The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has warned the former Governor of Kano State and Presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso, to desist from linking the group with the former Governor of Anambra State and Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi.

The group maintained that Obi is not its member nor has he ever supported IPOB agitation, warning that Nigerian politicians in general should stay away from linking Obi with the group.

IPOB which gave the warning in a statement signed by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, stated that if Kwankwaso was threatened by Obi's teeming support by Nigerian youths including those in the North, he should settle his differences with Obi and stop linking IPOB to their problem.

The statement captioned, ‘Former Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso Of Kano State Shamelessly Stop Ranting And Push For Reality’ read, “The global family of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) under the command and leadership of our great leader Mazi Nnamdi KANU wishes to advise the former Governor, Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwoso, not to involve IPOB in their selection process they call election in Nigeria.

“The Nigerian politicians generally and Kwankwaso in particular should desist from linking IPOB with Peter Obi, his political ambition and campaign, Peter Obi is not an IPOB member, never supported our agitation for freedom at any time because he pursues a totally different goal form that of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). We have no interest in the Nigerian morally decadent and fantastically corrupt political system and landscape.

“If Kwankwaso is threatened by Labour party & Peter Obi's teeming support by the creative and talented but downtrodden, neglected, deceived, deprived, killed (#Endsars) Nigerian youths from even the North which your generation do not have any good intentions for, then he should go forward and settle his differences and stop linking IPOB to their problem.

“IPOB is not interested in the worthless politics you play in Nigeria, we don't regard such daylight robbery, fraud, manipulation and selection as election.

“IPOB is not concerned with the waves of this election, we have never asked for nor said anything contrary to our goal and demand, what we need is referendum and referendum we must have. There are no middle ways for us as a people as far as our liberty and freedom is concerned. There is therefore nothing anybody can do to change our resolve towards our stated goal which is the restoration of Biafra.

“If there is a region to avoid due to criminality with Terrorism it is the Northern Nigeria which sponsors several terrorist groups as joint venture partners, recycles them in the military and ministries, you should feel non - Northerners pulses when they helplessly tag along with you guys to ascertain the sensitivity of their irritations and pounding of hearts in silent prayers for safety.

“IPOB is a disciplined movement and we do not speak from both sides of the mouth. Our singular objective is to extricate our people from the debilitating environment that prevents Biafrans from attaining our fullest potential as human beings, exit from the contraption called Nigeria and be able to determine our fate through putting to use our intrinsic endowments and ingenuity in an enabling environment in a free and Independent Biafran Nation.

“Peter Obi is not a member of IPOB and he is neither agitating or in support of our Self Determination struggle. Why associate him with IPOB's struggle for freedom. IPOB does not know who Peter Obi is going by our biodata bank. Our demand is our inalienable rights to self determination and this we seek through a universally recognised and accepted political process called REFERENDUM as stipulated by the United Nations Charter.

“IPOB wishes to use this medium and opportunity to warn every politician in Nigeria to desist from linking IPOB with their politics and selection process because we are not politicians and have no common interest. We are freedom fighters.”

Recall that Kwankwaso, who has insisted that if the NNPP and Labour Party must merge for the 2023 general elections, Obi must be his running mate, said recently that with the activities of IPOB in the South-East, Obi would not win the presidential seat.

Politics News AddThis :  Original Author :  Saharareporters, New York Disable advertisements : 

Reuben Abati

Nyesom Wike, Governor of Rivers State is the biggest issue in the politics of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) at the moment. To put it differently, Nigeria’s major opposition party, the PDP, has a Wike problem. The extent of that has now been formally acknowledged by the party when the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Walid Jibrin, announced that major stakeholders in the party led by Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and his chosen running mate, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta, all PDP Governors, members of the BOT and other major stakeholders must go to Port Harcourt to appeal to Wike not to leave the party, not to get angry, and not to do anything against the party. Wike is the Governor of Rivers state. He claims that since the PDP lost power in 2015, he has been the one carrying the party on his back, providing resources and leadership at a time the PDP, out of power, began to behave like fish out of water. Wike filled the void. And now in 2022, he presented himself as an advocate for the shift of power to the South, and his good self as a Presidential candidate. 

By some alchemy, the PDP ignored Section 3 its own constitution and decided through a 37-member committee that the party would jettison its zoning formula, the same formula, that was appropriated by the rival All Progressives Congress (APC), Nigeria’ ruling party, and hence, the party threw the Presidency on its platform open. Nyesom Wike didn’t think that was right and so he threw his hat into the ring and decided to run for the position. His ambition has turned out to be a teachable moment and a reality check, and perhaps, in the long run, a reminder of his own naivety.  Twenty-four hours to the PDP Presidential Convention, held in Abuja on May 28 everyone thought that the Southern agenda would prevail and that Wike or any of the other Southern aspirants including former Secretary to the Government Anyim Pius Anyim, and former Senate President, Bukola Saraki would get the nomination of the party. 

Within the said 24 hours, everything changed. Northerners are better politicians than Southerners, be it in the PDP or any other political party. Southerners talk too much. Northerners think and strategize. While the latter think of community and group interests, the egoistic, Mercedes Benz crowd down South thinks only of ego and personal ambition.  At the PDP National Convention, as it happened, Governor Aminu Tambuwal stepped forward and openly declared support for Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. This was a game changer. In 2019, Nyesom Wike, Governor of Rivers State, supported the same Governor Tambuwal. On May 28 2022, Tambuwal disappointed him and threw him under the bus. I have not seen or heard of any attempt by Governor Tambuwal to say sorry, or reach out. Instead, he got a hero’s welcome on his return to Sokoto and has since picked up the PDP Senatorial ticket for Sokoto South.   

Reuben Abati

Wike did not just suffer the open humiliation and treachery by Governor Tambuwal, he came second on that account. Tambuwal is from the North West, a zone which controlled majority of delegates at the PDP Convention. Wike’s supporters continue to blame Tambuwal for Wike’s loss. They insist that he violated the principle that “one good turn deserves another.” Wike came second in the PDP Presidential primary process. What then remained was for the party to choose a running mate, and even in that regard, Wike lost out. Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State behaving like a Wike henchman said on international television, that Wike is the best thing that has ever happened to the PDP, post-2015 and that a committee of which he was a member having selected him as the right person to be running mate to Atiku, feels doubly disappointed that Atiku chose someone else – Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, the PDP Governor of Delta State. He admits nonetheless that Okowa is eminently qualified having run the entire gamut of public service administrative experience from Local Government Chairman all the way to the top. But he thinks Atiku Abubakar has erred by rejecting Wike who was chosen by 14 out of a 17-member panel. Wike’s supporters are mourning. They think they have been short-changed. They think Wike’s contributions to the party have been thrashed to spite and humiliate him.  Politics is a mad house. Wike’s supporters also want to prove that they cannot be treated shabbily. There is indeed a new brand of madness growing like marijuana in the PDP that may offer an undeserved advantage to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), or the now much identified Third Force in Nigerian Politics represented by the Labour Party and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).       

It is therefore, good reasoning that the leadership of the PDP is reaching out to Nyesom Wike. It also makes sense that the Chairman of the party’s BOT, Alhaji Walid Jibrin has told party members and stakeholders to stop misbehaving. There are persons within the party who have said Wike is a nobody and can be discounted. They forget that in 2019, Rivers State under his watch delivered the highest number of votes to the PDP. The big problem with the PDP is that it has too many big men, who think they are larger than life. They seem to have forgotten that the party failed to rule for 60 years as a party leader once predicted and that the times have changed. Following the BOT Chairman’s directives, Atiku Abubakar and Ifeanyi Okowa should visit Wike and make peace.  The simple principle is that you cannot spank a child and not expect him to cry. Let him cry. He cries. You mollify him. But the question to ask in that regard is: why Wike? Why is he the only one weeping? There were others in that race: Anyim, Saraki, Ohuabunwa, Dele Momodu, Bala Muhammed, Mohammed Hayatudeen, Ayo Fayose, Udom Emmanuel… 13 aspirants, so why is Wike the only one crying as if he has lost his precious toy? Why does he and his supporters feel so entitled? 

