News

Senator Abbo apologises over claims Akpabio plotted his sack

Published

7 months ago

October 18, 2023

Godswill Akpabio, Elisha Abbo

Senator Abbo apologises over claims Akpabio plotted his sack

Senator Elisha Abbo has apologised over his allegation that the Senate President Godswill Akpabio plotted his removal by the Court of Appeal.

Abbo made the apology while speaking in an interview on Arise Television on Tuesday.

He stated, “I have to say this with all sense of humility and responsibility that the press release we issued yesterday was premature and based on the available information at our disposal yesterday.

“As of today, we have discovered a lot of things, and yesterday night I had a discussion with the Senate president, and I am convinced that he is not involved.

“I swear by my mother’s grave that I’m not involved; I don’t even know that you’re in court,” he said.

Recall Abbo had earlier made an allegation at his residence in Abuja on Monday, hours after the Court of Appeal nullified his election into the Senate.

The Adamawa senator claimed that Akpabio also has plans to remove the former chief whip of the senate, Senator Orji Uzor Jalu and four other senators for not backing his senate presidency bid.

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Abbo described the judgment sacking him as a coup on democracy, calling on his supporters despite the ruling.

The senator insisted that, despite the court declaring the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Amos Yohanna as the winner of the February election, he won the exercise.

According to him, he defeated the PDP candidate with a margin of 11,000 votes.

The appellate court, in a unanimous decision by a three-member panel of Justices, vacated the tribunal judgement that earlier affirmed Abbo of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as the valid winner of the Senatorial seat.

News

Electricity: Labour insists on picketing power regulator, distribution offices today

Published

36 mins ago

May 13, 2024

Trends Admin

Electricity: Labour insists on picketing power regulator, distribution offices today

Members of organised labour announced on Sunday night that they would shut down offices of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and Distribution Companies across the country.

They stated that the offices would be kept under lock and key until the Federal Government granted their request for a complete reversal of the electricity tariff increase.

According to reports, the commission increased the electricity tariff for Band A users from N65/kwh to N225/kwh.

The Federal Government later approved a marginal cut, which labour rejected, demanding a complete reversal.

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Last week, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and its counterpart from the Trade Union Congress (TUC) warned the commission to reverse the hike by Sunday, May 12.

The movement also warned the commission to announce the stoppage of what it described as the “discriminatory practice” of segregating electricity consumers into arbitrary bands.

In an official notification sent to journalists on Sunday night, the head of information at NLC headquarters, Benson Upah, gave an update: Members of the movement would converge on Labour House by 7:00 a.m.

“NLC invites you to cover the picketing of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission headquarters in Abuja,” Benson said in the official notification sent to our correspondent last night.

Electricity: Labour insists on picketing power regulator, distribution offices today

News

We lost N87bn to Lagos-Calabar Coastal road project – Eko Atlantic City owners

Published

40 mins ago

May 13, 2024

Trends Admin

Eko Atlantic City

We lost N87bn to Lagos-Calabar Coastal road project – Eko Atlantic City owners

South Energyx Nigeria Limited, owners of the Eko Atlantic City in Lagos, is bemoaning the loss of about N87 billion, an estimated cost of the reclamation/sand filling it did to the realignment of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road.

He lamented the wrong narrative where the public is meant to believe that Eko Atlantic City further reclamation would eventually turn their beach to dry ground, thus dressing them in the cloak of aggressors in the eyes of the public.

Akanbi said: “To put the records straight, we are the victims here and not the aggressors, as we are made to look like.

“The Federal Government, shifted the right of way (ROW) of the coastal road, bending it into the land reclaimed by us legally to save some valuable structures at the Landmark Centre.”

Akanbi said the Water Corporation Road was the original alignment government planned to use but they later realised that if they start from that end, by the time they get to where Queens Event Centre is, the demolition would be more massive than what we have.

