Borno
A Borno-based Pastor, Kallamu Musa-Dikwa, who claimed
that the money given to Pastors by the President Goodluck Jonathan was actually N7billion and not N6billion as alleged by Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, has been invited by the Department of State Services, DSS.
Dikwa’s allegation had caused a stir among the Christian clerics, with the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria and the Northern State Christian Elders Forum asking him to name the church leaders, who collected the huge bribe.
Musa-Dikwa, who is the Executive Director of the Voice of Northern Christian Movement, told journalists in Kaduna about two weeks ago that the said money was channelled through the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN.
Musa-Dikwa said the CAN got the said money (N7bn) on January 26, 2015 and disbursed N3m to each State Chairmen of the CAN across the country.
Musa-Dikwa, who was an Associate Pastor with the E. Y. N. Church, Farm Centre, Dikwa Road, Maiduguri, Borno State, under Rev. Emmanuel Kwajihe between 2002 and 2004, said the CAN had started threatening Christians in the state (Borno) that they must re-elect Jonathan in the rescheduled election.

Ekiti
Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, has awarded N1.2
billion worth of contract to Carpenters and Furniture Association of Ekiti State.
The association last Monday evening signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the state government on the contract.
The Chief of Staff, Chief Dipo Anisulowo, who represented the governor, said the contract was part of the Stomach Infrastructure Programme of Fayose.
Anisulowo appealed to the artisans to make good use of the opportunity.
He said, “I hope you would not disappoint the governor because he has reposed a lot of confidence in you to have given you this project. I pray you will reciprocate his kind gesture by doing a very good job.”
Chairman of the association, Evangelist Micheal Adeyemi (JP), expressed gratitude to the state government on behalf of members.

FCT
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has commiserated
with the publisher of the THISDAY Newspapers, Mr. Nduka Obaigbena over the demise of his brother in the United States of America last Sunday.
A press statement signed by Atiku Media Office yesterday said that the death of Rotimi Azubuike Obaigbena came as a rude shock.
Atiku described the deceased as “a very hardworking Nigerian who has made an indelible mark in his chosen profession.”
He also prayed for the family and friends of the deceased to have the fortitude to bear the loss.

Gombe
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has
so far achieved ninety per cent distribution of the Permanent Voter Card in Gombe State.
The state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Alhaji Kassim Geidam, confirmed this in Gombe, the state capital, Gombe said the shifting of the general elections had given both INEC and the electorate an opportunity to be better prepared for the polls.
The REC explained  that all challenges associated with the collection of printed cards from Abuja have been surmounted.
He called on those who were yet to collect their PVCs to visit INEC area offices for collection.
Geidam called on husbands to allow their wives to go out and exercise their franchise during the general elections.
“People should actually come out and vote on election day most especially our mothers and sisters, whose husbands would not allow them to go out. You have allowed them register, they have obtained the PVC, on election Day, please allow them to go and cast their votes,” he said.

Jigawa
Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State has predicted that
the South-west geopolitical zone would not vote for the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), because that would place the APC national leader, Senator Bola Tinubu, as the leader of the Yoruba race.
“If the Yorubas vote for Buhari because their son is the national leader of the South-west, then it will prove that (Asiwaju) Bola Tinubu is the undisputed leader of the Yorubas. This is because his people have spoken and therefore hearkened to Tinubu’s directives,” he said.
Lamido, who is the North-west Coordinator of the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Organization, PDPPCO, further noted that religion and ethnicity would play a major role in the March 28 presidential election, owing to the fact that President Goodluck Jonathan is from the south and a Christian while Buhari is a Muslim northerner.
He challenged the presidential candidate of the APC to state how he intends to confront corruption, which is the major plank of his presidential manifesto, when some former governors of the PDP who are now members of the APC are facing corruption charges in the courts.

