Oyo APC Will Emerge Bigger And Stronger, Progressive Minds Leaders Assure

Leaders and elders of Oyo State APC Progressive Minds, the gathering of progressives in the state has reiterated the need to learn from the mistakes of the past which led to the party's dwindling fortunes in the state and forge ahead for a better future by insisting on the possession of proven track records, good antecedents and contributions to the growth of the party, in choosing the party's flag bearers in future elections. 

The meeting which was graced by progressive leaders which included Alhaji Kehinde Balogun, Hon Caleb Oyaniyi, Hon Salawu, Alhaji Rasheed Jimoh, Mr Olu Abiola, Alhaji Tunde Ibrahim, Mrs Bamigbola Stella, Alhaji Abiade Yekeen, Alhaji Anifowose Shakiru, Alhaji Tirimisiyu Alarape, Eng A.I.M Olaniyan, Chief Tajudeen Hamed (Babaloja), Sheik Tajudeen Olujide, Alhaji Sulaimon Busari (Professor), Alhaji Ganiyu (Babayaro), Pa Shaba Adekunle and others, had members in attendance from local governments across all the zones of Oyo State. 

Members in attendance and progressives across the state are encouraged to make the necessary effort to ensure that the All Progressive Congress return to her roots, one of which is the practice of pushing forward candidates with proven track records and enviable antecedents for elective offices rather than the later and recent aberration of giving in to the highest bidder, noting that it is the former practice that attracted serious minded and people oriented politicians of proven integrity to the progressive fold in the Pa Obafemi Awolowo, Chief Bola Ige and Alh Lam Adesina eras. 

Leaders in the party are also entreated not to divide their followers and members of the party into camps with the hope of getting feedbacks from opposing camps, but rather to be committed to the resolution of every misunderstanding and points of differences within the party, towards achieving the unification of the party as a whole, in the shortest possible period of time. 

Oyo APC Progressive Minds leaders assured members that the meeting is recognized by party elders in the state while expressing confidence that Oyo State APC will navigate her present challenges and emerge bigger and stronger.

Oyo APC Progressive Minds general meeting will reconvene by 12:00 noon on Tuesday September 26, 2023 at the premises of Black and White Chambers, Oke Ado, Ibadan. All Oyo State APC members are invited to join us at the meeting for the development of Oyo State APC progressive movement.

More pictures from the meeting!!

THE SILENT WAR IN APC AND THE GBAJABIAMILA, NUHU RIBADU 2027 CONSPIRACY

Jackson Ude

@jacksonpbn

Ribadu

A new cabal, much more vicious, power hungry and corrupt has emerged in the Bola Tinubu Presidency. 

The Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, 

and the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, have formed a tag team, controlling the affairs of Government, shielding Tinubu away from happenings and forming a cabal that would sooner or later tear down the house of APC. 

At the back of their mind is 2027 elections. 

Gbajabiamila does not see Tinubu either completing his tenure or having the capacity to run again in 2027 due to his failing health.

 His strategy is now to clip the wings of those he perceive might be on his way to replace Tinubu. 

Gbajabiamila found an ally in Ribadu. 

His calculation is that in the event Tinubu cannot continue,

 he would make Ribadu his running mate. 

But in the event Tinubu finishes 8yrs, 

and power is to return to the North, he would run as Ribadu’s running mate.

To achieve those plans, it serves him well to get Mallam Elrufai out of the equation. 

Elrufai’s clearance for a Ministerial position has now been put on hold.

 Gbaja and Ribadu are said to have masterminded that to keep the former Kaduna Governor out of the race for 2027 or 2031.

Gbajabi/Tinubu

Gbajabiamila and Ribadu’s scheme have brought a major crack in the APC, and Presidency, especially with those who toiled day and night campaigning for Tinubu. 

There is palpable anger. Anger of being left out from the Ministerial nominations and others political positions. 

Those who were hitherto close to Tinubu are now so shocked how they were either left out or no longer have access to the President. 

Gbajabiamila and Ribadu have shut them out, leaving them In regrets.

In Katsina State, 

a very close ally of Tinubu, Senator Habu Ibrahim, did not make the Ministerial list and no longer have unfettered access to Tinubu. 

Former Katsina State Governor, Aminu Bello Masari, also lost out of reckoning. 

In Ekiti State, 

former Governor Kayode Fayemi, an intellectual base of the APC, was left out. 

Same with a renegade member of the PDP, Ayo Fayose. 

In Lagos State,

 Babatunde Fashola 

and Akinwunmi Ambode 

and Abike Dabiri were all left out for an unknown Lola Ade-John who is alleged to be a girlfriend of Wale Edun. 

In Enugu State,

 former Governors Chimaraoke Nnamani 

and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi both betrayed their party, the PDP to work for Tinubu. 

They have both been shut out. 

They didn’t get a Ministerial position. 

In Oyo state,

 Senator Teslim Folarin suffered humiliation from his own party, the APC, which worked against his Governorship ambitions and yet he never got compensated with a Ministerial nomination. 

Bashir Lado, 

Kashim Imam, both long term northern friends of Tinubu lost out and shut out from the villa. 

Magnus Abe who was tipped for a Ministerial position alongside Nyesom Wike, lost out and shut out because Wike would not have him around. 

In Bayelsa, 

Ebitimi Ambare lost out to Henekein Lokpobiri, a nominee of Wike.

Bayo Onanuga, 

Tunde Rahman, both very close persons to Tinubu lost out. 

In fact, Rahman who should have been made the Media Adviser to the President, was blocked by the duo of Gbajabiamila and Dele Alake.

 Rahman is now considering leaving the Government. 

Femi Fani-Kayode, 

Tunji Bello, 

Babatunde Ogala, 

Ahmed Raji,

 Abiodun Faleke Senator Tokubo Abiru, 

and very close friends of Tinubu who have all been schemed out and shut out.

The duo of Gbajabiamila and Ribadu are playing their cards well, watching for anyone who might be a threat to their 2027 or 2031 Presidential ambitions. 

How long the scheming would last would be determined by the strength of their strategies.