He added: “The government in their wisdom committed themselves to less demolition. In fact, there is hardly any serious demolition right now in the sense that what has happened really is not like any of the structure of Landmark is affected; what has been consumed is the beach.

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“Our position is that, you did not even own the beach, where you are using today, as the beach is part of our land -Eko Atlantic city – and that ideally you should be paying us money but we have not asked you for any money because we were not in need of the land then.

“Now, what the Federal Government has even done is to save some of the structures because they said if they go by their original alignment, it will consume part of the Event Centre and the Mall. What this means is that Eko Atlantic City itself will suffer loss of land because the coastal road now enters into the land of Eko Atlantic City. ‘‘

“You know two parties are involved now, there is the federal government’s coastal road, there’s is Eko Atlantic City by the South Energyx, and because they shifted the ROW, the road now enters into our Eko Atlantic city, meaning that we are losing N87 billion for all the land that we reclaimed to sell to Developers which the Coastal highway has encroached on”.

“Again, another point that should be validly made to owner of Landmark Centre is that the beach he is claiming to ownership of is that by the time the Eko Atlantic City sand fills, and reclamation gets to that place, there would be no beach again. So, whether he like it or not, now or in the near future, that beach will not be there again”.

“It is only unfortunate that now the coastal road has come quickly to consume the beach. But our original deposition was that we will be able to get to work round it and there will be a win-win situation but his public utterance has made that impossible”.

“For example, eventually when we finish the Eko Atlantic City, even right now if you have entered it, you will see that there is still a beach inside. We will say, okay, let’s concession it, you can be using it, but we now saw that rather than him (Landmark owner) challenging the federal government and the ministry of works, that won’t want to even compensate you for any displacement it is the person that has been your licencee without collecting money for the land you are using, that you are facing.

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“The ugly part of it is that the story is now being tilted against us; rather than us being the victim, we are now the aggressor. So, that is what has happened and that is the impression we don’t want the public to have, as if we are oppressing this man over the land.”

Akanbi said, “They are painting us as the aggressor whereas we are the victim. It is our land you are on, it is our land you have been using since and that is why I told you about that google app, you can do it yourself and see how the thing moves. So, saying that you have been there since 2008, that means you have been where water was”.

“From 2018, you can see how reclamation was being done, how the land was settled before it became what we are using. So you can’t even claim that you are the one that reclaimed the beach because it was a settlement, just like driving water away then finding yourself elsewhere. That is the same way that the water does and when the wave comes it brings sub-sand and deposits there and that is the authentication of position”.

“He has been enjoying the beach without paying money. He ought to be paying us ideally from the money he makes on that beach, if we wanted to insist on our right, but we are not”.

Asked if Landmark had taken them to court, he said, “Well, as of now that I’m talking to you, we have not seen any case. You see what he says with his mouth is more potent than the court itself because an average person in Lagos will think that we are oppressing him. That is even more destructive than the court. The impression you create for the people, in fact, some people today see it that way.

“What we are trying to do is to put our own facts out, let people know our own side of the story that we are not oppressing anybody. In fact, if anything, we are the ones that are the victims because they have been enjoying Oniru and Landmark Beach, which by law is ours . Ideally they should be paying us.”

We lost N87bn to Lagos-Calabar Coastal road project – Eko Atlantic City owners

The Nation

News

Rivers: Pro-Fubara Assembly to screen commissioner-nominee today

Published

50 mins ago

May 13, 2024

Trends Admin

Rivers: Pro-Fubara Assembly to screen commissioner-nominee today

The factional House of Assembly led by speaker, Victor Oko-Jumbo, has invited a commissioner-nominee, Danagogo Iboroma, for screening and confirmation as a member of the state executive.

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Gillis-West asked Iboroma to appear at the Hallowed Chamber, Rivers State House of Assembly, Auditorium, Admin Block, Rivers state government House Port Harcourt.

Iboroma was asked to appear with 10 sets of his CVs, photocopies of his credentials and the original.