The Lagos State judicial panel probing cases of human rights abuses by officials of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad and other related matters in the state has ended its sitting.
The panel, which ought to have ended its sitting on Tuesday, October 19, 2021, had its final sitting on Monday due to the public holiday scheduled for tomorrow.
It was earlier reported that the panel awarded N148.2million as compensation to 23 more petitioners as it wound down proceedings after sitting for a year since the inauguration on October 19, 2020.
N262million had previously been awarded to 47 petitioners before now which made it a total N410million.
During the Lekki shooting, Justice Doris Okuwobi (rtd) said though evidence had been concluded on the matter, the panel was yet to write out its final decision. She assured the petitioners that the panel would ensure justice in the matter.
#EndSARSNewsAddThis : Original Author : SaharaReporters, New York Disable advertisements :
A civil society organisation, the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL), has asked the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) to probe all Nigerians mentioned in the revealed Pandora Papers.
The Pandora Papers had exposed shady financial deals of prominent figures around the world and some Nigerians in the political and economic circles were not exempted.
According to CACOL, the named figures should be prosecuted by the ICPC.
Among those exposed by the Pandora Papers are; Kebbi State Governor, Atiku Bagudu, former Anambra Governor, Peter Obi, former Minister, Senator Stella Oduah among others.
The call was made on Monday in a letter signed by CACOL chairman, Debo Adeniran, and addressed to the ICPC.
"The Pandora Papers is one of the biggest ever corruption leaks led by International Consortium of Investigative Journalists ICIJ and over 600 journalists from 117 countries, including Journalists from Nigeria's Premium Times Center for Investigative Journalists (PTCIJ).
"Following the pattern of two previous leaks (i.e., the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers, which were released in 2016 and 2017, respectively), the Pandora Papers exposes systems and jurisdictions that enable and abet crime, corruption, and wrongdoing by politicians, billionaires, influential individuals, and their enablers globally.
"To this end, we hereby call for urgent investigation of some of the politicians, former and serving public officials, including Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State, former PDP Vice-presidential candidate and former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, APC chieftain, Senator Stella Oduah, among others.
"Sir, you will recall that the earlier leaks i.e. Panama Papers and the Paradise papers led to significant protests across the globe and the fall of governments, dismissal of officials, criminal investigations, and asset confiscations.
"Unfortunately, both have had minimal impact in Nigeria as many of those indicted in the two papers are still moving around as they were not brought to account especially the likes of Dr. Bukola Saraki, Former Senate President and others despite our unrelenting demand that they should be investigated.
"Sir, we are encouraged to submit this petition to you based on our resolve to always expose any corrupt act(s) being perpetrated by anyone either in public or private sphere.
"Moreover, this petition is directed at your good offices, knowing that statutorily, it is the primary responsibility of Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission to investigate and prosecute this kind of cases and we have no doubt that you will do due diligence in carrying out this assignment for public good.”
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Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State amid a plot to remove his deputy, Rauf Olaniyan, on Monday presented two vehicles worth millions of naira to the immediate past chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state, Alhaji Omokunmi Mustapha, and his successor, Dayo Ogungbenro.
According to a statement released by the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Taiwo Adisa, the vehicles, both Toyota Land Cruiser SUVs, were presented as an exit gift and a welcome gift to Mustapha and Ogungbenro at the Government House, Agodi, Ibadan.
“Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, on Monday presented an exit gift and a welcome gift of two brand new Toyota Land Cruiser Jeeps to the outgone chairman of the Oyo State PDP in the state, Alhaji Omokunmi Mustapha, and the newly-elected PDP chairman, Dayo Ogungbenro, respectively.
“The chairman, Oyo State Advisory Council, Senator Hosea Agboola, who made the presentation at the Government House, Agodi, Ibadan, on behalf of the governor, charged the duo to work together for the success of the PDP.
“Agboola described the governor as a kind-hearted man who cares for the party and the masses in the state. He also used the occasion to urge other governors in the country to emulate the uniqueness of Governor Makinde.
“In their various reactions, the duo of Hon. Ogungbenro and Alhaji Mustapha thanked Governor Makinde for his magnanimity. The duo promised to remain focused and to protect the party from the threat of external forces.”
There are, however, concerns about the governor’s lavish spending as the source of money used to purchase the vehicles remained questionable.
A civil servant, who asked not to be named, described Makinde’s action as a “misplacement of priority.”
