₦airaland Forum

The Oyo State governor, Engr. Seyi Makinde, has ordered the dissolution of the Disciplinary Committee, Park Management System (PMS) headed by Alhaji Mukaila Auxiliary.

The newly appointed Chief of Staff to the Governor, Otunba Segun Ogunwuyi, who disclosed this in a statement on Monday, May 29, 2023, said the dissolution was with immediate effect.

The terse statement reads, “I have the directive of the Executive Governor of Oyo State, His Excellency, Governor Seyi Makinde to inform you of the dissolution of the Disciplinary Committee, Park Management System with immediate effect from today, Monday, 29th May, 2023”.

The man, whose identity could not be immediately ascertained, was dressed in Babariga. He was holding a brown envelope.

There was a mild drama towards the end of the 2023 Presidential Inauguration at Eagle Square in Abuja on Monday as a young man breached the protocol by climbing the podium in an attempt to hand over a letter to President Bola Tinubu.

The man, whose identity could not be immediately ascertained, was dressed in Babariga. He was holding a brown envelope.

SaharaReporters could not verify his motive and intention for making such a move.

The young man had during the event made a similar effort when he ran across the parade ground towards President Tinubu while he was inspecting the parade on the motorcade but he was quickly stopped by security operatives.

Surprisingly he again found his way close to the stage where he made an attempt to climb and rush towards the President but he was apprehended and whisked away by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS).

Efforts by journalists covering the event to interview the suspect were rebuffed by the security agents.

President Bola Tinubu says no fewer than one million youth will be gainfully employed in the digital economy under his administration.

The president made the promise on Monday while delivering his inaugural speech at the Eagle Square, Abuja.

“My administration must create meaningful opportunities for our youth. We shall honour our campaign commitment of one million new jobs in the digital economy,” he said.

Mr Tinubu also said his administration would work with the National Assembly to facilitate a bill to empower his government to create more jobs.

“Our government also shall work with the National Assembly to fashion an omnibus Jobs and Prosperity bill. This bill will give our administration the policy space to embark on labour-intensive infrastructural improvements, encourage light industry and provide improved social services for the poor, elderly and vulnerable,” the president said.

Former President Muhammadu Buhari had in 2015, when he came into power, promised to create 24 million jobs before he leaves office. He promised to create three million jobs every year, but available data showed that his government left more Nigerians poorer and unemployed than it met in 2015.

Deji Elumoye in Abuja


President Muhammadu Buhari, Sunday night, said he looked forward to flying back to his cows and sheep in Daura, which are much easier to control than Nigerians.

Speaking at the inauguration Dinner/Gala Night, organised by the Presidential Transition Council (PTC), at the State House Conference Centre, Abuja, outgoing President Buhari said, “I congratulate fellow Nigerians who have realized their power that their votes count. I’m looking forward to tomorrow to fly to my base and go back to my cows and sheep, which are much easier to control than fellow Nigerians.”

Thanking the dignitaries who came to honour Nigeria at the event, Buhari seized the opportunity to say goodbye to his fellow presidents.

“Your Excellencies, Heads of States and Government, and their representatives that have come to share this day with us, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I thank you very much and I say goodbye to you and wish us the best of luck”, he said.

Some of the leaders present at the colourful event included the Presidents of South Africa, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Burundi, Liberia, Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Central Africa Republic, Gabon, the Prime Minister of Morocco, and Vice President of Venezuela, among others..

Daniel Bwala, spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential candidate in the last election, Atiku Abubakar, has accused the Minister of State, Festus Keyamo, of trying to ambush the President-elect, Bola Tinubu for a ministerial role.

Bwala was reacting to Keyamo’s remark that it was unconstitutional for President Muhammadu Buhari to have appointed a minister of state.

He said Keyamo’s desperation and scheming might kill his opportunity.

Recall that Keyamo had said the office of the Minister of State was an aberration and unconstitutional.

He lamented that most of his colleagues were redundant in the last eight years but many have not had the courage to speak up.

Keyamo read this in his speech at the valedictory session of the Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by President Buhari to mark the end of the administration.

Reacting, Bwala tweeted: “He wants to ambush Tinubu to give him a substantive ministerial role, hence his argument that Buhari appointing him as minister of state is unconstitutional.

“That’s exactly how he wanted the role of AGF and went to the NASS confirmation hearing and was answering in this manner “If I become AGF” It got PMB’s chief of staff mad and they gave him an inconsequential role first under Niger Delta, the substantive minister then allegedly complained and he was further re-assigned to labour as “under secretary’ aka minister of state. Sources close to Tinubu revealed.

“My take is that desperation and scheming are killers of opportunity.”

Although the office of the first lady has never been constitutionally defined, the occupant plays a prominent role in the political and social life of a nation as wife of the president or head of state. In Nigeria, the office which had been in existence since the country gained independence became distinct between 1985 and 1993, during the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida (rtd).

It was the wife of the former military president, the late Maryam Babangida, who brought elegance, allure and flamboyance to the office. Since then every Nigerian first lady is closely watched for some hint of her husband’s thinking and for a clue to his future actions.

Even though she is not elected or paid, the prominence of the Nigerian first lady provides her a platform with which to influence behaviour and opinion, and popular first ladies have served as models for how Nigerian women should dress, speak, and make their hair.

They are also political partners to their husbands, from the campaign trail to Aso Rock presidential villa. While some first ladies support the presidency behind the scenes, others use their title to effect change in their own right, especially through their pet projects.

Completely inebriated by fecundity of the position of power defined as much by their own personalities and interests as by public perceptions and social expectations, some first ladies have even used their influence to affect legislation on important matters such as children and women’s rights.

But too much independence and the trappings of the exalted office had left some past Nigerian first ladies enamoured with the lure of power, sparking criticisms that some of them are arrogant and power-hungry.

With just about five days to the inauguration of the incoming government of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, LEADERSHIP takes a look at the contributions of Nigerian first ladies to their husbands’ administrations since the return of democracy in 1999.


Aisha Buhari

In 2015 when her husband won his first term as president, many had hoped that the 44-year-old Aisha Buhari at the time would bring calm and harmony to the presidency. After eight years in the presidency, that perception is definitely not the same today, as later events would show.

The once humble and shy Aisha later turned out to be vocal, bloody bold and resolute. Throughout her husband’s eight-year tenure, she spoke up even when some people didn’t feel comfortable with her position.

She practically refused to be restricted to “the kitchen and the other room” where her husband, President Muhammadu Buhari, said she rightly belonged.

Aisha Buhari is not only known for her impeccable fashion sense but also for her strong political views and fearless challenges to government policies.

Her influential presence in the political arena and her commitment to societal change has made her a prominent figure in Nigeria.

One cannot discuss Aisha Buhari without acknowledging her elegant style and fashion choices. Her outfits consistently turn heads and set trends, showcasing a unique blend of traditional northern attire and contemporary fashion.

Aisha’s wardrobe is a reflection of her cultural heritage, often featuring vibrant colors, intricate patterns, and traditional embellishments. Her sartorial choices have garnered attention, both locally and internationally, earning her the reputation of a fashion icon.

However, Aisha Buhari’s impact extends far beyond her fashion sense. She has actively used her platform to advocate social change, even if it meant challenging government policies. Her courage and determination to speak out on sensitive issues have won her respect and admiration from many Nigerians.

One notable instance of Aisha Buhari challenging government policies was her public criticism of the ruling party’s primary election process in 2018. In a series of tweets, she expressed her dissatisfaction, stating that the process was undemocratic and lacking transparency. Her outspokenness sparked debates and discussions within the political landscape, drawing attention to the need for fair and accountable electoral process.

Aisha has been vocal about matters such as gender equality, women’s rights and education, emphasising their importance in national development.

She has consistently emphasised the significance of education for women, believing it to be a fundamental right that can uplift communities and societies as a whole. Through her Future Assured Initiative, she has initiated projects aimed at improving access to education, healthcare, and economic opportunities for women and children in Nigeria.

Furthermore, Aisha Buhari’s advocacy for women’s rights extends to the fight against gender-based violence. She has condemned acts of abuse and violence against women, encouraging the government and relevant stakeholders to take decisive action.

By lending her voice to such critical issues, she has helped raise awareness and push for policy changes that protect the rights and well-being of women across the nation.

It is important to note that Aisha Buhari’s challenges to government policies do not stem from a place of opposition but rather from a desire to see positive change and progress in the outgoing Buhari administration. Her actions demonstrate her commitment to the well-being of Nigerians and her determination to contribute to the nation’s development.

While some may perceive her as a non-conformist within the political establishment, others view her as a voice of reason and an advocate for the marginalised. Her actions have served as an inspiration for individuals, particularly women, to use their voices and platforms for the betterment of society.

As she exits the office of Nigeria’s first lady on May 29, 2023 alongside her husband, whose 8-year tenure expires the same day, she remains a prominent figure in the history of Nigeria’s first ladies.


Oluremi Tinubu

Meanwhile, the pretty and elegant wife of the president-elect, Senator Remi Tinubu, is known for making a fashion statement with her simple but gorgeous appearance. The incoming first lady is a female politician with a large heart, whose sterling qualities as astute administrator and philanthropist send jitters down the spine of her male counterparts.

Senator Tinubu represented Lagos Central senatorial district at the National Assembly from. Her legacies as first lady of Lagos State from 1999 to 2007 when her husband was governor have remained indelible. Mrs Tinubu shows simplicity and modesty in choosing her dresses and fashion accessories. Despite being moderate, she never fails to make the ‘wow’ statement and always be the centre of attraction.

Lagosians describe Remi’s fashion sense as a reflection of class and glamour, while attributing her simplicity to her spirituality.

A broadcast journalist with Lagos Television, Kemi Muyi-Adeniyi, told LEADERSHIP that Mrs Remi Tinubu is a very simple but elegant woman.

She said, “I have had the opportunity of discussing with her on my show. She is a simple woman who is very brilliant. To show how simple she is, I was preparing for a wedding celebration and didn’t know what to wear. I wanted something simple and the only style that came to my mind was how Mrs Remi used to dress. So I just thought of one of the dresses she once wore to my show. It was simple but lovely.

“Mrs Remi does not dress expensive or put on expensive jewellery. She is always looking simple and you would hardly see her wearing foreign clothes. She wears our locally made dresses. That is why I respect her so much.”

Also, a renowned journalist, Busola Kukoyi, said one thing people don’t know about Mrs Remi Tinubu is that she is very compassionate.

According to Kukoyi, Remi hates to see people suffer, in pain or in sorrow, adding that the incoming Nigeria’s first lady does not care who you are before going out of her way to help you.

She told LEADERSHIP: “I remember a particular incident. I was at her place on a Saturday morning. There was this group of young boys who were going to London for a football tournament. They were between the ages of eight and 12 years. Their coach did not have money to buy their flight tickets and then they came to Mrs Remi Tinubu to assist them. I remembered her saying that the children would be so disappointed if they don’t go to the tournament, just because of no money for flight tickets.

“Though she didn’t have enough money at home to buy tickets for all of them, she decided to call her own traveling agent to get tickets for all the children and ensure they don’t miss their flight.

“While I was still there, she looked at the children and noticed they may need to eat. So, she told one of her staff to go to a place close to Falomo Bridge in Lagos to buy food for all of them. While they were eating, her agent bought the tickets, and she then called her pilot to lead them to the airport and ensure that they didn’t miss their flight.”

Kukoyi said she was amazed at her swift effort to assist the children, noting that is who Remi is, but most people don’t know about her.

On her expectations from her as a first lady, Kukoyi said, “I know she is going to be a great first lady of Nigeria.”


Stella Obasanjo

Stella Obasanjo’s tenure as first lady during her husband’s presidency was not particularly noteworthy, likely due to her husband’s dominant presence, leaving little room for her to take center stage. However, she managed to make her presence felt with her shiny afro hairstyle that accentuated her petite face.

One distinguishing factor that set Stella apart from other first ladies in Nigeria’s history since the return of democracy was the lack of controversy surrounding her character. Although her alleged tummy-tuck procedure that resulted in her death tarnished her image, she wielded political power with elegance that earned her the admiration of many.


Turai Yar’Adua

In contrast, Turai Yar’Adua’s time as first lady was more eventful, as she exerted significant state power despite her small stature. Even when her husband’s health condition became worse, she continued to carry out her duties as usual. Some accused her of leading a cabal that protected certain individuals from prosecution.


Patience Jonathan

Patience Jonathan arguably remains the most controversial first lady, owing to her perceived lack of sophistication and bluntness.

The former first lady was a highly visible and controversial figure who kept Nigerians entertained for many years with her grammatical blunders. She was the crooner of the popular catchphrase, “There is God o,” a clause that has become a household joke on social media.

Mama Peace, as she is fondly called by her admirers, wielded significant influence in the former PDP-led federal government. Her influence traversed the length and breadth of Aso Rock to her home state, Rivers.

