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Rivers: APC Says Wike Desperate To Work For Tinubu; Dares Him Over Threat To Demolish Hotels Used For Political Meetings

By
Adesina Soyooye
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Nyesom Wike

By Adesina Soyooye

The Rivers State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has alleged that Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, made a desperate move to work for the Presidential candidate of its Party, Bola Tinubu. But Wike, who allegedly, made the move to get a soft-landing from prosecution in 2023 when he leaves office was not successful.

The allegation, made by the Rivers State APC Spokesperson, Senibo Finebone, took many by surprise as Wike always swore he would never work for APC.  And, contrary to Finebone’s allegation, the impression is that it is the APC which had been lobbying Wike to join their fold.

In the aftermath of Wike’s anger over the choice by Atiku Abubakar, the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, of Delta State Governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, as his running mate instead of Wike, the APC had despatched three of its Governors – Dr Kayode Fayemi, Ekiti, Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, Ondo and, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Lagos, to Wike’s Porthacourt private residence to lobby him to work with them. They failed.

The State Chapter, however, made the allegation while reacting to an aspect of the State broadcast made by Wike on Sunday, August 7, where he threatened to pull down hotels and entertainment centres used for meetings by Politicians.

Governor Wike had alleged that politicians used such occasions and venues to recruit thugs and cultists in order to cause security breaches in the State. He, therefore, vowed to pull down such Hotels and entertainment centres which make its premises available to politicians for such political meetings.

But the APC has dared him to touch any of such properties belonging to APC members. Said the party in a statement: “The APC in Rivers State has news for Governor Wike. He is not in a position to demolish the hotel, leisure places or any property of any APC member in Rivers State under any guise whatsoever.   This message should sink in adequately.”

The full text of the statement reads:

“As Wike presses on with courting the APC to secure protection after the 2023 general elections, a close ally of the APC Presidential Candidate, Gov Sanwo-Olu of Lagos and other APC stalwarts will be in Rivers State this week to either commission projects undertaken by Gov. Wike or flag off others.

“However, it did not take long for any discerning mind to know that the 19-paragraph broadcast by Gov. Wike is only a knee jerk reaction by the Governor to fight back his fear for his own shadow. This is not the first time the Governor has resorted to crude and primitive methods to intimidate and subdue his political opponents if his threat to demolish hotels and leisure places where politicians hold their meetings is anything to go by, having done so during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The APC is not surprised at the threat by Gov. Wike. His house (PDP) is crumbling fast right in his face. For obvious reasons, his main men of yesterday have turned political foes today. His entourage has seen faces change over and over again of late. We know his threat is essentially directed at his henchmen who have taken their destinies in their own hands and rebelling against the local potentate. Across the State these men have pitched their tent with Wike’s tormentor-in-chief, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

“The APC in Rivers State has news for Gov. Wike. He is not in any position to demolish the hotel, leisure places or any property of any APC member in Rivers State under any guise whatsoever. This message should sink in adequately. It is absolutely the choice of his party members to let him repeat his jungle justice on them as the world witnessed during the last pandemic high noon. The anarchy Wike will bring upon himself should he attempt it against any APC member will assume the dimension of an apocalypse of immense proportions. We hope the governor takes this warning seriously.

“We want the governor to realize that his time is fast winding up.  He should accept this fact and not exacerbate his fate as power and immunity depart from him in a matter of months.”

Governor Sanwo-Olu and Senator Wammako, former Sokoto State Governor, both of the APC, are billed, on the invitation of Wike, to commission projects in the State this week.

