₦airaland Forum

About 53 non-governmental organizations under the aegis of Coalition of Human and Civil Rights Organizations(COHCRO) are set to hold a protest calling for the release of Omoyele Sowore, an opponent of President Muhammadu Buhari in the last presidential election.

Sowore was arrested on August 3 by the Nigerian secret police, the Department of State Services (DSS) and has been in detention since then.

He was abducted by the DSS in a Gestapo style in his apartment for organizing a demonstration tagged, #RevolutionNow.

A statement by Comrade Adeniyi Alimi Sulaiman on behalf of the coalition said: “Well-meaning Nigerians and lovers of genuine democracy would grace the event slated for Thursday 5th of September, 2019.

“The planned March protest would draw members from no fewer than 53 organizations across the country and beyond, including artisans, transporters, market men and women, Coalition for Revolution (CORE) and host of others.

“The protest would commence from Ikeja and end up at the Command Headquarters of the State Security Service (SSS) in Shangisha, Lagos, where protest letter would be submitted to the Head of the Command.”

Different civil society organizations have also joined in demanding the freedom of Sowore.

Forty-eight of them writing to the United Nations and the African Union to put pressure on the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to release Sowore.

http://saharareporters.com/2019/08/27/freesowore-53-rights-organizations-hold-rally-demanding-sowores-release

Adaura C.’s life has never been easy. She has dealt with abandonment, neglect, forced abortion, and kidnapping by ISIS. She managed to escape after being trafficked to Libya, where she was repeatedly raped and exploited. Now, back in Nigeria, she is anxious about her uncertain future, but still wants to chart a new path for herself. To do so, she needs more help from her government.

Adaura now lives in an orphanage, with high walls and gates, despite being 25. She previously stayed in a shelter in similar conditions, alongside other trafficking survivors. The shelters are secluded, far away from the city or other neighborhoods. The women are not allowed to go home to their families or have visitors. The anti-trafficking agency in Nigeria says that this isolation is to keep them from being taken again – that this will prevent them from being lured and trafficked again. But the women say these conditions feel similar to how they were locked up by the people who stole their freedom.

Adaura thought that things would be better once she returned to Nigeria. But escaping trafficking was just one hurdle. Now she is facing many more.

Nigeria: Anguish, Poverty Confront Trafficking Survivors
Many survivors of sex and labor trafficking struggle with unaddressed health challenges, poverty, and abhorrent conditions upon their return to Nigeria. Nigerian authorities have failed to provide the assistance that survivors need to rebuild their lives and have unlawfully detained many of the already traumatized women and girls in shelters.
For years Nigeria’s media has been awash with stories of women and girls who were trafficked for labor and sexual exploitation, and of Nigerians trapped in Libya in slavery-like conditions or dying while crossing the Mediterranean to Europe. Trafficking is a large and, according to some reports, increasing problem in Nigeria. But few talk about what happens to trafficking survivors once they are repatriated back to Nigeria. A new Human Rights Watch report, “You Pray for Death”: Trafficking of Women and Girls in Nigeria, shows how the government’s efforts to protect and assist these women too often fail to respect their rights.

Six years ago, a woman approached Adaura with an offer of earning 150,000 Naira (US$417) a month as a domestic worker in Libya. For Adaura, it seemed like an honest way to make some money while she planned her life after she escaped abuse at home. Her mother had abandoned her as a toddler, and although she eventually took her back in, her mother pretended Adaura was a domestic worker to appease her new husband. Adaura left home at 18 to escape escalating violence. Libya was a chance to better her situation, but she instead she suffered physical and emotional scars that she’s still nursing.

After an arduous journey across the Sahara Desert, Adaura reached Libya. She arrived only to be given to a “madam,” a woman who was part of the trafficking ring and who was controlling her. She kept her locked up for four days without food and threatened to kill her. The madam told her she would have to work to pay off her travel and accommodation expenses, which was calculated to be US$4,000, and made her swear a fetish oath to never run away. Adaura was then handed over to men who had sex with her without condoms. Adaura was terrified of getting pregnant or sick, and she told the madam so.


August 27, 2019 Report
“You Pray for Death”
Trafficking of Women and Girls in Nigeria

“We were told we would be house helps,”Adaura said. The madam responded, “This is house help.”

After one month, Adaura was pregnant. The madam told her she would help her get an abortion, but that this would be an extra cost added to her existing debt. She got a backstreet abortion and was sent straight back to work – while she was still bleeding. The madam put wet wipes inside her vagina to ‘prevent pregnancy’ and bleeding from the forced abortion. The madam then sold Adaura to a Nigerian man in Libya who continued to exploit her sexually.

Even after these horrors, Adaura found the spirit to escape and move in with a man who promised to marry her.

“But soon after we were abducted [by ISIS] and they killed my boyfriend and others. They spared me because I was pregnant, ” Adaura says. The tears that welled up during the conversation flow freely when she speaks about her pregnancy and the baby she had in captivity.

A 24-year-old Nigerian woman in a shelter in Benin City, Nigeria. She went to Moscow in 2013 knowing she would be obliged to sell sex, but she was unaware that the debt she would have to pay—56,000—was in US dollars, not Nigerian currency, which which would have amounted to just US$350. After four years she managed to pay off her debt; she decided to return to Nigeria in 2018 because she was pregnant. Her family is ashamed of her because she came back empty-handed. March 2018. © 2018 Lynsey Addario/Getty Images Reportage
Her baby boy was just a few days old when he was killed during an ambush. She remembers ISIS fighters taking her to an underground prison after this ordeal, and forcing her to marry a man who raped her. She developed a stomach ulcer and was scared of the fighting, bombings, and gunshots that rang out all night and day.

She was held in captivity for three years before being rescued by Libyan soldiers who took her to a camp run by the International Organization for Migration. Soon after, she was brought back to Nigeria.

Adaura was initially relieved to return home, but then became disturbed when she was held by Nigeria’s National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) in a shelter and, again, not allowed to leave. The high walls and the gates manned by security guards reminded her of life in captivity. She was later moved to the orphanage, but the conditions remain the same.

Today, Adaura is being sponsored for hairdressing training by the NAPTIP, but she doesn’t know whether there will be further support to help her set up and run a hair salon after her training. Every day, Adaura and the other trafficking survivors at the orphanage have to go for hairdressing training, but do not receive enough bus fare to get there. Sometimes they walk for 45 minutes, all the way to the hair salon and back, and do not get to each lunch. She said she has not received adequate counselling and medical care, and that the food is inadequate.

A Nigerian woman sits in a center in Benin City. After spending a year and three months in captivity in a run-down brothel in Turin, Italy, she was arrested by Italian security forces, and deported to Nigeria. Women lured by traffickers into leaving Nigeria sometimes flee violent conflicts; others are desperate to escape dire economic hardship or abusive family environments. © 2018 Lynsey Addario/Getty Images Reportage
Many of the women living with Adaura were convinced to go abroad for work by people they knew. A friend or a relative introduced them to someone who offered a job opportunity in the Middle East or Europe, only to plunge them into crippling debt that kept them in the tentacles of their traffickers for months, or even years, on end. Others were lured with promises of education and training in Nigeria by people they saw as benefactors, only to be abused and exploited.

In general, Nigeria has done well in warning its population about the dangers of trafficking, legislating against it, and creating an agency to support survivors who return. However, survivors like Adaura require more assistance to help them through the physical and psychological trauma they have endured. Psychological help is essential in making sure survivors are equipped to engage and cope with their new realities when they return home. Shelters are not prisons, and no one should be detained in them.

Sometimes Adaura thinks of killing herself. She is startled by loud noises and can’t sleep well as she keeps dreaming about her dead child, and recalling seeing people get killed. She thinks that maybe if she rejoined formal education, she would have a chance at securing her future. But she still worries about her health. She knows that spicy foods trigger her stomach ulcer, but she does not have options regarding what she eats at the shelter.