GOD HELP US 

APC IS A SCAM 

TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT

Lowo Obisesan congratulates Buhari, Sharafadeen Alli and Akintunde; describes the trio as the pride of Oyo progressive

The Former commissioner for Environment and a legal luminary, Lowo Obisesan congratulates Sen. Fatai Buhari, Dr Yunus Akintunde and Oloye Sharafadeen Alli on their recent appointments as chairmen of powerful senate committees.

He made the congratulatory message available to the newsmen in Ibadan in the early hours of Wednesday 9th August, 2023.

The renowned  Progressive Chieftain, Chief Lowo Obisesan wrote, "On behalf of All the Progressive leaders, Elders, Stakeholders and members of the Party in Oyo state, I congratulate progressive Senators representing Oyo South, Central and North respectively on their appointments as chairmen of notable senate committees. The appointment of Oloye Sarafadeen Ali, Yunus Akintunde and Dr Fatai Buhari as chairmen INEC, Environment and Aviation respectively is a reflection of their competencies and capacities."

Barrister Lowo Obisesan used the opportunity to felicitate the great people of Oyo state for having such political legends as senators representing them in the 10th assembly. He is of the strong conviction that their positions would bring development to the people of Oyo state. 

Barrister Lowo Obisesan concluded by soliciting the supports of the party faithful and Oyo state people for our distinguished senators and the government of Asiwaju Bola Hammed Tinubu.

Obi, Atiku United in the Cause

POEM Deepens...

If you had time to study the HE Peter Obi and Labour Party final address on one hand and the HE Atiku Abubakar and the Peoples Democratic Party's own on the other, one would notice a path of unity in almost all arguments. Both addresses were in response to HE Bola Ahmed Tinubu and HE Kashim Shettima's own final address in defence of the heist called the February 25 presidential election conducted by the Prof Mahmood Yakubu-led Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

Both petitioners' sets of legal teams brushed aside the arrogance, provocation and threats from the rabble-rousing team led by Wole Olanipekun, SAN to dwell on issues of their respective petitions. Drawing from both the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and the 2022 Electoral Act, both teams cleanly pushed the dagger through the arteries of the Respondents by providing proofs evidently beyond every reasonable doubt in matters relating to non-compliance, Tinubu's drug-related forfeiture business, forgery of certificates, Shettima's double nomination and the matter of 25% votes in the Federal Capital Territory.

Most interesting of the arguments can be enjoyed from digesting the submissions both ventilated while supplying proofs upon proofs, including citations, of the intentions of the drafters of the constitution by the use of *AND* in reference to 25% of the votes cast in at least ⅔ of the 36 states of the Federation and the FCT, Abuja.

Though choosing their different sets of words, both teams arrived at exactly the same conclusion - any president of Nigeria *MUST* obtain at least 25% of the total number of the votes cast at the FCT in addition to other constitutional requirements, to be declared president-elect. Tinubu did not, and both parties are crying foul. 

It is significant to note here that even when Atiku and the PDP did not get up to the required 25% votes in FCT, they stoutly defended the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Kudos to Atiku, the PDP and their legal team for insisting on the right thing even when they would not benefit directly from the move. A new Nigeria is indeed POssible!

The Justice Haruna Tsammani-led five-man Tribunal is on the spotlight. Expectations are quite high that they should rise to the occasion and deliver equitable justice. The nation is all eyes as much as the international communities, especially the European Union, who sunk a whopping €38 million into the exercise, having been convinced by Prof Yakubu and his INEC that the election was going to be free, fair and credible.

Tsammani has the yearning chance to clean up the mess of Yakubu and let the country enjoy the confidence of the EU and the watching world. No country lives in isolation from the rest of the world, and a country of over 200 million should not be an exception.

#ANewNigeriaIsPOssible

This is POEM

10TH Senate Leadership: My Appeal To PDP Senators

By Bolaji O. Akinyemi. 

Since the beginning of this Republic in 1999, the preference for People's Democratic Party by the people of South Eastern Nigeria has been proven time and time again!

 Their rejection of APC's Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 was almost total which invented the 95% 5% political formula. It denied the Region of Senate Presidency because the region practically had no representation in 8th Senate. If not for bigandry of power, 2019 would have followed the pattern of 2015!

Opposition is the grace that beautifies democracy. Its dynamism saw APC to power. No one can take it away from APC. They provided the most informed opposition laced with media propaganda to push PDP out of power!

 Reflecting on the Attempt by PDP led administration of President Goodluck Jonathan to remove petroleum subsidies and how the then National Leader of ACN and Now President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu provided inspirational leadership to tackle PDP on its betrayal of people's contract from which PDP never recovered, is of essence to all PDP Senators to guarantee the survival of Nigeria as one, united country and at finding the way forward for their party to come back to power in the future!

Successful removal of subsidy practically on the first day of Bola Ahmed Tinubu in office shows the impotence of opposition politics in Nigeria presently. 

The docility of PDP as the leading opposition party since the advent of APC to power in 2015 is very disturbing! In fact, some political pundits are of the opinion that the PDP is too elitist to play the role of opposition while some APC top brass believe the most opposition recently have come from the so called Obidients. 

 Some other individuals have provided better opposition to APC administration than PDP as a political party! 

 This doesn't augur well for the development of democracy and its institutions. PDP therefore owe it a duty to democracy; having the leading number of opposition Senators, a trust the electorate has conferred on them to hold sacred this responsibility. Will they let it slip to LP or get on the game to provide opposition; galvanise LP, APGA, NNPP and others in the Senate for the sake of protecting Democracy!

Inevitably, positioning for proactive and pragmatic opposition is more importantly for all PDP Senators now and they should make that their primary responsibility! 

PDP Senators should put in context the solo effort of BAT in the regionalized pump price of PMS against what is available in OPEC nations. 

Making a case for this administration as far as subsidy is concerned is double speaking and no man of conscience should have a part in that.

This subsidy removal is a remote assurance of a successful tenure. To hail any successful outcome of this Government at the end of 4 years with the luxury of subsidy removal allowed her which was denied others will be unfair. Let this be on record.

