₦airaland Forum

Tony Okafor, Awka

A medical doctor and three others have reportedly died of Lassa fever in Anambra state.

This was disclosed in a one-day Lassa fever training workshop organized by the state Ministry of Health.

A resource person in the workshop, Dr Jane Ezeonu confirmed that the medical doctor died at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Teaching Hospital, Nnewi, on Tuesday.

The director of Public Health in the state, Dr Emmanuel Okafor, said the state recorded the death of three others, recently.

Ezeonu said the late doctor was referred to NAUTH from Asaba, Delta state. She warned the people of the state to stop drinking raw garri, adding that they should protect their food and related items from rats.

She explained that people don’t acquire immunity after suffering from Lassa fever, as believed in some quarters.

Ezeonu said general hygiene was important in Lassa fever prevention.

Dr Okafor said the essence of the workshop was to train professionals who would go to the grassroots to educate the people on the prevention of the disease.

He said “In Anambra we don’t know the number of cases of the disease but we have three confirmed deaths.

He called on health workers in the state to exercise high standard in handling Lassa fever cases.

Okafor said the state government had put proactive measures to handle the scourge.
“We are having the workshop for prevention, not that we have an epidemic in the state, Chukwuka said.

Afeez Hanafi

There was pandemonium in Okwelle community, in the Onuimo Local Government Area of Imo State after a couple were murdered by some suspected assassins.

It was learnt that the assailants had stormed the couple’s house on Saturday evening wielding cutlasses and other weapons.

They were said to have taken turns to rape the woman in the presence of her husband and their children, after which the couple were hacked to death.

Our correspondent learnt the assailants subsequently fled with the deceased’s three children.

The Imo State Police Command, which confirmed the incident, said the cause of the attack had yet to be ascertained, He added that some arrests had been made in connection with the killings.

However, a resident of the community, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the husband had a serious disagreement with a woman lately.

He said, “I got to know about the incident from a friend, who is a neighbour of the couple. I learnt the husband had a quarrel with a woman who followed the assassins to deal with the family. His wife was raped and given matchete cut and the killers went with their three children. The woman has been arrested.”

The Imo State Police Public Relations, DSP Andrew Enwerrem, said the police were making efforts to arrest the killers and to rescue the abducted children safely.

He said, “The couple were murdered and their three children were taken away and the police have made arrests of about three suspects, who are undergoing investigation. The children have not been recovered. I don’t have the names of the couple with me now.”

The Saudi Arabian authorities have arrested three pilgrims from Kwara for alleged possession of substance suspected to be cocaine.

Hajia Fatima Abolore-Jimoh, the Executive Secretary, Kwara Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board, confirmed the arrest on Wednesday from Saudi Arabia in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

She said the three pilgrims, who were among the first batch of 505 Pilgrims from Kwara, were arrested in Madinnah by Saudi Arabia security operatives.

The executive secretary, who did not disclose the identities of the three suspects, said they were still in the custody of Saudi Arabian authorities.

Abolore-Jimoh said the Saudi Arabian law would certainly take its course on the three suspected drug traffickers.

She described the arrest as unfortunate and painful in spite of several appeals to them to be good ambassadors of Kwara and Nigeria.

The executive secretary said that other pilgrims from the state were still in Madinnah, hale, healthy and in good spirit in spite of the unfortunate incident.

NAN reports that 1,978 pilgrims from the state are performing the 2016 pilgrimage exercise.

An official of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Segun Enikuemehin, who dared to ask some military men who were assaulting a civilian to desist from such a dastardly act is currently at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) with one of his eyes totally damaged.

The incident occurred on Sunday afternoon when Mr. Enikuemehin came upon the military men beating a harmless civilian. Convinced that the military officials would beat the man to death if nothing was done, he reportedly walked up the angry soldiers and pleaded that they let the man go or hand him over to the police if he had done something illegal.

The military men would not take such effrontery lightly as they descended on the Good Samaritan and started beating him as well.

But not even the beating from the soldiers would discourage him, and he managed amidst his own beating to rescue the already battered man, whom he then took to the Adekunle Police station at Ebute Metta.

Our sources say that thereafter, Mr. Enikuemehin led the police back to the venue of the incident. Upon sighting him in the company of the policemen, the soldiers, who were by that time already cooling off at a nearby beer parlor, became even enraged and descended on Mr. Enikuemehin, during which they eye was plucked out.

The damaged eye was reportedly picked from the ground and the man rushed down to the General Hospital. Rejected upon arrival by that hospital, the blinded man reportedly asked that he be taken to LUTH.

Meanwhile, the soldiers, upon realizing what they had done, were said to have taken to their heels but were overtaken by residents and handed over to the police.

The story got messier when a relative of the stabbed Federal Road Safety Officer went back to the police station only to find that the military men had already been released by the police. While still digesting that development, one of the accused soldiers walked into the station in the company of a senior officer who was identified as Captain Okoli.

Speaking to SaharaReporters, Mr. Enikuemehin’s Uncle, Prince Ojatunwse Oluwajoba, said the DPO of Adekunle Police Station informed him when he got there that the soldier who stabbed his nephew had been handed over to the military authorities. He said that soldier, who had been in civilian clothes when the incident happened, arrived at the police station with Captain Okoli to collect his identity card and other personal effects that had been taken from him at the station.

According to Mr. Oluwajobaa, doctors at LUTH are now saying his nephew’s left eye has been completely damaged and that the second eye might be affected as well if proper medical care is not given.

Olaleye Aluko

The Lagos State Police Command has launched a manhunt for some members of the Oodua Peoples’ Congress in the Ijora Badia area of the state for allegedly killing a resident, Rasak Muritala.

PUNCH Metro learnt that one of the suspects, Dauda Iyanda, was arrested by the Ijora Badia Police Division on Sunday shortly after Muritala died.

Our correspondent gathered that the OPC members, who were allegedly working for a police inspector, identified only as Ibrahim, had stormed Church Street, Ijora Badia, about three weeks ago.

They allegedly beat up residents with charms and, thereafter, cut Muritala, who was a worker at the seaport in Apapa, with machetes, for reporting the inspector’s high-handedness to police authorities.

Our correspondent learnt that Muritala, who hailed from Abeokuta, Ogun State, and a father of one, battled with the injuries sustained from the attack before he died on Sunday.

A resident of Church Street, who identified himself  only as Wasiu, claimed that the OPC members also flogged the victim with a charm.

He said, “There was panic on our street that day, which was July 11. The OPC members came in around 11pm and started shooting. They went to many houses and attacked residents who were against the inspector.

“Muritala was cut with machetes and flogged with a charm. He died today (Sunday) around 12pm. He was working at the seaport before his death.”

Another resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “Muritala was treated at home after several hospitals rejected him. The attack was a reprisal against the residents who reported the inspector’s high-handedness to the authorities.”

The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Dolapo Badmos, confirmed the incident, adding that investigation was ongoing.

She said, “The victim, who was attacked by some OPC members, died on Sunday. An OPC member from Safejo, Amukoko area, has been arrested, while other suspects are still at large.

“Meanwhile, the victim’s corpse has been deposited at the Mainland Hospital, Yaba, for an autopsy. The suspect will be transferred to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Yaba, for further investigation.”

Solaade Ayo-Aderele

Ask any adult the type of diseases that mosquitoes give, and malaria fever is likely to be the answer. While this is true, the awful fact is that mosquito bites transmit more than malaria, because the disease that a particular mosquito carries depends on the mosquito type.

So, what kinds of diseases are mosquitoes capable of inflicting on their victims? These ones…

West Nile fever
West Nile fever is a mosquito-borne infection by the West Nile virus. As bad as this fever is, experts say, approximately 80 percent of the infections in humans have few or no symptoms.

Experts however warn that “serious problems can include infection of the brain (encephalitis), spinal cord, and tissues surrounding the brain and spinal cord (meningitis), which can be fatal.” Most cases of WNV are not serious and many people have no symptoms or they may only manifest mild flu-like symptoms, such as headaches, muscle aches and a high temperature (fever).

The best way to be sure of your ailment, therefore, is to see the doctor if you have some of these symptoms.

Zika virus disease
Experts say this virus is a member of the virus family Flaviviridae and the genus Flavivirus. Zika virus disease is mainly spread by mosquitoes.

“For most people, it is a very mild infection and isn’t harmful. However, it may be more serious for pregnant women, as there’s evidence that it causes birth defects — particularly, abnormally small heads (microcephaly),” scientists warn.
It is spread by the Aedes mosquitoes, such as A. aegypti and A. albopictus.

As bad as this disease is, experts say, most people don’t have any symptoms. If symptoms do occur, they are usually mild and last around two to seven days.

But commonly reported symptoms include rash, itching all over the body, fever, headache, joint pain (with possible swelling, mainly in the smaller joints of the hands and feet), muscle pain, conjunctivitis (red eyes), lower back pain and pain behind the eyes.

St. Louis encephalitis virus
Like others, the SLEV is transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected mosquito. The symptoms include fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, and tiredness.

Infected older adults could develop encephalitis, which is an inflammation of the brain, and it could result in long-term disability or death if it is not carefully treated by doctor on time.

Yellow fever virus
A General Practitioner, Dr. Tunde Owoseni, says, “The specie of mosquito that is known to transmit the virus that causes yellow fever is called Aedes aegypti.”
“Yellow fever is not to be taken lightly, as it could kill if urgent care is not sought,” he warns.

Owoseni notes that yellow fever has three stages of infection, and they are:
Stage 1 (infection): Headache, muscle and joint aches, fever, flushing, loss of appetite, vomiting, and jaundice.

Stage 2 (remission): Fever and other symptoms go away.

Stage 3 (intoxication): Problems with many organs may occur, including the heart, liver, and kidney.
Dengue fever

Experts say, “Dengue fever is a painful, debilitating mosquito-borne disease caused by any one of four closely-related dengue viruses. These viruses are related to the viruses that cause West Nile infection and yellow fever.

