Donald Trump set to deliver first speech as ex-President

 

Former US President Donald Trump would be delivering his first speech after leaving the White House next week. 

He would speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Sunday February 28.

The gathering would be one of the largest annual gatherings of political conservatives.  

He would address the congress on “the future of the Republican Party and the conservative movement.”

The former president also is expected to challenge the “disastrous amnesty and border policies of American President, Joe Biden. 

Trump remains a strong political force in US politics as a poll by Quinnipiac University this week revealed that three-quarter of Republicans want him to play a prominent role in the party.

Since his departure from the White House, the former president so far has been silent despite claims the election was rigged.

He however, called-in to a cable TV news program after the death of popular radio host, Rush Limbaugh. Trump hinted at a future political run.

“I won’t say yet but we have tremendous support. And I’m looking at poll numbers that are through the roof.”

“Let’s say somebody gets impeached, typically your numbers would go down, they would go down like a dead balloon. But the numbers are very good, they’re very high,” he said.

- PM NEWS

South-west govs back NEC, insist states must manage their forest reserves

 Governors from the south-west region have backed the resolution of the National Economic Council (NEC) for each state to manage its forest reserves.

The meeting, which also had some traditional rulers in attendance, took place at the executive chamber of the Oyo state governor’s office in Ibadan.

In spite of NEC’s stance on forest reserves, Bala Mohammed, governor of Bauchi, had said citizens don’t need the permission of any governor to live in the forest of any state.

But while speaking with journalists at the end of Saturday’s meeting, Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo state said the south-west leaders support the decision of NEC.

“We believe that all the states should be in position to manage their forest and that will give the respective state governments to power to determine who are in the forest and for what purpose,” Akeredolu said.

“And where we have people that are illegally in the forest the state should be able to take some steps so that we can preserve the forest.

“So all of us, including the traditional rulers, supported the decision of NEC on forest management.”

Akeredolu said they observed that the south-west states’ borders had become too porous, hence the need to do something urgently “to prevent foreign herdsmen coming into the country without any form of caution”.

He said: “We noted that a number of these foreign herders with their herds and cows are already in the country and what they do is something of concern to all of us and we believe our borders need to be tied.

“We need to tighten our borders so that all these foreigners, maybe from Niger or bordering states, coming with their herds and destroying farms are curbed.”

According to Akeredolu, the meeting also discussed the need for government to support cattle breeding just as “we have been supporting other areas of farming”.

“One of the areas we can support cattle breeding is to change the way and means cattle breeders are adopting now,” he said.

“This can be done by finding a designated area where cattle can graze, no need of trekking far with cattle but this issue of open grazing in this modern time must be looked at.”

He, therefore, called on the states and the federal government to look into areas of support for the cattle breeders.

He also appealed to the media on the need to assist the country in curbing the issue of fake news.

- THECABLE

EPL: Mourinho unveils Tottenham’s hope for current season

 

Jose Mourinho has insisted that his Tottenham side remain in the hunt for a top-four finish this season.

This is despite slipping to ninth on the league table given recent disappointing run of results.

Tottenham have failed to win in four of their last five league matches and is falling off the pace in a battle to secure a top four finish.

But the Portuguese gaffer believes anything is still possible, with just a little gap separating the Champions League spots from those in mid-table.

“The same way you lose three matches and go to a bad position, the same way you win three matches and go to a much better position,” the former Chelsea boss told talkSPORT.

“Like it happened last season, let’s keep it going until the end and let’s see what the table will give us.

“In the end, the table always gives you what you deserve and it’s very premature to think about the definition of the table.

“We can finish top four, we can finish top six or we can finish outside top six. Anything can happen and we must make sure the best possible thing can happen.”

- DAILY POST

Myanmar protesters brave the armoured tanks, actor arrested

 Thousands of Myanmar anti-coup protesters gathered on Sunday in towns from north to south, undeterred by the bloodiest episode of their campaign on Saturday, when security forces killed two persons.

Early on Sunday, police arrested a famous actor Lu Min, his wife, Khin Sabai Oo, said on Facebook.

Lu Min has been a prominent figure in Yangon protests and was one of six celebrities wanted under an anti-incitement law for encouraging civil servants to join the protest.

The military, since the 1 February coup, has been unable to quell the demonstrations and a civil disobedience campaign of strikes and the detention of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and others, even with a promise of a new election and warnings against dissent.

In the main city of Yangon, several thousand young people gathered at two sites to chant slogans, while thousands massed peacefully in the second city of Mandalay, where Saturday’s killings took place, video from a media outlet showed.

