoning the people while the communities face threat from coastal erosion and other ecological challenges.

Mukoro said it was high time the people and environment benefited, blaming the leadership for the failure to ensure the 13 per cent oil derivation got to the oil producing communities.

He urged Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom states to create oil mineral producing areas development commissions to manage the 13 per cent derivation on behalf of the oil producing communities.

On the Niger Delta Development Commission, he asked the management on inspection and monitoring of projects and the Federal Government to give the commission proper directives on its mandate.

DNA evidence overturns 30-year convictions in US case

The elder of the brothers, Henry McCollum, is said to have the mental age of a nine-year old.

Two US men who spent three decades in prison for rape and murder, one of them on death row, have been released after DNA evidence proved their innocence.

Mentally disabled half brothers Henry McCollum, 50, and Leon Brown, 46, were convicted in 1984 of raping and killing an 11-year-old girl in North Carolina.

Recently analysed DNA evidence from the crime scene implicated another man, who is in prison for a similar crime.

A county judge ordered the immediate release of the brothers.

Tuesday’s court judgement followed an investigation by the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, which tested DNA evidence found at the scene.

The commission found that none could be traced to Mr McCollum or Mr Brown.

Brown confessed as a teenager after hours of interrogation by police
“This case is a tragedy which has profoundly affected not only the lives of the people involved, but which profoundly affects our system of justice in North Carolina,” said lawyer for Mr Brown, Ann Kirby.

No physical evidence
The near-naked body of 11-year-old Sabrina Buie was found in 1983 near the town of Red Springs, North Carolina. She had been raped before being killed.

Mr McCollum and Mr Brown, who were 19 and 15 at the time, were picked up by police a few weeks later. There was no physical evidence connecting them to the crime.

Mr McCollum confessed after five hours of intense questioning, without a lawyer or family member present.

His younger brother also signed a confession written by the police.

The two later recanted their confessions in court, saying they were made under duress. But despite a weak case, the brothers were found guilty and given death sentences.

Mr Brown’s sentence was later reduced to life in prison and his charge reduced to rape, but Mr McCollum remained on death row for three decades.

In the years since their false confessions, Mr McCollum and Mr Brown maintained their innocence and made a number of appeals.

In 2010 the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission took up their case and uncovered evidence the men’s legal team had not been able to obtain.

Life lost
The evidence found no link between the brothers and the victim, but did implicate Roscoe Artis, 74, who lived close to where the victim’s body was found.

Although he was not a suspect in the original case, Artis was found guilty for the rape and murder of another girl in similar circumstances less than a month after Sabrina Buie’s killing.

After Tuesday’s release of Mr McCollum and Mr Brown, their legal team thanked those who had worked to correct wrongs that occurred under the previous prosecutions

“It’s terrifying that our justice system allowed two intellectually disabled children to go to prison for a crime they had nothing to do with, and then to suffer there for 30 years,” said lawyer Ken Rose.

“It’s impossible to put into words what these men have been through and how much they have lost.”

Mimiko orders recruitment of 2,000 teachers in Ondo state

The Ondo state Government has directed an immediate massive recruitment of 2,000 teachers into its teaching service.

Briefing reporters on the development today, the Commissioner for Information, Mr.Kayode Akinmade said the Governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko had directed the state’s Teaching Service Commission to begin the recruitment exercise in earnest.

The exercise, according to the Commissioner was part of government’s efforts to create more gainful employment and improve the standard of education in the state.

Giving details of the exercise, he said 1, 300 University graduates with Teaching education qualification will be employed.

He added that 200 National Certificate of Education (NCE) graduates holders and 500 non-teaching staff will also benefit from the exercise.

The Commissioner said Applications Forms were to be obtained online by applicants for free, vide TESCOM website, (www.ondotescom.org) .

He stressed that applicant must be of Ondo state origin. Akinmade stated further that quality control system will be adopted in the employment process.

This, according to him, will include computer based test (CBT), with General Paper, Core subjects and use of English as parameters, adding that qualified candidates will be interviewed by TESCOM which has also been saddled with the responsibility of final selection to be followed by one week induction course of successful candidates.

The government says the recruitment drive was to strengthen the educational sector at the secondary school level as it moves ahead to create a world class standard.

Besides, the measure will provide jobs for the burgeoning population of unemployed youths in the state.

The state government had since 2009 carried out teaching employment on the basis of consequential vacancies.

Nigeria Losing N16bn To Oil Theft Monthly

The chief of naval staff, Vice Admiral Usman Jibril, yesterday disclosed that the Nigerian Navy has drastically reduced the volume of oil stolen monthly from 2.6 million barrels valued N47.190billion in January this year to about 900,000 barrels valued N16.335billion by June. This represents a decline of 65 per cent in the amount lost by the public treasury to oil theft over a period of five months.

