₦airaland Forum

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Friday bade the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) good night, saying he will not return to the party.
Obasanjo spoke to journalists in Jalingo, Taraba, while assessing some projects initiated by his administration in the state.
The ex- President terminated his membership of PDP in February last year.
Speaking on the lingering crisis in the party which now has two national chairmen, Obasanjo said he had already bade PDP good night and cannot return to say good evening.
“In the part of the country where I come from, there is a saying that you cannot say ‘good night’ and come back to say ‘good evening’ in the same place.
“So for me, it is good night for the Peoples Democratic Party and that’s all,” he said.
He expressed confidence that President Muhammadu Buhari will surmount the present challenges confronting the country.
“So far Buhari has not disappointed us. I trust him (Buhari), he will not fail Nigerians. I know he will overcome the challenges the country is currently facing,” the ex-President added.
He also urged the President to complete the hydroelectric project on the Mambilla Plateau in Taraba.

justwise:
@emamos

&

justi4jesu

Nothing new here, they hang around, say the right thing..sometimes..attack their common enemy...while i play the role of a cat..watch until they take a bite...

Well done @ justwise..I know them too

The Niger Delta Avengers has agreed to hold talks with the Federal Government to resolve the lingering crisis in the Niger Delta region.
The spokesman for the Dialogue Group, Mr. Ballantyne Agiri, said this in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday.
Agiri said that the NDA had constituted a contact and dialogue group to engage the Federal Government in meaningful dialogue as part of the initiatives to resolve the crisis.
He added that the group was determined to come out with results that would yield lasting peace, equity, justice and harmony among all ethnic nationalities in Nigeria.
“The body has collectively and willingly agreed to heed the clarion call of eminent Nigerians and international community to dialogue with the Federal Government,’’ he said.
He urged Nigerians and the international community to follow developments on the issue closely and watch out for which side would violate the terms, rules and spirit of the dialogue.
“The Federal Government should from the inception of the dialogue rule out from the agenda any monthly monetary inducement or stipend for the NDA.
“The Federal Government should be ready for structural changes that should be human and development-oriented.
“Members of the avengers’ group (who will participate in the dialogue) have already been selected, each based on his integrity, forthrightness, honesty and life track records.
“The names of members of the group for now shall not be made public for personal reasons until they begin functioning in few days ahead,’’ the spokesman said.
NAN.

shukuokukobambl:
You're actually worse than a zombie. What is the meaning of the bolded? Do you have self esteem problems?

Are Bode George, Agbaje, Mimiko, Fayose, FFK, Afenifere, Gani Adams, Aribisala not all yoruba? are they not vehemently against Buhari? What is special about your so-called yorubaness that you are struggling so much to convince yourself?

Can't you make your point without involving Yoruba abi are there no Igbos, Ikwerres, Ijaws in APC? What the fvck concerns anybody if you are even the PDP mascot?

What concerns the Yoruba with your PDP frustrations? Warn yaself o!!

12Monkeys:
APC zombie getting blasted with the awful truth

...Ur moniker though,wch zoological garden ar u frm...no comment

12Monkeys:
Buhari dashing arms and military vehicles bought by GEJ with Niger Delta oil money to his boko brethren

The Rivers State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has admonished the state governor, Nyesom Wike, against using state funds to finance the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, National Convention.
PDP’s national convention is slated to hold tomorrow in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
Thought an Abuja Federal High Court had suspended the convention, the party has continued to insist that the convention will go on.
However, the state chapter of the party, in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Chris Finebone, urged Wike to stop wasting tax payers’ money on what it described as “PDP convention jamborees.”
Finebone advised Wike to pay the salaries of its civil servants, rather than host his party’s convention.
“Our worry heightens when we consider that PDP bills are humongous and Gov. Wike has elected himself to offset the bills with the funds of Rivers people running into billions of Naira.
“Sadly, South-South states and others have always acted the wise boys because their governors know that their peoples’ money should not be wasted on jamborees
“Civil servants, legislative aides, medical workers, teachers and other workers in different sectors in the State are groaning and protesting several months of unpaid salaries and wages.
“National conventions are very expensive business, the cost run into billions of Naira. Gov. Wike has the responsibility to provide effective governance for the people.
“This he should do with the resources that belong to them and not to fritter billions of Naira belonging to Rivers people on the affairs of his party, the PDP.”

