₦airaland Forum

As the air begins to clear on the situation in the Presidential Villa, where Vice President Yemi Osibanjo is reported to be battling a cabal, the Vice President might need the support of governors to defend his position as head of the National Economic Council (NEC) as the prime constitutional economic body in the country.

At last Thursday’s meeting of NEC, in Abuja, two governors, one from the Southwest and another from the Southeast expressed confidence in the VP’s leadership and asked President Buhari to clarify that the new Economic Advisory Council is not going to subordinate a statutory body such as the NEC.

The governors are hinging their advocacy on the fact that the VP has been an advocate of states’ substantial autonomy within the federal system and do not wish for that effort to be thrashed in the new scheme of things.

It emerged yesterday that President Buhari has invited the Vice President to see him before he departs for the United Nations General Assembly programmes in New York, tomorrow.

A source in the Villa told The Guardian that the VP and his principal are still on same page, except that there are interests in the Villa that are bent on causing confusion. The source said the VP had an inkling of the recent events that tend to limit his reach and sphere, but did not know it will begin to play out so soon. The source admitted that at the root of whatever is playing out now, and what will emerge more with time, is the agitation for 2023.

On insinuation that some persons are trying to pay the Vice President back for some actions he took as Acting President when Buhari was away on leave of absence, for instance, the sacking of former Director General of the Department of State Security Services (DSS), Lawan Daura, and the crowing of former Chief Justice of the Federation, Walter Onnoghen when it became an embarrassment to government, the source said whatever is happening now has little to do with the Onnoghen’s matter, after all, Onnoghen had ruled in favour of Buhari before in a previous election petition.

The source, however, agreed that the sack of Daura actually ruffled some persons who thought they could get away with every act of impunity. But he reminded that upon his return in August 2017, President Buhari commended the VP for holding forth while he was away, when he said: “He used his intellect to run all over the place. I was seeing him 24 hours on NTA.”

When the Vice President survived a chopper accident during the campaigns, President Buhari again acknowledged his selfless service when he said: “We give glory to Almighty God for sparing your life. I’m impressed by your tenacious spirit, which enabled you to continue on your campaign engagements, despite the shock of the crash.

I’m proud of our partnership and your unalloyed loyalty and your commitment to the service of Nigeria. That you proceeded with your engagements, despite the accident, is a testimony of your passion for service to country and a reflection of your admirable spiritual fervour. May God continue to protect you and all those on board with you, bless your lives and grant you more good health and long life to serve our country even more.”

But all that eulogies may not matter to vested interests that are bent on succeeding the President come 2023. And they are doing everything to make the Villa uncomfortable for any politician who may remind them that the presidency should be on its way down South after Buhari’s eight years.

The Villa source said that is the crux of the matter. On rumour that the cabal was shopping for a new Vice, the source said President Buhari will never agree to that, but powermongers will keep trying to reduce the influence of the VP whichever way possible. The idea is to provoke a dispute in the Villa and exploit it.

MEANWHILE, Vice President Osinbajo has clarified that the NEC and the new Economic Advisory Council are for the benefit of the President. He said interaction between the two will promote the much needed synergy in government.

by Yusuf Alli,


A former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Alfa Belgore may face trial for his alleged role in the $9.6billion debt judgment against Nigeria.

Belgore is alleged to have provided legal consultancy service to the Process and Industrial Developments (P&ID) during the case that got it the debt judgement.

He has already been quizzed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on the matter.

Also quizzed is his secretary.

A team of legal giants left Abuja yesterday to hold talks with the nation’s offshore lawyers preparatory to the resumption of the legal battle to reverse the debt judgment on Thursday.

The team left with a three-point agenda: seeking the leave of the court to set aside the $9.6b damages, seeking a stay of execution of the award and appealing the judgement.

Several other people may also be arraigned with Ex-CJN Belgore, The Nation gathered yesterday.
A total of 18 past and present government officials have been linked with the signing of the alleged agreement with P&ID.

However, only one of them, a former Director, Legal Services of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Grace Taiga, has so far been taken to court.

She was arraigned before Justice Olukayode Adeniyi of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory on Friday.

Sources said the EFCC has concluded investigation on more suspects and recommended them for trial.

One source said anyone who is implicated during investigation will face trial.

Another source said: “The case at hand is serious. Many suspects conspired to create this problem for the country. We will arraign more people and companies in court.

“The final outcome of the investigation will determine the fate of ex-CJN Belgore. If he is found guilty, we might put him in the dock with others. The law is no respecter of anybody.”

When contacted, the EFCC’s prosecution lawyer, Mr. Bala Sanga (a former Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice in Adamawa State), said: “We are going to give it everything to get to the root of this criminal conspiracy.

“We will prosecute anybody found culpable after the conclusion of our investigation.”

The Federal Government, it was also gathered, has perfected plans to register in London last Wednesday’s judgment in Nigeria against Process and Industrial Developments (P&ID) in line with UK’s law on Registration of Foreign Judgment.

If the registration scales through, P&ID will forfeit all its assets in Nigeria and in the UK, including the $9.6billion damages to the Federal Government.

Investigation showed that Nigeria’s legal team departed Abuja yesterday for consultations with the nation’s offshore lawyers in London.

The Federal Government also rejigged the legal team by dropping some of those who appeared on its behalf in the past in the case.

A reliable source said: “We have tinkered with the legal team; we now have a tighter group which will work with our offshore lawyers.

“We will build our case on the conviction of P&ID by Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court for fraud, money laundering, bribery and tax evasion among others.

“The granting of an order forfeiture of assets of P&ID is more important to us. We will take advantage of the UK’s law on Registration of Foreign Judgments to register Justice Ekwo’s verdict on P&ID.

“Once we succeed in registering the judgment, all assets of P&ID, including the so-called $9.6billion will belong to Nigeria.”

Asked of what Nigeria would be tabling before the court in London, the source said: “We have a three-point agenda including seeking the leave of the court to set aside the $9.6b damages; a stay of execution of the award; and going to an appellate court if Nigeria’s application is refused.
“Seeking the leave of the court is not a matter of right, you have to argue for it on the point of law. This is why our team is battle ready.

The founder of Process and Industrial Developments (P&ID), Michael Quinn admitted to have had audience with the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, ex-Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr. Rilwanu Lukman, a former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Shehu Ladan and 15 others over the Gas Supply and Processing Agreement (GSPA).

He also said he wrote ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke and a former Special Adviser to President on Petroleum Matters, Dr. Emmanuel Egbogah on certain developments on the failed project.

He was silent on whether or not the ex-President, Diezani and Egbogah played any roles.

But he admitted that the Arbitration, which led to the $9.6billion judgment debt, was entered into by the Jonathan administration with the knowledge of Diezani.

He said on 19 September 2012 he wrote to the Minister for Petroleum Resources nominating P&ID’s choice of Arbitrator, the Sir Anthony Evans.

He said on 30 November 2012 the Government wrote to inform P&ID of the appointment of Chief Bayo Ojo as the Government’s arbitrator.

Despite the fact that he said there was a meeting earlier on 12 October 2012 at the “office of the Government’, he said he would not want to divulge what transpired.

But Quinn included the list of the 18 key actors/ players in the contract in his in a witness statement tabled before the Arbitration Tribunal.
He said the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding for the project was done on July 22, 2009.

By Okey Maduforo



While the Peace Airline continues to evacuate Nigerians from South Africa, up to 30 per cent of the population affected is returning home while a great number of them have already taken their business activities to other African countries.

Saturday Telegraph gathered that the population of Nigerians in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Liberia and Gabon has increased as most of the Nigerians resident in South Africa have relocated to those countries. In a telephone interview with some of them from Awka, Ozubulu and Ihiala, they lamented that they lost a lot in South Africa and could not come home to start life all over again. On his part, Mr. Jude Enukeme, lamented that: “What are we coming home to do? We left Nigeria because the environment is not friendly for business and our aim is to better the lives of our people when we return.

“But if we return home now, where do we start? If the Nigerian government wants us to come home, what arrangement has government put in place for us to continue our business?” “Are we returning home to face the same problem that made us leave the country? I have been in South Africa for two years now and my fortunes started changing for the better before the xenophobia problem and lost almost everything.”

Speaking also, Mr. Matthew Nwokoye, an auto mechanic, contended that he sold his workshop in Nigeria and all that he had to go to South Africa, lamenting that on his return to Nigeria, he had no place to start life again after four years of searching for greener pasture. He said: “As I speak with you I am in Zimbabwe and I have told my wife and parents not to worry about me, I will be fine.

I sold my mechanic workshop to go to South Africa and I cannot come home a failure and a liability to my family members. “The crisis in South Africa has opened our eyes to discover that it is not only there that one can do business and more than 80 of us are now in the country from South Africa and we have bright chances of making it and I can assure you that we will make it.” In countries like Liberia, Mozambique and even Gabon, Nigerian’s population has doubled as was confirmed by Mr. Chukwunonye Ikeagwu, a motor parts dealer. He said: “There are so many of them here in Mozambique and they are willing to work and do business here.

The problem with most of these countries is that their citizens are lazy and they enjoy a lot of welfare from their government so they are not interested in working. “Very soon Nigerians will take over all the jobs in these countries even in Gabon and Liberia because Nigerians are strong and hardworking. “Some stopped over in Mozambique before entering other countries in East and South Africa, but I pray they do not abuse the privileges that we are already enjoying in those countries.”

Speaking with some parents in Anambra State, they confirmed that their relatives are not returning home. “My son and his cousin called us to tell us that they are not coming home because they have nothing to show because of the problem in South Africa,” a parent said.

They said they had relocated to Mozambique while some said that they were now in Liberia and Zimbabwe to continue their business in those countries. At Ozubulu where the popular South African business man, known as Bishop comes from, villagers confirmed that most of their sons and daughters had refused to join the returnees.

“They are still in South Africa and most of them said they are remaining in South Africa and making business contacts in other parts of Africa,” a resident volunteered. Meanwhile, most hotels in those countries where Europeans reside have been populated by females perceived to be Nigerians who are alleged to be laughing all the way to the bank from commercial sex business.

“There are so many of our girls in those countries now and they prefer to do business in hotels where the whites come to relax and unfortunately, most of them are graduates from our universities and polytechnics. “They are paid in dollars and they have already formed a kind of union which understudies the number of Nigerians in every city including the men in order to avert any xenophobic attacks by the indigenes,” Mr. Joseph Iweha told Saturday Telegraph. He added: “Such name like Oduduwa Co-operative Society, Ikenga Investments, Niger Delta Brotherhood are organisations aimed at keeping a tab on their kinsmen doing business in those countries with known Nigerian citizens in those countries heading these organizations”.

These bodies, according to Iweha, will be registered with the local authorities presenting details of the kind of businesses Nigerians in those areas are doing and also to checkmate any attack by host communities.

Chioma Igbokwe



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The two Cameroonian ladies who were recently arrested by the police over drugging and stealing from their victims have insisted that they decided to rob their latest victim of his car because they felt he wanted to sleep with them for free.

The suspects identified as Yamba Kinloga Rassa and Vivian Ngo Dingom Yoland were picked in Abuja and Jos by operatives of Inspector General of Police, Intelligence Response Team, IRT, few hours before they boarded a bus to the border en route Cameroon.

According to the police, their modus operandi is to lure male admirers to a hotel room, drug and dispose them of their valuables including cars. They were said to have either sold the cars in Nigeria or transport them to Cotonu in the Republic of Benin where they will be sold.

They were declared wanted after their latest victim, one Macdonald Ntui ran to the police as soon as he realised that his Lexus car was missing and could have been stolen by his lover.

He told detectives that while he was travelling from Keffi in Nasarawa State to Abuja, he spotted two beautiful ladies by the roadside. He decided to give them a free ride to Abuja. They became friends and decided to move the relationship a step further. They told him that their names were Angela and Mercy and that they are from Kogi State.

He took them to a hotel in Apo area and bought drinks for them. He was able to convince Yamba to have sex with him. They checked in into one of the rooms and ordered a bottle of red wine.

He decided to enter the bathroom to freshen up and while he was there Yamba added sleeping pills to his drink. He took the drink and dozed off minutes later.