For all the suffering she withstood, Adaura hopes to find peace. The government can help her on this journey by providing support on her path towards healing and rehabilitation.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/08/27/witness-no-reprieve-trafficking-survivors-nigeria

DO we actually have government in this country?

The Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, has condemned the arrest of activist Omoyele Sowore.

Mr Sowore, a presidential candidate in the last election, was arrested on Saturday for calling for a revolution against poor governance.

“Beyond the word ‘revolution, another much mis-used and misunderstood word, nothing that Sowore has uttered, written, or advocated suggests that he is embarking on, or urging the public to engage in a forceful overthrow of government,” Mr Soyinka said.
He compared the actions of the security agencies that arrested Mr Sowore to what happended during the tenure of the late dictator, Sani Abacha.

“We underwent identical cynical contrivances under the late, unlamented Sani Abacha, when he sent storm-troopers to disrupt a planning session for a similar across-nation march at Tai Solarin School, Ikenne,” Mr Soyinka wrote in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES.
Read the full statement below.
SURELY, NOT AGAIN!!!

Deployment of alarmist experessions such as “treason”, “anarchist”, “public incitement” etc. by Security forces have become so predictable and banal that they have become meaningless. Beyond the word ‘revolution, another much mis-used and misunderstood word, nothing that Sowore has uttered, written, or advocated suggests that he is embarking on, or urging the public to engage in a forceful overthrow of government. Nothing that he said to me in private engagement ever remotely approached an intent to destabilize governance or bypass the normal democratic means of changing a government. I therefore find the reasons given by the Inpector-General, for the arrest and detention of this young ex-presidential candidate totally contrived and untenable, unsupported by any shred of evidence. His arrest is a travesty and violation of the fundamental rights of citizens to congregate and make public their concerns.

This is all so sadly déjà vu. How often must we go through this wearisome cycle? We underwent identical cynical contrivances under the late, unlamented Sani Abacha, when he sent storm-troopers to disrupt a planning session for a similar across-nation march at Tai Solarin School, Ikenne. This was followed up by a personalized letter that was hand delivered by the State Security Services to me under their ummons, at their Abeokuta so-called ‘Annexe’ with near identical wording to the threats contained in today’s release from the desk of the Chief of Police. At least, I was summoned, not subjected to a terrorist midnight arrest. Some irony!

The same pattern Pavlovian conduct manifested itself under yet another supposed democratic ruler who personally declared that the gathering of civilians to deliberate on, and propose a constitution for the nation was ‘high treason’, and would be resisted by the full rigour of state power if we persisted. The Inspector-General of Police mobilized his forces and issued inflammatory proclamations, but PRONACO went ahead despite all the thundering from Aso citadel. Can the police ever learn anything also their tear-gassing and brutalizing of grieving mothers who marched peacefully to protest the deaths of their children in a plane crash inferno? Their mission, under that same regime, which was simply to deliver a letter to government house in Lagos, demanding greater safety in airline operations, yet such a rational intent, born of traumatic circumstances, was quashed on the sidewalks of a supposed twentieth century nation.

And yet again, even a faceless cabal under yet another civilian regime refused to be left out of the insensate play of power.

A march on Aso Rock calling for an end to governance by a ghostly entity was slated to be crushed, but fortunately, a conflicting balance of interests decided in favour of a reduced trajectory of protest. And so on and on and on, in a nation which continues to speak at once through both sides of the mouth, spewing out the same Treason monotone, as if this was a magic incantation that could substitute for the venting of mass feelings, even as collective therapy!
May I invite the Inspector-General to wade through the daily journals of the past few weeks and months, read and digest the calls by numerous sectors of society – across professions and national groupings – for demonstrations against the parlous conditions of society, all identifying ills to which attention must be drawn, and urgently, through mass action? Demonstrations and processions are time honoured, democratic ways of drawing not only the attention of government to ills, but of mobilizing the public towards a proactive consciousness of their condition, and thereby exhorting civil society also to devise means of ameliorating their condition through their own efforts? Religious bodies have urged such remedies, so have civic associations. The ready recourse to arrests, incarceration and threats to civilians are ultimately counter-productive. They alienate the citizens, erode their confidence in governance responsiveness, and thereby advance the very extremist nightmare that security agencies believe they are acting to thwart.

If we cannot learn from the histories and experiences of other societies, let us at least learn from ours. Freedom is not so glibly qualified. It cannot be doled out like slops of charity from soup kitchens. Let the Police stick to their task of protecting and managing protests, not attempt to place their own meaning and declaration of intent on bogey words like – revolution!

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/344731-just-in-sowores-arrest-buharis-govt-behaving-like-abachas-soyinka.html

The Department of State Security (DSS) on Sunday afternoon confirmed it has presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, Mr Omoyele Sowore in its custody.

Sowore was arrested on Saturday by operatives of the DSS in his Lagos residence over proposed #RevolutionNow protests billed for Monday.

Read Also: Just In: DSS arrests Omoyele Sowore
DSS spokesman, Peter Afunanya confirmed this to reporters during a briefing at the DSS headquarters in Abuja.

Details shortly…

https://thenationonlineng.net/breaking-sowore-is-with-us-says-dss/

Editor’s Note: This article was written in 2010 and was published at the time in a number of media platforms. It was republished here in 2012. Enjoy…


Omoyele Sowore, a fair-complexioned man with a round face, was having lunch – pounded yam and okra soup – at a packed and noisy African restaurant in the Bronx, New york, that Monday afternoon when one of his three mobile telephones rang. As Mr. Sowore, a New-York-based blogger, journalist and activist, munched his meal, he spoke in low tones to the caller at the other end.

Mr. Sowore is the founder and chief reporter of one of sub-Saharan Africa’s most popular and feared websites. A major story was unfolding in his native Nigeria that day and the caller – a “top confidential source within the ruling establishment ” (he said at the time) had called to offer him a scoop. “Are you saying he is being flown abroad tonight? Who are those accompanying him?” Mr. Sowore asked, raising his voice a little above the din. Then he went quiet for a while, as he listened attentively to the informant’s response, his left hand pressing the phone to his left ear and his right hand making a rhythmic journey between his plate and his mouth. The call over, after about ten minutes, a smile sprouted from the edges of Sowore’s lips. He then cut short his lunch, (leaving behind a remnant of food) paid his bill and hurried to his car, a green Toyota Highlander, parked four blocks away. He flung open the trunk of the car and pulled out a backpack containing a white, internet-ready Mackintosh computer.


Standing by the front door of the car, his laptop placed on the driver’s seat, Mr. Sowore placed more calls to two other sources in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. He then frenetically pounded out a news report announcing to the world that the Nigerian president, Musa Yar’Adua, had fallen terribly ill and was being rushed to a Saudi hospital. The report went live on SaharaReporters.com at exactly 1p.m. – a full five hours before an official statement from the presidential villa announced the trip. Mr. Sowore thus became the first to report the beginning of a journey from which Mr. Yar’Adua never returned. The president died on May 5, 2010.


Mr. Sowore’s distinctions are legion. In the six years he has run his site, he has become Nigeria’s version of Julian Assange, the controversial Australian internet activist. His blog, SaharaReporters.com, is also as audacious as Assange’s WikiLeaks, a secret-spilling organization that publishes sensitive and classified documents that would have been otherwise unavailable to the public. In fact, Philip Shenon, a former investigative reporter for The New York Times, and author of The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation, in an article for the Daily Beast, referred to SaharaReporters as Africa’s WikiLeaks. But while Assange scouts the entire world for sensitive and confidential documents, sharing them with his media partners such as The New York Times and The Guardian of London (with which e has since fallen out), and uploading them raw on his website, Mr. Sowore has made Nigeria his forte.


Operating from a cubicle in an expansive office he shares with another media organization in mid-Manhattan, New York, Mr. Sowore documents sordid details of corruption, misgovernance, scams, dishonesty and ineptitude by Nigerian government officials, institutions, corporations and individuals, fearlessly posting them on his website. He holds nothing back.

