FG insensitive to Kwara, says Saraki

A former Governor of Kwara State and serving Senator, Bukola Saraki, on Sunday said his defection from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress was to free residents of the state from alleged negligence of Kwara State by the PDP-led Federal Government.

Saraki accused the Federal Government of not being sensitive and responsive to the plights of the residents of the state.

He spoke in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, after he was received by APC supporters in the state.

He said the Federal Government had neglected the state in the area of infrastructural development and other investments.

Saraki said he had expected President Goodluck Jonathan, who, in company with other PDP leaders,  recently visited the state to announce his programmes, would impact positively on the lives of the people.

He claimed that his administration and that of his successor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, had made giant stride in the education and health sectors, road construction, human capital development and other sectors as well as other forms of infrastructural provision.

Saraki said, “I think the message from the (Jonathan) rally was freedom. You would have thought that the Presidency and the entire Federal Government were coming here for something, whether hospitals, roads or institution.

“I remember when I was the governor of this state; we spent up to N46bn on Baruteen Road. It is not state road, but federal road. We decided to do it because it affected our people. Kaiama Road that Kwara State government is embarking upon now is a Federal Government road. Up till now, their own has been promises.

“So, we are the ones that are freeing ourselves from them. I keep on telling Nigerians and people of this state that this struggle is not personal. If it is about an individual satisfaction, I will still remain in the ruling party today.

“But I can’t continue to see this kind of thing to continue like that. We campaigned for that party and did so many things for the party and we can’t say that we benefited anything from that party.

“So, I will not allow this to continue because of my personal prospect and satisfaction. If my people are not benefiting, why should I stay?

 “The last time we benefited from Federal government was when late President Musa Yar’Ardua was the President. We have power project to show for it. I was expecting from the rally what the Kwarans will benefit from Federal Government.”

NANS urges Fashola to reduce LASU tuition

The Lagos State Chapter of the National Association of the Nigerian Students on Sunday urged Governor Babatunde Fashola to consider a downward review of the Lagos State University tuition.

The state Chairman of NASA, Yaqub Eleto, in Ikeja, said the fee currently paid, which he described as exorbitant, was the root cause of the perennial crises in the school.

Eleto said, “The new fee regime is a way of unfair social stratification between the rich and poor. It will forever linger in our memory if the governor could consider our plight.”

The state NANS chairman commended Fashola for increase in the funding of LASU in the last five years, saying the  institution now had ongoing projects like the ultra modern senate building, Main Library complex, Students Union building, and Faculty of Science complex, among others.

Eleto said LASU students were tired of interruption in their academic calendar as a result of the six months ASUU strike, adding that they did not want any unstable academic calendar anymore.

He warned “desperate politicians that wanted to further fuel the problems in LASU” to steer clear of the school, saying LASU was not a place to score cheap political points.

The state student leader explained that the January 23, 2014 violence in the institution was due to “gross mismanagement of an imminent but avoidable crisis” by the LASU vice-chancellor.

He said, “We, as the apex coordinating student’s body in Lagos State, have never encouraged violence. Again, we do not encourage students to disobey guidelines and regulations of their schools on administrative matters.

“Students leaders and affected students pleaded endlessly with the VC all to no avail. Ultimately, the crisis has propelled the LASU tuition to the front burner of public discussions. We are appealling to the governor for critical downward review because of its remote and long term effects.”

Eleto said the students body in the state would continue to engage  schools’ authorities in the state and the government on issues relating to students’ welfare.

Nigerian youths need repositioning --Kumuyi

The General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry, Pastor William Kumuyi, has said there was a need for youths in the country to be repositioned to become change agents.

Kumuyi said this could only be achieved if there was attitudinal and behavioural transformation and value re-orientation of the young population.

He made the remarks through the church’s National Youth Coordinator, Pastor Peter Elias, who spoke to journalists in the run-up to an empowerment summit of the DCLM.

Over 100,000 youths from public and private schools and young school leavers in Lagos State are expected to gather at the Deeper Life Conference Centre, at the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Ogun State on Saturday,  March 22, 2014 for the one-day empowerment programme.

Kumuyi said, “The goal (of the summit) is to reposition our teeming  young population towards taking their proper place as change agents. This is only possible if youths have inner change, attitudinal and behavioural transformation and value re-orientation.

