The Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, has said the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, is after his life but the police boss said that the governor is telling lie as there is no such plan..
Governor Wike told journalists in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, today Saturday that before he travelled to Kaduna on Friday, the IGP had directed his crack team to invade his home in Asokoro, Abuja, supposedly acting on information from a whistle-blower.
“I want to reiterate that the Inspector-General of Police is after my life.”
He claimed that the planned raid was aimed at planting firearms, cash and other incriminating exhibits in his Abuja home, claims the police have denied.
“All attempts are being made so that they will go and plant either AK-47 or $1m in the governor’s house. They can even plant costly wristwatches as a propaganda tool.
“I said I have to let Nigerians know that this is not the way to go about in democracy. Rather, this is an attempt to truncate democracy. That someone differs on issues does not mean you have to go after the person’s life.”
The governor said that the police also planned to obtain a search warrant from the court on Tuesday, as Monday is a public holiday, under the guise that they unaware that the house in question belonged to a sitting governor.
He called on the police to come to his home in rivers to conduct their search, instead of his Abuja residence, which he hardly visits.
“Nigerians should be aware that should they raid my house in Abuja and claim they found anything, it is incorrect. I have not been going to Abuja, but I will be in Abuja to wait for them to see how they plan to plant guns in my house.”
In a swift reaction, the Force Public Relations Officer, Jimoh Moshood denied the governor’s allegation, saying that the police never plants incriminating materials in the house of anybody.
The Force PRO also said he was not aware of any plan by the police to raid the Abuja home of Governor Wike, adding that the Police would always act within its constitutional mandate of protecting lives and properties including the prevention of crime. [myad]
On April 30, 1932, in the sleepy, rural community of Mopa, in the present day Mopa-muro local government area of Kogi state, a baby boy was born to the family of Pa Solomon Iwalaiye and Mama Dorcas Omoboja. The boy ended up being the only surviving child of his mother, due to the fact that the children that came before him died in their infancy.
If you are conversant with the poem – Abiku (spirit child) – with the opening lines being: “Coming and going these several seasons…” and the closing lines: “Then step in, step in and stay; for her body is tired, tired, her milk going sour; where many more mouths gladden the heart”, written by John Pepper Clark, you would understand the pains of Mama Omoboja.
The birth of the boy on a Sunday, the day of the Lord, was to serve as a terminus to the tragic narrative of infant deaths that had plagued her, little wonder she was called Mama Sunday while she lived. In Yoruba land, such children are given special names that would define their individualities. He was not only named Sunday, he was also called Bolorunduro (meaning, one standing with God). Bolorunduro (Duro, for short), in the Yoruba folklore, literally means “do not go.”
Sunday Bolorunduro, the son of Pa and Ma Solomon Iwalaiye Awoniyi, survived the vicissitudes of life to become a personage who positively impacted his eon. He was Secretary to the Executive Council of the Northern Regional Government where he worked very closely with the late Premier, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto. And, because of that closeness, he was schooled in and affected by the Sarduana’s world outlook. He thus became known as Sardauna Keremi (meaning, in Hausa, small or little Sardauna).
He was a consistent man of industry, courage, fairness, transparency, propriety in conduct, a stickler for integrity and widely respected and trusted public administrator. I had a rare privilege of a very close relationship with the Sardauna Keremi, who was also the Aro of Mopa, as a retired public servant who was actively engaged in politics and socio-cultural engagements in the third and fourth republics before he passed on due to injuries he sustained in a fatal crash along Kaduna road on November 19, 2007. He was then the chairman of the national executive committee of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and was travelling to attend a meeting of the forum.
This is the tenth year of his passing; and, I have decided to do two ultimate posthumous publications on him: one to commemorate his birthday, 85 years today; and, the second, a befitting ten-year remembrance tribute on November 28, this year. He died on that date at 11 pm in a London hospital, despite effort to save him.
