Thursday, 29 October 2015
Breaking News: Amaechi confirms minister of Federal Republic of Nigeria
Former Governor of River State, Rotimi Anaechi has been confirmed minister of Federal Republic of Nigeria by the Senate.
Senate confirms Prof. Yakubu, 5 others as INEC chair, fed. commissioners
 |
| New INEC Chairman |
The Senate also confirmed the nominations of five others as federal commissioners to represent the various geopolitical zones of the country.
Those confirmed as federal commissioner of the electoral umpire were Alhaji Baba Shettima Arfo, Dr. Anthonia Taiye Okoosi Simbine, Mrs Amina Zakari, Dr. mohammed Mustapha Lecky and Mr Soyebi Adedeji Solomon.
The confirmation of their nominations came after they were successfully screened by the Red Chamber.
Meanwhile, ahead of the confirmation of ministerial nominees expected to begin any moment from now, the Senate has gone into a closed door meeting, where it is expected that some contending issues in the ministerial confirmation are to be tackled.
Recall that at
the resumed sitting early today, Senate Deputy Minority Leader, Biodun Olujimi,
raised a point of order, saying the report of the Senator Samuel Anyanwu report
on petitions against the former Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi, must be
considered before going into the confirmation process
Wednesday, 28 October 2015
Supreme Court orders retrial of petition against Dakwambo
The Supreme Court has ordered the Gombe State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal to re-try the petition against the election of governor, Ibrahim Dankwambo, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The tribunal had earlier dismissed the petition filed by the African Democratic Congress (ADC), challenging the victory of Dankwambo in the April guber elections.
The petition was nullified and dismissed by the tribunal over the question of competency of the petitioner’s lawyer, Sam Kagbo, as a legal practitioner.
The petitioner’s lawyer had signed the petition as Sam Kagbo whereas on the roll of lawyers, the name is Sam Peter Kagbo.
The respondent raised objection to that effect and prayed the tribunal to dismiss the petition.
The tribunal, however, agreed with the respondent’s counsel and consequently dismissed the petition.
Not satisfied with the ruling, the ADC approached the Court of Appeal challenging the decision.
The Court of Appeal ordered the tribunal to re-try the petition.
Not satisfied, Dakwambo had approached the apex court seeking to set aside the decision of the Court of Appeal.
The apex court unanimously dismissed the appeal on grounds that the tribunal had only emphasised on technicalities in arriving at its decision.
In the lead judgement, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun held that the tribunal was wrong to have dismissed the petition on ground of technicalities.
The apex court, however, returned the petition to the tribunal to be tried on its merit.
Chelsea have lost HALF of their 14 games since Eva Carneiro row... where has it gone wrong for Jose Mourinho's champions?
The third season of Jose Mourinho's second spell in charge of Chelsea is
only 15 games old but already is in danger of completely imploding.
With just 11 points from their first 10 league games, Mourinho's title
defence looks to be over and on Tuesday night they crashed out of the Capital
One Cup, another piece of silverware won last year.
In fact, since the Chelsea boss criticised first-team doctor Eva Carneiro
after his side's first game of the season, sparking an unsavoury chain of
events leading to her departure, Chelsea have won just five of their 14 games,
and have lost an astonishing 50 per cent of their fixtures.
Sportsmail looks back through a timeline of where it has all gone wrong for
the Premier League champions...
August 8: Mourinho criticises Chelsea first-team doctor Eva Carneiro and
physiotherapist Jon Fearn for naivety in running on to the field to treat Eden
Hazard in the opening-day draw with Swansea.
The champions were already down to 10 men after Thibaut Courtois was dismissed,
and Mourinho attacked his medical team despite them being obliged to enter the
field of play once instructed to by the referee.
The row rumbles on for some time. Mourinho is cleared by the Football
Association of abusing Carneiro, who then subsequently leaves Chelsea.
August 16: Chelsea lose 3-0 at Manchester City, with captain John
Terry replaced at half-time with his side a Sergio Aguero goal down.
Vincent Kompany and Fernandinho add two more late in the game as Chelsea
fail to win either of their first two games for the first time in 17
years.
August 29: Mourinho's 100th Premier League home match results in only
a second loss as his side go down 2-1 to Crystal Palace.