“Dengue fever is transmitted by the bite of an Aedes mosquito infected with a dengue virus.”

Like the other disease-transmitting mosquitoes, experts say, the Aedes mosquito becomes infected when it bites a person who has the dengue virus in his/her blood; and when such an infected mosquito bites an otherwise healthy person, s/he also becomes infected.

“Dengue fever is therefore a person-to-person infection,” researchers say.

Owoseni says that the symptoms of dengue usually begin to manifest four to six days after infection and could last for up to 10 days if treatment is not sought.

“The symptoms include sudden, high fever, severe headaches, pain behind the eyes, severe joint and muscle pain, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, skin rash, which appears two to five days after the onset of fever, mild bleeding (such as nose bleed, bleeding gums, or easy bruising),” Owoseni explains.

Malaria fever
The World Health Organisation says malaria is caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected female mosquitoes such as the P. falciparum, which is said to be the deadliest malaria parasite and the most prevalent in Africa.

“The first symptoms of malaria include fever, headache, chills and vomiting, and they usually appear between 10 and 15 days after the mosquito bite.

“Without prompt treatment, P. falciparum malaria can progress to severe illness and death,” WHO warns.
The bottom line: Mosquitoes are killers. Rid your environment of mosquitoes by disposing of empty containers that could hold unwanted water for days. Use mosquito-treated nets, and also insecticide in well-ventilated rooms as necessary.

Kill mosquito before mosquito kills you!

Femi Fani-Kayode, spokesman of the campaign of former President Goodluck Jonathan, has alleged that Ali Modu Sheriff was used to destroy the All Peoples Party (APP) under former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Fani-Kayode served Obasanjo as minsters of culture and tourism as well as minster of aviation.
He described Sheriff, who is currently the factional chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as a mole, saying serial betrayer, who can never be loyal to any cause.

Fani-Kayode said this in response to
Sheriff’s claim that the ex-minster begged him when the duo had a face-off earlier in the year.

While answering a question on Sunday Politics, a programme on Channels Television, Sheriff had advised Nigerians not to take Fani-Kayode seriously.

“Fani-Kayode is not the kind of man that Nigerians should take seriously. He changes the goal post on every matter,” Sheriff had said.

“When Fani-Kayode accused me of Boko Haram sponsorship, I asked my lawyers to write him, and he started begging, he sent about 20 people to me.”

But Fani-Kayode immediately issued a statement to debunk the claim, and later went on Twitter to make some revelations.

“We used him to spy on and destroy the APP when Obasanjo was in power and now Buhari is using him to destroy the PDP,” he wrote on Twitter.
(with or for. Go and ask around. We used him to spy on and destroy the APP when Obasanjo was in power and now Buhari is using him to destroy).

“Each time he goes to a new party that is not in power at the center he assumes the role of a government mole and spy.
“Talking about changing goal posts, it should certainly not be him.

“All in a matter of a few years, he has changed political parties four times, and everywhere he goes, he fights everyone until they get tired of him and push him out. He was in APP, then ANPP, then APC and now he is in PDP.

“He comes into another man’s house or political party and tries to pull it down by deceit and guile. He does not have the courage to be loyal to any cause, any person or any political party. He is more of a gangster.
“He is the opposite. He pretends to be a friend and a loyalist when his real plan is to stab you in the back and kill you as the northern star.

“Luckily he has failed because 99 per cent of PDP members have rejected him and now he is on his own. He failed in his evil mission.”

Describing Sheriff as a “desperate and drowning man”, Fani-Kayode said the party’s factional leader had the motive of destroying the PDP.

He also denied the allegation that he sent people to beg Sheriff.

“Lying Ali Modu Sheriff told Channels TV that I sent people to beg him for claiming that he was Boko Haram. These are the lies of a desperate and drowning man,” he said in a statement.

“Modu Sheriff came to destroy the PDP and if we did not rise up against him and kick him out when we did, he would have succeeded in his mission.

“I am proud to have been the first to see him for what he is and to publicly blow the whistle on him.

“I was one of those that led the rebellion against him and orchestrated the campaign to push him out and dump him as the national chairman of our party, and many have thanked me for that. including some of those who brought him in the first place, and attempted to impose him on us.

“The man is of the devil and no-one should believe a word that comes out of his mouth or take him seriously. He is a curse to the PDP and the sooner he is kicked out of the party the better it is for us all.”

The Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports has refunded the $4,600 paid for the team in São Paulo on their way to Salvador by the Dream Team’s captain, Mikel Obi.
The ministry also assured players and officials of the team that they will be given all that is due to them.

The Sports Minister, Barrister Solomon Dalung, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Mr. Chinyeaka Ohaa, said this while addressing the players and officials after the 2-0 defeat of Denmark in Saturday’s quarter final match in Salvador.

He said, “I am happy to be a Nigerian, because in spite of all the challenges, you have taken the world by storm; you have by your performance given happiness to more than 160 million Nigerians.

Football is the biggest unifying factor in Nigeria today. From Mr. President to the average Nigerian you have made everyone proud today.

“I am humbled by your efforts, your commitment, your patriotism. I want to assure you that your sacrifices will not be in vain. Aside whatever the NFF have for you, we will as much as possible make you happy, if only you will be patient with us. Today, with your performance, I am convinced that you will get that gold.”

In his response, Mikel said, “We want to thank you for your fatherly support. In truth, there have been a lot of challenges, but every time we go onto the field, we forget about everything and make sure our fatherland comes first.

“We have done that so far and we will continue to do that, but we need more motivation.”

The traditional ruler of Nri Kingdom, Anambra State, His Majesty, Eze Obidiegwu Onyensoh (Nri Enwelana) has given insight into his kingdom and shared some rather shocking norms and traditions behind ascending the throne.

Onyensoh, who is the 26th Eze Nri in the kingdom, said he ‘symbolically’ died and was buried for three days before he was crowned king, adding that the method of ascending the throne is not by election, but by divinity.

In an interview with the Punch, His Majesty, on how he ascended the throne, said “In this kingdom, for you to be an Eze Nri, you also have to die. The candidate for the Eze Nri must die symbolically, and after three days, the person will wake up. During the person’s death, he takes a new body and when he wakes up, he must shine like a star.

“What I am telling you may sound like exaggeration but I tell you, it is the truth! The candidate must die! When the candidate dies, he will be buried in a shallow grave for three days; his body will be buried, but his head will be left outside the grave. During that period, he will undergo a transformation; pass through a stage, from human being to spirit, after which he will wake up and his body will be adorned with white chalk (Nzu) and he will shine like a star. From there, he will leave his father’s compound.

“He will not leave through the door. It is presumed that he has grown above passing through the door. They had to put a ladder for me to climb over the fence and I landed outside and I left my father’s compound. This happened like 28 years ago.

“While you are in the grave, you are being mourned by your family and the entire village will be in festive mood, eating and dancing every day. After that traditional mourning, when you wake up again, you take a new body and you are now a spirit. So when you have taken a new body, you go to a confluence river. The nearest to our community is the Ezu River, which is in Aguleri. At that confluence, they employ divers, who go down deep into the sea to scoop clay, which would be used to mould a pot. The Eze will drink from it and we call that pot, Udueze.

“After the Eze has drank from it, the pot would be seen as a very precious pot because the clay used in moulding it was got from the depth of the sea, from a confluence of two rivers. When the divers go in there, they would want to test your agility and spirituality as an Eze. If the diver does not come out, well, that is it! But if the diver comes out with the clay that would be used in moulding the pot, then you are Eze (king).

“Around our place here, we have two confluence rivers where an Eze Nri could be taken. There is Lokoja and there is Aguleri. Since Lokoja is far from us, we have to go to Aguleri, that is Ezu na Omambala, Abanaba.

”From there, you will visit all communities that are descendants of the Nri Kingdom and then you go home triumphantly as a king. Then you embark on another visit to Umueri clan, which contains 118 settlements. You have to visit as many as you can, and they will know that a new Eze Nri has emerged. After then, the clans will now return the visit to Eze Nri, where the Eze Nri will settle in his Obi (domain) and receive them. During that period, the Eze Nri will stay in a hut that is akin to half room, and will return to the spirit world for eight days, before he will now become a human being again.

“While he is in that spiritual state, he does not receive visitors because he is still a spirit. But after the two market weeks of eight days, he could receive visitors.

But before then, no one sees him, he is served food from underneath the door; no one is permitted to see him physically. When he leaves the Obi after eight days, he moves to his palace, which at that time, must not be a zinc building but would be built by a certain leaf, called Uma, which is usually broad. That is where he would stay for two years before his palace would be changed.

“Also, we have a kind of system that when a traditional ruler passes on, we have to stay seven years without a king. Those seven years will give the people time to know which person would occupy the throne. They would look for signs and signals.

“One section of the community produces, and then another does. There are three villages here. So the lot fell on my village to produce the traditional ruler and my village needed someone who would occupy the seat. In 1987, while I was in Port Harcourt, my people invited me home and I came, only to be told that the position of Eze Nri had shifted, and that I was likely going to be the person to occupy the throne. Our method to determine who would become the king is not through election; it is divine.

“We would have to perform what we call ‘Afa’ (divination). The gods would have to say who it would be. Whoever the gods appoint for that position cannot refuse it. The gods were consulted and the lot fell on me. I could not believe it. I was like, ‘how can a poor man be the traditional ruler?’ I was a young man and I had nothing. I had just returned from the US and was looking for a way to earn a living. Let me also say that before you become a candidate for Eze, you must have taken all the titles.

“I had not taken any title then, so I had to start taking all the titles one after the other. I finalised it by taking the Ozo title. When that ended, I took a higher one – the Oba title. The long and short of it is that there are so many titles one has to take to become Eze Nri. You have to visit all the shrines in this community and all the ancestral homes. We are the descendants of Eri.