B. Awoniyi, as he was popularly known, was a good and decent man whose reputation was unimpeachable. Our paths crossed in Abuja. I was deputy bureau chief of Vanguard newspapers and had the responsibility to furnish him with complimentary copies of the newspaper every day, being a director of the newspaper. That was how I ended up having daily engagements with the profound mind that he typified.
I learnt many virtuous things from him: integrity, discipline and fastidiousness. He also taught me to love country and eschew nepotism. He would do what he had promised. He was disciplined with time management and fastidious with his writings. He would have to go through his speeches many times, making amends and supplying accurate details.
Awoniyi followed my progress in journalism. He would always have one positive comment to give about my reports. There was a particular tribute I wrote during one of his birthday celebrations. He called me up and excitedly, on the other end, declared: “Oj (short form for Ojeifo, which was how he referred to me), I have just finished reading your brilliant write-up. You have done what Napoleon could not do. You have surpassed yourself.”
Now consider this: I was asked by the publisher of Vanguard newspapers, Mr Sam Amuka, to immediately resign my position as Bureau Editor of the Abuja office on August 12, 2005. The then Administration Manager, Mr Timothy Etoh, had called to pass across the management decision to me. He asked me what I did to the publisher and I asked Mr Etoh what the publisher said my offence was. What he told me was that the publisher said he came to the Abuja office and one of the florescent tubes in the office was not working.
Although, I knew the workplace politics that underpinned my exit from Vanguard; it was certainly not on account of editorial incompetence or gross professional misconduct. Awoniyi was in London when the management took that decision. I called him up to brief him. He was shouting at the other end. “I am calling Sam right away,” he said with pains in his voice.
But he got a shocker from me when I told him he should not bother to call him and that I would rather move on with life. He could not believe what I said. Between the time that I spoke with him and two days later when he returned to Nigeria, he had called me and my wife separately nineteen times on phone. It was incredible. He was encouraging and assuring me that God and my goodwill would speak for me.
I moved on with life. I took the next six months to round off a postgraduate programme at the University of Abuja. Immediately, I completed the programme in 2006, it was Awoniyi who discussed, without consulting with me, with Malam Kabir Yusuf, who was then the editor-in-chief and managing director of Daily Trust newspaper on the possibility of my working with the newspaper. That was how I berthed in Trust as a special correspondent for six months before I resigned and joined THISDAY as political editor in Abuja in 2006.
Awoniyi also became very interested in my family. I remember when I travelled to Indonesia in 2000 to cover the Inter-Parliamentary Union conference and my pregnant wife gave birth to my second son, he took it upon himself to visit her constantly in the hospital while I was away.
One day, he called on phone. When I picked, he exclaimed: “Omo okun, aku rigidi” (meaning, son, take care; we are taking things in our strides). At first, I was flummoxed. Then I replied: “This is Ojeifo, Sir.” I thought he dialed the wrong number. Then he replied: “I know.” At that point, it occurred to me that, as a father, he was trying to integrate me into his Okun heritage as a foster son of sorts.
He would always inform me of his movements, including the fatal last trip to Kaduna. Besides, he always met minds with me on his media engagements. For instance, when he was contesting to be chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in November 1999, I played some roles. He ensured that he discussed with me appointments from journalists for interviews before granting them. The relationship was very close and I still cherish it even in his absence.
While I contemplate a final good bye to this great man in a posthumous publication (in which I would explore his many parts) on November 28, this year, I wish to leave you with an apt description of Awoniyi, former super permanent secretary, businessman, third republic senator and politician, which was contained in his citation for the award of national honours of Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) in 1977: “A man of great integrity and deep sense of public service, a candid and fearless adviser, a brilliant, innovative, yet, self-effacing officer.” I concur and this tribute is celebratory of his personality.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan has made it clear that he never personally promised to do one term of four year in office.
He said: “Of course, at that period, the issue of one term was brought several times at different meetings and some people took it upon themselves to pledge on my behalf but I never said I was going to spend only one term… the question was always usually randomly asked and I never made any such commitment to anybody.”
