Police in Abeokuta, Ogun State Capital have detained the boyfriend of a 22-year-old undergraduate, Kabirat Sobola, murdered in her room on 4 March, 2023.
The Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Abimbola Oyeyemi, said in a statement today, April3: “What happened is that a boy came to report in Ibara Police Station that he can’t find his girlfriend at home for the past two days.
“The DPO in Ibara asked him if he was the girl’s parent and he replied that no, then the DPO asked him how he knew that they can’t find her.
“The DPO said they should detain him till the girl’s parents come to the station because it is the parent that has the right to report their daughter missing.
“They detained him and sent for the parents of the girl. When they arrived, they said they don’t know what happened to the girl and they all left with the boy and went to the residence of the girl. On getting to where the girl lived they got to know that the girl had died inside her room.
“From the investigation conducted, it was discovered that it was the boy that killed the girl, it seems they had fought before so, it seems he went to the girl’s house and killed her and he was arrested by the police and the case was transferred to the Homicide Section.”
The deceased, a National Diploma holder of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, was reportedly murdered in her room in Abeokuta on 4 March, 2023.
President Muhammadu Buhari is celebrating the 81st birthday of Ebenezer Obey, whom he described as multi-talented musician.
In a statement today, April 3, by a Presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, the President said that he is celebrating the talented performer for 66 years of impactful global career, with evergreen signature tunes from the 50’s.
President Buhari acknowledged the influence of Obey, known as “Chief Commander”, on the blossoming Nigerian musical industry since he started out at 15 years.
He recalled that the musician brought a fusion of juju and highlife into a musical band, roused International Brothers and in 1964, metamorphosed into “International Reformers” in the 70’s.
The President said that Ebenezer, “the revered mentor and teacher” expanded his reach through sharing knowledge, good works and charity.
According to Buhari, Ebenezer also guided younger musicians to get training and skills at his musical school, as well as counseled many against destructive habits.
“He provides scholarships for the less privileged, with visits to orphanages and other welfare institutions.”
President Buhari advised his family members, friends, professional colleagues and fans to appreciate the life-long dedication, diligence and sacrifices that culminated in the successes.
He also drew attention to the willingness of the legendry musician to always place God at the center.
The minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, less than two months to leave office after eight years, and workers in the Administration have commended each other for the smooth relationship with which they have operated.
While the workers, under the canopy of the Joint Unions Action Committee (JUAC), commended the minister for ensuring prompt promotions of deserving members and payment of monthly salaries I time, the minister praised them for their loyalty and commitment to the work ethics.
The sides spoke yesterday, April 2, at the 2023 1st quarter meeting between the management of the FCTA and the JUAC.
Speaking on behalf of the workers, Chairman of JUAC, Korede Matilukuro commended the Minister for the timeliness and sincerity with which he approached and handled all issue relating to staff welfare and the unions.
Matilukuro acknowledged that the Minister did not joke with staff promotions which were implemented as and when due, prompt payment of all salaries and allowances, including arrears where applicable, consideration of Locum staff for formal recruitment provision of buses for the unions as well as he recent release of grains for junior staff.
The union leader thanked the Minister for the allocation of a recreational and sports garden to the Union and expressed hope that the Minister would find time after retirement from public service to visit with staff at the garden.
This was even as the Minister commended the staff for their dedication and commitment to duty which has improved service delivery in the FCT.
He said that improved staff performance was also acknowledged by SERVICOM with a letter of commendation to the Administration for excellence in service delivery.
He said that plans are on the way for the inauguration of various Boards of the FCTA over the coming week.
A Civil society organization dedicated to combating corruption in Nigeria, under the canopy of the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre) has kicked against the agitation in whatever form, for Interim Government in Nigeria after the elections that produced various political office holders, including governors, Senators and others.
In a communiqué issued at the end of an organized Anticorruption Stakeholders Summit in Lagos State with the Support of MacArthur Foundation and Open Society Initiative for West Africa, the body expressed opposition to the recent suggestions for an interim government, which it deemed unconstitutional and a grave menace to Nigeria’s democracy.
“The stakeholders acknowledged that a stable democracy is an essential condition for combating corruption effectively, and any measures that destabilize the political structure would considerably hinder the efforts to combat corruption in the country.
