Alhaji Adamu Chilariye, the Chairman Yobe State Executive Committee (SEC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of illegally buying the permanent voter’s card (PVC) of unsuspecting members of the public.  

He made the accusation on Thursday at a press briefing in Damaturu where he stated that the state EXCO of the APC was notified of the development. 

“The PDP political office holders in Yobe Zone B have been using surrogates to purchase voter’s cards within Potiskum town at the cost of N5000  per PVC”  

He said the APC has lodged complaints with the security agencies against the illegal act. However, Chilariye advised the general public to be careful not to fall into the  politicians’ trap. The chairman  disassociated SEC from some political aspirants in APC who had begun to deceive members of the party that they were endorsed by the SEC.

“The SEC wishes to state that it has no anointed aspirant and will only support the candidate that emerges as the party’s flag bearer during primaries.”, the chairman said.

The Abia state police command have arrested six suspected homosexuals who were caught kissing and caressing at the City Global Hotel in Aba, the state capital. 

Parading the suspected homosexuals before newsmen, the state police commissioner, Anthony Ogbizi, said the hotel manager had alerted the police after two of the homosexuals were found kissing and caressing themselves by the hotel bar. A search in a room where one of them checked in, showed that there were several others in the room caressing and kissing themselves. 

According to the police report, the suspects were interrogated and it was discovered that they were members of a gang who came into Abia from nearby states to practise the unnatural act in the hotel room.

The suspects, however, denied committing the crime, saying that they were in Aba for the birthday party of one of their friends, Ndubuisi, adding that their families were not aware that they were arrested.

One of them, Chidera, who is an Imo State University undergraduate, said they were all in one room because they were told that the category of room they asked for was not available.

“I arrived the hotel at about 6pm and I asked my friend to book for a room for me. The hotel management said we should pay N5,000 for a room and we could afford it. So, we decided to manage that one room. After drinking at the hotel bar, we went to the room to change our clothes.  It was at that time that we heard a knock on the door and when we opened the door, the manager started asking why we were six in the room. After explaining to him, he said they don’t allow more that three persons in a room and that was how he accused us of practising homosexuality in the room. There was nothing like kissing or making love in the room and we are not gays.” she said

 Another suspect, Ndubuisi, who claimed to be a hair stylist, also stated that he only invited his friends for his birthday party and lodged them in the hotel, adding that they did not indulge in any homosexual act.

“I invited my friends for my birthday and I wanted to pay for two rooms but we couldn’t because the rooms were filled up, that was why we were in one room,” he said.

The Commissioner of Police, however, said the hotel management would bring the evidence against the suspects, who, he said, would be charged to court.

As the plot by APC to impeach Senator Bukola Saraki thickens, two PDP lawmakers, Senator Rafiu Adebayo and Senator Isa Misau, have filed a lawsuit against the Attorney-General of the Federation, the police, the Department of State Services, the Senate and seven others in order to stop any attempt to remove Saraki as Senate President.

According to Punch, Senators Adebayo and Misau, who are supporters of Saraki and represent Kwara-South and Bauchi central senatorial districts respectively, instituted the fresh court action marked FHC/ABJ/CS/872/2018 before a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja yesterday August 13th.

Other defendants in the suit are: the majority and deputy majority leaders of the Senate, the Clerk of the Senate, the Deputy Clerk of the Senate, the Senate President, the Deputy Senate President and the Deputy Minority Leader.

In the originating summons filed on their behalf by Mahmud Magaji (SAN), the plaintiffs want the Federal High Court to determine whether in view of the provisions of Section 50(1) (a) and (2) of the 1999 Constitution, Saraki, who defected to another political party as a result of the division in his former party, can be made to vacate his office other than in accordance with Section 50 of the constitution.

The senators also want the court to determine whether Saraki can be compelled to vacate his office on the grounds that he is not a member of the political party with a majority of senators in the Senate in view of the combined reading of Section 50 of the constitution and Order 3 Rule 8 of the Senate Standing Orders.

