Ogun State Governor-Elect, Dapo Abiodun; and Deputy Governor-Elect, Mrs. Noimot Salako-Oyedele, have presented their Certificates of Return to President Muhammadu Buhari.
Accompanied by a former Governor of the State, Olusegun Osoba, the incoming governor and deputy met Buhari at the State House, Abuja, on Friday.
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President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday met behind closed doors with Service Chiefs and heads of security agencies at the presidential villa, Abuja.
The meeting, which held for about three hours, started around 11am.
The security chiefs were expected to brief the President on security situation in the country including the recent killings in Kaduna State.
The meeting might have also dwelt on the supplementary elections in some states, which were declared inconclusive.
But none of the security chiefs briefed State House correspondents on the actual discussions at the meeting.
When the meeting ended, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, declined to speak on the accusation leveled against the Army by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of meddlesomeness in Rivers State elections.
Asked to react to the allegation, Buratai referred journalists to the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, saying, “The IG will speak.”
But the IGP also declined comment when approached.
He simply said there would be no official briefing.
Recall that INEC had condemned what it described as the role played by some soldiers and armed gangs in Rivers State, which it said led to the disruption of the electoral process.
The National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, said the action which took place during the March 9 election was an attempt to subvert the will of the people.
The commission based its allegation on part of the submissions made by its fact-finding committee which assessed the situation in Rivers State.
At the meeting were Chief of Defence Staff, General Gabriel Olonishakin, Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Yusuf Buratai, Chief of Naval Staff, Ibok-Ete Ibas, and Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadiq Abubakar.
Also present were the National Security Adviser, Major Gen. Babagana Monguno, Director of National Intelligence Agency, NIA, Ahmed Abubakar, the Director General, Department of Security Service, DSS, Yusuf Bichi, and the Chief of Defence Intelligence and the Minister of Defence, Brigadier Gen. Mansur Dan-Ali.
President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday met behind closed doors with the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The meeting started around 4.30p.m when the President returned to the seat of power after attending a function at the Nicon Luxury Hotel, Abuja.
A similar meeting was also held on Friday 4th of January, 2019 shortly after the Jumma’at prayer at the State House mosque.
Idris was expected to retire from service on attainment of the mandatory 35 years in service on the 15th of January, 2019.
Idris was appointed by President Buhari on 21 March 2016 to replace Solomon Arase, who retired from the police force on 21 June 2016.
The 59- year old Ibrahim Idris enlisted into the Nigerian Police Force in 1984, after graduating from the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria with a bachelor’s degree in Agriculture.
While there are filers that the president might extend the IG’s tenure, politicians across party lines have kicked against such. They insisted that the IG must step aside for the next most qualified officer.
The meeting was still in progress at the time of filing this report.
President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday met behind closed doors with the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris.
The meeting took place at the President’s office shortly after the Jumma’at prayer at the State House mosque.
Idris was expected to retire from service on attainment of the mandatory 35 years in service on Thursday.
A source on Friday said that the fate of the police boss will be known after the meeting.
“We are optimistic, but all will be known after this meeting,” the source said.
Idris at the end of the meeting did not speak with journalists and no official statement yet on the latest development.
Idris was appointed by President Buhari on 21 March 2016, to replace Solomon Arase, who retired from the police force on 21 June 2016.
The 59- year old Ibrahim Idris enlisted into the Nigerian Police Force in 1984, after graduating from the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria with a bachelor’s degree in Agriculture.
Speculations are rife that at the attainment of the Idris’ mandatory retirement age of 60 years of service in the police on Wednesday, January 3, the President may extend it for some period of time given that the country is on the verge of a national elections in few weeks time.
President Muhammadu Buhari again on Friday met behind closed doors with the National Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
The meeting was held inside the President’s office at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
That was the second time the two leaders would be meeting in one week having met on Wednesday.
Details later…
President Muhammadu Buhari has met with former Department of State Services (DSS) Director-General Lawal Daura.
According to a report by The Nation, the meeting which held last week was in connection with a report on the August 7, 2018 invasion of the National Assembly by hooded DSS operatives.
It was also gathered that the meeting centered on the resurgence of the Boko Haram insurgency in some parts of the Northeast.
