PDP LOSES NINE SENATORS TO APC.

The outcome of last month’s Peoples Democratic Party primary election across the country has further led to depletion in the membership strength of the party in the upper chamber. This week, additional nine members of the PDP have defected to the opposition parties.

The affected senators are Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi Central); Bassey Otu (Cross River South); Barnabas Gemade (Benue North East); Mohammed Magoro ( Kebbi South); Nurudeen Abatemi-Usman ( Kogi Central); Helen Esuene (Akwa Ibom); and Ita Enang (Akwa Ibom North East ). Others are Ahmed Zannah (Borno Central) and Saidu Alkali (Gombe North).

Enang told journalists in Abuja on Tuesday that he would campaign for the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan but would work for the electoral victory of all candidates of his new party, the All Progressives Congress in the forthcoming elections in Akwa Ibom State.

I FOUND NOTHING AFTER PROBING BUHARI'S PTF - OLUSEGUN OBASANJO.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Tuesday said his administration probed the accounts of the Petroleum Trust Fund headed by the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) and found nothing unpleasant.

Buhari headed the PTF, inaugurated in March 1995, under the regime of the late dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha. The PTF was established to manage the fund accruable from the increase in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, otherwise know as petrol, from N3.25 to N11.

The PTF was scrapped by Obasanjo on assumption of the Presidency in 1999. The ex-President also set up a committee to investigate the accounts of the PTF following allegations of N25bn fraud in the agency.

PRESIDENTIAL DECLARATION - MY TAKE AWAY BY BABATUNDE FASHOLA.

On Thursday 8th of January, 2015, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came to Lagos, warts and all, in furtherance of a presidential campaign flag-off. They had advertised this flag-off with a promise to show what they had done in Lagos. I anticipated this visit because I hoped it would provide an opportunity to discuss issues important to the people. When they left, they left nothing tangible behind except violence, attacks and robberies on citizens who had been trapped in the traffic they created. The All Progressives Congress (APC) National Convention had held in the same city of Lagos a few weeks ago without violence and robberies. But that is not my take away. My take away was the presidential speech.

"WHO PROVOKED OUR PRESIDENT" A MUST READ ARTICLE BY DELE MOMODU.

Fellow Nigerians, barely one month and some days to the start of our 2015 general elections, things are already falling apart. There was never a doubt in my mind that politicians would naturally heat up the polity to a boiling point before God rescues us as always from some wondrously amazing people. 

The two leading parties of PDP and APC would do our country a great favour if they can eschew violence and stick to the basic tenets of Democracy. Their foot-soldiers in particular must be warned specifically about the inherent danger associated with deliberately causing mayhem aimlessly in one’s own country.  Most times, it is the poor who would be used as political canon-fodder while the children of the rich would be far away from the theatre of war.

OBASANJO VS JONATHAN... THE UNENDING WAR.........

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has been criticising President Goodluck Jonathan over his administration of Nigeria for the umpteenth time. He had written letters and books on issues bordering on the wrongs of the incumbent President.

Obasanjo had also featured on various interview programmes on local and international broadcast media, where he unapologetically expressed his grievances with the current administration. The ex-President seizes opportunities to criticise Jonathan on different issues at different occasions. Observers of his stance on Jonathan’s administration have said he is becoming the President’s biggest critic.

The last of such occasions was when women leaders in the South-Western part of the country visited him at his Hilltop residence in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, last Monday.

10 YEAR OLD FEMALE SUICIDE BOMBER KILLS 20 IN MAIDUGURI MARKET.

Twenty persons, including a female suicide bomber were killed in a major market in Maiduguri, the capital of the troubled Borno State following an attack by the Boko Haram sect on Saturday

The female bomber was reportedly a 10-year-old girl. The incident also left 18 persons injured, the Police Public Relations officer of the Borno State Police Command, Gideon Jubrin, has confirmed.

He said the incident occurred at about 12:30pm at a section of the market.

Also, the spokesman of the National Emergency Management Authority, AbdulKadir Ibrahim, said workers from the agency were at the market to help those injured in the blast.

THE FALL OF JONATHAN'S MEN & ITS IMPERATIVES.

Ahead of next month’s general elections, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP conducted its primaries last year to field candidates for the election based on the guidelines and timetable provided by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

The PDP  primaries may have come and gone, but their memories will linger for a very a long time especially against the backdrop of the performance of Jonathan’s men who resigned to contest. Many of them, at the end of the day,  came out wounded, some humiliated, defeated while some won with the support of some powerful connection and influence.

One very interesting aspect of the primaries was the mass resignation of Ministers, Special Advisers and Special Assistants, those that could be described as the President’s men who left the cabinet to contest for the governorship position in their respective states. Following the tendering of letters of resignation, the Ministers decided to test their popularity in their various states, by contesting the governorship primaries on the platform of PDP.

THE CHARLIE HEBDO TERROR ATTACK THAT BROUGHT FRANCE TO ITS KNEES FOR 3 DAYS.

