₦airaland Forum

Samson Folarin

A bricklayer, Adeleke Oyadara, has been tortured to death in Kujore, Iwelepe, in the Sagamu area of Ogun State, after he was accused of robbery.

PUNCH Metro learnt that a businesswoman, identified only as Bolanle, had claimed that she was robbed by the deceased on September 10.

Bolanle, around 8pm of the next day, was alleged to have gone to Adeleke’s house with some hoodlums.
They were said to have descended on the 50-year-old and beaten him to a pulp before putting him in a truck they brought.

Our correspondent learnt that on the way, the group was intercepted by some vigilance group members, who took the case to the Sagamu Police Division.

The victim was said to have been referred to a hospital, and died a few weeks later.

The victim’s wife, Toyin, said her husband was taken away from the house around 8pm on September 11.
She said, “On that day, a man knocked on our door around 8pm. Suddenly, a woman, who had hid behind him, emerged, and held my husband by the waist.

“She claimed that my husband robbed her in a cab the previous day. My husband denied it and my attempt to explain that my husband was with me throughout that day fell on deaf ears.

“The man slapped my husband. They dragged him to where they parked their truck and five hoodlums came down and beat him to a pulp and drove off with him.”

One of the victim’s children, Emmanuel, said he reported at the Sagamu Police Division, adding that he was writing his report when the group brought his father to the station.

“The police referred us to a hospital for treatment,” he added.

Emmanuel said his father was admitted at the hospital for about a month before he was taken back home due to the hospital bills, which the family could not afford.
The son said he was later taken to the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital.

“While on admission, the woman wrote a petition to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Eleweran. The policemen there demanded that we brought my father from the hospital because they thought he was pretending.

“He was at the SCIID when he collapsed and we took him back to the hospital. He died on Saturday, October 15,” he added.

Our correspondent learnt that the police had arrested one of the hoodlums that carried out the attack on the victim, while the woman was said to be on the run.
The family said it had already briefed its lawyer, one Moses Bamgbelu.

“We want the government and Nigerians to help us. We want justice. My dad told me before he died that he had never seen those people in his life. The police also said their investigation showed that my father didn’t commit the offence. He was a bricklayer,” Emmanuel said.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, said it was a case of suspected robbery turned murder.

He said, “From the information available to us, the victim was a cab driver and he was taking the woman to a place. He overheard her discussing about a N1m contract on the telephone. So, he thought she had that money on her.

“He drove into a bush and threatened her with pliers. He searched her bag and found N50,000, which he took and fled.

“The woman raised the alarm and people gathered around her. She told them what happened and described the cab. Those people traced it to the man’s house where he was found and beaten. He was rescued by the police.

“The case was reported as robbery and was transferred to the SCIID. The man was taken to a hospital for treatment. Unfortunately, he died. It has now become a murder case. The woman’s lawyer has been shielding her from arrest, but investigation is ongoing into the case.”

Senators, yesterday, joked over President Muhammadu Buhari’s statement that his wife belongs to his kitchen, living room and the other room.

During yesterday’s sitting which lasted for less than two hours, the president’s statement became a joking subject three times.

It would be recalled that Buhari, during a visit to Germany, last week, had while reacting to his wife’s comment that his administration was hijacked by a cabal, said: “I don’t know which party my wife belongs to, but she belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other room.”

The deputy whip of the Senate, Senator Biodun Olujimi (PDP, Ekiti South), while contributing to the debate on the release of 21 Chibok schoolgirls, said that though she is a woman, she did not belong to the kitchen.

Apparently responding to her, the chairman, Senate committee on women affairs, Senator Binta Masi Garba (APC, Adamawa North), said: “I’m proud to belong to the kitchen.”

Again, while contributing to the debate on confirmation of the Supreme Court justices, Senator Joshua Lidani (PDP, Gombe South), said that the responsibility of women was not limited to kitchen and “the other room.”

Olaleye Aluko

The police in Lagos State have arrested a man, identified only as Nathaniel, for allegedly drugging and raping his 14-year-old housemaid in the Ikotun area of the state.

PUNCH Metro learnt that Nathaniel, who stayed on Ajisegiri Street, in the Egbe area, was arrested by the Ikotun Police Division on Sunday.

It was gathered that the suspect allegedly lured his housemaid, Chinwe (pseudonym), with a cup of juice penultimate Monday, which contained a sedative.

The two persons were reportedly alone in the apartment on the day.

The victim, who is an orphan, was brought from a village in the south eastern part of Nigeria to work in Nathaniel’s house.

It was said that when she woke up, she found that she was naked.

She also reportedly found semen in her private parts.

Our correspondent gathered that after the incident, Chinwe fled the house, dropping a letter for the suspect’s wife to intimate her on the sexual abuse she (Chinwe) had allegedly suffered.

It was learnt that the teenager also confided in a neighbour, who is a pastor in the area.

The pastor was said to have informed a child rights’ organisation, which in turn reported at a police station.

In the letter obtained by PUNCH Metro, Chinwe wrote that she did not want to return to the house as she was fed up with sexual abuses allegedly by Nathaniel.

She said, “Dear aunty, I want to go. I am suffering here. Look at what your husband has been doing to me. The last time that he did it, he gave me a drink and I did not know that he purposely gave me that drink so that I could fall asleep.

“It was when I woke up that I now found myself naked. I now saw white thing on my laps. This is what he was doing to me the other time that I told you that I wanted to go. I do not want to cause trouble for you. Please, call my brother to come and take me away. I want to go and I do not want to stay here again.”

A source with the Child Protection Network, where the pastor reported the case, said, “The man is over 40 years old. He employed the victim as a domestic help.

“He had been sexually abusing the 14-year-old victim. On that Monday, he drugged her juice. That day was a public holiday. When she slept off, he raped her.

“She ran away from the house, because she did not want trouble for the man’s wife. Nathaniel has been arrested by the police. The Family Support Unit of the police is handling the matter.”

The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Dolapo Badmos, confirmed Nathaniel’s arrest.

She said, “The state Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, has directed that the case be charged to court.”

Suspected cult members have shot dead a tailor and a vulcanizer at Ikorodu area of Lagos. First, the cult members killed a father of two, Mr. Segun Showemimo, in his shop at Ikorodu. It was learnt that the incident occurred about noon on Saturday at Itunla, Lemo Compound.

The suspected cult members numbering about four, all dressed in black clothes and blue berets, stormed the area on two motorcycles and started shooting into the air to register their presence in the community. The cult members, according a witness, had earlier killed a vulcanizer.

When our correspondent visited Itunla yesterday, residents said policemen from Igbogbo Division evacuated Showemimo’s body. A witness, Mrs. Dupe Alabi, described the tailor’s killing as very unfortunate. She said: “We were all together in his shop before I went inside my room.

I was about to sleep when I heard gunshot sounds, I rushed out to pick my grandson who was crawling. It was after the dust had settled that we knew that it was the tailor they came for. “I learnt that the cult group also threatened to kill the woman they met in the shop.

We learnt that immediately the woman saw them, she tried to escape but they warned her not to move or they would kill her and her baby.” Alabi urged policemen to patrol the area regularly. According to her, the cult members entered the compound in broad daylight and killed a man without being challenged.

Showemimo’s brother, Morufu, told our correspondent after killing the victim, the cult members stoned the body. He said: “My room window is close to my late brother’s shop. What surprised me most was that after they shot him on the chest and in the head, on their way out of his shop, they brought out stones from the polythene bags they were carrying and started stoning his remains.

They also danced round the body before they left. “We were helpless. Nobody could confront them because we were not armed, but they were fully armed with locallymade pistols. What led to his killing is what I don’t understand because he was an easy going person.”

The woman, who the suspected cult members met in Showemimo’s shop, said when they entered she thought they were customers. She said: “After settling down, they told the tailor to say his last prayers, because they were going to kill him.

When they noticed I was about to go out of the shop, one of them ordered me to sit down or they would shoot me and my baby. “Before I knew what was happening, they all brought out their pistols from the polythene bags they were carrying and started shooting him in my presence.

While this was going on, I was not myself but I had no option but to comply with what they told me.” The woman said the cult members had shot a vulcanizer on Allinson Street in the morning of that fateful day before going to Itunla. She said: “The vulcanizer was tricked to inflate the tyre of their motorcycle before they shot him dead.”

lalasticlala

A serving senator of the federal republic of Nigeria has been fingered in a bribery allegation after a supreme court judge confessed.

Former Governor of Akwa Ibom State, and now senate minority leader Godswill Akpabio may have landed in serious trouble with the Department of State Service (DSS) after a Supreme Court judge confessed to have received bribes from him.

According to Sahara Reporters on Tuesday, October 18, Justice John Okoro has told DSS investigators that he received a bribe of $20,000 from Akapabio when he (Okoro) was appointed to the exalted judiciary position in 2013.

It is believed the incident took place while Akpabio was still governor of Akwa Ibom state where he served from 2007 to 2015 before he was elected to become a senator.

This is coming barely two weeks after
operatives of the DSS stormed several houses of some judges across the country and arrested them based on corruption allegation.

