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PDP Made Costly Mistakes – Sule Lamido

… Says party could not manage success

Jigawa State governor, Sule Lamido has diagnosed the illness in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, which made it lose last Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly elections to the All Progressives Congress, APC.

Lamido. who also failed to deliver his state to the PDP, attributed the development to the inability of the party to properly manage its success.

Speaking to State House Correspondents after meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday night, Lamido however boasted that the party had all it takes to bounce back.

” I ‘m sure if you know the party’s history, what it went through in the last 16 years, ‎it has the capacity to bounce back. PDP made some mistakes I have been saying so. Very, very costly mistakes and we have not been able to properly manage our successes. But to me I don’t think quitting PDP is the answer and in any case Nigerian people have said yes to the APC. They have spoken in very loud and unmistaken ways. The vote is very very unambiguous and so we respect their choice and their rights and we praise Buhari for being able to take the ticket from the PDP even though I am not happy. But it is Nigeria that won, not Buhari. None of them lost but Nigeria won and it is enough of the anxiety, enough of the worry and the fear in Africa. It was so intense you will not believe it as confirmed by the Chairperson African Union and other international friends who have called thanking Nigeria for really saving Nigeria and also saving Africa. So I also say thank you to Nigerians for saving Africa and saving Nigeria,” Lamido said.

While not ruling out the possibility of mass defection from the party and further loss of subsequent elections, Lamido said PDP leaders will have to work hard to mitigate such consequences.

“There is tendency of bandwagon effect but ‎it is up to us to work very hard,” he added.

On the notion that PDP governors didn’t work hard enough to deliver their states, he said: “We won’t go into blame game. In what way will this blame game change the attitude of the crowd? ‎Leadership is a very huge burden and it is normal for followers to do what they did on Saturday. “

Emphasizing the need for unity and oneness in the nation, Lamido said, “whoever becomes the president is a Nigerian president ‎not a president for a particular region. This is how I see this election and I thank Nigerians for standing for Nigeria.”

Credit: Daily times

I always wondered why a rule set many many years was so hard to abolish. How can a white queen be the Head of a black nation. #justsayingoh.

Well Barbados is set to remove the Queen as its head of state, almost 400 years after it was colonised by the British.

The island was under the UK’s control from 1627 up until independence in 1966 and has remained a constitutional monarchy ever since.

But the Prime Minister has laid down his plans for Barbados to become a republic with a ceremonial President in time for the 50th anniversary of independence next year.

Speaking on Sunday evening, Freundel Stuart told a branch meeting of his Democratic Labour Party (DLP) that the change would happen over the coming year.

George Pilgrim, general secretary of the DLP, said a draft bill proposing the Queen’s removal will be voted on by Parliament but the government does not expect any opposition.

“This will move the country through to the next major step in the process of nationhood,” he added.

“(The Prime Minister) said he found it awkward in the year 2015 to have to stand up and pledge allegiance to Her Majesty the Queen.”

Barbados will retain its links with the British crown though its membership of the Commonwealth, he said.

The official British Monarchy website says the Queen is not involved in the day-to-day business of Barbados’s government but “continues to play important ceremonial and symbolic roles”.

“The Queen’s relationship to Barbados is unique,” it continues. “In all her duties, she speaks and acts as Queen of Barbados, and not as Queen of the United Kingdom.”

While acting for the island, she is officially known as “Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, Queen of Barbados and of Her other Realms and territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth”.

Plans to make Barbados a republic have been floated several times in recent years.

In 2005, the then Prime Minister Owen Arthur outlined his proposals for dropping the Queen in favour of a locally elected president but the process was not completed.

In the same year, Barbados made the Caribbean Court of Justice its final court of appeal, rather than the London-based Privy Council, which has long served as the highest court of appeal for many former British colonies.

Downing Street said it was not aware of the decision but a spokesperson for Prime Minister David Cameron said: “I expect the approach will be consistent with self-determination, decisions around this being a matter for the people involved.”

