I HAVE NOT FLED NIGERIA-GABRIEL SUSWAM

 Following speculations that the former Governor of Benue state, Gabriel Suswam has fled Nigeria, he has issued a statement.Read his statement below:



It has been over a year since the mandate of political power changed hands from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), at the Federal level and also here in Benue State.

This change of power came through peaceful, free and fair elections which were preceded by open space for unhindered play of politics in which the people expressed their political preferences and made the choices through the ballot which they deemed most appealing to them.

It was an epoch in our history which was marked loudly and clearly by the power of the free ballot, and rightly the people had high hopes going forward from what could be termed their political investment by their confered mandate.

My pride remains that all of this took place under my watch as Governor of this state, and I am grateful to Almighty God that I was able to surmount the pressures of high office and placed the sovereignty of the people above narrowed personal interests.

By the time we as a political group were leaving the stage of power we had whetted the appetite of the people and lifted their democratic tastes to certain standards above what previously obtained.

It is the reality of having attained such standards of Democracy that today places a minimum level of expectation by the people on the ruling APC controlled government in Benue State. And these are expectations that could only be met through ingenious application of available resources to execution of projects which are of priority to the people.

These expectations in themselves form the basis for a contract between the people and government which is at once immediate and urgent in demand, and under the circumstance there hardly could exist room for excuses for non performance.

Against this reality, I dare say that the governmnt of my successor, Gov. Samuel Ortom will need to evaluate all over again its priorities to align them with the expectations of the people for maximum impact. Spending quantum amounts of time and resources seeking after prosecution of my person and those who served under my administration could hardly pass for the priority of this state in this contemporary times.

While I and the others being arrested on a daily basis may have nothing to fear from those arrests, it could never be ignored that such a trend is hardly helpful to the quest for a better and stronger Benue State which is only possible under an atmosphere of unity of purpose.

May I say here that no governmnt can in all seriousness afford to throw away a sizeable portion of its human resources such as the political family I and others do belong in but which is presently estranged from the ruling government in this state, not by our own making but by the deliberate choice of the governmemt.

I like to call on all PDP faithful in Benue State to remain steadfast, be law-abiding and understand that the role of the opposition which is a necessity thrust on us all by historic circumstances is one we must discharge with a view to building our state more than any other thing else.

In discharging our role as the opposition, we must be mindful of the overall interest of Benue State and work towards ensuring that the electoral gains recorded during the last elections are not frittered away but are sustained and improved upon at all subsequent elections.

This is an historic duty which we must discharge against whatever odds, be they arrests, threat to life  and personal privation, for only through the power of the free ballot can we be able to build a society free and salubrious enough for us and generations after us.

Lastly, I like to dispel the rumour being peddled by government that I have ran away from imminent police arrest. This is a most pedestrian lie which shouldn't be coming from the high offices of government. I will come back after my Medicals to answer any invitation from security agencies when ever such is extended to me.

God bless you all.

THE FUNNY POLITICS IN KONSHISHA.

Konshisha local Government belongs to the second or third generation of local councils in Nigeria having been created in 1989 by the the Babangida administration. One would expect the local to come of age in terms of development.
Sadly enough, Konshisha remains of of the most backward local Government. There is nothing to point at as an accomplishment of the local government despite its huge revenue.
You can count some strutues viz, three club houses, a leaking secretariat counting its days and one tarred federal road that run across the council.
With fertile land ,and  a huge allocation from the federal Government, one wanders why Konshisha remain undeveloped. The reason is simple- greed and selfish interest.
 The aim of every politician in Konshisha is to have a house in makurdi and Abuja. The launching pad is therefore Konshisha. You annoint a stooge as your bait or you go yourself. Nobody screen candidates. The question i s who is sponsoring you?
All former chairmen of Konshisha have mansions in makurdi, but not a single boys quarter in Tse agberagba. There are all visitors there.
Time has come for Konshisha to change. Let's do away with the who is sponsoring you syndrome but look for sons and daughters of the local government ho will develop the council.
Enough is enough.

JAMB announces deadline for
2016/2017 admission exercise for
all schools
...
...
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board
(JAMB) has announced that the deadline for the
2016/2017 academic session admission exercise
will be on Wednesday, 30th November, 2016.
This was contained in a statement issued by the
JAMB Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede during the
technical meeting on 2016 admissions to first
choice institutions at Bayero University Kano
(BUK).
He said it was imperative for all Vice-
Chancellors, Rectors and Provosts to abide by
the agreement and ensure its implementation.
While Speaking, Oloyede warned that no name
of candidate must emanate from any other
source outside the list prepared and
recommended by the tertiary institutions.
“The Senate or Academic Board of each
institution has the prerogative of admitting
candidates to their respective institutions
subject.
“Of course, only to national policies which
include guidelines stipulated by the proprietors
of the institutions, 60:40 (Science/Art) ratio for
Conventional Universities, 80:20 (Science/Art)
ratio for Non-Conventional Universities, 70:30
(Technology/Non-Technology) ratio for National
Diploma Awarding Institutions.
“Use of 2016 JAMB UTME results printouts for
all candidates who scored 180 and above,
among others,” he added.

