APC in Crisis: Spokesperson Blasts Party Chairman, Oyegun

The All Progressives Congress (APC) Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Timi Frank, has said the party chairman, John Oyegun is incompetent.

He also said if Oyegun cannot sort out the current impasse in the House of Representatives, he should resign.

The deputy publicity secretary of the party also said the problem in the Green Chambers and the inability of the party to call all those concerned to order is an embarrassment to the Buhari-led administration.

Frank said “I respect the National Chairman. He’s like a father to me. But again, this is an issue that has to do with our political party. If we can’t manage it, then the current leadership under Oyegun is not competent.

“I love this party so much. I don’t want us to derail from our responsibilities as no responsible leadership will keep quiet in the face of numerous crises.

“If Oyegun cannot do this job of harmonizing the party members when there are crises, I will say without fear of favour that he should resign and give way for people who have capacity to do the job.

“The truth is bitter. But I will not relent in speaking it at all times. There are so many leaders of this party that will agree with me that Oyegun is not competent enough to do this job. So, many of them will testify. Although they may not have the competence to speak.”

He also said “I want to use this opportunity to beg leaders of this party, if the NWC members cannot do it, the leaders of this party should please wade into the current crisis rocking the House of Representatives.

“The current NWC cannot solve the crisis rocking the National Assembly. The two persons involved are members of the APC. The party should have summoned Abdulmumin Jibrin at the early stage. They party should have intervened within 24 hours. The party is not making any move as at now. Nobody has called Speaker Yakubu Dogara and Abdulmumin.”

“We must not shy away from the truth. The President is the leader of our party. So, if the leadership under Oyegun cannot save the President from embarrassment, who will do it for us? We have to do it by ourselves. So, that is why I’m taking it upon myself to speak out because I want the President to succeed.

“This is not a personal attack against the leadership of the party. I’m saying this because the silence of my party all the times is not good for democracy and our government as at today.

“This is not the first time our party is keeping quiet on issues that bother on individual members of the party or party members from various states,” he said.

The former chairman of the House of Representatives appropriation committee,  Abdulmumin Jibrin, has accused Speaker, Yakubu Dogara of giving each member of the appropriation committee , $20,000 to tell lie against him.

Pulse.Ng

UN Security Council agrees to send police to Burundi

The UN Security Council has authorised the deployment of a UN police force to Burundi to try to quell violence and human rights abuses in the country.

The council backed a French-drafted resolution to send up to 228 police for an initial period of a year.

Burundi earlier said it would accept no more than 50 police officers.

More than 400 people have been killed in unrest since President Pierre Nkurunziza said he would run for a third term in office last April.

More than 200,000 people have fled their homes.

Negotiations continue

"Given an increase in violence and tension the Security Council must have eyes and ears on the ground to predict and ensure that the worst does not occur in Burundi," said French UN Ambassador Francois Delattre.

"This is a strong act of preventative diplomacy," he added.

The government of Burundi earlier warned it would agree to no more than 50 UN police officers.

Diplomats are now negotiating how to implement the UN Security Council's resolution.

Although both Burundi's opposition and government forces are ethnically mixed, some fear that the violence could descend into a repeat of the genocidal killings which the country has previously experienced.

President Nkurunziza is the former leader of a Hutu rebel group which battled a Tutsi-dominated army for many years until he came to power in 2005 as part of a peace deal.

BBC Report

Tunisia parliament votes to sack PM Habib Essid

Tunisia's parliament has passed a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Habib Essid, effectively dismissing the government of the US-trained economist.

A total of 188 MPs voted to sack Mr Essid, with only three supporting him.

Mr Essid, who has been in office less than two years, has faced criticism for what his opponents say is his failure to push through economic reforms.

President Beji Caid Essebsi last month called for a national unity government to break months of economic turmoil.

Image copyrightEPA

Image captionMore than a third of young people in Tunisia are without work

Unemployment has worsened since the 2011 revolution, when President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was ousted. More than a third of young people in Tunisia are without work.

Tunisia's uprising was the first of the Arab Spring, and often hailed as the most successful with the country now functioning as a parliamentary democracy.

---

Analysis: BBC's Rana Jawad in Tunis

The confidence vote came after a month of wrangling over the fate of the prime minister, following pressure on him from the country's president to resign. Mr Essid refused to step down, citing respect for the constitutional process and instead called on the Tunisian parliament to decide his fate.

In the end, an overwhelming majority of MPs voted to oust him from office. Most lawmakers accused him of failing to deliver on economic reforms needed to ease the country's high unemployment rates.

In June, the Tunisian president proposed the formation of a new unity government, arguing that the country needed a leadership that could carry out bold reforms.

But some observers believe that the vote is also a consequence of the prime minister's detachment from party politics. Mr Essid recently accused leading parties of trying to pressure him into making changes to the cabinet, which he says he refused to comply with. It is not clear who will succeed him at this time, but parliament will start negotiations over the matter on Monday.