One of the landmarks of her tenure as the first lady was on July 12, 2012, when she was appointed as a permanent secretary in Bayelsa State by former Governor Seriake Dickson.

Although the role of the first lady has no constitutional power and has been more ceremonial than anything else, Nigeria has witnessed first ladies who had wielded some power within the presidency.

Germany fell into a recession around the turn of the year, official figures published Thursday showed, as inflation and higher interest rates curbed demand in Europe’s largest economy.

Over the first three months of 2023, the economy shrank by 0.3 per cent, the federal statistics agency Destatis said, downgrading an initial estimate of zero per cent.

Following a 0.5-per cent contraction in the last three months of 2022, it was Germany’s second consecutive quarter of negative growth – the threshold for a “technical recession”.

The slump came as Germany battled a surge in energy prices in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has weighed on households and businesses.

The increased cost of energy has driven inflation, which sat at 7.2 per cent in Germany in April, down only slightly from its peak towards the end of 2022.

“The persistence of high price increases continued to be a burden on the German economy at the start of the year,” Destatis said in a statement.

The impact was felt particularly by consumers who reined in their spending on items such as food and clothing.

The negative revision to the growth figure was no surprise following a string of weak economic indicators, LBBW bank analyst Jens-Oliver Niklasch said.

“The early indicators suggest that things will continue to be similarly weak in the second quarter” of 2023, Niklasch said.

Industrial orders, which give a foretaste of factory output, plummeted in March when compared with the same month last year.


‘Danger zone’

Germany, which had long been heavily reliant on Russian energy imports, was left particularly exposed following the Russian invasion in February last year.

The curtailment of gas supplies in particular left Berlin scrambling to find new sources of energy and fill reserves ahead of what was anticipated to be a harsh winter at the end of 2022.

The slump was “not the worst-case scenario of a severe recession” predicted by some following the Russian invasion, said Carsten Brzeski, head of macro at the ING bank.

But mild temperatures, a rebound in key market China and the easing of supply chain problems following the coronavirus pandemic were “not enough to get the economy out of the recessionary danger zone”, Brzeski said.

“A drop in purchasing power, thinned-out industrial order books as well as the impact of the most aggressive monetary policy tightening in decades” were likely to drag on the economy further, he said, referring to the European Central Bank’s interest rate hikes against inflation.

An anticipated slowdown in the US economy and the continuation of the war in Ukraine would also weigh on output, he said.

The figures will trouble policymakers in Berlin who in April raised their forecast for economic growth in 2023 to 0.4 per cent, amid early year optimism.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had previously signalled confidence that Germany had done enough to fend off a painful economic contraction.

Germany’s last recession came as the coronavirus pandemic swept through Europe at the start of 2020, prompting governments to effectively shut down large swathes of the economy.

By John Chuks Azu


A counsel to the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adeniyi Akintola (SAN), has informed the Presidential Election Petitions Court that no lawyer in their team is allowed to speak to the press over the ongoing proceedings.

Akintola was responding to an advice to all the petitioners by the presiding justice of the court, Justice Haruna Tsammani, to reduce the number of lawyers in their teams so as to give more room to members of the public.

Responding, Akintola said they barred lawyers in their team from granting the regular post-proceeding press conferences to the members of the press, adding that any lawyer who does that would be expelled from the team.

“My lord, if you observe none of our lawyers do that, anything said here remains here,” he said.

He also informed the court that their team made up of 38 Senior Advocates of Nigeria and other lawyers have been streamlined and every lawyer knows the week they would attend the proceedings.

Earlier, lead counsel to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Atiku Abubakar, Chris Uche (SAN), assured the court that the legal team would streamline their legal team in line with the request.

He, however, said the period of election petitions affords lawyers a great opportunity to learn the practice procedure in election petitions.

The leader of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, Primate Elijah Ayodele has revealed that some newly elected politicians will have issues with their predecessors in the next administration both at the state and national levels.

In a statement signed by his media aide, Osho Oluwatosin, Primate Ayodele noted that the next administration will have so much misunderstanding that will lead to division between the politicians. He noted that this will affect the country and some states because progress will be seriously affected by their misunderstanding.

‘’This next administration will feature several rancors both at the state and national levels. Some successors will fight their predecessors because it will not be rosy. Some will battle the issue of betrayal and disobedience, there will be so much crisis in the country as a result of division among those at the helm of affairs.’’

The cleric further mentioned some incumbent state governors and their successors that will have these face-offs among themselves. He noted that the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and the governor of Lagos, Babajide Sanwoolu will have their issues, the governor of Rivers state, Nyesom Wike, and his successor, Sim Fubura, Delta state governor, Ifeanyi Okowa and his successor, Sheriff Oborevwori, and several others.

‘’The governor-elect of Akwa Ibom state, Umo Eno, and the incumbent, Emmanuel Udom will have a series of issues to battle in the next administration. Governor Ifeanyi Okowa and the incoming governor of Delta, Sheriff Oborevwori will suddenly become enemies of each other.

“Governor Wike and the incoming governor of Rivers, Sim Fubara, to the surprise of many, will also not have it easy in the next administration due to rancor that will happen between them.’’

Also, Primate Ayodele foresees division between the president-elect and the vice president-elect, while revealing that the southwest and northern cabals will not have it rosy till the end.

‘’Apart from these (aforementioned), President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and vice president-elect, Kashim Shettima will have issues. There will be attempts to divide them. Also, the South-west cabal and Northern Cabals will not have it rosy till the end, there will be disagreements between them,’’ he said.

In yet another controversial move, Mu’azu Jaji Sambo, minister of transportation, has launched a last-ditch effort to cancel the procurement process for service boat monitoring contract in the nation’s four pilotage districts which was started since 2019.

The pilotage districts are those of Lagos, Warri, Bonny/ Port-Harcourt and Calabar.

TheCable had reported how the minister pressured the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), ministry of justice and the presidency to terminate a procurement process and give the contract to July Seventh Ventures Limited, a company linked to a former governor of Ogun state.

Sambo, in his response, blamed the report on some persons whom he said were “intimidated” by his achievements and denied any involvement in a contract mess.

The new service boat monitoring contract contracting process was kicked off by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) following the expiration of the contract it entered with maritime giant, Intels, promoted by former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar.

Aside the expiration of the Intels’ tenured contract, the NPA management at the time cited the need to break the company’s monopoly in the sector and then opened up the process to interested bidders.

With the tenure of their contract about to lapse, Intels participated in the new procurement process but was disqualified after being judged to have flouted some criteria.

The process, however, became embroiled in administrative squabble between the NPA and former minister of transportation, Chibuike Amaechi, who also reportedly wanted the contract awarded to Intels despite the disqualification.

Intels went to court to challenge the disqualification.

Since then, the process remained frozen with the NPA management and transportation ministry sitting on the process despite selection of pre-qualified companies.

Moves to terminate the process were also opposed by both the pre-qualified companies and relevant government organs who pointed to the dangers of taking the extra-legal step.

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Following the stalling, President Muhammadu Buhari in January 2022 directed that the initiated procurement should be concluded within 60 days.

The presidential directive was reaffirmed in another letter from the chief of staff to the president, Ibrahim Gambari, dated June 14, 2022.

But the minister began a fresh move to void the procurement process and re-award the contract to Intels’s despite its disqualification.

Though Sambo’s move is facing resistance from BPP and the office of the attorney-general, the minister is reportedly pushing hard for his position to scale through within the remaining five days of the administration.


REVERSAL OF THE CLOCK

On December 14, 2022, the transport minister wrote to Buhari seeking approval to direct the BPP to cancel the ongoing procurement process started the and initiate a new one.

He also sought to void the open competitive bidding process and re-award the contract to Intels without following any procurement process.

Sambo, in his submission to the president, highlighted some technical flaws with the procurement process in what insiders said was an attempt to discredit the process.

But in its response, the BPP opposed the minister’s move, saying there was no basis to warrant or legitimise the outright cancellation of the procurement process.

Mamman Ahmadu, BPP’s director-general, in a letter dated March 7, 2023, explained that the process Sambo was seeking to cancel “substantially complied with the provisions of Public Procurement Act, 2007”.

Re-echoing the position expressed in Buhari’s two previous directives, the BPP DG said “considering the importance of the procurement to the operations of the NPA coupled with the revenue loss that it is meant to address there is the compelling need for the procurement process to be concluded within the shortest possible time”.

But Sambo, on May 8, 2023, wrote to Buhari to make fresh arguments for the cancellation of the stalled process. In the new correspondence, the minister asked for permission to return the contract to Intels in place of the new companies being engaged.

Sambo quoted a voided presidential directive dated January 22, 2021, where his predecessor was accused of misleading the president to approve the re-award of the contract to Intels, a position which the president has since receded based on submissions by BPP and office of the attorney-general upholding the validity of the suspended procurement process.

In both his letters of January 7, 2022 and June 14, 2022, Buhari maintained that the existing procurement process should be concluded to avert further revenue waste, among others.

The BPP has also stuck to its guns asking the transport ministry to not void the advance-staged process, saying the ministry had not given enough justification to warrant the proposed cancellation.

Insiders who have been monitoring the developments say Sambo is pushing on with the agenda with support from two of Buhari’s in-laws to “hurriedl”y actualise the reversal of the process and to award the contract to INTELS barely eight days to the end of the administration.

“This could also be viewed as an affront on the incoming administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu that the Presidency is trying to empower a company where his biggest opponent owns a significant interest,” said one of the sources familiar with the intrigues.

Some key persons around the President-elect view some of these last-minute deals being pushed by officials of the outgoing administration as setting up of landmines for the incoming administration.

The minister is yet to respond to TheCable’s request for his comments.

by Adeeko Olusegun


A) A wife fulfills our wishes as her dream. A girlfriend wants to fulfill her demands as a compulsory duty.

B) A wife loves us freely without being selfish. A girlfriend pretends to love us totally.


C) When a wife demands something and we forget to attend to it, she says, “Don’t worry. Next time, do it”; but a girlfriend will get mad at you.


D) When it is getting late and we haven’t arrived home, our wives get worried and want to know what is happening to us. But a girlfriend pretends to care, especially when we are in her presence.


E) A wife first asks about our welfare, but a girlfriend first asks about her gifts.


F) A wife makes God to be happy with us, but girlfriends make God to be unhappy with us.


G) A wife helps us, prays for us and saves us from many evils; but a girlfriend engages us in many evils.


H) A wife loves us even in the worst times of our life, but a girlfriend will leave us in the lurch.


I) A wife tries her best to understand our mistakes and problems, but a girlfriend doesn’t.


J) A wife is always ready to do anything for us, but not girlfriends.


K) A wife is our permanent lover, but girlfriends are temporary.


L) A wife helps us to make heaven, but girlfriends help us to get to hell fire!


So, dear husband, love your wife as she deserves it.

An audio in which Governor Abdullahi Ganduje and Ibrahim Masari, former vice presidential placeholder candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), discussed the meeting between President-elect Bola Tinubu and Rabiu Kwankwaso, presidential candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), is currently trending.

Tinubu and Kwankwaso met for four hours in France, where they discussed a wide range of issues, including the possibility of the NNPP Presidential Candidate joining the incoming cabinet.

The audio of the conversation has generated different reactions across social media.

Ganduje, who expressed how unhappy he was with the development, said Tinubu had considered Kwankwaso as an alternative.

Below is the complete transcript of the conversation:

Ganduje: Hello

Ibrahim Masari: Your Excellency


Ganduje: How is work and everything? How is Abuja

Masari: Glory be to God, I just came into Abuja

Ganduje: Kano is all over with noise.

Masari: Your Excellency, I told you what is going on, but you denied it. What should I say? I told you what’s happening, but you denied it and expressed surprise over it. How would this be happening, and so on?

Ganduje: Even if I heard it, there is nothing I can do about it. Isn’t it?

Masari: But you can speak to him at that time, you can call him and talk to him.

Ganduje: To tell him what? I can’t do anything since Kwankwaso has become an alternative to us. There is no problem.

Masari: It hasn’t reached that stage. That’s impossible

Ganduje: Because we don’t have government?

Masari: Are you coming on Thursday?

Ganduje: It’s because of him that we lose reelection.

Masari: You should be patient. Even your enemies know that he wasn’t fair to you.

Ganduje: The right thing is that even if he will grant Kwankwaso audience, it should be in our presence. We should be invited. Did you understand? Even if it is symbolically.

Masari: Your Excellency, you should be patient. I wish you safe journey

Ganduje: Everything is in the hands of God

Masari: You’re right

Ganduje: All these calculations

Masari: They are very wrong. Everybody will be scared to work with him

Ganduje: This man did not end well with Jonathan. He gave him work but ended up painting the government as corrupt.