The Queen is sovereign of 15 Commonwealth realms, including the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Jamaica, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said change in Barbados was a “matter for the government and people” to decide.

In 2012, Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller also pledged to replace the Queen as head of state.

The monarch last visited Barbados 26 years ago in 1989 for the 350th anniversary of the Barbados parliament – one of the oldest in the world.

Prince Harry took a three-day trip there in 2010, when he played in a polo match for his charity Sentebale, and Earl and Countess of Wessex were the last British royals to visit the nation last year.

I don't even know what to deduce from this. Why would you encourage someone to take his own life. That's a crime right..

Well.. moments before 18-year-old Conrad Roy was going to kill himself last summer, he had second thoughts and climbed out of his running truck. Then he got a three-word text message from his friend: “get back in.”

The message allegedly came from Michelle Carter, who police now say sent Roy a series of texts in the last days of his life encouraging him to commit suicide. Roy apparently listened; police later found him dead from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Prosecutors charged Carter, 18, with involuntary manslaughter this month. In a report, police said that before dying, Roy told Carter "he was scared and didn't want to leave his family," the Sun Chronicle reported.

But police said Carter encouraged Roy to go through with the suicide. She also reportedly texted Roy's mother, expressing concern before he died, South Coast Today reported.

A spokesperson for the Bristol County District Attorney's Office said investigators believe Carter had "first hand knowledge of Roy's suicidal thoughts," the Boston Heraldreported.

However, Carter’s attorney condemned the charge Friday, telling BuzzFeed News that the district attorney was “cherry picking” the facts and “distorting” the case.
In a conversation Friday evening, Joseph Cataldo said Carter and Roy had a long history together and by publicizing a limited group of text messages the DA had "really cherry picked the facts and put those out there trying to make her look bad."

Cataldo said it was too early in the case to go into detail, but added that the facts would prove that Roy voluntarily committed suicide and his death "was not caused by Michelle Carter."

"We don't have a law in Massachusetts where you have to run to authorities or forcibly prevent a person from committing suicide," Cataldo said. He added that "it will be very, very clear, that he was determined to take his own life."

Whatever happened, after Roy died, Carter began posting a series of messages online mourning him. The first message went up July 13, the same day Roy died.

Michelle Carter@michyc47Follow
Such a beautiful soul gone too soon. I'll always remember your bright light and smile. You'll forever be in my heart, I love you Conrad.

Nigerian politics needs a different case study than any other kind in the world! Now PDP is saying Tinubu is plotting to become president. Is it by coup or what. Hear them out.

The PDP presidential campaign organisation, PDPPCO, has alleged that it has uncovered plots by the National leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to become the president of Nigeria through the back door.

According to PDP, Tinubu has concluded plans to become the Vice President to the Presidential candidate of APC, General Muhammadu Buhari, if he wins the March 28 Presidential election after the resignation of the present Vice Presidential candidate to Buhari, Professor Yemi Osinbajo who would have thrown in the towel after six months, following an alleged swearing to an oath that after six months in office, he would step down for Tinubu, his political godfather to then step in as the Vice President, and as the number two, he would then have the opportunity of becoming the president.

But if PDP is sure of victory, they need not bother themselves about this. Or are they scared?

Addressing Journalists in Abuja, the Director of Media and Publicity of the campaign organisation, Femi Fani-Kayode, who noted that the PDP was not wishing Buhari dead, however urged him to watch his back against the backdrop of alleged plans by Tinubu to seize the Presidency from him.

Observers are reading PDP’s allegation as strongly entertaining fears that APC is coasting to victory.

Fani-Kayode who tagged his address as “APC is selling a dummy to the whole world; Tinubu is the real candidate” said, “Since the formation of the APC it has been an open secret that Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu is its national leader and also its biggest financier. The question that should agitate every Nigerian is why Tinubu has been investing heavily in the APC presidential project to such a point that he has single-handed produced the joint presidential ticket of General Muhammadu Buhari and Professor Yemi Osinbajo.

