₦airaland Forum

By Daily Post Staff on June 29, 2017@dailypostngr

Nigerian environmental and human rights activist, Ankko Briggs, on Wednesday spoke against restructuring of the country, saying it was too late.

Briggs said rather, Nigeria should split so that regions can go their separate ways and develop indivisibly.

The outspoken crusader for the Niger Delta stated that restructuring should have been done before the National Conference in 2014.

Briggs said: “Going by the figures, the North is getting over 60 per cent of the total local government allocations and even when we come to the states as well they also receive far more than the Southern states.

“Again, if you go to the National Assembly, they are far more in numbers, especially in the House of Representatives, and so by the time there is a motion or bill, which they are not in support of, ends up being frustrated or not being passed at all.

“A good example is the PIB that had to spent over 10 years in the National Assembly. How can this continue?”

Briggs alleged that the ruling elites wanted to use restructuring to increase revenue allocation to some parts of the country currently agitating, but retain the same form of governance, which has bred institutional injustice in the country.

“For me, calling for restructuring now is too late we want to go our separate ways because you see what they are calling restructuring is not what restructuring is. Restructuring to them is that the status quo should remain and perhaps a little increase in revenue to agitating regions.

“But the real restructuring is when everybody keeps what you have, even if it is only water that you have, and if you can sell it, sell it. Anything apart from that is not restructuring. What is federalism? This is where you have the states, which are the federating units.


“So a federation means that every component is autonomous to itself within that nation. So how can the Federal Government be interested in building hospitals in Abia State or building a university in Rivers State?

"Nigeria is a good example of how impossible to run a government. How can one man alone, who is of a different culture, language, religion run or oversee the rest of the people of over 400 ethnic groups as if he is overseeing his own personal property or estate?

“He cannot do it right because he doesn’t know my culture and so how can he make decisions that will be 100 per cent appealing to me because the things I would put into consideration if I am to make the same decisions will be totally different.

“What we are saying is that someone who doesn’t understand a people cannot make any good decision for them. If this simple conditions are not met, governance will fail and that is what has happened in the real sense, it has failed in Nigeria.

“The then military leadership under General Abdusalami Abubakar had a rare opportunity of gathering Nigerians together to come up with a document meant to be the constitution.

“But it was bungled because what happened was that one man just sat down and made sure that the document was written to favour a particular section of the country and he called it the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“The Nigerian constitution is the only constitution in the world that tells a lie against itself and its people, when its first sentence says: ‘We the people.’ That statement is a lie. There was never a gathering of any people or group of persons to discuss any constitution.

“Do you also know that the constitution was designed to work against people who are not Muslims as the word Islam, Muslim, Sharia or Mosque was mentioned over 200 times, while the word Christian or Church was never mentioned in the constitution?. And you say that same constitution is meant for all of us?”

By Demola Akinyemi
ILORIN-An Ilorin High Court judge, Justice Adeyinka Oyinloye on Wednesday slammed a N4 billion judgment against the publisher of popular online newspaper, Sahara Reporters, Mr. Omoyele Sowore, over series of stories published last year by the medium against Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki.

Senate President Bukola Saraki
The judgment affected stories published by the online medium against Saraki between September and December of 2015.

The Senate President had, through his lawyer, Babatunde Olomu, asked for the intervention of the court following the publication of series of libellous stories against him by Sahara Reporters.

Both Sowore and Sahara Reporters were joined as defendants in the suit marked as KWS/23/2017.

Olomu told newsmen that the defendants had refused to defend the case despite the service of the summons on them.

He said the first series of service involved an arrangement between the office of the Nigerian ministry of Justice and their counterpart in New York, the operational base of the medium.

When that failed, the counsel said the claimant thereafter seized the opportunities of a visit to Nigeria by Sowore to serve him at his two properties in Ikeja area of Lagos state.

Delivering the judgment, Justice Adeyinka Oyinloye of the court agreed with Olomou and granted all the reliefs sought by the claimant in the case.

The reliefs granted are as follows: “the sum of N1 billion as general and aggravated damages for libellous words falsely, maliciously and recklessly published by the defendants of and concerning the claimant in the online issue of Sahara Reporters of October 5, 2015 under the caption “Nigeria at 55: Bukola Saraki and 83 Inmates Are Running the Asylum”

“The sum of N1 billion as general and aggravated damages for libellous words falsely, maliciously and recklessly published by the defendants of and concerning the claimant in the online issue of Sahara Reporters of Sahara Reporters of September 20, 2015 under the caption: “A polished Name for political immorality. Time for Saraki to Go!”

