N82m Dinner: APC Apologises to Soyinka


The Rivers State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has apologized to Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, over the embarrassment caused him by the recent allegation of embattled
caretaker governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, that the immediate past Rivers State Government under the watch of Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi spent a whopping N82 million to organise a birthday dinner in honour of the revered statesman in the state capital, Port Harcourt. Rivers APC in a statement signed by its State Chairman, Dr. Davies Ibiamu Ikanya and issued Monday in Port Harcourt described Wike’s allegation as unfortunate.


“On behalf of the good people of Rivers State, we hereby tender an unreserved apology to Prof. Soyinka and to assure him that Wike’s vile attempt to link him to an imaginary corruption will fail. This accusation is nothing but the ranting of a drowning man looking for whom to pull into the stinking pool but Wike has over-reached himself this time because Prof. Soyinka is globally renowned as a man of unimpeachable integrity who has never been associated with corruption
in his over 80 years on earth”. 

Ambode presents N662.588 billion budget for 2016

Photo published for Ambode presents “The Peoples Budget,” of N662.588 billion for 2016 fiscal yearGovernor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State today presented  the 2016 budget to the Lagos State House of Assembly. He also added that a meal-a-day programme will begin in Lagos schools come next year. 
N662.588bn is proposed for 2016. The budget is N172.898bn bigger than the 2015 budget and represents an improvement of 26% over the budgets of 20154 and 2015. With Capital Expenditure proposed at N383.678bn as against N278.909bn for Recurrent Expenditure, this gives a ratio of Capital to Recurrent of 58:42 as against 51:49 in 2014 and 2015.

Legendary broadcaster, Cyril Stober retires from service

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After 3 decades of stellar newscasting, the doyen of broadcasting, Cyril Stober has retired from service. Most of us grew up listening to him on the NTA Network. The Niger State-born screen legend anchored the ‘Tonight at 9’ programme with dedication and professionalism and he will be missed by millions of Nigerians. There is an out-pour of well-wishes and accolades for the media icon on social media, he is matter-of-factly, trending on social networking site, Twitter.

Ebola: Sierra Leone records two new cases

Following the death of a man of the Ebola Virus disease a week ago, two new cases of the fatal illness have been recorded in Sierra Leone’s Tonkolili district. The victim contracted the disease in Freetown, and then travelled to his home village to mark the end of the Ramadan. 
He was treated for a fever at the local hospital but authorities did not contact the Ebola emergency team.‎ The two new cases are relatives of the man.Northern Tonkolili had not had a single case of Ebola in five months.  His family and friends buried him without following the special procedures required for Ebola victims to avoid spreading the disease.
The National Ebola Response Centre’s OB Sisay said that “We now know where the virus is and we are tracking its movement, by surrounding, containing and eradicating its last remaining chain of transmission.” 
 Authorities have quarantined 500 people following his death.

Meet the newly-appointed NSA service chiefs.

