OGUN CUTS SALARY OF POLITICAL OFFICE HOLDERS

As part of its response to the global economic melt-down, Ogun State is to effect a 12% cut in the salaries & allowances of political office holders beginning from February, 2009. The decision was reached at the end of the Executive Council meeting held on Wednesday, February 4, 2009. The decision which was unanimously reached would affect all categories of political office holders who would forgo 12% of their gross monthly pay in a voluntary move to ensure that the impact of the meltdown on the state is minimized. Governor Gbenga Daniel who presided over the meeting enjoined all and sundry to be prepared to make sacrifice for the good of the State.

Other measures which are already being implemented by the Otunba Daniel administration as a direct response to the expected shortfall form receipt from the federation account include the setting up of budget monitoring committees by Ministries, Departments and Agencies. The committees would vet expenditure, monitor spending and ensure that all government revenues are lodged in Government accounts as at when due. Measures have also been put in place to ensure that the state captures all taxes due to it especially from the towns situated in the border areas of the State. The council also directed the Ministry of Finance to carry out a downward review of all expenditure in order to further trim government spending. Governor Daniel has however assured the people of the State that the provision of critical infrastructure and other economic development projects and programmes would still rank high in the scheme of things

Adegbenro Adebanjo

Chief Press Secretary to the Governor

Atiku shuns AC - Atiku was not invited to party meeting -Aide

Source: Nigerian Tribune

THE Action Congress has described the visit of its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s home in Abeokuta as a misadventure.

The AC spokesman, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, speaking at the NEC meeting where Alhaji Abubakar was to have been quizzed on the issue, said “it was a misadventure on the part of the former vice-president because he did not let members know that he wanted to visit Obasanjo.”

Abubakar, on Thursday in Abuja did not attend the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting called to quiz him over the surprise courtesy visit he paid to former President Obasanjo in Abeokuta.

The former vice president had during the week visited his former boss in Abeokuta and this shocked many Nigerians and the AC on whose ticket he contested the last presidential election after leaving the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), where he said he was no longer wanted.

However, the party spokesman declared that the former vice president had no punishment to serve, saying he breached none of the AC constitutional provisions and guidelines.

According to him, the grouse of the party as reflected in the contributions made by those in attendance was that Atiku did not consult with the party before he chose to visit his former boss at his Abeokuta home, declaring the action as a “misadventure” on Atiku’s part but “without any ulterior motive.”

But a close aide of the former vice president told the Nigerian Tribune that Atiku was not invited and could not have attended because he is not an exco member.

“We also read it on the pages of the newspapers like any other person, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was not invited,” the aide asserted. Mohammed, however, stressed that “every member was invited.

The former vice president is an ex-officio member. We don’t know why he did not come. He could be attending to some other equally important things,” Alhaji Mohammed told newsmen at a briefing shortly after the end of the meeting chaired by the party’s national chairman, Chief Bisi Akande.

Atiku, Alhaji Mohammed saidwas invited to the NEC meeting to come and defend his action which he said offended the sensibilities of party members and many Nigerians, but did not show up for the meeting that lasted several hours.

The AC presidential candidate did not send any excuse for not attending the NEC meeting where he serves as ex-officio member.

Mohammed, however, said the AC did not discuss the issue of Atiku’s likely return to PDP which he said had been in the rumour mill for a long time.

He said Atiku had denied that allegation several times but said the AC was currently concerned with his visit to Obasanjo, who it accused of making efforts to frustrate the party from contesting the last elections by allegedly persecuting AC members.

Mohammed told newsmen that Atiku had told the AC national chairman, Chief Akande, that he visited the former president because of pressure mounted on him by friends, political associates and even traditional rulers.

He said Akande also told the NEC members in his opening remarks that he made it clear to Abubakar during their interaction that his action was a “misjudgment,” even though the party did not restrict the movement of its members.

He said it was the view of the party chairman that every member of the party must look at the sensitivity of an issue to the party, especially the one that involved Obasanjo, who, he said, did everything in his power while in office to stop the AC from contesting the 2007 polls.

Meanwhile, Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola declared on Thursday that former vice president Atiku Abubakar is part of the history of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and that nobody can write the history of the party without mentioning Atiku’s name.

Oyinlola spoke with State House reporters at the Presidential Villa when he came to attend the expanded meeting of the federation accounts committee.

He described the former vice president as a founding member of the PDP but denied that his efforts to reconcile Atiku with former President Olusegun Obasanjo had anything to do with the 2011 general election.

The governor said he was moved to begin the reconciliation because his religion dictates that he should make peace and settle misunderstanding.

On whether Nigeria was not turning into a one party state given the dominance of the PDP, the governor said there was nothing wrong with a one party state if that is the wish of the people of the country.