I WAS AMAECHI'S ENGINE ROOM - NYESOM WIKE.

Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has said that he is responsible for the emergence of his predecessor, Rotimi Amaechi, as governor. This is as he also described himself as the engine room of the former governor.

Wike said this on Saturday while speaking with journalists at the Government House, Port Harcourt, Rivers State

The governor explained that he was teaching those in Amaechi’s camp the way to play the game of politics, because “there is no polling booth in the state that I do not know or do not know anybody.”

PRESIDENT BUHARI SET TO MERGE EFCC & ICPC AS 42 MINISTRIES WILL BE REDUCED TO 19.

After three weeks of consultations with international and Nigeria’s political leaders, President Muhammadu Buhari appears set to effect major changes in the administration of the country in a bid to translate the ‘change’ mantra of his party into reality. To start with, the President  is said to have accepted the recommendation of the transition committee he raised a few weeks ago to slash the number of ministries from the present 42 to 19 with a view to saving cost and making them more effective and responsive to the needs of  Nigerians.

In the same vein, many of the ministries have been merged to ensure proper coordination of duties and ensure greater efficiency and service delivery.

NIGERIA'S NAKED LAWMAKERS.

In July 2010, renowned law Professor, Itse Sagay, raised an alarm that Nigerian lawmakers were the highest paid in the globe. Sagay found that a Nigerian Senator earns N240 million ($1.7 million) in salaries and allowances while his counterpart in the House of Representatives earns about N204 million ($1.45 million) per annum. Realizing that an American senator earns $174, 000 while a UK parliamentarian earns about $64, 000 per annum, Sagay condemned the Nigerian situation as “a breach of public trust”.

APC CRISIS - OBASANJO'S PEACE TALK CRASHES.

Efforts by the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki, to nip in the bud the crisis set off by the recent election of the principal officers of the National Assembly may have hit a brick wall.

The crisis of confidence which has pitted party leaders of the All Progressives Congress against the new principal officers of the National Assembly may take a turn for the worse this week.

Contrary to the belief in several quarters, President Muhammadu Buhari, who is widely believed to have accepted the election of the principal officers as a fait accompli, is said to be unhappy with the leadership of the National Assembly.

MEN & WOMEN FACING CRIMINAL CHARGES WHO WILL BE MAKING LAWS FOR NIGERIA.

Nigeria’s eighth National Assembly was inaugurated on Tuesday, June 9. At the chambers of the Senate and the House of Representatives, 109 Senators and 360 Representatives were sworn in to office for a four-year term.

Section 66(1a-i) the 1999 Constitution bars certain categories of Nigerians from being members of the National Assembly.

The Constitution says a person shall be unworthy to make laws for the country if he has been indicted for embezzlement or fraud by a judicial commission of inquiry or an administrative panel of inquiry or a tribunal set up under the Tribunals of Inquiry Act, Tribunals of Inquiry Law or any other law by the federal or state government which indictment has been accepted by the federal or state governments respectively.

READ HOW NIGERIA POLICE (@POLICENG) HELP PAEDOPHILES ESCAPE JUSTICE. Cc: @CHANNELSTV @UNICEF @MBUHARI

One cold afternoon, 11-year-old Bisi Adebola (not real name) was running errands for her mother in Ipaja area of Lagos, when a paedophile living just few metres away from their house, called the girl into his house and raped her.

Shy and afraid, Bisi told Saturday PUNCH, on the prompting of her mother, how the man, whom she referred to as ‘Alfa’, called her under the pretence that he wanted to send something to her mother.

The girl said, “He told me to follow him into his room and when I got inside and waited to collect what he said he wanted to give me, he locked the door and told me to sit down.

AISHA BUHARI RELOCATES TO ASO ROCK AHEAD OF PRESIDENT BUHARI.

The wife of the President, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, has relocated to the Presidential Villa, Abuja, barely three weeks after President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration was inaugurated.

Since they were inaugurated, Buhari and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo have been operating from outside the Presidential Villa.

This is despite the fact that both men have their official residences and offices inside the Villa.

19 YR OLD NARRATES HOW HER 3 CLOSEST MALE FRIENDS RAPED HER IN LAGOS. #SAYNOTORAPE.

In an act, which has shocked residents of a neighbourhood in Iju area of Lagos, three friends – Habeeb Adisa (25), Kehinde Aderinoye (25) and Ilyas Ogundimu (27) – have raped one of their female neighbours, a young woman,who is their close friend in the neighbourhood.