Lagos: December Deadline For Completion Of Red Line Stands- Sanwo-olu

By
James Orji
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Governor Babajide Sanwo-olu of Lagos state has reiterated his government plan to complete the state’s railway Red Line by the end of the year.
Sanwo-olu stated this while on an extensive inspection of the ongoing construction activities around the Lagos Rail Mass Transit (LRMT) Red Line project.
It’s the fourth time in a year the Governor would be inspecting the pace of work on the 37-kilometre-long rail infrastructure wholly started by his administration, according to a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Gboyega Akosile.
The transport infrastructure being developed by the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority, LAMATA will have the capacity to transport over 500,000 passengers daily when it becomes operational in the first quarter of next year.
The Red Line will traverse on standard gauge from Agbado to Oyingbo, in the first phase, while terminating at Iddo in the second phase. It has eight stations and it is expected to reduce travel by over two hours.
After the inspection exercise that lasted for four hours, Sanwo-Olu expressed satisfaction on the quality of the work done, disclosing that most of the difficult tasks had been completed.
The entire construction, the Governor said, has moved into the finishing phase in which precast beams and other concrete fittings are being coupled to the constructed structures.
Sanwo-olu said: “The Red Line is a project conceived and started by our Government, which will be delivered in the lifetime of this administration. We have given our commitment to ensure the project is completed by the end of this year as promised. This is our fourth inspection trip on this project within the year alone and each time we come, there is significant progress that the contractor achieves along the rail corridor.
“Along the rail corridor, there is massive regeneration that is taking place and we have paid extensive amount in terms of compensation, far more than anyone else, for those affected by the construction activities.
“That is why we don’t have problem with members of the communities on this corridor. After inspecting the Agege station, we went on to check the Ikeja terminal, which happens to be the iconic station of the Red Line. Its size is almost about the size of three football fields together.
“As we have seen, all the stations inspected are at the roof level, moving into the completion stage. The civil work has been completed, it’s just the finishing job we are doing at the moment. All the activities are on schedule and we are hoping the best entire project will be completed by the end of the year.
” There are places that were particularly challenging for the contractor to do drilling due to high vehicular density. All the challenges have been overcome; what is left is concrete in-situ and placing of precast beams.”
Sanwo-Olu said the construction work on the overpasses were at different stages of completion but assured that all work would be done by December.
He said the work on the bridge on Awolowo Way onto Agege Motor Road and inward Mongoro Bus Stop remained on track and would finish by the end of October.
He said the Mushin overpass, which crosses from Kayode Street at Ikorodu Road to Agege Motor Road in Mushin, and the one at Yaba from Tejuosho exiting onto Murtala Muhammed Road, would be completed by November.
To eliminate human interference with the rail corridor, the Governor said the rail passageway would be walled off the residential areas. This, he said, would also prevent encroachment and unapproved commercial activities around the corridors.

ASUU: Of the Emptiness of Festus Keyamo

By
The Source
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By Bode Ojoniyi

… “The moment they went on strike, we intervened…” ”The moment they declared the strike, even before the strike… and, as the talk started, they still went on strike” …”One sector of the economy to hold your jugular…” “we are putting our cards face up…” …”50% of the total wage…” “Go and beg ASUU…” …Go and beg them…” “Do you want me to kneel down on air?” …”They are not the only one feeding from the Federal purse…” …“Let’s go to the more critical issue why I am here…!” – Festus Keyamo

Any critical mind listening to Festus Keyamo gibberish on FG-ASUU faceoff yesterday, part of which I have captured above, can easily again see the emptiness of those who are unfortunately running the affairs of the Nigeria State at this critical moment. For instance, we know that communication or conversation runs on logical presentation of thoughts or ideas on the matter under discourse. Unfortunately, everything spewed out by Festus Keyamo yesterday runs afoul of anything known to logic in meaningful communication or conversation.

Now, let us start from his claim that “The moment they went on strike, we intervened.” For a start, a critical reading of Keyamo’s presentation shows a lack of logical coordination which is known as coherence of thought/idea. “The moment they went on strike, we intervened” means the Ministry of Labour only intervened after ASUU had declared strike. This claim cannot be mutually true with the claim that “…even before the strike”… To intervene the moment they went on strike is not the same thing as intervening before the strike. This is also not in agreement with the claim that “as the talk started they still went on strike…” The questions are: which talk? Was it a talk before the declaration of the strike or a talk after the declaration of the strike?

There are evident manifestations of the fallacies of undistributed and excluded middles in Keyamo’s claims above. And, in logical analysis, we can infer that those fallacies were deliberately committed on the part of Keyamo to sell his lies as truths to the listening audience for the purpose of wiping up sentiments against ASUU. The point is that the claim that “..as the talk started, they still went on strike” does have a logical link with the claim that “The moment they went on strike, we intervened”. The only logical truth here can only be: “We intervened immediately they declared strike!” In essence, the claim that “they still went on strike” is clearly logically redundant in the conversation. The claim that they still went on strike can only make a logical sense if the claim was: “The moment they were planning to declare strike, we intervened. But, they still went on strike”. That is a logical statement with a clearly distributed logical middle!

Keyamo deliberately omitted logical sequence of events in his claims on ASUU’s actions because the government evidently failed in their responsibilities to the State and to the people.

The claim that “…One sector of the economy to hold your jugular…” shows that Keyamo is clearly ignorant of the place, purpose and the importance of Education. Sure, Keyamo is bereaved of the true ideas of Education. A sound mind knows that Education is not just a mere sector of any country’s economy. Education as a sector is the mother, the spring board, on which the economy of any nation breathes, feeds and survives. If Education fails, there cannot be anything called functional economy. Any economy that is not run and propelled by functional Education will only remain at the level of the early men’s economy of subsistent farming, of such a time when rustic men only fed and survived on fruits. Such time that men lived in houses of leaves and grasses, before building mud houses.

Keyamo, playing the Lord of Lords in that conversation claimed, “we are putting our cards face up…” Now, you wonder who are “the we” against the rest, the us, in this matter? Of course, this is a “we” that is clearly against the people, the rest of us, who cannot send our children abroad like the “we”, the them in government who have been flying abroad to attend the matriculations and the convocations of their children. We must admit: fate has been good to these powerful “we” against the rest of us. It is a “we” that has the power to negotiate with the rest of us; the “we” that have the cards to place on the table against the people without a table, the masses, those who have no cards at all to turn.