When he finally woke up hours later, he discovered that the ladies had gone and his car key and wallet were no longer in his pocket. He ran outside and discovered that his Lexus car was also missing.

The detectives through intelligence report generated were able to track the suspects who had disposed their handsets and were on the run. They confessed and took police to the buyer who paid N1.6 million for the Lexus.


Free sex

In an interview with Saturday Sun, Yamba said that she decided to steal the car when she realized the man had no sufficient money in his wallet. “I am a native of Mbongo Ndonga, in Cameroon and I studied Computer Science and Accounting at a Cotonu university. I am a widow with two children and normally come to Nigeria to visit friends and make small money and go back to my country. Sometime in July, I came with my children on vacation. It was here that I met my sister Yoland and we travelled to Nassarawa to visit a friend.

“It was while we were on our way back that we met Donald. He saw us standing by the roadside and decided to give us a free ride to Abuja. He dropped us off and we exchanged numbers, he kept calling me that he wants to date me and I refused. He kept disturbing me and I decided to give him a chance. We went to a hotel in Apo and I took my sister along so that he will not take advantage of me.

I decided to release my sister and spend the night with him with the hope that he will be generous since he is driving an expensive car.

“We ended up in the room and one thing led to the other and we had sex. In fact, that man is too active because he had his way three times before he became tired. He went inside the bathroom to clean up and I decided to check his wallet and know how rich he is. I thought he was rich and when I discovered that he has used me, I decided to add sleeping tablet in his drink. I find it difficult to sleep at night, so I am always with a sleeping tablet.

“I doubt if it was the sleeping tablet that made him sleep because in less than a minute, he dozed off. I am sure it was the marathon sex that knocked him off.

As soon as he slept off, I took the money in his wallet, which was about N5000, his wristwatch, key to his car. How can a man who has been begging me for sex, decided to come and sleep with me with nothing much in his wallet? I came down and called my sister. With the aid of Google map, we left for Kogi. We were connected to one car dealer in Auchi, Edo State where we sold it. He paid N1.6 million and transferred the money into my account.”


Plea for leniency

Begging for mercy, Yamba said that she has never done it before but as a graduate, it’s a common knowledge that police will call her number. “I decided to throw away our phones because police might trace us. We had relocated to Jos when police lured my friend back to Abuja where she was arrested.”

The second suspect, Yoland while begging for mercy said that she decided to play along with her friend with the hope the money generated will be enough for her to start a business. “Two months ago, I came to Abuja to see the father of my children. School had resumed and if I don’t come in person, he will pretend that he did not see my calls. We had three children and he asked me to marry him but because he is a womanizer, I refused. He works at the Cameroonian embassy in Abuja.

“I spent some days with him and he gave me N200, 000 to go back and take care of my children. Sometime in August, one Donald gave us a free lift from Keffi to Abuja, he was attracted to my sister and kept pestering that she should give him her number. We finally gave our numbers to him and from that day, he kept calling, seeking to meet her.

“Finally we agreed and met, he took us to a bar and I gave him a bottle of wine. I gave it to him as a way of saying thank you. At the bar, he gave me sign to go that he wants to spend time with my sister. I agreed. I was at home when she called me to pack my bag and come that we were about to travel. It was when I got there that I realized that she was with the car of the man that gave us a lift from Nasarawa to Abuja. She told me that the man slept off after sex and when she realized that there was no money in his account, she decided to go with his car.

“I pleaded with her to return the car; she insisted that this was an opportunity to change our destiny. The plan was to sell the car and travel back to our country.

We took the car to Edo where it was sold for N1.6 million. Surprisingly, it was very easy to sell. We were still planning to return to Cameroon when police arrested us.

I am sorry, I don’t know what entered my head. I have never done this kind of thing before in my life. It’s just that life as a single mother is not easy. I was convinced because I thought we would succeed. I thank God that they have recovered that car; we are ready to pay back the money that was taken from his wallet and the worth of his wristwatch. I am a single mother and only God knows what has become of my children.”

On how she was arrested, Yoland said that police used the father of her children to track and arrest her. “We agreed to switch off our phones after the theft, but I kept in touch with the father of my children because I was yet to collect the money that he promised me. He called me to come to the embassy and collect the money and when I got there, policemen were already waiting for me.”

Noah Ebije, Kaduna



The popular saying among Nigerians, nay, Africans, that there is no smoke without fire, may have readily given credence to the current strong speculations that the governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-rufai has made up his mind to run for the 2023 presidential election as a candidate from the north under the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

President Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner, is serving his second term in office following his victory at the February presidential election. The latest move by El-rufai, which remains in the background for now, to take a shot at the presidential race in 2023 may go a long way to thwart permutations on the return of power to the South after the North would have had its eight years.

The ‘smoke’ that may have indicated that there is actually a ‘fire’ somewhere towards the presidential ambition of El-rufai was further amplified by some youths in Kaduna State who are believed to be loyal to APC and are already adorning T-shirts with the inscription, “El-rufai for presidency, 2023”.

The youths in their numbers, penultimate Monday, stormed Kaduna Government House, wearing the shirts under El-rufai’s nose to celebrate the tribunal’s judgement that upheld his governorship election against the candidate of People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Isah Ashiru.

Some of the youths were seen discussing in groups shortly after the celebration in the Government House. Also, posters, bearing El-rufai’s picture for 2023 presidency were earlier sighted on Kaduna streets, particularly along Gwamna road, in the city centre.

Reacting to the development, a political analyst in the State who did not want his name in print noted that, “I don’t see how a volunteer printer in this hard time will use his or her meagre financial resources to print posters and shirts for a politician who is swimming in money. So there must be an unseen hand funding the project from behind, and very soon the coast will be clear for all to see the man behind the wheels. Let’s just wait and see how the event will unfold”.

However, reacting to the speculation on El-rufai’s ambition, the National Coordinator, Buhari Mass Movement (BMM) in 2015 election and 2019 re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari, Alhaji Basheer Garba Umar said El-rufai has the constitutional right to gun for the country’s number one position if he so wished.

Umar who also contested Kaduna governorship elections in 2003 under the platform of National Conscience Party (NCP) and United Nigeria Peoples Party (UNPP) in 2007 respectively without success, added that he is ready to support El-rufai for the presidential race.

According to him, “El-rufai will have my outright support as I deem him an achiever per excellence and a bridge builder. He is constitutionally qualified as a Nigerian to contest for the office. He will be able to muster support in his immediate constituency, North West and by extension Northern Nigeria. Whoever contests with him will surely have some headache as he is a strategist and better than others who feel they can strategize”.

Also, in a recent news item on the Kaduna State owned radio station, 90.9 FM which was aired on September 17, the chairman, Lere local government area, Alhaji Abubakar Buba said, “We will do everything possible to make sure that Governor El-rufai contests the 2023 presidential election”.

“The quality and leadership style of Governor Nasir El-rufai has started attracting agitation from individuals and groups calling on him to contest the 2023 presidential election. One of the groups, Nasiriya organisation inaugurated recently in Kaduna to champion sensitization of the people on the need to work towards achieving this goal. The national chairman of the organisation, Garkuwa Ibrahim Buwaya said the decision was informed by the capability and wisdom of the governor to consolidate on the achievements of President Muhammadu Buhari after his second term in office”.

For the Kaduna State Publicity Secretary of People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Abraham Catoh, “Governor Nasir El-rufai’s speculated aspiration for the 2023 presidential election is entirely his personal decision, which is anchored on the 1999 Constitution and it is also an intra-party affair. In any case, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is still in court challenging the 2019 presidential elections.

Should the Supreme Court judgement favour the PDP and Atiku Abubakar, El-rufai and other presidential aspirants would set aside their aspirations till the end of Atiku’s tenure. The legal battle is still on, I can’t speak further than this”.

But for the officials of the State All Progressives Congress (APC), their silence over the speculation was too loud. Neither the State chairman, Air Commodore Emmanuel Jakanda (Retd) nor the State Secretary, Yahaya Baba Pate responded to text messages sent to them by our Correspondent over the issue.

by Precious Igbonwelundu


25-year-old Kehinde Muse has committed suicide after his 21-year-old lover dumped him.
The incident occurred at 56, Modele Street Surulere, Lagos Mainland.

His case brought to five, the number of suicide incidents reported to the police since July.

It was gathered that his lover, Rasheedat Animashaun, had dumped him two weeks ago because of his alleged high libido.

The Nation gathered that the young woman had complained Muse liked sex and she could not cope with it.

Another issue, it was gathered, stemmed from the fact that the young man was not working and depended on the girl financially.

“The guy was not going anything. It was the girl that was working as an office secretary.
“She was the one taking care of him financially.

He was even sent to learn how to repair air conditioners but he did not achieve much there.

“So, two weeks ago, the girl said she was tired and dumped him. She complained that all he does was sit at home, eat free food and then have sex countless times,” a source said.

Unable to accept their breakup, Muse was said to have sent a message to Animashaun threatening to commit suicide if she insisted on leaving him.

She was said to have notified his parents about the message who ran to his room only to discover that Muse had drunk a poisonous substance suspected to be sniper.

His parents were said to have rushed him to a hospital but he died on arrival.

Confirming the incident, police spokesman Bala Elkana, a Deputy Superintendent (DSP), said: “Preliminary investigation revealed that the deceased person earlier sent a suicide text message to his ex –girlfriend, informing her that he will take his life since she decided to quit the relationship.

“The said girlfriend promptly informed his family about the text message he sent to her and they rushed to his house, broke the door and found him unconscious.

“He was rushed to the hospital but did not make it. His corpse has been deposited in the mortuary for autopsy.”

Ifeanyi Onuba , Abuja


The Central Bank of Nigeria on Tuesday said that the nationwide implementation of the cashless policy will begin by March 2020 .

The apex bank said this in a circular to all Deposit Money Banks in the country .

It said that implementation of the policy would signal the imposition of charges on deposits in addition to already existing charges on withdrawals.

According to the circular , the charges , which take effect from Wednesday , September 18 , 2019 , will attract three per cent processing fees for withdrawals and two per cent processing fees for lodgments of amounts above N 500 , 000 for individual accounts .

For corporate accounts , the apex bank in the circular said that DMBs would charge five per cent processing fees for withdrawals and three processing fee for lodgments of amounts above N 3, 000 ,000 .

The statement , however, disclosed that the charge on deposits would apply in Lagos , Ogun , Kano , Abia , Anambra , and Rivers States as well as the Federal Capital Territory .

It added that the implementation of the cash -less policy would take effect from March 31 , 2020 .

Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja



The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, has said the Federal government won’t table the issue of xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in South Africa at the 74th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, United States of America.

This is even as the minister said avenues are currently being explored to secure compensation for Nigerians whose businesses were attacked in South Africa.

Onyeama who spoke ahead of Nigeria’s participation in the 74th UNGA, said the issue of migration will be discussed in the context of the United Nations Compact on Migration.

Onyeama noted that migration is a global issue, adding that with regard to South Africa, the United Nations was not a forum to sort out the crisis that had just happened in South Africa.
“We haven’t got to that stage yet. And I don’t think it is necessary. I think it is something we can sort out ourselves. We have that capacity and belief to do that,” Onyeama said.

On the issue of compensating Nigerians whose businesses were attacked in South Africa, Onyeama said what President Cyril Ramaphosa’s envoy to President Buhari said was that South African laws required all businesses to be insured against various things, including things like riot and others.

“So, if you suffer looting and damage, in their argument, that it should be covered under the insurance that you should have taken out because the law requires you to take that insurance out and that it is not the government that will insure you because the insurance companies are there to insure you and that if you don’t have that insurance, you are actually in breach of their laws,” Onyeama said.

Onyeama, however, said that the Federal government was looking for other means and argument to secure compensation for those who lost property.

“We are looking at the South Africa-Nigeria business agreement. It is actually expired at the moment, but it still protects those businesses that were established before the period of the agreement between Nigeria and South Africa. And within that, it is envisaged that there will be compensation for businesses or investors. It is actually an investor- protection agreement between the two countries.

“So, we have to look at that also to see to what extent that covers the situation we have at the moment. And also, and most importantly, is that Mr President will be going to South Africa on October 3. There is a bi-national commission between South Africa and Nigeria. It has been agreed that this commission will now be at the level of the heads of state.

