SABINEWS EVENING NEWS UPDATE – FEBRUARY 25, 2019
I’ll wait for INEC, not depend on rumours —Buhari
President Muhammadu Buhari has said that he will wait for the formal results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission on the outcome of Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly polls, instead of relying on rumours. Buhari spoke shortly on arrival in Abuja from Katsina, his home state, where he spent the weekend to participate in the election. “I don’t want to depend on rumours, but we will rather wait for INEC to announce the results”, he told the Nigerian Television Authority in Abuja. Speaking further, he said, “Well, l hope that Nigerians will appreciate that it was this government which made sure that they were allowed in security and peace to cast their votes for whichever party and candidates they wanted.”
APC to Kwarans: thank you for ending Saraki’s dominance
The All Progressives Congress ( APC ) has commended the people of Kwara state for voting to end the era of dominance and political slavery in the state by coming out to vote for President Muhammadu Buhari and all its candidates in Saturday elections. The party asked the people to complete the political revolution they have started by coming out to cast their vote for the party governorship candidate in the forth coming governorship elections. In a statement signed by the National publicity secretary, Mallam Lanre Isa Onilu, the party said it was full of “appreciation to the good people of Kwara State for the tremendous and overwhelming support shown to President Muhammadu Buhari and all candidates of the party in the Presidential and National Assembly elections that held last Saturday.
How I was forced to announce Okorocha winner of Senate seat – INEC Returning Officer
Sunday night’s melodrama snowballed into a full-blown controversy Monday morning when the returning officer for Imo West Senatorial District, Innocent Ibeabuchi, said he was “detained at the centre for days.” He said this while announcing the results of the senatorial election for the zone. Before reeling out figures at the district collation centre in the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) Office in Orlu, Mr Ibeabuchi, a professor, said he was being held “under duress” to announce the results. “My name is Ibeabuchi Izuchukwu Innocent, a professor at the Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO), the returning officer for Imo West (Orlu) senatorial zone”, the official said.
Election Results: Saraki didn’t congratulate Kwara Central senatorial winner —Aide
Yusuph Olaniyonu, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, has dissociated the Saraki camp from a message being shared on WhatsApp which states that the PDP and Saraki have congratulated the APC and its candidate, Dr. Ibrahim Yahaya Oloriegbe. In the statement released on Monday, Olaniyonu further stated that the position of the Saraki camp will be communicated to the public later today. “The public should disregard any fictitious statements being issued and shared on WhatsApp by the PDP in Kwara. Our position on the election will be communicated later today.
Amosun wins Ogun Central senatorial election
Gov. Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun has been declared the winner of the Ogun Central Senatorial District election. The Returning Officer, Prof. Ayinde Akanbi, declared on Monday that Amosun polled 88,110 votes to defeat Mrs Tunji Oseni-Gomez of the African Democratic Congress(ADC), who had 37,101 votes. Akanbi announced the result at the collation centre, Centenary Hall, Ake Abeokuta. He said that Mr Solomon Sanyaolu of the PDP polled 33,276 votes while Mr Gbenga Adenmosun of the Allied People’s Movement had 10,039 votes. Solomon Olufemi of the ADP polled 6,510 votes, according to the returning officer.
Ajimobi loses senatorial bid to PDP
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP), candidate for Oyo South Senatorial District, Dr. Muhammed Kola Balogun, has defeated Governor Abiola Ajimobi to clinch the senatorial seat. Balogun defeated Ajimobi who contested under the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), in the National Assembly election held on Saturday. Ajimobi whose second term in office will lapse on May 29, 2019 had earlier represented the district between 2003 and 2007 under the platform of Alliance for Democracy (AD).
Ifeanyi Ubah beats Uba brothers of PDP, APC to Anambra South Ticket
Ifeanyi Ubah, candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), has polled 87,081 votes to defeat the incumbent Senator Andy Uba, representing Anambra South Senatorial District. Ubah, who is the Chairman of Capitol Oil and Gas Limited, contested against the two Uba brothers, Andy of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and his brother Chris Uba of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). Andy and Chris polled 13,245 and 52,462 votes, respectively.