When Keyamo said, “Go and beg ASUU …Go and beg them…Do you want me to kneel down on air? …They are not the only one feeding from the Federal purse…”, one can only pity whoever or whatever ASUU is! This ASUU that is a baby sucking on the breasts of FG, thinking it is the only one feeding from the Federal purse must be told that it is not the only baby of the almighty FG… There are more important FG’s hungry and feeding babies: The government of Afghanistan that needs a billion US dollar, the government of Niger Republic that needs 1.4 billion naira SUVs and billions of rail-line projects, the National Assembly with the bogus individuals’ pays of over 30m per month, the yearly budget to renovate the Assembly complex, the political office holders’ reckless pays, billions for ludicrous trade money, and billions for the so-called school feeding programme… I think Keyamo also needs to tell us what he earns as a junior minister compared to the 400 thousand plus of a University Professor…

Sincerely, Keyamo is just a ridiculously reckless fellow in his blackmailing propaganda against ASUU that you begin to wonder who ASUU is, and, if the matter is ASUU against them or ASUU against us! Of course, that was what earned him his place in the present government, propaganda. Somebody to whom useless politics is critical than education! Or how do we interpret Keyamo’s outburst when he told Seun Okinbaloye in clear terms “Let’s go to the more critical issue why I am here…!” It is clear that Keyamo and his gangs in power do not see education as anything critical to the survival of the nation… After all, their own wards can always go abroad to get good education and when they return to the country, they will definitely be in the position to lead the Professors and mass of Nigerians with no functional education… It is the hegemonic neo-liberal agenda of the political class in Nigeria to perpetuate themselves and their generations in power over the illiterate mass of the people… Keyamo has indeed demonstrated his emptiness as far as Nation building is concerned…

Finally, for the avoidance of doubt, ASUU is us, we the masses. ASUU is the parents who cannot send their children to Universities abroad like the politicians. ASUU is the entity that is against the reckless insensitivities of the Nigerian politicians. I am ASUU. I have two children in Nigeria Universities. I support ASUU… We are ASUU. We are the people. ASUU is the people demanding that government must fund education as a matter of its priority,

Abducted In Enugu, Actress Okereke Says Her Husband Delivered Ransom Money To Her Abductors In Ngwa

By
Adesina Soyooye
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Cynthia Okereke

By Adesina Soyooye

One of the abducted and, recently, released Nollywood Actors, Cynthia Okereke, has debunked the story that no ransom was paid to her abductors before she was released. Okereke revealed that her husband took the ransom money to the kidnappers at Ngwa, Abia State.

Okereke and another Actor, Clemens Cornell, were kidnapped in Enugu State on their way back from a location where they had gone to shoot a home video.

They were released on August 5, 2022, after seven days in captivity.

On their release, the Actors Guild of Nigeria had given the impression that money did not exchange hands before their release. The Guild claimed that the abductors were touched by the Spirit to release them.

Their abductors had asked for the sum of 100 US Dollars for their release.

But in an interview with the PUNCH on Sunday, Okereke put a lie to that claim. Even though she refused to say how much was paid before her release, she revealed that her husband took the ransom money to the kidnappers at Ngwa, Abia State.

She also revealed that their abductors knew her by name, even though they claimed she was not the target. “Cynthia Okereke, you think we don’t know you?”, they asked her.

When the kidnappers intercepted them at Centenary junction Enugu and began to shoot, Okereke said she offered them her car. But they refused the offer, and instead, wrapped them in a tarpaulin and took them to where they informed them was Ebonyi State.

“When they captured us at Centenary junction in Enugu, they said Cynthia Okereke, you think we don’t know you? So, I asked them what they wanted and pleaded that they should take my car when they shot into the air. They said they did not need the car.

“We were wrapped with a tarpaulin and taken to an unknown destination.  It was the following morning that one of them asked me if I knew where I was. I said I didn’t know, and he told me we were in Ebonyi State.”

As if to debunk the claim in some quarters that they were kidnapped by Fulani herdsmen, Okereke said their abductors urged Nollywood to support the vision of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, who is being prosecuted by the Federal Government on sundry issues including alleged terrorism and treasonable felony.

“They said Nollywood is not supporting Nnamdi Kanu, that we should come out en masse to support him. According to them, Kanu is fighting for every one.”

On how they were treated, she said the first two days were rough and tough.

Her words: “They did not give me anything. For the first two days I was there I was not given any food. It was on the third day they gave me milk and a malt drink. Because my stomach was empty, I knew that I would vomit if I took it, so I declined.”

Okereke has since rejoined her family while her colleague is still, allegedly, in hospital.

