PDP crisis deepen as Gulak files fresh suits against NEC meeting

The self-declared National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Ahmed Gulak, has returned to court, asking it to stop the party from holding its National Executive Committee meeting or any other meeting, according to The Punch.

Gulak also asked the Court of Appeal to restrain the Acting National Chairman and the Secretary of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, and Prof. Wale Oladipo, or any other person from presiding over any of the party’s meetings.

In a motion filed by his lawyer, Mr. J.S. Okutepa (SAN), at the Court of Appeal on January 29, “Gulak is seeking an order restraining the party from allowing any other person to act as its National Chairman or preside over its meetings.”

He urged the court to hold that he “is the only person in the PDP that is legally allowed to occupy the office of the National Chairman of the party, except a December 16, 2015 judgment of Justice Baba Husaein is overturned by a superior court of competent jurisdiction.”

The Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal has fixed February 3 to hear the appeal.

Meanwhile, Gulak had also filed another suit before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, through his lawyer, Silva Opusunju, asking the court to determine whether the December 16 judgment of Justice Husaein was not valid while the outcome of the appeal filed by the PDP was being awaited.

Joined as respondents in the suit are the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko; its National Secretary, Oladipo; and the party’s National Legal Adviser, Mr. Victor Kwon.

He also asked the court to determine whether Secondus was not being contemptuous of the court when he continued to parade himself as the PDP national chairman in spite of the court judgment.

Meanwhile, the PDP has urged the judiciary to continue to assert its independence and not allow itself to be deterred from upholding justice and the rule of law, no matter the pressure.

Secondus, who spoke for the party at its National Secretariat in Abuja during the inauguration of the Imo State chapter of the PDP, was reacting to a statement credited to President Muhammadu Buhari on the need to reform the judiciary.

The President was quoted to have said that the fight against corruption would not be successful if the judiciary was not reformed.

The polygamy hoax that spread from Iraq to Eritrea

A false rumour that men in Eritrea would be legally obliged to marry at least two women went viral this week. But it's a hoax that has hit at least four countries to date, and actually began in Iraq, where it wasn't as implausible as it seems.

When a far fetched story about enforced polygamy in Eritrea began circulating, it captured attention across the continent. But in fact similar stories - all of them false - have cropped up in a number of countries since the beginning of the year.

And in each case, the way hoaxers spread the rumour on social media pretty much identical. Here's how it plays out.

An "official" government document is leaked on social media, bearing a letterhead, or the signature of a supposed dignitary.

It reads - and we're paraphrasing here - "Due to the recent troubles in our country, we are experiencing a serious shortage of men, and an abundance of woman. Men are now legally required to take at least two wives, and any that fail to do so will face strict punishment." The punishments range from life imprisonment to the death penalty.

The Eritrean government has since been battling to set the story straight, dismissing the document as a fraud, and explaining that polygamy is illegal in the East African nation. It hasn't been able to stop chatter spreading on social media, and a raft of jokes at the countries expense. But more on those later.

Although the rumour about Eritrea went viral, it isn't the first country to be hit by the hoax. At least three other countries have been the subject of the same story, which appears to have begun in Iraq.

A letter mocked up using an official looking letterhead began circulating there early in January, making the same declaration. Because of the country's recent woes, men who failed to take at least two wives would be punished by death, it read.

Of course, it was a hoax as well, but it may not have seemed as absurd a proposition as it did later in other countries. Back in 2011 the BBC reported that Iraqi politicians were considering offering men financial incentives to marry a second wife. Years of conflict have left the country with more than a million war widows, and a shortage of unmarried men. The proposals were never enacted.

Following Iraq, a near-identical hoax document surfaced claiming to be from the government of Sudan. And Arabic news sites suggest a similar letter supposedly from officials in Saudi Arabia was circulated as well - before the story about Eritrea cropped up.

And the rumour about Eritrea? That actually began in Kenya and Nigeria. It was first reported by Kenyan news site Crazy Monday, well known for its focus on gossip stories according to Mathias Muindi from the BBC's media monitoring service. The story was picked up and reported as fact in Nigeria and later South Africa as well.

It spread quickly, and it wasn't long before jokes stared spreading on social networks like WhatsApp and Twitter, mostly involving men from outside the country flocking to Eritrea in the hope of finding multiple wives.

Iheanacho takes over Nasri’s place in City’s CL squad

MANCHESTER City have included Kelechi Iheanacho in their Champions League squad.The 19-year-old who has been in fine form for the Citizen this season replaces Sami Nasri who has been ruled out of the competition.

“Yes, Kelechi will be in the Champions League squad. I told Samir Nasri I would take him out of the list as he needs two months more to be fit. We need Kelechi now as Bony is injured too. We couldn’t take the risk to go into the last 16 game with just Kun,” Pellegrini confirmed to club’s website.

“It’s always difficult to tell a player he will not continue in the list but Samir understood perfectly that he needs at least two months more.

“It wouldn’t have been easy for him to recover his best performance in that length of time. We needed another striker and Kelechi is in a good moment.

“Kelechi is one player in our squad – it’s important when young players have the option to show why they’re an important player. He will continue trying to fight to start every game. For me, as a manager, you have to work with the whole squad as we have to play so many games.

“It’s important for everyone, not just for the players but for the club who’ve invested a lot of money in the training ground to have players arriving from the Academy into the first-team.

“It’s important to bring young players into the first-team but they must be good players so that we continue to be a competitive team,” he concluded.