The donation comes a few hours after SaharaReporters exclusively reported plot to impeach the state Deputy Governor by the PDP/dominated State House of Assembly.
Olaniyan would soon be impeached by the lawmakers, a source privy to the move had said.
Just last weekend, a petrol station and bakery belonging to the Deputy Governor were vandalised in Ibadan.
There were suspicions in some quarters that the Chairman of the Motor Park Management System in the state, Lamidi Mukaila, popularly called Auxiliary was behind the vandalism.
The vandalised petrol station and bakery are managed by the wife of the Deputy Governor, Prof. Amdalat Olaniyan.
Before then, thugs had, twice on the same day, unleashed terror on aggrieved PDP members who had converged for a parallel congress at Jogor Event Centre, Ibadan.
Though this is not the first time, previous impeachment attempts have been thwarted by the lawmakers who feel Olaniyan has been good to them, a source in the state House of Assembly said.
To make it work this time around, all members have been scheduled to travel to Ghana, a neighbouring West African country.
SaharaReporters gathered that the trip was coordinated by Makinde’s closest ally, 48-year old Seye Famojuro, who hails from Osun and lives in Ibadan.
In Ghana, they will be joined by Makinde who would introduce to them, the need for the impeachment process.
The chairman of the Oyo State House of Assembly Service Commission, Musah AbdulWasii, who is also the immediate past Deputy Speaker of the State House of Assembly, has been pencilled down as a replacement.
Though he contested and lost the last election on the platform of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), he is now in PDP and revers Hosea Agboola, a former Senator popularly called Alleluyah as his leader instead of Monsurat Sunmonu, a former Senator and his former leader in the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
Musah’s preference of Alleluyah to Sunmonu is not far-fetched as the former is closer to Makinde than the latter.
Though both Makinde and Olaniyan are engineers, sources told SaharaReporters that it has been rough since the beginning of the administration.
“In a bid to win the 2019 governorship poll, many people had suggested the names of Engr. Raufu Olaniyan to Engr. Seyi Makinde. Olaniyan was then a governorship aspirant on the platform of the ADC. He hails from Igboho, one of the numerous towns in Okeogun, the second-largest geo-political zone in Oyo State, after Ibadan, the state capital. Parts of the reasons why Makinde considered him was because of his experience as a former top civil servant,” a source told SaharaReporters.
“He was permanent secretary of the Oyo State Road Maintenance Agency (OYSTROMA). Secondly, he is acceptable to the Muslim population beyond Okeogun. And he has a deep pocket, though he doesn’t flaunt it. He is also close to former governor Rashidi Ladoja. All these were what Makinde considered.
“But Olaniyan’s acceptance was at a great cost. His closeness to the former and incumbent governors of Osun, Rauf Aregbesola and Gboyega Oyetola and Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, all of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was almost ruined. They didn’t ‘bless’ the move. He accepted it and worked tirelessly to ensure PDP wins. Meanwhile, Makinde promised to, unlike his immediate predecessor, make use of his deputy governor if they won.
“Governor Makinde initially wanted to fulfil his promise but was soon misled by the likes of Alleluyah and co. Initially, Makinde conceded Olaniyan’s Oorelope local government area to him. Alleluyah and Olaniyan are both from Okeogun and he feels threatened by the emergence of Olaniyan.
"Soon, the governor started ignoring his deputy. In a clear show of hatred, the governor awarded the renovation of the deputy governor’s lodge and till date, it is still at the plastering stage. It is by the road and everyone can see it. So, the deputy governor makes use of his house. When critical issues are to be decided, he prefers to use his chief of staff, secretary to the state government or any other trusted ally. In fact, the deputy governor has been reduced to nothing.”
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Kudirat Abiola was a lady of elegance, the highly resourceful wife of MKO Abiola, second only to Simbiat, the first in whose house Abiola first ate fried eggs during their dating days!
Kudi was a rallying force, a beehive of ideas, a freedom fighter and for me the best 1st lady Nigeria never had. It will therefore not be out of place for any first lady in Nigeria to desire to be like her, Erelu Bisi Fayemi is not out of order for wanting to complement her husband's walk in the footsteps of the Abiolas.
The author, Dr Bolaji O. Akinyemi
But every good walk after an ideology must be in spirit and in truth.
MKO Abiola was the symbol of money, not just in Nigeria and Africa, but among the black race. When money, riches and wealth is the subject of discussion, he was a pride in his generation!