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The tax drive by Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) across the country has caught up with cement manufacturing giant, Lafarge, and other firms for their failure to pay over N1.9 billion in tax. A statement made available to New Telegraph yesterday said the crackdown led to the closure of the affected firms in Lagos, Ibadan and Port Harcourt.

According to the statement, the enforcement team in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, led by Mrs. Ruth Madeun, shut down two companies with a combined tax liability of N1.077 billion dating back four years.

The companies are Lafarge Cement Limited and IGPES. While Lafarge owes N10 million, IGPES owes N1.3 billion in Education Tax, Withholding Tax, Company Income Tax, Value Added Tax (VAT) and late return penalty.

Mandeun explained that while IGPES stopped tax remittance between 2011 and 2015, Lafarge stopped in 2012. She warned that the FIRS would prosecute anybody who unseals the company premises if the tax liabilities were not settled. “Breaking of our seals is a criminal offence and anybody involved in such an act will be prosecuted,” she warned.

In Lagos, the enforcement team led by Mr. Chinazor Edeh shut down the premises of Dori Construction and Engineering Nigeria Limited at 901, Balarabe Musa Crescent, Victoria Island, over tax liabilities of N253 million.

Two company officials said they were not aware that the company had such a huge tax debt. Earlier, the team had sealed off the office of Global Energy Nigeria Limited, located at 182b, Kofo Abayomi Street, Victoria Island. The company has tax liabilities totalling N13 million, accumulated between 2010 and 2013.

The company’s managing director blamed the firm’s failure to pay on the current inclement economic conditions. But Edeh reminded him that the company had provided a payment plan, agreed to by the FIRS, which it failed to implement.

The team also moved to Bono Energy at 19, Amodu Tijani Close, Victoria Island, where a male official pleaded for time to pay a tax debt of N13 million. But the plea was rejected. The FIRS team in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, also shut down the premises of Lebaneseowned Karmadex Nigeria Limited, a livestock company, over N12.3 million liability.

lalasticlala

A 60-year-old trailer driver, Lawal Bankole, was weekend, almost lynched by a security guard, Abdullahi Muhammed, at Iya Abiodun area, Ifo, Ogun State, after he was caught having sex with the latter’s wife, Tope, on their matrimonial bed.

The 45-year-old embattled man, an indigene of Kano State, said Bankole took advantage of his wife’s unstable mental condition to rape her.

According to the Punch, Muhammed had returned from a trip to Lagos Island only to meet Bankole on top of his wife.

Narrating the incident, Muhammed said, “I had returned from my trip when I met him on top of my wife. I had a cutlass and a knife at home and I wanted to kill him. But I had a rethink and I decided to hold him.

“But he tore my clothes and bit me. He fought me and took hold of the cutlass; I held him. We were fighting when people separated us and he escaped.

“However, I held on to his trousers, which contained his driving licence, some cash, phones and ATM cards. I used the items as my evidence. I reported the matter at the Ifo Police Division after which he was arrested.

“My wife has mental problem, which started during her first marriage. She had a surgery that time, but there was a complication which led to the problem. Her ex-husband rejected her, saying he could not live with a mentally-ill person.

“Her family had taken her to different prayer houses for solution to no avail before I came into the picture. I assisted them with money and they decided to hand her over to me in marriage.

“I made sure she stayed indoors always. All she does is to cook and wash my clothes. However, once in a month, she goes to visit her mother and returns. We have a child together, who is about two years old. Her condition is improving, but she is not totally sound yet.”

Reports say the two men could have killed each other but for the intervention of residents who separated them.

The wife, 24-year-old Tope, said the suspect gave her N200, adding that she never met the man until the day he had canal knowledge of her.

Tope, an indigene of Osun State, said, “I have never met the man before. That day, he entered our compound and asked if I wanted to eat and I said yes.

He gave me N200 and went away.

“He later returned and asked me to UnCloth and I did. He put me on the bed and had sex with me. I knew he wasn’t my husband, but I couldn’t shout or do anything. Then my husband entered and caught him.
“The two men started fighting. I ran downstairs to call people. Our neighbours separated them.”

Confirming the incident and arrest, the state Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Abimbola Oyeyemi, said, “The police have arrested the man and he has confessed to the crime.

“He took advantage of the woman’s mental condition and will be charged to court soon,” the PPRO stated.

Authorities of the University of Lagos have expelled 125 students and rusticated 198 others for various offences, including examination malpractices during last academic session.

The lists of the affected students were published on the university’s website on Sunday.

The institution’s Deputy Registrar (Information), Mr Toyin Adebule, confirmed the expulsion and estimation to newsmen in Lagos on Sunday,
Adebule said that the university “will soon publish and display the names and photographs of the students in the media’’.

He said that the action was in line with the university’s zero tolerance on malpractices and other vices in campus.

“Yes we have published some names on our website and these students will be punished in various degrees, depending on the severity.

“Last session, a number of students were caught in various forms of malpractices during their examinations.

“Some were found cheating during the examination with “micro sheets” while others were hired as surrogates to write papers for others.

“Others were caught smoking weeds (Marijuana) right in their halls of residence by their colleagues and reported to the university authorities.

“For those who were caught impersonating, writing examinations for others, they will face outright expulsion,’’ Adebule said.

Adebule said the other categories of students, such as those caught with micro sheets and the smokers, would face suspension ranging from two to four semesters.

“In other to get the desired effect of their various punishments, we are planning to publish all their names as well as display their photographs all over the campus in the next one week.

“We shall carry out this measure in all the departments and faculties in the institution.

“This is to help the university ensure that the affected students will have nowhere to hibernate on campus.

“By doing this, the affected students would know that the university want to ensure total compliance to the sanction and would not want to be seen anywhere around the campus,’’ he said.

Adebule said that before every examination, the university normally make available the rules and regulations for the students to abide by.

He said that such rules and regulations were usually accompanied by various sanctions for defaulters.

According to him, the university will continue to do all it can to sustain set standards and best practices as obtained in other top universities around the world.

Adebule, however, clarified that the development had nothing to do with those involved in the recent students’ riot.

Olaleye Aluko

The Lagos State Police Command has arrested a 24-year-old suspect, Tayo Adeyemi, who confessed to have been hired to kill a female hotel lodger in the Alakija, Satellite Town area of the state.

Adeyemi, who hails from Kwara State, told our correspondent that he was arrested by the police after he sneaked into the hotel, White House, and demanded that his target, simply known as Rosemary, had sex with him so he would spare her life.

PUNCH Metro gathered that Adeyemi, who dropped out of senior secondary school, was arrested by the Satellite Town Police Division last Thursday.
It was learnt that penultimate Wednesday, Adeyemi was brought by two gang members on a motorcycle to the hotel to kill Rosemary.

However, once Adeyemi laid his eyes on his supposed target, he reportedly fell in love with her and eventually attempted to rape her after she rebuffed his pleas to have sex with him.
Rosemary, however, raised the alarm.

The hotel management subsequently called the police, and Adeyemi was arrested.

Our correspondent learnt that one locally-made pistol and a live cartridge were recovered from Adeyemi, who had been transferred to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Ikeja.

The police said the suspect belonged to a three-man gang, adding that a manhunt had been launched for the fleeing two gang members.

Speaking with PUNCH Metro, Adeyemi said he gave the woman N1,500 to have sex with her, adding that he fell in love with his target.

Adeyemi, who spoke in pidgin English, said, “I was working as a casual worker at a bottling company in the Apapa area before I met the gang members in the Ajegunle area. A friend, Wisdom, had invited me to stay in his house.

“His friends, who are Eiye Confraternity members, saw me and said they had a job for me. They said the job was to kill a woman. I said I could not do such a job, but they threatened to kill me and since they had guns, I was afraid.

“Finally, I was left with no option but to do their wish. One of them, Ahmed, gave me the gun and they brought me on a motorcycle to the hotel. But when I got to the hotel room and saw the woman, I fell in love with her and I had mercy on her.

“I told her that I was sent to kill her, but since I loved her, I would just have sex with her. When she declined, I offered her N1,500, and said I would take her necklaces and wristwatch away and lie to my gang members that she had been killed. But she raised the alarm.

“Everyone in the hotel called the police, the Oodua Peoples’ Congress and other vigilance groups. The hotel management called the police at the Satellite Town division.

“When my parents heard about my arrest, they were disappointed. I told them that I was being threatened by the cult members. I did not mean to kill the lady.

Otherwise, I would have shot her and run away.”
The state Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, said the command would not give criminals a breathing space in the state.

President Muhammadu Buhari says his government is encouraged by the support of Nigerians, and he has cited the absence of a riot when he removed subsidy on petrol.

In January 2012, former President Goodluck Jonathan faced stiff citizen resistance when he removed subsidy on petrol. Owing to the public outcry, he abandoned the idea.

According to a statement issued by Garba Shehu, on Saturday, Buhari said this while speaking at an interactive session in Berlin with representatives of the Nigerian community in Germany.

The president said his administration would reciprocate the gesture by strengthening critical institutions needed for sustainable development and prosperity.

“We are working hard to empower our institutions especially our educational institutions,” he said.

“If you educate a person, that is the best you can do for him. But if not, you make him susceptible to religious, ethnic, negative thinking and action.

“Nigerians are virtually supporting us in our fight against corruption, security and the economy.