The communiqué, signed by the Chairman of HEDA Resource Centre, Olanrewaju Suraju, called upon pro-democracy movements and activists to remain vigilant and prevent any efforts to subvert the democratic process in Nigeria. It stressed the critical importance of adopting peaceful and democratic measures to address the challenges currently confronting the nation.
It “unequivocally denounced the recent demand for the removal of Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa, the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). It emphasized the significance of safeguarding the independence of anti-corruption agencies and empowering them to discharge their responsibilities impartially and without any undue interference from the political office holders.
The communique emphasized the critical importance of preserving the autonomy of anti-corruption agencies, safeguarding democracy, and setting an anti-corruption agenda for the incoming government.
It advised all stakeholders to reject any efforts aimed at compromising the autonomy of these agencies, which are pivotal to the anti-corruption crusade in Nigeria.
It espoused the need for an anti-corruption agenda for the incoming government, stressing the need to make it a top priority to combat corruption in all its forms. The statement called for the creation of a robust legal framework that would facilitate the prosecution of corrupt individuals, and the strengthening of anti-corruption institutions to enable them to carry out their mandates effectively.
It challenged the Code of Conduct Bureau on the scrutiny of assets declaration forms of political office holders exiting offices at the end of Buhari’s regime for any breach of Code of Conduct for Public Officers and ensure prosecution before Code of Conduct Tribunal in record time.
Participants hailed the summit as a crucial step towards addressing the issue of corruption in Nigeria and pledged to work together to achieve a corruption-free Nigeria.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in separate Fact-Checks on the trending leaked audio conversation between the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the February 25 Presidential election in Nigeria, Peter Obi and the founder of the Living Faith Church Worldwide, Bishop David Oyedepo, have come with a verdict that the recording was over 90 person true.
“After digital and forensic investigations, the leaked phone conversation did not show any evidence of using deepfake AI technology to manipulate people into believing that Mr Obi declared the election a religious war and begged Mr Oyedepo to help him canvass for votes along religious lines.
“PRNigeria therefore concludes that the leaked phone conversation is to a very large extent, FACTUAL,” the fact-check concluded. The full text of the fact-checks goes thus:
According to a leaked audio released by People’s Gazette, Obi called Bishop David Oyedepo, the founder of the Living Faith Church Worldwide, on the eve of the February 25 presidential election, urging the man of God to reach out to all Christian groups across the country on his behalf. Describing the election as a religious war, Obi begged Oyedepo to call the Christian groups in Kwara, Kogi and Niger so he could win the election and make Christendom proud. “Daddy, I need you to speak to your people in the South-West and Kwara, the Christians in the South-West and Kwara,” Mr Obi said in the audio. “This is a religious war,” he added. “I believe that, I believe that, I believe that,” Mr Oyedepo replied in a measured and conscious manner that was not incriminating. “Like I keep saying, if this works, you people will never regret the support,” Mr Obi said with candour and excitement adding that Christians in places like Kogi, Kwara and Niger had been difficult to penetrate. “We look forward to God’s intervention,” Mr Oyedepo said, promising to circulate more messages to Christians on Mr Obi’s behalf. While the audio has generated controversy on social media with many Nigerians doubting its authenticity, PR-Nigeria embarked on a robust fact-check to ascertain if any of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools was used to fake the voices of the duo. (The Fact-Check link: https://prnigeria.com/2023/04/02/fact-check-obi-oyedepo-phone/) Using speech recognition freeware, PRNigeria extracted the audio clips and compared both voices against their publicly known voice, and made interesting findings. “While, Artificial Intelligence (AI) software can be used to mimick any voice after a few seconds of listening to it, Peter Obi’s Voice returned 93% accuracy after listening to it while Oyedepo’s voice returned with 84% accuracy level when PRNigeria subjected the audio to the speech recognition test. “Further investigations by PRNigeria show that this can be done using Microsoft’s Vall-E, a text-to-speech AI Model that can recreate and match any sample audio it’s been provided with. It can also change the tonality from happy to sad to angry. “While it may be unfathomable for calls to initiate recording on dial, it is possible for the same calls to be intercepted by hackers or intelligence sources,” the fact-check report said. PRNigeria team also subjected the audio to a deepfake test using Deepware scanner, an AI tool used to detect alterations in audios and videos and