2022 Commonwealth Games: Team Nigeria Makes History; Sets Games Records; Brushes African Countries Aside

By
Akinwale Kasali
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Commonwealth 2022 Games- Team Nigeria

By Akinwale Kasali

Nigeria’s Team to the Commonwealth Games which held in Birmingham has made history. Team Nigeria garnered a total of 12 Gold , nine Silver and 14 Bronze Medals.

It placed a respectable sixth on the overall medals’ table in the game which came to a sizzling end Sunday night.

The final day started on a high note for Nigeria when its star athlete, 100 meters hurdles World Champion, Tobi Amusan, basking in the euphoria of her record breaking feat at the World Athletics Championship in Oregon, United States of America, a few weeks ago, once again set another record – a new Commonwealth record.

She ran 12.30 seconds to shatter the age long record. She also became the first Athlete in her discipline to defend her Commonwealth title won four years at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.

Devynne Charlton finished a distant second to win silver for the Bahamas while Cindy Sember whose father is Nigerian won bronze for Great Britain.

In the 4× 400 meters relay, Women, Amusan  struck Gold again when she was drafted in to run the lead leg. Team Nigeria struck another gold medal in the race.

Amusan, along with Favour Ofili, Rosemary Chukwuma, and Grace Nwokocha, clocked a new African record of 42.10 seconds to place first ahead of the host nation, England, and the Island of Jamaica.

Amusan, who was drafted in for Joy Udo-Gabriel barely one hour after retaining her 100 meters hurdles title in record time, started the race strong for Nigeria before smoothly passing the baton to 200 meters silver medallist, Favour Ofili.

Ofili maintained Nigeria’s pace before handing over to Chukwuma who built a substantial lead ahead of the chasing pack.

England, led off by Asha Philip, Imani Lansiquot and Bianca Williams delivered the baton into the final 100 meters with ground to make up on Nigeria.

In the Long Jump event, Nigeria’s Ese Brume Ese Brume won Gold for Nigeria at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, United Kingdom.

Brume had a no-jump on her first attempt but bounced back right away to jump 6.99m to take the lead in the final and set a new Games Record.

She added no jump, 6.99m, 6.81m, 6.99m, and 6.96m in her subsequent jumps but none of her opponents could match or surpass her thereby securing gold with a jump to spare.

However, on her very last attempt, Brume jumped 7.00 meters for another Games record to become the first woman to jump that far in the history of the Commonwealth Games.

Brume has been,  unarguably,  Nigeria’s most consistent athlete over the past four years.

She burst onto the scene by winning gold as an 18-year-old at the 2014 commonwealth games in Glasgow but could not defend her title four years ago in the Gold Coast in Australia.

However, since then, She has been on a consistent run, winning bronze at the World Athletics Championships in Doha in 2019. She followed that up by winning another bronze at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

She took it up a notch higher by winning silver at the World indoors in March before matching the feat on the biggest athletics stage in Eugene, Oregon two weeks ago.

In the men’s version of the 4x100m relay, Team Nigeria settled for bronze as the quartet of Udodi Onwuzuruike, who replaced Seye Ogunlewe, along with Favour Ashe, Alaba Akintola, and Raymond Ekevwo, clocked 38.81 seconds to place 3rd.

Defending champions, England, retained their 4×100 meters relay gold as Ojie Edoburun anchored home a blazing display.

Edoburun, who was called up to the team in place of the injured Reece Prescod, finished clear of Trinidad and Tobago in 38.35 seconds.

Jona Efoloko replaced Adam Gemili on the opening leg with Zharnel Hughes and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake impressing in the middle of the race.

With this feat, Team Nigeria has set a record and surpassed its achievement in the 1994 Commonwealth Games, where it won 11 Gold Medal, by winning 12 Gold Medals, Nine Silver and 14 Bronze at 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, United Kingdom.

Rivers: Wike To Pull Down Hotels Used For Political Meetings; Opposition Kicks

By
The Source
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Nyesom Wike

By Charles Igbo

Hoteliers in Rivers State are in trouble. If they are not careful, their hotels would become rubbles. They would be pulled down to ground zero.

This is not a threat; it is a promise, according to Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike.

In a broadcast to Rivers people on Sunday, August 7, 2022, Wike said he would pull down any hotel whose management makes available for political meetings. Meaning that, according to the Governor, Hotels in the State are barred from being venues for political meetings. Otherwise, the Governor said, any such hotel will be pulled down.

The Governor said such Hotels are used as venues to plot against Government and how to destabilise the peace in the  State.

He said during such meetings, thugs and cultists and questionable characters are recruited by Politicians to cause a breach of the peace.

This threat has rattled Hoteliers and Club owners in the State who make money when their concerns are venues for political meetings. But the Governor is neither moved nor worried over the loss of revenue by the owners.

