HOW I ESCAPED ABDUCTION ON INAUGURATION DAY - BUKOLA SARAKI (@BUKOLASARAKI)

17 days after his election, Senator Bukola Saraki, yesterday, opened up on the controversial poll, saying those in opposition to him planned to abduct him to prevent him from emerging as Senate President.

Saraki disclosed that, on Tuesday, June 9, Senate inauguration day, following information he got of the abduction plot to keep him off the National Assembly, he altered his schedule by arriving the parliament car park at 6am, stayed in his car and then trekked at quarter to 10am into the chamber.

He dismissed the insinuation that for him to win, he entered into a pact with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for Senator Ike Ekweremadu to be produced as his deputy, just as he stressed that the absence of All Progressives Congress, APC, senators in the chamber paved the way for the emergence of Ekweremadu.

BUHARI HAS STARTED TRACING LOOTED FUNDS TO UK, SWITZERLAND & OTHER FOREIGN NATIONS.

The Federal Government has started tracing looted Nigerian funds to foreign nations with the aim of recovering and repatriating them.

The Federal Government specifically targets the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland and other European jurisdictions where it believes corrupt officials have been stashing public funds.

This move came on the heels of the declaration by President Muhammadu Buhari on his first day in Aso Villa office that he inherited an almost empty treasury from his predecessor, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, thus vowing that his administration would recover all the looted funds stashed in foreign banks by corrupt Nigerians.

DEAR APC, MY HANDS ARE TIED - BUKOLA SARAKI WRITES.

The Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, in a letter written to the All Progressives Congress, said his hands were tied with regard to the selection of principal officers of the upper chamber. This was contained in a Friday report on www.thecable.ng.

The National Chairman of APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, had on June 23, written to Saraki, stating the party’s choice of principal officers of the senate.

The APC had nominated Ahmad Lawan as senate majority leader, George Akume as deputy majority leader, Olusola Adeyeye as chief whip, and Abu Ibrahim as deputy chief whip. However, Saraki, on Thursday, announced Ali Ndume as majority leader, Bala Na’Allah as deputy majority leader and Francis Alimikhena as deputy chief whip after the various APC senate caucuses nominated them.

LIST OF NNPC BOARD MEMBERS SACKED BY PRESIDENT BUHARI.

President Muhammadu Buhari has dissolved the board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

In a statement signed by Haruna Imrana, Director of Communications for the Head of Service of the Federation, President Buhari said that the dissolving of the board is with immediate effect.

According to the statement, the directive to that effect was conveyed in a letter signed on Friday, June 26, 2015 by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Barr.Danladi Kifasi.

ALLOWANCES OF SENATORS IS NINE TIMES HIGHER THAN BASIC PAY.

Nigerians have expressed surprise that each senator receives N506,600 per annum as wardrobe allowance may be in for a shocker as the lawmakers receive far more allowances under different other categories.

Investigation by our correspondent on Monday showed that senators’ allowances totalled N18,642,880 on annual basis.

In all, the allowance each senator receives is nine times more than his annual salary.

COURT FREES FORMER BANK PHB BOSS ACCUSED OF N25BN FRAUD BY EFCC.

The former Managing Director of Bank PHB, Francis Atuche, who faced allegations of stealing N25.7 billion, was freed Monday after a judge ruled that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission failed to prove that capital market-based matters fall under the jurisdiction of state high courts.

Justice Lateef Lawal-Akapo held that the prosecution, the EFCC, did not produce any argument as to how 17 of the 27 count charge are connected to shares and stocks.

The judge noted that the other 10 counts were charges relating to stealing and, as such, fall under the jurisdiction of state high courts.

#NASSGATE - RIFT BETWEEN THE CAMP OF SARAKI AND LAWAN DEEPENS.

The crisis within the ruling All Progressives Congress took a new turn on Sunday with the Senator Ahmad Lawan group in the Senate accusing the Bukola Saraki group of plotting to make President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration fail.

“The election of a Peoples Democratic Party senator as deputy senate president is evidently a grand conspiracy to sabotage the Buhari government,” spokesperson for the pro – Lawan group, Senator Kabiru Marafa, said in an interview with one of our correspondents in Abuja.

Marafa argued that the inauguration of the 8th Senate and subsequent election of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, with 57 senators in attendance was an indication that the perpetrators of the act actively involved the management of the federal parliament.

MY STEP-FATHER STARTED RAPING ME WHEN I WAS JUST 11 YRS OLD - MAHEEDA. - #SAYNOTORAPE.

Controversial musician "Maheeda" refused to celebrate her dad on father's day because he abandoned her when she was just 5 months old and her step-father started raping her when she was just 11 ys old.

See her tweet & Instagram post after the cut........