found that AI was not used in generating or modifying the voices. To cross examine its findings, PRNigeria sent the audio to three voice recognition experts (working in an intelligence service, forensic agency and private consultant) for authentication and they separately confirmed that the voices were factual. PRNigeria went on further to verify some of the claims made during the conversation. For example, Mr Oyedepo told Obi at exactly 1:16mins into the conversation that he did a review titled “Nigeria Going Forward” and he was coming out with the second one “today…when they wouldn’t have time to do damage control.” A quick online check confirmed this. Similarly, when Bishop Oyedepo asked Mr Peter Obi if he was in Lagos or Abuja, Mr Obi responded, “i am in Onitsha now.” With the dictionary definition of “eve” meaning, “the day or period of time immediately before an event or occasion, PRNigeria confirmed that Obi was indeed in Onitsha on the eve of the elections when the conversation took place and he had tweeted this himself on the 23rd February stating, “I’ve just arrived in Onitsha for several engagements, including my meeting with the United Nations Team visiting Nigeria.- PO.” After digital and forensic investigations, the leaked phone conversation did not show any evidence of using deepfake AI technology to manipulate people into believing that Mr Obi declared the election a religious war and begged Mr Oyedepo to help him canvass for votes along religious lines. “PRNigeria therefore concludes that the leaked phone conversation is to a very large extent, FACTUAL,” the fact-check concluded. Obi had come third in the poll even though he won in Christian dominated areas of southeast, parts of south-south, Abuja, Nasarawa and Plateau states. He and his supporters have however claimed that he won and he is presently in court challenging the declaration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as President-elect.
The Head of Obi-Datti Media Office, Diran Onifade has dismissed the trending leaked audio conversation between Peter Obi and Bishop David Oyedepo on the need to wage religious war in Nigeria, as ‘fake’ news floated by the All Progressives Congress (APC). Onifade, who was reacting to the leaked audio in which Peter Obi appeared to be begging Bishop Oyedepo to help mobilise Christians in the South West and Kwara to vote for him in the presidential election, dubbing it “religious war,” accused the APC of being desperate to retain power hence, employing foul means. “It appears the All Progressives Congress’ desperation to grab and retain power by foul means has refused to go away more than a month after they have grabbed the election as they planned. “While we are toeing the constitutional path to retrieve our mandate, those who have truncated the wishes of the majority of Nigerians have recoursed to mischief and endless subterfuge to continue to hold on to what they know does not belong to them. “From the show of shame in Portharcourt to the drama in the Ibom Air aircraft, both of which they contrived, they have now moved to the circulation of a deep fake audio file aimed at promoting religious tension in the country. “All these are meant to serve no other purpose than egregious mischief aimed at demarketing Peter Obi. If the goal is to create a credibility problem, the ploy has failed woefully. “Peter Obi has long been on record as the only presidential candidate who has urged the Nigerians electorate not to vote for him on the basis of religion or tribe. “We will therefore like to advice our beloved Nigerian people to remain focused on the task to take back the mandate we know was freely given to Peter Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed through legitimate means.”
The Founder of the Living Faith Church, Bishop David Oyedepo, has denied ever campaigning for any politician, including Peter Obi ahead of any election in Nigeria. Speaking today, April 2 at the church’s headquarters in Ogun State on the subject of faith, the Bishop stressed that he never spoke to any group of people on behalf of any politician. “Nobody had ever told me what to say in this world. No. I have never campaigned for anybody or speak on anybody’s behalf and I will not do that till I go to heaven. “There is no (political) party in this country that didn’t come to me for prayers and for advice. I advised them, some, they didn’t take. Those who chose to take it, they see results; those who said no, they are going about it. If you still come again, I will still tell you, it doesn’t change.” Yesterday, April 1, an online newspaper, Peoples Gazette, had released an audio recording in which Peter Obi solicited the support of Oyedepo to help get votes from Christians in South-West. Obi, who is former governor of Anambra State, said in the audio that the votes were needed because the 2023 presidential election was a religious war. “Daddy, I need you to speak to your people in the South-West and Kwara, the Christians in the South-West and Kwara. This is a religious war. Like I keep saying: if this works, you people will never regret the support,” he said in the audio. The audio attracted criticism for Obi, with some of his supporters saying it was doctored. Source: Daily Trust
