Politics

ATM comment: Delta not Lagos, Okowa’s aide tackles Tinubu

Published

1 year ago

November 20, 2022

The All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on Saturday, knocked the Peoples Democratic Party for failing to develop Delta State despite the huge federal allocation to the state.

Tinubu also warned that Delta was not an Automated Teller Machine for migratory politicians from the state.

A statement issued by his media officer, Tunde Rahman, said the APC candidate said this during a campaign rally at the Warri Township Stadium.

Addressing the rally, Tinubu accused the opposition party of abandoning infrastructural development in the state and leaving Delta to rot away.

He said, “Delta is among Nigeria’s largest oil and gas producing states. Revenue from oil and gas has historically been the backbone of government revenue and foreign exchange earnings.

“As such, your state and other oil producers have made a one-of-a-kind financial contribution to the building of modern Nigeria. The nation is thankful to you.

“Delta has all it takes to be great and help lead the nation forward. Yet, for the past 23 years, those governing your state have taken you for a hard and long ride by selling you short. They have not done the things they should have and could have done for you.

READ ALSO:

“The infrastructure in the state was better 30 years ago than it is now. The state has recorded historic debts run up by the incumbent, yet the infrastructure and other things still remain lacking because of under investment and neglect.

“The money is much, but it does not have legs. Where did it go? Not to your welfare. Perhaps, it has found a home with a certain presidential candidate, who loves Dubai more than Nigeria.

“But Delta State is not an ATM for migratory politicians. It is a place where good and hardworking people reside and work to create decent and peaceful lives for themselves and their families.”

On his plans for the state, the former Lagos governor promised to re-activate the gas revolution industrial park, while also seeing to clean up the entire Niger Delta region to ensure that the host communities would not suffer for building the nation’s economy through their oil.

Tinubu added, “Our government will further re-activate the multi-billion dollar gas revolution industrial park project. President Buhari’s administration has made great strides in revisiting this project. We will complete it.

“Gas will become a national priority. I envision fertiliser and petrochemical plants, aluminium smelters and methanol plants, all creating jobs for the unemployed, while producing goods that bolster farming, construction and other industries.

“We will step up and clean up the operations of the Niger Delta Development Commission and the Ministry of the Niger Delta.

“The NDDC will be improved. Greater cooperation with communities, which have suffered environmental degradation, will be my policy.

“I am saddened by the environmental cost, which the oil and gas industry has exacted. Our moral and economic duty calls us to clean the Niger Delta and to create new opportunities for young Deltans to build better lives for themselves.”

On Delta’s infrastructure development, which he affirmed had been in a sorry state, Tinubu said, “We will help develop the infrastructure of your state. The deep seaport project and the Omadino-Escravos Road project will be revisited. We will rehabilitate Warri, Koko, Sapele and Burutu ports, creating yet more jobs in the state.

READ ALSO:

“My government will deploy new technologies to protect the safety and security of law-abiding Deltans as well as the critical national infrastructure situated in this state. We will also introduce greater funding and reform policies to bring the Nigerian police closer to the communities they serve.”

In attendance were Senate President, Ahmed Lawan; APC Deputy National Chairman, South, Emma Enekwu, who represented National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu; Tinubu’s running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima, and his wife, Nana; and Senator Oluremi Tinubu, wife of the presidential candidate and daughter of Itsekiriland.

Also present at the rally were Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinnma; Governor of Plateau State and Director-General of the campaign council, Simon Lalong; Deputy Senate President and Delta State governorship candidate of the party, Ovie Omo-Agege; Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Idris Wase; members of the APC National Working Committee; Minister of Youth and Sports, Sunday Dare; spokesman for the PCC, Festus Keyamo; and former governor of Edo State and Edo North Senatorial candidate, Adams Oshiomhole.

When Oluremi Tinubu addressed her people in her native Itsekiri dialect, there was a standing ovation in the stadium.

She urged the people of Delta to vote for the APC to have one of their kiths and kins in the corridors of power.

