Good morning our dear listener, kindly join us on the Podium this morning at 8.45am Live as we look at some issues in our nations polity. Top on the agenda is that: The Federal Government on Sunday announced a reduction in the pump price of petrol by N10 from N97 to N87 per litre. The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, announced the reduction while briefing State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. According to Alison-Madueke, the reduction, which took immediate effect, was because of the recent drastic fall in the prices of crude oil in the international market. The minister further directed the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency and the Directorate of Petroleum Resources to immediately effect the change. The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said it will neither accept an interim government nor a postponement of next months elections as being advocated by certain individuals, saying the elections must hold as scheduled on Feb. 14th and 28th 2015. In a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party warned that any attempt to scuttle the polls in preference for any other arrangement will be resisted by all available constitutional means. We are aware that those who are not comfortable with the turning of the political tide in favour of the opposition ahead of the elections are scheming to abort a possible victory for our party, through either an interim government or a postponement of the elections. These enemies of Nigeria include those who are worried by the strong anti-corruption stance of our party and its avowed commitment to good governance, and those who favour the status quo of anything goes, bad governance and massive corruption that have left Nigerians deeply pauperized and traumatized, it said. APC said those who may consider the two scenarios of interim government and postponement of the elections as outlandish should consider the published but yet-unrefuted statement by one Deji Adeyanju, said to be an official in the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe. The party quoted Adeyanju, who handles Dr. Okupes Twitter Account, as saying in a Blackberry Messenger (BBM) statement: “Buhari can never be President of Nigeria. Quote me any day any time. Instead of Buhari to become President of Nigeria, Nigeria would rather break. A military coup will even be allowed than for Buhari to become the President of a democratic Nigeria quote me any day, any time.” It said that since the statement has not been refuted, one can safely conclude that it represents the thinking in the presidency circle. If a citizen is advocating a military coup against a sitting government just to prevent a supposed election victory of the opposition, it is nothing short of treason. Yet, the security agencies that have been falling over themselves warning against incendiary and inciting statements have not yet swung into action over this inciting statement. This is not encouraging vis-a-vis the non-partisan stand of the security agencies, the APC insisted. Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State has raised the alarm over the inability of more than 700,000 registered voters in Delta State to collect their permanent voter cards. The governor raised the alarm on Sunday at Akwukwu-Igbo, Oshimili North Local Government Area, during the campaign rally of the Peoples Democratic Party Governorship, senatorial, House of Representatives and House of Assembly candidates. Addressing the large crowd of Deltans who turned out for the PDP campaign rally, Uduaghan said that only 1.2 million of the about 1.9 million registered voters had collected their cards. Advising the large number of people that turned out for the rally, the governor said the huge support the PDP had could only be converted to victory if the people collected and used their voter cards. Join us now for these and other issues on the Podium
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 07:55:31 +0000