Polls: PDP chieftains demand Mu’azu’s resignation

As part of the fallout of the Peoples Democratic Party’s failure at the last general elections, top party men are calling for the resignation or removal of the party’s National Chairman, Adamu Mu’azu.

PDP stalwarts who spoke with SUNDAY PUNCH said it behoves on Mua’zu to turn in his resignation letter even without since he had been unable to take the party to victory.

The PDP not only lost the presidential election to the opposition, All Progressives Congress, it also lost its National Assembly majority status and governorship seats including state Houses of assembly.

But the embattled national chairman, Mu’azu, has said he would not resign despite the loss of the party he leads.

Mu’azu said it was also wrong for anyone to call for the sacking of any member of the party’s National Working Committee because of what happened to the ruling party during the elections.

PDP chieftains including a former National Vice-Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr. Edet Nkpubre, former Senior Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Political Affairs, Mr. Ahmed Gulak, state chairmen and stakeholders who spoke with SUNDAY PUNCH, have demanded for the ouster of Mu’azu.

Nkpubre, who said this in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents in Abuja on Saturday, said Mu’azu should resign as the party chairman.

The former national vice-chairman, who is from Akwa Ibom State, said, “If you led a nation to a war, and you failed, you should resign. Mu’azu should resign. He allowed the PDP Governors’ Forum to take over the party. The chairman of that forum was virtually directing the party and imposing his will and the will of the so-called governors on the President through the party.”

Nkpubre the PDP governors’ forum should be disbanded, adding that unpopular candidates were imposed on the party

He stated, “The PDP should be reorganised and you cannot reorganise that party with Mua’zu still there. I predicted that there would be protest votes and that is what is happening today. Jonathan lost because many people were aggrieved. Governors were given unlimited powers and they trample on everybody.

“They imposed candidates from state house to the House of Representatives and the Senate as well as their successors.”

Gulak also told SUNDAY PUNCH in an interview: “There is no party chairman of the PDP since 1998 that has led the party to such a disastrous outing. As a result, the national chairman should consider himself one of those that have to give way for the new party to come up. In fact, he doesn’t need to be told to turn in his resignation.”

A chieftain of the party and governorship aspirant in Ogun State, Mr. Kayode Amusan, also added his voice to the removal of Mua’zu.

Amusan, a former member of the House of Representatives, said with the poor performance of the PDP in the last general elections, the most honourable thing for Muazu to do is to resgin.

He said, “Look at performance of the party in the whole of the North. He is a chairman that cannot deliver his state. He should cover his face with his hands and resign.”

Similarly, the Ogun State PDP chairman, Mr. Adebayo Dayo, said in some other climes when a political party suffered such a defeat that PDP suffered in the recent general elections, the leadership of the party should be considering the option of resigning.

Dayo, did not exonerate himself, but said at the state level, the executive council tried its best for the party.

He said, “I am not aware of the call for he resignation of the national chairman of the party, Adamu Mu’azu, but it must noted that in any good clime where a political party suffered such a defeat as we witnessed in our party, the leadership should think about resigning. Even including myself.”

But Mua’zu, speaking through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Tony Amadi in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents in Abuja on Saturday, said rather than quit, he was going to stay behind and reform the troubled party.

He accused those who had defected from the PDP to the APC of being impatient, wondering where they were when members of the opposition were building the party.

Amadi said, “Those who are asking him to resign, why are they not asking the President to resign immediately he lost election? The chairman will stay back, serve his tern and rebuild the party.”

He denied the allegation of imposition in the party, saying many of those making the allegation were not popular in their wards.

He vowed that the PDP would remain a formidable opposition “but will not fight dirty.”

But one of the founders and PDP chieftain in Oro Federal Constituency, Akwa Ibom State, Sylvester Akaiso, said Muazu has failed the party.

According to him, prior to elections, there had been complaints about imposition. He added that instead of Mu’azu addressing the issue, he waved it aside as the party’s affairs.

He said it was the imposition that gave birth to people defecting from the party which ultimately resulted in the PDP’s misfortune in the last elections.

