₦airaland Forum

nairalad: How can a Commander in Chief spew this trash?

A smart President will never say such even if there are problems. You are just given your opponents something to feed on.

I hope one day this man will not surrender to Boko Harem on a national television.

And to say this man is fighting to stay beyond 2015... God forbit bad thing!!

Pukkah: South Westerners did not play the tribal card when Obasanjo was been lampooned and the Northerners did not become tribalistic when people lambasted Yar'adua. When you rush forward with a tribal card to defend Jonathan, you are actually making him appear weak, pitiful and unpresidential. Leave him. Defend him with facts only. Realize that uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. If he governs well, it is for the benefit of all, the reverse is also true.



By the way, who are 'my comrades'?

icon aus: You cant stand the truth . It is simple truth .OBJ was in power at a time when other African countries like Ghana and botswana were transforming their various countries and What did OBJ acheived ? Nothing complete nothing and you people did not say anything because he is one of you. Obj ruled for 8 yrs with out basic amenities like water, electricity, good roads, hospitals in short every thing and you people have mouth to castigate GEJ .

icon aus: Face the fact the North and the SW introduced tribalism in Nigeria even before independence till date . The same tribalism is not allowing them to give GEJ a chance because he is from the south South . The emergence of GEJ has exposed some tribes . Lets see how these North / SW will win election without the SE/SS/NC block votes . This is the dawn of a new era . Is good that other minorities are begining to understand the nigerian politics where the North and SW have marginalised other regions for longed and siphoned our resources with nothing to show for their many years in power . The SE had known this for long and had been alone .Thank God for GEJ administration which brought this in to lime light . GEJ did not bring tribalism instead regions who champion tribalism are fighting him because they cannot stand any body outside of the two regions to occupy that highest position - presidency.

ITbomb: The President is making sense ,
All he is saying is that all warring parties should come for dialogue n negotiations so that we can move forward as a nation.
Militancy was not solve by military power but when the agitators came to the round table and present their matters , why cant Boko Haram if at all they are genuine come to the table with their grievances .
And the Yoruba pen warriors shun ethnicity and move forward to progress

paker002: dem dey talk nigeria dis one dey talk lekki..... you see your sef??

Activist Demands Release Of Abducted Sylva Associate
Posted: October 28, 2013 - 14:04


By Ola Doifie
A social and political activist, Mr. Doifie Buokoribo, has demanded the immediate release of Sir Tonye Okio, a loyalist of former Bayelsa State Governor, Chief Timipre Sylva. Okio was abducted in Abuja Saturday morning by men of the Special Investigation Bureau (SIB) of the Nigeria Police, and taken to Yenagoa where he is being detained over his alleged comments on Facebook, considered unfavourable to the powers that be.

Buokoribo said he was expressing his personal views and not those of any social or political affiliation, including Sylva whom he serves as Media Adviser. In the statement released in Yenagoa to journalists on Monday, Buokoribo described the abduction of Okio and his continued detention as illegal, unfair and unsympathetic. He pointedly accused the Bayelsa State Governor, Mr Seriake Dickson, of being the mastermind of what he described as grand impunity.

The activist disclosed that:

1) On Saturday, 26 October, about 15 men, including plain-clothes Special Investigation Bureau (SIB) officials and those attached to the Police Mobile Force (otherwise known as kill-and-go Police), invaded the Abuja residence of Tonye Okio with three vehicles (one Prado Jeep and two Police Escort vans) and forcefully seized him. Thereafter they took his iPAD and the mobile phones of himself and his younger sister;

2) After getting their target, he was taken to the headquarters of the Abuja Command of the Nigeria Police. He stayed with his abductors who claimed they were trying to arrange a flight to take him to Yenagoa via Port Harcourt International Airport. When the flight arrangement failed, the police decided to take Tonye by road. They left Abuja about 4:00 pm Saturday and arrived Yenagoa about 1:00 am on Sunday, 27 October. He was taken straight to the State Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Nigeria Police where he is being detained illegally;

3) The Police authorities claim that Tonye Okio will be charged for allegedly writing on his Facebook page recently that an unnamed South-South Governor was recently caught in the U.S. with 5 million USD. Tonye denies the charge;

