Former President Muhammadu Buhari has denied reports that he fled to exile due to insecurity in his home state, Katsina.
The denial comes on the heels of a newspaper report that the immediate past President of Nigeria has moved abroad because he felt unsafe in Daura, his hometown.
Katsina state is one of the epicenters of banditry in the country, and security agencies are still trying to contain the criminals who are on a rampage in the northwest part of the country.
The former president had after his tenure ended on May 29, left the country for the United Kingdom, UK, to seek medical treatment for an undisclosed ailment.
Two weeks ago, his successor, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu paid him a visit in London, raising more fears about the health condition of the former president.
He has not been seen in public since then, leading to suggestions that the security situation in the state has kept him away from his people for close to two months.
Reacting in a statement on Sunday to the report that the former president has fled to exile, Garba Shehu, a spokesman for the former leader said the report was inaccurate and should be discarded.
According to him, the former president has since returned from his trip to the UK and is now back in Daura to the loving arms of his family and close relations, Shehu urged the media not to mislead the public.
The statement said, “For misleading the otherwise credible newspaper to falsely report on their front page that former President Muhammadu Buhari has ‘fled’ and on ‘exile’, when he is currently at home with family in Daura, Katsina State, BusinessDay newspaper should sack their reporter who didn’t do the job of checking his facts.
“BusinessDay should think 10 times before running any information from the particular reporter and verify it before believing him. Every platform has tools to verify any information, and we don’t expect anything less from BusinessDay.
“If they had browsed through different sources, they will have seen reports of the former President having returned home and enjoying the company of his family. A single fake news in a newspaper has the capability to destroy a reputation built on years of hard work.”
Recall that Buhari, a few days before his exit from power, said he will return to his village for his retirement, adding however that he was prepared to move to the Niger Republic, where many of his relations are believed to be residing, if he was not welcome in Katsina.
In the uncivilized hours of Saturday, I was wide awake. Sleep eluded me. This lasted for about two hours – between 1.O0am and 3.15am.
Like a number of people, I have formed the very bad habit of looking at my Whatsaap messages each time I visit the rest room at night. Once I see any good story, it is goodbye to sleep until whenever because I would start a visit to all the sites for every “A, B, and C” of the story. How did we survive witout these phones and apps? I don’t want to curse whoever brought the idea of mobile phones and social media but see what it has done to us without prejudice to the, I admit, their many good sides. But, no thanks to them, our lives have been turned inside out and upside down. No secrets. No hiding place. No rest, especially for the eyes, fingers, brain. As Zebrudaya of the comedy, Masquerade would say: “God forbid bad thing.” They have taught and shown us nonsense, and more nonsense.
Now, it is because of them that a bad behavior by a wayward teenager has caused an uproar, disrupted our lives and opened the door for the barrage of insults being hauled at an industrious, intelligent and gifted tribe.
For Journalists, a bad story is a good story. When such stories break, my heart just pumps. My eyes glitter. Excitement sets in. But I experienced none of the three as I read, Saturday morning, the sad story of Miss Mmesoma Ejikeme – the young adult (19 years, not 16) who has occupied the media space in the past one week.
What I experienced was sadness and a large dose of anger. My anger was targeted at those who reduced a disturbing incident to the bashing of an ethnic group. I also experienced weakness. And hopelessness. And numbness of my fingers. And just before I dozed off to a fitful sleep, I muttered to myself: The loss of innocence, triggered by delinquent adults.
You know Mmesoma’s story. So, there is no point repeating it here, only just to, for the purpose of this write-up, briefly introduce the young girl who, brazenly, in a moment of criminal mischief, inflated her scores in the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, conducted by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, from 249 to 362.
She is the girl who effortlessly forged her JAMB results and took the Nigerian Nation for a ride. She is the girl who looked her school Principal in the eyes and lied through her teeth. She is the girl who, publicly, dragged her school, a faith-based school, Anglican Girls Secondary School, Nnewi, in the mud. She is the girl who lied to, her parents, and deceived, almost, the leadership of her State Government. She is the girl, who knowing quite well the crime she committed, took on both her State Government and a federal institution, JAMB, and almost stripped the Board of its credibility. She is the girl who deceived well-meaning Nigerians, had them line up behind her, especially, after she appeared on Channels Television, looking disarmingly innocent, and told us how traumatized she was over the JAMB allegation. “I am traumatized. JAMB is accusing me of forging my own result”, she said with confidence, innocence written all over her face.