I REMAIN LOYAL TO @MBUHARI - SAYS FORMER VP @ATIKU.

A former Vice President and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Atiku Abubakar, has said that it is dangerous for any individual or group within the APC to constitute themselves into an opposition even before the constitution of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government.

He also expressed his loyalty to President Buhari.

The former Vice President made the call against the backdrop of development in the polity, which he noted were interplay of forces and dynamic interests that should not be promoted to the point of being a threat to democracy and the new administration.

GOVERNOR AMBODE DECLARES 2ND LEKKI EXPRESSWAY TOLL FREE.

The Governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode, has assured residents that tolls will not be collected at the second toll point on the Lekki- Epe Expressway.

Ambode made the remark at an interactive session with journalists at the Banquet Hall of the Lagos House, Ikeja, a statement said on Sunday.

The governor, in the statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Habib Aruna, said his concern was ensuring the completion of the road.

PRESIDENT BUHARI SET TO REMOVE FUEL SUBSIDY.

President Muhammadu Buhari plans to totally remove fuel subsidy and use the proceeds for the provision of free and compulsory primary/secondary education across the country.

The administration is also said to be working on unbundling the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, to make it more efficient in the production and delivery of products to Nigerians.

These proposals form part of the strong recommendations made by the transition committee raised by Buhari to work out a blueprint for his administration.

PROBE OF MY ADMINISTRATION IS FRAUDULENT & A WITCH HUNT - ROTIMI AMAECHI.

Former Governor of Rivers State, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, has described the probe of his administration by Governor Nyesom Wike as fraudulent and a witch hunt, stressing that he would explore every legal means to defend himself. Amaechi, in a statement by his media office, said the probe was dead on arrival, adding that the achievements of his government were on ground to speak for him.

The statement said: “Amaechi will use every constitutional and legal means available to protect his name and image from this smear campaign against him by this directionless, purposeless Wike-led government. As governor, Amaechi served his people well and the good things he did with the resources of the state are visible all over the state.

PRESIDENT BUHARI FINALLY MOVES INTO ASO ROCK.

After weeks of suspense with respect to when he would eventually move out of Defence House after his inauguration about three weeks ago, President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday eventually moved into his official residence in Aso Rock, Abuja.

Buhari, who returned back to Abuja from Katsina State where he had gone to inspect his farm on Saturday, started moving his belongings to the presidential villa on Sunday evening.

JONATHAN'S LAST MINUTE APPOINTMENTS TEARS CIVIL SERVICE APART.

The crisis in the federal civil service appeared to have worsened with career civil servants protesting against the absorption of 530 aides and cronies of former President Goodluck Jonathan into the civil service in the last days of the past administration.

The new recruits into the service were also said to have been installed in high positions, from assistant directors upward.

Already, six deputy directors in the federal civil service are in court to protest against the manner the last promotion examination to directors’ level was handled by the Federal Civil Service Commission.

WE FOUND CORRUPTION EVERYWHERE IN JONATHAN'S GOVERNMENT - AHMED JODA (HEAD OF BUHARI'S TRANSITION COMMITTEE).

Malam Ahmed Joda chaired President Muhammadu Buhari’s Transition Committee, which interfaced with former President Goodluck Jonathan’s team. In an exclusive interview, the ‘super permsec’ of the 1970s and 1980s, would not reveal any of the recommendations his committee made to President Buhari. But he was forthcoming on the state of the nation and the challenges the new government will face in the next four years. Malam Joda was frank and witty in this explosive interaction.

POLICE OFFICER KILLED BY MAN WHO CALLED 911 HIMSELF.

OFFICER KIM

While friends were commenting on his last Facebook post Friday -- and some were reading text messages indicating his plan to commit suicide by cop -- Trepierre Hummons called 911 then waited with a gun for police to arrive, Cincinnati, USA,  police said.

When they did, he and shot and killed 48-year-old Officer Sonny Kim, a husband and father of three, police said.

Then he opened fire on two more officers, said Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffery Blackwell.

PRO-SARAKI LAWMAKERS REJECTS LAWAN AS SENATE LEADER.

The current crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress, worsened on Saturday when senators loyal to Senate President, Bukola Saraki, vowed to resist alleged moves by the APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and other party chieftains to impose Senators Ahmad Lawan and George Akume as the Senate leader and deputy, respectively.

Senators Ahmed Sani-Yerima and Danjuma Goje, who spoke with journalists in Abuja, specifically declared that the plans by the leadership of the APC to fill the remaining four principal-officer positions with ranking members of the Senate Unity Forum was totally unacceptable.

The Senators Unity Forum consists of loyalists of Lawan, who lost the Senate Presidency bid to Saraki.

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”.