Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has directed security agencies to arrest Biafra agitators in the State.
A statement by the state commissioner for information, Dr. Austin Tam-George, the governor said it had come to the attention of the Rivers State government that some Biafran agitators had resorted to illegal processions, and had assaulted law abiding citizens and residents of the state.
“Governor Nyesom Wike strongly condemns the acts of criminality perpetrated by Biafran agitators by whatever name, in the Oyigbo area of the state.
“The government has directed all security agencies in the state to arrest and prosecute all Biafran agitators who flout the ban on illegal separatist processions and demonstrations in Rivers State. The government urged all residents in the state to remain calm and law abiding.
Governor Wike had banned further protests by the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB) and the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB). The groups have been calling for the release of Nnamdi kanu.
The Director of Biafra Radio is facing charges, including treasonable felony.
The Police in Rivers had last year arrested over 20 Biafra agitators over illegal protests in Port Harcourt. They are currently remanded in prison custody. [myad]
President Muhammadu Buhari is scheduled to begin a three-day official visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) tomorrow, Sunday to participate in this year’s edition of the World Future Energy Summit.
A statement by the senior special assistant to the President on media and publicity, Garba Shehu said that President Buhari will join the Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki Moon, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan of Abu Dhabi and other participants as a special guest of honour at the Summit.
The Summit which, the statement said is now in its ninth year of existence, has developed into one of the world’s most influential events dedicated to advancing future energy, energy efficiency and clean technologies.
“In a move signaling Nigeria’s re-engagement with the Middle-East region, President Buhari will also lead a team of his ministers to bilateral talks with the government of the UAE.
“After the talks, a number of agreements between both countries on economic, trade and bilateral relations are expected to be signed.”
Garba Shehu said that Nigeria is expected to gain from President Buhari’s visit by getting more support from the UAE for its war against terrorism and the recovery of Nigeria’s stolen funds.
President Buhari, he said, is also scheduled to meet with leading UAE businessmen who are interested in Nigeria with a view to encouraging greater investment inflows to critical sectors such as power supply, oil, gas and agriculture even as he will also meet with Nigerian professionals in the UAE.
According to Garba Shehu, the President will be accompanied by the ministers of Power, Works and Housing, Petroleum, Environment, Justice, Trade and Investment, Finance and Foreign Affairs, as well as the National Security Adviser. He is expected back in Nigeria, with his entourage on Tuesday, January 19. [myad]
Police security officer to the Permanent Secretary in the federal ministry of Science and Technology, Kande Magaji, is being decorated with her new rank of inspector of police by the permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr. Habiba Lawal. The Director of Finance and Accounts in the ministry, Mr. Charles Ogbuegebe assists her. [myad]
The Governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has cursed those who diverted money meant for procuring arms for Nigeria soldiers to fight the Boko Haram insurgency, describing them as heartless. Aregbesola who spoke today at the 2016 Armed Forces Remembrance Day and laying of wreath in honour of fallen soldiers at the State House of Assembly in Osogbo, commended the efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari in unraveling the crime.
He said that every well-meaning Nigerian is of the hope that all those involved in the mismanagement of the arms fund will receive full retribution even as he insisted that all those found guilty must be brought to justice to forestall future occurrence. “It is even a monumental scandal of unimaginable proportion that funds meant for procuring arms for soldiers are shared among members of the Peoples Democratic Party without the least compunction. “I commend the efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari in unravelling this heinous crime and I sincerely hope that all those involved will receive full retribution. Some of the soldiers caught in the maelstrom and indicted have been pardoned but some have lost their commission while others face uncertain future. “Considering the circumstances of this unusual event, it is pertinent that a fresh inquiry be set up so that justice will be given to all those involved and our gallant soldiers will not be punished unjustly.” On the roles of soldiers in the Ekiti and Osun States’ governorship elections in 2014, which the committee set up by the Military has submitted its report, Aregbesola said the deployment of soldiers was avoidable. “The military high command also set up an inquiry into the roles soldiers played in the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections of 2014. The committee has submitted its report and made recommendations. “As a victim of the reckless deployment of soldiers in those elections, I will say it was an avoidable deployment of soldiers for a civilian duty and for which there was no threat beyond the capability of the police and other security agencies.”