BBC Report

Egypt convicts former auditor of spreading 'false news'

Egypt's former top auditor, who was sacked after alleging government corruption, has been given a prison sentence for spreading "false news".

Hisham Geneina was fired in March by President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi after estimating corruption had cost Egypt $67.6bn (£51.3bn) over four years.

He was sentenced to a year in jail and fined $2,200 but told he could avoid prison if he paid an additional $1,100, judicial sources said.

His lawyer said he would appeal.

Lawyer Ali Taha said prosecutors had failed to prove their accusations and said the case for the defence had not been examined. Reporters were not allowed to attend the sentencing at a Cairo court.

Geneina, a former judge, denied the charges and said they were politically motivated.

After firing Geneina, President Sisi appointed a fact-finding commission that concluded the auditor had over-estimated the scale of corruption. and thus misled the public.

The case was based on comments Geneina made to two Egyptian newspapers last December when he was still head of the Accountability State Authority (ASA).

The daily al-Youm al-Sabea quoted him as saying in an interview that endemic corruption had cost Egypt some 600bn Egyptian pounds ($67.6bn) in 2015 alone, mostly in corrupt land deals.

Geneina later said that he had been misquoted and that the figure covered four years, a claim supported by a separate interview with another newspaper.

He also noted that it was based on a study commissioned by the Egyptian planning ministry and carried out with the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

President Sisi has made fighting corruption a top priority since coming to power after leading the military's overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in 2013.

BBC Report

Fani-Kayode Predicts Nigeria Disintegration Under Buhari

Femi Fani-Kayode has made a shocking prophecy and warned President Muhammadu Buhari of impending doom if he tries to use force against the Niger Delta militants. 

Former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode has made a prophecy which many people might not be expecting.

 

He took to Facebook to share his opinion on the latest plan by the Federal Government to use the army against militants in the Niger Delta.

 

Below is what he wrote:

 

"On 29th July 2016 CNN reported that "the Nigerian government is preparing troops for a crackdown in the Niger Delta if peace talks fail". 

"This is sad and ominous. As United States Senator Ted Cruz once said "the light of truth is stronger than the terror of darkness.

"It follows that the biggest mistake that the Buhari administtation can possibly make is to attempt to "crack down" on the Niger Delta and kill innocent civilians. 

"If this ever happens, for whatever reason, it will set off a chain of events that will lead to the end of Nigeria as we know it. 

"Nigeria will disintegrate before Buhari's very eyes if any more innocent blood is shed and if the towns, creeks and villages of the oil-producing states are shelled and reduced to rubble. 

"The cause of the people of the Niger Delta, and indeed that of the Igbo people of the eastern states, is just and their struggles and aspirations are legitimate and reasonable. 

"Self-detetmination is a right. It is a concept and principle that is universally accepted and that has the backing of international law. 

"You do not threaten and bomb those that seek to exercise that right: you treat them with respect, decency and decorum and attempt to persuade them to stay. 

"This is a point that is lost on President Buhari and those around him. The Avengers are not Boko Haram: taking them on in the field of battle would be a monuemental error."

Tori News

Nigerian Army and Militants Clash in Heavy Fighting at Arepo and Ibafo

It is a serious battle between the Nigerian Army and militants in Ibafo and Arepo areas of Ogun State terrorizing residents of the state. 


The Nigerian Army have stormed Arepo and Ibafo communities in Ogun and Lagos State to confront militants terrorizing residents in the area.

According to a Punch report, there was a serious exchange of gunfire between militants and military men inside the creek, people were advised to stay indoors as the militant now hide inside people’s compound to escape the military men. 

 

The military came prepared, even with a helicopter to fish out the criminals.

 

Tori News

New South Sudan VP appointment 'illegal'- Former VP

South Sudan's former vice president and prominent opposition leader Riek Machar has told Al Jazeera that his replacement by President Salva Kiir is "illegal".

In an exclusive phone interview on Wednesday, Machar said: "I'm still the first vice president of the republic of South Sudan. The appointment made yesterday by President Salva Kiir is illegal.

"It has no basis because the peace agreement does not give him the powers to appoint a first vice president under the current circumstances."

Kiir replaced Machar on Monday with General Taban Deng Gai, after a sharp surge in violence earlier this month between government and opposition fighters threatened to send the world's youngest country back to all-out civil war.

Machar fled the capital, Juba, more than two weeks ago and has been in hiding ever since.

'I'm around Juba'

Machar told Al Jazeera that he is currently "around Juba", adding, however, that he will only return to the capital when an outside force intervenes.

"I'm around Juba," he told Al Jazeera's Sami Zeidan.

"I am waiting for the international community and regional body to say they will deploy troops to Juba and once they do that, I will return to implement the [peace] agreement."

But, Machar said, that if the international community failed to intervene, he might order his followers to make a move to march towards Juba in the future.

"As long as the international community and the regional third party force are being waited to deploy, we will not disrupt that," he said.

"But if they fail, this will be an indication that the whole agreement is forsaken by the international community and the regional body that brokered the peace agreement."

