I’d shoot Chief Abiola the day NEC pronounces him the elected President - Brigadier David Mark

Extract from: The TALE of JUNE 12 - The Betrayal of the Democratic Rights of Nigerians (1993)
Author: Prof. Omo Omoruyi

PLEASE READ THIS EXTRACT AND FORWARD TO ALL SOUTHERN POLITICIANS

SCENE TWO: PRESIDENT UNBURDENED HIS HEART TO ME

The venue was the Presidential Villa (Residence and Office) and the subject was to explore options in the face of annulment of the election that was in the offing; the main actors were General Babangida, General Dogonyaro and myself.
This was not the first time General Babangida and I met like this. We met in Minna in early August 1985 to review how he was to proceed with a transition programme should the coup contemplated in August succeed; we met in Lagos in August/September 1985 after he had succeeded and had become the President over the steps he should take to evolve a transition programme; we met in Lagos over the Political Bureau Report and worked out what to do with the Report; we met in Lagos over the steps he should take to get a transition programme put together from the Report of the Political Bureau and the Report from the White Paper Committee.

General Babangida and I met at other times over the following issues: the evolution of the two-party system and the creation of the Centre for Democratic Studies; the setting up of the Constitution Review Committee; the composition of and charge to the Constituent Assembly; the production of the White paper on the Report of the Constituent Assembly; the drafting of the arguments for the Creation of States; the Banning or Disqualification of Persons; the Inauguration of the National Assembly; the Setting up of the National Defense and Security Council and the Transitional Council among other major policy issues in 1993 concerning the Presidential Election. In all these issues, our meetings and the papers produced formed the basis of the policies of his government.

It was not therefore unusual for the President to invite me to think with him in how to get out of the dilemma in which he found himself after the suspension of the election process and the injunctions on the NEC by various courts in the Southwest and Abuja and the decision of NEC to appeal to the Federal Court of Appeal.

I also thought that he wanted to discuss the diplomatic impasse he might have created by not seeing the British High Commissioner to accept the letter from Mr. John Major, the British Prime Minister. I could not think of the US reacting to the impasse because the US seemed to have faded away after the incident of June 11. My mind also went to the possibility nevertheless of a fresh, threatening message from the US. I could not rule out the US.
My mind went to the memorandum of June 20 (See Chapter Four) in which I raised many issues bordering on the President’s inability to assume moral leadership in the face of the apparent derailment of the transition programme and the sliding of the country into chaos. This turned out to be the subject of the meeting.

It was clear when I entered his office that he had lost command/control of the situation. He, in fact, confessed this to me, the first time he was making such a confession since I knew him. He pleaded that he needed help to find a solution to a complex problem which he did not quite understand. It was also clear to me but, unfortunately, not to my fellow Nigerians that the country was without a President that had authority either over the military (nor) over the civilians. One wondered, what would have happened if the political class had been united and pressed for the conclusion of the transition programme. But the political class was part of the problem. It was also not clear to the international community that Nigeria had no effective government at this time.

Why did the international community not issue statements supporting the June 12 elections even though they had the results? ....(1) General Babangida knew he could purchase the political class, but he knew that the international community was not purchasable.
The President had no moral courage to call his “boys” to order having lied to them about Chief Abiola at the onset. These ‘boys’ had now by-passed him and formally linked up with the anti-democratic elements in the North working in concert with some Igbo leaders who felt that the time had come for them to avenge what they thought the Yoruba had done to them during the civil war. General Babangida was now a victim of this web of intrigue and he thought he needed help to take control of the situation, not to reverse it since he could not.

Once inside his office, he locked the door. He welcomed me with a strong appeal to my loyalty which I assured him was constant. I assured him that my loyalty to him as a friend should never be in a doubt. He looked very worried; he removed his shoes and cap and confessed that his wife did not know where he was at that time and he drove himself from Minna that morning just to talk to me; thus he expected me to be frank with him as I had always been. He went on: I have not seen my wife or briefed her of what I had been going through in the past three days. “I urged him to unburden his heart to me and assured him that I would be as frank as possible but that he would have to be open with me. For a few minutes he remained speechless and looked morose. The situation in which I saw him could only be compared with the situation in which I found him in 1985 when he was agonizing over what to do during the days preceding his decision to overthrow General Muhammadu Buhari’s military regime.

