Military’s Claim On Freeing 107 Abducted Girls False – Principal

By Kareem Haruna

Borno State government and management of Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS) Chibok where over 100 school girls were abducted by Boko Haram gunmen on Tuesday, have said the military’s claim on freeing 107 of the missing girls is false.

The spokesman of the Defence Headquarters, Brigadier General Chris Olukolade had Wednesday issued a statement claiming that 107 of the kidnapped SSS-3 girls had been freed.

His statement reads: “More students of the Government Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok have been freed this evening in the ongoing search and rescue operations to free the abducted students. With this development, the principal of the school confirmed that only eight of the students are still missing. One of the terrorists who carried out the attack on the school has also been captured. Efforts are underway to locate the remaining 8 students.”

But the principal of GGSS Chibok, Mrs. Asabe Kwambura, whom Brigadier Olukolade said had given him the information on Wednesday, has denied ever feeding him with such figure, even as she insisted that only 14 of the abducted girls had been freed as announced earlier by Governor Kashim Shettima.

Mrs. Kwambura, who spoke to journalists in Maiduguri, said “There is nothing in the statement issued by the military that is true about our abducted girls. Up till now, we are still waiting and praying for the safe return of the students; all I know is that we have only 14 of them, and the security people, especially the vigilante and the well-meaning volunteers of Gwoza, are still out there searching for them. The military people too are in the bush searching. So we have not received any information that they have the students yet. So let it be clear that all the information passed on through the media by the military concerning 107 girls is not true. I, as the principal, did not give anybody any figure on released students other than what His Excellency, Governor Kashim Shettima had informed the media,” said Mrs Kwambura.

“They contacted me from the army headquarters in Abuja and I told them that I don’t want to be seen to be contradicting myself on that because what the governor had said was what we knew.I also told them there could be further rescue of the girls, but up to this moment, we have not received any of them apart from what we had before. What the governor said is still the true picture of the whole issue and the information given by the military is totally wrong.”

The Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima was also heard speaking in an interview aired on the Hausa Service of the BBC on Thursday morning that only 14 girls had been recovered so far.

“We have recovered 14 of the girls and we have announced a N50 million reward for any credible information that will help us get our girls released and rejoined with their families,” the governor said.

Many residents of Maiduguri who are angered by the sad development feel this denial has laid bare the truth on how the military may have been feeding the public with false claims on victories of their troops over the Boko Haram insurgents.

Nigerian Observer confirms pregnant employee’s death in blast

Mrs. Macelina Omon Iyogun

 by: Osemwengie Ben Ogbemudia, Benin 

A circulation officer with the Abuja office of the Nigerian Observer, Mrs. Macelina Omon Iyogun, died in Monday’s Abuja blast.

A release by the newspaper’s management said the late Mrs. Iyogun was a mother of two and was pregnant at the time of the incident.

She joined The OBSERVER Newspapers as a Circulation Clerk on January 3, 2000.

She was in the Benin office until 2010 when she was transferred to Abuja following her marriage in 2009.

According to the management, Mrs. Iyogun was on her official duty to take delivery of the day’s Observer at Nyanyan Park, Abuja for circulation when she died.

Born on January 12, 1979, the late Mrs. Iyogun hailed from Uhiele, Ekpoma in Esan West Local Government Area of Edo State.

IS NIGERIA A NATION RULED BY PATHOLOGICAL LIARS? (PART 1)

                          

FACT:-

 “POWER GENERATION IN NIGERIA DROPPED TO 1,714 MEGAWATTS”.

 SOURCE:- A.I.T NEWS, FRIDAY 18^TH APRIL, 2014.

By: Eddy Ogunbor.

Last weekend, Friday 11^th April 2014 to be precise, my daughters informed us (my wife and I) that they were going out to, as they will always say, “hang out with their friends”. We always laugh over this and thereafter advise them to “hang out” responsibly and moderately. This particular weekend, when they came back home, it was noticed that my younger daughter’s shoes had some traces of sand and on further prodding, she accepted that the “hang out” was in the open park.

Now, for those that frequent Abuja and socialize, Abuja has Parks and these are the usual places for relaxation. On impulse, they were advised to avoid such places for now because of the security situation in Abuja and especially the threat by Boko Haram terrorists that they will strike in Abuja and environs. Curiuosly, Abuja parks do not have adequate security checks!! Anyone could drive in and out with anything at anytime. In places where there are security checks, even in the five star Hotels, apart from metal detectors to check under the car chassis (that is, if the metal detectors are really effective), you are asked to have your car booth opened. The check takes only few seconds. Explosive devices are not only planted or installed underneath the car chassis or booth for crying out loud!! What about the car engine and the interior of the car!?