Dr. Jonathan who spoke against the backdrop of a book: “Against the Run of play: How an incumbent President was defeated in Nigeria,” written by the Chairman of ThisDay Editorial Board, Segun Adeniyi, however admitted that there was indeed a gentleman’s agreement that he was going to do just one term and leave office.
He said that he later changed his mind so long he did not contravene the constitution, explaining: “you can make a political promise and change your mind, so long as it is within the law.”
The former President, who was obviously not comfortable with the content of Segun Adeniyi’s book, said: “I had made a proposition for a single term of seven years. That was the context in which I spoke in Addis Ababa that if the idea was accepted, I would not run again. It was not in the context of a second term of four years.
Adeniyi controversial book, which Dr. Jonathan said is filled with so many distortions, was formally presented to the public in Lagos yesterday, Friday 28.
The author, in the book, narrated how Jonathan lost the 2015 election and blamed ex-United States of America’s President, Barack Obama for his loss to President Muhammadu Buhari.
In a series of tweets, the former President said that the accounts of what transpired in the election by some respondents in the book were false, saying that he will soon come out with his own version on what actually transpired during the election.
“I have just read Segun Adeniyi’s new book, ‘Against the Run of Play’ which has so far enjoyed tremendous reviews in the media. My take on it is that the book as presented contains many distorted claims on the 2015 Presidential election by many of the respondents
“There will obviously be more books like that on this subject by concerned Nigerians.
“However, I believe that at the right time, the main characters in the elections, including myself will come out with a true account of what transpired either in major interviews or books.” [myad]
The United Nations Children’s Funds (UNCEF) has said that no fewer than 600 school teachers have lost their lives in the Lake Chad region ravaged by the Boko Haram insurgency.
“Boko Haram, whose name in the Hausa language means ‘Western Education is Forbidden,’ has killed more than 600 teachers and forced over 1,200 schools to close during its eight-year insurgency in Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad.”
In a statement, UNICEF said that schools are particularly vulnerable to bombings, attacks and abductions by the insurgents and that many people lacked detailed safety plans.
The UN agency said that it is now targeting 158,900 Children to benefit from the training program, which is expected to run until the end of the year.
“The training program, run in partnership with the European Union, encourages teachers to evaluate the risks facing their schools and helps them develop action plans so that students and teachers know what to do in case of emergency.
“Ensuring access to education for crisis-affected children is important, however opening schools is not enough,” said Marie-Pierre Poirier, UNICEF’s regional director for West and Central Africa said in the statement.
“Children and teachers need to be equipped with knowledge and skills, to be prepared and able to mitigate the effects of something dangerous happening around the school premises.”
The UNICEF spokesman, Patrick Rose said: “some of the plans include appointing student leaders, designating assembly points and practicing emergency evacuation techniques. Some 1,600 teachers have been trained so far.
“The training also includes techniques for providing traumatized children with psychological support and making schools feel like a safe place in the midst of the chaos.
“Teachers learn games that can have a healing effect, and how to incorporate lessons about looking after each other into the children’s activities.” [myad]
The Nigeria Police Force has alleged that four suspects confessed that they were sent by the Chairman of Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi State, Taofiq Isah to assassinate Senator Dino Melaye.
The Force Public Relations Officer, Chief Superintendent of Police Jimoh Moshood, who paraded the suspects along with the local government chairman and his Police orderly, Ede James, alleged that the council chairman directed one Abdulmumini, a.k.a Iron, now at large, who was said to be his personal assistant, to execute the assassination plot.
The Force spokesman said that the council chairman also recruited other members of the vicious and notorious hired assassins gang, adding that investigations have so far indicated that the council chairman actually masterminded the attempted assassination of Melaye.
The other suspects were identified as Ade Obage, 29; Abdullahi a.k.a Eko; as well as Ahmed Ajayi, 45, and Michael Bamidele, 26 – both security men at Isah’s residence.