Atiku in particular needs to pay attention. In 2019, it was said at a point that he had chosen or had promised now embattled, Senator Ike Ekweremadu that he would be his running mate. He ended up choosing Peter Obi. In the Presidential 2019 election, he didn’t get the kind of support he expected from the South East, because he, himself mixed things up. Obi went into that election with him, with many of his own kinsmen, divided by Atiku’s choice. In 2022, Atiku has done the same thing. As former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s Vice President, the same issue that Atiku faced was that of trust and loyalty. He says he wants to unify the PDP, the community and the general society.  He must embark on that task without trust deficits. What is his response to the PDP BOT Chairman’s directive that a high-powered PDP delegation would visit Wike?  As of the time of this writing, I have not seen or read any direct response from him, but whatever it is, he must refrain from the twin temptations of contempt and arrogance. Let him visit Wike. Politics is all about Recognition, Respect and Relevance (the three Rs). That is all Wike wants. He needs that even if all it does is to energize his political libido.  Let him visit all the aggrieved stakeholders of the party too if he must.  

There are some Wike extremists within the PDP who insist that Okowa must be removed and replaced with Wike. I don’t think that would happen.  The party and the candidate have gone beyond that. Governor Okowa in his own right has excellent credentials, although he too, can’t find his Secondary School Leaving Certificate!  He is eminently qualified and experienced, they tell us. Nobody doubts that.  It would be stupid to stay that he should step down. Indeed, his own supporters claim that the furore that has been generated by Wike not being chosen as Presidential candidate and his being ignored as a possible running mate is a strong vindication of Atiku’s choice and the preference of a quiet stakeholder and partner like Okowa. Someone in fact told me that Wike has shown that he would have created conflict in the Presidency, if the party wins. I was tempted to say that Atiku did precisely so during Obasanjo’s second term, and such a future situation would have been Karmic. But I kept quiet. Politicians don’t always like to hear the truth. What we know is that compatibility is crucial, and Atiku has chosen the man he feels comfortable with. 

So, what is next?  Wike’s supporters argue that if Okowa cannot be dropped, then Senator Iyorchia Ayu, the party Chairman, must go. Within 48 hours after the PDP presidential Convention, Senator Iyorchia Ayu went straight to visit Tambuwal in Abuja to declare him the “hero of the convention.” I thought that was very bad conduct on the part of the party Chairman. He was meant to be an impartial umpire, but by showing his bias so openly, he courted the current enmity that has been thrown at him. But beyond that is his own promise that if the Presidential candidate of the party came from the North, he would step down and allow a Southern Chairman of the party to emerge. Balance. Federal Character. Equity. Since the Convention, Senator Iyorchia Ayu has refused to move. He is the easiest victim within the PDP leadership hierarchy, nonetheless. If there must be a sacrificial lamb that would bring peace to the party, he must be willing and ready to take the bullet. He won’t be the first party Chairman to make such sacrifice. Let him know this: Even if Wike and gang forgive Atiku and embrace Okowa, they would not tolerate Iyorchia Ayu. Bite the bullet, Senator Ayu. 

Already, Peter Ayo Fayose, former Governor of Ekiti State has been saying that the PDP cannot overlook the principle of Federal Character in Section 3 ( c ) of its Constitution. And when an attempt is finally made to reconcile with Wike and others, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar must lead the group personally. It is not for him to send for Wike or to send emissaries. He is the one who wants to be President. He needs everybody on board. He has promised to unify the party, the community and the country. He cannot do so from a high horse. He must “stoop to conquer”. One of the things being said by Wike’s supporters, for example, is that they are being treated as if they do not matter. They want to prove that they matter.  Candidly, PDP leaders must not behave as if they have been cursed by the trickster god, known as Esu in Yoruba mythology. They must learn from the lessons of history. In 2015 and again in 2019, they lost the Presidential election because their home was divided. The situation today is similar. The thinking that Atiku gets all his votes from the North and would do so again this time around is entirely myopic. Every vote in every part of the country matters, including Wike’s only vote and the votes of his placard-carrying supporters, and all the overlooked aggrieved members of the party of which there are many.    

 Nyesom Wike has since returned from his much-publicized vacation in Istanbul, Turkey where I guess he ate a little turkey and licked some ice cream. My advice to him is that he needs to chill out as they say. When a child is beaten, he has every right to cry. When an adult is betrayed, he has every reason to be angry. Wike wanted to be Presidential standard bearer. He failed. He also lost the running mate slot. He was betrayed by those he didn’t expect would do so. He has been openly angry enough. The whole world has heard him. But he must take one lesson away from it all: in Nigeria, when you want something so desperately, nobody will give it to you. There would be more than enough people who would deny you that which you crave, to humiliate and humble you. Wike is without doubt, a victim of his own hubris and expectations, but he is also a victim, for the want of a better term, of the sadomasochism of the Nigerian elite political class. He should stop knocking his head against the wall. 

Traditionally, when a child is aggrieved and he starts crying, every effort will be made to mollify him, but if he keeps on crying and wailing, after a while, he would be left alone and those seeking to appease him would adopt a wait and see position in the expectation that once he gets tired, he would keep quiet. Wike should not stretch his matter to that point. He also needs to avoid a situation where he would become the easy and convenient reference in the event that the PDP loses the 2023 Presidential election or the butt of jokes if the party triumphs. No tree makes a forest, except of course you are cut in the mould of an Obafemi Awolowo. And Wike is not of that mould. 

The only group enjoying all of this would be Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) Camp, and may be perhaps the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), the Kwankwasiya party and also, the Labour Party and its Obi-dient crowd who claim that Peter Obi is the answer, or that the PDP belongs to the museum of political relevance or that Peter Obi left the PDP because he saw tomorrow. They all exaggerate of course. But leaders of the PDP must be careful not to lose the election before it takes place, with their own misconduct and greed. Senator Walid Jibrin, Chairman of the party’s BOT has already warned the rank and file to desist from acrimony. He has a point. Years back, a prominent member of the party told me that the result of any election is usually known six months earlier. He predicted correctly at the time that the PDP would lose the 2015 Presidential election because the party was divided right down the middle. The PDP has found itself in the same situation today. The party is running against time and opportunity. It is mismanaging its internal politics to the advantage of the opposition. It is about time Atiku Abubakar began to unify the party as promised. He must cut short his long vacation and get down to work. More importantly, he must beware of the aggrieved who have chosen to be calm and silent. Wike is a symptom, not the real problem.             

Opinion AddThis :  Original Author :  Reuben Abati Disable advertisements : 

Nigerians are undergoing the most challenging period in their lives as more people are pushed into poverty and desperation. Inflation is running at an average 16 per cent, hunger is deregulated and life is very cheap. Kerosene is unaffordable and the cost of diesel and aviation fuel so high that airlines in the country threatened to stop flying.

It is in the midst of such extreme hardship that His Excellency Charles Chukwuma Soludo pushed for more hardship on the populace by demanding for astronomical increases in the price of premium motor spirit, PMS (petrol). No, the Governor of Anambra State and international professor of Economics is too clever to present his demand as crudely or directly as I have presented it. Rather, he demanded that the so-called subsidy on PMS should be removed “as early as yesterday”.

