The Bodija traders to rebuild burnt police post

IBADAN—INDICATIONS emerged yesterday that traders at the popular Bodija Market in Ibadan, Oyo State, have accepted to rebuild the police post which was burnt down by some irate Hausa mob who stormed the market last Friday. This came as the Oyo State Police Command confirmed the release of 14 suspects arrested during the crisis. The Police Public Relations Officer in the state Mrs. Olabisi Ilobanafor, said, “Some of those arrested have been released conditionally having discovered through preliminary investigation that they must have been wrongly arrested.” div> She said anybody found culpable in the violence would be charged to court. Chairman, Bodija Traders’ Association, Alhaji Olalekan Azeez, also corroborated the police statement, saying, “The police have released 14 of our arrested members.” Meanwhile, the market will re-open today after the crisis was amicably settled at a stakeholders’ meeting that the executives of the market had with the Chairman, Ibadan North Local Government, Mr. Muritala Lapade, representatives of State Security Service and the Oyo State Police Command. The Public Relations Officer of the Market Traders’ Association, Mr. Akeem Emiola, told newsmen in Ibadan that “We (traders) agreed to cooperate with the police on how to renovate the burnt station.” The meeting lasted several hours after which the spokesperson of the market said, “The incident is unfortunate. As a matter of fact, we are aware that the police station is for our own security. To that extent, we are ready to work closely with the police in putting it back to shape.”

Read more...

The FG sacks SEC Board; names Bello acting DG

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/06/fg-sacks-sec-board-names-bello-acting-dg/

Acting Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ms Daisy Ekineh, two other Executive Commissioners of the commission and the entire SEC Board were, Thursday, relieved of their duty by the Federal Government, as their tenure expires June 15, 2012. Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has ruled out any tenure elongation for the Acting Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, Ms. Daisy Ekineh, stressing that SEC’s Director of Finance and Administration, Mr. Bolaji Ibrahim Bello, would assume office on Monday, June 18, 2012 as the Acting Director General.div> Meanwhile, Vanguard, gathered that staff attached to the office of the suspended Director-General, Ms Arunma Oteh have been redeployed.

Read more...

Covenant University Expels Final Year Lesbian student

Lesbian Expelled From University. The University authorities of Covenant University, Canaanland Ota in Ogun state, has sacked a 22-year old final year student of the University on grounds of lesbianism.

University Administration officer who spoke with Hope For Nigeria said that the student’s activities and unquenchable desire for other ladies was disturbing and embarrassing to the University.
He regrets the decision but said that sexual orientation and exploits does not give a Faith based University like Covenant, a good name.http://247nigerianewsupdate.com/covenant-university-expels-final-year-lesbian-student/
Read more...

what is special about sex

http://247nigerianewsupdate.com/man-dies-during-sex/

Peace Idorenyin, a commercial sex worker in Cross River State, has been arrested by the police in connection to the death of Ete Samuel, 30, a resident of Calabar, who allegedly slumped and died on Sunday while having sex with her.

Samuel, who until his death resided at 14, Ekpo Abasi Lane in Calabar South, allegedly went with Idorenyin to a motel on Atu Street for an evening sex session before the incident happened.
The owner of the motel, who did not want his name published, said that he was drawn to the room when he heard a shout. “When I got there, I went into the room and saw a young man on the floor with foam coming out of his mouth and I called the police who came and took the corpse to the mortuary and the lady to Atakpa Police Station,” he said.
Idorenyin, when contacted, said she was not the cause of the death of Samuel, adding that this was not the first time they had sex. She said she noticed that Samuel was shaking and she thought he was about reaching orgasm, “but when he did not make any move of coming down from my body after some time, I pushed him and saw that he was foaming in his mouth.”
“I did not kill him as many men have slept with me and they did not die and this was not the first time Ete Samuel was doing it with me,” she said. “I could have escaped, but since I know I am not the cause of his death, I had to wear him his trousers before calling people to help me.”
The state’s police spokesperson, Hogan Bassey, said investigation was still ongoing in the matter and that Idorenyin was still in custody so as to provide more information “on how the man died.”
Culled: Dailytimes
Read more...

