naijaXclusive: apga

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Fani-Kayode had in his article, entitled: “Neither a tribalist nor a 
hater,” published in the social media and some segments of the national 
dailies, claimed to have met with Bianca when she was Miss Bianca Onoh 
at the Cambridge College and had “intimate” relationship with her 
together with two other Igbo ladies.

Reacting to this, Bianca said  she had never met Fani-Kayode before, 
either at official or private level, not to talk of having an “intimate”
 relationship with him.

The ambassador, who spoke through her lawyers, Wall Street Attorneys,
 has, therefore, threatened to drag the former aide to ex-president 
Olusegun Obasanjo to court if, in the next seven days, he fails to 
retract his libelous publication against her.

In the letter from her lawyers to Fani-Kayode, dated August 27, 2013 
and signed by Mike Ugwuanyi, Esq, Mrs. Ojukwu demanded that the former 
minister writes an apology and retraction of the said libelous 
publication in The Sun and Thisday newspapers, as well as publish it in 
the online publication, where it emanated, in the next seven days or 
face litigation.

The letter written by Mrs. Ojukwu’s lawyers and obtained by The Sun 
read in part: “We have been briefed and our services retained by 
Ambassador Bianca Ojukwu, Nigeria’s Ambassador to Spain to demand from 
you an unreserved apology and a retraction of a false and malicious 
statement, which you published online and also caused to be published in
 the Leadership Newspaper of August 16, 2013. 
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“In the said article entitled, ‘Neither a Tribalist nor a Hater,’ you
 recklessly alleged, as follows: ‘I was not a tribalist when I had a 
long standing and intimate relationship with Miss Bianca Onoh…’, a 
statement, which you know is untrue and unfounded, but only calculated 
to lower our client’s esteem and damage her national and international 
reputation.

“Our client has never met you, does not know you in person and has 
never had any official or private relationship with you how much more ‘a
 long-standing and intimate relationship.’

“Our client is therefore, outraged by your bizarre and scandalous 
allegation and the numerous mails and telephone calls she has received 
from friends, relations and admirers who are equally embarrassed and who
 seek to confirm the veracity or otherwise of your false and reckless 
publication.

“Your apparent lame and half-hearted attempt, as published in the 
Leadership Newspaper of 17th August 2013, to clarify your false and 
malicious allegation falls far short of a retraction and does not 
sufficiently address the damage to our client arising from the 
widespread dissemination of your false publication and is therefore 
unacceptable to our client.

“In the circumstances, we demand, on the instruction of our client 
that you submit to her a clear and unqualified apology and retraction 
published in The Sun and Thisday newspapers in addition to having the 
retraction published online.

“Take note that should you fail to tender the apology and publish a 
retraction of your false and malicious publication, seven days next 
after your receipt of this demand notice, our further instructions are 
to seek appropriate redress in court. And that shall be without further 
recourse to you. Be properly guided.” 
 
Source: Daily Sun Newspaper

Xclusive: Bianca Ojukwu Opens Up About Her Intimate Relationship With Femi Fani-Kayode

Fani-Kayode had in his article, entitled: “Neither a tribalist nor a hater,” published in the social media and some segments of the natio...

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Former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) 
Governor and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the 2010 
governorship election in Anambra State, Prof. Charles Soludo, has 
formally resigned his membership of PDP. 
 
He has subsequently 
joined the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), where he had already 
been registered as a member in his Isuofia ward, Aguata Local Government
 Area of the state. But his candidacy as PDP standard bearer in 
the last governorship election in the state was revisited Wednesday by 
one of his rivals for the party’s ticket in 2009, Senator Andy Ubah, who
 described the process of his emergence as undemocratic.  His new 
party, Soludo said after being registered in his ward Wednesday, by the 
ward chairman, Okeke Anthony, is a party with sound and progressive 
ideology on which platform one could offer himself to the service of his
 people and try to express those ideas that will make for growth and 
transform Anambra into the “African Dubai-Taiwan” of his dream.In
 his July 17 resignation letter addressed to the PDP National Chairman,
 Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, a copy of which was made available to THISDAY in 
Isuofia Wednesday, Soludo said his resignation took effect from that 
date and used the opportunity to thank the party for the opportunity 
given to him to serve in some capacity.The resignation, he said,
 was “without prejudice to the possibility of future collaboration with 
the party in any areas of common interest designed to advance the course
 of nation-building.” 
 
