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Youths to Obasanjo: Atiku should drop Obi or lose

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Atiku
Ex-governor: I’m eminently qualified to be running mate

Atiku Abubakar got yesterday a complex challenge on his presidential bid —he should drop running mate Peter Obi or lose.

Some youths in the North visited former President Olusegun Obasanjo to table the knotty request.

The Northern Youths Leaders Forum (NYLF) advised  the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to review the  choice of Obi, if he hopes to earn the North’s support.

The group, which prides itself as the apex  body of 46 youth organisations in the North, threatened to mobilise its over six million members against the PDP and its presidential candidate, if Atiku failed to take its advice.

The national chairman of the group,  Comrade Elliot Afiyo, who spoke on Tuesday  in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, after a meeting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday night, claimed that the body had been instrumental to the electoral victories of successive presidents since 1999. It claimed to have played a major role in incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory and it also played a critical role in the reconciliation between Atiku and Obasanjo.

According to Afiyo, the group had equally intimated  the former President of their position on Atiku’s running mate.

It was not immediately clear yesterday what Obasanjo, who has just ended a long feud with Atiku and endorsed him, told the youths.

He said the Obi’s choice was causing friction in the Southeast, which  is largely responsible for the impending defection of the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremandu, from the PDP.

He added that Obi is strongly viewed as anti-north and a major sponsor of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

According to him, over 70 percent of Emirs and other traditional rulers in the North will not support Atiku’s choice of running mate and maintained that  PDP will fail to produce the next president, if the party eventually flies the Atiku/Obi ticket.

Afiyo advised PDP to pick Atiku’s running mate from Southsouth. He suggested that either Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike or his Bayelsa State counterpart, Seriake Dickson, should be considered.

Afiyo said: “Atiku is an experienced politician, and he knows what happened and as a northern Nigerian, he cannot ignore that group. I have spoken to almost all the Southeast governors and they told me that they remained in PDP because of their governorship elections and after their governorship elections, they will vote somewhere, not PDP.

“And for us to ignore the stakeholders, it is political suicidal, so we must agree with that fact. That was what we told Obasanjo yesterday, that as far as we want to Atiku to succeed, he has no alternative than to drop Peter Obi and with the contention between Peter Obi’s group and Ike Ekeremadu’s group, it is not political convenient again to pick a running mate from the Southeast.

Because whichever group you pick from, the other group will work against them.

“Then, in the North, we consider Peter Obi as anti-North. This is no sentiment. Apart from the way he treated the northeners when he was the governor of Anambra State, we consider him as a bonafide member and major sponsor of IPOB.

“In fact, 70 percent of emirs, traditional rulers from the North will not support Peter Obi as the vice president.

“We don’t work on sentiment. As I have told you before, our group staked our lives in 2015 for Buhari. Personally, I was placed under house arrest for two weeks throughout the extension of the presidential election in 2015. I was fighting with the hope that Buhari would change things but there is a cabal and Buhari is completely caged.

“Also, mind you, Atiku is not a saint, anyone that becomes president, there must be a cabal, so we need a vice president that will tell the cabal ‘no’ and Peter Obi doesn’t have the courage and boldness to be the vice president to challenge the authorities. But if Atiku fails to heed our warning, then, APC will win. Buhari will win hands down because we cannot support a failure. We will work for APC.”

Obi’s spokesman Valemtine Obienyen dismissed the claims by the group. He said Obi’s choice had been well received.

He added: “Why protest in Ota? Who is behind the protest? What does the project intend to achieve? Is it true that the planning of the protest was revealed almost a week ago? Why is it that when you have failed to see any fault in Obi, you are bent on inventing one?  These are necessary questions which any sincere inquirer will deem appropriate to start with.

He said: “ We do not need such  distraction now. What we need is joining of hands together as we collectively seek solutions to our problems.

“All those that knew Obi very well for what he did in the past, both in his private business and governance of Anambra State and thereafter,  wrote eulogies of him. Researchers went to work. After careful and painstaking analyses of his past, they submitted that he is humble, hardworking, knowledgeable about the economy, aware of the myriad of problems of the country, detribalised and a believe in the unity of the country .

Since leaving office, Obi has been busy visiting schools all over the country, from Cross River to Sokoto. Obi has been busy diagnosing the problems of the country and offering solutions. Obi has been busy preaching the unity of the country and how good governance will solve the problems in Nigeria, caused by cumulative years of leadership failure that make the protest under review suspicious and, in fact, an attempt to give the dog a bad name in order to hang it.”

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Tinubu and Macron have agreed to a stronger partnership for shared prosperity

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President Bola Ahmed Tinubu visit France President (yesterday

The two nations struck the deal during a “production lunch” at Élysée Palace by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and President Emmanuel Macron.

President Tinubu, who is on a 10-day working vacation in Europe made this agreement known through his verified X Handle @officialABAT.

He wrote: “Had a productive lunch with President Emmanuel Macron today(yesterday) at the Élysée Palace. We reviewed key areas of cooperation between Nigeria and France and agreed to deepen our partnership for mutual prosperity and global stability.”

The meeting underscores Tinubu’s continued diplomatic outreach during his time away from Abuja, with an emphasis on consolidating Nigeria’s strategic partnerships with France, one of its longstanding allies in trade, security, and development.