“Our mission is to do as much evidence-based reporting as possible. We want to make sure that we consistently shame and make life difficult for the thieves plundering Nigeria and holding down the country’s progress,” Mr. Sowore, who also teaches Modern African History at the City University of New York and Post Colonial African History at the School of Visual Arts, New York, said with a snort of disgust one recent Wednesday afternoon, as he worked on an article accusing Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan of profligacy.


Mr. Jonathan was, at the time, on a three-day visit to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly and Mr. Sowore was in possession of a four-page classified document containing the names of the 120-member delegation – which he described as obscene and wasteful – that accompanied the president from Nigeria. The document clearly originated from the innermost circle of the president’s office and Mr. Sowore only stopped short of publishing it raw on his site out of concern for his sources who, he said, might be in danger.


Although, Mr. Sowore is based in New York, 5, 269 miles from Nigeria, he has become the nemesis of many a corrupt and inept official in his country. He has amassed a long list of trusted sources within Nigeria’s ruling establishment and its corporate world. And his website, in recent years, has become one of the most visited and trusted sources of news in the oil-rich West African nation.

Mr. Sowore moves around New York with a roller case containing an I-Pad, two Mackintosh laptops permanently hooked to the internet, three mobile phones, a T-Mobile line devoted to text messaging, a Verizon line for voice calls and another T-Mobile line exclusively for international calls. “I’m like a doctor. I get a lot of emergency calls, and an average of 30 calls a day from my sources in Nigeria and other parts of the world,” he said one recent Friday evening as he drove out of a parking lot in Manhattan.


He also has a backpack containing a canon rebel camera for still photography, a Panasonic Lumix camcorder, an extra pair of clothing and some toiletries, in case he is not able to make it back to his New Jersey home as the result of a breaking story.

With these simple tools, the blogger has broken a large number of major stories that have made a huge impact on his country of 150 million people, including bringing down some highly placed government officials. “The fear of SaharaReporters is the beginning of wisdom for corrupt officials in Nigeria and the joke in the country is that politicians, public office holders, security officials, corporate giants and other well placed individuals do not go to bed without checking SaharaReporters,” Bukola Oreofe, a New York-based pro-democracy activist, who has followed the site from its inception, said. “And when they wake up in the morning, they also rush to check whether SaharaReporters has published their indiscretions or exposed their hidden skeletons.”


From presidents to state governors, senators to ministers, and businessmen to anti-corruption operatives, Sowore’s website has exposed and disgraced more than a few public officials. He has also consistently criticized successive administrations in the country. It was SaharaReporters, which consistently published the accounts of the corrupt acts of a former Nigerian Justice Minister, Mike Aondoakaa, until the Barack Obama administration could tolerate the official no more. His U.S. visa was cancelled and he and his family were barred from entering the United States. For years, Sowore beamed his searchlight on James Ibori, a powerful state Governor of the oil-rich Delta State and steadily assailed the Nigerian government with embarrassing information of his alleged plunder of state resources, including allegedly stealing of $100 million from the coffers of a state he had ruled for eight years. The former governor escaped to Dubai when the government moved to prosecute him, after it could no longer ignore the continuing, and disturbing reports on him. He was later arrested in Dubai and extradited to London where he is facing charges for corruption.

Read more: https://www.premiumtimesng.com/features-and-interviews/3551-saharareporters-sowore-a-thorn-in-the-flesh-of-corrupt-nigerian-officials.html

The government of the United Kingdom has warned its citizens against travelling to some states in Nigeria ahead of planned mass demonstrations taking place August 5, 2019.

In an advisory on its website, it warned citizens to "monitor local media" and "avoid large gatherings" following calls for a nationwide #RevolutionNow march.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) advised it's citizens not to travel to Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Gombe states in northern Nigeria as well as Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Cross River States in southern Nigeria.

Other states include Bauchi, Zamfara, Kano, Kaduna, Jigawa, Katsina, Sokoto, Kebbi and Abia states.

The UK government said the reason for the warning was because recent protests in Nigeria usually turned violent.

"Since January 2018, the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) has protested regularly in central Abuja and other cities. These protests, particularly in Abuja, have the potential to turn violent. On 22 July 2019, violent protests in Abuja resulted in a number of deaths, including a police officer and a journalist.

"Tensions continue to be high. Protests are also likely to continue in Lagos, Jos, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina and Zaria. You should monitor local media, avoid any demonstrations or large gatherings and follow any instructions from police and security forces."

Nigerians are calling for the release of human rights activist and pro-democracy campaigner, Omoyele Sowore, following his arrest by operatives of the Department of State Services.

Using #Freesowore hashtag on Twitter, many Nigerians slammed President Muhammadu Buhari for trying to use the DSS to silence Sowore.

Sowore is spearheading a series of nationwide demonstrations tagged '#RevolutionNow Days of Rage' to protest bad governance in Nigeria.

The DSS invaded Sowore’s apartment in the early hours of Saturday with four trucks, seizing his phones and other electronic gadgets.

His whereabouts is currently unknown as of the time of filing this report.

Sowore’s #RevolutionNow campaign has gained national and international attention in the last couple of days.
SEE ALSO

BREAKING: DSS Arrests Sowore
121 Comments 1 Hour Ago

Reacting on to his arrest on Twitter,
Isaac Obasi @Evang_IsaacObas tweeted, “DSS picks @YeleSowore up. Buhari is scared of the mother of all protests that he'll lead which he has been doing for 30 years now. We can't give up #RevolutionNow #FreeSowore.”

Oladipo Adebola wrote, “Nigeria is an enterprise not a country, who ever wants to disrupt businesses and endlessly slavery must be a tyrant too. #FreeSowore.”

@kalutobest wrote, “So these guys in Aso Rock can be this scared? We are getting there gradually.”

[Matthew] @tobbiematthew wrote, “Few hours ago, unsure sources claimed Dadiyata was whisked away by DSS and now Sowore again.... This is looking like a script already.”

Gbenga Adeoti @Gbengadeoti said, “This is ridiculous, absolutely preposterous! They've just added salt to this injury, nothing, not even their village juju will stop #RevolutionNow.”

Some Nigerians have also taken to Facebook to demand his unconditional release.

Oladimeji Omiwole wrote, “Quite unfortunate. We all wish a better Nigeria where her wealth works for all not for few elites at the corridors of power.”

Damian David Adoodo said, ‘How can we have a good democracy, when the principle of the rule of law is disregarded? How can we have a good democracy, when there's no freedom of speech? How can we have a good democracy, when criminals are shielded and celebrated? How can we have a good democracy, when there's so much bias, ethnicity, religious sentiments?”

Uchechukwu Mychel Chosen wrote, “Terrorist regime. They are terrorizing everyone. Nigeria is overripe for division. You know what happens to over ripe fruits? That is (what) Nigeria is into today. #Decaying. And innocent poor farmers are paying heavy price for this rotten fruits."

Ifeanyichukwu Leonard wrote, “It's so obvious that the politicians are enjoying the suffering of the masses. They wouldn't want to compromise the selfish comfort they enjoy for the development of this country. That is the reason they will not fold their arms and watch any movement for revolution which is why they are after Sowore.Arresting him might bring the revolution faster than we thought,may God hear the cry of the masses.”

Opah Ifeanyi Fortune said, "This sad tale is expected. I saw it coming. Sowore should have expected this highly probable development. Buhari and co have further made the cause relevant and pertinent.

"Sowore is among the Mandelas right now. What a wrong move by a dictator.”

Check�

A factional Shi’ite’s organization in Nigeria, Al-Thaqalayn Cultural Foundation, on Tuesday said the controversial Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky-led Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) is a fake movement.

The group, however, implored the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to desist from using the IMN crises to make Nigeria another testing ground for their struggle for regional supremacy.