The victim, 19-year-old Adenike (not real name), a hair stylist, volunteered to speak with Saturday PUNCH, saying she summoned the courage to speak about her ordeal because she did not want them to go free and do the same to someone else.

Narrating how she was violated by the three men whom she trusted most in their neighbourhood, Adenike told our correspondent that not once did she suspect within the two years she knew them that they had such a heinous plan for her.

PRESIDENT BUHARI MUST NOT SIGN A BILL THAT OPPOSES RAPE BUT SUPPORTS CHILD MARRIAGE.

A closer look at the last laws the previous National Assembly passed in its final sitting reveals a trap – one of the most applauded laws, the stiff sentences against rape and sexual abuse, supports child marriages. It is a legal assault on our future. The National Assembly began its steep declivity to an indeterminate marriage age in 2013. After public protests against making the age of marriage vacuous, it stealthy made a law contrary to the Constitution.

Section 29 (4) (a) of the 1999 Constitution, states, “full age” means the age of eighteen years and above; (b) any woman who is married shall be deemed to be of full age.” How do we deal with a National Assembly that makes illegal laws? The Constitution is superior to our laws. According to Section 1 (3), “If any other law is inconsistent with the provisions of this Constitution, this Constitution shall prevail, and that other law shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be void.”

THE REFINERIES HAVE BEEN RESURRECTED.

Call it facing the realities of change that seemed impossible before now and you may not be wrong. Let us again remind the NNPC that refineries are national assets that should be guarded jealously. With potentials for up to 6000 investment opportunities when we refine a barrel of crude, our refineries are strategic for energy, technology, employment, skills, increased GDP and government revenue.

Alas! For over three months Nigerians in bewilderment groped and constituted themselves into search parties for fuel from any benevolent marketer, to purchase available drops of premium motor spirit (PMS), dual purpose kerosene (DPK) or automotive gas oil (AGO). It became a national emergency when banks, airlines and telecommunication operators threatened withdrawal of services.

#NASSGATE - APC DEMANDS PUBLIC APOLOGY FROM SARAKI (@BUKOLASARAKI) & DOGARA (@DOYAKUBU).

Although some chieftains of the All Progressives Congress, APC have initiated moves to reconcile the aggrieved camps and bring back peace in the party, its national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is not yielding to it until his conditions are met.

Vanguard exclusively gathered yesterday that Tinubu who felt greatly slighted by the elections of Senator Bukola Saraki and Rep. Yakubu Dogara as the senate president and the Speaker, House of Representatives respectively against the party’s official candidates, Senator Ahmed Lawan and Femi Gbajabimila had said of what can assuage his anger and that of the party.

GOVERNOR NYESOM WIKE SETS UP PANEL TO PROBE AMAECHI, SEEKS THE SUPPORT OF BUHARI.

Governor Nyesom Wike yesterday commenced probe of the administration of his predecessor, Chibuike Amaechi as he constituted a seven man Judicial Commission of Inquiry headed by Justice George Omereji to investigate alleged sale of some state assets as well as the projects for which funds were allegedly released but not executed.

The Judicial Commission of Inquiry which has 23 terms of reference has one month to turn in its report.

Wike’s action was coming against the backdrop of claims by Amaechi’s former Deputy, Tele Ikuru that the former administration under which he served was the most corrupt in the state.

WARRING FACTIONS IN SUDAN HAVE CARRIED OUT RAPE, CASTRATION & MURDER OF CHILDREN. #SAYNOTORAPE.

Warring forces in South Sudan have carried out horrific crimes against children, including castration, rape and tying them together before slitting their throats, the UN has said.

“Survivors report that boys have been castrated and left to bleed to death… girls as young as eight have been gang raped and murdered,” UN children’s agency chief Anthony Lake said in a statement released earlier this week.

“Children have been tied together before their attackers slit their throats… others have been thrown into burning buildings.”

EXCLUSIVE DETAILS OF WHAT SENATE PRESIDENT "BUKOLA SARAKI" TOLD "OBASANJO" AT CLOSED DOOR MEETING IN ABEOKUTA.

Facts have emerged showing why Senate President Bukola Saraki led a delegation of Senators to meet former President Olusegun Obasanjo at his hilltop mansion, Abeokuta, Ogun state on Friday.