Miss Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma
There was Dr Oby Ezekwesili, a former Minister for Education, who, after watching that interview, reached out to JAMB Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, and called for an investigation by technological experts. There was Mr Charles Oputa, popular as Charlie Boy, who weighed-in for her. There was a firm, (aside from Innoson Automobile Manufacturing Company which had offered her three million Naira in scholarship) which offered her free education in the USA, Canada or United Kingdom. There was, yet, another, which offered her same scholarship. There was the Commissioner for Education, Anambra State, who felt so compelled by her story that she called JAMB to query Mmesoma’s non- recognition as the highest “JAMB scorer.”
There was a lawyer who threatened to sue JAMB over her. And, I read a story to the effect that Mmesoma “has sued JAMB for N20b!
All these people lined up behind her.
There is my younger sister, a retired Military Officer, who because of her training, hardly gives in to emotions. But not in Mmesoma’s case. After watching her interview on Channels Television, with a deceptive low voice, she called to tell me: “Sister, this girl is innocent. She does not look like somebody who can get involved in forgery. She does not even understand what the case is all about. They are dragging her because they think she is a nobody.” When I asked her, Saturday morning, if she had seen Mmesoma’s confession to her guilt, she sighed and replied: “Mmesoma fall my hand.”
She is not the only one whose hands Mmesoma forced “to fall.”
There are Mmesoma’s army of supporters in the social media who started reading meaning, the Nigerian way, into why JAMB disputed her result. “It is because she is Igbo”, some said, cleanly forgetting that the rightful highest scorer, declared by JAMB, Miss Kamsiyochukwu Umeh, is also Igbo, from same State.
There was yours sincerely, who was so taken-in by Mmesoma’s innocent looks that I literally blocked, within me, any negative story on her. But that was until I read Osita Chidoka, former Aviation Minister, who dismissed Mmesoma’s scores and story as fake, and asked her to “come clean”. It woke me up to reality.
And there were the stupid, narrow-minded, individuals who, based on Mmesoma’s criminal behavior, dismissed her tribe, the Igbo, as a tribe of same character. “It runs in their blood”, they wrote and professed on social media. For this group of people, I had a good laugh. They left the big bag of forgeries they are carrying, and are accusing those who took a little from their bag of collective guilt! I will get back to this later.
The questions are: Why did Mmesoma do it? What gave her the courage to do it? We can no longer ask who helped her, or connived with her, because she has confessed to doing it alone with her Airtel phone number. What pushed her? Why did she, without a second thought, ruin her future? The 249 she genuinely scored was good enough to get her an admission into any university of her choice. JAMB’s cut-off mark is 140. So, why? I can only think of three reasons.
Firstly, I think Mmesoma’s physical appearance is deceptive. She is not an innocent girl by any stretch of imagination. She is “waywardly” hardened. She is street-wise. Only that could make her, knowing fully what she did, to contact the Ministry of Education, Anambra, and report JAMB for not announcing her as the highest scorer. A less crooked-minded teenager would not have the courage to do that. Or the courage to call JAMB the number of times she did, and still stuck to her claims even when JAMB had told her she scored 249.
Secondly, (and this is where I have sympathy for her) given her poor background, she was desperately looking for help to go through University. Knowing that every JAMB highest scorer usually gets a scholarship award, she decided to go rogue, and added two marks to the score recorded by Miss Umeh.
Thirdly, Mmesoma knows she is from a country where forgery is like a second skin, where forgery seems to be in the Nations DNA, a country forgery and manipulation are celebrated.
She knows she lives in a country where many of its leaders and VIPs are products of forgery and manipulation. They forge their birth certificates. They forge their educational certificates. Many say they have PhDs without having a first degree. They manufacture names of non-existing Universities. They forge their company papers. They forge customs papers.They forge land papers. They forge marriage certificates, divorce papers. Was it not in Nigeria that a Speaker of the House of Representatives forged a first degree certificate? We have seen Federal Ministers with forged certificates. Governors, too, who wouldn’t answer questions on the degree certificates they parade because they are fake. It is a country where everything, anything is “forgeable.” Mmesoma knows some of these things, and knows there are no consequences for such ugly behaviors.
