Sahara Reporters Latest News Wednesday 20th February 2019
Sahara Reporters Latest News Today and headlines on some of the happenings and news trend in the Country, today 20/02/19
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E2%80%99s-sensitive-election-materials-kaduna-%E2%80%94-and-vice-versa target=_blank>INEC Erroneously Sends Kebbi’s Sensitive Election Materials To Kaduna — And Vice Versa
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Tuesday erroneously delivered some sensitive election materials meant for the Saturday elections to Kaduna State rather than Kebbi State where theye were originally meant to be, while those for Kebbi were mistakenly taken to Kaduna.
Ahmad Mahmud, Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Kebbi State, made the disclosure during an interaction with journalists after inspecting the sensitive materials at the Kebbi State office of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
“Two of our forms-EC 8D1 and EC 8E1 were mistakenly taken to Kaduna and that of Katsina were brought to Kebbi,” Mahmud said. “We discovered it during the inspection and they are already bringing it back to Kebbi.”
He said INEC in Kebbi State had received all the sensitive materials meant for the presidential and national assembly elections, and would start distributing them on Wednesday across the 21 local government areas of the state. He also said all card readers sent to the state had been configured.
“I can confirm to you that we have received all the sensitive materials meant for Kebbi State and all the card readers have been configured. By tomorrow (Wednesday), we shall start distributing the sensitive materials,” he said.
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target=_blank>How ‘Negligence’ Of Asokoro General Hospital Abuja ‘Caused The Death’ Of Health Advocate
Young Nigerians have accused the Asokoro General hospital of negligence leading to death of one Kafayat Abdulazeez.
Kafayat Abdulazeez, a 25-year-old lady, was said to have been feeling unwell on Valentine’s Day.
According to Yusuf Yusuf, a colleague of the deceased, she left for Asokoro General hospital where she was admitted, and the doctors diagnosed her with pneumonia.
Yusuf said that after the initial treatment, she regained her strength but “painfully, the following day, Friday, her situation became worse and the hospital was no longer as responsive as they were supposed to be”.
“Mobile oxygen, which was supposed to be used on her, was not used. A drug was prescribed by her doctors, but the nurses didn’t give the prescription to the family until a day after. By then it was too late.”
The late Kafayat was the Co-founder of Al-imran Islamic Foundation.
Until her death, she was a health advocate.
Yusuf said the late Kafayat died due to the carelessness of medical practitioners and an unhealthy health system.
“We cannot call it a medical mistake,” he said.
“It was clearly a case of lack of value for life by our medical practitioners.. Her family and friends begged and cried but no empathy was shown. A patient in the hospital had to place a call to doctors and kept begging on her behalf just to be treated, but all efforts proved abortive.”
Yusuf begged the government authorities to bring those responsible for such acts of negligence, which have continually led to unavoidable deaths, to book.
Attempts to get the reaction of the Asokoro General hospital as of the time of this report proved abortive, as no one offered to comment on the development while the Medical Director was said not be on seat.
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target=_blank>Delta PDP Claims APC Wants To Frame Up And Arrest Its Leaders
The Delta State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says it has uncovered the “desperate plan” by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to “frame up and arrest” its leaders across the state before the February 23 presidential and national Assembly elections and the March governorship and state houses of assembly elections. According to PDP, the plan is to, among other things, cause confusion and commotion among the PDP members, plant an “eerie ambience” around PDP leaders, weaken their determination to work to ensure the victory of the PDP by causing them to lose focus of their campaign work and reduce their full-throttle work towards delivering victory for PDP.Raising the alarm over the alleged APC planned frame up and arrest of the PDP leaders, the State Publicity Secretary of PDP, Ifeanyi M. Osuoza, in a statement on behalf of the party, titled ‘APC Sharpens Its Nefarious, Devious Schemes Again, Moves Against PDP Leaders In Delta State’ and obtained by SaharaReporters, said it had become imperative to notify the general public of APC’s plans to begin to clamp down on its leaders.The statement read thus: “It has become imperative to call the attention of leaders, members, faithful and supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Delta State Chapter and the public in general that the jittery All Progressives Congress (APC) is at it again with their devious schemes.”Accordingly, the PDP is calling on our party faithful to be at alert and vigilant at all times because the lid has been blown open and has exposed the clandestine moves by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to attack our leaders and members. This evil scheme gravely points to the impetuous, but a devious plot of the APC to cause confusion and commotion among the PDP members. “Their design is to plant an eerie ambience around