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Tag: Anambra State

  • Labour Party replaces PDP in Anambra House of Assembly seat

    Labour Party replaces PDP in Anambra House of Assembly seat

    Speaker of the Anambra State House of Assembly, Dr Somtochukwu Udeze (APGA Ogbaru II) swore in Mr Justice Azuka (LP Onitsha North Constituency l) as member of parliament on Tuesday in Awka.

    Azuka replaces Mr Douglas Egbuna of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who was sacked from the seat by court verdicts.

    On Nov. 25, the Election Petition Appeal Court that sat in Awka upheld the declaration of the Anambra State House of Assembly Election Petition Tribunal that sacked Egbuna from the seat on Sept. 29.

    At its Sept. 29 verdict, the tribunal directed INEC to withdraw the Certificate of Return issued to Egbuna as it declared Azuka as the rightful winner of the March 18 election held in the state.

    Also on Tuesday, the speaker read a letter from Gov. Chukwuma Soludo requesting for approval to take a N2 billion loan to be disbursed as palliatives over fuel subsidy removal.

    According to the letter dated Dec.18, the Federal Government will repay 52 per cent of the loan, while the state government will repay the balance of 48 per cent.

    Also at the plenary session, the House felicitated with the longest-serving traditional ruler in the Southeast geopolitical zone, Igwe Kenneth Orizu of Nnewi as he marks his 98th birthday and 60th anniversary on the throne.

    The motion to congratulate the traditional ruler was moved by Hon. Augustine Ike (YPP- Nnewi North).

  • Anambra nightclub shooting leaves 2 dead, others injured

    Anambra nightclub shooting leaves 2 dead, others injured

    The Anambra Police Command, on Monday, confirmed the killing of two vigilante operatives attached to Porsche nightclub at Oba in Idemili North Local Government Area.

    The State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Tochukwu Ikenga, confirmed the incident, pointing out that it happened on Sunday night.

    According to him, the police responded to a distress call, following a shooting incident that occurred at a nightclub, known as Porsche in Oba.

    “But when the security operatives arrived the scene, the hoodlums had already fled and we were able to recover two yet-to-be-identified corpses.

    “Two vigilantes, including the hotel security guards also sustained fatal injuries from the gun shots, three other persons also sustained gun shot wounds.

    “We are currently monitoring the situation and calm has returned to Oba Community.

    Some of the eyewitnesses have given us information that is helpful,” Ikenga said.

    He said that no arrest had been made and that the people were willing to help with information they were currently working on.

    An eyewitness account said that the gunmen attempted to kidnap the owner of the club, but were repelled by security men attached to the club and in the process, two vigilante men were shot dead and several others injured.

  • NNPP strategises ahead of 2025 Anambra guber election

    NNPP strategises ahead of 2025 Anambra guber election

    The New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Anambra State, said it had commenced mobilisation and re-strategising to fully participate and win the Anambra State gubernatorial election in 2025.

    Mr Patrick Ottis, Deputy Chairman, NNPP Anambra State, disclosed this at a meeting with party stakeholders from the 21 local government areas of the state, on Tuesday in Awka.

    Ottis vowed that NNPP would take the lead at the governorship race.

    “We are happy that a revived NNPP has emerged in Anambra State and this meeting is for us to ensure that all hands are on deck to take the state, come 2025.

    “We need to put membership drive and mobilisation strategies in place ahead of the 2025 governorship election. I want to assure you that NNPP will be the party to beat in the election.

    “We are calling for unity among party members in the state because we need to work with one mind and voice to achieve success,” he said.

    Ottis said the party was solidly behind the duly elected Gov. Abba Yusuf of Kano state, and urged the judiciary to do the needful and not toy with people’s mandate.

    He pledged the party’s unalloyed supports for the National Working Committee under the leadership of Alhaji Ali Kawu and the National Leader of the party, Dr Rabiu Kwankwaso.