All the Eri communities and all the shrines in the communities had to be alerted of the emergence of a new Eze Nri. It took us about three years to take all the titles,” Onyensoh added.

Jesusegun Alagbe

As he sat on the chair last Monday evening, Prince Ugochukwu brought out a white handkerchief from his pocket with his right hand, wiping off the small tear drops that clouded his red eyes.

If he had known, he wouldn’t have accepted his friend’s invitation to visit him in Switzerland. Ugochukwu said he would have stayed back in Madrid, Spain, where he worked and lived. He would have renewed his residence visa in Spain and become a citizen.

Of course, that was his dream that has now been cut short brutally.

 He had planned to spend just three days in Switzerland but that journey quickly turned out to be a nightmare, leading to his eventual deportation to Nigeria.

 He said he had visited Switzerland back in 2014 without any problem. But his second trip to the country was the beginning of his sad experience. They declared him an illegal immigrant.

The 35-year-old Ebonyi State indigene had been living and working in Madrid, Spain, since 2003. He visited Nigeria in September 2015 and left the Murtala Mohammed Airport happy and feeling great, only to return to the country like a destitute.

Ugochukwu cried briefly when he first met our correspondent, but he composed himself and told a story that left many questions than answers.

  “On September 9, few days after I got back to Spain, I bought a ticket with Swiss Air to visit my friend in Switzerland. We are close and I was free at work. So, I decided to go and spend three days with him. I left Madrid and arrived in Geneva, Switzerland later in the night of that day. On getting to the Geneva Airport, the immigration officials there checked my documents,” he said.

 But after checking all his documents, the officials said he would not be allowed into the country.

 He said, “I asked them what the reason was because I had all my documents intact. I have a residence visa in Spain and by European laws, I am permitted to visit any other European country and stay for three months, not to work, but to visit.

“I told them I was not coming to work, but to visit a friend for just three days. Meanwhile, I had an appointment to go for the renewal of my residence visa on October 5 because the one I was holding would expire on September 26, so I had planned not to stay for more than three days with my friend in Switzerland.

 “They said I had to go back to Spain. After much effort trying to explain, I stopped arguing with them. I asked them how soon they would allow me to go back to Spain and they said as soon as possible. I believed them — only to see them packing my luggage and collecting my Spanish residence visa. I also had my Nigerian passport, which would expire in January 2017. They collected everything; the documents, my tablet and phone and wristwatch. They made an entry for all of them and asked me to acknowledge them by signing, which I did. Then they asked me to wait.”

But later that night, rather than put him back on a flight to Spain, Ugochukwu said they transported him from Geneva Airport to a location in the city which he didn’t know. That night, he said they locked him in a confinement that had no windows.

He continued, “I was kept in there for three days without committing any criminal offence. I didn’t know why they did that to me. They didn’t allow me to communicate with anybody. I didn’t know when it was night or when it was day. On the third day, they brought me out and asked me to come and see one lady in an office.

“She was explaining something to me, but she was speaking in French. I told them I didn’t understand French and demanded they should bring someone who could speak English or Spanish which I understand.

“So they brought an old man who explained to me that they were setting me free on that day and that I was going back to Spain. The man told me that they said I shouldn’t come back to their country till December 17. I was at least happy. They asked me to sign a statement to that effect and I did so. After signing the paper, I asked them how soon I was going to be taken to the airport and they said a vehicle would be coming to pick me up later.”

 The vehicle indeed came, only to carry him to another detention facility in a place called Sion. In that place, another suffering began for him.

But Ugochukwu did not imagine what would happen later.

He said he spent two months and three weeks in that facility without any explanation.

 He said, “I had no access to lawyer and no medical facility. I was there when my Spanish residence visa expired. All through the period, I kept asking them when I was going back to Spain. I told them I was working in Spain and I had two kids and dependants. ‘You couldn’t just keep me here,’ I told them. They refused to listen. When I was there, my health condition started deteriorating because of the poor water they gave me. There were rashes all over my body. The pain was severe. At nights, I couldn’t sleep because I was feverish. I complained to them and demanded they should take money from my wallet and buy me bottled water. I also demanded they should take me to the hospital. All these fell on their deaf ears.

 “They said they were going to talk to their director; they were just lying. Instead of taking me to the hospital, they gave me paracetamol tablets which I took for one month and 10 days. I requested that they should allow me see the Nigerian Consulate in Geneva because I just couldn’t understand my situation. They didn’t take me to the consulate. I was kept in that confinement till November 19.”

Around 1am on November 29, 2015,Saturday PUNCH learnt that while he was sleeping, four hefty men with masks entered his room. Before he could know what was happening, they had pinned him on the floor and handcuffed him.

 Ugochukwu said the unknown men sprayed some kind of gas on him, which made him lose consciousness. By the time he regained consciousness, he found himself inside an aircraft, his hands and legs tied to the seat with chains.

 He said, “I looked around and saw other passengers. They were not chained like me. A security official sat beside me. I asked him where he was taking me to. He said we were going to Nigeria. I remember the plane got to Italy first, and from there it landed in Greece. As passengers were disembarking from the plane, others were embarking. I was the only one who couldn’t move. Then we got to Nigeria. Before we landed, the security man removed my chains and when we got to the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos, I demanded to speak to Nigerian immigration officials.

I was taken to an immigration officer who was the head of the department there. I told him I was not an illegal immigrant as the people who brought me back claimed. I told him I had been living in Spain since 2003 and I even had permanent residence visa, which I had been using for 10 years. If I had renewed it on October 5, I would have become a citizen of the country.

“I told him I worked in a factory which produces carts used at shopping malls. I had also worked at construction sites, bakeries and others. I asked the immigration officer to ask the man who brought me to release my documents and other items. He said I should wait and that he would get back to me. I waited, only for him to tell me I should come back two days later, on a Monday. When I got there, I was given my documents, only to realise my Spanish visa, my bank card and hospital card were not included. The immigration officer said that was all they gave him.”

Since then, Ugochukwu had been traumatised, brought back to Nigeria empty, and has been enduring the shame any other person who were in his shoes would have felt. All his efforts to seek redress to his “unjust” treatment have not yielded any fruit.

“I went to the departure hall at the airport to meet some officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I explained everything to them and they asked me to produce copies of all necessary papers, including the ticket I bought to go to Switzerland. They said they would look into it for me. They have yet to do that up till now,” he said, showing the said documents to our correspondent.

He said, “Since January 2016, my children have not been going to school. I have no money. I am stranded in my own country. I had to relocate my family to my village in Ebonyi State. I have been squatting with friends in Lagos and it’s not easy. If I had renewed my visa, my family would have been able to join me in Spain. I wasn’t married when I first got the residence visa, but on expiration of the former visa and application for a new one, I would have indicated I am married and they would join me. But look at what has happened to me.

 “Right now, I walk around like a lunatic, which I’m not. Everything I have — my money and other things — is in Spain. I have gone to the Spanish Consulate in Lagos. I presented all my documents for verification, but their argument is that they wouldn’t be able to do anything for me because they were not the one who brought me back to Nigeria, but Switzerland. They said they don’t have any hand in this matter. Why should Switzerland do this to me? I am a confused man right now.

“In 2014, I lost my job and went to Switzerland to solicit for social benefits, which is not a crime. After five months of application, they denied me, saying that I could only apply for that in Spain where I came from. I didn’t argue with them. I left the country. I didn’t fight with anyone and I have never been a terrorist suspect.

“It was the second time of visiting the country and they did this to me. I want them to tell me what my offence is. My life has turned upside down. Since December 2015, I don’t have any means of income and I have not been feeding my family. Why should I be treated this way? I have not been able to overcome this shock.”

Meanwhile, a human rights activist and constitutional lawyer, Evans Ufeli, who has taken up Ugochukwu’s case, said it was wrong for the Swiss authorities to have detained his client without any explanation to him.

 He said, “This level of human right violation is gravely repulsive. This horrific case must not go forgotten. There is no country in the world where a legal immigrant will be wrongfully detained for up to two months without being charged to court or allowed access to a lawyer.

“This is a case of gross infringement of our client’s fundamental right and we hereby call on all the relevant authorities through this medium — the Presidency, the United Nations Human Rights Council, the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Nigerian Immigration Service and Switzerland High Commission in Nigeria to come to the  rescue of this young man whose apartment is still in Spain but cannot return because the Swiss immigration authorities are still with his Spanish residence permit and vital travel documents.

“The Swiss government through its High Commission in Nigeria should issue a re-entry visa to our client forthwith, to enable him to find his way back to his abode in Spain. The Swiss citizens in Nigeria are not treated this way here. We cannot allow the kind of abuse to go unchecked in our land. Our client deserves some level of dignity as a human being.”

When contacted on Friday, an official of the Switzerland Embassy in Abuja, Andreas Jolanda, told our correspondent on the phone that Ugochukwu’s case would be investigated.

The spokesperson for the Nigeria Immigration Service, Mr. Ekpedeme King, said something might be “fishy”about Ugochukwu’s story, and promising to look into the matter.

“It might be that his documents are irregular or an illegal immigration issue,” he said.

It was like a mirage, when one Isa Hamma of ChaffaJaule village in Fufore local government area of Adamawa State presented himself at the Jimeta Clinic and Maternity for an ailment. After diagnoses, he was issued with drugs and discharged and asked to come back after three days for follow up.

According to the elder brother of the victim, MallamUmaru Isa Yahya, he said that when they came back for the follow up on the appointed date, the doctor handling the case at the clinic, Doctor Yakubu Hassan, after clinical observation, told them that the ailment required surgical operation and it would cost N50,000,00.

Umaru said they went and mobilised the money and the surgery was carried out, however the victim could not urinate resulting to swelling of his body.

