Author: straightnewsng.com

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has begun meeting with the 11 aspirants, who lost out during its just-concluded presidential primaries in Port Harcourt. The move to pacify and unify the aspirants is being coordinated by Seriake Dickson, Bayelsa State governor, who is the chairman of the party’s National Reconciliation Committee. In the first of such rapprochement, Dickson, in company of his Delta and Taraba counterparts, Ifeanyi Okowa and Dairus Ishaku, met with Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State, who came second in the presidential primaries and a former caretaker Committee Chairman, Dr. Ahmed Makarfi, in Abuja on Monday. At the…

The All Progressives Congress, APC, is gripped in fresh crises that if not properly resolved may affect the chances of the party in the 2019 general elections. One of the crises deepened Monday after Mr. Adebayo Shittu, the Minister of Communications, took the party to court over his elimination from the party’s governorship primaries in Oyo State. In another development, the party was also slammed with another court case arising from the decision to appoint Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu as the substantive National Publicity Secretary. In another dimension, the Comrade Adams Oshiomhole-led leadership was forced to intervene in the crisis in…

The Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), a faction of Boko Haram, has executed Hauwa Leman, an aid worker with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), TheCable has reported. The terrorists also vowed to keep Leah Sharibu, the Dapchi schoolgirl, as “a slave for life.” In a short clip seen by a special correspondent of TheCable, Leman was forced to kneel down, with her hands tied inside a white hijab which has a crest symbol, and then shot at close range. In September 2018, the insurgent group killed Safiru Ahmed one of the three humanitarian workers abducted in Rann, Kala…

Ahead of the February 16, 2019 senatorial elections, 42 of the 209 serving senators will not return to the chamber to resume for the 9th Senate to be inaugurated in June 2019. The 42 senators who will not return to the Senate form those who on their own, stepped down for others, while some were forcibly asked to step down, following political intrigues, backstabbing, manourvering, among others, that played out, especially with some state governors who have rounded off their two terms and coming to the Senate. Of the 42 serving senators already out, 19 voluntarily withdrew from…

Northern Christians, under the aegis of Hausa Christians Foundation, HACFO, has frowned on the continuous indiscriminate killings of Nigerians in Benue, Jos, Southern Kaduna, Zamfara State and other places by herdsmen. In a communique issued after its National Conference of the Hausa Christian Youths in Kaduna, the group also condemned the continued incarceration of lone teen Christian hostage, Leah Sharibu, urging President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure her release before the ultimatum given by her captors was over. A communiqué signed by Committee Secretary, Rahila Dauda, reads: “We urge the Federal Government to, as a matter of urgency, do…

Asian shares slipped on Monday as worries over Sino-U.S. trade disputes, a possible slowdown in the Chinese economy and higher U.S. borrowing costs tempered optimism, despite a rebound in global equities. Not helping the mood, oil prices jumped and Saudi Arabian shares tumbled on rising diplomatic tensions between Riyadh and the West. The situation arose after the monarchy warned against threats to punish it over disappearance of a journalist. Oil prices reversed their downtrend since early this month. Brent crude futures ros to 81.82 dollars per barrel, Investors were also bracing for a European Union summit meeting from Wednesday. MSCI’s…

The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC and the opposition People Democratic Party, PDP, over the weekend, allegedly fingered the arrow heads of insecurity in the state and bickered on purported plots by both to deploy same to win the 2019 general elections. PDP shot the first salvo when the party berated former governor of Akwa-Ibom, Senator Godswill Akpabio over his alleged plots with the APC governorship candidate, Obong Nsima Ekere, to trigger violent crisis in the state, as a strategy to stalemate elections in the state. The party described such plots as wicked, infantile and cowardly, saying it is unfortunate…

The International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC, has raised an alarm over the 24 hours deadline given by Boko Haram to eliminate another female staff held captive by the insurgents. Head of ICRC’s Operations in the Lake Chad Basin, Mamadou Sow, in a statement Sunday, made an appeal to the Federal Government, communities and individuals towards the release of two medical workers. Sow named the affected medical workers as Hauwa Mohammed and Alice Loksha. According to him, speed and urgency are critical as expiration of the deadline that could result in the killing of another health care worker in…

Ahead of the 2019 general elections, Senator Walid Jibrin, the Board of Trustees, BoT, chairman of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has advised Atiku Abubakar, te party’s Presidential candidate to include youths and women in his campaign team. Jibrin, who gave the advice in Abuja Sunday, also urged the former Vice President to include members of the BoT in his campaign council Explaining the role the board played in ensuring the survival of PDP, Jibrin said but for the advisory disposition of the BoT, the party would have contended with a lot of issues capable of threatening its peace. He said:…

The Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, has disowned its Secretary-General, Anthony Sani, over his scathing comments about former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, saying his views in the media interview criticising the former President do not represent those of the group. Sani had described former President Olusegun Obasanjo as “suffering from a dearth of vision, conviction and consistency required of a statesman.” But in a statement issued Sunday, spokesman of the umbrella body of northerners, Muhammed Ibrahim Biu, said the views expressed in the said media interviews were the personal opinion of its secretary-general. “It is not in the character of…