Okowa also came under criticism from Oshiomhole, who accused him of under-developing, the state.

In his response to Tinubu’s comment, the state Commissioner for Information, Mr Charles Aniagwu, said the people of Delta State appreciated the state’s infrastructural development and that Delta was “not like Lagos that Bola Tinubu put in his pocket.”

Aniagwu, who is also a spokesperson for the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, told Sunday PUNCH in an interview, “We don’t have time to respond to somebody whose identity is still unknown. Let him first of all go and clear himself; when and where he was born, the schools he attended and other records about him so we can know who we are talking to.

“Somebody whose records are still in doubt cannot be the one talking. Our state cannot be in his pocket the way he did Lagos. Delta is not Lagos and our people cannot be deceived by such a person.

“With the kind of wonderful defeat and disgrace he, the APC and Adams Oshiomhole suffered in the last Edo State governorship election, we thought he would have learnt some lessons. That 2020 defeat in Edo will be a child’s play compared to what they will suffer in Delta State in 2023.

READ ALSO:

“Governor Ifeanyi Okowa has been prudent in managing the state economy. We have a lot of infrastructure on ground for all the money that accrued to the state, ranging from roads to bridges, schools and human capital development. Their (APC) governorship candidate did not tell him that the road from the airport to the stadium is a federal road the APC-led Federal Government failed to fix.”

Oyetola on Tinubu

Osun State Governor, Mr Adegboyega Oyetola, on Saturday, said voting for the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, next year would renew the hope of Nigerians in the country.

Oyetola stated this in Osogbo at the inauguration of the Directorate of Grassroots Mobilisation, Engagement and Orientation of the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Kashim Shettima Presidential Campaign.

According to him, Tinubu has the experience required to further transform the nation and take it to the next level, and expressed optimism in the ability of the group to spread the message and mobilise voters for the candidate.

The state APC Chairman, Mr Gboyega Famodun, said Tinubu had the capacity and good health to be the next president.

Zamfara APC campaign

Similarly, Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State has inaugurated the Tinubu Presidential Campaign Council and his governorship campaign council.

Punch

Up Next

Buhari successor should come from South – Ortom

Don't Miss

Aggrieved PDP Governors Still Open To Negotiation – Fayose

Politics

Senate in rowdy session as lawmakers quarrel over sitting arrangement

Published

23 hours ago

April 30, 2024

Trends Admin

Senate in rowdy session as lawmakers quarrel over sitting arrangement

The Senate broke into a rowdy session on Tuesday after three senators engaged in a heated argument over arrangement of seats.

Danjuma Goje, senator representing Gombe Central, and Sahabi Yau, senator representing Zamfara North, expressed displeasure over the seats assigned to them.

They complained to Opeyemi Bamidele, the majority leader.

The Senate is currently using its refurbished chamber, two years after renovation began on it.

According to the standing rules of the upper legislative chamber, senators should sit in order of rank.

The Easter and Sallah recess was postponed to accommodate the completion of the renovation of both chambers of the national assembly.

However, while Senate President Godswill Akpabio read his welcome address, the heated argument among the three senators began.

It was learnt that Goje and Yau, sitting on the second row on the right side of the aisle, did not like the seats allocated to them by the senate committee on services.

Sunday Karimi, senator representing Kogi west, is chair of the senate services committee.

The four-term senators subsequently insisted that they should have been assigned seats on the front row on the extreme right — opposite the row of the majority leader and the deputy senate president.

After the argument, Kawu Sumaila, senator representing Kano South, called for a “point of order” which was ignored.

Thereafter, Bamidele moved a motion for a closed-session.

Politics

Ganduje drums support for Tinubu, says no vacancy in Aso Rock 2027

Published

23 hours ago

April 30, 2024

Trends Admin

Ganduje drums support for Tinubu, says no vacancy in Aso Rock 2027

National Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, says members of the opposition are trying to discredit the Bola Tinubu-led administration in their desperation for Aso Rock in 2027.
He however declares that there is no vacancy in Aso Rock in 2027.

