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The All Progressives Congress in Niger State on Sunday expressed concern over the debt burden hanging on the state due to reckless loans collected over the years.

A statement by the APC spokesman, Jonathan Vatsa, stated that besides commercial term loans, the government had also gone to the capital market to collect bonds which outstanding debt stock by the end of 2014 stood at N16,347,232,682.81.

Vatsa said the burden was too heavy to carry silently without questions.

He said the sorry state of the state indebtedness continued with the commercial term loans which was N5,462,217.817.38, taken from two commercial banks all between 2013 and the end of 2014.

According to the statement, the APC stated that in September 2013 the state government collected N1bn loan. In February 2014, the statement said a loan of N2.68bn loan was collected. In June 2014, another N2bn loan was collected while in October 2014, N2bn loan was received, it said. It summed up to over N5.4bn commercial bank loans hanging heavily on the state.

The state has balance of outstanding external debt amounting to N4.6bn, apart from the stinky commercial loan taken within 12 months and the huge state and local government pension arrears put at N2.3bn and N7.17bn, respectively.

The amounts stated above bring the total outstanding debt stock of about N36bn hanging on the state by the end of 2014. We challenge the Debt Management Office of the state to come out with the state debt stock.

The statement read, With the above debt stock, the APC is ready to challenge the state government, led by Governor Babangida Aliyu, to a public court on what the loans collected were used to finance.

It said the APC would continue to expose the dangers of allowing the loan and bond collection to continue beyond May 2015.

But the Chief Press Secretary to Niger State Governor, Israel Ebije, has described the N36bn loan allegation by the APC as a move by the opposition to create distraction from what he described as a lost battle to impress the electorate with meaningful manifesto.

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Niger APC, gov clash over debt

Nasir El-Rufai

The All Progressives Congress governorship candidate in Kaduna State, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, on Sunday alleged that security operatives supervised the destruction of his campaign billboards and posters in Zaria by suspected Peoples Democratic Party thugs.

El-Rufai, who is a former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, said in a statement by his spokesman, Samuel Aruwan, in Kaduna on Sunday that the suspected PDP thugs destroyed all visible campaign materials of the APC and replaced them with those of Governor Mukhtar Yero.

Conscious of their unpopularity, the PDP is now displaying posters of Yero that feature pictures of the APC presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari.

It is seen as an admission that the PDPs own presidential candidate is not sellable to the electorate, but also a demonstration of the PDPs affinity for deception.

In the said posters being paraded in the said axis, Yero is paired with Buhari while Malam El-Rufai is axed with a red ink, the statement read in part.

It added, We will continue to play issue-based politics despite all deliberate attempts and mischief to taint our image and popularity before the good people of Kaduna State.

Neither the tons of illicit money they are spending to bribe voters nor can the violent actions designed to intimidate and frighten citizens save the PDP in Kaduna State from the coming electoral humiliation.

The people of Kaduna State are clearly tired of an incompetent, wasteful government that has proved incapable of leading, performing or delivering public services.

But Yero, also speaking through his Director-General, Media and Publicity, Malam Ahmed Mayaki in Zaria, said el-Rufai was becoming too desperate for power.

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Security agents supervised destruction of my posters El-Rufai

National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, Lai Mohammed

The All Progressives Congress has again raised the alarm over what it calls the relentless scheming by the President Goodluck Jonathan administration and the Peoples Democratic Party to push for another postponement of the 2015 general elections.

This, the APC alleged, was aimed at allowing the PDP to perfect its rigging plan.

The opposition party urged the international community not to hesitate to impose sanctions on whoever scuttles the general elections scheduled to begin on March 28.

In a statement issued in Dubai on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the APC said the President Jonathan-led PDP administrations multi-pronged efforts to prevent the elections from holding as rescheduled include; the use of some 23 portfolio political parties to seek a further shift in the election dates and the destabilisation of INECs election plan through the orchestrated removal of its Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega.

According to the APC, the same 23 satellite parties of the PDP that were used to push for the six-week postponement of the elections have again started testing the waters by pushing for a further shift in the elections in the six-states of the North-East, ostensibly to allow the conclusion of the counter-insurgency battle and also to allow those displaced to return home.

The plan is to use the same bogey of insecurity in the North-East to push for another postponement in the elections. The signs are ominous indeed.