The future of PDP as a party hangs in the balance, the side to which this will tilt is entirely up to PDP Members in the National Assembly, they either trade their personal aggrandizement for the future of their party, or eat up their political careers through blind pursuit of avarice.

My interpretation of the body language of the judiciary through the ongoing election petition suggests a judiciary system functioning from a bat right side pocket.

 Letting BAT have his way at putting the NASS in his left pocket through interfering in the politics of who and who emerges as their leaders will prove to be a costly mistake if ever allowed to happen!

Sentiments are snares in politics, but could be an effective ace at pushing odds through, in any political engagement if employed by strategy.

I stand to be corrected, it appears to me that the new Government is already showing signs of authoritarianism which if not checked will end our democratic experience in a one party system or end it finally.

It will be a disservice to Nigerians and to democracy if the Government is allowed to successfully edge us towards the path of a failed democracy.

The choice of Akpabio by BAT is hinged on the contract that saw him step down for BAT. 

While it is okay for BAT to reward Akpabio, should it be with a decision that is exclusively the right of 108 members of the Senate to make?

It is quite considerate for APC to zone the Senate Presidency to the South East or South South, but micro Zoning it Akpabio is nothing other than exhibiting impunity of power over the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and taking every single Senator elected by the people for granted!

My trip to Umuahia to witness the inauguration of Dr Alex Otti as the Executive Governor of Abia state brought me face to face with the reality of the need to immediately and deliberately integrate the region into national structure of Government in the interest of giving the people of South East the opportunity to see prospects in one, big and united Nigeria. 

I cared less where goes the Senate Presidency provided it's not tied to the apron of BAT led presidency, but not after my historical trip to Umuahia. The vortex of political conflagration in the region is capable of destroying our dream of one united Nigeria. 

I will write of my experience in an article to be titled, "Biafra; a Republic within Republic", but for now, let me present to the PDP Senators the urgent need to reassure that region and suck them in. The military occupation of the South East is embarrassing to the spirit of democracy, which abhors a police state, not to speak about militarization of social and public space.

The event of Otti's inauguration was a flicker of hope to democracy. My road trip from Lagos to Umuahia was like travelling through a region at war to see the enthronment of democracy. The crowd at the stadium was unprecedented. All gates to the stadium were shut few hours into the programme to prevent the sea of heads on all the streets leading to the stadium, from gaining access, which of course could cause a stampede.

 The crowd were however content with being around the venue and remained on the streets till the event was over! A big endorsement for the people's Government and their Governor. No doubt, Otti is who they voted for. And what they ordered, Democracy delivered!

Amazing however was waking up to the intimidation of the celebration of Biafra Day on Tuesday 30th of May. I was to leave Umuahia that day with my wife but couldn't because banks were closed and we were advised not to leave Umuahia for Owerri as we have to pass through Mbaise which is among pockets of communities in the South East hosting the minority IPOB sympathizers against the wishes of the majority for democratic participation in a one big and greater nation proven by what we witnessed at Otti's inauguration!

May I appeal to Senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to the 10th Assembly to put their country Nigeria first, and consider South East for Senate Presidency. This may be needed activation of a suck in process of the Republic within a Republic.

As Buhari Conducts Tinubu round the Villa....

Festus Adedayo

Forget their pretensions and volte-faces, when outgoing Nigerian public officials wake up tomorrow, May 29, they will wake up into emptiness. That void cannot be filled by the wealth they acquired in office. Nor can it be impeached by Muhammadu Buhari’s reported haste to flee Aso Villa tomorrow. At the launch of a book on his administration at the presidential villa on Friday, the outgoing president had said: “I assure you, I have been counting the days; I am looking forward to Monday very desperately. I will use the weekend to sign some of the papers so that from Eagle Square, I will fly to Kaduna and eventually go to Daura”.

Buhari’s wife, Aisha, was to later rubbish his de-masculinity of Aso Rock. In its stead, she replaced it with a desire for the continuation of the flow of free money and power of government. At the launch of a book entitled ‘The Journey of a Military Wife’ on Friday, she asked for first ladies whose roles the constitution does not recognise to be given parity of office privileges with their spouses. Under Nigerian law, presidents and allied officials are given their salaries for life, their medical treatments, and that of their family members paid for by the state, with yearly procurement of vehicles and other benefits, among many others.

“They should consider us as former first ladies. They should incorporate the first ladies, give us some privileges that we deserve as first ladies,” she demanded. Aisha also further gave the issue a feminist re-reading, against the grain of the African masculinist cultural background which has ensured centuries of uneven devolution of powers. The system should not give these privileges “just to the former presidents,” she advised.

Of all life’s existential acquisitions – wealth, fame, women, money, power, and the lot – the most transient, most fleeting, and ephemeral of all is power. Power is the most un-enduring. Former presidential spokesman, Reuben Abati, put it in its crudest, street lingo form when he said, eight years ago, that his phone stopped ringing immediately after he stepped out of power. Power is the fair-weather friend that will not be there for you in your time of loneliness. It perhaps was what the holy writ had in mind when it ascribed to life the fleetingness of vapour.

While all their acquisitions in office in the last four or eight years may still be there – cars, houses, money, and the lubricants of power, (forgive my sexism) – by now, power must be carrying away its last portmanteau from the apartment of the yesterday public office holder. Yoruba put this existential emptiness starkly when they refer to ex-power wielders as “eni ana” – yesterday’s men. It was from late governor Abiola Ajimobi – God rests his soul – that I first encountered the Yoruba proverbial capture of the evanescence nature of life. Yoruba capture it in their wise saying when they say that no one rushes to make way for he who once rode a horse – “a kii yago f’elesin ana“.

One of the reasons for the emptiness that these public officials will begin to encounter from tomorrow stems from the monarchical nature of Nigeria’s presidential democracy. Officials of western democracies where our system of government was inherited would find it easier to confront this emptiness of power and office. This is because, with them, the office carries less indiscriminate wielding of power.

Here in Nigeria, we are driven by the Kabiyesi syndrome perception of power. The public official is the unquestionable titular, second-in-command only to the gods. This is why, for these Nigerian officeholders, the transition tomorrow from power to the streets is capable of making one miserable. It can be likened to the deposition of a king, a man who was once the Kabiyesi – the unquestionable.

