Group drags Sylva, APC to ICC over election violence

                     Chief Timipre Sylva

The Save Southern Ijaw Movement (SSIM) has expressed its sadness at the events that characterised the Bayelsa governorship elections, particularly the killing of innocent people by thugs and known militants allegedly sponsored by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Timipre Sylva.

The group said it had concluded arrangements to soon drag Chief Sylva and the APC in Bayelsa before the International Criminal Court.

Addressing journalists in Yenegoa today, Director General of the group, Comrade A.I Usman disclosed that the decision to drag Chief Timipre Sylva and his party, APC to the ICC, was based on the magnitude of electoral violence perpetrated in the State during the December 5, 2015 and January 9, 2016 governorship elections, leading to the death of over twenty people, with several others badly injured.

The group said it was determined to ensure that Chief Sylva faced alleged charges of human rights abuses and killing of innocent citizens, just as it urged Chief Timipre Sylva to get prepared for his trial any moment from now.

“Before the election, all focus was on Chief Timipre Sylva going by his long standing relationship with known militants in the Niger Delta creeks.

“Now that observers have been proved right by the outcome this election, it is our hope that Timipre Sylva and every perpetrators of violence in Bayelsa State, will be brought to justice to appease the innocent blood shed during and after the governorship election” Usman said.

The group also used the medium to serve President Muhammadu Buhari, the notice of its intention, to take its protest against this cruelty and extreme show of impunity by the Bayelsa APC, to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

It further noted that if such steps were not taken, there would be no deterrent to the conduct of politicians like Chief Timipre Sylva whose attitude posed great threat to the nation’s democratic values.

Engineer arraigned for allegedly causing death of 40 fowls

 

 

An engineer, Gibson Onyeka was arraigned on Monday at an Ikeja Magistrates’ Court for causing the death of 40 fowls, valued at N144,000

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Onyeka, 34, residing at No. 1, Babatunde Hassan St., Ishaga , Lagos, is being tried for causing damage and killing of animals.

According to the Prosecutor, Insp. Akeem Raji, the accused caused the death of the fowls, owned by one Olarenwaju Oladuja, sometime in October 2015 at Iju-Ishaga, Lagos.

“The accused was in charge of renovating the building of the complainant’s neighbour.
“He, however, demolished the fence demarcating his client’s building from the complainant’s, leading to the death of the complainant’s fowls caged in his compound,” Raji said.

He alleged that the offences contravened Section 392 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011, which prescribes a three-month jail term for accused, if found guilty.

Onyeka, however, pleaded not guilty and was granted bail in the sum of N100, 000 with one surety in like sum by the trial judge, Mr T.O. Shomade.
The case was adjourned to Jan. 25 for mention.

Bayelsa Election: Gov Dickson hails victory as triumph for democracy

                            Gov. Seriake Dickson

The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) Seriake Dickson, who was declared winner of the state governorship election on Sunday, thanked the electorate for their gallantry in ensuring his re-election for another four years, adding that his victory was triumph for democracy.
He, however, said there would be no celebration because of the number of lives that were lost in the course of the election.

In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, on Sunday night in Yenagoa, the governor however, vowed that he would go after the killers during the election and bring them to justice.
He promised to work tirelessly to justify the mandate given to him “as we tried to do in the first four years to almost universal acknowledgement and approbation.”

While extending a hand of fellowship to his political opponents, Dickson said since election had been won and lost, the needs of Bayelsans and the challenge of improving their material condition remained his focus.
He said, “To the extent that the people ensured that they spoke loud and clear and that their choice clearly emerged provide some reassurance that our democracy is coming of age.

“Sadly, however, the elections were conducted at the price of several lives lost and mayhem visited on many communities by mindless brigands clearly suborned by those who do not respect the democratic process and have equally scant regard for the sanctity of lives and property.
“Unfortunately, we can’t celebrate because people have died.

“I want to assure you that we will do everything possible to identify the culprits and bring them to justice. I want to express my heartfelt condolences and sympathy to the families of the innocent victims of the violence. The government will be undertaking a full accounting of what happened.

“The mandate you have given us having been clearly demonstrated, I want to assure you that my administration will work tirelessly to justify this mandate as we tried to do in the first four years to almost universal acknowledgement and approbation.”

In its own reaction, the PDP Governors Forum hailed the people of Bayelsa State for standing against what it called brute force and terror unleashed on them in the Saturday supplementary election by the APC.

The governors said this in a statement by the coordinator of the forum, Mr. Osaro Onaiwu, in Abuja.
It hailed the winner of the election, who is a member of the forum, Dickson.
The governors said but for the resilience and determination of the people, the “APC was inordinately out to capture the state as if it was a trophy of war”.

The PDPGF added, “It is unfortunate that a party that came into office through a free and fair process offered by an incumbent has neglected to imbibe democratic tenets by engaging in thuggery and outright violence as if the state is a trophy of war.

“The Bayelsa election is a wake-up call to all Nigerians to reject any extra constitutional means by which the APC intends to cling to power.

“We call on our members in Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Edo States to brace in the coming days and show that the PDP is indeed the custodian of democracy as it has done for the past 16 years.”