“On seeing the condition of the patient, he, (the doctor) referred us to the Federal Teaching Hospital, Gombe on the account that the case was beyond his limit” he said

Yahya added that at the Federal Teaching Hospital, Gombe, the medical personnel said “kidneys of the victim were removed after he underwent surgical nephrectomy at the Jimeta Clinic and can only survive if another kidney is planted in him or he begins to live on hemodialysis,” and referred them to Federal Medical Centre, Yola on account of its proximity.

He stated that they now spend not less than N40, 000, 00 on a weekly basis for the dialysis at the Federal Medical Centre ,Yola and solicited for assistance from well spirited individuals to enable the patient continue surviving on dialysis.

Contacted on the issue, the doctor, who handled the case at the Jimeta Clinic, Doctor Yakubu Hassan, confirmed that the said patient was operated because of an ailment that has nothing to do with kidneys.

He said based on the nature of the case, he referred them to a consultant at the Federal Teaching Hospital, Gombe.

Afeez Hanafi

The police in Lagos have arrested an ex-manager of Ecobank Nigeria Plc, Ejigbo branch, 41-year-old Ikechukwu Aghanenu, for allegedly colluding with a suspected fraudster, Anthony Okpala, to defraud two customers of the bank of N14m.

The customers are Mrs. Oluremi Egunjobi (now late), and one Rabiu Lawal, who is based in the United Kingdom.

The suspects, who were arrested on Wednesday, reportedly diverted N4.014m from the deceased’s bank account 5323007058, while N10m was said to have been fraudulently withdrawn from Lawal’s account, 2741128259.


PUNCH Metro learnt that 34-year-old Okpala and one other suspect at large, had presented themselves to Aghanenu as the relatives of the deceased with some forged documents authorising the bank to release the sum.

It was gathered that the deal was perfected between September and November, 2015 and the money was withdrawn from late Egunjobi’s account.

Within the same period, the police said Okpala paraded himself as a business partner of Lawal and allegedly colluded with Aghanenu to withdraw N10m from Lawal’s account in tranches.

A police source told our correspondent that investigation of the alleged fraud commenced after a lawyer to the deceased’s relatives and Lawal respectively lodged complaints to the bank, adding that the manager had been sacked.

The source said, “The bank reported the fraud to the police and in the course of investigation, it was discovered that the fraudulent transactions were carried out by Okpala with the knowledge of the ex-manager and others at large.

“Okpala presented himself and another suspect at the Ecobank’s branch in Ejigbo as relatives of the late Oluremi (Egunjobi) and instructed the bank to liquidate her account, which was done through the help of the ex-manager. But he (Aghanenu) denied knowing Okpala.

“The other victim, Lawal, works in UK and saves money at the bank with the hope of using the money to invest when he relocates to Nigeria. It was when he checked his account balance that he discovered the withdrawals and complained to the bank.”

PUNCH Metro learnt that a team of policemen from the Ikoyi division led by one Sergeant Damian Oguinye, picked up Aghanenu and Okpala on Wednesday at the Ebute-Meta Magistrate’s Court, where the latter was allegedly facing another fraud trial.

They were arraigned in an Igbosere Magistrate’s Court on Thursday on five counts bordering on fraud and forgery by a police prosecutor, Friday Mameh.

Mameh told the court that the offences contravened sections 287, 361, 409 and 378 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

The counts read in part, “That you, Ikechukwu Aghanenu, Anthony Okpala and others now at large, between September 2015 and November 2015, at the Ecobank Nigeria Plc, in the Lagos Magisterial District, did conspire among yourselves to commit felony to wit: forgery and stealing.

“That you did forge the instruction of one Oluremi Egunjobi, a deceased and an account holder of Ecobank Nigeria Plc, fraudulently liquidated the customer’s investment in account number 5323007058 of the sum of N4.014m property of Ecobank Nigeria Plc.

“That you, and others at large, did fraudulently convert the sum of N10m in tranches from Ecobank account number 2741128259 belonging to Rabiu Lawal to account number 53220002455 with the name Okeneme Samuel.”

The defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to the counts before the magistrate, Mr. P. A. Adekomaya.

They were granted bail in the sum of N3m each with two sureties each in like sum while the case was adjourned till September 6, 2016.

An HIV-Positive man, identified as Monday Imande on Thursday was arrested for raping a six year-old girl, Osiagboro Blessing in Asaba, Delta State.

The police paraded the suspect before newsmen in the state when he was arrested.

All efforts to get the account of the incident from the minor, proved abortive as the little girl appeared too traumatized and frightened to speak.

But the grandfather of the victim was able to narrate how the unfortunate incident happened.

He said it happened on Wednesday while his grand-daughter was on an errand. He said the suspect, Imande forcefully grabbed and raped her.

Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Celestina Kalu confirmed the incident and said that the suspect would be made to face the full weight of the law because of the severity of the offence.

She advised parents of young children to always get worried whenever children sent on errands stay longer than expected.

She stressed that this was the only way to prevent incident such as this from happening.

When interviewed about the motive behind his actions, the suspect blamed the devil for his action, while pleading guilty.

He further promised not to commit such crime again if set free.

A 29 year old driver, Mr. Mayowa Alabi, has told journalists in Lagos how he stole his master’s Automated Teller Machine (ATM ) card and withdrew N2.7million. Alabi , who was paraded yesterday at the Lagos State Police Command Headquarters, Ikeja, said he only bought a Black Berry phone from the money while the remaining was spent on women and clubbing. The suspect was arrested along with his friends, Jeremiah Ibitoye(26 ) and Opeoluwa John(18).

The state Police Commissioner, Fatai Owoseni , said during the parade that Alabi’s boss had been complaining about his misplaced ATM card for some days. But when Alabi saw it, instead of returning it, he kept it to himself.

He said: “The driver deactivated the ATM card and sim card of his boss and changed the pin of the card, which barred the owner from receiving alert and even calls. After a while, the real owner discovered that calls and messages were not coming through his phone.

“He then contacted the service provider who told him that his line had been deactivated from receiving calls and messages. Immediately, he reported to the police who swung into action and discovered that it was his driver and his (Alabi’s) friends who hacked into his account and phone line.”

But Alabi said it was greed which pushed him into what he did. He said: “My boss is a nice person. I just wanted to practise what I learnt from the computer training I went for.

I am earning N30,000 monthly salary . All I bought from the stolen money was a Black Berry, another phone, wristwatches and laptop. I spent the remaining money to party in club and on women. “I regret my action. I beg my parents to forgive me for bringing shame and disgrace to them.

I promise to pay the money with my salary if I get out the problem. ” John , who is a generator mechanic, said Alabi gave him the ATM card to buy phones, laptops and some other items at a popular mall.

He said: “I do not know anything about the card cloning. I agreed to go on the errand because he used to help me whenever I needed his assistance. I just left secondary school last year.

“My parents are not aware that I am in the custody of the police. I feel very bad finding myself in this situation. I hope I will get out of here soon because my mates are in the university and I desire to join them there.”

Ibitoye also denied knowing anything about the cloning of the ATM card. He said: “Alabi only called me to take John to the ATM to withdraw money and buy things for himself. ” Owoseni, however, said the suspects would be arraigned after completion of the investigation.

In a move to recoup over $1trillion in unpaid taxes by oil multinationals, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its Joint Ventures partners, the Federal Government has begun a tax audit of the corporation and international oil companies (IOCs ).

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS ), which confirmed the tax audit yesterday, maintained that the NNPC had already subjected itself and its books for the audit.

NNPC, in a statement yesterday, quoted the Chairman of FIRS, Mr. Tunde Fowler, as disclosing that his agency had received part of the needed documents from the corporation and also commended it for subjecting itself to tax audit as a responsible corporate citizen.

He gave the commendation when he received the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Kacalla Baru and his management team at the FIRS Revenue House in Abuja. The Federal Government had earlier said that it lost over $1trillion revenue to tax evasion by multinational companies over a period of time.

Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed, disclosed this to State House correspondents last Wednesday after the Federal Executive Council (FEC ) meeting. He said the FEC approved a memo for Multilateral Competence Agreement and the Exchange of Country by Country Report in order to give the government a better grip on its tax laws and prevent tax evasion by multinational companies.

Fowler also thanked the NNPC for the cooperation it has extended to FIRS on tax matters over the years, stressing that the two organisations were children of the same father committed to generating revenue for the Federal Government.

Responding, Baru expressed NNPC’ s readiness to collaborate with the FIRS, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other government agencies to generate revenue for the Federal Government.

He suggested the setting up of a committee between the NNPC and FIRS to update the corporation’s tax obligation up to 2015, assuring that all its joint venture partners would align themselves in order to ensure that the right taxes are paid.

lalasticlala

Governor Adams Aliyu Oshiomole of Edo State has said state governors refusing to pay the national minimum wage are committing criminal offence.

He was speaking Wednesday in Abuja at The Podium, a public discourse organised by the Kukah Centre themed: “From Activism to Political Power: The Challenges of Democratic Governance in Nigeria”.

This is as a former Governor of Cross Rivers, Donald Duke, lamented that Nigerian politicians today have largely become jobber and budget padders.

Oshiomole said that it is wrong for the governors who enjoy a fixed national emolument same way it was fixed for National Assembly lawmakers to now turn around that the national minimum wage should not be applicable to the states of the federation.

lalasticlala

Abuja all is not well between the Ministers of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu and Professor Anthony Anwukah. The two ministers, New Telegraph gathered, had not been in good terms since August 4, when the Federal Government announced the removal of 17 Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of parastatals, agencies and commissions under the Ministry of Education.

Findings by our correspondent revealed that Adamu, a confidant of President Muhammadu Buhari, had made recommendations to the president on the appointment of new CEOs to replace those sacked without the input of his colleague, who is a former vice chancellor and a nominee of Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State in the cabinet.