4) Since his detention, Sir Okio has been denied access to visitors. Police sources say they have been given stern instructions by the Bayelsa State Police Commissioner, Mr Hillary Opara, to deny that Tonye Okio is at the State CID;

5) In addition to the regular police that man the gates of the State CID, the surroundings have been taken over by Mobile Police men, numbering about 10, apparently because of the high value detainee;

6) If Dickson believes he is the said governor alleged to have issues of money laundering in the U.S., he should know what to do as a lawyer. Using the police to harass, intimidate and blackmail a political opponent is indecent. Besides, this action amounts to a privatisation of the Nigeria Police;

7) Sir Tonye Okio served as Governor's Special Representative in Abuja to former Governor Sylva. He is also the Publicity Secretary of the New Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP) in Bayelsa State. He is a well-known critic of President Goodluck Jonathan over his misgovernance of Nigeria, even though he is from the Ogbia axis of Bayelsa State like Mr President. It is therefore impossible not to read political meanings to his ordeal.



Further Comments on Tonye Okio Following Attached Police Letter
https://saharareporters.com/sites/default/files/css/IMG_6598614107732.jpeg

Shall we tell Mr Seriake Dickson and his men of the Nigeria Police that the offence of sedition does not exist under Nigerian laws? The courts expunged it in the second republic following the celebrated case of Arthur Nwankwo versus the State.
What manner of lawyer is Mr Dickson that he does not even know this elementary fact? The people of Bayelsa State are really in trouble with characters like this at the helm of affairs.

DOIFIE BUOKORIBO

agbameta: This is what you get when clowns run for office but have zero undersstanding regarding their duties and job description.

In his dumb and clueless world, he's not the president and he can not perform or act like one.

Kamanda: The is the perfect president for a people like Nigerians.

ngozievergreen: Y are u angry?
The guy actually over exaggerated on the positive sides of the yorubas, yet u are not satisfied.
He is Igbo, yet he took time to list the faults of the Igbo man but u are not satisfied..
What did u want to hear?
That Igbo ppl are not industrious at all?
abeg cool down

Olamagnifico: Nobody ask him to list igbo faults... We don't want your praise nor your insult... Just live YORUBAS ALONE...

Delafruita: i am certain as i am sure you are that[b] WS will not willingly refrain from trying to make our country better[/b].it is we the people who have forced people like him into their enclave.i even read on a thread on this forum where one ignorant toad claimed without any evidence as usual that WS was on the payroll of the rivers state government.one other idiot made it a point to disparage the man in as many ways as possible.if we as young folks decide to deride and debase our seemingly indefatigueable icons on the altar of ethnicity,religion and political affiliations,its not impossible for our icons to show that they are just as human as we are and are as prone to fatigue as all of us.we have ridiculed Pastor Bakare,insulted WS,called Falana all sorts of names.even now,some still make asinine remarks as regards Gani fawehinmi.it should be noted that activism isnt limited to the southwest though it cannot be argued that the southwest has been and is still at the forefront of the fight for a better country.

Delafruita: i cannot bear the insults that have been pelted at a person of such iconic value and if i cannot bear it,i can only wonder what WS must be thinking.a man can only take so much and WS has taken far more than his fair share

luvmijeje: Even at that, I still don't want to believe because of the insults, he refuse to speak up.

anselm791: If this is their next course of action, then I'm afriad we might need to build bigger cells to accommodate the other 120 million GEJ's critics. Truth is we won't have to worry about what people say if we do a good job.

nameo: This man is supposedly 'an anti-corruption crusader', yet he is an ally of Timipre Sylva of our people. Sahara Reporters should stop insulting our intelligence please. We don't really know why this guy was arrested, but it is almost certainly not cos he is a critic of GEJ nor cos he is an anti-corruption activist. If the President was in the habit of hoarding his critics, SR itself would not still be in existence

ngozievergreen: Yorubas have which qualities that. build civilized wetin ?