jonathan can not recall me back says salami

The suspended President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Isa Ayo Salami, yesterday, maintained that President Goodluck Jonathan lacked the statutory powers to okay his reinstatement to office. The embattled PCA who spoke for the first time since the National Judicial Council, NJC, recommended his recall to President Jonathan, equally denied reports that he held a secret meeting with stalwarts of the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, saying the allegation was nothing but a “malicious attempt by some persons to tarnish my image.”
Refuting the allegation through his lead counsel and former Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Akin Olujumi, SAN, Salami, argued that the NJC ought not to have sought the consent of President Jonathan before reinstating him to office, noting that constitution bestows on the council the powers to order him to resume duties having lifted his suspension.
It would be recalled that Justice Salami held sway at the appellate rung of the Nigerian Judicial hierarchy till August 18, 2011, when he was ousted from office by the NJC on allegation that he lied on oath against the immediate past Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu.
Salami had in an affidavit he deposed before a Federal High Court in Abuja, alleged that Kastina-Alu pressurized him to pervert justice in a gubernatorial election appeal dispute involving Sokoto State.
However, NJC after a stormy session it held on May 10, urged President Jonathan to reinstate the PCA to office, a request that was ignored by the Presidency on the premise that there were pending litigations in court regarding the subject matter.
The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke Bello, had on May 22, contended that recalling Salami during the pendency of the cases would amount to subjudice.
Nevertheless, Salami, via a letter he sent to the NJC through his lawyer, asked the NJC to sideline President Jonathan and go ahead and order him to return to office.
Denies secret meeting with ACN
Reacting to his alleged convivial relationship with the ACN, Salami, through his lawyer, noted: “The latest antics by those who are hell bent on running down Justice Salami was the publication of May 31 in a national daily (not Vanguard).
“It was absolutely a lie. There was never any meeting at which Salami was present and at which he made any such submission. He did not attend any meeting with the people listed in the publication. When Salami read it, he said this was another plot by the enemies. They have been to courts. They have resorted to all sorts of tactics. This is the latest lie.”
Olujunmi stressed that Salami found it farcical for the sponsors of the said publication to have cooked up such deliberate falsehood, adding: “The folly of the sponsors of the publication was further ridiculed by the fact that Justice Salami will retire from the Court of Appeal bench in 2013 at the mandatory age of 70 years. The question that then begs for an answer is how Justice Salami who leaves the Court of Appeal bench next year, can influence the political permutations purportedly being made for 2015?”
Meanwhile, it would be recalled that an Abuja Federal High Court had last week dismissed a suit filed by one Noah Ajare who sought an order of the court stopping Jonathan from acting on the recommendations of the NJC relating to Salami’s recall.
Read more...

-how-i-escaped-with-my-daughter-survivor/

LAGOS – One of the survivors of Sunday’s plane crash, Mr. Iloka Chima who is still under- going treatment at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, yesterday, narrated how he escaped death by the whiskers. But this was without a rear display of   act of bravery, as he did all he could to also rescue his daughter even in the face of death.http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/06/dana-how-i-escaped-with-my-daughter-survivor/ Read more...

54.9 million registered in 17 days – INEC

Scenes from the ongoing voters registration

The Independent National Electoral Commission on Thursday said it had registered about 54.9 million people as at January 31.

It said in a statement in Abuja that it projected that 62 million Nigerians would be registered by the close of the exercise on Saturday (tomorrow). The exercise started on January 15.

The statement by Mr. Kayode Idowu, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, was made available to journalists on Thursday just as policemen in Oyo State found Direct Data Capturing machines in a forest close to a predominantly Fulani settlement in Saki West Local Government Area.

INEC, however, explained that daily nationwide average had “lowered to 3.2 million as against about 4.3 million per day earlier recorded.”

It said that it expected that the daily average would decline even further as more people get registered.

