Okonjo-Iweala Is To Blame For Nigeria's Financial Situation - Buhari

President-Elect Gen. Muhammadu Buhari in a chat with SaharaTV spoke on how he plans to deal with corruption, the government’s finances, Boko Haram, and Nigeria’s economy. 

President-elect Gen. Muhammadu Buhari

He blamed the Minister of Finance Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for the financial situation in Nigeria, and that he will make his Ministerial appointees declare their assets to the public.

When asked about statements from Minister of Finance Iweala on the fiscal conditions and government spending in Nigeria, President-Elect Buhari told SaharaTV that “I’m afraid the Finance Minister has no cause to complain because the governors cannot force the central government to act outside the Constitution.”

President-Elect Buhari firmly stated that “all those that were governors, ministers, permanent secretaries, head of foreign staff and all those with political appointments will have to declare their assets on the assumption of their appointment and definitely with the courts. And once they leave they have to re-declare their assets.” He said this would ensure greater accountability among public servants.

He told SaharaTV that he does not plan to interfere with the judiciary and whatever action it may take pursuing corrupt public officials. He stated that his administration would not “become embroiled in investigation every ministry, then the government will not have time to move forward.”

On the contentious issue of Oil Block ownership in Nigeria, and an equitable distribution of the country’s wealth, he suggested that partisan politics in Nigeria is the cause of inequitability in the oil sector. President-Elect Buhari claimed that he wanted to professionalize the oil sector in Nigeria. He said that the “proliferation of oil fields to people who don’t even know what it is, is one of the messes partisan politics has brought.” Within the equitable distribution of wealth and job creation for youth, the President-Elect pointed to the APC manifesto calling for greater emphasis on mining and agriculture development.

When pressed on rumors that former president Obasanjo was exercising inordinate influence on Buhari’s administration he said, “I think that people have to accept the realities of Nigeria’s political development. General Olusegun Obasanjo is the only living Nigerian that led Nigeria for more than 11 years, so for anybody to think that General Obasanjo is irrelevant or he was trying to push his influence over issues, I think is being uncharitable and not being fair to Nigeria’s political development.”

The president-elect, has made it known that his government would have no place for defectors from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He said members of his All Progressives Congress (APC) have nothing to fear over the mass defection of PDP members to the party.

El-rufai Wins Kaduna Governorship Election; Scores 1.1 Million Votes

A former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and All Progressives Congress governorship candidate in Kaduna State, Malam Nasir el-Rufa’i, has been declared winner of the Kaduna State governorship election held on Saturday.

According to the INEC in Kaduna, El-Rufa’i polled 1,117,635 million votes from across the 23 local government areas of the state.

The Returning Officer for Kaduna State, Prof. Ja’afaru Kaura, who announced the result, said El-Rufa’i defeated the incumbent governor and Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Mukhtar Yero, who polled a total of 485,833 votes.

Yero had, earlier in a telephone call and special radio broadcast to the people of the state, conceded defeat to the former minister.

APGA clinches 26 LGAs in Anambra State Assembly election

The Independent National Electoral Commission has declared the All Progressive Grand Alliance as winner of 26 seats out of 30 state constituencies in Anambra State in the State Assembly elections held on Saturday.

INEC, therefore, rescheduled the remaining four LGAs in the state for April 18, 2015.

Addressing newsmen in Awka on Sunday, the  Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC in the state, Mr. Edwin Nwatarali, listed the affected areas, where the election have been rescheduled as Aniocha Constituencies 1 and 2, Aguata 1, Constituency 1 and Ekwusigo Constituency.

“Out of the 30 constituency seats in the Anambra State House of Assembly, 26 have been declared; and they were all won by APGA,” he said.

He said the Commission had to move the Ekwusigo elections from April 25, which was its initial scheduled date  to April 18 following a recommendation from the INEC headquarters.

According to him, the Ekwusigo Constituency election was cancelled after thugs made away with over 75 per cent of the total electoral materials meant for the Saturday election.

He said for Uga ward 1 in Aguata, the number of voters exceeded the number of registered voters with Permanent Voter Card.

For Aniocha Constituencies 1 and 2, Nwatarali said there was a deliberate attempt not to use card readers in the area despite certifications by technical personnel from INEC confirming the workability of the devices.

“So, we are rejecting the result from these constituencies. Our card reader was working and yet over 80 per cent of accreditation was done manually,” he said, adding that the commission had enough technical personnel to address issues of such nature.