“It should baffle well-meaning Nigerians why Senator Tinubu has decided to draft General Buhari, despite his age, acrimonious background and questionable health status, into the presidential race whilst ensuring that his stooge, Prof Osinbajo was foisted on the general as vice presidential candidate.

“The reason, gentlemen of the press, is the subject of this press conference. The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Organisation wishes to use this forum to expose the ungodly plan by Senator Tinubu to seize the presidency of Nigeria by subterfuge.

“You will recall how Senator Tinubu wanted to be running mate to General Muhammadu Buhari in spite of the nationwide resentment for Muslim-Muslim ticket that he and General Buhari planned to foist on their party men and women. Senator Tinubu had justified the ticket by saying that competence was the important thing and not the issue of religion.

“But when he and General Buhari could not push through the agenda within the APC, he (Tinubu), after being given the opportunity to nominate a vice presidential candidate, decided to prop up his stooge in the person of Prof Yemi Osinbajo.

“Now the real reason Senator Tinubu nominated Osinbajo has been made known to us and we hereby offer a public service to the Nigerian people by drawing national attention to it. Credible pieces of information at our disposal indicate that Tinubu has perfected plans to come to power through the back door."

APC reacts
Reacting from London, Lai Mohammed, the APC spokesman said:
“Daily, the PDP is showing the dept of their drowning and fabricating all sorts of lies to see how they can hang on to power. But they have lost it and all these are signs of desperation. Let them prove what they are alleging. And it has gotten to the stage that the media should ask them questions when they tell tales. Did anybody ask them to provide proof of such nonsense?

"Nigerians knew how tough it took the APC to find Buhari’s vice and it was done through a thorough search and consideration that produced a great candidate. They are drowning and that’s the way I see it. And I know that Nigerians cannot be deceived by this fabrication.”

Ok I had just said this in a couple of posts today and I just got this report now.. Apparently the APC is crying a big fowl saying Mbu and others have been planted in lagos to rig elections! Once again I am begging Oh. We don't want violence.

According to Sahara Reporters, several Police and political sources have confirmed that Sam Chukwu, a sinister police officer reputed for masterminding a group of rogue policemen who carried out kidnapping, armed robbery and other major crimes in Enugu State, was recently promoted and deployed to Lagos in order to fortify a team of senior police officers charged with helping the PDP carry out massive rigging in Lagos and other southwest states.

The Police sources named Sam Chukwu, who is linked to a major kidnap and murder case in Enugu, as a key player in the scheme, whose leader is Assistant Inspector General of Police Joseph Mbu.

“Sam Chukwu is one of the biggest criminals in the police force. That is why Sir Mike Okiro gave him promotion and sent him to Lagos in January,” a top police source at police headquarters in Abuja told Sahara Reporters in a telephone interview.

The officer, who said he and numerous other officers were incensed at the increasing use of police officers for illegal assignments, added, “Instead of sacking Sam Chukwu, they have sent him to Lagos today to join the operation of rigging election.”

Prosecutors in Enugu State have accused Mr. Chukwu of being the sponsor of a ring of kidnappers who once menaced the state capital of Enugu and its surrounding areas. Mr. Chukwu and his team of rogue officers were reportedly responsible for the September 2009 kidnap and presumed murder of Lotachukwu (Lota) Ezeudu, a 19-year old second year accountancy student at the University of Nigeria, Enugu campus. One of the junior officers involved in the kidnapping ring, Ernest Okeke, is in detention undergoing trial, but another key player, Desmond Chinwuba, remains in hiding.

Mr. Chukwu himself went into hiding for more than a year and a half to evade a summons to stand trial in the case. His failure to appear in court led Justice Afam Nwobodo to issue a warrant for his arrest, with his name appearing on wanted posters pasted in Enugu and his hometown of Aninri in Awgu local government area.