A former governorship aspirant of the party in Kwara State during the just concluded governorship elections, Mr. John Dara also said Mu’azu should resign owing to the poor performance of the PDP at the just concluded polls.

Dara said Mu’azu should resign as he presided over the party’s conduct in an election in which a sitting President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan was defeated.

He also said Mu’azu should not be the only PDP leader to resign or leave his office, he added that the Board of Trustees and the National Executive Committee of the party should be dissolved while the party should be reorganised.

Dara described Mu’azu’ tenure as disastrous.

Dara said, “I believe that reasonable thing for Mu’azu to do is to resign. When you preside over a project and it turns into this kind of calamity, it will be honourable to resign. If he does not want history to judge him as someone who killed or contributed to the destruction of the PDP, I think he should just go and show that he accepts responsibility for what has happened.”

Jonathan demands N2tr election funds refund, audit

Following the defeat suffered by President Goodluck Jonathan and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, during the March 28 and April 11 elections, the President has asked the party and government officials, who handled campaign funds, to refund unspent monies, or those not judiciously expended, SUNDAY PUNCH can authoritatively report.

Jonathan, credible sources said, has also set up a committee of five to get those with the funds to return them.

Sources within the party and the government told our correspondents that Jonathan was disturbed that despite giving campaign coordinators, ministers, special advisers, close aides and friends, support groups and traditional rulers over N2tr in cash, most of them could not deliver their polling booths and local governments.

The President was said to have been further irked by the results of an investigation he ordered.

The probe showed that some coordinators used campaign funds to buy very expensive properties, especially in Abuja, and luxury cars.

Some of the funds have also been traced to the bank accounts of senior party and government officials, who were charged with the disbursement of funds to voters and groups.

A reliable source in the Presidency told our correspondents that one of the President’s men, who recently admitted to a few close aides that it would be difficult to retrieve all the funds, was bent on getting senior party and government officials, who received funds to account for all monies collected.

The source, who is a close associate of the President, said monies given to traditional rulers in different parts of the country, for example, would not be demanded, but added that the President was determined to get his ministers, close aides and special advisers to make refunds.

He said, “Some ministers did not get less than N20bn each. None of them can deny it because this fact isn’t hidden within government circles. The only problem with such monies is that there is no receipt to show that they collected money. The sad part is that almost all of them performed woefully. Even in the states where the PDP won, some ministers could not deliver 100,000 votes. They could not mobilise their people to come out.

“The President is not happy. They all went on property and car-shopping. This was the most expensive election in the history of this country, yet there was no result.

“The sad part was that even after the President lost on March 28, more money was given to all of them to make up for the dismal outing by winning their states during the April 11 elections. But that turned out to be a bad decision because apart from losing the governorship election, we didn’t perform well in the other elections.

“They must give an account of the money since they didn’t use it for the election. The President is not particular about the funds spent on genuine campaign needs like the hiring of jets, advertisements and the rest that also cost billions of naira. His focus is on the individuals that collected billions to deliver their states but couldn’t even win their polling booths.”

Our correspondents gathered that apart from the N20bn given to some key ministers and senior special advisers, especially in states where the PDP hoped to capture from the opposition All Progressives Congress, some pro-Jonathan support groups received about N16bn.

A former legislator, who was to print five million recharge cards, T-shirts and baseball caps, has also come under pressure to account for the billions she received because only a few people got the items she was paid to produce.

Also, a top female politician in Lagos, who got a contract to produce and supply thousands of mobile phones with pro-Jonathan messages, was said to have produced just a few and pocketed most of the funds.

It was learnt that the funds Jonathan released were disbursed in three phases. Some were released before the March 28 elections, others on the day of the presidential election and more before the April 11 governorship and state House of Assembly polls.

Already, the committee of five has started asking some of the campaign coordinators and ministers, who received a minimum of N20bn each, to give an account and also refund residual funds where applicable.

However, our correspondents learnt that most of the people, who received the funds had not cooperated with the committee. While some have not been forthcoming, others have simply ignored the committee.

Jonathan is said to be particularly focusing on the South-West and northern states.

