The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide, OYC, on Wednesday raised alarm over the whereabouts of the Spiritual Director of Adoration Ministry, Enugu Nigeria, AMEN , Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka.
The fiery Enugu priest has been in the news after he asked President Muhammadu Buhari to resign for his failure to tackle the rising insecurity in the country.
His call which didn’t go down well with the FG was followed by a revelation by the presidency that he was attacking Buhari because he was refused a contract.
Ohanaeze Youth Council has now claimed that the priest was missing.
In a statement issued by the Zonal Secretary of OYC, Mazi Okwu Nnabuike, he said Mbaka was last seen on Tuesday, adding that every effort to trace him had failed.
“We have it on good authority that his aides have neither seen nor heard from him since Tuesday.“Calls put to his mobile line have also remained unanswered; this has now prompted us to issue this alarm as we would not take it lightly should anything untoward happen to him.
We are giving the Federal Government 48 hours to produce the priest, else they should be ready to face Igbo youths. They were dining and wining with him all along and now that he told them the truth, they are no longer comfortable with him.
Let nothing happen to Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka. It will not be in anybody’s interest,” the group warned.
DAILY POST reports that they reached out to close aides of the Catholic Cleric, but they declined comment, noting that the picture was not clear yet.
“Today is the Wednesday programme, ‘E no dey again’, if he doesn’t officiate, it will then be clear that something is wrong,” one of them said.
Nigeria’s Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Ameachi was caught on tape admitting that President Muhammadu Buhari has always ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria to keep printing money since the APC assumed office in 2015.
President Buhari who vowed to revamp the Nigerian economy in his campaign promises has been criticized for worsening the economic situation of the country over the past six years of his regime.
In an interview with journalists prior to the 2019 general elections in which Mr. Buhari was re-elected, Mr. Amaechi disclosed that they (Nigerian politicians) swore an oath never to publicly admit to Nigerians that the government was on a printing spree of the national currency;
“And most of you didn’t know at the time we took over, most Nigerians don’t even know because we have sworn to an oath not to tell anybody we were printing money,” Mr. Amaechi said.
“Do you know when a country prints money? When it has no money at all,” he said. “We were just printing money to pay the debt.”
Mr. Amaechi’s comments further exposed the cover-up that has followed Mr. Buhari’s widely condemned approach to the country’s economy, as millions of citizens continue to plunge into poverty. Nigeria has since emerged as the country with the highest number of poor people in the world. The country also has the poorest electricity supply, and the second country with the most jobless people worldwide.
Earlier this year, renowned credit rating institution Fitch said the Nigerian central bank under Mr. Buhari has been printing money at an alarming rate, warning that such tactics could engender additional economic woes for the country’s 200 million people.
Last month, Governor Godwin Obaseki expressed concerns on crude oil revenue, disclosing that the federal government printed an extra N60 billion for states to share in March.
Theme: God is interested in Good Governance (2)
Text: Proverbs 29:2, Romans 13:1-7 & 1 Peter 2:13-14.
… The same can be said about some freedom fighters groups. Some will tell our people that Biafra will come on a particular date, many will totally concur and be excited. Note, most of the leaders of these groups are just opportunists and are only concerned of the money they are making from their blind and gullible followers than agitating for freedom.
The texts above is evident that God is interested in Good Governance and that is His program for us-His people. But God will not impose Good Governance on any people. We have to desire it, demand and work for it. Good governance will not come by mere wishes, it can’t come when our people sell their votes to the highest bidder before and during elections, it can’t come when 75% of us boycott elections, it can’t come when only those that are qualified to contest in election are moneybags/vote-merchants, it can’t come when we allow godfathers to impose a stooge on us, it can’t come when native slave-masters emerge as leaders and it can’t come when we always praise sing for whoever is in authority rather than hold them accountable.
God is not happy with our misery. He will always allow those we have chosen directly or indirectly to govern us. Now, the core issue is, whether we are ready to do the right thing and always make the right choice. If we can examine and follow the example of how Mbakwe/Okpara emerged as leaders, replicate the same process in Alaigbo, then I can assure you that good governance will return in Alaigbo.
Good Governance Ministry is working towards that direction as we continue with our mission to educate, preach, sensitize, re-orientate and mobilize our people to fix our politics. Ambassadors of Good Governance are increasing everyday, get involve as soon as possible as we continue to disseminate this message for our people’s political freedom.
The PDP accuses the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its leaders of a conspiratorial silence in the face of the worrisome revelation in which a member of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, has been accused of affiliation with terrorist groups.
Our party asserts that this silence by the APC and its Leaders is a direct confirmation of APC’s support and sympathy for acts of terrorism including the wanton mass killings, banditry, maiming, kidnapping and marauding, which have overtaken our landscape as a nation under its watch.
