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Buhari Defends UK Trip, Meet Blair …Speaks On Future Of Nigeria, Thursday

Commissioner for Commerce and Industry Rivers State, Hon Chuma C. Chinye (left) presenting an award to Executive Director, MCC Nig Ltd., Mr Nelson Jaja (right) during the Garden City Corporate Award, organised by Ministry of Commerce and Industry at Atlantic Hall, Hotel Presidential, Port Harcourt recently. Photo: Egberi A. Sampson
The Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari, has dismissed reports that he visited a London hospital to attend to his health.
Buhari was reacting to the allegation by Governor Ayo Fayose that the APC presidential candidate was being attended to in a London hospital.
According to Fayose, Buhari’s alleged visit to the hospital corroborated his alarm that the former military dictator was sick and lacked the required capacity to rule a complex country like Nigeria.
Buhari, who spoke to our source from London, said: “I am hale and hearty. I am not in any hospital as claimed. I just finished having talks with the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair, in his country home. I would be having another meeting with the Awujale of Ijebuland soon. Apart from this, I am also visiting some friends. As you can hear from my voice, I am hale and hearty with some of my friends around me”.
Also, in a statement issued the same day, the presidential campaign organisation of the All Progressives Congress (APC) debunked Fayose’s claims that Buhari was hospitalised in London.
The party which issued a statement on Saturday to explain Buhari’s itinerary, said contrary to insinuations that he was receiving treatment in UK, the former Head of State was scheduled to hold discussions and interviews with some groups and organisations while in London.
The statement from the Directorate of Media and Publicity of the APC Presidential Campaign Organisation (APCPCO), said Buhari planned to honour an engagement at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House in London scheduled for Thursday, February 26.
According to the campaign organisation, Chatham House will post the event and send out invites on Monday, February 23.
Spokesman of APC campaign organisation, Malam Garba Shehu, said, “We are not even going to engage with Fayose, he is not our type. All we will do is to intimate Nigerians with Buhari’s activities while in London. First, he has met with former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair and his group and there will be other engagements that will follow including the lecture at the Chaattam House in London. We will put out these facts when we are ready and it will shame detractors,” he said.
The statement signed by Malam Garba Shehu reveals that as part of his ongoing engagement in the United Kingdom, General Buhari had an interview yesterday with a local medium, the “All Eyes on Africa TV Show” with Kemi Fajodutimi and met with Tony Blair in the morning of Saturday, February 21.
Shehu said Buhari also visited the London residence of the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona, at about 1.30 pm UK time on Saturday and returned to his rented flat in the city afterwards.
Meanwhile, the APC Presidential Campaign Organisation has appealed to President Goodluck Jonathan to call one of his party’s governors, Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti to order over his continued pestering of their candidate, Buhari, with falsehood and death wishes.
Shehu said the APC had learnt on good authority that Governor Fayose had hired people in London who had been trailing the movements of the APC presidential candidate while on his working visit in the city.
“Let it be on record that knowing Governor Fayose’s antecedents, we are not leaving anything to chances. The governor who has published death-wish advertorials on Buhari will stop at nothing. If anything should happen to General Muhammadu Buhari while in London or anywhere, the authorities over there in the UK and at home should know who to hold responsible,” he said.
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I’m Committed To Community Dev – Ajinwo
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RSG Tasks Rural Dwellers On RAAMP …As Sensitization Team Visits Akulga, Degema, Three Others