Colonel Rabe Abubakar, Director of Defence Information
The Nigerian Military on Tuesday in Abuja said that no fewer than 8000 Boko Haram members had voluntarily surrendered to its “Operation Safe Corridor” in the North-East.
The Director of Defence Information, Brig.-Gen. Rabe Abubakar disclosed this at a lecture organised by the FCT Correspondents’ Chapel of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ).
The lecture with the theme, “Media-Military Relationship in the Fight against Insurgency”, was part of the activities marking the 2016 Press Week of the chapel.
Abubakar said that the surrendered insurgents were in a camp in Gombe waiting to be “deradicalised’’ by the military.
The general also disclosed that more than 10,000 Boko Haram captives had been rescued by the military.
He said some of them were reunited with their families, while others were taken to Internally Displaced Person’s (IDP) camps.
Abubakar said that Boko Haram had been successfully decimated by the military and government was working hard on the rehabilitation of the victims and reconstruction of the affected areas.
The general also said that the military would soon launch “Operation Safe Corridor” to address the menace of herdsmen across the country.
He assured that the military operation would put an end to the wanton killings by the herdsmen.
Responding to questions on the recent action by the military declaring some journalists wanted, the general urged the media not to allow sentiments to influence their judgment on the issue.
He said the military should be allowed to do its work while assuring that no member of the media would be victimised unnecessarily.
Abubakar said that good military-media relationship was crucial to winning the war against insurgency.
He said the media drove public support for the military which in turn had boosted the morale of officers and the rank and file.
Earlier, the Secretary of NUJ in FCT, Hajia Rafat Salami, said there was the need for the military and the media to work together in the fight against terrorism and other crimes.
She said the military must see the media as partner in progress and not as enemy.
The Chairman of the Correspondents Chapel, Raphael Ekpang, thanked the general for finding time out of his tight schedule to share his thoughts on the topic.

PUSH1:
Why do you think its a bad idea.
Farmers among the richest on earth.
Just tell d fg to provide better incentives for farming.

The Federal Government has urged all public officers to return to the farms for the nation to liberate itself from the periodic cycle of boom inter-laced with bust and meltdown.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo made the call in Abuja Tuesday while speaking at the public presentation of the present administration's agricultural promotion
policy, 'The Green Alternative'.
The vice president noted that farming is the only conventional activity which the constitution of the country allows a public officer.
He said: "This agricultural revolution calls for us all to farm, even small vegetable farms. The only conventional activity that our constitution allows a public officer is farming. So, we have no excuse."
Osinbajo said President Muhammadu Buhari and the Minister of Agriculture are farmers. So, they practice what they preach. The rest of us are being slowly converted!"
He stated: "It is an urgent call for the nation to embrace the truth that an oil-dependent economy would never provide enough for 170 million people and still grow in leaps and bounds."
Osinbajo commended President Buhari for his renewed vision of an agriculture-led economy as an alternative proposition to an oil dependent growth.
He said the administration realized the need to take difficult decisions in the immediate and short terms in order to repair the huge damage done especially by the dependence on oil and in not investing in infrastructure or in deepening the diversification of the economy, "or even building our reserves when oil sold at over $100 a barrel."
The vice president said the government knew it had to set the economy aright and put it on the path to inclusive growth with job opportunities for the nation's huge population.
According to him, "One of the most critical components of that plan is to position agriculture as the arrow-head of the economic recovery effort. There is no question at all that if we get agriculture right, we'll get our economy right. The road map we're about to present, identifies two key challenges. The first is the inability to meet domestic food requirements: this is a productivity challenge driven by an input system and farming model that is likely inefficient, the lack of good seeds, fertilisers, irrigation, crop protection, etc.
"And two: the inability to export at the level required for marketing which is typified by an inefficient system for setting and enforcing food quality, poor knowledge of target markets, a weak inspectorate system and poor coordination amongst relevant agencies. With great clarity, 'The Green Alternative' sets out strategies for resolving these challenges. I'm personally impressed that The road map does not dismiss the Agricultural policies of the past. Indeed, the policy says that it is “building on the successes of the agricultural transformation agenda, closing the gap.”
Osinbajo said the nation's problem had never been a lack of policy, but had always been the focus and capacity to stick to the plan as well as modify when necessary and ensure the plan aligns with all aspects of the economic plan of the government.
lalasticlala,mynd44

