Saraki’s trial: PDP plots to pick Senate president

From the Nation/ 10 hours ago

Barely 24 hours after the arraignment of Senate President Bukola Saraki, some of his loyalists and Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) senators are planning to fight back, The Nation has learnt.

They are said to be working on a plan which will lead to the election of a new Senate President from the opposition party, should Saraki be convicted by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) – the “worst case scenario”.

Security agencies already know about the plot, it was learnt.

Besides, there were signs yesterday that pro-Saraki senators may have “laid an ambush” for President Muhammadu Buhari’s ministerial list, which is being expected at the Senate “any moment from now”.

They may reject the list and all appointments made so far by the President  in protest against Saraki’s trial, a source said.

But the Presidency is unruffled.

A source, who spoke in confidence, said last night: “Some loyalists of Saraki and PDP senators have been meeting on the options available and how to tackle President Muhammadu Buhari.

“At the meeting in Abuja, they resolved to stand by Saraki but if he is convicted, they will make sure that the next president of the Senate is from the PDP.

“They are really aggrieved and have vowed to stop the candidate of the Unity Forum, Sen. Ahmed Lawan, from emerging as Saraki’s successor.

“From the way PDP and its senators are rallying around Saraki, no one needs a soothsayer to know that a bigger conspiracy is in the offing.

“The PDP has not come to terms with the fact that it lost the last general elections.”

Part of the plot is to reject Buhari’s ministerial list and all appointments so far made by the  President, it was learnt.

These appointments include those of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Nigerian Customs Service(NCS) and Assets Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON), among others.

The source went on: “They know that the President will not present imposed candidates as ministerial nominees and they are out for a pound of flesh as from September 29 because the Code of Conduct Bureau( CCB) dragged the President of the Senate to the Code of Conduct Tribunal(CCT)”

It was gathered that security agencies have smashed the plot.

A government source said: “The whole plot is aimed at frustrating the President and cause a political crisis in the country.

“They have this feeling that they must pull down the house due to the arraignment of Saraki by CCT. In spite of denial, they are pointing accusing fingers at the  Presidency for Saraki’s travails.”

Attempts to make loyalists of tHouse of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara, to pitch their tent with Saraki appear to have suffered a setback.

It was learnt that although Saraki backed Dogara to become the Speaker, the “template has changed”.

Dogara and his loyalists would prefer to “facilitate reconciliation between the Presidency and the Senate leadership than taking sides”.

A Dogara supporter said: “There is pressure on our camp to take a hard line position on the trial of Saraki but we will rather broker peace than compound the situation.

“We are not betraying anyone but we believe the challenge at hand is resolvable. If we compound the situation to team up against the Presidency, we will all fail.

“To take sides is to set the House on fire all over. This will not augur well for the new National Assembly.”

Visit website

Deadly blast hits Yemen mosque at start of Muslim holiday

From Punch/4 hours ago

At least one blast tore through a mosque in Yemen’s rebel-held capital Sanaa Thursday, witnesses said, targeting Shiite worshippers during prayers at the start of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha and leaving at least 25 dead.

The attack happened in the Balili mosque near a police academy in Sanaa, which is controlled by the Houthi Shiite rebels, according to witnesses. Some reports said there had been two explosions, both by suicide bombers.

At least 25 people were killed, medics told the AFP news agency, with dozens more wounded.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the Yemeni capital has been shaken by a string of bombings of Shiite mosques in recent months claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.

The radical Sunni Muslim group considers Shiites to be heretics and has also claimed bombings of mosques in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

The Iran-backed Houthi rebels have seized several regions of Yemen including Sanaa which they overran a year ago.

Pro-government forces backed by Saudi-led air strikes have recently managed to wrest back some southern provinces, including Yemen’s second city of Aden.

The Islamic State group and the Yemen-based branch of its jihadist rival Al-Qaeda have exploited the turmoil to boost their activities in the impoverished country.

The bombing came as Muslims around the world celebrated Eid al-Adha – the feast of sacrifice – which Muslims mark by prayers in congregation at mosques.

