Photos: Scene of today's bomb blast in Maiduguri market

Here are some pics from the scene of today's early morning bombing that happened at a busy local market in Maiduguri, Borno state. Continue to see more photos...

Photo credit: Sahara Reporters

Why we’re opposed to state for S-East – Northern delegates

ABUJA — The Northern delegates to the ongoing National Conference have given reasons why they are opposed to the creation of an additional state for the South East.

Spokesman of the delegates, Mr Anthony Sani, who made this known, said “the issue of an additional state for South-East purely on the basis of equality ignores the fact that equality is not one and the same thing with equity.’’

Quoting Aristotle, Sani said: “Injustice is not only when equals are treated unequally but also when unequals are treated equally.”

In a statement yesterday, he further said: “States are created to take care of human beings. And when it comes to population and land mass, it is morally preposterous to regard South-East and North-West as equals. People forget the fact that former Eastern Nigeria is today nine states while former Western region is today eight states.
’’The North with more population than the South is just 19 states. People should not redefine the truth and justice. So if states are to be created, it should not be on the basis of equality alone but all other factors must be considered.”

Delegates at the on-going national conference

On derivation
On derivation, he said: “While not opposed to derivation principles in order to compensate for degradation of environment and reward for efforts, derivation should not make some parts of the country live on cutting edge while some others live on the knife edge of survival.

“We must take the concept of nationhood into account in our agitations for what we consider due and payable to us. This is because we cannot afford to live as if we are in different continents instead of in one country. Bridging the gab in incomes to reduce inequality is not just good politics but good economics as well”

On single tenure for president, govs

Sani further opposed single tenure for president and governors, saying that it would remove the motivation and incentives for working hard.

He said: “If all good and feckless leaders are corralled into the same group without any reward for performing ones, the only incentives left would be pillage of commonwealth by leaders. That is why most nations  practise multiple tenure so that performing president and governors would be rewarded with re-election.

’’And if the clamour is to remove abuse of power of incumbency, it is to be noted that many countries device their own means on how to reduce the tendency to abuse power of incumbency.”

For example Chile allows multiple tenure that are not consecutive by preventing a president to conduct an election in which he is a candidate.And that was why President Michell of Chile could not contest as an incumbent despite her immense popularity,and came back to contest when she was not the president. She won.’’

- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/07/opposed-state-s-east-northern-delegates/#sthash.ieTP0Ebv.dpuf

Edo: You failed Edo people, Oshiomhole blasts Ize-Iyamu

               
Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has challenged Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, former Secretary to the State Government during the administration of Mr. Lucky Igbinedion, to render his account of stewardship as SSG which made positive impact on the people of the state, saying he failed to use his office to impact on the people.

He threw the challenge today, when he received over 2,000 Market Women from across the 18 Local Government Areas of the state who paid him a solidarity visit at the Government House, Benin City.

Oshiomhole said “I defeated the Peoples Democratic Party in all the Wards and Local Governments in the last election conducted and that was due to the massive support from you Market Women. After the defeat, a man who claims to be a Pastor, Osagie Ize-Iyamu, insisted on being imposed on Edo People as the Governor. I refused because I said, as former Chief of Staff to the State Government, what did you do?

“What effort did you make in bringing development to Edo People? Did you give your people electricity? Did you give them water? Did you give them good roads? How did you influence the government in bringing development to even your constituencies? Did you bring hospital to the people?

Oshiomhole added. “Even as Secretary to the State Government, I requested to know from him how he impacted on the government. All the money that came from Abuja during his tenure as SSG, he was first to receive, what did he do with it? How many markets did he build with it? Which erosion did he assist in controlling even at a time when erosion was a threat to the people of the state?

“Everywhere I go, people begin to ask me, why did you always allow this man to go with you? Like you the Market Women have said, in the morning, you see some of them as PDP, at night they become APC, and how can you commit the resources of the State to such people? Oshiomhole asked.

The Governor continued, “For me, I cannot bring such a man because a gateman that cannot watch over the house cannot be seen as a good security man. A woman who is given money for home upkeep and instead decides to hide it for her own selfish interest cannot be entrusted with money again. Hence I told Pastor, Edo People are not fools.”

Oshiomhole regretted that some are in politics and parade themselves as Servants of God to deceive many.

According to him, “When some people know they have bad names already, they claim to now be Pastors. That is why these days, though there are so many genuine pastors, but there are some that call themselves pastors for political reasons to perpetrate evil.”

Oshiomhole assured the people of Edo State that he will not allow those that looted the state to now take over the helms of affair of the people saying that Edo people will decide who lead them when the time comes.

He assured the women of his administration’s unflinching support for them, stressing that his relationship with them can be likened to a Catholic marriage that can never be broken. He promised to use the resources of the State to continually develop the state so as to ensure that development gets to all the 192 Wards of the state.

The market women Coordinators from all the local governments who spoke during the solidarity visit castigated four lawmakers in the state house of Assembly for selling the mandate freely given to them to the opposition party.

They praised the Governor’s effort in the provision of employments to youths in the state, provision of infrastructural facilities and providing the right environment for businesses to thrive.

Leader of the market women, Madam Blacky Omoregie said the state cannot afford to go back to the dark days when the state was backward.

According to her, “The People's Democracy Party is shouting war when there is no war. By the time the war will start, they will have no other option but to save their own various heads. We market women are the people that vote, so we are waiting for them in the field”, she concluded.

Asari Dokubo still maintains Chibok girls were not kidnapped

             
Despite the faces and names of kidnapped Chibok girls being released, ex-Niger Delta militant Asari Dokubo is still maintaining that no girls are missing. See what he wrote on his Facebook page above.