ASUU TO PROLONG STRIKE UNTIL… Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Benin zone, weekend, vowed to continue with the ongoing strike action, accusing the Jonathan administration of not learning from the mistakes of previous governments. Meanwhile, Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU; Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, NASU, and the National Associations of Academic Technologists, NAAT, weekend, threatened to resume their suspended strike today over failure of the Federal Government to honour the 2009 agreement entered into with the unions. Coordinator of Benin ASUU Zone and member of its National Executive Council, NEC, Dr. Sunny Ighalo, who briefed newsmen in Benin, Edo State, said its members will sit at home as long as government remains insensitive to their plight over the agreement it entered with ASUU. Ighalo, who said the current strike action has been very successful, noted that ASUU would only call off the strike when the Federal Government honours the agreement entered into with it. He said that part of the agreement was to reposition ailing infrastructure in most of the country’s federal universities and improved welfare of members of the body. AMAECHI: ACN ACCUSES PDP OF OVER-HEATING POLITY Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, has accused Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, of being unrelenting in its grim determination to overheat the polity and set the country on fire, if that will satisfy one man’s personal ambition to hold on to power. In a statement in Lagos, yesterday, by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said it was left with no choice than to reach that conclusion after a faction of Rivers PDP reportedly loyal to President Goodluck Jonathan expelled Governor Chibuike Amaechi at a time all people of goodwill were calling for a resolution of the lingering crisis. FG TO RELEASE N10BN CASSAVA BREAD DEVELOPMENT FUND Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has said the Federal Government will soon release N10 billion for cassava bread development fund and to further boost the cassava production. Adesina who was represented by the Senior Technical Assistant to the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Adetunji Oredipe, disclosed this in Kogi State at the Cassava GES Roll Out at Agbadu Staple Crop Processing Zone, SCPZ, in Kabba Bunu Local Government Area of the state. He explained that Government established the Cassava Bread Development Fund, which would be funded through the tariff on wheat flour. He further said that the Cassava Bread Development Fund would also be used to support research and development efforts on cassava bread, training of master bakers, and support for master bakers for the acquisition of new equipment for production. Speaking on the Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES), the minister said that the GES will allow the farmers to produce additional food because the farmers will receive their improved cuttings and fertilisers. OBJ/JONATHAN PARLEY: PRESIDENT IN CRUCIAL TALKS WITH TUKUR, OTHERS President Goodluck Jonathan, last night, met the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and major party stakeholders as a follow-up to the meeting he had with former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo weekend. The meeting was aimed at resolving the grouses of senior members of the party. The confusion in the party has led to some Northern governors threatening to leave the party. Meanwhile, five of the disaffected Northern governors are meeting today with two former heads of state, General Ibrahim Babangida and General Abdulsalami Abubakar as part of their consultations with statesmen on the alleged drift of the party. A meeting with General Theophilus Danjuma is also on the cards, it was learnt. Last night’s meeting which was in progress at press time came as a result of complaints by the former president and the fact that some of the party’s big wigs were against the emergence of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur. Former President Obasanjo and other stakeholders complained of the crises that have gripped the party since the emergence of Tukur as Chairman. President Jonathan, it was learnt, used yesterday’s meeting as a feedback to party stakeholders on his meeting with the former president in Abeokuta on Saturday. Among those at the meeting yesterday were Tukur and members of the Professor Jerry Gana-led Special Convention Planning Committee. The urgency of last night’s meeting, it was learnt, followed insinuations that the PDP could soon implode, especially in the North, given warnings from President Obasanjo that some Northern governors could soon be leaving the party. BUHARI, TINUBU ARE DICTATORS – PDP THE leadership of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Sunday, alleged that the 2011 presidential candidate of Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, General Muhammadu Buhari, and former governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, were united in dictatorship. PDP warned both personalities to stop parading themselves as saints and democrats, saying Nigerians already know their dictatorial antecedents. In a statement signed yesterday by its Acting National Publicity Secretary, Mr Tony Okeke, the party said: “Buhari and Tinubu are united in dictatorship. It is on this pedestal that they are pursuing merger to register the All Progressives Congress, which manifesto betrays the fact that they have absolutely nothing to offer but desperate for power. “We urge lovers of democracy, especially those seeking elections on the platform of any party where the duo are in control, to wake up before it is too late as there will not be any primaries to give them a level playing ground to realize their dreams…”
Posted on: Mon, 22 Jul 2013 05:47:38 +0000