 Blood-curdling, al-Qaida-inspired murder that tore at the heart of the nation which raised him wasn't ghoulish enough for Cherif Kouachi. His body, felled by elite soldiers' bullets and stun grenades, wasn't yet cold when he also came back from the dead.

Kouachi had picked up the phone when a reporter for news channel BFM rang the printing plant, his and his elder brother Said's final redoubt, where an army of soldiers, police officers, and helicopters cornered them after a 40-plus-hour manhunt through villages and woodlands of northern France.

BFM waited until after the brothers and another member of their terror cell, who killed four hostages in a kosher grocery in Paris, were dead before broadcasting its haunting audio. Sounding determined and so chillingly sure of himself and his extremist Islamic rhetoric, Kouachi's fluent French put words to France's worst nightmare: its own sons, heads filled with jihadi dreams of murder and martyrdom, coming home from foreign battlefields to wage war.

FIVE ARTISTES WHO NEED TO RELEASE AN ALBUM IN 2015. @Patorankingfire, @IamDbanj, @Iruntown, @NaetoC, @WandeCoal.

2014 is gone with its disappointment and 2015 is fresh, full of hope. Here are five Nigerian artistes who need to release an album in 2015 to continue their rise, end long droughts or make up for dismal efforts in 2014.

D’Banj

Eja Nla ended 2014 and kicked off 2015 on very good note with an electrifying performance at the New Year’s Eve Lagos Countdown. The DB Records frontman failed to release in 2014 the album which he told PREMIUM TIMES would commemorate his 10th year on the Nigerian music scene.

Hopefully, he would get to celebrate his “10th year” in 2015.

‎

Wande Coal

The former Mo’Hits and Mavin Records man tops the list of artistes for whom a new album is overdue. His critically acclaimed debut, Mushin to Mo’Hits was released six years ago and since then a string of singles. ‎

After leaving Mavin Records in 2014, Coal launched his own Black Diamond label. Fans are hopeful that a sophomore album will follow.

‎

Naeto C

The WKG head spent 2014 releasing a few barely acknowledged singles. His last album was in 2011.

Naeto C, who failed to sign on any artiste on his label seems not to have any chemistry with current producer, E-Kelly.

Probably time to return to TY Mix who helped with hits like Kini Big Deal and just maybe the rapper turned singer’s fans would get an album in 2015.

RunTown

One of 2014’s revelation was Runtown. Known for his songwriting, he featured on some of the year’s top singles such as WizzyPro Emergency. He was also rumored to have penned Davido’s Aye.

With a talent like his, an album would further establish him on the Nigerian music scene.

Patoranking

The dancehall artiste won 2014 with the remix of Girlie O featuring Tiwa Savage, his features on Seyi Shay’s Murda and WizzyPro’s Emergency. He has other singles rocking the airwaves.

He crowned it all by winning the much coverted Next-Rated award at the 2014 Headies. If any one needs an album to continue his reign, it is defeinitely Patoranking.


PT

BOKO HARAM MASSACRES OVER 2000 KILLED IN BAGA, BORNO STATE.

The Amnesty International has described the January 3 attack on Baga community in Borno State as the deadliest in the history of Boko Haram’s over five-year reign of terror in the North-East of Nigeria, saying about 2,000 people may have been killed in the incident.

AI, in a statement on Friday, said it had reports of the town being razed to the ground, leaving around 2,000 people dead in the process.

A researcher for Amnesty International in Nigeria, Daniel Eyre, said, “The attack on Baga and surrounding towns looks as if it could be Boko Haram’s deadliest act in a catalogue of increasingly heinous attacks carried out by the group.

NIGERIA'S 2015 BUDGET IS DEAD ON ARRIVAL....

In spite of being caught in the maelstrom of plummeting oil revenues, the Federal Government has still not come to terms with the imperative of preparing a realistic national budget. Even by Nigeria’s dismal standards, the 2015 budget proposals laid before the National Assembly by the Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, is a sorry joke. So unrealistic is it that the key pillars of the budget were collapsing while the minister was still pontificating before the federal legislators. The Federal Government should be bold enough to admit that it has goofed yet again and withdraw the woolly document at once.

Just how low public service has sunk here is evident in the derailment of the key assumptions of the N4.46 trillion spending plan. Oil prices continued their headlong plunge by dipping to $51.6 per barrel on Wednesday, effectively upturning the budget that was rashly predicated on an assumed average oil price of $65 pb. With oil revenues providing 75 per cent of all public earnings and 90 per cent of the national budget, it is obvious that the plan is a non-starter.

POPULAR SAUDI ACTIVIST TO BE FLOGGED IN PUBLIC.

Prominent Saudi online activist Raif Badawi will be flogged for the first time in public on Friday following prayers in front of a mosque in Jeddah, according to Amnesty International.

Badawi was sentenced to 10 years in prison, 1,000 lashes and a fine of 1 million Saudi Arabian riyals (approximately $267,000) in May 2014 by a Saudi court accusing him of insulting Islam, said his wife and a source who followed the case closely.

