I will end insurgency if elected president- Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.)

A former Head of State, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has promised to end insurgency and other forms of insecurity in the country, if elected President under the platform of the All Progressives Congress in the 2015 general elections.

The pledge is coming amidst rising insurgency by the Boko Haram Islamic sect in the North-East and especially the Friday’s attack on Kano Central Mosque

He also denied sharing money to delegates during his recent visit to Imo State during his nationwide tour to meet the APC delegates.

The Head (Media, Publicity and ICT) in Buhari Support Organisation, Dr. Chidia Maduekwe, stated this in his weekly brief on “GMB meet the party delegates nationwide tour,” read to journalists on Friday in Abuja.

“At no time did GMB, all through this meet the delegates tour, share money or lobby any delegate with money. As we all know, a leopard can never change its spot. Friends and sympathisers may have privately encouraged their colleagues to attend the delegates’ meeting, certainly not GMB directing or approving any monetary exchange, as being falsely reported by some online media,” he stated.

In his nationwide tour to meet delegates, Buhari had visited Abia, Bayelsa, Imo, Delta, Cross River and Rivers states, where Governor Rotimi Amaechi described him as a committed and focused leader whose watchword was integrity.

Maduekwe said, “The summary of all the response and the welcoming remarks by GMB at various state capitals can be summarised. He made it clear that this country must first be secured and efficiently and effectively managed if our nation is to bounce back to normalcy for our people to prosper. Leadership integrity must be the focused watchword if we must salvage Nigeria once again.

“We recall that we fought a civil war without borrowing a kobo. But now, despite budgeting well over 25 per cent of the national annual budget to defence, we are borrowing $1bn to prosecute insurgency. Yet, all we keep hearing is the low morale of our fighting forces as they melt before the rampaging ill-trained insurgents.

“A situation where about 20 LGAs of this country are under an alien flag can no longer be tolerated. APC is ready to turn the tide to bring Nigeria back into the fold of proud and respectable community of African nations. Our watch-word is: Securing our nation, prospering our people.”

He added, “One is worried to read about Nigerian soldiers giving interview to foreign media on how under-equipped they are as they face the insurgency. Effort by the National Assembly to conduct hearing on such sad development is hushed down. Same as the NASS hearing on the subsidy scam which till this date has remained a mystery to our general public.”

Buhari has also asked Nigerians to make sure their votes count during the 2015 general elections.

Buhari spoke at a reception organised for him at the APC secretariat in Enugu State on Saturday evening, where he observed that soldiers engaged in the campaign against terrorism and insurgency had complained of inadequate weapons, despite the huge security budget, as well as lack of effective leadership.

“Vote and make sure that your votes count,” Buhari told the gathering, including leaders and members of the APC state chapter as wgell as national delegates from the state.

He urged eligible voters to obtain the permanent voter card, which he described as the “ammunition” to rout the Peoples Democratic Party during the election.

The presidential aspirant noted that there was no point in asking the people to come out to meet him if they did not have voter cards.

Stressing the need to vote out the PDP in the coming polls, Buhari said 2015 would be a very crucial year for Nigeria.
  Do you agree?

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It’s all lies, says Speaker as Fayose accuses lawmakers of N200m bribe demand

Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose has said money is at the root of the problems between him and the House of Assembly.
The governor said his refusal to continue to “grease the lawmakers’ palms” after they had collected money from him at least three times created the latest crisis rocking the Assembly.
Fayose made the allegation on  his maiden media chat, “Meet Your Governor”, which was aired live by major electronic media in the state.
He alleged that the lawmakers demanded N1 million each before they could screen and clear his commissioner-nominees.
The governor alleged that the Speaker, Dr Adewale Omirin, demanded that the lawmakers be given at least 10 per cent of the N2 billion loan his administration intended to secure from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to finance agriculture and small scale businesses.
Fayose accused the 19 All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers of harbouring plans to remove him from office.
The governor said he was shocked that the lawmakers could be making “unreasonable financial demands” from him when they knew the parlous condition of the state finances.
Fayose, who spoke in  Yoruba, said: “The last time I met the Speaker, he told me he was going to Abuja and he promised to see me when he returned but the next thing I heard was that he was in Lagos.
“It is you my people who can save me because it was by your votes that I am in this position today. You my fathers, my mothers, artisans, okada riders and traders must rise up and help me.
“Will you keep on looking when they want to remove me at all cost? They are blocking all the good things I want to do for you.
“When I assumed office, I discovered that the House’s running grant was N48 million of which the Speaker got N2.5 million and the Deputy Speaker N1.5 million and I told them that was no longer sustainable.
“They insisted that their own grant must be left intact but I reduced their money by 50 per cent.
“They came to me three times and they went away with something. In fact, they asked that they be given N1 million each before passing the commissioners’ list.”
But Omirin absolved himself and the 18 APC lawmakers of blame in the bribery saga.
He said it was the seven PDP lawmakers who demanded N200 million.
He accused Fayose of lying and setting the people against the APC lawmakers, saying the action could make the governor a laughing stock to the more intelligent people of Ekiti.
In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media, Wole Olujobi, the Speaker defended the integrity of the APC caucus, maintaining that it never demanded any bribe before doing the job for which they were voted to do.
He said throughout former Governor Kayode Fayemi’s administration during which 75 bills were passed into law, the lawmakers never demanded for anything before doing their jobs.
The Speaker said instead of blaming the seven PDP members for demanding 10 per cent of the N2billion fund, the governor had turned full circle to accuse the APC lawmakers.
His words: “I have never seen this kind of incorrigible attitude all my life. He told us to our face that he would lie against us to set Ekiti people against us. I thought it was a joke.
“In actual fact, it was the PDP members who suggested that we should demand 10 per cent cut in the N2 billion loan and all the APC lawmakers said no. We even called the attention of the governor to this attempted fraud.
“How the governor has now turned to accuse us of demanding bribe is baffling. One good thing though is that Ekiti people know the kind of governor they have.
“The alleged N1.3billion poultry fraud case is still in court. There were many sugar coated things that he told Ekiti people about the project.
“Evidence of that lie and allegation of fraud can be found in Justice Adamu Hobon’s court at the Federal High Court in Ado-Ekiti where details of how the governor allegedly defrauded Ekiti people are being examined.”
The Speaker urged Ekiti people to beware of the masters of theatrics, who have turned statecraft to the theatre of the absurd, where stunts and propaganda had taken the place of reason and candour.
Omirin added: “I am happy that my colleagues and I have clean records. We have never committed crimes either in Nigeria or abroad.
“We have no question marks on our certificates. Nobody can accuse us of committing crimes abroad and sneaking into Nigeria to escape justice.
“We have never been accused of murder. None of us has criminal cases in courts. We are decent men and women who can point to where we are coming from without shame.
“Nobody can accuse us of lying under oath. None of us has ever covered a copy of dictionary with the cover of the Holy Bible and used it to swear an oath.
“Nobody can accuse us of swearing to an oath in the filling of our Code of Conduct and assets declaration form.”
Omirin said the APC lawmakers would continue to tread the path of integrity to save the state from dishonest people.

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Fight for Nigeria’s survival, Obasanjo tells youths

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has told youths to take up the responsibility and effect the needed change in Nigeria instead of blaming the previous generations for the nation’s decay.

The former President said this at the 100th-year anniversary of Ijero Baptist Church in Lagos on Sunday.

Obasanjo said the generation before him fought for Nigeria’s independence while his generation fought for Nigeria’s unity during the civil war.

He said the subsequent generation also fought for democracy.

Obasanjo, therefore, said it was time for the next generation to make its own contribution to national development instead of complaining.