“We have been looking forward to this event, praying that God will revolutionise the lives of youths in Nigeria and across Africa. There will be a live transmission and streaming of the pastor’s sessions of the event to all venues across Africa.”

Elias later explained that Kumuyi inaugurated the summit in 2012 as a platform for identifying, harnessing and propelling youths as strategic partners in the quest for realising national aspirations.

He added that the man of God had continually harped on the need to do something to urgently provide a solution to the leadership crisis in Africa.

“To do this he desires that we explore and deploy our existing resources and platforms in the ministry to organise a regular programme that will help the youths to take their rightful place and affect society positively.

“Thus, Youth Empowerment Summit has been slated to hold in Lagos, in Nigerian cities and all over Africa quarterly, henceforth,” he added.

It was gathered that among those to speak at the programme is the former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili.

APC says Jonathan is toying with Ndigbo

The opposition All Progressives Congress on Sunday accused President Goodluck Jonathan of toying with issues and projects that concerned the Igbo people of the South-East.

The APC allegation came ahead of the inauguration of the second Niger Bridge on Monday (today).

The party spoke through its spokesperson in the South-East zone, Mr. Osita Okechukwu.

Okechukwu said that whereas the APC was in favour of the immediate construction of the second Niger Bridge, the party frowned that the project was not being directly funded by the Federal Government.

The party recalled that the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Achebe, penultimate week at his palace, challenged the President for reneging on his promise during the 2011 presidential campaign to inaugurate the second Niger Bridge.

The APC statement read, “We are at a loss why President Jonathan, three years down the line, after making the promise to complete the construction of the much-treasured second Niger Bridge, never deemed it fit to include it in any of his national budgets.

“Accordingly, it is our candid view that the debt tilts more in favour of President Jonathan’s political campaign slush fund; because if the second Niger Bridge has found its way into any of President Jonathan’s national budget, Nigeria could have saved over N70bn through competitive bidding.

“For is it not a paradox that Lagos State government awarded 1.3km Epe-Lekki bridge of similar status to Julius Berger Plc and completed it at N29bn, while the same company without competitive bid got 1.8km second Niger Bridge at N117bn, a whopping difference of N88bn?

“APC South-East, regrettably, observes a trend where Ndigbo has become a toy to play with on President Jonathan’s hand. As he seems to have forgotten too early in the day that Ndigbo sacrificed our turn to be president of Nigeria in the nearest future on his altar, hence unwittingly created unsavoury relationship between Ndigbo and their contemporaries in the Nigerian political landscape.”

The party noted that the President had inaugurated with fanfare a non-operational Onitsha seaport, where no vessel had landed up to date.

It also claimed that the Enugu Coal-Fired Power Plant the President promised had become an empty promise.

The South-East APC also lamented that most federal roads in the South-East were either dilapidated or on “patch-patch” work by the Federal Road Maintenance Agency.

It added, “And now the President wants to leave a huge debt hanging on the neck of the people of South-East by borrowing a enormous amount in their name, forgetting the old English proverb, which admonishes that, he who goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing,”

“In sum, the least we expected our beloved President to have done as pay back was to instruct our sister Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; and our wife, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, Ministers of Finance and Petroleum respectively, to fund the second Niger Bridge from the $10.8bn crude oil squandered fund, instead of hanging the cross of Shylock-Toll-Gate on our neck.”

40 ships, 34 aircraft search for missing plane

Vietnamese navy planes have spotted what could be fragments from the missing Malaysia Airlines jet that disappeared almost two days ago.

Officials said it was too dark to be certain the objects were from Flight MH370, which had 239 people on board, BBC reports.

A multinational team is searching for wreckage and ships will try to confirm the find after dawn. Investigators are also checking CCTV footage of two passengers who were travelling on stolen passports.

Malaysian military officials said on Sunday that the plane may have turned back from its scheduled route shortly before vanishing from radar screens, further deepening the mystery surrounding its fate.

Relatives of the missing passengers have been told to prepare for the worst.

Flight MH730 left Kuala Lumpur, bound for Beijing, at 00:41 local time on Saturday (16:41 GMT on Friday). But radio contact was lost at 17:30 GMT, somewhere between Malaysia and Vietnam.

Late on Sunday, the Vietnamese authorities said possible debris from the plane had been spotted in the sea off South Vietnam.