The minister had , at the inauguration of the new heads of education agencies under the ministry, exonerated himself of having hands in the appointments, claiming that they were made by the president. But a source within the Ministry of Education alleged that Adamu might have been running a oneman show at the ministry.

“The minister of state supervises JAMB, UBEC, NECO and other agencies. How is it possible that he would not be involved in the appointment of those he supervises and reports to the president?” the source queried. The cold war brewing between them played out yesterday when Adamu denied knowledge of the recent increment in the school fees of Federal Government Colleges also known as Unity Schools recently announced by the office of the Minister of State for Education, Anwukah.

The minister, who gave the shocking revelation, in a chat with newsmen at the sidelines of the National Education Quality Assurance Handbook’s launch, said the news of the increment from N20,000 to N75,000 was strange to him.

“I am not aware that the Unity School fees have been increased. As the Minister of Education, I am not aware, but I will try and find out,” he said.

While answering a question on the feud between him and the minister of state over the recent appointment of new head of 17 agencies, Adamu claimed ignorance of the development, but admitted to mistakenly failed to acknowledge the presence of his (Anwukah’s) representative during the launch of the handbooks. “I am not also aware that he has been sidelined, but you can go and find out from the source that told you, ” he added.

The frosty relationship between them manifested when Anwukah was observed to be absent at events that attracted the presence of Adamu since those appointments were made.

A source in the ministry blamed the sudden change of attitude of the Minister of State on the way the latter sidelined him on the recommendation to Buhari on those to be appointed to head agencies in the ministry.

While pleading for anonymity, the source wondered if the ministry was no longer properly coordinated for the minister to claim ignorance of a directive concerning the school fees increase that came from the office of his colleague. “Is it possible that he will not be aware of such increase?

Or is it that the ministry is not coordi snated again, especially when the Permanent Secretary, Dr. Folasade Yemi- Esan, confirmed the increment ?” asked the source. To press home his grievances, Anwukah allegedly shunned the inauguration of the newly appointed chief executives.

This was also followed by his conspicuous absence during the flag-off of the 2016 Teachers’ Professional Development Workshop in Abuja on August 1. The event was organised by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC ), which is under the purview of the Minister of State.

Anwukah did not also have a representative standing for him. Speaking on the absence of the Minister of State at the event, which held at Jabi Junior Secondary School, the highly placed source said that the office of the minister was not even aware of the event, noting that Anwukah was in town on that day.

The source, however, disclosed that the two ministers have only shown that they have cordial relationship on the surface as they relate well in the office everyday, but engage in cold war.

“What baffles many of us is that on the surface, it appears all is well between the two of them because the main minister often time strolls down to the Minister of State’s office. “In fact, if he is fasting, he will invite the minister of state to his office to break fast with him.

But it appears that the heads of departments and directors at the ministry have also seen the body language of the two of them, ” the source told New Telegraph. Speaking on the Unity Schools’ fees, the Permanent Secretary, Yemi- Esan, admitted that the Federal Government has increased the fees.

The Permanent Secretary said the increment, which was focused on boarding fees, was to meet up with the cost of running the schools. She said: “The school fees of the Federal Government Colleges has been increased, but not up to the 300 per cent as being claimed.

You must be aware of the reality in the country. “ It is important for the Federal Government Colleges to maintain the students that are there and you must also be aware that these schools are tuition free

What has been increased is the boarding fee, but is not up to N75,000,” she added, just as she denied knowledge of any feud between the two education ministers.

The Boko Haram insurgents are establishing a new base in Bauchi state, a senator revealed yesterday.
Senator Isa Hamma Misau (APC, Bauchi Central) said the insurgents were relocating to the area from their stronghold in Sambisa Forest.

Hamma Misau, a retired Police officer, told Daily Trust in an exclusive phone interview that the insurgents had started establishing themselves in Burra Forest in Ningi Emirate Council of his constituency.

He said the Burra forest is linked through a corridor to the Falgore Forrest in Kano state and Saminaka in Kaduna State.

“The Boko Haram insurgents are relocating to the Burra Forest. It is a very large forest extending to three states and it is from there that the terrorists are going to other places to unleash terror on people.

“It was because of their activities that a new Police division was opened in Burra but the police cannot carry out operation in the forest because it is a high risk operation.

“They kidnap people daily, and receive between N3million and N5million as ransom,” he said.

The senator said the terrorists told their victims that they relocated from the Sambisa Forest, the hotbed of the Boko Haram insurgents in Borno state.
“They also said the terrorists are in hundreds and that they coordinate their operations from the forest,” he said.

“They have collected so much money from the people but because the place is in remote area, it has not been given national prominence.

“The people are highly sophisticated, and to tackle them, we need serious surveillance, intelligence and equipment.”

He said when the Senate reconvenes next month he would sponsor a motion with a view to attracting the attention of the security agencies to it.

“I’m going to write to the National Security Adviser, the Chief of Army Staff and the Director of DSS for them to intervene. There is need for combined efforts of all security agencies in order to tackle the terrorists,” he said.

We’ll flush them out wherever they relocate – DHQ

The Defence Headquarters yesterday confirmed that Boko Haram militants who had been dislodged from Borno state were relocating to new basis in forests and hide outs in the country.

The defence spokesman, Brigadier General Rabe Abubakar stated this yesterday, when contacted over reports of activities of Boko Haram in some areas and forests in Bauchi State.

He said: “It is not out of place if the terrorists are relocating because of ongoing operations by the military and equally because of operations of the Multi National Joint Task Force (MNJTF).”

Abubakar noted that the MNJTF on operation Gama Aiki recently pounded the positions of Boko Haram, using aerial precision equipments, adding that:” it won’t be out of place as a result of that, they are moving and relocating to other places.”

He said: “However, wherever they go, the military, with other security agencies will intercept them. The next phase of the operations will take care of them.”

General Abubakar further said: “The inhabitants of that general area should be on the lookout of new persons and cooperate with security agencies. They are fleeing not only to Bauchi but other place.”

Kidnappings not in Burra alone – Bauchi Gov

Speaking on alleged infiltration of Boko Haram elements into parts of Bauchi State, including Burra forest, the special adviser to Governor Mohammed Abubakar, retired General Yusuf Ladan, said the security challenges they had were not posed by the Boko Haram insurgents but by bandits.

“When cases of kidnappings and rustling became a common phenomenon, Governor Abubakar sought the intervention of the military and operation is ongoing along Burra Forest.”

He said it was the local population that sometimes mistook military operatives as Boko Haram insurgents.

“The operation is being carried out without prior notice and the local population sometimes got scared when they see military operatives whom they normally suspect to be insurgents.

“Both ground and aerial reconnaissance is on-going, not only in Burra area but around Toro Local Government Area where the District Head of Tama was abducted. Initially, cooperation from the people there was disappointing but we summoned the community leaders for a meeting in Bauchi and the governor read the riot act for them. They are now cooperating.

“On Thursday, two notorious bandits, including Mai Rakumi and Dogo Mai AK47, in addition to nine culprits were arrested.

He said it was only in Balmo Forest, near Darazo in Ganjuwa Local Government, which shares border with Jigawa State that some elements of Boko Haram were tracked down recently.

“The issue of kidnapping and cattle rustling is not restricted to Burra forest only; it’s common in northern parts of Nigeria and some of those disturbing us actually relocated from Zamfara (state) axis where military operation was launched lately.

“Senator Hamma Misau should have contacted us to get the true situation of things. Yes, he has his points but we are here on ground and everyday interfacing with relevant security agencies on how to address the menace.

“We had cases of kidnappings and rustling along the Dass-Tafawa Balewa but troops from the 33 Artillery Brigade have cleared the area. We also had issues along Dindima in Alkaleri Local Government Area which have been cleared through collaboration between security agencies and local vigilantes.

“Of course, as a result of persistent kidnappings, the same troops that are now in Zamfara had carried out clearance operation along Alkaleri-Kirfi axis here in Bauchi State.”

Our correspondent recalled that in July 2014, there was massive operation by Nigerian troops at the Balmo forest resulting in the killing of scores of Boko Haram insurgents.

Initially, the Bauchi State government at the time denied the presence of Boko Haram, but following the clampdown, one Mohammed Zakari, 30, a senior member of the Boko Haram terrorists’ was arrested.

The suspect, who hails from Kaigamari Village, Daptchari in Darazo Local Government Area, Bauchi State was the “chief butcher” of the insurgent group at the Balmo forest camp and was linked with the slaughter of seven (7) people, including women and children.

Saraki demands probe of recruitment in IDP camps

The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has urged security agencies to probe reports that Boko Haram members are recruiting young Nigerians in Internally Displaced Persons(IDPs) camps.

In a statement by his media aide yesterday, Yusuph Olaniyonu, Saraki said it was important for Nigeria’s intelligence apparatus to take such rumours seriously.

“Seeing that ISIS has been recruiting members from European refugee camps, and the Kenyan government recently had to shut down the world’s largest refugee camp because Al-Shaabab was using the place to train and recruit young people as extremists, it is important that we take the rumours about Boko Haram recruiting from IDP camps seriously,” he said.

He also called for a comprehensive probe of the diversion of relief materials meant for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North-east.

He applauded the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for investigating and arresting a contractor who diverted 60 trucks of grains that were allocated to IDPs in Borno State by the federal government.

A senior police officer with the Zimbabwean Police Authority, Sergeant Amos Mandiwanza, was given the embarrassment of his life after he was caught red-handed having sex » with the wife of a junior officer.

The Chronicle reports that Mandiwanza was disgraced, given the beating of his life and handcuffed after he was caught with the 19-year-old woman identified as Medline Makonese.

It was learnt that Mandiwanza had enticed the woman who is also a police Constable working directly under him, to a house in Hwiru in Mpandawana and had sex with her.

