2019: Obasanjo’s son goes against father, joins Buhari campaign team



Olujonwo Obasanjo, son of a former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, joined President Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign team in Abuja on Wednesday despite his father’s recent endorsement of Atiku Abubakar for the number one seat in 2019.

Mr Abubakar recently clinched the presidential ticket of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party and is expected to be the main challenger of Mr Buhari who is seeking reelection. Both men have engaged in a war of words since the former vice president clinched the ticket.

Mr Abubakar, as one of his first deft political moves, had sought the forgiveness of his estranged former boss, Mr Obasanjo, who had earlier sworn not to support his (Abubakar) years-long aspirations to become president.

Mr Obasanjo, who had earlier fallen out with Mr Buhari, whom he supported in 2015 to win the presidential election, has since ‘forgiven’ Mr Abubakar and endorsed him for the position. Mr Obasanjo had urged Mr Buhari not to seek reelection over dismal performance, an advice the president ignored.

PREMIUM TIMES gathered Olujonwo was welcomed at the headquarters office of the Buhari Campaign Organisation by Director of Logistics, Buhari Campaign Organisation, Nasiru Danu.

Confirming this development, the spokesman of the campaign organisation, Festus Keyamo, took to his Twitter page to announce how Mr Obasanjo’s son joined the team.

“Obasanjo Joins Buhari’s Campaign Team: From Left – Alhaji Nasiru Danu (The Dan Amarna of Dutse & Director of Logistics, PMB Campaign Organisation), Olujonwo Obansanjo (son of OBJ) and my humble self as we officially received OBJ’s son at d PMB Campaign Headquarters today in Abuja,” he wrote.

Also, Mr Buhari’s personal assistant on social media, Lauretta Onochie, via her Twitter handle confirmed the development.

Mr Obasanjo’s son in September had written a letter to the campaign team declaring his support for the reelection bid of Mr Buhari.

The letter read: “Dear Sir, please find attached a statement of my public declaration and support for the 2019 second term re-election bid of our highly esteemed President Buhari.

“I have taken a personal decision to release the statement and to notify you of my availability to work for the re-election of our dear President Muhammadu Buhari with sincerity and loyalty.

“Please accept my assurances of the highest regards.”

The presidential election is scheduled for February 16, 2019 and is largely expected to be a two-horse race between the two candidates though there are over 90 other parties, with many also fielding presidential candidates.

A woman has killed herself and her two children in China after hearing about her husband’s death which eventually turned out to have been faked by the man.

The 34-year-old man in China, who was identified by the surname He, was presumed dead after his vehicle was discovered in a river on Sept. 19, the BBC reported.

The man’s body was not recovered as he had only faked his demise to get an insurance payout.

But he made a major misstep: He never told his wife about the plot.

So the 31-year-old woman, who believed she was a widow, grabbed her two children, ages 3 and 4, and jumped into a pond after posting a suicide note online.

The message said she was “coming to accompany” her husband in the afterlife, the BBC reported. The three bodies were found in a pond near their residence on Oct. 11.

The husband turned himself into Xinhua police Friday and was “detained on charges of insurance fraud and intentional damage to property,” police said in a statement.

He had purchased the insurance plan worth $110,000 in September, but his wife was unaware of the purchase, police said.

He allegedly had $14,435 worth of loans at the time of his “death.” In a video posted online, He said he borrowed the money for his daughter’s treatment for epilepsy.

According to the BBC, before turning himself in to the authorities, the man posted a video online in which he was crying and saying he had “borrowed” the money for her ill daughter.

Following the commencement of verification exercise to herald the payment of N22 billion out of the N45 billion the Federal Government approved recently, major banks have besieged the centre for the exercise to scout for customers.

At the verification centre inside the Skycatering office, the remaining subsidiary of the defunct national carrier yet to be privatised 15 years after the liquidation of the parent company, the banks representatives were physically on ground wooing the former workers to open accounts with them.

Among the banks on the ground were First Bank, GTB, Sterling and FCMB canvassing for customers.

The former workers may have become the new brides to the banks as a result of the huge entitlements each of the workers will be paid once the exercise commences in earnest.

According to information gathered, apart from wooing the former Airways workers to open domiciliary accounts with them, the banks representatives have also taken it upon themselves to guide the workers on how to be prudent with their entitlements when paid.

The commencement of the exercise was made possible through the effort of the Minister for Finance, Hajia Zanab Ahmed, who moved by the agony the former workers had passed through in the hands of previous governments, on assumption of office few weeks ago got approval from the Presidency to pay them the final entitlements.

The minister who directed that the first entitlement of N22 billion be paid to the former workers latest by the 26th of this month however promised that the balance of N23 billion will be settled after six months.

The benue State Police Command has arrested four suspected secret cult members that specialise in shop breaking, snatching of handsets and other items from innocent citizens of the state.

Similarly, the command has apprehended six suspected armed robbery suspects who have been terrorising people in different parts of the state.

The Command’s Public Relations Officer, DSP Moses Yamu who disclosed this to New Telegraph in a statement in Makurdi yesterday said, the cultists, who aged between 19 and 20 years, were arrested by men of the Federal Special Anti Robbery Squad (FSARS) during routine raids of criminal hideouts on Monday at Kaduna Street of Wadata Area in Makurdi, the state capital.

Yamu listed the suspects to include: Abdullahi Sabo -19 years, Abubakar Yusuf -18 years, Ahmed Ibrahim -20 years and Auwal Abubakar -20 years old respectively.

The police spokesman who said the suspects have already been charged to court, said the six robbery suspects were picked at Mbamande Junction at Ikpayongo area of Aliade in Gwer East local government area of the state by FSARS personnel following a tip off.

He said all the suspects, Terdoo Nyamtaver 27 years, Atondu Nyam 20 years, Takari Anja 43 years,
Terkimbi Akighir 35 years, Msughter Abe Alias Don shayo 21years and Msughter Tyosula alias Sunny 22 years all of Mba-Amande village of the local government have confessed to the crime.

“Upon interrogation, the suspects confessed to have robbed one Theresa Tarnongu and Alex Awuna in a Toyota Corolla Duck Nyash with registration number AA 305 RNG, of the sum of 250, 000 using cutlasses and other dangerous weapons on a blockade they mounted near Mbamande junction, Ikpayongor-Aliade road on 07.10.2018.

He said that the suspects would be charged to court as soon as investigation is concluded

The Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday ordered the accounts of the Independent National Electoral Commission with the Central Bank of Nigeria to be blocked over the commission’s alleged refusal to pay a judgment debt of N17.258bn to a creditor.

The court also ordered the Federal Ministry of Finance to, in the interim, withhold funds meant for INEC, but yet to be disbursed.

Justice John Tsoho made the order in a ruling following an ex parte application by Bedding Holdings Limited in the garnishee proceedings it instituted to enforce the judgment delivered in its favour on January 28, 2014.

The Monday’s orders are to subsist till November 8, when both the CBN and the Federal Ministry of Finance (the two respondents to the garnishee proceedings) are to appear in court to show cause why the orders blocking INEC’s access to its funds should not be made absolute.

If the court grants an order of garnishee absolute, it implies ordering both the CBN and the Federal Ministry of Finance to immediately pay the applicant directly the total judgment sum of about N17bn from INEC’s accounts.

Justice Tsoho had on May 24, 2018, made a similar order of temporary blockage of INEC’s accounts upon hearing the former ex parte application moved on behalf of the applicant by Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN).

But, while moving the ex parte motion for ‘garnishee nisi’ on Monday, another of Bedding Holding Limited’s lawyer, Mr James Odibah, urged the court to strike out the May 24, 2018 order, which he said was made against parties wrongly joined as respondents in the garnishee proceedings.

Odiba said, “We shall be asking this honourable court for the withdrawal of our earlier ex parte order of this court dated May 24, 2018.

“The reason for this is that in our earlier motion we brought parties.

“In line with the new policy of TSA (Treasury Single Account), those parties were not the proper parties.

“This motion is supported by a 39-para affidavit sworn to by Dr Sylvester Osadolor Odigee, the Group Executive Chairman of the applicant.

“Attached to the motion, are nine exhibits. We humbly rely on the exhibits.

“We urge your lordship to strike out our earlier ex parte motion and the order granted on May 24, 2018, which is still subsisting.

“My lord, this is to ensure that all the relevant parties are brought to court.

“We have removed all the impediments to the granting of this motion by withdrawing our earlier motion.”

Ruling, Justice Tsoho said, on the basis of the information “furnished the court” by the applicant via the ex parte motion dated and filed on September 26, 2018, “the prayers sought therein are granted.”

One of the six prayers sought by the applicant included “a garnishee order nisi attaching all money, including, but not limited to foreign accounts attached to current accounts of the 1st judgment debtor in the possession of the garnishees/respondents (CBN and Federal Ministry of Finance) bearing the name of the 1st judgment debtor (INEC).”

The Federal High Court had on January 28, 2014, gave a judgment against INEC, its Chairman, the Attorney General of the Federation and three others in a suit marked, FHC/ABJ/CS/816/2010, filed by BHL.

Other defendants in the suit were Haier Electrical Appliances Corporation Limited, Zinox Technologies Limited and Avante International Limited, who were contractors to INEC, engaged to supply equipment that it deployed for voters’ registration prior to the 2011 elections.

BHL had filed the suit, accusing INEC, the Chairman of INEC, and other defendants of infringing on its exclusive “Patent Rights “No: RP16642 and Copyrights Design No: RD13841 in and over Electronic Collapsible Transparent Ballot Boxes (ECTBB) and Patent Rights No: NG/P/2010/202 – Proof of Address System/Scheme (PASS) – Embedded with the Concept of the Coded Metal Plate.”

The firm claimed that the inventions, which its exclusive patent and copyright covered, were deployed by INEC and the other defendants “for the production of voters’ register for the 2011 general elections, among other elections, without its prior licence, consent and authorisation.”

In a judgment on January 28, 2014, the then Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Ibrahim Auta, agreed with BHL’s claims and granted all its declaratory and monetary prayers against the defendants.

Justice Auta ordered among others, that BHL “is entitled to 50 per cent of the total contract sum of N34, 517,640,000.00, (which is N17,258,820,000.00) being the minimum reasonable royalty accruable to the plaintiff for the production, procurement, supply, acquisition, importation, purchase, receipt, sale of the Direct Data Capturing Machine, laptops and/or any other equipment ancillary to, or associated with the process and application of the said products for the registration of voters and or the collation/compilation and production of the voters’ register for the 2011 general elections.”