“Wamakko, Kwankwaso Not Returning To PDP Despite Meeting With Jonathan" – APC

According to the All Progressives
Congress (APC) governors Aliyu
Wamakko and Rabiu Kwankwaso will not return to the PDP despite their meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja on Sunday.
The opposition party made this known in a statement issued on Monday in Lagos by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
The extract from the statement reads:

"Being the President and Commander-in- Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,
there is no reason why any Governor will not honour an invitation by the
President."
Mohammed also noted that there was nothing strange about the governors' decision to meet with the President.
The APC, however, claimed that
Wamakko and Kwankwaso were not
considering their return to PDP.
It will be recalled that the said governors have recently defected, among others, to the APC.

ORDEALS OF THE TUKUR FAMILY: PDP Chairman Son's Trial Date Set

Mahmud Tukur, son of Bamanga
Tukur, will be tried on February 24,
2014, alongside with Alex Ochonogor, Abdullahi Alao, and Eterna Oil Ltd for N1.2 billion fuel subsidy fraud.
The defendants, Mahmud Tukur, son of the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Bamanga Tukur; Abdullahi Alao, son of another prominent
Nigerian, Ibadan-based businessman Arisekola Alao; and Alex Ochonogo have been in custody since last year.
They face nince charges brought against then by the Economic And Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) concerning their involvement in a N1.2billion rip-off
of the Petroleum Support Fund scheme.
They are being tried for obtaining money through false pretence, forgery, and uttering contrary to Section 468 of the Criminal Code.

The development follows the unpleasant news for Mahmud Tukur's father, Bamanga Tukur, who is on the verge of leaving his position as the National Chairman of the PDP.

2015 FEVER: Atiku Abubakar's Posters Infest Abuja

Abuja - The 2015 Presidential election fever manifested itself once again on Sunday, December 8, as posters depicting former Vice President Atiku Abubakar appeared in Nigeria's capital, Abuja.

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was a two-Term Vice President to ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo from 1999 to 2007. The placards are sponsored by the Turaki Network of Change (TNC), and the
inscription reads, "inspired by Change, Turaki Network for Change, TNC Atiku Abubakar GCON (Turaki Adamawa).
Bigger Challenges, Greater
Opportunities."

The posters adorned major overhead and pedestrian bridges, and walls by the roadsides, notably along the Umaru
Yar'Adua way which leads to Abuja Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport.

Mr. Abubakar is yet to declare his
intention to run as a candidate for the 2015 Presidential election where he would compete against the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan. It will bebrecalled that Atiku is currently a member
of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Peoples Democratic Partyb(PDP).

On August 31, 2013, Atiku led a
procession of six Northern governors outbof Special National Convention of PDP atbthe Eagles' Square venue, to later address the press at the Yar'Adua
Centre, with Alhaji Abubakar Baraje as Chairman, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola as Secretary and Sam Sam Jaja as Deputy National Chairman of the now-defunct new PDP.

In September, in what political analysts consider as a 2015 posturing move by
Atiku, he, along with PDP Board of
Trustees Chairman Tony Anenih, Alhaji Shaibu Oyedokun, Mrs Titi Ajanaku, among others, formed the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) group.

The group was registered by the
Independent National Electoral
Commission as a political party.
Following the registration of PDM, the former Vice President never showed himself as a member.

Mr. Abubakar has previously contested for the presidential office as a PDP candidate in 2011, but was defeated by President Goodluck Jonathan who gained 78% of the votes.

In 2006, Atiku Abubakar also emerged as the Presidential candidate, but lost the battle.

His posters were earlier seen along the Nyanya-Maraba-Abuja road with the inscription "The Alternative Candidate For 2015".

PDP Meeting Controversies

It has been learnt that the peace
meeting between President Goodluck Jonathan and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors ended in a stalemate in the early hours of Monday.

Governor Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State, who reportedly attended the meeting together with his Kano counterpart Rabiu Kwankwaso, told the journalists that he went to the meeting in order to inform the President of their defection to the All Progressive Congress (APC).

However, Governor Godswill Akpabio said no such issue was discussed at the meeting.

Akpabio, who is the chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, however said Wamakko was at liberty to leave the party as thousands of the party members in Sokoto State will remain in the party.

Pics from Memorial Service for Nelson Mandela at Aso Villa Chapel

A memorial service was held for late President Nelson Mandela at the Aso Villa Chapel today.

Meanwhile President
Jonathan will leave Abuja tomorrow
evening Monday December 9th to join other world leaders in South Africa at events leading up to the burial of Dr.
Nelson Mandela. See more photos from the Abuja memorial service after the cut...

2 Defected Govs Surprisingly Appear At PDP Meeting

The two governors of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP), who have
recently defected to the All
Progressive Congress (APC) surprisingly appeared at the Sunday peace meeting called by President Goodluck Jonathan.

The said governors are Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano State and Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State.

The defected governors who were at the premises of the First Lady Conference Hall, Presidential Villa at about 9pm, arrived the venue in the same car.

Kwankwaso and Wamakko arrived at the venue of the meeting when one of the aggrieved governors, Babangida Aliyu of Niger state had already been there for 1 hour.

It was learn that Chief Tony Anenih, the Chairman, Board of Trustees of the PDP, who had also arrived earlier, engaged the president in a private meeting and only after that returned to the venue.

Some PDP governors who had earlierbconverged at the Akwa Ibom State Governors Lodge in Asokoro also stormed the meeting. They were led by their Chairman, Godswill Akpabio. They
include, governors of Abia, Kebbi, Kogi,bKatsina, Bauchi, Plateau, Enugu, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Ebonyi, Kaduna and Taraba States.

Meanwhile Sule Lamido of Jigawa State, who is yet to declare for APC, seemed not to have attended the meeting.