The court was also urged to determine whether the Senate President could be said to have vacated his office by virtue of Section 50(2) of the constitution when he had not ceased to be a member of the Senate or the Senate dissolved.

In a motion on notice filed along with the originating summons, the plaintiffs prayed the court for an order of interlocutory injunction restraining all the defendants (except the Senate, Senate President and Deputy Senate President) jointly and severally either by themselves, their agents, servants and privies from unlawfully removing the Senate President pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit.

They also prayed the court for another order of interlocutory injunction restraining the AGF and the Inspector-General of Police from unlawfully interfering with the lawful legislative duties of the Senate President pending the hearing and determination of their originating summons.

Besides, the plaintiffs asked for an order of interlocutory injunction stopping the IG and the DSS from harassing, intimidating, arresting or detaining the President of the Senate in respect of the lawful exercise of his duties pursuant to Section 50(1) of the constitution and another order directing parties in the case to maintain status quo pending the determination of the substantive matter.

The motion was predicated on seven grounds amongst which were that the agents of the IG and DSS had taken steps to flagrantly breach the provisions of Section 50 by employing their agents to disrupt the plenary of the Senate without recourse to the said provisions.

Another grounds were that the constitutional provision of removal of the Senate President does not empower the AGF, police and DSS to unlawfully interfere with the legislative duties of the Senate by causing a blockade at the premises of the National Assembly complex or using their agents to disrupt the lawful duties of the Senate.

In a 13-paragraph affidavit in support of the motion on notice and deposed to by Senator Isah Misau, he averred that the Senate was a body recognised and established by the 1999 Constitution vested with powers of making laws for the good governance and well-being of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The deponent averred that the Senate held a plenary sitting between July 24 and 27 and that it was presided over by its President and that at the end of the sitting members adjourned till September 25.

Misau claimed that the All Progressives Congress as a platform for the Senate President had been bedevilled by crises resulting in divisions and factionalisation at the federal, state and local government levels.

 

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described the brazen threat by the Buhari Campaign Organization (BCO) to take over the National Assembly, should the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Presidency fail in their bid to forcefully change the leadership of the Senate, as treasonable.

The party said the threat has also further confirmed the involvement of the Presidency and forces associated with President Muhammadu Buhari in the invasion of the National Assembly, the besieging of the official residences of Senate President Bukola Saraki and Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu by security agencies as well as the plots to arrest, detain and impeach them ahead of Senate’s resumption.

Nigerians can now see, from the threat by the official campaign organization of Mr. President, that the Presidency was economical with the truth in its statement wherein it attempted to dissociate itself from the ugly developments in the Senate, which have put our nation’s stability and our democracy under serious stress.

Furthermore, we invite Nigerians to note that the All Progressives Congress (APC) has given its official nod to this treasonable threat by BCO to forcefully take over the institution of the National Assembly, an arm of government duly established by our constitution, thereby confirming its complicity in the attacks on the legislature.

Consequently, the PDP charges security agencies to save the nation’s democracy by immediately looking into the immediate and remote impetus behind this open threat to our democracy and make their findings public.

Senator Godswill Akpabio (APC-Akwa Ibom) says any move to declare his seat vacant in the Senate will prove abortive. Akpabio made this known when he spoke to newsmen in Abuja today Monday, August 13th.

The sentaor who defected from PDP to APC last week, said if his seat must be declared vacant, the seats of those, who defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), should also be declared vacant. According to him, if the excuse of those calling for his seat to be declared vacant is that there is no rancour in PDP to warrant his defection, they should also know there is no rancour in APC.

“Any defection from APC to PDP, we will like to declare those seats vacant. As you are looking at me, do I look perturbed? I have not heard the report. I think that is a rumour because at the moment, there is no division in the APC. The APC is one family.

“If you hear about R-APC that was not really a political party, that was not a division. It has since been consumed in what they call Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP)''Akpabio said

On the threat by APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole to get the President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki impeached, Akpabio said he was not aware of that.