Soludo, while speaking at the June 14, 2022 launch of the Nigeria Development Update, NDU, by the World Bank, said: “Remove this subsidy like yesterday, this ought to have been removed like yesterday. If we continue with the subsidy, Central Bank will continue to spill money. The solutions are pretty obvious. What we need to do is to be committed to it.”

Then in a false claim of federalism when almost all states, including Anambra, depend on their share from the oil resources commandeered by the Federal Government, Soludo said if the “Federal Government decides that it wants to subsidise Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, why do you have to charge it from the subnational states? You should charge it from the revenue of the Federal Government.” It is charged from the subnational states precisely because almost all of them are mere parasites contributing nothing to the federation account. Besides, the cost of PMS affects all Nigerians.

Soludo’s predictable speech at the occasion is not surprising partly because it was at a programme of the World Bank which had been one of his benefactors. His submission had to be in line with the World Bank Report being released at the occasion. The major planks of the report include “eliminating the PMS subsidy” which is actually a so-called complete deregulation of fuel prices, “easing trade restrictions”, an euphemism for the complete surrender of our economy to foreign interests; and “enhancing domestic revenue mobilisation which means imposing of higher taxes and prices on Nigerians.

Given the fact that Nigeria with a landmass of 923,768 kilometres and a population of over 200 million people relies on less than 3,000KW of power with a power grid that this year has broken than some two dozen times, Nigerians are forced to rely on generators. These generators that power small businesses and homes, are almost all run on petrol. The country having no mass transit like trams or intra-city railways or waterway transportation, has to depend on petrol-based road transport. Given the dependence on PMS, it is common sense that to allow the mindless increase in its price would be disastrous.

So why are people like Soludo always pushing this? Does it take an educated mind to know that the World Bank’s claim that fuel subsidy “mostly benefits the affluent” in Nigeria is patently false? Is the poor farmer who has to move his agricultural products to the urban centres and markets, affluent?

But let us come to the kernel of my case against the Soludos in Nigeria who are mere megaphones of enslaving institutions like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, IMF and the World Trade Organisation, WTO, and repeater stations of their ruinous neo-liberal policies like the Structural Adjustment Programme, SAP.

Soludo who in 2011 described himself as an international scholar and consultant to 18 international institutions ought to be reflective. An international Professor of Economics who has been a visiting scholar to institutions like the Brooklings Institute, the American Swartmore and the Universities of Warwick, Oxford and Cambridge, ought to ask himself the basic question: Why is Nigeria said to have subsidy on PMS? Even with a mere three-month tutorial in economics at the high school level, I can easily answer this question: because although we are a large oil producing nation, we do not refine petroleum products.

With this fact, we lose all economic advantages, including those of comparative advantage and factors that determine the siting of industries. So, if Nigeria is subsidising PMS, it is entirely contrived by leaders and educated elites who refuse to put on their thinking caps. Soludo, for instance, was President Olusegun Obasanjo’s Chief Economic Adviser in 2003 before becoming the Governor of the Central Bank.

Then, President Muhammadu Buhari appointed him into his Presidential Economic Advisory Committee. Did Soludo advise the governments he served on the need to refine petroleum products rather than export crude oil and import comparatively expensive petroleum products? If he did and was ignored, what did he do? Resigned? When he was CBN Governor, paying questionable fuel subsidies, did he know it was a wrong policy?

So, rather than Soludo demanding increases in the price of PMS under the guise of fuel subsidy removal, he should demand that Nigeria begins to refine its petroleum product needs.

Soludo reminds me of Chichidodo the bird that likes clean environments but feeds on maggots in the excreta. He reminds me very much of Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, another economic whiz-kid who in 2011 under President Goodluck Jonathan was spewing questionable statistics that claimed the cost of a litre of imported fuel at the depot was N139 but drew blank when asked the cost of a litre of locally refined fuel.

If today, Peter Obi, rightly or wrongly, is making waves in the country, it is because unlike Soludo and Okonjo- Iweala who are campaigning for so-called market forces, he argues that Nigeria must shift from a consumption to a production economy. So the issue is not the withdrawal of so-called fuel subsidy, like Soludo is campaigning for, but the production, rather than the importation of petroleum products.

I once read a paper Soludo wrote on the Economic Partnership Agreement, EPA, titled: “Will Europe Under-Develop Africa Again?” published in the Pambazuka News edition of April, 2012. The paper whose title was obviously a play on Walter Rodney’s ground-breaking work, ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’ was a clear-headed critique of Europe’s neo-colonial and neo-liberal policies in Africa.

In the paper, Soludo argued that the EPA rhetoric, which promises a bright future for Africa, is no different from SAP which decimated Africa in the 1980s. He submitted that: “If EU cannot assist Africa to walk and run, the least it should do is not to hinder its nascent progress.”

So why did he make such a critique a decade ago, and makes a contrary one today? I suspect that Soludo is more intelligent than the cheap way he is pricing himself.

 

Opinion AddThis :  Original Author :  Owei Lakemfa Disable advertisements : 

Half of the total population of Nigerian residents would be poor by the end of 2022, a report made by a group, Dataphyte, has revealed.

On Monday, In its report titled, “What is wrong with the Nigerian Economy in Five Charts”, Dataphyte said Nigeria’s $432 billion economy has been experiencing tough times, from inflation, to growing public debt, rising unemployment and poverty.

"Poverty has continued to rise in the country. A Dataphyte report noted that the number of persons hit by poverty in the country is projected to rise up to 95.1 million by this year. Almost half of Nigeria’s population of 200,000 million will be poor by the end of 2022," the report stated.

The report further asserted that, "Nigeria has continued to suffer from fuel scarcity which has further worsened the inflation in the country. There have been reported disagreements between marketers and the government. The marketers have said they want an increase in the price of petroleum noting that the official price of N165/litre is no longer sustainable.

"If the government maintains its subsidy policy, keeping prices down and acceding to the marketers’ demand, its subsidy bill will become even more astronomical. Already the World Bank has projected that Nigeria’s subsidy bill will rise to 2% of its GDP. A Dataphyte report noted that the 2022 subsidy bill is 74% of the capital expenditure for the year."

Dataphyte also claimed that unemployment is on the increase in the country according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Data shows that the unemployment rate in the country has moved to 33%(2020) from 16%(2016).

A person is said to be poor if he earns a minimum personal income - for example, $1.90 per day. This minimum amount is deemed adequate to maintain an acceptable living standard, given the cost of living in a given country.

 

Economy News AddThis :  Original Author :  Saharareporters, New York Disable advertisements : 

Some Nigerians on Twitter have attacked billionaire oil mogul, Femi Otedola after he expressed his support for the presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress, Ahmed Bola Tinubu.
The businessman had shared a picture of himself standing beside the former Governor of Lagos State via Twitter, and prayed that God would grant Tinubu his heart desire to be Nigeria’s President in the 2023 election.

The APC Presidential candidate is currently in France.
Sharing the picture, Otedola had said it is always exciting to spend time with Tinubu, who he described as his great friend.
“I am always excited visiting my Great Friend Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu,” Otedola tweeted on Tuesday.
“May God grant him his heart’s desire in becoming the President of this great Nation. F.Ote.”
The post however didn’t go well with some Twitter users, mostly supporters of the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi.

Below are some reactions from Twitter;

Please respect yourself sir, just greet Ur friend and waka pass. We don't need sick people in Aso rock and we want competency. Or u still want Nigerian youths to continue asking ur daughter for urgent 2k giveaway.

— Nwabueze Ademola (@yoruba_biafra) July 5, 2022

OBI-dients fuming in the replies lol, you put an elite on a pedestal & get angry when they move like the humans they are; protecting personal interests & sticking to friends/acquaintances.