This year’s Armed Forces Remembrance is the first to be held at the State House of Assembly after the cenotaph was constructed next to the parliament. The Governor stressed that the symbolism of holding the ceremony at the military cemetery is impeccable, adding that bringing it to the parliament is of even greater significance. Aregbesola said that the parliament is the symbol of authority of the people and so the fallen soldiers “being celebrated today in the midst of the people for their gallantry and supreme sense of patriotism.” [myad]
Miss Cynthia Ugbah, winner of Queen of Trust International 2015, has resigned her position over an alleged claim of sexual harassment by the organizers of the pageant.
“They wanted me to sleep with men for money and then give the money to them to better their own organization (apparently that is how it works). They are rogues, thieves, fake and most of all broke; they need pretty girls to fetch them money,’’ Cynthia said.
In her resignation letter which was made available to news men, Cynthia said that she took the decision to resign after much thought and careful consideration.
“I am convinced that my decision is in our mutual best interest and for the sake of peace. I’m sorry that circumstances at your pageant leave me with no other alternative than to resign but I thank you for whatever support I did receive during my time with your organization.
“I have already returned the crown and all other materials.’’
Cynthia alleged that since her resignation, the organizers have been tarnishing her image on the social media, saying: “I don’t think I did anything wrong in contesting …what I did was to fall into the wrong pageant where everything about them is full of s..i and packaging .
However, a statement from Ms. Onyeka Agu, Deputy National Director, Nigerian Queen Beauty Pageant, organizers of the pageant, said Cynthia was officially dethroned for gross misconduct. “All entitlement including her car will be handed over to the 2015 Runner up who can lead.
“We will be releasing more details shortly; we believe a beauty queen should be an example for others to follow.” [myad]
“Every evil weapon they fashioned against me did not prosper and even the ones they are fashioning now will not prosper.” These were the words of the Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, at a meeting with All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders across the three Senatorial Districts of Edo State.
Governor Oshiomhole narrated: “in this hall, around this time last year, we held a meeting to share information about what was going on in various local governments and the specific challenges in each of those local government in order to fashion out appropriate response. “Some of the statements that we shared in those meetings included threats that by June, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole would have been impeached because PDP would write results whether we liked it or not. “They would overrun the House of Assembly and once the House is proclaimed in June, before the end of June, Comrade would be banished to his house in the village and from there to prison. “Those who made those threats, who supervised those processes, even now in their early 90s, are writing letters to explain how they shared money meant for defence.”