The options before the President are either to close Daura’s chapter on the invasion or re-engage him in the light of what some have considered an intelligence deficit in the fight against Boko Haram and the seeming ethno-religious tension in some states in the last three months.
The plight of Leah Sharibu and Boko Haram’s execution of Hauwa Amina Liman, one of the two kidnapped International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) workers were said to have created some intelligence gaps, which Daura was believed to have filled in the past.
A Presidency source confirmed that the President “had audience” with the former DG of DSS. This is the first time Buhari has met the former spymaster since he left office.
”Their meeting had to do with a pending report on the invasion of the National Assembly before the President and the nation’s security apparatchik,” the source said, pleading not to be named because of the “sensitivity” of the matter.
“Apart from reading the report, the President used the opportunity to hear Daura’s side of the security siege to the National Assembly by DSS operatives,” he added.
The meeting followed what the source described as pressure from Dasuki’s associate including members of the President’s kitchen cabinet.
”While some want the President to foreclose Daura’s case, others have insisted that the President should re-engage the former DG of DSS.
”Forces opposed to Daura have defended his sack by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo as a timely decision to save the nation’s democracy. They also see Daura’s return under any guise as a slight on the VP and a signal that the Presidency is disunited,” said the source, adding:
”They also claim that Daura did more damage to the security system and brought much strain to the principle of separation of powers by the three arms of government, including the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary. They pointed at the arbitrary invasion, arrest and detention of judges by DSS.”
But, to Daura’s associate what is more important is “the larger picture of the nation’s security”. They claim that Daura’s contributions far outweigh the infraction of August 7, 2018 more so when the ex-DG of DSS has insisted that he did not act alone.
Said the source: ”The pro-Daura elements attributed the recent intelligence setback in managing Boko Haram crisis in the Northeast to the absence of the ex-DG of DSS. The Army and the Air Force have lived up to expectations but the intelligence back up has suffered in the last three months, leading to the incessant ambush of troops.
”They claimed that Daura was a key link to Boko Haram contacts and negotiation with the insurgents which led to the release of Chibok and 105 girls of Government Girls’ Technical College, Dapchi in Yobe State even without the knowledge of the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Air Force.
”They pointed to the dilemma of a Dapchi school girl, Leah Sharibu, and felt only Daura ( as a member of the nation’s security set-up) can address it.
Investigation revealed that there is a plot by some forces to mount pressure on the President to appoint Daura to another top security office .
Another source added: “No doubt, there are plans to re-draw the nation’s security apparatchik to respond to recent challenges in the Northeast and other parts of the country. What is on the card is for the President to re-engage Daura and give him a higher responsibility. But the President is also mindful of the possible backlash such a measure will attract.”
“A major challenge is the moral burden the return of Daura might create for President Muhammadu Buhari because Nigerians will see him as indulging Daura and making the former DG of DSS indispensable.”
While sacking Daura, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who was then the Acting President, told the nation that the disciplinary measure was necessary to end impunity in the country.
He described the DSS operatives’ invasion of the National Assembly as ‘a gross violation of constitutional order, rule of law and accepted notions of law and order.’
Inspector -General of Police Ibrahim Idris, in his report on the invasion of the National Assembly, claimed that Daura ‘acted unilaterally, without informing the Presidency. He did not share or intimate other Security Agencies on the unlawful operations’.
President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday met behind closed doors with the national leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Tinubu arrived the State House around 4pm.
While the agenda of the meeting was unknown, the meeting came at a time the President is trying to resolve the crisis that followed the party’s primaries across the country.
It was still in progress at the time of filing this report.
Details Later…
The Chief of Staff (COS) to President Muhammadu Buhari, Abba Kyari, on Friday met behind closed doors with the National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu.
The meeting, which was held at the COS office, lasted for about thirty minutes.
The agenda of the meeting was not made public.
Yakubu did not speak with State House correspondents at the end of the meeting. The Presidency also has yet to issue a statement on the meeting as of the time of filing this report.
The meeting was however held barely 24 hours after the electoral commission published the names of presidential candidates contesting the 2019 election and their details.
President Muhammadu Buhari will be seeking a second term on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress.
The President, a former military ruler, had claimed in his details published by INEC that his credentials were with the Secretary of the Military Board.
