"Break away" PDP Governors' jet grounded in Abuja.

This is getting as serious as you can't imagine, for how long will this battle last?

According to Sahara reports:
Nigerian aviation authorities in Abuja today briefly grounded a private jet that was supposed to ferry some governors and politicians belonging to the break-away faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to Lagos en route Abeokuta. SaharaReporters learnt that the members of the new PDP were about to fly to Lagos on their way to a meeting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
A spokesman for the new PDP told SaharaReporters that the temporary grounding of the jet was “part of the Jonathan administration’s desperate war against us.” He added, “We will not be deterred in our struggle to enthrone true democracy within the PDP.”
The source added that this was not the first time the Ministry of Aviation was being used to ground a jet used by opposition figures within the party, citing the withdrawal of the flying privileges of a jet owned by Rivers State government.
When SaharaReporters made inquiries about the reasons for today’s brief grounding, two Nigerian aviation officials gave conflicting responses. The Aviation Ministry’s General Manager, Yakubu Datti, told SaharaReporters over the phone that the ministry was not involved at all in any delay of the flight. He claimed that the problem arose purely from a disagreement between the jet owners and the politicians, insisting that the issue had nothing to do with the aviation authorities.
However, Joe Obi, the spokesperson for embattled Aviation Minister Stella Oduah, offered a different account in an email to SaharaReporters. His email stated that the jet was briefly stopped from taking off in order to ascertain the pilot’s flight plans and to make other routine checks in accordance with aviation practices all over the world. He emphasized that the plane had since been cleared to fly.
Today’s brief grounding came on the heels of yesterday’s disruption of a meeting of the new PDP by a police team led by a plain-clothed Divisional Police Officer in charge of the Asokoro police station. The DPO laid siege on the Kano State Government Lodge in Abuja, the venue of the meeting by five governors who have rejected the PDP faction led by Bamanga Tukur. When the five governors and other participants at the meeting resisted the order to shut down their meeting, the DPO called for police back-up. However, a source at the meeting told SaharaReporters that they tricked the police into believing the meeting had just started when in fact it was ending.
SaharaReporters learnt that the Lagos-bound dissident governors were visiting Mr. Obasanjo to confer with him on a number of political issues. Former President Obasanjo has been estranged from President Goodluck Jonathan, and is believed to be advocating for the election of a president from the northern section of Nigeria in the 2015 presidential election.

Shopping complex collapses in Lagos: 3killed, 5injured and 10 rescued.

 A five-storey shopping complex under-construction at 9,  Muri Okunola Street, in  Eti-Osa Local Government Area, yesterday, collapsed killing at least three persons and injuring 15 others.

At the scene were officials of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, LASEMA, Red Cross and men of the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, attached to the Maroko Station, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC battling to rescue trapped victims from under the debris.

Of the 15 rescued, five are said to be in critical conditions and have been admitted at the Accident and Emergency Centre, Toll Gate, Ikeja while others were admitted at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, hospital, few metres away from the scene. It was learnt that the construction workers were casting the decking and the pillars when the building caved-in on them at about 4:00p.m.

An eyewitness, Mr. Adetayo Olaseni stated: “The building collapsed at about 4:00p.m. while construction works were still ongoing. This led to pandemonium, as everyone scampered for safety.”

Another eye-witness, Miss Blessing Osundare said: “I  heard a loud bang and all I saw was that the entire building had collapsed on the workers. While some escaped unhurt, others are still trapped under the debris.

“I can’t say this is the number of people here, but I know that they were more than 60 persons working at the site.”

Confirming the tragedy, the General Manager of  LASEMA, Dr. Femi Oke-Osanyintolu said: “A twin four-storey building located at Muri Okunola Street, Victoria Island collapsed.”

“Fifteen persons have been rescued so far while three corpses  have been recovered from the debris.

“Rescue operations are still on-going and we are assuring residents that they should not panic. We are on top of the issue.” See pictures below: 

Ngige says Obi should take responsibility for stampede.

APC candidate, Dr Chris Ngige and the incumbent governor on November3, engaged in a war of words over the tragedy at the Adoration Ground last weekend.

