News
Leadership Crisis: APC Defunct, Not Eligible To Contest Elections, PDP Alleges
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has told all intending aspirants on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC) for various positions in the 2023 general election to note that APC was legally defunct, structurally crippled and no longer a legitimate and valid vehicle to field candidates for elections under the extant laws.
The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba stated this in a statement in Abuja, yesterday.
The PDP said that the alleged unilateral dismissal and replacement of Yobe State Governor, Mai Mala Buni with his Niger State counterpart, Abubakar Sani Bello by President Muhammadu Buhari as chairman of the nebulous contraption called the APC Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) has confirmed that the CECPC was an illegal creation that lacks statutory powers, authority and legitimacy of party leadership.
The party said that the president’s alleged action has confirmed that the APC was not a political party under the laws but a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) which became legally non-operational when in December 8, 2020, it dissolved its national, state as well as local government structures and handed its affairs over to a team of “political undertakers” known as the CECPC.
The PDP equally said that with the purported absence of a National Working Committee (NWC), National Executive Committee (NEC), a Board of Trustees (BoTs) or legitimate structures in the states, the APC was plagued by confusion and fierce infighting by its various warlords with two national chairmen, multiple factions in the states and a national secretariat now taken over by security agencies.
It maintained that the development has further validated PDP’s sustained alleged position that the APC was just a bunch of strange bedfellows and inchoate sailors clobbered together for remote personal gains and not for governance and public good.
The PDP posited that by virtue of Section 183 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) which bars a sitting governor from holding “any other executive office in any capacity whatsoever” while serving as a state governor, the APC’s CECPC whether headed by Buni or Bello remained constitutionally invalid.
“It is in the light of this that the PDP urges aspirants intending to contest in the 2023 general election under the APC as well as their supporters to read the hand writing on the wall and not waste their resources, time and energy in the APC.
“The PDP also advises Nigerians not to be distracted by the alleged turmoil in the APC but remain focused on the platform of the PDP as it continues to take appropriate steps and actions in its mission to Rescue and Rebuild the nation from the alleged misrule of the fizzling APC”, the statement added.
News
I’m Committed To Community Dev – Ajinwo
News
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
News
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.
-
Opinion4 days ago
Checking Herdsmen Rampage
-
Niger Delta4 days ago
HYPREP Trains Lab Technicians To Standardise Water Quality In Ogoniland
-
Sports4 days ago
Coach Eager To Transform El Kanemi Warriors
-
News4 days ago
Tinubu, Govs Forum Congratulate Okpebholo On S’Court Victory …As Obaseki Expresses Disappointment
-
Rivers4 days ago
NDDC: Staff Walk Ten Kilometers To Commemorate 25th Anniversary
-
Rivers4 days ago
VALVA Restates Commitment Education Advancement, Literacy In Nigeria
-
Politics4 days ago
Obey Order On AA In Six Days, Court Directs INEC, Yakubu
-
Niger Delta4 days ago
Cancer Risk: HYPREP, IARC Launch Human Biometric Study in Ogoniland