Innocent Ojefia Blog

  The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Prince Uche Secondus has blasted the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, for trying to politicize the senseless and mindless rampant killings going on across the country under the watch of President Muhammadu Buhari and his administration. Speaking on friday when he and members of the National Working Committee NWC of the party received one  of the party's Presidential aspirants in the forthcoming general election Dr Datti Ahmed at the party National Headquarters, Prince Secondus lamented that rather than own up their obvious failings, the ruling APC has been trying to play politics with what is clear to all discerning minds that they have failed woefully. In a statement issued by the National Chairman's media office and signed by Ike Abonyi, Prince Secondus asked APC leaders to stop denying their failure to arrest the ugly situation by using propaganda to try to deceive the public. "Tinubu, Lai...

The 36 state governors say they will ask President Muhammadu Buhari to sack security chiefs if they cannot stop the current wave of killings in the country. But the governors first want to interface with the security chiefs to let them “understand where we are and how this thing (killings) is depleting the relationship among the citizens”. Their chairman, Abdulaziz Yari, said yesterday in Jos, the Plateau State capital that the security chiefs must keep going  or “else, we have no option than to ask the President to relieve them,” of their responsibility. Yari, governor of Zamfara State spoke when he led a delegation of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) to Jos to commiserate with Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau on the recent murder of 86 people in parts of the state by herdsmen. The killings occurred  in Barkin-Ladi, Riyom, Jos South Local Government Areas of the state on Sunday, Ju...

The leadership crisis rocking the Delta State Chapter of the All Progressive Congress, has taken a new twist as the newly elected party National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has taken side with Senator Ovie Omo-Agege and Chief Great Ogboru led faction, overruling the former National chairman, Chief John Oyegun on the state executive committee of the party. Oshiomhole on Thursday against earlier decision of the Oyegun-led National Working Committee by endorsed the consent judgement entered into by the party’s legal department, objected by Oyegun, in a suit filed by Odjebobo Desire Onoyefeme and Lyndon L.O.I Ugbome against the APC National Chairman and the APC National Working Committee with Suit No.: FHC/ABJ/CS/509/8 on behalf of Senator Ovie Omo-Agege and Chief Great Ogboru led faction of APC. Reacting to this development, the State party Chairman, Chief Cyril Ogodo, said the party is not bound by the consent judgement procured by Ogboru/Omo-Agege faction, because the...

UK House of Lords Peer: There is a critical need for urgent and effective intervention in Nigeria.   Just this past weekend, at least 200 people are reported to have died in coordinated attacks on around 50 communities in Nigeria’s Plateau state. The majority of victims were women and children. While there is now a dawn to dusk curfew, the area remains tense. This most recent episode is particularly shocking, but such attacks have become all too common. Indeed, it is the latest in an extended pattern of violence occurring on a daily basis in Nigeria – particularly across the Middle Belt. Armed with sophisticated weaponry, including AK-47s, and on at least one occasion, rocket launchers, the Fulani herder militia is believed to have murdered more men, women and children in 2015, 2016 and 2017 than even Boko Haram, destroying, overrunning and seizing property and land, and displacing tens of thousands of people. Whilst there has been a long history of disputes between ...

According to FRSC sources, nine persons died in the  petrol tanker fire  around Otedola Bridge on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway on Thursday after it caught fire and spread the inferno to the vehicles behind. According to official sources, nine persons died in the petrol tanker fire around Otedola Bridge on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway on Thursday. The petrol tanker had caught fire and spread the inferno to the vehicles behind, Federal Road Safety Corps [FRSC] personnels said. The personnels also said in its update that the victims were burnt beyond recognition. There were four other serious injuries. According to the FRSC, 54 vehicles were burnt. There were 45 cars caught in the inferno, along with five buses, two trucks, INEC tricycle and the tanker itself . The accident, outward Lagos,  happened around 5.30pm on Thursday. According to Bisi Kazeem, spokesman of the FRSC, the cause of accident was break failure suffered by the petrol laden tanker. A Joint ...

Salaries in states may be affected unless issues that led to the deadlocked meeting between the Federation Account and Allocation Committee (FAAC) and governors last week were resolved, Minister of Finance Kemi Adeosun has said.  Addressing State House reporters yesterday after a meeting of the National Economic Council, Adeosun said the costs presented by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation could not be justified. She said NEC had demanded explanations from the NNPC for unclear costs it made from FAAC. “In my capacity as chairman of FAAC, I briefed governors on the deadlock that we have got currently in the federation account and explained what happened. And there was quite an extensive debate on what to do. “For the purpose of this briefing, we operate NNPC as a business, we have invested public capital in that business and we have expectations of return and when that return fails lower than our expectations then the owners of th...

Barely 24 hour after a petrol tanker accident claimed nine lives leading to the loss of 54 vehicles in Lagos, another fuel tanker accident occurred again, this time it is on the Abuja Suleja Expressway. The fully loaded oil tanker had a head on collision with another truck as seen below. “An accident just occurred between a fuel tanker and a trailer at Maje along Minna-Suleja road. In case you’re planning to ply that route now, it is advisable you delay your movement a bit as firefighters have just arrived the scene.”  

The Governor Lagos State, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode on Thursday evening visited the scene of the tanker explosion which occurred on Otedola Bridge inward Ojodu Berger along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, describing the incident as sad and unfortunate. TheNewsGuru reports the incident, which occurred at about 5pm, was said to have left over 50 vehicles burnt and nine people dead. Governor Ambode, who visited the scene at about 9:30pm where he was briefed by Commissioner for Special Duties and Intergovernmental Relations, Mr Seye Oladejo, among other emergency response agencies, particularly commiserated with the families of the victims and those who lost their properties to the incident. Addressing journalists at the scene after assessing the situation, Governor Ambode also directed the emergency responders and relevant government agencies to ensure the immediate removal of all the burnt vehicles from the road so as to open it up again for traffic. “This is quite unfortunat...

The United States Congress has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to publicly condemn attacks on Christian farmers by Fulani herdsmen. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Chair of the House Subcommittee on Global Human Rights and a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who spoke during the week while welcoming the release of the State Department’s annual International Religious Freedom Report, applauded Secretary Pompeo’s announcement of a Ministerial Committee to Advance Religious Freedom scheduled for July 25-26, 2018.  The US report is coming just as the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Thursday expressed concern that the introduction of Arabic Language as part of examinations in a secular country like Nigeria by the Buhari administration is another brazen attempt to Islamize the country. CAN calls for the cancellation of the Nigerian Police recruitment examination conducted by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) where the Arabic Language...