The body language of the President and his party does not support the holding of elections. They are mortally afraid of losing because the use of PVCs and card readers have thwarted their rigging plans, APC said.

The APC also said while the 23 parties were pushing for the elections to be further postponed, the Jonathan administration and the PDP were simultaneously forging ahead with their plan to remove Jega and replace him with a malleable acting chairman who, they believed, would do their bidding.

The statement further said, Once they remove Jega, his replacement will either seek more time to organise the polls or simply jettison the plan to use card readers, thereby opening the door for those who have been buying up PVCs to use them.

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Fresh poll delay should attract global sanctions APC

Tinubu; Amaechi

The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council on Saturday condemned an alleged plot by the President Goodluck Jonathan-led Peoples Democratic Party to cripple the campaign of the partys presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari (retd).

This was contained in a statement signed by the Director Media and Publicity of the APC Presidential campaign, Mr. Garba Shehu, in Abuja.

He said the APC Presidential campaign condemned the plot by the Jonathan-led ruling Peoples Democratic Party to clip the electoral success wings of the opposition APC, through a proposed grounding of aircraft and freezing of bank accounts belonging to stalwarts of the party.

According to him, the plot to destabilise the APC and cripple its flag-bearer, General Muhammadu Buhari, may be linked to the global attention on its candidates performance at the United kingdoms Chatham House last Thursday.

The statement partly read: The hint we gather from sources is that the government, through its agents, is plotting to ground aircraft and freeze bank accounts of APC stakeholders. But history has shown that the forces of evil can never succeed against the zeal of men and women of virtue and good deeds.

Shehu said information at APCs disposal had uncovered the plot by the Jonathan administration to use the Aviation Ministry and the security service to hound and clampdown members of the APC, by prospecting obnoxious means to halt and slow down Buharis popularity.

There is also a plot to block or freeze the bank accounts of APC chieftains like Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Governor Rotimi Amaechi (Director General of APC Presidential Campaign Organisation), and other prominent leaders believed to be funding the Generals campaign; and availing him their aircrafts for electioneering purposes, Shehu said.

The APC Presidential campaign spokesperson recalled that private jets conveying APC Governors, Amaechi of Rivers State and Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, were either prevented from taking-off or landing during crucial political occasions, particularly during the Ekiti State gubernatorial elections that saw PDPs Ayodele Fayose defeating Dr Kayode Fayemi, in a most controversial military-assisted contest now known as Ekiti-gate Tape.

When contacted, the deputy National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Abdullahi Jalo said, he was not aware of any such plan and challenged the APC to produce evidence if it had any.

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Jonathan plans to freeze Tinubu, Amaechis accounts APC

The Presidential campaign office of President Goodluck Jonathan said in Abuja on Sunday that the Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari(retd.), must answer to charges of alleged human rights abuse over the 2011 presidential election.

It said that there was no way Buhari, who was then the presidential candidate of the defunct Congress for Progressives Change, could exonerate himself from the crisis that followed the 2011 presidential election which was won by President Jonathan.

Director of Media and Publicity of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, stated this at a press briefing in Abuja on Sunday.

He said lawyers from Netherlands have already filled a case before the International Criminal Court, at The Hague.

He also said his party and its presidential candidate were not afraid of Buhari in the forthcoming presidential election.

He said he was sure that President Jonathan was going to triumph over the retired general at the poll.

Fani-Kayode said, And after Buharis rejection at the poll, he may have to prepare to face charges of human rights abuses and criminality filed against him before the International Criminal Court on account of the 2011 electoral violence in Nigeria.

According to the African Herald Express report on the issue published on February 20, 2015, Dutch lawyers Prakken dOliveira, a Human Rights Law Firm based in Amsterdam, said it had filed a criminal complaint against Buhari at the ICC. Prakken d Oliveira, led by Prof. Sluiter, Lawyer and Partner, is said to be acting on behalf of the Nigerian Northern Coalition for Democracy and Justice and two individual victims.

The complaint, according to the report, alleges that Buhari incited and orchestrated the electoral violence in Nigeria in 2011, which led to the violent murder of over 938 and 735 injured, many of them children, women and young men.

The complaint, the report further said, presents factual evidence, including the names and descriptions of a sampling of those who lost their lives in the violence.

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Buhari guilty of human rights abuse in 2011 -PDP campaign