“The sum of N1 billion as general and aggravated damages for libellous words falsely, maliciously and recklessly published by the defendants of and concerning the claimant in the online issue of Sahara Reporters of Sahara Reporters of November 09, 2015 under the caption: “Bukola Saraki On a shopping Spree to Buy Judges…Stop Being a Clown And A Coward Man Up, face The Music”

“The sum of N1 billion as general and aggravated damages for libellous words falsely, maliciously and recklessly published by the defendants of and concerning the claimant in the online issue of Sahara Reporters of Sahara Reporters of December 1, 2015 under the caption: “Arms Contract Scandal: Senator Saraki Blackmailed CBN Officials To Pay N250 Million Hush Funds”.

“An order for injunction restraining the defendants from further writing, printing or causing to be written, printed or circulated or otherwise published of the claimant the said, or similar libel.

“An order directing the defendants to remove the offending publications from its website on the internet within three days from the date of judgment and an order directing the defendants to publish an apology to the claimant on its online newspaper and in three other daily newspapers.” he said.

Fingerprinter:
Show where it was pointed in the original article that the man neglects his family. If you can't do that, then you should keep quiet.
From all indication, that woman is a housewife, the man goes out to hustle for the family.
Now the jobless 'caring young man' is capitalizing on the frequent absence of the man to be "tapping a married woman's" current.
I have tried to explain the whole scenario to you. Now, if you'd continue supporting evil, don't quote me again. Thank you

I helped his wife open a business which is running well

Anyone with contrary claim should produce the President to Nigerians within the next 48 hours.

Fingerprinter:
Who is supporting battery here? The man was clearly trying to protect his marriage by warding off a rude mudafuka who's trying to scatter his home.
To me, the man is a good man who is trying his best to protect his home. If that's what you call battery in a relationship, then that's your own cup of tea!

Fingerprinter:
Coming from a kid who the parents are still feeding!
That guy is clearly sowing seeds of confusion in a married woman's home and you're here supporting rubbish. Well I don't blame you.
Are there not single girls out there for the guy to befriend? Let him leave a married woman. Simple!
And I commend the man for hitting him. If I were the man, I would have done same!

Why guide someone else's wife on matters that do not concern you?
Leave them with their family issues.They'll handle it themselves.

Zilifish:
Then what is he into? [s]I'm Igbo and I would say most of us have dubious minds. The problem stems from pressures from home. People worship you when you have money and arrive your village with Range 2016. They dont want to knw whether you killed to get it[/s].

Barrister why this man sees me as a threat is just because I have been [b]guiding his wife[/b]on how to avoid brutal behavior and negligence to his duty as family head...

Singer Kcee has insisted his brother, E-Money, is not into drugs or fraud.

In a recent interview with Punch, Kcee revealed how his family was evicted from their apartment in Ajegunle, because they could not afford the rent.

On rumours that his brother was into illegal businesses, the Limpopo crooner said they are from a Christian home and would never indulge in such act.

“My brother is not into drugs or anything illegal. We are from a Christian home and we are very careful with our lifestyle and what we do. Our only weakness is that we show off. We like the good life. My brother is a hard worker.

“For about 17 years, people have been saying that we do drugs or 419 but why have we never been caught? Why haven’t we made a mistake? Why hasn’t someone come to expose us? When we had issues with some of our team members that left recently, a lot of people were waiting to hear that we were into illegality but they did not say that.

Defence Headquarters reacts to quit notice to Igbos

“My brother is a hard worker who is into clearing and forwarding, oil business, real estate, etc. He started from the scratch. He used to be my manager when I was with Presh but he left to start his own business. It is just the grace of God.

“When I was playing football, I was doing very well. I started with football and the first time I travelled out of this country, it was through football. I never saw music coming and it was something I did by the side. My brother and I laugh whenever people make statement like that. He does not do anything negative. If not, people would have come out to expose it. I am sorry but no one can make us change our lifestyle because it is in our DNA,” he said.

Singer Kcee has insisted his brother, E-Money, is not into drugs or fraud.

In a recent interview with Punch, Kcee revealed how his family was evicted from their apartment in Ajegunle, because they could not afford the rent.

On rumours that his brother was into illegal businesses, the Limpopo crooner said they are from a Christian home and would never indulge in such act.

“My brother is not into drugs or anything illegal. We are from a Christian home and we are very careful with our lifestyle and what we do. Our only weakness is that we show off. We like the good life. My brother is a hard worker.

“For about 17 years, people have been saying that we do drugs or 419 but why have we never been caught? Why haven’t we made a mistake? Why hasn’t someone come to expose us? When we had issues with some of our team members that left recently, a lot of people were waiting to hear that we were into illegality but they did not say that.



