Reports reaching our news desk reveals that Bala Haruna, the Bauchi man who made frantic efforts to fulfill his vow to spend ten minutes inside a gutter and drink the gutter water should president Buhari win the 2019 presidential election, has reportedly died.
According to reports around social media, Bala was rushed to the hospital after complaining about severe abdominal pains and severe stooling of blood for two days.
Bala, after series of tests conducted, was diagnosed with Gastrointestinal bleeding including hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia which was contacted from the gutter water he drank which was contaminated.
He spent several days in the hospital before he gave up the ghost early Tuesday morning.
Nigeria’s efforts at turning waste to wealth is paying off, as over 10,000 direct and indirect jobs have been created in the recycling of pet beverages bottles.
This is even as the initiative has created million dollars in foreign exchange earnings to support the nation’s ailing economy.
The Executive Director of Lexsz plastics, Oba Olufemi Akowe, said the $8 million dollar factory located in Ogun state was established in 2011 and presently has over 400 direct staff and ten thousand local workers for the factories recycling plastics.
He noted that the company’s initial target was to export the recycled plastic fiber to China, which it has effectively done in the past eight years.
He said, “But now the company is set to expand and supply Nigerian industries that may need our products as their raw materials.
“The company’s products not only save a lot of energy and resources, but also effective for environmental protection areas in Lagos State and has contributed millions of dollars in foreign exchange earnings and job opportunity for many Nigerians.”
He added that the company had in its eight years of operation taken the lead in waste to wealth management by empowering Public, Private Sector Operations in clearing waste in the environment which are later bought and paid for by the company as raw materials.
“We rely on individual who go around the cities and towns picking wastes which are later sold to us. We also help governments in some South West states to clear theIR dump sites and even pay their agencies.” He said
Akowe explained that with the four production lines refining and processing, Lexsz production scale of PET bottles and preforms per year amounted to over 100, 000 tons thus meeting the major chemical Yangtze River Delta region of China class enterprise demand for a large number of raw materials.
He stated that since the company entered the plastics manufacturing business through waste recycling, it has played a prominent role in enhancing and consistently cleaning environmental waste in Ogun State and other surrounding states.
He however lamented that the government has not been supportive of private sector operators, who daily faced challenges of poor infrastructure, multiple taxation and others.
“We appeal for co-operation, support and a conducive business environment so that our business can flourish. We particularly appeal to our stakeholders to redouble their efforts by ensuring that our waste to wealth efforts through recycling of the environmental wastes are successful,” he said.
A four-time minister of the federation, Alabo Tonye Graham-Douglas, has appealed to the Federal government to carry out a critical evaluation of the attacks on the Nigerian military and the attendant killings on Saturday, February 23, during the presidential and National Assembly elections in Abonnema, Akuku Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State.
Graham-Douglas, who is also a monarch in Abonnema town, made the call when he spoke in Port Harcourt, on the heels of tension in the area, which has forced some residents to flee their homes.
He noted an influx of suspected militants in the community ahead of the last presidential and National Assembly polls, urging the Federal government to investigate who invited the hoodlums into the area and provided them with sophisticated weapons.
The former Minister of Aviation, Labour, Sports, Culture, and Tourism also said that reports available showed that over 30 persons were killed during the botched polls in the area. He said: “The Abonnema situation, which now concerns the Federal government, should be used to resolve multiple inquisitions, namely: ‘who hired the large numbers of militants and brought them to Abonnema?
“Who provided the sophisticated weapons, like the AK-47 to those militants that came into Abonnema? Who accommodated them in Abonnema? Who were the political leaders and actors in the community who aided and abated the opposing political youths? Which of the groups actually confronted the law enforcement agencies on the day of the elections? he asked rhetorically.
“What happened during the presidential and National Assembly elections in Abonnema was very unfortunate. There was massive importation of hoodlums. Where did they come from?”
He frowned that militancy had become a profession in the Niger Delta, and urged security agencies to nip the culture in the bud.
He, however, advised Rivers people to be peaceful and vote on Saturday according to their conscience.
The Coalition of Southern Kaduna Nationalities (CSKN) has threatened to leave the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, if the party fails to explain why most of its leaders in Kaduna State lost their constituencies.
Addressing a press conference in Kaduna, the leader of the CSKN Dr. Yusuf Gandu Magaji said it was worrisome that the PDP governorship candidate, Alhaji Isa Ashiru and other leaders of the party failed to deliver their constituencies at the just concluded National Assembly and Presidential elections.
The Southern Kaduna political leaders said it was unacceptable for the PDP candidate and the other leaders to post the poor result the party returned for the February 23, elections in their various wards and local governments.
He said “the Southern Kaduna Nationalities are disenchanted by the voting pattern as revealed by the results from the Zone”, saying they believed that there was a betrayal of confidence and trust on the part of the leaders of the party from the zone.
The coalition threatened to switch support to another party if the PDP failed to explain what it called “woeful performance” of the Party in the Northern part of the state and gave the PDP 24 hours to respond.
The coalition said it will abandon the party if answers were not provided within the 24-hour ultimatum.