Tomorrow, the baton of power will change. History has been unusually kind to Buhari. Like Olusegun Obasanjo, he has had the opportunity of being the Nigerian head of state twice, both as a military and civilian leader. He could have been killed in 1983 the same way his fellow coup plotter, Ibrahim Ahmed Bako, had his life snuffed out of him in the process of staging the coup. In their bid to dispossess Shehu Shagari of presidential power, Bako had been detailed to Shagari’s presidential residence. Wearing civilian attire, Bako had come to Shagari’s residence in the company of an armed detachment. As the fire raged between his troops and the Brigade of Guards soldiers commanded by Captain Augustine Anyogo, Bako got shot dead as he sat in the passenger side of a Unimob utility truck. Buhari survived to rule Nigeria.

Again, through what many called the uncanny but misplaced generosity of providence, Buhari administered Nigeria for yet another eight years. Though he had recently engaged in a last-minute attempt to rewrite his own history, the general impression is that he was a failure. The BBC said Buhari, “the last of a generation of British-trained military men who went on to govern the country” would be “leaving Nigerians less secure, poorer, and more in debt than when he came to office in 2015″.

That same last Friday, Buhari took the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, around the presidential palace on a familiarisation tour. This is the place that will be Tinubu’s abode of power in the next four years, all things being equal. His wife, Remi, also went her own round, cosseted by Aisha. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had earlier conducted Kashim Shettima around the VP wing of the State House.

Thereafter, Tinubu made many promises to Nigerians, praying to God for good health to be able to deliver. He also promised to fight corruption. However, I think that the greatest task we must put on Tinubu’s shoulders is the task of restoring Nigeria to a country where the guilty get their deserved comeuppance, no matter how highly placed, while the just get their deserved dividends. He must return Nigeria to that critical stanza of the Nigerian national anthem which says that Nigeria’s goal is “to build a nation where peace and justice shall reign”.

Those two variables – peace and justice – are not mutually exclusive. They are co-joined like a Siamese. To seek peace where there is no justice is inequity. Both go simultaneously. Jamaican reggae icon, Peter Tosh, put it succinctly when he sang, in his Jamaican patois, that “everyone is crying now for peace, none is crying now for justice; I don’t want no peace, I need equal rights and justice”. Once Nigeria arrives at that critical juncture where there is equal rights and justice, all other social indices will begin to fall in place. Nigeria fell on the social ladder because injustice grows lusciously daily in the land like ferns in a plantation.

Before now, the system gave the right measurement to both the high and the lowly. The judicial scale of judgment did not discriminate between the high, mighty, and the peasant, the lowly. I will cite four instances in history, two pre-colonial and two post-colonial, which indicated that Nigeria was once a country where justice reigned.

Two depositions of highly rated Yoruba Obas during the pre-colonial era come first. They are followed by the execution of a Yoruba Oba and the fourth, a top-rate elite in the Nigerian society who was hanged for murder. Obas constituted the highest echelon of the Yoruba society of the time. These depositions rarely talked about in history were that of Ijebu Obas, Akarigbo Oyebajo (1891-1915) and Awujale Adenuga (1925-1929). Oyebajo had become Oba in his mid-20s in 1891. Akarigbo Oyebajo apparently basked in his belief in the permanence of his position as an Oba and the power of his cordial relationship with Governor Gilbert Thomas Carter and his successor, McCallum, Sir Henry Edward.

This apparently led to the Akarigbo being appointed in February 1902 as a member of the central native council. Oyebajo was thus prompted to become high-handed, especially in his relationship with his chiefs. The result was widespread dissension from them. He began to monopolise the accruing stipends that came to him from the colonial government and refused to share them with these chiefs which custom required him to so do. The chiefs, in 1911, then got him tried in court for extortion and larceny. His situation was worsened by the fact that the district commissioner, H. F. Duncombe, could not stand him and in spite of Horatio Jackson, editor and publisher of the tabloid Lagos Weekly Record’s plea on his behalf to the colonial office, the Akarigbo was subsequently deported to Calabar and died on July 11, 1932.

Adenuga, 33 years old when he was appointed Awujale, from the word go, showed immense immaturity in superintending over the enormous judicial, executive, and legislative powers he wielded as Oba. He began to abuse them from day one of his kingship. A few months into his being in office, the colonial government reprimanded him for extorting forestry fees from his subjects, and in 1928, he got two other reprimands for grafts, one of which was collecting bribes in February of the year to favour ascension to the Onipe of Ibu stool. In March of same 1928, he was implicated in attempting to cover up a case of homicide. In the October of the same year, he was alleged to have attempted to rid the town of Joseph Igu, also widely known as Frugality, an anti-corruption crusader who was a pain in the neck of maladministration.

Inundated with complaints of the Akarigbo’s excesses, the colonial government instituted a judicial commission of enquiry with a charge to assess the Ijebu native administration, vis a vis the Akarigbo’s style of governance. In the report submitted on January 18, 1929, Adenuga was found guilty of corruption and deposed to Ilorin. In 1934, he was tried alongside a Yesufu Idimota and ten others, for the attempted assassination of his successor Akarigbo. Adenuga was then imprisoned in Abeokuta and went through the indignity of being manacled in public and publicly carrying latrine buckets from his cell corridor to the main latrine. He was however acquitted by the West African Court of Appeal on May 27, 1935, and at the age of 58, he died miserably.

The third case had to do with the first Yoruba Oba to face public execution. It occurred in the current Ekiti state in 1949. This was the 43rd Alaaye of Efon-Alaaye, Kabiyesi Oba Samuel Adeniran, the Asusumasa Atewogboye II. He, his herbalist, a servant, and another named Gabriel Olabirinjo, after the end of their trial for murder, were all hanged by the colonial state, having been found to have murdered a 15-month-old baby girl by the name Adediwura. On January 10, 1949, the baby, who was hitherto seen playing in her father’s compound, suddenly disappeared. Oba Adediran was promptly informed and he publicly pretended to have joined in the baby’s search. The prosecution later found out that after young Adediwura’s kidnap by Oba Adeniran’s herbalist, she was brought to the Alaaye’s palace where she was butchered, right in the Oba’s presence. He then swore all the dramatis personae in this killing to an oath of secrecy. That same police from whose body wriggles out maggots today, in 1949, swung into action upon the matter being incidented. Three suspects, Enoch Falayi – the herbalist, Gabriel Olabirinjo, and Daniel Ojo, were promptly arrested. One of them eventually spilled the beans, incriminating Oba Adeniran.