He referred to Rolls Royces recently discovered in the homes of certain government officials as a clear reference of the rot in society and the fact that the war against corruption in the country was working.

“There are things that are happening, and if such had happened before there would have been major riot, like the removal of subsidy on fuel,” he said.

Buhari told Nigerians in the Diaspora that it was regrettable that over the years oil marketers had colluded with banks to defraud Nigeria of much needed revenue from the commodity.

“One third of the activities of the oil marketers are fraudulent, you can see how some of us Nigerians are wicked,” he said.

“They just take the money, stamp some papers without bringing the product; and this fraudulent activity was between bankers and businessmen.”

The president declared that his administration would continue to to be “very hard on corruption,” in addition to encouraging more Nigerians to pay their taxes.

“If you work hard and get your money we will try and see how much tax you can pay us.But to take money from government and get away with it, no more,” he said.

lalasticlala

Toluwani Eniola

Nigerians on Saturday asked President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately reshuffle his cabinet, following the revelations made by his wife, Aisha.

This call came on the heels of the displeasure expressed by the President’s wife that her husband does not know most of the appointees in his cabinet.

Aisha Buhari had, in a British Broadcasting Corporation interview, noted that the Buhari’s government was hijacked by a few people, who were behind presidential appointments.

In the interview, Mrs. Buhari said, “The president does not know 45 out of 50, for example, of the people he appointed and I don’t know them either, despite being his wife of 27 years.

“Some people are sitting down in their homes, folding their arms, only for them to be called to come and head an agency or a ministerial position.”

Following Aisha’s comments, which have since gone viral, many Nigerians said the President must take urgent steps to reconstitute his cabinet and remove incompetent ministers and aides.

According to an online poll conducted on The PUNCH website, Facebook page and Twitter handle, majority of Nigerians were in support of a cabinet change.

On The PUNCH website, punchng.com, 77 per cent voted ‘yes’ to the question “Do you think President Buhari should reshuffle his cabinet following Aisha’s criticisms of his choice of ministers and aides?” While 23 per cent voted ‘no,’ over 3,000 people participated in the poll.

On Facebook, over 300 Nigerians responded to the same question. Again, more than 70 per cent of them said the president should replace underperforming ministers. Most of the respondents said Aisha had inside knowledge of the workings Buhari’s government.

One of them, Chris  Ukam, said, “Anybody castigating Aisha Buhari is an illiterate and lacks wisdom. Who doesn’t know that Buhari appointed third-class ministers?”

Another, Onifade Victor, said, “Wives are highly sensitive and know when a man is derailing. Capital ‘yes,’ PMB should reshuffle his cabinet. They have been staying together for a long time and his wife knows him better than anyone else.”

Similarly, a Nigerian, Nura Muhd, said Buhari’s wife spoke out in his interest. “Yes, his wife will be the  person to protect him. But since she publicly criticised the way he’s doing things, we support her for him to correct (things).”

In the same vein, Usuf Folmy said, “Please buckle up. No one loves you more than she does. Swallow your pride and kick some people out of your government. They don’t mean well for Nigeria.”

Also, Ogundele Joshua Akanfe said the cabinet change was long overdue. “I think it is overdue, especially the so-called aides he swiftly hired without due consultation. PMB was elected to serve the Nigerian nation and not to satisfy certain individuals. Yes, he should change majority of his aides and ministers that are found wanting.”

Other Nigerians praised the president’s wife and described the BBC interview as ‘courageous.’

Writing on Punch’s Facebook page, Abiodun Ogunbe said, “Since 1960, I have not seen any First Lady that was so honest and bold to tell her husband the truth like Aisha Buhari. She is a God-fearing woman that deserves an award.”

Paul Nweke also wrote, “In fact, if possible, remove all the ministers. None of them is living up to expectations. They are all disappointments.”

Another commentator, Daud Olaolu, urged Buhari to listen to his wife for posterity’s sake. “Absolutely, the First Lady is not the first person to complain about all these parasites within President Buhari’s cabinet.  My thinking is that some of the people in PMB’s cabinet don’t believe in what PMB or All Progressives Congress stands for. Otherwise, how can a SGF (Secretary to the Government of the Federation) spend N270m to clear grass when the country is in a recession and citizens can hardly afford to eat?

“The fact is that most of the people within PMB’s cabinet will find their way into the next government and start to criticise the administration that they participated in bringing it down due to their non-patriotic act. Nigerians will  not remember any of them but PMB and his family will always be remembered for any negative or positive development in the nation’s history,” he stated.

Prominent Nigerians, including civil society groups and socio-political associations, also joined the  call for a reshuffle of Buhari’s cabinet.

In an interview with SUNDAY PUNCH, the Executive Chairman of Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, Mr. Debo Adeniran, said a reshuffle of the president’s cabinet was imperative, owing to concerns over the state of the country.

Adeniran, who commended Mrs. Buhari for her comments,  said Buhari’s ministers had not lived up to the expectations of Nigerians.

He said, “We as a group have expressed our concerns over the underperformance of Buhari’s ministers. The comments credited to the president’s wife  justified our assertion that a change in the cabinet is imperative. There are many misfits in the present cabinet that need to be removed.

“The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, has not shown us that she can handle the job. The economy has been nose-diving. In terms of infrastructural development, all we have been getting are excuses from the government. The Minister of Justice is only repeating the mistakes of his predecessor. He has not been able to bring any of the corruption-related cases to a logical conclusion. I think a change in the cabinet is very important. We will not join others to condemn the president’s wife because she has freedom of speech.”

The Executive Director of the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, Adetokunbo Mumuni, expressed similar views but noted that a change of cabinet should not be strictly based on the president’s wife’s comment.

According to him, if a minister is not performing well based on expectation, such a minister should be changed.

A former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Abdullahi Jalo, said the alleged poor performance of the Federal Government was due to the fact that “the president has been cornered by a cabal.”

Jalo, who spoke with SUNDAY PUNCH, said only three of the ministers were qualified to handle the ministries assigned to them.

The PDP chieftain observed that Adeosun, unlike the former Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had no “strong economic management experience.”

He said the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, was unpopular in the political terrain, adding that this has affected the running of the government.

He said, “Buhari has been cornered by a cabal. Many of the people in his cabinet do not have the support of the people. The former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, is from the South-East. He was a former Senate president. He is rooted in politics. Unlike Anyim, the current SGF, Lawal, has no experience.

“In terms of economic management, nobody knows Adeosun. How could she be given the portfolio of finance ministry?  The ministry requires the expertise of someone who is connected to the movers and shakers of economic management. As long as Buhari surrounds himself with a cabal, I don’t think he will succeed.”

The President of the Ohanaeze Youth Council, Okechukwu Isiguzoro, said the Igbo socio-political group also backed the call for a reshuffle of the president’s cabinet.

He said, “The comments of the president’s wife should be seriously considered. We need fresh people in this government. Also, the president should address the lopsidedness in his appointments and make them reflect Federal Character. We need technocrats who can help us to reposition our economy.”

A prominent member of the Arewa Consultative Forum, Mohammed Abdulrahman, noted that Buhari should be blamed for the state of the nation.

He said pieces of advice given to the president, which would help to transform the country, were turned down by a prominent ally of Buhari.

Abdulrahman also accused the president of nepotism. He stated that many of the ministers were hampered by lack of funds.

Commending the president’s wife for expressing her displeasure, Abdulrahman said if an independent research was conducted, 99 per cent of what Buhari’s wife said would be found to be correct.

The ACF member added that Buhari’s wife expressed the minds of both the Peoples Democratic Party and the APC.

In his reaction, the spokesperson for the Ijaw Youth Council, Eric Omare, expressed concerns over the hardship in the country, adding that many of the ministers did not have access to the president.

“The President has to work on this. Many of his ministers do not have access to him. Some of them have to go through someone in order to engage the president,” he told SUNDAY PUNCH.

Meanwhile, shortly after Mrs. Buhari’s interview, unknown groups have started went viral to spread messages on social media accusing her of intentionally wanting to bring her husband into disrepute. Some of the messages stated among other accusations that the First Lady was in the same camp with some aggrieved persons in the APC. Another said the president’s wife was fighting to remain relevant because her husband was no longer listening to her.

Even though the sources of these messages could not be traced as of press time, the messages were shared many times on social media.

lalasticlala

John Alechenu

With the dust yet to settle over an interview Aisha Buhari granted the British Broadcasting Corporation, a Second Republic lawmaker, Junaid Mohammed, has stated that the President’s recent trip to Germany was for medical reasons.

Mohammed, a Russian-trained medical doctor, revealed this in an interview with SUNDAY PUNCH on Saturday.

Mrs. Buhari had accused an unnamed cabal, made up of individuals who were not part of the struggle for Buhari’s emergence as president, of having hijacked the Presidency.

Expressing her frustration, Mrs. Buhari threatened not to support any attempt by her husband to re-contest in 2019 if things do not change.

Mohammed alleged that the president’s handlers were making similar mistakes committed by those who served as close advisers to ex-President Umaru Yar’Adua.

According to him, Buhari was in Germany to receive treatment for an undisclosed ailment but his handlers arranged a state visit in an attempt to mask the truth.

