₦airaland Forum

The Lagos State Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Miss Dabiraoluwa Adeyinka, and some other state executive members have dumped the party and joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Adeyinka, leading about 15 other party executives to the main opposition party on Monday, said that the decision was based on personalities with the tickets of the PDP in the state.

According to her, the group consulted widely before settling for the PDP, having considered the reality on ground.

She said they also considered some personalities in the party like Ms Funke Akindele, the Lagos PDP Deputy Governorship Candidate.

” We are proud of this and find it convincing. We find a lot of attractions in PDP.

“The likes of Funke Akindele are a role and model for us. She likes us as youths, she is accessible and a young mind, who has impacted the system in Nigeria by creating employment for Nigerian youths.

“She (Akindele) is doing wonderfully well and she is a sellable youth. She is a voice for the women and a voice for the Nigerian youths.

“She (Akindele) is motivation even without meeting her in person. We want to join force with an entity like that,” Adeyinka said.

Adeyinka added that the group was also attracted to PDP because of the likes of Mr Wellington Bankole ( Banky W), the PDP House of Representatives’ candidate for Eti-Osa Federal Constituency.


“Those are people we want to reckon with because for Nigerian youth to be able to speak and make impact, we have to come together as one force. We need a force to change status quo.

“We want a Lagos for all not for a few. We want a Lagos that works for everyone. We want to kill the system of godfatherism that puts our lives in danger.

“We need to find the right direction, we have a torchlight in PDP. Not because it is PDP, but because we have people of like minds like Dr Abdul-Azeez Adediran and others there.

“We were not paid to do this or under pressure., It is high time for Nigerian youth to get involved.

“We want to be able to elect people into office because they merit it not because the system put them there,” she added

Soldiers kill guest as siblings clash at funeral

A guest, David Chinonso, has been reportedly killed at Owode, Ogombo community, in the Ibeju-Lekki area of Lagos State, after some military men stormed the burial of one late Mathew Ekpu.

The uniformed men, numbering 15, were said to have arrived at the venue in an attempt to stop the corpse from being interred on the premises of the deceased.

This led to a confrontation, as one of the deceased’s sons, Victor, was hit in the head with an iron, while Chinonso was shot in the chest.

The children of the deceased, who spoke to PUNCH Metro, accused their sibling, Richard, of leading the attack, which happened on Saturday, November 19, 2022.

One of the children, Victoria Abimbola, said Richard was planning to acquire their father’s house and had demanded that the deceased be buried in their hometown in Akwa Ibom State.

She said, “My father gave birth to 10 children, and before he died, he told us that Richard, his second son, built a house for him in our village. We were happy when we first heard until Richard told him that the house he built was in exchange for my father’s house in Lagos.

“The rest of us disagreed with the decision and we told him that the house is the only property our father has in Lagos and it is more like a family house to every one of us. After that, he started putting pressure on our father, who later fell sick and died on September 5.

“After our father’s death, he (Richard) prevented us from burying him in the house. He also tried to stop us with policemen the day we took the corpse from the mortuary for burial, but we restricted him.”

Another family member, Victor, said he was attacked while trying to interrogate the military officers who stormed the burial.

He said, “Some uniformed men came in the morning to stop us from burying our father, but since they did not provide any document that warranted their visit, we sent them away.

“So, we were holding a thanksgiving service in the church adjacent to our father’s house when the officials returned with five military men. They entered the premises and started to destroy property. When I stepped out of the church, I saw them assaulting the 15-year-old son of my brother, Daniel. By the time I asked what happened, one of them hit me with an iron rod on my head, while another hit me with a club from behind. I fell immediately. Some of the guests, who saw what happened, confronted them and while trying to chase them, one of the uniformed men fired a shot which hit David Chinonso, who died on his way to a hospital.”

Richard, however, denied the allegations, saying he acquired the property with the consent of his siblings.

He said, “Our father needed money to build a house in his hometown in Akwa Ibom and relocate there, so he told my brother, David, who is his first son, to buy the house so that the property would stay within the family, but he did not.

“Then in 2020, my father asked all of us to jointly acquire the house, but others complained about funds. When my brother Victor suggested an external buyer with the intention of getting a commission, my father declined and approached me to acquire the house. He also told them and they all agreed.