In Lagos, a popular PDP chieftain, who lost in his polling booth, reportedly received $50m in cash a few days before the governorship elections.

A senior PDP party member, who spoke to one of our correspondents in Lagos over the weekend, confirmed the cash splurge in Lagos.

The source said, “Lagos was a show of shame. A few days to the governorship poll, about $150m was received in cash by about five top campaign coordinators. But they failed again, even more than we did in the presidential poll because we lost some areas we won on March 28 to the APC on April 11. They were to share this money to the local governments and the masses.

“Please understand me, I am saying that the sum of $150m was just for the governorship election in Lagos. We are not talking about the sums they got for the presidential election. Only one out of the five people that shared the money gave some of it to local government chairmen. This person disbursed about N2bn. The rest of them sat on the money.

“The coordinator, who collected the sum of $50m, later went to a Federal Government agency and complained of not having enough funds for the election and got an additional $20m. The story is the same in almost all the South-West especially Oyo, Osun and the northern states. A female minister from the North, who got the highest amount of funds for that region, lost her state in a shameful manner.”

Confirming that campaign directors in different parts of the country had been asked for an audit, the PDP Campaign Director in Akwa Ibom, Mr. Idongesit Nkanga, said the instruction was not new.

He stated that the PDP’s campaign organisation in the state had concluded its audit.

“It is the normal thing. It is the right thing to do for transparency’s sake,” he said.

Nkanga said he would not be able to comment on the refund because he did not collect money from anyone.

According to him, the PDP’s campaign organisation in Akwa Ibom State received a letter for an audit from the PDP campaign headquarters.

He explained, “Because the letter emanated from the national headquarters of the party, they were under obligation to submit the audit report about the campaign’s expenditure to them.”

He maintained that at the campaign headquarters, some of the information was available, adding that he would not be able to give SUNDAY PUNCH accurate details offhand to avoid possible conflict in the figures.

Asked what sanctions would be meted out to defaulters, Nkanga said they might be prosecuted.

However, our correspondent reports that prosecution, while not impossible, may be difficult as most of the monies disbursed were not receipted.

Contacted, the national leadership of the ruling PDP said it did not know anything about the money spent on its presidential campaign.

National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Olisa Metuh, stated this in an interview with one of our correspondents in Abuja on Saturday.

Metuh said only those put in charge of the funds were in a position to account for the monies.

He said, “The national leadership of the PDP is not aware of any campaign fund. We were not part of it and therefore we can’t be asked to account for what we didn’t know anything about.

“There was a campaign committee and only the committee is in a position to account for any fund.”

Efforts made to speak with the Director-General of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, Sen. Ahmadu Ali, were unsuccessful.

Ali, a former national chairman of the party, did not pick calls made to his phone and also failed to respond to a text message sent to him.

Similarly, efforts to get the Presidency’s reaction did not yield any result as calls made to the telephone line of the presidential spokesman, Reuben Abati, as of 10.30pm, did not connect

Greensprings Kanu Football Camp excites British coaches

The fourth Greensprings Kanu Football Camp has come and gone but the memory during the one-week clinic would remain with the visiting British Coaches, who believe some of the participants who become stars in years to come.

Also for emerging as the best player at the camp, 12 year-old Similoluwa Gbenla has been awarded scholarship throughout his secondary education by the management of the Greensprings School.

The camp which concluded it fourth edition at the Lekki campus of Greensprings in Lagos has over 100 participants drawn from Lagos, Ogun, Abuja, Rivers among others taking part in the one-week exercise.

The camp was handled by British Coaches from English Premier League side, West Bromwich Albion.

Coaches at Greensprings Kanu Football

According to Richard Holmes, the talents displayed by the students were exceptional while efforts must continue to nurture them to stardom.

“The footballers are great and they are very keen. Even when we finish coaching them, they still carry on playing all day. We train them four hours a day, so for them to carry on is brilliant. They are very good players, the equipment and facilities is great and everybody here is fantastic and it has been really good,” Holmes said.

On the uniqueness of the camp, the coach said: “The most unique thing is definitely the players. It is brilliant to see coaches listening to what we’ve got say and wanting to learn because as a coach, you never know everything.”