Mohammed said, “The reason the president travelled to Germany was not what it was advertised to be. The trip is basically a medical trip. It was undertaken for medical reasons. It was only converted to a state visit as an afterthought and that tells you the level of contempt the handlers of the president have for Nigerians. We blamed the handlers of Yar’Adua for the way they kept his ailment secret.

“Now, Nigerians have a big surprise awaiting them. They have not been told the truth about the real state of the man’s (Buhari) health. He is our president.

Nigerians elected him into office and we must never allow individuals to play with our intelligence and do something stupid and dangerous to our country. I hope and pray that next time, the Nigerian people would be told the truth. It’s a medical trip; they (handlers) issued statements to camouflage the real reason behind the trip.”

The former lawmaker stated that those behind the cover-up did not love the president more than Nigerians who voted him into office.
Mohammed also accused those criticising Mrs. Buhari of hypocrisy.

He pointed out that although most of the people would not like to admit it, a good number of them including members of the All Progressives Congress who have been denied access to Buhari, had taken their case to her as a last resort.

“The president’s wife as far as I am concerned, did not speak out for any personal gain. She has her husband’s best interest at heart. I have no doubt she is in touch with ordinary Nigerians and enjoys the confidence of many and she chose to speak for them. Although she exercised a lot of restraint by refusing to name names, we all know that Mamman Daura does not have a voter card,” he said.

Precious Igbonwelundu

A real estate agent (names withheld) on Friday narrated how her Irish lover, James Turner, 64, deliberately infected her with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

The woman who claimed she met Turner eight years ago in Jos, Plateau State, alleged that the man was also willfully infecting other Nigerian women with the virus.

She stated that she reported the Irish national to the police because she wanted him to be stopped from the wicked action.

According to her, they were live-in partners until she decided to investigate on the drugs he usually took only to find out it was anti-retroviral.

She said: “I met James Turner eight years ago. He told me to move to his apartment. I started living with him. We were living like husband and wife. I later observed that he was falling sick.

“I even followed him to the hospital. He was complaining of internal heat and he was sweating profusely. The hospital subjected him to some medical tests. I did not know the result initially as he didn’t allow me hear what the doctor told him.

“Well, I later discovered that he was taking a particular kind of drug and he was not getting better. I ‘googled’ the drug and discovered that it was for HIV patients. I was shocked with the discovery.

“I confronted him but he denied that he has HIV positive. He told me that the drug was for the sore on his leg. I was not comfortable with the answer. I told him that if I must believe him, he should avail me with the doctor’s phone number, but he refused.

“While he was sleeping, I searched the phone and I saw the doctor’s number. I called him and he said I should come to the hospital. When I went to the hospital, the doctor told me that my boyfriend is HIV positive.

“My world crumbled, I fell down and started crying. I regretted ever meeting the man. The doctor advised that I should do test first to know my health status before complaining as I might not be infected. I did the test and it was positive. The doctor took my blood sample to another hospital for confirmation test and the result was positive. I was totally down even though I had no symptoms.

“Well, to kill anger and boredom, I followed some of my friends to a party. He kept calling me whether I was coming home, I became suspicious and lied to him that I won’t come back that night. I was shocked that when I arrived home, I caught him pants down, sleeping with my very good friend. I got angry and told him he was wicked.

“It was at that time that I knew he deliberately infected me with HIV as he started shouting down at me. He told me that I should go to hell, that he has infected many girls and that he was just beginning. He told me that I was a fool. He told me that he sent his wife home immediately he tested positive to HIV.

“He told me to hang myself. He said he’s over 60 years and that he has lived almost his life span, but that I was still 31 and no one would marry an HIV positive person. He told me to go and report anywhere I wished as I would be subjected to ridicule and stigmatisation.

“After listening to his humiliation,I attempted suicide, but I was rescued by my friend. I went back to the doctor, who invited him and advised him to set up a business for me, so that I would be able to raise money for anti-retroviral drugs. He promised to give me N2.5 million to set up business.

“Each time I reminded him of the money, he would start shouting me down. He would start boasting that I was not the only person that he has infected. He would tell me that he has just started, that he would finish Nigerians before he leaves the country.

“I decided that before he succeeds in finishing young Nigerian girls, I should expose him. That is the reason I reported him to the Police. I want the police to stop him as he has gone berserk infecting people and boasting about it.”

However, Turner denied the allegation, insisting it was the complainant who infected him with the virus.
The Irish national was very rebellious and attacked reporters who wanted to take his photograph. He also threw aside midgets and other recording devices that were placed before him for his side of the story.

According to him, he was not going to talk about the issue because the complainant wanted to extort him.
He said: “Bullshit! The girl and others love money.

They want to extort me. I am HIV positive, I know, but she infected me. Ask her what happened in 2013 when she travelled to Kaduna. It was at that time that she got it and infected me. Let her get away. I told her that we should settle the matter, but she decided to embarrass me. I won’t take it.

“I don’t understand why she is bringing all these things up. I did not rape her. We were friends and we will remain friends. I repeat, she was the person who infected me with HIV.”

Briefing reporters on the issue, the command’s spokesperson, Dolapo Badmos, a Superintendent of Police (SP) confirmed that the suspect was arrested following a compliant by his lover.

Badmos said: “On October 13, the Ikeja Division of the command got report from a lady that a friend of hers deliberately infected her with HIV. There seems to be counter allegations. We discovered that one of them infected the other and this is a crime under Section 24 of the Criminal Act. If there is a deliberate act, the law will take its full course.”

On Thursday, October 13, Nigerians received great news that 21 Chibok girls were released by the Boko Haram insurgents.

More than 200 girls were kidnapped from their schools in Chibok, Borno state in April 2014. Some managed to escape, some have been reported dead while others are still in captivity.

The news of the release of 21 of the girls got so many Nigerians praising the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. Many have been reacting to the good news.

However, former President Goodluck Jonathan is yet to issue any statement on the release of the girls.
Recall that the girls were kidnapped during his administration and all efforts to rescue them from their abductors proved abortive.

Here are seven reasons why Jonathan may have decided to stay silent on the 21 Chibok girls release.

1. Shame

The former president may be ashamed that what he couldn’t achieve during his tenure, his successor has achieved. During his tenure, he couldn’t bring back the girls, despite all the efforts made. President Muhammdu Buhari even used the Chibok girls to campaign, which may be why some people voted for him. Jonathan’s inability to conquer Boko Haram and rescue the abducted girls may be one of the reasons he lost the 2015 presidential election.

2. He may be accepting that he was clueless

During Jonathan’s administration, he was given all sorts of names. Many called him a clueless president who did not know how to combat Boko Haram insurgency and rescue the kidnapped Chibok girls. Till he left office, no headway was made in reuniting the girls with their family.

Congratulating his successor on the release of some of the girls may be interpreted as him accepting that he was clueless on how to rescue the Chibok girls .

3. He may be exposing himself as a weak leader

Many still adore the former president and see him as a hero for conceding defeat after losing the March 28 presidential election. If he speaks about the release of the 21 Chibok girls, some might see it as him accepting that he was a weak leader which was one of the reasons some people voted him out.

4. Maybe he is waiting for his party, the PDP to say something

The opposition is always quick to criticize Buhari’s administration. It’s more than 24 hours since news of the girls rescue surfaced and the party has kept mute. It is yet to release a statement which is quite unusual.

5. Maybe he believes it’s a hoax

When the girls were kidnapped, Jonathan who was president at the time, played down the incident. The former president had doubts. Some of his close associates may have told him that it was a plot by his political enemies who don’t want him to return as president. So, the abduction story was dismissed initially until it started gaining recognition with the #BringBackOurGirls campaign. It was when it sparked global outrage that Jonathan’s administration started to show interest.

Some people believe the release of the 21 Chibok girls is just another lie by the Buhari-led federal government. One of such people is Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state who described the report as, “Propaganda, cheap lies and diversionary tactics”.
Just like Fayose, maybe Jonathan also believes it’s one of the lies of the present administration.

6. He may be accepting that he did not empower the military

When the APC took over from the Peoples Democratic Party, it first accused Jonathan of not buying weapons for the military to fight the insurgents. Later, the party accused him of buying substandard weapons. This sparked controversy as many did not know what to believe, whether he did not buy weapons or he bought, but substandard ones.

Since Buhari took over power, Boko Haram activities have reduced. Nigerian troops have been winning the war which may be one of the reasons why the insurgents decided to let go some of the girls.

If Jonathan commends Buhari’s administration for the girls’ release, some may interpret it as him accepting that he did not provide equipment and supplies for the military to fight the insurgents which was why they could not rescue the girls.

7. Maybe he is out of town and has not heard the good news

Could it be that the former president is out of town and has no network where he is? Maybe he has not heard that 21 of the Chibok girls has been rescued. Just maybe…

If you were Jonathan, how would you react to the 21 Chibok girls rescue?

lalasticlala

The Consul-General of Equatorial Guinea in Nigeria, Juan Mbomio, and wife, Maria, are receiving treatment in a hospital in Calabar, after they were shot on Monday, The Nation gathered on Thursday.

It was learnt they were shot by armed robbers around the boundary between Rivers and Akwa Ibom states, while on their way to Calabar, where they are based.
Their Toyota Prado Sports Utility Vehicle was ridden with bullets, some which pierced his neck and chest, while the wife was shot in the knee.