Ganduje said the administration of President Tinubu had been contending with accumulation of many years of neglect, policy summersaults and other disjointed decisions by previous administrations.

The APC national chairman gave the position while addressing supporters and support groups at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja.

Ganduje urged the APC supporters and groups to be committed to the party so that it could continue to forge ahead.

He said the leadership of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and its chieftains were afraid, having been defeated in the last general election and already foreseeing another defeat.

Ganduje said the NNPP elements were now engaged in a propaganda campaign against the leadership of APC.

He said, “They are so afraid because we are consolidating. They are so afraid all over the country because we are receiving new entrants into our party. That is creating fears in their minds.

“They are already eyeing 2027, but at that time, there is no vacancy. Only our President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, will, Insha Allah, continue as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

Ganduje claimed the leadership of NNPP and its chieftains in Kano State were sponsoring protests and campaigning for his removal as APC national chairman.

Politics

Another PDP bigwig dumps party

Published

2 days ago

April 29, 2024

Trends Admin

Dr Cosmos Ndukwe

Another PDP bigwig dumps party

Dr Cosmos Ndukwe, one of the key opposition Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential candidates for 2023, has resigned from the party.

This is stated in a letter written by the former Deputy Speaker of the Abia State House of Assembly to the Chairman of his Item C Ward in Bende Local Government Area, which was copied to the party’s State Chairman, Hon. Asiforo Okere, and the Acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum.

The former Chief of Staff to the Governor and Commissioner for Works under ex-Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu claimed “personal reasons, current commitments, and aspirations” in his decision to leave the PDP.

He praised the party for providing him with the opportunity to enter the political spotlight and wished it success in the state.

The letter posted on his Facebook page on Monday morning read, “I hope this letter finds you well. It is with a heavy heart that I compose this correspondence to tender my resignation as a member and stakeholder in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Abia State, effective immediately.

“My decision to resign as a member within the party stems from personal reasons and reflections on my current commitments and aspirations.

“After careful consideration, I have come to the conclusion that potting out of PDP is the best course of action for me at this time.

“I am immensely grateful for the opportunities that the PDP has afforded me during my tenure as a Councillor, Deputy Chairman Local Government, Chief of Staff to Executive Governor of Abia State, Deputy Speaker Abia 6th House of Assembly and Presidential Aspirant PDP 2023.

READ ALSO:

“Serving within the party has been a privilege, and I have valued the relationships I have built with fellow members, as well as the chance to contribute to the party’s objectives and ideals.

” I want to express my appreciation to you, the Ward Executive Committee, and all members of the PDP Abia State for the support and camaraderie extended to me throughout my association with the party.

“While I may be stepping away from my formal role, I remain committed to the principles of democracy and the progress of our great state Abia.

“Please consider this letter as my formal resignation from all duties and responsibilities associated with my position as a member and stakeholder in the PDP Abia State.

“I wish the PDP Abia State continued success in all its endeavors, and I extend my best wishes for the future. Thank you once again for the opportunities and experiences.”

The former Deputy Speaker had in an introductory post to the letter written:

“Good morning friends and well wishers. In life, we all have the past. We all made choices that maybe, weren’t the best ones. None of us is completely a saint,
but we all get a fresh start some day.

“Eccl 3:1-5 summary is on time for everything. To me, this is time to leave PDP family. I am potting out for good, new destination to be announced soon.

“My letter has started its journey to the ward chairman, LG chairman, State Chairman and Ag National chairman”.

Platinumpost reports that, the PDP has been hit by the wind of resignation following the exit of former Governor of Imo State, Chief Emeka Ihedioha, and over 20 key members of the party in Imo State including a member of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT), and zonal officers.

Although the supremacy tussle between former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mr Nyesom Wike, is believed to be at the centre of crisis rocking the PDP, funding by Vanguard show that Ndukwe may be on his way to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, to assist his kinsman, and the Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu.