Ex President Goodluck Jonathan Returned to Nigeria

Former President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday returned to Nigeria after a month’s trip to the United Kingdom and Côte d’Ivoire.

It was gathered that the former President arrived at the Port Harcourt International Airport on Wednesday before heading for his country home in Otuoke, Bayelsa State.
It was gathered that Jonathan arrived at
Otuoke at 9 pm.
An associate of the former President, who pleaded anonymity, confirmed that Jonathan had arrived Nigeria.
He said, “I have spoken with the ex-President, and he said that he had returned to the country.”
Jonathan had on May 23 dismissed a report that he was on exile in Cote d’Ivoire.
A report by a national newspaper (not The PUNCH) had indicated that. Jonathan had been given asylum in that Francophone country because of the fear of arrest by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
  But on May 23 Jonathan had denied the report saying, “I’m not in exile.

President Muhammadu Buhari has canceled at the last minute a visit planned for Thursday to the oil-producing Niger Delta, which has been hit by a wave of militant attacks, a government source said. President Buhari President Buhari Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will instead visit the restive southern region to launch a cleanup program of the Ogoniland, an area badly hit by oil spills, the source said, without giving a reason for Buhari’s cancellation, reports Reuters. Buhari had already skipped a visit to the commercial capital Lagos in the south last month at the last minute. Posters with his picture had been already hung up to welcome the president before his spokesman cited “scheduling” difficulties. It would have been the first visit of the former military ruler to the Delta since taking office in May last year. Critics have accused Buhari, a Muslim from the north, of ignoring the predominately Christian south. The southern Delta swamps have been hit by a series of militant attacks on oil and gas pipelines which have brought Nigeria’s oil output to a 20-year low. Hours after the announcement of Buhari’s visit to the swamps on Tuesday the Niger Delta Avengers militant group, which has claimed several attacks on Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell facilities, issued a warning to oil firms that their “facilities and personnel will bear the brunt of our fury”. The Avengers have accused Buhari of ignoring local problems. Buhari said on Sunday the government would hold talks with leaders in Nigeria’s main oil-producing region to address their grievances, in a bid to stop a surge in pipeline attacks. Residents in the swamp areas have for years complained about oil industry pollution and about economic marginalization by the government. Local officials and Western allies such as Britain have told Buhari that moving army reinforcements to the Delta region would not be enough to stop the attacks and that the population’s grievances should be dealt with.

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/06/breaking-buhari-cancels-visit-to-ogoni-land-government-source/