Are u talking of the same yorubas that mismanaged our public assets for many yrs?
Abeg shut it, u ppl are as incompetent as hell.
Totally unproductive.

egift: South-South has new Slave Masters - (their own elites).

lygn19: As far as its coming from sahara reporters, this needs to be taken to the joke section.

gbanikiti: Honestly, am not surprised. Those who are meant to be in jail are worshiped as lords and given contracts just because they come from the oil region. Someone who simply made constructive criticisms is arrested? Well,jonathan should be ready to arrest more critics because they won't keep quiet and watch this country go down in turmoil.

nairaman66: GEJ's boot lickers are everywhere.. Even on NL!

gbanikiti: really,why is asari dokubo still walking about as a free man? He did worse because he incited a rebellion/terrorism against a nation. He ought to behind bars for the bold. I don't see why someone who expresses his opinion about his own state and president be arrested/kidnapped.

gbanikiti: I thought such things like this happen only in military administration? Its so disappointing than Jonathan and Dickson are going about arresting their critics. What happened to freedom of expression and information?

sagombugo: Who said Mobutu was Dead...?

Tonye Okio: President Jonathan’s Critic Has Been Arrested By Sabella Ogbobode Abidde
Posted: October 29, 2013 - 12:28

https://saharareporters.com/sites/default/files/page_images/articles/2013/tonye_okio.jpg?1383050033
Tonye Okio
By Sabella Ogbobode Abidde
Sir Tonye Okio, a noted critic of President Goodluck Jonathan and Governor Henry Dickson of Bayelsa State, has been arrested.

According to publicly available information, Mr. Okio was arrested on Saturday April 28, by officials of the Special Investigation Bureau (SIB) of the Nigeria Police and summarily taken to Yenagoa, where he is being detained in solitary confinement over his comments --- comments deemed critical of poor governance, corruption, and the hubris and excesses of government officials.

On Facebook and other social media, Tonye Okio wrote extensively about the need for moderation, accountability, and the human and infrastructural development of the country.

He was also very active on the Ijaw Nation Forum (a forum for Ijaw worldwide) where he championed the plight of the downtrodden and vigorously condemned the searing poverty and underdevelopment of the Niger Delta.

What brought him to the attention of the Police, the State Security Service (SSS) and other security and intelligence services, was his constant but honest criticism of President Jonathan and Governor Dickson.

That he is from the same region/state with the President did not dissuade him from speaking the truth, or be less critical of wrongs and the rut that has come to characterize his home state and country.

In addition to being a torn on the flesh of the President, many see his arrest as part of the “house-cleaning exercise” by the Goodluck Jonathan camp. This argument is plausible because Mr. Okio is an ally of Governor Timipre Sylva. In today’s Bayelsa State, many known allies and supporters of Chief Sylva are being persecuted.

According to the information found on the pages of the Nigerian Current website, this is the chronology of events as they happened:



On Saturday, October 26, about 15 men, including plain-clothes Special Investigation Bureau (SIB) officials and those attached to the Police Mobile Force (otherwise known as kill-and-go Police), invaded the Abuja residence of Tonye Okio in three vehicles (one Prado Jeep and two Police Escort vans) and forcefully seized him. Thereafter, they took his iPad and the mobile phones of himself and his younger sister;


After getting their target, he was taken to the headquarters of the Abuja Command of the Nigeria Police. He stayed with his abductors who claimed they were trying to arrange a flight to take him to Yenagoa via Port Harcourt International Airport.


When the flight arrangement failed, the police decided to take Tonye by road. They left Abuja about 4:00 pm Saturday and arrived Yenagoa about 1:00 am on Sunday, October 27. He was taken straight to the State Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Nigeria Police where he is being detained illegally;


The Police authorities claim that Tonye Okio will be charged for allegedly writing on his Facebook page recently that an unnamed South-South Governor was recently caught in the US with 5 million USD. Tonye denies the charge;

Since his detention, Sir Okio has been denied access to visitors. Police sources say they have been given stern instructions by the Bayelsa State Police Commissioner Hillary Opara, to deny that Tonye Okio is at the State CID;


In addition to the regular police that man the gates of the State CID, the surroundings have been taken over by Mobile Police men, numbering about 10, apparently because of the high value detainee;
[b]In the recent past, Professor Okey Ndibe, a noted public intellectual was detained in Nigeria for doing what democracy, decency and patriotism demands of him. Since Okey Ndibe was first harassed, many critics and public intellectuals have been warned to desist in their criticism of President Jonathan and his administration.