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo says that the Federal Government will train 100,000 graduates as exten 500,000 graduates to be engaged as teachers.
He made the declaration while launching the agricultural sector roadmap entitled: “The Green Alternative: Agriculture Promotion policy 2016 to 2020’’ in Abuja.
Osinbajo
The vice president also called for policy alignment of all government’s economic plans.
“This particular alignment is crucial. Just to give some obvious example: you cannot have a policy of encouraging local production of food and on the other hand have a high tariff on imported agricultural equipment.
“There is no way that we can encourage local production when we allow unbridled importation of the same things that we are trying to produce.
“There is no way we can do the scale of agricultural production both for domestic consumption and export without ensuring local improved seedling development alongside those that we import.
“And of course encouraging the work of the agencies of the Ministries of Science and Technology who have been making great breakthroughs in local development of agricultural equipment.
“Still on the issue of policy alignment, our social investment programme, which is possibly the largest in recent history, is designed to align with the design of our agricultural and other policies.
“And so, as part of the 500,000 teacher corps that we will be engaging, 100,000 of them will be trained as extension workers for our farms.’’
Osinbajo further said that the road map had identified the inability to meet productivity challenge of self-sustenance due to inefficient farming model inadequate seeds, irrigation, and crop protection.
He said the administration met an economy in meltdown and had to take difficult decisions to repair the huge damage done by dependence on oil, not investing in infrastructure, deepening diversification and increasing reserves.
The vice president said that it became imperative to set the economy on the part of inclusive growth with job opportunities for the huge youth population through positioning agriculture as the focus of diversification.
Osinbajo said there was no doubt at all that if the administration got the agriculture right the economy would be right.
According to him, the home grown feeding programme was anchored on the use of locally produced food for primary school pupils in the country.
Osinbajo also said that financing of agriculture was also a crucial policy issue with double-digit interest rate and reluctance of banks to lend to the sector.
He said the administration must develop some funding options in the short term.
“The anchor borrowers’ programme of the Central Bank of Nigeria has proved to be extremely useful.
“Indeed the phenomenal success of the Kebbi rice programme where the farmers moved from 3.5 metric tonnes per hectre to 7.5 metric tonnes per hectre was largely the result of the single digit credit extended by the anchor borrowers’ programme which they used to purchase the right fertiliser quality and other inputs.