Nigerian elites will always work for each other, our Job is to put one that works for us🤷🏽‍♂️

— Ugwunna Ejikem (@UgwunnaEjikem) July 5, 2022

Dear Femi Otedola, this man in this picture desires to be the CEO of any of your companies, please make his desire come through by employing him same way you want Tinubu to be president of Nigeria. pic.twitter.com/9YrEauIGWf

— King Balaxy 👑 🎵💯 (@PrinceBalaxy) July 5, 2022

So you want other people’s children to go to the army and eat Agbado and cassava. Papa cuppy you do this one?

— April (@candybliss95) July 5, 2022

It’s sad to see a man of this level of wealth and intellect with a terrible vision for Nigeria.

But I’ve always understood that in order to amass wealth in a country like Nigeria, you must shake hands with devils. https://t.co/MauCAfKKIO

— Damilola Jonathan O. (@JD_Oladeji) July 5, 2022

Otedola is fighting for a system that will work for him not minding if it will work for you. So please, work for a system that will work for you, my people. A system that will work for Otedola is not a system that will work for you, my people.

— FS Yusuf (@FS_Yusuf_) July 5, 2022

In supporting Peter Obi, understand the dynamics of how many elites work, esp Nigerian elites. They are friends & will protect their circles & interests. Femi Otedola has been friends with Tinubu forever. Politics won’t change that. He’s protecting his interest. Protect yours.

— Ayò-Bánkólé Akíntújoyè (@AyoBankole) July 5, 2022

Dear Femi Otedola, @realFemiOtedola
If Tinubu did you any favours in the past go and repay him however way you wish🙏. But you see that prayer you prayed for tinubu to be Nigeria's next president? It will not stand !
Nigerians are suffering and dying. We want a better country!

— NK£M #PeterObi2023 (@Nkemchor_) July 5, 2022

Dear Otedola , you can afford relocate from 9ja if e cast, 98% of Nigerians can’t afford that. That’s why that prayer of yours will never work. It will be cancelled by the prayer of majority of Nigerians. Fortunately,God does not look at pockets before answering prayers. Thanks pic.twitter.com/NLVlrcEi1v

— DR.PENKING™ 🇦🇺🇳🇬 #PeterObi (@drpenking) July 5, 2022

Politics MEDIA News AddThis :  Original Author :  saharareporters, new york Disable advertisements : 

Comrade Che Oyinatumba, a former Chairman of the Labour Party for the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja chapter, has advised Nigerian workers and the Labour Party that supporting the presidential candidacy of Omoyele Sowore is much better than backing the party's presidential candidate, Peter Obi in the forthcoming 2023 general elections.

Though Sowore is the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress while Obi is the Labour Party's presidential candidate, Oyinatumba said it is better for Nigerian workers to support the former rather than the latter, whom he described as a capitalist. 

Oyinatumba stated this in a video of his address at a programme held last Friday in Abuja, in honour of the late activist, Segun Sango, which was obtained by SaharaReporters on Tuesday. 

"I would have rather that we did or we do what we are doing for Peter Obi for Sowore than for Peter Obi.

"If we are saying it is the structure and getting the workers to mobilise and build Labour Party, we can do same for Sowore who has a legal tendency to what we believe in than this capitalist called Peter Obi.”

According to him, it is better for the Labour Party to rally around Sowore and give him the workers' party structure rather than support Peter Obi, whom he asserted would leave the party once he wins the presidential election. 

“Now we can agree that if Obi wins this election, he would leave. It would be easier and more manageable for us to rally round a Sowore and his party, or bring him to the Labour Party and give him the structure,” Oyinatumba said.

VIDEO: Support Sowore Instead Of "Capitalist" Peter Obi -- Former LP Chairman
WATCH FULL VIDEO: https://t.co/uKYgUxyXyF pic.twitter.com/dM6zdvT1Ir

— Sahara Reporters (@SaharaReporters) July 5, 2022

“It is not true that the Nigerian Labour Congress is reclaiming the Labour Party,” he said, adding that the resolution of the NLC a few days ago did not mobilise support for Obi, rather their Kebbi State governorship choice, an All Progressives Congress candidate. 

He, therefore, questioned the party for supporting the APC in Kebbi while "asking other states to mobilise for Labour Party.”

"The NLC/TUC is headed by those who do not share our sentiment. The NLC is led by those who are looking for jobs and are using Trade Union as a pensionable job, so they are not interested in claiming anything,” he added.

PUNCH reports that in a resolution of the meeting of the National Executive Committee of the NLC, dated June 30, 2022, it was observed that the NLC leadership, despite canvassing for support for its governorship choice in Kebbi State, Dr Nasir Idris, had not necessarily thrown weight behind the candidacy of Peter Obi.

However, the resolution, signed by the President and General Secretary of the NLC, Comrade Ayuba Wabba and Comrade Emmanuel Ugboaja respectively, addressed the 2023 polls, saying “In line with earlier organ decisions, the NEC called on the state structures of the NLC to activate their local government political committees to sensitise workers and the general populace on the need to vote in Labour Party candidates across all elective positions in the 2023 general election. 

"And the NLC will organise a mega rally in Kebbi State in support of its Deputy President, Dr Nasir Idris, who has emerged as a governorship candidate in Kebbi State and will also support its Chairperson in Niger State in order to ensure victory at the polls.”

SaharaReporters earlier reported that Rabiu Kwankwaso, the presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) had said Peter Obi was being misled by someone into taking decisions that would benefit the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar. 

The former Kano governor described the person as a member of the PDP who is loyal to the party but pushing Obi not to accept to be his (Kwankwaso's) running mate in the planned alliance between the NNPP and Labour Party. 

According to him, having Peter Obi as the presidential candidate in the alliance will give Atiku bloc votes in the North as Northerners will rather vote for a northerner, who they will see as one of theirs, than Obi or any other southeasterner, especially with the current agitation for the state of Biafra in the South-East. 

There has been pressure on the NNPP and the Labour Party to work together to produce a presidential candidate between them for the 2023 presidential election. Kwankwaso and the presidential candidate of the Labour Party have admitted that the parties have held talks, but the bone of contention is that the two candidates want to be the presidential candidate in the arrangement.

In an interview with Channels TV on Sunday, Kwankwaso urged Obi to be wary of such a person, whom he said had been expressing his views on social media. 

When asked about the planned alliance between Kwankwaso's NNPP and the Labour Party, the former Kano governor said, "I think that it will happen but I believe also that there are some challenges that we are having, especially from the side of the Labour Party itself because there are so many influences; some on their side, positive, but even the negative side.

"We have a situation today where there are some people who are in other parties, who are also influencing the decision of the party which I believe is not good for the party. 

"I was just reading on social media and even people very close to the party that are... The presidential candidate is very close to one of the leaders of the PDP which we are trying to verify but I think the source is very genuine, that is, contacts with him while he is in a party, PDP, supporting the candidature of the presidential candidate from the North in that particular party and of course saying that the presidency must go to the South in the other party, that is, in our alliance and that is really to weaken our party."

Speaking further on whether it is the Labour Party or the NNPP that voters will be encouraged to vote for in the 2023 presidential election as it is too late to have a merger between the parties, Kwankwaso noted, "I believe so many modalities can be worked out to work together, it is just a matter of getting the right calibre of people to sit down and look at the situation as it is. 

"Now, you see, the main issue as it stands today is the issue of who becomes the president, who becomes the vice president and I believe this is the time really to advise, especially those who are positively behind the candidate of the Labour Party. 

"For me, I have seen an opportunity for the South-East to be relevant in the next dispensation. In PDP, they are completely out and so also in the APC (All Progressives Congress). The only option now is NNPP."

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The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has stated that it is ready to call off its nationwide industrial action immediately the Nigerian government signs the negotiated agreement.
ASUU has been on strike for close to five months to press home its demands.
The striking lecturers’ demands include; funding for the revitalisation of public universities, Earned Academic Allowances, use of the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) and promotion arrears.