We find it unthinkable that the APC as a party, and some of its leaders, who are going about grandstanding on their aspiration to further lead our nation, can be silent on the face of a major threat to our national security as well as our foundation as a nation.
Our party had always drawn the attention of Nigerians to the manifest relationship and camaraderie between terrorist elements and APC leaders, including those angling to be President.Nigerians could recall that our party had always urged the APC and its leaders to free our nation by returning the political mercenaries and thugs they imported to help them rig the 2019 elections.Instead, the APC has allowed their political mercenaries to continue to maraud our country, with Isa Pantami being accused of using his office to compromise the NIN registration exercise to register such aliens with a view to foist them on our nation as citizens.
Our party challenges the APC and its leaders to speak out by calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to relieve Isa Pantami of his office without further delay, clean up whatever compromises he may have made in the system and take further steps to protect our nation from terrorist activities.
Signed:Kola Ologbondiyan
National Publicity Secretary
A chieftain of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Anambra state, Mr. Jude Emecheta has emphasized the need for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to arrest politicians donating vehicles and money to party delegates for vote buying.
Emecheta stated this in an exclusive interview with our correspondent in Awka. He said it was worrisome that politicians who were desperate to obtain power by every means possible resorted to all forms inducements and bribery to curry favour especially at the primary election where the political party decided its candidate.
Emecheta maintained that such politicians compromised themselves by giving out vehicles and money to people who were supposed to be delegates to the primary election; that rather than indulge in such obnoxious act, aspirants should run their campaigns telling the people what they would do differently if given the opportunity to govern the state.
The APGA chieftain also stated unequivocally that the idea of some lawmakers of the Anambra State House of Assembly moving against Professor Soludo’s governorship aspiration was nothing to worry about because he believes that the said lawmakers have a right to choose where they want to belong.
He explained that there were 326 political wards in Anambra state and he can not swear that the said lawmakers were in good terms with their wards in their respective local government areas, stressing that they were doing it just to spite the governor so that he would be in a position to negotiate with them even though it was clear that Soludo will be the next governor of Anambra state.
Emecheta stressed that the APC, PDP and other opposition parties would gladly vote for Soludo because they know he is the best man for the job; that part of the grievances of the said lawmakers was that they needed someone they could manipulate to give them money not Soludo who they can’t manipulate.
According to Emecheta, some of the lawmakers were aggrieved members of the All Progressives Grand Alliance in the state assembly who were bent on transferring their aggressions on Governor Willie Obiano by not supporting Soludo.
He said Anambra state needed someone who believes in human capital development; someone who will use his clout to attract industries to the state to create jobs for the citizenry.
Emecheta was of the opinion that no aspirant in Anambra state has the pedigree Prof. Soludo has; that if the June 23 APGA primary election was free, fair, transparent and credible, Prof. Soludo will win landslide.
…Their camp was busted in Oguta – Source
…31-year-old arrested after killing policemen at Umutanze – Police source
An investigation by newsmen yesterday revealed that over twelve unknown gunmen have been arrested in Imo state, linked to the series of attacks on police formations and Owerri Correctional Center.
The arrests started with the bursting of one of their camps four days ago, in Oguta local government area of Imo State, by security operatives.
This followed another of the unknown gunmen, arrested in Ihitte Uboma Local government area, whose name was given as Izuchukwu Ohaeri.
Furthermore, our Reporter was told that arrests have been made in their different camps and meeting venue from where the unknown gunmen take off to carry out their operations of killings and burning of police stations.
According to a police source, explained that, “On 17/04/2021 at Ihitte Uboma local government area at about 02:26 pm, operatives as a follow up of an attack on correctional centre and police headquarters in Owerri on the wee hour of 05/04/2021 arrested one Izuchukwu Ohaeri, aged 31 years, his from Isiwenke, Amakohia in Ihitte Uboma local government area of Imo state.”
The police source alleged that “He is a strong member of the group who has been killing security agencies personnel and burning their vehicles as well as police stations. He has confessed to the crimes committed.
“The arrested was made days after they murdered two policemen at Umutanze in Orlu local government area of Imo State, on 05/01/2021.”
Another source said: “The security operatives have been doing a lot since four days ago, they have been identifying these so-called unknown gunmen. Many arrests have been made over 12 of them have been arrested in connection with the killings and burning of police stations. This is why you see somehow the relative peace we are experiencing in the state.
“In the next few days, I know that there will be a lot of improvements in the area of security. Going by the arrests of these unknown gunmen in different local government areas.”
The rift between the senator representing Anambra-South Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Dr. Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah, and Governor Willie Obiano seems to have taken a new dimension.
This time the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Mr. C. Don Adinuba, in a press statement said that Sen. Ubah was employing all manner of blackmail and negative propaganda against Obiano just to become the next governor.