Masari: Yes, you’re right

Ganduje: Because he wasn’t allowed to partake in corruption, it’s not a matter that he was clean.

Masari: What brought the issue of he is clean? The truth of the matter is that they weren’t fair to you. You should just be patient but leave it until you arrive.

We’ve started the discussion, he called me and I told him that Mr. President, you’re wrong. He said, “What have I done again?” He started explaining it to me that it was SLS and Chagaury that led them and so on.. I asked him whether he had spoken to you, and he said no. Is he seeing these things. Leave it until you come, you know this conversation on the phone is unsafe.

I wish you a safe journey. You should just keep mute as you did, maintain your maturity by not speaking on the matter

Ganduje: What intelligence told me is that they want his intervention to scuttle the case at the tribunal

Masari: There is that game plan. It’s not his right. You have that right, Excellency.

Ganduje: He’s not showing interest over the matter.

Masari: Excellency, you should let this matter go, I don’t like these conversations on the phone. Allow it when you come tomorrow or next tomorrow, then we sit down and discuss. If the need arise,s we can call him.

Ganduje: When is he coming back?

Masari: Wallahi, I don’t know, we have spoken, not that good, and I even showed him my anger.

The National Security Adviser(NSA), retired Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno, has appealed to Nigerians to use social media positively during the inauguration of Bola Tinubu on May 29.

Monguno made the appeal on Thursday in Abuja, at a World Press Conference organised to mark commencement of activities for the May 29 presidential inauguration.

He assured Nigerians of adequate security during the Presidential Inauguration ceremony.

The NSA, who heads the Security, Facilities and Intelligence Committee of the Presidential Transition Council(PTC), said necessary measures had been put in place to provide all-round security.

He said security would be beefed up at the Eagle Square, venue of the May 29 presidential inauguration and its environs.

Monguno also said there would be tight security in and around hotels to ensure safety of guests coming into the Federal Capital Territory(FCT) from within and outside Nigeria.

According to him, membership of the committee, which is drawn from various security agencies have been collaborating to ensure a seamless transition.

“It is perhaps the most critical of all the committees by virtue of the nature of its own task.

“That is why membership of the committee comprises of representatives or heads of agencies at the highest level.

“The Chief of Defence Staff, the Inspector-General of Police, Director-General of the SSS.

“The Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency(NIA) and the Governor of Kebbi State, who sits in as representative of the incoming government,”he said.

Monguno further said, “our main function and primary concern is provision of both overt and covert security cover for all the venues where the programmes will take place.

“As well as hotels in which invited guests and dignitaries will be staying for the period up to the inauguration and immediately after.”

On restriction of movement, Monguno said there would be restriction of movement at a certain range around Eagle Square.

He also said there would be traffic diversion and provision of alternative routes for motorists and pedestrians.

While assuring Nigerians of a peaceful inauguration, he urged them to steer clear of anything that would threaten the peace of the nation.

“The committee has concluded arrangement for accreditation and issuance of tags, passes and identity documents for all security agents.

“If you have no business with security you need not be near the vicinity of the programme especially on the inauguration day.

“We do not envisage anything that will be negative on that day, so, I urge everybody to be calm.

“The people who use the social media, please understand this till our visitors, especially those who come from other countries disperse,” he said.

The sub-committees like Transportation Sub-Committee, Venue, Parade and Swearing-in Sub-Committee, Media and Publicity Sub-Committee also assured of adequate preparation.

Also, the Medical Sub-Committee, said adequate arrangement had been made for over 100 medical doctors, nurses and other medical personnel to be on ground within the period.

Sanni Onogu, Abuja


The Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Samuel Ogbuku, and chairman of the board Lauretta Onochie, fought dirty on Friday when they accused one another of being corrupt.
Ogbuku and Onochie engaged in sordid exchanges during an investigative hearing by the Senate Committee on unauthoried spending of the 2021 and 2022 budget of the agency without National Assembly approval.

The Managing Director was represented at the session by the Executive Director in charge of Finance and Administration, Charles Airhiavere while Onochie appeared in person.

Airhiavere accused Onochie of over stepping her bounds by desperately seeking to be a signatory to NDDC’s accounts.

He alleged that Onochie even written a letter to the Accountant-General of the Federation seeking to be made a signatory to the agency’s accounts.

Onochie however said the decision for her to be a signatory to the accounts was taken by the board at one of its meetings, adding that it was not a personal decision.

She said the request for change of signatory was rejected because the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directed the Managing Director to ensure that her confirmation is sought in every financial transaction.

“The CBN said I should be the confirming authority but they didn’t come back to me. That is why they have been operating the way they like,” Onochie said.

Onochie however accused the Managing Director and the entire management of running the commission in breach of financial regulations.

She alleged that the NDDC’s management currently operates a total of 367 accounts against the dictates of the Treasury Single Accounts (TSA) policy of the Federal Government.

According to Onochie, all these accounts are in foreign exchange (FOREX).

The Managing Director denied the existence of 367 accounts in the agency but admitted that it operates only four.

Onochie also informed the Senate that since the board assumed office in January 2023, it has not enjoyed the cooperation of the management of NDDC.

She alleged the Managing Director had been frustrating attempts to hold board meetings where necessary decisions ought to be taken.

This allegation was rejected by the Managing Director who said the main problem arose from what he called “trust deficit” between the board and the management.

Airhiavere also said that the board never gave sufficient notice of any board meeting as required by law.

Onochie further informed the Senate Committee that part of the abuse of financial regulations displayed by the Ogbuku-led management was the increase of the monthly impress for the Managing Director from N4 billion to N10 billion.

The Senate Committee led by Senator Yusuf Yusuf (APC, Taraba Central) expressed shock at the disclosures made by the board and the management of the NDDC.

He directed Onochie and Ogbuku to appear before it on Monday to substantiate their allegations.

The original reason for the investigation of how unauthorised spendings were made in the commission between 2021 and 2022 despite the absence of NDDC budget took the back stage when the two parties engaged one another in corruption allegations.

Court documents have revealed how the suspected killers of Deborah Emmanuel, a College of Education student, were freed after the Nigerian police prosecutors failed to show up in court.

On May 12, 2023, Emmanuel, a female student of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, was attacked by a mob and set ablaze over comments purportedly considered to be an insult to Prophet Mohammed.

Few days after, a Magistrate Court sitting in Sokoto State remanded the two suspects, Bilyaminu Aliyu and Aminu Hukunci arrested in connection with her murder.

During the court proceedings, the suspects pleaded not guilty to the murder of the deceased.

They were subsequently discharged and acquitted by the court.

In a five-page court judgement, delivered on January 30, 2023 in the Chief Magistrate Court I Gutwa, Sokoto seen by SaharaReporters, Chief Magistrate Shuaibu Ahmad, Esq set the suspects free due to the absence of the police prosecution during series of hearings.

The charges against them, criminal conspiracy and inciting public disturbance, should have carried a maximum of two-year jail term upon conviction.

The court judgement read, “On the 20/10/2022 this case started denovo due to the transfer and change of the former Chief Magistrate Fatima Hassan. And when the F.I.R was re-read and re-explained to each of the defendants. Each of the defendants denied the contents of the F.I.R as untrue. The prosecution then told and informed this court that the investigations into the case have been completed and they are ready for the hearing of the case. The case was adjourned to 3/11/2022 for hearing.

“On the 3/11/2022 the case came up for hearing. The defendants were present and the prosecution was also present. The prosecution applied for the case to be adjourned to another date because they were not able to serve their witnesses in this case. Without any objection from the Defense Counsel the matter was adjourned to 10/11/2022 for hearing. On the 28/11/2022 the case came up for hearing. The defendants were present in the court. But due to the absence of the prosecution, the case was adjourned to 8/12/2022 for hearing.

“On the 8/12/2022, the prosecution was also not in court for the hearing of this case. So the case was adjourned to 29/12/2022 for hearing. On the 29/12/2022 the defendants were present in court. But due to the absence of the prosecution the case could not go on. Learned Counsel to the defendants Mr. M.B Abdallah, Esq applied for the case to be struck out under S.350(1) of ACJL of Sokoto State 2019 due to the absence of the prosecution. But the court refused the application and adjourned this case to today 30/1/2023 for hearing at the instance of the prosecution.

“Today, 30/1/2023, the defendants and their counsel are present in court. But the prosecution is absent, he is absent without any genuine reason. Due to the absence of the prosecution, Learned Counsel to the defendants applied that this case be struck out.

“From the conduct of the prosecution in this case, it seems to be very clear to this court that the prosecutions have no any evidence against the defendants. And any/or are no longer interested in seriously prosecuting this case.

“In the light of the above, it would be unjust to further adjourn this case at the instance of the prosecution when they have been given several adjournments to call their witnesses but could not call any. In the interest of justice and in accordance with the law, I hereby grant the application of the Learned Counsel to defendants to strike out this case for lack of evidence and lack of diligent prosecution.”

Nigerians have recently raised queries about Emmanuel’s murder seeing how the police swiftly arrested Afro musician Seun Kuti, who assaulted a police officer last week.

To douse criticisms, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, spokesman for Nigeria Police, on Thursday, gave an update claiming the police had charged the killers to a “magistrate court.”

Adejobi then added if anyone wanted to know more about the case, they should approach the court.

He however kept from the public that although the police arraigned the suspects before the court, they failed to properly prosecute the matter, and the suspects were released on this ground.

A Nigerian man, Olasele Anthony, has raised an alarm about how a commercial bank, Polaris Bank, froze his bank account by placing a Post No Debit (PND) on it in an attempt to allegedly steal millions of naira from him.

Narrating his ordeal to SaharaReporters, Anthony said he suspected foul play after his account with the bank became inactive and he was unable to carry out any transaction.

He said he contacted the bank and was told the bank was acting on a court order informing the bank that he was dead.

"On February 3, I saw my account was inactive/dormant. I contacted Polaris Bank, filled out every form required and been in weekly communication with agents/staff since then.

"Last week, when they ran out of excuses, they said I am legally a dead person. Polaris Bank is saying they have a court order from an Abuja court since March saying I am dead and a PND was placed on my account," Anthony said.

He further said that all efforts to get a copy of the court order from the bank had not been successful.

According to him, the bank has refused to furnish him with the legal document.

Anthony added, "My requests here are simple: Polaris Bank should send me a copy of the court order from Abuja saying I am dead and a hold (PND) should be placed on my account so I can go to the same court and show proof of life or lift the inactive status on my account.

"I want to see my own death certificate that was used to obtain the court order but Polaris Bank staff are not availing me of any of these."

He questioned the refusal of the bank to give him the court document saying, "How do I know which court to approach with Proof of Life without knowing where I was legally declared dead?"

Anthony confirmed to SaharaReporters that a legal complaint had been written and submitted to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Polaris Bank to demand full details of what happened and for the PND placed on his account to be lifted.

An email that was sent to the bank for a reaction to the claim made by the customer had yet to be replied to at the time of filing this report.

Misleading information about Post-No-Debit(PND) on Customer’s Account

RE: PND on Customer's Account —Clarifying the Issue

Contrary to social media reports, Polaris Bank did not declare the customer dead, but was in receipt of a court document stating so, and the Bank has an obligation to respect Court documents and also protect the customer.

The customer has been engaged and availed the documents while a process has been initiated to confirm the genuineness or otherwise of the documents from the appropriate institutions.

The primary concern of Polaris Bank is to always protect the customers' funds first. We are working closely with all stakeholders, including security agencies and the customer, to expedite the process. Once the process is completed, the Bank will lift the PND, and the customer will access his funds.

Thank you.

Signed, Management

The federal government has threatened to hire ad-hoc doctors with salaries of the striking resident doctors.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, gave the hint during a Channels Television programme.

The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) began a five-day warning strike, on Wednesday, over unmet demands.

The association is, among other things, demanding increment in the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure to the tune of 200 per cent of the current gross salary of doctors; new allowances included in its letter to the Minister of Health on July 7, 2022, on the review of CONMESS; payment of the 2023 Medical Residency Training Fund; payment of salary arrears and consequential adjustment of the minimum wage.

Ngige said the striking resident doctors were crying wolf.

He also said the NARD was disrespectful to the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), which was already negotiating with the government on its behalf.

“The resident doctors are part of NMA. They are young doctors in training. So if the NMA is negotiating on their behalf as the parent body, what these young people (resident doctors) are doing is disrespecting the NMA. They are crying wolf when there is none,” he said.

Situation in states

Meanwhile, the five-day warning strike has disrupted health services across health facilities in the country.

Our reporters observed that there was total compliance to the strike by members of NARD.

At the National Hospital Abuja, people needing attention at the General Out-Patient (GOP) unit were turned away but services were offered at the emergency unit of the hospital by consultants and house officers.

The general outpatient unit was also empty of the usual crowds because of the strike. However, those for surgery were being offered services.