“My brother is a hard worker who is into clearing and forwarding, oil business, real estate, etc. He started from the scratch. He used to be my manager when I was with Presh but he left to start his own business. It is just the grace of God.

“When I was playing football, I was doing very well. I started with football and the first time I travelled out of this country, it was through football. I never saw music coming and it was something I did by the side. My brother and I laugh whenever people make statement like that. He does not do anything negative. If not, people would have come out to expose it. I am sorry but no one can make us change our lifestyle because it is in our DNA,” he said.

Ohaneze accuses security agencies of working in tandem for second pogrom against Ndigbo.

The Ohanaeze Ndigbo has expressed concern over the inability of the security agencies to arrest any of the northern youths who threatened Ndigbo living in the north with quit notice some weeks ago irrespective of the directive from both the Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo and the Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nsair El-Rufai


It said that the action of the security agencies which were firmly in the hands of northern officers amounted to double standards which could lead to the second pogrom against Igbo in the north.

President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief John Nnia Nwodo made this known while inaugurating the Planning and Strategic Committee of the pan-Igbo group led by the former Governor of the Central Bank, CBN, Prof Chukwuma Soludo in Enugu Saturday day.

He said that the threat by the northern youths with obvious backing from some northern elders amounted to threats to declare war or mop up operation against Ndigbo.

Nwodo said, “What remains worrisome is the incapacity of the police to make needful arrests in this situation, pointing to double standards from our security forces.

“A desire and public proclamation for the state of Biafra cannot be too different from a quit notice which amounts to a declaration for a new state of Nigeria without the Igbo.

“In the latter case, an obvious violation of our constitution points to treason and a declaration to take inventory and acquire property not belonging to one amounts to conversion and declaration to commence mop up action if the quit notice is not complied with at a certain date is a declaration of war.

“We have as Ohanaeze maintained absolute restraint in our public utterances. The Acting President by his interactions with concerned groups shows he is prepared to engage everyone in order to ensure that justice is done.

“His proclamations that government will guarantee the security of life of all Nigerians and their properties wherever they live is reassuring.

“What worries us however, is whether the Arewa youths are acting out a plan that may spiral out of control. Why have disclosures that some soldiers are talking with politicians not led to any arrest?

“Why have none of the Arewa youths been arrested in spite of the orders of the Inspector General of Police and the Chief Security Officer of Kaduna State, Mallam El-Rufai?…

“If our security forces, formally in command and control by mainly officers of Northern Nigeria fail to carry out lawful and needful arrests of criminals among Arewa youths, or coup plotters in the army and their civilian collaborators, how can we expect them to heed to the orders of the Acting President to protect our people in the north?

“What should we advise our people in the North to do in the circumstance? Are the rhetoric’s of today not similar to the rhetoric between 1966 pogrom? If there should be a repeat performance, what explanation can we make to our people?

“Against this background, our young men and women are spiralling out of control. The jury is still out in Igbo land regarding the choice between self-determination and restructuring as a solution to our current impasse.

“Whereas a lot of the elderly, the business class and the professionals want to preserve our continued existence as one indivisible, united and restructured Nigeria, a number of the young ones are resolute about self-determination.

“How do we resolve this duplicity that gives the impression that we all are on one of the sides depending on who is making the assessment…?”

Nwodo, however, asked the committee which has 10 former governors as members to design an economic blue-print that would foresee the following, “An integrated railway network linking all the seven Ohanaeze States; annual growth of one million palm trees in each of the seven states within the next five years as well as a corresponding growth of attractive processing industries for palm produce but on high, medium and small scale levels.

He also, asked them to design a policy “for the maximisation of our coal resources for power generation, and another geological inventory of all our resources and carefully scripted plan for engaging the Federal Government in their exploration.”

Furthermore, Nwodo asked the committee to develop plan for a refinery for petroleum resources as well as plan for a paradigm shift to greenhouses methodology for vegetable production using the Netherlands experience as a typology.
“There must be a deliberate policy for development of ICT hubs in our states to encourage our human capital development;

“An educational curriculum geared to development of skills among our young men and women; recommendation of appropriate policies to our government to improve the educational standards in our schools at all levels and growth of reliable financial institutions for mortgage, small scale business financing and research,” among others, he added.

Prof Soludo who spoke later promised that the members would do their best to meet the expectations of Ndigbo, especially at this period of “our history.”

The Bishop of Lagos West, Anglican Diocese, Revd James Odedeji, on Friday, refuted claims by the notorious kidnapper, Chukwudumeje Onwuamadike, a.k.a. Evans
of being a member and a philanthropist of high repute in the Anglican family.