Okorocha leads in 19 LGAs in Imo

Results of the 2015 governorship election collated in Imo State show Governor Rochas Okorocha clearly winning in 19 out of  27 Local Government Areas.

Okorocha, who is the candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Imo State, has so far polled about 373,269 votes in Ideato North, Ideato South, Isu, Nkwerre, Nwangele, Onu-Imo, Orsu and Njaba LGAs.

Other local governments where the governor has the majority votes are Owerri Municipal, Okigwe, Oru West, Owerri North, Ihitte-Uboma, Ehime-Mbano and Mbaitoli.

Also, Okorocha won in Orlu, Owerri West, Obowo and Ikeduru ahead of the candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, Emeka Ihedioha, who polled over 200,000 votes, and Capt. Emmanuel Iheanacho of the All Progressives Grand Alliance.

Although the conduct of the governorship and state House of Assembly elections has been generally hailed as peaceful, there were widespread allegations of ballot box snatching and irregularities in some wards and polling units.

Results were cancelled in some LGAs, such as Isu, Nwangele, Ngor-Okpala and Obowo.

Also, voting did not take place in over 30 polling units in the state, particularly in Ikeduru, Obowo, Oguta, Oru West and Ezinihitte LGAs.

While some members of the National Youth Service Corps on election duty in Ohaji-Egbema were allegedly attacked and brutalised by hoodlums, security agents arrested about five unidentified men dressed in fake Army uniforms and armed with AK47 rifles as they attempted to snatch ballot boxes in Aboh-Mbaise LGA on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Iheanacho on Sunday called for the cancellation of the governorship election on the ground that it was fraught with malpractices.

Edo PDP vows to reject Uromehe results

• They are not INEC, Edo Dep. governor
Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party has vowed to reject results from Uromehe Ward, Urhonigbe South in Orhionmwon local government area of Edo State.
Uromehe is the hometown of the state deputy governor, Dr. Pius Odubu.
It said its party agents led by one Barr. Sylvester Ogbe were attacked on Friday night and driven away from the community by thugs of the All Progressives Congress.

Chieftain of the PDP, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, in a chat with newsmen, said the PDP agents were shot and had to escape to Delta State to seek medical treatment.
According to him, “Yesterday at about 2am, our agents in Uromehe called me to inform me that some thugs led by a younger brother to the deputy governor attacked them and they were shot.”
The deputy governor, however, denied the allegations and insisted that no shootings occurred in his community.
He said, “There are policemen there and is nothing like that happened. Is he now INEC?. If he chooses to keep his agents away, that is his problem.”

APC wins governorship election in Bauchi

The All Progressives Congress (APC) gubernatorial candidate in Bauchi State, Mohammed  Abubakar, was on Sunday declared winner of the state governorship election.

Announcing the result of the election on Sunday in Bauchi, the Reurning Officer, Prof. Mohammed Faruk, said Abubakar polled 654,934 votes, to defeat nine other contestants.

His closest opponent, Mr Mohammed Jatau of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), secured 282,650 votes.

Declaring Abubakar as the winner, Prof. Faruk said that the APC candidate had satisfied Section 179(2) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, having garnered highest number of total votes cast, and also secured the minimum number of votes required in each of the 20 Local Government Areas of the state.

With official announcement of the result, the state now has Barr. Mohammed Abubakar as the governor-elect, with Nuhu Gidado , as his deputy.

Abubakar, born on 11th Dec.1956,attended Native Authority Primary School, Jos and Tudun Wada Primary School, Kano, from 1963 to 1969; Government College, Kano, 1970 to 1974.

In 1974, he enrolled for the one year programme  of the School of Basic Studies, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria, after which, upon successful completion of the programme, gained admission into the institution to study law in 1975.

The governor-elect completed his law studies in 1978, attended the Nigeria Law School from 1978 to 1979, had his mandatory National Youth Service Corps  and joined the services of Bauchi state government as a Pupil State Council, Ministry of Justice.

Key positions he held while serving with the state government were Head of Legal Drafting Department, Bauchi State House of Assembly (1983), Director, Public Prosecution, Ministry of Justice (1988) and Commissioner of Justice (1990 to 1993.

He was also the Chairman of Nigeria Bar Association, Bauchi State,from 1996 to 1998.