This discussion with my daughters was just one week away from the festive (Easter) holiday. The government and security agencies assured Abuja residents that they were “on top of the situation” and adequate security arrangements will be put in place during the festive period. The normal government and security agencies official response to all situations – good or bad.

Reasonably, security should have been beefed up in a responsive government, atleast one week before the festive period. For government and security forces, Easter was still a week away when all security personnel will be deployed to worship places because the “ogas at the top” will worship in these places and must be protected. The Parks were now left vulnerable and travellers in the motor parks (masses) were left at the mercies of the terrorists.

Was it any surprise that the terrorists struck at Nyanya Motor Park early morning on Monday 14^th April 2014? Lives were lost and many injured. The country’s security preparedness was once again exposed to all and sundry. Expectedly, government moved to Nyanya Park. The who-is- who in government visited the motor park. Condolences as usual were conveyed to the victims (dead or alive), the relatives of the victims etc and to Nigerians. As usual, Nigerians were informed that government and security agencies were “on top of the situation”, “the perpetrators of this dastardly acts will be fished out”, “security is not only the responsibility of government” and “ politicians/people should not play politics with the situation” blah, blah, blah.

Finally, government moved to the various Hospitals (public and private), in full glare of national and local TV cameras, then promised full responsibility in taking care of all hospital bills. What did we find out thereafter, relatives of victims and survivors were asked to settle bills by the hospitals pending when government will settle the bills and therefore wait for refund. In Nigeria, knowing the way things work, getting refund will take eternity and some people in government will make a “kill” from this situation.

The medical team called for blood donations to save victims lives. Sadly, no government official and all the “ogas at the top” responded to the call. The British Envoy to Nigeria shamed them all and along with his members of staff at the British High Commission, became the first blood donors to save the lives of Nigerians in Nigeria.

The shock of all these had hardly sunk in on Nigerians, then followed the shock from the stable of the ruling party PDP, that is, the rally in Kano, to receive just one "decampee" to their fold, on the following day Tuesday 15^th April 2014. This shocked most Nigerians to a state of “unshockability” (late Dele Giwa). The party bigwigs, including Nigeria’s President, danced, clapped, laughed and threw abusive words at the host Governor and the main opposition party, APC, in the country. This took over two hours of live TV broadcast, at a time Nigerians mourned, grieved and survivors still in different hospitals, still not certain of their chances of living.. This was, in the opinion of most Nigerians, one dance too many on the grave of the dead from the bomb blast and outright insensitivity on the part of these shameless politicians to the plight of the injured, still recovering in the hospitals and the relatives of all the victims.

Not done with that shameful act, on the same day, the President, some government officials and ruling party members jetted to Ibadan to celebrate with the Olubadan of Ibadan on his centenary birthday ( which was celebrated a day before) and photographed cutting a  special cake with the Monarch.

The country was further informed and shocked same day, while the ruling party and the President conducted the shameful rally in Kano, that over 200 secondary school girls were abducted by gunmen in  Chibok, a remote village in Borno State. Nigerians are informed by one of the girls that was lucky to escape, that the gun men came in buses, woke them up at about 9pm, ushered them into the buses and drove off with the girls at about 3am. A whole six hours and no security check points and no trace of security in the area for those long period of time they operated!? The girl informed Nigerians also that at least two of the buses broke down twice. Yet, no security agencies picked the terrorists up?

Then the mother of all lies and deceit by the military. The military spokes person, a serving General informed Nigerians and the world that the military rescued some of the girls, while the school Principals and parents of the girls debunked the the story. Nigeria’s Minister of National Planning, Bashir Yuguda was on international TV Al Jazeera talking through both sides of his mouth and lying to the world that, indeed the abducted secondary school girls were rescued by the military. On Thursday, 17^th April 2014, the military shamelessly came out to retract their earlier statement that the military had rescued the girls. The military spokesperson claimed that the military was misled!!

The “celebrated” megaphone" of the ruling Party, Olisa Metuh, in an effort to gain political mileage from these situation, came on air and with a press statement, to announce and accuse the opposition party, APC and its leaders led by General Muhammadu Buhari of launching and master minding the Nyanya Park bomb blast. His ruling party towed the same line of accusation even though the security agencies informed Nigerians that investigations to unravel the perpetrators of the bomb blast are still ongoing. The good news is that General Buhari has given the ruling party PDP and its Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh a seven day ultimatum to retract their claims or face legal action. This is a step towards the right direction by General Buhari to redeem his image and put a final stop to these  unwarranted  and unsubstantiated falsehood by pathological liars. We await this retractions  anxiously.