Just as he did on that occasion, he pleaded with me to advise him on how to free himself from the dilemma in which he found himself. On both occasions he used the same choice of words: “I see disaster for myself and my family. Where do I go now? He asked, “Professor, we must find a solution here and now or else I am finished”. He concluded. The operative clause is “we must find a solution’, meaning that he wanted me to work with him or he was relying on me for a solution. I did this with him in the past and he expected me to do it again with him in June 1993.

General Babangida proceeded to recount all that we did together in the past and pleaded that I should see him through this stage. I urged him again to unburden his heart and speak as freely as he always did so that we could discuss the issue. I assured him that there was no political problem that had no solution. He cut in to say that the issue facing him was not political, but had to do with his life, his family’s life, and even the life of his close friends, including me. Still, he was hesitant in addressing the question. Suddenly he got up and reached for the door, making sure that it was well secured; he unhooked his telephones and some security equipment, except the security line which linked him to his Service Chiefs. I was not surprised with this kind of behavior. I had gone through this with him before. It was clear to me that he was in trouble more serious than I had imagined. I was also deeply concerned for my own safety. This was a new angle which he had brought in. I narrowly missed the Orkar coup in 1990. I asked myself “Was a blood thirsty coup maker around”? But the coups that occurred in the past did not happen in broad daylight. He again kept quiet for some time and I pleaded with him the third time to speak his mind to me. He then gave me a pad from his table to take notes. Of course, I thanked him and pointed out that I had a pad and my memory to cope with the issues that would arise from the meeting. General Babangida opened with the following words which I jotted down as closely as possible, word for word....(2)

“On the 25tth October, 2007 the Supreme Court ordered the immediate swearing-in of Rotimi Amaechi as governor. Amaechi assumed office as governor with the venom of a bitter man on a vengeance mission against all perceived, real and imagined opponents, including me. The climax was the setting up of the so-called Kayode Eso “Truth and Reconciliation Commission”, clearly conceived, designed and programmed to permanently indict and incarcerate Dr Odili.”

A former governor of Rivers State, Dr. Peter Odili has narrated how his former personal aide, a former speaker in the Rivers State House of Assembly and current minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi betrayed him in the course of power struggle for the office of governor of the state.

Amaechi started working with Odili in his hospital, Pamo Clinic in Port Harcourt, from where he was helped by the man to get into the house of assembly where he became speaker for eight years.

It was from that office that Odili also chose him as the preferred aspirant to contest for the office of governor, before the K-Leg controversy came up, leading to Amaechi’s replacement with Celestine Omehia as candidate of the PDP for the 2007 gubernatorial election.

Odili said in his autobiography entitled, Conscience and History, that Amaechi betrayed his confidence at a time that he had told him not to go to court over the issue of his nomination as the PDP candidate.

He said:

“I ensured that we worked hard for PDP to win the governorship election in Rivers State. If my support had gone elsewhere, PDP would not have won in Rivers State, and if PDP did not win in Rivers, Supreme Court could not have ordered Amaechi to be sworn-in as governor.

“These are all immutable facts that nothing else could therefore have changed, and nothing else could be justifiable reason for the hostility unleashed against me on the advent of Amaechi’s administration.”

He recalled how the betrayal and back-stabbing started and how his triumphed. This is Odili’s narrative, exactly the way he put it in the book:

By 2001, barely two years into my first tenure as governor of Rivers State, the subterranean scheming for who will succeed me started among the young political team I had built since 1994/5.

