PDP Against Igbo Presidency – APC Group

Sen. Modu Sherif, PDP National Chairman

The Buhari South East Youth Movement [BSEYM] has accused the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] of working against the emergence of President of Igbo extraction. Vanguard newspaper is quoting the group as saying that, by its recent zoning, PDP has automatically ruled out the possibility an Igbo man becoming the President of Nigeria, saying that singular act has shown that the party does not regard Ndigbo.

BSEYM, in a statement therefore, called on Ndigbo, especially the youths and women, to reject PDP, which it alleged “has greatly improvised the zone in their 16 years of misrule”.

The group urged South members of the party to withdraw their membership of the party in totality, claiming that the party has nothing good for them.

In the statement jointly signed by BSEYM’s director-general Engr. Nwabueze Onwuneme and the publicity secretary, Comrade Igwe Samuel Obinna, it said PDP’s zoning of the Presidency to the North ahead of 2019 “goes to show the disdain the PDP has for the people of the zone”.

The statement further said that the zoning “seriously goes against the spirit of justice, fairness and equity in the rotation of power between the North and South”.

According to the group, “peradventure the PDP succeeds, it will extend the Igbo Presidency project to year 2027 from the earlier year 2023 been projected for the emergence of a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction, which would now leave the North there for twelve years as against eight years been projected by the APC”.

Urging Ndigbo to reject PDP, the group noted that “by the end of President Muhammad Buhari’s second tenure it will then be ripe for the Igbos as the only ethnic nationality in southern Nigeria yet to produce an elected President after both the South-west and south-south have all had their shots on the Presidency of the nation”.

Anti-Corruption Ambassador: Ekweremadu Media Team Reacts To EFCC Denial

The attention of the Office of the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, has been drawn to a statement purportedly issued by the spokesperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, denying that the agency decorated the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu as its Anti-Corruption Ambassador.

We want to put it on record that the EFCC Liaison Officer to the National Assembly, Mr. Suleiman Bakari, and his team, applied for and susbsequently paid a courtesy call on the Deputy President of the Senate in his Office on Tuesday, April 19, 2016.

Mr. Bakari, amongst other issues he raised, solicited the support of the Senate and National Assembly towards the anti-corruption crusade of the present administration, and even presented a frame with a bold picture of President Muhammadu Buhari, bearing the inscription: “If we dont kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria”.

Mr. Bakari also, on behalf of the Acting Chairman, management, and staff of the EFCC decorated Senator Ekweremadu as an Anti-Corruption Ambassador of the EFCC.

His words: “It is, therefore my honour, Your Excellency, to on behalf of my Acting Chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Mustafa Magu and the entire management and staff of the EFCC, decorate you as

Saraki Seeks CCT Chair’s Withdrawal From Trial

Embattled Senate President, Bukola Saraki has asked Danladi Umar, chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), to withdraw himself from his trial for alleged false declaration of assets, according to latest reports from TheCable.

In an application filed by Raphael Oluyede, Saraki’s lawyer, and seen by TheCable, the senate president asked Umar to disqualify himself from the case on the grounds that he was biased.

The application, which was filed on Wednesday at the CCT, read in part: “An order disqualifying/recusing the Honourable Justice Danladi Umar (Chairman of this tribunal) from sitting on the panel of this tribunal for hearing and determination of the charges filed in these proceedings for the reason that his continued presence on the said panel of this tribunal offends the provisions of section 36 (1) of the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria which prescribes that ‘In the determination of his civil rights and obligations, including any question or determination by or against any government or authority, a person shall be entitled to a fair hearing within a reasonable time by a court or other tribunal established by law and constituted in such manner as to secure its independence and impartiality.’

It also read: “A likelihood of bias by the tribunal against the appellant… undermines and withdraws from the tribunal, the jurisdiction which it is normally endowed….”

In March, Saraki had filed an application asking the judge to declare he had no jurisdiction to hear the matter. But Umar dismissed his application and ordered the commencement of trial.