Idowu had earlier on Thursday told the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja that the additional N6.6bn needed for the extended period (seven days) of the voter registration was part of the N87bn budget meant for the entire exercise.

INEC had on January 26 requested the extra vote to complete the exercise. But Idowu dismissed insinuations that the N6.6bn request was in addition to the N87bn already received by the electoral body.

“The money that was budgeted earlier on, much of it was for capital projects. By budgeting procedures, if there is any recurrent expenditure, you have to appropriate fresh money for it regardless of what you have left in your capital vote,” he said.

Idowu added that the budgeting procedure did not allow for the spending of funds earmarked for capital projects.

The INEC chairman’s spokesman also said the commission would pay additional N14,000 to each corps member participating as ad-hoc staff in the exercise.

Idowu, who added that an additional N1,000 would be paid to them as daily transportation, argued that there was no reason for them to threaten to boycott the exercise.

Some corps members had threatened to boycott the exercise in various parts of the country over what they described as delay in making payments to them.

He added that INEC initially paid N10,000 out of N30,000 originally approved for each of those engaged in the exercise for two weeks.

“Just yesterday (Wednesday), INEC paid N10,000 out of the outstanding N20,000 and N7,000 upfront meant for transportation to cover the one-week extended time,’’ Idowu explained.

He assured that the commission would pay the balance of N10,000 incurred in the first stage and the N14,000 for the one week extension, at the end of the exercise.

Meanwhile, the discovery of a DDC machine in a forest in Saki West LGA caused a stir in the area as residents went on the rampage.

Eyewitnesses said it took the quick intervention of policemen to restore normalcy to the area.

Unconfirmed report said that 10 people including two members of the National Youth Service Corps were arrested in connection with the discovery.

They were said to be in the custody of Saki West Police Station at the time of filing this report.

When contacted on the telephone, the spokesman of the Oyo State Police Command, Mr. Tunji Ajimuda, said he was yet to receive a signal on the matter.

Also, the spokesman of INEC in the state, Mr. Ayodele Folami, said he was yet to get report from the Electoral Officer in charge of Saki West.

Folami said, “Necessary action will be taken as soon as the report arrives. Presently, we are not aware because we are still awaiting reports from our electoral officer from Saki West.

“Since the incident happened today (Thursday), you don’t expect us to know what happened until we get reports.”

But a chieftain of the Accord Party in the area, Mr. Jimoh West, confirmed the development to journalists.

“When people alerted us about the DDC machine in the forest, we went to report at the police station. We were accompanied by policemen to where it (machine) was (found) in the forest,” West said.

Source:Punch



 


Read more...

‘My election can’t be annulled like my father’s’

Chief M.K.O. Abiola
ECHOES of the June 12, 1993 election reverbertated in Abeokuta, Ogun State on Sunday with one of the daughters of the winner of the poll, Lola, vowing that no one would truncate her bid to represent Ogun Central district in the Senate.

She made the vow just as three governors – Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Timipre Sylva (Bayelsa) and Jonah Jang (Plateau State) – emerged victorious in the Peoples Democratic Party governorship primaries.


Abiola-Edewor and Iyabo Obasanjo – Bello, contested the senatorial primaries under two factions of the PDP in Ogun State on Saturday.

Abiola-Edewor won the primaries conducted by a faction said to have the sympathy of the state governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, while Obasanjo Bello emerged victorious at the other primary carried out by the faction led by Dayo Soremi.

A few days before Abiola-Edewor, a former member of the House of Representatives spoke, Obasanjo, a former president had stormed the PDP national secretariat last week to complain about the conduct of the primaries.

He was said to have threatened to quit the PDP if the perceived anormalies in the exercise were not corrected.

A source in the Ogun State Government House had told one of our correspondents in Abeokuta that the governor was under pressure from the Presidency to declare Iyabo-Obasanjo the winner of the senatorial primary election.

“There has been much pressure from Abuja on the governor to intervene in ensuring that Iyabo Obasanjo emerges as the senatorial candidate for Ogun Central,” the source said.