One of our elder statesmen [now late] one day said to me ‘Your Excellency, you have made the governance of Rivers State look so easy and sweet that some of these your young men think it’s a ”piece of cake ‘and are already positioning to succeed you. They have no idea how tough it is to govern Rivers people. It is when you leave office that people will know” – (Chief A.K Dikibo)

I finished my first term and won the election for my second term 2003 – 2007 most comfortably with minimal opposition. However, with the approach of 2007 elections, the subterranean schemes gradually came to the fore among the young men who were aspiring to succeed me. In the firm belief that power comes from God – I decided to maintain a taciturn disposition about my preference.

As time passed, the race narrowed down and front – runners began to emerge and pressure for direction from me started being mounted by the party leadership and caucus.
I sustained my resistance to be dragged into the dog-fight for primaries. After a protracted ‘ping – pong’ between me and the caucus, I decided to conduct an intelligence search, deploying the necessary tools available officially and undercover. My search narrowed down to Rotimi Ameachi, Austin Opara and Abiye Sekibo for various reasons. I presented these to the caucus of the party who still insisted that I name one person. I still held my taciturn grounds.

My intelligence further revealed that while I was being goaded to name one of them as my preferred choice, behind the scene plots by some of the members of the caucus, to skew the primaries in favour of their own choice, with the connivance of some family members and Abuja big wigs were going on....(1) The plot was deep and had gone far before I picked it up very close to the primaries. I felt ‘betrayed’ and ‘set up’ for ridicule. I therefore decided to intervene and ensure that a transparent process that would produce a popular winner democratically, was put in place. That is how Rotimi Amaechi emerged as the flag bearer of the party for the governorship election in Rivers State.

This appeared not to have gone down well in Abuja, for a yet to be disclosed reason. Again suddenly, the EFCC came after Amaechi with all sorts of allegations, arrested him and his travel documents seized. Rotimi Amaechi was incarcerated between the 12th – 15th December, 2006 same period the spurious investigation and ‘interim report’ by the EFCC was being cooked up against me. He too, like my commissioners, was released as soon as I announced my withdrawal from the presidential primaries on the 15th December, 2006 but his travel papers were still being held by the EFCC. We agreed and I supported him to challenge his disqualification and indictment legally.

After the convention, we all went back to Port Harcourt but the battle to get him off the PDP ticket raged on till late February, 2007. I made several trips to Abuja to secure the sustenance of Amaechi’s ticket as the governorship candidate of the PDP in Rivers State. The national leadership and The Presidency were clearly bent on not allowing the Amaechi ticket to stand.

I fought back as much as I as could, EFCC was unyielding in their resolve not to allow Amaechi as the candidate for Rivers. I was asked to nominate somebody else severally, and severally I refused to do so. At a very strange meeting at the Villa one night, I was pointedly asked how come I had only one choice for my succession after 8 years in office. The last straw was the threat by Nuhu Ribadu to resign his position as EFCC Chair and apologise to Nigerians if Amaechi was allowed to be the candidate.

The shock of it all was President Obasanjo telling me that he did not want to be blackmailed so I should effect a change. I refused, and went back to Port Harcourt that night fully convinced that one had to take one’s destiny in one’s hands – Abuja was clearly not in a position to morally stand by us. The next day we started our legal battle for our defence options – ‘self protection’ is the key to survival.

My struggle to sustain Amaechi’s ticket in spite of the obvious vehemence by Abuja leadership against it, continued.
Then came the zonal rallies for the presidential campaign in Port Harcourt for the South/South. At this event the flag bearer for the various states in the zone were to be recognized by the president and national leadership of the party.

The flagbearers for Cross River, Delta, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom and Edo States were acknowledged and given their flags, Rivers was said to have ‘K-Leg’ and would be sorted out later.

The night preceding the rally gave birth to this ugly development when the national leadership was directed to ask me, or rather instruct me to name a replacement for Amaechi or have one named for me the next day. It became obvious that I had lost the battle to save Amaechi’s candidacy. I immediately sent for Amaechi and broke the sad news to him before anyone else could hear it. The need to constructively face the reality had arisen. We toyed with the idea of optional replacement for him. We eventually settled for Celestine Omehia – his cousin, albeit reluctantly, for reasons of peer – group and family rivalry.

