₦airaland Forum

Some primary school teachers and local government workers in Kogi have decried what they termed “neglect and lack of empathy for workers”.

Though the state government has been up to date with the payment of state workers, however, primary school teachers and local government workers still receive percentage salaries.

They said the policy was making life unbearable for them in view of the current economic hardship.

In a separate interviews with Vanguard, some local government workers and primary school teachers who all spoke on condition of anonymity, said since the state government tampered with their salary structure and payment system introducing one deduction after the other, many have had to contend with the new reality pursuant to the emergence of the New Direction led-government of Governor Yahaya Bello.

One of the workers who complained bitterly on phone, said she received N16,000 instead of N45,000 basic salary she ought to be paid as a Level 7 LG worker.



“As I speak to you, my son who is studying in KSU (Kogi varsity) called me to send money for him to refill his gas, but I couldn’t help but cry over the phone as a result of this critical situation in the state.

“The last salary I collected was N16,000. I am supposed to be paid N45,000 as a Level 7 worker, but the percentage salary has put me at a disadvantage,” one of the affected workers told Vanguard.

#FixOkunRoads: From potholes to boreholes

What is the essence of government when its constituents build their own houses; provide their own potable water; procure their own transmitters; build their own security apparatus and have to raise private resources, to rehabilitate their own roads?

The caption "From potholes to boreholes" is not a mere illusion but a true picture of the plights, suffering, pains, agonies of an ostracized community begging for succour, but who will hear them?

Against the backdrop, this article is carefully scripted to paint the current state of roads in Okunland, which is home to the Yoruba speaking people of Kogi otherwise known as the Okuns.

You would recall some concerned citizens of Kogi, on the platform of Apapo Omo Yagba Peace Association Road Project have been calling on the federal government and other concerned authorities in the past few days, to fix dilapidated roads in Okunland, which has been a death trap and haven for kidnappers over the years.

Subsequently, these concerned citizens started an awareness campaign with the #FixOkunRoads, advocating for the rehabilitation of abandoned roads in the region.

The question is, where is the N621.2bn federal government approved for the rehabilitation of Federal Roads in the country? There's no sense in playing political gimmicks with the mandate of the people. Kogi is entitled to the dividends of democracy and shouldn't be sidelined in the sharing formula if truly the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria is supreme.

As far as the people are concerned, there is no government when you deprive them of their right to these basic amenities needed to improve their livelihood. Good governance is all inclusive with Kogi not an exemption.

The state of Federal Roads in Okunland today have gone beyond bad to worse, as many seems to be counting their losses as a result of the negligence of the so-called leaders who have little or no empathy for the masses that voted them into power.

It's high time politicians stopped promising 'heaven on earth' all in the name of campaigning for elections when they know they won't be able to fulfill their promises to the electorates. Good governance requires sincerity and service to the people, which must be done selflessly without any iota of political gain.

The present predicament of Okuns needs government intervention across board. There is need for synergy between the state and federal governments to create good road networks for the good people of Kogi. With the availability of good road networks, the issue of insecurity and other haphazard occurrences bedeviling the state will be reduced drastically.

Some concerned citizens of Kogi, on the platform of Apapo Omo Yagba Peace Association Road Project, have taken to social media to demand the fixing of Kabba-Egbe-Illorin Road.

This is coming after N621.2bn was approved by the Federal Executive Council, FEC, which the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, is expected to use for the reconstruction of 21 federal roads in the country.

However, the federal government has given its approval to fix Federal Roads in some parts of the country without recourse to dilapidated roads in Kogi, Vanguard gathered.

The #FixOkunRoads, which is the official slogan for the awareness campaign, has been trending on social media for some days now, as the advocates are calling on the Federal Government to fix abandoned roads in Okunland.

They also appealed to Smart Adeyemi, the lawmaker representing Kogi West senatorial district, and other distinguished individuals in the country to come to their aid.

Speaking to Vanguard, Ben Owoleke, one of the advocates of the #FixOkunRoads, described the current state of roads in the region as “apogee of state dysfunction”.

“Truth of the matter is that it is the apogee of state dysfunction.

A London High Court of Justice, Queen’s Bench Division, has ordered a United Kingdom based Nigerian blogger, Maureen Badejo to pay a six-figure sum of damages in Pound Sterling to both Pastor and Mrs. Daniel Olukoya immediately, for her defamatory publications against the couple.

The court gave the judgement on October 22, 2021, Vanguard reports.

In a statement signed Saturday, by Pastor Olukoya’s spokesperson, Collins Edomaruse, the court also ordered Badejo to publish a summary of the judgment across nine of her social media channels for a period of 10 consecutive days as a corrective measure and as a means of ensuring that her misguided and misinformed audience get to know about the Court’s decision.

The court handed the orders in considered judgement in the defamation action filed by Dr. Olukoya and his wife through their Solicitor, Mrs. Shubha Nath and their Barristers – Jonathan Price Esq., against Maureen Badejo in London, Edomaruse revealed.

Following the global outage of some social media platforms, WhatsApp has said it is currently working to get back.

Vanguard reports Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp owned by Facebook, and run on shared infrastructure, all completely stopped working shortly before 5pm on Monday.

This is not the first time this year social networking apps have suffered an outage.

In April and June this year, the social networking sites all went down due to a “network configuration issue”, a development that affected their users across the globe.

Users were not able to send messages, receive messages on Whatsapp, as all the messages and chats were left undelivered.

Reacting, WhatsApp on its verified Twitter handle wrote;

“We’re aware that some people are experiencing issues with WhatsApp at the moment. We’re working to get things back to normal and will send an update here as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience.”

