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Even South-West Has Rejected Tinubu – PDP Campaign Council
The Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Council has described the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu as a rejected figure in the South-West, a geopolitical zone believed by many as his stronghold.
The PDP campaign council stated this in reaction to calls for the arrest and interrogation of Atiku Abubakar by the APC campaign council, over claims by a whistleblower, Michael Achimugu, that the ex-Vice President helped himself to public funds while in office from 1999-2007.
This is even as the campaign council chided the Tinubu Media team for attacking the duo of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Atiku in a bid to promote Tinubu’s aspiration.
A statement signed by the spokesman for the PDP Campaign Council, Dino Melaye, urged Tinubu’s handlers to remember that Lagos where the APC flag bearer holds sway was only a part of the larger Nigerian nation, that he was seeking the support of millions of citizens to preside over.
The statement entitled, ‘Tinubu’s Media Gang and the Pity of Electoral Hallucination’, partly read, “The struggling marketers of Tinubu, rather than face the rejection that Tinubu is facing everywhere, are gloating on an empty prospect.
“With all the false claims of Tinubu that he holds the aces in the South West, it is now obvious that critical social structures like Afenifere, major stakeholders like Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, and faith cum political voices like Pastor Tunde Bakare, have all rejected him.
“A man who does not enjoy charity at home is now seeking that the hands of other well grounded and rounded candidates are tied to pave way for him. The game has just started!
“It is not surprising that Obasanjo and Atiku are now being set up for attack. The combined activities of the duo constitute the effective terminator of the misguided aspiration of Tinubu to inherit an office that has no ancestral link to Iragbiji. Obasanjo’s assertion that ’emi lokan’ is an immoral and misleading claim and Atiku’s pole position in the build-up to the February 25 election has made them objects of mudslinging and rabid attacks.
“Having been suffocated in the campaign space, and looking for a shortcut to a far-fetched and improbable electoral success, the media gang of Ahmed Bola Tinubu in pitiable agony, struggled to clutch to a straw by placing their hope in an empty vessel, who is capitalising on the desperation of the Tinubu and his dreamers to sell fairy tales for a fortune.
“The Tinubu media jesters have often equated Nigeria with Lagos, where Baba so’pe ( Baba said ) is all that needs to be bellowed for all kinds of untoward actions to be taken. They forget that Nigeria is a country of due process, where allegations don’t amount to conviction, and where any urchin can wake up on the side of a bed to throw tantrums without any reprehension.
“The failure of the Tinubu gang is evident in their failed blackmail and insinuation against the very vibrant Nigerian media.”
The Senate has granted approval to the ₦1.77 trillion ($2.2b) loan request of President Bola Tinubu after a voice vote in favor of the request.
The Senate presided by Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, approved the loan after the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts chaired by Senator Wammako Magatarkada (APC, Sokoto North) presented the report of the committee.
The request which was submitted by the President on Tuesday is part of a fresh external borrowing plan to partially finance the N9.7 trillion budget deficit for the 2024 fiscal year.
Tinubu had on Tuesday written to the National Assembly, seeking approval of a fresh N1.767 trillion, the equivalent of $2.209 billion as a new external borrowing plan in the 2024 Appropriation Act.
The fresh loan is expected to stretch the amount spent on debt servicing by the Federal Government. The Central Bank of Nigeria recently said that it cost the Federal Government $3.58 billion to service foreign debt in the first nine months of 2024.
The CBN report on international payment statistics showed that the amount represents a 39.77 per cent increase from the $2.56bn spent during the same period in 2023.
According to the report, while the highest monthly debt servicing payment in 2024 occurred in May, amounting to $854.37m, the highest monthly expenditure in 2023 was $641.70m, recorded in July.
The trend in foreign debt servicing by the CBN highlights the rising cost of debt obligations by Nigeria.
Further breakdown of international debt figures showed that in January 2024, debt servicing costs surged by 398.89 per cent, rising to $560.52m from $112.35m in January 2023. February, however, saw a slight decline of 1.84 per cent, with payments reducing from $288.54m in 2023 to $283.22m in 2024.
