IMO BREAKING NEWS BLOG

All English and Northern Irish football and all professional Scottish football has been postponed this weekend as a mark of respect following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Ten Premier League and six Scottish Premiership fixtures were scheduled.

EFL games were due to take place on Friday and Saturday, with six Women's Super League fixtures - the first of the season - on Saturday and Sunday. England's National League, FA Trophy and grassroots football is also off. Friday's play at golf's PGA Championship was called off, along with all British horse racing and cricket's Test between England and South Africa. British horse racing will remain off on Saturday and return on Sunday. 

Queen Elizabeth II, the UK's longest-serving monarch, died on Thursday aged 96, after reigning for 70 years. The Premier League took the decision to honour the Queen's "extraordinary life and contribution to the nation" and said updates on future fixtures during the period of mourning "will be provided in due course". The league's chief executive Richard Masters said: "We and our clubs would like to pay tribute to Her Majesty's long and unwavering service to our country.

"This is a tremendously sad time for not just the nation but also for the millions of people around the world who admired her, and we join together with all those in mourning her passing." The government's national mourning guidance advised that cancelling fixtures was not obligatory, leaving the decision up to individual sports.

President Muhammadu Buhari says crude oil theft must be addressed. He made this statement during the inauguration of the Presidential Committee on National Economy which he inaugurated in his office on Friday.

Acknowledging the impact of the menace on the nation’s revenue exchange, the President reminded them that production of crude oil owing to economic sabotage has led to a production decline at half the nation’s OPEC quota.

Buhari, therefore, urged members to tackle the distinct challenge while promising that his administration will work assiduously to reverse the trend. Members of the committee include Vice President Yemi Osinbajo who is also chairman of the National Economic Council (NEC), Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State who represents the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, and other members of the cabinet.

At the maiden meeting, President Buhari defended the nation’s borrowing rate, asserting that it is vital to achieving infrastructural development.

By Emeka  Eze, Abuja.

Calls on the Church In Nigeria to be careful with meddling in the 2023 politics

Former Governor of Imo State, Emeka Ihedioha has said that the main opposition party in Nigeria, the peoples democratic party needs votes from the North much more than the Southern part of the country, to win the 2023 presidential election. 

Ihedioha disclosed this in a release by  his Media adviser , Frank Nwaete after the PDP National Executive Council meeting on Thursday, the 8th of September. 

The former Governor maintained that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, as the only Presidential candidate from the North is a pointer that the party needs the Zone much more than the South.

According to Ihedioha, the South has two Presidential candidates, Senator Ahmed Tinubu and Mr Peter Obi, noting that the continuous appeasement of the Southern Zone would not translate to election victory in 2023 ,he also commended the minor reshufflement of party leadership positions and thanked the leader's of the party for their magnanimity in ceding the chairman of the board of trustees to an Igbo man. 

"Ndigbo should see this as a clear proof of inclusiveness and accommodation in the scheme of things within the pdp and nationally " 

He also stated that, 

“ the 2023 Presidential election is clearly between the North and  the South. I don’t think it is wise to cede prominent positions of our party at this time to the South as the voting population numbers show that the north hold the key to pdp's victory. This is the truth and can be bitter but cannot be denied ". 

Ihedioha described those agitating that prominent positions in PDP be ceded to the South as political neophytes, advising that further accommodation of the South will end up weakening the party’s chances in the 2023 presidential elections.

He also called on the church leader's to trade with caution, with their perceived stand against a moslem candidate in the coming elections in order to avoid a backlash if a moslem wins the 2023 presidential election.

He also said the party has done well in it's reconciliation efforts and that anybody still complaining about the outcome of the party primaries, surely does not mean well for the party.

Peoples Democratic Party Board of Trustees Chairman, Walid Jibril, has resigned, it was learnt.

“I am stepping down as the chairman of BoT. I am stepping down to make it easier for all of us,” he said at a BoT and National Executive Committee meeting on Thursday in Abuja.

Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State on Thursday insisted that Iyorchia Ayu must step down as the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party. Wike said the presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, told him in person when he won the May primary that Ayu must vacate his position as party chairman.

“When we finished our convention on a Saturday to Sunday, the candidate of the party (Atiku) came to see me in my house in Abuja on Monday around 10:30am…The candidate told me: ‘I want us to work together’ and then he said, ‘Look, Ayu must go’. “I said why? He said because when a candidate comes from the north, the chairman will come from the south. And I am saying, implement what you told me. What offence have I committed? It has nothing to do with Wike; it has to do with integrity.

“I challenge the presidential candidate to deny this. If he denies this, I will go further to say so many things to Nigerians because enough is enough,” the governor said on Thursday during the commissioning of the Ahoada Campus of the Rivers State University in the Ahoada East Local Government Area of the state.

Wike was at the occasion alongside his ally, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State. The governor said the resignation of Walid Jibril as the Board of Trustees chairman won’t stop his demand for Ayu’s removal. “This fight we will fight it to the end,” he said.

The National Executive Council of the Peoples Democratic Party has passed a vote-of-confidence on Senator Iyorchia Ayu, suggesting that the party chairman will not be stepping down any time soon.

A motion for the vote of confidence on the PDP’s National Working Committee (NWC) was moved by the minority leader of the House of Representatives, Ndudi Elumelu at the BoT and NEC meeting which held in Abuja on Thursday.

The vote was supported by a NEC member from Kwara State and presided over by the acting chairman of the PDP BoT, Adolphus Wabara.

There have been several calls by the southern caucus of the PDP for the party’s national chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, to step down for a southerner, however, with the vote-of-confidence, it is almost certain that Senator Ayu will not be vacating the seat.