UKEMVERANEWS

  Renowned pastor, author, and global prayer movement leader, Jerry Eze , has unveiled a $300,000 grant scheme aimed at empowering young entrepreneurs and supporting innovative business ideas across communities. The initiative is designed to provide financial relief, encouragement, and practical support to youths who are passionate about building sustainable businesses but face funding challenges. According to Jerry Eze, the grant scheme is part of his broader vision to promote economic empowerment, self-reliance, and hope among young people . He emphasized that many talented youths have viable ideas but lack the resources to bring them to life. Through this program, selected beneficiaries will receive funding to either start new ventures or expand existing ones. The grant is expected to be disbursed in phases, reaching multiple entrepreneurs from different sectors such as agriculture, technology, creative industries, fashion, and small-scale manufacturing. Beyond financial as...

  Caleb Muftwang of Plateau is set to join the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports. Mr Istifanus Nwansat, the political adviser to the governor, made this known in an interview with newsmen on Monday in Abuja. Nwansat said that the governor’s decision to join the APC was because it’s the option with the least risk in the face of the chaos in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Caleb Muftwang of Plateau is set to join the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) report Mr Istifanus Nwansat, the political adviser to the governor, made this known in an interview with newsmen on Monday in Abuja. Nwansat said that the governor’s decision to join the APC was because it’s the option with the least risk in the face of the chaos in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He explained that the impending defection of Muftwang to the APC would also align with President Bola Tinubu’s political and governance trajectory on ...

The Oba of Lagos, Rilwanu Akiolu I, has declared that the only way the people of Lagos will support President Muhammadu Buhari’s second term dream is to grant the state a special status. The monarch made the  statements while speaking yesterday, during the second quarter of 2018 Town Hall Meeting with residents, at Apapa Amusement Park, Lagos. Akiolu while reacting  after the Senate rejected a bill to officially recognize Lagos as Nigeria’s commercial capital in 2016,blamed former President Olusegun Obasanjo for Lagos not being  given an extraordinary status. Akiolu said: “During the recent visit of President Muhammadu Buhari to Lagos, I wanted to ask him that it was God and All Progressives Congress, APC, that helped to bring him to power, and that he must satisfy Lagos. “I expected APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to ask him for special status. I wrote to National Assembly that I want to present Lagos case on the floor.” He urged President Buhari...

The National Chairman of the Action Democratic Party (ADP), Engineer Yabagi Sani, has expressed surprise over President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to seek re-election in the 2019 election. Sani, speaking to newsmen on Thursday, noted that Buhari’s declaration would surely lead to the defeat of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) at the poll. “What is our headache if APC decides to field a liability or even chose not to field any candidate at all? But sincerely speaking, if the man truly have the interest of the nation at heart, he should not have succumbed to pressure to subject himself and the entire nation to another moments of fearful anxiety. “Now that we know where the APC is heading, our duty is to mobilize Nigerians to more than ever before obtain PVCs and come out to vote out hardship, wanton killings and unemployment, which another four years of Buhari represents. “We will double our efforts at ADP to provide a credible alternative that will have the age, vitality, ch...

Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has said Nigeria does not need President Muhammadu Buhari as her leader in 2019, noting that Monday’s declaration of reelection bid by the President was an ambition dead on arrival. The Ekiti State governor also noted that if President Buhari is re-elected, he would kill the country. Governor Fayose spoke to newsmen in Ado-Ekiti on Monday on the President’s intention, through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Idowu Adelusi. He said if President Buhari was unable to read the handwriting on the wall and know when to call it quit, Nigerians would show him the exit door in 2019 by voting him out of office. Fayose opined that the president was not only too old to lead the country well, he had bungled the opportunity given him by his woeful performance. “That ambition is dead on arrival. We don’t want grandpa as president anymore. Nigeria does not deserve a Buhari as president in 2019. Buhari is old and tired. When people don’t know when to t...

President Muhammadu Buhari has announced his intention to run in the 2019 Presidential election. The announcement was made on Monday in Abuja at the All Progressives Congress(APC)’s National Executive meeting.

President Muhammadu Buhari has declared that members of the John Odigie-Oyegun-led National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress, APC, are not eligible to seek reelection in the forthcoming congresses and national convention of the party. The President spoke at the National Executive Committee, NEC, meeting of the APC at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja on Monday. He pointed out that based on the provision of Section 30 (1) (3), any officer currently serving and wants to seek re-election must resign their appointments 30 days before the election. Buhari added that based on that provision, the current National Working Committee, NWC, and other officials across the states “are not eligible to run”. He, however, said if they choose to seek re-election, they may be allowed through waiver. Buhari stated that if the party wishes to grant such waiver, “a statement granting the waiver should be issued by the party immediately”.