Breaking:N107bn fraud: Court
freezes ex-Benue
workers’ accounts
...
...
An Abuja Chief Magistrates’ Court has
ordered the immediate freezing of the
bank accounts of 12 former officials of
Benue State recently arrested by the
Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission in collaboration with the
police.
This was made known by the state’s
Attorney-General and Commissioner for
Justice, Mr. Mike Gusa, on Thursday.
Gusa, who spoke with our correspondent in
Makurdi, the state capital, said those
whose accounts were frozen included, a
former Commissioner for Finance,
Omadachi Oklobia; a former Adviser on
Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs,
Prince Solomon Wombo; a former
Permanent Secretary in the Bureau for
Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs,
Asen Sambe; the accountant of the
bureau, Isaiah Ipevnor, and 12 others
indicted by the Justice Margaret Kpojime-
led investigative panel that probed the
eight-year tenure of former Governor
Gabriel Suswam.
The panel had indicted 52 persons for
allegedly looting over N107bn belonging to
the state government.
Gusa said the court gave the order while
ruling on an ex parte motion brought before
it by the police detectives in charge of the
investigation into the matter.
He said, ‘’Since these people were arrested
and investigation is still going on, the
police decided to obtain an order from the
court to put every transaction around their
account on hold pending when the
investigation will be completed.”
The commissioner said the order had been
served on all the affected banks and
expressed the hope that the state
government would follow due process in
the recovery of the looted funds.
He said when recovered, the funds would
be used to fulfil the state government’s
obligations including the payment of
workers’ salary arrears and building critical
infrastructure.
The attorney-general disclosed that so far,
over N250m had been recovered from the
alleged looters, adding that the state
government in collaboration with the anti-
graft agencies was making efforts to
recover the looted funds.
Via the punch News paper...

FG inaugurates N5.6bn water project in
Otuoke, Bayelsa x President  Jonathan's Village.
...
...

The Federal Government on Thursday
inaugurated the Central Ogbia Regional
Water Supply Project in Bayelsa.
The Minister of Water Resources, Mr
Suleiman Adamu, who inaugurated the
project, said 13 communities, including
Otuoke, would benefit from it.
According to him, the Federal Government is
committed to complete all abandoned water
projects to improve livelihood.
Adamu said adequate water supply for
human and livestock production was a
crucial aspect of social and economic
development.
He said the recently launched roadmap on
water resources underscore the need for
short and long term strategies for effective
and efficient delivery of water to the people.
“The project we are inaugurating today is
among the high priority projects for water
supply.
“This project commissioning, therefore,
further demonstrates that the Buhari
administration is committed to completing
all viable projects that have positive impact
on the lives of our people without any
political sentiments,’’ the minister said.
He called on the host communities to take
ownership of the water project by
maintaining it for improvement of livelihood
and reducing water borne diseases.
The Secretary to Bayelsa State Government,
Mr Serena Dokubo, commended the Federal
Government for the project, saying such
project was needed in other communities.
Dokubo said the state would continue to
embark on project that would impact on the
lives of the people.
Speaking at the occasion, Sen. Ben Murray-
Bruce (Bayelsa East), noted that lives were
saved every time a water project was
inaugurated.
“A lot of children die from consumption of
unclean water, a lot fall sick, you have to
spend more to take them to the hospital to
get cured,’’ Murray-Bruce said.
It was reported that about 130,000 people
were expected to benefit from the
N5.9billion project.

SPEECH BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI, AT THE LAUNCH OF THE NATIONAL RE-ORIENTATION CAMPAIGN, CHANGE BEGINS WITH ME, AT THE BANQUET HALL OF THE STATE HOUSE, ABUJA, ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8TH 2016
PROTOCOLS:

I welcome you all to this important occasion of the launching of the National Re-orientation Campaign, called ‘Change Begins With Me’. Nigeria today is passing through a challenging moment where hardly anything works in a normal manner. Many have attributed this phenomenon to the total breakdown of our core values over the years.