The governor went on: “around this time last year, in January, a few weeks to the election, many were saying quite recklessly on radio and television that we were finished. “The former President, Goodluck Jonathan, told our National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, to inform me that after the election, he will put me, Adams, the son of Oshiomhole, in a hole and I told Chief Oyegun to inform him to dig that hole very deep because although I am short, in the course of pushing me into the hole, nobody knows who will get there first. “Since he is taller than me, he needs to dig the hole deep enough so that either of us can get in. “In the end, he is inside the hole and I am busy putting dust into that hole.” Oshimhole boasted: “the one who tamed a lion with bare hands, now with automatic weapons, no antelope can dare us in our own forest.” [myad]
The fourth edition of the African Nations Championship, the biennial international football championship has been scheduled to kick off in Rwanda on Saturday. The tournament is being organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for players in local national leagues. This year’s competition will begin on January 16 and end February 7, it will feature 16 teams. Rwanda qualified automatically as hosts, while the remaining 15 spots were determined by the qualifying rounds, which took place from June to October 2015. Defending champions, Libya, did not qualify. The opening match will feature Group A teams, as Rwanda takes on Cote d’Ivoire and Gabon plays against Morocco. Other fixtures are as follows:
Group A January 20 Rwanda vs Gabon: Morocco vs Cote d’Ivoire:
January 24 Morocco vs Rwanda Cote d’Ivoire vs Gabon
Group B January 17 DR Congo vs Ethiopia Angola vs Cameroon
January 21 DR Congo vs Angola Cameroon vs Ethiopia
January 25 Cameroon vs DR Congo Ethiopia vs Angola
Group C January 18 Tunisia vs Guinea Nigeria vs Niger
January 22 Tunisia vs Nigeria Niger vs Guinea
January 26 Niger vs Tunisia Guinea vs Nigeria
Group D January 19 Zimbabwe vs Zambia Mali vs Uganda
January 23 Zimbabwe vs Mali Uganda vs Zambia
January 27 Uganda vs Zimbabwe Zambia vs Mali. [myad]
Presidents, the world over, are known to rely on the services and friendship of dependable allies, party members and even family members outside the defined and regular cabinet appointees throughout their tenure. It does not matter whether that president is Barrack Obama or Vladimir Putin, or even any of the African presidents. As a matter of fact, it was reported most recently in the media that an inner ring of President Muhammadu Buhari’s circle of friends has started digging in and influencing all the appointments made so far by him. Like it or not, that is how the presidency works, especially in a democracy. And that was how the presidency of Goodluck Jonathan operated until he was voted out of power in 2015.
And discussing the Jonathan Presidency, one of the few people who stuck close to him come rain and shine was Chief Tony Anenih. Of course, it is trite to say that Anenih’s name is one that rings bell in Nigerian politics. As a former minister of works in the Obasanjo presidency and, later, Chairman of Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Anenih had come to symbolise the tenacity of the PDP and its unequal ability to rejig and bounce back from one crisis after another to a stronger party until its final defeat last year.
It is all too clear for any casual observer to see that the defeat of Jonathan could have come much earlier than the 2015 general elections but for people like Anenih. The succession politics from the late President Umaru Yar’ Adua to Jonathan, more than anything, defined the character of the Jonathan presidency and later its defeat in 2015 and this would be in spite of rather than because of people like Anenih. Make no mistakes about it, Anenih was perhaps the most loyal and dependable ally of former President Jonathan. This was probably why he was entrusted with assignments that involved fund disbursements to political allies. Besides, he never ceased to put his national political network and reputation to stabilise the Jonathan presidency by winning more friends, supporters and loyalists to Jonathan. Not only did he commit his time, he spent his own money to carry out assignments for the President even when those have been rightly mobilised for the action simply pocketed the money.
It is perhaps too easy to assume that Anenih was ferociously supporting Jonathan for his own selfish, political and any other pecuniary interests. Yet the truth remains that Anenih felt a moral burden to help the president succeed. First, as a statesman and party leader, it behoved Anenih to help steady the hands of Jonathan with the right advice in the interest of the Nigerian nation. Second as the politician with perhaps the highest profile from the South-south region, and with a President from the same region for the first time in the country’s history, Anenih could not have done other than provide the strongest support for Jonathan. Even when Jonathan lost the 2015 presidential election, Anenih volunteered to resign from his BoT position to allow the former president to assume it and find a strong platform to engage in national politics.
Although it is easier for the Nigerian politician lacking in principles to always run to where it is cooking as many PDP leaders of yesterday are doing now by defecting to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Anenih can look back with satisfaction and dignity at his contributions, loyalty, support and service to the Nigerian state through the Jonathan Presidency. As an elder statesman, he has nothing to be ashamed of because there is no record that he abused his rare privilege as a confidant and ally of the former president. When Jonathan needed fearless Nigerians to speak the truth to his party members in 2010 that the zoning principle in the PDP could not override the Constitution of the country, Anenih found his voice and used his experience and vast political network to pass that message. And when it became clear that the president was wrongly handling the issue of the break-away “New –PDP” group, Anenih did not mince words in telling Jonathan the truth that he needed to listen to the aggrieved group and mend fences with them. Of course, this drew the anger of the many sycophantic and tragic “advisers” making their living by singing to the ears of the former president, the lyrics he wanted to hear. They did not wait to pour out all manner of invectives on their party’s BoT chairman. Strangely, many of those who goaded Jonathan on to the wrong path then have now jumped out of the apparently “sinking” PDP ship into the now “thriving” APC fold. More will still jump out.
