Category: News

Fayose Writes Tinubu Over APC Primaries; Tells Ex-Governor “Don’t Walk into Danger”

Former Governor of Ekiti State Ayo Fayose has alerted presidential aspirant on the platform of the All Progressive Congress Bola Ahmed Tinubu not to walk into danger with his pursuit of the presidential ticket of the party.

Fayose in an open letter on Monday said he foresaw danger just as it happened to the likes of the late MKO Abiola.

He warned Tinubu that what he believed was a political empire has been “Balkanized “ by his outburst in Abeokuta where he made some references to President Muhammadu Buhari.

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My Dear Asiwaju,

Let me start this letter to your good-self whom I considered as one of the leading lights of the Yoruba nation; as a letter that may not be patronizing, especially for the content based on the subjective views I will express here as a Yoruba man and not as a politician.

I equally wish to state that I am not an APC man and will never be.

I am writing based on my observed views and the attached possible dangers about your good-self against tomorrow.

One of the undeniable facts is your outburst in Abeokuta, which is a clear indication that you clearly saw a political danger to which you reacted. This informed the basis of my writing to you now.

I equally read the reactions of your political allies both in the North and in the South. The reactions gave me great cause of concern for you and your life. Again, I see danger!

As a knowledgeable student of history whom you are; our great late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and the celebrated winner of the June 12, 1993 general election; Alhaji Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, were led to the Golgotha by self acclaimed “champions of democracy.” I am sure the same people may advise you to ignore my advise.

Going by the handwritings that are now clearly on the wall, if I may comment sir, I see you as one that may be swimming against the political tide of the cabal in your party. They are equally preparing for your actions and reactions and are fully set to contain same as they did to both Awolowo and Abiola.

Unfortunately, your kingdom has been badly balkanized if what happened in Abeokuta is anything to go by.

My advise:
The book of Proverbs chapter 22 verse 3 (The Good News Translations), “sensible people will see trouble coming and avoid it but unthinking people will work into it.”

Again, Asiwaju, for reasons of not being misrepresented, I will like to stop here and allow you to take your decisions, good or bad as a wise full-grown adult whom you are.

I wish you the best of luck.

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2023 Is Your Year Of Judgment, Atiku Tells APC

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party and former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has told the ruling All Progressives Congress that its judgment year is the 2023 year of elections.

Atiku said the ruling APC had lost the moral decency to empathise with victims of terrorist invasion in Owo, Ondo State when the whole country was in a sober mood and could not cancel a dinner with its presidential aspirants on the day of the attack, describing the act as disconcerting.

A statement by a media aide to the PDP presidential candidate, Paul Ibe, gave the indication on Monday.

Atiku said it was unnecessary to say that the so-called primary election was occurring in the background of the reported claim of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to have the liberty to handpick his successor.

“It is important to stress that the 2023 general election, more than anything else, is a referendum about the scorecard of the APC and Nigerians should not reward their failure with even a day more on the saddle.”

“With the blood of innocent worshippers flowing on the street of the Sunshine State, leaders of the APC are gathered in Abuja, treating themselves to sumptuous dinner in a manner that suggests a lack of empathy for the mood of the nation,” he said.

“However, if the mystery that the APC calls a presidential convention primary is barely to handpick an anointed candidate, it is vital to ask the party leadership why they selected to hold the so-called convention for a working day, thereby disrupting economic activities around the FCT.

“Even as delegates in the so-called election entered the Federal Capital Territory, they must have been greeted with long queues of vehicles waiting to buy automobile fuel and darkness that continues to grim the capital city on account of seizures in electricity supply.

The former Vice President said the situation is creating a mindset in the delegates that the party is just been subjected to a referendum on its scorecard in the past seven years.

He said residents of the FCT who had been subjected to everyday stress as a result of bad administration by the ruling party, the choice of crucial working days – Monday and Tuesday – as days for the primary of the APC is a cold and selfish decision.

It needs no mention that whoever is ‘handpicked’ as the APC presidential candidate in such a despotic process cannot be any different from the authoritarian fervour of the APC’s establishment.

“Such a candidate, therefore, cannot represent the future of hope and brighter aspirations that Nigerians look forward to after the termination of the current state of anomie that the ruling party is known for,” Atiku added.

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I regret introducing Osinbajo to Tinubu -Ex-NAN MD OnanugaVeteran journalist and Spokesman for the Bola Tinubu Campaign Organisation, Bayo Onanuga, says he was the one who introduced Prof. Yemi Osinbajo to then Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu, in 1999, a decision he now regrets.

Onanuga said this in a statement on Monday in reaction to a PUNCH interview with a former National Secretary of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change, Buba Galadima, who had lambasted Osinbajo for daring to contest against Tinubu, his former boss.