Most recently, Mmesoma witnessed the 2023 General elections. She is 19 years old. And, perhaps, if she was lucky to get her PVC, some of which were manipulated out of reach, she voted. So, she must have witnessed all the manipulations, the rigging, the forgeries, the snatching of ballot boxes which went on. The violence in order to cheat. There were no consequences. There are still are no consequences. And, most likely, there will be no consequences. So, for her, the crime she committed pales before all that. Forgery has become the way of life in our dear country. And, we are not ashamed of it.
Those who say Mmesoma’s condemnable behavior runs in Igbo blood should pause and count their teeth with their tongue. They should count the number of high profile forgeries in Nigeria and from which tribe the “forgers” are from.
To insult the Igbo tribe because of a misdemeanor by a teenager is the height of irresponsibility. Who will cast the first stone?
When the Igbo produce an Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, it does not run in their blood. When they produce a Chimamanda Adichie, it does not run in their blood. When they produce some of the best brains in Nigeria and in the Diaspora, it does not run in their blood. When Igbo children like Mmesoma excel in some of the best Univerties in the world and become valedictorians, it does not run in their blood. But when an Igbo teenager stupidly goes rogue, just as a few others in other tribes did, it runs in the Igbo blood.
Haba!
For the records, all the vices in Igboland today – 419, yahoo-yahoo, drugs trafficking, human trafficking, human rituals, kidnapping, killings – were copied from other places. Until recently, they were alien to Igboland.
A word of advice: the old addage that “those who live in glass houses do not throw stones” still holds.
But back to Mmesoma. Let it be noted that she learnt at the feet of the many grandmasters in Nigeria. The punishment given to her by JAMB, considering the grave offence she committed, is appropriate. The recommendations by the Panel set-up by the Anambra State Government that she undergoes counseling and apologises publicly to JAMB and her school are also appropriate. She should strictly adhere to that. She also owes her parents an unadulterated apology if she has not offered it to them already. They must be finding it difficult to show their faces in public. Not a few people will point at them and snigger.
Finally, to JAMB. The Registrar says there are others who were also caught in the act. Why their names were not made public is what many people don’t still understand. True, Mmesoma opened her own can of worms by her desperation, but a crime whether hidden or open is a crime. Let’s have the names of other culprits. Here’s my plea: Unless the same punishment- three years ban – given to Mmesoma is the same given to her fellow culprits, the Board should temper justice with mercy in her case. She is in a mess already. Her name and her crime have gone viral. Her face too. For life, she will be referred to as “Mmesoma the forger, the fraudulent.” She is tainted. She may need a legal change of name to get on in life. Her name has been stigmatized.
JAMB should do two things: discard the idea of prosecuting her. And two, reduce the period she has been barred from UTME from three years to one year. One never knows.
After undergoing counseling, she could become a “JAMB Ambassador Against Forgery Of Scores.” It happens.
On Sunday, July 9, 2023 the board of First Bank Nigeria Holdings, held an emergency meeting to respond to last week’s acquisition of majority shares of the bank by Oba Otudeko, a former Chairman of the Bank.
Reports have circulated that Otudeko who was sacked in April 2021 by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, was planning to take over the commercial bank after acquiring over 4.7 billion shares in the bank.
But a top source who attended the meeting said the acquisition cannot alter the current configuration of the bank.
“The purpose of an investor is not to sack people. The board meeting was not about removing anybody. It doesn’t work that way,’ the source said.
Otudeko’s fresh plan to return to the board of the bank came more than four years after he lost out in the boardroom battle for the control of Nigeria’s oldest bank.
The acquisition has, however, not gone unnoticed by other billionaire shareholders of the bank, whom the magazine learned are already planning a counter move, even though business analysts have rightly described what is happening in the bank as healthy for the corporate environment.
“Even bossom friends like Tony Elumelu and Femi Otedola ignored their relationship while trying to assert their control of one of Nigeria’s blue chip companies. Acquisition and takeovers are normal occurrence in business across the world,” Lade Jacobs, an expert in the sector said.