With Goal.com

Why I didn’t pick Aluko as my CoS, by Fayose

Governor Ayo Fayose has said the allegation by the former Ekiti State Secretary of the‎ Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Tope Aluko, that the military was used to influence the outcome of the June 21, 2014 governorship election in the state was another ploy in the fruitless efforts by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to rubbish the mandate freely given him by the people of the state.

He said Aluko was beclouded by his desperation to seek revenge against Fayose because of his refusal to make him his Chief of Staff. He (Aluko) is not mindful of committing the criminal offence of perjury, the statement added.

The governor described as “shameful” that the All Progressives Congress (APC) has refused to accept a scandalous electoral defeat they suffered 19 months ago, asking whether it was also soldiers that rigged the 2015 presidential, senatorial, House of Representatives and State House of Assembly elections that the party lost.

In a statement by the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, the governor ‎ said the election that ushered him to office was conducted about 20 months ago and applauded by the election observers and the international communities, wondered when the opposition would stop licking their wounds.

Fayose said “ all these steps are being taken by the APC to silence me because of my criticism of obnoxious policies of Buhari administration, but I cannot be silenced. If I Ayo Fayose remains the last man standing to put Buhari administration on its toes, I will not look back. Strong opposition is ingredient of ‎virile democracy. I don’t have skeleton in my cupboard. If the APC has any concrete evidence against me, it should give it to the EFCC.”

Fayose added that he felt sorry for Aluko because he had allowed those who rented him to do the very dirty job to destroy him totally therefore bringing shame upon himself and his family.

The Governor continued: “ It is very obvious that those who rented him will keep him at alms lenght believing that what he did to me, he will do same to them.”

He said: “For Aluko to be taken seriously, he must first have to report himself to the police to be tried for perjury and committed to prison for three years since what he is now saying is different from what he said under oath at the Election Tribunal where he was the only witness called by the PDP and Governor Fayose.

“If after giving evidence under oath at the tribunal that the Election was free, fair and credible and that security agents, including soldiers performed their duties creditably, saying something else more than one year after is not fair.

“It is also a demonstration of the fact that given the right offer tomorrow, the same Aluko can also address the press tomorrow to deny all he said today. He can even deny his own existence since he can deny what he said under oath just because he was not made Chief of Staff.

“We know him to be an unstable mind and that was why our party expelled him and others last year. The power of the people is greater than the power of those in authority. There is no way anybody will take through the back door what the people openly denied them through the ballot,” he said.

“From Aluko’s rant‎ing, one could see that he wants to poison our waters because he did not get the position he expected in our administration. He complained that he was not made the Chief of Staff, how could somebody with great lust for money and insatiable drive to jump from one camp to the other be trusted with such a sensitive post. I was advised by well-meaning Ekiti people not to trust him with sensitive positions because of his greed.

“As the state secretary of the party, he was going from one aspirant to the other to collect money, using his position.

When he was at the state-owned university, he was sacked because of certificate racketeering. Pressure was mounted on me not to appoint him otherwise he would put credibility problem on my administration. I therefore offered him another position which he rejected. He thinks he wants to rubbish me and my electoral victory but he is only putting himself and his family to shame.

“‎if he hopes to reap anything from this wild chase, he will only reap the whirlwind. The APC can never trust him with anything because they know that what he did to me, he would do to them. He was the principal witness of the PDP even up to the Supreme Court where he said under oath that the election was free and fair and now at what point was the election flawed?

“I pity the young man. He is only being used by the opposition and they will soon dump him after they are done with him. I won the election about 20 months ago and they are yet to come to term with the hurricane that hit them. First, they blamed what they called ‘photochromic’ for their defeat.

“When that did not sell, they tr‎ied a futile impeachment exercise and also they failed. They came up with a military panel, which could in no way act as an appellate court over the process stipulated by the Electoral Law.

They will probably need to pay INEC to tell Nigerians that an election it conducted, in which an incumbent governor lost in his own local government, was not credible.

“As per his claim that $37 million was given to the governor for the election, the governor got financial support from various sources as it is usual of anyone contesting election and it is not for him to begin to advertise in the media the level of support the governor received from individuals, corporate organisations or groups.

“However, if money belonging to the APC is missing and they suspect that the money was stolen by Dr Goodluck Jonathan to fund Ekiti State governorship election, they can approach the EFCC.”

'Africa's first solar bus'

A solar-powered bus described by its Ugandan makers as the first in Africa has been driven in public.

Kiira Motors' Kayoola prototype electric bus was shown off at a stadium in Uganda's capital, Kampala.

One of its two batteries can be charged by solar panels on the roof which increases the vehicle's 80km (50 mile) range.

The makers now hope to attract partners to help manufacture the bus for the mass market.

Kiira Motors' chief executive Paul Isaac Musasizi told BBC News that he had been "humbled" by the large and positive reaction to the test drive.

People have been excited by the idea that Uganda is able to produce the concept vehicle, or prototype, and Mr Musasizi said he wanted it to help the country "champion the automotive, engineering and manufacturing industries" in the region.

He also hopes that it will generate employment, predicting that by 2018, more than 7,000 people could be directly and indirectly employed in the making of the Kayoola.

But backing from international companies, which make vehicle parts, is essential for the project to take off.

The vision is that by 2039 the company will be able to manufacture all the parts and assemble the vehicle in Uganda.

The 35-seat bus is intended for urban areas rather than inter-city use because of the restrictions on how far it can travel.

If it is mass produced, each bus would cost up to $58,000 (£40,000), which Mr Musasizi says is a a competitive price.

Kiira Motors grew out of a project at Uganda's Makerere University, which is now a shareholder in the company, and it has also benefitted from government funding.