President Muhammadu Buhari has said that if Boko Haram continues to use women for suicide bombings, he would be forced to ban the use of hijab by Muslim women in the country.
Buhari made the declaration in Abuja during his maiden Presidential Media Chat.
"Hijab would have to be banned if suicide bombing continues, " he said.
Following the outrage that greeted his alleged hate speech against the Yola Fulani tribe, the Secretary to the Government of Adamawa State, Dr Umar Bindir has tendered his apologies.
Bindir told newsmen in Yola on Wednesday that the audio of the supposed hate speech which has gone viral on YouTube was doctored to discredit him.
He said that the alleged audio speech was made during a courtesy call on him by the Adamawa State branch of Nigeria Society of Engineers where he attributed the lack of development in Yola to the pettiness of the various tribes citing his own Fulani tribe as an example.
“As a Fulani man from Yola, I decided to give example with our people.
“I am here to say that if the material posted on YouTube ended up annoying other people, demonizing other people and so on, I say I am sorry,” he said.
The People's Democratic Party, PDP has denounced the new prices of petrol announced by the Federal Government as a continuation of the ruling APC's government by deception.
A statement released by the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh on Wednesday said that apart from being deceptive, the new pump prices of N86 and N86.5 for NNPC retail outlets and private retail outlets respectively offer no significant difference from the previous price of N87.
“After heightened expectations occasioned by the promise to review the N87 per litre pump price of petrol made by the administration amid crippling scarcity of the product during the Christmas season, the announcement of this tokenism has come as a disappointing anti-climax, considering that only in January this year, the PDP Federal Government reduced the pump price from N97 to N87 per litre.
“That was done in the wake of the fall in the price of crude oil to between $42.65 and $50 per barrel. The PDP government then, in reaction to the development in the global oil market, revised its pricing template that brought down the pump price by N2.84 more than the N87 fixed as the pump price of petrol. The implication was that the Federal Government was still subsidising the N87 price by N2.84 per every litre of the product.
“The APC-controlled Federal Government, consequent upon stepping in the saddle on May 29, this year considered the market and decided through a supplementary appropriation to pay N413 billion as subsidy to petroleum marketers. In announcing the new pump prices, the APC Federal Government claimed that the subsidy element has been removed. The question is; how much were we paying for subsidy when the pump price was N87? Has this marginal reduction now knocked off completely the huge subsidy paid at N87 per litre or should it not have only further reduced the size of the subsidy?
“The APC government therefore must explain what it is trying to hide. The government could not have earmarked and/or paid a whopping N413billion in subsidy through its 2015 supplementary appropriation when petrol was selling at N87 per litre and now tells us that at N86 or N86.50 per litre, no subsidy will be paid. Is it trying to make the previous government look dubious or what? This government must explain its suspicious position on the subsidy issue. Nigerians can no longer put up with ambiguities and deception.
“Nigerians must question the sincerity of this government with regards to the removal of subsidy; Nigerians should ask President Buhari to tell them in clear terms, at what ceiling of crude oil price was subsidy no longer necessary: at N87 or this new price regime?
“For the records, we also wish to remind Nigerians of the insincerity of some members of the ruling APC on the fuel subsidy claim while in the opposition. For instance, when oil fell to $66 per barrel in December 2014, the current Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, who was the governor of Lagos State then, said: ‘Now we should be enjoying cheap fuel if the price of oil has dropped globally.
“Even as we import the product, a major component has reduced in price and while this has reduced, the pump price of fuel in the country still remains virtually the same. Then something is wrong. If the price increases in the country when the price of oil goes up globally, then it should also reduce when the price of oil drops.’
“Similarly, when oil fell to $44 per barrel in January 2015, the current Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, who was the spokesperson of the then opposition APC said;
‘When crude oil was selling at $100 per barrel, the landing cost of PMS without subsidy was N125 per litre. Now that the oil price has crashed to about $44 per barrel, landing cost without subsidy is about N65 per litre. The same goes for diesel which should not sell for more than 90 Naira per litre.’
“Lai Mohammed had said further, ‘Early this year, Zambia slashed the price of petrol by 23 per cent while Tanzania reduced the pump price of the product by 16%. In the U.S, which until recently was importing crude oil from Nigeria, the price of fuel has fallen for 113 consecutive days as of January 16. Therefore, the 10.3% price slash in Nigeria is too meager, too late.’
"Nigerians should now ask them what has changed in their calculations that they could not significantly reduce the pump price.
"As a party, the PDP insists that never again should Nigerians allow desperate men to use lies, propaganda and intimidations to win elections and get to power, only for them to fumble and muddle through governance."
The Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB has dismissed as false, the reported apology by the founder of Radio Biafra and leader of IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu to President Buhari and some other Nigerian leaders.
Leader of MASSOB, Mr Uchenna Madu said in a statement he issued on Wednesday that the story of Kanu's apology is totally false and a calculated attempt by agents of the Federal Government to discredit, disorganize and frustrate the agitation for actualization of the State of Biafra.
“The publication was totally false and should be ignored by the general public, no amount of intimidation, harassment, torture, killings, arrest and blackmail can make Kanu apologize for anything he said, nothing will ever make us to stop the agitation for the actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra,” he said.
The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, on its part described as blatant lies, the claim that its incarcerated leader and founder of Radio Biafra, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu has recanted and apologized to President Muhammadu Buhari, former President Goodluck Jonathan and Igbo elders for his alleged uncomplimentary remarks and statements about them.
The IPOB in a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Mr. Chidiebere Onwudiwe and Media and Publicity Officer, Comrade Emma Powerful, and titled Nnamdi Kanu Never Apologized For His Release , said it totally dismissed the publication as “the machination of the Directorate of State Security, DSS to save it's face having been disgraced by the court with granting of bail to Kanu.
“DSS is not sincere, if they have respect for the constitution of Nigeria, they would have released Kanu as directed by the courts, instead, they are looking for new charges which they will use to jail him, but they will fail again, and they have discovered that they will not make any progress in their quest to jail Kanu, they are now looking for soft landing to chicken out of the case with the claim that Kanu is apologizing, a claim that does not hold water,” the statement said.
Urging the press to be mindful of false information from the DSS, the IPOB went further to say that “Kanu is not disturbed in any way for his long incarceration, his spirit is very high and he will be received like a hero he is, any day they are tired of holding him and decide to release him.
"Kanu is in detention for us, we are here for him. DSS should stop embarrassing itself with the false information they are churning out to the public. If they are honest in what they are claiming about Kanu’s apology, they should publish the copy of the said apology as an advert in the newspapers let the world see. If they say they culled it from the statement he wrote in DSS detention, how then did it become an apology to people?” they asked.
Governor Jibrilla Bindow of Adamawa State has thrown more light on the N500 million allegedly given to him by ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar during the campaigns for the 2015 general elections.
It wasn't me
In a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Press and Media Affairs , Martins Dickson, on Tuesday, December 29, 2015, Bindow noted that Atiku did not give the money to him but to the APC in Adamawa state.
See the statement below.
“It is important to state that Bindow categorically stated that the state APC party secretary, Abdullahi Bakari, gave Atiku Abubakar the financial situation in the state after the former Vice President demanded to know if the state chapter of the party had any problems prosecuting the elections then since the party had very little or no financial sources of income.
“The Turaki Adamawa, being an indigene of the state considers the support as a duty he owes his party and the good people of the state to support the APC’s effort to ensure that they get the type of government which would be a marked departure from the past and give the people the good governance they yearn for, and deserve.
”For anyone to insinuate that the support was meant to buy over Governor Bindow’s loyalty is unthinkable and childish. Governor Bindow’s strength of character and moral upbringing is way beyond mortgaging the destiny of Adamawa state for any form of personal gain. The good works of the governor since assumption of office has clearly illustrated his good intent for the state and the change that has eluded the state for decades."
Radio Biafra Director and leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu has reportedly apologized to President Muhammadu Buhari, former President Goodluck Jonathan and some Igbo elders for uncomplimentary remarks he made about them.
Kanu reportedly tendered the apology in a statement he made to the Department of State Services, DSS on 23 October 2015, with a promise to write a formal letter to the President.
See Kanu's unreserved apology below.
“Reference to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as a terrorist, evil and a paedophile is regrettable and uncalled for and for that, I unreservedly apologise and will be doing so in a private letter to the President.
“Before PMB (President Muhammadu Buhari) there was the administration of Goodluck Jonathan. I also said uncomplimentary things about him and Igbo elders as well, which I now recognise should not have happened because it is un-African to be rude or insolent to elders.
“All I was trying to do is to draw attention to the problems afflicting society and something done about them.”
Kanu was however insistent on his demand for the actualization of the Republic of Biafra, pointing out that his secessionist agenda was informed by “incessant hardship, lack of holistic development in the socio-economic landscape of Nigeria, lack of youth employment, corruption in high offices and economic regression” among others.
The captain of Nasarawa United Football Club, Baba Idris passed away on Monday after a brief illness.
Club officials said that the central defender died of typhoid fever.
Idris who helped Nasarawa United finish third in the Nigerian Premier League last season will be sorely missed, especially as the club will be campaigning in the 2016 CAF Confederation Cup competition.
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