Opposition parties in the State,  especially, the All Progressives Congress, APC, think the threat against the Hotels and Clubs are targeted at them. Said an APC chieftain who pleaded anonymity because he is not authorised to speak for the party:  “Not only is Governor Wike strangulating the economic activities of the State by this order, his main aim is to deny the opposition venues to hold their meetings. We are likely to challenge this in Court so he can prove where and how politicians recruit thugs and cultists during political meetings.”

Here are the words of an unperturbed Governor Wike:

In Governor Wike’s words,

“The government and the security agencies have laboured hard to secure the prevailing peace and  security, which we are determined to sustain for the benefit of the progress of the State and the wellbeing of our citizens.

“However, we are not unaware of the intelligence report on some misguided politicians who have started the process of recruiting cultists, supporters and ex-convicts as thugs in furtherance of their political aspirations for 2023.

“The Government and the Security Agencies have laboured hard to secure the prevailing peace and security, which we are determined to sustain for the benefit of the progress of the State and the wellbeing of our citizens.

“However, we are not unaware of the intelligence report on some misguided politicians who have started the process of recruiting cultists, supporters and ex-convicts as thugs in furtherance of their political aspirations for 2023.

“We have also been informed that owners of hotels and entertainment centres are giving out their premises to politicians and political parties as a convenient base for the gathering of these political thugs across the State.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the State Government will pull down hotels and other entertainment places that are linked howsoever with such criminal political activities.

“I wish to reiterate our unwavering commitment to safeguarding the sanctity of lives and property throughout the State and to reassure everyone that we shall continue to spare no effort to keep Rivers State safe and secure.”

“We will not allow any political party, be it the All Progressives Congress, the Peoples Democratic Party or the Social Democratic Party to threaten the safety and security of lives and property during the campaigns with mayhem, thuggery or violence.

“We also wish to warn owners of hotels and proprietors of relaxation centres to take notice and desist from releasing their facilities for politicians and party leaders to use to meet and plot against the peace, safety and security of our State.

Opinion: For Inibehe Effiong

By
James Orji
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0
By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

“Democracy is a journey and the quality of the ride depends on what we collectively put into it. If we shut our ears and our eyes, the ship of state could derail…” Dennis Odife in ‘Without Money and Without Price: A Brief Autobiography’, p.196 (2016)

In court around July 1, 2022, the chief judge of Akwa Ibom state in south-south Nigeria, Ekaette Obot, repeatedly threatened to jail my good friend, Inibehe Effiong, for his diligence in representing an unknown client against two powerful men – the governor who appointed her into office and a senator without whose influence she probably may also not have been in office.

Four weeks later, on July 27, she fulfilled her wish commiting him to jail for one month at a whim before proceeding on vacation. The judge did this notwithstanding that there was pending before her “a motion….to disqualify and recuse himself (herself) from the case on grounds of bias or likelihood of bias”. At no point did the judge tell Inibehe what his crime was nor did she give him an opportunity to defend himself as he is entitled to.

The president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has gone on record  to say that the course of conduct chosen by the judge against Inibehe “not only runs afoul of known practice and procedure in such cases but is also unconstitutional”. Other lawyers have described her conduct as judicial malpractice

Madam Chief Judge may enjoy her momentary schadenfreude, but Africa’s history suggests those who abuse the rule of law – whether they be executive, parliamentary or judicial officers – in the way she has chosen to do almost invariably live to reap the whirlwind in more ways than one. A few illustrations may drive home the point.

As French West Africa prepared for De Gaulle’s self-rule referendum in 1957, Ernest Boka was one of the most promising stars in the region’s politics. In his native Côte d’Ivoire, Boka was eclipsed in popularity only by Felix Hophouët-Boigny, the wealthy Baoulé Chief who was the first black person to be appointed minister in France. Born in 1928, 23 years younger than Hophouët, Boka was a bright lawyer who appeared destined for greatness. At just 28 in 1957, he became chief of staff to the governor-general, before rising from 1958 to 1959 to ministerial portfolios, first in education and then public service. As independence approached in 1960, Boka was one of the leaders of Houphouët-Boigny’s Parti Démocratique de la Côte d’Ivoire (PDCI), who strong-armed other platforms from the contest, enabling Houphouët to emerge unopposed as Côte d’Ivoire’s president.

As Boka’s reward, Houphouët appointed him Côte d’Ivoire’s first supreme court president in 1960, where he initially proved to be a trusted believer. But Boka was always a man of the people with socialist sympathies. At 35, in March 1963, Ernest Boka resigned as supreme court president. Shortly thereafter, in August 1963, he was among hundreds rounded up under the direction of Houphouët-Boigny for allegedly plotting to kill the president with juju. A special security court sentenced 19 to life terms and condemned another six to death.