“So, it will be the only bi-national agreement this country has at the level of heads of state. And within the framework of this bi-national commission, we will go there to discuss all issues of importance to both countries and also signed various agreements,” Onyeama added.

Onyeama further said the Nigerian High Commission in South Africa and the Consulate General had been directed to compile all the losses suffered by Nigerians, the details of all Nigerians killed throughout the period of xenophobic attacks.

“We are reliably informed that no Nigerian was killed during this last crisis, but of course in the past, and to give us all the details. We are compiling all the detail information with regard to Nigerians in South Africa, including also, the criminal elements, the acts of criminality being caused by Nigerians – drug trafficking, human trafficking and the killing of a lot of Nigerians in South Africa by Nigerians which apparently is actually that the majority of Nigerians being killed in South Africa, we are informed, are actually by Nigerians.

“We are going to look at all that and we will raise with the South Africans, all these issues and agree on a mechanism to address all of them,” Onyeama stated.

By Wale Akinselure



THE governorship election tribunal sitting in Ibadan, on Monday, upheld INEC’s declaration of candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the March 9 governorship election in Oyo State, Oluseyi Makinde as the winner of the election.

Reading the judgment in the petition EPT/OY/GOV/01/2019, filed by Adebayo Adelabu and All Progressives Congress (APC) against INEC, Oluseyi Makinde, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), head of tribunal, Justice Sirajo Muhammed held that the petitioners failed to prove allegations of over-voting, corrupt practices, substantial noncompliance with the electoral act 2010, while most of the petitioners’ witnesses based their evidence on hearsay, not direct eyewitnesses accounts.

Muhammed also pointed to the failure of the petitioners to plead any alternative scores against that released by INEC and prove over-voting which was a statutory basis for cancellation of results, according to the electoral act.

The tribunal head held that the petitioner failed to tender voters register, relate statement of results to a specific unit or constituency to show that there was over-voting and that if removed will substantially affect result of the election.

The tribunal also ruled out the allegation of anomalies, wrongful collation of results or unaccounted ballot papers, noting that no law compelled an accredited voter to vote.

Also noting that the petitioner presented 37 polling unit agents out of 1,426 polling units challenged, Muhammed held that 1,389 units were therefore deemed abandoned.

However, the tribunal invalidated the result of unit 003, ward 09, Ido local government because the returning officer produced two different results.


Other members of the three man panel that delivered the six-hour-long judgement were Mussa Bazza and Elizabeth Orji.

In the petition dated March 29, 2019, filed by Adebayo Adelabu and All Progressives Congress (APC), against INEC’s declaration of Makinde as winner of the election, the petitioners asked the tribunal to nullify the governorship election for substantial noncompliance with the electoral act 2010 (as amended) and order a fresh election.

Two arrested for allegedly stealing electronic cable
The petitioners, Adelabu and APC had argued that the election should be declared invalid alleging of corrupt practices, improper accreditation, over-voting, inaccurate ballot accounting, infractions, alterations, cancellations and irregularities in form EC8A.


Furthermore, the petitioners alleged disenfranchisement of voters in some polling units, mere allocation of figures for the PDP by INEC, adding that PDP’s candidate, Makinde was not duly elected by the majority of lawful voters.

As evidence to buttress its arguments, the petitioner had tendered 69 witnesses and 4,164 exhibits before the tribunal.

However, INEC, as the first respondent, replied denying allegations of irregularities and disenfranchisement of voters, asking the tribunal to dismiss the petition.


Specifically, INEC hinged its call for the dismissal of the petition on the failure of petitioners to point at specific polling units where voters were disenfranchised and failure to prove irreconcilable entries.

In their separate replies, Makinde and PDP regarded the petition as epileptic, unmeritorious, frivolous and lacking in merit, calling for the petition to be struck out.

Their counsels had argued that the petition’s applications were fill of uncertainty, imprecise and vague.


It would be recalled that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), through the state collation officer, Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe had returned Makinde elected in the March 9 governorship election having polled 515,621 votes to defeat his closest challenger, Chief Adebayo Adelabu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who had 357,982 votes.

Fred Itua, Abuja



Hit by cash crunch, some serving senators slugging it out with their opponents at eelection petition tribunals, are sourcing for commercial bank loans to help prosecute their cases.

Daily Sun learnt that aside sourcing bank loans, the embattled senators are also seeking financial assistance from colleagues to prosecute the next phase of their legal battle.

A senator who spoke to Daily Sun in confidence, said lawmakers had spent a substantial part of their monies on their election and that the majority were yet to recover or recoup the monies.

He said those in dire need of funds were senators sacked by the tribunal or those whose victories at the lower courts are challenged at the Court of Appeal by opponents.

According to the source, some senators sold off their property and got loans from commercial banks at outrageous interest rates to fund their election. He said these senators were complaining that they were unable to repay such loans as activities at the National Assembly have not picked up.

“Some lawmakers are already regretting their decision to come to the National Assembly. Millions are spent on lawyers and other legal costs to have a qualitative representation at the Tribunal.

“Senators who took their oaths of office on the 11th of June are yet to be engaged in any serious legislative business beside the controversial ministerial screening exercise conducted before their annual break.

Committees are still idle, while oversight function which is a major component of legislative business is yet to kick off in the upper legislative chamber. and beside the cash crunch, there is also palpable fear within the four walls of the National Assembly, following recent Election Tribunal judgements which annulled elections of some senators.”

In the coming days, National and State Assembly Election Tribunals are expected to give more judgments on cases filed by those who lost out in the February 23, Presidential and National Assembly elections conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Daily Sun gathered that some of the lawmakers whose cases are yet to be decided by the tribunals, have relocated to their respective states.

It was also gathered that senators who recently traveled abroad for their summer vacation, have cut short their trips to monitor developments in their respective states, as more judgments are trickling in.

Some of the senators, it was learnt, have already put their legal teams on notice to immediately prepare to file appeals in the event that judgments do not go in their favour.

Chief Whip of the Senate, Orji Uzor Kalu, and Senate Committee Chairman on Aviation, Dino Melaye and one of the longest serving senators, James Manager, are expected to have rerun in some polling based on recent judgments, if their appeals fail.

Kalu in his reaction urged Abians not to lose sleep assuring that his mandate would be reclaimed at the Court of Appeal.

Spokesman of the Senate, Adedayo Adeyeye has been outrightly sacked by the Election Tribunal.
But he has opportunity to take his case to the Appeal Court.

Magnus Eze, Enugu


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The entire Umuka community in Okposi, Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State has been in mourning mood since August 19, this year, when news broke out that a man, Eric Ifeanyi Okoro, aged 28, hashacked his aunt, a hunched primary school teacher, Benisa Okoro, to death in her sleep.

Benisa’s absence would be felt more as schools reopen this week, by pupils of the community primary school in the area, where she was said to have been a kind of mother to all the children with her uncommon love and care to them.

The slain lady said to be about 52 years old had returned from a church programme tagged: ‘Night of Cry’ service, on August 18, but met her nephew, Ifeanyi absent at home. She was said to have quickly prepared dinner for the young man before going to bed for a night rest.

While she slept off, Ifeanyi, popularly known as ‘Yahoo Boy’, returned home in the wee hours, ate the food kept for him by his victim and took his jack-knife and stabbed her severally on the chest till she died in the pool of her blood.

According to a reliable family source, the suspect allegedly phoned his father, Mr Alfred Ogbonnaya Okoro in Owo, Ondo State and reportedly informed him that he had snuffed life out of “Auntie Benisa, and it remains one person for me to hit the gold, get rich quick and become self-actualized”.

The father in his disbelief ignored the information and went about his normal business the following day, being Sunday. “He had thought that his son might have made the phone call under the influence of alcohol or hard drug”, the family source said.

But the lid was blown off when the next morning, ‘Yahoo Boy’ as he is fondly called, went to the Okposi General Hospital morgue and called an ambulance van to carry the corpse of his aunt who died in his own hands to the mortuary. On arrival with the ambulance at his father’s compound, the van driver, Mr Ogbonnaya Okoro Ogudu had reportedly shuddered on seeing the corpse enmeshed in thick clot of blood and declined to convey Benisa’s body to the mortuary.

He instead pondered in bewilderment; asking the young man: “Who did this to your Auntie Eric? What happened to her? He then shouted on top of his voice alerting the entire neighbourhood who then rushed to the scene.

The first callers at the scene were jolted by the horrible sight, and spontaneously, they made distress call to leaders of the community who were in in a meeting at the community playground that fateful morning. Immediately, the community leaders adjourned their meeting and rushed to the home of Alfred Ogbonnaya Okoro to have first-hand information of the distress call.

Chairman, Umuka Community Development Union (UCDU), Mr Sunday Okorie Agwu, said that Eric did not deny being responsible, as according to him, he confessed and boasted that he had marked his father as his next target.

There and then, the community made calls and handed him over to the Divisional Police Headquarters at Obiozara; from where he was later transferred to the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Abakaliki.

“We, the chieftains of Umuka community have reached a decisive conclusion that should the police fail in their duty of bringing the self-confessed murderer to book, Eric can never return to this community to live and co-exist with us; the Umuka Ogwumaeze people any longer.

He had been a security risk to the lives and peaceful coexistence of the people of this community since he reportedly attacked his father and attempted to kill him in Owo, Ondo State,” the community leader said.

Agwu who is also the head teacher of Umuka Community Primary School, Okposi, where Benisa was teaching before her gruesome murder described the victim as a kind teacher whom the school pupils were always very fond of before her untimely death.

“By the time the school is reopened to studies, her pupils will certainly miss her kind gestures and endeared patience at imparting knowledge and lessons to the children”, he added.

The community head, Chief Job Onuoha also bemoaned the gruesome stabbing to death of the teacher as terrifying, saying “the community has done what I think we should do in this regard; the murder of an innocent hard working disabled teacher by her own nephew leaves much than the mouth can say. Such barbaric act is unheard of in Okposi land, and we can’t fold our hands and watch him till he kills another person.

“We are bound to provide the police all necessary assistance to prosecute the suspect to serve as a deterrent measure to other bad eggs in Umuka community”.

Also, President, Umuka Youth Association (UYA), Nwanneka Ngada Okorie who spoke in Abakaliki, condemned the ugly incident and described the suspect as having “been consumed by his inordinate ambition to always have things done in his own way irrespective of whosoever his actions might affect”.

Okorie said: “Ifeanyi is a ‘Yahoo boy’, his father would have been his first victim, when he wanted to kill him the previous year and that was why he was brought home February last year to live with his very lovely and caring aunt; Benisa, whom he has stabbed to death. This is what you get with always wanting things come easy without working for it”.

He lamented that the community would have loved the immediate release of the corpse for burial, but wondered whether there was really need for autopsy since the suspect had confessed to the heinous crime.

“All our effort has been for the police to permit us to inter the remains of our sister, Benisa. You know, apart from my being the president of the youth in Umuka, I’m also part of the larger bereaved family, Benisa was a good loving sister who shouldn’t have been made to die in this wicked manner”, the youth leader said.

An indigene of the area told Sunday Sun that they were bewildered that while the community and the kindred family were raising funds to handle the calamity that befell them; Mr Alfred Okoro was making frantic effort to free his only son who killed his only sister, from police detention.

“Imaging Alfred was callous to inform us in the family that since he returned home resulting from the killing of Benisa, that he has been giving the sum of N2, 500 daily to his son to enable him bribe the police on duty at the SCID headquarters for him to be allowed to sleep behind the counter; instead of joining common criminals in the cell. We have seen that he is much concerned about bribing the police for his son to be released and freed from prosecution, than the death of his only sister”, the source said.

Several attempts for the father of the suspect to speak to our correspondent both at Abakaliki and Umuka, his village, were practically evaded.

In one of such occasions, he said via telephone: “You know, I’m not alone, and I am not also the only owner of Ifeanyi even though I am his father. Whom he was alleged to have killed was my only surviving sister who had been living with him since last year that I brought him home. I will call you immediately I am through with the family on the matter”.

Police Public Relations Officer of Ebonyi State command; Loveth Odah, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), who confirmed the incident said that the matter was being investigated and that the suspect will soon be charged to court.

