Nigerian Gazette

Deputy National Chairman (South) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Segun Oni and other leaders of the party in his camp may have been placed under close watch over their closeness to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who has formed a coalition to oust President Muhammadu Buhari. Source very close to the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi, quoted him as saying today that; “We know that Engr Segun Oni will follow Obasanjo to anywhere he goes and with Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola coming out openly today at the launching of Obasanjo's Coalition Movement as its coordinator, it is certain that Oni is no longer with us. But we will be watching him and his men.” Fayemi was said to have informed President Buhari about Oni’s strong affinity with Obasanjo when he visited him alongside former Governor of Ekiti State, Chief Niyi Adebayo a few weeks ago. “Oyinlola’s presence at the launch of the coalition movement in Abuja has confirmed all our w...

There was drama on Monday at the new wing of the Senate complex in Abuja after a National Assembly official physically assaulted the senate deputy minority whip, Abiodun Olujimi. The incident happened shortly before the commencement of a public hearing of the committee on petroleum (downstream). Trouble started when an official of the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN) rode in the same elevator with the lawmaker, PREMIUM TIMES learnt. Lifts in the assembly are installed in pairs, one reserved for lawmakers (Senators and House of Representatives members), and another for other users. The senator was on her way to the petroleum committee public hearing while the PASAN member, who was not immediately identified, was to attend a meeting of his association. The PASAN meeting was in preparation for a strike which the association is about to commence, PREMIUM TIMES learnt. A witness said when the lawmaker saw the PASAN staff in the elevator reserved for lawmakers, she demanded...

Ekiti state Deputy Governor, Professor Kolapo Olusola has said that after being elected into office, he would follow in the footsteps and be greater than the outgoing Governor, Dr. Ayodele Fayose. The Deputy Governor stated  this while addressing the mammoth crowd at the Osoko Mass Movement rally held in Ado Ekiti in support of his governorship ambition. According to him the Governor is his father and one to reckon with. "I will be greater than my father Osoko and I will do greater than him" "Our Governor is the first leader and he never asked for any support but came as a bulldozer clearing the way. So I am assured that i have a supporter and a counsellor". Professor Olusola further assured his teaming supporters that his watchword would be the continuity agenda of the good works of Governor Fayose while noting that there is a need to sustain the excellent legacies that has been laid down in several sectors in the state. Commenting on the speech, Governor Ayodele F...

Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, former senator and daughter of Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president of Nigeria, has urged the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to urgently focus on the contents of her father’s critical letter to Buhari asking him not to contest for election in 2019. According to Senator Obasanjo-Bello, she endorses the the content of her father’s open letter to President Buhari this time. x The academic based in the United State, also asked Buhari’s supporters not to use the once frosty relationship she had with her father to trend a letter written by her to her father in 2013. “I am surprised that agents of the current administration who should benefit from the advice and admonishment of one of the most brilliant leaders to ever emerge in modern Africa have resorted to a cheap tactic that further reiterates the message that they found abhorrent enough to start looking for unconnected issues to put together to make their point,” Dr. Obasanjo-Bello is quoted as saying...

The 10-man working committee constituted few days ago by the National Economic Council to end attacks by herdsmen has decided that every state should, by a rigorous consultative process with all stakeholders, design its own solutions. The committee, headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, comprises the governors of Zamfara, Kaduna, Adamawa, Benue, Taraba, Edo, Plateau, Ebonyi and Oyo States. A highly placed Presidency official privy to the activities of the committee, revealed to State House correspondents on Sunday that the committee had resolved that the Federal Government would not impose any solution on any states. The official disclosed that Osinbajo, at a recent meeting of the committee, assured that the Federal Government would certainly not impose its ideas on the states. The official, who craved anonymity, said the vice president noted that fears being expressed on the cattle colonies proposed to establish by the Federal Government were misplaced. He ...

Less than two weeks after releasing a white paper on the report of the Justice Silas Oyewole Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the Finances of Ekiti State during the administration of the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi as governor of Ekiti State, the State government has filed criminal charges of corruption against Fayemi and his Finance Commissioner, Mr Dapo Kolawole. The 19-count charge HAD/05c/2018, in which Fayemi and Kolawole were accused of stealing, abuse of office, criminal contempt, among others was filed before the State High Court, Ado Ekiti on Friday, January 26, 2018. Fayemi and his Finance Commissioner were accused of misappropriating the sum of N4.9 billion being the proceeds of Ekiti State Bond for the sum of N20 billion earmarked in the Bond Prospectus for various projects in the State that were either not done or partly done. While releasing the white paper on January 15, 2018, the government had directed that the state’s Ministry of...

Barring any last minute change of plans, Deputy National Chairman (South) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Segun Oni may be among those on their ways out of the APC to join the army of politicians being gathered by former President Olusegun to form a coalition and oust President Muhammadu Buhari. Oni, who is presently nursing the ambition of picking the APC ticket to contest the July 14, 2018 governorship election in Ekiti State, was among those who left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2014 on the instruction of Obasanjo. The APC Deputy National Chairman is said to have started reaching out to some aggrieved leaders of the PDP in Ekiti State with a view to getting them to buy the idea of having what is called “the third force.” “Segun Oni is Obasanjo’s person 100 per cent and whatever he is asked to do by the former President is what he will do. Oni has said several times that if Obasanjo wants him as his gateman, he will willingly accept. “Therefore,...