Today's Headlines: Intimidation Won’t Help Atiku In Tribunal-Kayode, Labour Party Will Win Imo – Obi

Intimidation won’t help Atiku in tribunal, says ex-Reps member

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A former Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Financial Crimes in the 8th National Assembly, Kayode Oladele, on Monday, faulted the comment of a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, Segun Sowunmi, about the party’s presidential candidate’s resolve to seek redress for his election loss.

Sowunmi, a former spokesperson for the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, in an interview, had said Atiku had many other options to pursue but chose to follow the rule of law by filing his petition before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.

Oladele, a human rights lawyer, in a statement issued in Abuja, described the comment as an “act of intimidation and cyberbullying.”

Oladele said that to an average person, the statement has damaged and disparaged Atiku’s reputation more than might have been intended by Sowunmi.

Labour Party Will Win Imo, Says Obi

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Presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the February 25 election, Peter Obi, has declared that his party would win the November 11, 2023 governorship election in Imo State.

He made the assertion in Owerri, the state capital at the flag off of the party’s campaigns for the poll. Obi said LP is known for “performance, excellence and credibility.”

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Citing Abia State which the party controls as a product of good governance, Obi said the people of the state now have hope and were witnessing good governance because a “first class brain” who knows what he is doing is now the governor of the state.

He described Senator Athan Achonu as the only governorship candidate of the party in Imo State and Julius Abure, as the only dully recognized and authentic national chairman of the party.

Obi urged the people of Imo State to come out en mass and vote Senator Achonu as the next governor of the state on November 11.

He highlighted that the process that produced Achonu as the party’s governorship candidate in the state was credible.

EFCC mum as Diezani faces bribery charge in UK

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British police said on Tuesday they had charged former Nigerian Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke with bribery offences, saying they suspected she had accepted bribes in return for awarding multi-million-pounds oil and gas contracts, Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, the spokesperson for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Wilson Uwujaren, did not respond to an inquiry by our correspondent, concerning whether or not the anti-graft agency would testify against Mrs Alison-Madueke in the United Kingdom.

Alison-Madueke, 63, was a key figure in the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, serving as petroleum minister from 2010 to 2015. She also served as president of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

“We suspect Diezani Alison-Madueke abused her power in Nigeria and accepted financial rewards for awarding multi-million-pound contracts.

Inadequate funds stall recruitment of 173 staff since 2022 — FRC boss

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The executive chairman of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC), Barr. Victor Muruako on Tuesday said that lack of funds has prevented the recruitment of 173 fresh staff into the agency since 2022.

Muruako made the disclosure when he appeared before the House of Representatives ad hoc committee on job racketeering and abuse of the IPPIS by ministries, departments and agencies of government.

He said the commission was given approval in 2022 to recruit 173 members of staff but due to lack of funds, the exercise has not been carried out.

On the seeming lopsidedness in the nominal roll of staff of the agency, the executive chairman promised that the lapses would be redressed when the next recruitment is conducted.

He explained that the last two recruitments carried out by the commission in 2010 and 2012 were done before he assumed duty as acting chairman, although was director at the time.

Earlier, the chairman of the ad hoc committee, Hon. Yusuf Adamu Gagdi (APC, Plateau) had queried the chairman over the lack of federal character in the nominal role of staff of the Commission.

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