The billionaire owners of First Bank include Femi Otedola, Globacom chairman, Mike Adenuga, Hassan Odukale and Saheed Arisekola.
The current board was appointed in 2021 by the CBN after the Otudeko-led board was dissolved.
In October 2021, few months after Otudeko was ousted from the bank, Otedola made a bid to ‘grab’ the bank, after the former Diesel mogul, through his firm Calvados Global Services Limited purchased huge shares to become the single largest shareholder.
The development, analysts insist set Otedola against Odukale, the current Chairman of FBN Limited, who as one of the major shareholders was also gunning for the soul of the foremost commercial bank.
Otedola later denied he had such plans to become the Chairman of the bank.
Otudeko has now upstaged Otedola by acquiring 14 percent shareholding, leaving his major competitor with nine percent, while Odukale and Arisekola hold seven percent shareholding each.
“His (Otudeko) target is to return as the Chairman of the board of the bank. Considering his footprints in the bank, he will do everything to achieve his aim,” another source in the bank said on Monday.
The Honeywell boss made the acquisition known in a disclosure sent by the company to FBN Holdings before the close of business last week.
The corporate ‘disclosure’ signed by Ywande Giwa, the Head of Governance and Sustainability at Honeywell Group Limited, and addressed to the First Bank Holdings Corporate Secretary, said the firm has acquired over 4.7 million shares worth over N87 billion in the bank.
Acknowledging the letter, First Bank Acting Company Secretary, Adewale Arogundade, said: “This is to inform the public and our stakeholders that the Company received a notification dated July 7, 2023, from Honeywell Group Limited that its affiliate, Barbican Capital Limited has acquired an aggregate of 4,770,269,843 units of shares from the company’s issued share capital of 35,895,292,791, as at the above-referenced date. Based on the foregoing, the equity stake of Barbican Capital Limited in the Company is 13.3 per cent.”
Otudeko was sacked from the bank in April 30, 2019 by the embattled CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele who queried his decision to remove, without regulatory approval, Kazeem Adeduntan, the Managing Director of FBN Ltd.
Apart from trying to retire Adeduntan inappropriately, the CBN also cited insider loan abuse as one of the reasons for sacking Otudeko.
The CBN stated the reasons for Otudeko’s sack “The insiders who took loans in the bank, with controlling influence on the board of directors, failed to adhere to the terms for the restructuring of their credit facilities which contributed to the poor financial state of the bank.
“The CBN’s recent target examination as at December 31, 2020, revealed that insider loans were materially non-compliant with restructuring terms (e.g. non perfection of lien on shares/collateral arrangements) for over 3 years despite several regulatory reminders.
“The bank has not also divested its non-permissible holdings in non-financial entities in line with regulatory directives,” CBN explained the financial mess FBN Holdings was in then.”
Following his sack, nothing much had been heard of Otudeko, who apparently disappeared from Nigeria’s high society, but his recent move, according to analysts, is capable of resurrecting the old battle among the billionaires who will do everything to control one of Nigeria’s biggest commercial banks.
The Department of State Services (DSS) has put a lie to story making the rounds that it arrested the former Governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, over his refusal to take a phone call placed to him by President Bola Tinubu.
Yari was invited on Thursday, and later released over an undisclosed issue.
Neither the Service nor Yari has disclosed why exactly the former Zamfara State Governor was arrested.
But recall that Yari insisted on contesting for the office of the Senate President even when the President and the Party, APC, had settled for Senator Godswill Akpabio, and appealed to other contestants to step down.
A few days before Yari was invited by the DSS, speculations were rife that he and over 25 APC Senators had concluded plans to dump the Party for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP after which he would replace Akpabio as the Senate President.
However, the DSS, in a statement published on its Twitter handle, dismissed the allegations against it as lies from the pit of hell, and a plot by a section of online medium to tarnish its image.
In the past few days, a number of stories, mainly false and planted, have been circulating against the DSS and its leadership.
Part of the DSS statement reads:
“The attention of the Department of State Services (DSS) has been drawn to false reports by sections of the online media particularly SaharaReporters, Peoples Gazette and Jackson Ude.