In a country where the president is so powerful to make and unmake, whether in terms of power politics, business and policies, anyone who has the ears of the president easily lends himself/herself to both creeping and outright envy. If Anenih thought that everybody was cool with his chummy relationship with the former president, then the events of the past few days must have cleared any doubt in his mind. His name has been circulating in the media as one of the recipients of the alleged Dasuki $2.1 billion arms budget scam. In fact, the EFCC said it confirmed payment of N260 million from the Office of the former National Security Adviser into his account. In spite of the fact that Anenih quickly wrote to the EFCC clarifying how he was merely running errands for the former president, he is being wrongfully clobbered daily in the media as part of the people who stole from the Federal Government. In Anenih’s letter to the EFCC, he detailed how the former president instructed him on trust to deliver specified amount of money to some known politicians, including Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, Chief Olu Falae and Senator Rashidi Ladoja- for some political ends. And it is on record that none of the people Anenih mentioned refuted his story. Indeed they have all acknowledged that they received the said money from Anenih. Now the question is, if the NSA was directed by President Jonathan to pay some money to Anenih for specified presidential assignments that he had carried out, how on earth was Anenih to know if the money was drawn from the arms budget meant for fighting Boko Haram or from any other source for that matter?
The fact that Anenih willingly furnished the EFCC, upon its request, with the truth clearly shows his honest intentions. I do not know anybody, including those now trying Anenih in the media and attempting to drag his name and reputation to the mud, who will be summoned by President Buhari and given a sensitive assignment on trust, who will turn the President down or ask the president how he would fund it or where the money to fund the assignment would come from. Perhaps Tony Anenih has overstayed in Nigerian politics and some agents have taken it upon themselves to retire him willy-nilly. Maybe some people in his home-state are getting apprehensive of his never-waning influence in Edo politics, especially as a governorship election nears and are willing to throw everything to discredit him. Maybe Anenih is simply paying the price of being too loyal to a president who was too weak as to be defeated by small decisions of governance he could not take!
Ojo, public affairs commentator, lives in Ketu Alapere, Lagos. [myad]
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has opened a can of warm for the embattled national publicity secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olisa Metuh, especially as regard the N400 Million he allegedly received from the former National Security Adviser (NSA), retired Colonel Sambo Dasuki for nothing.
One of the seven count charges read to Metuh before Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja was: “That you, Olisa Metuh and Destra Investments Limited on or before the 24th November, 2014 in Abuja within the Jurisdiction of this Honourable court took possession of the sum N400,000,000 (Four Hundred Million Naira) only, paid into the account of DESTRA INVESTMENTS LIMITED with DIAMOND BANK Plc account number: 0040437573 from the account of the National Security Adviser with the Central Bank of Nigeria without contract award when you reasonably ought to have known that the said sum formed part of the proceeds of an unlawful activity of Col. Mohammed Sambo Dasuki (rtd), the then National Security Adviser (to wit; criminal breach of trust and corruption) and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 15(2), (d) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 as amended in 2012 and punishable under Section 15(3) of the same Act.” However, Metuh pleaded not guilty when the charges were read to him.