But Abiola-Edewor told journalists on Sunday that she decided to speak out because “there is a rumour that the powers that be want to annul the election that was conducted by the National Working Committee of our party and witnessed by the Independent National Electoral commission officials from Abuja.”

She expressed surprise at what she described as another attempt to perpetrate electoral injustice against the Abiola family and wondered why the family should always be a victim of injustice.

Abiola-Edewor said, “When Senator Iyabo Obasanjo Bello wanted to attend the screening, she came to the authentic party secretariat headed by Chief Joju Fadairo to get screened but on her own volition went to the illegal faction’s secretariat headed by Dayo Soremi to contest.

“Nobody can annul my election the way they did to my father. When the act of injustice was done against my father, he sacrificed his life and if needs be, I am ready to do same. I am not a coward.

“My father’s blood that was sacrificed for democracy allowed Iyabo Obasanjo’s father to be President. You cannot sacrifice me again,” Abiola-Edewor said.

In the PDP primaries conducted in the PDP faction headed by Daniel, Abiola-Edewor scored 567 against a member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Kayode Amusan, who polled 483.

Meanwhile, results of the governorship primaries held on Sunday started trickling in on Sunday afternoon with Sylva of Bayelsa State emerging victorious in the exercise that was witnessed by President Goodluck Jonathan.

Sylva scored 420 votes to defeat 12 other aspirants. His closest rival, Chief Francis Doukpola, polled 10 votes, followed by a former chairman of the party, Chief Fred Agbedi, who scored eight votes.

After the announcement of the result, Jonathan again called on Nigerians to guard their votes in the April elections.

The President was the first person to vote from his Ogbia Constituency among the 471 delegates that took part in the exercise conducted amidst tight security.

Jonathan said he decided to attend the primary in the state to demonstrate his belief in one man one vote, which he had been preaching.

“Many of you will be surprised that I am here. Everybody knows we are preaching one man one vote, one woman one vote, and one youth one vote. I came to vote, and I sat down all through to defend my vote. That was why I did not leave before the end,” he said.

The President said the era of ballot box snatching was over and challenged Nigerians to must defend their votes by ensuring that they were counted.

“You must vote and stay to the end and watch your vote. The era of ballot snatching ballot papers is gone,” he said.

Jonathan congratulated Sylva on his victory and advised him to work harder to ensure victory for the PDP in the April election.

“It was a landslide victory, it shows that your people still want you to lead them,” the President said.

In Rivers State, Amaechi also won by scoring 1,139 votes to beat Mrs. Dennisada Ben-Fiabeme, who polled only one vote.

Two other aspirants, Chief Celestine Omehia and Dr. Moore Oja Chinda, did not score any vote.

Though, Omehia was absent at the venue of the election, members of the election panel agreed that he was part of the race.

Speaking after he was declared winner, Amaechi called for the reconciliation of all the aggrieved aspirants in the state.

Amaechi’s counterpart in Plateau State, Jang was elected as the PDP candidate in a poll where he was the sole candidate.

Jang had 756 of the 763 votes cast by the delegates. Seven votes were voided.

Seven former aspirants had dumped the PDP for the Labour Party and Action Congress of Nigeria.

They included the state deputy governor, Mrs. Pauline Tallen, former governor Fidelis Tapgun, Messrs Jimmy Cheto, Pam Dung Gyang and Damishi Sango.

Jang, who thanked members of the party for voting for him, said the journey had been a trying one.

More results of the senatorial primaries particularly in Imo and Akwa Ibom State showed surprises as some heavy weights in the National Assembly were roundly defeated.

In Imo, for instance, Senators Chris Anyanwu and Osita Izunaso representing Imo East and Imo West senatorial districts lost their bids to Mrs. Kema Chikwe, a former Nigerian ambassador to the Republic of Ireland and Iceland, and Chief Hope Uzodinma, a member of the PDP Board of Trustees.