In his article, Onanuga said Osinbajo was a lecturer in 1999 when Tinubu was putting his cabinet together in the presence of Otunba Gbenga Daniel (later Governor of Ogun State) and Dele Alake (later Lagos Commissioner for Information).

He recalled that Tinubu had written down the name of Bayo Oriola as the Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General of Lagos State when he asked Tinubu to nominate his bosom friend, Osinbajo, instead.Looking back now, did I regret what I did in January 1999. Yes, I would say I have some regret, especially since my action hurt Bayo Oriola; and my apology to Oriola once again. I could not have foreseen today’s turn of events between Tinubu and Osinbajo, who I nominated to be justice commissioner,” Onanuga stated.

He said when he nominated Osinbajo and spoke highly of him, Tinubu was eager to meet him and asked him (Onanuga) to invite him over.

“After the meeting, I went to Osinbajo’s house in Ogudu to invite him to meet the new governor, Bola Tinubu. I remember entering the apartment from the kitchen. The wife was there when I delivered the message and left the house with him, later.I have never published this story before and hereby want to apologise to my namesake Bayo Oriola, for blocking what should have rightly been his entitlement, going by the role he played during the campaign. I hope Oriola would have the heart to forgive me,” Onanuga stated.The former Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria noted that Alake, who was a classmate of Osinbajo and Babatunde Fowler (later Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service) at Igbobi College Lagos, also put in a word for Osinbajo to be nominated as the justice commissioner.

Tinubu would later nominate Osinbajo as the running mate to Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the 2015 election in which they won.

However, Osinbajo who has served as Vice-President for seven years is now contesting the APC primary against Tinubu for the Presidential ticket.

Incidentally, the Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, had in an interview with media entrepreneur, Chude Jideonwo, claimed he introduced Osinbajo to Tinubu when the latter asked him to nominate someone competent to be attorney-general of Lagos.

Ojudu, who is currently campaigning for Osinbajo, had said, “If I support Osinbajo, he deserves to be supported; I’ve known him since 1989. And in 1999, when I worked for Ahmed Bola Tinubu to become governor, he asked me if I knew someone who would become a good attorney-general and I said I have a lawyer who is smart and principled and he said go and call him,” he said.

Nigeria Youth Movement

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Unknown men gang-rape, slaughter house wife in Jigawa

Unknown persons have allegedly gang-raped and slaughtered a 26-year-old house wife, Ummi Garba in Hadejia Local Government Area of Jigawa State.

A resident told DAILY POST that the incident happened on Wednesday night at Warwadi quarters in Hadejia town.

He said the horrendous incident occurred when the unknown criminals took advantage of her husband’s absence, sneaked into the house, raped and butchered her.

Police spokesman, ASP Lawan Shiisu Adam confirmed the incident.

He said the terrible incident happened “on 01/06/2022 at about 1815hrs, when unknown persons trespassed into the compound of a 26-year-old house wife identified as Ummi Garba at Warwadi Quarters Hadejia, Local Government and used sharp object to slit her throat.”

Shiisu said a team of policemen rushed to the scene after receiving the information and the victim was rushed to the General Hospital Hadejia for treatment.

He said the victim died while receiving treatment and was confirmed dead by a medical doctor.

The police spokesman said the case was under investigation and efforts were on top gear to arrest the fleeing culprits.

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Man Reveals Why He Resigned As A Pastor At Winners’ Chapel To Become A Babalawo

A former pastor of Winners Chapel, identified as Yinka Oyewusi, has opened up on why he resigned as a pastor of the popular church to become a babalawo.

Taking to Facebook on Thursday, June 2, Oyewusi recounted how he was on fire for God and led prayers like a prayer machine in his days as a pastor.

However, things took a different turn when he started hearing voices telling him that he was designed to be a babalawo and if he doesn’t follow that path, he would regret the day he was born.

He said he eventually gave in to the voices and went to a town he was instructed to visit to train to become a babalwao.

Speaking further, Oyewusi asserted that Christians hardly practice what the bible preaches and recalled how he was denied help by a superior pastor of his church when he needed financial assistance for his ailing daughter.

Read his full post below,

“Why I resigned From My Job As A Pastor In Winners Chapel And Became A Babalawo

In my formative years, we were three fiery brothers practising Christianity in Iwo town — two of us very poor, but with strange will to survive. After secondary education and with nothing to live for, first among us was a talented beggar. As the second guy, my mother is late, and my father’s whereabout was unknown. So, the first guy and I were living in one of the three houses I knew belonged to the father of the 3rd guy, but the father didn’t care about the 3rd guy, though. The first guy is a genius in gathering monies through request for “urgent 2k” — we lived on this for years.

Miraculously, I and the 3rd guy obtained degrees in science and administration respectively; the first guy obtained a degree in theology and became the chaplain of a university Chapel.