The Police spokesman said that different types of arms and ammunition used for the attack have been recovered from the suspects. They include five AK-47 rifles, one Berretta pistol, two locally made single-barrel shotguns, 25 expended shells of 7.62mm ammunition, 13 expended shells of 9mm ammunition, 12 expended shells of gauge cartridge and one ambulance (Hyundai bus).
The suspects who were arrested by a team from the Police Special Tactical Squad, deployed by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, after the attack, on April 15 attacked the Senator’s residence in Kogi State with the intention of killing him. [myad]
Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, has declared that Nigeria media will remain his permanent enemy because of the way the practitioners handled his decision to tear the US Green Card should Donald Trump win that country’s Presidential election.
Professor Soyinka, who emphasized that his relationship with the local media will remain “very frosty” wondered why his private decision with another country would elicit hysteria from the local press.
Soyinka who spoke when he marked his 82nd birthday at an open forum he tagged ‘Terms of Enslavement I: Holy Cows, Green Gods, and Law of Karma’ in Lagos yesterday, Friday. Said that the media provided a platform for social media trolls to launch attacks on him, saying:
“Certain events which took place recently and which made me very reluctant to do my usual stuff of encounters with the press, I think it’s necessary for me to take that first before embarking on the actual theme of the day,”
“Two days ago, I attended a reception at the American Consulate. It was a kind of send-off for one of the Nigerian staff who had worked 30 continuous years with the American embassy, I was there for about an hour or so, I was not arrested, no dogs were set on me, the national guard or marine guard who guard the embassy didn’t lock me up somewhere, lock me up in the diplomatic bag and deliver me to Donald Trump.
“On the contrary, there was a very warm welcome when I went there, but before that, there was an even more significant visitation to American soil in Nigeria and that visitation took place two days before the present president of the United States took office – I can’t remember the exact date now – and again I was received at the official consulate, the business which took me there was taken care of in an atmosphere of complete cordiality and friendship and it was really to exchange documents if you like, that’s why I said this is far more significant than merely going to the home of the Consul General and enjoying his hospitality.”
Soyinka who is the 1986 winner of the Nobel prize for Literature, said he that had gone to the US Consulate to conclude a step he had earlier commenced.
“At that meeting I asked for forms, the regulation forms, and filled that form renouncing my status of residence, of permanent residence of America, and in turn obtained an ordinary visa which enables me to go in and out of the United States of America as, to use my own favorite expression, an alien visitor, in other words, a visitor from outer planet, and that’s the way things should be.
“I took a certain decision, my own way of expressing my disgust at some political decision which is an affair between me and the country whose hospitality I was renouncing, at least at a certain level. Since then I have been in the United States, I think since last year October I’ve have been in and out at least six times using that normal alien visitor visa, and that’s it.
“And I’ve asked myself again and again, what happened to the Nigeria media? What was that hysteria about? Why did Nigeria journalists and op-ed writers become so – there’s no other word for it – hysterical and obscene in language over a decision which I took and which concerned just me and another nation. It’s a puzzle which is not yet resolved, until it is resolved, my relationship with the Nigeria media is going to remain the way it has always been over the past few months; very frosty.” [myad]
President Donald Trump has said that his present situation as President of the United States of America is like prison where he is over-protected and making personal activity, including driving out imopossible.
“I loved my previous life. I had so many things going,” Trump told Reuters in an interview. “This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier.”
Trump, a wealthy businessman from New York, assumed public office for the first time when he entered the White House on January 20 after he defeated former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton in an upset.
More than five months after his victory and two days shy of the 100-day mark of his presidency, Trump said that he is accustomed to not having privacy in his “old life,” even as he expressed surprise at how little he had now. And he made clear he was still getting used to having 24-hour Secret Service protection and its accompanying constraints.
“You’re really into your own little cocoon, because you have such massive protection that you really can’t go anywhere.”
When the president leaves the White House, it is usually in a limousine or an SUV.
He said that he missed being behind the wheel himself. “I like to drive. I can’t drive anymore.”
Many things about Trump have not changed from the wheeler-dealer executive and former celebrity reality show host who ran his empire from the 26th floor of Trump Tower in New York and worked the phones incessantly.