However, the ASUU President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, during an interview on Channels TV asserted that the union was waiting for a positive response from President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
“As far as ASUU is concerned, the strike can end tomorrow, we have finished the negotiations, let the government call us this night that we should come tomorrow and sign the agreement, we will be there,” Osodeke said.
“Let government tell us they have finished testing the UTAS, we have accepted it. By tomorrow, we will call off the strike. We are finished (with negotiations).
“We are just waiting, and challenging the government. When will they sign the agreement, and when will they accept UTAS? Those are the two questions we need to ask the Nigerian government.”
The ASUU leader also accused the Federal Government of not taking the aggrieved lecturers serious, the reason he explained was responsible for the prolonged industrial action.
According to him, the government has failed to pay the striking lecturers their salaries for the past five months, noting that the tool used as a blackmail to punish the university workers will not work.

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FCT Minister, Mohammed Musa Bello

Residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, have vowed to resist the enforcement of the directive by the FCT Minister, Mohammed Bello, that recreational parks  should close by 7pm amid plans to also ban sale of alcoholic and beverages in parks and gardens in the FCT.

They described the policy as satanic, barbaric and an attempt to curtail constitutionally guaranteed freedom of movement and association of Nigerians.

FCT Minister, Mohammed Musa Bello

Some of the residents and owners of recreation centres, in a letter to the minister, reminded him that Nigeria was a democratic society and such policy was an exercise in nullity and exercise in futility.

In a letter written through their lawyer, Ifeanyi Remy Agu “Re Suit No: CV/408/2008: Barrister (Mrs) Amanda Pam (Proprietor Suez Garden) & 60 Others -Plaintiffs Vs Hon Minister FCT Defendant”, the group of residents also described the enforcement of 6pm closing hour by the FCTA as improper.
They called on the minister to uphold the rule of law, call his aides to order and stop the enforcement of the closure of parks and gardens by 7pm in the Federal Capital Territory.

The letter stated, “As solicitors to the plaintiffs in the above-stated suit pending before the FCT High Court, we draw your attention to the threatened enforcement of 6pm closing hour by the proprietor of gardens in the FCT by your Senior Special Assistant on Monitoring and Enforcement, Ikharo Attah, whose action is sub-judice of the pending cases before the court.
“Suffice it to say that we live in a democratic society where rule of law prevails against personal desires and brigandage of public servants.
“The terms of settlements in the above matter have been ordered to be filed by the Honorable court after the parties agreed in terms and principles” he added.

Agu noted that “our clients received with the greatest shock the threatened enforcement by the SSA against the claimants. Sir as a Minister in the temple of justice, we appeal to you to use your good office to call the SSA to order more especially as the case is before a court of law and the parties have agreed in principles.”
A human rights activist, Deji Adeyanju who spoke to SaharaReporters faulted the planned restriction saying it was affront on the rights of Nigerians as enshrined in the Section 40 of 1999 Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria.

He berated the Minister for coming under the guise of proviso of omnibus section 45 to justify the action.

Adeyanju said, “This restriction by the FCT Minister on parks and gardens to close at 7pm is a fundamental breach of that right to freely move and interact within the Nigeria which is constitutionally guaranteed in line with Section 40 of the constitution. I am yet to see how in a secular state, what is the modu operandi of the guidelines?
“In line with section 40 and other decisions of various court and plethora cases in the country affirming that citizens have the right to freely move and associate in any part of the country.
“I do not see how this will augur well for the prosperity, unity and peace of the country.”
Another human rights activist and Executive Director, Adopt A Goal Initiative, Dare Ariyo-Atoye asked the National Assembly to immediately invite the FCT Minister for questioning on what informed his Taliban-like policy and whether he had the power to alter the business life of the FCT without recourse to the people and the Parliament.

"We are unaware of any breakdown in law and order in the FCT to warrant a curfew, and if there is no such security issue, the Minister must never be allowed to alter our business life. Is the Minister offering a tax rebate and adopting some kind of measures to help the owners of these gardens who essentially generate their revenue and income between the hours of 5pm and 11pm?”

Also a human rights lawyer, Frank Tietie described the policy as barbaric and attempt to curtail constitutionally guaranteed freedoms to freely move and associate in Nigeria.

According to him, recreational parks where persons relax and often socialise by eating grills and taking choice drinks, including alcoholic beverages have not in any way contributed to the gross insecurity currently cascading the larger part of the Nigerian landscape.

"These parks are the main visible signs of nightlife in the Federal Capital City and their peak periods usually begin from 7 pm to past midnight. They serve as the vestiges of freedom and getaways from the cauldron of pressures in living in the Nigerian society that is largely misgoverned by selfish politicians who seek their own good and demonstrated a lack of ingenious ideas to improve the life of the people.

"Only a sadistic administration that is bent on spreading misery will make a policy that will hamper what legitimately brings happiness to the majority of people living in the FCT. Except for a hidden agenda, there are no verifiable mischiefs to be prevented when recreational parks are required to be closed at the time of the day when their services are needed the most.”
He therefore called on the Minister to desist from such totalitarian tendencies that seek to control people's lives.
“A responsible government should work assiduously to provide enough security for citizens to freely move and associate at any time of the day. This recent policy of the FCTA is plainly an admission of irresponsibility on the part of the government to provide security,” he added.

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A 39-year-old man has reportedly committed suicide at the detention centre of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).
The deceased suspect was arrested and detained in Ikeja GRA, Lagos State, for child trafficking offences according to the Channels TV reports.

It was gathered that an officer with the anti-human trafficking agency disclosed that the deceased was discovered on Monday dead during a routine check after he had hanged himself.

The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, has also confirmed the incident.
Hundeyin said that the command had received a report of the incident from the officer on duty on Monday.
He said that immediately the command deployed a team of detectives which visited the scene and deposited the corpse at the Infectious Disease Hospital morgue in Yaba for autopsy.

The police spokesman also reiterated that the Lagos State Police Command would continue its investigation into the incident.

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The Yobe North senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bashir Machina, has raised the alarm about an alleged plan by the loyalists of the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, to forge his signature on a letter, stating that he has voluntarily withdrawn from the race to pave the way for Lawan.
This was alleged by Machina’s campaign organisation.

The group claimed that some elements within the party who are ardent supporters of Lawan are planning to manipulate the candidacy of the senatorial district.
In a statement signed by the organisation’s spokesperson, Husaini Isah, the plan was described as condemnable in a democratic setting like a country like Nigeria. 
The statement read, “Information available to the Bashir Machina Campaign Organisation has it that some individuals have entered an unholy alliance with some compromised leaders to forge the withdrawal letter of Yobe North APC senatorial candidate, Bashir Machina, even after communicating formally to the Party leadership affirming his stand not to step-down for anybody.
“It is sad and indeed unfortunate that after all the cries and alarm raised by the campaign organisation exposing a sinister plot to subvert the will of people of Yobe North, some mischievous elements are hell-bent and determined to carry out their criminal offence.
“It has eventually come to light in this untidy business of a forged withdrawal letter, that some compromised leaders have become slaves to corruption and criminality in Nigeria.”
Machina further reiterated his position that he would not step down and any letter of withdrawal received was not from him; rather they were forged.
The statement continued, “Facts affirming our earlier accusation that some individuals were trying to forge the withdrawal letter of Bashir Machina have emerged, and as a Campaign Organisation, we want to make it abundantly clear that any withdrawal letter carrying the signature of our candidate is a forged document and does not emanate from him.
“We wonder how a sane person could delve into this embarrassing action which is criminal in nature and has the potential of soiling the reputation of the APC as a party that stands for justice.
“We want to reiterate that Bashir Machina’s letter dated 13th June which was sent to the National Chairman of the APC, Abdullahi Adamu, still stands and any attempt to forge his withdrawal letter would be treated as a pure criminal offence irrespective of the calibre of person(s) involved.”
SaharaReporters had earlier reported that the Independent National Electoral Commission affirmed Bashir Sheriff Machina as the winner of the Yobe North senatorial ticket of the All Progressives Congress.
Machina polled 289 votes out of 300 delegates, a certified true copy of INEC’s report from May 28, 2022, election revealed, confirming the politician’s public claim that he won the primary and legally emerged candidate.
The document was certified by the electoral office on June 23, 2022.
This came amid threats by the National Chairman of the APC, Abdullahi Adamu, who warned of severe sanctions if Machina refused to relinquish his ticket to the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan.