The trial judge, Justice NS Pollard, then delivered his judgment: “With the acceptance of that statement as evidence of tacit admission of the facts therein, there is not only ample corroboration of the evidence…it goes further and is evidence of admission of facts from which no other conclusion is possible than that the appellant counseled and procured the murder of this child and was rightly found guilty thereof.” With this final pronouncement, Oba Adeniran, Asusumasa, the palace herbalist, one of Kabiyesi’s servants and a Gabriel Olabirinjo, were eventually hanged by the neck “until you be dead”.

The last case is the notorious and infamous case of Ibadan-born land baron, Jimoh Ishola, a.k.a. Ejigbadero. Ejigbadero was a mascot in the Papa Ajao, Mushin, Agege, and Alimosho areas of Lagos during his notorious reign. Ejigbadero was also the chief executive of Jimsol Nigeria Limited, a company that specialized in nail manufacturing on Matori Road, Mushin in the 70s. More importantly, he was a land baron of note who was dreaded for his shrewd disposition towards lands. He had sold land to a man simply known as Raji Oba in Alimosho and wanted to retrieve it from him.

Thus, on August 22, 1975, which incidentally was his child’s naming day, Ejigbadero, an illiterate, perfected the plan to dispossess Oba of the land. He had a bandstand readied at the front of his house and a huge crowd, which had come to celebrate with him. He came out resplendently dressed and sprayed a huge wad of naira notes on the face of the musician, enough to arrest the crowd. Amid hails, Ejigbadero retreated into his house, changed into a French Safari suit, a gun tucked in his pocket, and hopped inside his Peugeot 504 saloon car. Through the back entrance, he and six of his thugs sped to Alimosho where he confronted Oba and shot him point blank in the head.

Ejigbadero came back home, changed into his resplendent dress, and sprayed noticeable cash again. Unfortunately for him, however, the deceased’s wife, Sabitiu recognised him from where she was hiding. He was subsequently arrested by the police and slammed with a two-count charge of murder.

Ejigbadero’s alibi was that he never left the party which dragged on from 6.30 pm till the wee hours of the morning of August 23, 1975. From the high court judgment of guilt and hanging by the neck which was pronounced on him by Justice Ishola Oluwa, his appeal, presided over by Justices Mamman Nasir, Adetunji Ogunkeye, and Ijeoma Aseme, down to the Supreme Court where Justices Darnley Alexander, Atanda Fatayi-Williams, Ayo Irikefe, Mohammed Bello and Chukwunweike Idigbe held fort, on October 22, 1978, Ejigbadero was found guilty and sentenced to death. One funny drama at the Supreme Court was that, as Justice Idigbe pronounced the lead judgment, being illiterate, Ejigbadero kept asking his lawyer, in conk Ibadan dialect, “Sowemimo, emi ni won so?” (Sowemimo, what did the judge say?)

Ejigbadero was connected in the social and political circuit of Nigeria at the time, even being friends with the high and mighty in the decision-making cadre of Nigeria. Musicians struggled to sing his praises. One of them sang that as inscrutable as it was to find out the source of water inside the pod of coconut, so was it unfathomable to locate Ejigbadero’s wealth. Yet, the system gave him his right comeuppance. In fact, the Obasanjo government quickly ensured that he was executed before the October 1, 1979 handover to civilians, nursing the fear that with Ejigbadero’s links, he might secure an undeserved pardon.

Gradually, justice began to die in Nigeria. Today, the Nigerian landscape is littered with the blood of the righteous and the gloat of the powerful. With it came the death of shame and the ascendancy of shamelessness. Not long ago, the children of Ejigbadero remembered their executed father in a lavish ceremony that spoke to this level of societal shamelessness. Soon, the children of one of the most notorious and infamous armed robbers in Nigeria, Ishola Oyenusi will troupe out to celebrate his own passing too. It is a reflection of the societal loss of shame. Oyenusi, popularly known as Dr. Ishola, hailed from Araromi in the Okitipupa area of Ondo state. Renowned for carjacking, bank holdups, and heists, Oyenusi, on September 8, 1971, with six other members of his gang, were executed.

Going by logic and antecedents, it will be difficult for Tinubu to properly situate the scale of justice in Nigeria. His IOUs will predictably tilt towards those same principalities and powers for whom injustice is a core condiment in their broth. I pray however that he pleasantly shocks cynics like me. If he does, hope will begin to build in the Nigerian people, as Maya Angelou wrote in her poem, Still I Rise, “With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high”.

Culled from the Cable

Labour Party: Lamidi Apapa's missing cap

Festus Adedayo

Turbulent anger of Obidients landed on Lamidi Apapa last week. By the time their anger petered out, Apapa had lost his cap to a God-knows-who. Esu Elegbara, the trickster deity of the Yoruba people, it will seem, lives in caps. Though most of the exploits of Esu exist in myths, Yoruba constructed a pantheon of beliefs that implicate the Esu as divisive and full of tricks. One of such, sauced in mythology, was translated into a very sobering track by ace Yoruba Awurebe musician, Alhaji Dauda Akanmu Adeeyo, popularly known as Dauda Epo Akara. Famous for his anecdotal offerings affixed to virtually all his songs, Adeeyo got this sobriquet, for which he was more known by than his actual name, while he was a pupil in primary school. His uniforms were always soaked in bean cake oil called Epo Akara.