This informed my decision to go on a three day mourning period, shunning postings on facebook in honour of all victims, dead or alive and to protest my disgust for the shows of shame and insentivities of government and the ruling party.

The President, as a result of the nation’s security challenges, on Thursday summoned an “extended” Security Council meeting, supposedly to include all security Chiefs, the 36 State Governors, DSS, DMI and NIA Chiefs, NSA, Defence Ministers etc, with the President to preside as the Commander-in-Chief. However, only the PDP Governors attended as the APC Governors were not present. Then another embarrassing situation of claims and counter claims ensured. The Presidency gave the impression that the APC Governors shunned the security meeting. The President’s “man Friday”, Godswill Akpabio informed Nigerians that the APC Governors were not invited as the meeting was only for the PDP Governors. Lai Mohammed, APC Interim Publicity Secretary claimed that the APC Governors were initially invited but, a phone call from the Presidency to one of the APC’s Governors aides informed them that the security meeting had been called off. Hence the APC Governors did not attend.

Olisa Metuh's Comment On Nyanya Blast: A Sample Of Stupidity By Amene Terheme

By Amene Terheme

In the early hours of Monday 04/14/2014, a terrible blast rocked the ever busy Nyanya Park claiming not less than 50 lives.
The PDP in its official reaction by their spokesman, Olisah Metuh blamed the opposition. Keep in mind that so far no security agency has made public any report of the investigation of the blast. This piece of information is important because if Metuh who has no official link to and is holding no office with any of the security agencies will know the perpetrators of a blast even before those saddled, constitutionally, with the responsibility to fish out those behind the crime start work, two things may be possible:
(1) He is behind it himself.
He planned it all along with the intent to pin it on the opposition because of statements they had made which he perceived were directed at propagating violence and mass murder - that's a good alibi.
(2) He knew all along when the opposition was planning the attack but kept quiet to make political capital should they succeed with the attack. Whichever be the case, DSS needs to pick Mr. (can't call him chief because I don't know what qualifies him to be one) Olisah Metuh to explain his role in the Nyanya Park blast.
Now let's go to the main substance:
When Gov. Shetima of Borno State said Boko Haram was better armed, PDP said he, a governor on the platform of APC, must have an insider information on Boko Haram armament to make such a statement, by extension he is a sponsor.  I had argued that I do not need to open students' skulls to look at their brains before I'll know who is more intelligent; the result of what they put on paper will give me who is.
Days later, Boko Haram attacked a school in Yobe killing scores of students; from the blue a document emerged trying by all means to link the Central Bank Governor (Sanusi Lamido Sanusi) who had just been suspended to the attack, with some even crediting him with membership of the opposition, APC. That document was spread by a hitherto unknown name (Wendel Simlin), later shown by tech savvy persons to be an alias of Reno Omokri a staff of the PDP controlled presidency.
After today's attack, a PDP spokesman is playing another card linking APC to the attack. What a way to value human life!
I brought to fore these three examples to show that the PDP's eagerness to blame APC for violence in Nigeria is not new. Equally not new is the fact that even though they claim to have facts that link the opposition to violence, they have failed to use same to nail those involved so as to stop the violence. They may be waiting for 2015 to slap and rub the facts in their faces or they just enjoy watching as APC kills us all day after day.
My pain and anger is not in PDP trying to pin the attack on the opposition, because such an attempt is at best a stupid display of low-life stupidity and immaturity. A man who fails to prevent the death of his children but turns around to quickly blame his brother staying with him who wants to take over his wife as the culprit is not only stupid, but insensitive, inhuman and patently useless. Such to me is the definition of the People's Democratic Party now.
I am angered because Olisah Metuh and by extension PDP would prefer to use, of all happenings in Nigeria today, the needless death of Nigerians to glean some political capital which has and is continually slipping through its fingers by the careless conduct and statements of those connected to it. To do such a thing alone shows insensitivity to the plight of the bereaved and wounded, but to do it when the heat from the blast has not yet dissipated, the smoke still thick in the air and the fire still raging with the injured still on their way to the hospital and the dead to the morgue is wicked and evil.
Let's us analyse the Metuh-PDP Campaign of Calumny presented as a statement on the Nyanya blast. The entire report has eleven (11) paragraphs, of this only three (3 - 27%) deal with the attack, six (6 - 55%) are reserved in proving the opposition has a hand, two (2 - 18%) paragraphs invite others to join PDP, to ask sponsors of violence to repent and thank those who shelved official engagements as a result of the blast. This is like cooking 3 cups of egusi and putting 6 cups of pepper - it can't be egusi soup with pepper added, it must be pepper soup with egusi added to it. What Olisah Metuh did was to find an occasion to paint the opposition bad but then remembered to throw in a few words on the blast itself to give it a semblance of expression of shock over the incident. This is what makes the PDP statement shocking (but not out of character from whom it came), irresponsible, annoying, childish and above all stupid. You don't go to condole a man whose child was killed and begin to reel out names of those you think may be responsible; that's unheard of, at least in my part of the world.
Now to some pertinent questions:
1.  If Olisah Metuh and PDP know that the opposition is responsible for the attacks by virtue of their statements, whose job is it to call them to order? Is it not the PDP led government? And if they have not been called to order until scores of lives are lost, who has failed? Is it not the PDP government?

