PDP denies rift with Jonathan, governors

 by Fidelis Mac-Leva

Bamanga Tukur, PDP Chairman

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has denied division in its leadership as members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party said they are solidly behind the party’s national chairman Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.

The NWC said it totally supports the transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan adding that it has no problem at all with PDP state governors contrary to speculations.

PDP national publicity secretary, Olisa Metuh said the party’s National Working Committee is united under Bamanga’s leadership and has been working in one accord to ensure good governance in the country.

 “There is no division in the leadership of our party. We are solidly behind our national chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and we are focused on ensuring good governance in the country. Some people are not just happy that we are working together, so they come out with all sorts of speculations to see that they cause disaffection in our party but I want to assure that we will not be distracted in our focus to ensure that we continue to deliver the dividends of democracy to our people,” Metuh said.

 He said the party’s leadership is working with President Jonathan to ensure the delivery of his transformation agenda which is aimed at ensuring rapid development in all sectors of the economy for the benefit of all.

 “The leadership of the party is solidly behind President Goodluck Jonathan in his transformation agenda. We have one focus and that is to ensure massive development of the country in line with the manifesto of our party”, he said, adding that the party leadership is working in harmony with the governors and that there was no issue in contention between the two parties.  

DailyTrust

West Brom Send Odemwingie Home From Training

01/02/2013

Osaze Odemwingie was sent home from training this morning, after yesterday’s dramatic turn of events, when he appeared to try and force a move to Queens Park Rangers.

“I had a long chat with Dan and I have been given a few days off. I will be back for training next week,” Odemwingie said.
The Nigerian striker also went ahead to blame West Brom for the failed transfer, claiming that it was all agreed but the Baggies could not get in a replacement for him.
“It takes more than two or three people to create something extraordinary,” Odemwingie told Sky Sports News. “Clearly, there were no children involved and somewhere there was a big misunderstanding.
“I have learned that the role of the technical director is not superior to the chairman. As far as I am concerned, it takes two hours to drive to London and I had to be there as we were 90% there and the deal did not happen because of a player West Brom was expecting.
“Our technical director is way too good to make that mistake and not get a replacement for me. His last words to me were: ‘Sorry, Peter, we did not get the replacement’. But I do not think that was what did not make this transfer happen.”
Odemwingie also confirmed that he was not given permission to speak with QPR, but he drove all the way to West London, because in England, gentlemen understand themselves.

 

He said: “They did not give me permission but in England and when you are gentlemen, you understand each other.”
QPR manager Harry Redknapp, who tried to make the deal possible, empathised with the 31-year-old’s situation and revealed the deal stalled, because one of his players refused to go in the opposite direction.
“I was just disappointed with the Odemwingie situation,” he said. “I was disappointed for the boy. It was a bit of a mess. I felt genuinely sorry for him. He travelled down and I think he thought the deal was done and that’s why he turned up.
“He thought that he’d have a medical and get the forms signed. It was just a mistake. He’s now got to go back to West Brom and get on with his life. He’s not a bad lad. That was what disturbed me last night.
“He felt the done was done. I think the deal wouldn’t have been a problem – it was just a player was going to go the other way on loan and decided he didn’t want to go.
“Peter Odemwingie was a player we’d been trying to sign for several weeks and I think the player thought the deal was done. He wanted to be on the premises to get the deal done. Unfortunately he turned up on the premises and the cameras were there… he wasn’t the only player who turned up yesterday and didn’t get the deal done. I just hope the boy’s going to be okay because he is a good person.”
 TalkOfNaija

Oprah Winfrey Hurt By Tyler Perry’s Birthday Gift

Oprah Winfrey was hurt by Tyler Perry’s birthday gift… literally.
The 59-year-old TV veteran strained her back when trying to lift the huge flower arrangement Perry sent her.
“I like to send really large flower arrangements to people for whatever occasion,” the 43-year-old actor, director and screenwriter wrote on Facebook. “Well, I sent one to Oprah yesterday for her birthday. She strained her back picking it up. No joke!”
“Feel better Oprah. Happy birthday. Sorry,” Perry added. “Next year I’m sending her one rose.” In the meantime, the two celebs, who are longtime friends, are collaborating on several sitcoms due out later this year for Oprah’s OWN Network.
The “Madea” star wasn’t the only celeb who took to Twitterverse to send birthday wishes to Oprah.
Fellow talk show host and comedian friend Ellen DeGeneres sent a funny birthday Tweet saying, “Happy birthday to my friend @Oprah. A confidant, a mentor, a source of endless inspiration. I love being all those things for you.” Throwing out her back may have been the most eventful thing that occurred for the birthday girl, who amidst the flowers and birthday wishes, enjoyed a quiet day with her 61-year-old sweetie Stedman Graham.
“Thanks everyone for your birthday wishes,” O tweeted. “Enjoying lunch with Stedman. No plans to leave p.j.’s all day.”
But it’s back to work for Winfrey who is working on a Super Bowl spot and tweeted, “Putting the final touches on Super Bowl spot… Watch for it… Next Sunday.”