spokesperson for the Labour Party (LP) Campaign Council, Kenneth Okonkwo has admitted that the party’s Presidential candidate, Peter Obi merely begged Bishop David Oyedepo of the Living Faith Church to held push his case for Presidency. Reacting to the leaked audio conversation between Peter Obi and the Bishop, which is currently treding on the social media, Okowonkwo regretted that some people are trying to spin the conversation to portray Obi as a religious bigot. “Our attention has been drawn to the publication of this audio tape of private conversation between @PeterObi and Bishop Oyedepo. It is not surprising that these political criminals are trying to spin the conversation as if Obi was making a religious statement. “Firstly, the context of the conversation was aptly put by Bishop Oyedepo when he said ‘All Nigerians have equal stake in this nation, nobody has the right to claim that he is dashing something to someone’. “H E @PeterObi was simply urging the Bishop to help him push this message of equal stake of all Nigerians in the Nigerian project to his people and the christiandom because the politicians of the other party is carrying on this campaign as if it is a religious war. “To drive home this point, he informed him that he visited the traditional ruler of Offa, the Olofa of Offa, who is a Muslim, but who advised Obi to get the support of Oyedepo and be assured of his own support. No Politician has ever visited the Olofa of Offa. “It is clear to everybody that the APC political party that has a Presidential Candidate, Vice Presidential Candidate, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, National Chairman of the Party all from one religion at a time the CJN is a Muslim is the Party that has declared religious war on Nigerians and we must all rise up together to fight this unconstitutional act of religious intolerance of other religions by APC. “I went around with Obi on campaign train and never saw him discriminate against any religion. Of course he can’t because his Vice is a Muslim unlike APC. “I resigned from APC because of their religious intolerance. Nigerians should disregard any insinuation of religious bigots about this tape.”
Barrister Ejike Ugwu who claimed to be the lawyer to a man who disrupted the Abuja-Lagos flight in on March 31, has confirmed that the man has mental challenge.
The man, whose name was given as Obiajulu Uja had, on Friday, March 31 evening, disrupted an Abuja-Lagos flight, shouting inside the aircraft that there would be “war” if the President elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is sworn-in on May 29, 2023 and had to be bundled out of the aircraft.
Speaking today, April 1, in Abuja, Barrister Ejike said that the unruly Obiajulu Uja was not in the right state of mind before boarding the flight, adding that the man had earlier been chased away from a hotel in Abuja due to his mental state.
Barrister Ejike Ugwu, who was at the Airport Police Division to see the suspect, said the police were yet to provide the suspect with medical care despite his bad situation.
The lawyer also said that the suspect’s legs are swollen because of the several beating at the Airport, adding that he has not been able to reach the Police Public Relations officer.
He said: “Obiajulu is not in the right state of mind; before he boarded the flight, he was chased away from a hotel in Abuja because of his mental state.
“He even booked three different flights for the Lagos trip. He booked Aero, Dana, and Ibom Air. He had three tickets for the same trip. So, there is no doubt that he is mentally challenged.
“As I speak to you, both the IPO handling the case and the DPO of the Police Division are nowhere to be found. And the suspect’s legs are all swollen now because of the several beatings he received at the Airport. He is critically sick right now.
“All I am asking for is that he should at least be taken to the police clinic.
“I have also made efforts to reach the Force PRO but he did not take my calls.”
It is learned that Obiajulu, who shouted in the airplane that on no account should Tinubu be sworn in as President and was bundled out of the aircraft, hails from Oji-River Local Government Area of Enugu State.
A middle aged man has been removed from an Abuja-Lagos bound aircraft for openly threatening “war” if the President elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is inaugurated on May 29, 2023. Information reaching us said that the man, unidentified, was on Ibom Air from Abuja on the way to Lagos yesterday, March 31, evening, shouting openly before other passengers that Tinubu must not be sworn in as President. According to an eyewitness, the man stood in the middle of the plane and raised his voice, shouting that Tinubu must never be sworn in and that there would be “war” if that happened. The airport security authorities were invited as his shouting roused anxiety amongst the passengers to evacuate him.
The incident, according to witnesses, held up the aircraft for more than an hour, as the 6pm flight was yet to move as of 7pm. In the video obtained, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria security men could be seen carrying the middle-aged man off the plane, as he kept shouting: “Obidients, you’re here. They are doing this to me. Obidients you’re here, I am naked. Obidients you’re here, I am going naked.”
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