About five hundred members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, from Ndume Ibeku ward in Umuahia north local government area of Abia state have defected to the All Progressives congress, APC. This is even as they decried the alleged failure of the Governor Okezie Ikpeazu-led administration to deliver dividends of democracy to the people, vowing to ensure the sack of PDP-led government in Abia state come 2019. Speaking at Ohokobe Mbaocha Square, venue of the declaration ceremony in Umuahia, the state capital, leader of the PDP decampees, Mr. Chukwudi Orji said their decision to dumped their former party to APC was borne out of the commitment and determination of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to transform Nigeria, stressing that the current federal government has laid solid foundation for the total economic development of the country. He said that they were defecting to the governing party with over five hundred PDP members and pledged on behalf of other ...

Director General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), Mr. Osita Okechukwu, on Wednesday, said that he did not mean to disparage Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State in his appeal on the governor to stop pitting the Catholic Church with the All Progressive Congress (APC) and by extension President Muhammadu Buhari. Okechukwu stated this in a press release in a reaction to an earlier one released by Governor Okorocha, on Wednesday, through his Chief Press Secretary, Sam Onwuemeodo, titled: ‘VON DG was wrong: Governor Okorocha is not pitting Catholic Church against APC’. According to Okechukwu, “I still maintain my appeal to His Excellency Owelle Rochas Okorocha to climb down from his high horse, address the main issue at stake and cultivate harmonious relationships with the great Catholic Church. “This is whether His Excellency Okorocha was forced or not to take Islamisation or Ogboni Oath at Assumpta Cathedral during the 2015 campaign. In fact, the oath if ever taken could have bee...

The Secretary to the Ebonyi State government (SSG), Professor Benard Odoh, has resigned. He said his action was the sequel to alleged wrongdoings of the state Governor David Umahi, especially in the handling of his cabinet members. In a 3-page resignation letter he wrote and tendered to the governor, which was made available to newsmen in Abakaliki, Odoh said it was no longer comfortable for him to continue to work with a government that did not offer a conducive atmosphere for all members of the cabinet to air their views. “In my opinion, this is the highest level of hypocrisy and the values I live do not allow me to operate in such deceptive atmosphere where people live opposite of what/who they are. “Having assured you (Umahi) on my inception of office and at several times that I owe you the responsibility to be truthful and honest always, I wish to inform you that all is not well in your administration sir. “If you observe carefully, almost all your appointees are nea...

Fela Durotoye, a consulting guru, leadership coach and public speaker, says he will be running for president, come 2019. The 46-year-old declared his intentions on Thursday, adding that he has researched all the national parties for a few months and has settled for the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN). “In line with our Values one of which is to ‘be a role model worthy of emulation’, I had to decide to get involved in the political arena rather than staying on the sidelines and only challenging others to go in,” he said. “It is my hope that as I step unto the political scene, many more of our brightest and best will arise to heed our nation’s clarion call to contest for elective offices, win the elections, and most importantly collectively deliver good governance to our nation. He said the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) cannot deliver a new Nigeria. “Therefore, to be clear, I am aspiring to contest as a Presidential Candidate in the ...

     By myvictoryb Godswill Akpabio, minority leader of the senate, says the national executive committee (NEC) meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is the continuation of confusion in the ruling party. Akpabio said this on Tuesday while seconding a motion for adjournment moved by Ahmed Lawan, senate leader. Lawan had moved the motion for adjournment to enable APC senators attend their NEC meeting. The minority leader said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senators were enough to form quorum and continue with proceedings. “Following the motion moved by the senate leader, the APC will be having a NEC meeting today and therefore there should be need for us to suspend all items on the order paper in other to enable them attend the NEC meeting,” he said. “Mr President I take the privilege of seconding this motion to say that even though we have the quorum, the quorum of the senate is about 37 and we in the PDP we can continue proceedings. To my collea...

The apology rendered to Nigerians by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) appeared to have been rejected by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), as the Federal Government has said looted funds should be returned rather than the party’s apology. A statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday quoted the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, challenging the party to show the genuineness of its apology through a discernible change of attitude. Mohammed said PDP should complete its apology to Nigerians by returning all the funds looted from the public treasury during its 16 years in power. “The PDP presided over an unprecedented looting of the public treasury, perhaps the worst of its kind in Nigeria or anywhere else in the world. “Therefore, the best evidence of penitence for such a party is not just to own up and apologise, but to also return the looted funds as anything short of that is mere deceit. The minister said with the paucity of funds, the administra...