But shortly after being registered as a 
member of APGA in his Isuofia ward Wednesday, the former CBN governor, 
who granted interview to some journalists, while responding to 
speculations that he had joined APGA, said: “The short answer to that is
 that it is true.” “I have resigned my membership of PDP. I have 
formally written to the national chairman of PDP a letter dated July 17 
of this year. It is quite fortuitous that you people arrived at a time 
when you saw the ward chairman of APGA register and issue me with a 
membership card. I registered at Isuofia ward.” 
 
He explained that
 the process of deciding to join APGA is a product of long months of 
consultation among his people and in fact a personal conviction. “I
 started over a year ago a process of consultation on our political 
future, what next and the political arena. I remain convinced that the 
greatness of this country is not in doubt and that it is through 
participation in the political process that one can contribute to its 
development. 
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 “Everybody who has something to offer must get 
involved. It is during this wide consultation and during which I asked 
my people wide ranging questions that made me get involved. “The 
question centred on if they thought it was not worst to have gotten into
 the terrain and just kiss it goodbye or do we remain engaged and if we 
are to be engaged in which party. This formed the fulcrum of my 
consultation,” he said. Soludo said though he had been a member 
of PDP on whose platform he made his unsuccessful bid to govern the 
state, there is always time for sober reflection, adding, “The result of
 the consultation is the decision we have taken”. “The first 
is that there is an overwhelming demand by Anambra people for me to 
remain engaged in the political process. After more than a year of 
consultation, I came to the conviction that I should remain in the 
process. “Secondly, by even a greater conviction, that I should 
also run for the governorship of Anambra State building on the legacies 
of Governor Peter Obi. We need continuity, transformation and to 
consolidate on the gains of the past eight years. “There is this 
demand by my people that I should once offer myself for service. There 
is also a demand by our people that I should join the party that our 
people call their own which represents the essence, the aspirations and 
hopes of all Nigerians in general and the Igbos in particular. “It is a party that is a mass movement and lives in the consciousness of the people. “I
 am not joining APGA simply as a vehicle to contest for governorship of 
Anambra State. I am joining it because I want to breathe it, drink it, 
and exude it because in totality I agree with the trust and objectives 
of APGA,” Soludo said in defence of his choice of APGA. Soludo 
who hails from Anambra South zone joined APGA to actualise his ambition 
at a time the state Governor, Mr. Peter Obi, also of the same party, 
said he was looking towards the state’s north zone for his successor. But he said he was not aware of any zoning or rotation of positions in APGA as it is not anywhere in the party’s constitution. Meanwhile,
 the senator representing Anambra South in the National Assembly, Ubah, 
 Wednesday attributed PDP’s defeat in the last governorship election in 
the state to the crisis that followed the "hand-picking” of Soludo as 
the party’s candidate. Ubah, a PDP aspirant in the November 
election in the state, told journalists Wednesday, during an interactive
 session with indigenes of the state in Abuja, that internal party 
wrangling, lack of cohesion, perceived wrongdoing and extortion of 
money from aspirants forced most of them out of the party to seek 
alternative platforms to actualise their ambitions. He said: 
“PDP would have won that election, going by the number of votes all the 
56 aspirants that eventually defected to other political parties were 
able to garner, which surpassed the total votes gathered by the state 
Governor, Mr. Peter Obi, who won the state election. “First, 
there was clear case of injustice on my side. As I said, there was a 
precedent that any candidate that his election was nullified by the 
court should be the party’s automatic candidate in the next election. "All
 the governors that their elections were nullified were all made the 
party’s candidates. When it was my turn to be made the party’s 
candidate, following the nullification of my election in 2007, the party
 chose to hand-pick Chukwuma Soludo. This singular action made me to 
look for an alternative platform,” he said</blockquote>
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Xclusive: Former CBN Governor Prof. Soludo Defects From PDP To APGA

Former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the 2010 governorship election in Ana...