The reporter observed that there were still patients in the various wards of the hospital.

The spokesman for the hospital, Tayo Haastrup, said the hospital would weigh the medical care required by patients on admission and start discharging some of them.

He said as a result of the strike, the hospital has also cut down on the number of people it had been taking in for admission due to the absence of resident doctors, and the workload on consultants and house officers.

The situation was also the same at the Maitama District Hospital in Abuja. The outpatient department was empty but the emergency unit offered skeletal services.

Resident doctors at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), Kano State also joined their counterparts in observing the warning strike.

During a visit to Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), Kano, Wednesday morning, Daily Trust gathered that patients were asked to vacate.

“We were many here lined up in anticipation of being attended to. They had started attending to us when they just came out and told us that they were not going to see children and they can only attend to 20 patients and close,” said Umar Yahaya who brought his child to the family medicine section (GOPD) of the hospital.

Also speaking, Safiya Ilyasu who brought her child for medication said, “I don’t even know what to do. This is where I take medication and have medical consultations for my children. They said they are not even going to see children. As you can see, my daughter is in pain.”

Speaking to Daily Trust, the Chairman of ARD, AKTH branch, Dr Haruna Yakub, said the compliance level at the tertiary hospital was 100 per cent.

Asked if the association was not worried about the impact the industrial action could have on the patients, Yakub said as much as they were worried, not driving home their concerns through the warning strike would just be akin to postponing the evil day.

“The government needs to be sensitive not to even allow us to go on this strike. The problem is that if we don’t go on this strike now, it will just be a vicious circle, just postponing the evil day. The impact on the public and our patients will even be worse if we didn’t go on the strike because we are overworked, there is serious infrastructural dilapidation and the welfare of our doctors is poor, and people are leaving. So we need to address this on time,” he said.

“It is more dangerous to be overworked than continuing to be seeing patients; you will do more harm to the patients. Now that there are no people working in the hospital, patients will look for alternative hospitals in the interim because it is just a five-day warning strike.”

Also, patients seeking medical services at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Teaching Hospital (ATBU-TH) groaned over the strike.

When one of our correspondents visited the hospital, he observed that only a few nurses were on the ground attending to patients.

On his part, the ARD Vice President of the ATBU-TH, Ahmed Isa Suleiman, appealed to the patient’s to bear with the situation as the ARD and hospital management had made necessary arrangements in case of emergency.

Consultants overwhelmed at UMTH

Meanwhile, consultants have taken over services in University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) owing to the strike.

Our correspondent who visited the hospital only noticed the consultants and senior nurses providing skeletal services at various units of the hospital.

One of the consultants who spoke to Daily Trust said the strike came at a very wrong time when the hospital was recording a high influx of patients due to the serious heat wave in the state.

“You can see for yourself, the patients are everywhere. Whichever department you go to, you will see them in large numbers with limited manpower attending to them.

“What we do now is taking care of the serious and follow-up cases before attending to new ones if time permits. The federal government should implement those demands so that the strike should fester” he said.

Patients, caregivers and relatives were seen groaning at the hospital due to what they described as a lack of care.

Speaking with Daily Trust, the Chairman of ARD, UMTH branch, Dr Usman Abdullahi, said his members complied with the directive from the national headquarters by embarking on the strike.

“UMTH is one of the largest in the country, but we are only 270 resident doctors, overwhelmed with work, and still facing serious brain drain due to the government attitude toward us” he decried.

President of the resident doctors at the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), Dr Artu John, who was sighted around the hospital, said he was there to monitor compliance by my members.

Daily Trust observed that most people who came to the hospital for medical attention were disappointed.

“I have to go back and seek an alternative in a private hospital because I learnt this strike will last for five days,” said a patient, Othman Dauda.

Patients already on admission are the most affected as the consultants attending to them were few in number.

In Ogun State, there was total compliance at the Federal Medical Centre and the Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, both in Abeokuta, the state capital.

A visit to the medical facilities showed that the resident doctors complied with the directive NARD.

The Chapter President of ARD at the Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Aro, Dr Odubakun Kazeem, said patients were within the hospital premises with no resident doctors to attend to them.

Kazeem told our correspondent that the strike would linger unless the government attends to their demands.

There was also compliance at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH).

The UBTH ARD President, David Orhewere, said none of their members was on duty and that only consultants would see patients during the strike.

“At UBTH, our members had recommended on Sunday that the non-critical patients be discharged and that is the duty of the consultants because the patients are theirs in the first place.

“It is sad that strike has become the only language the government understands. We are hoping that it will be effective. Our members are in good spirit and committed to the cause,” he said.

The strike also crippled activities at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH).

Many patients that turned up for medical services were stranded as there were not enough medical personnel to attend to them.

A patient who simply gave his name as Lucky said that it took him several hours before he could be attended to by one of the management staff deployed by the hospital management to carry out skeletal services.

The UPTH Chapter ARD President, Dr Onua Author, told a radio station in Port Harcourt that resident doctors in the hospital joined the warning strike as a response to the directive given to them at the national level.

The Head of Internal Medicine at the hospital, Dr Datonye Alasia, said that the management had worked out modalities to ensure that services were provided by the hospital.

The situation was the same at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan.

The Chapter’s ARD President, Dr Abiodun Ogundipe, noted that the action was aimed at ending brain drain and improving the welfare of members.

“Patients wait for long hours to see a doctor because of shortage of manpower and because doctors are leaving for greener pastures,” he said.

Yobe doctors refuse to join strike

However, the Yobe State wing of the NARD has resolved not to join the strike.

The ARD President, Dr Mai Bukar Kalli, stated this after a meeting with the Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Baba Mallam Wali, in Damaturu.

He said the administration of Governor Mai Mala Buni had been meeting most of the demands of the union, especially on the provision of state of the art equipment and improved condition of service.

Kalli said Yobe was one of the states recuperating from the effects of Boko Haram insurgency, which created setbacks to many sectors, including health, so joining the strike would only create more harm to the post-insurgency recovery process in the health sector.

He further said most of the members of the association in Yobe State were being sponsored by the state government let alone complaining of being abandoned as is the case in many places.

In his remark, the SSG commended the union, adding that the decision would save lives and help in improving the health sector in the state.

A 24-year-old man, Musa Abdullahi, of Riga Fada community in Kumbotso LGA of Kano State has appeared before a magistrate’s court for allegedly setting on fire the family house of his girlfriend who dumped him for another suitor.

Abdullahi, who was charged with threat to peace and attempt to commit murder, was also accused of setting fire on the house of the parents of his former girlfriend which led to some parts of her body being burnt.

The prosecution counsel, Barrister Amal Bashir Albasu, prayed the court that the charges should be read to the defendant.

After hearing the charges, Abdullahi pleaded not guilty, and the Judge, Rabi Abdulkadir, ordered that he should be remanded in a correctional centre and adjourned the case to June 1.

A report from Dangote Industries Limited said that its to be soon commissioned Refinery will meet 100 per cent of the Nigerian requirement of all liquid products (Gasoline, Diesel, Kerosene & Aviation Jet) and also would have surplus of each of these products for export.

In its report titled ‘Facts Sheet on Dangote Petroleum Refinery’ said that “Dangote Petroleum Refinery is designed for 100 per cent Nigerian Crude with flexibility to process other crudes; self-sufficient Marine facility with ability for freight optimization; largest single order of five SPMs anywhere in the world; and Diesel & Gasoline Products from the refinery will conform to Euro V specifications.

“The refinery design complies to World Bank, US EPA, European emission norms and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) emission / effluent norms; state- of- the- art technology; and designed to process large variety of crudes including many of the African Crudes, some of the Middle Eastern Crudes and the US Light Tight Oil.”

It noted that the Dangote Refinery Plant is a legacy project that will see Nigeria netting 21 billion dollars per annum.

Group executive director, Strategy, Portfolio Development & Capital Projects, Dangote Industries Limited, Devakumar Edwin recently said the refinery complex, which includes a refinery, petrochemical plant, a fertiliser plant and a subsea pipeline project, is the largest single-train refinery in the world.

He stated that the 650,000 barrels-per-day refinery would stimulate economic development in Nigeria. According to Edwin, Dangote Petroleum Refinery can meet 100 per cent of the Nigerian requirement of all liquid products (Gasoline, Diesel, Kerosene and Aviation Jet), and also have surplus of each of these products for export.

He stated that this would create a market for $11 billion per annum of Nigerian crude and foreign exchange savings/earnings $9.9 billion. He noted that, “we have impacted on job creation with 3,580 Nigerian personnel on site, excluding employment by the various contractors and subcontractors at the site.”

Also, president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina described Dangote Refinery projects as the best industrialised project to happen to Africa, saying this project would positively affect the economic growth and development of not only Nigeria but Africa as a continent.

Adesina added that “These projects will reverse the huge sum the nation spends on foreign exchange, when you look at how much we import, it is about $57 billion worth of different products and we export only about $50.4 billion, so we have to balance that with about $7 billion and talking to them here, they showed us that they can have a domestic market of about $11 billion and that is an incredible market and that will save Nigeria about $9 billion dollars, a year from importing petroleum products, so this is huge for Nigeria and even for Africa as a continent.”

Director-general of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Dr. Chinyere Almona said “with a few days to the inauguration of Dangote Refinery, the Chamber commend the efforts of its visioner, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, and the supportive federal government.

“Expected to be Africa’s biggest oil refinery and the world’s single-trained facility, the Dangote Refinery has a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, sufficient to meet Nigeria’s need for refined petroleum products.”

She said “LCCI views the Refinery’s impact on the Nigerian economy as significant. It will save and generate foreign exchange. The Refinery will create jobs, positively affect the value of the Naira, broaden prosperity for the downstream sector, and provide growth opportunities for businesses. It will also stimulate economic growth by impacting the country’s balance of payments.

“In addition, the Chamber expects the Refinery to fuel further growth and development across its value chain, including cosmetics, plastics, textiles, among others. We also see room for the development of added value in agribusiness, including the Sugar Backward Integration projects that plan to create a strong localized supply in the sugar industry, benefiting local suppliers across the sugar value chain.”

Almona noted that this initiative presents Nigeria as an attractive investment destination for local and foreign investors, urging the government to strengthen its commitment to creating an enabling environment for businesses.

Dangote refinery is a 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) integrated refinery and petrochemical project under construction in the Lekki Free Zone, Lagos, Nigeria. It is expected to be Africa’s biggest oil refinery and the world’s biggest single-train facility.

There was pandemonium in Kaduna when a man took his life with an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in order to evade arrest.

The incident occurred at Ibrahim Haske Road in the KEKE community of Kaduna Millennium City, on Monday morning.

According to eyewitnesses, gunshots were heard around 1 am when officials from the Department of State Services (DSS), soldiers, and the police arrived at the suspect’s residence.

Daily Trust gathered that when the man realised he was surrounded, he resorted to using explosives to end his life.

He was said to have exchanged gunfire with the security operatives before taking his life.
A security source revealed to our correspondent that an AK-47 rifle was discovered inside the house, along with two other IEDs that were later defused by the Anti-bomb squad.

“The man’s body was mutilated due to the explosive device, while his wife and children were taken away by DSS officials in their vehicles,” the source said.

A community leader, Malam Samaila, confirmed the incident, noting that the security operatives had barricaded the street to prevent people from approaching the suspect’s house.
Samaila stated that it is likely that the security personnel had tracked down the suspect to his residence to arrest him.

However, realizing that escape was impossible, he decided to take his own life inside the house.

The operation was jointly conducted by the DSS, police, and soldiers, who arrived in Hilux trucks, Jeeps, and ambulances. They left the community at approximately noon.

The State Police Command Public Relations Officer, DSP Jalige Mohammed, couldn’t be reached for comment as calls to his phone remain unanswered and is yet to reply to a text message sent to him.

By Sunny Green Itodo


Adamu Garba, a former presidential aspirant on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has said over 120 heads of state have expressed interest in attending the inauguration of Nigeria’s president-elect, Bola Tinubu, on May 29, 2023.

He stated this while speaking on Arise TV on Monday.

He said that despite stiff opposition, the May 29th inauguration will go ahead.

Garba said: “Already, 120 heads of state indicated an interest in attending the inauguration of the incoming President-Elect and Vice President-Elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Kashim Shettima, on May 29, 2023; thus, there is nothing whatsoever that can stop the inauguration by the Grace of God.”

The APC chieftain described those filing suits to stop Tinubu’s inauguration as jokers.

Four staff of ZEFA Microfinance Bank have been arrested after one of them pushed a 50-year-old Vivian Omo, the wife of their debtor which led to her death.

The suspects whose bank is situated at Abule Ijoko Lemode area of Ifo local government area of Ogun state reportedly went to the house of their debtor and started packing the belongings of the defaulter.

The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, SP, Abimbola Oyeyemi, confirmed the incident in a statement on Sunday.