President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the reversal of tenure elongation of Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and other National and State Executive Officers of the All Progressives Congress (APC). He described the elongation of their tenure by one year as unconstitutional. He told the National Executive Committee meeting of the party in Abuja on Tuesday that he had reflected on the elongation and also sought advice and had come to the conclusion that it is unconstitutional. The APC had in its NEC meeting on February 27 extended the tenure of members of National Working Committee (NWC) led by John Odigie-Oyegun by one year. “This motion was duly carried by a majority of members present at the last NEC Meeting, even though some of our party members have since spoken up very vehemently against it. Others have even taken the matter to court. “I have taken some time to review and seek advice on the resolution. And what I found is that it contravenes both our party Constitutio...

          by myvictoryb Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) chairman Prof Itse Sagay (SAN) on Sunday said the law allows Nigerians to defend themselves from being massacred. He backed the advice by a former Minister of Defence and an elder statesman, Lt. Gen. Theophilus  Danjuma (rtd.) that Nigerians should defend themselves against killers. Sagay urged the Federal Government to investigate Danjuma’s allegations that the armed forces were not neutral. According to him, the allegation that the armed forces guide the bandits to kill people and cover them up was “serious”. Sagay said: “General Danjuma did not say that the military is incapable. But he accused them of bias and not protecting the people deliberately. That’s a very, very serious accusation. “And this is coming from such a senior man in Nigeria’s military – probably apart from former General Olusegun Obasanjo and General Yakubu Gowon, he (Dajuma) is the most se...

by myvictoryb Honorable Dipo Olorunrinu is the only Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) member in the Lagos State House of Assembly. In this interview, he speaks on Governor Akinwunmi Ambode and the Lagos Assembly, among other issues. SEGUN KASALI brings the excerpts: As the only PDP member in the house, are you satisfied with all the decisions in the house or you are hindered by fear? Can I tell you this? Coming to the Lagos Assembly, I came in as a minority; I can’t be afraid of anybody. Like you said, it is just a matter of 39 against one. I might not be satisfied with everything they say as you have rightly said; 39 against one and it doesn’t also mean that I am not happy with what they also do, you understand. But the important thing is that the majority of the representatives have keyed into it, so we just work with the people we are standing in for. What we stand in for in the assembly as an institution is for the people. So, it’s like one person coming to say it should be li...

By myvictoryb President Muhammadu Buhari has been dubbed a leading contestant in the “competition of the incompetents” by the erstwhile Education Minister, Oby Ezekwesili. Ezekwesili, who is a co-convener of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) movement, stated this in response to President Buhari’s the comment that his government acted faster after the abduction of the 110 Dapchi schoolgirls unlike “insensitive” former President Goodluck Jonathan administration that “looked the other way” when over 200 Chibok girls were abducted in April 2014 by Boko Haram. But Ezekwesili described the comment as a “big shame”, adding that “Nigerians are not interested in Buhari comparing his “level of failure with another level of failure.” “Is this not a BIG SHAME? Our President Buhari is a leading contestant in the “Competition of the Incompetents.

By myvictoryb The Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the National Assembly to stop further action or proceeding on the Electoral Act Amendment Bill which President Muhammadu Buhari rejected. The restraining order was issued on Wednesday, by Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the High Court. The ruling is a sequel to an oral application made in a suit filed by the Accord Party against the National Assembly, the Attorney General of the Federation, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). In the ruling, the court ordered the parties to “maintain status quo ante bellum”. All the parties are ordered to stay every proceeding pending the determination of the motion on notice filed by the Accord party. The Accord party had approached the court with a motion seeking an order of interlocutory injunction restraining the National Assembly from taking any further action or actions on the Bill titled Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, 2018, particularly, to convene to pass t...

By myvictoryb A group of youths are calling for more platforms to participate in the country’s democratic process. The demand is contained in a communiqué of the South-East Youth Decide 2019 symposium, popularly known as “#Youthdecide2019’’, issued in Enugu on Wednesday. The communiqué was signed by the Convener of #Youthdecide2019, Mr Chukwuma Okenwa, and a panellist in the symposium, Miss Julia Nwosu. The communiqué also called on consistent re-orientation and enlightenment campaigns for citizens especially the youths that would help to improve the nation’s value system. The statement said there was a need for change in the political structure of the nation to favour youth leadership. It noted that the youths were the chief pilot of every successful government in the world, however in the case of Nigerian youths’ apathy to governance and electoral process was being observed. “There has never been a more suitable time for Nigerian youths to be more informed, guided an...