Visit website

220 people reported dead in Hajj crush outside Mecca

 From Daily Times/2hours ago

At least 220 pilgrims were killed in a crush at Mina, outside the Muslim holy city of Mecca, where some two million people are performing the annual haj pilgrimage, Saudi Arabia’s civil defence authority said.

Visit website

BUHARI NEEDS HAD TALKING MINISTERS

Dailytime Nigeria / 12 hours ago

“Kings take pleasure in honest lips; they value a man who speaks the truth” Proverbs 16:13 KJV.

President Muhammadu Buhari has 100 days of warming the highest seat of power in the land has come and gone. We still remember with nostalgia May 29, 2015 as a day of audacious magic that brought back the optimism of our collective will for a new Nigeria. To make a success of repositioning Nigeria, Buhari must begin to love his critics.

In retrospect, it is fact that ministerial silence doomed ex-President Jonathan’s presidency. During his tenure, Jonathan was a prisoner to a cabal that refused to say the truth but rather supported many of his bad decisions. His ministers and advisers lost the commitment to relentlessly speak out against all odds, against ex-President Jonathan’s excesses and against all entrenched privileges. There was no gesture of defiance to save Nigeria, no statement of hope to cheer the intellect, no voices in their angry cadences to speak truth to power.

As a result, Goodluck Jonathan lost all radical determination to fix Nigeria. He made no concerted effort to swing the political pendulum away from suffocating corruption. PDP governors became predators who developed demonic and covetous attitude toward the total cleansing of our commonwealth. It was a person like Okonjo-Iweala who lost the moral and patriotic battle to stand up to Jonathan and make a hell of a noise about the breathtaking bankruptcy of Nigeria’s economic condition.

Rather than advise ex- President Goodluck Jonathan on the mood of the nation, his advisers fooled him with the idea that adversarial political messages against Muhammadu Buhari will swing the vote for him. Nigerians were ready to decide the Manichean struggle between integrity and banality, good and evil, freedom and slavery and the desire for change. The soul of Nigeria was left in the hands of plutocratic technocrats who swallowed our riches in one gulp. There was stark departure of collective outcry to speak truth to power and call former President Goodluck Jonathan to order on these excesses. This is where Mohammadu Buhari must embrace a timely lesson on governance. If indeed it is true according to the proverbs above that kings value the man who speaks the truth, then Buhari must listen more to his future outspoken aides, critics and enemies more than his flatterers who want one favour or another.

What we want is ministers who will be courageous and patriotic enough to speak truth to power if the president is going adrift in his change agenda. We want ministers and advisers who will be audacious enough to trespass their turf by articulating cold truth without fear of retribution. Pursed lips or resignation to cowardice as happened during the time of ex- President Goodluck Jonathan among his ministers and aides should be seen as a crime against the voters who voted for change. Truth telling should no longer be silenced by material indulgence. Already, there is public outcry against President Mohammadu Buhari’s lopsided appointments, selective justice on war against corruption, his religious bigotry and even militarism.
He has to listen to these critics and make necessary correction. Nigerians would prefer a listening president who will respect the opinions and sentiments of internal and external critics who speak out against aberrations that might destroy the democratic renewal and reconstruction we all have been yearning for in the past 16 years. Rather than cosy up to his flatterers, he should rather warm up to his critics and respond to constructive ones with courage and conviction and admission of wrong in the true spirit of the time.

If indeed integrity and honesty are the twin pillars of President Mohammadu Buhari’s change administration, then these values must be elastic enough to accommodate dissenting voices and irritating critics who may have valid reasons to disagree with his public policy formulations. His Ministers and advisers who are closer to him must enjoy the liberty to express their mind when things are going wrong with the ship of state. The ongoing tragic emblem where appointed government officials are turn into demagogues, see no evil and speak no evil zombies should now be outdated. The President should not be blindsided by sweet talk alone he also needs hard talk. That is the true meaning of leadership

Visit website

PASTOR KUMUYI URGES NIGERIANS TO DO AWAY WITH CULTISM, NIGHT CLUBBING & OTHER NEGATIVE SOCIAL VICES:

25 mins ago

The General Superintendent, Deeper Christian Life Ministry, Pastor William Kumuyi has charged Nigerians to shun night clubs, cultism and other social vices. Kumuyi made the call while speaking on the topic “The Supernatural Beginning of a Better Future,” at the ongoing Lagos City-wide Crusade in Agege, Lagos.