I felt that the state interest should over ride other considerations. Amaechi’s reluctance was however not in doubt. Armed with this acquiescence, I started consulting widely. By the morning of the zonal rally, I had not consulted sufficiently, so could not present Omehia to the national leadership. It was indeed at the rally ground that I introduced Omehia to the party leaders without him Omehia realizing why I was doing so since I had not let him into the development...(2)

His name was Olu Onagoruwa, SAN. A versatile Activist, Human Rights Activist who later became Abacha's Minister of Justice and Attorney General. His best friend, Gani Fawehinmi warned him publicly not to take the appointment but he he thought otherwise, afterall, they were both SANs. But one day, Abacha introduced some heinous decrees against human rights, freedom of speech and freedom of association, this he did without the Ministry of Justice. This angered Onagoruwa and he did a World Press Conference to attack Abacha.....in the Conference, he described the decree as "Obnoxious laws which has taken away our liberty". And he resigned publicly! Whaaaaaaat?????? To Abacha????

Abacha thought k.lling Onagoruwa would be too mild a punishment for such audacity. So be removed his only begotten son from the surface of the planet through some of his bull£ts and dumped him inside a drainage.

Onagoruwa lost everything about his health from that moment and never recovered until he eventually passed away too. Bit before then, he wrote a sorrowful memoirs which was captured by the Tribune Newspapers of July 23, 2017....

Here is it

"GENERAL Abacha was not happy with my departure from his government. He felt I was arrogant and over-bearing. News started to get to me that I was in danger and that I should be very careful. First and foremost I was very sure that I had not offended him in any way. Even though he went to investigate my account in the Justice Ministry he could find nothing against me. So personally and officially, I was clean before him; so what other offences could he be looking for? My friends in govermnent told me he had assured them that I should suffer some pains which I could never forget. Anyway, he was the goyernment and so I started to bid farewell to my wife (this was at a time of many unexplained murders -Chief Alfred Rewane, Mrs Suliat Adedeji, Rear Admiral Olu Omotehinwa, Admiral Tunde Elegbede). My wife would assure me that we should continue to pray.

"Little did we realise that he would pounce on our son, Oluwatoyin, who qualified as a lawyer in 1995. Toyin was very dear to us. He was a loving child; he was palpably cheerful and kind. He had one Igbo boy, Victor, as his friend. They were so close that the boy looked very much like part of our family. When this boy could not pay his school fees, I had to pay. On the day of his wedding, my wife and I stood in as his parents. We do not know how this boy got into the SSS (State Security Service) camp and these operatives used him against us. He told them Toyin’s movement in the evenings, particularly to his Fiancee’s house; and he told them the address of the house. Toyin’s Fiancee was Prof. & Mrs. Abiola Ojo’s daughter.
Victor was a very useful target; always collecting money from the SSS boys. So when mention was made about the Onagoruwas, he made himself conveniently available. But his role in Toyin’s murder, although very peripheral, was very effective. One day, when they were to capture Toyin, Victor phoned and we got the phone call at a time when Toyin had just been attacked. We dismissed the whole thing and never connected him to this evil. However, on the day that they felled Toyin, Victor phoned and he was told that some people had held Toyin down outside. He then told them to call me to the line. Before I could get to the phone, he cut off.

"At this very time, the assailants were taking Toyin away and thereafter shot him. I did not know what was happening as I was woken from deep sleep. When we later got Toyin to the hospital and they phoned Victor, he told them he would not come immediately as his car was in some predicament. We never saw Victor until some days later.....(1) We later got to know that the group of SSS boys got all the information they needed about ‘Toytn through Victor: The fact that he had just qualified as a lawyer, his Fiancee’s place and name. That was why that fateful night they first looked for him at the Fiancee’s house. They found him there but he did not know that they were looking for him. He was in fact warning his Father-in-Law to be very careful that night.

"On 18th December 1996, the murderers struck. As Toyin was riding into the compound, he was held incommunicado. Our own security man had left the door unlocked as he normally did and he ran away, while Toyin was held by these assassins who occupied the compound. I was only woken up after they had finished their operations. They took Toyin outside into the main street, where he had a very big fight with them. They later shot him in the back and fled. By the time I woke up, Toytn had been shot and was in the throes of death. His death was unbearable to me.
Was I dreaming?
Who killed Toyin?
What did he do wrong?