 

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The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has disassociated itself from Pastor David Anifowose of Whole Bible Deliverance Church in Valentino Area of Ondo town in Ondo State, arrested last week for kidnapping and locking 77 people in the basement of the church.
The rescued victims claimed that the pastor told them that Jesus Christ would return in September this year and therefore, they had to prepare in prayer as they waited for him.

But reacting to the incident, CAN in a statement signed by Pastor Adebayo Oladeji, Special Assistant on Media & Communications to the CAN President, His Eminence, Rev. Dr. Samson Ayokunle, disowned the pastor and called for thorough investigation and prosecution of the pastor and his assistant who are already in police custody.
The statement made available to SaharaReporters on Tuesday stated that the Pastor in question and his church are not members of the CAN at all levels and therefore, not known to the association.
The read, “The leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has frowned at the act of the Pastor arrested in Ondo who reportedly camped his church members in the church premises, misleading them into believing that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ popularly referred to as the Rapture is now.
“According to reports, one Josiah Peter Asumosa, an assistant Pastor in a church located in Ondo West Local government area of Ondo State was lying to the uninformed members that Rapture would take place in April but later said it had been changed to September, 2022 and told the young members to obey only their parents in the Lord.
“Though, the Pastor in question and his church, the Whole Bible Believers Church in Ondo are not members of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) at all levels and so, he is not known to us, the fact that the church claims to be a Christian church necessitates that we state our position on his practice.
“We are therefore calling on the Police to thoroughly investigate him and his activities with a view to prosecuting him and his cohorts if there had been any infringement on the law of Nigeria and the rights of the members in his custody.
“No true Pastor would claim to know the date of the rapture because the Bible has stated it clearly that it is only God who knows the date. Whoever claims to know the date is not only misleading the public but cannot claim to be a genuine Servant of God. He is at best, an agent of Satan pretending to be a Pastor.
“CAN, therefore, commends the Police for their prompt actions which included rescuing over 70 victims from the Church premises. They should further be subjected to medical check ups since nobody knows what they were going through where they were camped.
“We hereby urge all denominations to keep an eye on the pastors under them towards ensuring wholesome biblical conduct.
“Members of the churches all over the nation are enjoined to cross-check every teaching from the Bible before believing it.”
 

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Though a Federal High Court in Kaduna in 2017 ordered the release of Isa Umar, the Department of State Services (DSS) has refused to heed the court order five years after.
Umar, a student of the Ahmadu Bello University was arrested on November 26, 2014, on suspicion of terrorism.

He was picked up by unidentified soldiers at his family’s compound and handed over to the DSS.
But Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Kaduna on March 7, 2017, ordered his immediate release and the payment of N1m as a fine and N50,000 as compensation.
However, five years after the court ruling, the DSS has refused to release the student from illegal detention nor appeal the judgement.
A copy of the judgment delivered by Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Kaduna, which was seen by SaharaReporters stated that the arrest and torture of Umar contravened Section 34, 35 and 36 of the constitution.
Justice Nwite then declared that the act of the respondent (DSS) detaining the applicant (Umar) in their custody for two years without charging him to any court of competent jurisdiction was unconstitutional and in contradiction to Nigeria’s enabling laws.
Speaking to SaharaReporters, a family member of the student called on President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene.
He added that the family had written several letters to the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami but had yet to receive any response.
“We don’t even know where he is currently being detained by the DSS, we have written several letters to Malami, it’s sad that the DSS could keep someone in detention for over 8 years without trial, are we in a banana republic? So sad,” he told SaharaReporters.
Umar’s childhood friend, Anas Adamu, knocked the DSS for failing to release him.
Adamu, who is the Kaduna State Coordinator for Youth for New Nigeria (YNN) called on Nigerians to intervene as his friend’s parents were totally depressed and traumatised.
“Isa Umar is a childhood friend of mine. We attended the same primary school in Samaru (Ibrahim memorial Academy) before my dad removed and transferred me to ABU Staff School where I took my common entrance and got admission into Demonstration Secondary School, ABU main campus, Zaria,” he said.
“We were opportune to secure admission into our university of choice – Ahmadu Bello University in the same year 2011. While I was admitted to study Engineering, Isa Umar was offered Library and Information Science. His studies proceeded smoothly until his IT when the incident happened.
“One day, he told me to accompany him to a school inside Samaru to go and conduct oral exams for the adult students (mostly married women) in the month of Ramadan around 2014 but I cannot recall the exact date.
“I woke up the next morning only to hear that Isa Umar was arrested in his house at night by the DSS and they also arrested some of his friends that slept in a mosque (Khalid bin Walid Masjid) near his family house because Isa Umar was also part of the mosque committee and used to teach some of his students in the mosque.
“After ten days of detention, Isa Umar and co. were all released without charge. He returned to Zaria and school. After a few months, some officials from DSS raided his house at night on the 26th of November, 2014, and took Isa Umar away.
“Isa Umar is the last born in his family which left his mum and dad in bitter sorrow and agony. His mum is totally depressed and traumatized. In 2017, a court ordered his release and also ordered some money to be given to them as damages but neither the money was given to him as damages nor was he released from custody.
“I have a full assurance that if at all he was not abducted from the onset, Isa could have graduated with an excellent result. He was in 300L with just a year left to graduate from the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and maybe by now, he might have been pursuing his PhD abroad or in any of our Nigerian universities.
“I ask Almighty Allah in His infinite mercy to return him to his family peacefully. I call on the office of the President, the President of the Senate and the Director of SSS and all the relevant authorities to check on the affairs of this innocent patriotic Nigerian student that is forgotten in DSS custody to do justice for him and release him back to his community and his family.”
The DSS is notorious for disobeying court orders. 

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Lai Mohammed

The Federal Government of Nigeria had said that no fewer than 1,600 “repentant” Boko Haram terrorists have learnt trades and are reintegrated into society.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, disclosed this in London during his engagements with international media houses in the government-sustained oversees image laundering.

Lai Mohammed
He said that contrary to media reports that the regime had been successful in stemming the tide of insurgency in Nigeria, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.

The minister told the media houses that the regime would leave no stone unturned to tackle the worsening insecurity.

“The success of our gallant military has resulted in about 51,000 insurgents surrendering between January and March this year alone,” claimed the minister. We have also been able to reintegrate about 1,600 former fighters who had been able to learn one trade or the other.”

The minister is in London to engage the media and think-tank on the progress the administration is making in various endeavours.

Speaking on the outcome of his engagements with Reuters, The Economist and Times of London, the minister said issues on security, economy, fighting corruption and power sector took the centre stage.

Mohammed said the Buhari regime had been able to solve the perennial farmers-herdsmen violence.

“Our solutions which can be found in the National Livestock Transformation Plan have ranching at its core. All we are asking for is for states to cooperate more with the federal government to ensure that ranching takes place in their states,” stated the minister.

He added, “Evidence has shown that in the states where ranching has been put in place, have less conflicts than the others."

