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Northern Youths Kick as Northwest APC Lawmakers Endorse Buhari

Published

8 years ago

July 9, 2018

Eric

The leadership of the Arewa Youth Forum on Monday said President Muhammadu Buhari does not deserve any endorsement for the 2019 presidency.

Reacting to a purported endorsement by some serving All Progressives Congress’s lawmakers from the Northwest in Kaduna, the AYF’s National President, Alhaji Gambo Gujungu, said Buhari was not fit to return as president in 2019.

The AYF argued that with the killing spree all over the country, especially in the North, Buhari should serve his mandatory four years term and quit the stage for another Northerner.

Gujungu noted that one sour point about President Buhari’s 2019 ambition was his claim that the killings across the country were being carried out by “desperate politicians”, yet he had not arrested even a single suspect.

The AYF president, therefore, said Nigerians should blame the president for the attacks on innocent citizens.

The AYF boss who spoke to our correspondent on phone on Monday, said the President’s claim that the killings under whatever guise was caused by desperate politicians, “shows that the president knows them(killers).”

He said:”Nigerians should hold the President Buhari responsible for the killings because he made it clear in one of his speeches that it was ‘desperate politicians’ that are responsible for the herdsmen killings.

“Being the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, the bulks stops on his table. It is important, therefore, for him to fish out the desperate politicians as a matter of urgency.

“Therefore, to allow the president to come in 2019 will spell doom, not only for the North but the entire country.

“This is not 2015 when we said North versus the South. This is not APC or PDP affairs.

“We have enough Presidential aspirants in the North that are capable and not Buhari again.

“Buhari should just honourably leave the stage in 2019 so that the North can regain its lost glory.”

On Sunday, the lawmakers from the Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Jigawa, Sokoto and Zamfara States at the inauguration of local coordinators for the ‘Northwest Young Parliamentarians in support of Buhari/Osinbajo 2019,’ had said that the President had done so well in the areas of security, infrastructure development and deserved to return and complete the good job he started.

The serving lawmakers and dignitaries who attended that event are, the Senate Committee Chairman on police Affairs, Abu Ibrahim (Katsina South constituency) Senator Jibril Barau (Kano North Constituency), Senator Adamu Aliero (Kebbi Central Constituency) and the Chief Whip of the House of Representatives, Alhassan Ado Doguwa, Samaila Sulaiman, a House of Representatives member from Kaduna, Garba Datti Mohammed from Kaduna’s Sabon Gari Federal Constituency.

Other lawmakers also present include Saidu Yusuf Miga of Jahum/Miga Federal Constituency in Jigawa, Hussaini Sulieman Kangiwa (Arewa/Dandi/Federal constituency, Sokoto), Ahmed Baba Kaita(Kankia/Ingawa/Kusada Federal Constituency, Katsina), Speaker of the Kaduna State House of Assembly, Aminu Shagali and Speaker of the Katsina State House of Assembly, Aliyu Sabiu Muduru.

Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, was represented by his Deputy, Barnabas Bala Yusuf; President Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on National Assembly Matters, Sumaila Kawu, Minister of Interior, Gen. Abdurrahman Danbazzau (retd) who was represented by his son, Shamsudeen Bello, and a former Governor of Zamfara State, Mahmud Shinkafi were also present.

The Punch

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Tinubu Nominates Oyedele As Minister of State for Finance, Moves Anite-Uzoka to Budget Ministry

Published

1 hour ago

March 3, 2026

Eric

A statement signed by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy Bayo Onanuga, has announced that “President Bola Tinubu has nominated Taiwo Oyedele as the minister of state for finance, replacing Doris Anite-Uzoka.

“Mrs Anite-Uzoka will now move to the Ministry of Budget and National Planning, as the Minister of State, her third portfolio in the administration.

“President Tinubu has today conveyed the nomination of Mr Oyedele to the Senate for confirmation in a letter to the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.

“Until President Tinubu nominated him as a minister, Mr Oyedele from Ikaram, Akoko, Ondo State, was the chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, which overhauled Nigeria’s tax system.

“Mr Oyedele, 50, is an economist, accountant and public policy expert.

“He attended Yaba College of Technology, where he obtained a Higher National Diploma (HND) in accountancy and finance. He attended Oxford Brookes University and earned a BSc in applied accounting.

“He also completed executive education programmes at the London School of Economics, Yale University, the Gordon Institute of Business Science, and the Harvard Kennedy School.

“Mr Oyedele spent 22 years of his working career at PwC, joining in 2001 and rising to become the Fiscal Policy Partner and Africa Tax Leader.

“Mr Oyedele is also a professor at Babcock University in Ogun State and a visiting scholar at the Lagos Business School.”

Featured

Defection: Atiku’s Son, Adamu, Resigns As Adamawa Commissioner

Published

6 hours ago

March 3, 2026

Eric

Adamu Abubakar, the first son of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, has resigned as Adamawa State’s commissioner for works and energy development, days after Governor Ahmadu Fintiri defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress.

Abubakar’s resignation letter, dated 2 March 2026, was addressed to the governor through the Secretary to the State Government. He gave no reason for his departure.

The timing is pointed. Fintiri announced his defection to the APC in a statewide broadcast last Friday, saying his cabinet and the PDP’s state structure had moved with him. Within 24 hours, 22 commissioners and special advisers publicly announced they were following suit. Abubakar, whose father remains one of the PDP’s most prominent national figures, was not among them.

In a statement issued Monday night, Abubakar’s media aide Abdulaziz Jauro said the former commissioner thanked the governor for the opportunity to serve and pledged continued loyalty to the administration’s developmental agenda. He also expressed gratitude to his father “for granting him the moral support and blessing to serve the people of Adamawa State” — a line that, read in context, suggests Atiku was consulted on the decision.

Abubakar said his resignation was not a withdrawal from public life. “This does not mark the end of his commitment to public service,” the statement read, “but rather the beginning of new avenues for developmental collaboration.”

The resignation leaves unresolved the question of whether it reflects a political break with the governor over his defection or a personal decision unconnected to the broader party realignment now reshaping Adamawa’s political landscape.

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DSS Nabs Man over Assassination Attempt on Peter Obi

Published

9 hours ago

March 3, 2026

Eric

Nigeria’s Department of State Services (DSS) has detained a man in connection with the recent attack and alleged assassination threats targeting Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi.

According to AIT, the shooting incident took place on February 24, 2026, in Benin City, Edo State, during a political gathering attended by Obi and several figures from the African Democratic Congress (ADC). The meeting was hosted by former APC National Chairman, John Oyegun. Gunmen reportedly opened fire at the venue, causing panic and forcing attendees to disperse for safety.

According to security sources, shortly after the attack, an individual identified as Udeme Monday Stephen allegedly took to social media claiming responsibility and issuing additional threats against Obi, warning of further violence.

Intelligence officials reportedly initiated swift investigations, employing digital tracing and forensic tools that led to the arrest of the 26-year-old suspect in Rivers State. He is said to be a teacher at a private secondary school in the Eliozu area of Obio-Akpor Local Government Area.

The suspect remains in DSS custody and is expected to face prosecution. The agency reiterated its commitment to responding to credible threats and safeguarding lives and national interests without bias.