"All these questions filled our mouths.
We did not connect this with the government at all. Why should a government do this? Why?
Soon after this tragic event, the Head of State wrote me a letter expressing his heartfelt sympathy. He assured me that the culprits would be arrested and they would face the law because this type of crime should not take place in this country. He sent delegates to me, one led by his deputy, General Oladipo Diya: and another led by Chief Michael Agbamuche, who succeeded me as Minister of Justice and Attorney General. All expressed the good wishes of the Head of State to me and my family. I grabbed at the letter which had been written to me and re-assured myself that this evil act could not proceed from a Head of State whom I had served faithfully and whose letter confirmed this.

"That dastardly night of Toyin’s murder, some sharp-witted men of my family had gotten the number of the car, which the murderers brought and had written it down. They got an artist to sketch the faces of the assailants.

On February 3, 1997, I wrote a reply to the Head of State’s condolence letter. I apologised about the delay in replying to his letter. I told him of the pulvertsing effect which Toyin’s killing had on us in the family and we thanked him for his warmth, kindness and gift. We told him that his promise to track down the perpetrators of the hideous crime was heart-lifting and encouraging. We then told the Head of State that we had passed some useful information to the police, including the particulars of the car used for the murder.

"I gave the Head of State the particulars. It was a white car, a Mercedes Benz 230E; bearing registration plate number “Lagos BB-844-SMK.” This is a common number. And at its back, on the right, the car had a Deutschmark sticker. I also informed the Head of State that when the police visited Shomolu Local Government (where the car was registered), they were informed by the authorities that the number Lagos BB-844-SMK was registered for a Honda car owned by a Colonel in the Nigerian Army. The last information that we had was that the vehicle was seen on its way to Abuja. Despite this letter and the particulars supplied, Abacha gave no reply. In the meantime, General Abacha ordered that these two vehicles -the Mercedes Benz and the Honda- should be hidden in the Aso Rock Villa. The owner of these vehicles was Colonel -. now Brigadier-General- Laoye. This came to surface when the Oputa Panel was sitting. Colonel Laoye brought the Honda car there and we told the Oputa Panel to order its seizure and to order the police to go and do their work well, but the panel refused for no tangible reason.....(2)

NO BE TODAY WICKEDNESS BY RECORD LABELS START

###The Story of the Epic Battle Between King Sunny Ade and Chief Bolarinwa Abioro

It was in 1974 that the news broke. Chief Bolarinwa Abioro, the Balogun of Ipokia, the Chairman of African Songs Limited, had taken his star musician to court! Everyone who knew KSA knew Abioro. Everyone who knew Abioro knew Sunday Adeniyi. Sunny was the son. Abioro was the father. What could have gone wrong between father and son?

KSA was the second artiste to be signed on to the stable of African Songs Limited. Ayinde Bakare was the first. Sikiru Ayinde Barrister was the third. Like most creative people, young Sunny Ade was more concern about his passion and less concern about the business aspect of music. His passion was to play music and to excel as a musician.

It was enough that Abioro – one of the biggest men in the music industry at the time – was ready to promote him. They brought documents for Sunny and his band boys to sign. They called it a contract. It could have been called any other name for all that KSA cared. Won ni ko wa je saara, o ni ojo ti wonu ju. Se ata ni won ni ko mu wa ni, abi iyo. You are invited to a free feast, you are complaining about the short notice, are they asking you to bring salt or pepper? Sunny Ade and his boys didn’t hesitate. It is doubtful if any of them read what the contract said. The most important thing was that they were going to become recording artistes. Sunny signed. His band boys signed. Everybody was happy.

The contract was for 5 years. However before its expiration, KSA had become a household name. His album, Challenge Cup, sold in excess of 500,000 copies. It was certain that King Sunny Ade was going to dominate the music scene for a very long time to come. African Songs Ltd knew a good product when it saw one. The management of the company didn’t wait for the first contract to expire before they brought a new contract.