He frequently turns to outside friends and former business colleagues for advice and positive reinforcement. Senior aides say they are resigned to it.
The President has been at loggerheads with many news organizations since his election campaign and decided not to attend the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington on Saturday because he felt he had been treated unfairly by the media.
“I would come next year, absolutely,” Trump said when asked whether he would attend in the future.
The dinner is organized by the White House Correspondents’ Association. Reuters correspondent Jeff Mason is its president.
With the signing of bail bond today, Friday, by a Jewish High Chief Priest, Immanuu-El Shalom; the Chairman of the South East Senate caucus, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe and a Chartered Accountant residing in Abuja, Tochukwu Uchendu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu was let off the hook from Kuje prison.
The leader of agitator for the Republic of Biafra had earlier been brought from kuje prison to the Federal High Court Abuja to sign the necessary bail papers in line with the ruling of Justice Binta Nyako on Tuesday, April 25.
Nyako, in her ruling said that one of the sureties must be a senior highly placed person of Igbo extraction, such as a senator. He was also to produce a highly respected and recognized Jewish leader and a highly respected person, who is resident and owns landed property in Abuja.
Nyako ruled that each of the sureties is to deposit N100 million and in addition, Kanu is barred from attending any rally or granting any form of interview.
NAN reports that Kanu who is standing trial on allegations of treasonable felony along with three others has been in detention for about two years. [myad]
Imo State born 41 year old veteran Nollywood actress, Rita Dominic has confessed that she is still searching for Mr. Right to be married to.
The actress, a graduate of University of Port Harcourt in Theatre Arts, in a recent interview with the newly launched lifestyle and fashion magazine, Schick, owned by Simi Esiri, said that she could have married a long time ago, but things didn’t work out well for her.
The multiple award-winning actress is hopeful however that God will present the right man to her at the right time.
“I believe that God is in charge of my life and will present the right man to me at the right time,” she said.
When asked whether social pressure don’t get to her, Rita replied: “I am a human being and I would be lying to say that it doesn’t sometimes. More so because it’s something I sincerely want to do but the feeling passes when I remember that society will not live with the person.
“I will live with the man, so it is very important that I do it because I want to, not because society wants it for me.”
On the myth that sex, for women, gets better with age, Rita said that sex at 40 is what you make of it.
“If you ordinarily don’t enjoy it, age won’t make a difference. I find that when a woman embraces her sexuality, many Nigerians equate it to being Ashewo, as if we should act like sex is not pleasurable.”
Rita described dating, as a nightmare, especially these days even as she admitted: “I do date when someone special comes around. So, what is it like when she’s in a relationship?
“I love being totally drawn to someone and doing all those loving things couples do, but I am also wary of liars and bullies.“
The actress said that she’s passionate about giving back to society and she does so at any opportunity she gets.
She works with an organization that supports the physically challenged people, with the aim to provide them with facilities that will improve their well being. [myad]
The special adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on media and publicity, Femi Adesina, has said that those who are calling on the President to resign as result of ill health are entitled to their opinions.
Adesina, who spoke on Friday, during an interactive session with journalists at the launch of ‘Against The Run of Play, a book written by Olusegun Adeniyi, chairman of THISDAY Newspapers editorial board, said: “Saying the president should resign is an opinion but don’t forget that fifteen million people elected the president.
“So if one or two people express their opinion, will their opinion override that of 15 million people that voted for him?
“Those who are expressing their opinion have rights to their opinion,” he said.
The spokesman said that there is no need for apprehension over the health of President Buhari, saying that the speculations of his ill health are not necessary as God would spare him.
“God spared the president the first time. Remember he said that he has never been as ill as he was before. The same God that spared him will also ensure that he returns to full health,
“Nigerians prayed and God answered, Nigerians are still praying and God will still answer.”
The book launch took place at the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs, NIIA, in Victoria Island, Lagos, and was chaired by former Head of State, Abdulsalam Abubakar. [myad]
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