Odedeji made the clarification while reacting to claims by Evans that he(Evans) had sponsored indigent students, given money to widows as well as donated to the renovation of the Anglican church building.

Speaking to an online platform through Ven. Paul Adeyemi, Odedeji said: “We have verified it, and we are very certain that Evans is not a member of any elements of our church. We don’t know him and we have no affiliation with his person.


“All that he his saying about paying school fees for indigent students, helping widows and donating hugely to renovations of our church are pure lies. Please ignore the false information, it is only meant to mislead the public.”.

Asked if Evans had probably been one of the anonymous philanthropists in the church, Odedeji replied ‘We know all our members, he is not one of us and he has never been part of us.”

LionDeLeo:
Eze igbo, but ur boys have been chest beating on how a million aircrafts and trucks were deployed to evacuate the entire ibos resident in the north.

Pls where are the hairy chest beating clowns? We need some explanations, unity begging reprobates cannot continue disturbing us in this country.

This is still a country that we call our own.If the country tells us to leave we will leave but if its individuals then its a question of the govt addressing the issues why they say we should leave

Olaleye Aluko, Abuja


A Second Republic lawmaker and Northern elder statesman, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, has warned that the arrest of Arewa youths over the quit notice to Igbo would lead to crisis in the region.

Giving the warning during a chat with Saturday PUNCH on Friday, Mohammed said that the Federal Government demonstrated irresponsibility in its selective handling of the threats from the southern and northern regions of the country.


He said, “The threat to arrest the youth, in my opinion, is not only counter-productive but also inappropriate.
“This is because ideally, with the position of things, every Nigerian has the right to live and conduct their businesses in any part of the country.

“But the Federal Government left their toes behind when they allowed the IPOB, which is being financed by the Igbo political and business elites both in the country and in the Diaspora to be issuing statements freely.


“Therefore, any attempt to arrest Arewa youths will lead to problems. I am resident in Kano State and the last time the Kaduna State Government brought up the issue of arrest, there would have been violence if an attempt to arrest anybody by the police had been made.”


Standing with Mohammed’s submission, the Chairman of Northern Elders Council, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, blamed the Federal Government for not tackling the threats by the IPOB on time, pointing that it led to the present crisis.
He said, “I believe that the Federal Government was somewhat late in addressing the threats issued by the Igbo.

“These threats by both the North and South are unconstitutional and illegal because every Nigerian has the right to live and work in any part of the country he or she chooses.

“I think the Igbo should not allow a man, who was not even born during the civil war to incite violence in the country. Both the Hausa and the Igbo are well travelled traders and if this country splits today, that opportunity is gone, a market of 180 million people. All the regions will suffer for it.

Arewa youths can’t force us to leave North – Eze-Igbo, Kaduna
— 24th June 2017
From Noah Ebije, Kaduna

Eze-Igbo, Kaduna, Igwe Sylvanus Aneke has said that Arewa youths are too insignificant to tell Igbo to quit the North because of a group of people agitating for the Republic of Biafra in the South East.

Igwe Aneke in this interview with NOAH EBIJE said it is only the Federal Government that has the constitutional power to split the country.

Following the insistence by Arewa youths that Igbo should leave the North, are your people going to abandon their investments in the North by succumbing to the threat?

Naturally we are in shock that such threat message will come from people we have been staying with for years and living peacefully with. We don’t have any problem with them.

As for whether we will leave is not as easy as that. We have spent years working very hard in this country, developing the state, the country in our own way; and of course, we have investments. You don’t leave because of a message that says you should leave. This is still a country that we call our own. If the country tells us to leave, we will leave but if it’s individuals, then it’s a question of the government addressing the issues why they are saying we should leave. What is the problem? Why the agitation? And agitation is not just from one quarter, but in this country, there are agitations from different quarters.

So the government cannot continue to pretend that there’s nothing wrong when there are issues. So my advice is not to the Arewa youths, my advice is to the authorities, the people that are leading this country; they should address the issues that are provoking these agitations – equity, fairness and justice.

The Arewa youths are insisting that Igbo should leave because your people are calling for Biafra Republic, what’s your reaction to this?

The question, is it all the Igbo that are calling for it? It’s a few young men who did not witness the war, that are calling for it. You see, it’s just like a child who wants to put his hands into the fire, the elder knows that if he puts his hands into the fire, it will burn him. So, the elders of the Igbo are not really supporting the IPOB, we identify with the problem. Just like I told you, the issues, what’s provoking the agitation? The agitation is their own reaction. Their way of reacting and that’s not what the elders of the Igbo want. What we want is to address injustice, to have fairness, fair share of whatever. To have that sense of belonging in the country.