It debunked suggestions that IMN is synonymous to Shi’ism, adding, that “neither of the two is interchangeable”.

Secretary General of the factional Shi’ite’s group, Sheikh Hamza Muhammad Lawal, gave the clarification at a news conference in Kaduna on Tuesday.

He explained that he was once a member of IMN between 1981 and 2000, after he returned from Qum, Islamic Republic of Iran, where he studied Theology.

According to him, “IMN started in the late 1970s as a socio-cultural and politico-religious revivalist movement, drawing its inspiration and taking its cue from essentially Sunni activists from countries like Egypt and Pakistan.

Read also: ‘With 20m, Nigeria occupies top spot on global hepatitis’ death list’

“It was an offshoot of the Muslim Students Society (MSS), and its birth coincided with the inception of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, which gave it a living and contemporary example of what it was yearning for, and therefore it got attracted and gravitated to its political message.

“When the leader of IMN, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, became a Shiite afterwards, he fell into the dilemma of either abandoning his Sunni revivalist movement or risking the possibility of losing his followers, or continuing with the movement with all its Sunni content but a Shi’ite face. He chose the latter, and that has been his undoing.

“Sheikh El-Zakzaky has not been able to complete his process of migration from Sunni activism to Shiite evangelism. His movement is a curious hybrid and a concoction, a dangerously unstable cocktail of incoherent and disorganised hallucinations and fantasies that only exist in their wildest dreams. In fact, when push comes to shove and a critical study of IMN is done, it may turn out that it is much, much closer to Sunni Islam.

“The press should, therefore, seriously note this and start calling IMN by the name it has given itself, IMN. The press is thus hereby called upon to appreciate the difference between IMN and Shi’ism. IMN is not another name for Shi’ism. The two are neither synonymous nor interchangeable.”

He, however, appealed to the Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufa’i to use his good office and withdraw the case against Sheikh El Zakzaky in the Kaduna High Court.

President Muhammadu Buhari says he has no plan to groom a successor for the 2023 presidential election and accused Nigerian youths of taking things for granted.

The president stated this while reacting to one of the requests made by the members of progressives in academics, who visited him at the State House, Abuja on Tuesday.

The spokesperson for the group, Dr. Bolariwa Bolaji, had earlier urged the president to groom a successor, who will take over in 2023.

Bolaji said: “We are delighted having you and in another four years you would want to go and rest – then who takes over from you? We are suggesting that you bring vibrant youths among people who have shown interest, bring them in so that you start saddling them with responsibilities and you will be watching over these next four years so that when you want to leave the circle, you would have vibrant youths to hand over to.

“This is one of the ways the gains of this government can be made to be continues – so that there will be continuity in what you are doing.’’

However, President Buhari said he would rather stay away from identifying anybody as his successor so as not to create problem for such a person.

The president said: “To me this is very funny. I think if I identify anybody I’d create more problems for him or for her.

“So, I’d rather keep my mouth shut. Let those who would want to be president try as much as I did. And I believe that those who are interested know that I tried three times.

“And the first time, I thank God and technology, PVC. Before, they just went on the television and they read the results. They said anybody who disagreed should go to court.

“And most of my supporters are looking for next day’s meal. They don’t have money to give to lawyers. So I said, 'God dey'. So, the first time God and technology came along, PVC, they couldn’t rig the election, so I won."

The president added, "I tried to work hard but I think you have a lot more to do you as intellectuals so that you correctly document Nigeria’s political development. It’s very important for the next generation.

“A lot of our young chaps are taking things for granted. Imagine to contest election three times ending up in Supreme Court three times. It needs a lot of conviction you know, and hard work.

“But people take success for granted. They say, 'Ah, he’s the president'. They think I just closed my eyes and I got it?"

Sowore’s AAC declares protests across Nigeria August 5

The African Action Congress (AAC) has declared August 5, 2019, the commencement date of revolution protests tagged ‘Days of Rage’ across the country to demand for a better Nigeria.

The presidential candidate of the party in the 2019 general elections, Omoyele Sowore, disclosed this on Saturday in Abuja at the end of the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the AAC.

Mr Sowore said that the protest would be sustained until the country is put on the right path of honour where justice will prevail.

He stated that the action of the government compelled them to take the decision noting that there was no level playing field in the last elections.

“Election is a place we would have carried out a revolution of the ballot box but they stole the ballot box. They hijacked materials that was meant for free and fair election and as a result they did not organise any election that was credible enough for people to have faith in the ballot box,” he said.

Mr Sowore who is also a human rights activist maintained that for the country to have free and fair elections in the future, there must be a showdown and people must define who should be their electoral officers.

He said, “The revolution has therefore become inevitable. We didn’t choose to go for revolution they choose it by ensuring that there was no level playing field in the last election.

“As you know they did it in Sudan and it was started by some females. They were making fun of them but they did not stop until doctors joined them, the labour union joined them and what started as 5 people became 5,000 and 500,000 and became 5,000,000 and the regime fell.

“So don’t let anybody deceive you that in asking for a better government or country you are committing any illegality. The biggest illegality being committed in Nigeria as of today is the rigging of election in 2019.

“The moment you don’t allow people to express their God giving rights to choose their leaders, you are committing an illegality and inviting resistance.”

He said that the proposed revolution is inevitable adding that the group has mobilised people in Lagos and many parts of the country to create places of community resistance.

Mr Sowore said the party has succeeded in creating awareness for the people to speak up and be resistant to all form of poor services from the government.

He added that the consciousness being raised among Nigerians was not to promote or encourage violence but to create the culture of resistance in them.


“I am not the only one asking for a revolution; 84% of Nigerian according to a poll we conducted want a revolution. They don’t want war but these people want to drive us into war so that we can all be exterminated at once.

“We don’t want war, we want a very clean, quick and succinct revolutionary process that will put an end to the shenanigans of government, oppression and corruption.

“Don’t ask me weither I am afraid or worried about the legal implications of what I am saying. I am carrying out a historical duty and only history can judge me not a prosecutor or a federal judge. You can’t kill somebody who is not afraid of death,” Mr Sowore said.

EXCLUSIVE: Document: How Civil Servant, General Manager, Petroleum Equalization Fund, Hajiya Aisha Usman Splashed N65 Million On Stanbic IBTC Shares After Alleging Stolen Funds


A document exclusively obtained by SaharaReporters has shown that the General Manager, Operations of the Petroleum Equalization Fund (PEF), Hajiya Aisha Usman on January 31, 2018, deposited the sum of sixty-five million naira (N65, 000, 000) into a Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers account to buy shares in some companies.

Usman is serving in President Muhammadu Buhari's anti-corruption administration.

The document revealed that Usman instructed the firm to use N40 million to purchase shares in Seplat Petroleum Plc; N5 million in Stanbic IBTC Holdings PLC; N2 million in Oando Plc; N10 million in Dangote Cement Plc; N5 million also should be used to buy shares in Guaranty Trust Bank and N3 million in United Bank For Africa.

Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers LTD could not buy shares worth of N65 million, hence Usman instructed the Stockbrokers on 28 September 2018 to send back a sum of N40 million to Stanbic IBTC Asset management Limited’s Sukul Client Account (0027651361) with Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc which they did.

Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers LTD in the document sais they could only procure shares of N22, 998, 739.23, between 2 February 2019 and 9.

This is in accordance to the instruction given that the shares should be bought when the value is at least.


SaharaReporters can confirm that the remaining N2,001,260.77 from the initial N65 million is still in her stockbroking account.

This is not a fixed deposit or with any investment portfolio but with the stock brokers which implies that she is not in hurry to use the money.

Earlier, Usman on June 25, 2019 had alleged that the sum of $30, 000 equivalents to N10,500,000 was stolen in her residence by the policemen attached to the investigative team of the Special Presidential Investigation Panel for Recovery of Public Property, (SPIP) to investigate her.

