The newspaper review for Tuesday, June 19, leads with President Muhammadu Buhari ruling out sitting down to discuss with the aggrieved members of the defunct new Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP), among other stories.
The Punch reports that President Muhammadu Buhari has declared that he will never sit down for discussion with the aggrieved members of the defunct nPDP that joined forces to form the ruling All Progressives Congress.
A top government official disclosed this to journalists on the condition of anonymity on Monday.
READ ALSO: President Buhari shuns talks with aggrieved nPDP leaders
The Punch newspaper for Tuesday, June 19 photo credit: snapshot from NAIJ.com.
The source said Buhari had conveyed his position on the matter to state governors elected on the platform of the APC during a meeting he had with them recently.
The president was said to have insisted that state governors and the national leaders of the party should be able to resolve such issues. He said the issue was a party matter and he was not ready to sit with any faction.
Vanguard reports that the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were last night engaged in a war of words over the appropriateness of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole emerging as chairman of the ruling party in the country.
The brickbats came as the APC yesterday assured followers that fears of violence and a split emerging during this weekend’s national convention were far-fetched.
Vanguard newspaper for Tuesday, June 19 photo credit: snapshot from NAIJ.com.
Even more, senior party officials also dismissed as a storm in a tea cup fears that the Governor Rochas Okorocha-led Appeals Panel could torpedo the screening process by disqualifying perceived political rivals who had scaled the hurdles of the Governor Aminu Masari-led screening panel.
Assurances notwithstanding, the party continued to tear at the seams as the crisis that has enveloped its chapter in Rivers state worsened yesterday after the Senator Magnus Abe-led tendency cited legal loopholes to make a grab for the structure of the party from transportation minister, Rotimi Amaechi.
This Day reports that ahead of the national convention of the APC holding on Saturday, the governors on the platform of the party are billed to meet Wednesday evening in Abuja to decide on a consensus list of aspirants for its National Working Committee (NWC) positions up for grabs.
The party, however, insisted Monday that there would be no unity list, saying the playing field would be level for all the aspirants.
This Day newspaper for Tuesday, June 19 photo credit: snapshot from NAIJ.com.
A member of the publicity sub-committee of the National Convention Organising Committee, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, told reporters in Abuja that there would be no unity list as was being speculated, confirming, however, that the governors would meet Wednesday.
Dabiri, who spoke after a brief meeting between the governors and the sub-committee at the convention secretariat, said there was room for affirmation and consensus.
“There is no unity list but there is room for affirmation and consensus, no unity list you can say is APC list. Anywhere you see any such list, it is fake,” she said, adding that 20 positions had been returned unopposed while 42 posts are being contested.
The Nation reports that in what has been described as a “terror exchange programme”, commmanders of the Islamic State (IS) have been sneaking jihadists into Nigeria from Syria to train them for possible attacks, according to a report by The Sun of London.
The report said insiders feared that strong links and regular flights between Lagos and London could “export evil and terror to British streets despite our counter-terror efforts” in Nigeria.
The Nation newspaper for Tuesday, June 19 photo credit: snapshot from NAIJ.com.
The strong links between Nigeria and the UK, it is believed, would ”make it easier for IS to send its killers to attack the UK and bring more death and destruction.”
The report quoted a senior Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Commander Group Captain Isaac Subi, as saying: “They come and train their fighters here and some of our insurgents too are granted access to their training in Yemen and Syria, acquiring those skills and they come back and teach others."
The Guardian reports that a group, Good Governance Initiative, has lent its voice to the call for resignation or sack of chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, before the 2019 general elections.
At a press briefing in Abuja, chairman of the group, Anosike Nwosu, stated that the 2019 polls would not be free and fair with Yakubu in the saddle as chairman of INEC, expressing the fear that he would compromise the results.
The Guardian newspaper for Tuesday, June 19 photo credit: snapshot from NAIJ.com.
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The fear of the group, according to Nwosu, stems from what he described as Yakubu’s ethno-religious relationship with President Muhammadu Buhari, the ground on which he alleged that plans had been concluded to manipulate the exercise in favour of Buhari.
“Our fear stems from his relationship with the president, both of whom are from the north east with same religion. This makes us fear that despite series of assurances by the commission of free and fair elections, we are still not convinced of a free exercise,” the group said.
Nwosu described the headship of the various security agencies in the country by northern Muslims as a deliberate plan by the president to silence some sections “as being witnessed today.”
Source: Naija.ng