But those days as a fiery Christian, I lost 40% of my hearing. The last time I visited the first guy of a chaplain, he needed me to source urgent 5k for him. Just this morning, the 3rd guy called me that he has bone fractures and is receiving treatment at the Ogbomosho general hospital. He needs money at least for feeding, but none is forthcoming. Let me add that the first guy is in Baptist, I was in Winners Chapel while the 3rd guy is a Mountain of Fire adherent.

Then I joined the ministry in Winners Chapel. Oratory is still my best physical gift — those in Winners Chapel Adeeke, Iwo in 2005 will remember me by the name Yinka. I had studied the scriptures from “paali to paali”; prayer sessions I handled those days looked like wartime events. While in the university, I was sent to pastor a new church in another town and did so successfully. But when I started full-time ministry, what you would usually call hosts of hell came banging at my door. They would tell me what would happen the following day and they would come to pass. They would tell me Mr A was at my door while I was still sleeping by 6:30am and that would be so.

Later, those spirits told me why I am on earth, and if I neglect my path, I would regret being born. They said I’m a Babalawo by design. I quickly went on overdrive binding “thoughts that may setup their selves against God’s knowledge and every disobedience…” Then I would hear strange laughter of a group of persons suggesting the spirits were many. Then I traveled to see a primary school mate who is making waves as a general overseer of a church. All his prayers or deliverance made no difference.

Then voices started threatening me and commanded me to go to a village whose name I never heard hitherto saying that someone is waiting for me there. I googled the name of the town and I found it. I went there because previous messages didn’t fail. I met the person and the priestess gave a stern warning that refusing to work for the gods would be a deadly decision. I accepted the calling right away.

But divination is not that easy to learn. I know someone who spent eight years on it. I became a pro within five months by some rare twists of events and within nine months, I became a full-blown Babalawo.

I’m tempted to say that Christians practice something different from what the Bible taught me. In 2020, my daughter was on life support at Bowen University Teaching Hospital, Ogbomosho. The bills were clearly beyond what my 50k salary could handle. I requested for help from the church hierarchy by calling the district pastor, and he said I should follow a correct route in channelling my request. I replied that I first of all called the area pastor who directed me and gave me his number to call. The district pastor started sounding offensive. That was why I went to nairaland and made a thread for help.

Someone I met online sent huge amount of money to me in the following thread to clear hospital bills.

I tendered a resignation letter in Winners Chapel in 2021 with two weeks notice. Before the notice elapsed and till today, I never heard anything from them about my resignation. But when the district church mistakenly paid a sum of money into my bank account after I had left (that money ought to be sent to the current pastor of the church) I told the accountant and he asked me to refund it immediately. While working there, I never had any history of misconduct. They treated me as though I never existed; that action reduced me to a new low, lower than the basest of animals…

The following advice is indispensable: life is not all about money; you’re here on a certain assignment.

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Cybercrime: Pastor on FBI-Wanted List Docked in Enugu

The EFCC Enugu Command on Friday June 3, 2022 arraigned one Pastor Kelechi Vitalis Anozie and three others who are currently at large, Mr. Azubuike Ifeanyi Bright, Mrs. Amarachi Blessing Iro and Mr. Kelechi Patrick Iro, before Justice I.M Buba of the Federal High Court sitting in Enugu on a seven count charge bordering on money laundering.

Anozie who is on the America Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Wanted List, was arrested by the Enugu Command of the EFCC at Owerri on March 10, 2022 following actionable intelligence received by the Commission.

The defendant is alleged to have defrauded one F.F who lives in Illinois the sum of $135,800, and $47,000 from another American based in North Carolina.

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EFCC Arrests Corps Member, 18 Other ‘Yahoo-Yahoo Boys’ in Lokoja

Operatives of the Ilorin Zonal Command of the EFCC have arrested 19 suspected internet fraudsters in a sting operation in Lokoja, the Kogi State Capital.

The suspects were smoked out of their hideouts by the eagle-eyed operatives of the EFCC over the weekend following credible intelligence on their fraudulent activities.

The suspects include a serving corps member in the State, Adamu Shuabu and eighteen others.

They are, Achimugu Nelson Ojonoka, Victor Atsumbe, Akoh Grace Samuel, Usman Abubakar Sadiq, Jacob Emmanuel, Solomon John, Christian Oyakhilome, Adesanya Adeolu Tosin, Uloko George Ojonugwa and Timothy Eleojo Moses.

Others are Negedu Joseph Onuchei, Usman Tenimu, Lukman Musa, Samuel Atadoga, Daniel Atekojo James, Abdulrazaq Iko-ojo Ahnod, Olarewaju John Olumide and Ademola Adegoke Daniel.