Obono-Obla, who dismissed the allegations as cheap blackmail, said: “It is corruption fighting back. She just wants to shamelessly divert attention. Ask her where she got the money from as a civil servant. Why is the huge sum of money doing in her house? If the source of the money is clean, why not keep it in bank?”

“She should bow her head in shame. Where did she get the money from?

"That place is stinking with corruption. All they do is ask petroleum marketers to pay money into their accounts.

"She is saying this because our operatives have refused to be compromised.”

http://saharareporters.com/2019/07/29/exclusive-document-how-civil-servant-general-manager-petroleum-equalization-fund-hajiya

An investigation into the activities of the military has revealed over 300 cases of atrocities perpetrated by the naval officials deployed to various locations in Majidun community in Lagos State. to protect either goods or citizens of the community. Almost half of those results in either personal gains or ethical lapses, SaharaReporters Investigation has found.

Many cases involve breaking into shops and people’s homes with guns and other ammunition for robbery. They displace people from their homes and prevent shop owners and businesses like ferry operators, farmers, fishers and sand diggers from carrying out their operations in Majidun community, Ikorodu, Lagos State.

Some cases involve sex scandals. Take for instance five randy Naval officers gang-raped a 24-year-old lady in this community. Most of these Naval officers are even living in rent-free apartments owned by some helpless widows. These officers were sent to the community to secure the lives and property of the residents of the community and arrest those involved in oil bunkering. The officers, however, have constituted themselves into a menace that needs urgent solution.

Yet, despite these abuses in the community, there have not been efforts on the part of the relevant authorities to punish erring officers for the myriads of atrocities they often perpetrate in the community. Most of the residents now live in fear.

Some of these officers found to have been involved in adulterous relationships with the married women of the community members, a violation of the military’s code of conduct, have been secretly transferred from this community with public knowledge and allowed to go quietly. According to some of the residents of Majidun who spoke with SaharaReporters, In some cases, the naval officers carry out the dastardly acts with the support of the Generals who ought to have brought them to their senses.

Residents said the officers had turned their community to a hotbed of violent sex because their women are now intimacy gadgets with whom the officers have sex without compunction even in broad daylight. Take for instance the case of a 24-year old lady who was raped by five naval officers and even beaten after the evil act.

The Military has kept mum, influential Nigerians and politicians to whom these series of atrocities have been reported have made no efforts to see that justice is done. Even the request of the residents that the menacing and life-threatening Naval officers packing from the community have not been met.

Nobody knows what often prompts these Navy Officers to go on raiding, beating and stealing foods from the shops of the residents living in the community. Are they underpaid? Is it just a deliberate show of power? The residents keep wondering what often informs the naval officers' act of wickedness.

Whatever the reason for the misbehavior, three things are clear; The military hasn’t corrected it, no panel has been set up to look into the victimization of the residents of Majidun community.No disciplinary committee has able set up to ensure that the abused find emotional closure by punishing their abusers. This reality makes the residents of Majidun keep living in perpetual fear.

WHERE IS MAJIDUN?


Road to Majidun
Majidun is a small, sleepy community is located in the west of the region of Ikorodu. The major occupation of the residents is fishing for the reason that they live in a riverine. By cause of the deepness of the river, canoes, boats, and ferries have access to pave their way on the river either for fishing or to transport goods that link other neighboring community to places like Mawere, Oke-Tapa, Isawo, and Arepo.

Baale of Majidun land, Chief Olusegun Omoyele said: “Their forefathers and ancestors established the community several years back which indeed the descendants continue to live in with pride. This place was filled with trees and bush before.”

It was a bright sunny day in the community, the atmosphere was free from rain. The cloud looks like mash potatoes. Some market women were seen selling their goods on a roughly tattered wooden ‘counter’ while a few were hawking cold sachet water popularly known as ‘pure water’ and soft drink.

Catching a glimpse of children in twos’, slightly covered with sands on their body as a result of rolling a spoilt motorbike tyre on the street with amusement written all over their faces as they chased each other up the street.

Getting to the Baale’s house, a middle-aged man which is in his early 50’s with a fringe of grey-white hair around his balding approached me with a grin, indeed, Chief Olusegun Omoyele.

Discussing how the whole incident of the Majidun boys who are believed to be involved in oil bunkering.

He said “When people started bursting pipes of petroleum in Arepo, which is about 40 km from Majidun, particularly a substance that can be sold to get money. Though, Majidun boys never vandalize pipes because there are none of the petroleum pipes that pass through the community. Why they are actually involved in that incidence years back is because of the river that passes through the community.”

Whenever they are transporting the vandalized petroleum over the river, he continued further, “The boys sometimes approach those people transporting the petroleum over our ‘own’ river that passes through our land and eventually tax the ferry drivers for their own share. This actually developed because there is no Job and they have nothing to feed on. These ferries pass this river to Ebute Meta and other places even to Lagos Island and as far as Epe.”

“At a time, some other boys at the other part of the communities started selling fuel in our area because this is a point where you can get a vehicle and it’s actually like a centre where it can be transported to various parts of the state. The boys partner with those guys that are transporting the fuel just to earn a living but they have never involved in bunkering.

“Actually, one of the things that counted against them is that they have ferry here that do transport and they can be seen.

“It got to a time that we stopped them not to join the guys to transport again because of fire incidents that always occur at the site of extraction or collating the kegs of petroleum. As at that moment, they stopped but to be sincere, the boys don’t have something that they will feed on."


HOW THE NAVY OFFICER ARRIVED IN MAJIDUN

According to the letter that the Baale and community members wrote to the former Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola dated 29th November 2014, it read that: “On the 5th October 2014, Over 200 Naval officers invaded the entire community of Majidun with the impression and believe that they are on special surveillance to effect the arrest of some petroleum bunkers within and around the community.

“On the arrival of these naval officers into the community, we thought their operation will only cover and limited to the dwelling area of the suspects since there is no pipeline within or around Majidun community but to our greatest surprise, the whole community was encompassed to the extent that movement for the people in the community was unlawfully restrained and restricted, churches and mosques were taken over, people were sent packing from their houses, market and schools were closed down”

They send our people parking, the Baale of Majidun start his own story as I dragged my chair closer to him for the ease of conversation. “They live in our houses and make some of our people not to have a place to live. They came here on October 5, 2014, they live in our residence, use our Television, power without paying any amount.”

Discussing how the Naval officers have been deliberately creating problems and not willing to be helpful in any area to the community at large. He explained how the community is under the yoke of oppression from those sent to ensure peace and tranquillity.

“Naval officers have been terrorizing the community a lot. There have been several cases in past months, one of those cases was the case of a naval officer who got drunk and started shooting sporadically in the air and on sight. Some of the bullets shot hit three people and they were admitted at Lagos University Teaching Hospital LUTH, neither the naval officers nor the military as a whole did take care of them during all this time they are on the sick bed rather, it was the community members that rallied round in support of them. One of the boys who was shot is even in the community right now, he is currently handicap and he can’t do anything.

“Several months ago, they raided the community and also vandalized so many properties because one of the officers was in a shop playing the locally named ‘baba Ijebu’ lotto and his phone got missing, whether he misplaced his phone or the phone got stolen we don’t know. Of that reason, his naval officers’ friend and he started chasing all the boys. We wrote to some senators and those who are representing us at the House of Assembly as at that time that they should come to our aid but none of them show up. We even told them that these people are selling fuels here, what will you do? How can you help us?

Lagos State House Of Assembly Not Responding To the Community Agitation

After all these incidents, the community at large were invited and we all went to the House of Assembly through our representatives. When we got there, the lady who was raped by this debaucher was present too but they didn’t allow us in because they were in their chamber and it was the chairman of the committee that interviewed us. Actually, they didn’t allow us to take in our recording gadgets. After all the talk, we were told that they can’t do anything.

“There was another incidence that happened in the community. Some of the naval officers got drunk and they started shooting everywhere in the environment.