Meanwhile, condemnations have trailed the gruesome murder of the soft-spoken physically challenged teacher.

Leader of the association of physically challenged persons in the area, Munonye Ogudu described the incident as barbaric, noting that this has further exposed the nature of violence that physically challenged persons faced in the country.

Similarly, Eziokposi High School Old Students Association (EHSOSA), Abakaliki Chapter, where Benisa was a member of the 1988 set, condemned the killing in its entirety.

A statement by Chairman of EHSOSA, Reuben Okorie, mourned the death of their member whom he said despite her physical challenge did not want to be a burden to her parents; hence, she struggled and carved a niche for herself through furthering her education, which gained her employment as a primary school teacher.

“It’s man’s inhumanity to man that Ms Benisa should be murdered for any reason whatsoever. We use this medium to implore relevant security agencies to investigate this heinous act, so that those found culpable will face the full weight of the law to serve as a deterrent to others, who may think of committing such atrocity,” the old students stated.

Less than one month after their inauguration as members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), two of President Muhammadu Buhari’s Ministers, Rotimi Amaechi (Transport) and Timipre Sylva (State, Petroleum) are in a supremacy battle.

The two ministers, both former governors from the oil rich Niger Delta region, are scheming to install their cronies as the head of the Presidential Amnesty Office.

As this development unfolded, it remained unclear if President Buhari would relieve the current occupier of the office, Professor Charles Dokubo, who was appointed in March last year.

Sunday Independent gathered from credible sources that while Amaechi had been pleading for the retention of Dokubo, Sylva was said to have reached an agreement with the ex-warlord and leader of the defunct Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), Chief Government Ekpomupolo, otherwise known as Tompolo, to pave way for one Chief Daniel Otuaro.

Daniel Otuaro is the younger brother of Kingsley Otuaro, the Deputy Governor of Delta State and an ally of Tompolo.

Consequently, both Amaechi and Sylva had deployed pseudo campaign groups to outwit one another.

A presidential source familiar with the imbroglio told Sunday Independent that while Sylva had the support of the President’s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, in the push for Tompolo’s nominee, Amaechi, whose relationship with Kyari appeared frosty, was being backed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha.

Kyari’s preference for Sylva’s choice (Otuaro) notwithstanding being his main albatross, according to our source, as he had been the strong link with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

“For now, the situation appears dicey. No one can say exactly where the pendulum will swing. We do not know whether the current man will go or not. But, from all indications, there is a supremacy battle between Amaechi and Sylva as they both want the slot for their preferred persons.

“As for Amaechi, he is pushing for the retention of Dokubo, but he does not have the support of the Chief of Staff, who is not a friend to the man (Amaechi), he is now relying on the SGF to do his job for him.

“Ordinarily, Sylva would not have had a problem, but the man he is pushing for is a known and strong PDP, and Tompolo man from the Ijaw area of Delta. That I think is a major challenge for him to clear,” said our source.

The source added that Amaechi was still pained that he was ignored in the build up to the compilation of the list of the Governing Board and management of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

Meanwhile, the Egbema Peace and Security Group (EPSG), has called on President Buhari to reject what it called an ill-motivated statement against Otuaro’s choice as the Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme.

This is coming against the backdrop of last Friday’s petition by a pressure group, Niger Delta Force (NDF), calling on the President not to go ahead with the appointment of Otuaro, Delta State’s Deputy Governor’s brother and a personal assistant to Tompolo.

The group said: “Mr. President, it has become imperative to draw your attention to the untoward activities by some officials in your government whose selfish interests were undermining your integrity and fight against corruption. And we urge you to be wary of Otuaro.”

However, in a statement signed by EPSG, Coordinator, Mr. Kari Ebipade, it stated that, “While it is utterly unnecessary to respond to such baseless statements actuated by malice we make bold to state that Otuaro is and remains the best hand needed to give the office the required managerial expertise in furtherance of the federal government’s peace and developmental plans for the volatile Niger Delta region.

“The only way to change the storyline of leadership malaise is by appointing an experienced hand who is abreast with the region, and enjoys the collaborative relationship with the major stakeholders of the region.

“It is on this note that we restate our unmitigated resolve to join the call for Otuaro to be considered for the job. Otuaro who has lived all his life in the Niger Delta possesses the skill, intelligence and proficiency needed to revamp the programme towards the achievement of the ideology upon which the program was initiated.

“Otuaro’s choice has no match or parallel in every facet in terms of general acceptability, intelligence, mastery of the Niger Delta region, academic qualification, amongst others. He is a major character that the Federal Government, stakeholders and the entire Niger Delta region urgently needs to steer the leadership of the program to its desired destination.

“We therefore appeal to the Federal Government to reject the ill-motivated statement against Otuaro sponsored by faceless and slanderous elements that derive pleasure in the under-development of the Niger Delta region.

“We urge the Federal Government never to give these traducers any opportunity to interfere with the current state of peace in the region. Their denigrating smears against Otuaro are borne out of fear that with his emergence as the amnesty boss, there will be no leeway from which they could attempt to sabotage peace in the region,” the statement added.

The Presidential Amnesty Office recently denied a report alleging the involvement of the President’s wife, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, in the sacking of staff members of the office.

Mr. Murphy Ganagana, the Special Assistant (Media) to the Coordinator, Presidential Amnesty Programme, Prof. Charles Dokubo, in a statement in Abuja, described the report as a “fairy tale.’’

An online platform had alleged that Mrs. Buhari gave the coordinator of PAP a directive to sack the affected workers for allegedly leaking documents of an alleged contract scam.

Ganagana said the report further alleged that Dokubo had told some unnamed senior officials of the Amnesty Programme that he got a directive from Aisha to sack some staff members.

He noted that the Office of the President’s wife does not interfere in the affairs of PAP and has, at no time, requested or directed Prof. Dokubo to sack any staff member of the Amnesty Office.

Ganagana said that contrary to the report, no official of PAP was sacked for any reason whatsoever, and there was no contract scam at the Amnesty Office.

“The report is standing truth on its head; its claim that Prof. Dokubo was tongue-lashed by senior officials of the Presidency who queried him over leaked deals is a wicked lie.

“Prof. Dokubo was neither invited nor queried by the Presidency over leaked deals or documents and he did not get any directive to sack any staff member of the Amnesty Office.

“The latest missile fired at Prof. Dokubo and the Amnesty Programme is in reaction to a recent failed attempt which crumbled and missed its target following a lucid presentation of facts on the alleged N3.2bn contract scam by the Amnesty Office to members of the public.

“We wish to reiterate that there is no contract scam in the Amnesty Programme, just as no staff (member) has been sacked either on a directive by the First Lady or for any other reason whatsoever,” Ganagana added.

He, however, said it should be emphasised that as a public agency, officials of PAP engaged either as consultants or civil servants were subject to Public Service Rules 030302 to 030306 relating to disciplinary procedures for misconduct.

“To this end, six staff (members) of the Amnesty Office comprising four consultants and two civil servants were recently suspended from duty for breaching provisions of the Public Services Rules.

“They are expected to appear before a legally constituted panel in accordance with statutory procedure.”

Olusola Fabiyi, Olalekan Adetayo, Gbenro Adeoye, Success Nwogu, Tunde Ajaja and Daniel Igoni


There is trouble in the opposition Peoples Democratic Party following former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s loss at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal on Wednesday, SUNDAY PUNCH has learnt.

The development, it was gathered, has made some members of Board of Trustees of the PDP to travel to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates on Saturday (today) to engage in what one of our correspondents gathered was tagged ‘‘strategic consultation’’ with Atiku.

The meeting, it was learnt, was necessitated as a result of wrangling among senior members of the party.

Investigations also showed that the allegation by the Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, that some governors of the party were visiting President Muhammadu Buhari at night was also causing ripples among its senior members.

Wike had also alleged that members of the committee set up by the BoT to investigate the emergence of Ndudi Elumelu as the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives were corrupt.

While the PDP and Atiku rejected the tribunal’s judgment and had signified their intention to approach the Supreme Court, Wike had congratulated Buhari.

Already, it was learnt that some members of the party had been strategising on how to defect from the PDP to the ruling All Progressives Congress.

Atiku is said to have been residing in the UAE for some time now.

The Chairman, PDP BoT, Senator Walid Jibrin, confirmed the trip to one of our correspondents in a telephone interview.

Walid said, “Yes. The PDP BoT members will travel on Saturday to Dubai to see our presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar as part of our strategic consultation. The consultation is going to be nation-wide. He is the first person we will meet for the consultation.”

It could not be confirmed how many members of the PDP BoT were on the trip. It was, however, confirmed that Walid and the Secretary of the board, Senator Adolphus Wabara, made the trip.

According to him, the BoT will meet on Thursday to deliberate and decide on Ayu’s committee report.

The committee was set up by the BoT to investigate the emergence of Elumelu as the Minority Leader in the House of Representatives.

Wike accused the Iyorcha Ayu committee of being corrupt when a member of the committee, Austin Okpara visited him to inform him that he had resigned his membership.

Walid said he did not know why Austin Opara left the committee.

He said, “We have three other committees and the outcome of the Ayu committee will not be in isolation of other committees like the Tom Ikimi Disciplinary Committee and the Senator Adolphus Wabara committee. It is true that the committee has submitted its report but the BoT will meet on Thursday next week to discuss and make a decision on the recommendations.

“I don’t know why he left. It was when the report of the committee was submitted that I noticed that he did not sign and his column for signature was not signed.

‘‘I am not a member of the committee. Since the inauguration of the committee, I have not spoken to them, I have not visited or interfered with their work or given any input in the course of their work.

“He did not write or tell me why he left or did not sign after the submission of their work. As far as I’m concerned, I will leave that for discussion next Thursday when the BoT will meet.”

It was also learnt that the mass defection is said to have further been fuelled by the outcome of the party’s governorship primaries in both Bayelsa and Kogi states.

The outcome of the primaries had been rejected by some aspirants, who accused the party of being biased.

For example, a former Presidential Adviser on Niger Delta Affairs, Mr Timi Alaibe, is believed to be planning to ditch the PDP following the outcome of the Bayelsa State governorship primary.

Senator Douye Diri, an ally of the outgoing governor of the state, Seriake Dickson, was declared the winner of the primary.

Diri, who represents Bayelsa Central at the National Assembly, defeated 19 other aspirants to emerge as the PDP candidate for the November 16 governorship election in the state.

He polled a total of 561 votes to win the governorship ticket while Alaibe came second with 365 votes. Both Diri and Alaibe are from the same Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area.

Alaibe had complained about the number of delegates accredited for the primary, saying the newly-elected local government chairmen in the state were not expected to be allowed to vote.

He based his complaint on the non-compliance with the party’s constitution which gives a specific number of months occupiers of such offices are to spend before they could qualify as delegates.

‘‘But in total disregard for norms and laid down procedure, the party neglected that and allowed the impunity to reign. We will know how far that can take them,’’ a source close to the aspirant told one of our correspondents.

It was learnt that Alaibe was under pressure to dump the PDP and pick the ticket of another political party.

A loyalist of Alaibe, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he and others were waiting for the former presidential aide to take a decision on what to do.

‘‘We are waiting for him to return. Though his name is not yet with the Independent National Electoral Commission, there is a window for substitution of names,’’ the source added.


Alaibe heads to court, seeks fresh PDP gov primaries

Meanwhile, Alaibe has filed a suit at the Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa, asking for the cancellation of the primary.

A statement on Saturday by the administrative secretary of the Timi Alaibe Campaign Organisation, Prof Seiyefa Brisibe, said Alaibe filed the application on Friday in his quest to redress the alleged “procedural flaws” which he claimed were recorded in the poll.

“The suit filed pursuant to Order 3 (9) of the Federal High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2019 seeking answers to questions bordering on obvious non-adherence to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Electoral Act 2010, the PDP Constitution and Electoral Guidelines, by the state chapter of the party in the conduct of the ward congresses, inclusion of local government council officials in the delegates list and the procedure for inclusion of three ad hoc delegates,” the statement said.