You learn a new thing and for the coaches to come along, see them watch my session and ask me questions not only help them but also me because they might ask me a question that will make me think about whatever I have done and if I   don’t have answer, I will have to ask myself. To help them also help me make a difference because when I leave Nigeria, the coaches can carry on coaching the kids and making difference in a positive way.

For Adrian Dove, the facilities provided by Greensprings were fantastic, adding that this help to bring put the best in the students.

“The facility is great and it is incredible. The grass pitches is great for the purpose they are used for. The goal posts are very good and I think everything is fantastic even the halls we are staying in are just what we need so it is really good and the school is great.  I think it is the passion for the game. The children are willing to learn which I think it is a good thing because if you got children who don’t want to be here, it will be hard for us. We’ve got children who are really passionate about what they want to do and they are going to do well with football.

In his submission, Ashley Hodgkins, who was making his second visit to the camp described this year’s camp as unique.

“The facility has definitely improved from the last time. I have been able to come here for the second time and I can see the ability from this year and the last time and the boys are very fit and very good in terms of technical ability. They love to play on the floor a lot and hit the ball very well and they have really impressed me this week. This week the children have had 18 hours of coaching time. Back home in England, the professional players wouldn’t get 18 hours a week of coaching so I think they had a lot of good coaching,” he said.

Hodgkins added: “They camp is good for the youth teams, the national teams and if we see players like we’ve got in the older groups, they can go to England have opportunity to play in the Premier League. When we get back home we can speak to the academy at West Bromwich Albiom and see what they can do for players to give them choices.”

Jonathan denies spending N2trn on April elections,

The Presidency has denied that it spent N2 trillion on April 19 election according to a media report not Vanguard.

The Presidency through Reuben Abati, Special Adviser to the President Media and Publicity, made this statement on Sunday.

The statement read thus

The front-page story of the Sunday Punch of April 19 alleging that the Presidency spent a whopping N2 trillion on the 2015 General elections, and that a Committee of Five has been set up by President Jonathan to conduct an audit on how the funds were disbursed by party members and state officials is mischievous, false and embarrassing.

The President has not set up any committee as alleged in that story. It is also not true that the Presidency and the Peoples Democratic Party used state funds, or spent N2 trillion during the campaigns. The innuendoes are wrong-headed; the motives behind the story are suspicious.

The story alleges, for example, that the Presidency spent N2trillion on elections and embarked on a money-sharing spree to party members, support groups and state officials. The authors of the story and their self-appointed megaphones further insinuate that public funds were deployed in this regard. Their allegation of a theft of public funds is extremely malicious.

How much is the budget of the Federal Government of Nigeria? The annual budget of the Federal Government is a little over N4 trillion. The story is practically suggesting that half of the federal budget was spent on elections. This kind of reckless insinuation is meant to incite the public and instigate national crisis.

With FAAC having to do everything possible every month to ensure disbursements and with the Federal Government heavily committed to the war against terror in the North East, where is the alleged N2 trillion from the Federal purse? President Jonathan and the People’s Democratic Party conducted the 2015 elections in strict accordance with the rule of law. The suggestion of any unlawful conduct cannot be sustained under any circumstances.

President Jonathan has done his best to protect and strengthen democracy and promote peace. He justly deserves all the accolades that he has received from both Nigerians and the international community for this. Certain persons and interest groups may not be happy that his profile has further risen and that his legacy is assured; but they do their country gross disservice when they act so unpatriotically.

Anyone who is engaged in imposing a crisis on the country by any means is not being fair to Nigeria. We can only appeal to the public to be wary of such reckless tactics now on display, which form the substance of an odd, malicious campaign after the elections.

We are particularly worried that since the March 28 and April 11 elections, some persons have continued to work very hard to diminish the Jonathan Presidency. They need to be reminded that the time for politics is over; it is now time to focus on the in-coming government, with emphasis on national development and moving the country forward.