2. It is safe to say today that honesty, hard work, Godliness have given way to all kinds of manifestations of lawlessness and degeneration in our national life. This is why we have among our cardinal objectives ‘change’, which implies the need for a change of attitude and mindset in our everyday life.

3 I need not mention the serious effort we have engaged in since the inception of this administration on the fight against corruption in our public life. With the progress we have so far made in that regard, we feel the need to ensure that we put in place the necessary sustainable framework for action and measures that will help to entrench and consolidate the progress achieved so far.

4. This we believe can best be maintained through attitudinal change, and the change of our mindset in private and public life. The campaign we are about to launch today is all about the need for us to see change not merely in terms of our economic, social progress but in terms of our personal behaviour on how we conduct ourselves, engage our neigbhours, friends and generally how we relate with the larger society in a positive and definitive way and manner that promotes our common good and common destiny, change at home, change in the work place, change at traffic junction, change at traffic lights etc.

5. This campaign is part of the determination of our party to seek to carry all Nigerians along on the journey to a better and greater society that we all can be proud of.

6. There is no doubt that our value system has been badly eroded over the years. The long-cherished and time honoured, time-tested virtues of honesty, integrity, hard work, punctuality, good neighbourliness, abhorrence of corruption and patriotism, have given way in the main to dishonesty, indolence, unbridled corruption and widespread impunity.

7. The resultant effect of this derailment in our value system is being felt in the social, political and economic sphere. It is the reason that some youths will take to cultism and brigandage instead of studying hard or engaging in decent living; it is the reason that some elements will break pipelines and other oil facilities, thus robbing the nation of much-needed resources; it is the reason that money belonging to our commonwealth will be brazenly stolen by the same public officials to whom they were entrusted; it is the reason why motorist drive through red traffic lights, it is the reason that many will engage in thuggery and vote-stealing during elections; it is part of what has driven our economy into deep problem out of which we are now working hard to extricate ourselves. Every one of us must have a change from our old ways of doing things, we cannot fold our arms and allow things to continue the old way.

8. We must resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship, pettiness and immaturity that have poisoned our country for so long. Let us summon a new spirit of responsibility, spirit of service, of patriotism and sacrifice, Let us all resolve to pitch in and work hard and look after, not only ourselves but one another, What the current problem has taught us is that we cannot have a thriving army of rent seekers and vested interests, while the majority suffers.

9. Rather than sit back and complain endlessly, we have decided to act pragmatically, with the launch of this National Re-orientation Campaign. The campaign will not be a sprint but a marathon that will run the course of our tenure. We are under no illusion that the changes we seek will happen overnight, but we have no doubt that the campaign will help restore our value system and rekindle our nationalistic fervor

10. I am therefore appealing to all Nigerians to be part of this campaign. Our citizens must realize that the change they want to see begins with them, and that personal and social reforms are not theoretic exercise. If you have not seen the change in you, you cannot see it in others or even the larger society. In other words, before you ask ‘where is the change they promised us’, you must first ask how far have I changed my ways ‘what have I done to be part of the change for the greater good of society’.

11. While the government will drive the Change Begins With Me’ campaign, it must be strongly supported by all concerned individually. In this regard the private sector is a major stakeholder. Indeed when the campaign succeeds, it will impact heavily on the private sector. A punctual, diligent and hardworking staff can only be of benefit of not just himself or herself or the organization they work for but to various governments whether at local, state or Federal level.

12. While congratulating the stakeholders, especially Ministry of Information and Culture and the National Orientation Agency for conceiving this campaign, I charge all to pursue the campaign with vigour and ensure its sustenance by taking it to all the nook and crannies of this country, with the aim of getting the buy in of the old, the young, the rich, the poor irrespective of gender or other social positions.

13. Your Excellencies, Honourable Ministers, Members of the National Assembly, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is now my pleasure to formally launch and handover the instrument of the Change Campaign tagged Change Begins With Me to the Honourable Minister for Information and Culture, for transmission to all Nigerians and friends of Nigeria. Indeed I say to the glory of Mighty Allah, “Change Begins With Me”

14. Thank you all for your kind attention

AIRCRAFTS IN PRESIDENTIAL FLEET TO BE REDUCED.

 Senior Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, Garba Shehu, has said the President has put in place a committee to reduce the number of aircraft on the Presidential fleet. Shehu made the disclosure on his official twitter handle @GarShehu, while reacting to an inquiry on the state of Nigeria’s Presidential fleets. Nigerians over the years have frowned at the Federal Government over the huge funds expended in maintaining the large number of aircraft in the Presidential fleet. Reacting to the criticisms, Shehu wrote: “There is a govt committee already in place, working to reduce the number of aircraft in the Presidential fleet.”