Atiku Abubakar GCON
The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, has inaugurated his legal team to challenge the result of the just concluded presidential election.
According to a statement by his media adviser, Paul Ibe, the team inaugurated on Saturday is headed by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Dr Livy Uzoukwu.
“I have just inaugurated my legal team and charged them with the responsibility of ensuring that our stolen mandate is retrieved,” Atiku was quoted as saying in the statement.
He added, “I am encouraged by the presence of fearless men and women of the Bench.
“The judiciary which had in the past discharged itself ably is once again being called upon to deliver judgement on this matter that will be untainted by lucre and uncowed by the threat of immoral power.”
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared President Muhammadu Buhari as the winner of the election on Wednesday, having polled the highest number of votes in the poll.
In his reaction, Atiku rejected the result, alleging several malpractices including the use of the military to perfect voters’ intimidation and suppression in PDP strongholds.
He had also accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of conniving with INEC officials and security agents to fabricate “bogus figures and outright falsification of the returns from the polling units”.
The PDP candidate, thereafter, said he would use all available legitimate means to challenge the result of the election.
On Thursday, he met with members of the National Peace Committee lead by a former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd).
Atiku assured Nigerians that sooner than later, the dispensers of justice would give a judgement which he said would represent “a historic denunciation of electoral fraud and mandate bandit”.
Meanwhile, the former vice president has vowed that he would under no circumstance “mortgage the mandate of Nigerians as freely expressed on the 23rd of February, 2019.”
He raised an alarm of alleged desperate moves to make him concede and congratulate President Buhari.
The PDP presidential candidate also alleged that his son-in-law, and finance director of his group of companies, Babalele Abdullahi, was arrested in Abuja on Saturday, as part of the pressure being mounted on him.
“In a desperate move to have Atiku Abubakar concede and congratulate General Muhammadu Buhari, officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at about 8.30am today (Saturday) invaded the Maitama residence of Babalele,” a separate statement by Ibe claimed.
It added, “They were, however, not given access into the house until his lawyers arrived.
“As a law-abiding citizen, Atiku Abubakar recognises the constitutional role of the EFCC and indeed any other agency of the government to carry out investigations, but will not be cowed by any attempt to blackmail him into mortgaging his mandate.”
Source: https://www.channelstv.com/2019/03/02/atiku-inaugurates-legal-team-to-challenge-presidential-election-result/
Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) were on Saturday, said to have invaded the Abuja residence of the Finance Director of Atiku’s group of companies, Alhaji Babalele Abdullahi.
A statement by Atiku’s media adviser, Mr, Paul Ibe, said the EFCC operatives, numbering about two dozen, stormed Absullahi’s Maitama District home at 8.30 am.
Ibe stated that the operatives came in two regular vehicles, an 18-seater Toyota bus, marked Abuja CS 522 RSH; and a Toyota Hilux van.
The statement said, “They came with a search warrant to search the house and office of Babalele and found nothing incriminating.They then proceeded to his office at Oakland Centre in Maitama and found nothing incriminating there.
However, they took away some documents of landed property.
“Not done, the EFCC officials stormed his Wuse residence where they again found nothing incriminating after the search.
Afterwards, Babalele was taken away to the EFCC office in Wuse to make a statement alongside Mr. Lawan Ayuba.
“It was gathered that the petition relied upon to invade the residence and office of Babalele was authored by a brother of the wife of President Buhari.
“As a law abiding citizen, Atiku Abubakar recognizes the constitutional role of the EFCC and indeed any other agency of the government to carry out investigations, but will not be cowed by any attempt to blackmail him into mortgaging his mandate”.
The statement added that the invasion of Abdullahi’s home was part of the desperate moves by the authorities to make Atiku congratulate and concede the mandate to President Buhari.
Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) were on Saturday, said to have invaded the Abuja residence of the Finance Director of Atiku’s group of companies, Alhaji Babalele Abdullahi.
A statement by Atiku’s media adviser, Mr, Paul Ibe, said the EFCC operatives, numbering about two dozen, stormed Absullahi’s Maitama District home at 8.30 am.
Ibe stated that the operatives came in two regular vehicles, an 18-seater Toyota bus, marked Abuja CS 522 RSH; and a Toyota Hilux van.
The statement said, “They came with a search warrant to search the house and office of Babalele and found nothing incriminating.They then proceeded to his office at Oakland Centre in Maitama and found nothing incriminating there.
However, they took away some documents of landed property.
“Not done, the EFCC officials stormed his Wuse residence where they again found nothing incriminating after the search.
Afterwards, Babalele was taken away to the EFCC office in Wuse to make a statement alongside Mr. Lawan Ayuba.
“It was gathered that the petition relied upon to invade the residence and office of Babalele was authored by a brother of the wife of President Buhari.
“As a law abiding citizen, Atiku Abubakar recognizes the constitutional role of the EFCC and indeed any other agency of the government to carry out investigations, but will not be cowed by any attempt to blackmail him into mortgaging his mandate”.
The statement added that the invasion of Abdullahi’s home was part of the desperate moves by the authorities to make Atiku congratulate and concede the mandate to President Buhari.