The Élysée Palace meeting adds to a growing record of high-level engagements between the two countries, which have in recent years broadened cooperation in energy, counterterrorism, climate action and investment promotion.

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$2 billion Fraud : Kyari, being probed over funding of the repair work on refineries, others, Says EFCC

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Ex-GCEO: I have nothing to hide
Former Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kolo Kyari, is being probed over funding of the repair work on refineries.

He was taken before investigators at the Abuja Headquarters of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday.

As of 8:30pm, he had not been allowed to go, raising suspicion whether or not he was detained.

Under investigation, according to sources at the anti-graft agency, are:

•How the over $2 billion meant for Turn-Around Maintenance (TAM) was spent: The money, it was learnt, was made available, thus: $1.55 billion to the Port Harcourt Refinery; $740.6 million (Kaduna Refinery) and $656.9 million (Warri Refinery).

•The contracts awarded during his tenure:

Kyari, before submitting himself to interrogation, had always insisted he had nothing to hide.

In a statement on his invitation, titled: “Hard questions, honest answers”, Kyari said: “I have done my part; the EFCC must do theirs. When each of us does our duty – without fear of favor, with honour, respect and commitment – Nigeria moves forward.”

On arrival at the EFCC headquarters, his international passport was seized.

The four state-run refineries are: Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) (2); Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC) and the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC).

They have installed capacity to produce 445,000 barrels per day (bpd)

The two Port Harcourt refineries have a combined capacity of 210,000 barrels per day (bpd), Warri has a capacity of 125,000 bpd and Kaduna has 110,000 bpd.

But the refineries remained non-functional for years despite several attempts to refurbish them.

About $18 billion has been sunk into TAM since 2010 but the refineries were still in poor state.

According to an EFCC source, Kyari was asked to “state how much was voted for TAM during his tenure, what was expended and the balance, if any.

“Detectives were also curious to know how N4.8 trillion was incurred as operating costs on the refineries when they weren’t working.

“The most crucial aspect of the investigation is why the refineries broke down shortly after repairs.

“Some of his former top officials have refunded money to the EFCC from TAM cash. Kyari is to explain what he knew about how the slush funds came about.”

The source said: “After the probe of TAM, Kyari will proceed to the second phase of the investigation, which is about the humongous contracts awarded during his tenure.

“So far, we have seized his international passport to limit his movement to the country in the course of investigation.”

TAM has been a major money pit of NNPC in the last three years, in particular.

On June 24, 2022, the Federal Executive Council awarded Maintenance Services for Quick Fix Repairs of Warri Refinery to Daewoo Engineering and Construction Limited at $497, 328, 500.

The contract was different from the 2017 job award to Saipem Contracting Nigeria Limited for Tech Plant Survey of Warri and Kaduna Refineries at 2, 025, 000.32 Euros.

The rehabilitation of the Kaduna Refinery and Petro-Chemical Company (KRPC) had, in the past 10 years, gulped N2.26 billion.

The NNPCL approved a renovation deal with Daewoo Engineering and Construction Limited to renovate Kaduna Refinery in February 2023 to restore the refinery to production of 110,000 barrels of petrol per day and at least 60 per cent capacity by early last year.

Kyari was appointed NNPCL GCEO in 2019 and served till April 2, when his appointment was terminated.

On August 28, Kyari’s successor, Bayo Ojulari, said Nigeria lost between $300 million and $500 million monthly while the Port Harcourt Refinery was operating.

He said: “When I resumed, one of the first priorities I focused on was the refinery. I did a quick review to see if we could quickly fix it. What I found is that we were losing between $300 million to $500 million on a monthly basis in the refinery.

“We were pumping about 50,000 barrels of crude to go into the refinery. What was coming out was less than 40 per cent equivalent of what was coming in.”

Ojulari spoke in his Abuja office when he met with the leadership of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN).

After years of being in comatose, the NNPCL restarted the Port Harcourt Refinery in November, 2024. Kyari announced the reopening of the facility to a huge applause by Nigerians, but the operation was halted in May, barely one month after Ojulari’s resumption.

Ojulari said he halted the operation of the refinery to prevent further losses, and work towards a sustainable arrangement.

Ojulari explained: “The first thing we said was rather than continue to lose, let’s quickly stop and look for a way to put this refinery into a sustainably profitable venture.”

He said the NNPCL was working to revive the moribund refineries to operate at full capacity by adopting the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) model (Public, Private, Partnership), which PENGASSAN advocated during the meeting.

The NNPCL chief said talks were on to find a viable solution to the refining crisis, ensuring the refineries become a sustainably profitable venture.

He said the national oil company had concluded a technical review for the three refineries, pointing out that the long term neglect and lack of maintenance were major reasons behind the huge losses recorded monthly, despite the huge investments to make them work.

The NNPCL chief, who explained that a lot of money has been spent on the refineries, admitted that it has been challenging to translate those funds into profitability.

He likened the situation of the refineries to parking an old car for some time without any greasing and oiling. He added that the Port Harcourt Refinery has been difficult to put back because of years of neglect and it’s been difficult: when you fix one thing, the other thing is still there.

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Update : Bola Tinubu, with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron

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President Bola Tinubu, with his French counterpart, President Emmanuel Macron, during a working private lunch at the Elysee Palace, Paris. Wednesday, September 10, 2025

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