Ramon Olorunwa Abbas aka Hushpuppi, currently facing prosecution in the United States of America, accused Abba Kyari, Nigeria's celebrated super cop, as one of the beneficiaries of the $1.1million loot received from a Qatari businessman.

For some, it's a big surprise to see such a clean police chief being called out in a fruad case, while others feel indifference as the Nigeria Police Force over the years have been known for corruption while others see the development as a big blow on the image of Nigeria as one of Africa's most respected countries.

Imagine seeing one of your best police chiefs rightly tagged 'suspect' in a money laundering case involving a 'Big Alhaji' (as our Chinese brothers fondly call Nigerian fraudsters) who has been known for his flamboyant lifestyles.

The current predicament of Kyari can be best described as 'holy sinner in circle of theives', and it will take only the grace and benevolence of Buhari's regime to save him from this doom that is imminent.

Going through the antecedent to the Hushpuppi vs Kyari saga, the former according to the police chief called him 2 years back that somebody in Nigeria seriously threatened to kill his family in Nigeria and it's on this premise he started building relationship with him (Hushpuppi).

Kyari's statement partly read; "He (Hushpuppi) saw some of my native clothes and caps on my social media page and he said he likes them and he was connected to the person selling the clothes and he sent about N300k directly to the person’s account. The native clothes and caps (5 sets) were brought to our office and he sent somebody to collect them in our office. Nobody demanded any money from Abbas Hushpuppi and nobody collected any money from him.”

However, Kyari admitted to knowing about the money-related dispute between Hushpuppi and his colleague (Vincent), claiming it was on the basis of the call that latter was arrested but later released when they (police) discovered there was no life threat from the suspect.

A careful look at Kyari's line of thoughts show that he actually had conversation with Hushpuppi and it bothers on money aside the fact he claimed the money was transferred to a third party, but the question is, what has Belial got to do with Christ? The Biblical rhetoric should form a basis for one to properly dissect the dichotonomy between the duo. Could it be that Mr. Kyari is just a middleman between the embattled Nigerian socialite (Hushpuppi) and his accomplice? Why would a celebrated police chief highly respected by Nigerians go stoop so low to start up an informal conversation with a suspected fraudster in the first instance though he (Kyari) claimed it's before his arrest? There's more to this whole saga than meets the eye.

Kyari, in spite of this allegation, must either prove his innocency or otherwise face the consequences for his sins should he be declared guilty.

Abba Kyari's case is one too many. Hope the power that be won't upturn justice to favour their own just as in the case with Papa P, but truth will always prevail in the long run. As it stands right now, Kyari is just a suspect until found guilty by a competent court. The world is watching!

*Arogbonlo Israel is a journalist and good governance advocate*

Fresh details have emerged on the allegation levied against Nigeria’s celebrated police chief, Abba Kyari before a district court in the United States of America.

Vanguard had earlier reported how embattled Nigerian socialite, popularly known as Ray Hushpuppi was quoted by the US court of bribing Kyari to arrest a co-fraudster in a whopping $1.1m deal.

Mr Kyari in a statement issued on Thursday, denied the allegation, saying he did not demand any money from Hushpuppi. He, however, said he introduced the accused to a cloth seller whom Hushpuppi paid about N300,000.

In Kyari’s defence, he never demanded for a dime from Hushpuppi, admitting his focus was to save people’s lives that were purported to have been threatened.

But in a US court document seen by Vanguard, it was revealed that Kyari allegedly sent third party account to Hushpuppi for payment.

“On January 20, 2020, defendant Kyari sent an electronic message to UICC Abbas containing the account information for a bank account at a Nigerian bank in the name of a person other than defendant KYARI himself, where UICC Abbas was direct payment for the arrest and imprisonment of defendant VINCENT,” the US court document reveal.

Dear Reno,

You deleted my comment and blocked me from commenting on your Facebook page cos I told you that your nugget is now lacking maggi.

Why did I say that?

You boasted that Itshekiri had Igbo slaves centuries before the British colonization..
According to you, after the British banned slavery, you Itshekiri people were forced to set them free.
Some returned to Igbo land, others remained with you and gradually formed a new language called **** (you can't mention) About 200,000 of them are still with you.

Reno, you went further as a Harvard-Oxford historian you are to say: "I will not reveal the name of this tribe called ****, because I do not want to offend them, but they are in Delta State)".

You said also: if they speak, Igbo, Bini, Itshekiri and Portuguese will understand them too. You said they have names like Iweka, Ikenna. You claimed that is how some of your names and also Benin went into the Igbo lexicon.
You also said because of the sheer number of Igbo slaves you sold at Ogidigben, the Portuguese named the town Escravos.

Reno, I know that you know it all from politics, religion, social life, relationship, everything about life, God is learning from you because you know it all, that's why you dislike dissenting opinion.

I am not here for attack, but historical reasoning. First of all, I want to ask you questions:

What century did the Itshekiri started having Igbo as slaves? When exactly? Oh you said centuries.

From your bogus writeup that lacks academic and historical substance, you claimed your people interacted with the Portuguese perhaps in the slave business.

Reno, the first time the Portuguese came to Nigeria was in the 15th century. They started trading brass and copper, pepper, cloth, ivory. In the1490s a Portuguese trader wrote that at Benin, copper bracelets were more highly prized than brass ones.

It was later, when the slave trade became norm in other African countries that the Portuguese involved themselves into that. Their initial arrival was purely for business. They did business with Igbo, Bini and others.