According to Adinuba, Ifeanyi Ubah wants to be governor by every means possible which according to him was the primary reason he was neck-deep in campaigns of calumny and peddling of falsehoods against the present administration.
Adinuba’s press statement reads thus: “Senator Ifeanyi Ubah claimed at a news conference on Friday, November 21, 2020, that Anambra State lost almost a whopping eight billion naira (N8bn) as discounts by accessing funds from the twenty five billion naira (N25bn) promissory notes which the Federal Government used to reimburse the state in tranches for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of federal roads in the state over the years. He threatened to go to court against the state government if, as he put it, the authorities failed to provide full information on how they caused the state to lose such a huge amount.
“Anambra State Government is advising the senator to proceed to court immediately against it because no such amount or anything near it was lost in order to get discounts on the tranches of payment to the state government through promissory notes of the Federal Government of Nigeria. It is awful to see a national legislator manufacture figures, driven solely by an ambition to become, by all means, the next Anambra State governor. Acts like this diminish the peddler, and proceeding to court with manufactured figures will bring such a person further to odium and public ridicule.
“If Senator Ubah fails to go court with his fanciful figures and ideas, he has to resign from the Senate. The legislature, especially the Senate, is for thoughtful men and women who have prepared themselves for public service in the finest tradition. If he refuses to resign honourably, the people of the Anambra South senatorial zone know what to do.
“Chief Ubah has been making all manner of claims about the Federal Government’s reimbursement of the over 43 billion naira owed the people and government of Anambra State for almost two decades not so much out of limited knowledge of finance issues as out of a strong desire to be in public view. There are elements in every society prepared to do anything just to be in the news, even if it means being in the eye of the storm.
“He alleged, without any sense of embarrassment, that Anambra State, in cahoots with the Debt Management Office (DMO), raised N25bn secretly through a bond. Only an Ifeanyi Uba can know how such a transaction is possible when the law makes it mandatory that to raise a bond in Nigeria, as in most countries of the world, the legislature, the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank and the Securities and Exchange Commission must be involved and the proceedings must be public knowledge in the most transparent manner.
“In any case, how can Anambra State raise a loan from the Federal Government to reimburse itself for fixing federal roads when the Federal Government is owing it for reconstructing failed federal roads in the state since 2003? It just doesn’t make sense. Ubah seems to have little understanding of what a bond is.
“The federal authorities have never denied owing Anambra State as much as N43bn for rehabilitating and reconstructing federal roads in the state from 2003 to this day. The Senate has held hearings on the indebtedness and recommended repayment. Since the Federal Ministry of Finance claims it has no cash to make the repayment, it has requested the state to accept staggered payments through promissory notes spanning a number of years.
“Given the time value of money, it would be bad economics and a profound disservice to ndi Anambra to collect the monies on their maturity dates. The naira has lost considerable value in recent years, exchanging now at almost N500 to one dollar in the parallel market, in sharp contrast to the exchange rate in 2003 when about a mere N80 could fetch a dollar in the same market. Naira’s rapid depreciation may continue. Inflation is today very high for various reasons. Whereas N100m could build a reasonable length of road in 2003 when the state started to reconstruct federal roads, the same amount can today build about only a fraction of the same road.
“The most reasonable thing for any state to do so as to have value for such reimbursements is to cash the monies now rather than to wait for more years. This would entail some discounts. The Anambra State government did just this. The proceeds are stated clearly in the Report of the Accountant General, with Financial Statements, for the year ending December 31, 2019. The proceeds are also part of the 2020 Anambra State budget estimates. Ubah may not have read the budget.
“It is worth pointing out that the Central Bank of Nigeria came to the aid of 22 states, including Anambra, owed for reconstruction of federal roads in their territories with a concessionary single digit discount rate. How a single digit discount rate on N25bn promissory rates, as in the case of Anambra State, would amount to a whopping N8bn is a mathematical mystery which only Ifeanyi Uba can solve. In one word, the junior senator is taking propaganda and phantasmagoria too far.
“Let it be stated for the umpteenth time that Anambra State has no reason to delay collecting its monies. It is currently building the most modern airport in the nation, without borrowing a kobo anywhere and without owing any of the contractors; the airport will be commissioned next April. Anambra State is building an international conference, with a sitting capacity of 10,000, which is the biggest in Africa, without borrowing any money from any financial institution and without owing the contractor; it will be ready next March. In addition, it is building the Awka City Stadium, as usual without borrowing a kobo and without owing the contractor; the stadium will be ready before February. Anambra State requires N150bn to complete the ongoing building of numerous roads and bridges in the State. And Nigeria has entered a recession, with all the consequences. So, why wait in perpetuity to collect monies whose value depreciates fast?