Sergeant Mandiwanza was allegedly trailed by other officers after someone tipped Makonse's husband, by a group of police officers to the house and when he was nabbed, he was frog marched to the station in the disgraceful state.

Makonse's husband, Constable Brian Chikono , however said he is not allowed to talk about the incident by his superiors, only saying he has left the matter to God to judge.

“I leave the matter to God. I can’t talk to you I am not allowed,” said Chikono.

A 43 year old fake nurse, Uju Okonkwo, now in police net in Asaba, Delta State, has reportedly sold a three month old baby to a Lagos-based businessman for N500,000.

Also a fake lawyer, Ezurum Joseph, who claimed to have graduated from the Nnamdi Azikwe University (NAU ), Anambra State, in 2011 with registration number 39017, was arrested along with Okonkwo.

Over the years, Joseph has provided the hideouts where Okonkwo was using to harbour her victims and has stood as the woman’s solicitor.

The said fake lawyer confessed that he dropped out of school after he could not pass four courses, which prevented him from attending Law School. However, Joseph has since been defrauding unsuspecting members of the public.

Three female human trafficking victims, Chinyere Ude (19 ), Happiness Igwe (20 ) and Esther Frank (17 ), who were respectively in their advanced stages of pregnancy, were rescued from the traffickers’ den.

The girls disclosed that they were brought to the hideout by Okonkwo, a widow, who claimed to have worked at Chinonso Hospital, Nkpor in Anambra State, for the purpose of selling their babies after delivery.

Men of the Special Anti- Kidnapping Squad (SAKS) raided the hideout on Okpanam Road in Oshimili North Local Government Area of the state, after a tipoff that the three girls had been kept there and would soon deliver while their babies would be sold to the highest bidders.

The state Commissioner of Police, Zanna Ibrahim, who paraded the suspects with the pregnant girls in Asaba, said Okonkwo was nabbed after an intensive surveillance by his men. Gnashing her teeth on the parade ground, Okonkwo, who said she had no registered name for her organisation and had been in the game with the lawyer for over one year, confessed that she sold a baby for N500,000 to a Lagos - based businessman.

Ibrahim described the suspects as human traffickers. He said: “The matter before us is a complete case of human trafficking and other related offences. Only God knows how many innocent children they have sold into slavery, to unknown persons for money rituals.

“The suspects have started helping us in our investigations. ” The commissioner said the war against crimes must be won “to stop careless wastage of lives and property ”. Appealing to parents and guardians to be alive to their responsibilities in providing proper guidance to their children and wards, Ibrahim said the suspects would soon be arraigned.

President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling party, All Progressives Congress (APC) appear to have deployed a sinister strategy in crippling and ultimately, decimating the People's Democratic Party (PDP ), the main opposition political party in the country. The PDP, which lost the 2015 general elections after 16 years in government, is currently weighed down by leadership crisis, which is about snuffing life out of the once vibrant party.

Sunday Telegraph gathered that, indeed, the APC knew that given its surprise victory at the polls, the surest way to consolidate on power was to so cripple the PDP that it would be extremely difficult for the opposition to have a breathing space to face the coming elections. A competent source familiar with the plot said that there is “an orchestrated plan by the presidency to decimate members of the opposition,” particularly those who have the capacity to re-launch the party into political prominence.

“Don’t forget it (the leadership crisis ) came after the EFCC (the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) has arrested and detained some of our leaders . Some of them who could not stand the heat left and joined the APC to avoid prosecution. ”

In PDP circles, it is generally believed that the presidency is using the EFCC to silence critics of the sitting government. The anti corruption agency has arrested and detained almost all the outspoken members and leaders of the party.

Even a sitting governor, Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State, who ordinarily is supposed to enjoy constitutional immunity, is being investigated and his personal bank accounts frozen by the anti corruption agency.

Prince Dayo Adeyeye, spokesperson of the National Caretaker Committee set up at the May 21 National Convention to run the affairs of the party for 90 days, said in a statement that President Muhammadu Buhari's government was out to silence any voice of opposition.

According to Adeyeye, since his arrest by the anti graft agency, “ Chief (Olisa ) Metuh could not challenge the APC government on policy issues until he left office.

“Nigerians will also recall that one of the known opposition voice, apart from some individuals and governors of our party that have exposed the APC led administration for running the country aground in the last one year , is the former spokesman of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, Chief Femi Fani Kayode; and he is now standing trial for receiving campaign funds from the Director of Finance of the campaign.

“It’s now the turn of the Governor of Ekiti state, Ayodele Fayose, who has been consistent in condemning the woes the APC government brought upon Nigerians and for remaining critical of the APC and President Buhari's administration. ” He added that, by freezing Governor Fayose’s personal account, which, he said, violates Section 308 of 1999 Constitution as a sitting governor, cannot stand trial until after office. “President Buhari and his party, the All Progressive Congress (APC), have introduced a dangerous trend in our polity and if this is not checked or curtailed immediately, Nigeria may be heading to an imperial rule where the leader of the nation is a supreme ruler , dictating who survives at the expense of Nigeria constitution. ”

Among PDP leaders arrested and detained by the EFCC are former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col . Sambo Dasuki ; former PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh ; former Deputy National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus ; former Director of Publicity of PDP Presidential Campaign , Chief Femi Fani- Kayode; former Chairman, PDP Board of Trustees (BoT ), Dr. Haliru Bello Mohammed; Chairman of Daar Communications, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, among others. But the most disturbing for PDP members is the leadership crisis in the party. PDP has been factionalised since May this year.

Majority of its leaders and founding fathers have pitched their tents with the caretaker committee headed by former Kaduna state governor, Senator Ahmed Makarfi. But a former Governor of Borno state , Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, who was discretely foisted on the party has become a great threat to unity in the party. Sheriff and some members of the National Working Committee (NWC ), as well as former deputy national officers, are still laying claim to the leadership of the party.

They have instituted multiple suits in various courts on the claims that their tenure has not expired.

Adeyeye told journalists that the party’s intelligence reports revealed that Sheriff was working for the APC to disorganise the PDP ahead of the Edo governorship election in September. “ The All Progressives Congress (APC) has contracted Sheriff and his cohorts to scuttle the chances of the PDP in the Edo governorship election.

“We have credible intelligence that Sheriff had a meeting with an APC governor from the North West, where it was agreed that he would be given full security and financial support to exacerbate the crisis in the PDP with the objective of preventing the PDP from presenting a candidate for the Edo governorship election, or at the least, to prevent the PDP from offering a serious challenge to the APC, whose electoral fortunes have continued to nosedive.”

Each of the factions laying claim to the party ’s leadership has obtained court orders in its favour, which is making the crisis intractable.

The party further observed that two former judgements before the July 4 Port Harcourt judgement, declared that Senator Sheriff is not qualified to be a National Chairman given that the PDP Constitution 2014, which he claimed brought him to power, is not in existence and therefore, null and void.

The BoT members led by the Chairman, Senator Walid Jibirin , have so far visited former Minister of Finance, Mallam Adamu Ciroma, and former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.

Ciroma is a founding member of the PDP. The board has also sent a delegation to Minna, Niger state, to interface with former Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida. Walid revealed that a special committee headed by former Minister of Information, Prof. Jerry Gana, has been set up to reconcile aggrieved party members.

Three days ago, members of the Board of Trustees (BoT ) of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP ), embarked upon some high level meetings and consultations in a last minute effort to rescue the party from disintegration.

This effort appears to be the only lifeline now left for the survival of the party. Meanwhile, the Presidency has absolved itself of all blames in the series of crisis plaguing the PDP in the last one year.

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, said President Muhammadu Buhari has no hand in the protracted leadership crisis in the main opposition party, adding that, rather the crisis was an act of God.

“The crisis in the PDP is God sent because of the way they ran down this country. Whether we believe in life here and hereafter or not, we must realise that there are consequences for the actions we take in life. It is called retributive justice.

It is a God sent crisis and it is only God Almighty that can reconcile them. But for now, we can only fold our arms and watch them, “ he said.

On the speculations that the Buhari administration embarked on its anti corruption war in order to silence the opposition and other vocal critics, Shehu said nothing couLd be further from the truth.

He argued that given the pedigree of President Buhari, he would be the last person to meddle in the affairs of another party. “The President we have, you know him, he is not someone that would orchestrate crisis. He can’t put his hands in such a thing, ” he said

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Crisis at state chapters

Kano
Several APC state chapters have been split into factions as members disagree on the mode of running the affairs of the party. In Kano State, the internal crisis in the APC is mainly between the immediate past governor of the state, Senator Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso and the incumbent governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje. Although the two principal actors have denied any rift, political happenings in the state suggest the contrary. The crisis in the Kano APC took a new dimension after the conduct of the by-election for Minjibir Local Government state assembly constituency. Results published by people believed to be members of the Ganduje faction of the APC indicated that APC got 21,970, while ‘PDP+Kwankwasiyya’ polled 1,238 votes. By implication, Ganduje’s loyalists now link the Kwankwaso group as being in alliance with the opposition PDP.

The sour political relationship between the two political gladiators became public after the death of Ganduje’s mother when Kwankwaso paid him a condolence visit at his home town in Ganduje. Since that incident, the APC has not known peace in Kano as supporters of the two politicians were engaged in political war of words. While Kwankwaso’s supporters accuse Ganduje of betrayal, Ganduje’s followers blame Kwankwaso of sabotaging the present administration.

It got to a boiling point after the death of the late Alhaji Tahir Hamisu Gurjiya, a State House of Assembly member from Minjibir. A slogan of ‘Muhadu a Minjibir,’ meaning let’s settle it at Minjibir, was introduced among followers of the two politicians. The slogan was signifying Minjibir by-election as a testing ground where Ganduje and Kwankwaso were expected to slug it out in a show of popularity.