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The President Muhammadu Buhari-led government has offered to get Nigerian students whose studies have been halted by the ongoing war in Ukraine an admission into Nigerian universities for them to complete their studies.
This was contained in a circular released by the Spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Francisca K. Omayuli on Monday.

This is coming amid the lingering strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities which has affected academic activities in universities across the country since February.
The circular reads: “The federal government of Nigeria wishes to inform Nigerian students who returned from Ukraine following the conflict in that country, that efforts are being made to facilitate their placement into various Nigerian tertiary institutions, to enable them continue their studies,” said an advertorial by Nigeria’s foreign affairs ministry.
The advertorial, dated July 4 and signed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ spokesperson Francisca K. Omayuli, called on interested Nigerian students in Ukraine to visit the ministry’s website for further details.
Federal and state universities across the nation have been shut down amid ASUU’s five-month-old strike.
The union has accused successive Nigerian governments of refusing to implement the agreements they reached in 2009.
"ASUU is demanding Buhari adopt the Universities Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) for paying universities’ staff salaries instead of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System and the payment of academic earned allowance (EAA), among others," the union had said in one of its statements.

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Residents of Okpanam community in the Oshimili North Local Government Area of Delta State have been engulfed in fear as no fewer than 300 Fulani herdsmen reportedly took over a section of the community and are settling in.
The traditional ruler (Ugoani) of Okpanam Kingdom, Michael Ogbolu, raised the alarm that the herders are occupying the area without his authorisation, adding that the community has given the herders a 15-day ultimatum to leave the area.

According to Vanguard, the traditional ruler raised the alarm last week during a tripartite meeting held at his palace in Okpanam, involving the indigenes, chairman of Oshimili North LGA, Mr. Innocent Esewezie and Fulani leaders.
Recall that as a result of the incursion of Fulani people into the woodland of Akwukwu-Igbo, Okpanam and other communities under Oshimili North, the council under the leadership of Louis Ndukwe, in 2020 passed an executive order mandating all Fulani herders and strangers residing in the outskirt and undergrowth areas of the communities to relocate to the towns where natives live or vacate the communities.
But the traditional ruler said on Monday that “Fulani people just went to occupy one part of Obodogba land belonging to the Okpanam community. In our previous engagement, Obi Eluunor told us that anything concerning the Fulani people, we should route it through his office.”
According to the Monarch, “I wrote to Obi Eluuno, I gave him seven days to remove the Fulani people from our bushes.
“Then the Commissioner of Police wrote, fixing a meeting for last week, at the same time, the local government chairman, Mr. Esewezie, came around, asking that we sit down to address the issues. He galvanised the whole of them and we met here in my palace and I told them that the matter is very simple, only that the government in Delta State does not respect the laws made by it.”
He noted that “During the tenure of the former council chairman, Louis Ndukwe, the council came up with an executive order requiring all Fulani people, herders and strangers in our bushes to vacate and come and live with us in the town, but nothing was done.”
The traditional ruler maintained that “Our position is that the chairman of Oshimili North, Esewezie, should give effect to the executive order; we cannot accommodate these people in our bushes. We are predominantly farmers, they bulldoze their way into the bushes, they eat up our farm crops and also rape our women.
“The long and short of it is that we gave them 15 days with which to relocate and that by July 14, 2022, the council chairman will go there (occupied area) himself to witness the evacuation.”
Similarly, a community leader identified as Ndukwe, said, “The council chairman held a meeting with Fulani herdsmen even on Sunday, you know that the former council chairman came up with an executive order in 2020. It has to be implemented.  Few days ago, he also met with Fulani people. He is dealing with the security challenges community by community.
“The truth is that these people (Fulani) went to Okpanam, forcefully took a parcel of land and as we speak, they are turning themselves into a community of over 300 persons without authorisation from the community.
“They just come into any community, bulldoze their way and are doing all sorts of nonsense. Luckily for us, the leadership of the Fulani is cooperating with the council, the police are also cooperating.”
Meanwhile, the herders who said they do not accept the directive to vacate the area they are occupying embarked on a protest along Benin-Asaba Expressway. 
During the protest, their spokesperson, Idris Abubakar, claimed that they were legal occupants of Oshimili because they pay rents for where they are living.
“The Federal Government should come to our aid so they can allow us to stay as legal occupants. The government should come to our aid and halt the council chairman from passing this so-called executive order.
“Whoever is living in any place is a legal occupant of that place. We have receipts that they gave to us. We pay tenancy each year,” Abubakar said.
However, the Delta State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Charles Aniagwu, has said that the state government was not aware of invasion of part of Okpanam land by herdsmen.
But the Commissioner admitted that there were some northerners occupying the area whom he claimed are doing menial jobs to earn a living. 

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Suspected terrorists have reportedly kidnapped a staff of the Nigerian Navy Headquarters, Abuja, identified as Musa Lawal.
This was confirmed by his wife, who narrated that one of her husband’s hands was cut with a machete and that he was taken away while bleeding.

Daily Post reports that Musa, who is mostly Abuja-based, was kidnapped in Lokoja at his residence, behind Post Flood Housing Estate, Lokoja at about 8pm on Monday.
The criminals burgled his apartment after they destroyed his doors and windows.
The Naval staff was to depart for his station on Tuesday morning before the unfortunate incident.
An hour after the kidnap, the kidnappers had called, demanding for N3million.
Same Monday was when SaharaReporters earlier reported that gunmen kidnapped the wife of the pastor in charge of the headquarters church, Evangelical Church of Winning All (ECWA) in Jos, Plateau State, confirming the rising spate of kidnapping across the country.
The incident occurred around 1:30am when the hoodlums invaded the church staff house in the Jos North Local Government Area of the state where Reverend Garba Andu Bawa and his family lived.

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Lassa Fever

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has said that the death toll of Lassa fever in the country has risen to 159 between January and June 2022.
This came as the NCDC said that 53 Nigerian health workers had been infected with the dreaded disease.
Lassa Fever PREMIUM TIMES

The nation's disease control agency disclosed this on Monday, in its latest Lassa fever situation report.
According to the report published on its website, the country has 820 confirmed cases and 5,380 suspected cases of the disease.
The report’s highlights revealed that the number of new confirmed cases increased from eight  in week 24 to 10 cases in week 25.

“Cumulatively from week 1 to week 25, 2022, 159 deaths have been reported with a case fatality rate of 19.4% which is lower than the CFR for the same period in 2021 (20.8%).

“In total for 2022, 24 states have recorded at least one confirmed case across 98 Local Government Areas.

“Of all confirmed cases, 68% are from Ondo (29%), Edo (25%), and Bauchi (14%) states. “The predominant age-group affected is 21-30 years (Range: 1 to 90 years, Median Age: 30 years). The male-to-female ratio for confirmed cases is 1:0.8. “The number of suspected cases has increased compared to that reported for the same period in 2021.

“One new healthcare worker affected in the reporting week 25 from Ondo state.

“National Lassa fever multi-partner, multi-sectoral Technical Working Group continues to coordinate the response activities at all levels,” the NCDC noted.
Lassa fever is a viral haemorrhagic fever and an acute viral illness.
The disease has a high morbidity and mortality rate, as well as economic and health security implications.
 

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Borno State Governor, Prof Babagana Zulum

The Borno State governor, Babagana Zulum, has said there is no space to accommodate repentant Boko Haram members again in the state.
The governor said there is currently a challenge of lack of space to accommodate members of Boko Haram who have been surrendering alongside members of their family to troops in the state.