  • EEDC announces 5-day power outage in parts of Anambra

    EEDC announces 5-day power outage in parts of Anambra

    The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) says there will be a five-day planned power outage in some parts of Anambra, beginning from December 2 to December 6.

    The Head, Corporate Communications of the company, Mr Emeka Ezeh, disclosed this in a statement issued in Enugu on Saturday.

    Eze stated that “the outage is to enable the Transmission Company of Nigeria engineers to carry out maintenance on their facility.”

    According to him, as a result of this planned maintenance, the 60MVA power transformer at the GCM Station will be shut down for the five days the maintenance will last.

    He said: “This will mainly affect our customers under Ogbaru District and some under Onitsha District.

    “The following feeders will be without supply: Harbour 33KV, Golden Oil 33KV, Dozzy 11KV, BridgeHead 11KV, E-Amobi 33KV and Atani Water Works 11KV.”

    Others, he said, would include Premier 11KV, Housing EBH 11KV, Iyiowa 11KV, Wharf 11KV, Fegge 11KV, Uga 11KV, Market 11KV, Bida 11KV, Iweka 11KV and Market 11KV feeders.

    “Consequently, all customers fed by these feeders, which include the whole of Atani, Bida, Main Market, Iweka, Fegge and its adjoining estates as well as all our heavy-industrial clusters within Ogbaru, will be out of supply for the period of the outage,” Eze added.

    He expressed regrets over the inconveniences the outage would cause its customers.

    He, however, assured them that the company would be on standby for supply restoration once the maintenance was completed.

    “We are committed to providing you with quality service delivery,” he stated.

  • Police react over naked women protest in Anambra

    Police react over naked women protest in Anambra

    The Police Command in Anambra has dismissed protests by some naked women against the Command.

    The Anambra Commissioner of Police (CP), CP Aderemi Adeoye, said this while reacting to a viral video where naked women were protesting alleged insecurity and police involvement, accusing some officers of the command of complicity.

    The protesters, mostly women who stripped themselves naked, took to the streets of Awka, chanting anti-Police songs.

    Thy alleged that the Command frustrated Blue Shield Securities, a local private security outfit, from combating cultism in the town while directly accusing a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) and another personnel of aiding and abetting the situation.

    But CP Adeoye, while speaking to journalists, dismissed the allegations as a lame effort by the owner of the security company to divert attention and evade three criminal charges against him before a Magistrate and Federal High Courts of Justice.

    He said the local security Chief armed youths, said to be vigilancte personnel, but was actually using the outfit for other nefarious activities.

    “We have it on good authority that those women were non-Awka indigenes. They were hired and paid for the blackmail job. Our personnel were with them from where they took off and the details are with us.

    “Awka women are much more decent for such a show of shame and debasing of womanhood.

    According to Adeoye, “The sponsor is facing criminal charges in three courts in relation to shooting of Police personnel and taking his service pistol, land grabbing, illegal possession of arms and terrorism in suit nos. MAW/349c/2023; FHC/Aw/431c/2023 and FHC/413c/2023

    “He has refused to appear in court and to come to the command to make a statement, I want to say that no amount of sponsored blackmail will stop this command from ensuring that the law takes its course,” he said.

    Adeoye said the attack and blackmail on the DCP in charge of the Criminal Investigation Department, who investigated the cases, was to have him removed and discredit the evidence before the command.

    He said the Police had arrested, arraigned and remanded 40 suspected cultists to the Correctional Centre since the Command launched an all out war on cultism and cult-related killings in Awka.

    The CP said the command would not be distracted by what he called cheap propaganda and assured residents of Awka and the entire Anambra of the commitment of Police to ensure that the existing peace in the state was sustained and consolidated.

  • Anambra remains APGA state – Gov Soludo

    Anambra remains APGA state – Gov Soludo

    Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State has said the State belongs to the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA).

    Soludo, who spoke through Mr Christian Aburime, his Press Secretary, said this while reacting to a comment attributable to Chief Basil Ejidike that APGA would go extinct by 2025.