The court adjourned the case to January 19, 2016 for the hearing of arguments on the bail application even as the judge ordered that Metuh be remanded in prison custody. [myad]
Former Editor of Thisday Newspaper, Paul Ibe has asked the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja to compel the Publisher of the newspaper, Nduka Obiagbena, to pay him N19.7 million judgment debt. Ibe made the claim in a motion filed before the appellate court, a copy of which was made available to newsmen today. In the motion, Ibe alleged that Obiagbena and his Leaders and Company Limited were deliberately frustrating the payment of the money awarded in his favour by the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN), Abuja. The NICN had in a judgment delivered on February 18, 2014, awarded the N19.7 million being claims of unpaid salaries and terminal benefits due to Ibe, against Obiagbena and his company. The trial court had at the instance of the judgment creditor (Ibe) granted an order nisi (not absolute) to annex the said sum of N19.7 million in accounts of Obiagbena and his companies with four banks. The banks referred to as Garnishee Respondents were Access Bank Plc, First City Monument Bank Plc, Guarantee Trust Bank Plc and Zenith Bank Plc. The court had ruled: “That the said sum of N19.7 million sitting in the judgment debtors accounts domiciled with the Garnishees aforementioned and the sum of N200,000 being the cost of the Garnishee proceedings be attached to this Court forthwith. “The Court further directs the four Garnishees to appear in court on May 7, 2015 to show cause why this Order Nisi should not be made absolute upon each of them for payment of the judgment creditor.” Ibe said that following the orders of the NICN, the respondents filed a Notice of Appeal dated April 30, 2015, which effectively put a stay on further action on the garnishee proceedings. He, however, alleged that upon transmitting the records of proceeding to the Court of Appeal, the appellants (Obiagbena and his company) abandoned the case. Ibe deposed in an affidavit attached to the motion: “The appellants have neglected to file their brief of argument several months after transmission of the appeal. “It is a fact that appellants are required by law to file their brief of argument within 45 days after transmission of records, which they have failed to do. “The appellants neither sought nor obtained leave of this court not that of the trial court before filing the appeal.” Ibe contended that the appeal “is frivolous and a deliberate attempt to continue to deny him the fruits of the judgment got at the trial court”. Ibe urged the court to dismiss the appeal and order Obiagbena and his company to pay him the said sum. On the facts of the case, Ibe said he was engaged by the respondents in May 1996 and rose by way of promotion to become the Editor of Thisday newspaper. He said that in 1998, he was transferred to South Africa as the Bureau Chief of the newspaper. Ibe said while he was in South Africa for 19 months running the affairs of the newspaper, his employers failed to provide residential and office accommodation and perks of office. “After completion of my job schedule in South Africa, I returned to Nigeria in 2000, feeling dissatisfied and gave them notice of my intention to resign. “The defendants rejected my resignation and gave an approval for a sabbatical leave. “In 2002, I was reabsorbed as an Assistant Editor with the understanding that I will be appointed Director. “Within 12 years duration of my employment, my tax and pension deductions and terminal benefits statutorily due to me were not paid.” The Court of Appeal is yet to fix a date for the hearing of the motion. [myad]
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Is Anenih Paying The Price For Loyalty? By Kayode Ojo
And discussing the Jonathan Presidency, one of the few people who stuck close to him come rain and shine was Chief Tony Anenih. Of course, it is trite to say that Anenih’s name is one that rings bell in Nigerian politics. As a former minister of works in the Obasanjo presidency and, later, Chairman of Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Anenih had come to symbolise the tenacity of the PDP and its unequal ability to rejig and bounce back from one crisis after another to a stronger party until its final defeat last year.
It is all too clear for any casual observer to see that the defeat of Jonathan could have come much earlier than the 2015 general elections but for people like Anenih. The succession politics from the late President Umaru Yar’ Adua to Jonathan, more than anything, defined the character of the Jonathan presidency and later its defeat in 2015 and this would be in spite of rather than because of people like Anenih. Make no mistakes about it, Anenih was perhaps the most loyal and dependable ally of former President Jonathan. This was probably why he was entrusted with assignments that involved fund disbursements to political allies. Besides, he never ceased to put his national political network and reputation to stabilise the Jonathan presidency by winning more friends, supporters and loyalists to Jonathan. Not only did he commit his time, he spent his own money to carry out assignments for the President even when those have been rightly mobilised for the action simply pocketed the money.