President Muhammadu Buhari today dismissed some service chiefs and swiftly approved the appointments of new ones. Below is a list of the officials.
1. Major-General Abayomi Gabriel Olonishakin – Chief of Defence Staff;
2. Major-General T.Y. Buratai – Chief of Army Staff
3. Rear Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas – Chief of Naval Staff
4. Air Vice Marshal Sadique Abubakar – Chief of Air Staff
5. Air Vice Marshal Monday Riku Morgan – Chief of Defence Intelligence
6. Major-General Babagana Monguno (rtd.) – National Security Adviser
The new Chief of Defence Staff, Maj.-Gen. Olonishakin (N/6901) hails from Ekiti State. Until his appointment as Chief of Defence Staff today, he was the Head of the Nigerian Army Training and Doctrine Command in Minna, Niger State.
The new Chief of Army Staff, Maj.-Gen. Buratai hails from Borno State. Until his new appointment today, he was the Commander of the Multinational Joint Task Force which has its headquarters in Ndjamena. Maj-Gen. Buratai has previously served as Commander of the Nigerian Army’s 2nd Brigade in Port Harcourt and Commander of the Nigerian Army School of Infantry in Jaji, Kaduna State.
The new Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Ibas (NN/0746) hails from Cross River State. He enlisted into the Nigerian Defence Academy as a member of the 26th Regular Course in 1979 and was commissioned as a Sub-Lieutenant in 1983. His previous appointments include: Naval Provost Marshal, Chief Staff Officer, Naval Training Command, Chief of Administration, Naval Headquarters, Flag Officer Commanding Western Naval Command and Chief of Logistics, Naval Headquarters. Until his appointment as Chief of Naval Staff, he was the Chief Executive Officer of Navy Holdings Limited.
The new Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Abubakar (NAF/1433) hails from Bauchi State. His previous appointments include: Chief of Standards and Evaluation, NAF Headquarters; Chief of Defence Communications and Air Officer Commanding, NAF Training Command. Until his new appointment today as Chief of Air Staff, he was the Chief of Administration, NAF Headquarters.
The new Service Chiefs will hold their appointments in an acting capacity until confirmed by the Senate.
President Buhari thanks the outgoing Service Chiefs and National Security Adviser for their services to the nation and wishes them well in their future endeavours.
Femi Adesina 
Special Adviser to the President
(Media & Publicity)
July 13, 2015‎

Ebola: Group to honour Dr Adedevoh, health workers.

Organisers of The Nigerian Healthcare Excellence Awards are set to honour the late Dr. Stella Ameyo Adadevoh and other health care workers whose prompt actions halted the further spread of the deadly Ebola Virus in the country.
 Recall that Adadevoh and her team handled the index case of Ebola in Nigeria at the First Consultants Hospital, Obalende, Lagos, in 2014.
The Chief Executive Officer, Global Health Project and Resources, and Programme Director of NHEA, Dr. Wale Alabi, in a statement, on Monday said “Adadevoh and her colleagues deserve to be celebrated for their noble role. The late doctor’s courage saved the lives of so many people. Other health workers also ensured that the outbreak was contained. Subsequently, some paid with their lives. Their dedication and sacrifice for the greater good of the nation is inspirational and deserves recognition.”
The event which will hold this month will also feature the recognition of the Best Health Facility of the year in various fields of medicine and many more.
“Our aim is to ensure that we do not overlook certain stakeholders whose specialised services and support in the Nigerian healthcare service delivery are critical and valuable.” Dr. Egbe Osifo-Dawodu, a co-organiser added. 
Credit: PUNCH 

Gani Adams commends General Buhari's resilience

The Oodua Peoples Congress National Coordinator, Gani Adams, and one of those who led protests against General Muhammadu Buhari has also extended his congratulations to the President-elect following the latter’s victory in the just-concluded Presidential poll.


 “I wish to send my congratulations to the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, on his success in the recently-concluded presidential election. By his resounding success in the election across the country, General Buhari has proved that he is the choice of the people.

“I commend his resilience and tenacity over the years which have seen him equal the record of great leaders like Abraham Lincoln of the USA. His victory is a lesson to all of us that we can be what we want to be if we are patient and persistent in our legitimate pursuits in life.

“His speeches before, during and after the election are also commendable because they went a long way in dousing the tension in the country. This actually shows that the ‘Peoples General’ as he is fondly called is indeed a statesman”.

“However, having won the election, I want the president-elect to begin to see himself as the president-elect of all Nigerians and not just that of the All Progressives Congress (APC). For him, it is time to mend whatever differences that may have arisen as a result of the election.

“It is time for all Nigerians, irrespective of political affiliation, to come together to continue to build our nation in a positive way, which of course, should be the focus of the president-elect himself and every other political leader across the various political parties in the country. And for all of us, it is a new dawn in the annals of the country for an opposition party to win in a popular election.”

Oath-taking claims: A desperate act by an ailing spokesperson- APC

The All Progressives Congress has branded the recent claim by Femi Fani-Kayode/Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation, that former Lagos State Governor and APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is scheming to seize power from the President after polls, untrue and nauseating.
Director of Media and Publicity of the PDP-PCO, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode at a news conference in Abuja on Friday said,

It should baffle well-meaning Nigerians why Tinubu has decided to draft Buhari, despite his age, acrimonious background and questionable health status, into the presidential race whilst ensuring that his stooge, Prof Osinbajo, was foisted on the general as vice presidential candidate.

