Ex-president Jerry Rawlings is incensed with what he describes as unprecedented monetization of the political space which is being perpetrated by members of his own party in government. According to him, the monetization has eroded the principle of integrity on which the party has always won its elections. Speaking at the 30th Anniversary ceremony of the 31st December Women’s Movement, the former president minced no words in describing the said government functionaries

A former Sekondi Constituency National Democratic Congress Vice Chairman, Alhaji Osumanu Mohammed, and 350 other party members on Tuesday announced their defection to the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP). Addressing a press conference in Sekondi to declare their defection to the NPP, Alhaji Mohammed said they quitted the NDC due to ‘’disrespect to authority in the party’. He said the Mills’ Government had shown gross disrespect to the founder of the party, ex-President Jerry John Rawlings and his wife, Nana Konadu.

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, Presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has said there will be nothing like “Woyome scandal” under his presidency as has been witnessed by President Atta Mills’ administration. He accused President Mills of not being in charge of his own administration, hence such financial scandal under his watch. The NPP leader therefore appealed to Ghanaians to vote for him and the NPP to come and restore hope and bring back the econ

Roberto Di Matteo has told his Chelsea veterans that this is likely to be their last chance to lift the Champions League trophy - and Bayern Munich midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger admits the German side are concerned by that state of affairs. Ashley Cole, Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard are all the wrong side of 30, and if Chelsea do not beat Bayern in Saturday's final, they will not play in the competition next season - so the door is closing on that trio. "We've got a fantastic group with quality and experience

The Minister of Police Affairs, retired Navy Capt. Caleb Olubolade, says the Boko Haram sect has so far carried out 118 attacks in six northern states and the FCT, killing 308 people. Olubolade said this on Tuesday in Abuja while enumerating the achievements and challenges of the ministry in the last one year at the on-going Ministerial press briefing. The minister said that the attacks were carried out in Bauchi, Borno, Kaduna, Niger, Yobe and Plateau states. He said that 33 suspects connected to the group were arrested.

The Presidency yesterday described as sad and unfortunate Major-General Muhammadu Buhari’s comments that the Federal Government is the “biggest Boko Haram”. Buhari, former Military Head of State and presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) also allegedly predicted that there would be bloodshed if the government fails to organise free and fair elections in 2015. He was hosting a CPC delegation in Kaduna on Monday who lobbied

Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State Tuesday said he had the right to lead any protest if he felt an institution of the state was being mismanaged. However, a youth organisation, Edo Youth Vanguard (EYV) has sued for peace cautioning the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to eschew politics of violence, which have led to loss of lives. But Oshiomhole, who spoke to journalists in an interview in Benin City, said: “I will lead more protest if the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State continues to plan on how to rig the forth coming

A human rights group has threatened to drag President Goodluck Jonathan and other key government officials before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague, Netherlands for crimes against humanity should the killings continue. The group, Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) disclosed its intention in Abuja yesterday.  It was disturbed by the unending of terrorist activities by the Boko Haram sect and the attendant loss of lives and property

United States is currently looking into how a Nigerian, Bimbo Olumuyiwa Oyewole, who had been using a stolen identity to work at Newark Liberty International Aiport, scaled through several security and background checks carried out in the last 20 years. Oyewole, 54, who is believed to be an illegal immigrant, had been using the Social Security card and birth record of  one Jerry Thomas, who was murdered in  Queens, New York in 1992, about the same time Oyewole resumed work at the airport

Harsh words rather than comfort, come from the Senate yesterday, to Nigerians stranded in Indonesian jails.” Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Matthew Nwagwu, had earlier sought the leave of the chamber for its intervention in the plight of Nigerians languishing in Indonesian jails, some, on trumped-up charges. Rising under Order 42 of the Senate Standing Orders, Nwagwu made reference to newspaper reports which indicated that over 300 Nigerians were in Indonesian prisons while 16 others

One of the two ships arrested last week with 1.3million barrels of stolen crude oil and destroyed by the Joint military Task Force (JTF) in the Niger Delta has been linked to Croatia, THISDAY investigation has revealed. It was also gathered that the Ship, MT ANE, which was built in 1986 and registered with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), bore a registration number 8509703. The vessel, which is classified as General Cargo Ship, had a Dead Weight (DWT) of 5,896 and was flagged in St.Vincent and Grenadines on February 1, 2010.