johnstar:
Nigerian mentality ehn


Dm don dey take dis tn as fun o

The Nigerian military asked a man it declared wanted to go home after he reported at one of its facilities in Borno State.
Ahmed Bolori, the coordinator of the Fa’ash Foundation and the Partnership Against Violent Extremism and resident of Maiduguri, was declared wanted alongside two others on Sunday.
The Nigerian Army in a statement said the three, which included journalist, Ahmad Salkida and Aisha Wakil, a lawyer, were declared wanted for their alleged ties to the Boko Haram sect.
The Army said the three refused to provide useful information to authorities despite having clear and unfettered access to the sect and also held them responsible for the Boko Haram video that was released on Sunday.
The video purportedly showed the Army conducting area bombardment of an unknown location where the abducted Chibok girls are kept, killing many of them in the process.
The Defence Headquarters denied killing the girls and said it was also analysing the video to establish its authenticity.
In a message released by Farook Kperoogi, a U.S.-based Nigerian journalism professor, Mr. Bolori reported at “the top military barracks in Maiduguri, waited for more than two hours, but there was no one to interrogate or arrest him.”
Mr. Kperoogi posted the development on his Facebook page which he said was part of the conversation he had with Mr. Bolori.
Mr. Kperoogi also attached a WhatsApp conversation in which Mr. Bolori could be seen discussing with an official of the Defence Military Intelligence about how and where he could turn himself in for interrogations.
Mr. Kperoogi said Mr. Bolori was later told to “go home” after spending more than two hours waiting and making frantic calls to Army hierarchy to come and detain him, having been declared wanted.
The announcement by the Army declaring Messrs. Bolori, Salkida and Wakil wanted has triggered debates across the world.
The spokesperson for the Army, Sani Usman, could not be reached to comment for this story Monday morning. He did not answer or return calls made to him.
Read the full statement by Mr. Kperoogi below:
It is now self-evident that no one in the highest reaches of governance and security enforcement in Nigeria is thinking. How can you declare people “wanted” when you haven’t even invited them for questioning–and they haven’t resisted your invitation? I just got off the phone with Ambassador Ahmed Umar Bolori, one of the people declared “wanted” by the Nigerian military.
He told me he called the Chief of Army Staff, the spokesperson of the Nigerian military who announced him “wanted,” and other top military officers and said he was at their beck and call and didn’t need to be declared “wanted” since he wasn’t in hiding.
He then went ahead and turned himself in at the top military barracks in Maiduguri, waited for more than two hours, but there was no one to interrogate or arrest him.
He called and texted the chief of army staff and the military spokesperson again and pleaded with them to send someone to detain, arrest, interrogate, or do whatever they wanted to do to him because he wanted to clear his name.
He was later told to go home and return the following day! They told a “wanted” man to go home and come back the next day! Can you believe that? First, he is personally known to the chief of army staff and to the military spokesman. These people also know his home in Maiduguri.
They know where to get him if they want to. Yet they declared him “wanted.” Is there any parallel to this level of puzzling incompetence in the world? Who declares people “wanted” without any interest in seeing, much less interrogating, them?
lalasticlala

Below are the faces of the two men and one woman wanted in connection with the abduction of 218 Chibok schoolgirls over two years ago, by Boko Haram terrorists.
On Sunday, army spokesman, Colonel Sani Usman accused the trio of links with the Boko Haram terrorists. He also said they know where the Chibok girls are being kept.
He said that two recent incidents indicated that the trio have information on the conditions and the exact location of these girls.
The army therefore, declared the two gentlemen and the lady wanted for interrogation.
“We are relying on the relevant laws of the land and in particular the Terrorism Prevention Act 2011 (as amended) where Nigerians could be punished for failure to disclose information about terrorists or terrorist’s activities.
“This has become necessary as a result of their link with the last two videos released by the insurgents and other findings of our preliminary investigations,” the statement said.
Usman said that there was no doubt that these individuals had links with the insurgents.
The statement however, urged them to come forward and tell the army where the group kept the Chibok Girls and other abducted persons to enable the army rescue them.
“We are therefore, calling on all Nigerians and peace loving people to give us useful information on their whereabouts.
“We are also liaising with other security agencies for their arrest if they failed to turn up,” it said.

Former Governor of Imo State, Chief Ikedi Ohakim, yesterday announced his “temporary withdrawal from partisan politics”.
Ohakim told his supporters at his Okohia, Isiala Mbano local government area country home, that “ While we retreat to reformat, I shall devote my time to mentoring and working with the youths of my home state, Imo and indeed, Nigeria”.
“Of course, I am not the only Nigerian, both within and outside the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and indeed among members of the political class, to so desire but even more enthusiastic about our collective democratic future was the ordinary Nigerian who, though desired a change from the status quo ante, still believed that for the needed balance, the PDP should remain strong,“ Ohakim said.
He lamented that the PDP and “its key gladiators became overwhelmed by the burden of the defeat and failed to appreciate the goodwill it still had among Nigerians, despite the challenges of its 16-year long rule”.
“The final result was the split into two factions which have remained irreconcilable despite wise counsel from well-meaning quarters within and outside the party and indeed, despite pronouncements of the law.
“Outside the PDP, the general political environment has not helped matters. Contrary to expectations of Nigerians that the political class has learnt the relevant lessons from the outcome of the 2015 general election, which is that the people’s preference must count, the latter has returned to the old antics of election rigging and violence”, Ohakim said.
lalasticlala,mynd44