While Anyanwu polled 931 votes, Chikwe, scored 1,084. Izunaso got 891 votes while Uzodinma scored 2,147 votes.

Another big name loser in the state was Chief Cosmas Iwu, the younger brother of the immediate Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Maurice Iwu. He lost to Ambassador Matthew Nwagwu in the race for the Imo North Senatorial seat.

Only Senator Aloysius Etuk was able to revalidate his ticket among the three senators representing the three senatorial districts in Akwa Ibom State.

Senators Bob Effiong was defeated by Obong Ita Enang while Eme Ekaette was beaten by Mrs. Helen Esuene, wife of Housing and Urban Development Minister.

In Rivers State, Senator Wilson Ake, was declared the winner in Rivers West senatorial district.

A former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, who contested against Ake, Chief Chibudom Nwuche, however, claimed to have won the ticket.

He has already taken his protest to the leadership of the PDP through a petition to the party’s National Chairman, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo.

In the petition copied Jonathan, he alleged that non-delegates were allowed to vote in the primaries. Nwuche also said that the state chairman of the party, Chief Godspower Ake, paved the way for his (Ake) blood brother, Wilson, to emerge victorious.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Privatisation, Senator Ayo Arise, and his Drugs, Narcotics Financial Crimes and Anti-Corruption counterpart, Senator Sola Akinyede won in Ekiti North and Ekiti South senatorial districts.

The primary election in Ekiti Central Senatorial District, however, failed to produce a winner due to irregularities .

Our correspondent in the state gathered that a senatorial aspirant allegedly duplicated ballot papers used in the election. A delegate, who made this known, added that the aspirant bribed some of his colleagues to vote for him,

The delegate said, “ The aspirant’s delegates were able to fraudulently vote by proxy for other delegates in Ado-Ekiti, Ijero, Irepodun/Ifelodun but he was exposed in Efon-Alaaye.”

The aspirants seeking the ticket in the district are Mr. Femi Kila, Chief Reuben Famuyibo, Mrs. Fatima Raji-Rasaki, and Mr. Obafemi Oye.

The Director of Communications and Strategy of the PDP in the state, Mr. Jackson Adebayo, confirmed the irregularities during a telephone chat with our correspondent.

He said, “There were some identified irregularities and the result of Ekiti Central Senatorial District were cancelled.”

Adebayo said that a new date would be announced for the conduct of the primary election.

In Plateau Central senatorial zone, the younger brother of a former Head of State, Mr. Dawuda Gowon, won the primary while in Kogi, State, the PDP Electoral Panel, said Mr. Muhammed Idris, the son of the state Governor, Ibrahim Idris, did not win the primary for Ankpa/Olamaboro/Omala Federal Constituency.

The panel also clarified that no election was conducted in Kogi-West Senatorial District, where an incumbent Senator, Mr. Smart Adeyemi, is seeking reelection.

In Abia State, Senator Uche Chukwuemerije, Nkechi Nwogu and Enyinnaya Abaribe were returned to contest the senatorial seats in Abia North, Central and South districts. No hitch was recorded in the state.

The Deputy Governor of Bauchi State, Babayo Gamawa, won in the Bauchi North senatorial district by beating Alhaji Aminu Ahmed-Yapeco.

Three persons were feared dead in Enugu State on Sunday when people suspected to be thugs tried to dirsrupt the primary by a faction loyal to the PDP National Chairman, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, in Nkanu East and Nkanu West Local Government Areas.

A stalwart of the party in Enugu , who didn’t want his name in print, told THE PUNCH, that Nwodo’s supporters had converged on Amagunze, the headquarters of Nkanu East around 12 noon for the exercise when the gun-wielding thugs attacked them.

He said, “The thugs fired sporadically and caused stampede in the entire area, with party members scampering for safety. At least two persons reportedly lost their lives in the process, while scores of others sustained injuries.”

In the Nkanu West incident, one person was said to have been killed , another group of thugs led by the managing director of one of the state-owned companies, allegedly attacked Nwodo supporters at Agbani.