Ohanaeze Ndigbo declares Gov Ambode as number one enemy of Ndigbo

 

 

This is so sad!For demolishing the Oshodi market mostly occupied by Igbo traders when most of them were still celebrating the Yuletide in their villages, the Igbo apex socio-cultural organization, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has declared Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State as the number one enemy of Ndigbo.

National President of the Ohanaeze Youth Council, OYC, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, alongside the National Secretary, Okwu Nnabuike, who disclosed this at a press briefing in Enugu on Monday, said Ambode had drawn a battle line between himself and the entire Igbo land by the demolition.

While claiming that the act was done “in bad faith”, the OYC wondered why the Lagos State Government should carry out such act at a time when it clearly knew that the owners of the shops were in their villages for the Christmas and the New Year festivities.

According to Isiguzoro, “It is instructive to observe here that contrary to all principles of common justice, the traders were merely given few days quit notice. It is equally shocking that the government chose such a wrong time for the demolition exercise, thereby not only taking the shops from them but making sure that their wares were looted.”

“We are forced to ask: could this be the starting point in implementing Oba of Lagos’s earlier threat during the election period that Ndigbo would be thrown into the Lagoon? Could it be another round of deportation of exercise, similar to what former governor Fashola did? These appear to be so considering that a witch cried in the night and a child died in the morning.”

While maintaining that the Lagos State Government’s action was a threat to the unity of the country, the group demanded adequate compensation of traders who had suffered great losses as a result of the demolition, stressing that “it is quite inhuman for people’s means of livelihood to be taken away from them in such a manner.”

Isiguzoro further contended that the state government’s claim that arms were recovered from that section of the market is neither here nor there, “because it cannot be a reason for such a wicked treatment purely targeted on a particular people.”

“We demand that the Governor of Lagos State should direct relevant government agencies to adequately compensate these traders; anything short of that, Ndigbo will henceforth regard the Governor as their number one arch-enemy.”

One confirmed dead of Lassa fever in Edo

 

 

 

One person has been confirmed dead in Edo State after being diagnosed with Lassa fever infection.
Doctors at the Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital in Edo State are battling to save another victim currently on admission over Lassa fever.

The state’s Commissioner for Health, Dr. Heregie Aihanuwa, who confirmed the death, said five persons were hospitalized because of Lassa fever.
The commissioner said six persons were hospitalized and three infected persons had been treated and discharged. 

Dr. Aihanuwa said the dead victim did not report early for treatment.
She said the state government had begun sensitization programme on Lassa fever to rural communities.
She stated that health workers in the state have been cautioned to look out for symptoms of Lassa fever and refer suspected cases.

CBN Governor Must Be Sacked for His Role in $2.1b Arms Scandal – Tunde Bakare

The Serving Overseer of the Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently sack the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele for his role in the ongoing $2.1b Arms deal probe.

Buhari during his State of the Nation address, titled, ‘Roadmap to successful change,’ in his church in Lagos said the CBN contributed to the arms scandal in more ways than one.

His words “The CBN currently contributes negatively to the Nigerian state in more ways than one. Firstly, the CBN has become a conduit for politicians to drain the nation. Otherwise, how can a letter of barely two paragraphs, addressed to the current CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, by the then NSA, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.), become the authority to incur expenditure leading to cash flow of $37m and several million euro?
 
“In decent climes, the CBN governor cannot continue in office while the NSA is accounting for his alleged offences.

“Given the resurgence of the subsidy conundrum, it has become needful to pre-empt and inform those who have been wondering if our January 2012 protests were organised in error. Let me reiterate that the Save Nigeria Group did not mobilise the people of this country to the Gani Fawehinmi Park, Ojota, merely to protest the removal of the fuel subsidy but to challenge the corruption that defined the fuel subsidy regime.

“We said then that it was not a deregulation, as was being claimed by the government, but a hike in fuel price. We demanded the prosecution of those indicted in the damning report of the Farouk Lawan committee, a phenomenon we refer to as ‘Kleptoric kleptocracy unlimited’, where for instance, N999m was reportedly paid 129 times totalling N128,871,000,000 to some companies by the office of the Accountant General of the Federation.

“Four years later, those indicted persons have not been prosecuted. Do we still need to wonder why corruption is so endemic and very pervasive in our nation today?”

Checkout 5 Dirty Secrets Revealed By Olamide And Don Jazzy’s Fight Over Headies Awards

The 10th edition of the Headies award held friday night at the Landmark Event Centre, Victoria Island, but the award pretty much ended on a sour note after Mavin boss and YBNL boss got into a nasty fight because Lil Kesh of the YBNL lost The Next Rated Award for 2015 category to Reekado Banks of the Mavin which started a beef between the record label CEOs. Based on this, there are five questions begging for answers.