Abiola was not born rich, rather, he was, pretty and pauper poor, he literally begged by providing traditional drum beating service to survive! He inherited poverty, which panacea almost automatically in his days was education, but not anymore!
There are two forces of poverty in Nigeria making the people poor; the systemic force of poverty and the spiritual force of poverty. The systemic, just as the name sounds, is the poverty caused in the society by the system being supervised by the Oligarchy. This type is the one that produces the Northern Almajiri system which restricted out of school children majorly to Northern Nigeria until Buhari became our President. Today, indeed like Femi Adesina said, "Nigerians across the divide have a common experience of 12 million out of school children for which Buhari has become more appreciated and popular than Obafemi Awolowo!"
Awolowo's political influence and policy pulled out of school children into schools, while Buhari's level of it and policy on it has successfully seen many millions in school children out of school since becoming President!
Awolowo lifted many in Abiola's generation from poverty through education, Buhari is lifting Boko Haramist out of poverty through, "his repentance to repositioning project" that has seen bandits becoming custom's officers!
Abiola, was a phenomenal, who conquered every space he transversed, leaving behind mentees who are generals in their fields of endeavor, Dele Momodu in Journalism, Kola Abiola in Business, Bola Tinubu in politics, Sunny Okosun in Music and Entertainment and Kayode Fayemi in both Journalism and politics!
Abiola was so rich that the late music meastro Alhaji Sikiru Ayinde Barrister couldn't but communicate it in discernable terms that every one in Nigeria could understand, when his initials, "MKO", Barrister referred to as Money, Kudi, Owo. Owo is the Yoruba word for money and Kudi, the Hausa word for it. Abiola was not just rich having money. If symbol and providence are things to go by, he was the "olowo ori owo", being the husband of Kudirat. Talking about Lady Kudi, she would have become the 1st Lady of Nigeria had Abiola been sworn in upon winning the June 12, 1993 presidential elections!
She was fallen by the bullets of Abacha's commander, Sergeant Rogers, but the magnanimity of Buhari that saw Abiola honoured with GCON has not been extended to see justice done to the killers of Kudirat!
Her murder by the Abacha Junta Government, in which Mohammadu Buhari served, took the struggle for democracy to another level when Kayode Fayemi's voice was heard on radio Kudirat! There are many engagements with which the military were pushed, radio Kudirat was a "centrifugal force" against the military locally and internationally thus Kayode Fayemi's emergence into our political foray didn't come as a surprise, he worked for it! What is a surprise however is the sycophancy that has characterised our Presidential "hope fools", apologies to Tunde Bakare!
Tinubu said in his solution providing mechanism to herders and farmers clashes that Yoruba and Fulani are one! What a way to further divide a divided country for personal ambition! Fayemi became a muslim at the 3rd anniversary of his Government just to prove a point to the northern crowd he was ready to do anything in the race set before him. By that singular act, for me, he put a big question mark on his conscience, conviction and stability which are requsite qualifications for leadership in our context as a nation!
Leadership in a multi religious society is better in the hands of men of strong social leaning than a religious prostitute. The North will rather respect a Christian with conviction than a "Christomuslim" personality a year before elections! Fayemi obviously learnt no lessons in Edo that saw a Pastor loosing election to a church goer, simply because he wore a turban!
In the world of the pentecostals, an unbeliever dusted a tongue spealking, demon casting man of God in a religious sensitive nation!
Our politicians haven't separated our convictions from our sentiments! Abiola's religious conviction was never in doubt. He was a muslim respected by Christians and Muslims for being one!
The greatest odd against Fayemi's 2023 dream need not wait till 2023! As the governorship race in Ekiti takes the center stage of political happenings in the country, a group under the auspices of Ekiti Youth for Equity has made a passionate appeal to Governor Kayode Fayemi to disallow impositions of any candidate in the All Progressives Congress!
The group is bothered by the feelers it was getting from the body language of some politicians in the All Progressives Congress fold, suggesting that our 2023 Presidential First Lady, Erelu Bisi Fayemi, in a bid to be like Lady Kudirat Abiola and consolidate her husband's political structures, ended up with an invented philosophy without the spirit and truth of Kudirat Abiola!
Erelu's strives for magnanimity is today tagged "Kudi-rat" in the running of Government in Ekiti State. It is no longer news that Erelu is the Governor and Government at home, since her husband relocated to Abuja to fester the nest of his presidential ambition!
Erelu is of course not hiding her preference for the aspiration of the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Biodun Oyebanji, whose office is overseeing the Kudi - rat, the money eating operation allegedly being carried out in all ministries and agencies of government in Ekiti State!