Prior to the conduct of the by-election, the two APC factions in the state were engaged in the campaign of calumny among themselves. For instance, the state commissioner of information, Malam Muhammadu Garba, accused the Kwankwasiyya movement of plans to hire thugs to disrupt the election.

Garba, in a press statement issued two days to the conduct of the Minjibir by-election, alleged that the movement had orchestrated plans to unleash mayhem during the rescheduled election.

According to the statement, “Kwankwasiyya has hired thugs from the neighbouring Niger Republic, Katsina and Jigawa states to unleash mayhem on the innocent and law abiding electorate, with the aim of scuttling the entire process for selfish reasons.”

Reacting, a former commissioner of state affairs under Kwankwaso, Comrade Aminu Abdulsalam, described the allegation as unfounded and uncalled for, noting that it was surprising that instead of responding to allegations levelled against the government and the APC, the Ganduje-led administration was busy fighting an unnecessary war within.

He said: “I have personally heard PDP members accusing the APC-led government in Kano over the forthcoming Minjibir Local Government election, but I have never heard anybody from the government side responding to these allegations. This is surprising.”

On the APC crisis in the state, Abdulsalam disputed allegations that Kwankwaso had promised to align with the PDP to sabotage Ganduje during the conduct of the Minjibir Local Government by-election, saying, “Ganduje’s faction should come out and state where Kwankwaso made such statement.”

He said the APC crisis in Kano was not just about personality; rather, it was more of discontent and resistance. “Historically, a typical Kano man cannot be taken too far by any government without facing resistance. And the problem affecting the party is compounding on a daily basis. If not because of the friction within the party, APC would have been suffering more because it would be hit directly, being at the receiving end, but because of the friction, government is busy pushing all the blames to our own side despite the fact that we are also active members of the ruling party.”

Also, in what appeared to show that the division was deeper than what was being seen on the surface, Governor Ganduje has urged the national secretariat of the APC to take disciplinary action against some card-carrying members of the party who engaged in what he termed as anti-party activities before and during the recent by-election in Minjibir, apparently indicting the Kwankwaso-led faction.

He described the conduct of such members as shameful, saying even though the party won the election, the attitude of its deviant members must not be condoned. The governor made the statement when he received the results of the Minjibir by-election at the Government House.

“Although some unscrupulous APC members wanted to rubbish the party, I am happy that the party won the election and no violence was recorded during the exercise. Although we have fifth columnists among us, we won because the people are behind the APC.

Nigerians are solidly behind the party because they are confident that President Muhammadu Buhari has demonstrated the commitment to return Nigeria to the path of progress,” he said.

Kaduna
The splinter group of the APC in Kaduna State, known as the APC Akida, which constituted a leadership structure at the state level, is yet to reconcile with the main organ of the party, two months after the group threatened to form structures at all levels of the state.
When the splinter group emerged, it appointed Mr. Tom Maiyashi as its convener, Alhaji Ibrahim Yaro as deputy convener and Hafsat M. Baba as secretary.

The main grouse of the splinter group is that the state governor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, has ‘hijacked’ the party and is not willing to recognise their contributions to its success in the state.

Maiyashi confirmed this when he told newsmen recently that the group came into being because the APC had been hijacked and incapacitated, and because members were deprived of a major asset to exercise their rights.

“We believe in playing responsible and constructive roles in a situation where government appears to have shut out basic involvement of citizens in governance.
“We exist because our party structures do not exist or function in a manner prescribed by our party constitution. The interest of our members and one of our key goals is to help re-establish party structure at all levels,” he stated.
Our correspondent observed that the parting of ways for the two camps has been gradual.

On winning both the presidential and governorship elections, some of the party leaders in the state, like Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, who served as interim chairman of the APC in Kaduna during the formative stages of the party, Senator Shehu Sani, who won the Kaduna Central senatorial seat, as well as Isa Ashiru Kudan and others, were taken aback by the disposition of the governor in constituting a cabinet.

Sani, who at the time expressed shock, said he was not consulted to nominate people from his constituency as the governor elected to continue as if they did not matter.

Later, when the administration was inaugurated, the same issue accompanied the appointment of caretaker chairmen for the 23 local governments in the state.

Hitherto preferring to ignore the group, Governor el-Rufai was compelled to make a comment on the issue when he went to a town hall meeting at Giwa Local Government of the state. There, he could not conceal his fury when he said in obvious reference to the group, that he could not be bothered by ‘ants when he was putting on an iron shoe.’

In a previous town hall meeting, the governor had said to those who were said not to be happy with his appointment to go to a certain mountain, Kufena, and take a jump.

Maiyashi, in an interview, assured that in the coming weeks, the APC Akida would intensify campaigns to mobilise members to protect what it called their legitimate interests. He called on the national leadership of the party to fulfil its promise to reconstruct the party at all levels in Kaduna State. He also called on Governor el-Rufai to lead with a sense of commitment, bearing in mind the ‘current difficult circumstance.’

The Kaduna State chapter of the APC has, however, preferred to disown the splinter group, saying its leadership and members stand united with Governor el-Rufai.

The state acting publicity secretary of the party, Salisu Tanko Wusono, described the group as ‘illegal and unrecognised,’ and warned them to desist or face sanctions.

Adamawa
While the crème de la crème of APC supporters in Adamawa State dismissed as divisive, the recent call for the restructuring of Nigeria by Atiku Abubakar, his supporters saw his position as clever and a means to attaining political power.

Looking at his antecedents in politics, many dismissed his call for restructuring as another ploy to woo the support of the elite in the southern part of the country, especially the South-South and South-East which have been agitating for regional control of resources.

In Adamawa, where Atiku enjoyed unchallenged political control during his days as vice president (he has remained the biggest force since then), his ambition is currently under threat from unforeseen political alignments despite his alliance with Governor Muhammadu Jibrilla.

Pundits have it that the perceived alliance between Buhari’s loyalists, led by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir David Lawal, and former Governor Murtala Nyako, may signal a danger to the ambition of Atiku ahead of 2019. Secondly, the return of Ribadu, as well as Marcus Gundiri, the former governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), is already creating tension within the party.

A chieftain loyal to the former vice president, who sought for anonymity, alleged that the return of Ribadu and others was orchestrated by Babachir and Nyako as part of a plot to take over the control of party machinery at the expense of Atiku and his major ally, Governor Jibrilla.

“The Atiku group recently met in Yola to discuss recent developments as they affect the presidential ambition of our principal. We viewed the machinations by Nyako, the SGF and others, which culminated in the return of Ribadu and Gundiri to the party. We viewed the development as an attempt to edge us out. As it is, we are not leaving the party,” he said.

He added that the group was planning a North-East tour to meet with APC members, with a view to gauging opinions on the presidential project. He lamented the fact that some APC chieftains, who benefited from Atiku, were sitting on the fence as they watched the unfolding events.

Many believe that powers within the APC are backing Ribadu to emerge as the governorship flag-bearer in 2019, as against Governor Jibrilla, an Atiku’s chief ally in the state, who is serving his first term and may seek re-election.

However, Uba Dan-Arewa, a chieftain of the party from the camp of the former governor, Nyako, noted that Jibrilla did not have the capacity to win an election without support from Nyako.

Governor Jibrilla had been a close associate of Nyako before he shifted loyalty to Atiku. Dan-Arewa accused the governor of plunging the party into chaos by betraying party members who worked for him to defeat Atiku at the primary election.

“You know that the former vice president attended the primary election to support Mijinyawa against Bindow, while Nyako was represented by his son. The delegates were not influenced by the huge money given by Atiku to defeat Bindow, they instead elected Bindow who was Nyako’s candidate,” he added.

Dan-Arewa, who said it was too early to talk of 2019 elections, said the Nyako political camp would rather work with Nuhu Ribadu and other returnees, as well as loyal party chieftains to promote the party, noting that Atiku had split his loyalty between the PDP, the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) and the APC.

Zamfara
All seemed to be well within the APC family in Zamfara until recently, when members of the State Assembly moved to impeach Governor Abdulazeez Yari. The assembly had accused the governor of “misappropriating N11 billion bailout fund, N1 billion agricultural loan released to the state by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and “corrupt abuse of local government funds.” The move was, however, seen as a fallout within the APC and is related to how public offices were being shared.

The lawmakers accused the governor of frequent foreign trips which have had negative impact on the day-to-day running of government, apart from imposing financial burden on the state. In an unprecedented move, operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) swooped on the Assembly and arrested the speaker, Alhaji Sanusi Garba Rikiji and other principal officers. The governor survived the impeachment attempt, but the saga exposed the disunity within the party in the state.

Amidst the impeachment crisis, the party suddenly announced the suspension of the chairman of its Gusau chapter, Alhaji Shehu J. Muhammad.

“I think the decision of the lawmakers to rebel against Governor Yari must have the political endorsement of a formidable force among the gladiators in the state.

Even if the crisis is resolved now, it will definitely bounce back in 2019. Its true colour will be revealed that time; not necessarily in this form but in another political shape despite the announcement that truce had been reached and broken fences mended,” one of the political pundits said.

Whether the permutations and calculations of these observers are anything to go by, time will tell.