But Ernest Boka did not live long enough to stand trial. His lifeless body was found hanging from the ceiling of his cell in Abidjan bearing marks consistent with torture. In response to strong rumours that Boka’s death was not suicide, Houphouët-Boigny himself called foreign diplomats and correspondents to a briefing in April 1964 at his presidential palace for what turned out to be a trial of a dead man. At the briefing, Houphouët announced that Ernest Boka had confessed to an attempt to use juju to assassinate the president. As evidence, Houphouët-Boigny, a practising Catholic, produced two suitcases containing an assortment of magic potions, dried remains of dead animals and a collection of puny coffins reportedly seized from Ernest Boka’s family house.

About the time Ernest Boka was being liquidated in Côte d’Ivoire, a lowly court clerk and interpreter was working his way into reckoning in Spain’s African plantation in Equatorial Guinea. Francisco Macias Nguema was famous for allowing financial inducements to dictate the content of his translations. As one of few locals with a facility in Spanish, the colonialists came to hang on his every word, mistaking him for a man of influence. In one year between 1966 and 1967, Macias rose from assistant interpreter to become mayor, then minister for public works before becoming deputy president of the governing council. When the gong sounded for independence in 1968, he was well placed to be installed as Equatorial Guinea’s first president on October 12, 1968.

But Macias was unwell and given to outbursts of paranoia and violence fueled by dependence on tropical hallucinogens. Six months after being installed as president, in March 1969, he personally bludgeoned his foreign minister to death before having opposition leader, Bonifacio Ondo Edu, abducted from exile in neighbouring Gabon and executed. A reign of terror ensued during which Equatorial Guinea’s small population of professionals, including lawyers and judges were either killed or exiled. Rules were dismantled. With no judges, regime enemies were tried and executed by youth militias organised and administered by Macias’ nephew, Teodoro Obiang Nguema M’ba N’Zogo, an army lieutenant-colonel.

On August 3, 1979, Teodoro Obiang toppled his uncle and had him put on trial for mass atrocities, including genocide and embezzlement. As there were no judges left in the country nor lawyers to defend accused persons, the trial was conducted in a cinema hall by militias of precisely the same sort whom Macias used as president to liquidate his enemies, both real and imagined. Macias’ fate was predictable. On September 29, 1979, the militia found him guilty and sentenced him to death. Hours after his predicted condemnation, an elite military unit flown in specially from Morocco executed him by firing squad at the Black Beach Prison in Malabo.

Two years after Macias’ death, on Christmas Eve in 1981, the government of Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda abducted Malawi’s exiled, first attorney general and justice minister, Orton Chirwa, and his wife, Vera, from Zambia and returned them to Lilongwe. Orton Chirwa was the founding president of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), which led Malawi to independence in 1964. He was also Malawi’s first lawyer.

As a minister in the transitional government in 1962, Orton took issue with the presumption of innocence and burdens of proof in criminal trials, arguing for their replacement with traditional African norms and institutions. As attorney general, he pushed for these reforms but was turfed out of the cabinet in September 1964 in a power tussle with Banda, his successor as MCP resident before they were promulgated. Following the collapse of the Chilobwe Murder trials in 1969, Banda scrapped criminal trials by regular courts, transferring jurisdiction over crimes to so-called traditional courts, comprising a traditional chief as chair, with three citizen assessors and one lawyer. The traditional court system was appointed by Banda, who was both president and justice minister. They also reported to him.

In an ironic twist of fate, Orton would be arraigned for treason in 1983 before the kind of traditional courts he had advocated for as attorney general. His trial was a charade. The court denied him and his wife – herself also Malawi’s first female lawyer – legal defence or the right to call witnesses. Initially sentenced to death on conviction, Banda commuted this to life imprisonment. Orton spent the remainder of his life in solitary confinement at the Zomba Prison in Malawi where, in December 1992, he died at the age of 73.

As Nigeria’s military ruler from 1985 to 1993, Ibrahim Babangida eviscerated the courts, mostly precluding them by military decree from jurisdiction over whatever his regime did. In 1991, he issued a special decree making legal proceedings against his regime a felony punishable with up to two years’ imprisonment. Out of power in 2001, a successor regime asked him to appear before a commission of inquiry to defend his record.

Rather than do that, the man who made going to court a crime hired a coterie of highly prized lawyers to go to court and question the powers of an elected civilian administration to ask him to account. The case ended up before a supreme court presided over by judges, some of whose judicial careers Babangida had advanced. The result was jurisprudence that set back the powers of the federal government and the safety and security of Nigeria.

Africa’s history has firm lessons for powerful men and women who want to get ahead by retarding the legal process through abuse of the sacred trust of upholding the rule of law. The biggest argument for defending and preserving the rule of law is self-interest –000000000 those who degrade it often end up in need of it, usually to save them against their own temporary collaborators.

Karma has a brutal sense of humour.

One thing is assured: Inibehe Effiong is a courageous, vigorous and brilliant advocate who is destined to become a phenomenon in Nigeria’s legal profession. Ekaette Obot will live long enough to see that destiny fully realized. That is the least we can pray for.