The so called news platforms variously and wrongly fed the public with misleading narratives and accusations against the Service.
“For instance, SaharaReporters wrote that the Service stormed the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and carted away certain files from them.
“Jackson Ude falsely claimed that there is a rumble in the DSS due to nepotism. He further accused the Service of snooping on Judges on the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.
“On its part, Peoples Gazette reported that Senator Abdulaziz Yari was arrested for alleged refusal to pick the President’s phone call (whatever that meant). There are other variants of unsubstantiated and anonymous petitions flying around against the DGSS, his family and some officials.
“The Service ordinarily would not have responded to these inaccuracies but for the fickle minded and vulnerable persons as well as the unsuspecting public that may take the lies for facts.
“To set the records straight, the DSS did not execute operations of any kind at the ICPC and CCB or remove files from their offices. Instructively, the two agencies have, on their own, refuted the news in widely circulated press statements.
“It is petty, if not laughable, to report that Yari was invited for refusing to pick the President’s call. This is the height of junk journalism. Yari knows why he was invited.”
Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma has bemoaned the passing of former President of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Prof Joe Irukwu, describing it as shocking, sad and regrettable.
Irukwu, according to his son, Pastor Agu Irukwu, passed on at the age of 89 on Saturday.
A statement by Oguwike Nwachuku, the Chief Press Secretary/Media Adviser to Governor Uzodimma said his boss regretted that Ndigbo and Nigeria have lost a great statesman who did his best to promote love, unity, equity and justice, not just in Igbo land, but in Nigeria as a whole.
Governor Uzodimma said the deceased’s legacy in the legal profession and insurance industry where he distinguished himself and rose to become the Managing Director of Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation as well as the founder of African Development Insurance Company will not be forgotten in a hurry in Nigeria.
The Governor therefore commiserated with the family, the leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, the Government and the people of Abia State where Prof Irukwu hailed from, and prayed God to grant all that he left behind to mourn his passing the fortitude to bear the loss.
While urging them to find solace in the legacies Prof. Irukwu left behind, Governor Uzodimma, on behalf of his family, Government and people of Imo State, also prayed God for the peaceful repose of the soul of the deceased.
Ondo State First Lady, Mrs Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu, has suspended, till further notice, activities to mark her 70th birthday.
The cerebral scientist had, for weeks, along with her family and friends, been putting plans in place to mark her 70th birthday – a milestone not a few people disbelieve because she doesn’t look 70 years.
Slim, agile, active, athletic, Mrs Anyanwu-Akeredolu looks like she is in her late 50s.
She had set two days in July – the 15th and 20th – aside for the big bang. The 15th was to show what she knows best how to do – keep fit by engaging in sporting activities.
On that day, she had planned what she called “Jog & Thon” – a 15km jog to kick off her birthday activities.
But on Sunday, July 9, 2023, she tweeted the suspension, till further notice, of activities lined-up to mark her 70th birthday.
In the tweet which she addressed to family and friends, she said she suspended the celebration “due to unforeseen circumstances beyond my control.” She, also apologized to them for any inconveniences caused by the development and gave an assurance that she would still be celebrated on her return – a subtle hint that she was traveling out of the country.
“Nevertheless, be assured that I will be celebrated in style upon my return”, she said
Her full text reads:
“Hello Family and Friends.
This is to inform you that all activities lined up to mark my 70th birthday are hereby suspended till further notice due to unforeseen circumstances beyond my control. Sorry for any inconvenience caused by this development.
“Nevertheless, be assured that I will be celebrated in style upon my return. Thank you for your understanding.
I remain Arabinrin a.k.a Ada Owere I.”
Even though she didn’t mention it, the belief is strong that the ceremony was suspended due to the ill-health of her husband, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State.
The Governor has been ill, and on medical leave. He handed over power to his Deputy, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, but had planned to resume duties on July 6, 2023. However, a few days ago in a message to Ondo people where he thanked them for their prayers for his recovery and love and loyalty shown him, he assured of his full recovery, but added that he would come back only when his doctors allow him to.
He, also, appreciated President Bola Tinubu and his colleague-Governors for their support.
Said an Ondo State elder statesman: “I knew the First Lady would never celebrate her birthday in her husband’s absence. Those two are very close.They are too much into each other. She postponed the celebration because of her husband’s absence. She would rather be by his side.”