After leaving the services of the state government, Abubakar was at different times, the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Kogi, Delta, Plateau and Rivers , and afterwards elevated to the position of National Commissioner in charge of Borno, Jigawa and Yobe.

The deputy-governor –elect, Nuhu Gidao, was born on 5th October, 1958.

He attended the then prestigious Barewa College, Zaria, from where he proceeded to ABU Zaria to bag a degree in Building Engineering.

Guber Poll: Observers call for cancellation of Rivers result

International election observers on Sunday called for the cancellation of the Governorship and House of Assembly elections in Rivers.

The leader of African Centre for Leadership Strategies and Development, Mr Humphrey Bekaren, who spoke on behalf of the observers, made the call in Port Harcourt.

He said the observers were shocked that INEC disregarded the widely reported violent irregularities to begin the process of declaring results in the state.

‘’ We request all lovers of democracy to join us in calling for the outright cancellation of the phony election.

‘’ Unless this is done, we would have sown the seed that could eventually grow into providing a shade of fear and death over us,’’ he said.

According to Bekaren, what happened in Rivers was a far cry from what election should be.

‘’ What we saw did not meet international standard of electioneering, not even the ones set by the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC,’’ he said.

He said there were reported incidents like deliberate delays and diversion of electoral materials, attacks on electoral officers, widespread arson and voter intimidation.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner for Rivers, Mrs Gesila Khan, said INEC cancelled election in centres with reported electoral malpractices.

She said re-run elections took place in six local government areas in the state where electoral malpractices were reported.

He had also served with the Bauchi state government from 1983 to 1992, rising to the position of a Deputy Director, before transferring his service to the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, where he finally delved into the private sector as a professional builder.

Okorocha leads in Imo

Okorocha

Governor Rochas Okorocha of the All Progressive Congress is leading in 20 out of the 27 local government areas so far declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission in Imo State.

According to reports, the governor is leading his closest challenger by over 50, 000 votes.

Details later…

Edo state House of Assembly results

Akoko Edo 1
PDP – 7,206, Johnson Momoh
APC – 14,195, Kabiru Adjoto
Akoko Edo 2
PDP – 677, Marie Olabisi
APC-2,174, Emmanuel Omaludun
Oredo West
PDP- 10,193, Uyi Ogbemudia
APC -13,127, Chris Okaeben
Oredo East
PDP – 9,084, Osadebamwen Okoro
APC- 15,581, Iyoha Osaigbovo
Etsako East
PDP- 8,793, Abbas Momoh Jega
APC – 16,825, Kingslwy Oghenakhogie
Egor
PDP – 12,233, Nosa Adams
APC – 19,554, Crosby Eribo
Etsako Central
PDP – 7,517, Abubakar Ahmed
APC – 10,310, Lawani Damian
Esan South East
PDP-11,61, Festus Ebea
APC -11,867, Edughele Igbelokoto.
Esan Central

APC- 10,557
PDP -8,201
Etsako West II
APC- 14,373
PDP -4,001
Etsako East I
APC -11,228
PDP- 6,321
Ovia East
APC -22,562
PDP -10,497
Ovia North East
APC -7,477
PDP -4,633
Ovia North East II
APC -8,041
PDP- 5,462
Owan West
APC -12,883
PDP -9,963
Igueben
APC -8,140
PDP -6,944

Oshiomhole floors PDP, wins 21 out of 24 House of Assembly seats, as PDP wins Edo South senatorial seat

BENIN CITY – GOVENROR Adams Oshiomhole led All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo state floored the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the House of Assembly elections held Saturday, winning 21 out of the 24 House of Assembly seats in the state.

The Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Tony Anenih picked three seats for his party in his Edo Central senatorial district of the state.

Meanwhile unofficial results in the rescheduled Edo South senartorial election in Oriomnwon Local Government Area of Edo state, indicated that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Pharm.Matthew Urhoghide defeated the Minority whip of the House of Representatives and APC candidate, Mr Samson Osagie.

Results from polling units indicated that though Osagie defeated Urhoghide in Oriomwon but the poor voters turn out affected his chances in upturning the about 27,000 votes which Urhoghide was leading with after the March 28, National Assembly elections in six Local Government Areas in Edo South.

Meantime, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Edo state, Mr Mike Igini, who declared that elections have been concluded in the state, commended the people of the state for their support throughout the elections.
Some of the House of Assembly results in Edo South indicated that the immediate past Edo state Commissioner in the Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and APC House of Assembly candidate in Ikpoba Okhai, Mr Henry Okwuarobo polled 23,571 as against 14,459 polled by the PDP candidate.