The Ibadan maestro entitled the track under reference Itan Ore Meji – the tale of two friends – in a parent album he called My Mother. Like Epo Akara, in 1987, Donald Cosentino, a lecturer in the Folklore and Mythology Programme of the University of California, Los Angeles, wrote an article for The Journal of American Folklore which he entitled Who Is That Fellow in the Many-Colored Cap? Transformations of Eshu in Old and New World Mythologies (Vol. 100, No. 397. Jul. - Sep., 1987). In it, he also situated the Esu as author of dissent, “an exponent of ceaseless rearrangements” and a dissembler. Esu, said Cosentino, is a counterpart to Ifa, who the Yoruba see as the Lord of Divination and through whom sacrifices and propitiations are made to God for peace in the world.

Epo Akara and Cosentino’s narratives are not dissimilar. The two of them began this folklore thus: There existed two friends who were so fond of each other and inseparable. They were objects of discussions by the whole village. In fact, sang Epo Akara, won ki ja, won kii ta – they never had a word of disagreement since they began their friendship from their infancy. So, one day, Esu swore to cause irreparable discord between them. The object he cast for that dissention was a cap. So the Esu sowed a multicolored cap, something in the mould of Dolly Parton’s coat of many colours. The colours, says Cosentino, have been “variously described as red and white; red, white and blue; or red, white, green, and black.”

Epo Akara, however, put the colours of the cap as white and black. So the Esu transformed himself into an irresistibly dressed, handsome young man in dainty Aso Oke and Sanyan cap. As the two friends sat in a foyer chattering, Esu walked between them and in the words of Cosentino, “put his pipe at the nape of his neck and hung his staff over his back.” As Esu walked past the two friends, in the rendering of the Awurebe musician, the first friend called the attention of his pal to the cap, which he said was black. Once he had money, the friend remarked, it would be his delight to buy it – bi mo ri’ru e, ma ra’kan, Balarabi, Wali Muhanmonda. The friend fired back, insisting that the cap was white and insulted the other friend by asking if he was blind – ab’oju re o ri’ran? Then, a very deadly brawl ensued between the duo as they came to blows.

While Epo Akara insisted that, having achieved his dissembling aim, Esu transformed himself into who he was and settled the quarrel, Consentino argued that the tiff came to a halt when the disputants were brought to court. In court, the scholar said, Esu confessed to his trick, boasting that "sowing dissension is my great delight." In the rendering of the Folklore and Mythology scholar, Esu then fled. As he fled, Esu lit fire along the way, mixing up all the possessions of fleeing townsfolk. He also tested and exposed friendships along the way, thereby creating and destroying wealth. He then laughed at the ignorance of the people about his innate destructive nature.

Nigeria’s Labour Party, (LP) it will seem, is where Esu Elegbara has made his temporary home now. Last week, the party’s internal tiff reached a cancerous level at the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja. In the glare of the whole world, the timely intervention of police officers prevented miffed supporters of Peter Obi from skewering the flesh of the party’s Acting National Chairman, Apapa. Apapa and Julius Abure, hitherto suspended national chairman of the party, were embroiled in a leadership tussle. This led to blood-baiting hounds, suspected to be sympathetic to the Abure faction of the party, pouncing on Apapa. The wolves had prevented Apapa from addressing the press and shoved him dangerously off television cameras. In the process, one of them took off Apapa’s cap. He later took possession of it.

Speaking at a press conference after the attack, the 73-year old Apapa rained curses on the person who removed his cap. He had said: "My cap is here as you can see it. It was not burnt, and the boy who removed my cap will suffer it in his life. I saw him, he's a young chap. He'll never grow old by God's grace. He deserves it, you know why? I didn't use cutlass on him."

Were Apapa’s curses of Janus colour and texture as that of Adedara Arunralojaoba, Ijesaland’s – domiciled in Osun State – most evocative musician who sang Adamo music during his lifetime? Janus, you know, is the Egyptian binary god with two faces.  Some installments away, I narrated this Adamo musician’s encounter with another musician, Ayinla Omowura, in Ilesa in the 1970s. Omowura’s drums began to get torn in subsequence as he set out to sing at a live gig where he and Adedara had been invited. In the words of Arunralojaoba, on arriving the bandstand to take over the evening belt of entertainment of invited audience, Omowura had been drunk to stupor with his assumed musical superiority. Speaking to Dele Adeyanju, a renowned broadcaster, in an interview, the Adamo musician had attributed the torn drums to God fighting his battle for him and not any traditional African spiritual attack. Adedara was known to have at one time been a member of the Ogboni fraternity. So, were the torn drums God’s own way of fighting for Adedara against his adversary, or the scenario was a product of metaphysical invocation?

The removal of Apapa’s cap reminds me of the same violence and indignity suffered by Chief Bola Ige, ex-governor of old Oyo State, in the hands of sponsored miscreants like those hooligans in the LP. It was at the height of the intra-party sabre-rattling of the Alliance for Democracy (AD). At a ceremony held on Saturday December 15, 2001 where Olusegun Obasanjo’s late wife, Stella, was conferred with a chieftaincy title by the Ooni of Ife, wolves suspected to be in the herd of Iyiola Omisore, erstwhile Deputy Governor of Osun State, pounced on Ige in similar cavalier but blood-baiting manner Apapa was to witness almost 22 years after. They seized the cap of the man, known as Arole Awolowo – Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s heir – caps which, unlike Apapa’s, he was never to set eyes upon again.

Five days before this, an attempt to impeach Omisore was held at the Osun State House of Assembly. Odunayo Olagbaju, believed to be one of Omisore’s Rottweilers, was at the forefront of the disruption of the impeachment proceedings. Allegations were rife that Olagbaju was also the coordinator of the violent seizure of Ige’s cap. Four days after the attack on Ige, Olagbaju was mysteriously assassinated in Ile-Ife. Exactly four days after Olagbaju’s assassination, Ige was also taken out in what appeared like cult-like revenge killings. Today, Omisore is Southwest progressives’ highest-ranking national official, representing the Yorubaland which venerated Ige as an avatar.