Ngige whose reaction was contained in a statement signed  by the Director of Media and  Publicity of the  Chris Ngige Campaign Organisation,  Chief Charles Amilo,  blasted  Gov. Obi  noting that the traditional recourse of blaming Sen. Ngige each time he (Obi)  fails in one department of leadership or governance, should be a worn out excuse by now, which  would certainly not work in the very serious circumstance at hand’

Sen Ngige, neither attended the crusade, knew nothing  about it, nor received the report of the incident at the  crusade in good time.

If Ndi Anambra who are not necessarily politicians spontaneously rejected Gov. Obi and his handpicked stooge  during the night  vigil, considering that Obi and his   APGA team in  uniform  barged  into their communion with God  with fliers and sirens, and tear gas, why should Obi now blame Ngige?

Ngige   therefore invited Gov Obi to rise to the responsibility of Governance in the remaining part of his tenure by promptly explaining to Ndi Anambra what his security details were reported to have done to create a stampede in the  place of worship, as further obfuscation of facts  from his government may build avoidable tension’

Source: Vanguard

Shekau in a video says he led Damaturu attack.

The leader of Jama’atu Ahlis Sunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad, also known as Boko Haram, Imam Abubakar Shekau, on whose head United States place a $7 million ransom appeared in a new video, on November 3, saying he personally led recent attacks in Damaturu, Yobe State on October 24th 2013.

A military source who watched the new video in Damaturu told SaharaReporters that, Imam Shekau boasted of overrunning Nigerian military, explaining that the sect will triumph over military and put in place Islamic government under Allah’s descriptions, despite Nigeria’s government resistance.

 Also, Shekau displays a cache of arms including AK47 guns, RPGs and a large sum of ammunition, he claimed the sect seized from Nigerian troops.

Shekau in the video also disclosed that the Damaturu attack was one of the sects most successful operations as it killed several Nigerian soldiers.

He further took a swipe at the government sanctioned “Dialogue and Amnesty Committee” led by Minister of Special Duties, Kabiru Tanimu Turaki claiming it was a deceitful plot aimed at creating division within the Boko Haram sect.

He added that they do not know the committee and have had nothing to do with it.
Shekau was silent on the attack on a wedding convoy that left about 30 people dead during the weekend, which was today refuted by 7th Division of the Nigerian Army in Maiduguri.

This is his third appearance in a video after the military declared him dead in July.

Enugu state First Lady, Clara Chime, hires lawyer to secure release from husband's arrest.

From Sahara reports:
Human rights lawyer Femi Falana has asked the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. MD Abubakar, to ensure the immediate release from unlawful detention of Mrs. Clara Chime, the First Lady of Enugu State who is being held hostage at Government House Enugu by Governor Sullivan Chime, or be dragged to court.  

In a letter dated November 1, 2013, Mr. Falana, representing Mrs. Chime, pointed out that his client has been kept incommunicado in solitary confinement for over four months on the directives of Governor Chime.

“Thus our client’s fundamental rights to the dignity of her person, personal liberty, fair hearing, private and family life and freedom of movement guaranteed by the Constitution and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 have been violated without any legal justification,” it said. 
“Although our client’s dehumanizing detention conditions have had deleterious effects on her psychological state as well as her mental and physical health she has been denied access to her doctors by her abductors,” the petition said.  “It is particularly disturbing to note that some of the police and state security service personnel assigned to secure the safety of the Enugu State governor, his wife and other family members have aided and abetted Mr. Chime in subjecting our client to egregious infringements of her aforesaid fundamental rights.”

It pointed out, however, that unlike the governor who is currently immune from prosecution under the constitution, the police and state security service officials involved in the illegal arrest and detention of Mrs. Chime ought to be sanctioned under the relevant laws. 
In a letter exclusively published by SaharaReporters on October 28, Mrs. Chime complained that Governor Chime had placed her under house arrest, and begged human rights bodies to come to her rescue. 

She said that eminent personalities such as President and Mrs. Goodluck Jonathan and the Bishop Callistus Onaga of Enugu State and other top priests had attempted to intervene in the matter without success.   

Among other things, Mrs. Chime said she had been introduced to two psychiatrists, Dr. Onwukwe and Dr. Agumo, who prescribed “all kinds of drugs that ends up keeping me acute depressed and also drives me into hallucinations.”

Still on the matter: ASUU strike.