In the suit with reference number FHC/YNG/CS/99/2019, the aggrieved aspirant listed as defendants the PDP; Senator Douye Diri, governorship candidate; the INEC and one Embeleakpo Alale for himself and representing the elected council chairmen, vice chairmen and councillors of the PDP who were allowed to be delegates at the elective State Congress of the PDP in Bayelsa State held on September 3, 2019.

“He wants the court to order the conduct of fresh primary election for the nomination and sponsorship of the candidate for the governorship election in Bayelsa State,” the statement added.

The emergence of David Lyon as the governorship candidate of the APC and the naming of a serving Senator, Biobaramakuma Degi-Eremienyo as his running mate, may further compound the PDP’s problem in the state.

Degi-Eremienyo, who is the senator representing Bayelsa East, was a commissioner for Local Government Affairs under the regime of former President Goodluck Jonathan, when the latter served as the governor of the state.

The choice of Lyon’s running mate is also said to be generating more crisis for the party.

Dickson is said to be scheming to impose the senator representing the western senatorial district, Lawrence Erwujkpor, in order to pave the way for his emergence as the next senator.


PDP candidate says APC can’t win credible poll in Bayelsa

Diri, however, said the APC was not in a position to win a free and fair election in the state, even at the councillorship level.

He has, therefore, called on the Independent National Electoral Commission and security agencies to remain neutral during the election.

Diri, who addressed journalists in Abuja on Thursday, said if there was a level playing field, the PDP would emerge victorious.

He said, “We have a fight ahead of us but I don’t see our opponents as being so strong on the ground to defeat the PDP. If we have a free, fair and transparent election, the APC cannot win even a councillorship election in Bayelsa State. It is all the hype about federal might by using the security apparatus to intimidate or using INEC to write results.

‘‘Our appeal is that the security agencies must be professional. INEC must remain an unbiased umpire. If there is a level playing field, the opponents are neither here nor there to contest in this election.”

He expressed his willingness to continue to reach out to the 20 aspirants that contested against him during the primary with a view to winning them to his side.

A participant in the PDP governorship primary, Mr Keniebi Okoko, had, however, identified frequent defections by politicians from one political party to another as the bane of democracy in Nigeria.


Why Dino rejected to lead party campaign in Kogi

In Kogi State, Senator Dino Melaye is also said to be angry over the outcome of the party’s governorship primary, where he emerged fourth with 70 votes.

Musa Wada, a younger brother of the immediate past Governor Idris Wada, who also contested the ticket, scored 748 votes to clinch the party ticket.

Melaye, who had yet to come out of the anger over the outcome of the primary, had also rejected the position of the Director-General of Wada Governorship Campaign Committee given to him by the national leadership of the party.

Sources close to the Senator representing Kogi West in the Senate, had asked for a fresh primary, but his request was turned down.

One of Melaye’s confidants, who spoke with one of our correspondents, said the senator was consulted before he was named the DG of the campaign.

He said, ‘‘But after he thought over it, he decided to reject it. He was of the opinion that the party betrayed him and was going to use him again. Melaye had asked that another primary be held after the first one was disrupted and there was shooting.

‘‘He believed that he was sacrificed by the national leadership of the party because he is not from the majority tribe in the state.’’

Melaye, via his verified social media accounts on Friday, rejected the offer. His rejection also signified his anger against the party.

“I wish the PDP all the best. When truth is a casualty, there is chaos,” he added.


No cause for worry, says party

When asked about the subtle threats by some party members in Bayelsa State to defect following the outcome of the governorship primaries, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, said the party was not aware of any such plans.

“We are not aware of any defection plans, but I must tell you that the PDP is a big family and if we have issues, we have ways of resolving them internally,” he said.

Also speaking on Wike’s congratulatory message to the President on his victory at the tribunal, especially when his party had decided to appeal the judgment, Ologbondiyan said there was no cause for worry. He described Wike as one of the committed members of the party.

He said, “Governor Wike is one of our committed members and the fact that he congratulated the President is no cause for alarm.”

Ologbondiyan, however, said the drama and celebration in the camp of the APC would be short-lived when the Supreme Court rules on its (PDP) appeal.

He said, “We had a judicial process and our responsibility is to explore that process. We know as a party that we have a solid case and our candidate made a very beautiful presentation at the tribunal and so we are relying on the errors made by the tribunal to appeal the judgment at the Supreme Court.”

Despite the great relief that they were finally back to Nigeria, most of the returnees from South Africa, following repeated xenophobic attacks, expressed mixed emotions as they recounted different heartrending stories of abuse, torture, violence in the hands of their South African hosts.

Segun Salau, 32, who hails from Ondo State, had spent five years living with his sister who had a stall in South Africa. He said he lived in constant fear and apprehension for those five years because of xenophobia. The latest attack, he said, was the last straw, as his sister’s stall was entirely looted and destroyed.

“There is no reason for me to go back there. The last attack was the third xenophobic attack I experienced in South Africa,” Salau said.

Forty eight-year-old Paul, one of the returnees, said there were no job opportunities for foreigners in South Africa so the foreigners struggle to build their businesses only to be envied by the South Africans.

He said he was a spare parts seller with a big yard in Johannesburg. But he faced threats from South Africans on a daily basis until his yard was finally burnt down during the recent attack, with many vehicles lost.

“I always lodged complaints with the police whenever my scrap yard is being vandalized, but because I am a foreigner, the police would tell me, ‘we are coming, we are coming’, and for four hours, I would still be at the station. At the end of the day, they would get there and just chase them away, and nothing happens. No arrests.

“I lost everything there in the last attack. You know what the cops once told me? They said, ‘you come here to complain; when you go and build your house by the bank of an ocean, what do you expect the shark to feed on?’ That was the statement of the South African police.

“I was in South Africa for five years, and experienced xenophobic attack three times.”
Victor Uche Nwocha, from Abia State, said after 12 years of living in Johannesburg and struggling to build a business, he came home with nothing and worse still, left his wife and daughter behind in South Africa.

Nwocha, who supplies pastries to some big stores in Johannesburg, said the shops and properties of his clients were burnt down.

“I went to South Africa on May 15, 2007 in search of greener pasture because I come from a family of eight. When I got to South Africa, it wasn’t that rosy. So, I started building my own little business. After a while, the business started booming and growing. I was based in Johannesburg; I didn’t go to any other place.

“When they accuse Nigerians of peddling drugs, I don’t even know the colour of any drug. I bake this pastry we call Chin-chin in Nigeria and supply to top stores. I built this business from the scratch and supply to some Pakistanis, Bangladeshi, Sudanese nationals that own big shops. But all of a sudden, they started burning their shops and victimizing us.”

According to him, the intervention of Air Peace was a life-saver. “Since last year, my mum has been asking me to come back home. The old woman even excommunicated me because I couldn’t come back.

“We didn’t deliberately sit there in the name of enjoying South Africa because they are not offering us anything apart from the little business we were doing. I only stayed back because I was trying to gather a little more money and then come back home.”

“Now, I have nothing again. I left my daughter and my wife. My wife is from Cameroon. I left a daughter who’s one and a half years old because I can’t bring everybody. I also have to come and see my mum who cries everyday that she wants me alive.

Such were the highly emotional accounts at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA) Lagos on Wednesday night when Nigerian returnees arrived from South Africa.

After over 12 hours of delay at the OR Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg, and long hours of waiting at the Lagos airport to receive the returnees, the Air Peace B777 aircraft conveying them touched down at the cargo terminal of the airport amidst excitement.


https://cdn.dailytrust.com.ng/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/returnees-from-South-Africa3.jpg



South Africa was like hell – Returnees

The returnees were full of life as they disembarked from the aircraft to the warm reception of officials of the Federal Government comprising the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), among others.

The tales of their ordeals in the hands of South Africans were as harrowing as they were heartrending. Speaker after speaker all had the same or similar experiences though in different dimensions. According to them, the xenophobic attacks were allegedly triggered by the sheer envy of the progress made by Nigerians in South Africa. They said contrary to insinuations, not all Nigerians resident in South Africa were involved in drug.

Most worrisome to them was the fact that the locals unleashed violence on them without security officials taking any action to stop them.


‘Nigerians in South Africa not drug peddlers’

Victor Nwocha said despite the negative perception about Nigerians in South Africa being drug peddlers, many of them were into legitimate businesses.

“All Nigerians in South Africa are not drug peddlers,” he declared, adding that he had many South African employees who later turned against him.

“What is happening is not really xenophobia because they are only after blacks. They are just unnecessarily angry. If the government and Ramaphosa are not delivering, they should not vent their anger on their fellow blacks. I know how many times they dragged me from school because I was paying that ANC tuition fees. Look at what South Africa paid me with. I left everything. I left my little baby, I left her sleeping, and I came here because I don’t want my mother to die.”

“Chief Allen Onyema has really tried. Again, we must applaud our consulate. They really stood for us. The South Africans still tried to frustrate us because we would have come in very early. We came to the consulate since 4am, and they kept turning us up and down because they didn’t want the press to show what was happening.


‘Every crime is blamed on Nigerians’

Lanre Emmanuel from Ogun State said despite the difficulty of living in South Africa, many Nigerians managed to build genuine businesses which were destroyed in the twinkle of an eye. He said there is an existing stereotype in South Africa which portrays every Nigerian as a criminal or drug pusher.

“I was into buying and selling of cars. They burnt two of my cars. I came back with nothing. A Tanzanian killed a taxi driver, and they took it out on Nigerians. In South Africa, whenever a crime is committed, they believe it was done by a Nigerian. I think those people are sick. You can’t sleep with your two eyes closed in that country.”

Now that they are back home, he said they would need government’s help to rise again having lost everything they laboured to achieve for many years.

Emmanuel said: “I can never go back there. If government can help us, we would be glad because we came with nothing.

“Most of us were made to sign an undertaking not to enter South Africa in the next five years. I don’t care because I’m not going back there again. We spent almost six hours at the airport; we had to start shouting that we were going home, and not coming back.”

Richard Kehinde, another indigene of Ondo State, alleged that xenophobia in South Africa had official approval, saying it was caused by the envy of Nigerians whom he said were industrious.

He said, “My experience was terrible, I don’t want to explain it. Their leaders would see the truth and never say it. All these attacks are as a result of envy. They know we are a very hard-working people. They know we are very strong; so they just envy us for nothing sake. We created our own businesses in that country. Nigerians are always singled out. They go to Nigerian homes; drag them all out and kill them.

“I hope everything would be okay now that we are home. Our government can assist us with a little token to start our lives again because they destroyed everything we laboured for, we don’t have anything again.”

Daily Trust Saturday reports that the returnees were provided with SIM cards with N40,000 worth of airtime and 9GB of data valid for two months as well as transport fare to their respective destinations.

But beyond that, some of the returnees said they had acquired some skills which the Federal Government can tap into.

“Some of us while in South Africa acquired business and other skills. If only the Federal Government of Nigeria would take advantage of that and tap from our skills, it would be very beneficial,” one of the returnees said.

It would be recalled that violent attacks by South Africans on Nigerians and their businesses in early August this year led to a diplomatic tension between the two countries. The Nigerian government thereafter decided to repatriate about 600 citizens from South Africa.

Nigeria’s foremost airline, Air Peace, came to the rescue by offering to evacuate the stranded Nigerians back home free of charge. President Muhammadu Buhari welcomed the idea and gave his nod while the Nigerian Consulate in South Africa facilitated the process of registering the voluntary returnees.

At the end of the registration, over 700 people were registered out of which only 187 formed the first batch which arrived the airport on Wednesday.

The South African authorities, especially the immigration, reportedly erected several road blocks to prevent massive repatriation of Nigerians, according to the returnees who narrated that the country was not happy that Nigeria was repatriating its people.

Chairman/CEO Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, confirmed that the South African government frustrated the flight “for no just reason” but assured that the issue would be handled at a higher level.

She said: “The flight was delayed for no just reason at all but despite all those frustrations, you could see the excitement, you could see the joy. They frustrated us deliberately. Out of 317, Air Peace was able to bring 187. But they have landed and we are glad to receive them.”

Daily Trust Saturday learnt that the next flight is expected either on Saturday or Sunday barring any unforeseen occurrence as the Consulate interfaces with the South African authorities to get clearance for the flight to avoid a repeat of Wednesday’s incident at the airport where some Nigerians billed to return home were allegedly turned back.