The new agreement was carefully worded. KSA and his band boys agreed to perform and record exclusively for ASL for a period of five years. ASL had full copyrights to all compositions and recordings of Sunny Ade. ASL was entitled to the sole right of production, reproduction, and use of King Sunny Ade’s performance throughout the world. That was not all. During the period of the agreement, KSA was prohibited from rendering any performance whatsoever to himself, any company or group of persons. The contract also stipulated that ASL had the option to renew the agreement at its expiration for a further term of two years or for any longer period. Sunny Ade had no such right.
That was not all. On the sale of every album which price was then fixed at N6.00, KSA and his boys were entitled to a princely sum of 20 kobo. Yes, you read that right. African Songs would go home with the remaining N5. 80 kobo. Onigegewura’s mathematics has never been good. He is just an amateur historian. You can do the sum yourself.

Still basking in the euphoria of his growing fame, Sunny gratefully signed again. His band boys signed. 20 kobo was still something. Orogun iya re da sokoto fun o, o ni ko bale, melo ni iya to bi o da fun o? You are complaining that the trousers made for you by your step-mother was not long enough, where is the one your own mother made for you? They were expecting their 20 kobo royalty on every album. Well, when the time came for actual payment, it was then discovered that mathematically and arithmetically, it was not supposed to be 20 kobo. They had not factored the cost of publicity and promotion! And since it was the artiste that was being promoted, he must be the one to bear the cost! After the addition and subtraction, Sunny was given 15 kobo per album.

KSA was not Chike Obi, the mathematician. But he knew that 20 kobo and 15 kobo were not the same thing. Compared with his contemporaries in the music industry, KSA realized that he was holding the short end of the stick.....(1)
His colleague, Baba Commander, Chief Ebenezer Obey was earning as high as 70 kobo per album. Others were earning between 35 kobo and 60 kobo.

That was when Sunny decided to ask Chief Abioro for a raise of the royalty payment. The chairman listened patiently to KSA and his colleagues. He was nodding as they canvassed one reason after another why a raise was in order. When they finished, Chief Abioro flipped open a file he had on his table. He brought out a bundle of documents. Even from where he was seated across the table, Sunny saw that it was a copy of the contract he signed. “An agreement is an agreement. It is a binding contract!” The chief informed them. “This is what you signed. This is what you are entitled to! No more, No less.” He returned the documents to the file. Case dismissed.

But Sunny was not done. “Chief, this is not about contract. You are our father. Our request is for adequate compensation! Let’s leave the contract aside.” Chief Abioro looked at the young star the way a parent looks at a child asking for another candy. “Leave the contract aside? We should leave the contract aside?” The chairman asked incredulously. “You know, it would be nice to leave the contract aside. But you know what? That would be illegal!”
Haba! Illegality ke! . It was then that someone brought up the idea of requesting some of his friends to plead their case. Sunny agreed. After all, Eni ti o mo oju Ogun, ni pa obi ni ‘re. It is the person who is conversant with Ogun, the god of iron, that is usually given the duty to administer its rites. They went to meet Prince Okunade Sijuwade who would later become the Ooni of Ife. They also met with Chief Afolabi Joseph. Even Chief Ebenezer Obey was also requested to intervene as well as Chief Nurudeen Alowonle.

The eminent persons appeared in the court of the Balogun of Ipokia as ‘amici curiae’ on behalf of the musicians. Amici curiae are lawyers invited by the judge(s) to assist in filling briefs that may be helpful to the court in deciding a case. Our eminent persons argued their case like experienced advocates. They cited relevant sections of the unwritten Yoruba constitution. They cited Yoruba proverbs. They made reference to the story of Oduduwa. The presiding chairman listened to their submissions and summarily dismissed the case. Contract is contract!

Chief did not only dismiss the request for a raise. He opened another file on his table and brought out a new set of documents. Your guess is right! A new five-year contract! By now, Sunny Ade had learnt enough law. He had become a professional mathematician. He had obtained his Master of Business Administration from practical experience. He knew the implication of putting pen to paper. He applied for an adjournment.