“What really happened was that some of the naval officers went to smoke with few of these boys and they try to exploit them but they resisted and these naval officers went to reinforce themselves and started shooting in the air. They maimed and demolish part of some houses of people. We called on the police but they could not come. They started chasing those boys all over the place, when they cannot identify the boys that beat up the navy office, The officers started vandalizing the place again. They broke some windscreens of some vehicles and destroyed houses.

“They are the alpha and the Omega of the community because whenever there is a fight in the community, they are the ones the wife will report to and in turn come back to discipline the husband. The community members are really in bondage. Do you know that their staying in the community does not allow the policemen in? They have sealed everywhere. Naval officers do what they like and if they need money, they will start exploiting people in the community unnecessarily.

“When the house they are living is leaking, they move to another house and remove the iron sheet to replace the one that is leaking. The funny part is that they have started selling our containers, the one they seized and meant for the women who struggled to raise the money to build this container. There is no way these ladies can feed right now as their source of income has been put in shortage.

“One of the things that baffled me is that the people who killed the soldiers, fought the police at the other community was given amnesty after a year or thereabout and my people who do not have hands in killing any soldiers and do not participate, only involve in selling’s’ are the one who does not have amnesty. Some of our boys were killed because they are part of the police officers who confronted the bunkers just because they know the terrain before deploying the naval officers."

“So, it gets to a point when the naval officers came because they have to go and stop the boys from vandalizing the pipes. After the cubing, they decided to come to our community and stay or make the place like a harbor to them. They are afraid to stay at the war front in the area and they resolve to stay in the community because they found comfort here.

"During election when I was on air, they came to the community to raid and vandalize everywhere. That was the governorship election in 2015.

“Up till now they blocked our roads and people could not work and they do not have jobs they do not allow our people to move freely and even to go to river and this stops all the domestic jobs and trade that our people really ventured into in back then are not been allowed to do it.

“When you talk, the naval officers will start attacking us even with the young guys that they do not have ammunition but, they have to succumb because they don’t have anything to fight back.

“There is one of their commanders that came to fight me in my office when I told him that how can the dredgers be allowed into the community without notifying the community members this or tell us what they are going to do to the community as a kind of social services to the community.

Read more at:

http://saharareporters.com/2019/07/06/revealed-gang-rape-confiscation-impunity-foisted-majidun-military-men​

Lagos, Friday, July 05, 2019 As the controversy surrounding the rape allegation against the Senior Pastor of Common Wealth of Zion Assembly (COZA) Pastor Biodun Fatoyinbo rages , the Community Peoples Initiative Against AIDS (COPEAIDS FOUNDATION) has called on the Nigerian Police to wade into the matter.

COPEAIDS FOUNDATION, a pro-life group urged the Nigerian Police to carry out diligent investigation in order to establish the truth in the festering rape scandal.

“There are two main versions. Pastor Biodun Fatoyinbo has been accused of rape by Mrs Dakolo. Nigerians have taken sides but there has not been any independent investigation that can establish the truth. This is where the police need to come in urgently”, COPEAIDS FOUNDATION said in a statement signed by its Executive Director, Mrs Feyisike Adeoye.

On Wednesday, COPEAIDS FOUNDATION saluted the courage of Mrs Dakolo for coming out with her story inspite of her status as a married woman urging other women or girls to summon the courage to speak out. The group said there was the urgent need for the police to unravel the truth by inviting Pastor Fatoyinbo to make a statement. The group said by stepping aside, Fatoyinbo has shown a good example expected from people perform public function urging politicians to take a clue from his action.

The group howevee said resigning from his position was not enough

It said rape remains a rampant scourge across Nigerian faith-based institutions, academic communities, the civil service, the military and other security institutions. “Most victims are traumatise and find it difficult to speak because of the stigma associated with rape and the obnoxious public perception that stereotype rape victims instead of rapists as suspects.

“We are in a society where information inflow and outflow continues to be dominated by men. We are in a society where people blame women even when they are raped. Women are at the receiving end of domestic and matrimonial duties and responsibilities, they are at the tiny end of the stick. They have little economic opportunities and the political structure that control institutions and public policies are controlled and manipulated by men. This adds up to the vulnerable status of women which makes them to be continuously exploited by men either through rape or other forms of abuse”, Mrs Adeoye said. She added that increase in violence, extremism, proliferation of arms, cultism and the weak justice system combine to spur increase in rape and violent crimes against women and the girl child.

According to her, the Police should not wait for an official complaint to be filed before investigation is carried out by the security operatives.

“The police should see this case as a strong public petition that should be investigated. Though the crime was alleged to have been committed two decades ago, by calling witnesses, the police can establish the veracity of claims in the wild controversy” adding that a thorough police investigation is in the interest of all parties, the crime suspect, the victim of crime and the society at large.

COPEAIDS FOUNDATION said because of the sensitivity of the case Nigeria Police Force ought to carry out thorough investigation into the allegation to make sure that proper punishment is meted out if the Pastor is guilty and also to be sure that an innocent person is not punished for what he probably what he knew nothing about

COPEAIDS said both parties have the right to fear hearing instead of subjecting a crucial case of public interest into mob trial.



“Nigerians will be doing a grave dis-service to justice if the country continue to use the social medial to bully parties in a dispute without a conscious attempt to establish the truth for the sake of justice.”

Adeoye further stated that government should come up with more punitive measures for people engaging in the dastardly act of rape which is capable of destroying the lives of victims.

COPEAIDS FOUNDATION said the alarming figures of cases of rape and defilement in Nigeria should be of concern to all and sundry. In order to deal with this scourge, the group advocated that governments at all levels should set up mechanism that will empower women to speak up without necessarily facing the risk of public ridicule.

Adeoye also urged journalists to put on the antennae for investigative journalism to help unravel cases of rape adding that it is important to use the media to spread the messages that will sensitize the people most especially young girls and ladies who are the prime targets on the need to be more careful of the kind of company they keep and the places they go so as to guard against the menace of rape. She urged “collective positive action” to shame rapists and put rape to an end.

Omoyele Sowore, presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), says the February 16 presidential election will shock Nigerians.

Sowore said this while addressing a crowd of supporters in Akure, the Ondo State capital, during his presidential campaign rally, noting that he would win the election if it is not rigged.

He explained that he is contesting to become the next President because Nigerians deserve a better leader to pilot the nation’s affairs.

"Our intention is to completely create a new political order in Nigeria that would retire the backward, corrupt, inept and wicked political class in Nigeria," he said.

"It is going to be a revolution on Saturday, but the revolution is not a one-time event. It will be a series of events that would put an end to this very inhumane condition of citizenship in Nigeria and a leadership that is not concerned about the welfare of the people.”

Sowore also asked the youth to be ready for "total liberation" by voting out old, corrupt politicians from power on Saturday.

He said: "Saturday is an opportunity for us to vote for a new Nigeria. Join me and let us retire those who have plunged our country into a mess on Saturday. So, I have no doubt that we are winning this election. We are third on the ballot paper. Ensure that you vote for our party (AAC).

"We are reaching out to the people of Nigeria not to be afraid; they should not reduce themselves to two options only. They cannot reduce themselves to the option of the hard rock and the deep blue sea. Our destiny is not supposed to be caged that way; that is why we are providing a solid alternative and we understand our people are getting the message.

"A lot of people will be shocked on Saturday. They will find out that the Nigeria they thought they were in charge of is no longer the Nigeria of today. So, Saturday is our own date with history and we are going to make it happen.”

The AAC candidate expressed optimism about becoming the next Nigerian President, saying he doesn't feel threatened by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

"We have taken our revolutionary campaign to 34 states across Nigeria, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and we have visited all the six geopolitical zones. We have visited places twice. This is our third time in Akure, Ondo State. We have been to almost seven countries outside Nigeria, and organised about 240 political events," he said.

http://saharareporters.com/2019/02/12/no-doubt-were-winning-—-sowore-says-saturdays-election-will-shock-nigerians

Munzy14:
Am only interested in the lady on blue denim. Who has her contact.