The Chief of Army of Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, has charged personnel of the army to be committed and keep fit always, saying there is no room for laxity in the military.
Buratai gave the charge while addressing 200 cadets of Regular Course 63, who had concluded their training, shortly after inaugurating the Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA) base camp in Jos.
He also reminded them that the military had done the country proud and must be ready to continue to make the military proud.
“I want to tell you that in the military there is no room for laxity. Whatever we do, we must do it with precision and a deep sense of commitment.
“One thing that is associated with the military, apart from discipline is exercise to keep fit always.
“I expect you to be at the top at all times, physically,’’ Buratai charged.
The chief of army staff stressed that with current security challenges in the country, especially insurgency in the North East; officers and men were expected to be committed, precise and physically fit.
“The reality is that in the North East you will encounter unexpected ambushes and indeed IEDs – Improvised Explosive Devices, where the Boko Haram terrorists operate.

Northern Christians under the concerned Christians of Nigeria and Northern Nigerian Christians Sunday said recent political happenings and 'corruption' in the apex Christian body; the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has forced them to unanimously revert to what they described as the pre-independence Northern Nigerian Christian Association (NNCA).
Daily Trust reports that the controversy that led to the emergency of the new CAN President, Rev. Supo Ayokunle, had been condemned by some Christian leaders from the North who accused the past CAN President, Ayo Oritsejafor, of deliberately frustrating the candidature of Rev. Jeremiah Gado of the TEKAN/ECWA bloc to prevent the emergence of a northerner.
However, in a joint press conference in Jos Rev. Luka Shehu of Concerned Christians of Nigeria and Hon. Peter Luka of Northern Nigerian Christians said the decision to revert back to the Northern Nigerian Christians Association (NNCA) became necessary following what they described as the 'travesty of justice, lies and manipulation' that led to the emergence of Rev. Supo Ayokunle as CAN President, various acts of corruption by the leadership of CAN as well as neglect of northern Christians especially in the North-East.
"Considering our common shared values and peculiarities as Christians from CAN and after wide consultation among Christian leaders, traditional rulers, youths and women, we under this auspices from the north have unanimously decided to revert to the pre-independence Northern Nigeria Christian Association," said the two groups.

my support do notin,na who God support go win

National chairmanship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, on Monday, likened the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, as a barren woman impregnated by his party, the PDP.
Dokpesi
He said the APC either as Alliance for Democracy (AD), Action Congress (AC) or Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) was unable to win national election in the country before some members of the PDP joined them prior to the 2015 elections.
Recall that some governors, chieftains and leaders of the PDP defected to APC in the build up to the 2015 elections.
Dokpesi, who spoke to party faithfuls in Kaduna, said “the APC is like a barren woman impregnated by the PDP; either as AD,AC or ACN that couldn’t win election until members of PDP joined them.”
He said the APC has chosen to dehumanise and persecute PDP members in a bid to weaken the party and turn Nigerians against it.
He urged party faithfuls to be united and fearless in the face of persecution, stating that PDP remains the only national party that is rooted in every hamlet of the country.
He vowed to return PDP to winning ways by making it the darling of Nigerians when elected as the chairman of the party.
The chairman of PDP Kaduna state, Hassan Hyat, who decorated Dokpesi with a PDP-customized regalia, said from what party leaders and delegates in the state said, it is obvious that the media mogul will get their support