Chairman of Air Peace, Mr. Allen Onyema, said the airline is ready to evacuate all Nigerians willing to return home.

“We are ready tomorrow, if the South African government agrees. I was told that they picked up some people and said they wanted to ask them how they entered into the country in the first place but I thought these people are now leaving your country, so they should have been left to go home. However, we are waiting for the Nigerian High Commission to inform us of the next time. If they tell us to leave for South Africa this night, I have enough pilots to go into this aircraft and go back to South Africa this night.”

Insinuations in some quarters that the $9.6bn damages secured by P&ID against the federal government in respect of the latter’s purported failure to honour a contractual agreement it had with the former was arranged by some interests to defraud the government may not be far from the truth if feelers from the inner circles of the Presidential Villa are anything to go by.

Sentry gathered during the week that some suspected moles in the President’s cabinet are urging the federal government to pay the $9.6bn ordered by the courts for purportedly breaching its contractual agreement with the Irish firm.

At a session held in Aso Rock between President Buhari and some members of his cabinet on how to tackle the debt overhang, two ministers suspected to be serving other interests were said to have been adamant that the Federal Government should initiate “necessary action” to pay the foreign company the sum specified by the courts.

The ministers in question were even said to have recommended two people who should meet with the representatives of P&ID to negotiate the terms for the payment of the debt.

But President Buhari was said to have put his foot down, saying that the federal government was prepared for a fight to the finish with P&ID on the matter.

The President’s declaration of his resolve was said to have put the two ministers in very uncomfortable positions and they are now doing everything they can to regain the President’s confidence.

by IBRAHIM SHA'BAN




The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, NFIU, has requested banks to forward the account details of all legislative and judiciary officials in the country.

The Cable reported seeing a letter dated September 10, 2019, in which the unit requested for account names and numbers of the officials.

The reason for the request was not given in the letter signed by Fehintola Salisu, NFIU associate director of analysis and compliance.
The letter, The Cable said, was addressed to the chief compliance officers of banks.

The letter read: “Request for information on: All accounts of: the National Assembly, National Judicial Council, NJC, all the members of the National Assembly, principal officers (management) of the National Assembly Service Commission, (and) of principal officers of the judiciary.

“Kindly provide the NFIU with a schedule (account names and account numbers) of the National Assembly, members of the National Assembly and principal officers of the National Assembly Service Commission, as well as all accounts of National Judicial Service Commission and their principal officers including judges and other relevant politically exposed persons.”

Mr Sola Okediji, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), FCT, has said that some constable aspiring to join Nigeria Police could not give the name of Nigeria President and the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN).

Okediji disclosed this at the investigation and sensitisation on rule of law training for FCT police officers, organised by the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption (RoLAC), on Friday in Abuja.
RoLAC programme is funded by the European Union and managed by the British Council.

Okediji, who said he was posted to Rivers in Port Harcourt as part of those to interview prospective constables to be enlisted into the Nigeria police, said he was stunned when a constable could not answer the question put to him.

He said that he had asked the prospective constable “what is the name of the President of Nigeria”, to which he could not proffer an answer.

Okediji also said that he posed another question to the intending constable as to “who is the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN),” to which he could not also answer the question.

The DCP said he had no choice than to fire the constable immediately, adding that the Nigeria police would not condole such ignorance, adding that such ignorance was unacceptable to the Nigeria Police.

Okediji said that some of the constables were parading five credits in their Senior Secondary School (SSCE) certificate without being able to defend it.

He said that those who were not fast in current affairs and do not know issues happening in the country would not be allowed into the police force.

He called on the police investigators and detective on RoLAC training to apply wisdom in the course of their job, adding that they should always duplicate their case files to forestall trouble.

He, however, charged investigation officers and detective on training to have confidence in themselves while carrying out their duties, adding that when they were sound and loaded no one would push them aside.

According to him, during cross examination, let them know you are there and rooted in the case, that is what excellent on the job means, do not collect bribe and do not encourage it.

He called on the officers not to be a part in the rot in the police but endeavour to be a solution, adding that only God could reward those who worked with the fear of God.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that when approached to comment further on the constable who failed to give the name of Nigeria President and the CJN, he said that DSP Frank Mba, the Force Public Relations Officer would speak further.

NAN also reports that RoLAC training was aimed at acquainting officers with modern practice of investigation and prosecution of suspects.

Tunji Bosun, Abeokuta


A 40 -year - old man, Kingsley Madukwe , has been arrested by men of Ogun State Police Command for allegedly beating his wife , Glory Madukwe to death .

Kingsley allegedly slapped his 40 - year -old wife , a mother of eight , who had a month- old baby over her alleged refusal to breastfeed the crying baby .

The Police Public Relations Officer in the state , Abimbola Oyeyemi, stated this in a statement on Friday .

The suspect , a commercial motorcyclist ( Okada rider) was said to have been enraged when his late wife abandoned the crying baby , reportedly drew her back while she was leaving the bedroom for the leaving room and slapped her.
The slap , according to the PPRO turned deadly as his wife who had complained of tiredness reportedly fell down and died on the spot .

According to Oyeyemi, the suspect was arrested on Wednesday after a report by one Chief Rafiu Gbadamosi , the Baale of Egando in Atan - Ota , that the couple had a minor misunderstanding as a result of which the husband beat the wife to death at about 11 : 30 pm .

Oyeyemi said, “ On the strength of the report , the DPO Atan Ota division, SP Salau Abiodun , led his detectives to the scene where the suspect was promptly arrested .

“ On interrogation, the suspect , an Okada rider who is an indigene of Ihiala in Anambra State , stated that his late wife , a mother of eight was having a month old baby and that the baby was crying which made him wake his wife up to breastfeed the baby , but she refused , claiming that she was too tired to breastfeed the baby at that time .

“ He stated further that the victim got up and was going to the sitting room leaving the baby behind and this got him annoyed, consequent upon which he drew her back and gave her a hot slap.

“ The woman there and then fell down and gave up the ghost. The corpse of the victim has been deposited at the General Hospital Ota mortuary for post mortem examination. ”

The PPRO said , the Commissioner of Police , CP Bashir Makama, had ordered the immediate transfer of the suspect to the Homicide Section of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department for further investigation and prosecution .

By Ernest Chinwo




Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has lambasted the Committee set up by the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) to investigate the emergence of Ndudi Elumelu as the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, alleging that the committee is the most corrupt in the history of the party.

Speaking in Port Harcourt Wednesday, Wike thanked Former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt Hon Austin Opara, for withdrawing from the committee by not allowing himself to be entangled in what he described as the “illegal outcome” of the committee’s activities.

He said: “The Committee set up by the PDP on the illegal emergence of Ndudi Elumelu is the most corrupt committee ever set up by the party.

“We thank our worthy son, Rt Hon Austin Opara, for withdrawing from that committee, so that he is not entangled in the illegal activities of the tainted committee “.

Wike warned the party not to toy with Rivers State as it is not in the interest of the party to do so.

He said: “We are warning PDP to be careful not to toy with Rivers State. Rivers State has all it takes to withstand the PDP and fight the party to a standstill.

“The Rivers State Governor is not one of those Governors that anyone can cajole.
“The Rivers State Governor is not one of those Governors that will kowtow to their illicit activities”.

By Abdullateef Aliyu,



South African authorities are allegedly frustrating the evacuation of Nigerians who are for the first batch of airlift from that country.

Air Peace flight, which left Nigeria 11:30pm yesterday arrived OR Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg about 4:00am on Wednesday as Nigerians turned up for the airlift.

Sources at the High Commission in Johannesburg informed that after the Commission had prepared the first 320 Nigerians for the first evacuation, the South Africa Immigration was arresting Nigerians who are due to travel, accusing them of travelling without papers.

The Nigerian High Commission had prepared travel documents for returning Nigerians but it was learnt that the immigration was still challenging them demanding to know how they got into their country.

He said: “South Africa is frustrating Nigeria. The Air Peace aircraft has been there since 4:00am. Their Immigration started giving our High Commission problems. They said some Nigerians didn’t have papers. Immigration is arresting them, asking them to explain how they came to South Africa.

“About five minutes ago, only 182 Nigerians were allowed to board the flight while the rest are being barred by South African Immigration. They are frustrating the Nigerian High Commission, taking the passengers away. They want to frustrate the airline and the Nigerian government.

“Our High Commission is having tough time with the South African government. They are stopping and arresting Nigerians, saying they should explain how they came into the country.”

Another source said: “The aircraft has been burning fuel since 4:00am. They are not happy that Nigeria is evacuating its citizens and that a Nigerian airline is involved in evacuating them.”

As at the time of filing this report, the flight has departed the Airport in South Africa and is expected to land at MMIA around 10:00pm Nigerian time.

Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja



The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) yesterday disclosed that 20, 737 victims of Business Email Compromise (BEC) and Email Account Compromise (BAC) lost $1.2 billion.
This is coming as the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu, said 167 suspects have so far been arrested in the joint operation involving the FBI and the EFCC on cybercrime across the country , while N153 million was recovered from the suspected perpetrators of cybercrimes.

The operation tagged “wire-wire” was launched in 2018 and continued in 2019 as “operation rewired,” which led to the indictment of 77 Nigerians in the United States on cybercrime and other related crimes.

Speaking at a press conference in Lagos, the Legal Attaché, FBI Office in Nigeria, Uche Ahamdi, said the agency received 20,373 Business Email Compromise and Email Account Compromise (BEC/EAC) complaints with losses of more than $1.2 billion.

“In a coordinated effort to dismantle international fraudulent BEC transactions and pursue bad actors and organised criminal enterprises, including money mules that engage in BEC and fraud schemes that target and harm American businesses, the FBI and law enforcement partners in the US and abroad implemented a strategy to target and disrupt these scammers and illicit actors,” he said.

He further stated that money mules were usually employed by fraudsters to launder their ill-gotten gains by draining the funds into other accounts that were difficult to trace.

“The sweep ran from May to September 2019, with an uptake of focused law enforcement activity during a four-week period, primarily in the US, Nigeria, Ghana, Turkey, France, Italy, UK, Japan, Kenya and Malaysia.

“The FBI-led operation involved multiple US law enforcement partners, including the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), US Secret Service (USSS), US Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), US Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI),” he explained.

He said “the operation benefited greatly from the work of our law enforcement partners around the world”.

He also disclosed that “more than 37 FBI field offices and US Attorney’s offices participated in law enforcement activity, including executing arrests, search warrants, interviews, and serving money mule warning letters.

“The goal of this operation is to send a message to all who participate in the BEC scheme that they will be caught and prosecuted, regardless of where they are located.”

Ahamdi further stated that the collaborative operation leveraged resources from across the FBI, which enabled the agencies to bring the sum total of the FBI’s cyber, organised crime, and money laundering expertise to bear on computer-based frauds.

He, therefore, urged national and international law enforcement partners to develop a strategy that “focuses on dismantling the most significant cyber-criminal enterprises.”

In his remarks, Magu said the operations had resulted in the arrest of 167 Nigerians for alleged computer-related frauds and recovery of four exotic cars, plots of land in choice areas in Lagos and a property in Abuja.

Speaking at a joint FBI/EFCC media briefing in Lagos, Magu, who spoke through the Director of Operations, EFCC, Mohammed Umar Abba, said: “being an international model operation targeted at the varied forms of computer-related frauds, the EFCC/FBI collaborative operations spanning three weeks was designed to intercept and interrupt the global network of the internet fraudsters.

“However, before now, as you are all aware, we had relentlessly launched intensive investigative actions against the infamous Yahoo yahoo boys culminating into various strategic raids, onslaught on criminals’ hideouts, prosecutions and convictions”.

“I am happy to inform you that our efforts in coordinating the EFCC/FBI joint operations in Nigeria recorded tremendous successes leading to a number of arrests, seizures and recoveries. The suspected fraudsters arrested in the course of this operation will be persecuted accordingly.”

“It is instructive to note that, from August 12, 2019 to date, the Operation Rewired coordinated by the EFCC in Nigeria as an impetus to our sustained operations on perpetrators of various computer-related frauds have resulted in the arrest 167 Nigerians for alleged computer-related frauds.” he said.