TalkOfNaija

Army Chiefs Warn Of Security Threat In Abuja

Army Chiefs Warn Of Security Threat In Abuja Military officers from the West Africa sub-region have pointed out that the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) is under immense security threat owing to the increasing population in the city’s satellite towns.

Leading a team of 29 officers on a study tour to the FCT, Air Commodore Gambo Ilyasu, said information gathered from the six area councils revealed that hundreds of people migrate into the nation’s capital on a daily basis without anywhere to settle.
The FCT Administration, according to him, already has issues of resettlement of indigenes which has raised a lot of discontent among some communities. He, therefore, warned that the disturbing trend should not be handled with levity.
The executive secretary of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), Mr. Adamu Ismaila, however gave the assurance that the issue of security is under control and there would be no replication of the Niger-Delta scenario as plans were on-going to resettle the indigenes within the FCT.
Naij

26-year-old man sentenced to two months in prison for stealing noodles, energy drinks

By Bisola Adeniran

A Magistrates’ Court sitting at Kado has sentenced a 26-year-old phone repairer, Stephen Iyiogwe to two months imprisonment for allegedly stealing three cartons of Indomie noodles and one carton each of Lucozade Boost and Coca Cola.
The prosecutor, Corporal Simon Emmanuel, told the court that the accused jumped over a fence and entered the premises on January 26, 2013 at about 2pm where he stole the items.
He said the offence, criminal trespass and theft was contrary to section 3L/2 and 288 of the penal code law
The prosecutor said Iyiogwe was arrested with the stolen items by a policeman attached to Mopol 50 force headquarters Abuja on the same day and was taken to Jabi Life Camp police station.
The accused who admitted to committing the crime told the court that he was a phone repairer at Wuse Market before the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) taskforce seized his work tools thereby rendering him jobless.

He added that having been left without any means of livelihood and exhausting all his money on his sick mother in the village he decided to steal with the hope of selling the stolen items to buy new work tools.
Magistrate Zubairu Mohahmed sentenced him to one month imprisonment on the two count charge of criminal trespass and theft with the jail terms to run concurrently, or a fine of N500 each for each of the charges.
DailyPost

John Kerry: Money In Politics Threatens To 'Steal Our Democracy Itself'

Speaking Wednesday in his farewell speech to the Senate, incoming Secretary of State John Kerry warned of the corrupting influence of money and politics.

There’s another challenge that we must address and it is the corrupting force of the vast sums of money necessary to run for office. The unending chase for money I believe threatens to steal our democracy itself. I’ve used the word “corrupting” and I want to be very clear about it. I mean by it not the corruption of individuals but a corruption of a system itself that all of us are forced to participate in against our will: The alliance of money and the interests that it represents, the access that it affords to those who have it at the expense of those who don’t, the agenda that it change or sets by virtue of its power is steadily silencing the voice of the vast majority of Americans who have a much harder time competing or who can’t compete at all.

He went on to decry the influence of money on the legislative process:

The insidious intention of that money is to set the agenda, change the agenda, block the agenda, define the agenda of Washington. How else could we possible have a US tax code of sum of some 76,000 pages? Ask yourselves how many Americans have their own page, their own tax break, their own special deal? We should not resign ourselves, Mr. President, to a distorted system that corrodes our democracy, and this is what is contributing to the justifiable anger of the American people. They know it. They know we know it. And yet nothing happens. The truth requires that we call the corrosion of money in politics what it is -- it is a form of corruption and it muzzles more Americans than it empowers, and it is an imbalance that the world has taught us can only sow the seeds of unrest.

The Huffington Post's Michael McAuliff covered the full speech, where he insisted that the upper chamber is not broken but lawmakers are the problem. Kerry begings his tenure as secretary of state Monday.
HuffingtonPost

Learn to tolerate criticism CPC tells Shema

by Yusha’u A Ibrahim, Katsina

Gov. Ibrahim Shema

Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in Katsina State has crticised Governor Ibrahim Shehu Shema for allegedly trying to muzzle dissenting views in the state.

The CPC in a press statement signed by its caretaker committee chairman in the state, Farouk Adamu Aliyu, said, “The CPC’s opinion is that the governor must resist the temptation of being a small dictator or an aspiring emperor in search of notoriety by rushing to the courts each time he is criticized.”

The CPC also said Shema’s “mis-governance” will always be challenged by well meaning citizens of the state whether in the ruling party or the opposition parties.

It reaffirmed its support to the former secretary to Katsina State Government, Alhaji Mustapha Inuwa Muhammad, who is being accused of defamation by Governor Shema.

It noted that the views expressed by Mustapha which formed the basis of Gov Shema’s litigation are views of the party.  

But in a swift reaction, the Katsina state chairman of PDP, Rabiu Gambo Bakori, said the CPC’s statement amounted to ranting of unorganized people insisting that there was no opposition in Katsina state.

Bakori noted that the ruling PDP in the state was guided by the needs to transform the state and challenged the CPC to “come out clear and say if we have not been providing genuine transformation in the state.”

DailyTrust