*as police parades four suspect, declares three others wanted
One of the four suspects arrested in connection with the gruesome murder of a member of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Gideon Aremu, on July 1, 2016, Ayobami Adedeji (23) has disclosed that they were mere robbers and not assassins as it was insinuated.
Adedeji and three other suspects; Adediran Oladapo (31), Kareem Isiaka, and Sodiq Adedeji (20) were paraded by the Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Leye Oyebade at the Police Command headquarters, Eleyele, Ibadan on Monday.
The lawmaker from the Labour Party, representing Oorelope constituency, was until his death the Chairman, House Committee on Information, Public Relations and Security.
He was killed in front of his house in Alakia area of the state as he alighted from his car to open his gate. Three gunmen on a motorcycle were said to have trailed him to the house and shot him severally after a brief argument according to family source.
In an attempt to quicken the arrest of the killers, the state Governor Abiola Ajimobi placed a N5m bounty on the heads of the gunmen responsible for the murder of the lawmaker.
Narrating how the lawmaker was killed, Adedeji said they did not know the status of late Aremu before one of them called ‘Abbey’ shot him after collecting his mobile phone and money.
According to him, we met at our usual Awo joint in Beere area, Ibadan, to carry out a robbery operation at Adegbayi, Ibadan on that fateful day.
“We did not track the lawmaker to his residence but it was one of us called Abbey that his mother reside in Adegbayi that brought the job to rob the lawmaker to us. I did not know why Abbey shot him, but the only thing they gave me was N40,000 which was my share of the operation.” he said
Adedeji who also confirmed to be an ex-convict said he is was jailed last year for selling Indian Hemp but was later pardoned after spending a year at the Agodi prison in Ibadan by the State Attorney General.
The suspect claimed that he became friends with Abbey, Kola Mission, Yusff Ikire at Awo joint, around Ogunmola compound in Beere after he was released from prison.
He noted that on the day they killed the lawmaker, they took off from the Awo joint after consuming Indian Hemp served to them by one Dele Awo.
But one of the arrested suspect, Sodiq Kareem, who is a criminal receiver claimed that he was not aware that the killed lawmaker’s phone he bought was a stolen one.
“It was Kola and Yusuf that sold the lawmaker’s phone to me for N12,500 but I could not make use of the phone because it was locked and has a security code, so I gave it to Kareem Isiaka aka Alfa to unlock for me or sell. Alfa sold it to Adeniran Oladapo for N16,000” he said
Also, Alfa confirmed collecting the phone from Sodiq to sell but did not know that it was a stolen phone.
Oyebade said that the arrest was made possible by a combined team of Intelligence Response Team of the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris and detectives from the Oyo State Police Command.
“The suspects did not have the knowledge of the status of the lawmaker. As robbers their intention was to rob him of valuable property in his possession. The victim was killed because they thought he could identify them due to a torch flashed on them during the operation.” he said
The police boss declared wanted three of the fleeing suspects which includes; Abbey, Kola Mission, and Yusuf Ikire, adding that anyone with useful information that could lead to their arrest should contact the police command.

One of the arrested suspected kidnappers who abducted the Oniba of Iba land, Oba Goriola Oseni has narrated how they kidnapped the monarch and successfully collected N15.1 million ramsom before releasing him.
The monarch was released on Saturday by his abductors after spending three weeks with the kidnappers at the creek.
The police have arrested two of the suspected kidnappers and were paraded at the State House, Ikeja, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria on Sunday. The two suspects are Toba Forejo and Isaiah Ododomu, both from Ondo State.
Narrating the account to newsmen on how they kidnapped the oba, Ododomu said nine people went to the palace to kidnap the oba on that fateful day.
He gave the name of those who went to the palace to kidnap the oba as Toba, Igodo, Mighty, Folly and Sam, while one Micah who is a leader did not go with them because he “he has a babe with him at home.”
He explained that the kidnappers were armed with two AK-47 riffles and three pump action guns which they used during the kidnapping.
Ododomu, who said he used to be a bunkerer, explained that since the bunkering business had been stopped, they decided to go into kidnapping.
He disclosed that the kidnappers first collected N12 million ransom and later demanded for another ransom and were given N3.1 million extra, making a total of N15.1 million which they shared among themselves.
“I am a bunkering man, when this government stopped the bunkering business, our leaders fomed another group and we started kidnapping to manage ourselves. I am a married man and I don’t have any job to cater for my family. When we started the kidnapping business, whenever they collected N500,000, they will give me N20,000.
“After this one, Toba, Igodo, Mighty, these eight people, went to Iba junction, they kidnapped the king, after they kidnapped him, they demand for N500 million, after that they reduced it to N40 million. They gave them N12 million at the first time. After that we gathered and shared the money.
“All our senior people got the lion share of the money. They gave Toba N1 million, all those Igodo, Micah, they collected N2.5 million and so on; for me, they gave me N100, 000,” he explained.
He added that after he travelled and came back, some of them agitated that the money given to them was small and decided to demand for the remaining N28 million balance, but noted that he was the one who prevailed on them to collect anything from the monarh’s family so that they could disperse before they were arrested.
“I told them that we should collect any amount and decamp because they can arrest us. Because of me, they agreed to collect N3, 100,000. The family of the oba brought the money and they dropped it for us at Igbehinadun water side. We went there and brought the money and they gave me N100,000. Toba and the others shared the remaining money. Our base of operation is at Izegemo creek in Ikotun area,” he explained.
Ododomu said he was the one who paddled the oba on the water to Iba while the others fled and that he was arrested.
One of the prime suspects, Toba Ferejo also said they were nine people who kidnapped the monarch, saying that he was arrested at Iyana School area
lalasticlala