The former chairman of Egor Local Government Area and APC House of Assembly candidate for Egor, Mr Crosby Eribo polled 19,554 t defeat the PDP candidate, Nosa Adams who polled 12,233 votes. Results from the collations centers indicated that the APC won the entire House of Assembly seats in Edo South and Edo North senatorial districts of the state while they picked three out of the six in Edo Central district.

Igini who spoke to Vanguard Sunday said, “ First Edo state people I must commend them for the kind of corporation they gave to the commission. I must commend them the way and manner they appreciated that we stand for electoral justice, that all that is required from us is to provide a level playing field. Haven looked at the reports from other parts of the country you will see that the outcome of the election is as contested by the candidates, it is a reflection of what the people wanted.

“Baring a few complaints here and there, any human activity of this complex nature you will not expect that there will be no isolated case of deviation by one ad-hoc staff or the other. Of course on account of politicians who are very very desperate to want to have unfair advantage of the system? Over all I am very satisfied, particularly with the performance of Saturday election unlike the first election, our logistic arrangement was perfect.

“ We got to all the polling unit as at 6am and materials were on ground. They were areas we had issues with card readers in the morning but the problem was quickly dealt with. The card readers worked in a very fantastic manner. Personally, my level of satisfaction in this Saturday election was very exceptional and I am very happy. I have kept faith that under my watch it will be free, fair, credible election, providing a level playing field for all candidates” he stated.

First female Gov may emerge as APC takes lead in Taraba

The governorship candidate of All Progressive Congress in Taraba state Sen. Aisha Jumei Al-hasan has taken over a slide lead of the governorship election count ahead of PDP candidate Dickson Ishaku as more local government areas submits their results.

If she polls more votes and wins the election she will become the first female governor in Nigeria.

Sen Aisha Jumei Al-hasan

APC candidate gained huge number of votes from Gasol local government area to overtake the PDP which was initially leading.

The seven local government areas out of sixteen that has summated their results to INEC in Jalingo so far includes-

Jalingo APC-37,714 PDP-19,047

Ardo-Kola APC-13,042 PDP-14,041

Lau APC-13,096 PDP-20,598

Gasol APC-42,888 PDP-12,527

Zing APC-5,224 PDP-28,005

Yoro APC-6,936 PDP-18,696

Gashaka APC-9,882 PDP-7,120

The remaking nine Loca government areas were yet to arrive at the time of this report.

Final result: INEC declares Tambuwal winner of Sokoto governorship poll

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, has been declared winner of Sokoto state governorship election.

The state’s Collation and Returning Officer, Prof. Abdullahi Bagudu , who is Deputy Vice Chancellor, Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto, declared that Tambuwal polled the highest number of votes in Saturday’s governorship election in the state.

Announcing the results at about 7.15pm, Prof. Abdullahi Bagudu disclosed that the total votes cast was 958,736, while total valid votes was 926,682 and voided votes, 32,054

Tambuwal polled 647,609 votes, while the Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate, Sen. Abdallah Wali scored 269,074.

The Speaker won in all 23 local government areas, while his PDP challenger did not win in any local government.

How Ambode defeated Agbaje in Lagos

The candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Akinwunmi Ambode defeated his main challenger, Jimi Agbaje of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, according to the result announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Below is the result from the 20 Local Government Areas as announced by INEC.

                                 APC                                PDP

1. Ibeju Lekki.         14696                            11292
2. Lagos Island.      34232                            16111
3.Badagry.               27086                           22664
4.Ifelodu Ajeromi 42954                            52596
5.Etiosa.                  28082                          24486
6.Lagos Mainland 31836                           26889
7.Ikeja.                    33,178                         26,419
8. Amuwo.             26,349                          35,168
9. Oshodi Isolo.   42,835                          43,904
10. Ifako Jaiye.    46,485                          26,898
11. Surulere.         51,404                          54,206
12. Ikorodu.         52061                           35259
13. Apapa.            22,169                         19,486
14. Epe.                31498                           13405
15.Somolu.          43642                          37078
16. Kosofe.           53890                        40253
17. Agege.            46909                         32885
18.  Ojo.               31910                            34693
19. Mushin.         60220                        38620
20. Alimosho.    90558                         67480

Expert allays fears, as Ebola scare hits Lagos

Residents of Lagos and environs have been urged to ignore a rumoured re-emergence of the dreaded Ebola Virus Disease, EVD, in Lagos. The rumour, which began trending on the social media late on the night of Friday April 10, 2015, threw a wide section of the populace into wild panic even as some residents began making preparations to leave the city.