“I just came in from Ikot-Ekpene, where I decided with my people to join APC. I’m yet to be briefed on any of those items. I have not heard anything. Why don’t you wait for me to formally talk to you? I believe that when the National Assembly resumes, you will hear from me directly. So, exercise patience’’, he said

Akpabio, while defecting from PDP to APC, also tendered his resignation as Minority Leader.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says it has uncovered fresh plots by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Presidency to use compromised security agencies and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to invite, arrest and detain Senate President Bukola Saraki and Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu. The party made this allegation in a statement released by its spokespernson, Kola Ologbondiyan.

The party in the statement, says it has also unraveled fresh facts confirming that the pressure by the Presidency for the reconvening of the Senate is out of a sinister motive and not for any emergency in the approval of the budget of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the 2019 election.

The fresh plot to detain the two presiding officers is part of renewed design to keep them out of circulation, ahead of Senate resumption, so as to enable the heavily induced APC senators, who are now in the minority, to throw up two of their members as Senate President and Deputy Senate President respectively on the excuse that Saraki and Ekweremadu failed to show up for proceedings in the Senate.

The party said that the new plot to cage Saraki and Ekweremadu, in devilish rehash of the Tuesday July 24, 2018 hostage-taking and invasion of their official residences by security agencies is coming after the August 7, 2018 failed attempt to use security forces to take control of the leadership of the Senate.

Apart from plots to arrest and detain Saraki and Ekweremadu, the PDP in its statement, says it has also been made aware of plans to use the EFCC and security forces to clamp down on their family members, including their wives and siblings as well as close associate, all in the effort to weaken their resolve.

Moreover, investigations by the PDP further confirm that the insistence of the APC-led Federal Government on the emergency reconvening of the National Assembly, ostensibly to consider INEC’s budget for the 2019 election, is part of APC’s thicker plot to execute their premeditated ‘coup’ on the leadership of the Senate.

PDP was further informed that contrary to claims by the APC and the Presidency, INEC actually submitted the budget to the presidency since February 2018, only for the Presidency to submit it to the National Assembly in July when the legislature was already going on recess; with a view to enmesh it in a needless controversy.

Furthermore, the PDP counsels Acting President Yemi Osinbajo to stop acting saint, as Nigerians are aware that he is part and parcel of the actors behind the sordid developments playing out in the National Assembly.

The PDP invites Nigerians and the international community to note the activities of the APC and the Buhari Presidency, which have continued to put the unity and stability of our nation as well as our hard-earned democracy under serious stress.

In all, the PDP cautions the APC and power mongers at the Presidency to know that Nigerians have seen through their evil intentions and will continue to firmly resist them by standing for democracy and the unity of our nation at all times.'' the statement read

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who has officially open up his intention to contest the presidency in 2019 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) saying he'll do just one term in 2019 if he gets elected.

In an interview yesterday, Atiku spoke on a wide variety of issues, including youth unemployment, the troubled education system, insecurity, and restructuring.

In his words, 'my agenda is centred on jobs. That is what I have been doing for the past 40 years. I am first and foremost an entrepreneur. A job creator. My group of companies has a workforce of about 50,000. This does not include the hundreds of thousands that are indirectly employed. I believe in creating jobs, providing opportunities, being united as one Nigeria, and securing it all with a military-industrial complex whose raison d’être is ‘Nigeria First.’

Would you commit to one term only?

Of course, I would! I have said this before on my own initiative. I believe in it. If I am elected as the President in 2019, I give an undertaking that I would only do one term. Having said that, let me remind Nigerians that Buhari also gave such an undertaking in 2011, but he is not living up to it today. My own case will be different. I am prepared to sign an undertaking to do only one term.  

Are you not just saying this to get the ticket and, ultimately, get elected after which you would feel no obligation to honour your words?

I am not Muhammadu Buhari. I do not make promises I cannot keep. I am assuring Nigerians that I will keep this promise. I am making it out here in the open. I am willing to sign a written document. If you or any other Nigerian can come up with an iron-clad legal document that binds me, I am willing to publicly commit to it.