Oyeyemi explained that the four suspects have been arrested by men of the state police command.

The PPRO said the suspects; Badmus Olalekan, Ajibade Oludare, Eniola Aduragbemi and Femi Oloko were arrested on Wednesday.

Oyeyemi said, “Trouble started when the bank staffers visited the home of the deceased to ask for the payment of a loan taken from the bank by the deceased’s husband but they were told that the man was not at home.

“Not satisfied with the woman’s explanation about the whereabouts of her husband, the bank staff decided to pack all the electronics in the house to their office a step that was resisted by the deceased.

“While the deceased was struggling with the Bank’s staff, one of them pushed her and she fell down and was unconscious.

“She was there and then rushed to hospital for medical attention, but was confirmed dead by the doctor on duty.

“The report was quickly lodged at Agbado divisional headquarters by the daughter of the deceased, consequence upon which the DPO Agbado division, CSP Awoniyi Adekunle, quickly led his detectives to the scene where four staff of the bank namely; Badmus Olalekan, Ajibade Oludare, Eniola Aduragbemi and Femi Oloko were arrested.

“The corpse has been deposited at Ifo General Hospital morgue for autopsy.”

The PPRO however, said the Commissioner of Police, Olanrewaju Oladimeji, has ordered the immediate transfer of the suspects to the Homicide section of the state Criminal Investigation Departments for further investigation.

He said, “The CP also warned loan agencies to stop taking laws into their hands in the process of recovering loans from their debtors, as anyone caught in such act will be arrested and prosecuted.

As elected members of the National Assembly struggle the chart a separate and distinct path from the executive arm of government by electing their own leaders, similar, but less assertive scenarios are playing out at the state levels with governors increasingly tightening their grip on state assemblies.

This has led lawyers and members of the academia to question the independence of the legislative arm of government and the adherence to the concept of separation of powers where each of three arms of government serve as checks on the other two and no arm of government dominates the others.

At the federal level, the incoming APC government of Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been reported to have endorsed Sen. Godswill Akpabio as its preferred candidate to be Senate President and Hon. Tajudeen Abbas as Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Even hough some lawmakers are resisting and putting up a fight against what they see as establishment candidates, recent history of how principle officers in the National Assembly are selected suggest they are putting up a losing battle.

Chairman Voter Awareness Initiative, and Lagos-based lawyer, Wale Ogunade said, “The truth is that it will amount to self-deceit to think that the executive arm, as represented by the President-elect, would not interfere in the appointment of the leadership of the National Assembly. It has never happened before, and I do not believe it will start now.

“The law is evident on how the leadership should be elected, but politicians being what they are, would always seek to protect their interest.”

Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa (SAN) on his part said,

“The three arms of government are expected to operate independently and complimentarily, not dependent upon or patronising, in the manner that the 9th Assembly has carried on.

“No doubt, it is good to have a responsible legislature for harmonisation and development. Still, when it gets to the level where the executive is always right, then such a level of dubious cooperation should worry all lovers of true democracy.

“A legislature that cannot supervise and check the excesses of the executive is not worth its name at all. The truth is, such an assembly of persons cannot claim to represent anyone when the chips are down.

“As elected representatives of the people, the National Assembly is expected to assert the will of the people by invoking the relevant provisions of the Constitution in the discharge of their statutory responsibilities of lawmaking, supervising the executive arm and preventing waste and corruption.

“In choosing the leadership of the 10th National Assembly, therefore, the most important criteria should be competence, which can also include experience, qualification and, indeed, reputation.

“As the saying goes, the fish gets rotten from the head, so the kind of leaders to be entrusted with the management of the legislatures is vital to our national development. Of course, we need to be sensitive to gender parity, faith and, indeed, zoning, all of which could be accommodated in the primary consideration of merit as indeed, the right candidate can possess all these features simultaneously.

“Although the tradition is for the ranking members-elect of the political party with the highest number to produce the leadership of the legislature , it does not have to be along party lines, given that the laws governing the choice of leadership are internal to the legislature”, he said.

Reports from the politics across the states on who will likely emerge as speakers of the state assemblies paint an even more pathetic picture. Apart from factors like zoning and ranking of elected members, the most crucial selling point of candidates vying for the position of state assembly speaker is the endorsement of the state governor or sometimes, a political godfather.

In Kano for instance, all eyes are on Sen. Rabiu Kwakwanso, who many believe, calls the shots in the New Nigeria People’s Party, (NNPP), which is set to form the next government.

The NNPP won 26 out of 40 seats of the Kano State House of Assembly contest and there are no indications on who will lead the incoming state assembly as speaker and from which local government area. This and many more are the posers are on the lips of most of the political pundits in the state.

The closest rival, of the NNPP is the Ganduje led All Progressive Congress, (APC) in the state after the contest the party became second with 14 State houses of Assembly seats to her credit a development forcing her to take the minority seat in the house after Eight years of leading the majority.

This development followed the announcement of results by the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) and the subsequent issuance of a Certificate of Return (COR) to each of the members-elect in the state.

On contact with Leadership on behalf of his principal, mouth piece of the governor-elect, Sanusi Bature Dawakin Tofa said Engineer Abba K. Yusuf is yet to settled on any of the 26 members for the Speakership position despite the series of meetings held to that effect.

However, reports indicated that there is every likelihood that the next speaker might be coming from one of the Eight renowned Metropolitan local governments areas of Fagge, Tarauni, Nassarawa, Kumbotso, Ungoggo, Gwale, Municipal and Dala local government areas these are slated for the highest-ranking legislative job in the state if all things went according to plan.

The NNPP stalwart attributed this to the dominant role played by the rural local governments in occupying the plumb job for years.

For instance Honourable Abdul Azeez Garba Gafasa who held from Ajingi local government served as speaker, Honourable Kabiru Alhassan Rurum Rurum, from Rano local government served as Speaker before his subsequent elevation as member representing Rano Bunkure, Kibiya federal Constuency and the outgoing Speaker who came from Makoda local government Honourable Hamisu Ibrahim Chidari who has contested and won House of Representatives member elect on the platform of his party the APC all the three came from outside Kano Metropolitan local governments.


And in spite of the politic dynamics that go into how a speaker is selected, experts have asserted that the principle of separation of powers between the three arms of government is not working in Nigeria.

Speaking in an interview with LEADERSHIP Sunday, the experts opined that the implementation of the doctrine does not seem satisfactory as carried out by successive governments.

A professor at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Salihu Adamu Dadari said the three arms of government are not doing what is supposed to be done. Dadari also said that the Senate or House of representatives should be abolished in order to pave way for development.

“The separation of power is not working in Nigeria. Nigeria is a country which is supposed to develop but unfortunately, our leadership is in a state of quagmire. They are not doing what is supposed to be done.

“In Nigeria we are not following law and order. The implementation is zero. Our legislatures are not even doing what is supposed to be done because of the corrupt system. You have to lobby for the legislature to give approval. No country will stand on corruption. Nigeria is a super corrupt country. Our judiciary is not working, it is malfunctioning. If now I’m found wanting and guilty, I’m taken to the court, if I have money I will be freed,” the professor added.

Normally, the contest for who emerges as speaker of a state assembly should be between lawmakers, but in Delta, it is turning into a proxy contest between the outgoing governor of the state, Ifeanyi Okowa and a self-styled godfather, Government Ekpemupolo, popularly called Tompolo.

The PDP has majority of the lawmakers in the state and is expected to produce the speaker. Another step is that the position of the speaker for the 8th Assembly must come from the Delta south senatorial district. The governor-elect is from Delta central while the deputy governor-elect is from Delta North.

Just as May 29, 2023, the inauguration date for the lawmakers is close especially when transition committee is already working. As it stands now, competence, experience, comportment and issue of high ranking may be jettisoned. However, if they are to be considered, the obvious candidate would have been Hon. Oboro Preyor, who has all the qualities.

Preyor is of Ijaw ethnic extraction, representing Bomadi constituency in Delta south. He is a four-term lawmaker. Presently, he is the deputy majority leader who once acted for long as Majority Leader.

The obstacle against him may be his closeness to Senator James Manager. He may be seen as a threat given the fact that Governor Ifeanyi Okowa and the governor-elect once fell apart with Manager after the Governorship primary in the state where Manager lost to Sheriff.

Hon. Fagurson Onwo is another contender. An Isoko man, representing Isoko South 2 constituency in Delta south. He is presently the Majority Leader. He has not hidden his interest for the job and has been lobbying. He has mobilized his people to work for his emergence. As a second term member, he has been working hard since he got the position of the majority leader accidentally to prove he is competent.

Another strong contender is Hon Emomotimi Guwor from Gbaramatu kingdom in Warri South West constituency, the Ijaw community where the present deputy governor, Deacon Kingsley Otuaro and Tompolo are from. In fact, he was a Personal Assistant to the deputy governor until he was elected a lawmaker. Guwor is a relative to Tompolo. It is even in the public domain that Tompolo is interested in his emergence as he was for the deputy governorship slot in 2015 as that is the only condition that can guarantee peace on the waterways.

The other two from Ishekiri nation, Delta south too are said to be working underground. They are ranking members from Warri North and Warri South Constituency 1. While Hon Fred Martins presently Deputy Majority Whip, from Warri North is handling the matter quietly, Hon Austin Uroye from Warri South 1, is said to have indicated interest.

With the struggle by strong stakeholders, the incumbent Governor and Governor Elect may not have their way to produce the next Speaker except through a consensus which is being considered.


Tight Race For Nasarawa Assembly Speaker

The race for the speakership of the 7th Nasarawa Assembly will no doubt be a tough one.

Analysts had predicted that the process would be crisis-ridden due to contending interests which they said, are also diverse.

They argued that unlike in the past when the assembly was made up of members of the ruling party only, the lawmakers that would be inaugurated in June belong to different political parties. Such situation, they posited, could alter the scale against the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

LEADERSHIP Sunday reports that the ruling party had a smooth run in its 2019 outing owing to the fact that among the 24 members that made up the 6th Assembly, it produced 20 against the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s three and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP)’s one.

However, the outcome of the 2023 governorship and State Assembly poll put it in a serious disadvantage.

In the said election, the APC won 11 seats against PDP’s eight, while other minority parties like the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) have three and two respectively.

The votes tally show that the opposition parties collectively have 13 against the ruling party’s 11.

Analysts said unless the ruling party align with the smaller parties, its aspiration of retaining the speaker of the 7th Assembly would be a tall dream.

So far, three returning members have indicated interest for the position. They include Mr Daniel Ogah Ogazi representing Kokona East; Danladi Jatau, representing Kokona West and the incumbent speaker, Ibrahim Abdullahi Balarabe, who is from Umaisha /Ugya.


Soludo Stays Out Of Speaker’s Selection Process

The governor of Anambra state, Professor Chukwuma Soludo may not bring his influence to bear on the members of the state Assembly as it concerns their choice of the leadership of the coming 8th state assembly.

The Special Adviser to the governor on Political Matters, Dr. Alex Obiogbolu made it clear in an interview with LEADERSHIP Sunday that the governor will not meddle in the scheming of the members of the state assembly as it concerns their decision on who amongst them and the Senatorial zone that would produce the speaker or any other leadership of the state assembly.

He, however, emphasised that Prof. Soludo, like “any other patriotic Anambra citizen will wish that someone who is competent and able to lead his colleagues to work harmoniously with the executive arm of the government and help achieve the objectives of the All Progressives Grand Alliance -led administration in the state. That is to transform Anambra into an industrial, technological and leisure state will be chosen as the speaker of the state Assembly.

Obiogbolu emphasised further that as a democrat, Soludo will not dictate to the lawmakers concerning their choice of the leadership of the legislature when he (Soludo) belongs to the executive branch of the government.

Meanwhile, LEADERSHIP Sunday gathered that zoning might not play strong influence in the choice of state assembly leadership because even though the South and Central Senatorial zones of the state produced the incumbent governor and deputy governor respectively, the front-runners for the Speakership of the state Assembly are from the two zones.

Sources close to the state Assembly hinted that the front-runners for the Speakership are Hon Okechukwu Ejike (Anaocha 11) and Hon. Chukwuemeka Okoye ( Awka-south 11) both from Anambra Central Senatorial zone of the deputy governor, Dr. Onyeka Ibezim, and, Hon. Emma Nwafor (Orumba-South state constituency) in Governor Soludo’s Anambra South senatorial zone.

Hon. Patrick Udeoba (Anambra west state constituency) from Anambra North is also filing out for the state Assembly Speakership contest, a source said that though he is a ranking member like his other co-contestants from both the Anambra Central and Anambra South, he does not have the needed leadership charisma required for the Speakership.


Two Lawmakers Are Frontrunners In Sokoto

Two Sokoto state lawmakers are being considered for the office of Speakership at the state House of Assembly. The duo are two term lawmakers and in the consideration of power equation, are from the Southern senatorial district of the state.