“Anambra State remains exemplary in financial management. It is one of the few states which did not apply for a bailout from the Federal Government, even when states which receive fortunes monthly for oil-bearing received such assistance to enable them to discharge their basic obligations. The World Bank has since September, 2018, commended it for being the best implementer of projects in the Southeast and South-south. Last August 19, BudgIt, sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, declared Anambra State and the petroleum-rich Rivers State the states with the highest fiscal responsibility index in the whole country.
“Ifeanyi Ubah and his hirelings are the only traducers of Anambra State’s exceedingly impressive financial management. It is a conundrum that someone should be de-marketing the very state he wants to rule by all means. Whoever advised him to embark on this trajectory of manufactured facts just to be in the news did him a terrible disservice. Let him go to court at once to demonstrate how, as he claims, Anambra State lost N8bn as discounts on N25bn promissory notes of the Federal Government. Otherwise, he has to resign from the Senate forthwith. If he refuses, the people of the Anambra South senatorial zone know what to do with his continued presence in the hallowed chambers of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“Anambra State has attained governance heights too sophisticated for certain politicians. Whatever their antics may be, Anambra State will remain the Light of the Nation.”
Let me shoot straight from the hip. Soludo is the most preferred and popular politician in Anambra today. Forget about those who spew their closeness to the grassroots as sobriquet to gain undue and unearned advantages when their actions have never impacted on the masses. Curiously, such politicians prance about mouthing proximity to the grassroot as unique their selling proposition (USP).
Unfortunately for them, the people have grown pass such spins. They know their true friends. They know and appreciate those who have used their positions to make their life better. The masses know those who by their real deeds have worked for them.
If truth must be told, Cee Cee Soludo is the foremost political brand in Anambra state today in the run up to Anambra 2021. He leads in the following indicators or parameters; name recognition, name recall, appeal, brand preference and brand loyalty. Indeed, he is so attractive like the apple. If you are in doubt, a simple pilot research will convince you.
To put things here in proper context, a brand refers to a person or product whose functional attributes and emotional features are so attractive to buyers to buy not once, not twice but over and over again. In Anambra, the Soludo’s brand gleefully called Soludo Solution has brand loyalists and brand believers that have morphed into the Soludo Brand Community(SBC) . The SBC keeps growing in geometric proportion. The underlying factors that propel the rapid expansion are not far-fetched.
At a supersonic reception hosted for Cee Cee Soludo, May 2, 2021 by Senator Victor Umeh, former National Chairman of APGA at his Aguluzoigbo country home, everybody that spoke pointed to these factors. One is that we are living in difficult times. The hangouts from Abuja are getting smaller and smaller. Two is the imperative for consolidation of the projects of the current government. Three is the need for somebody with the appeal or name that can galvanize Ndi Anambra to invest more massively in our homeland. Next is the profundities of the ideas for development of the aspirant. Not the least, APGA wants somebody with clout to win the Governorship election beyond winning the primaries.
Soludo perfectly fits the bill. He is one of the most sought after prodigious thinkers and exceptional doers of our time. He has local, national and international clouts to pull strings for the State and for our People when need be. He has done great things in past in similar and tough circumstances. So his records speak eloquently for him.
This is his time, a time when his person and ideas are most relevant. These explain why he is the most popular politician in Anambra State today and why people are making enormous sacrifices of their time, their talents and their treasures to ensure he becomes their next governor.
Joe C Anatune
Anatune writes from Awa in Orumba North Local Government Area, Anambra State
The Spiritual Director of Adoration Ministry Enugu Nigeria, Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka, says he led three contractors to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), with a view to proffer solutions to the security challenges in the country.
Mbaka stated this in reaction to the accusation by the Presidency that he called for the resignation of Buhari because of the General’s refusal to grant his contract request.
Mbaka, who supported the President during the 2015 and 2019 elections, had on Wednesday during his midweek ministration made a U-turn, asking Buhari to resign or be impeached for not doing enough to tackle widespread insecurity in the country.
But the Presidency opened a can of worms thereafter, saying Mbaka has suddenly become a critic because Buhari refused to offer contracts to his allies.
Reacting to the accusation, Mbaka admitted that he led three security experts to the President to proffer solutions to the insecurity ravaging the country even as he said that those people were not known to him.
The cleric said, “Yes, I led three security experts to the Presidency who offered to help salvage the security situation in Nigeria.
“I don’t know them, but they came to Enugu and pleaded for me to link them to government because of the level of insecurity and how Nigeria has been moving oil outside the country. These are the three people they rejected their offer.”
He further said, “I am happy that the truth was hitting them. We are not afraid of them. Buhari cannot do it again; health and age are not on his side. We need a stronger and an experienced goalkeeper in a time like this. If they want to put it that it was because of contract, let them come and build the highest university here and begin to mess up, I will still speak.”