Vote Sowore and your wish will be granted to you.

2019guy:
WASTED MONEY

How? Someone is fighting for you and your unborn children, you are here saying otherwise.

Baawaa:
Sowore is moving to NEXT LEVEL

In your widest dream. He will never succumb to those thieves that looted this country to dryness.

Pictures of how Omoyele Sowore shut down Ondo State.

Omeokachie:
Still not enough

The only people that is affecting this country are not elders, the youths like you are the one destroying this country.

vikkimimi:
Mm! All these stepping down taking place all of a sudden seem fishy..... WELL..

Fishy? How? can you please tell Nigerians.

DonFreshmoney:
Sowore should then step down for Atiku, Atiku will give u minister of sports as u want.

...And this is coming from a youth. Your destiny have been milked away an yet you're not afraid of the future of your unborn children.

Prince Eniola Ojajuni, presidential candidate of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), has stepped down his presidential ambition for Omoyele Sowore, presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC).

Ojajuni made his decision known while speaking with SaharaReporters, as while as via a press statement signed by him and his campaign team in Lagos on Thursday.

He said he dropped his ambition in order to collaborate with (AAC) so as to propel the country to greatness.

According to Ojajuni, given the alternatives available for Nigeria, the AAC presidential candidate will best serve the interest of Nigerians.

“I stepped down because we want to create alternatives for PDP and APC and also to encourage other political parties to join Omoyele Sowore, because he has what it takes to take Nigeria to glory and move the country forward, so as to bring the dignity of the country back,” he said.

Speaking further, Ojajuni assured AAC that 85 per cent of the party leaders are in support of his decision, as he made consultations before taking the decision.

“The party leaders are aware and they are fully in support of my decision. Alliance for Democracy (AD) is a well structured party; 85 per cent are with me and they are ready to back me up,2 he added.

Answering the question on whether there is a motive behind his adoption of AAC, he said there were a lot of factors considered such as the integrity and credibility of the candidate, as well as “the need to save Nigerians from the two corrupt political parties”.

He continued: “I’m not one of those youth that will support a party because of money. If I want money, I would have supported either APC or PDP. I can’t support those two parties because they are the ones that have looted the whole economy.

“It is only in Nigeria a 40-year-old man will still be living in his father’s house and lots of graduates are roaming the streets without jobs. The same set of leaders that have been ruling us for the past 60 years are still the ones ruling. How can someone who is 85 years old want to determine my life at 40?

“We are not desperate for money, position or power. We are just desperate to take Nigerians from poverty and to take this country back from the looters who have plundered the economy to dryness. I believe in the integrity of Omoyele Sowore and that the youth can do it.”

He assured AAC party of “over four million votes across the country” and urged the youth and Nigerians “not to commit a blunder by voting either the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the coming election”.

“I’m assuring the party of over four million votes across the country. I now use this medium to urge every youth to come out on February 16 to support Omoyele Sowore, because I really believe in him and the party.”


http://saharareporters.com/2019/02/08/ad-presidential-candidate-steps-down-sowore-promises-support-aac-four-million-votes

Lieutenant General Alani Akinrinade (retd), a former Chief of Army Staff, hass urged Nigerians to ignore the comments of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, as he is an “irritable leader” who belongs in the “dustbin of history”.

He also urged the media to focus on their job as “the fourth estate of the realm” and endeavour to keep people in their place, and not give them unnecessary publicity.

He stated this in an advertorial published in The Punch newspaper on Thursday.

His words: “The Nigerian media appear to have forgotten they are indeed the fourth estate of the realm. They are gatekeepers. They owe Nigeria the responsibility of keeping this irritable man where he belongs — the waste bin of history.

“Like his daughter, Iyabo, reminded him in her letter, Nigeria does not belong to him. He should allow Nigerians choose who they want and stop goading the citizenry for his own selfish interests.

“Olusegun Obasanjo asking Nigerians to vote for Atiku Abubakar is an insult to our collective intelligence. With the benefit of hindsight, can anyone truly say Obasanjo’s sense of judgment in choosing leaders can be trusted?

“Take a good look at history. Through the clandestine manoeuvres in 1979, he foisted on Nigeria a reluctant Shehu Shagari at the expense of the cerebral Obafemi Awolowo or Nnamdi Azikiwe. After his second coming, he so manipulated the electoral system that he fraudulently installed an unhealthy Umaru Yar’Adua as President alongside another reluctant character in the person of Goodluck Jonathan as the deputy.

“He denied every interested member of his party while employing all sorts of machination including threat and blackmail. Then came 2015; he told Nigerians Muhammadu Buhari is the best man for the job. As he has done to every Presidential candidate he installed or supported, a few years down the line, he says Buhari is unfit for the job again.”

Akinrinade berated Obasanjo for endorsing Atiku after taking a contrary position in the past, stating that “The Bible says something about such people- a double-minded man is unstable in his ways, James 1:8. Obasanjo is not a man whose judgement can be trusted.”

http://saharareporters.com/2019/02/07/unstable-irritable-obasanjo-belongs-dustbin-says-rtd-general-akinrinade

Oby Ezekwesili withdraws from presidential race on Thursday morning.

The presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) will now devote her time “to help build a coalition to defeat the All Progressives Congress and the People’s Democratic Party in the February 16, 2019 election”, Ozioma Ubabukoh, the spokesperson of the Obiageli Ezekwesili Presidential Campaign Organisation, said in a press statement shared.



It is still unclear who the former minister of education will support, but she previously tried to get the trio of Kingsley Moghalu, Omoyele Sowore and Fela Durotoye to agree on a consensus candidate among themselves.

Oby Ezekwesili withdraws from presidential race

After Durotoye emerged in a ballot, the other candidates refused to step down and Ezekwesili herself joined the race.

Her decision to quit followed “extensive discussions with Nigerians at home and the Diaspora”.

“This decision followed extensive consultations with leaders from various walks of life across the country over the past few days. I deem it necessary for me to focus on helping to build a veritable coalition to ensure a viable alternative to the #APCPDP in the forthcoming
elections,” Ubabukoh said.

Ezekwesili was quoted as saying: “It is my ardent belief that this broad coalition for a viable alternative has now become more than ever before, an urgent mission for and on behalf of Nigerian citizens. I have therefore chosen to lead the way in demonstrating the much needed patriotic sacrifice for our national revival and redirection.

“I wish to state that over the past three months, I have been in private, but extended talks with other candidates to birth a coalition that would allow Nigerians to exercise their choice without feeling helplessly encumbered by the evil twins of #APCPDP.

“While the deliberations continued, I never hesitated for a moment in my willingness and determination to sacrifice my candidacy in order to facilitate the emergence of the envisaged strong and viable alternative that Nigerians could identify with in our collective search for a new beginning.

“My commitment to this promising political recalibration has been consistent and in consonance with my agreement, at the request of candidates under the Presidential Aspirants Coming Together (PACT) arrangement in 2018, when I consented to supervise the internal selection process as an outside observer passionate about building an alternative force.

“However, despite resistance from the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria on these and other issues, I have decided that it is now necessary to show by action and example my determination on this issue by stepping down my candidacy so as to focus squarely on building the coalition to a logical conclusion.

“We have no right to allow citizens give in to despair. We will #Fight4Naija together and prove to all that the mess, which the political class has now become, should not be allowed to destroy our spirits and nation. We are also determined to ensure that the message keeps resonating that our beloved country deserves better, and that we will get the best that we deserve.

“From last year, when I joined the presidential race, I made it clear to Nigerians that the country has always had a 20-year cycle of change – 1958, 1979, and 1999. As such, 2019 begins another 20-year cycle, and together with all Nigerians of good will, I stand ready to play my part to ensure that we do not miss this golden opportunity to sing a new song. There is no more time to waste. Let’s get to work!”