The EFCC chair further called on the media to continue to lend its voice to the fight against corruption and economic and financial crimes, adding that “the EFCC will continue to partner the FBI and other international law enforcement agencies, especially in the area of exchange of information and actionable intelligence towards bringing to the barest minimum the menace of cybercrimes and other computer-based frauds in the country.”

Tribunal Sacks Senate Spokesman, Adeyeye, Declares Olujimi Winner in Ekiti

The National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State has nullified the election of Senator Dayo Adeyeye as the winner of the National Assembly election in Ekiti South Senatorial District

Subsequently, the tribunal in a unanimous verdict, declared former Minority Leader and the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Biodun Olujimi, winner of the senatorial poll.

Following the declaration of Adeyeye, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the February 23, 2019 senatorial election in Ekiti South senatorial district, the candidate of the PDP, Senator Olujimi, had approached the tribunal praving that she should be declared the actual winner of the election .


She submitted that she scored the highest number of lawful votes cast during the keenly contested poll.

In the alternative, Olujimi prayed the tribunal for the outright nullification of Adeyeye’s victory and order supplementary election accordingly in the district.

In her written address, the petitioner claimed that the election was not conducted in substantial compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act, having been allegedly fraught with all manners of irregularities.

She prayed the tribunal to annul votes in areas that were found to be incredibly marked with irregularities like over voting, multiple thump printing, ballot snatching, ballot stuffing and improper ballot counting to know the actual winner of the poll.

The petitioner also accused INEC of dereliction of duties, saying most of the documents used for the conduct of the election were not duly signed by agents.

FG Targets N9.7tn Budget in 2020, Says Economy Faces Significant Medium Term Fiscal Challenges
But the respondents countered the submission, saying INEC did what was right and constitutional, by declaring the candidate of the APC the winner having found him to have got the highest number of lawful votes.

Delivering the judgment, the three-man tribunal, led by Justice D.D. Adeck, nullified elections in some polling units to declare Olujimi the authentic winner of the polls.

Eventually, Olujimi polled a total of 54,894 to emerge victorious over the Senate Committee Chairman on Media and Publicity, who polled 52,243.

Justice Adeck added that apart from the nullification in some units, the outcome of the tribunal’s verdict was predicated on the recount of the ballots by the contending forces as granted by the court.

Justice Adeck said for the petitioner to be so declared, she must prove those cases of criminal allegations of non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act and other corrupt practices raised in her petition beyond reasonable doubt which he said she did.

The tribunal said in Ikere, Gbonyin and Emure Local Governments, the petitioner was able to prove cases of over voting and votes in those units were expunged from the ballot.

On the voting patterns, the tribunal said: “It is not tenable to say that marked ballots were not properly deposited in the boxes because when this did not happen, then it will lead to over voting and will affect counting at every level of collation.

“To avoid this pitfall, those elections must be expunged in order not to vitiate the electoral process. Therefore, after those votes were deducted, PDP was left with 54,894, while the respondent polled 52,243.

“The petitioner having polled the highest number of lawful votes should be declared the winner of the election.

“We hereby declare the petitioner the winner and she is hereby returned elected.

“We hereby direct the INEC to withdraw the certificate of return from the respondent and issue same to the petitioner”, he said .

by Justina Asishana

A 20-year-old man, Mustapha Aliyu has been arrested for throwing his four months old son into river Uti in Borgu local government area of Niger state.

The Corpse of the baby is yet to be found.

The Suspect, who was arrested by the Niger state Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), said he took the step because the mother of the baby refused to accept the baby and left him in his custody.

Mustapha, an indigene of Kebbi state who resides in Tamaniya village near Kainji in Borgu local government of the state was paraded by the NSCDC on Tuesday in Minna.

Confessing to the crime to newsmen in Minna, Mustapha said the baby was his son but he was not married to the mother.

He attributed his reason for throwing his son into the river as due to depression saying it was the work of the devil.

“I couldn’t take care of the baby alone. I was not happy that the mother left him with me. I do not even know what got into me. It is the devil handwork.”

During the parade, the Niger State NSCDC Commandant, George Edem said that the corpse of the baby is yet to be found.

According to him, Mustapha was arrested based on a tip-off from concerned neighbours adding that the suspect had confessed to have committed the offence.

Edem said that the suspect had been handed over to the police for prosecution.

by Gbenga Omokhunu,




Leader of the proscribed Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky and his wife, Zeenat, may travel abroad soon for medical treatment.

The Nation learnt last night that Indonesia and Malaysia are being considered as possible countries for the treatment.

IMN spokesman Ibrahim Musa told our reporter that Sheikh El-Zakzaky and his wife may visit either Malaysia or Indonesia for medical attention.

He said: “I know he said that they are going to look at other countries – Malaysia and Indonesia. I do not know if they have reached an agreement on that.”

Musa said that Shi’ite members would embark on tomorrow’s Ashura procession in Abuja and other cities, despite Inspector-General (IG) Mohammed Adamu that the group remain banned from doing so.

The police had said that no group should hold protest or procession on major streets in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, except at the Unity Fountain.

But the IMN vowed that the government cannot stop its annual procession.

The group maintained that government does not have any constitutional and legal backing to stop any procession by the IMN.

On Friday, the IMN accused Saudi Arabia of colluding with the Federal Government to stop the Ashura procession.

Top member of the group insisted that the IMN, under the leadership of Sheikh Zakzaky, “is a mass movement of conscious people who abhor injustice and oppression.

Musa said: “There is no going back on the plan to hold the much talked about annual procession. The government should not contemplate attacking us. The government wants to act illegally on our matter. So, I think it is wrong to think that we are supposed to withdraw our plan to hold the procession.

“What right has the government to attack a peaceful procession? Constitutionally and legally government have no right to stop us. We should not be stopped by government from carrying out our religious activities.

“We are exercising our god-given right to mourn the massacre of Prophet’s grandson and also constitutionally we have the right to the procession on Tuesday (tomorrow).

“It is the government that should consider our procession right and not we informing or begging government over our right. This is not going to be the first we are doing Ashura procession. We have been doing it for years and it has been peaceful.”

Musa said that the United Nations (UN) has cautioned the government against clamping down on harmless protesters.

“I am assuring you that there is going to be Ashura procession in Abuja and major cities in the country. There is no need to inform the police about our procession because it is an annual event. And it is their duty to come and give us protection and not to come and attack us.”

By Obinna Chima in Lagos and Chineme Okafor in Abuja



The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Financial Derivatives Company Limited, Mr. Bismarck Rewane, has disclosed that following the closure of the border, petrol now sells for N144 per litre, showing that the closure has blocked smuggling of petrol to the neighbouring countries.

Rewane said the development showed that part of the nearly 60 million litres of petrol said to be consumed daily in Nigeria were smuggled to the neighbouring countries.

He also revealed that diesel price has also crashed to N210 per litre.

Rewane, disclosed this in a report he presented at the monthly Lagos Business School’s executive breakfast meeting for September, obtained at the weekend.

Confirming the drz̄op in petrol smuggling, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Malam Mele Kyari, yesterday disclosed that the volume of petrol evacuated from depots to filling stations across the country has dropped significantly.

Mele Kyari, on his verified twitter handle @MKKyari, which THISDAY observed, suggested that the drop in petrol evacuation from the depots may have been influenced by Nigeria’s closure of its borders with Benin Republic in August.

President Muhammadu Buhari, reportedly said he would hold a meeting with Benin and Niger, who are the country’s northern neighbours, to determine measures to check smuggling across the borders, and that the closure was limited to allow security forces stem the trend of rice smuggling.

But in his tweet, Mele Kyari said: “Significant drop in PMS (premium motor spirit) evacuation from fuel depots noted since August 22nd. May be connected to border closure and other interventions of the security agencies aimed at curbing smuggling. We will contain smuggling of PMS.”

A recent report from the NNPC indicated that between June 2018 and June 2019, the corporation imported 20,898,453,347.24 litres of petrol for consumption, out of which an average of 44,366,781.77 litres were consumed daily in June 2018; 39,154,764.15 litres in July; 54,144,365.76 litres daily in August of same year, and 55,499,192.80 litres daily in September 2018.

The corporation also said that between October and December 2018, the country’s daily petrol consumption level was 56,516,386.60 litres; 53,996,261.10 litres; and 58,172,467.58 litres respectively.

The daily consumption figures rose to 65,938,603.99 litres in January 2019; but dropped to 56,855,696.76 litres in February of same year, before heading down to 30,988,903.59 litres in March 2019. In April of the same year, it rose again to 63,334,876.75 litres and further to 67,606,434.87 litres in May before climbing down to 53,093,286.55 litres in June.

Similarly, a 2018 report of the World Bank stated that Nigeria spent N731 billion to subsidise petrol consumption which figures were inflated.
The June 2019 operations report of the corporation indicated that over a period of one year, the NNPC incurred a total of N718.774 billion on under recovery – a term it uses to describe the cost of subsidising petrol consumption in the country.

On his part, Rewane said the border closure has blocked export smuggled refined products
This, according to him, “makes it transparently evident that Nigeria does not use 60 million litres of PMS (premium motor spirit or petrol) daily.”
However, Rewane report showed that the prices of turkey has since gone up by 38.46 per cent to N1800 per kg and rice up 12.5 per cent to N18,000 (50kg).

“Partly due to a shallow market and indirect interventions by policy makers Buhari orders partial border closure to control smuggling,” he added.

In his assessment of the recently released second quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures, he stressed that 1.94 per cent GDP makes the attainment of the annual projection of 2.2 per cent GDP target a tall order.

The report showed that money supply expanded as the CBN open market operations (OMO) activities intensified.

“Banks are saving their cash to meet the loan-to-deposit ratio of 60 per cent. The average opening position of banking system was N88.72 billion. Interbank interest rates swung between 2.5 per cent per annum to 30.29 per cent per annum,” the report added.

It also revealed that the CBN last month reduced forex sold by 35.04 per cent, to $787.96 million. Forex traded higher on the investors’ and exporters’ window by 57.04 per cent to $6.80 billion, which it attributed to the push by foreign portfolio investors that, “rushed out the door as fears of forex restrictions send jitters down their spines.”

In the parallel market the naira was flat at N360/$.

It revealed wide variation between states with low (7.93 per cent) and high (15.41 per cent) inflation, adding that states with high inflation were mainly prone to internal violence.

“Recession is cyclical. Nigeria used to be insulated from global developments. Now, the country is more integrated with the global markets – foreign portfolio investors, foreign direct investments and trade flows, making it more vulnerable to downturns,” it stated.

Tobi Soniyi and Segun James



Nigeria stands to incur a huge cost if it decides to nationalise South African businesses in Nigeria in retaliation against xenophobic attacks on its citizens living in South Africa. This is because there is a clause in the trade agreement between both countries that clearly forbids such action, THISDAY has learnt.

This is just as the Governor of Lagos State, Nigeria’s commercial capital, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, warned on Saturday that his government will not tolerate any act of lawlessness, as public anger mounted against South African interests in Nigeria. There were reprisal actions in Lagos and other parts of the country over the xenophobic attacks against foreigners in South Africa.

Also, in a strongly worded statement released in the wake of the xenophobic attacks in South Africa by its nationals, the Standard Bank Group, Africa’s largest banking group by assets, with headquarters in South Africa, condemned the act as shameful. The statement signed by Group Chief Executive of Standard Bank Group, Sim Tshabalala, said of the nearly one week of violence against Africans in South Africa, “We stand ashamed before our African brothers and sisters and before the world.”

Investigation by THISDAY revealed that Nigeria and South Africa signed a “Reciprocal Promotion and Protection of Investments” deal on April 1, 2000.

The agreement effectively forbids nationalisation of investments by both countries. This, however, conflicts with recent calls by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on the federal government to take steps to nationalise South African shares in MTN and other businesses with South African content. APC National Chairman Adams Oshiomhole had said the recent turn of events offered the country an opportunity to reflect on why the federal government should continue to allow the companies to repatriate millions of dollars to South Africa every year.

But the bilateral business agreement makes adequate and generous provisions for the protection of investments made by the citizens of both countries in the respective countries.