A source said the driver, Isaac Eyup, and a consular attaché, Innocencio Ngomo as well as an unidentified police escort, were in the vehicle when the incident happened.

The source narrated, “The incident happened between 7.45pm and 8pm on Monday, October 10 at the border between Rivers and Akwa Ibom states. The vehicle was blocked and the robbers started shooting from the back and front. The windscreen and the body of the vehicles were ridden with bullets.

“Some of the bullets touched the consul-general and his wife. He had different gun wounds on the neck and chest, while the wife was shot on the left knee. They dispossessed them of their belongings including money and phones. The robbers took off from the scene and left them.

“The consul-general and those with him managed to find their way to Calabar that night and it was on the way that they discovered that they had serious bullet wounds. They got to Calabar at about 12 midnight and at 1.30am they had started receiving medical attention in the hospital.”

lalasticlala

A member of the National Assembly, Mr Ehiozuwa Agbonayinma, on Thursday called on Nigeria to support President Muhammadu Buhari and anti-graft agencies in the fight against corruption.

Agbonayinma, a member of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), representing Egor/Ikpoba-Okha Constituency of Edo in the House of Representatives, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

He said that the wish of every patriotic Nigerian should be for the fight against corruption in the country to succeed.

“Anybody that does not want to support the fight against corruption does not mean well for the country.
“People should support the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), support the Attorney-General of the Federation for us to succeed in the fight against corruption,’’ he said.

The lawmaker pointed out that everybody should get involved in the anti-graft crusade and fight, saying that it was not for the president and anti-corruption agencies alone.

He said that Nigerians should not see the ongoing clampdown against alleged corrupt judicial officers as witch hunt.

According to him, the level of corruption in the country is too high and it is all sectors of the economy and all levels and arms of government, and if not addressed, will destroyed the system.

“Corruption is not limited to a particular sector of the economy but cuts across all sectors, including the judiciary.

“People in the petroleum sector who constituted themselves as cabal robbing the country of big income must be pursued and fished and prosecuted.

“Tomorrow you will see that when the president is trying to fight the cabal to apprehend them, people will say he does not follow due process.

“Don’t be surprised to hear such statement when the cabal is apprehended and brought to book; you hear some Nigerians crying that the president did not follow due process,’’ Agbonayinma said.

He urged all stakeholders, including the media and civil society organisations, to beam their searchlight on corrupt agencies and individuals in the country. (NAN)

Many people ran in different directions in Warri, Delta State yesterday when a young girl of about 15 years presumed to have died suddenly woke up as she was about to be interred at the Warri Cemetery.

The girl, whose name could not be ascertained at press time, was said to have died about 5a.m. yesterday and was wrapped in a mat and placed on top of the soak away at Warri Motor Park. Sources told our correspondent that the girl suspected to be pregnant, allegedly took concoction and went into deep sleep which ostensibly made people to suspect she might have given up the ghost.

It was learnt that sympathisers made up mostly of youths saw her completely naked and presumed that she had died, wrapped her in mat and headed for the cemetery.

“When we got to the cemetery, the workers there dug the grave for her burial. As the remains were laid into the grave and they were about covering it with sand, the deceased sneezed and jumped out of the grave and started shouting,” said a witness. Consequently, there was pandemonium within and outside the cemetery as scores of people thronged the cemetery to catch a glimpse of the ‘resurrected’ girl.

Sources, however, told our correspondent that the girl was immediately rushed to Christ Mercyland Deliverance Ministry, Effurun, near Warri for spiritual cleansing. Attempt by policemen near the cemetery to take the girl to the station was rebuffed by sympathisers who insisted that the matter did not concern the police. They said it was a spiritual issue.

By Evelyn Usman

The Lagos State Police Command has uncovered a factory inside the Police College in Ikeja, where police uniforms and other accessories, are illegally produced and sold.

Police arrested four persons, all women, among them two nursing mothers. Several police uniforms with different ranks, badges, belts, boots cardigans, caps and force numbers were recovered from the suspects.

Vanguard gathered that investigation was still on to ascertain whether the force numbers were authentic.

The arrest came on the heels of petitions to the Inspector-General of Police, IG, Idris Ibrahim, following which he instituted a panel of inquiry headed by a retired IG.

Part of the panel’s recommendations include request that the Lagos State Police Command investigate the matter.

Consequently, the X-Squad of the command, headed by Mr. Bode Fakeye, was directed by the state Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, to clamp down on suspected perpetrators of the illegal act.

The suspects, during interrogation, admitted to the claim but refused to mention names of their buyers.

Spokesperson for the command, Dolapo Badmus, who confirmed the arrest, said: “The CP ordered the officer-in-charge of X-Squad to investigate, after the case was referred to us from the Police High Command, Abuja.

“When he finally investigated and found out that it was true, the CP ordered the arrest of the suspects and seizure of the materials.”

She added that the suspects would be arraigned in court today on a “two-count charge of conspiracy and unlawful possession and sales of police kits contrary to Section 328, Sub-sections A, B, C and D of Lagos State, 2011.”

Samson Folarin

There was chaos in the Mushin area of Lagos after some gang members, who were engaged in a supremacy fight clashed. During the fight, the skull of one Oluwafemi, was reportedly broken with a hammer.

PUNCH Metro learnt that the gang also stabbed the victim with knives, as some others smashed concrete blocks on his head.

Two other residents of Lawani Street, identified as Sheriff Ajani and Samuel Junior, sustained gunshot injuries, while two vehicles were damaged by the hoodlums.

A source said the fight started around 10am on Sunday and continued till 7pm when the gang members allegedly engaged in an exchange of gunfire with security operatives.

It was gathered that policemen from Area C, Area D, Rapid Response Squad and OP MESA soldiers, chased the suspected cult members into Gbobi Sabe, Ogunjobi and Ereko streets.

The source said, “It all started around 10am on Sunday. Femi and a friend were going to a betting centre when the hoodlums, who had mingled with some bus passengers at a park along the Ikorodu Road, seized him.

“In broad daylight, they started hitting his head with a hammer as some of them smashed blocks on his head. They stabbed him in the face with knives. They were about killing him when a group of people rescued him. He was rushed to a hospital where he is lying in a critical condition.

“Just some minutes later, the hoodlums reinforced, entered into Lawani Street and opened fire on residents. The attackers are Japron and Ereko boys.  They include Seidu, Usher, Abbey, Jibade, Famous and Wasiri. They were calling boys on Lawani Street to come out.”

Another source said two residents of Lawani, Ajani and Junior, were hit by bullets and were rushed to a hospital.

It was learnt that the rampaging gang, who vandalised two vehicles on the street, went away with a cow tied down for a celebration around the Railway Line.

However, a resident of Ereko, who identified himself as Samsudeen Olayemi, said the fight was for the control of territories.

“It had nothing to do with us. It was among those who wanted to control the Jibowu area to take fees from POP sellers. We called the police to intervene,” he said.

Although normalcy had returned when PUNCH Metro visited the area around 3pm on Monday, a team of policemen was observed patrolling the flashpoints.

The Police Public Relations Officcer, SP Dolapo Badmos, confirmed the incident.

She said, “I can confirm that some group of boys suspected to be cultists engaged one another in a supremacy fight. The command got the report and deployed response teams from the RRS, the area command and divisions. Normalcy has since returned.”

A 36-year-old woman, Ifeyinwa Nlemchi,who allegedly burnt her husband’s official documents to protest his adulterous acts, was on Monday hauled up before a Yaba Chief Magistrates’ Court in Lagos.

The accused, who resides at No. 45, Church St., Fiwakesin, Agebde in Ikorodu, Lagos State, is standing trial on a two-count charge bordering on malicious damage.

Prosecutor Roman Unuigbe told the court that the accused committed the offences on September 16 at their residence.

Unuigbe alleged that the accused who suspected that her husband was having an illicit relationship with another woman, planted a tape in his office bag to record their conversations.

He said the accused also found out that her husband was spending time at a hotel with another woman and out of jealousy, took all the documents he had brought from work and set them on fire.

“Her husband, who made a report at the police station, said he wanted her charged to court for wilfully destroying four international passports belonging to clients of Multi Choice Nigeria.’’

The offences contravened Sections 338 and 348 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State 2011.

Ifeyinwa, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.
In his ruling, the Chief Magistrate, Mr P.A. Ojo, granted her bail in the sum of N200,000 with two sureties in like sum.

He said one of the sureties must be a blood relation of the accused and should be gainfully employed in a reputable and verified organisation.

In addition, the magistrate said the sureties must show evidence of tax payment to the government.
The case was adjourned to November 4 for substantive trial.

By Clifford Ndujihe, Deputy Politics Editor

Awoist and poet, Odia Ofeimun, is not happy with how Nigeria has been destructured and unitarised over the years and how some vested interests are interpreting restructuring as a move to dismember the country. At the 20th anniversary lecture of the City People magazine, penultimate Thursday, he traced the socio-political history of the country and proffered ways Nigeria can be restructured without pains.This was captured in the 48-page lecture he titled:

”Restructuring the Nigerian Federation Without Tears.” After the lecture, he also entertained questions from an audience that included Chief Tola Adeniyi and Mr Jahman Anikulapo among others. Among other things, he said the North moved against the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan because of the next round of crude oil sharing even as he insisted that delay in restructuring Nigeria is delaying the progress of the country. Excerpts:

ON restructuring Restructuring, which is so much on everybody’s lips implies changing the arrangements in accordance with which we are being governed. It may imply just a change of arrangements but it means different things to different people.

