APGA gathers more evidence for election tribunal in Yobe

The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) said on Monday that more evidence that would warrant outright cancellation of the gubernatorial election in seven local government areas of Yobe State had been gathered by the party.

Alhaji Abubakar Maraya, Yobe gubernatorial candidate of the party, told newsmen in Damaturu that: “We have received more evidence of electoral malpractice in zone C comprising seven local government areas.

“The evidences is both tenable and convincing that the provisions of the electoral law were abused to favour some political parties and their candidates in the gubernatorial election.

”This evidence is in addition to the miscalculation of our votes at the collation centres which we are prepared to tender before the election petition tribunal,” he said.

Maraya noted that the emerging evidences showed “flagrant abuse of the Electoral Act by the ruling All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) and the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) in Yobe.”

“We find it difficult to believe this daylight robbery of scores entered into result sheets that were contrary to scores obtained at the polling units but, we will pursue our rights through the civilised constitutional means at the court, he said.

No plan to hike fuel price, says NNPC •Fuel scarcity witnessed in some parts of the north

The management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has strongly dismissed rumours that the Federal Government has concluded plans to hike the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise known as petrol, which has led to the build up of queues in petrol stations in Abuja and other parts of the country.

A press statement by the Group General Manager of the Group Public Affairs Division of the corporation, Dr Levi Ajuonuma, disclosed that the NNPC has well over 39 days sufficiency of PMS and other petroleum products in stock. He described the rumoured hike in fuel price as baseless and unfounded and urged the petroleum tanker owners to release their trucks for loading of petroleum products at various depots and loading facilities in Lagos now that the elections have been rounded up across the country.

“The NNPC wishes to inform Nigerians that the rumoured hike in the price of PMS by the Federal Government is false and a mere figment of the imagination of detractors of the nation. The corporation also urges petroleum tanker owners and drivers to resume loading of petroleum products in order to avoid any artificial scarcity of petroleum products as the corporation has over 39 days of product sufficiency,” Dr Ajuonuma added.

The NNPC spokesman called on members of the public to desist from engaging in panic buying of PMS.

Meanwhile, acute scarcity of petrol, diesel and kerosene has hit Minna and other major towns in Niger State as revealed by Nigerian Tribune’s investigations.

The scarcity was first noticed on the eve of Easter but later became pronounced with virtually all the filling stations going for days without the commodities.

Corruption: Ex-minister advocates creation of special courts

TO stem the growing rate of corruption in the country, former Minister of State for Health, Chief Silas Ilo, has advocated the establishment of special courts to try political and government officials suspected to have enriched themselves with public funds.

Speaking with journalists in Enugu, on Monday, on the state of the nation, Chief Ilo noted that special courts would speed up the trials of cases on political corruption in the country, noting that cases bordering on corruption by political office holders had been abandoned half way due to lack of political will.

Chief Ilo urged President Goodluck Jonathan to go beyond rhetoric, wondering why so many alleged corrupt governors in the last regime came back to contest elections in this year’s general election.

Prophet Elijah Akinade for burial May 27

THE final burial date for the late General Overseer of the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC), Lion of Judah, Prophet Elijah Olufemi Akinade, has been announced.

The one-week burial arrangement will be held between Monday, May 23 and Friday, May 27.

Prophet Akinade, the gospel singer/preacher, died on Saturday, April 30, at the age of 56 years.

According to a statement released by the church authorities, the burial programme for the late General Overseer would start with service of songs in all the branches of the church on May 23 and 24.

On Wednesday, there will be lying-in-state at the Lagos State Television (LTV), Ikeja, Lagos, while on Thursday, May 26, the corpse will move to Ibadan, for lying-in-state in the morning, while Christian wake will be held in the evening at the church headquarters, at Dizengoff, Iyana-Church, Ibadan.

On Thursday, there will be a praise night by all the gospel musicians across the country.

The funeral service will be held on Friday at the church headquarters in Ibadan, which would be followed by interment at the same venue.

Meanwhile, sympathi-sers have continued to throng the headquarters of the church, to sympathise with the family and the church
Clerics who had visited the church included Lady Evangelist Bola Are, Pastor Ijaopo, Pastor J. Akintola, the Adegbodu Twins, Prophet Michael Fakile, Pastor Jayeola, among others.

Slain corps members: Yuguda’s comment unfortunate -Anglican bishop •I was misquoted -Bauchi gov

Dissatisfied with the statement credited to the governor of Bauchi State, Mallam Isa Yuguda, over the nine slain corps members in the state, the Archbishop of the Anglican Province of Jos, Reverend Father Benjamin Kwashi, has described such a statement coming from a state governor as most unfortunate.

He said that the governor, who should be a leader, should refrain from making such a comment to what he called “a very sensitive matter. l pray that his own child may not be a victim and killed like that.”

Mallam Yuguda was reported to have said that the nine corps members who lost their lives in the mayhem that trailed the presidential election in Bauchi State was their destiny, adding that he faced such attacks while serving as a National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member in Oyo State in 1979.

The cleric, who disclosed that if what happened after the election was not properly dealt with “ then a serious protest with a larger proportion is expected to occur in 2015 without anybody stopping it.”

Meanwhile, Malam Yuguda has denied having mocked members of the NYSC, who died in the state during the recent political riots that trailed the presidential election in some parts of the North, saying he was quoted out of context.

A national newspaper had, at the weekend, quoted the governor as saying he too was attacked as a corps member in the South-West in 1979 and that his own house was also burnt in the riots, thereby down-playing the gravity of the corps members’ death.

Ajimobi’s election: Managers desert motor parks

Some park managers appointed by the outgoing government in Oyo State have resigned their appointments, just as others have deserted the parks.

Nigerian Tribune learnt that the park managers, who were appointed at the peak of the leadership crisis in the state chapter of the proscribed National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), had left their duty posts following the election of opposition candidate, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, in the last gubernatorial election in the state.

At most of the motor parks visited in Ibadan on Monday, there were indications that most of the park managers were not on duty.

Investigation revealed that most of them left for fear of being attacked by members of the factional leader, Alhaji Akinsola Oloruntoki, also known as Tokyo.

A source at the popular Iwo interchange garage told the Nigerian Tribune that since last Tuesday, when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Senator Ajimobi as the winner of the election, most of them had stayed away.

It was further gathered that most of them left the parks without any official notice, while others decided to put in their resignation letters.

At the Agbowo garage, on the Ojoo-Iwo road, there was crisis over who controlled the park.