Rivers State Head of Service, Dr (Mrs) Inyingi Brown, has called on rural communities in the State to embrace the Rural Access and Agricultural marketing project (RAAMP) with a view to improving their living conditions.
This follows the ongoing sensitization campaign by the State Project Implementation Unit (SPIU) visits to Degema, Abonnema, Afam headquarters of Degema, Akuku Toru and Oyigbo Etche and Omuma local government areas respectively.
Dr Brown who was represented by the Deputy Director, Special Duties in her office, Mrs Dein Akpanah, said RAAMP was initiated by the Federal Government and World Bank to economically empower rural dwellers.s
She said the World Bank understands the plights of rural farmers and traders in the State, and therefore came up with the programme to address them.
According to her, RAAMP will improve the conditions of farmers, traders and fishermen, and therefore, behoves on every rural communities in the State to embrace the programme.
The Head of Service also said the programme would support the youths to be gainfully employed while bridges and roads will be built to link farms and fishing settlements.
Also speaking, the State project coordinator, Mr Joshua Kpakol, said the programme has the potential of creating millionaires among farmers and fishermen in the State.
Kpakol who was represented by Engr. Sam Tombari, said RAAMP would help farmers and fishermen to preserve their produce.
According to him, the project will build cold rooms and Silos for preservation of crops and fishes while access roads will also be created to link farmers and fishermen to the market.
He, however, warned them against any act that will lead to the suspension of the projects by the World Bank.
Kpakol particularly warned against acts such as kidnapping, marching ground, gender based violence and child labour, adding that such acts if they occur may lead to the cancellation of the project by the World Bank.
During the visit to Oyigbo local government area, Mr Joshua Kpakol, said the team was there to let them know how they will benefit from the Raamp.
The coordinator who was personally at Oyigbo said the World Bank introduced the project to check food insecurity in the State.
He said already 19 states in Nigeria are already benefitting from the project and called on them to embrace the project.
Meanwhile, stakeholders in the three local government areas have commended the World Bank for including their areas in the project.
They, however, complained over the incessant attacks by pirates on their waterways.
At Degema, King Agolia of Ke kingdom said land was a major problem in the kingdom.
King Agolia represented by High Chief Alpheus Damiebi said many indigenes of the kingdom are willing to go into farming but are handicapped by lack of land.
Also at Degema, the representative of the Omu Onyam Ekeim of Usokun Degema kingdom, Osoabo Isaac, said Degema has embraced the programme but needed more information on the implementation of the programme.
Similarly, while High Chief Precious Abadi advised that the project should not be narrowed to only crop farming, a community women leader, Mrs Orikinge Eremabo Otto, called for the construction of cold rooms in all fishing settlements in the area.
At Abonnema, Mr Diamond Kio linked the problem of the area to incessant piracy along waterways.
He also expressed fears over the possibility of the project being hijacked by politicians.
Also at Abonnema, a stakeholder, Ikiriko Kelvin, called on the World Bank to design an agricultural project that will suit the riverine environment, while at Oyigbo, HRH Eze Boniface Akawo expressed satisfaction with the project.
John Bibor
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Senate Replaces Natasha As Committee Chairman

The political mudslinging between the Senate leadership and Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan continued yesterday as the Senate named Senator Aniekan Bassey as the new Chairman of the Committee on Diaspora and Non-Governmental Organisations.
Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, announced the appointment during yesterday’s plenary, confirming Bassey’s replacement of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, who is currently on suspension.
Akpoti-Uduaghan was reassigned to the Diaspora and NGOs Committee in February after she was removed as Chair of the Senate Committee on Local Content during a minor reshuffle.
Bassey is the senator representing Akwa Ibom North-East Senatorial District.
Although no reason was given for her removal yesterday, the change is believed to be connected to her unresolved suspension.
In May, Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court ordered her reinstatement and directed her to tender an apology to the Senate.
However, the Senate has insisted it has not received a certified true copy of the court judgment.
Akpoti-Uduaghan who represents Kogi Central, has yet to resume her legislative duties despite a recent court ruling that voided her suspension.
In a televised interview on Tuesday, Akpoti-Uduaghan said she was awaiting the Certified True Copy of the judgment before officially returning to plenary, citing legal advice and respect for institutional process.
Although the Federal High Court described her suspension as “excessive and unconstitutional”, a legal opinion dated July 5 and attributed to the Senate’s counsel, Paul Daudu (SAN), argued that the ruling lacked any binding directive to enforce her reinstatement.
Akpoti-Uduaghan, one of only three female senators in the current assembly, said the continued delay in allowing her return was not only a denial of her mandate but also a blow to democratic representation.
“By keeping me out of the chambers, the Senate is not just silencing Kogi Central, it’s denying Nigerian women and children representation. We are only three female senators now, down from eight,” she said.
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