Vice Admiral Jibril made the disclosure while receiving the new group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr Joseph Dawha, in his office where both agreed to work together to ensure oil theft becomes unattractive to those doing it.

The menace of oil theft has become a great threat to the public treasury so much so that President Goodluck Jonathan had to literally reduce the terms of reference of any naval chief to “stopping the oil theft”.

Jibril stated that the Navy on his watch has recorded successes in the war against oil theft, while welcoming the NNPC helmsman to his office.

“In the last several months, I can safely say that we have recorded huge success particularly in respect to oil theft and piracy. In January, for instance, we lost about 2.6 million barrels of crude oil to theft but in June, based on the record we have here, it has dropped to about 900, 000 barrels of crude oil.

“Apart from the fact that some people steal our crude oil and take it outside the shores of this country, we have Nigerians getting involved in this illegality by establishing their illegal refineries,” he said.

He assured the new team of the NNPC of maximum cooperation of the Navy in the area of maritime security.

“It is our fervent hope that we continue to work in harmony, and strengthen the existing relationship between NNPC and the Nigerian Navy. On our part, we will support you and try and do our utmost best to ensure we maintain maritime security that will allow commercial activities unhindered.

“The consequences of some of these activities are environmental pollution, apart from depriving the nation of its revenue, and, of course, it paints Nigeria in a bad light internationally, as if we are all criminals; this we must check immediately.”

He continued: “We identified four key areas that we are challenged in respect to maritime security starting with oil theft, illegal bunkering, piracy and then poaching, including illegal fishing in our waters.

“We have effective patrols around ships and anchorage positions, and today I can say that we have checked piracy within Lagos waters to the barest minimum. Piracy is not prevalent again. I want to believe that the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the NNPC will attest to the fact that crude oil theft is on the decline”.

Speaking further, the naval chief identified the limitations of the force in the course of their duties and urged those involved to address them.

“For us to be able to do our job well, there are some other parameters that are required of some other agencies that work with us; a classical example is evacuation of arrested vessels and oil tankers.

“Once a ship is arrested one expects that the content is returned to either the nearest IOC tank farm – if it’s crude oil, for instance, just products should be returned. With respect to prosecution, one expects that a certificate be issued on returning the product which is then documented and given to the prosecution agency which can also be tendered in court as evidence.”

Earlier in his address, the NNPC chief disclosed that his team was at the Navy headquarters to appreciate the naval authorities “for collaborative relationship that has existed between our two organizations” and to “strengthen the close ties between the Nigerian Navy and NNPC for the socio-economic growth and stability of our fatherland”.

“Peace and security are essential ingredients for growth and prosperity of our nation. The Nigerian Navy is a major platform for realizing that noble objective, particularly in the maritime domain of our dear country,” he said. “The Nigerian Navy has been of tremendous support to NNPC and its partners in fostering and ensuring secure environment for our personnel, facilities and operations across the country. This is largely attributable to your untiring support and leadership.”

The FMOH has confirmed 2 new cases of Ebola disease today in Port Harcourt. Total number of Ebola cases in Nigeria is now 18. Of these, 4 are in Port Harcourt. There has NOT been any new case in Lagos in the last 5days. Nationwide, there are now 8 survivors, 6 deaths; 4 cases are in isolation under medical care.

Police Thwart Plot To Kidnap Mother Of Minister’s Aide In Bayelsa

Policemen and military personnel yesterday thwarted the attempt by some gunmen to kidnap Madam Nwokoya,73, mother of the personal assistant to the minister of petroleum resources, Engr. Innocent Nwokoya.

Leadership gathered that one of the gunmen was apprehended by the team of policemen, men of the Joint Security Task Force and youths of Famgbe community of Yenagoa local government area of Bayelsa State, while the others escaped with gunshot wounds.

An indigene of the Famgbe community told leadership yesterday that the incident, which occurred at about 3am, was resisted by the police and the youths in a gun battle between the kidnappers and security operatives when the gunmen stormed the residence of the marine engineer to kidnap his mother.

Other sources claimed that the soldiers stationed at Ugbogoro junction of the community responded and thwarted the kidnap attempt.

When contacted, the spokesman of the State Police Command, Mr Alex Akhigbe, confirmed the incident.

Leadership gathered that while the gunmen stormed the residence of the Marine Engineer and could not locate the target, Madam Nwokoya, security operatives swooped on them based on a tip-off.

It was gathered that the kidnap attempt failed because the target did not sleep in her room,”they were desperately searching each room in the house before the security operatives confronted them in a shoot out.”

C”yes.it happened.Some gunmen had stormed the Fangbe community in an attempt to kidnap the Mother to the PA to the Minister of Petroleum resources.The police,operating on a tip off,laid ambush for the gunmen and engaged them them in gun battle.While one was arrested,others escaped with bullet wounds.”

Credit: Leadership newspaper