Efforts to get the police’s reaction proved abortive as the Police Public Relations Officer, Enugu State Command, Mr. Ebere Amaraizu, did not respond to text messages sent to his telephone.

However, a source in the camp of the Enugu State governor dismissed the purported primaries as a ‘’vain exercise’’, just as Governor Sullivan Chime was seen boarding a private jet for Lagos.

Chime’s trip to Lagos was about 24 hours after he hosted Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola and his Ekiti State counterpart, Mr. Kayode Fayemi.

In Anambra State, the two factions of the PDP in the state elected different candidates for the Anambra South senatorial district.

While one faction nominated a former Special Assistant to Obasanjo on Domestic Affairs, Dr. Andy Uba, as its candidate, the other faction elected Mr. Nicholas Ukachukwu.

But the state Resident Electoral Commission, Prof. Chukwuemeka Onukogu, said INEC would work with Uba because he was produced by the state executive of the PDP recognised by a court.

At Anambra Central senatorial disrict, Senator Annie Okonkwo, Mr. Chudi Offordile and Dr. Jerry Ugokwe are laying claims to victory in the exercise.

In Akwa Ibom State, the spokesman of the House of Representatives, Mr. Eseme Eyiboh, was defected by the PDP legal Adviser in the state, Mr. Bassey Dan-Abia.

Eyiboh, who represents Eket Federal constituency was polled only 179 votes against Dan-Abia’s 586.
source:http://www.punchng.com/
Read more...

PPA: Forces and impediments

With the 2011 elections approaching, political parties are gearing up for stiff competition and challenges. CHINELO AGINA x-rays the hurdles, the challenges confronting the Progressive Peoples Alliance(PPA)


The beginning
It is undeniable that the political atmosphere in the country is getting heated as a result of the forthcoming elections. Not a few political parties in Nigeria are gearing up in preparedness for the much-awaited 2011 general elections.


For a party like the PPA, and given the turbulence it experienced in the past, the 2011 elections may serve as a litmus test to determine its tenacity in remaining relevant especially in the politics of the South-East region of the country.

When PPA birthed, not many people gave it a chance of survival. While some critics saw it as a party that will not stand the test of time considering the highly competitive nature of the nation politics, many others saw it as a party that will represent the true interest of the people, especially the South-East region because it held great promise as an alternative structure that will fulfill the yearnings of Nigerians.

Before then, the party which had dominated the region was the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). But with the passage of time, many party faithfuls felt aggrieved and disenchanted with some of the ‘undemocratic’ happenings in the PDP, and this gave rise to the increase in defections of notable people from the party to other parties. This situation was one of the reasons that gave birth to the PPA, which was seen as a ‘child of circumstance’.

The founder of the party, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu reiterated this much in his leadership series where he said the PPA was formed to meet the yearnings of Nigerians. “When I chose to defect from the PDP to form the PPA, some political watchers did not see the wisdom in my action. I left the PDP, in which I was a major stakeholder, purely out of principle and to demonstrate my discontentment with the way the party was being run. Up till date, the party has not done anything to prove me wrong. It was to offer Nigerians an alternative leadership style that I formed the PPA “he stated.

No sooner had PPA emerged than it won the 2007 governorship elections in Abia and Imo States in one fell swoop. These states were formerly controlled by the PDP. It also won one seat in the Senate and three seats in the House of Representatives and observers described this as a feat considering the fact that PPA was still relatively a new party. Gradually, it was beginning to be looked upon as a strong voice for the common man and a platform on which anyone who had the drive could achieve his political ambition.
The turbulence
But despite the early success PPA recorded in the 2007 elections, events started taking a downward turn when Governor Ikedi Ohakim who was elected on the platform of the party defected to the PDP after making what he described as “wide consultations.”

Later this year, Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State followed suit when he decamped to the All Progressives Grand Alliance(APGA) and shortly after, to the PDP. He was followed by Senator Uche Chuwkumerije(representing Abia North Senatorial district) who hitherto had been a strong believer in the ideals of the PPA.