Vanguard gathered that the purported message entitled “Ebola Returns to Nigeria after Killing 3 and infecting 12” , continued to circulate on Facebook, WatsApp and Twitter, into Saturday, the day of the Gubernatorial and States Houses of Reps elections held nationwide.

According to the report, one of the alleged victims, one Mr. George Lawal, showed major signs of the disease which caused neighbours to raise alarm.

“He was immediately taken to an undisclosed hospital in Lagos where he later died. Doctors confirmed he was struck with the Ebola flu. They are believed to have made major contacts with at least 12 people who are on the large. Please, share the news and report any suspected victim to nearby authorities,” the message stated.

But debunking the rumour, a health official and Ebola expert Dr. Lawal Bakare described the message as malicious and a figment of the imagination of the originator. Bakare, who is Founder and spokesperson for “Ebola Alert”, the official Ebola notification body for Nigeria, told Vanguard that the anatomy of the message in itself is false. In an Official @EbolaAlert notification, Bakare remarked: “We found a fast spreading false rumour of Ebola cases in Nigeria. The rumour was initiated by an irresponsible blogger who lied that there are cases of Ebola in Nigeria just to generate traffic to her website.

We will need your powerhouse to help us tackle this rumour.
“In order to prevent what happened during the Ebola outbreak where people were told to drink salt water and some ended up losing their lives, we are doing this to let you know ahead of this rumor and to also tell your friends and neighbours.

The rumour is false; there is no known case of Ebola in Nigeria.”
In his argument, Bakare said the World Health Organization, WHO, in partnership with the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control and the Lagos State Ministry of Health, have trained hospitals across Lagos and other parts of the country on how to report any suspect case of Ebola.

“In fact, we had an extensive training and no health post nor hospital will call a blogger to report such information. “We will be one of the first to know if there is Ebola in Nigeria and be sure we will notify Nigerians through official and appropriate channels. Kindly help broadcast this as far as possible. Thank you,” he pleaded.

He urged Nigerians to visit the EbolaAlert social media platforms for regular updates and inquiry on Ebola around the world and also visit www.ebolaalert.org for daily updates.

Nigeria was declared Ebola free on October 20, 2014. A total of 20cases were recorded of which seven died and 11 recovered.  A total of 25,226 cases have been recorded so far worldwide, of which 10,587 died.

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List of winners of Ondo House of Assembly election

The winners of Ondo state house of Assembly election as announced by the REC, Olusegun Agbaje in Akure Sunday.

1.Akoko North East.    Olotu Fatai.     PDP

2. Akoko North West1. Jamiu Maito.  APC

3. Akoko North West2 Araoyinbo J. PDP

4. Akoko South East. Towase Kuti.     PDP

5. Akoko south West 1 Kaseem M.S.  APC

6. Akoko south West 2 Felemugudu. O APC

7.Akure North. Olamide George.   PDP

8. Akure South 1. Adesanya Kemi PDP

9. Akure South 2. Sunday olajide APC

10. Ese odo.  Vinvent Obadiah.      PDP

11. Idanre. Akintimehin Tuyi.        PDP

12. Ifedore.  Bamidele Oleyelogun PDP

13 Ilaje 1.   INCONCLUSIVE

14. Ilaje 2.  INCONCLUSIVE

15 Ileoluji/Okeigbo. Fajolu A.O.    PDP

16. Irele.  Ajimotokin O.P.         PDP

17. Odigbo1. Iroju Ogundeji.     PDP

18. Odigbo 2. Fasogbon M. A.    PDP

19. Okitipupa1 Ebiwonjumi Sola. PDP

20. Okitipupa 2 Akindele J.Y.       PDP

21. Ondo East.  Akindiose O.A.  PDP

22. Ondo West 1 Adeniyi Adeniji PDP

23.  Ondo West 2 Akinsotinu I.O.    PDP

24.Ose.     Oluyede O.F.          PDP

25. Owo 1 Arowele Ayodeji.       PDP

26. Owo 2 Mukaila Ayinde Musa.   APC