our leaders, weaken their determination to work to ensure the victory of the PDP by causing them to lose focus of their campaign work and reduce their full throttle to deliver victory for PDP. “We see this as a bizarre and dangerous dimension in the already visible desperation of the APC against their imminent rejection at the elections on account of the iron cast resolve of Deltans and Nigerians to thwart the second term bid of President Muhammadu Buhari and consign the APC and its candidates to the scrap heap of rejected elective office seekers.”Among the APC scheme just unearthed, is the game plan to set up PDP leaders in the State and get them arrested and arraigned falsely on charges of illegal arms possession. The strategy is to surreptitiously invade the homes of known PDP leaders and plant arms and ammunitions in them and in their vehicles, and thereafter instigate their arrests for unlawful possession of arms and ammunitions.”The vicious plot is aimed at distracting the PDP leaders and members from the work of the elections by putting on them the wicked and diabolical burden of being seen as arms bearers. It is a villainous scheme to give the PDP leaders and notable members a bad name so as to “hang” them, all in a clear bid to destabilize and cow them to submission.”We condemn in totality, this mindless scheme by the APC and its leadership. It a clear message that because they have seen their imminent defeat, they have resorted to ignoble and odd designs to create an atmosphere of fear in the polity, especially among its arch political opponent, the PDP with a scheme that will make the election field insecure for human life, and the contest less competitive.”We call on President Buhari to call his party leaders in Delta State to order, and we call on the Inspector General of Police and his lieutenants in Delta State to step in now and give assurance of the protection of lives, and create the atmosphere of a level playing field for all the political parties and their candidates.”Our leaders, members and supporters and indeed the Nigerian electorates are resolute in their determination to get Nigeria to work again by voting in the PDP Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar as President, and to vote His Excellency, Senator Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa for second term to consolidate on his prosperity agenda and good works began almost four years ago for the benefit of all Deltans.”We want to emphasise again and categorically, that the PDP has refused to be cowed by this APC scheme. Therefore, no amount of weird, desperate and mindless contrivance will break the valiant resolve of Nigerians to vote PDP candidates at all levels in these elections. APC will remain perverse and thus rejected by the people for their woeful performance in government and governance.”
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target=_blank>If You Want To Waste Your Vote, Waste It Wisely On Sowore, Says Mr 2Kay
Popular entertainer and ‘Bad Girl’ crooner, Abinye David Jumbo widely known as Mr. 2Kay, has asked Nigerian youth to “waste” their votes on Omoyele Sowore, Presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC).
The musician made the call while in a conversation with Sowore, streamed live on Facebook.
Mr 2kay had announced his support for Sowore through a post on Instagram.
Charging the Nigerians to support Sowore, Mr 2Kay said: “We are taking it back to make it good. The truth be told, I think it’s time to give back to the country.
“It’s better to do, as they say, waste your vote. And if you want to waste your vote, waste it on Sowore. Waste it wisely, and then it can be recycled because it is very productive.
“Why I’m supporting your race is that I believe you have the ideas that we need to help this country get to the next level, get better and I think its time for us to give young people, that is why I’m supporting you, I’m supporting Banky, and Mr. Jollof.”
“Basically, I’m supporting you fully. I’m giving you my vote and I’m asking the people I can influence and my followers to just go on and support you as well on Saturday.”
Mr 2kay, who said he had been attacked for publicly confessing his backing for Sowore, described the situation of the country as sickening, as citizens are being exploited daily.
“Some people attacked me and said I’m wasting my vote. I am tired of those people; they have been recycled and always come back. They are all the same, I am sick and tired of writing proposals and someone else will read it, make so much money from it and give me little.”
Mr 2kay took a jibe at other celebrities for not taking a stand and supporting young candidates, saying: “Some of the celebrities are ready to support the young candidates but are scared to come out. I feel disappointed that entertainers who are supposed to come all out for someone like you are laid back and that is a big shame. The old politicians don’t even care about the entertainment industry.”
He also lamented that the government had abandoned the entertainment industry despite their contribution to the country.
“It is a big shame to the government because what entertainment has done for Africa and Nigeria, entertainment has put the country on world map. The government should focus more on improving the industry.”
He urged Sowore to invest in the industry and make loans available for entertainers when he becomes the President.
Mr 2kay also urged all the young people, social media influencers, bloggers and entertainers to come out en-masse to support Sowore.