In Myitkyina town in the north, which has seen confrontations in recent days, people laid flowers for the dead protesters while young people with banners drove around on motorbikes.

Crowds marched in the central towns of Monywa and Bagan and in Dawei and Myeik in the south, pictures showed.

“They aimed at the heads of unarmed civilians. They aimed at our future,” a young protester in Mandalay told the crowd. Military spokesman Zaw Min Tun, told a news conference on Tuesday the army’s actions were within the constitution and supported by most people, and he blamed protesters for instigating violence.

The more than two weeks of protests had been largely peaceful, unlike previous episodes of opposition during nearly half a century of direct military rule to 2011.

Members of ethnic minorities, poets and transport workers marched peacefully earlier on Saturday in various places but tension escalated in Mandalay where police and soldiers confronted striking shipyard workers.

Some demonstrators fired catapults at police as they played cat and mouse. Police responded with tear gas and gunfire at the protesters, witnesses said.

Video clips on social media showed members of the security forces firing and witnesses said they found the spent cartridges of live rounds and rubber bullets.

Two people were shot and killed, one a teenaged boy, and 20 were wounded, an emergency service said. U.N. Special Rapporteur for Myanmar Tom Andrews said he was horrified.

“From water cannons to rubber bullets to tear gas and now hardened troops firing point blank at peaceful protesters. This madness must end,” he said on Twitter.

The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said the strikers sabotaged vessels and attacked police with sticks, knives and catapults. Eight policemen and several soldiers were injured, it said.

The newspaper did not mention the deaths but said: “Some of the aggressive protesters were also injured due to the security measures conducted by the security force.” 

A young woman protester became the first death among anti-coup demonstrators on Friday. She was shot in the head on Feb. 9 in the capital, Naypyitaw. The army says one policeman has died of injuries sustained in a protest.

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) condemned the violence in Mandalay as a crime against humanity.

The army seized power after alleging fraud in Nov. 8 elections that the NLD swept, detaining Suu Kyi and others. The electoral commission had dismissed the fraud complaints.

Facebook said it deleted the military’s main page, Tatmadaw True News Information, for repeated violations of its standards “prohibiting incitement of violence and coordinating harm”.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners group said 569 people have been detained in connection with the coup.

Western countries that earlier condemned the coup decried the violence.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said the United States was “deeply concerned”.

France, Singapore and Britain also condemned the violence, with British foreign minister Dominic Raab saying shooting protesters was “beyond the pale”.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Twitter lethal force was unacceptable.

The United States, Britain, Canada and New Zealand have announced sanctions with a focus on military leaders but the generals have long brushed off foreign pressure.

- PM NEWS

Nigeria must restructure or face disastrous break-up –Utomi, others

 

Prominent stakeholders from various ethnic groups in the North and the South have decried the security situation in the country, describing Nigeria as a failing state or an already failed nation.

The leaders, including a foremost economist, Prof.  Pat Utomi;  former Deputy Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Dr. Mailafia Obadiah, who contested the 2019 presidential election on the platform of the African Democratic Congress;   Senator Bassey Henshaw; Niger-Delta activist, Ann-Kio Briggs; Yemi Adamolekun, among others, said Nigeria should be restructured.

They were unanimous that the situation would be very disastrous if Nigeria was allowed to break without restructuring it.

They spoke at the second Goke Omisore Annual Lecture organised by the Voice of Reason, a Yoruba intelligentsia group.

This was contained in a statement on Saturday.

Other dignitaries who  attended the lecture were Chairman of the Nigerian Tribune Titles, Chief Mrs Tokunbo Awolowo – Dosunmu; former Foreign Affairs Minister, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi; Dr. Seyi Roberts; former Lagos State Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Lanre Towry-Coker; widow of late Goke Omisore, Olamide; Mr Emeka Ugwu-Oju; and Dr. Akin Fapohunda, among others.

The speakers also argued that the country was not fair to the youths, saying there was no encouragement for the youths, while the political elite were scuttling the dreams and aspirations of the younger generation.

The statement read in part, “Speakers unanimously agreed that impunity, lawlessness, anarchy and subjugation of the younger generation currently reigns supreme in Nigeria.

“They suggested that if the political, economic and social structures of the country are not restructured in line with the current realities in the country, Nigeria as a sovereign country should be terminated peacefully because if not ended now, there’s a higher tendency that the country would terminate herself and if that happens, it would lead to a gargantuan disaster.”

Briggs said her generation had failed to give what the youths of Nigeria wanted, and as such, it was unfair to be calling on them to fix and salvage the country.