Radamel Falcao scores his first goal for the club but
Palace immediately go down the other end and score through Joel Ward to beat
the champions.
September 12: The Blues lose 3-1 at Everton, Steven Naismith with a
hat-trick which exposes both Terry and his young central defensive partner Kurt
Zouma.
After five league games Chelsea have conceded at least twice in all of
them, and have just four points.
September 19: Diego Costa is banned retrospectively for a running feud with
Arsenal defenders Laurent Koscielny and Gabriel in Chelsea's 2-0 win.
Costa, a key part of last season's title win, had only scored a solitary
Premier League goal up to this point, but his manager is furious at losing 'an
important player' for three matches.
Arsene Wenger avoids censure afterwards for calling referee Mike Dean 'weak
and naive'. Mourinho turns his frustrations to Wenger and the FA.
He slams the FA for reducing Gabriel's ban, and admits: 'I don't know if my
squad can cope.'
September 19: Diego Costa is banned retrospectively for a running feud with
Arsenal defenders Laurent Koscielny and Gabriel in Chelsea's 2-0 win.
Costa, a key part of last season's title win, had only scored a solitary
Premier League goal up to this point, but his manager is furious at losing 'an
important player' for three matches.
Arsene Wenger avoids censure afterwards for calling referee Mike Dean 'weak
and naive'. Mourinho turns his frustrations to Wenger and the FA.
He slams the FA for reducing Gabriel's ban, and admits: 'I don't know if my
squad can cope.'
Septermber 29: On his return to his former club, Moruinho is beaten
2-1 by Porto in the Champions League.
Mourinho left out stars Eden Hazard and Nemanja Matic,
while Terry was kept on the bench, but it failed to shock his players into
action.
October 3: Following a fourth league defeat, 3-1 by Southampton,
Mourinho questions whether he will be sacked and subsequently receives the
first vote of confidence in a boss in the 12 years of Roman Abramovich's
ownership.
Having taken the lead, Chelsea were pegged back at Stamford Bridge before
Falcao was booked for diving early in the second half.
Mourinho was furious at the decision and after his side subsequently
conceded twice, he launched into an astonishing seven-minute rant on live TV.
He is hit with a £50,000 fine and suspended one-match
stadium ban for comments about referee Robert Madley, which an independent
panel judges, alleged bias.
October 15: The Portuguese maintains his attack on the FA, calls his
fine a 'disgrace' and says: 'I'm happy that I don't have an electronic tag.'
He also continued his feud with Wenger, highlighting what he perceives to
be a discrepancy in the way the two managers are treated.
October 17: Mourinho rounds on star player Eden Hazard after dropping
him to the bench for the 2-0 win over Aston Villa, demanding the Belgian
improve his defensive work rate.
The win, courtesy of a Brad Guzan mistake and an Alan Hutton own goal,
lifts the defending champions up to 11th in the table.
October 24: Chelsea lose again, 2-1 at West Ham, losing Nemanja Matic
to a first half red card and also having assistant first team coach Silvino
Louro sent to the stands.
Mourinho does not emerge on the touchline for the second half, having also
been sent off, apparently for a verbal attack on the official at half time.
The Chelsea boss refuses to talk to the media after his side's fifth league
defeat of the season - two more than in the entire previous campaign.
October 27: Hazard sees his penalty saved as the holders lose a shoot-out
at Stoke to crash out of the Capital One Cup, following a 1-1 draw after 120
minutes.
Chelsea had come from behind in stoppage time to force extra time, but
could not find a way through despite playing 30 minutes against 10 men.
The Portuguese said afterwards: 'My general situation is fantastic. I have
a day off tomorrow, a fantastic family.
'I can sleep well every night. I'm going to enjoy my day and Thursday. It
will be one more day like I have had in the last 15 years of my life - honest
and dedicated.'
Breaking News: Troops rescue 338 people held by Boko Haram:
The Nigerian Army said on Wedneday that troops at fringes of Sambisa forest have rescued about 338 people held by Boko Haram as well as killed over 30 Boko Haram terrorists.
The Army in a statemet by Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman,
Acting Director Army Public Relations and made avaible stated that the troops of 28 Task Force Brigade Nigerian Army deployed at Bitta and Pridang carried out a successful raid on suspected Boko Haram terrorists camps at Bulajilin and Manawashe villages along Bita and Damboa road at the fringes of Sambisa forest on Tuesday. The troops to killed 30 Boko Haram terrorists.