First is Abubakar Shamaki Yabo, representing Yabo local government. He his former Sokoto state NLC chairman and former chairman of Yabo local government. The other lawmaker being considered by the party bigwigs is Tukur Bala Bodinga, representing Bodinga local government area.

The odd are against Honourable Abubakar Shamaki despite his level of maturity and exposure because his posture suggests he might not be a stooge to the whims and caprices of the powers that be in the party. He is also alleged to be too close to a former APC governorship aspirant, Ambassador Faruk Yabo, who recently defected to the PDP.

Honourable Tukur Bodinga, a two term lawmaker, in his early forties, is believed to lack the required exposure and experience to lead the calibre of the composition of the thirty-man, state assembly.


An Obvious Candidate In Osun

37-year-old Adewale Egbedun is the obvious preferred candidate of the governor of Osun State, Senator Ademola Adeleke for the post of Speaker of Osun State House of Assembly in the 8th Assembly.

Egbedun representing Odo Otin state constituency, who was elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) if elected is expected to preside over a 26-member House made up of 25 PDP members and one APC member.

Though a first timer, Egbedun may benefit from the age-long zonal arrangement of Governor, Deputy Governor and Speaker emerging from different senatorial seat since the two returning PDP lawmakers-elect, Hon. Adewunmi Babajide Kofoworola comes from the Governor’s district and Adewumi Adeyemi from the Deputy Governor’s Senatorial District.


Amaewhule, Likely Speaker of Rivers 10th Assembly

The majority leader of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Hon. Martins Chike Amaewhule, is likely to emerge as the Speaker of the 10th Assembly.

Amaewhule, who represents Obio-Akpor Constituency 1, has been in the House since 2011.

A close ally of Governor Nyesom Wike, the lawmaker is the longest serving member of the Rivers State House of Assembly, having been re-elected o March 18, 2023.

He enjoys the support of majority of state lawmakers, including new members-elect.

The outgoing administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has tactically reversed some of its policy decisions in the last eight years.

Some observers told Daily Trust on Sunday that although some of the policy summersaults, which came as a result of poor planning, while others were sold as dummies to the president by some people for personal gains, they were good for the system.

They said that while it was not a bad idea to review decisions once apparent glitches were established, some of the reversals witnessed in the last few weeks would negatively impact on the legacies of the president, who has few days to leave after eight years in power.

They argued that the story would have been different but for the fact that so many things were taken for granted by the outgoing administration, thinking that eight years were a long time, only to realise that they had started running against time to actualise certain things.


Projects that wobbled

Many Nigerians feel that although a legitimate policy, the controversial currency redesign was terribly handled.

Shortly after the general elections, the president had to bow to mounting pressure from critical stakeholders, especially citizens who suffered untold hardship due to the scarcity of cash that hit the country following the naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The scarcity of naira notes had forced the CBN to adhere to the Supreme Court decision that old N200, N500 and N1,000 notes would remain legal tender until December 31, 2023. This followed suits files by governors of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) who disagreed with the implementation of the policy in the midst of preparation for general elections.

The CBN, led by Godwin Emefiele, introduced the new notes in December last year, amid efforts to fight corruption, terrorism, counterfeiting and related crimes. They had fixed a January 31, 2023 deadline.

The rising tension across the country due to the difficulty faced by Nigerians to get the new notes forced the apex bank to extend the deadline to February 10.

The decision of President Buhari on February 16 to extend the validity of only the old N200 notes to circulate as legal tender with the new N200, N500 and N1,000 for 60 days from February 10 to April 10, 2023, also failed to resolve the cash crisis until the intervention of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), which threatened to carry out a nationwide protest if the CBN did not find a permanent solution to the cash scarcity.


Removal of fuel subsidy

Just like the cashless policy, which is yet to be perfected, the plan to remove fuel subsidy has also created panic. The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Hajiya Zainab Ahmed, had said at different occasions that subsidy on all petroleum products would be removed by June 2023. However, her remarks after the last National Economic Council (NEC) meeting of the Buhari administration, which suggested the possibility of extending the June 2023 deadline set for the removal of subsidy, had raised the suspicion that the federal government might not take the action at the already fixed period again.

However, a statement by her special adviser on media and communication, Yunusa Tanko Abdullahi, noted that the federal government had not suspended the removal but rather expanded its committee to include teams from the incoming administration and the state governors.

The same statement revealed that the 2023 Fiscal Framework and Appropriation Act, as well as the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), had made the provision that government should exit fuel subsidy by June 2023.

In addition to the actions that portrayed the current administration as inconsistent is the last-minute postponement of the national population and housing census earlier scheduled from May 3 to May 7, indefinitely. The exercise was earlier moved from March 29, 2023 due to the general elections.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, in a statement, had announced that the earlier scheduled exercise would now hold on a date to be determined by the incoming administration.

It stated that the president gave the approval after meeting with some members of the Federal Executive Council and the chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC) and his team at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Explaining the reason for the action, Dr Inuwa Jalingo, the 2023 Census Manager and Director, National Population Commission (NPC), had said at a news conference in Abuja that the population and housing census was postponed due to government’s transition programme and the post-election mood in the country.


Reversals bad for Buhari’s legacy, good for democracy – Prof Fage

Reacting, public affairs and political analysts have said the reversal of policies by the Buhari administration could be both negative and positive. They said it was negative because of the perception of the leadership acumen of the president, and positive because in most of the cases, it is a success of democratic process.

A renowned political scientist, Professor Kamilu Sani Fage, observed that the reversals became possible because the policies were conceptualised at the tail end of the administration, which meant there was no time for their implementations.

He said the reversal of the naira redesign policy was a triumph of democratic process over authoritarianism that was obtainable during military regimes.

“Buhari was forced to abide by the democratic process of decision making, in terms of monetary policy. He was wrongly advised because he thought he could do it by fiat or decree, the way he did it as a military leader in 1984,” he said.

Fage said everyone knew how highly controversial the issue of fuel subsidy had been and how it would negatively affect the country; as such, it would be wrong for President Buhari to implement it at the end of his tenure and allow the next government to take up the “problems.”

“Politically, that would be unwise. As such, it could be said that the reversal was out of political consideration. For the census, since 1963, there has not been a census that has been accepted nationally because of its sensitivity; and it will be very wrong for him to do it at the last moment when he had eight years.

Even if the census was done, it has to be analysed before taking it to the Council of State. So, you cannot do something and saddle the next government with the controversies that would come with the process.

“The federal government has been forced to know that it is not military rule, it is a democratic system; so, the views and opinions of the people matter. We can see it as a positive thing from the democratic perspective. But from the leadership view, it is negative,” he said.

Also commenting, a senior lecturer in the Department of Public Administration of the Bayero University, Kano (BUK), Dr Saidu Dukawa, said the reversal of those policies indicated that they were not well thought out in the first place. “It is a big minus in terms of policy making. And it gives the government a bad image,” he said, adding that the federal government has wasted a lot of resources.

“That’s why it is always advised that programmes and policies are well thought out at the stage of planning,” he said, adding that these reversals mean that the leader lacks the necessary manpower, both at the advisory and implementation levels.

Similarly, an economist, Professor Ndubuisi Nwokoma, condemned what he called the inconsistency of the outgoing administration, which he said explained the reversal of most of his policies at the 11th hour.

Nwokoma, who is the director, Centre for Economic Policy Analysis, University of Lagos, said most of the policies were driven by various interests, which the president succumbed to.

He said, “There are so many interest or pressure groups working on the policies. On the census, there was no need. There must have been an interest group that wanted it. But in my opinion, it is very obvious that it was not necessary; we don’t need it at this stage. It seems like an agenda. I don’t know why he must do the count before he leaves office. Why also do you have to rush it? You can take time and plan it.

“The naira redesign was also an issue about interest groups. Whatever they had in mind would be the action of the elections. Of course the Supreme Court intervened in this case and we are now using the old notes.

“Fuel subsidy is also driven by interest groups; and the idea is to save himself from the implications on his person. He just wants to push that to the next government. So, it just shows inconsistency and not being able to think through a policy before bringing it out. I think that is also a defining factor for his administration, that he has not been able to put himself together. He is under the pressure from different interest groups.”

He advised the incoming government not to emulate President Buhari, saying, “The Buhari model has been inconsistency; and people suspect his motives. He also knows he is not doing well because he was asking for pardon. So, he knows there were areas he offended the public. He has been inconsistent and sometimes vindictive, and he has come to realise that.”

Also speaking, a professor of Political Science, Gbade Ojo, also urged the incoming government to have well thought out policies.

He said the lack of coordination by the Buhari government was responsible for the reversal of most of the policies.

He said, “Ordinarily, an organised and coordinated outgoing government will not dabble into such critical issues when they don’t have much time to hand over. A situation whereby they were planning naira swap few days to elections when you knew very well that another government would be coming in, as well as planning census, shows that those running the government are not organised.

“When you look at the budget, what it caused to organise national elections and what it would cost to organise a population census in a country that the economy is not buoyant, you don’t do such huge expenditure the same year. It is not the best.

“I want to say that it is advisable the outgoing government hands off, including the fuel subsidy withdrawal. They are supposed to let a new government begin all over.

“They are even talking about salary increase when they are handing over in a few days’ time. Those things are madness. But you have been there in the last eight years without increasing salaries. Those are issues for the new government. They want the new government to come and workers would begin strike. Ngige and his cohorts are not getting it right.

“It all boils down to the fact that Buhari is not running a coordinated government.”

Hundreds of Northerners who converged on the Arewa House Kaduna on Friday, have threatened to withdraw support for the government and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) unless the North was given the leadership of the National Assembly and other ministerial appointments.

The Northerners attended a one day round table on Nation Building and Democracy with the theme, ’The imperative of participation, equity and equitable development of Northern Nigeria', powered by the Democratic Research Institute (DRI).

“In the communique signed by Prof.Tukur Muhammad- Baba, Chairman of the Communique Committee and Dr.Benjamin Izra Dikki, Secretary, the Northerners emphasized that because the North was not in control of both the Executive and the Judiciary arms of government, their demand was non-negotiable..”

“In a table that was contained in the communique that showed the percentage of votes across the 6 geo- political zones, the Northwest zone gave a total vote of 2,652235,the North Central 1,742,993 while the North East gave 1,185,458. The total contributions of the North was 63.5%.”

The communique indicated that the South-west gave 25.7%, the South-south 9.10 while the South-east delivered 1.45% of the votes for the ruling APC.

The communique reads:

“Based on the contributions of the North in the just concluded General Elections, as evidenced in the table above, the round table, which drew participants from all the nineteen Northern states, concluded that the progress, transformation and development of the region are hinged on its stake in government, particularly access to political, economic incentives and opportunities and therefore resolves as follows:”

“Demand the leadership of the National Assembly in consonance with the provisions of section 14 and sub-sections (1), (2) and (3) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended. This is necessary because the North is not in control of both the Executive and the Judiciary arms of government. This demand is non negotiable.”

“The North also demands fair share of ministerial and other appointments. Such appointments should take cognisance of competence, integrity and track record, otherwise, the region is left with no option than to de-invest its support for the government and the party in subsequent elections.”

Earlier in a welcome address delivered by Prof.Al-Mustapha Ussiju Medanar, he said
the central objective of the Roundtable discussion was to highlight and deepen the conversations around the roles and the place of the Northern region in strengthening Nigeria’s democracy and fostering nation-building through key players and partners of the region, among others.

He said: “For me, it is a privilege to be a participant of this preparation for an all-inclusive recognition of the place of northern Nigeria in the Nigeria calculations and the veritable focus on the equitable development of northern Nigeria.”

“The theme of today’s discussion, “Nation Building and Democracy: The Imperative of Participation, Equity and Equitable Development of Northern Nigeria” is key to addressing the socio-political challenges that face the contiguous northern region of Nigeria.”

“The central objective of this Roundtable discussion is to highlight and deepen the conversations around the roles and the place of the Northern region in strengthening Nigeria’s democracy and fostering nation-building through key players and partners of the region, among others. “

“I must state emphatically that the northern region of the country, constituting the North-West, North Central and the North-Eastern states, respectively, is a uniquely indispensable part of the nation, Nigeria. The region consists of approximately 68.67% of the population of Nigeria; it is the sole sustenance of the country agriculturally, and remains by providence, the major contributor to the political evolvement of the country from independence.”

“The northern region has effectively engaged its diverse endowment in population and various capacities to benefit the nation, in all ways possible; having been a pillar of strength on many fronts for the country.”

“It is indeed my great honour to welcome all of you; the Panelists, Discussants and selected representatives across the States of northern Nigeria. I am confident and sure that we will have a very vibrant discussion and tailored solution for an equitable development of our dear region.”