It is perhaps too easy to assume that Anenih was ferociously supporting Jonathan for his own selfish, political and any other pecuniary interests. Yet the truth remains that Anenih felt a moral burden to help the president succeed. First, as a statesman and party leader, it behoved Anenih to help steady the hands of Jonathan with the right advice in the interest of the Nigerian nation. Second as the politician with perhaps the highest profile from the South-south region, and with a President from the same region for the first time in the country’s history, Anenih could not have done other than provide the strongest support for Jonathan. Even when Jonathan lost the 2015 presidential election, Anenih volunteered to resign from his BoT position to allow the former president to assume it and find a strong platform to engage in national politics.
Although it is easier for the Nigerian politician lacking in principles to always run to where it is cooking as many PDP leaders of yesterday are doing now by defecting to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Anenih can look back with satisfaction and dignity at his contributions, loyalty, support and service to the Nigerian state through the Jonathan Presidency. As an elder statesman, he has nothing to be ashamed of because there is no record that he abused his rare privilege as a confidant and ally of the former president. When Jonathan needed fearless Nigerians to speak the truth to his party members in 2010 that the zoning principle in the PDP could not override the Constitution of the country, Anenih found his voice and used his experience and vast political network to pass that message. And when it became clear that the president was wrongly handling the issue of the break-away “New –PDP” group, Anenih did not mince words in telling Jonathan the truth that he needed to listen to the aggrieved group and mend fences with them. Of course, this drew the anger of the many sycophantic and tragic “advisers” making their living by singing to the ears of the former president, the lyrics he wanted to hear. They did not wait to pour out all manner of invectives on their party’s BoT chairman. Strangely, many of those who goaded Jonathan on to the wrong path then have now jumped out of the apparently “sinking” PDP ship into the now “thriving” APC fold. More will still jump out.
In a country where the president is so powerful to make and unmake, whether in terms of power politics, business and policies, anyone who has the ears of the president easily lends himself/herself to both creeping and outright envy. If Anenih thought that everybody was cool with his chummy relationship with the former president, then the events of the past few days must have cleared any doubt in his mind. His name has been circulating in the media as one of the recipients of the alleged Dasuki $2.1 billion arms budget scam. In fact, the EFCC said it confirmed payment of N260 million from the Office of the former National Security Adviser into his account. In spite of the fact that Anenih quickly wrote to the EFCC clarifying how he was merely running errands for the former president, he is being wrongfully clobbered daily in the media as part of the people who stole from the Federal Government. In Anenih’s letter to the EFCC, he detailed how the former president instructed him on trust to deliver specified amount of money to some known politicians, including Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, Chief Olu Falae and Senator Rashidi Ladoja- for some political ends. And it is on record that none of the people Anenih mentioned refuted his story. Indeed they have all acknowledged that they received the said money from Anenih. Now the question is, if the NSA was directed by President Jonathan to pay some money to Anenih for specified presidential assignments that he had carried out, how on earth was Anenih to know if the money was drawn from the arms budget meant for fighting Boko Haram or from any other source for that matter?
The fact that Anenih willingly furnished the EFCC, upon its request, with the truth clearly shows his honest intentions. I do not know anybody, including those now trying Anenih in the media and attempting to drag his name and reputation to the mud, who will be summoned by President Buhari and given a sensitive assignment on trust, who will turn the President down or ask the president how he would fund it or where the money to fund the assignment would come from. Perhaps Tony Anenih has overstayed in Nigerian politics and some agents have taken it upon themselves to retire him willy-nilly. Maybe some people in his home-state are getting apprehensive of his never-waning influence in Edo politics, especially as a governorship election nears and are willing to throw everything to discredit him. Maybe Anenih is simply paying the price of being too loyal to a president who was too weak as to be defeated by small decisions of governance he could not take!
Ojo, public affairs commentator, lives in Ketu Alapere, Lagos. [myad]