“The reason is that the PDP-PCO wishes to use this forum to expose the ungodly plan by Tinubu to seize the presidency of Nigeria by subterfuge. You will recall how Tinubu wanted to be running mate to Buhari in spite of the nationwide resentment for Muslim-Muslim ticket that he and Buhari planned to foist on their party.
“Senator Tinubu had justified the ticket by saying that competence was the important thing and not the issue of religion. But when he and Buhari could not push through the agenda within the APC, he (Tinubu), after being given the opportunity to nominate a vice presidential candidate, decided to prop up his stooge in the person of Prof. Osinbajo.
“Now the real reason Tinubu nominated Osinbajo has been made known to us and we hereby offer a public service to the Nigerian people by drawing their national attention to it. Credible pieces of information at our disposal indicate that Tinubu has perfected plans to come to power through the back door.
“Tinubu, according to our information, has compelled Osinbajo to swear to an oath that after six months in office, he would resign as the vice president, in the unlikely event that their party wins. The wicked plot, as laid out by them, is to force Osinbajo to resign for Tinubu to be nominated by Buhari as his replacement.
“The ultimate objective of this plot is to ensure that Tinubu becomes President. The script is simple: given the questionable health of Buhari, Tinubu, who is desperate to be president for his own selfish reasons, will simply bid his time in the evil expectation that Buhari will not be able to go the whole hog.
“How wicked can those that hatched this plan be? How unfair can they be to the North, to Buhari and to Nigerians? We wish Buhari long life. Senator Tinubu’s dangerous plan is about getting power. This is sad. No thoroughbred Yoruba man or indeed Nigerian wants to get power through the misfortune of another person.
“But this is the perfidious path that Tinubu is passing through. This is repugnant. It will interest you to know that our information is strengthened by the very similar act of resignation which Senator Tinubu had planned to force on Pastor Tunde Bakare which you can all watch now.

Here’s the response by the APC National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

“Our presidential candidate’s globally-acclaimed outing has presented Nigerians, and indeed the global community, with a choice between a bumbling, ineffective, incoherent, clueless, visionless and incompetent President and an assertive, knowledgeable, dignified, purposeful and principled President-in-waiting.

“Having failed to discredit the (United Kingdom) outing with a rented crowd, some of whom confessed to have been paid to carry placards they did not even understand, the PDP and the Jonathan Administration have now resorted to making nauseating claims that are totally untrue, absolutely incomprehensible and nothing but sheer bunkum.”
“They have thrown everything imaginable at Gen. Buhari, but he has continued to wax stronger and stronger: They said he was not qualified, that he was too old, then they fabricated a medical report of an illness of their own choice, sponsored death wish adverts against him and instituted a myriad of court cases to stop him.
“After they failed to stop him, they went after the election itself, using the PVCs as a tool to launch a campaign for postponement and, when they realised that would not work, came up with the bogey of insecurity in the North-East to force a postponement of the election, hoping they can buy enough time to revive their electoral misfortune.
“With everything working against them, they engaged in a show of shame at The Chatham House that backfired badly, on the heels of their bare-faced lies that Gen. Buhari was hospitalised in London. The preposterous claim of a secret oath – reminiscent of what they do in their own party – by the apparently ailing spokesman for the Jonathan Campaign Organisation, Femi Fani-Kayode, is their latest desperate act.”‎

Juventus midfielder, Andrea Pirlo unveils his dream team

Juventus midfielder, Andrea Pirlo just like other football greats has unveiled his Champions League dream XI team. ‎
Using the 4-3-3 formation, the Italian football icon’s team features players from Italy, Spain, Brazil and Barcelona.
Gianluigi Buffon, Philipp Lahm, Paolo Maldini, Fabio Cannavaro ‎Paul Scholes, Gennaro Gattuso, Xavi Hernandez, Kaka, Lionel Messi and Fillipo Inzaghi.
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