A source close to the meeting said that the Senate President was in Abeokuta to beg Mr. Obasanjo to reconcile him with President Muhammadu Buhari and his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC.

Mr. Saraki emerged as the president of the Senate against the decision of APC leaders. He was also elected when most Senators from the APC were at the International Conference Centre waiting to hold a meeting with Mr. Buhari to discuss the election of the Senate president and Speaker of the House of Representatives.

THE PRIZE OF SECRECY.

I know that the Senate President, Bukola Saraki as the chairman of the National Assembly must be miffed reading the newspapers and the social media buzz about the amount that he and his colleagues will share as wardrobe allowance.

On Monday, it was a major headline in most of the newspapers that the National Assembly will share N8.64 billion as wardrobe allowance, but a new figure from the Chairman of Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Engr. Elias Mbam, may help douse the tension.

Yes, we now have a different figure of N506, 600 per legislator per annum that is 25 percent of the basic salary of the lawmakers. But why did it take the RMAFC chairman more days to speak after the issue had gained enough mileage on social media and in the national dailies? Also why did he have to visit Senator Saraki before giving the nation this new information? Certainly, there is something wrong with the system both at the National Assembly and at RMAFC.

PRESIDENT BUHARI ORDERS SALE OF NINE PREISDENTIAL AIRCRAFTS.

As part of the federal government’s cost measures, President Muhammadu Buhari has directed that nine of the VIP transport aircraft under the presidential fleet should be sold.

Industry sources informed that the presidential fleet, which are registered as Nigerian Air Force aircraft, is one of the largest in Africa and the third largest in Nigeria after Arik Air and Aerocontractors.

According to an aviation source, who is aware of the directive to sell the aircraft, the presidency has a number of serviceable and unserviceable aircraft that need to be disposed of in order to reduce the amount spent by the federal government for aircraft maintenance annually.

CHELSEA SET TO END ROMANCE WITH MIKEL OBI.

With Jose Mourinho’s renewed interest in bringing Zenit St-Petersburg midfielder, Axel Witsel, to Stamford Bridge Super Eagles midfielder, John Mikel Obi, is almost certain to be on his way out of Chelsea this summer.

The Nigerian international has been frozen out of the first team picture of Chelsea by Mourinho this past season and the situation does not appear good with the gaffer’s insistence on getting Witsel to fortify the midfield.

The 28-year-old Mikel made just six starting appearances in the Premier League as his team went on to clinch the title.

WIZKID, TIMAYA & OTHERS TO LOSE OUT AS MTN SIGNS COBHAMS.

In line with its commitment to enhancing the lives of Nigerian musicians by providing platforms through which they can get lucrative value for their intellectual properties, MTN Nigeria has concluded plans to boost the financial fortune of its brand ambassadors with several millions of naira in the next one year.

A statement issued by the telecommunications company noted that the General Manager, Consumer Marketing, MTN, Richard Iweanoge, made known on this Thursday while unveiling Cobhams Asuquo, as the latest addition to MTN’s list of brand ambassadors.

According to the statement, Asuquo will be joining Davido, Don Jazzy, Tiwa Savage, Dr. Sid, Sound Sultan, Iyanya, Chidinma, Banky W, KCee as well as Saka, Osuofia, Mama Gee and others who have all renewed their contracts with MTN.

SHARING OF PRINCIPAL OFFICES IN NASS THREATENS TO TEAR APC APART.

The sharing of principal offices in the Senate seems to be creating a fresh crisis in the ruling All Progressives Congress.

The principal offices are the Senate Leader; the Deputy Senate Leader; the Chief Whip and the Deputy Chief Whip.

While the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, is believed to have recommended to the APC National Working Committee that the positions be allocated to the zones, some leaders of the party, especially those from the South-West, want them filled by the party’s hierarchy.

LADY CLAIMS SHE WAS DUPED INSIDE THE BANKING HALL IN LAGOS.

The girl pictured above and identified as Ruqayyat said she was duped of N14,000 inside a banking hall in Lagos on Wednesday June 17th. According to her story, she said she went into a banking hall along Opebi road, Lagos to pay N14, 000 when she was approached by a man dressed in a suit pretending to be working at the bank.

She said the man asked her to give him the money she wanted to deposit and her filled deposit slip so he can facilitate the process quickly. She said the man also asked her if she had filled her bank verification number BVN form which ends this month. When she replied no, the man gave her a form to fill and then proceeded to help her pay her money at the teller point.