Borno State Governor, Prof Babagana Zulum
According to PM News Nigeria, Zulum said this while inducting a committee on the repatriation of Borno citizens living in Chad, Niger and Cameroon on Monday at the Government House, Maiduguri, the state capital.
He noted that all the three camps provided for repentant Boko Haram members had been filled to capacity.
He also added that the Federal Government had constituted a similar committee on the repatriation of victims of insurgency taking refuge in neighbouring countries.
He said his government had discussed “with the Theatre Commander of Operation Hadin Kai, on the need to have bigger camps and said the government should also look for another source of funding from public and private organisations.”
Zulum further explained that a few months ago, the state secured 15 million Euros as support from Germany and was being managed by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The committee chaired by the state Deputy Governor, Alhaji Umar Kadafur, would also supervise the behaviour of the repentant insurgents, particularly how they are to come out of the bushes, their rehabilitation and reintegration into society.
He added that the proper handling of the task would lead to the increased surrender of remnants of the insurgents and bring peace to Borno for the needed development.
The Co-chairman, Mr Kaka Shehu, who thanked the governor for the confidence reposed in them, assured the government and people of Borno of their commitment to delivering.
Shehu said the committee would work in close synergy with its Federal Government counterpart for maximum results.

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The loyalists of Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, are reportedly seeking the immediate resignation of the Peoples Democratic Party’s National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, as a condition to end the party's infighting and support the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar at the forthcoming 2023 general elections.
However, Atiku has insisted that the chairman should remain in office to lead his campaign for next year’s election after which he will quit, sources told The Nation.

To end the festering PDP crisis, party leaders have been appealing to Wike to embrace reconciliation and support Atiku in the best interest of the party.
The reconciliation mission is being anchored by former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, some ex-governors, and former ministers.
However, Wike and his strategists have insisted on their demand that Ayu must quit to give way for another chairman from the south, according to sources within the party.
They maintained that Atiku should honour his promise that once the PDP presidential candidate emerges from the North, a Southerner will lead the party.
But Atiku’s camp claimed that Ayu can only step aside after the election.
Sources said PDP leaders are worried that the party may not be able to win the 2023 polls if it loses swing states like Rivers, Lagos and Kano.
Although Atiku was said to be amenable to reconciliation, the leaders have been worried that it was better to open fresh talks with Wike.
They felt it would be dangerous to toy with Wike because of his greater influence on the party and the South-South.
“The party is drifting and party leaders are concerned. The National Working Committee (NWC) is divided now over this matter,” a source lamented.

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Wisdom says that tomorrow will have in it what you put into today. So putting bad things into today means a bad tomorrow; conversely, putting good things into today would translate into a good tomorrow. Therefore, for as long as today contains the imposed Forgery called the 1999 Constitution, then a bad tomorrow is to be expected for “we the people” of Nigeria. 
Awareness about this 1999 Constitution fraud has spread through the actions of the non-violent NINAS Movement, seeking to regain the inalienable right to Self-Determination for indigenous Ethnic Nations of the South and Middle Belt. NINAS also identified for Nigerians that this Constitution is the tool used to bring about Ahmadu Bello’s infamous Declaration of 1960 that the Caliphate Agenda is to “ruthlessly” turn Nigeria into an “estate” of the immigrant and settler Fulani, by hijacking the Self-Determination and usurping the Sovereignty, of indigenous Ethnic Nations. 
Today, indigenous Ethnic Nations are again at the crossroads of having the POWER and having the CHOICE to either grab hold of Self-Determination to control their destinies, or to shrug away this opportunity, and give themselves and their future over to certain Fulani terror and Caliphate conquest. Lawyer Dele Ogun captured it well in his recent video interview of 3rd July 2022 by The Idea Review, titled, “Dele Ogun On The Moment That Nigerians Missed The Road To The Promised Land & The 1999 Constitution”. Here is an excerpt from the interview:
Question: Is there a single point that you can point to as the point that Nigerians themselves missed the road?

Ogun: If I had to pinpoint, it would be the 1999 so-called elections (Obasanjo) because we had them on the back foot at that point, and the position that had been taken by the movement for national reformation that was led by Chief Anthony Enahoro and the PRONACO groups. Pro-national conference that's what it stood for, the position that they had taken was that we're not going to participate in any elections until we see the Constitution. 
That was the line that everybody had been asked to hold. But again because there are always flawed characters, if the principled ones take a stand there are always flawed characters that are available, that the establishment can approach to say: Never mind those ones, you come with us. And those flawed characters, they broke the ranks, they agreed to participate in that 1999 election without seeing the Constitution. Because democracy needs legitimization by the people coming out and participating.
The ultimate power that people have is to say we're not coming. We're not going to participate. And at that point, they could have. We had the opportunity of securing a new constitutional settlement… But we missed that opportunity. It was traded in, and the ultimate beneficiaries were the Obasanjos who got the appearance of power because they were now enjoying themselves as President, and all the other hangers-on. But that was a key missed road and we're back there again now, because the 1999 Constitution is now widely acknowledged as a fraud. It contains the Declaration we the people gave ourselves this Constitution. But it's a bit like those Treaties Of Protection that we started with, drafted by one side and just imposed. Nobody knows who drafted the 1999 Constitution so it was a diktat. It has now crashed.
Once more we're now at that point of a fresh start. So we're back to the crossroads once more. And then comes an issue of are we going to go again for the shortcut, the cheap solution? Or are we going to stand our ground, and say this needs to be dealt with once and for all? 
So, Nigerians are today at the stage where the Fulani Caliphate is AGAIN at a DISADVANTAGE! Will the indigenous peoples do the right thing for themselves and their children by getting free from the Caliphate Agenda created by the fraud called the 1999 Constitution? What is clear is that the Caliphate is very desperate for Nigerians to consent to have Elections 2023 under the 1999 Constitution, because by that, the life of that Constitution gets renewed when the winner swears an Oath of Office to uphold that fraud, which is the power source of the Caliphate.
The Fulani Caliphate System, aka Unitary Nigeria, needs legitimization by the people coming out and participating in the normally rigged, confused, and violent process called “elections”. Participating with them - that is all the consent that the Caliphate needs from Nigerians. 
On the other hand, indigenous peoples of the South and Middle Belt can be sensible and conscious, and refuse to assist the Fulani Caliphate Agenda. They can take a stand by insisting that Elections 2023 under the 1999 Constitution be stopped and instead there is to be a Transitional Government where the Constitution fraud gets fixed. The peoples’ NINAS Movement is at hand, and has a FRAMEWORK on the Table since 16 December 2020 when having Repudiated the sham 1999 Constitution, they Declared a Constitutional Force Majeure to terminate the operation of that 1999 Constitution. What now remains is that instead of participating with the Fulani Caliphate, indigenous peoples should participate in freeing themselves from being conquered, by planning for Self-Determination multi-Regional Referendums that would take place under the United Nations supervision during the time-bound Transitional Government.
The very important message from NINAS is this: The Fulani cannot conquer Nigerians except by the CONSENT of Nigerians themselves. Going to Elections 2023 is giving consent to the Fulani to continue.
We know that in 1999, Nigerians obeyed the Fulani Caliphate and the flawed characters among their own people, so foolishly went for elections without having seen any Constitution – and today we see the wreckage of that choice: invasion by armed Fulani, Islamic terrorism, land grab by Fulani, RUGA Fulani colonies, and soon likely the loss of their waterways to Fulani control. The Restructuring of Nigeria into the estate of the Fulani is ruthlessly and violently happening! The indigenous peoples of the South and Middle Belt have the POWER now, the Alliance now, and the NINAS Framework now to cause the Fulani Caliphate to draw back. 
Ndidi Uwechue is a British citizen with Igbo heritage from the Lower Niger Bloc. She is a retired Metropolitan (London) Police Officer, she is a signatory to the Constitutional Force Majeure, and she writes from Abuja.
 

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