“The decision to hold this Roundtable was a response to the current political situation in the country and the preparation for the promulgation of the 10th National Assembly, particularly its leadership. The need to avoid the crisis of misrepresentation of our people and region in the distribution of rewards for political participation in the 2023 general elections, most especially the presidential election and to accept a common ground to hold all political office holders responsible for the job they are expected to carry out in the incoming administration.”

“We must have it at the back of our minds as we go into the subject of our discussion that our region contributes more than any other, as a major stakeholder in the current political dispensations including the victories of the ruling party at the polls, and as such, the region would rightly deserve and ask for commensurate rewards from the spoil of the war fought.”

“Democracy is an investment; vote is an investment. In a democratic politics, the party with the highest votes takes it all. Our region is well aware of this, and we have invested robustly in the incoming administration. The size of our votes and the consistency of our participation across the region in what we stand for is our testament. Figures do not lie; of the 8,794,726 million votes that gave the president-elect victory at the poll, 5,200,589 million representing approximately 60 percent came from our region. And for every elected Senators and HOR members from the platform the ruling party that won election, the margin of difference in their votes and that of the president-elect from each constituency is minimal; an indication of total commitment to the total cause of the party, unlike some other regions.”

“The North knows its problems and challenges; and that is the reason why we made so much political investment as a means to get the solutions we desire for our region and our people.”

“Our region is beclouded by non-ending insecurity. From North-East to North Central and splitting to the North-West, the consequences of insecurity in all its ramification has left trails of poverty, death and displacements of people from their homes and survival.”

“The poverty figure of the country placed our region as the most hit; with about 65 percent of the population of poor Nigerians living in our region. We are mostly referred to in the academic parlance as the least educationally developed region of the country. Unemployment is at the highest in the region as well.”

“At the back of all our discussion today would be the plight of our common region in the larger Nigeria entity. We must therefore take a stand of what must be done to return affirmative and commensurate dividends for our all-inclusive participation and investment in the Nigeria democracy and political business. We must take a decision as a region that has an equity that is well above 60 percent of the shared equity of the Nigeria business.”

“As part of the plans for an intrinsic discussion, we would be having sectorial pre-discussions on various topical issues with regard to the northern region after which we will break into discussion syndicates. The panelists would arise from the syndicate meetings to make a submission of the consensus agreements from the syndicate meetings which would form the crux of the final Position paper, which is the stand of the roundtable. “

“Here today, we will commence a process that will continue to strengthen the reach and take of our region without jeopardising that of others in the Nigeria entity; taking what equates to our input.” “Today, I want to hear your ideas, and frankly too. Your ideas about how to drive inclusive, equitable development of our region, because that is something that we all owe our people and what our positions have placed on us to do.”

By Chuwang Dungs

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The uncompleted housing estate.


Just over two weeks to the end of his statutory and final term in office, the Governor of Taraba State, Darius Ishaku, on Thursday commissioned an unfinished housing estate.

The eponymously named housing estate, Darius Dickson (DDI) Ishaku Garden Estate, is built along the Airport Road in the state’s capital, Jalingo.

The state government began the construction of the estate made up of 500 housing units in 2017. It stated that the project was a public-private partnership (PPP) with a developer, Wesany International Concept Ltd.

Although the commissioning was done amid fanfare, PREMIUM TIMES noticed that almost all the houses in the estate were in different stages of incompletion.


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The uncompleted housing estate.


Apart from almost all the apartments not being completed, a school, a market, a shopping centre, a clinic and a recreation centre which are some of the facilities purported to be included in the estate, have not been constructed. The roads in the estate have also not been tarred.

During the event, Mr Ishaku, who said the estate was built for members of the state’s civil service, added that the estate was dear to his heart because of the long-term impact it will have on the lives of those who will live in there.

“This project was conceived as a deliberate government policy to reduce the housing deficit by providing decent, comfortable, and affordable housing for civil servants through a highly flexible payment regime that allows the occupant to take full ownership of the houses before retirement.”


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The uncompleted housing estate.


“The project was specifically designed with civil servants in mind because many retire after 35 years of exemplary service as civil servants with no home to retire to. This project aims to change the sad story of the Taraba state workers’ life.”

“Given the limited resources available to all levels of government to meet the competing needs of the citizenry, the project’s first phase of 250 completed units of 2 bedrooms semi-detached bungalows and 3 bedrooms fully detached bungalows that we are commissioning today was made possible through PPP,” he said.

Mr Ishaku then congratulated and commended the private developers, Wesany International Concept Limited, for adhering to the contract agreement.

“I wish to commend and congratulate the private developers, Wesany Limited, our reliable partners for adhering to the contractual agreement and specifications through superior workmanship and the use of the best materials to ensure standard and durability. As a result, I encourage the contractors to maintain the excellent standards they established in the first phase of the project.”

“The housing project, located in a beautiful and tranquil setting, has unmatched facilities that are second to none. Parks, a shopping centre, a clinic, recreation, and a garden are among them.” He said.

“Other comfort-enhancing amenities include military, police, and civil defence outposts, CCTV, burglary alarm systems, solar street lighting, and constant water and electricity supplies.” He added.


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The uncompleted housing estate.


The housing project was far from completion, a labourer working at the site admitted to PREMIUM TIMES.

“Nothing has been completed at the estate, only these uncompleted structures that you are seeing. Nobody can stay here as all the facilities needed for an estate are not available, no light, the roads are not constructed. Ishaku only inaugurated it in his name; so that the next governor doesn’t take the glory. It’s nowhere near completion at all,” he said.

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja


National Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Adamu, yesterday, admitted that the leadership of the ruling party did not consult sufficiently before arriving at its position on zoning and choice of nominees for the headship of the 10th National Assembly. Adamu accepted responsibility for all that the zoning arrangement had caused in the party, and promised that the party would reconsider its position.But some aggrieved aspirants to the National Assembly’s principal positions, yesterday, stormed the national secretariat of APC in Abuja, with a warning to the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party that the opposition parties might have their way as regards the legislative offices if the proposed zoning arrangement was not reviewed.

The aspirants, who met with members of the APC NWC, led by Adamu, included former governor of Zamfara State, Senator Abdulaziz Yari; Senate Chief Whip, Senator Orji Kalu; and Senator Sani Musa.Yari said the North would take a decision if the zoning agreement was not reviewed.Similarly, Musa said the injustice inherent in the zoning plan must be corrected, while Kalu vowed that they would challenge the proposed zoning.However, Adamu pleaded with the aggrieved senators to hold their fire, saying the APC leadership would revisit the zoning formula.Meanwhile, the APC leadership set aside the purported suspension of Senator Barnabas Gemade, Professor Terhemba Shija, and five others by the Benue State Executive Committee of the party.

The leadership of the ruling party had on Monday endorsed former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio (from Akwa Ibom State in South-south) for Senate President, and Tajudeen Abbas (from Kaduna State in North-west) for Speaker of the House of Representatives.In response to the controversial endorsement, some aspirants to the office of Speaker and several members-elect on Wednesday warned the NWC and other party stakeholders to prepare for a repeat of the 2015 scenario should the party allow the zoning formula to stand.Senators and House of Representatives members had in 2015 defied the ruling party’s choices and elected their own independent candidates for principal positions in the two chambers of the National Assembly.

However, responding to the complaints by aspirants to the principal positions of the 10th National Assembly, Adamu said the APC leadership had accepted responsibility for everything that happened. He admitted that the lawmakers were not adequately consulted.The APC national chairman appealed to the senators to suspend all actions and allow the leadership of the party to revisit the issue.Adamu told the aggrieved senators, “Yes, we had no adequate consultations with you, who are contesting and it is a primary feature of democracy that you consult with people. But the circumstances we found ourselves in after the elections frustrated our desires for consultations and the much we did gave birth to what was given to the public.

“We must, as democrats, open up and so when the NWC sat, we were clear that we had received, with respect, the outcome of the meetings with party leaders comprising leadership of the Senate, Representatives, and the party.“We will go back to the drawing board. We owe our party and ourselves that duty. We will take a look at it. Hold the fire until the last word is heard from us. We are the custodians of the party, but we are not acting alone.

“The voice of the president-elect is an essential voice and we must accommodate him the best way we can. I will not compromise on that. He is out of the country now but when he comes back, we will have a meeting with him. The same team that we had at the first meeting with him.“If he wishes to enlarge the team, it is fine. We are not immune from mistakes. As humans, we can make mistakes. So, if we find out from our consultations that there are mistakes, we will not be ashamed to correct them.”Adamu said he was somewhat tongue-tied on the issue of North-central, but he assured the zone that the leadership of the party would take examine their complaints.

He stated, “I am a bit tongue-tied because I am from the North-central and so, I will be talking about myself. Your arguments are plausible and I can assure you that we will take a look at them. I don’t want to agree that votes are not essential in this because votes are the voices of the people.“We won’t behave like the proverbial ostrich. Our ears are to the ground and our eyes are open. We are listening to what our leaders and Nigerians are saying and we will definitely take another look at this.”

Yari said they were at the party secretariat to express their dissatisfaction with the zoning template, because what they expected from the party was fair play.The former governor said, “We are here to present our letter of grievances to you and also tell this honourable house as leaders that we are not satisfied with the arrangement and what we are expecting from you people is to give us fair play.“So, Mr. Chairman, we have been in this game and we understand it very well; it is about the dialogue. We are looking at the election we won in 2023 and the next election is 2027 and it depends on how we play the part.

“Mr. Chairman, we know each and every success come from God. Mr Chairman, we from this axis, we strongly believe that we have done our best, despite the whole challenges. Everyone has done his best, but we are number one.“One other thing about people from the North, they believed Buhari was a messiah, that was why they came blindly and picked us without any condition or in regard to anything. But despite the fact that many things have happened along the line; they maintain the relationship, they maintain the love and they have not given excuses in 2019; they came out and elected him again.

“The president-elect got 63.4 per cent votes of the northern extraction. Where he came from, the south, he got 36.6 per cent. Atiku Abubakar from Northern Nigeria got 68.8 per cent of the total votes and he got from southern Nigeria, 33.2 per cent.”Yari pointed out that if the pattern of voting by each region at the last general election was to be considered, the northern region could easily say they own the president-elect

He added, “We should not be blinded,” as no one had absolute power, “but only God is absolute. We should not look at this four years as 20 years and then we are going into another election. We are going back to the next election.”Yari noted further that Adamu should be able to look the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in the face and tell him the truth for the betterment of the party and the country.

According to him, “We are expecting that you give us at least a fair play. Now if you look at the calculation of what we have in the Senate, it is not a magic, if care is not taken, if we play the way you presented to us, the opposition can have their way. The margin between us and the opposition isn’t much.“So, Mr. Chairman, we are not undermining what you are doing, but we are doing this for the sake of this party, to grow and we are doing it for the best interest of the party.“If we from the North take another decision, it will not be good to all of us and it will become history, which we don’t want to happen. And only if we do justice that we will prevent that from happening. But we should all pick our pen today and write it down, which is 11th May, anything from the contrary, walahi, the Northern Nigeria will take another decision.”Musa said the party should have consulted them before coming up with a zoning formula, saying, since the president-elect and the vice president-elect are Muslims, they thought that at least the third person should be a Christian.

Musa stated, “I am very sure you will go back and take a look, especially, when we are talking about internal democracy, because even the issue of the National Assembly is an issue of internal democracy. As leader of the North-central, we had a caucus meeting before the decision was taken and after it was taken.“The caucus agreed that I should make my declaration known to Nigerians. We looked at the secularity of the country and our caucus now said we should go for the deputy senate president. Your statement was a blow to us and we felt, are we really part of this country? Because when you are even talking about the North, we have always been at the receiving end.”The lawmaker representing Niger East in the Senate said he had expected the North-west to stand against this template and advised the party to toe the line the country had always followed since 1999.

Musa said, “This injustice needs to be corrected. We have five of six governors and 11 of 19 senators. We will, however, make sure that no party takes our chance inside that chamber. It is going to be an APC affair.“I have seen a situation, where one zone has the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the National Security Adviser, the Chief of Staff to the President, the President of the Senate and the roof didn’t come down. But the little we (North-central) have, Deputy Senate President, is taken away. We will abide by the party, but the party has to put in mind that this is a voluntary thing.“Membership of a party is voluntary but my principles and our principles are not voluntary. It is what we are built of and we can stand by that. These injustices, we need to correct it. We have six geopolitical zones.

“The president is from South-west, we have vice president from North-east. We have the office of Senate President, Deputy Senate President Speaker and Deputy Speaker. It is only fair to throw this out to the other four geopolitical zones.”Kalu, who represents Abia North in the Senate, appealed to the party to cede the position to the South-east.He said, “Vote is not a measurement. We had a hurricane in our zone. We need one another and not the level of votes cast. Those who did not vote for the party today can vote for the party tomorrow if they are properly aligned. After all, we have made progress. Before we used to be one or two senators but it is no longer so.