“Don’t go to rallies because of the penny they will give you. You can take the money when they offer but vote for Sowore,” he stated.
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target=_blank>BREAKING: Boko Haram Slaughters 18 Firewood And Charcoal Scavengers In Borno
At least 18 persons who worked as firewood and charcoal scavengers have been slaughtered by suspected Boko Haram members in Koshebe general area of Jere Local Government Area of Borno State, SaharaReporters has learnt.
The incident happened on Monday when the victims went to the village to scavenge for firewood and charcoal and sale to residents of Maiduguri, but unfortunately they were ambushed by insurgents.
A security source who participated in the evacuation confirmed to SaharaReporters that at least 16 bodies had so far been evacuated to Maiduguri.
“At first, we evacuated 10 dead bodies from the scene of the attacks to Maiduguri, but we plan to return tomorrow so as evacuate to the remaining dead bodies,” he said.
He noted that they had mobilized security for searching of their bodies in the Kadamari axis on Wednesday.
“There was an ambush on firewood sellers who had gone to the bush to fetch their products by suspected members of Boko Haram terrorists in Koshebe general area of Jere Local Government Area of Borno state,” a second security source said on Tuesday.
“Eighteen dead bodies were seen at the scene of the attacks, but as it is, only 10 dead bodies have recovered and evacuated so far by our security forces in conjunction with members of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF).”
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target=_blank>‘Pay The N5m Advert Debt You Owe Us’, TheNEWS Magazine Tells Shehu Sani
TheNEWS magazine (published by Independent Communications Network Limited), through its solicitors, is asking Shehu Sani, the senator representing Kaduna Central, to settle his N5million advert indebtedness to the media house since March 2018.
That newspaper came public “after exploring all avenues of making the senator honour his promise as a gentleman, a much acclaimed human rights activist, social critic and a highly respected national legislator”.
The company said it first explored personal contacts to persuade Sani to pay, but he did not. Then TheNEWS wrote a letter, dated November 29, 2018, to Senate President Bukola Saraki to intervene, but nothing happened.Therefore, Barrister Umudjoro, of Umudjoro & Co, (OWHE Chambers) wrote a letter to Senator Sani, dated February 7, 2019, entitled: ‘YOUR INDEBTEDNESS TO INDEPENDENT COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK LTD, PUBLISHER OF TheNEWS MAGAZINE’.
The lawyer demanded as follows:
1. That you, in company of your S.A. media, Comrade Abubakar Ahmed, had a meeting with some of its officials at its premises, wherein it was agreed that its magazine known as TheNEWS magazine, should be deployed for a media coverage and publication of a supplement of your constituency projects.2. That it was further agreed that the publication which is to be a 10-page pull-out should be published on credit, with payment agreed to be made within three months of publication at a cost of five hundred thousand naira (500,000.00) per page, making the cost of producing the 10-page pullout at Five Million Naira (N5,000,000.00) only.3. That pursuant of this agreement, TheNEWS magazine published the 10-page pull-out of your constituency projects in the March 2018 edition of the magazine, showing extensively the several and different pictorials of your constituency projects in their different stages. In addition to the publication highlighting the constituency projects, the magazine published an extensive interview you granted to its editors which turned out to be very explosive, nationally and internationally. Need we say, you had full coverage as you had desired and wished for.4. That unfortunately, eleven months down the line, you have neglected or refused to pay the debt of Five Million Naira (N5,000,000.00) accrued from the publication and all efforts made by our clients to persuade you to liquidate the debt, have yielded no fruit.5. That it is our brief to recover the said sum of Five Million Naira (N5,000,000.00) with interest from you. We therefore by this letter demand the immediate payment of the aforementioned debt. In this light, we request you to deliver to our office a cheque for the said sum of Five Million Naira (N5,000,000.00) drawn in the name of our client.TAKE NOTICE that we shall not hesitate to seek legal remedies in a court of competent jurisdiction if you refuse/neglect to accede to our client’s demand within two weeks of the receipt of this letter.PAY UP and avoid the negative publicity usually associated with litigations of this nature.Thanks in anticipation of prompt response.Yours faithfully,BENJAMIN UMUDJORO ESQ(PP OWHE CHAMBERS)”That followed an earlier letter, written by TheNEWS on November 29, 2018 to Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, The Senate President, entitled ‘Senator Shehu Sani’s N5M Indebtedness To TheNEWS’. The letter was signed by Ademola Adegbamigbe, the Editor.According to Adegbamigbe, in October 2017, Independent Communications Network Limited (publishers of TheNEWS and PM NEWS) held a meeting with Senator Shehu Sani in its office on Acme Road, Ikeja, Lagos and agreed that the magazine should publish a supplement on Sani’sconstituency projects. His SA Media, Comrade Abubakar Ahmed, was part of the meeting.TheNEWS published his achievements as a 10-page pull-out in its March 2018 edition. Senator Sani, as the medium wrote in its letter to Saraki, agreed with the organisation to pay N5million (five million naira only) at N500,000 (five hundred thousand naira) per page.