He said, “Recently, a son of my friend looked at everything around him and got angry and went to meet his dad who is my age mate. He told his father that our generation is a lost one. The father did not pay him any attention so he came to meet me.

“He told me what he told his father and justified it by telling me that he went to the university and graduated but got no job. So, our generation has failed him. So I told him that it is normal because that was how we used to blame the generation before us.

“But I told him that the generation before mine was the one that fought for our independence. Whichever way we want to criticise them, they gave us independence. Then my generation which you say is not good, fought the civil war. We fought for the unity of Nigeria and if we did not do so, you probably would need a visa to travel to Kano or Port Harcourt. Not only that but that generation also established the foundation of democracy.

“So what do you claim your generation has achieved? It is part of it. We have seen what successive leaders of each generation have done, what can we say about you? What can we say about your generation?”

Obasanjo, who noted that he attended the Ijero Baptist Church for the first time in 1946, said that the fact that the church was still standing after 100 years was worth celebrating.

The minister in charge, Rev. Olayemi Aderibigbe, who also inaugurated the Ijero Baptist Church History Book, urged youths to continue to build on the good which the church had done over the years so as to be able to give a lasting legacy to the next generation

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APC rules out Fashola as vice presidential candidate

The Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), has been ruled out as a running mate to the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress anytime the candidate emerges, investigation by The PUNCH has revealed.

A highly placed source in the party, who spoke with our correspondent on condition of anonymity in Abuja on Sunday, said that Fashola’s religion had ruled him out of the race.

He said since it was almost certain that the party would field a Muslim as its presidential candidate, it would therefore be out of place to field another Muslim as the running mate.

Apart from a former Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), the party also has three other known presidential aspirants.

They are a former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar; Governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwakwanso; and a newspaper publisher, Mr. Sam Nda-Isaiah.

Out of them, only Nda-Isaiah is a Christian.

The source said that though Fashola remained the best candidate for the position, he however regretted that the issue of religion would deny the party and the country the chance of fielding the governor.

He said, “You know that the South-West is a base for the APC and it also contributed immensely to its formation. We would have preferred Fashola because of his pedigree in the state. Moreover, of all the APC governors from the zone, he is the only one doing his second term.

“But this issue of religion is the problem. Apart from this, other APC governors from the zone are also Muslims. You may need to recall that the enemies of our party tried in vain before to label the party a Muslim party.

“Even though they have failed, we may also need to be guided by the words of advice from former President Olusegun Obasanjo against any party fielding same religion ticket. This is what is hampering us concerning Fashola, whose performance and competence cannot be queried.”

The source said that even though the national leadership of the party was aware that the people of the “South-West are not religious but we are dealing with a larger society now. So, we must be careful.”

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At last a cure for #EBOLA; GSK announces success on Ebola trial vaccine

GlaxoSmithKline has announced an initial success on phase 1 trial of an Ebola vaccine.

The first results from the trial published on Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that a GSK and National Institute of Health Ebola candidate vaccine was well-tolerated and produced an immunological response in each of the 20 healthy adult volunteers in the United States who received it.

In a statement released on Thursday by the pharmaceutical company, the vaccine used in the trial conducted by the NIH was co-developed by the institute’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Okairos, a biotechnology company acquired by GSK in 2013.

The statement read in part, “It uses a type of chimpanzee cold virus, known as chimpanzee adenovirus type 3 (ChAd3), as a carrier to deliver genetic material from two strains of the Ebola virus – the Sudan strain and the Zaire strain, which is responsible for the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

“GSK has been working with the NIH to accelerate development of both this bivalent version of the candidate vaccine and a monovalent version targeting only the Zaire strain in response to the current Ebola epidemic.”

Commenting on the results, Chairman of Global Vaccines at GSK, Dr. Moncef Slaoui, said, “We are very encouraged by these positive first trial results showing this type of vaccine has an acceptable safety profile and can produce an immune response against Ebola in humans. Working with partners including the NIH, we’re doing all we can to advance development of a candidate vaccine in response to the Ebola crisis in West Africa.