In Anambra State, former PPA gubernatorial aspirant, Uche Ekwunife (representing Anaocha/Njikoka/Dunukofia Federal Constituency) defected to APGA, the ruling party in the state.
With the series of defections, the general belief is that PPA is heading for the brink and may not bounce back from the turbulence that befell it.

But the former national chairman of the party and governorship aspirant in Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Larry Esin, in a chat with Daily Sun remained unperturbed saying that challenges are a way of life, and that the defections have not altered the structure of the party.

“ It is true that there has been some defections in the party, but I can assure Nigerians that the structure of the party is still intact and many of our members are still active. We will be fielding candidates for political positions from the Local Government to the State levels. We are not only going to reclaim the states we have lost, but by God’s grace we are going to win new ones’’ he stated.

On how the party intends to win Akwa Ibom State in 2011, he stated that the PPA and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) have agreed to collapse their different structures and produce a consensus candidate for the elections. His words: “PPA and CPC have formed an alliance, and we agreed that we are going to collapse our structures into one to enable us present a strong candidate that will defeat the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP). That is the reason why I am contesting on the platform of the CPC and I believe we will win.”
Can the party bounce back?
Esin is undaunted about the success of the party. He believes that the party will certainly reclaim the states lost and plans are underway to achieve this. For the new chairman of the party, Mr. Sam Nkire, the victory of PPA is non-negotiable. When the Daily Sun sought to confirm the alliance between the CPC and PPA, Nkire said the alliance is a fact which stemmed from the need for the party to strengthen its structure.

“Right now, we are in alliance with the CPC to join forces and produce candidates. We have agreed that we are going to run for governorship elections in all the states. PPA will concentrate on its area of strength which is the South-East, while CPC will concentrate on its area of strength, but contrary to speculations, we are not going to present presidential aspirants. For Abia State, we all know that it is traditionally a PPA state, and I assure you that we are going to reclaim it. All that I will say is that everyone should watch out” he stated.

As if to buttress this point, former deputy governor of Abia State, Chris Akomas has declared his intention to contest the governorship position on the platform of the PPA and he is said to have the full backing of Dr. Kalu who is still a force to be reckoned with in Abia politics.

Observers believe that Kalu’s presence in Abia will be a huge factor in determining the way in which way the pendulum will swing. It is left to be seen if the feat the PPA achieved in 2007 will be repeated next year.
Source:http://www.sunnewsonline.com/



Read more...

Entertainers unite for post Xmas bash @ LLC

Entertainment loving minister of the most High, Apostle Isaac Idahosa alongside members of his church are gearing up for a bumper post Xmas night bash fittingly themed: Let There Be Light.

Among the Nollywood stars, musicians and comedians expected to help power the evening outing holding at the Lekki Light Centre (LLC), parish of the Illumination Assembly on Tuesday, December 28, are: Emeka Enyiocha, Ndidi Obi,  Ebube Nwagbo, Adaora Ukoh and Vincent Opurum.

Others include: Dauda, Emeka Smith, Mc Shaggi, Kage (Ebubedike), LLC Choir/Drama group and several other entertainers. Commenting on the significance of the anticipated evening of fun, relaxation and networking in a spirit-filled atmosphere, Idahosa, a Bishop-Elect, with two hit gospel albums to his credit, hinted that the need for the members of his church to interact and mingle freely with entertainers and celebrities was borne out of his passion for the make believe world.

He further disclosed that most of the stars coming for the event are members and friends of his church, hence the need to specially host and pray for them as they look forward to entering the new year with amazing grace.

“At Illumination Assembly, especially at LLC here, we are constantly and consistently transforming lives and transporting lights in all spheres of human endeavours, hence the theme, let there be light. And for the children of God, everyday is a plus, which is why we are bringing these stars as special guests to the grand gathering, because Xmas comes once in a year and must be richly and hugely celebrated.” 
Source:http://www.sunnewsonline.com/


Read more...