    Aburime, who said APC did not exist in Anambra, insisted that the State would forever remain an APGA-controlled state because the people had come to accept it as their own political movement.

    He said Soludo had turned the entire state into a construction site in two years, adding that only the blind would say they are not seeing the transformation taking place.

    “The APC-led federal government, under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a known democrat and lover of democracy, will not like to interfere with elections in other states,” Abirime said in a statement.

    “APC members in Anambra know that the party does not exist in this state and it will never exist because this is an APGA land.

    “Going by what the APC chairman in Anambra has been saying, it’s like he is not part of the people living in Anambra State. He keeps saying that Soludo has done nothing; maybe he must have been going around blindfolded.

    “There are roads and other infrastructures for him to see. There are so many things Soludo is doing and every normal human being is seeing them. Something must be wrong somewhere,” he said.

    Aburime said Soludo was far ahead of some perennial constants that APC had presented for election and that when the die was cast, the governor’s works would speak vigorously for him.

    He described Soludo as a governor for the poor and his free education policies, free antenatal and delivery services and gifts for nursing mothers were giving his governance a human face.

    According to him, Soludo is not a politician but a statesman. So you can not compare politicians with no ideology to Soludo who is a statesman and has his own philosophy and ideology he is pursuing.

    “Soludo is the only governor that has shown so much empathy and compassion for the downtrodden,” he said.

  • Ojukwu clarifies ‘Anambra mass grave’

    Ojukwu clarifies ‘Anambra mass grave’

    Amb. Bianca Ojukwu on Thursday in Awka refuted a report that a mass grave with 322 corpses had been found in Anambra.

    A Nov. 7 report in some sections of the media quoted a Nov. 6 post on the Facebook page of Ojukwu, Secretary to the Anambra Truth, Justice and Peace Commission (ATJPC), as the source of the story.

    “The former Nigerian ambassador to Spain did not disclose the exact area the grave site is located.

    “She said, however, that the discovery of the grave site was made through testimonies by witnesses who appeared before the ATJPC,’’ the report stated.

    In her reaction on Thursday, however, Ojukwu described the report as misleading.

    She explained that a suspected mass grave was discovered and sealed off for forensic investigation, but the number of persons buried there was not yet ascertained.

    She stated that 322 persons were verified killed or dead as a result of violence within Anambra in the course of the Commission’s sittings, as testified by witnesses who appeared before it.

    She added that many persons remained unaccounted for while 18 persons were identified as missing or having disappeared.

    “The attention of the ATJPC has been drawn to certain misleading news reports pertaining to the mass grave site in Anambra following the second phase of public hearings which took place from October to November.

    “Three hundred-and-thirty-two bodies were not recovered from the grave site as has been erroneously reported by some sections of the media.

    “This figure represents the number of persons verified as killed or dead as a result of violence within Anambra.

    “The number of bodies contained within this site is yet to be ascertained, and can only be known after a painstaking process of forensic investigation, hence the site has been sealed off,’’ Ojukwu stated.

    She added that the ATJPC urged all those whose relatives; loved ones or friends were missing to file a report with the newly-established Bureau of Missing Persons domiciled within the Ministry of Justice.

  • Anambra NNPP gets acting chairman

    Anambra NNPP gets acting chairman

    Mr Dave Akunyili has emerged the acting Chairman of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Anambara State chapter, to replace Mr Felix Chukwurah who was expelled due to alleged involvement in anti-party activities.

    The nomination exercise which took place in Awka, was organised by NNPP Southeast Zonal Secretary, Mr Izuchukwu Onwuekelu, and witnessed by Alhaji Aliyu Kwankwaso, acting Secretary, NNPP Enugu state.

    Onwuekelu said that Akunyili was unanimously chosen by the party faithful in the state, including state executive members, local government party chairmen and other stakeholders.

    He said that the nomination of the acting Chairman would require the approval of the National Working Committee (NWC).

    “The national leadership of the party recognised that getting a state chairman is a step towards the harmonisation of the party structures in Anambra.