Odinkalu, lawyer and former Chairman, National Human Rights Commission, NHRC 

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Ondo Govt Moves To Sell Sunshine Stars Football Club, Interim Mgt Dissolved

By
Ayodele Oni
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0
Akeredolu and Sunshine FC

By Ayodele Oni

Ondo State Government has put up for sale the State- owned football club, the Sunshine stars.

As a preparatory to its sale, Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu,SAN, has dissolved the  Football Agency interim Committee with immediate effect.

Consequently, the Governor has put the management of the Agency under the direct supervision of the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development pending the constitution of the Board.

Governor Akeredolu has also directed that efforts must be made within one year to find a suitable investor to take over the  Football Club on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement.

A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Richard Olatunde, thanked members of the interim Committee headed by the Deputy Governor,  Lucky Aiyedatiwa for a job well-done, while the club was under its management.

Governor Akeredolu reiterated his administration’s commitment to reposition the State Football Agency for optimum performance and result-oriented.

It was gathered that the state government decision to lease out the football club may not be unconnected with its dwindling performance, while government continued to invest in it.

Sunshine stars of Akure, has had its problems even before the inception of the present administration,  a situation football analysts blamed on appointment  of politicians to handle its affairs, rather than professionals.

The management of the team has been under the office of the deputy governor for over a year before its disolution last week by the Governor.

SERG Urges FG To Immediately Comply with UN Recommendations on Nnamdi Kanu’s Unconditional Release 

By
The Source
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0

Pan-Igbo socio-political pressure group, the South East Revival Group (SERG) has called on the Federal Government of Nigeria to immediately comply with the resolutions of the United Nations, UN Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, on the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to avert a fresh war front amid the current insecurity in most parts of the country.

The UN had recently indicted both Nigerian and Kenyan Governments for the extraordinary rendition, torture and continued detention of the IPOB leader without due process.

Consequently, the UN resolved and recommended to the Federal Government to immediately release Kanu unconditionally.

In a statement signed by the President and National Coordinator of the SERG, Chief Willy Ezugwu, the group urged the Federation Government to be responsible and reasonable in handling the recommendations of the UN as part of the bitter pills Nigeria must take to reduce armed struggle in the country.

“For the United Nations to ask the federal government to pay adequate compensation for the arbitrary violation of the fundamental human rights of Nnamdi Kanu, it then becomes clear that the world body has found grave infractions in the process of rendition and detention of the IPOB leader.

“The President Muhammadu Buhari administration must be proactive enough to immediately free Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and open a channel for addressing the root causes of the renewed Biafran agitations in the South East in the general interest of peace, security and national integration.

“The Federal Government must learn lessons from the unfortunate but avoidable insurgency in the North East, which has spread to other parts of the country, and escalated as a result of the arbitrary killing of the Boko Haram founder, Mohammed Yusuf.

“The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government, rather than arresting and prosecuting the extrajudicial killers of Yusuf and opening a window for dialogue to address the remote causes of their uprising, ignored the group until it grew into a monster terrorising most parts of the country from 2009 to date.

“The sense of injustice on the part of the followers of Mohammed Yusuf was the singular cause of the now widespread insurgency in the North East of Nigeria, consuming a reasonable chunk of the country’s national budget with attendant loss of lives and property. Such security miscalculations should and must be avoided in all parts of the country.

“We therefore call on President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately order the unconditional release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and open a channel for dialogue with aggrieved citizens, not only in the South East but across the country, in order to find lasting peace in the country.

“This has become expedient as the Nigerian security forces will eventually be overwhelmed if avoidable war fronts are opened in all parts of the country, which will be inimical to national peace and development”, the SERG said.

Dino Melaye Says He Will Break Buhari’s Minister, Keyamo, To Pieces; Questions His SAN Award 

By
Akinwale Kasali
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0

By Akinwale Kasali

A dirty battle is in the offing between the Minister of State, Labour, Festus Keyamo, SAN, and Senator Dino Melaye.

Both men are Spokespersons for the Presidential Campaign Organisations of the Presidential candidates of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. While Keyamo speaks for APC’s Bola Tinubu’s Campaign Organisation, Melaye speaks for that of PDP’s Atiku Abubakar, a former Vice President of Nigeria.

The two men, Keyamo and Melaye, have started a fight which promises to, at once, be as entertaining as it is going to be messy.

Trouble started when Keyamo appeared on the Channels Television’s flagship program, Politics today anchored by its regular host, Seun Okinbaloye. In answer to a question, Keyamo put down the PDP Candidate.

He said Atiku is not qualified  to be the President of Nigeria because, according to him, Atiku has had no experience at all in Governance. Of the three main candidates – Atiku, LP’s Peter Obi, and Tinibu – Keyamo rated Atiku the least qualified.