A copy of the agreement obtained by THISDAY read in its preamble: “The Government of the Republic of South Africa and the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (hereinafter referred to as the Parties), desiring to create favourable conditions for greater investment by investors of either Party in the territory of the other Party;

“Recognising that the reciprocal promotion and protection of investments will be conducive to the stimulation of individual business initiative, contribute to development and increase the prosperity of both Parties;

“Recognising the right of the Parties to define the conditions under which foreign investment can be received and the investor’s duty to respect the host country’s sovereignty and domestic law;
“Determine to increase favourable conditions for greater investment by nationals and companies of a Party in the territory of the other Party.”

A clause in the document provides stringent conditions for limiting the effect of the investment deal.

In the exception clause, Article 6 titled “Expropriation” is quite specific and forbids the nationalisation of the other party’s assets. It says in the event that one of the parties’ national interest requires that it nationalises the other party’s investments, the agreement provides that this cannot be done with impunity.

Liability will follow. The agreement also makes adequate provisions for enforcement of the provisions through arbitration.

Going by the letter and spirit of the agreement, Nigeria may not escape liability if it nationalises assets belonging to South Africans citizens.

Article 6 reads: “Investments of investors of either party shall not be nationalised, expropriated or subjected to measures having effects equivalent to nationalisation or expropriation (hereinafter referred to as “expropriation”) in the territory of the other party except for public purposes, under due process of law, on a non-discriminatory basis and against payment of prompt, adequate and fair compensation.

“Such compensation shall be at least equal to the market value of the investment expropriated immediately before the expropriation or before the impending expropriation became public knowledge;
“Whichever is the earlier, shall include interest at a normal commercial rate until the date of payment, shall be made without delay and shall be effectively realisable.”

The agreement, in Article 6 (2), provides: “The investor affected by the expropriation shall have a right, under the domestic law of the party making the expropriation, to prompt review, by a court of law or other independent and impartial forum of that party, of his or its case and of the valuation of his or its investment in accordance with the principles referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article.”

In Article 5, titled “Compensation for Losses”, the conditions are even more instructive.
It states: “Investors of one party whose investments in the territory of the other party suffer losses owing to war or other armed conflict, revolution, a state of national emergency, revolt, insurrection or riot in the territory of the latter party shall be accorded by the latter party treatment, as regards restitution,
indemnification, compensation or other settlement, not less favourable than that which the latter party accords to its own investors or to investors of any third state.

“Without derogating from the provisions of paragraph 1 of this Article, investors of one party who, in any of the situations referred to in that paragraph suffer losses in the territory of the other party resulting from:
“(1) Requisitioning of their property by the forces or authorities of the latter party; or
“(2) Destruction of their property by the forces or authorities of the latter party, which was not caused in combat action or was not required by the necessity of the situation, shall be accorded restitution or adequate compensation.”

It would be recalled that in his reaction to the xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in South Africa, Oshiomhole had called on the federal government to nationalise South African businesses in Nigeria. He made the call at the end of an emergency National Working Committee (NWC) meeting of the ruling party in Abuja.

Oshiomhole also listed South African businesses Nigerians should boycott to include MTN, Standard Chartered Bank, Stanbic IBTC, and Multi-Choice, owners of DSTV and GoTv, among others.

He stated: “In order to send a very strong message to South African authorities and the South African people, it is worth it for the Nigerian government to take steps to take over the remaining shares of MTN that are owned by South Africans so that MTN becomes fully Nigeria-owned.

“If Nigeria decides at least for the next 30 days to stop using MTN, they would have sent a clear message.”

The APC chairman also asked the government to revoke the licenses granted to banks owned by South Africans in Nigeria.


We Will Not Tolerate Reprisal Attacks, Lawlessness, Says Sanwo-olu

However, Sanwo-Olu said no form of lawlessness in revenge for the attacks in South Africa will be condoned in Lagos State. He gave the warning when he visited scenes of some retaliatory attacks in the state. The governor disclosed that over 5, 000 staff of the malls with South African interests looted by hoodlums had been forced out of job.

Sanwo-Olu promised to meet with the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, over the 125 suspects arrested during the violence. The governor, who was accompanied by members of his cabinet to the Novare Lekki and Surulere plazas that were looted, said property worth millions of naira were carted away.

He said, “When people come into a store overnight to loot the goods, it is an act that must be condemned. For instance, in the mall we are (Surulere), over 2, 000 staff are now out of job. Also, at the Lekki mall, over 3, 000 staff are also affected by this act. These are places that Nigerians are the ones affected more.

“Unfortunately, during my inspection of both plazas, I discovered that those affected were all indigenous stores and companies.”

The governor stressed that to prevent future occurrence such actions, business owners should engage in strong interaction with their host communities. He said when business owners engage in activities that create social inclusion between them and the host communities, residents would protect rather than vandalise their businesses.

According to him, “We need to have our business owners embark on a lot of engagement with their local communities. Business owners need to engage in strong interaction with the community where they do business.

“This will make the people to attach some significance to the brand as it concerns what that brand has done for them in their communities. That brand then becomes something that one relates with. The residents will know that this is the brand that has taken people out of poverty and other things done for them to develop.

The governor said in a news release by his chief press secretary, Gboyega Akosile, “We have seen the amount of enormous destruction in both plazas and the first thing is to condemn in strong terms. Whatever could have led to this, it is an extensive destruction of people’s property.

“As a government we have come out to condemn this and to assure business community that ease of doing business is paramount to us and security of lives and property is part of the to-do list for us.

“We are charging our security operatives to stop at nothing to ensure that they keep all of these facilities safe and secure.”

Standard Bank Group; Ashamed of Attacks
The Standard Bank Group said in the statement by its chief executive, Sim Tshabalala,
“Over the last few days, South Africa has been deeply saddened by a wave of violence against our fellow Africans.

“We stand ashamed before our African brothers and sisters and before the world.
“On behalf of all of us at the Standard Bank Group, I offer our deepest sympathy to all who have suffered and lost.

“We stand in solidarity with our fellow Africans. We stand in solidarity with the great majority of South Africans who live by the values of our Constitution, which commands us to defend the rights and dignity of everyone who lives here.

“Like many other South African companies, our businesses throughout Africa are essential to our success and enable us to tackle unemployment, inequality and economic exclusion. When South Africans attack their fellow Africans, we are hurting ourselves.

“We call on all South Africans to support the authorities and civil society in their efforts to restore law and order and to ensure that all perpetrators answer for their actions in a court of law.

“I am very sad that this is the second time during my tenure as Group Chief Executive that I have had to write to the Group about xenophobic violence in South Africa. I hope and pray that I will not have to do so again.

“The underlying causes of most violence are poverty, inequality and unemployment. Let us, therefore, recommit ourselves to doing all we can to promote social solidarity, sustainable economic growth, and human development in South Africa and throughout this great continent that is our home.
“Africa is our home, we drive her growth.”

A TWIST to last week’s xenophobic attacks in South Africa seems to be unfolding following a newspaper report that the violence stemmed from an “orchestrated campaign to destabilize the country.”

The influential Mail and Guardian reported on Friday that “security cluster officials are investigating the possibility of an orchestrated campaign to destabilize the country.”

An investigative report by the newspaper named the All Truck Drivers Forum (ATDF) as possible instigator of the chaos.

It said: “High-ranking security officials have also discussed the political motivations behind the flare-up in violence, with theories that the violence was part of a campaign to embarrass and ultimately destabilize the presidency of Cyril Ramaphosa.”

It added: In parts of KwaZulu-Natal, freight trucks were attacked and set alight.

Drivers found to be foreign nationals were also assaulted.

ATDF, which purports to represent only South African truck drivers, has dismissed the intelligence, saying that its organisation is anti-violence. Its spokesperson, Sipho Zungu, said on Thursday: “When this latest violence started on Monday we were in court, so there is no way this was us. ATDF has never even had a strike, let alone [engaged in] violence [and] looting. The nation is being misled here.

“What needs to be clarified is that ATDF is fighting for all truck drivers in the country, no matter if they work or not.” He went on to add: “The reality is that South African truck drivers no longer have jobs, and we have been engaging truck owners and government that they must get rid of foreign truck drivers.”

This kind of sentiment, and existing tensions, were worsened by political rhetoric around access to healthcare and unemployment before the elections. It reached boiling point last month, when police operations in Johannesburg to find fake goods were thwarted by shopkeepers, who pelted law-enforcement authorities with rocks, forcing a retreat.

Public reaction to this took on a xenophobic tinge, with some South Africans blaming foreign nationals for a host of problems — from the proliferation of drugs and fake goods, to crime and filth in inner-city Johannesburg.

Information shared with the JCPS cluster last Friday indicated that meetings to discuss strategy and co-ordinate attacks on foreign nationals were to schedule to take place this past weekend. The meetings were to be held at venues in different parts of Gauteng, including the Mzimhlophe grounds in Soweto, Alexandra at Pan taxi rank, Randburg taxi rank, Ezibayeni in Hillbrow and Part Two, Diepsloot.

“I have dated this guy for 8 years when he had nothing, I sold all my parents properties when they died to him through school.

“Now, he has gotten a job, he proposed to me yes but is saying that he won’t marry me in court I refused and he threatened to call off the engagement so I agreed.

“Only for me to search his laptop bag today while I was looking for something and found a photocopy of a court wedding certificate, I wanted to trash it but I just decided to read it, I saw that my boyfriend got married the day he engaged me, he wedded another woman in court in Asaba while we live in PH .

“I remember he engaged me that morning made love to me and traveled that day.

“I found it really difficult to cry and was just laughing and been laughing since I found this out. He just came back and I picked his phone and went to his WhatsApp found nothing, then went to his gallery found nothing before I finally went to his deleted items and found pictures of this particular girl.

I am still laughing because I know what to do. My only question is how? Not physically but I will make sure his life is miserable. I am so broken that I can’t even cry. I just wanted to unburden my heart it is too heavy for me.”

Gibson Mhaka

FOR Duncan Moyo from Bulawayo’s Nkulumane suburb life feels totally hopeless and depressing after his wife, Thandiwe Tshuma, following a domestic dispute, took the drastic action of kicking him out of his parents’ house where they were staying together to make way for her “longtime” boyfriend.

Yes you got it right, if you are in shock and confusion, that Moyo’s wife kicked him out of his parents’ house where they were staying together and accommodated her boyfriend.

A devastated Moyo said his wife used a protection order as a weapon to chuck him out of his parents’ house after their marriage hit turbulent waters.

As if that was not enough, Moyo said his estranged wife was also abusing maintenance payments spending the money on alcohol with her lover.

Moyo, whose world apparently came crashing down around him when his wife invited her boyfriend to stay with her at his parents’ house, cried out for help at the Bulawayo Civil Court where he was seeking a ‘counter’ restraining order against her.

“I got customarily married to Thandiwe Tshuma in 2009 and in March 2018 we started having problems which led her to apply for a protection order against me and it was granted.

“If I try to voice or reprimand her as a father and husband after she does something wrong, she rushes to the police station to report me that I have violated the terms of a protection order and I then get arrested for Contempt of Court.

“During the subsistence of our marriage we have been staying at my parents’ house but I am no longer staying there because ever since she obtained the protection aorder she has been using it as a tool to oppress and abuse me.

“My prayer to this court is that I need protection so that I will be able to move back into my parents’ house and also to stop her from staying with her boyfriend at that house. She is also abusing money I am contributing towards the upkeep of our children. She is using it to buy alcohol with her boyfriend at the expense of the children who are now suffering,” lamented Moyo.
He said after being chucked out of the house, his children lost the security of having a mother and father in the same home.

Although Tshuma refuted accusations levelled against her by her estranged husband that she chucked him out of his parents’ house she, however, didn’t dispute allegations that when he moved out of the house she “replaced” him with another man.

“It is not true that I chucked him out of his parents’ house. He moved out on his own. It is also not true that I am abusing maintenance money buying beer since I don’t drink,” responded Tshuma in a stilted tone.

Moyo’s lifelong suffering will, however, continue after presiding magistrate Tinashe Tashaya dismissed his application saying it lacked merit.
Turning to his request to bar his wife from staying with her lover in his parents’ house, the magistrate said it was “impossible” since he (Moyo) was not the owner of the house.