March recorded a 31.04 per cent drop in payments, falling to $276.17m from $400.47m in the same period last year. April saw a significant rise of 131.77 per cent, with $215.20m paid in 2024 compared to $92.85m in 2023.
The highest debt servicing payment occurred in May 2024, when $854.37m was spent, reflecting a 286.52 per cent increase compared to $221.05m in May 2023. June, on the other hand, saw a 6.51 per cent decline, with $50.82m paid in 2024, down from $54.36m in 2023.
July 2024 recorded a 15.48 per cent reduction, with payments dropping to $542.50m from $641.70m in July 2023. In August, there was another decline of 9.69 per cent, as $279.95m was paid compared to $309.96m in 2023. However, September 2024 saw a 17.49 per cent increase, with payments rising to $515.81m from $439.06m in the same month last year.
Given rising exchange rates, the data raises concerns about the growing pressure of Nigeria’s foreign debt obligations.
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Self acclaimed leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Simon Ekpa, has been arrested by law enforcement in Finland.
The BBC reports that Ekpa was subsequently sent to prison by the district court of Päijät-Häme for “spreading terrorist propaganda on social media”.
Ekpa was said to have committed the crime in 2021 in Lahti municipality.
The Finnish National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) also arrested four other men over alleged terrorist offences.
A citizen of Finland and Nigeria, Ekpa has described himself as leader of the separatist IPOB group since Nnamdi Kanu’s incarceration.
Finnish police say Ekpa’s activities and social media rhetoric may have fanned the flames of violence in the south-east of Nigeria.
“He carries out these activities from his social media channels, for example,” said Otto Hiltunen, detective chief inspector of the NBI.
In February 2023, Ekpa was arrested by police at his residence in Lahti but was released after hours of questioning.
Using his social media channels, Ekpa had directed Igbos not to participate in Nigeria’s 2023 general election.
In September 2021, the Biafra agitator and secessionist denounced Nigeria and vowed to return the medal he won for the country at the 2003 African Junior Athletics Championships.
The Court of Appeal has sacked Musiliu Akinsanya aka MC Oluomo as the National President of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW).
In a ruling that upheld the earlier judgment of the National Industrial Court, the appellate court sacked MC Oluomo and reaffirmed Tajudeen Baruwa as the legitimate leader of the union.
Baruwa had assumed office after a properly conducted election held at the union’s headquarters in Abuja.
The three-member panel of the Appeal Court dismissed the appeal filed by MC Oluomo’s faction, declaring it devoid of merit.
In addition, the court imposed a fine of N100,000 on the appellants, further solidifying Baruwa’s leadership position.
Reports quoting court documents said to have been released on Friday detailed the ruling, which effectively countered any attempts to displace Baruwa from his role as the NURTW president.
The judgment read: “This is an appeal against the judgment/decision of the National Industrial Court Sitting in Abuja, in Suit No. NICN/ABJ/263/2023, delivered on the 11th March, 2024, by Justice O. O. Oyewumi.
“Upon reading the Record of Appeal compiled and transmitted before this court, together with the respective briefs of argument, and after hearing the counsels for the appellants and respondents, it is hereby ordered that:
“This Appeal is devoid of merit, and the same is hereby dismissed.”
The ruling reinforces the legitimacy of Baruwa’s presidency, concluding the legal dispute over the union’s leadership.
Meanwhile, MC Oluomo’s son Idowu Akinsanya (King West) had bragged about his feat of emerging the NURTW president, saying: “We are now in charge of Nigeria, not only Lagos,” a comment that attracted public opprobrium.
MC Oluomo, a diehard supporter of President Bola Tinubu and a prominent figure in Lagos politics, was the sole candidate in the election, which took place at the union’s zonal secretariat in Osogbo. His perceived victory was deemed to carry significant implications for the future of the NURTW and the political landscape of Nigeria.