Since the claim was made public, it has been generating controversy the same way it did when Buhari made the same claim ahead of the 2015 presidential election which he won. Some of his supporters had at the time said even if he presented “NEPA bill” in lieu of credentials, they would still vote for him against the then President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party.
Jonathan lost that election to Buhari. But in the 2019 election, Buhari’s main challenger is former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar of the PDP.
The National Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Uche Secondus, said by success of the party’s presidential primaries in Port Harcourt, Rivers, the PDP’s journey to Aso Rock villa has begun in earnest.
Secondus said this in a statement issued by his Media Aide, Ike Abonyi, on Monday in Abuja.
Secondus noted that all the doomsday predictions that PDP was going to emerge from their national convention swimming in crisis had been proved wrong as “the party was not only more peaceful but more united and determined to take over power’’.
He said the pacesetting convention was a clear demonstration that the rebranding and repositioning of the party with a view to regaining power was actually on course and in full gear.
“The support from members and non-members to the reform agenda of the party that culminated in the successful primaries from ward to national levels shows clearly the determination of Nigerians to return PDP to power.”
Secondus commended members of the party across the country and in diaspora for their support that made the party’s Presidential primaries peaceful and transparent.
He said by that singular action, the party’s journey to regaining power from the All Progressives Congress (APC) had begun well and “only a matter of time.’’
Secondus urged all hands to be on deck until the country was rescued.
He said the peaceful convention would not have been possible without the support of critical stakeholders working on the same page to realise the common goal.
“Special recognition must be made of those whose yeoman roles made it possible, all those who participated either as aspirants, or as facilitators.’’
These, according to him, included the Chairman of the National Convention Committee and Governor of Delta, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa and members of his committee
Also was the Rivers State Governor, Neysom Wike and the government and people of the state for their exceptional service and contributions to the party and the successful hosting of the convention.
He also commended the wonderful roles of all the PDP governors as well as other critical stakeholders and members at all levels as well as the media and the public for their positive interests in the party.
Secondus appealed to members, who contested for various positions and lost to emulate the Presidential aspirants.
He urged them to make the necessary sacrifice needed for the eventual success of the party, saying that PDP umbrella was big enough for all in victory.
![[Photos] Independence: Buhari receives Kumuyi in Aso Rock, says 'my morale is boosted'](https://thenewsguru.ng/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Kumuyi-Buhari-I.jpg)
President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday said that the visit by the General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church, Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi to the Presidential Villa, Abuja has boosted his morale.
He also noted that God did not make any mistake by creating 250 ethnic groups in Nigeria.
In a statement by the Special Adviser on Media and publicity, Femi Adesina, the President said “God did not make a mistake when he created over 250 different ethnic groups, and decided to put them in a place called Nigeria,’’
President Buhari said that Nigerians must appreciate God for bringing everyone together.
“We must appreciate God for bringing us together. He knows what he was doing. He didn’t make a mistake,’’ the President noted.
Describing Nigeria as “a great country’’ endowed with human and natural resources, President said: “We have challenges in trying to get people to understand us.
“With my experience as a governor, Minister of Petroleum, Head of State, Chairman of Petroleum Trust Fund, I thought I had seen it all, but Nigeria has a way of going at its own speed.
“My morale is raised by your visit. I very much appreciate it.’’ he added
President Buhari recalled what he described as Pastor Kumuyi’s “intellectual achievements’’ as a scholar and university lecturer before going into full time ministry, adding that he was “excited a great deal’’ for the General Superintendent’s acceptance of government’s invitation to preach the sermon at the country’s 58th independence anniversary.
“Thank you very much,’’ the President said.
In his remarks, Pastor Kumuyi, who leads one of the country’s largest Pentecostal churches, said it was an honour to be received by the President on a busy day as October 1.
He told the President that he appreciates the government.
“Please remain focused and courageous and do what is right. Not everyone will support you publicly, but we are praying for you so that your tenure will be one of progress and prosperity for the country.’’
The General Superintendent was accompanied by his wife, Esther, Pastor Samuel Afuwape, Pastor Chike Onwuasoanya and Pastor Seyin Malomo, the Chaplain of Aso Chapel.