SOCIALVILLA

The presidential candidate of the party, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), is from the state.

Trouble started when Jonathan, accompanied by Vice President Namadi Sambo; the National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu; and Governor Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State among others decided to pay a courtesy visit on the late President Umar Yar’Adua’s mother, Hajiya Dada.

As the President and members of his entourage made their ways into the Yar’Adua Quarters, the brooms-wielding youths who were chanting “Sai Buhari” surged forward.

Security agents had a hectic time dispersing the crowd.

The youths regrouped and again moved to attack the President’s convoy as he was ready to leave the Yar’Adua’s residence.

Security agents had to fire tear gas canisters to disperse the youths to allow vehicles in the convoy of the President to speed off.

As the presidential delegation made their way towards the Katsina Airport, the youths hurled stones at the convoy.

No case of injury was however reported.

While addressing a rally earlier at the National Youth Service Corps Orientation Camp in the state capital, Jonathan had attributed his Presidency to the late President who he said chose him as the Vice President in 2007.

For this reason, the President promised to always meet the needs of the people of the state before they ask.

“But for you, I would not have been here today. It was your own son that brought me as his deputy. Anything that you want from me, we will do it without you asking for it,” he said.

The President listed some of the achievements of his administration to include the establishment of a federal university and the establishment of Almajiri schools among others in the state.

On security situation in some parts of the country, Jonathan said, “We have challenges like many other countries in the world but we are still managing because of our focus. We will get through our challenges because we are working hard and you know it.”

Jonathan asked them to vote for him and Sambo to enable them to continue to work for the peace and progress of the state.

Earlier while on a courtesy visit to the Emir of Katsina, Alhaji Abdulmumuni Usman, Jonathan had recalled that his political odyssey at the centre started in Katsina when he became the vice president to the late Yar’Adua.

He reassured the Emir that he would continue to work with Katsina people to develop the country.

Again, some Bayelsa State youths have issued a stern warning to the wife of the President, Patience Jonathan, not to visit the state during the Peoples Democratic Party presidential rally on February 5.

The youths from Bayelsa creeks, under the auspices of the Mangrove Boys of Bayelsa, warned on Tuesday that if the First Lady failed to heed their warning, she would be thoroughly disgraced and have herself to blame.

The warning came a few days after the Bayelsa Youth Vanguard issued a similar statement barring Patience from attending the proposed rally.

Reinforcing the position of the BYV, the creek youths asked Mrs. Jonathan to steer clear of the rally in her own interest.

The youths, in a statement by their President, Mr. Opuyo Engobara, and Secretary, Mr. Warrman Aderi, accused the First Lady of aiding his anointed governorship aspirant, Mr. Waripamowei Dudafa, to recruit youths to boo and stone Governor Seriake Dickson, at the proposed rally.

They lamented President Goodluck Jonathan’s silence over the alleged excesses of his wife, wondering whether he intended to join in the stoning of the governor.

They said, “In her last visit to the state, Mrs. Jonathan came ahead of her husband, avoided the state Government Lodge and stayed at Otuoke for three days.

“During the time, she was busy sponsoring Dudafa’s recruitment drive with the intention to go against the governor by booing and stoning him at the planned rally to discredit his administration before the PDP National Executive Council.

“Is President Jonathan using this as a ploy to join Bayelsa youths to stone Governor Dickson as promised (by the President) during his presidential campaign in 2011 and subsequently to oust Dickson’s administration, since he could hardly rebuke his wife in several of her political atrocities?”

The creek agitators insisted that the presence of Patience at the proposed rally would cause tension and security breaches in the state.

They said Patience actions and pronouncement in recent times had allegedly been fuelling crisis in the state.

The youths listed eight sins of Patience and accused her of opening a new secretariat for the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria in the state with an intention to use the group to mobilise against the governor.

They alleged that the First Lady tinkered with the leadership of TAN and aided her loyalists to reposition the campaign group to actualise her ambition of removing Dickson.

The youths further lamented that Patience used the occasion of the sharing of the Millennium Development Goals items at the Samson Siasia Stadium to make inflammatory statements against the governor.

They recalled that Patience attended a function in Dudafa’s town and made open statements supporting him as the next governor.

The youths also alleged that Patience sponsored aspirants that failed in the PDP primaries, to defect to the All Progressives Grand Alliance.

They noted that the peace currently enjoyed in the state came from the hard work of the governor, reminiscing that in the previous government, Jonathan’s house was razed down in Otuoke by aggrieved militants.

It'll Surprise you to actually know that

BUHARI and YAR’ADUA did not increase prices.

In fact, YARADUA reduced the pump price from N75 to N65.

Jonathan has suspended further increase in Jan 2015 because of the forthcoming elections. Now he has reduced the price to N87 on 18th of January, 2015.

Wake up!

Jeremiah Abalaka, a surgeon turned immunologist, who claimed to have developed a vaccine for the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, HIV, said he would only release his vaccine recipe to the Nigerian government under negotiated agreement. Speaking with journalists in Abuja on Saturday, Mr. Abalaka said as a New Year gift to Nigerians, he would willingly work with various interested government agencies to ensure his discovery was put to good use. However, he said this would only happen under a negotiated agreement with the Nigerian government. His vaccine recipe, he said, will be released to a chosen representative of the Nigerian government – a person of relevant profession for whom he will organize a workshop with practical sessions. The workshop will focus on the production, storage and administration of the vaccines. Mr. Abalaka said he never claimed his vaccine could cure AIDS. “The point must be made clear again and again that I do not claim and I have never claimed to have discovered cure or prevention for AIDS,” he said. “I have only developed safe and effective vaccines for the prevention and treatment of HIV, the causative agent of AIDS.” Mr. Abalaka said he is prepared to move on after 16 years of legal hurdles although he feels pained that millions of people should have benefitted from his discovery. He said his attempt at finding a way forward in fighting the HIV pandemic came after attending a World Health Organization-sponsored workshop in 1974 in Geneva. The WHO workshop formed a solid foundation of the conception of his innovation for safe and effective HIV vaccines. He recommended that a national or state emergency vaccination programme for HIV control be created. He said the agency must be completely independent directly under the presidency or the state governor. The agency, he said, should also be funded by the Nigeria government in collaboration with private sector contributors. Mr. Abalaka, 67, said for the past 16 years while facing various lawsuits, he took to golfing as leisure, and spent most of his time taking care of other personal ventures.

Read more at: I will release my HIV ‘vaccine’ to Nigerian government on one condition – Abalaka | LATEST NIGERIAN NEWS BREAKING HEADLINES NEWSPAPERS