A respected rights activist in Saudi Arabia, Badawi first got into legal trouble with the Saudi government after he started the Free Saudi Liberals website in 2008, which included a forum for users to discuss religion.

JACKIE CHAN'S SON SENTENCED TO 6 MONTHS IMPRISONMENT FOR DRUG OFFENCES.

JAYCEE (RIGHT) AND HIS FATHER JACKIE CHAN

The son of kung fu movie star Jackie Chan was convicted on a drug charge and sentenced to six months in prison in a Beijing court on Friday.

Jaycee Chan, who pleaded guilty to "hosting others to take drugs," was also fined 2,000 yuan ($320), announced the Dongcheng District People's Court.

Wearing a black sweatshirt and blue pants, the 32-year-old Chan -- who is an actor like his father -- bowed to the judge and prosecutor after the 90-minute trial.

I CAN DIE FOR NIGERIA - OBASANJO SPEAKS

A former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has said he can sacrifice his life in the interest of Nigeria. However, he said he would not do the same for any political party.

He said this on Thursday during a visit to his Hilltop residence in Abeokuta by the presidential candidate of the National Conscience Party, Dr. Martins Onovo.

He said since he left office his pre-occupation had been the promotion of the country’s interest, adding that it would be foolish for anyone to say Nigeria did not belong to anybody.

HOW JONATHAN KILLED HIS GOODLUCK.

With a tension soaked atmosphere, the Nigeria general election hits a countdown of days as various political parties and contenders continue to rally round for the sympathy and votes of the electorates.  Apart from the federating states with rainbow like contending parties, the presidential election which seems to have gained more international interest and attention is arguably between the All Progressive Congress (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

YAYA TOURE WINS THE CAF AFRICAN PLAYER OF THE YEAR FOR THE 4TH TIME AS OSHOALA EMERGES BEST FEMALE PLAYER.

YAYA TOURE WINS FOR THE 4TH TIME IN A ROW

Yaya Toure was on Thursday named the Glo/CAF African Footballer of the Year beating Nigeria’s Vincent Enyeama and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the process.

The Ivory Coast and Manchester City player became the first African to win the award in four straight years.

Nigerians who were full of expectations were compensated with the Woman Player of the Year award which went expectedly to Asisat Oshoala. She was the Highest Goal Scorer and Most Valuable Player at the 2014 FIFA U20 championship held in Canada. The Rivers Angels player was also the MVP of the African Women Championship in Namibia last year.

FLUSHING OUT BOKO HARAM THE CAMEROONIAN WAY..... NIGERIA MUST LEARN.

It is very obvious to the blind that something is indeed wrong within the Nigeria Security System due to its inability to flush out the dreaded Boko Haram sect, a direct opposite of events in Cameroon. Maybe our security chiefs need to go on sabbatical leave to understudy the Army in Cameroon. Here is an insightful piece culled from Punch regarding this subject.

FACES OF THE KILLERS WHO CARRIED OUT THE CHARLIE HABDO MASSACRE & DETAILS OF THE ATTACK

      

Seven people have been arrested over the Charlie Hebdo massacre as two 'armed and dangerous' brothers with links to terrorist groups going back at least a decade today remained on the run.

As the manhunt for Cherif and Said Kouachi continued, their alleged getaway driver Hamyd Mourad, 18, turned himself into police in Charleville-Mezieres in northern France.

All three French-Algerian Muslims escaped yesterday following the bloodbath at the offices of the notoriously anti-Islamist satirical magazine in Paris.

STATE SECURITY SERVICE (SSS) ACCUSES APC OF PLOTTING TO HACK INEC'S DATA BASE.

SSS SPOKESPERSON, MARYLYN OGAR

The State Security Services, SSS, said it had uncovered lists containing names and photographs of security personnel, foreigners and under-aged children on the registered members list of the All Progressive Congress, APC.

The spokesperson of SSS, Marilyn Ogar, disclosed this on Wednesday at a news conference in Abuja on Wednesday. Ms. Ogar also said that a video with tutorial for hacking was also uncovered when the service raided a building in Lagos. She displayed the lists and other items recovered from the building to newsmen.

She also alleged that SSS recovered forms completed by the APC without passport photographs, alongside books containing names of people with phone numbers and many envelopes containing passport photographs of people.

CHARLIE HABDO TERROR ATTACK IN FRANCE - 12 DEAD & 11 INJURED.

FRENCH ATTACK

A major manhunt was underway for suspected Al Qaeda militants who massacred 12 people at the offices of a notoriously anti-Islamist newspaper in Paris - including a police officer who was executed as he begged for mercy.

Masked attackers brandishing Kalashnikovs burst into the Charlie Hebdo headquarters, opening fire on staff after seeking out journalists by name in France's deadliest post-war terrorist.

Clad all in black with hoods and speaking flawless French, the militants forced one of the cartoonists - who was at the office with her young daughter - to open the door.