Some elder statesmen who should be providing clearer perspectives, have turned the ground quite potty by viewing it in terms of a bid to dismember Nigeria; that is, seeing the demand for restructuring as a wager between a unitary system of government, which they confuse with national unity, as against true federalism, which seeks to devolve power from the centre to constituent units. They take the position of beneficiaries of a system, who do not want things to change.

Others see it as a matter of enthroning the old regionalism that was smashed by military coups in 1966 but is now being proposed for a revamp from three and four into six geopolitical zones. The latter, superficially, raises fears that, having six zones like former Yugoslavia, is tantamount to taking a leaf from a country that has since dismembered into seven different countries. These fears, it would seem, have yielded an extremist dimension represented by President Muhammadu Buhari’s wish for local governments to gain autonomy from state governments so that states will no longer be able to “act as if they own the local governments”.

True meaning of restructuring: I see restructuring as a change in the spatial arrangements by which we are governed. It calls forth the necessity to have protected and defended cultural and economic geographies for the exercise of power. The point is to bring it all down to the level of serious interactive discourses so that it is not left simply in the hands of those defenders of the people’s interests who, being human, can sometimes stumble and fall in the course of waging the good fight to right the wrongs of our time.

Shabby compromises[b]

Let’s just say that this intervention is about proper definitions, accounting, and monitoring of how we got to where we are, and may yet arrive at what is most desirable about Nigerian Federalism without falling into half-way houses, shabby compromises and complete reversals and displacements of goals – such as what I call the Khalifah Syndrome – which accompanied and mangled many of our national struggles in the past.

[b]The Khalifah Syndrome

I want to make a special mention of the June 12 Struggle. Let us remember, that once upon a time, we all woke up to find that key stalwarts who were standing on June 12, began to ask for General Sani Abacha to intervene in order to unlock the jam and immobilism that had overtaken the country. Our own Gani Fawehinmi, Beko Ransome Kuti, Bolaji Akinyemi, Ken Saro Wiwa – all the pro-democracy princes were rooting for the man whom all those conversant with the politics of the Nigerian Army called The Khalifah, the successor. It was spooky; and it was clear that someone they had a reason to trust had overcome their sense of vigilance.

Soon after, the General actually took over power and all the pro-democracy people including the avatars of the National Democratic Coalition, NADECO, were nominating their chosen ministers into Abacha’s cabinet. Even the custodian of the mandate, Chief MKO Abiola himself later admitted that he too agreed with General Sani Abacha that he could stay for a while.

Transition council

Except that nobody really cared to ask: how long is a while ? That is, until the General proved his status as Khalifah by digging in so deep, it required his seizure of the custodian of the mandate to define what a while could mean.

Thereafter, at his death, and after the passing away of the custodian himself, another opportunity arose to refocus. It became a turf war between the radicals in the pro-democracy movement who wanted pure democracy and the patriarchs who wanted a select group of elders from across the country to constitute a transition council.

It was actually a fruitless debate because there was no way an electoral process – with electoral commissions etcetera – could be adopted without giving the military, already in power – a significant role. So, poor strategizing gave the baton back to the military.

They promptly rooted for one of themselves, already appropriately civilianized after jail, to come to power. This created the opportunity for another chance when the Alliance for Democracy decided to work with the newly elected President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government. It was made to appear as serious decision-making even when the real issue was no longer whether to work or not work with the government but who should be sent from the pro-democracy bracket.

In my view, at such critical conjunctures, the pro-democracy stalwarts in our midst have always managed to flunk the test because of being too strapped to a personality profiling of issues rather than bother with core ideas or agreed goals.

Formation of APC, a strategic failure

In my view, the most heinous of such strategic failures, and one that is being made to appear like a success story, is the pursuit of the coalition that yielded the fusion called All Progressive Congress, APC. It is a highly dispiriting failure that cannot be properly understood by looking at its presumed success in ousting President Goodluck Jonathan from Office.

In itself, that ouster was the failure; especially, given the replacement that was rooted for with so much vigour by people who said they wanted restructuring. Only the day before, restructuring of the Federation had been the rousing mantra. It was so swiftly abandoned or let us say toned down to the point of denial, after the advocates discovered a beeline to political power as a more valued project.

Proponents of restructuring distancing themselves from the idea

They began the distancing of restructuring away from themselves; they, who had literally driven the whole country to a frenzy, a virtual apoplexy, in pursuit of a Sovereign National Conference that was supposed to achieve restructuring!

Agitatorial designs

True, no matter how they defined the
sovereign in the national conference, it was clearly an impossibility to get it according to their agitatorial designs.

But they ought to have been the first to know that. It turned out that the mode in which President Goodluck Jonathan eventually pulled it off was the only way to get it right without self-deception. Which still did not prevent the lack of sovereignty from being raised as a rationale for rejecting the Conference. The rejection thrived on other bits about its rushed nature, it’s coming too close to the general election, and therefore it’s being a part of a hidden agenda.

I dare to say that only those who were not paying attention to the setting up of the Belgore Commission, the civil society confabs, and the reviews in both houses of the 7th National Assembly, could stake such grounds for their rejection of the National Conference. Anyhow, the big snag, and the actual source of delay in putting the conference on the road in the first place, was that some stalwarts who had once supported restructuring as the spine of their political projects, simply acceded to thoroughly unfounded reasons for joining the push against the President of a minority ethnic extraction whom a Doctrine of Necessity had put in Aso Rock.

Why North moved against Jonathan

Let’s put a finger on it: It was not just because there was an agreement inside the PDP that only a northerner could take over from Umaru Yar’adua. Even if there was, a private arrangement in a political party should never have been considered fit to overawe a national constitution.

To concede office to the Vice President after the death of President Yar’adua, should have been automatic for true patriots. The more plausible rationale for not doing so was that all former Presidents of Nigeria, and shadowy cabals around them, wanted to have their leg in the door for the next round of bidding for oil blocks.
They could not trust a leader of minority extraction, whose siblings were sitting with explosives on the ready, on top of the oil reserves, to do it in their own interest.

President Goodluck Jonathan himself, not being a child of the bride’s chamber in his party, really could not have had any clue as to what the hullaballoo was all about.

His trying to be his own man, as the whole country obviously expected, was at the heart of the crisis. No one knew this better than former President Obasanjo whose inability to put strings on either Yar’ Adua or Yar’ Adua’s successor, was his core reason for wanting to build a national constituency to oust a President regarded by many as his protégé. President Jonathan was so very snidely, and so quickly, slapped with being clueless in a way that was meant to de-legitimate him before he could do any damage to his putative minders after the Doctrine of Necessity that brought him to power.

This was compounded by those who knew that this President of minority extraction, who was already putting his foot down to hold a National Conference even before he was sworn in, was not averse to restructuring the Federation.

Famous oil war
Yes, in spite of Goodluck Jonathan’s wily naivety, they knew. Another way of saying this is that the split that led a large Arewa bloc to exit from the Peoples Democratic Party was, properly speaking, a move in the war to restructure or not to restructure the Nigerian Federation.

The big salvo about Jonathan’s cluelessness had taken off within that famous oil war, the occupy Nigeria episode, in which many people fought against their country while imagining that they were protesting against a clue-less President. Along the way, while President Jonathan was literally bending over backward, through appointments and projects sited in the North, to win back the masses from those who had left his party, the leader of the pack, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, zeroed in.

He had wasted his first term in office as President in so much grand-standing before he suddenly realized during his second term that he needed a third term in order to do grand things that he could make grandiloquent speeches about. The pity is that it was this search for a third term, through a successor, that the Action Congress of Nigeria ACN as a party had to embrace as Prince Henry The Navigator, as the party joined a standing open conspiracy. No question about it: it remains one of the great tragedies of the Fourth Republic, one great defeat of rationality in Nigerian politics.

As it happened, all the forewarnings about coalitions that could destroy the basis of decades-old agitation for restructuring and the politics of social welfare were ignored by the adventuring coalition-builders who soon landed a truly unique but quite unprepossessing fusion called APC. Every indicator of danger in the highly quixotic search for a messiah was pooh-poohed for standing in the way of the search for power. They saw restructuring of the federation no longer as a core issue but a peripheral one to be dispensed with, according to the coming electoral heist.

Restructuring matter

This was why very little was done to define what kind of restructuring they needed. It was a case of get the messiah first, and restructuring would follow; that is, if it would still be needed. Or was it a case of if we have power, why should restructuring matter? Either way, it was another return to the Khalifa syndrome which had enabled Abacha to stay for a while and to dig deep without anyone having laid a basis for reclaiming the boggled mandate.

The parameters were simply never laid out, nor was there a reasoned apportionment of personnel to guarantee commitment to shared goals.

Quite unsettling is that, listening to, and reading what is being poured down by many old and born-again champions of restructuring, it is clear that there is so much missing in the discussions, with too many people too much at sea to know what to do about it.