IT WAS a moment of merry-making at Asawase, a Zongo community in Kumasi, when the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for the area took a second wife.Alhaji Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak went to the altar for the second time by tying the knot with a 17-year-old Senior High School (SHS) graduate at the forecourt of the Kumasi Central Mosque yesterday afternoon. Earlier in the day, the former Minister of Youth and Sports paid the bride price of the youngster, Memunatu Abdul Wahab

A Senior Law Lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Kofi Abotsi says former first lady Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings is likely to lose her right of ownership of the National Democratic Congress logo - the umbrella with an eagle on top. Abotsi explained that if the party can show evidence that the logo was registered in the name of the NDC at the Electoral Commission, prior to Mrs Rawlings registering the same logo at the Copyright office,

Calm has returned to Gbane in the Talensi-Nabdam District after some disgruntled small-scale miners in the area clashed with community members and workers of the Shaanxi Mining Ghana Limited disrupting a ground-breaking ceremony on Wednesday, May 9, 2012 to commence the construction of a bridge over the Oun River. As a result of the bloody riot, some Ghanaian and Chinese workers of the Shaanxi Mining Ghana Limited, who are rendering technical services to the Nyeyeya Mining Limited, were severely injured.

Youth activists of National Democratic Congress in the Volta Region have expressed displeasure over the purported threat by the former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, to stop the party from using its umbrella emblem (Akatamanso), if the leadership of the party continue to depart from the ideals on which the party was established. According to the activists, the import of the letter addressed to the national executive of the party, if carried out, could divert the attention of the ruling government in its quest

The 2008 Vice-presidential candidate of the Convention People's Party (CPP), Dr Abu Sakara Foster, has been elected the flag bearer of the party for the 2012 presidential election. At the party’s national congress at the Essipon Stadium in Sekondi Saturday, Dr Sakara, an agronomist, polled 1,130 votes, representing 55.2 per cent of the votes cast, as against 917 or 44.8 per cent obtained by his only contestant, Mr Bright Oblitei Akwetey, an Accra-based legal practitioner and former presidential aspirant.

Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, Elder Godsday Orubebe, bares his mind on sundry topical issues, especially on his brief as minister, development initiatives in the Niger Delta, performance of President Goodluck Jonathan, the dreaded Boko Haram sect and 2015. CHIDI OBINECHE presents the excerpts. Can you identify some of your achievements as the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs? First, as a ministry, our mandate, as given by this government, is to fast track development in the Niger Delta and coordinate

Nigeria loses about 150,000 barrels of oil per day and $5 billion yearly, through crude oil theft. The revelation was made at the weekend in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, by the Managing Director of Shell Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), Mutiu Sunmonu. Sunmonu said SPDC joint venture suffers a daily loss of 43,000 barrels to crude theft and illegal bunkering. According to him, the trend negatively impacts the environment, robs the country of revenue.

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, and former Chair-man of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustees (BoT), Chief Tony Anenih, over the weekend, challenged the National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, to ensure that internal democracy is entrenched in the party where every member would have a sense of belonging. Also, the Rivers State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, pledged that he and his colleagues would ensure a hitch free tenure for the new national chairman through cooperation

THE sad state of Nigerian football came into focus yesterday following a dramatic end to the 2011/2012 English Premiership League (EPL), which saw 10 matches played simultaneously across Britain. While the sumptuous soccer banquet lasted, not a few Nigerians wished the national domestic league, which has been hobbled by a myriad of man-made problems, is flourishing and commands such huge followership across the world as much as the EPL. Several football administrators who bemoaned the state of Nigerian football,

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has raised the alarm over moves by some functionaries of Federal Government to create avoidable labour and political crises by seeking to break up the congress and impose a new regime of fuel price hikes. Labour alleged that the President’s men have concluded arrangement to register a new labour centre, which they hope would support anti-people policies, and cause distraction in the labour movement.

A soldier was allegedly killed yesterday during  a gun battle between a gang suspected to be terrorists at the Rigasa area, a suburb of Kaduna metropolis in Kaduna State. Similarly, three persons were shot dead when suspected gunmen riding on a motorcycle attacked them at a joint in Tukuntawa quarters along Zoo road in Kano.In Lagos, pandemonium ensued yesterday evening at Mile 12, along Ikorodu Expressway, as another clash erupted claiming one person

The Acting Inspector-General of Police (IG), Mr. Mohammed Abubakar, has ordered a ban on the indiscriminate use of siren, revolving lights, tinted glasses and Police Supernumerary (SPY) plate numbers by unauthorised person or persons in the public and highways across the country. This order, according to a statement signed by the Acting Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), had become imperative in view of recent security