The unit also rescued 338 persons that were held captive by the terrorists in the enclaves. The rescued persons which comprised of male 8, female 138 and children 192, have since been evacuated to Mubi.
They also recovered arms and ammunitions during the raid operation which include 1 General Purpose Machine Gun and 2 Dane Guns, 150 rounds of 7.62mm (NATO), 6 boxes of 7.62mm (NATO) and 3 cutlasses.
In a related development, troops based on a tip off, ambushed and killed 4 suspected Boko Haram terrorists on a suicide bombing mission to Gubula, Madagali Local Government Area, Adamawa State.
Apart from 2 AK-47 rifles recovered, the troops also recovered some Unexploded Ordinances (UXOs), mortar bombs and cash sum of N153,385k was retrieved.
It is worthy to note that the raid operation on the Boko Haram terrorists enclave coincided with the Chief of Army Staff’s operational visit to the Brigade Headquarters in Mubi.
The successful clearance operations and ambushing of the terrorists has further degraded them and saved the lives of so many innocent victims of their suicide bombings.
Ouattara re-elected as Ivory Coast president
The 73-year-old won a second five-year term outright by garnering almost 84 percent of ballots in the first round of polls Sunday, when more than half of voters turned out despite calls for a boycott by opposition candidates.
Ouattara, who had been widely tipped to win, has been credited with reviving the economy of the war-scarred country, the world’s leading cocoa producer, but also accused of creeping authoritarianism.
His main challenger was ex-prime minister Pascal Affi N’Guessan, who won just 9.3 percent of ballots and ran on behalf of the Ivorian Popular Front — the party of former leader Laurent Gbagbo.
Ouattara unseated Gbagbo in 2010 but the then president refused to concede defeat, sparking a wave of violence which left around 3,000 people dead.
Gbagbo was eventually defeated by pro-Ouattara forces, backed by the UN and France, who dragged him from a bunker under the presidential residence where he had hidden for days.
He is now awaiting trial before the International Criminal Court in The Hague for crimes against humanity over atrocities committed in the five-month conflict.
Commentators had questioned whether people would head to the polls after the violence, but Ivory Coast’s electoral commission said 54.6 percent of those eligible had voted.
The process won praise from observers as being fair and peaceful and the president of the national electoral commission, the CEI, said that after the vote “the crisis of 2010 is behind us”.
– ‘Parody’ –
Before the official results were announced, the National Coalition for Change (CNC), which represents two presidential candidates, had put the turnout figure at 20 percent, calling the vote a “parody”.
Ouattara had said a high turnout would be key to cementing his mandate for another five-year term from the 23 million people registered to vote across the country.
The streets of the economic capital were quiet early on Wednesday after news of the results, in stark contrast to the violence that plagued Abidjan after the last vote, when 34,000 troops including 6,000 UN peacekeepers were deployed to secure the streets.
Ouattara too has come under criticism over his alleged role in the post-2010 electoral violence and in the lead-up to the latest vote.
Amnesty International has slammed the detention of opponents ahead of the latest poll while rights campaigners have said little justice has been meted out to members of his own camp since the 2010-2011 crises that brought him to office.
In third place in Sunday’s vote was Kouadio Konan Bertin with 3.9 percent. One of the principal opposition candidates, he had already conceded defeat on Monday and congratulated Ouattara, who should be sworn in next month.
A peaceful and credible election was seen as crucial to help Ivory Coast recover its former status as a beacon of progress and prosperity in the region.
With growth at around nine percent, Ouattara — a prominent economist and former deputy head of the International Monetary Fund — had staked his campaign on his economic track record.
He has also promised to reform the constitution and submit the changes to a public referendum. A parliamentary election is due within two months.
Known as “Ado” after his initials, the president was barred from running in the 2000 race over questions of his national identity, leaving Gbagbo to take power.
While he was born in central Ivory Coast, Ouattara did most of his schooling in Burkina Faso and later worked there, prompting accusations he was not sufficiently Ivorian to lead the country.
He is known as a tireless worker needing little sleep who is said to “wear out his staff”.