Adamolekun challenged the Director-General of the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria , Mr  Seye Olaleye, who was present at the lecture, to ensure that members of the Western Nigeria Security Agency popularly known as Amotekun are deployed in every nook and cranny of  Yorubaland to protect lives.

She advised South-West governors that although the Nigerian constitution guarantees that citizens could move from one place to another, no law stops them from enacting a law to mandate all visitors in their states to register.

Utomi said he agreed with other speakers on the state of the nation. He, however, suggested that the younger generation needed to be mentored by radical elders like Farotimi to be able to challenge the status quo.

 He said, “I agree with all the speakers. I just want to add that the younger ones need to be mentored to be able to challenge the status quo. The rich class are united against the common people, therefore, the younger generation should be united to wage war against the status quo.”

The Chairman, VOR, Dr Olufemi Adegoke, had earlier in his opening remark decried the way the country was being run by its leaders, saying it was one of the reasons the group had made restructuring the focus of its activities.    ,,

- PUNCHNG

Herdsmen crisis: Bauchi Gov. Mohammed demolished Abuja houses, now supports open grazing – Falana

 

Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) has criticised Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed’s stance on grazing of cows by Fulani herdsmen in some parts of the country.

Recall that Bala Mohammed insisted that the constitution allows every Nigerian to reside in any part of the country, adding that no citizen needs to seek permission from any authority to dwell in any State.

He said this following the recent crisis between herders and residents of some parts of Southwest and the order by Governor Akeredolu of Ondo State to all herdsmen to vacate the State’s forest reserves.

However, Falana in a statement on Saturday February 20, said it was hypocritical for Bala Mohammed to insist that herdsmen have right to reside in forest reserves whereas he demolished some houses because they encroached on government land during his tenure as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory.

The lawyer stated that Section 43 of Nigeria’s constitution allows freedom of movement for everyone but does not give any citizen the freedom to settle anywhere.

He said; “Under the Bala Mohammed administration in the FCT, thousands of houses were demolished on the grounds that they were illegally built on landed properties belonging to the Federal Government.

“He wanted to demolish the entire Mpape housing over a million people. The ex-minister had claimed that the owners of the houses had trespassed on the land belonging to the Federal Government.

“The people whose properties were marked for demolition approached our law firm to seek legal redress. On behalf of the community, we approached the FCT High Court for urgent intervention. In an epochal judgment delivered by the Justice Kutigi, the planned demolition was halted.

“Governor Bala Mohammed has also ordered that a house being used as a den of criminal activities in Bauchi be demolished and ordered that 1,000 rifles found therein be confiscated. But the same governor said last week that herders be allowed to carry AK 47 rifles illegally in spite of overwhelming evidence that the weapons are being used to take over farmlands, kidnap people and rape women.

“So if the building warehousing 1000 AK-47 rifles in Bauchi was demolished by Governor Bala Mohammed why is he asking Governor Rotimi Akeredolu to allow herders armed with scores of AK-47 rifles to operate in Ondo State without licences issued by the appropriate authorities?”

- DAILY POST

Delta leads as COVID-19 kills 18 Nigerians in 24 hours

 

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) recorded 645 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 151,553.

So far, the agency has tested 1,441,013 samples since COVID-19 index case was announced on Feb. 27, 2020.

The NCDC also registered 18 COVID-19-related deaths, raising the total fatalities in Nigeria to 1,831.

Delta posted 12 of the deaths, raising its toll from 52 to 64.

Lagos also reported three new deaths. Its death toll is now 384.

Other states that recorded one death each were Kaduna, Kano and Abia.

The health agency announced that the 645 new infections were reported from 19 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The agency said that Lagos State took the lead with 282 cases, Ogun had 72, the FCT reported 50, while Kaduna, Osun, and Imo reported 33, 24, and 23 cases, respectively.

Other states with new infections are Abia (21), Borno (18), Oyo (17), Edo (15), Nasarawa (15), Taraba (14), Ekiti (11), Ondo (11), Plateau (11), Kano (10), Rivers seven, Delta five, Bauchi, three and Jigawa, three.

The NCDC also disclosed that 505 COVID-19 patients recovered from the ailment at the various isolation centres in the last 24 hours.

Among those discharged were 222 community recoveries in Lagos State, managed in line with set guidelines.

The health agency stated that the country has recorded 128,005 recoveries since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

The NCDC said that a multi-sectoral national Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), activated at Level 3, is coordinating response activities nationwide.

It said that there were now 21,668 active cases across the country in the last 24 hours.

- PM NEWS