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Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo has insisted that the country’s current president Muhammadu Buhari must be voted out when the West African nation goes to poll in 2019. Obasanjo, who supported Buhari in 2015 against Goodluck Jonathan, said in a statement on Sunday that his former ally had done almost nothing to reposition the country. Buhari rode into power in 2015 on the wings of populist promises of remodelling the economy, fighting biting insecurity, especially in northeast Nigeria and rein in the reign of corruption that has blighted the country for decades. But critics like the former president said Buhari’s government has performed way below expectations. In January, the former president accused Buhari of being nepotistic and said the president was lacking in the requisite capacity to make Nigeria better. Obasanjo acknowledged his complicity in making a man who he said “is weak in the knowledge and understanding of the economy” the president. He said he thought that B...

The first European travelers to reach Benin were Portuguese explorers in about 1485. A strong mercantile relationship developed, with the Edo trading tropical products such as ivory, peppers and palm oil with the Portuguese for European goods such as manila and guns. In the early 16th century, the Oba sent an ambassador to Lisbon, and the king of Portugal sent Christian missionaries to Benin City. Some residents of Benin City could still speak a pidgin Portuguese in the late 19th century. The first English expedition to Benin was in 1553, and significant trading developed between England and Benin based on the export of ivory, palm oil and pepper. Visitors in the 16th and 17th centuries brought back to Europe tales of "the Great Benin", a fabulous city of noble buildings, ruled over by a powerful king. However, the Oba began to suspect Britain of larger colony designs and ceased communications with the British until the British Expedition in 1896-97 which resulted in a weakne...

PDP chairman, Uche Secondus and APC chairman Adams Oshiomhole ABUJA – THE Presidency on Monday said that the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was behaving like a militant group instead of following the democratic tenets in its activities on national issues. This is as the Presidency has also said that the victory recorded by the All Progressives Congress, APC, at the National Assembly bye elections in Katsina, Bauchi and Kogi States at the weekend was an indication of President Muhammadu Buhari’s acceptance by Nigerians and what will be expected in the 2019 elections. Briefing State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa Abuja, the Senior Special Assistant Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity Malam Garba Shehu, flanked by his colleague in the office of the Vice President, Laolu Akande said that each of the bye elections was considered to be epic in nature. The Presidential spokesman said that the allegation of bribery for votes and vote-buying was a s...

Uche Secondus ABUJA- Ahead of the 2019 Presidential elections, there are indications that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has concluded plans to cut down the number of its Presidential aspirants before the primary election. The plan, our correspondent gathered, is aimed at preventing unnecessary dissipation of energy by supporters and members of the PDP as well as nipping in the bud, possible fragmentations within the ranks of the party. Although the leadership of the party has continuously reiterated its commitment to fairness and justice, the current move is being orchestrated with the active cooperation of some of the aspirants. A highly-placed party source told this medium in confidence that those that have been told to drop their ambitions would be “compensated in one way or the other,” adding that what is of utmost importance is victory at the polls for the party. “The number of Presidential aspirants keep increasing by the day and this is a bit ...

Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has dismissed the corruption charges against a former governor of Enugu State, Chimaroke Nnamani. The ruling delivered by the judge, Chuka Obiozor struck out the charges against the former governor for lack of “proper charges” before it. Former Gov. Chimaroke Nnamani The judge gave the ruling after saying that the affidavit filed by Mr. Nnamani showed that the court had entered judgement in the same suit on July 5, 2015, by another judge, Mohammed Yunusa. Rickey Tarfa, counsel to Mr. Nnamani, had informed the court that the defendant filed a motion disclosing the facts that this case has been put to rest by Mr. Yunusa in his judgement suit no FHc/L/09c/07. According to Mr. Tarfa, a senior advocate of Nigeria, parties in the suit had entered a plea bargain before Mr. Yunusa and there is no valid pending charges before the Judge, Obiozor , as the court cannot sit on appeal for the case of another judge of concurrent jurisdiction. However, the EF...

Trump and Oprah U.S. President Donald Trump blasted media mogul Oprah Winfrey on Twitter on Sunday night over a segment on CBS’s 60 Minutes program. Trump also expressed hope that she (Winfrey) would face him as an opponent in the 2020 presidential race Actress and television host Winfrey, now a contributor to the CBS program, led a panel of 14 Republican, Democrat and Independent voters from Grand Rapids, Michigan in a wide ranging discussion about Trump’s first year in office. Trump tweeted: “Just watched a very insecure Oprah Winfrey, who at one point I knew very well, interview a panel of people on 60 Minutes. “The questions were biased and slanted, the facts incorrect. “Hope Oprah runs so she can be exposed and defeated just like all of the others!” Winfrey has told various media outlets, including Entertainment Weekly that she is not running for president, but has considered it, after there was much recent media speculation. The panelists ranged from voters who said “I love h...