We also know this to be the case in Bayelsa State where Governor Henry Seriake Dickson, Jonathan’s surrogate and apologist, have been harassing and tormenting critics and opponents. This is a state where everyone must toe the line. Dissension is not allowed. Critics and criticism are not welcomed.

President Jonathan and Governor Henry Dickson must stop this idea that “You are either for us or against us.” Persecuting and prosecuting critics must stop. Sending “attack dogs” after opponents must stop. Investigating and spreading lies against perceived opponents and critics must also stop. In other words, private and public witch-hunting by government and its agents must stop.[/b]

If Tonye Okio abridged the law, then, charge and prosecute him before a legally constituted court of law. Even so, the rule of law must not be personalized. We are however confident – very confident -- that he is being intimidated and terrorized because of his politics.

Power is fleeting, it is transient. It is therefore futile and reckless to get drunk on power. And so we call on President Jonathan and Governor Dickson to commence the immediate release of Sir Tonye Okio. If law abiding citizens like Mr. Okio are being harassed and illegally detained, then, no one can be safe from the tyranny and ruthlessness of the state and or federal government.



Sabella Ogbobode Abidde

Montgomery, Alabama

Sabidde@yahoo.com

Ola Johnson: Shut up! Wole Soyinka is believed to be the Williams Shakespeare of our time, they have the same initials, WS. Soyinka is sometimes rated higher because unlike Shakespeare who was a poet and dramatist, Soyinka, in addition to the two, is also a novelist. He also writes essays on happenings. Check out his essay on the Senate on same sex marriage, "Sexu.al Minority and Legislative Zealotry."

eGuerrilla: I am afraid you are not helping matters here.
Why do you insist on tagging Soyinka with labels that he has no need for, just because you want to antagonize his detractors?

If you continue in this vein, discerning minds may well conclude that this is more about Ola Johnson's catharsis rather than Soyinka or Achebe's place in the pantheon of literature.

Katsumoto: That should be the new Yoruba consciousness; there should be no more Yoruba lives on the line for a bunch of undeserving ingrates. I hope Falana also keeps mum.

Katsumoto: 1. Nobel prizes are not awarded on the basis of popularity let alone, one based on the US alone. In almost 110 years of the Nobel prize being awarded in literature, less than 10 Americans have won it. In almost 45 years of the Nobel prize being awarded in Economics, almost 45 Americans have won it. What does that indicate? That Americans are gods when it comes to economics but are below average in literature considering the US has the largest population of native English speakers. So America can never be a yardstick for measuring the popularity of writers. It is like stating, ignorantly, that artists not known in the US are not proper artists. Is the US known for Arts?

2. It is obvious that you live in the US and you want to vicariously claim greatness on the basis of your residence. Don’t be fooled, the US has quantity but lacks in quality in almost all facets of life. Europeans still, on average, have better quality of life than Americans. So don’t for one second think that your American made piece of junk called a car or house is better than what you will find in Europe. More Chevrolets are sold in the world, does it make it better than a Ferrari? Where am I going with this? Popularity or quantity means jack shit when quality is around.

3. Achebe will, obviously, be more popular than Soyinka in the US because he worked and lived there for several years. Unfortunately, Soyinka was too bothered with the mess in Nigeria that he chose to stay in Nigeria and fight for the rights of Nigerians. He put others above himself. Soyinka could have also found work as a tenured professor almost anywhere in the world.

If you are going to be a bigoted warrior, at least try to be an intelligent one. Instead of being a dullard. Don't offer meaningless opinion in a debate because you will get slaughtered. Who the hell is Pico writing for an obscure piece of trash called 'Daily Kos'?

babyosisi: Americans don't behave like Nigerians
They will call an evil man an evil man even in death and all his sins will be brought out
I saw that first hand when president Nixon died,nobody spared him
They are blunt like that