A crucial meeting between the leadership of the striking members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities and President Goodluck Jonathan has dragged into the late nightie yesterday, November 4, without words on whether a truce was in sight.
It was the first meeting between the union and President Jonathan since the strike began 1 July, shutting down almost all state and Federal government owned universities in Nigeria.
The Federal Government had initially offered the striking teachers N30billion to pay for allowances piled up since government and the union hammered out an agreement in 2009. Government also offered N100billion to pay for improvements of facilities in the universities.
ASUU rejected the offer as too small and insisted on government implementing in full the 2009 agreement.
The negotiation with the president’s team reportedly went on a short break at about6.30 p.m.
The meeting started in the afternoon, at about 2:40 pm inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
On the President’s negotiating team are the Vice President, Namadi Sambo, who had held a deadlocked meeting with ASUU in the past, Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Pius Anyim; Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike; and Minister of Labour, Emeka Wogu among others.
The ASUU team is led by its Chairman, Dr. Nasir Isa Fagge, Prof. Abdulahi Sule-Kano, Prof. Dipo Fashina and Prof. Festus Iyayi, Prof. Suleiman Abdul, and Prof. Abdullahi Sule-Kano.
Also at the meeting are the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Abdulawahid Omar and that of the Trade Union Congress, Bobboi Kaigama.
In banters with the ASUU team, President Jonathan while shaking hands with Fagge said:
“My president, I hope it will end today. Our children have suffered enough. We must find a solution.”
All those in attendance responded with a loud “amen.”
Jonathan also expressed similar optimism when he greeted the NLC president:
“My president with you around today, there will be no problem, our agreement is signed, sealed and delivered.”

However, see the synopsis of ASUU demands below:

The agreement included details such as the breakdown of lecturers’ salary structure, staff loans, pension, overtime, and moderation of examinations.

Part of the agreement dwelt on funding of universities where both parties agreed that each federal university should get at least N1.5 trillion between 2009 and 2011 while state universities, within the same period, should receive N3.6 million per student.

The agreement also had parts that asked the re-negotiation committee to ensure that at least 26 percent of Nigeria’s annual budget was allocated to education, and half of that allocation to universities.

The agreement also asked that the 2004 Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, Act, and the National University Commission Act 2004, be amended.

Text of the suggested amendment bills – including suggestion for amendment of the Education (National Minimum Standards and Establishment of Institutions) Act 2004 – were provided in the agreements.

The agreement was signed by Bolanle Babalakin, the then chairman of Committee of Pro-Chancellors of Federal Universities; Gamaliel Onosode, chairman of the re-negotiation committee; and Ukachukwu Awuzei, the then president of ASUU.

The agreement demanded a heavy financial commitment from the government and was an adaptation of an earlier agreement reached in 2001.

It is unclear how much of the agreement have been implemented by the government.

However, the secretary to the federation, Pius Anyim, after one of the recent failed negotiations, said that most of the issues contained in the 2009 agreement, had been fully met except for the earned allowances estimated at N92 billion.

“Some of the issues which bothered on amendment of pensionable retirement age of academics in the professorial cadre, consolidated peculiar allowances (CONPUAA)- exclusively for university teaching staff, National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), setting up of budget monitoring committee in all public universities have been fully implemented,” he disclosed.

Taraba State's House of Assembly speaker dead!

The Speaker of Taraba State House of Assembly, Haruna Tsokwa, has been declared dead. He slumped early this morning and was rushed to the hospital where he was confirmed dead.

Tsoka was one of the lawmakers in Taraba State who opposed Governor Danbaba Suntai's resumption of work in the state after his foreign medical treatment due of his frail state of health.

The late speaker was attacked in September by unknown gunmen along the Akwanga-Keffi Road in Nasarawa State. The gunmen killed one of his aides but Tsokwa survived the attack.

Tsokwa is said to have been battling with some heart-related ailments before he suddenly slumped and died this morning. May his soul rest in peace. Amen.

Fire outbreak today at The Balogun market, Lagos

There was a serious fire outbreak at the Balogun market, Lagos today on Martins street, Euro-Asia Plaza Breadfruit Lagos Island to be more precise.

At the moment, fire service crane are still trying to put off the fire and rescue people trapped in the building. The building consists of stalls and also UBA bank.

The cause of inferno is yet unknown, but I'll keep you informed when the cause is detected.