2.  Since Olisah Metuh and PDP are so sure APC by their statements is promoting violence yet the government they control has not deemed it fit to bring to book those found to have made statements in favour of violence, should we take it to mean the government they (PDP) control is deliberately allowing the death of citizens it swore to protect so as to have an opportunity to point an accusing finger on the APC?

3.  Since some PDP members/apologists have at one point or another made statements that were widely perceived as fueling the embers of violence, how is Metuh able to separate the violence attributable to the statements made by APC and those by PDP?

4.  If no investigation has been done, yet Metuh traces this blast to APC, is it a sign he knew of the attack before it happened? If YES, why didn't he stop it by reporting to appropriate agencies? Does this not make him culpable in the crime? (Withholding information that could have stopped a crime from the authorities).
A word of advice to Mr Metuh; the Holy Book I read says "Even fools are thought wise when they keep silent; with their mouths shut, they seem intelligent" (Prov 17:28 NLT).
I conclude - again with these words; a man who cannot prevent the death of his children but turns around to quickly blame his brother staying with him who wants to take over his wife as being responsible for the deaths is not only stupid, but insensitive, inhuman and patently useless. Such to me is the definition of the People's Democratic Party now.

By Amene Terheme

Saharareporters

Supreme Court nullifies Igbo customary law, rules practice as barbaric

By Theo Adegoke 

Nigeria’s Supreme Court has nullified a practice, part of the customs of the Awka people in Anambra State, which disinherits a woman without a male child at the death of her husband.

In a judgment on Friday to an appeal involving a widow, Mrs Maria Nweke, the court ruled that, “For a widow of a man to be thrown out of her matrimonial home, where she had lived all her life with her late husband and children, by her late husband’s brothers on the ground that she had no male child, is indeed very barbaric, worrying and flesh skinning.”

The appeal was filed by Onyibor Anekwe and Chinweze, descendants of Anieke Nwogbo,  the half brother of Nweke Nwogbo, Mrs Nweke’s late husband.

Mrs Nweke had in 1991 sued the appellants before the Awka division of the Anambra State High Court, when the appellants made move to evict her from a parcel of land she got from her late husband. She said the land was given to her husband.

She told the trial court that the appellants (who were defendants) asked her to vacate the house on the ground that she had no male child in the house, even when she had six female children.

Mrs Nweke claimed that she was disinherited by her late husband’s family because she had no male child for her husband. She refused to vacate the land, insisting that a woman, according to the customs of Akwa people, can inherit the property of her husband whether she had a male child or not.

She said the Ozo Awka Society arbitrated in the dispute and agreed with her that she had a right to remain on the land.

Defendants disagreed and argued that by the Native Law and Custom of Awka people, the land was inherited by their father as the first and only surviving son.

The trial court and the Court of Appeal decided the case in favour of Mrs Nweke. The defendants appealed to the Supreme Court, an appeal the court dismissed last Friday.

Justice Clara Ogunbiyi who read the lead judgment, held that the appellants failed to provide any credible evidence to enable the apex court overturn the judgments of the two lower courts.

“I hasten to add that the custom and practices of Awka people upon which the appellants have relied is hereby out rightly condemned in very strong terms. A custom of this in the 21st century societal setting will only tend to depict the absence of the relatives of human civilization.

“It is punitive, uncivilized and only intended to protect the selfish perpetuation of male dominance which is aimed at suppressing the right of the women folk in the given society.