The King of African Beats found himself in a quandary. His new songs were ready but Chief had threatened not to release any new album until he signed the new contract. And KSA was not ready to sign any new contract until the issue of royalty was resolved.

KSA remembered his grandmother’s proverb. Ti abiku ba gbon ogbon ati ku ni igba erun, iya abiku a gbon ogbon ati sin oku e si etido. If an abiku decided to die during the dry season when he knew that the ground would be hard to dig, his parents would also decide to bury him by the riverside where the ground would not be hard to dig.

Sunny Ade decided to release his record with another company. His plan was to use the album to bargain for a better deal with African Songs. Instead of the measly 20 kobo, he was confident that the chairman would be ready to pay him at least N1.00 per copy. The album was recorded in Nigeria but taken to London for mixing. What Sunny Ade did not know was that Chief Abioro was a master at the game. Before Sunny could get a copy of his own album, Chief Abioro was already in possession of the new record.

Baba Ibeji was composing fresh materials at home when the court bailiffs arrived. They served him with an order of interim injunction!..(2)

VALEDICTORY SPEECH TO THE 9TH HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES BY REP. @femigbaja, SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES (2019 – 2023). WEDNESDAY, 7TH JUNE 2023.

PROTOCOLS
Honourable colleagues, fellow Nigerians:

1. I thank God almighty, by whose grace and mercy we have gathered… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 7. We passed the Police Act to change the nature of relations between the police and citizens in our country and ensure that police officers who fall short of their responsibilities can be quickly held accountable. The Act expressly prohibits police officers from arresting… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT BOLA AHMED TINUBU 29 MAY 2023

THE NIGERIAN IDEAL

My Fellow Citizens,

I stand before you honoured to assume the sacred mandate you have given me. My love for this nation is abiding. My confidence in its people, unwavering. And my faith in… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… Over six decades ago, our founding fathers gave bravely of themselves to place Nigeria on the map as an independent nation.

We must never allow the labor of those who came before us to wither in vain but to blossom and bring forth a better reality.

Let us take the next great… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi is at the twilight of his many battles. During the Easter break, Obi reportedly received a cold London reception. He could not have imagined that an arrest was in the offing. While the dust on the controversial leaked telephone conversation (now dubbed “Yes Daddy”) between Obi and the founder of Living Faith Church, Bishop David Oyedepo, is yet to settle, the LP candidate has found himself in another dilemma.

"....The youngest person on the ballot for the gubernatorial elections is 40. I am 57 today, let me discount my age. What have I done at 40? .... "At 40, I have done things – I led several investment banks, 3 of them. I have worked in prospecting for Oil as part of my private sector experience. In the public sector, at 40, I have served as SA to the governor of Lagos, I have presented d budget of the state to the assembly

Q:On the naira redesign & the role in d economy

Sanwo-Olu:It has affected the economy of our people and the state in no small measure. We need to learn from countries like Saudi Arabia, England and others where the old and new notes continue to run concurrently for over a year Like the supreme court judgement has now ascertained, it is good news for me and I hope that the banks can open up their vault since we have about 8 months for the policy to catch up.

The CBN said the policy was to drive the cashless economy, it is well-intended,

@PeterObi, you went on air to tell lies as usual. Abiola lost in the SE. Even Ojkwu told reporters at the airport that he won't support Abiola because Igbo blood is on the NRC Ticket which had Sylvester Ugo, Biafra's Central Bank Governor on the ticket. I AM A LIVING WITNESS Yes, some right thinking Progressives in the SE supported Abiola and stood firmly with him. But vast majority who preferred Sylvester Ugo to him. They did so them smartly without showing crass hatred to others, may be because IPOB wasn't existing then.

