By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

The Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) states the obvious that 27 members of the State House of Assembly never defected to APC .

Rivers APC chairman Chief Tony Okocha, dismissed claims that the lawmakers had defected to the APC from PDP.

Okocha also denied receiving the lawmakers into the APC, saying what happened at the Port Harcourt Polo Club in December 2023 was not a reception for the 27 lawmakers.

He said the December event attended by the lawmakers was to celebrate the constitution of the state executive council of the APC by the party’s national body.

While addressing a news conference in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, Okocha said he personally invited the lawmakers individually as friends for the 2023 event and not as Assembly members.

He said, “There was no intention to organise a reception for what we were not holding. We were inaugurated in Abuja and we chose to organise a reception and thanksgiving for our members.

It was not to receive the 27 lawmakers. We were misinterpreted to have received the 27 lawmakers into the APC. That is not correct.

“We invited individual members of the Assembly. I have a relationship with them over time. We tried to woo them into the party. I was intentional in reaching out to them to join us. We would have counted it all joy if we had succeeded.”

Okocha continued, “We want to tell Nigerians that the 27 lawmakers led by Martin Amaewhule never defected to the All Progressives Congress.

“What people flaunt on social media or television cannot put a plausible argument for them.

“The law is not about emotions. It is as strict as it is.”

He accused Governor Siminalayi Fubara of disobeying the rule of law at all times, saying “The era of strong man mentality is gone. The law has taken its place.

“There is no way a High Court can sit in judgment over a superior Court of Appeal. It is not done. It is a pity that senior lawmakers in this country will now come out to misinterpret the court judgment.”

Okocha further accused the governor of exhibiting dictatorial tendencies in his refusal to obey the court judgment which authorised him to re-present the 2024 budget before the Amaewhule-led House of Assembly.

“We are disenchanted by the governor’s disrespect for the rule of law. Justice James Omotosho granted 15 reliefs in his judgment but the governor has refused to obey them.

“You cannot run the state without an annual budget. But the governor is doing so. You cannot present a budget before a three-man Assembly. The Appeal Court called it a forum,” Okocha stated.

He, however, called for calm and expressed optimism that the parties would obey when the Supreme Court finally rendered judgment on the matter.

By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

Ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, former Minister of Transportation, Roti mi Amaechi and ex-Governor of Kaduna, Nasr El-Rufai are missing as APC holds NEC meeting.

This is coming just as leaders of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have arrived at the National Secretariat of the party for its National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in the nation’s capital, Abuja.

All roads leading to the venue of the meeting on Blantyre Street were cordoned off by a combined team of armed security men including soldiers from the Guards Brigade.

Vehicular and human movements on Blantyre Street were also restricted just as journalists were kept outside despite the release of an accredited list of reporters on Wednesday morning by the party spokesman, Felix Morka.

Some early arrivals at the venue include all National Working Committee (NWC) members; Forum of State Chairmen; former governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari; Minister of Budget and National Planning, Atiku Bagudu; and Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu.

Governors of Edo, Benue, Ondo, Ekiti, Kaduna, Jigawa, Nasarawa, Yobe, Niger, Lagos, Kogi, Ogun, Imo, deputy governor of Ebonyi and former governors of Kogi, Kebbi, Niger, Zamfara, and Plateau were in attendance.

Conspicuously absent from the NEC meeting were former President Muhammadu Buhari; former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai; and former Governor of Rivers State and ex-Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi.

The leader of the party, President Bola Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shetimma, Senate President Goodwill Akpabio, and Speaker Tajudeen Abbas arrived at the venue at noon. The meeting was presided over by APC National Chairman Abdullahi Ganduje

The NEC meeting, the first since Tinubu’s assumption of office in May 2023, comes a day after the national caucus meeting of the party at the Presidential Villa also in Abuja.

Some APC chieftains including El-Rufai and an ex-National Vice Chairman of the party Salihu Lukman had complained about the lack of internal democracy in the ruling.

By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

Forty-six people were killed when a Sudanese military transport plane crashed into a residential neighbourhood on the outskirts of Khartoum, the regional government said Wednesday.

The Antonov aircraft went down on Tuesday night near Wadi Seidna air base, one of the army’s largest military hubs in Omdurman, northwest of the capital.

The army, which has been at war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since April 2023, said the plane crashed during takeoff, killing and injuring both military personnel and civilians.

“After a final tally, the number of martyrs reached 46, with 10 injured,” the Khartoum regional government’s media office said in a statement.

The army-aligned health ministry had previously reported at least 19 dead

Witnesses described hearing a loud explosion and seeing several homes damaged in the area. The crash also caused power outages in nearby neighbourhoods.

The ministry said emergency teams rushed injured civilians, including children, to a nearby hospital.

A military source cited a technical malfunction as the cause of the crash, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to comment to the media.

– Army Advances –

The crash came a day after the RSF claimed responsibility for shooting down a Russian-made Ilyushin aircraft over Nyala, the capital of South Darfur

The paramilitary group said the plane was destroyed with its crew onboard.

The recent escalation follows significant advances by the army in central Sudan and the capital Khartoum in its multi-front offensive against the RSF.

Late on Saturday, RSF signed a charter with allied political and armed groups in Nairobi, Kenya, paving the way for the formation of a parallel government in rebel-held areas.

Since April 2023, army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy and RSF commander Mohamed Hamadan Daglo, once allies, have been locked in a deadly power struggle.

The war, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives, erupted after a rift emerged between Burhan and Daglo over the future structure of the government.

The conflict has triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters in recent memory, according to the United Nations.

The fighting has devastated Khartoum and other major cities, displacing over 12 million, plunging the country into hunger and crippling critical infrastructure.

AFP