The acting Managing Director of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency, FERMA, Godson Amos has disclosed that the agency will embark on road repair and rehabilitation nationwide.
The agency boss said paucity of funds has been the major challenge militating against its efforts to regularly maintain over 36,000 kilometers network of roads belonging to the federal government across the country, he said during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN.
Repair of dilapidated roads, the agency said will now commence soon following a survey carried out nationwide, adding that bad roads are causing a lot of discomfort for road users.
He said recent rainfall has destroyed many roads nationwide, noting that the development has hampered the economic activities of Nigerians who find it hard to move around freely.
According to Amos, who spoke in Abuja on Sunday, “excessive traffic, over loading of vehicles coupled with age of the roads are other factors that have contributed to the dilapidation of the federal roads.
“This hinders the free flow of traffic, causing colossal damages to vehicles, wastages of productive man hours and huge discomfort to road users.
“Our of engineers in the Field Offices have already carried out route condition survey of the Federal Roads and heave identified all critical failures like road embankments washout and failed carriageway section for the agency to take action.”
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is not implicated by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC.
The ICPC made the clarification following reports that files indicting highly exposed persons such as former governors and ministers have been carted away from the ICPC by the Department of State Services, DSS.
The report claimed that files indicting President Tinubu were carted away by the secret police during its raid of the Lagos office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
The DSS has also removed files allegedly indicting Tinubu and some officials in the Presidency from ICPC and Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, the report said.
Recall that Tinubu was in 2014 arraigned before the ICPC, even though he was later released and no case has been filed against him since then.
Reacting to the report, the ICPC said in a statement that it has no files implicating the president.
ICPC said on its official Twitter handle that the report was untrue, as no files implicating Tinubu were in their possession.
“The alleged carting away of such imaginary files is unfounded and should be disregarded by the public,” the commission said.
“For the umpteenth time, the commission wishes to urge media organisations not to allow the use of their medium to propagate lies and unfounded reports by subversive agents,” the commission said.
The six Super Falcons players from Imo State who participated in the 2022 Africa Women Championship in Mororoco have received the sum of N30 million largess which the Sports loving Governor, Sen Hope Uzodimma promised to give them.
Governor Uzodinma announced a N5 million donation to each of the six Super Falcons players from Imo State who participated in the Africa Women Championship in Morocco when they paid him a courtesy call at the Government House Owerri.
The beneficiaries of the Government’s largess include: Desire Okparanozie, Goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie, Vivian Ikechukwu, Goalkeeper Tochukwu Oluehi, Ohale Osinachi and America born Michelle Alozie.
The Governor said he was particularly touched by the display of football artistry exhibited by the women folk against their Morrocan competitors, noting that the six ladies not only did Nigeria proud but Imo State where they hail from.
He congratulated the Super Falcons for also qualifying for the Women World cup holding in Australia and New Zealand from July 20 till August, 20, 2023.
Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State has lauded the choice and appointment of Mr. George Aluo as the new Chairman of the Nigeria National League ( NNL).
Aluo was named as the Chairman of the country’s football regulatory body at the weekend, with other members like Khamisu Ahmed Mailantaki as Vice Chairman.
Other members include: Yakubu Sarma, Dani Mohammed, Donald Ikpe, Joseph Uzoma Ebowusim, Dotun Sanusi and Emmanuel Attah ( Chief Executive Officer).
A statement by Oguwike Nwachuku, the Chief Press Secretary/Media Adviser to Governor Uzodimma said his principal received with joy Aluo’s appointment, describing it as most fitting and well deserving.
Governor Uzodimma said he has followed Aluo’s Sports Journalism career trajectory for years and believes he has a lot to contribute to football development in the country as a veteran sports journalist.
The Governor also said it is important to note that coming from Ngor Okpalla Local Government Area of Imo State, Aluo has joined the long list of Imo citizens gifted to Nigeria by the State for positive causes as regards national development and unity.
He said he has no iota of doubt in his mind that Aluo who has shown perseverance, hard work and loyalty will remain a good ambassador of Imo State as he goes about discharging the duty of taking Nigeria football to an enviable height.