For close to two years, police authorities claimed they were unaware of Mr. Chukwu’s whereabouts. But in July of 2014, with days left before his retirement, former Inspector General of Police Mohammed Abubakar reinstated the fugitive cop and posted him to the headquarters of the southeast command to assume the post of provost.

At the end of 2014, the Police Service Commission headed by Mike Okiro, a former IG of Police, included Mr. Chukwu’s name on a list of officers promoted to assistant commissioner. In a secretive scheme, the commission failed to release the names of all promoted officers, a move meant to hide the inclusion of Mr. Chukwu’s name, according to a senior police source in Abuja.

With his promotion, Mr. Chukwu was posted to Lagos. Several police sources in the state and Abuja have disclosed that Mr. Chukwu’s assignment is to help coordinate the harassment of voters and a series of electoral practices aimed at helping the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to rig the forthcoming elections in Lagos and other southwest states. One officer disclosed that Mr. Okiro had selected a special team of officers with a criminal reputation and sent them to work with Mr. Mbu to help the PDP manipulate polls in the southwest. Top PDP officials, including Bode George and former Minister of State for Defense Musiliu Obanikoro, reportedly pressed President Goodluck Jonathan to sign off on the ambitious rigging plan, arguing that the ruling party may not be able to retain power at the center without carrying a few southwest states.

Our sources said, since his January 2015 deployment to Lagos, Mr. Chukwu has been part of a group that meets frequently with controversial Assistant Inspector General Joseph Mbu to strategize about rigging the elections scheduled to begin March 28. Our sources said Mr. Okiro, Mr. Mbu and Mr. Chukwu were in league on the rigging scheme, adding that the accused kidnap kingpin had become notorious in Enugu State where he helped rig elections for former Governor Chimaraoke Nnamani and current deputy president of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu.

“He meets with AIG [Mbu] and it is understood that their job is to prepare the Mopol and others they will use to rig,” one of our sources in Lagos claimed. An Abuja-based police source added that many officers continued to question the reinstatement of Sam Chukwu, and his deployment to Lagos to work with Mr. Mbu, an officer known for his reckless willingness to do the bidding of President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, Patience Jonathan. As a commissioner of police in Rivers State, Mr. Mbu virtually went to war against Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi who had a political quarrel with the president and his wife.

Other sources said Mr. Chukwu has a reputation for spearheading electoral fraud. An Enugu-based businessman told SaharaReporters that it was well known in Enugu that Mr. Chukwu was often hired to rig elections for politicians. He said the rogue officer owns numerous houses in the Trans-Ekulu area of Enugu, adding that the properties were acquired from the officer’s criminal activities.

In August 2005, Mr. Chukwu, who was then the DPO at Ogui police station, was accused of ordering the execution of a young man, Chinedu Ani, at the behest of a then member of the House of Representatives U.S.A. Igwesi. An Enugu-based lawyer familiar with the case told our correspondent that Mr. Chukwu sent two police officers after two young men who had had a verbal encounter with the legislator. The policemen cornered the young men in their car and opened fire, killing one and seriously wounding the other.

The horrific daylight execution by the police, which happened near ACB Bank on Ogui Road, Enugu, sparked public protests. Then Governor Chimaraoke Nnamani of Enugu State set up a panel headed by Justice Ken Ezeike to investigate the police attack. Even though the panel submitted a report, Mr. Nnamani’s government failed to issue a white paper. An Enugu-based lawyer accused then Governor Nnamani of bowing to pressure from Senator Ekweremadu and other politicians in the state to shield Mr. Chukwu from blame.

A human rights activist in Lagos said his group was monitoring the activities of Mr. Mbu and Mr. Chukwu, adding that it would take vigilance on the part of all citizens to ensure that nobody can sabotage the wishes of the electorate.

Credit : Sahara reporters