Abdullahi Darma and daughter, Aisha Mr. Abdullahi Darma, Governor Aminu Masari’s Special Assistant on Religious Affairs, is reported to have accidentally crushed his daughter, Aisha, with his car. Punch reported that the incident occurred at Darma’s Katsina house while he was reversing the vehicle. The governor’s aide did not know that the toddler was behind the car. “The car ran over the girl and she died on the spot,” punch said. Darma also posted news of the tragic incident on Facebook, which elicited an outpouring of condolences from sympathisers and associates, many of who also besieged his residence to commiserate with him. “A few minutes ago, I got tested by God. I was reversing my car when I crushed my daughter mistakenly and she died,” he said in Hausa in the Facebook post. Darma was brief in his response on Sunday when our correspondent sought to know how the accident occurred. He described it as “an act of God.” The story is already agog in social media, especially twitt...

As the Nigerian Peace Corps battles the Nigeria Police to vacate its national secretariat, the legality of the organisation might have run into trouble as the President has not assented to its establishment bill, which was transmitted to him last year. Saturday Vanguard learnt from competent sources that President Muhammadu Buhari, apparently bowing to security advice, has not appended his signature to the NPC Establishment Bill, which was officially sent to him by the Clerk of the National Assembly, Mr. Sani Omolori, in the last week of December 2017. Findings by Saturday Vanguard indicate that the 30-day window under, which the president should sign a bill duly transmitted to him elapsed on January 31, 2018, leaving the National Assembly with the only option of mobilising two thirds of its members to veto the president’s rejection of the bill. By implication, the Presidency has thrown out the NPC bill and the piece of legislation okayed by the two chambers of the NASS can therefor...

There was drama at Lagos police command headquarters Ikeja on Friday when an alleged serial killer, Adeola Williams, a.k.a Ade Lawyer claimed responsibility for about 12 unresolved assassinations in the state while accusing a former Chairman of the Lagos Island branch of the National Union Of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Alhaji Rafiu Akanni Olohunwa of hiring him to kill a former Idumota branch Chairman of the union, Azeez Adekunle Lawal, a.k.a ‘Kunle Poly’ last month. Though the embattled NURTW boss denied the allegation, but his serial killer accomplice told him point blank “You sent me to kill him”. Olohunwa who was paraded alongside ‘Ade lawyer’ by Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Imohinmi Edgal, denied knowledge of paying his accuser N1.5 million to assassinate anyone. Confessing his sins, ‘Ade lawyer’ confirmed he killed one Ganiyu Ayinla, a Personal Assistant to ‘Kunle Poly’ at No 1 John Street, Idumota, Lagos, while on an assignment to kill the deceased’s boss. “ I a...

How time flies. In the build up to the 2015 elections, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, a leading northern politician, was one of those who campaigned vigorously for the election of Muhammadu Buhari as Nigeria’s president. Strangely, barely three years into Buhari’s presidency, Junaid is now leading the pack to stop Buhari from going for a second term, accusing him of promoting corruption and nepotism. Mohammed: Buhari has failed and should not be voted again In an interview with Saturday Vanguard, he said Buhari should go home and rest instead of thinking of a second term, having failed Nigerians woefully during his first term which is yet to end Excerpts: You must have lifted for joy when both former presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Ibrahim Babangida wrote statements on why President Buhari should not be considered for a second term To be honest, none of the two letters came to me as a surprise. They merely reinforced what I have been saying in the last two or three years ago. I have been sho...

The family of Sunday Ibe and the community of Amakohia – Urrata were thrown into mourning, on Wednesday morning, when the man mistakenly crushed his daughter and only child to death while trying to reverse his car. Daily Sun learnt that Mr. Sunday Ibe, a businessman who hails from Umuezeogu, Eziani Ihiala in Ihiala council of Anambra State, was not aware that his only child and daughter, Nkechi, a two-year-old, was at the back of his Camry car. According to the eyewitness, Ibe had handed over his daughter to the house-help to take her into his apartment not knowing that the maid had allowed the little girl to stray out of the house and had crept at the back of the car and as result was crushed to death while reversing his car. He said, “The man did not know that the girl was at the back of the motor. It was with speed that he moved the motor backwards only for people around to raise alarm that he had killed the little baby”. The eyewitness, who did not want his name mentioned, s...

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, said on Wednesday that Nigeria is practicing a bastardized federal system of government that is tilted more toward a unitary system. He said if the country must practice federalism, it has to be a true federalism. Oyegun, who spoke at a public presentation of APC committee report on true federalism, said true federalism entails devolution of power to the federating units, while states are allowed to determine the nature of local government they want. The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Bolaji Abdullahi, said the party spent about N150 million to fund the activities of the committee on True federalism. He, however, added that the money came from the party coffers and not from the government. The APC Chairman said that past national conferences were flamboyantly organised and ended up without any positive contribution to the debate on true federalism. He said the APC has gone beyond such ...

One student was confirmed killed on Wednesday when fire gutted a student hostel at Sultan Tambari Secondary School, Illela, Sokoto State, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports. Sources from the school indicated that the deceased, 17-year-old Isma’ila Garba, was among the 200 students in the hostel when the fire started. “The deceased actually escaped unhurt when the fire started, but went back to retrieve some belongings and could not return,” Malam Nura Bello, information officer of the Sokoto education ministry, told NAN. He described the incident as “very shocking”, adding that Garba, who hailed from Ambarura village in Illela Local Government Area, had been buried at Kilgori. Bello said that students who sustained injuries had been taken to the hospital. A NAN correspondent, who visited the school, reports that the entire structure was razed down by the fire which lasted for “several hours”. Bello, however, told NAN that the cause of the fire had not been ascertained. “The c...