Festus Keyamo
Festus Keyamo

That stung Melaye who questioned Keyamo’s SAN title. He also asked Keyamo what job he does as President Muhammadu Buhari’s Minister, and dismissed him as idle. He said no Nigerian knows what Keyamo portfolio, as the Minister for Labour, Dr Chris Ngige, has clearly eclipsed Keyamo who is a junior Minister in the Ministry of Labour and Productivity.

Finally, Melaye said he is waiting for an opportunity where he and Keyamo would  square up in a debate session before Okinbaloye or on any other platform.

“I will break him (Keyamo) to pieces”, Melaye said, and demonstrated how in the video post.

Following, are Melaye’s thorough tongue-lashing of Keyamo in response to the Minister’s interview.

“My fellow country men and women, I am here once again to address you on our nation’s history and to react, specifically, to Keyamo’s myopic, porous, parochial and intellectually stagnant interview on Channels Television that is shameful and very embarrassing and a disgrace to his children, that Keyamo will open his gutter and talk to the former Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, one Nigerian with  multiple competencies, a man indoctrinated with Civil Administration and immense qualities in the person of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

“Keyamo’s inactive Ministerial sojourn is affecting his Medulla Oblongata because if he has succeeded as a Minister, he won’t be talking the way he is talking.

“Ask Nigerians today what portfolio Keyamo is holding. Many Nigerians will tell you that they dont even know the office Keyamo is holding because he is redundant, he is inactive, he is not visible and he has been completely consumed with the aura of Chris Ngige as superior Minister.

“This is because he has failed as a Minister, he is inactive as a Minister, he is not visible as a Minister, he is not known as a Minister, he is redundant  as the MInister of State  for Labour.

“No Nigerian who is educated, who is intellectually okay, who is mentally fit will sought to denigrate and abuse the Office of the Vice President of Nigeria. What he has abused and attacked is not Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s person but the Office of the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, that is a constitutional office and the number two citizen of Nigeria.

“This is because Keyamo is a commercialized conscience, he has monetized his life, that is why he would not understand that the Vice President of Nigeria has some Ministries, Parastatals under his direct supervision and oversight. That is why he will not also know that the Vice President presides over the Federal Executive Council, FEC, meetings in the absence of the President.

“That is also why he would not know that the Vice President acts as the President when the President is not in the country. What he has done is that he has abused the office of the Vice President of Nigeria as a lawyer who understands the constitutionality of that office, and the enormous responsibilities of that office.

“Anyone who is a Vice President is fit to be a President, and again, will Keyamo now say he is also writing off the business success, or the successes of Atiku Abubakar in the Corporate World?

“Will keyamo also say that Atiku has not succeeded internationally as a Businessman? Keyamo now say that the experience of Atiku in the manufacturing sector, banking sector, logistics, humanities, aviation. what sector has Atiku not succeeded at?

“A Vice President after 20 years, that left office in 2007 is still moving like a sitting Vice President with all his staff intact till today.

“A Man with such phenomenal capacity with corporate experience, you now just come and sit down, whether you are acting under the influence of ‘Sepe’ or you are acting under the influence of Marijuana, or you just smoked your Ganja Weed and and you just open your mouth and talk because you are defending a man who takes more drugs than food today.

“It is just so unfortunate that Keyamo, who I question his Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, because nobody who was properly taught, and properly brought up will sit down and denigrate the office of the Vice President of Nigeria and a lawyer for that matter, it is a shame on Keyamo and I challenge you, Keyamo, for debate because it is obvious you are speaking balderdash. You are talking rubbish, but I want to assure you that Nigerians know who you are.

“You are a commercialized character, a failed politician, you have never won an election even in the Primaries, not to talk of general election. You have never won an election before in your life.

“You have never been a Councillor, a House of Assembly Member, so you don’t understand the rudiments of politics and democracy.

“You are unfit, incompetent  to discuss politics, democracy not to talk of our highly respected Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. But this is not a day to talk, I challenge you for a debate in which we would sit and talk, and I will break you to pieces.

“Unfortunately, I am doing this on social media, but I am waiting for an invitation from Seun or any other platform so that I can expose your ignorance, and I will expose to Nigerians how empty you are. It is so unfortunate.

“Whether you like it or not, you cannot take the credit, experience of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar away from him. even you said that Atiku Abubakar has no experience. He is running for the Presidency not for the second or third time, so he understands the route not like your political virgin, Tinubu you are supporting who is running for the Presidency for the first time, and sees it as his life entitlement, and retirement benefit for supporting Buhari.

“Atiku is running on his credentials and not for entitlement. he is not running because of the Party, he is running on his credentials. He is a team player, talent-hunter and a leader par excellence. He has the rudiment of Civil Administration and rudiment of politics, and I want to tell you, Keyamo, enough is enough, if not, that jungle wey you talk say go mature, na there we go eat you”

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