Kogi
A litre of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol,
now sells between N140 and N160 in some parts of Kogi State.
Also, information from many other local governments in the rural areas of the state indicated that petrol prices now range between N145 and N160 per litre. Our correspondent noticed long queues in two filling stations that sold fuel at Abuja bye pass in Felele, Lokoja.
Other filling stations along the road were closed as they were said to have no petrol for sale. There was also scarcity of the product in Ajaokuta LGA of the state.
Motorists and commuters that spoke to our correspondent said the scarcity and the high cost have unleashed great hardship on them. They called on relevant authorities and bodies to ensure the availability of the product and restoration of the government approved normal rate.

Kwara
The Kwara State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party,
PDP, has appealed to former Senator Gbemisola Saraki to shelve her rumoured bid to dump the PDP for another party.
This is contained in a press statement issued by the state Secretary, Barrister Hassan Razaq made available to journalists in Ilorin last Monday.
Senator Gbemisola Saraki, the only female gubernatorial aspirant who came third in the keenly contested primaries among other 13 male aspirants was alleged to have been ridiculed out of the party because of her growing political profile.
The last straw that broke the camel’s back was the fifty thousand naira allegedly made available for her to mobilise her teaming supporters to the last visit of President Goodluck Jonathan to Ilorin which she rejected and therefore stayed away from the event.

Lagos
Over 50 attacks were launched by vandals on the nation’s
crude oil and gas pipelines in the last six months, the Executive Director, Gas and Power, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Dr. David Ige, has said.
Ige, who stated this in Lagos, last week at the 12th Annual Aret Adams Foundation Memorial Lecture, said the government is undeterred by the challenges posed by the activities of the vandals in recent time.
He said the NNPC will continually be in the vanguard of an aggressive campaign to nip vandalism in the bud, with a view to realising the nation’s gas needs and potentials in the country. According to Ige, Nigeria has what it takes to use gas as an engine of economic growth but urged Nigerians to exercise patience for the potential of the sector to come to fruition.
He explained that government is aggressively driving the gas sector to boost local consumption through competitive pricing as well as export of the product outside the shores of the land. The Executive Director said the current growth pattern of the gas sector which has also witnessed a phenomenal reduction in gas flaring in the country, would also add significant value to the power sector.

Osun
The Nigerian Army has pledged not to intimidate or harass
genuine voters during the March 28 and April 11 general elections.
This assurance was given by the General Officer Commanding, GOC, 2 Division, Ibadan, Major-General Sanusi Muazu during a courtesy call on the governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola in Osogbo.
in a statement released yesterday by the media aide to the governor, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon quotes the GOC as saying that,  ”the military will not in any way intimidate or harass the electorate during the March and April elections.
Responding, the governor was quoted to have called on the military and other security agencies to guard against allowing themselves to be used to intimidate the electorate or to subvert the will of the people, advising soldiers and other security agents not to obey any instruction or order that will compromise their professionalism during the forth-coming general elections.

Ogun
The Ogun State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Chief
Timothy Ibitoye, has said that 555 Permanent Voter Cards belonging to dead persons have been discovered among the ones brought to the state for registered voters.
Ibitoye said this on Monday in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, while briefing journalists on the progress made so far by the commission in the distribution of PVCs in the state.
“We had gone to all the local government areas in the state. And we asked our officers to write out the names of those who were yet to collect their PVCs. We were able to get the number from this collation. The community leaders also assisted us in identifying those who have died since the last registration of voters when the lists were pasted,” the REC said.
Ibitoye, who said more people had collected their PVCs, noted that the correct number of registered voters in the state was 1,795,794, as opposed to the incorrect figure of 1,829,534.

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State (6th left); President, Governing Council of Institute of Directors, Mrs Eniola Fadayomi (5th left), Lagos State Deputy Governor, Mrs Adejoke Orelope-adefulire (2nd right), Lagos State Head of Service, Mrs Folashade Jaji (right) and others, during a courtesy visit by the Governing Council at Government House, Lagos, recently.