Today's Headlines: Ministers-designate Begin Documentation Ahead Monday’s Swearing-in, Mark, Saraki, Anyim, Melaye, Kalu, Umahi, Others Attend Ekweremadu’s Son’s Wedding In Abuja.
Ministers-designate Begin Documentation Ahead Monday’s Swearing-in
Photo credit: Leadership
Ahead of Monday’s swearing-in ceremony of members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), 45 Ministers-designate have begun their documentation at the Office of Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF) in Abuja.
The exercise, which was ongoing Saturday afternoon, followed the assignment of portfolios to the ministerial appointees by President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday.
The Senate had penultimate Monday confirmed the appointment of 45 ministerial nominees out of a list of 48 names forwarded to it for confirmation by President Tinubu.
The Senate withheld confirmation of the appointment of three nominees, namely Nasir El-Rufai from Kaduna State, Stella Okotete from Delta State, and Abubakar Sani Danladi from Taraba State, over security concerns.
LEADERSHIP also reports that a statement from the OSGF late Wednesday evening had announced that President Tinubu will swear in the Ministers-designate at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Monday, August 21.
According to the statement signed by the Director of Information in the OSGF, Willie Bassey, on behalf of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, the swearing-in ceremony will hold from 10am on the said date.
Mark, Saraki, Anyim, Melaye, Kalu, Umahi, Others Attend Ekweremadu’s Son’s Wedding In Abuja.
Photo credit: Leadership
Top chieftains of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) including three former Senate Presidents – Anyim Pius Anyim, David Mark and Bukola Saraki – and PDP governorship candidate in Kogi State, Senator Dino Melaye, among others, stood in for a former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, and his wife Beatrice, as their son Lloyd got wedded to his heartrob, Tiffany, on Saturday.
The wedding, which took place at Basilica of Grace Anglican Church, Gudu District, Abuja, also attracted top chieftains of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) including Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu; Governor Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi State, and Minister-designate, Senator David Umahi, among other guests, who graced the occasion in solidarity with the Ekweremadus.
Recall that Senator Ekweremadu, who represented Enugu West senatorial district in the Senate for about two decades, is currently being held in a UK prison alongside his wife Beatrice after they were found guilty of organ trafficking and consequently sentenced to different jail terms in May, 2023.
LEADERSHIP reports that a UK Court had sentenced the former deputy Senate President and PDP chieftain to nine years and eight months in prison.
The court also sentenced Mrs Beatrice Ekweremadu to four years and six months in prison, while a doctor who allegedly colluded with them, Obinna Obeta, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Photo credit: Google
Abia guber: Statistician testifies in court, counters INEC result.
Photo credit: Daillypost
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Abia State has closed its case in the petition challenging the declaration of Mr Alex Otti as winner of the March 18, 2023, governorship election in the State.
At the continued hearing on Friday, August 18, 2023, Mr Samuel Oduntan, who identified himself as a statistician and digital examiner, appeared as a subpoenaed witness for the PDP.
He adopted the written report of his analysis as evidence in court.
Oduntan observed that although INEC allegedly refused to give him access to the relevant BVAS data used during the election, he relied on forms EC8E and EC8A to analyse the votes cast for both the PDP and the Labour Party.
Under cross examination, he told the court that Abia State has a total number of 4,062 polling units and 184 Registration Areas (Wards) in the 17 LGAs.
According to him, after considering and recalculating the valid votes cast in Obingwa LGA, PDP allegedly scored 169,707, while the Labour Party scored 169,519.
His claim was against the earlier results announced by INEC which put PDP’s score for the election at 88,529 and that of Labour Party at 175,467.
Subsidy removal: N5 billion palliative is renewed nonsense – Atiku’s aide, Bwala.
Photo credit: Daillypost
An aide to Atiku Abubakar, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Daniel Bwala, has described the President Bola Tinubu administration’s N5 billion palliative as renewed nonsense.
Bwala made the remark while noting that the organized labour demystified the N5billion palliative to State governments.
He noted that the calculation by the organized labour showed that each person would get N1,500 from the palliative.
Tweeting, Bwala wrote: “The organised labour has demystified the so-called 5 billion naira FGN gave to States; first the FGN said it was a palliative and they are now saying it is a loan.
“Organized labour further did their arithmetical calculations and arrived at a shameful conclusion that the so-called 5billion naira comes down to N1,500 per person.
“How much is the cost of food items in the market? Renewed nonsense.”
The Federal Government had announced plans to release N5 billion as palliative to cushion the effect of subsidy removal.
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