There are reasons every day of how the Igbo are being discriminated against. No group can be happy with that. The youths are exploring this way because they feel that we the elders are comfortable with the situation. We’re not comfortable with the situation, but we know that calling for separation or division of this country will not be the solution but unity of Nigeria. We fought a war before and at the end, we accepted that Nigeria should be one. And they say to keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done.

We’ve accepted that many years ago, so why should we now be asking for that again? If we say Nigeria is one, let it be one. If Nigeria is one, then every person should have fair share of whatever the country has. That’s all.

As the October 1 deadline is fast approaching, do you put any mechanism in place to dissuade your people who are trying to move out of panic?

We are not thinking of doing that. There is freedom of movement but we know that our people are not planning to move. We cannot tell whoever wants to move not to move; but we know because we’re being assured, we listened to Arewa youths, we also listened to responsible Arewa citizens and elders. They’re not saying the same thing. So why must it be that of the youths we should take? We were with the governor of Kaduna State, we know the assurances he gave us. We were with the Kaduna State Commissioner of Police, we know the assurances they gave us. Do you think we should gnore all these ones and then obey the command of the Arewa youths? We cannot say nobody should move but we know that unless the Lord watches over a city, the watchmen watch but in vain. Our lives are in the hands of God not in the hands of any man. So people are free to take their decision but as a group, we feel that we have enough assurance from other members of Arewa colleagues who we’ve been living with for years.

How satisfied are you with the way some elders of the North are handling the situation?

Well, you see everybody has his own freedom. We know some elders are behind them. When a bird is dancing on the road, there must be someone drumming, we know that. Of course we cannot be happy that elders who know the consequences of war, who were there, and saw what even Nigeria had to pay to keep Nigeria one are part of the plot. If we wanted the Igbo to go when they went, why do we have to lose lives to bring them back? So if Nigerians lost lives on both sides to be one, it’s so unfortunate for any adult who knew the time to still wish that there’ll be a second war in Nigeria.

Since the event of that quit notice, how frequent does your phone ring?

Oh, that one I cannot just say -the phones are ringing every minute, not just the threat, the threat triggered chains of reaction. I think the worst threat is even the social media. The type of things in the social media which our people read at home, so the pressure is that every five minutes I receive calls, ‘what are you people still doing there in the North ?’ This is terrible but fortunately we are here, so we know the situation more than them that are there. So when they’re telling us they’ve killed someone, they post photographs of people that are killed, and they mentioned the place and these are places where we’re moving freely. So we tell them it is not as bad as they think; but the pressure is there.

The Igbo delegates from the 19 Northern states met here in Kaduna, what were the core issues discussed at the meeting?

To share ideas and experiences. You want to know; when we hear something happened , we may not know. If they said they killed 10 persons in Sokoto, you can’t be in Kaduna and be sure that is not true. So the Eze Igbo Sokoto was here, the leaders in Sokoto came, Taraba, Adamawa from all parts of the North, both Bauchi and Yobe were all here. So, we now shared our experiences and the assurances. These are the things we came together to know what is really happening. And of course we all went enmass to the governor. So, they were all there and the governor of Kaduna State assured them of safety.

Was there any bitter experience from any of the States?

No! None at all. All the representatives that came from different states debunked all the stories we’ve been getting from the Facebook, that nothing like that happened.

brunofarad:
Hmm.... Which kain teeth be that?

Tolexander:
Is this man okay at all?

Human skull done turn houseware or kitchen utensil?

Published June 23,2017

A 52-year-old man, Tosenu Hussein, who was found with human skull by the police, on Friday, said that he brought it to his house some five years ago and kept it for future use.

The suspect, who made this confession when he spoke with journalists at the State Police Command, Ikeja, added that it was his first time of dealing in human parts.

“I saw the human head at Oko-Ode, Sagamu area of Ogun State while on security duty and brought it home that I may need it later. It was fresh when I saw it but it is decomposed now.

“Am a traditionalist and I have been rendering services to people but this is the first time I will be dealing human parts.

“Somebody, my in-law, then requested that I should help him get a human head, which he wanted to use for rituals in his business and I promised to do something about it.

“Later, I also received a call from someone that who said that he needed human part and I asked the person to pay me N150, 000. I didn’t know a policeman was calling until the police came to my apartment,” he said.

The Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Administration, Mr Danladi Galandachi, who also spoke with newsmen on the occasion, said the suspect usually charged up to N1m for the procurement of any human parts.

He said that the suspect was arrested by some policemen, who disguised as buyers.(NAN)