Beyond their ethno-cultural implications as significant aspect of dressing and fashion, caps also have mythic qualities among the Yoruba especially. Aside caps’ aesthetic and symbolic elaboration of the body, they are also seen as weapon in the hands of Esu. The cap perhaps gained that relevance due to the renowned place that the head has in African epistemology. The head receives special aesthetic attention as a result of its spiritual and biological importance. Among the Yoruba, the head, called Ori, is a site of spiritual intuition and destiny. It is as well a harbinger of a man’s reflective spark of human consciousness. It is an Orisa, or god, of its own and is not only venerated but worshipped. To acquire a balanced character – iwa-pele – the Yoruba believe that the individual, working in tandem with this Orisa, can achieve this desirable personality. When he does, the individual then receives an alignment with his Ori, the divine self. People whose destinies are skewed are advised to worship their Ori whose variant among the Igbo is chi. So, when a cap, the decorative ornament of the head, is rudely removed as was done to Ige and Apapa, Yoruba see it as bad omen, symbolizing a rude yank-off of the human person.

Immediately after the seizure of Ige’s cap, some knowledgeable elders in sorcery and witchcraft opined that there existed causality between the cap’s removal and his eventual killing. For a people who use metaphysics as human agency to explain what the common eyes cannot penetrate, when Ige eventually died, the narrative of the connect between the removed cap and his death took front burner. So, in the seizure of Apapa’s cap, was Esu Elegbara on the usual roller-coaster of his famous trickster prowess, or does the act just symbolize a fatality to either Apapa, the Labour Party or the boy who bit the bullet by removing the cap?

The chief accusation against Apapa is that he is the Esu Elegbara in the Labour Party who this destructive god lent his heart for a fee. As Epo Akara and Cosentino narrated in their works, could Apapa be the modern or Nigeria’s political party version of the trickster deity, who is sowing dissention in the party? Ask those who are ranged against him to explain why, they will tell you that Apapa has received humongous bribe from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to act as the Judas within the party. On an Arise television interview last week, Apapa asked those who leveled such allegations to provide evidence. Again, in his insular trickery, I saw Esu Elegbara laughing rambunctiously. Do those who give bribes leave traces? Should those who also leveled such allegation against this old man sincerely do this without providing evidence? Are they themselves the Esu, being on the payroll of Abure, to ensure that Apapa is fought to a standstill?

Precedent is however on the side of those who accuse Apapa of acting the script of the APC. Nigerian politics is so enmeshed in indignity and amorality that virtually all those who engage in it possess scarred souls like the devil’s. They even tell you that politics and morality are in perpetual enmity. If you observe, the highest fusillade of attacks, both judicial and verbal, from the APC to any party, is towards the Labour Party. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its commissars receive scant attention of that party. It must believe that that party is already mortally wounded. APC, peopled by a commune of scavengers, vultures and deadly hit-men, will logically rent an Apapa for a dissembling assignment. It is because the If I must hanker a guess, it must be because the LP poses the greatest social threat to the legitimacy that APC needs, not necessarily during the current judicial process but after it. Thus, employing an Esu Elegbara within the fold of the LP for this dirty job is a politically wise decision for a party whose men, in the name of politics, will kill their mother and rope their father for the murder without batting an eyelid.

Esu Elegbara seems to be on the trail of the Labour Party and is not relenting yet. At the tail end of last week, until the clarification given by the court, the Federal High Court in Kano was reported to have declared the votes polled by the Abia State governor-elect, Alex Otti, Labour Party’s only state governor in the last general election, as wasted. It however reportedly refrained from nullifying the certificate of return issued by INEC to the governor-elect. A newspaper later on published the clarification of the court, stating that it denied annulling the election of the governor-elect.

If you think it is only in LP that Esu Elegbara wrecks its havocs, you are mistaken. In the PDP, he began his life-sworn disruption and destruction, as they say, as a pre-election cancer. By the time Atiku Abubakar and his party realized that Esu was in cahoots with the party, Elegbara had destroyed all the cells within the body of the party, finally and permanently retiring the Adamawa-born politician from his serial quest for the Nigerian presidency.

Elegbara, it will seem, is on his way to the APC as we speak. From reports, the party is on its way to a political liaison with Musa Rabiu Kwankwaso, New Nigerian People’s Party (NPP’s) presidential candidate. President-elect, Bola Tinubu, was reported to have met the NPP boss for political talks in Paris last Monday. There is the need for enough senators to complete the circus of a pliable National Assembly. I imagine the mind of Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, Kano State governor, at the moment. The Nigerian politician, in pursuing his persuasion that politics and morality are not friends, devised what is labeled a “no permanent friends, no permanent foes” lexicographic feature of politics. But, must politicians be indistinguishable from serial adulterers? Esu Elegbara must be somewhere now, devising his next trickery. Will he wear Ganduje like an apparel?

TINUBU'S PRESIDENCY: WIKE AND WHAT SOUTH EAST APC LEADERS SHOULDN'T WAIT TO BE TOLD

By Sam Onwuemeodo

I have chosen to begin with  Nyesom Wike, the Rivers State Governor. And for obvious reasons.  

The previous week, the President-elect,  Senator Bola Tinubu was in Portharcourt,   Rivers State. He was there on the invitation of  Wike. He was invited  to commission projects. And he did.

 ln  doing that,  he was quoted to have said that,  he owed Wike  nothing.  And some people  began to celebrate that. Some people  believed that. They took Tinubu's comment to the bank. They went home with it. And l hasten  to say this.

 lf  there's one Nigerian Tinubu owes a lot, that's Wike.  Nyesom Wike.  Aside keeping his Party, PDP, and it's candidate,  Atiku Abubakar on their toes all through,  he delivered Rivers State to Tinubu and his APC.  I am talking about the INEC declared  results for Rivers . INEC's own results.  

Wike,  a pdp governor,  ensured that  APC or Tinubu  was declared winner  in his State. ln Wike's Rivers, Tinubu got 231, 591 votes. His own party,  PDP,  got 88, 468 votes and the Labour Party,  175, 071 votes. lf there's  one man who has a lot of claims to make in Tinubu's presidency,  that man is Wike. There is nothing he wants in BAT's government that he would not  get. Don't believe me.  But mark my words.  He destroyed PDP for Tinubu to navigate. So, paying Wike's Rivers,  the money spent on federal projects in the State would be one of the easiest things Tinubu would do as President. 