“We received information from a Vietnamese plane saying that they found two broken objects, which seem like those of an aircraft, located about 50 miles to the south-west of Tho Chu Island,” an unnamed official from the National Committee for Search and Rescue told AFP news agency.

“As it is night they cannot fish them out for proper identification. They have located the position of the areas and flown back to the land,” he added

The potential debris was in a similar area to a possible oil slick seen by Vietnamese navy planes on Saturday, but officials have cautioned that this too may be nothing to do with the disappearance of Flight MH370.

There are now 40 ships and 34 aircraft from nine different nations taking part in the search for the missing plane in the seas off Vietnam and Malaysia.

Other teams are investigating the identities of some of the people onboard.

Malaysia’s civil aviation chief, Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, said five passengers booked on the flight did not board and their luggage was consequently removed.

It has also been confirmed that two passengers were travelling on stolen passports.

The passengers – travelling with Italian and Austrian passports that had been stolen in Thailand – purchased their plane tickets at the same time, and were both booked on the same onward flight from Beijing to Europe on Saturday.

Both had purchased their tickets from China Southern Airlines, which shared the flight with Malaysia Airlines, and they had consecutive ticket numbers.

“Whilst it is too soon to speculate about any connection between these stolen passports and the missing plane, it is clearly of great concern that any passenger was able to board an international flight using a stolen passport listed in Interpol databases,” the Secretary General of international police agency Interpol, Ronald Noble, said in a statement.

Presidential jet: Reps accuse FG of blackmail

Some members of the House of Representatives have alleged that the Presidency is using the faulty presidential jet to blackmail the National Assembly to approve the purchase of a new aircraft for President Goodluck Jonathan.

The presidential jet – Nigerian Air Force 001(5N-FGT) that took the President to the Peoples Democratic Party’s rally in Minna, the Niger State capital, had developed a technical fault on Saturday thus forcing Jonathan to abandon it.

Before this development, Jonathan had proposed in the 2014 budget he sent to the National Assembly to add one more plane to the presidential fleet, which already had 10 aircraft.

The request, which was contained in the budget, had generated controversy earlier in the year.

However, some opposition party members claimed that the episode might have been a move to “arm twist” the National Assembly to approve the request to buy a new jet.

One of the lawmakers and Chairman, House Committee on Justice, Mr. Ali Ahmad, argued that it “might be a ploy to blackmail the National Assembly.”

Ahmad, who is a member of the  All Progressives Congress, also said he thanked God that there was no disaster resulting from the fault “else, they would have blamed it on the APC.”

He said, “The request for a new jet may be granted but not with the votes of some us.

“A presidential jet is not a priority. We are not setting our priorities right.

“The UK Prime Minister flies in commercial jets when he travels.

“In Nigeria, the presidential fleet has 10 aircraft. Does that suggest that we are a country setting our priorities right?”

On his part, the Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Zakari Mohammed, declined to comment on the issue.

Mohammed told The PUNCH that his comments could be “misinterpreted to mean the position of the House.”

Speaking on the issue, Deputy House Majority Leader, Mr. Leo Ogor, said the House was not in a position to know why the aircraft developed the fault.

Ogor also noted that it would be hasty to say whether the House would approve a request to buy a new plane or not, in the light of the latest development.

He explained that the 2014 budget was already undergoing scrutiny before various House committees.

Ogor added, “First, let us thank God that the President is well. We glorify God.

“Anything that runs on an engine can develop fault, even a brand new engine. I didn’t consider it a very serious issue.

“I have not seen in the budget where there is a sub-head for a new aircraft.

“But, if there is, we have to wait for the report of the Committees on Special Duties/Governmental Affairs working on the budget.

“If they look at the request and their finding is that he needs another jet, the report will say so.

“For now, the House will not jump the gun to say anything further.”

Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, however declined comment on the matter saying “the story (of the faulty jet) in PUNCH speaks for itself.”

Agbani Darego stunning at 2014 AMVCAs + more celeb photos

Of all the dresses worn to the 2014 AMVCAs last night, this is my favorite. Agbani owned the red carpet. Flawless! Continue to see more celebs on the red carpet...

 

Ibinabo Fiberesim and Jackie Appiah

 

Funlola Raimi and Chioma Akpotha

 

Biola Alabi and Ufoma Ejenabor

 

Bez and Gbenro Ajibade

 

Noble Igwe and Clarion Chukwura Abiola

Kate Henshaw