Officially, having rejected the way of the National Conference, with President Muhammadu Buhari, interning the report on a shelf that he may never return to, it has become obvious that those who wish to have Nigeria restructured have a fight on their hands that may be tougher than any they had yet seen.

So to say, the battle for restructuring is not one that Nigerians can lose. But it could be won for the wrong reasons. And that would be tragic. Which is why advocates of restructuring need unusual thinking caps while they are at it.

Former National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, has said that the 2015 general elections were not perfect, noting, however, that the polls represented a remarkable departure from the country’s ignominious history of fraudulent elections.

Speaking yesterday in Lagos at the 50th birthday anniversary lecture of the National Legal Adviser of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Muiz Banire, the former electoral body chair, who spoke on the theme ‘Challenges and Prospects of Sustainable Credible Elections in Nigeria’, said there is need to check the excesses and recklessness of politicians for the country to sustain its electoral prospects. “No doubt, it is necessary to institutionalize credible elections in Nigeria, and to not allow a reversal from the gains made in 2015.

“The 2015 elections were far from perfect, but they represented a remarkable departure from our ignominious history of fraudulent elections to the path of sustainable elections with credibility and integrity.

“Badly or poorly conducted elections had in past damped our enthusiasm for transition to democracy and undermined our capacity to enjoy good democratic governance, with dire negative consequences on the livelihood and aspirations of a majority Nigerians.”

Identifying the attitudes of politicians as one of challenges militating against the nation’s electoral process, Jega said: “The unwholesome mind-set of our politicians is one of the challenges of our electoral process. There are some decent politicians but they are very few.

There are only few decent politicians. Nigeria has a special breed of politicians, they are militricians because they have imbibed the attitudes of the military over time. “I quite often say that Nigeria has a special breed of politicians (‘militicians’). They generally tend to believe that political power through elections has to be “captured”, and this has to be done by hook or by crook; and by any means necessary!

“For many of them, winning election is, literally, ‘a do-or-die’ affair. That is why the Nigerian political/ electoral arena increasingly resembles a bloody battlefield, with maiming, killing, burning, assassinations and unimaginable destruction of lives and property.”

Notable among dignitaries present at the gathering include governors of Ogun and Jigawa states, Senator Ibikunle Amosun and Badaru Abubakar respectively; Minister of Power, Housing and Works, Mr. Babatunde Fashola and his Solid Minerals counterpart, Dr. Kayode Fayemi; Chief Razaq Okoya, among others.

Daily Trust: After you were kidnapped by Boko Haram members, what happened to you next?

Fatsuma Abdullahi: We spent four weeks in Gombi town and proceeded to Markas, a forest in Sambisa near Talala village where we finally settled. Months later, the insurgents insisted I marry one of them, an offer I turned down. I gave in when they threatened to sell me off. That’s how I ended up married to Boko Haram ‘scholar’, Abu Hafsah for three years.

DT: How did you escape?

Fatsuma: The ideology clash between Shekau and Mamman Nur helped my people escape, because the strong members were too obsessed by it. In fact, Shekau killed many scholars who advocated for the Chibok Girls swap deal with government.

Shekau and his followers still hold the belief that all Nigerians are infidels, except those who follow his path. While on the other hand, Mamman Nur and the learned people among the members opined that anybody that observes the five pillars of Islam is a Muslim.

DT: You said Shekau killed many in cold blood...

Fatsuma: Yes. My husband, who is also a scholar, was against the killings, so he supported Mamman Nur. One day, he confided in me his plan to defect. Unfortunately, some militants came in the night and told him that Shekau ordered them to pick him. He woke me up and handed his new phone to me, and advised me to sell it and escape with the children because Shekau is going to kill him.

Weeks later, Shekau sent his fighters to kill all the men in Markas, because they rebelled. It was a major battle, but luckily our men defeated Shekau’s.

After that incident, our men joined Mamman Nur, and we were taken to Gwangon area, very close to Damboa town. The persecution became worse after Albaghdadi announced his support for Mamman Nur. Shekau refused to back down, that Albaghdadi is also an infidel, and threatened that he will not spare even women and children in the forest.

Many of us panicked when he made that statement. I told the other women my intention to escape, but none of them bought the idea. They warned that vigilantes are everywhere in the bush, and they would be cruel if found that I escaped from Boko Haram. But I’d already made up my mind.

About 11:30pm, I backed my child and took the bush path with my four children. We trekked for about four hours, then came across five insurgents. They helped me identify the proper route Buni Yadi. As we spoke, vigilantes sprang out of nowhere and shot one of them dead. I didn’t run, but my son ran with the escaping insurgents. I still can’t find him.

DT: Had you ever been to Sambisa Forest, before the ideology crisis?

Fatsuma: Yes, we went there after the army dislodged us from Buni Yadi. At that time, Markas was not a safe place, so we went to Sambisa. We spent some weeks but Shekau refused to talk to us, so we went back to Markas.

DT: Were you able to see the Chibok girls?

Fatsuma: Yes, but most of them were sold off as slaves. Some were married off, and others imprisoned. One of them lived in a room next to mine. She wanted to escape, but I couldn’t help her then.

DT: Were you there when Shekau demanded for Chibok Girls swap?

Fatsuma: Actually, it was Mamman Nur who tried to bargain for the Boko haram scholars. But Shekau is the one keeping the Chibok Girls. He kicked against the idea, and threatened to kill the girls if it came to that. My husband told me before he was killed that Shekau will not release the Chibok Girls.

• Unnamed woman was rushed to hospital with a vomiting and swelling

• Was unable to eat and vomited every time she took a sip of water

• Doctors discovered six by four inch hairball in her stomach and intestine

• Diagnosed her with Rapunzel syndrome  - where people eat their own hair

A woman who was hospitalised with swelling and vomiting astonished doctors when they discovered the cause was a giant hairball.

The 38-year-old was admitted suffering from constipation and an enlarged abdomen. 

She had lost more than a stone after having no appetite for the previous year, which doctors said left her looking tired with an unhealthy pale appearance.

Tests were inconclusive and surgeons were first to explore after her condition deteriorated.

When surgeons operated they discovered a hairball lodged in her stomach, roughly the size of a melon, with a 'tail' going into the first part of her intestine.

It measured six by four inches with another, smaller, one in her large intestine.

lalasticlala

A teenager and his alleged lover, on Thursday denied having sex through the anus, when they were arraigned before an Igbosere Magistrate Court.

Eighteen-year-old Ebere Nwankwo, who is a cleaner at a shopping mall in Lagos and Job Martins (20), a housekeeper, both male, were allegedly caught having anal sex at Goshen Estate Ikate Lekki, sometimes in August 2016.

It was alleged that Nwankwo stole a Zenith Bank Plc Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card belonging to Martins and then used it to withdraw the sum of N22,000 from his account.

“The defendants were caught having sex through the anus and when asked why they engaged in such an act, Nwankwo said Martins, whom he described as his boyfriend, forced him to have sex with him through the anus because he took his ATM to withdraw N22,000 from his account.

“Nwakwo said he had promised to pay him back the money when he collects his salary, but that Martins replied that he didn’t want the money, but gave him a condition which was to allow him to have sex with him (Nwakwo) through the anus,” a police prosecutor told the court.

Nwankwo allegedly agreed to the act, on the condition that it would be the last that he would have with Martins, as he did not like the act since he was not a girl.

But they were caught in the act by some people who reported the matter to the police.

They both pleaded not guilty, but were denied bail, as the court said it was only the high court they could approach for bail.

The magistrate adjourned the case till November 11 for legal advice from the office of the Director of Public Prosecution

The Minister of Sport and Youth Development, Mr. Solomon Dalung, on Thursday said the seeming crisis in the ruling All Progressives Congress may not be unconnected with 2019 elections.

Dalung, who briefed newsmen after visiting the party’s National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, at the secretariat, said most of the challenges inherited by President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration were also causing unrest.

Signs of cracks in the APC emerged recently when a national leader of the party, Alhaji Bola Tinubu, called for the resignation of Odigie-Oyegun following the outcome of the party’s governorship primary in Ondo State.

The minister pointed out that APC was a party that embodied diverse interests, started out as an amalgamation of different political groups, and graduated into a political party that formed a government.

He said, “Now, the management of that interest is very critical, but the challenge the party is facing, and the government, is that the government inherited a situation where it has more challenges of fixing the country.

“So nothing or no good attention at all would have trickled down along the line in view of the economic constraints government found itself.
“That is enough to stir bitterness in the party and this can give birth to crisis.

“The second perspective you could take a look at has to do with the future, a politician is a very ambitious person.

“In everything he does, including the step of movement, he calculates ahead of time.

“So, it could also be that some politicians had viewed the future and they are already dusting weapons for a political showdown to set the tune of their political ambition.”

He expressed worry about looming crisis in the party and called on the leaders involved to sheath their swords.

He said, “There is no reasonable person in government that won’t be worried, because the unity of the party is the unity of the government.

“So we are concerned; our position is to appeal that all those that are involved in the crisis are our leaders and we respect them very much as young people.

“What we expect from them is to bequeath durable legacies and I don’t think that crisis is part of what they intend to bequeath to us.