“This thing did not only happen in the South-east. Many people from areas where the presidential candidate came from voted along certain lines. I appeal to you people that you must cede something very reasonable to the South-east.”Kalu stressed that the zoning formula released by the party was undemocratic, and that it was unconstitutional to announce people’s names. Kalu said, “I am not saying what you people have done does not look very nice, but it is wrong micro-zoning to individuals, pencilling people’s names. It is undemocratic and against the constitutional rights of all the aspirants.

“Section 51 of the constitution did not approve that for the National Assembly. So, we are going to challenge it. We are going to say no to it. I am a party man, I am a believer of the party and I have never disobeyed this party. This is the first time we are going to say no to the directive of the party. We are going to say that we are not going to do this on the floor of the Senate.“This is not acceptable to us. I will not want to do it and I will not want to disrespect the party. It is still early enough, about 18 to 19 days to resolve it. It will be better that the party returns to the drawing board, deliberate and call a consultative meeting.”


APC NWC Sets Aside Suspension of Gemade, Shija, Five Others

APC set aside the suspension of Senator Barnabas Gemade, Professor Terhemba Shija, and five others by the Benue State Executive Committee of the party.The state chapter of the party had suspended the members for alleged anti-party activities.However, National Publicity Secretary of APC, Felix Morka, in a statement, yesterday, said they remained members of the party.

The statement said, “The attention of the national headquarters of All Progressives Congress (APC) has been drawn to media reports of the purported suspension of Senator Barnabas Gemade, Professor Terhemba Shija, and five others by the Benue State Executive Committee of our party.“The party has directed that the said suspension and all related actions in the matter be, and are hereby, set aside pending further review and decision of the Party’s National Working Committee (NWC) on the matter.“Therefore, Senator Gemade, Professor Shija, and five others that are affected by the said suspension are, and remain, bonafide members of the Benue State Chapter of our party.”

There is disquiet in the Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, over the somewhat strange romance between the Governor of Rivers State Nyesom Wike and the party’s hierarchy, especially the President-elect, Bola Tinubu.

The development is causing upset among the APC members ahead of the inauguration of Tinubu as President and his formation of cabinet within six months.

Against his own political party, the Peoples Democratic Party, the Governor is believed to have worked for the national ruling party during the 2023 presidential election.

And this has intensified the rumours that it is just a matter of time before the governor joins the ruling party.

Wike was once the most loyal and influential leader in the PDP prior to the May 2022 presidential primary election of the party.


Nigerians will not forget in a haste how the Governor had during voting at the convention held at the Moshood Abiola Stadium, Abuja, vowed to commit to the party.

He said then: “I vow today that anybody who emerges here, I will support the person to the fullest because I am a committed party person. Since 1998, I have been at this party and I am not going anywhere.”

However, the Governor entered into a long battle with the national body of the PDP and the elected presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar immediately after the primary, dragging four other governors along with him to form what was later known as the G5.

He has taken it further after the polls, with his recent invitation of Tinubu to commission projects in the oil-rich State.

However, a former governor of the State, Chibuike Amaechi, who came second during the party’s presidential election in June 2022, has been conspicuously absent in as many occasions that Tinubu has visited Rivers State, either as a presidential candidate or as the President-elect.

Wike was one of the politicians who wondered what good works President Buhari had done that presidential aspirants such as Bola Tinubu would base their campaigns on.

Wike had said that Nigerians were under the yoke of APC maladministration with an intractable insecurity situation that has crippled the economy and increased hunger.

He said then: “It is most unfortunate when I hear people declaring [intention to be president] under APC and saying they want to continue the good job of Mr President – the good job of people dying every day, the good job of naira falling every day.

“I feel so ashamed that we have got to the level of sycophancy where people will come and say I want to continue the good job of Buhari. What is the good job of Buhari – hunger, poverty, insecurity, economy falling?

“I can’t believe that somebody will come out in today’s Nigeria and say I want to continue where Mr. Buhari has stopped. May God never allow that evil to continue.”

But all that posture changed during the presidential election.

Apart from being accused of rigging the presidential election in favour of the APC candidate, Wike has in words and actions shown that he was solidly behind Tinubu, before, during and after the elections.

Members of the APC in the State see Wike’s actions as a scheme to be appointed minister upon the end of his tenure on May 29.

Tinubu, during his recent visit to Rivers State, hailed the governor for working for his emergence, especially by weakening the PDP.

Prior to the PDP’s primary election, the governor, who claimed to be working for Southern presidency blocked the PDP from zoning the presidency because he realised that the South East would get the cut if the ticket was micro-zoned.

Speaking to DAILY POST on these developments, a former Spokesman for the defunct new Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and chieftain of the APC in the South South, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze said, “Gov. Wike though a friend is a very confused and drowning fellow looking for whatever he can hold to survive but the future will surely determine his fate.

“Anybody worrying himself or herself about Wike and his type of politics probably has no serious task to do, so I wouldn’t like to waste my precious time to talk about a drowning man.

“Nigerians and the entire world are fully aware of the stand of Wike about both Buhari, Tinubu and APC, so if they feel after all that Amaechi sacrificed to build APC that Wike is their new Saviour, I wish them the best of luck. God will surely judge all our actions no matter the odds.”

On the fate of Amaechi if Wike decides to decamp to APC, Eze said, “Both I and Amaechi and other members of his political family have passed the level of attaching our fate to that of any human being. It will be an insult to us and our God for Wike and his drowning collaborators to determine our political fate. They don’t have such powers.

“For your information, Wike at the moment is not a member of any political party. They are aware that they are politically orphans though he is shameless and if he feels like joining APC, I wish him the best of luck.

“I must confess that I am enjoying the trends of events as it is helping us to know how characterless some of our so-called leaders are but let us not despair as God is working out something great for this country.”

Speaking on Wike’s denial of working for Tinubu and insisting all he wanted was Southern presidency, the party chieftain added, “You are forcing me to give Wike the attention that he doesn’t deserve.

“Wike is the most selfish Nigerian politician you can think of in this dispensation. He has not the interest of anybody or region at heart.

“Everything is all about himself. He frustrated Obi out of PDP with hope of becoming the landlord of PDP but Atiku proved him wrong and reduced him to the wailing fellow he has become.

“Tinubu knew that Wike never worked for him; he will be highly disappointed as Tinubu and his camp are already plotting on how to do away with his nuisance scheme.”

On the question on why Amaechi has been silent in the face of what many people would see as being sidelined by his political party, Eze said, “What exactly do you want Amaechi to say about what is happening with Tinubu, APC and Wike?

“I have advised myself to keep quiet and watch this romance all aimed at undermining Amaechi. At the appropriate time, I will expose to Nigerians when this evil plot was hatched and how it will be concluded.

“From the little I know about Amaechi and his type of politics, he has never had any plan of his own. God is the one that plans for him, so when God wants him to act, he will act accordingly and Nigeria and Nigerians will know that you can’t, no matter the odds, undermine God’s anointed one. In vain they gather as their gathering can never be sanctioned by God.

“I appeal to us all to exercise patience as we will soon address some of the issues agitating the minds of Nigerians and the future of Amaechi and his political family.”

A 56-year-old man, Edwin Ugwu, has recounted to an Ogba magistrate court in Lagos how his wife, Ebere, used to beat him up at the slightest provocation.

The embattled husband said the constant battery got to its peak recently when his wife beat him to a coma and he was rushed to the hospital.

The prosecutor, DSP Kehinde Ajayi, who said the couple resided on Lambe Iluyomade Street, Ago Okota area of Lagos, told the court that the couple had a disagreement which degenerated into a heated argument before the wife beat her husband which led to his hospitalisation.

The wife pleaded not guilty to the two-count charge of assault and battery and the prosecutor asked the court to give a date for hearing.

The Magistrate, Mrs E. Kubenije, granted the defendant bail in the sum of N100,000 with two sureties in like sum and adjourned the case to June 6.

To enable Nigeria keep the important position and make way for him to complete his nationally beneficial tenure as an Executive Member of the International Police Organisation, (INTERPOL), President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed the retiring Assistant Inspector General of Police, Garba Baba Umar, as a Senior Security Adviser on International Police Cooperation and Counter-terrorism in the office of the Minister of Police Affairs.

In approving his appointment, President Buhari, in a statement by presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, took note of a precedent in which a former Executive Member, AIG Kamal Subair (Rtd) was retained in service by the Federal Government of Nigeria after retirement in 2018.

President Buhari also took note of the fact that during his tenure as a member of the Executive Committee, AIG Umar assisted Nigeria in many ways, with the hope that in the remaining one year, he will even do more in securing equipment for crimes, border management and counter-terrorism for the country and in helping to get more Nigerians into important positions in the INTERPOL.

AIG Umar’s tenure at the INTERPOL ends in November 2024, and his new appointment as Senior Security Adviser takes effect from May 16, 2023.

Governor of Ondo State and chairman of South-West Governors’ Forum, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, has faulted the zoning arrangement of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for the offices presiding officers of the 10th National Assembly, describing it as a “skewed arrangement that reinforces injustice and enhances inequity”.

Akeredolu, in a statement personally issued in Akure, the Ondo State capital on Wednesday, noted that the “intentions and motives of the zoning formula represent early signs of steps aimed at attempts to cabin the hard-earned Presidency for our Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu by a few individuals with eyes on Aso Rock Power Buttons.”

The governor disclosed that “it is trite to aver, that, it stands logic on the head that one geo-political zone, Northwest in this regard, will be favoured with two presiding officers positions out of four while North Central suffers the consequences for its innocence and shrewd loyalty by having none.”

According to Akeredolu, “the move to zone the National Assembly leadership positions on the behest of interested personalities with perceived closeness to the President-elect manifesting, lays the dangerous foundation of distrust, needless suspicion even as it structures nothing but a combination of booby traps. We must avoid all these.”

While saying that it was an insidious permutation that North-East will be deprived in the face of the unsavory generosity dispensed through two slots to a particular geo-political zone, Akeredolu noted that it is also self-repudiating for one to argue, therefore, that the Speaker of the House of Representatives cannot also emerge from the North-East.

“Let the North play a stronger, more robust, and all-inclusive role in the emergence of the positions zoned to the region, especially the Speakership.

“Furthermore, it strikes a huge ingratitude that the role of the Progressive Governors Forum appears unimportant. As leaders of the Party in their respective States, there cannot be a greater disservice to them that a consensus was yet to be reached when the NWC hurriedly released a dangerous tool for the opposition in the guise of a zoning formula. To me, even on this note, it’s unacceptable.

“Does it not also exude a serious discomfort that the aspirants to the Speakership were not consulted, approached, and effectively engaged before the purported zoning formula? It does, and so.

“It is in this regard that I salute the courage of the Speakership aspirants for their show of solidarity, companionship, and applaudable love for the Party in their rejection, resentment, and objection to the brazenly teleguided zoning arrangement that is skewed and targeted against some zones and identified individuals.

“Their action is commendable just as they are urged to ensure they pursue this to a logical conclusion. This is an unworkable arrangement that reinforces injustice and enhances inequity, and I join them in rejecting this zoning formula.

“I call on the NWC of our great Party to follow the path of purity and Justice. It is perhaps expedient that Mr. President-elect interrogates this skewed arrangement and gives direction that reflects our collective commitment to equality and fairness.

“In this particular case, and to avoid a repeat of untoward situations, it is advised that the APC NWC immediately summons the National Executive Committee (NEC)after robust National Caucus/Stakeholders parley to agree on terms that would strengthen our great Party,” the governor stated.

A 300 level student, Job Alawari-Kei, of the Department of Petroleum and Gas Engineering, Federal University, Otuoke (FUO), in Bayelsa State, had reportedly slumped and died after taking an overdose an Illicit drug locally known as Colos or Colarado.

A street lingo for synthetic cannabinoids, Colorado is a trending cocktail of psychotropic drugs commonly used by many Nigerians especially youths.

According to some students on campus, the illicit drug known as Colos is mainly taken among youths, especially those involved in Internet fraud popularly known as Yahoo Yahoo.

A student, who pleaded anonymity, said the deceased boy was celebrating a recent breakthrough on an Internet deal with his friends when he consumed an overdose of the illicit drug that killed him.

When contacted, the State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Asinim Butswat, who confirmed the incident, said the remains of deceased has been deposited at the hospital for autopsy, while investigation has been launched into the matter.

Butswat said: “On May 3 2023 at about 2200 hours, one Job Alawari Kei ‘m’ 19, a student of the Petroleum and Gas Engineering Department of Federal University Otuoke, slumped after intake of illicit substances.

“He was rushed to the hospital where he was confirmed dead. The corpse has been deposited at the Hospital for autopsy. Investigation is ongoing.