The political organisation in a statement released recently signed by its Convener, Victor Omogbemile and titled: 'Ekiti 2022 governorship, Mrs Bisi Fayemi and the Need For Caution', warned that the First Lady may end up losing her huge respect should she work against attempts by APC to zone the governorship ticket to Ekiti South!
He said Governor Fayemi's clinching the ticket in 2007 was accomplished on the strength of zoning and the next political dispensation won't be an exemption for the present agitations for zoning and what was obtainable then are similar!
"The party leadership at the national level under Governor Mai Mala Buni is working tirelessly to ensure justice by insisting on zoning Presidency to the South, which has kindled the hope of Kayode Fayemi!
It is rather sad, that a beneficiary of such political justice will be trampling on that of others in Ekiti State! The fact remains that for APC to see to it that the next governor in Ekiti state should emerge via zoning modality, will be confronted with the Yoruba philosophy,:"Ohun ti a ba se loni, itan ni yio da lola", meaning 'whatever is done today shall become history tomorrow.'
"Having a reminiscence of what transpired in 2007, the people of Ekiti North made agitations on the basis that the two democratically elected governors before then, Otunba Niyi Adebayo and Ayodele Fayose were from the Central and they believed that other zones should be given the opportunity. Though this are mere opinions and not the position of the party's constitution.
"It was that virulent advocacy from politicians of that axis that compelled the APC and the PDP to pick Kayode Fayemi and Segun Oni for the governorship election of 2007!
"After a prolonged legal battle, Dr. Kayode Fayemi was pronounced the governor of the state in 2010 from where Erelu Bisi Fayemi became the First Lady and wielded so much power and influence which is keeping her "pet project", kudi-rat running!
The First Lady must not forget that history beckons and that enduring and endearing legacies are built on the legality of our conducts when given the opportunity to serve the public.
Proofs abound on Omogbemile's allegation that Mrs Fayemi is poking her nose into issues of politics. This of course may be mere rumours among party members for it has become customary for party members to be peddle rumours. Rumour, of course is the smoke that leads intelligent investigative journalist into a successful fact find out!
Ekiti is the poorest of all the States of the Yoruba Nation South West Nigeria. It is on lips in Ekiti state that Erelu is trying to pay back Oyebanji from the merger earnings of the State for being a good boy whose office is being used to coordinate "kudi rat" as a conduit pipe to siphon monies running into billions since 2018 in preparation for 2023!
Is it a mere rumour that Governor Fayemi's budget for running the office of the Secretary to the State Government which Oyebanji is supervising is 30 million naira monthly and that as a loyal boy, the rat formula is pegged at ratio 1 to 2, this of course is waived higher when the needs from the office of the First Lady so demand?
The smells from Ekiti kitchen and the "chef in chief", Oyebanji, might have been a pleasing aroma to the office of the First lady, But what is underneath is more than meets the eyes. Governor Kayode Fayemi will do well by paying attention to the smoke from Erelu's kitchen cabinet before it will choke his ambition and the fire from their stoves burn down the state!
OpinionAddThis : Original Author : Bolaji O. Akinyemi Disable advertisements :
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has stated that the recommended conditions for the lifting Twitter ban in Nigeria will be applicable to all Over-The-Top and other social media platforms in the country.
He made this known on Monday when he featured on a phone-in programme of TV Continental, “This Morning, ’’ monitored by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
The minister who headed Federal Government ministerial negotiation team stated that the engagements with the microblogging and social media platform had been positive and fruitful.
He added that the undisclosed report from the team would be submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari.
“All I can say is that the recommendations we are going to make will not only be applicable to Twitter but they will be applicable to all OTTs and other social media platforms in Nigeria.
“Today, we are dealing with Twitter; we don’t want a situation where we will be dealing with Facebook tomorrow and Instagram the next day. Our recommendations will be very comprehensive.
“You will recall that during the 61st Independence anniversary celebration, the president said Twitter will return to Nigeria as soon as they meet the conditions of government.
“Even last night, the ministerial team met under my chairmanship and we reviewed the position of things.
“I want to say that we should wait for the committee to officially give its reports to the president but things are looking very positive and rosy. After submitting our reports and recommendations to the president, I will be disposed to say what we agreed and what have been met and what has not been met,” he said.
InternetNewsAddThis : Original Author : SaharaReporters, New York Disable advertisements :
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