SANWO-OLU: OLD NAIRA NOTES REMAIN LEGAL TENDER

The Lagos State Government has noted the hardship sparked by the Naira redesign policy, which has affected business and commercial activities. There is no reason to reject the old notes, going by the Supreme Court judgement delivered on March 3, 2023. The apex court declared that “no reasonable notice was given as required by Section 20(3) of the CBN Act,”

The polls on Saturday in one of Nigeria’s most politically turbulent states were the first in a cycle of state and federal votes culminating in presidential elections due in April 2011. Diplomats and investors hope Africa’s most populous nation can avoid a repeat of the chaos seen during the 2007 elections which brought Pres Umaru Yar’Adua to power, polls marred by widespread ballot-stuffing and voter intimidation.But the signs from Anambra were not promising

SPECIAL PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT

Commercial banks have been directed by the Central Bank to dispense old currency notes and to also receive same as deposits from customers. Tellers at the commercial banks are to generate the codes for deposits and there is no limit to the number of times an individual or company can make deposits.

The Governor of the CBN gave the directive at a Bankers’ Committee meeting held on Sunday, 12th March, 2023.

It was learnt that the N500 million windfall was mobilised through high-level CBN agents in Lagos. It was described as “Oga’s own contribution to the takeover-Lagos-from- Tinubu’s-influence, now that he has become the president-elect and will be relocating to Abuja”. It was learnt that Emefiele had worked to ensure that Tinubu did not emerge as presidential candidate and president-elect.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2023

PRESS RELEASE BY THE TINUBU/SHETTIMA PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN COUNCIL:

OPPOSITION PARTIES MUST CONDUCT THEMSELVES WITH DECORUM NOT TO OVERHEAT THE POLITY. Our attention has been drawn to some incendiary comments by spokespersons of the opposition parties, notably the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP) regarding the yet-to-be-announced results of the elections that held yesterday.

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has arrested three people, including a cleric, for attempting to export drugs to the United Arab Emirates through the NAHCO export shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos. Spokesman for NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, on Sunday, said the suspects included the founder& General Overseer of Seraphic and Sabbath Assembly, Lagos, High Priest Nnodu Azuka; a student of Emmanuel College of Theology, Samoda, Ibadan, Udezuka Udoka, and their freight agent, Oyoyo Obasi

The presiding pastor of the Abuja chapter of the House on the Rock, Pastor Uche Aigbe, mounted the pulpit bearing an AK 47 rifle on Sunday. The incident which caused a stir in the church auditorium happened during the second service, which frequently has a high number of the congregation who attends from different parts of the nation’s capital.

PRESS STATEMENT

LET US MAKE THE BEST OF THIS MOMENT

The past few weeks have been a challenging one for Nigerians especially our SME’s, poor and vulnerable masses and those whose very survival depend on daily cash transactions. ..... They have felt the brunt of the combined problems of scarcity of fuel and new Naira notes.

We feel the pains of our market women and artisans who have experienced low sales because customers do not have cash to make purchases.....

"We will defeat Atiku in Jada Local Government of Adamawa State. Atiku is not in this race. Yes on paper he is but he is not a candidate. How would win, through what?...... “Atiku is using religious leaders to appeal to Kwankwaso to step down for him, Atiku used former heads of state and prominent people to appeal to Kwankwaso, Atiku used traditional rulers, spent billions of naira to persuade them to go and talk to Kwankwaso to step down for him...

ABUJA, FCT
FEBRUARY 8, 2023
PRESS STATEMENT

APC READY FOR ELECTIONS, POSTPONEMENT REPORT FALSE & RECKLESS

Our attention has been drawn to a shadowy media report in some media outlets that the All Progressives Congress is pushing for a postponement of 2023 general elections... The report is blatantly false and reckless, and bears no iota of credibility. Beyond its loud headline, the report offers no substantive justifying content aside from its intended purpose of misleading and causing needless anxiety and speculations regarding the upcoming elections

PRESS RELEASE

Tinubu hails Nigerian Governors over Supreme Court ruling on CBN Naira Swap policy All Progressives Congress Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has hailed the Governors of the 36 states for standing on the side of the Nigerian people over the Central Bank new Naira and cashless policies that have subjected the masses to pains.