Read more from Aljazeera

US Election: President Obama Endorses Clinton as the Most Qualified Presidential Candidate

There has never been a man or a woman more qualified than Hillary Clinton to serve as the next US president.

That was the message US President Barack Obama had for the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on Wednesday night.

Delivering the keynote speech at the convention, which elected Clinton as the party's presidential nominee on Tuesday , Obama said he had "come to admire" Clinton as someone who never quits, no matter "how much people try to knock her down.

"I can say with confidence there has never been a man or a woman more qualified than Hillary Clinton to serve as president of the United States of America."

He described Clinton as a person who listens, keeps her cool and treats everybody with respect.

Demands of Oval Office

As a politician and former secretary of state, Clinton had been part of the biggest decisions facing the US, Obama said, noting that "nothing truly prepares you for the demands of the Oval Office".

"You can read about it. You can study it. But until you've sat at that desk, you don't know what it's like to manage a global crisis or send young people to war," Obama said.

"But Hillary's been in the room; she's been part of those decisions."

Obama's speech anchored a night of celebrity speakers, not only from the Democratic Party but also from the worlds of business and entertainment, who spoke in support of Clinton.

US Vice President Joe Biden was one of several speakers to take aim at Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, branding him an opportunist who had no clue about how to make America great.

Biden took Trump to task for his trademark reality TV slogan: "You're fired".

"Think about that," Biden said, calling the billionaire businessman's "cynicism" unbounded.

"How can there be pleasure in 'You're fired'?"

"He has no clue about what makes America great. Actually, he has no clue - period."

Trump 'unfit to be elected'

Biden said Trump was unfit to be elected to the White House on November 8.

"The threats are too great, the times are too uncertain, to elect Donald Trump as president of the United States," he said.

Hollywood actress Sigourney Weaver said: "Hillary Clinton, she gets it. She cares. She is committed."

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Former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords,  who survived being shot in the head during an assassination attempt, received a standing ovation at the convention, telling the audience that she was looking forward to saying two words: "Madam President".

"In the White House she will stand up to the gun lobby. That is why I am voting for Hillary," Giffords said.

Obama also hit an optimistic tone on the direction the country is taking, saying the "America I know is full of courage, and optimism, and ingenuity".

And while there are real anxieties about racial divisions, jobs and healthcare, Obama said that his travels around the country had shown him "more than anything, is what is right with America".

Delegates cheer as Obama addresses the Democratic National Convention [Justin Lane/EPA]

Obama's image of the US contrasts starkly with the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's dystopian view of contemporary America as a place where security threats abound and law and order has broken down.

Grabbing the spotlight at a news conference in Miami earlier in the day, Trump urged Russia to find and release tens of thousands of emails that Clinton did not hand over to US officials as part of a probe into her use of a private email system while she was secretary of state.

"Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," Trump said.

Clinton's campaign quickly responded to Trump's statement, calling it the "first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against a political opponent.

"This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue," Clinton's campaign said in a statement.

Aljazeera Report

13 Killed as Al-Shabab bombs target AU Troops in Somalia

At least 13 people were killed when two vehicles packed with explosives went off as they were driven towards a base for African Union troops in the Somali capital, according to officials and witnesses.

The first blast happened near an entrance to the base, which is beside Mogadishu's main airport, and the second at a nearby checkpoint manned by Somali government forces. 

White smoke could be seen billowing over the city after the blast on Tuesday.

"Thirteen people died in the two suicide vehicle explosions," Abdifatah Omar Halane, spokesman for Banadir administration, the local government, told Al Jazeera by phone from the scene of the blasts. 

"Nine of the dead were security for the UN and three were civilians. Five people were also injured in the explosions," Abdifatah added, not giving details of the 13th death.  

A journalist at the scene said ambulances were ferrying the wounded to hospital.

The al-Shabab armed group told Al Jazeera it was responsible for the attack.

"Our Mujahideen targeted Halane which is base to the foreign forces occupying our Muslim country. We have killed dozens of them," Abdulaziz Abu Muscab, a spokesman for the group, said.

AMISOM, the African Union peacekeeping force, said on Twitter that it condemned the attack.

"These senseless attacks ... aim to disrupt the lives of ordinary Somalis," it said. 

Farhan Haq, spokesman for the UN secretary general, also denounced the attack.

"It is disturbing, both the attack and the scale of the attack," he told reporters on Tuesday.

"It's clear that the explosives in the trucks were of immense firepower," Haq said, adding that if the guards had not stopped one of the cars from entering the UN premises, there "would have been considerably more damage and loss of life".

It is not the first time that the armed group has attacked the AU force's heavily fortified headquarters in the city. In December 2014 fighters from the group breached the base's security perimeter before engaging troops in a gun battle that lasted several hours and killed at least three soldiers.

The AMISOM force, deployed to Somalia since 2007, currently has some 22,000 soldiers from Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Burundi and Djibouti.

They have managed to push al-Shabab out of the capital, but the group still holds large swaths of territory and frequently launches hit-and-run attacks.

Aljazeera Report