Olamide, when his artist Adekunle Gold won the award for Best Alternative act for his song, Shade climbed the stage with his whole to address what he felt was an injustice to Lil Kesh, said some unpleasant things threw the mic on the floor and stomped off the stage and Don Jazz, who had been given a Special Recognition award at the end of his acceptance speech, urged Olamide to come take the car that came with the award in question…

1. Don Jazzy not make his beats, rather, he pays people to do it and take all the credit – As revealed by Olamide

2. Headies Awards has been compromised. Going back to 2014 Headies, Reekado Banks won the Rookie of the Year award without having a song to be nominated with, but his input with Mavin Song Dorobucci.

3. Olamide has let go of the fact that D’banj’s producer, Deevee accused him of stealing the Kokomaster’s songs. This can be seen in how Olamide dragged D’banj into his rant?

4. Don Jazzy is an attention seeker who is not humble at all as he pose to be – As revealed by Olamide.

5. Olamide actually care about the feelings of his fans. This seen in the way he was quick to apologize to them for his very unruly and unacceptable conduct at the awards.

Credit: Information Nigeria

Femi Falana urges President Buhari to obey court orders and release Dasuki, Kanu

Femi Falana urges President Buhari to obey court orders and release Dasuki, Kanu

 

 

Renowned Lagos lawyer Femi Falana has called on the federal government to obey court orders & immediately release embattled former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, and Biafran leader, Nnamdi Kanu. He made the call in a statement which he released over the weekend that President Buhari will be disregarding the rule of law if Dasuki and Kanu are still being detained despite being granted bail by a Federal court. Read the statement below:

“The decision of the SSS to ignore the order admitting Col. Dasuki to bail coupled with the failure to re-arraign him on fresh charges is tantamount to impunity in every material respect.
If the federal government were aggrieved by the order admitting Col. Dasuki to bail it should have challenged it in the Court of Appeal. Much as the Nigerian people are fully behind the Buhari Administration in the patriotic move to recover the looted wealth of the nation, the federal government should be advised to ensure that the procedure for the loot recovery meets the tenets of the rule of law. The order admitting the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, to bail should also be complied with.

If the federal government has other charges against both suspects (Messrs. Kanu and Dasuki) it should file them in the court. There is no provision for keeping criminal suspects at the pleasure of security officials. Meanwhile, all valid and subsisting orders made by courts in favour of criminal suspects should be obeyed without further delay,” the statement read in part

Two fake security aides of President Buhari arrested while trying to dupe Gov Fayose

Two men, who claimed to be President Mohammadu Buhari’s private security aides, were reportedly arrested on Saturday at the Afao-Ekiti country home of the Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, for presenting themselves as staff of the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), with influence over the report of the military panel set up to investigate alleged involvement in partisan politics by some soldiers and officers during the 2014/ 2015 gubernatorial election conducted in some states such as Ekiti, Osun, Rivers and Akwa-Ibom.

A statement by the Special Assistant to the governor on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said the two men, Benedict Ola Idega and Abdulsalami Leader H., claimed that they already have the preliminary report of the military panel and that with the cooperation of the governor, they could manipulate the final report if necessary.
They also said the army panel report was targeted at some top army officers that the Federal Government wanted to punish.

Fayose, who was said to have been suspicious of the men’s real intentions, had informed the State Commissioner of Police and Director of the State Security Service, with the Police Commissioner already putting men of the State Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) on standby.

The two men, in a meeting with the governor presented what they called photocopy of page three of the preliminary report to show that they meant business. The purported copy of the page three bore the logo of the Nigerian Army.

After turning copy of the page three of the purported preliminary report, the governor gave the impression that he was satisfied with all that they said and asked them to wait at his waiting room for him to show appreciation. He then called in the Commissioner of Police and SSS Director, who in turn asked their men to move in and arrest them.


The two men, who lodged at a popular hotel along Bank Road, Ado Ekiti are now being detained at the Police Headquarters, Ado Ekiti, alongside another suspected accomplice, who was found in their hotel room when policemen visited the hotel for a search.

Olayinka said even though it has been established that they were impersonators, the real intention of the men were yet to be ascertained.

He said; “We don’t want to pre-empt the security agents that are already investigating the incident. But it is certain that they have ulterior motives. We are also not ruling out the possibility of an attempt to set-up the governor, obtain money from him under false pretence or even harm him.
“Therefore, we expect that the security agencies will do their job thoroughly by ascertaining their real motives and their other accomplices.

“However, we must say that anyone thinking that report of any military panel can be used to upturn an electoral victory already upheld by the Supreme Court, which is the final destination for dispute on governorship election must be thinking of committing judicial coup d’état, which by all standard is treason.”
The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr Alberto Adeyemi confirmed the arrest saying the fake security officers are still under interrogation.

Former Speaker of Ondo state House of Assembly kidnapped in Abuja

Former Speaker of Ondo state House of Assembly kidnapped in Abuja

 

 

A former speaker of the Ondo state House of Assembly, Mr Victor Olabintan, has been kidnapped in Abuja. The Secretary of the Olabintan Campaign Organization, Gboyega Ajayi, confirmed that Olabintan was on his way to Abuja from Akure when he was kidnapped by men who disguised in Military uniform.

He said Olabintan who only announced his decision to contest for the APC governorship ticket in Ondo State on Saturday January 9, was flagged down at a military checkpoint by fake soldiers who turned out to be kidnappers.