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has dismissed the report of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on restructuring, describing it as a ruse and fresh attempt to beguile Nigerians with another round of lies, empty proposals and hollow promises ahead of the 2019 elections. Saying that it is a recast of APC’s deceptive stunts in the run up to the 2015 general elections, the PDP also said the report is another calculated ploy by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government to divert public attention from the woes of a worsening economy, unrelenting killings, corruption and the endless litany of afflictions occasioned by ruling party’s dysfunctional governance. In a statement issued on Wednesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party said it amounted to outright depravity that the same APC leaders who at assumption of office, rejected restructuring would now suddenly turn around to pose as fathers of a restructured Nigeria simply because the 2019 general elec...

A new political group, Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM), was on Wednesday unveiled in Abuja. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the move may not be unconnected to the call by former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s charge on the need for a Coalition for Nigeria. The Acting Chairman of CNM, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, who spoke at the unveiling, described the coalition as a movement to salvage Nigeria. Oyinlola, a former governor of Osun State, said that CNM remains a movement and not a political party unless members agree to transform it into a party. He said that the movement came into being in response to Obasanjo’s call for the emergence of a Coalition to help rescue the country from bad administration. Oyinlola was also the former Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), before defecting to the All Progressives Congress (APC). He said that the movement would provide equal platform for all Nigerians, especially women and youths. The former governor added that ...

Niger chapter of Buhari Campaign Organisation on Wednesday said it had concluded arrangements to organise a one-million-man march for President Mohammadu Buhari in Minna. Alhaji Ubale Kagara, Coordinator, North Central Zone of the organisation, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Minna. He said that the organisation would continue to promote the lofty ideas of President Buhari before Nigerians. He explained that the rally would show support for the re-election of President Buhari in 2019. He said that the president had done credibly well in repositioning the country for socio-economic growth. He acknowledged Buhari’s achievements in the areas of security, good governance and the fight against corruption. According to him, Nigerians should vote for continuity, to consolidate on ongoing changes in the country and set the nation on the path of progress. He said already, the organization had embarked on mass mobilisation residents in the state, to par...

The much anticipated series 'the walking dead' will resume broadcast on the 25th of February 2018 with season 8 episode 9, it promises to be much fun than ever before, a lot of suspense awaits it's never wavering viewers, so keep your fingers crossed as AMC, FOX, AMC   Networks, presents ''THE WALKING DEAD'' if you like this post please share

NIGERIA has produced some of the best fashion designers and Lagos is a great place to find them all in one city. We all know that Lagos is the city to look towards for emerging fashion talent, as it is where clothing is made experiment with. Today’s fashion has been an unavoidable part of our life as clothing is a basic need in man’s life. And the fact remains that the story of fast-growing fashion industry is not complete without the contributions of highly creative and talented fashion designers whose works are earning the respect and admiration of fashion stakeholders at home and abroad. Here are some fashion designers who will set the pace in 2018. Mai Atafo Inspired (MAI) His work ranges from pretty red carpet glamour to trendy statement casual pieces. Mai Atafo established and runs his clothing line Mai Atafo Inspired (MAI) as he worked in a full time job. Mai Atafo Inspired (MAI) specialises in glamorous red carpet dresses for women and suits for men. His designs are ...

A retired military officer identified as Major Afisatu Ajuya has been killed and her body set ablaze alongside her apartment. The crime was on committed on Sunday by a security guard she employed. It was gathered that the security guard whose identity was yet to be ascertained as at press invited eight other persons to join him to commit the crime. Witnesses said the suspects also made away with some of their victim’s belongings. They said the gang broke into the apartment of the retired Army Officer in the early hours of Sunday, strangled and set her ablaze before making away with items like electric fan, luggage jewelries and phones. As at press time, the suspects have been transferred to the State Police headquarters and some of the items recovered from them. Confirming the story, State Police Commissioner, Babatunde Kokumo, said it was a case robbery, arson and murder. Kokumo said the suspects killed their victim and set fire on the place to make it look like the victim died...

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Ebonyi state chapter has rejected the call for a coalition oof opposition parties for Nigeria by former President Olusajun Obasanjo to oust the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC. The chairman of the party in the state, Barr. Onyekachi Nwebonyi who stated this in an interview with Reporters in Abakaliki, said PDP is the only alternative for Nigeria in 2019. Nwebonyi lamented that Nigerians have suffered so much under the present administration led by President Muhammadu Buhari and called on him (Buhari) to adhere to the advise of Obasanjo and step aside for Nigeria to move forward. “I ally myself 90 percent with the position of the former president Chief Olusajun Obasanjo, wherein he advised President Buhari not to contest in 2019 because it is obvious that Buhari has done his best and when one has done his best, you don’t need to continue”. “It is clear that there is hunger in the land, there is insecurity and discrimination among others. I want...