    “The turnout of party stakeholders and faithful shows that they are supportive and loyal to the growth of the party under the leadership of Sen. Rabiu Kwankwaso and the National Chairman, Alhaji Abba Kawu Alli, ” he said.

    Addressing the party faithful after his nomination as acting Chairman, Akunyili promised to remain faithful and dedicated towards building a stronger NNPP that would liberate the people of Anambra State.

  • YPP ward Chairman shot dead in Anambra

    YPP ward Chairman shot dead in Anambra

    Chief Joe Moghalu, a grassroots politician and Ward Chairman of the Young Progressives Party( YPP) in Anambra has been shot dead.

    Mrs Chinwe Nnabuife, member (YPP) representing Orumba North and Orumba South Federal Constituency of Anambra in the National Assembly confirmed this in Awka on Sunday

    Moghalu until his death was the ward chairman of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) in Agbiligba Nanka.

    He was shot in the leg and stomach shortly after a stakeholders’ meeting he organised for the Nnabuife on Saturday ahead of the yet to scheduled rerun election in the ward following the decision of the election petition tribunal and Court of Appeal.

    Nnabuife said they had a fruitful meeting and had departed the venue barely one hour when the news of the tragic murder of ward chairman and grassroots politician reached her.

    She described the murder of her supporter as “inhumane and devastating

    She said the deceased was rushed to a hospital in Adazi Ani which could not save him before he was moved to the teaching hospital, Nnewi, where he was confirmed dead.

    “Yes, it was my ward chairman that was gunned down, it was not up to one hour after I left him after a stakeholders meeting that I was called and told he was shot and dead.

    “The tribunal and Court of Appeal had ruled that we should have a runoff election within 90 days, that is why we started mobilising and preparing.

    “It is a black Sunday for me, he was killed in his own village by assailants who eye witnesses said called him saboteur three times while shooting him. The runoff is actually in that area.

    “It is painful, they just killed a family man and a great political ally,” she said.

    CP Aderemi Adeoye, Commissioner of Police in Anambra who confirmed the incident, said whoever was responsible for the killing will have a date with the law.

    Adeoye said, “We shall definitely follow it up and whoever is responsible for killing him will have a date with the hangman”.

  • Governor Soludo’s father dies at 92

    Governor Soludo’s father dies at 92

    Pa Simeon Soludo, father of governor of Anambra, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo has died at the age of 92.

    Mr Chris Aburime, Press Secretary to Soludo said this in a statement on Monday.

    Aburime said the elder statesman popularly known as Ichie Akukananwa 1 of Isuofia in Aguata Local Governent Area died in the early hours of Nov. 6.

    He said Pa Soludo was survived by seven sons, eight daughters-in-law, 22 grand-children and six great-grandchildren.

    He quoted the governor as saying that his late father lived a fulfilled life and died at the ripe age of 92.

    The Press Secretary said further information would be communicated to the public in due course.

    Sanwo-Olu condoles with Soludo over father’s death

    Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State has commiserated with his Anambra counterpart, Gov. Charles Soludo, on the death of his father, Pa Simeon Soludo, aged 92.

    Sanwo-Olu, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Gboyega Akosile, on Monday said that Pa Soludo lived a fulfilled life.

    He urged Gov. Soludo, the deceased family, friends and associates, as well as indigenes of Umueze, Isuofia community and the people of Anambra to immortalise the good name of the late nonagenarian.

    ”On behalf of the good people of Lagos State and my adorable wife, Ibijoke, I sympathise with my colleague, Governor Charles Soludo, on the demise of his beloved father, Pa Simeon Nwankwo Soludo.

    ”I also send my heartfelt condolences to the entire Soludo family and the people of Anambra State over the death of the governor’s father.

    ”The elderly and wise counsel of Pa Soludo would be sorely missed, not only by his family but the entire people of Umueze, Isuofia community and the entire people of Anambra State.

    ”I pray God will grant Pa Simeon Nwankwo Soludo eternal rest and grant the family the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss,” he said.