Upon arrest, a Lexus car, huge sum of money suspected to be proceeds of illegal activities, different brands of phones, laptops and other incriminating materials were recovered from them.

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OWO TERROR ATTACK: NGF VISITS GOV AKEREDOLU, ONDO CATHOLIC BISHOP

•Donates 50 Million Naira To Ondo Catholic Diocese

•Commiserates With Olowo of Owo

The Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) has paid a condolence visit to Ondo State to commiserate with the Governor, the state and the Catholic diocese of Ondo over the Sunday terror attack at St Francis Catholic Church, Owa-luwa Street, Owo.

Chairman of the NGF and Ekiti State Governor, Dr John Kayode Fayemi visited Ondo State Governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu,SAN, at the Government House, Alagbaka,Akure on Monday.

Governor Fayemi was accompanied by former Governor of Ogun State and serving Senator representing Ogun Central Senatorial District, Senator Ibikunle Amosun.

They were later led by Governor Akeredolu to the residence of the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Ondo, Bishop Jude Arogundade before moving to Owo to commiserate with the Olowo of Owo, Oba Gbadegesin Ogunoye in his palace.

Governor Fayemi, who described the ugly attack as least expected, stated that Owo has been a very peaceful environment.

“It is a serious and unusual attack on the people who can’t go out and farm or workship God in peace. We are all shock.

“Just like the Governor said, these people shall not go unpunished. They will be hunted down and brought to book. But this can not save the lives that have been lost or save the wounded from discomfort.

“As leaders of the people, we will redouble our efforts. This is happening across the county and we are concerned. We know how troubled you will be. And we know that this is something that troubles our minds.

“For now, the government at the state and federal levels are working to bring the perpetrators to book. My colleagues in the Governors forum have asked me to donate N50 million to the Catholic Church to ameliorate the condition of the families of the victims. This is a crime against humanity.” Fayemi said.

The Bishop of Ondo Diocese, Bishop Jude Arogundade described the attack as evil.

He urged the Governors to ensure that those behind the killing and their sponsors are brought to book.

“I appreciate your coming and comment. How did we get here? Have we lost our mind and humanity? Even in war situation, nobody kills children and women. Nobody attacks the church.

“I am calling on you the leaders of the country, I think we need to talk and we need to be frank with each ourselves. This can not happen without the backing of some powerful people. Those behind this no matter how powerful they are, must be brought to book.

“How are we presenting ourselves as primitive. Ondo state doesn’t deserve this . Humanity doesn’t deserve this. This doesn’t present us well. People are laughing at us.” Bishop Arogundade said.

At the palace of Olowo of Owo, Fayemi commiserated with the people of Owo and the Olowo over the ugly incident.

“Our people are traumatized. The entire Governors asked me to deliver their condolences to you and the entire Owo. We are all still in shock.

“This is not an attack on owo or Ondo state. It is not attack on all of us. We must restore our pride. So that our people can feel safe again. We need to restore our country to sanity, to safety.” He said.

The Olowo of Owo, Oba Gbadegesin Ogunoye said the perpetrators of the ugly attack wanted to make a statement.

He said the federal government needs to be proactive, saying “Our forest here in owo, in Yoruba land have been invaded. Our farmers can’t go to farms again. Those in our forest illegally must be flushed out.”

Governor Akeredolu later led the visitors to the St Louis hospital in Owo, where some of the survivors are receiving medical attention.

Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi state has expressed confidence in defeating Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidate, Atiku Abubakar in the 2023 presidential election.

He spoke during an interview on Channels TV on Sunday, May 5, 2022, adding that he would make an excellent president as the youngest governor.

Bello is a presidential aspirant under the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

He said; “My interest is to fly the flag of APC as its presidential candidate and defeat PDP, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar at the polls.

“So if you’re talking about whether I will beat Atiku or not, let me tell you, and I say this sometimes when I was running for my second time, when I was accosted by a press man in the villa and asked me whether I would be able to win my second term. And I said no, it’s not just victory we’re looking at but the margin of victory.

“And as I speak with you now before 2pm on the day of the general election, we’ll be celebrating victory by the special grace of God when I secure the party.”

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Bandits Invade Abuja Estate, Abduct Residents In Early Monday Morning Attack

A large number of armed men, suspected to be bandits, in the early hours of Monday attacked a private estate, Genuine Estate, in the Gwarinpa area of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

SaharaReporters was told that the bandits, who were armed with machetes, daggers, and cutlasses, outnumbered and overpowered the security guards and invaded some houses in the estate.

“They operated in the estate for about three hours. They abducted some of the residents,” a source said, as details still remained sketchy.

The bandits who got to the estate on 6th avenue behind Efab Queens, around 1 am, left the place after 4 am.

The spokesperson for the FCT Police Command, Josephine Adeh, however, said the case was a robbery case, not kidnapping.