The Editor lamented: “We produced the edition fully on credit because we thought we were dealing with a gentleman. You will recall that the extensive interview we had with Senator Sani, which made waves in Nigeria then, was the cover of that edition. We did not pass the bill of the production of that interview to him.”TheNEWS continued: “Mr. President since the publication of the edition, Senator Sani has been avoiding our organisation! Mr. Kunle Ajibade, our Executive Editor/Director, had a one-on-one with Senator Sani in Lagos at a point, pleading with him to pay up because we had bills to pay. Mr. Bayo Onanuga, our former MD and Editor-in-Chief of the magazine, also sent a message to him on the same issue. Sani promised to pay up the following week Insha Allah. But he has been diving and ducking. It is clear to us that this Senator does not want to make good his promise.“We want you to use your good offices to intervene on our behalf. We have used our platform over the years to promote Shehu Sani’s cause. We thought we should let you know this before we go public on this man.“We look forward to your quick intervention. Mr. President. Please accept the assurances of our regards.”
Shehu Sani’s Debt.pdf
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E2%80%99s-special-message-nigerians-ahead-rescheduled-elections target=_blank>IN FULL: Buhari’s Special Message To Nigerians Ahead Of Rescheduled Elections
President Muhammadu Buhari has delivered a message to Nigerians ahead of the rescheduled February 23 presidential and national assembly elections: don’t be deterred.
In an address circulated on his Twitter account on Tuesday evening, Buhari urged the people to “brave the challenges and ensure that they cast their votes”.
THE FULL MESSAGE
VIDEO: SPECIAL MESSAGE BY PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI URGING NIGERIANS TO GO ALL OUT AND VOTE ON SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23 (TRANSCRIPT)
I wish to commiserate with millions of Nigerians who either travelled hundred of kilometers to cast their votes or who put so many things on hold in order to cast their votes last weekend, but couldn’t do so. I thank you for your commitment and appeal to you not to lose hope in our electoral system.
I ask you not to allow the unexpected postponement of the election dates by INEC to prevent you from exercising your civic rights. Your enthusiasm for the process and your determination to vote in the election must not be dampened.
I urge all Nigerian voters to brave the challenges and ensure that they cast their votes. This government assures all voters of their protection before, during and after the polls.
I also thank Nigerians for their patience and trust in our government to deliver credible elections where your votes will count. Your votes will count as we are committed to rid our electoral process of vote buying and manipulations.
Thank you and God bless the people and Federal Republic of Nigeria.
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E2%80%8B target=_blank>Ghana’s Roslyn Mould Appointed Coordinator Of West African Humanist Network?
West African Humanist Network has announced the appointment of Roslyn Mould to the position of a Coordinator.
Ms. Mould is a former President of the Humanist Association of Ghana and a former Chair of the African Young Humanists Working Group. As a Coordinator of the Network, she will work to bolster organised humanism in West Africa.
The establishment of the West African Humanist Network was discussed at a humanist conference in Ghana in 2012. Unfortunately, not much has been done since then to grow the network. Ms. Mould will be working to revive and reposition this strategic humanist body.
Alongside her new position, Ms. Mould will partner with other humanist and human rights organisations in furtherance of common goals and objectives.
Responding to news of the appintment, Mould said: “I am excited to be taking on a new role as the coordinator of the West African Humanist Network.
“We all need to work together to achieve positive and progressive change in Africa. I look forward to collaborating with other humanist individuals and organizations to promote the values of humanism, human rights, and critical thinking.”
Dr. Leo Igwe, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, said: “We are most delighted that Ms. Mould will be devoting her experiences and talents to developing the sub-regional network and to fostering the growth and flourishing of humanism and secular values in West Africa.