One would expect that the days of such obvious differential discrimination are over.

“Any culture that dis-inherits a daughter from her father’s estate or wife from her husband’s property by reason of God instituted gender differential should be punitively dealt with.

The punishment should serve as a deterrent measure and ought to be meted out against the perpetrators of the culture and custom.

“For a widow of a man to be thrown out of her matrimonial home, where she had lived all her life with her late husband and children, by her late husband’s brothers on the ground that she had no male child, is indeed very barbaric, worrying and flesh skinning.”

Justice Bata-Ogunbiyi frowned at the conduct of the lawyer who represented the appellants for coming to court to argue that such an obnoxious customs be upheld. She awarded N200,000 against the appellants.

Justices Tanko Muhammad, Muhammad Muntaka-Coomasie, Sylvester Ngwuta and Olukayode Ariwoola, who were part of the panel that heard the case, agreed with the lead judgment.

TheHerald

Why North Will Reject PDP, Jonathan In 2015 – Gov Nyako

Mohammed Ismail

Adamawa State governor Murtala Nyako has disclosed that the  Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will make a woeful outing in the North in  2015 as northerners have vowed to vote the party out of power.

Governor Nyako said this in Yola, the state capital, during a meeting with some  civil society groups under the aegis of Coalition of Rights Advocates, led by Mr Olufemi Aduwo who paid him courtesy visit at his office  yesterday.

Nyako added that the reason for the disenchantment by the northerners  was due to the fact that PDP has not added value to the region’s socio  economic well being but instead has allowed the region to be engulfed  by crisis, especially in the north-east zone.

Nyako further declared that the region would vote out President Jonathan for his failure to honour the one-term pact he entered with them.

The governor told the visiting team that he did not hold any grudge  against President Jonathan, disclosing that the failure of  the president to tell Nigerians the truth about his future presidential ambition, including top PDP members and state governors,  was the cause of the stand-off between him and some northern leaders.

Nyako said as 2015 general elections draw nearer, more prominent  people in the PDP would ditch it for the opposition APC following  their continuous dissatisfaction with the party as it has consistently  failed them.

Leadership

2015: Five governors in cold war with First Lady

Patience Jonathan

 by: Yusuf Alli

•Governors grumble as President’s wife back aspirants in Abia, Bayelsa, Delta, Bauchi, Kwara, Akwa Ibom, Rivers     •Aide: it’s not true

No fewer than five governors are in a “cold war” with First Lady Patience Jonathan over her alleged moves to impose their successors.

But the Office of the First Lady denied the claim last night.

In the crises are Bayelsa, Delta, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Abia, Bauchi, and Kwara states, where the First Lady is believed to have anointed some aspirants for the governorship tickets.

A highly-placed source with deep insight into the challenges facing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said: “We have a crisis at hand, pitching some governors against the First Lady. It is a cold war which will soon become a major one, if President Goodluck Jonathan does not intervene.

“Even Bayelsa, the President’s state is not spared the looming crisis.

In Bayelsa State, the First Lady is said to be backing the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Domestic and Social Events, Dr. Waripomowei Dudafa, for governor of the state.

But Governor Seriake Dickson’s supporters are believed to be unhappy with the push for Dudafa, a plot that has become public knowledge.

Dudafa was Commissioner for Local Government under former Governor Timipre Sylva. He was to be nominated as Dickson’s running mate in the last election, until the decision was changed.

“In spite of denial by the Office of the First Lady, there is already a campaign office in Bayelsa for Dudafa called ‘The New Dawn.’ This is a derivative of The New Phase, which was Sylva’s campaign structure,” the source, who pleaded not to be named because of what he called sensitivity of the matter, said.

Dudafa’s purported endorsement has created tension, such that some Bayelsans are having a rethink on their support for the President, it was learnt.

The source said as a sign of this, the large turnout of party members and Bayelsans welcoming the First Lady to the state has shrunk.

Dickson, however, said Dudafa’s candidacy is a mere “rumour”. He does not think the First Lady is working towards supplanting him.

But Bayelsa is not the only state where the First Lady’s influence has sparked a cold war.

In Akwa Ibom, the First Lady is alleged to be teaming up with ex-Governor Victor Attah to back the immediate past Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Umana Okon Umana, from Uyo Senatorial District on the state as Akpabio’s successor.

Umana’s candidature is against the state’s zoning formula and power rotation pact. Akpabio is said to be unhappy about this.

Eket zone is favoured to produce the next governor, Umana is from Uyo district that produced Attah.