“So, I struggled to provide the fund, built the house, and got the documents. Since then, they started making financial demands on me and because I could not provide them, they conspired against me and my father.

“My father told me how they threatened to kill him, bury him and use his grave to claim the property. I told them if they did not want me to take possession of the house, they should return the money, but they did not. And since my father insisted on being buried in his hometown before he died, I reported the matter to the police.

“They were invited for questioning but they did not show up. While my elder brother moved into the house with his family, they also rushed to bury my father there. That was how the relevant authorities I reported the matter to moved against them and not me.”

The state Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed the incident.

He said, “We are aware and the case has been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department. The military officers were invited and they provided the information needed and their details. I will do a follow-up to confirm the update.”

Former National Chairma of All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, Victor Umeh, said yesterday that the coalition talks between the Labour Party, LP, and the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, ended on June's 15.

Umeh, who is vying for a senatorial seat on the platform of LP, said the talks “collapsed completely” because both parties could not agree on who will be the presidential candidate.

Speaking in an interview on Channels Television breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, Umeh faulted the presidential candidate of NNPP, Rabiu Kwankwaso, for giving the impression that the talks between both parties were still in progress.

Umeh, who disclosed that the Labour Party was no longer interested in “every other discussion” with the NNPP, said: “We are surprised at the recent media blaze by the members of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) to continuously suggest that they were locked in a negotiation with the Labour Party to have a partnership or arrangement where the two parties will work together in 2023.

“We are surprised to continuously see this, we had this discussion precisely on June 15, more than three weeks ago. What necessitated the meeting was that the NNPP and LP working together will give a better opportunity for the presidential election to be won. And the two parties set up two teams.

“Myself, Julius Aboreh, the Labour Party chairman who led our team; Doyin Okupe went to that discussion on behalf of the Labour Party; while the NNPP put forward Buba Galadima, Abdullahi Baffa, former executive secretary of TETFUND, and Ladipo Johnson.

“It was a three-man team; we met for long hours, adjourned and we came back. When it became obvious that it had become a dialogue between a deaf and dumb person, we called off the negotiation.[b]

[b]LP may pick Senator Baba Ahmed as Obi’s running mate

Also, the Labour Party temporary Vice Presidential Candidate, Dr Doyin Okupe, said the LP/NNPP alliance talks had collapsed.

Speaking on Channels Television Politics Today programme, yesterday, Okupe said the merger failed because Kwankwaso of the NNPP insisted on being the presidential flagbearer, even when a Northern Muslim of same North-West geo-political zone, President Muhammadu Buhari, is about to complete eight years in office.

He said during coalition talks he had asked the NNPP leadership if it was fair to field Kwankwaso, a northerner, of which the NNPP leadership said there was nothing wrong with that.

Okupe revealed that LP is now looking at young running mate of northern extraction.

Vanguard gathered yesterday that Senator Datti Baba Ahmed, 46, from Kaduna State may be picked as Obi’s running mate.

Senator Ahmed, who has four degrees including a PhD was a member of the House of Representatives (2003 and 2007), and was elected Senator (Kaduna North) in 2011 on the platform of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC. He is the founder and pro-Chancellor of Baze University.

An Osun State High Court, sitting in Ile-Ife, on Wednesday, refused to set aside his November 22, 2021 judgement which affirmed Soji Adagunodo, as the chairman of Peoples Democratic Party in Osun state.

The court in his judgement had held that the preservative order of an Ikirun High Court which declared Adagunodo as the chairman of the party was not appealed against, thus still subsists.

But counsel for the PDP, Hashim Abioye said his client would appeal the judgement, saying the decision of the court would not affect ward Congress of the party slated for Thursday.

But the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party had approached the court with an application, asking that the court set aside its decision.

But while ruling on the application on Wednesday, Justice A. Aderibigbe declined the application and refused to set aside its ruling.

Reacting to the decision of the court, Edmund Biriomoni, who represented Adagunodo in the matter said, the implication of the verdict is that the appointment of Wale Ojo, who was appointed acting chairman after Adagunodo had been elected South-West PDP chairman, was valid.