APC EXPELS FORMER MINISTER

The All Progressives Congress, APC, in Akwa Ibom State, says it remains resolute in its expulsion of a former minister of state for the Federal Capital Territory, John Udoedehe, from the party.

Mr. Udoedehe, who is also a former senator, has been in a longstanding feud with other party leaders in the state since he was beaten by Umana Umana at the party’s governorship primaries in 2015.

Mr. Udoedehe is insisting that he was rigged out of the primaries.

He has refused to accept a former minister of petroleum, Don Etiebet, as the leader of the party caucus in the state, and has also put up adverts in local papers proclaiming the “dissolution” of the party leadership in the state.

The APC Chairman in the state, Amadu Attai, told journalists, Friday, in Uyo that Mr. Udoedehe stands expelled and excommunicated from the party.

Mr. Attai, surrounded by the 17 members of the party Exco in the state, accused Mr. Udoedehe of sponsoring media attacks against the APC and its leaders in the state, so as to hurt the party’S image and put the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in an advantage ahead of the 2019 governorship election.

“As the majority of you here may undoubtedly be aware of, there have been of late attempts by some riff-raffs and characters unknown to our Party to mislead the general public to think that there is (a) crisis in the Akwa Ibom State chapter of our great Party,” Mr. Attai said.

“The Amadu Attai-led State Executive of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Akwa Ibom State with its secretariat at No.4 Atiku Abubakar Avenue, Uyo, is intact. Indeed, it remains the one and only Exco of our Party that has been carrying out its official functions.

“We call on all our members and teeming supporters of our great Party in the State, and, indeed, the general public to totally disregard the false reports and the rumours peddled by some uninformed rascals and disgruntled elements who call themselves ‘forum of state officers, chapter executives and ward executives’. There is no such body known to the Constitution of the All Progressives Congress, APC.”

As the APC press briefing was going on at about 2.30 p.m. at the party secretariat, Atiku Abubakar Avenue, Mr. Udoedehe was being driven in a long convoy into the city from the Akwa Ibom International Airport where he had just landed.

Those who witnessed Mr. Udoedehe’s entry into the city told PREMIUM TIMES that the atmosphere was similar to that of a political rally.

Mr. Udoedehe’s expulsion was first carried out at the ward and then the Uyo local government chapter of the APC before it was ratified on January 26 by the state executive of the party.

The sins of the former minister, the party says, is that he sponsored some thugs to attack the executive members of the party at the party secretariat.

The former senator told PREMIUM TIMES that the APC at his ward, Ward 6, Uyo, did not expel him.

“Those names and signatures are completely fake,” he said.

He accused the MD, Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Nsima Ekere, of manipulating the party against him because he (Mr. Ekere) wants to contest for the governorship in 2019.

“He (Mr. Ekere) bribed the party members to sign documents against me,” Mr. Udoedehe said. “I am not accusing Umana this time around. I’m saying it is Nsima that did it. Let him come out and defend himself.

“My ward chairman’s name is Monday Utuk. My chapter chairman is Emmanuel Andy. Everybody knows that.

“I have told the party at the national that ‘it’s like you are tying my hands to allow my enemies to box me’.

“If people were in the PDP when we formed the party, and because they have money they throw their morals into the gutter.

Mr. Ekere did not respond to telephone calls and text message from PREMIUM TIMES.

NEWS SOURCE: PREMIUM TIMES

EFCC HAVE UNCOVERED A $37.5M BANANA ISLAND MANSION BELONGING TO DIEZIANI ALISON-MADUEKE

EFCC says it has uncovered a $37.5m mansion belonging to former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke at Banana Island, Lagos. A statement by the antigraft agency states that the mansion on Building 3, Block B, is a fifteen storey edifice comprising of 18 flats and 6 penthouses, Bella Vista at Plot 1, Zone N, Federal Government Layout, Banana Island Layout, Foreshore Estate, Off Onikoyi Road, Ikoyi, Lagos.


The property was allegedly acquired by the former minister between 2011 and 2012 at a total cost of Thirty Seven Million, Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars ($37,500,000USD) from the developers, YF Construction Development and Real Estate.

The property was allegedly acquired in the name of a shell company, Rusimpex Limited under the control of certain Mr. Afamefuna Nwokedi of Stillwaters law firm, in Lagos.

MADONNA'S NEWLY ADOPTED TWINS SISTERS SAY THEY'RE HAPPY THAT THEIR SISTERS HAVE BEEN TAKEN OUT THEIR STRICKEN-POVERTY VILLAGE

Alinefe and Tifa Mwale who live in a brick and clay home in the impoverished village of Kayembe in Malawi, say they are delighted for four-year-old sisters Stella and Esther after they were adopted this week. The four-year-old twins, whose mother died in childbirth, are now at Madonna's £32million townhouse in New York after being flown to the US by private jet.

She says she’s glad they are part of a family and they now have a mother who will love them. I want them to grow old being loved and to have people who cherish them.

The twins had been left in an orphanage since birth after their mother Patricia died from a loss of blood following a caesarean section delivery in August 2012.

They do not have running water, electricity or a toilet in their home, and father Adam is regularly away looking for work. The state the children were born in is a state no child should be born into.

In a public statement Madonna said she felt 'compelled' to seek their adoption after hearing their tragic story.

ETISALAT DIRECTOR ASSASSINATED IN BROAD DAYLIGHT IN BENIN CITY

The man, said to be an Etisalat Director, was assassinated in broad day light while driving in his SUV with his wife & son in Benin City yesterday. The son was also shot but the wife escaped unhurt.

KENYAN GIRL SENT BACK FROM THE US OVER TRUMP BAN

A Kenyan girl was denied entry into the United States just days after courts barred President Donald Trump from deporting immigrants.

The girl identified as Ednah Chepkoton, was held at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport for many hours after getting off a United Airlines flight on Saturday, February 4, 2017

The 25-year-old nursing graduate had been given a five-year multiple entry visa by the US embassy in Nairobi on Friday, January 20, 2017

Narrating to the sad experience to the Star, she said:

'We landed at around 9.30 am but when I was clearing with the customs an immigration officer called me aside and started questioning me. I was so confused and terrified. It was my first trip out of Kenya, she said.

The officer then started checking her luggage and documents. He asked her why she was carrying her academic papers and if she did not plan to return to Kenya.

'I told him I always travel with my papers and that I had a return ticket," she said.

After the interrogations which took four hours, the officer demanded her cell phone

'He asked for the password which I gave to him,' she said, adding she was then asked to leave the office.

'I went back to ask why my case was taking long because my flight was leaving. It was at that juncture that the officer, who was with a woman in uniform, told me he had two questions for me,'

She was asked to choose between being banned from the US for five years and having her visa withdrawn.

Ednah requested the officers to let her call her cousin. They refused.

Caught between a hard rock and a hard place, she chose the cancellation of her multiple entry visa. Her visa now bears a United States Homeland Security stamp withdrawing it.

Ednah was bundled into a return flight to Nairobi at around 6pm, more than eight hours after setting foot in the US.

'I was really looking forward to my one-month stay in the US. We had spent a lot of money on air tickets. It is so sad that after all the vetting at the embassy in Nairobi I was humiliated this much.

Upon returning to Kenya, she, however, called the US embassy and was told to send her denial of entry letter.