“With only a handful of active humanist organizations in the ECOWAS member states, Ms. Mould surely has her job cut out for her. We look forward to working with her and supporting her to succeed in her new role.”
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target=_blank>How Ex-AGF Bayo Ojo ‘Cooked Up’ A Contract To Secure $10m Malabu Deal Compensation
Following the confession of Bayo Ojo, Nigeria’s former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, at the Milan court hearing charges against key former officials of oil multinationals — Royal Dutch Shell and ENI — that he received $10 million out of $50 million legal charges for facilitating the sale of Oil Processing License (OPL 245) to Malabu, SaharaReporters has seen evidence that the former AGF backdated the contract drafted up for the payment of his fees.
A source familira with the intricacies of the case told SaharaReporters: “One thing that has not come out in the coverage of Bayo Ojo and OPL 245, or in the cross examination, is that his contract with Petrol Services was clearly written after the OPL 245 deal was concluded. In other words, it was cooked up post office to support a dodgy payment.”
Ojo’s contract was dated December 1, 2010 but four differences in the wording of the document show that it was drafted after the final Resolution Agreement was reached in April 2011. Between December and April, three RAs were arrived at and the former Minister of Justice inserted preambles from the April agreements in his December 1 contract.
Paragraph H of Ojo’s Contract gives the acronym of ICSID, the international dispute resolution organisation Shell had charged the Nigerian government to in 2007 for returning OPL 245 to Malabu in breach of a 2003 sale to its subsidiary, as ‘the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes’. In the Draft RA circulating as of the date on his contract, ICSID was defined as ‘the International Centre for the Settlement of International Disputes.’ It was not until February 2011 that ‘international’ was changed to ‘investment’. In the next paragraph of the said contract lies the second proof.
The section begins with:
“The cases remaining between FGN, Malabu and SNUD are…”. In the RA that was drafted at the time the contract was dated, that paragraph read:
“The cases instituted between the Parties excepting NNPC and NAE are …”
Unsurprisingly, Ojo’s 1 December 2010 contract has the same wording with the April 2011 RA, which had not yet been documented:
“The cases remaining between FGN, MALABU and SNUD are…”
In the same paragraph, the list of outstanding issues to be resolved is given as eight in the draft RA of December 2010. The former AGF magically lists four outstanding cases — same as the April 2011 agreement. The final proof is the amount finally agreed to be paid to Malabu and the Federal Government of Nigeria for the field. In the December 2010 RA, it is given as X** but Ojo’s accurately predicted the exact figure.
Sources closely monitoring court proceedings say a final decision on how much to be paid out to Etete’s firm went down to the wire, rendering Ojo’s claim in court that he knew the agreed price as false.
In a passage of his examination in a Milan court in the ongoing trial of former top officials of Shell and ENI, Bayo Ojo said he received $10 million of a $50 million legal fee for facilitating the sale of OPL 245.
The agreed wages due to Ojo is five per cent of the $1.292 paid by Shell and Eni to Malabu and FGN for the OPL 245 block. Ojo said during the examination that he still hoped to collect his full payment without having to sue.
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PDP Has Perfected Plans To Snatch Ballot Boxes And Rig Elections, Says Garba Shehu
Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assitant to the President on Media and Publicty, has accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of perfecting plans to snatch ballot boxes and rig the elections.
According to Shehu, this is the reason for the apprehension over President Muhammdu Buhari’s comment that those who engage in ballot box snatching during elections do so at risk to their lives.
“This sounds like members of the opposition, specifically the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who have perfected plans to rig the elections and to snatch ballot boxes,” Shehu told State House correspondents on Tuesday.
“They can tell that President Buhari is not prepared to tolerate their antics this time around, and they are afraid. They have shown their intent. No one has anything to fear from the President’s comments if their conscience and intentions are clear.
“Snatching ballot boxes often entails putting the lives of innocent Nigerians at risk. About 10 years ago, evidence was brought before an election tribunal from one of the states in North Central of the gruesome killing of 26 prospective voters by ballot box snatchers. Their modus operandi is well known. They storm election venues in commando style, overwhelm the law-enforcement agents and seize ballot boxes leaving a trail of death and injury.
“Anyone who dares to put the lives of innocent citizens at risk in their desperation to rig elections, must be prepared for the possibility of losing their own lives because our security agents will certainly not stand by, clap for them and watch them kill and maim.”
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