Ubabukoh thanked Nigerians who supported Ezekwesili, saying that “every money donated to the campaign and funds spent will be accounted for in the coming days.

Omoyele Sowore, presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), says it will take him less than one year to solve the country's electricity problems.

He stated this when he appeared alongside the AAC vice-presidential candidate, Dr Rabiu Rufai, on The Candidates, a town hall meeting for presidential candidates hosted by Kadaria Ahmed and aired live on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) with the support of the MacArthur Foundation.

Speaking on his plans for the power sector, Sowore said: "If we come in today, we are looking at investing in solar farms that will generate 4,500MW of power. It’ll be 90KW per university, and we’re going to do solar farms across the country for 500MW each. It'll take less than a year.

"It took Egypt less than two and a half years to generate 14,000MW at N500,000 per megawatt of power. It’s the cheapest in the world. Here we can even do it cheaper because we have plenty of cheap labour; I’m not saying we’re going to abuse labour.

"And it’s the same Siemens who came to Nigeria to do the same thing and people were asking them for bribes that went to RASCOM, a state-owned power generating company in Egypt to do the same. This is public information. We need leadership; we don’t have it. That’s the problem. We need innovation."

Born2Breed:
100k minimum wage??
How do you hope to achieve this?
Ogbeni educate us biko.

Please go to the AAC website to see his manifestos. www.sowore2019.org

PassingShot:
No link?

Anyway, we wish him safe journey!

feBuhari 16th will end his political career.

http://saharareporters.com/2019/01/17/exclusive-‘atiku-travel-us-‘very-very-very-soon’

Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is scheduled to travel to the United States “any moment from now”, possibly before Saturday’s presidential debate organized by the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON) and the Nigeria Elections Debate Group (NEDG), SaharaReporters has been told.

Atiku hasn’t stepped on American soil for well over decade dating back to his vice presidency, allegedly due to the belief he would be arrested for allegations of corruption, including one by US congressman Williams Jefferson that part of the $100,000 cash found in his refrigerator was intended as bribe for Atiku for his role in helping American firm iGate secure a contract to expand broadband in Nigeria.

However, in October, Atiku Abubakar, Gbenga Daniel, Director-General of the Atiku Presidential Campaign Orgsanisation (APCO) said his principal had received “signals from American officials” to apply for visa and it would be granted.

Despite the protestations of Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information, that the United States should exercise caution in granting visa to Atiku, it was reported in December that the visa had indeed been granted.

A source very close to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who played a big role in the securing of the visa, then told SaharaReporters that the Vice President would be busy back home for a while rather than travelling to the United States.

“The ban has been lifted but it doesn’t mean he is travelling like today or anytime soon,” the source had said. “The restriction has been lifted, which means he can travel anytime he wants. But he’s not planning a US trip soon.”

That was six weeks ago. SaharaReporters understands that Atiku is now planning the much-talked-about trip to the US, with Friday being a tentative date. But a source very familiar with the development said this still doesn’t obliterate the fear of arrest in the Atiku camp.

“Atiku will travel to the US any moment from now, and it could even be on Friday,” the source said.

“He is still afraid the coast is not completely clear, and he could be harassed or arrested once he steps in. But I can authoritatively confirm that he will indeed be going to the US very, very, very soon."

http://saharareporters.com/2019/01/17/exclusive-‘atiku-travel-us-‘very-very-very-soon’

Mr Segun Awosanya popularly known as 'Segalinks' has endorsed the candidacy of Omoyele Sowore, the Presidential Candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC).
There have been several indicators pointing to his acceptance and support for the message of the Presidential Candidate coined as 'taking Nigeria back' as far as December 2018, following the news of Sowore's exclusion from the Presidential debate that broke the internet.

The human rights activist who rose to limelight and massive followership from convening arguably the most successful social media campaign, #EndSARS had tweeted at several times in support of the candidacy of Omoyele Sowore even though it could be recalled that many Nigerians have asked 'Segalinks' to run for the Presidency.

The #EndSARS convener who has won the hearts of so many young people as the campaign recorded a lot of successes including reforms in the hitherto dreaded Police Unit- SARS noted for brazen violation of human rights, represents a symbol of freedom to many young Nigerians especially social media inhabitants.

Segun Awosanya, when contacted, affirmed his stance with the Takeitback Movement, calling all young persons to support and ensure that Omoyele Sowore is elected President come February 16, 2019.

In his exact words, ‘the young people of this Country can not continue to vote into power people who do not respect their rights as humans. We can not continue to vote to be slaves in our own Country. Many people have contacted me asking why I have gone political and I tell them that if we do not take interest in Politics, Politics would definitely take interest in us.

A country that has the likes of Professor Wole Soyinka has no business accepting mediocrity in leadership. And that is the reason for several abuses of human rights young people suffer in the hands of SARS and other agencies of government. This is not to deride other young and new presidential candidates but Omoyele Sowore has shown laudable excellence, integrity and intellectual capacity to lead this nation. He is my candidate.’

It is believed that the endorsement by 'Segalinks' is the latest in the row of recent endorsements of Sowore by celebrities and human rights defenders.

AAC presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, speaking at a town hall meeting with presidential candidates on the state of Nigeria's housing market at the University of Lagos on Saturday, January 12, 2019
The presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, has vowed to turn Nigeria into a construction site if elected in the February 16 presidential election.
While speaking at a town hall meeting with presidential candidates on the state of Nigeria's housing market on Saturday, January 12, 2019, Sowore said the Nigerian government must invest in a housing drive that would provide shelter for all.

He said, "Government must invest in shelter that every Nigerian citizen must be entitled to a place to lay their heads at night.

"What I propose is to put aside $3.6 billion and we'll turn this country into a construction site.

"We're in need of 17 million homes, over 80 million Nigerians are without homes. We need to set the standard that an average of five Nigerians should be entitled to a house: a father, a mother, and at least three kids."

Speaking further on how to ensure that Nigerians have access to affordable homes, the Sahara Reporters publisher said he'll increase the national minimum wage to N100,000 so that workers are able to afford houses.

"What I'm going to do is to increase the salary of an average worker to N100,000. I'm going to make sure that the average Nigerian worker can get N2 million mortgage loan.

"We have to have a policy where we prioritise mortgage for low income workers and the best way to do it is to give them a minimum wage that's a living wage," he said.

He noted that parts of the problem with Nigeria's housing sector is the lack of proper documentation and transparent land registry system that would expose the fact that only a few people own all the land in the country.

He promised that housing would be a fundamental human right under his administration, and urged Nigerians to stop voting for leaders who deny them of shelter.

"It's very important to tell Nigerians that we can build Nigeria out of poverty," he said.

Sowore also strongly objected to Nigeria's controversial Land Use Act of 1978 and vowed to repeal it as soon as he's president.

"What we need is to return to land ownership, but we must be careful not to return to the kind of customary ownership of land that we had in Nigeria before independence in which just a few people owned land to the extent that the majority are left without nothing," he said.

He also called the 1999 constitution a "fraudulent document imposed on the Nigerian people by the Nigerian military men".

He promised to invalidate the document and replace it with "a living document" that'll be put to a referendum to be voted on by the Nigerian people and completely eliminate the Land Use Act.

The 1978 Land Use Act governs land regulation in the country and has long been criticised for vesting too much power in state governors who are responsible for allocation of land.

Attempts by previous governments to repeal the Act have failed to bear any fruits.

Other presidential candidates present at Saturday's event, which took place at the University of Lagos in Yaba, are Kingsley Moghalu of the Young Progressive Party (YPP), Obiageli Ezekwesili of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Fela Durotoye of the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), and Isaac Ositelu of the Accord Party (AP).

Other presidential candidates that were billed to speak at the event but failed to show up are President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Jerry Gana of the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

Nigerians will go to the polls to elect a new president on February 16, 2019 with Buhari and Atiku considered to be favourites to win.