Ondo deaths: Youths committed sacrilege, says Chief

Chief Moses Enimade, the Oyewoga of Ode Irele in Ondo State, has attributed the recent death of 20 youths in the town to what he called sacrilege done to Molokun, god of the land.

Enimade, next in command to Oba Cornelius Olanrewaju-Lebi, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Irele at the weekend, that the deaths were not caused by any strange disease or the Ebola virus.

No fewer than 20 youths reportedly died of severe headaches and blindness in the town recently.

Enimade contended that some stubborn youths broke into the inner room of Molokun Shrine on April 15.

“Molokun is a deity of the land, only the Chief Priest and High Chief Gboguron are qualified to enter the shrine,” he said.

Mark plots return as Senate President

Hopes to divide APC•Votes massive war chest

Senate President David Mark is allegedly plotting a sensational return to the plum office regardless of the defeat of his party, PDP, in the recent elections.

Although, the PDP won only 45 seats in the elections as against the 64 by the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mark believes he stands a good chance of snatching the position from the APC.

His calculation, according to sources in his camp, is that the APC will zone the Senate Presidency to the North Central from where he hails.

He will subsequently penetrate and divide the APC senators, and then win to his side some of them who will vote for him along with the 45 PDP senators.

The plan, The Nation gathered, is Chief Mark’s contribution to the effort to rebuild the PDP ahead of the 2019 elections.

He is said to have the support of PDP leaders who believe that he is the only one, for now, who stands a relatively bright chance of standing up to the APC and stop the PDP from losing out completely to the APC.

Sources close to his camp said he may have found an accomplice in an APC senator who is a former North West governor.

The former governor is expected to work on his fellow APC senators to back Mark.

A massive war chest of N10billion is allegedly being readied for the battle for the Senate Presidency, sources said.

Governors move to hijack PDP from Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan

•Rivers, Delta, Akwa Ibom, may now finance party

Fresh woes may be on the way for President Goodluck Jonathan following his ill fated re-election bid.

Most of the governors elected on the platform of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), are understood to be plotting to sideline him in their plan to rebuild the party.

The governors, outgoing and surviving, want to chart a new course for the party with them in the driving seat.

But they are also disposed to bringing in as many of those frustrated out by President Jonathan as possible, sources familiar with the development told The Nation in Abuja yesterday.

Barring any alteration of their plan, the governors are expected to go full blast from May 29, hijacking the party’s affairs from President Jonathan whose tenure terminates on that day.

One of those the governors have listed to bring back to the party under the reformation plan is former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who shredded his PDP membership card in the run up to the just concluded presidential election, and publicly campaigned against the President’s return to office for what he termed below par performance.

Also likely to be brought in is the Second Republic Vice President Alex Ekwueme, who engineered the founding of the PDP during the late Gen Sani Abacha  regime.

Senator Uche Chukwumerije dies at 75

Senator Uche Chukwumerije is dead.

The Nation gathered that the late Senator died few hours ago in Abuja.

Chukwumerije was elected a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in April 2003, representing Abia North Senatorial District.

He served as minister of information in the dying days of the military regime of Ibrahim Babangida. Chukwumerije served as minister of information in the interim national government of Ernest Shonekan.

Chukwumerije is survived by 7 children.

Chukwumerije studied economics at the University of Ibadan.

Chukwumerije was reelected on the PDP platform in the April 2011 elections, but lost his bid to return to the red chamber in 2015.

RMB commiserates with his family and pray the good Lord gives them and the nation the fortitude to bear this irreparable loss

APC wins Orhionmwon South Constituency seat in Edo

The Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC), has declared Mr Roland Asoro of the All Progressives Congress (APC), winner of the rescheduled Edo House of Assembly election for Orhionmhwon South Constituency seat.

Mr Olowu Owin, the Returning Officer for the election, announced the result on Sunday in Orhionmwon.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), recalls that INEC declared the April 11 State House of Assembly election inconclusive in 12 units in 4 wards.

According to Owin, Asoro of APC won the election that took place on April 18 with 11, 486 votes, to defeat Mr Friday Ogierake of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) who polled 8, 640 votes.

NAN further reports that the PDP candidate pulled out of the contest before the April 18 election