“They should be guided by this fact that the younger ones are interested to learn positively from them.
“Everybody should sheath his sword and appreciate the contribution of re-fixing Nigeria and let the future determine.’’

On the recent defection of the former governor of Plateau, Joshua Dariye, from PDP to APC, Dalung said “the action shows that APC has something to offer.

He added, “For us as members of the party, it is a thing of great joy and is an endorsement of our manifesto as the only credible manifesto that can stand the test of time for now in Nigeria.

“So, we welcome his return to the APC family and we wish him the best as we journey together in repositioning Nigeria.”

lalasticlala

Olalekan Adetayo, Abuja

President Muhammadu Buhari is in possession of some letters, written by former President Goodluck Jonathan, to request “off-budget funds.”

This was contained in Buhari’s authorised biography, ‘Muhammadu Buhari: The Challenges of Leadership in Nigeria’, written by Prof. John Paden and presented to the public on Monday.

An online dictionary defines “off-budget funds” as funds not provided for or included in the regular Federal Government budget; funded by sources other than the federal budget.

In the ongoing anti-corruption war of the present administration, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had arrested and quizzed many of Jonathan’s former ministers and aides for alleged diversion of funds.

Most of them, including the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.), are being prosecuted for allegedly diverting funds meant for arms procurement and using the funds for the prosecution of the 2015 presidential election in favour of Jonathan who was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party.

It is generally believed that the former government officials could not have spent the funds in question without Jonathan’s instructions.

The author captured the travails of the former office holders in Chapter 20 of the book, which is titled ‘Corruption and law in military procurement’.

Under the subheading, ‘The role of PDP leaders in the diversion of funds’, Paden said although the letters, written by the former President, were in Buhari’s possession, the President’s purpose of waging the corruption war was not to jail former top government officials but to retrieve the stolen funds.

He said the stability of the nation’s political system seemed to be at stake if the EFCC should go after Jonathan or any former President or military leader for that matter.

He, however, said such former Nigerian leaders could trade their knowledge for immunity and help the government identify patterns and sources of corruption.

Paden added, “The fact that Buhari was enlisting the help of international community in the probes lent weight to the seriousness of his effort – and also meant that alleged offenders had nowhere to hide.

“Would the trail lead to former President Jonathan himself? As of the early months of 2016, it appeared that the EFCC was not going after Jonathan. Nor was it going after former President Obasanjo.
“The question of the stability of the entire political system seemed at stake.

“In addition, a number of senior military officers, who had served as Heads of State – from Babangida to Abubakar – seemed off-limits.

“Indeed, rumours swirled that if the probes went after senior officers, they might push back because they had extensive networks in the active military services.
“At the same time, the knowledge such heavyweights possessed could well be traded for immunity and would help to illuminate the patterns and sources of corruption.

“Buhari had letters in his possession showing Jonathan’s requests for off-budget funds. But Buhari’s larger purpose was not to put former high-level officials in jail.
“Rather, it was to retrieve stolen funds and to change the political culture of the country.”

Meanwhile, the author also revealed that a total of 184 civil servants were disciplined for their different roles in the padding of the 2016 budget.
Of the 184, Paden said 22 top officials were dismissed from service.

He said the President viewed the padding as an attempt to scuttle his administration’s innovations, hence his decision to wield the big stick against the culprits.

The author wrote, “Buhari himself was frustrated by earlier padding of the budget by bureaucrats in some of the ministries.

“This was interpreted by the Buhari team as an attempt to scuttle the innovations proposed by the President by inflating their costs.

“When Buhari found out, he was reported to be angry and ordered a purge of the ministries involved from the Director-General down.

“Twenty-two top officials were dismissed, including the budget director. In all, 184 civil servants were disciplined.”

He added that even after the budget had been adjusted downward by the National Assembly, the country would still have to borrow $3.5bn, as a result of the drop in oil prices.

In February, Buhari had while addressing the Nigerian community in Saudi Arabia, vowed that all those involved in the padding of the 2016 national budget, which led to the discrepancies in the document, would face severe punishment.

He had said the alterations, which he described as embarrassing and disappointing, made the document, being debated in the National Assembly at that time, completely different from what was prepared by the Ministry of Budget and National Planning.

Describing those responsible for the distortion of the budget proposals as entrenched interests, the President had said since he had been holding public offices, he had never heard about budget padding before the incident.

Buhari had added, “The culprits will not go unpunished. I have been a military governor, petroleum minister, military Head of State and headed the Petroleum Trust Fund.

“Never had I heard the words budget padding. Our Minister of Budget and National Planning did a great job with his team.

“The minister became almost half his size during the time, working night and day to get the budget ready, only for some people to pad it.

“What he gave us was not what was finally being debated. It is very embarrassing and disappointing. We will not allow those who did it to go unpunished.”
Reaffirming his government’s zero tolerance for corruption, Buhari said the war against corruption was a monumental task that he was determined to tackle successfully.

A young man nearly escaped being lynched to death Wednesday evening after he was caught red-handed sleeping with a married woman in Kaduna State.

The incident happened at Goningora area of Kaduna South.

DAILY POST reports that the accused had been ‘servicing’ the married woman for long now.

A resident of the area, who gave his name as Rana, said the woman’s husband works in the town but comes home only during the weekend.

He said luck, however, ran out of the accused on Wednesday when the man returned home and met the man on top of his wife on his matrimonial bed.

The visibly angry husband grabbed the naked man and raised alarm, which attracted the attention of other neighbours who pounced on him.

When our reporter arrived the scene, the victim was already in coma, while the woman was seen naked crying.

Findings reveal that the mother of two has been married to the man for ten years now but has no regard for the husband.

The timely intervention of some community elders saved the man from being stoned to death.

dre1I:

Samson Folarin

A 35-year-old woman, Loretta Ewere, has been electrocuted at her fiance’s home on Ajoke Kazeem Street in the Idimu area of Lagos State.

PUNCH Metro learnt that Ewere’s fiancé, Segun Tolani, was fixing an electrical fault when the incident happened.

She was said to have been rushed to a private hospital in the area but was rejected before being confirmed dead at the Igando General Hospital.

Our correspondent, who visited the area on Tuesday, gathered that Ewere and Tolani had scheduled their wedding for November and preparation was in top gear when tragedy struck.

A resident, who did not want to be identified, said the incident happened around 1pm on Saturday, adding that it created chaos in the neighbourhood.

He said, “The man had wanted to change his old cable TV decoder and antenna. When power was restored, he discovered that he didn’t have electricity in his house.

“He wanted to do it himself, but neighbours advised him to get the service of an electrician. He contacted an electrician who billed him N2,500. But he said the charge was too high. He decided to go and rent a wooden ladder from someone in the area.

“He mounted the ladder on the wall and called the lady from inside the room to assist him in holding the ladder. She held the ladder with one hand and held an iron pole beside the room with the other hand.

“While he was working, the wire fell and touched the pole she was holding and that was how she was electrocuted.”

PUNCH Metro learnt that Tolani called for help from a next-door neighbour, whose wife reportedly rushed to the scene to pull out the victim with her bare hands.
She was reportedly flung by the electric current.
An electrician was said to have been invited, who then disconnected the power.

“The woman fell down and hit her head against the concrete floor. People tried to resuscitate her by giving her milk; but she didn’t come round. A lot of time had been wasted. She was rushed to a private hospital in the area, but she was rejected.

“We took her to the general hospital, where she was confirmed dead. Her corpse was deposited in a mortuary,” another resident said.

PUNCH Metro gathered that Ewere, an indigene of Ewuru, Delta State, worked in Union Diagnostics, a medical lab in Ikeja, while Tolani, who hails from Ekiti State, worked with an insurance company.

When our correspondent visited the victim’s family house on Ogidan Street, Idimu, they said the family was too distraught to talk about the incident.

However, a relative, who identified himself simply as Charles, blamed the incident on Tolani’s stinginess.
He explained that the duo had been living together for the past four years, adding that the two families had started preparation for their wedding.

He said, “They did their introduction four years ago and since then, they had been staying together. Their marriage was slated for November and the two families have bought clothes and sent invitation to people.

“Around 1pm of the day that she died, she called one of her friends that she would be going to shop for the wedding, not knowing that she would die that day.
“It was the man’s stinginess that killed her. If he had paid someone to fix the electrical fault, this would not have happened.”

Meanwhile, friends of the victim have started paying tributes to her on the social media.

One of them, Kehinde, wrote on Facebook, “Loretta (Ewere), a member of the Purchasing and Supply Students Association, The Polytechnic Ibadan, was kind-hearted, brilliant and reserved. The industrious lady was preparing for her last two exams (slated for October 4 and 6) left for her to become a graduate when she died. We love you, but God loves you most. I pray He accepts your soul and comforts your household.”

The Police Public Relations Officer, SP Dolapo Badmos, confirmed the incident.
She said the corpse had been deposited in a mortuary for autopsy.

She said, “The woman, Loretta Ewere, was electrocuted around 9am. She was living with one Segun Tolani, to whom she was supposed to be married next month. They were fixing a GoTV antenna when power was suddenly restored. Ewere, who was holding the antenna wire, was electrocuted. The corpse has been deposited in a mortuary for a post-mortem examination.”