“It’s important to remember that these data are the first piece in the jigsaw and we’re continuing to gather other important information. Over the coming weeks, we will see results from further phase 1 trials which will tell us more about the profile of the monovalent vaccine; most significantly results from a trial in Mali which is assessing its safety and immune response in West African populations.

“If the combined data from these trials are positive, the next phases of the clinical trial programme will begin in early 2015 to see whether the immune response we are seeing in phase 1 actually translates into providing people in affected countries with meaningful protection against Ebola.”

Slaoui added that the phase 3 trials would involve the vaccination of thousands of volunteers, including frontline health-care workers in affected countries, including Liberia and Sierra Leone, and possibly Guinea.

“If the candidate vaccine is able to protect these healthcare workers as we hope it will, it could significantly contribute to efforts to bring this epidemic under control,” he noted.

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Sultan asks Muslims to unite against Boko Haram

The Sultan of Sokoto and leader of Muslims in Nigeria, Alhaji Mohammed Sa’ad Abubakar III, has challenged Islamic sects in the country to unite and fight Boko Haram insurgency.

The Sultan, while condemning the suicide bomb blasts at the Kano Central Mosque on Friday, which left about 120 worshippers dead and many others injured, stated that “those behind all the attacks are not Muslims.”

He spoke on Saturday in Abuja during a post-2014 Hajj conference organised by the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria held at the National Mosque.

Abubakar said, “I do not believe those perpetrating these are Muslims, because if they are Muslims, they are not professing what Islam teaches.

“In the world over, it is the duty and responsibility of government to provide security for the citizenry. This is the time for all the various sects in Islam in this country to rally round one another and end insurgency in this country.”

The monarch said it was time for all stakeholders, particularly the Federal Government, to rise up to the responsibility of ending insurgency in the country.

He also enjoined stakeholders to join hands and end the violence being perpetrated by Boko Haram in the country.

The Secretary-General of Jama’atu Nasril Islam, Dr. Khalid Abubakar Aliyu, while condemning the attack, reiterated the need for the Federal Government to show more commitment towards ending the carnage in the North-East.

Aliyu further challenged the Federal Government to move from mere speech making on the issue of ending Boko Haram to taking decisive actions that would portray the government as serious in its anti-terrorism crusade.

The JNI scribe said, “I think it is very important that this matter be looked at with all purposes and intents, and with a very serious focus on efforts from the government which has the constitutional mandate to look after the security and welfare of the people.

“We have called with the loudest of our voice on the government but up till this moment, we hear only mere speeches not matched with actions and efforts aimed at curtailing this scourge and epidemic threatening the lives of the Muslims.

“Where have you ever heard that even in a worship environment, a mosque for people to worship is bombed and over hundred people killed? Up to this moment, no arrest has been made; nothing from the government unto whom we are going to rely. I call on all Muslim leaders, elders, parents, Imams and scholars to come together to speak and brainstorm on how they can provide succour and help in any effort that we are going to get from the government.”

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US police officer who shot teenager resigns

The white police officer who shot black teenager Michael Brown dead has resigned, nearly four months after the confrontation that fueled protests in the US city of St Louis and across the country.

Darren Wilson had been on administrative leave since the August 9 shooting.

Darren Wilson’s resignation has been widely anticipated.

Still, it’s likely that those in Ferguson who’ve been angered that Wilson wasn’t indicted will welcome his resignation.

It’s almost impossible to imagine him as a police officer patrolling a community that believes he’s guilty of at least the wrongful death of Michael Brown.

Civil rights activists have been calling for protests to focus now on changes in Missouri state law to restrict the use of deadly force by police and to explicitly outlaw racial profiling by officers.

That’s what marchers are calling for as they make their way 190km from Ferguson to the state capital Jefferson city over the next week.
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