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The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), is presently embroiled in internal power tussle among the major blocks that merged to form the party. The development is said to have created deep cracks in the ruling party’s ranks across the country, raising concerns that if something is not urgently done, the ruling party may witness mass defections that could substantially weaken it before 2019 general elections.
After it successfully wrested power from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) last year, internal bickering is threatening the stability of the APC ahead of 2019 general elections. Some top politicians within the party have complained of not being carried along by the leadership of the party, while others are not happy that they have been left out in the sharing of the booty that come with its electoral victory.
Cracks in the party have become evident within the National Working Committee (NWC), with some officials constantly at loggerheads over loyalty to some leaders. The situation is same at the National Assembly, where members of the APC are engaged in bitter rivalry, both in the Senate and in the House of Representatives.
At present, some senators of the APC are bent on removing Senate President Bukola Saraki, who is also their member, while in the House of Representatives, erstwhile chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, Abdulmumin Jibrin, also of the party, has made weighty revelations that exposed corruption in the budgetary process in the National Assembly. His allegations indicted the Speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara and other principal officers, who are mainly members of the ruling party. The padding scandal has embarrassed the APC and further exposed lack of internal cohesion within the party.
Several leaders of the party, including its presidential aspirants during the last election, are not playing any significant role in the affairs of the APC. Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Atiku Abubakar, Rochas Okorocha and Sam Nda-Isaiah, were all presidential aspirants in the 2015 general elections.
The cold war within the APC has affected the workings of virtually all its organs, making it unable to conduct congresses to elect officials at all levels. The APC has also failed to constitute a Board of Trustees (BoT), which was a bone of contention between Atiku Abubakar and the party’s national leader, Senator Bola Tinubu. When asked why the party has failed to constitute a BoT, the deputy national chairman, South, Engr. Segun Oni said: “We are looking at our constitution and we will come up with a solution very soon. Our constitution is also undergoing a review and it would come as part of that package.” Our reporter, however, learnt that there were moves to scrap the BoT from the party’s constitution.

Bickering within the national executive
There is a running acrimony among some officials of the party in the national executive. Their disagreement is hinged on loyalty to various camps that formed the APC. Of late, the most visible antagonist to the party’s order has been its deputy national publicity secretary, Chief Timi Frank. After the exit of the former national publicity secretary of the party, now minister of information, Alhaji Lai Muhammed, from the party executive to take up a cabinet appointment, Frank, as his deputy, was expected to step in as his replacement. But that was not to be, as only the chairman, John Odigie Oyegun and the national secretary now speak on behalf of the party.

Speaking to Daily Trust on Sunday on why he has not been allowed to speak for the party, Frank said, “A substantive head was appointed to become a minister, but you deprived his deputy who was meant to take over from him. That has shown that as a party, we don’t keep to our words. Internally, we should be able to know that what they’re doing is not fair. If they don’t like you as a person, the least they could do is to have respect for God.”

He also expressed sadness at the inability of the party’s leadership to resolve contending issues amongst its members, saying, “The party has to break its silence on some issues; and it has to start acting as a party. The functions and duties of a party aren’t just to conduct primaries or to go for campaigns, but to also reconcile issues and differences between party members. Why would the party wait for me to call for resignation or invite the other party involved in the National Assembly issues? Why would they wait for me to call them to invite Jibrin Abdulmumin who has already gone dirty with this struggle?”

The abandoned ‘goose that laid the golden egg’
Perhaps a major threat to the future of the APC is the neglect of top politicians in the legacy parties that collapsed in the merger agreement. Some stalwarts of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Congress for Progressives Change (CPC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) have expressed worry over the manner with which the APC government failed to carry them along.

Such agitation, it was gathered, recently led to the formation of a group, which is a forum of the defunct CPC leaders. After a meeting in Abuja at the weekend, the group, which comprised of chairmen of the defunct CPC in 26 states, said in a communiqué that President Muhammadu Buhari should “remember the goose that laid the golden egg in the scheme of things.”

Also exposing the internal suspicion within the APC, the CPC block said, “The fact is that we can’t totally trust men and women from other political parties like the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). Though we are under one umbrella, the APC, everybody knows where he or she belongs. So, we need to come together to support our own; this is politics.”

Some of the defunct CPC chairmen at the meeting include Sebastian Akpan (Akwa Ibom), Oko Agha Chris (Ebonyi), Comrade Francis Ikonomwan (Edo), Ahmad Dan-Zago (Kano), Mike Nwielaghi (Rivers) and M. A. Oderinde (Oyo).

Party members have not been happy with Buhari’s appointment of a number of PDP stalwarts when those who fought for the APC to win the 2015 elections have not been considered, it was learnt.

The Atiku factor
When Atiku Abubakar visited the national secretariat of the APC on July 18, 2016, not a few pundits were convinced that the move was in connection with his 2019 presidential ambition.

This was largely predicated on the fact that the former vice president had not visited the party secretariat since its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held earlier in April with President Muhammadu Buhari in attendance.

During that visit, Atiku, who was accompanied by Governor Muhammadu Jibrilla Bindow, also had the full complement of his media team. At the end of the meeting, which lasted for about an hour, curious journalists sought to know the reasons for his visit, but the former vice president simply said he had come to familiarise himself with the party leaders; but not many were convinced.

Apart from linking the visit to his perceived 2019 presidential ambition, it was strongly believed that the party leadership used the visit to express concern over his professed support for the restructuring of the country, a position that is at variance with that of the ruling party.

Apart from speculations that he may be eyeing the presidency in 2019, signs that Atiku may have pitched himself against the ruling APC in the aftermath of the 2015 elections emerged over the outcome of National Assembly elections.

The elections saw Senator Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara emerge as Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives despite being excluded by an APC mock poll. Atiku was suspected to have connived with Saraki to defy the ruling party, giving rise to reports that he might be sanctioned by the APC over his alleged role.

Perhaps the most evident sign of discord between Atiku and the APC is his consistent clamour for the restructuring of Nigeria despite the party’s stance against it. Atiku’s support for restructuring is viewed as a move to curry the support of sections of the country, especially in the South.

Atiku had insisted that restructuring Nigeria was the only solution to the problem confronting the nation. Speaking at the launch of a book titled, “We are all Biafrans,” the former vice president maintained that Nigeria risked being a failed state due to its present structure.

This was promptly countered by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo who suggested that diversification of the economy would end the country’s problems.
Osinbajo had said that even if the country is restructured, the same problems would still linger if economic solutions were not put in place.

But Atiku recently maintained his position in a paper he presented at the late Gen. Usman Katsina Memorial Conference at the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua Memorial Hall, Murtala Square, Kaduna, on July 30.

He said different groups were aggrieved by what they perceived as a form of neglect from the government, and this had affected the country’s unity. He said he was a believer in the existence of one Nigeria, and urged the different components to look at restructuring as a solution.

It is against this backdrop that many believe that Atiku’s stance and body language have added to the crack in the ruling APC. His troubles have not gone unnoticed as the party is said to have wooed the former anti-corruption czar, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, back to the party as a way of checking Atiku’s influence on the party in Adamawa State.

A source close to the former vice president, who craved anonymity, told our reporter that Atiku’s call for restructuring dates back to 2014, saying: “It has nothing to do with his ambition. He has been consistent on this and he is not alone in the call. Even Vice President Osinbajo is in support of creation of state police; is that not restructuring? It is all about semantics.”

He said the former vice president had no problem with the return of the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu and other politicians to the APC in Adamawa State, asking, “How does that concern Atiku? The sky is big enough to accommodate everybody. Please, don’t create rift where there is none.”

Two hundred and six members of Nigeria’s House of Representatives have again urged Speaker Yakubu Dogara to step down in order to ensure a proper investigation into the budget padding controversy that has enveloped the legislative body. Mr. Dogara and former chairman of the House appropriations committee, Abdulmumin Jibrin, have for two weeks engaged in verbal exchanges, blaming each other for the padding of the 2016 budget.

In a statement released today, the lawmakers, who described themselves as members of the Transparency Group, expressed deep shock that Speaker Dogara has been trying to exonerate himself from responsibility for the scandalous padding of the 2016 budget. The statement disclosed that the group was appalled that Mr. Dogara had “the temerity to come out publicly in defense of an action that is [a] clear negation of federal character principles and breach of trust,” adding that the speaker’s action was “both disappointing and dishonorable.”

Bashir Baballe, from Kano State, Agunsoye Oluwarotimi Ojo, a member of the House from Lagos State, and Abubakar Chika Adamu, from Niger State, signed the statement on behalf of the Transparency Group. With 206 House members, the Transparency Group now constitutes a huge opposition to the Speaker of a legislative body that has 360 members.

“The Speaker's comments also endanger the spirit of the oneness of Nigeria,” said the group’s statement, adding that they wished to “stress the criminal aspect of the Speaker's action, which is against the letters and spirit of the constitution he swore to protect.

The general public should note that Speaker Yakubu Dogara made criminal insertions (otherwise known as ‘budget padding’) to the tune of over N3 billion to his constituency alone.”

According to the group, “While the entire Zonal Intervention for the three (3) Senatorial Districts of Bauchi State and 12 Federal Constituencies in the state amounts to N1, 666,666,666, the Speaker criminally inserted about 200 percent of the amount, totaling N3, 079,000,000, to his constituency alone!”

The group also accused Mr. Dogara of allocating N4.8 billion out of N9.3 billion in capital projects for Bauchi to his constituency, noting that the sum represented 50 percent of the capital budget for the state. The Transparency Group wrote: “If the above breach of trust and infringement of the Nigerian law are not criminal acts, the ‘insertions’ of bogus projects aimed at siphoning public funds, like vague ‘Youth Empowerment’ to the tune of N450 million, and ‘Strategic Youth Empowerment,’ to the tune of N500 million, should be.”

The lawmakers challenged Mr. Dogara to “explain to the general public the difference between ‘Youth Empowerment’ and ‘Strategic Youth Empowerment’ if it is not a fraud. Every discerning mind knows that this is a riddle to hoodwink the general public against scrutinizing what is clearly a fraud.”

The group insisted that any attempt to ignore the speaker’s alleged criminal activities would amount to “legalizing corruption.” They urged fellow members of the House “to toe the path of honor, integrity and yearnings of our constituents to avoid signing [a] ‘Vote of Confidence’ on the leadership of the House.”

The group demanded that Speaker Dogara come clean concerning the allegations, adding that the group would soon “start exposing the sleaze and corruption surrounding the internal budget of the House.”