The governor is said to favour the SSG, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, although commissioners for Justice and Local Government are also in the race.

In Rivers State, Mrs. Jonathan is alleged to be interested in installing Senator George Thompson Sekibo, her kinsman from Okrika, as governor. There are fears that the First Lady may dump Minister of Education Nyesom Wike who has been the arrowhead of the “gang-up” against Governor Rotimi Amaechi.

Said a source: “Many stakeholders are not happy that Wike, an Ikwere man like Amaechi, might be sacrificed in the end after leading the anti-Amaechi battle.

“The party is also thinking of facing a dilemma in Rivers State because power ought to shift to Rivers Southeast, which include the Ogoni and the Kalabari.”

The popular thinking in Delta State is that the First Lady has sympathy for a woman as Uduaghan’s successor.

It was learnt that there is a plan to use Delta State for the experiment to produce the first woman governor.

The source said: “The anointed candidate is the Chief Executive of NSITF, Dr. Ngozi Olojeme.

“We learnt that a former minister and the wife of a former chairman of the PDP have been recruited to make a case for Olojeme,” another source said.

In Bauchi, Governor Isa Yuguda is opposed to plans by the First Lady to impose the Minister of FCT, Senator Bala Mohammed, as governor.

“We may witness a repeat of what happened in Bauchi State in 2007 if Mohammed is eventually made the candidate without Yuguda’s support. The opposition will gain from it,” said the source, who pleaded not to be named.

“Yuguda wants to produce his successor and the National Chairman of PDP, Alhaji Adamu Muazu, may not allow him because this is his own opportunity to take control of affairs in his state,” the source added.

Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State is battling to convince the party to pick his successor. One of those believed to be in Orji’s consideration is the General Manager of Abia State Environmental Protection Agency (ASEPA), Aba Zone, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu.

But the First Lady might choose between an oil magnate and a retired military chief, although the businessman is rated higher.

“The First Lady’s mother is from Abia State; she sees herself as a stakeholder in the state,” the source said.

In Kwara State, Mrs Jonathan’s preference for Senator Gbemisola Saraki is creating tension in the party. Some stakeholders plan to work for the All Progressives Congress (APC), if the popular wish is not respected.

The First Lady’s Media Assistant Mr. Ayo Adewuyi, in an electronic mail to our correspondent’s enquiry yesterday, said: “The First Lady has no plan and she is not planning to instal any governor.

“There are party processes for primaries and election of governorship candidates and, to the best of my knowledge, she is not a member of the party organs responsible for that. It is, therefore another calculated attempt by mischief makers to use her name for their selfish interests.

“It is also expedient to state clearly that the First Lady does not meddle in the affairs and selection process of the ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

“Consequently, there is no way she can dictate or instal anybody in political offices. In the case of Rivers State, the First Lady wishes to state categorically that the Supervising Minister of Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, is the leader of the PDP in Rivers State and he enjoys the followership of the people of the state. The First Lady is solidly behind Chief Wike. The people of Rivers State are also solidly behind Chief Wike and are prepared to follow him.

“It is, therefore, mischievous to insinuate that Mrs. Jonathan is working to ensure that the governorship candidate comes from one of the riverine areas of Rivers State, which may not be where the people are going.

“It is also imperative to state that the First Lady is always with the people and will continue to go with the wish and expectations of the people.

“Mrs. Jonathan has not withdrawn her support for Chief Wike at any time and will always work for the interest and the good of Rivers people.

“The First Lady is also portrayed as positioning some other candidates to take over from the incumbents in Bayelsa and Bauchi states in an attempt to pitch them against the governors.

“Dr. Waripomowei Dudafa is not only a son to the President, but his employee and very close to the family. Dr Dudafa is not ready to quit his job to contest the governorship election. Similarly, the FCT Minister has been a competent and loyal appointee of Mr. President. Both of them are loyal to Mr. President and their governors.

“They are sons of the First Lady, as the mother of the nation, who also has very cordial relationship with the governors in question and will never interfere in any process that will lead to the emergence of governorship candidates in the states.

“Mrs. Jonathan appeals to the governors of Bayelsa and Bauchi states to ignore the mischief makers who are bent on disrupting the peace prevailing in those states.

“The First Lady is a mother of peace who believes in the supremacy of the party and democratic principles at all levels and does not dump her friends because of politics, whether they are contesting or not.

“She, therefore, urges all Nigerians to uphold the truth at all times, and not be swayed by actions of mischief makers.

TheNation