According to P.M News, he urged Nigerians to root out the habit of night clubbing, cultism and other negative social pastimes from their lives and surrender to Jesus who has the power to break the negative habits from their lives.

 "Every plant that has not been planted in your life shall be rooted out. You would have gone to school, but night club will not allow you; you would have earned money but roaming about will not allow you. The original plan and purpose of God for your life will be fulfilled. People could not get the original plan God has for them because there has been a derailment. Satan, the society and sin conspired to derail your life with the cooperation of self. Your destiny which has been in the hand of Satan, the society and sin will be taken back. All that Satan has planted in your life to make you miss God’s plan for you will be taken away tonight. A glorious beginning is starting in your life today. You must cooperate with God by rooting out those things. That place where you engage in occultic practices, drunkenness, sucking of blood, adultery, robbing and others is not a place of rest because they will destroy you. You must not remain in sin. Awake and put on a new strength. Rise up from that evil and come to the Saviour and something good will come to your life" he said.

Visit website

Muslims defy leaders order,collect Fayose's Sallah rams

Muslims defy leaders order,collect Fayose's Sallah rams(Photo)

Muslims in Ekiti yesterday defied the directive of some of their leaders not to collect Sallah gifts from Governor Ayo Fayose, as they trooped to the government house in Ado Ekiti to collect the rams distributed by the governor for Eid-el-Kabir celebration.

This contravened the order earlier issued by Muslim leaders, under the auspices of League of Imams and Alfas, Ekiti State, which urged members to reject the gifts on the strength that their members were not adequately represented in Fayose’s appointments.
Though, another group had countered the League of Imams and Alfas for that action, describing those behind the attack as impostors, who were not known in Islam circle.

While distributing the rams to Imams and other top dignitaries, Fayose said he won’t allow himself to be dragged into playing politics with religion in the state.

The governor urged Muslims to prevent themselves from being used as instruments of politics by desperate politicians, who are bent on maligning his government....

See Vanguard Visit website

Police invaded Calabar hotel,arrest 54 prostitutes & 56 male patronisers

Police invaded Calabar hotel,arrest 54 prostitutes & 56 male patronisers

The Cross River State command of the Nigeria Police on Tuesday raided Peace Garden Hotel popularly called `Flower Mills Joint’ and arrested 54 prostitutes and 56 men who had gone to patronise them,Punch reports...

The operation was led by the Cross River State Security Adviser, Mr. Jude Ngaji.

Addressing journalists after the raid which lasted for about four hours, Ngaji said the hotel had been turned into a brothel for commercial sex workers in Calabar.He added that the brothel had been used for criminal activities, selling of drugs and a hideout for criminals in the area.

According to him, the office of the State Security Adviser, in collaboration with security agents in the state, is working to ensure that criminals and prostitutes are shown the way out of the state.

He said,

 “In collaboration with the office of the Area Command in Calabar, we used 11 trucks in conveying the girls and men to the Command.
“Each time you pass here at night, you find under-aged girls of about 13 and 14 years standing by and waiting for men. This place has become an area of concern to the state and Cross Riverians.
“This place has become a Sodom and Gomorrah in Cross River and the raid was carried out to stop prostitution and criminality in the state. All the girls that were caught here are prostitutes and some of them were caught in compromising positions.
“There is no law that legalizes prostitution in Nigeria. The girls will be tried in court and we will ensure that they are returned back to their respective states.”He advised teenage girls to take their studies seriously and engage themselves in meaningful activities, rather than choosing the path of prostitution as a means of livelihood

Visit website