Militancy: FG not in talks with Niger Delta militants —Tabai

By Emma Amaize, Soni Daniel & Perez Brisibe

More confusion  enveloped the Niger Delta region, yesterday, as a key actor in the region, Jude Tabai, said that he was unaware of any discussion between any militant group and the Federal Government.

The claim by Tabai, who described himself as a major stakeholder in the Niger Delta crisis, ran contrary to the position of President Muhammadu Buhari last week, that the government was discussing Niger Delta peace with militants.

Tabai, who led Sports and Youths Development Minister, Solomon Lalong, to a failed peace parley with Niger Delta Avengers lately, said that the government might have been discussing with fifth columnists, who were merely keen on reaping pecuniary gains, adding that  there was no credible dialogue currently going on between the government and the real ‘stakeholders’ in the Niger Delta crisis.

Police launch investigation into alleged assassination attack on Pedro Obaseki

By Gabriel Enogholase 

The Edo State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Chris Ezike has ordered an investigation into the alleged assassination attempt on Mr. Dan Pedro Obaseki, a cousin of the APC candidate, Godwin Obaseki. 

The police investigation follows reports confirmed by Pedro Obaseki that a group of thugs he claimed to be dressed in his cousin’s campaign attire unleashed mayhem on his residence in the Upper Mission area of Benin on Sunday night. Pedro, a former APC aspirant, has turned against his cousin and is presently active on the campaign team of the PDP candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu. 

According to Pedro, the mayhem followed an altercation between him and an APC supporter in his neighbourhood which prompted the intervention of security men. The former APC governorship aspirant said as soon as the security men left no fewer than 30 thugs descended on his residence. He said, “Youths in the area sympathetic to me came out to resist the intruders, but they were beaten up with machetes and bottles. 

Many of the wounded are in the hospital receiving treatment. “The hired assassins attempted to gain entrance into my compound but were resisted by my Personal Assistant Mr. Ferdinand Orumwense.who was injured trying to defend his boss.

Nigeria: Budget Padding Scandal - Jibrin Returns, Relaunches War Against Dogara

By Hassan Adebayo

After ceasing fire for a few days in obedience of his party's directive, a former Chairman of the Appropriations Committee of the House of Representatives, Abdulmumin Jibrin, on Sunday, resumed his onslaught against Speaker Yakubu Dogara on Sunday.

Photo: Daily Trust
Yakubu Dogara, Nigeria House of Reps Speaker.

The leadership of the All Progressives Congress had ordered him and the Speaker to stop public comment on the budget padding scandal in the House.

But in a fresh attack on Sunday, Mr Jibril accused the speaker of pocketing N25million monthly, amounts he said were never accounted for.

He accused Mr. Dogara of enlisting the support of a five-man cabal consisting of two governors and three former House members to help him shield him from possible prosecution.

The said cabal, Mr. Jibrin said, had blocked him from reaching Mr. Buhari.

"I am therefore left with no choice than to plead with all our former Heads of State, Gen Yakubu Gowon, Gen Olusegun Obasanjo, Alh Shehu Shagari, Gen Ibrahim Babangida, Chief Enest Shonekan, Gen Abdulsalam Abubakar and Dr Goodluck Jonathan and the diplomatic community, particularly Ambassador of the United States of America, High Commissioner of the United Kingdom, the German and French Ambassadors and all well-meaning Nigerians to join in the call on the corrupt and fraudulent Speaker Dogara and 3 others to reconvene the House immediately, step aside and allow for a thorough external investigation and also call on the anti-corruption agencies to expedite action on investigation and commencement of prosecution in line with the anti corruption stands of this government, " he said.

Read Mr. Jibrin's Full Statement

YAKUBU DOGARA, YUSUF LASUN, ALHASSAN DOGUWA AND 9 OTHERS: A LITMUS TEST FOR THE FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION IN NIGERIA AND A DEFINING MOMENT FOR THE STRUGGLE TO CLEAN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF CORRUPTION AND WEED OUT CORRUPT ELEMENTS

It has once again become necessary for me to make some statements, clarifications and further revelations.

As you are aware, my party the APC has intervened in the current crisis, following allegations of corruption, embezzlement and gross abuse of office I leveled against Speaker Yakubu Dogara, three other principal officers and 9 other members, of which none had responded to any

AfDB approves $9m equity investment for SME’s in Nigeria

Akinwumi Adesina

The African Development Bank has approved a nine million dollar EQUITY INVESTMENT in the Fund for Agricultural Finance in Nigeria (FAFIN) to provide expansion capital to agricultural small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

This was contained in a press statement issued by the bank on Monday and published on its web: www.afdb.org.

The statement said that FAFIN is a first-generation private equity fund that provides financial, capacity-building and technical assistance to commercially viable SMEs in the Nigerian agribusiness sector.

It said that FAFIN used a unique value chain-centric approach, a combination of equity, quasi-equity and convertible loan instruments to provide loan for SME’s.

According to