Nobody declared winner in A’Ibom North West – REC
The Resident Electoral Commissioner in Akwa Ibom, Mr Mike Igini, has said that the Commission has not declared a winner in Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District election. Igini said this at the resumption of collation of results for the Presidential and National Assembly elections in Uyo on Monday. There have been speculations in the social media that Sen. Godswill Akapbio, who defected from People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to All Progressives Congress lost the election to the PDP candidate, Mr Chris Ekpenyong.
Stella Oduah reacts after INEC declared her winner of Anambra North senatorial seat
Former minister of Aviation, Sen. Stella Oduah, has reacted to the 2019 senatorial results from Anambra North Senatorial district. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared the former minister of Aviation winner of the Anambra North senatorial district. Declaring the result on Monday in Onitsha, the Returning Officer, Prof. Hugh Maduka, said Oduah of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) polled 113,989 votes to defeat 20 other candidates.
Oscars 2019: Green Book best picture win proves divisive
Spike Lee did not do much to hide his displeasure when Green Book beat his film and six others to this year’s best picture Oscar. According to one report, the BlacKkKlansman director tried to storm out of the Dolby Theatre when the winner was read out by Julia Roberts. “I thought I was courtside at the [Madison Square] Garden and the ref made a bad call,” Lee later told reporters, saying the film was “not his cup of tea”. “I’m snake-bit,” he joked, using a euphemism for experiencing failure or bad luck. “Every time somebody’s driving somebody, I lose.”
Barrick makes $18 billion hostile bid for Newmont in gold mega-merger
Canada’s Barrick Gold Corp offered to buy U.S. rival Newmont Mining Corp for nearly $18 billion in stock on Monday, in a hostile takeover that seeks to combine the world’s two largest gold producers. Newmont responded by saying it had already reviewed and rejected possible deals with Barrick and said its own $10 billion pending purchase of Goldcorp Inc made more business sense. Barrick said its acquisition of Newmont would be contingent on the company scrapping the deal to buy Toronto-listed Goldcorp, adding its offer was a “significantly superior” option for Newmont shareholders.
U.S., Taliban resume Afghan peace talks before spring fighting season
The top U.S. envoy for peace in Afghanistan met a senior Taliban leader in Qatar on Monday as the two sides resumed talks to end 17 years of war despite the insurgents’ continued refusal to deal with the Kabul government. Zalmay Khalilzad, named last year to lead the U.S. peace effort, met Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the Taliban and the movement’s political chief, for the first time in Doha. Talks were expected to run for at least four days. “Just finished a working lunch with Mullah Baradar and his team. First time we’ve met. Now moving on to talks,” Khalilzad tweeted.
UK and US agree post-Brexit derivatives trading deal
The US has lent its backing to Britain to protect the City from losing trillions of pounds of complex financial derivatives business after Brexit, warding off a potential banking industry land grab by the EU. In a joint announcement heralded as a sign of the special relationship between the UK and the US, the two countries said they would take every step to ensure the continued trading of derivatives across the Atlantic under every Brexit eventuality. Derivatives are financial contracts widely used by companies to manage risks, ranging from hedging against changes in central bank interest rates to fluctuations in commodity prices.
Memory cards are about to get much faster with new microSD Express spec
MicroSD cards are about to get a whole lot faster, thanks to the newly announced microSD Express format that the SD Association announced at MWC 2019. The new cards will rely on the far faster PCIe and NVMe interfaces commonly used on modern SSDs to reach speeds of up to 985 megabytes per second. For comparison, Western Digital’s new 1TB SanDisk microSD card, also announced at MWC and which claims to be the fastest 1TB card in the world, tops off at just 160MB/s for reading data, and 90MB/s for writing it. The new microSD Express spec also should crush (in theory) smaller capacity cards, like Delkin Devices’ 128GB Prime card that tops out at a maximum read speed of 300 MB/s.