*I’m not Avengers spokesperson- Udengs Eradiri, IYC president
WARRI- THERE was confusion, weekend, as the Niger Delta Avengers, NDA and its alleged splinter faction, Reformed Niger Delta Avengers, RNDA, played dirty, the latter having released the names of 22 persons it claimed were sponsors, members and sympathizers of the principal group, Saturday evening.
An Ijaw leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, to our reporter on phone, lamented:
“It is unfortunate that they have penetrated our boys with money and they are now using them to fight themselves. This is bad for the struggle.”
Spokesperson of NDA, self styled Brig General Mudoch Agbinibo, had in a retort to Vanguard, said the group was intact and in a subsequent statement, fingered a top government official, former governor and ex-militant leaders hiding under the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, to announce the purported split.
“It is quite unfortunate that Cynthia Whyte and Jomo Gbomo of defunct Joint Revolutionary Council and MEND respectively are the spokesperson of the Nigerian intelligentsia community because of some political interest and a government that have abdicated powers to clansmen and tribal lords.
”The fact checks about Cynthia Whyte and his sponsors should be laid bare before the public now that the Nigerian security and intelligent community has turned the Niger Delta genuine struggle to a tool of political patronage and money making machine for miscreants and conflict merchants,” NDA said.
National president of Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, Mr. Udengs Eradiri, who RNDA listed his name among the operatives of Niger Delta Avengers, reacted to the allegation, yesterday, saying: “I have no business whatsoever with the Niger Delta Avengers. I am the President of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), the largest youth organization in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria and not Spokesman of the Niger Delta Avengers.”
He said” My attention has been drawn to a statement purportedly issued by a splinter group of the Niger Delta Avengers in which several Niger Deltans were mentioned as sponsors and operatives of the Niger Delta Avengers, including my humble self as the spokesman of the Niger Delta Avengers, who go by the name Brig. Gen. Mudoch Aginibo.
“Since the splinter group of the Niger Delta Avengers said they have broken away and repented from their old ways, I call on them to come out in open and identify themselves openly, instead of still using pseudo names such as Cynthia Whyte to issue statements.
“Any discerning mind would know that the said statement purportedly naming sponsors of Avengers was issued by the promoters of the Aaron 2 MEND negotiation with the federal government. Their grouse against me is because I said in my recent interviews that MEND Aaron 11 team does have the mandate of the Ijaw and other Niger Delta people to negotiate with the federal government. They are desperate because of the lack of credibility in what they are doing,” he said.
Eradiri asserted: “I wish to state that no amount of desperation and blackmail would stop me from stating the position of the Ijaw people as far issues affecting the Niger Delta region are concerned. I was elected to promote and protect the interest of the Ijaw and Niger Delta people and not the selfish and personal interest of a few.”
“I also want to put on record the consistent threat to my life by the promoters of the Aaron 2 MEND negotiation with the federal government. They have been consistently saying that they would deal with me.
lalasticlala