Unlike Wike , those who should be worried about the direction  Tinubu's  presidency will be going are the leaders of the APC in the South East. Already,  Tinubu's body language isn't encouraging.  I am not writing that they should believe me , but letting them know the fate that awaits them in BAT's Presidency. Like l said,  they should not wait to be told that Tinubu and his Presidency won't  have anything tangible  in store for them.

For Tinubu,  his Presidency  and his close associates , all the leaders of APC in the South East are OBIDIENTS. This is the mindset of Tinubu and his own emerging  cabal. lt's written all over them. And there seems to be  nothing anybody can do to help the situation. 

The only prayer point left for APC leaders in the South East is that , the election of Tinubu should be annulled or be  nullified by the Tribunal. But  if the Tribunal confirms or authenticates his election,  then, there is every reason to worry by APC leaders in the South East. Some of them, going to the Defence House and taking photographs with him, won't change anything. 

Tinubu didn't hide his disdain for the  South East. He began early enough to show that.  He first settled for a fellow Muslim as Vice- Presidential candidate, believing that Heaven wouldn't fall. And he was right. Heaven didn't fall. And he  did it,  knowing that the South East could be adjudged  the " soul" of Christianity in Nigeria. l am painting a picture. But see the major issues.

 At a time,  the discussion or the  debate in the APC was that, the South should produce  the Presidential candidate of the Party  and by extension , Muhammadu Buhari's successor,  Ahmed Lawan came on board with a bang. And who were in the forefront of the Lawan's project?. Senator Orji Uzor Kalu and His Excellency, Governor Hope Uzodinma. And they were overtly  serious about it. They bought Lawan's nomination forms and displayed them for all and sundry to see, on the screens of  national televisions.  l do not know who drafted each other into the Lawan venture. Whether Kalu drafted the lmo Governor or vice versa. 

lf there was a major threat to Tinubu's aspiration for the Presidential ticket of the APC,  it was that Ahmed  Lawan's entry. That man's case.  And our own people were the pilots. The architects. On the TV screens, the  Yobe State Governor,  Mala Buni,  Lawan's own governor was behind. At the back of Kalu and governor Uzodinma. l am still painting a picture. They didn't support Tinubu. They didn't support Rochas Okorocha or Ogbonnaya Onu or Emeka Nwajiuba or David Umahi. But Lawan from the North. Continue reading my lips correctly. 

Then,  the Concensus issue. Lawan was announced the consensus Presidential  candidate of the party by the Abdullahi Adamu led NWC . lf that had worked out  as planned,  Tinubu's ambition would have been submerged or destroyed at that point. His group fought back. l want you to grab something here. Something "ominous". Something not palatable  at all. Something "imirimious". Do you understand?

Then,  the Presidential  primary proper. The South East delegates voted for Lawan, from all indications.  And not Tinubu. Not Okorocha. Not Nwajiuba. Not Onu or Umahi. They went for the Yobe man, Lawan. After Yobe, you get Borno State. l had been there. That was in 2004. l had gone   for the Turbanning of Emir of Damaturu,  Alhaji Shehu Hashimi 11 lbn Umar El-kanemi. The rest became history. 

Ahmed  Lawan for presidency project was the biggest threat  Tinubu's ambition had, before the INEC conducted election. Buhari's cabal also led Nwajiuba  to go to  court , asking that Tinubu should be disqualified and announce him APC candidate. Buhari's deceitful cabal. 

For the February 25, 2023 Presidential election, the leaders of APC in the South East were helpless. Nigerians,  including the South East people,  opted or settled for Peter Obi of the Labour Party. But Tinubu and his  already existing  cabal won't look at it from  that perspective.  They seem to have made up their minds. For them, APC leaders in the zone were all Obidients or  "lPOB".

 ln Anambra, for instance,  APC ( Tinubu), had 5, 111 votes. PDP (Atiku), 9,036 votes. Labour party ( Obi), 584, 621 votes.  ln Ebonyi, APC, 42, 402 votes.  PDP,  13, 503 votes. Labour party, 259, 738 votes. ln Enugu State,  APC, 4, 772 votes.  PDP,  15, 749 votes. Labour Party, 428,640 votes.  ln Abia, APC,  8, 914, PDP,  22, 676 and Labour Party,  327, 095. ln lmo , APC,  66, 406 votes,  PDP,  30, 234 votes and the Labour party,  360, 495 votes. Don't forget. These're Mahmood Yakubu's INEC  declared results. 

Looking  at these figures, one would be forced to agree or believe that the issue is not what anybody thinks should be Tinubu's right actions,  but what will be the case with regard to South East APC leaders in Tinubu's presidency. 

That is the problem with Orji Uzor Kalu and Osita lzunaso's aspirations for the position of  Senate president. Otherwise,  having denied the South East the position of President most patriotic Nigerians had believed should be their turn , and having also denied them  the office of Vice president, the most appropriate thing to do now is to concede the office of  Senate  president to them. But for the reasons l had earlier mentioned,  that has become a tall dream. They would never live to see that happen.

They have gone to South South. Akwa lbom State in Particular. And their choice is Godswill Akpabio. At the primary,  he withdrew for Tinubu. ln the election,  APC had 160, 620 votes.  More than what Tinubu got in the whole of South East. That's the politics behind their choice of Akpabio. They won't tell you this. 

For the South East and APC leaders in the zone in Particular, they should not expect much from Tinubu and his Presidency. No great expectations. Like I had intoned , the politics has begun.  And only those with foresight or " four-sights" would understand better . Would be able to read the handwriting on the wall and interpret it.  MENE,  MENE,  TEKEL,  URPHARSIN. 

There is already a gang up. While the lmo Governor was at "war" with Joe Ajaero of the Nigeria Labour Congress,  NLC, in lmo , the kano State Governor of APC extraction, Alhaji  Ganduje, was rolling out red carpets in kano for the same Ajaero. The same period. And he  gave him the Chieftaincy Title of Sarkin Yakin, meaning,  Workers' warrior. 

Even when Tinubu might  not remember some of these incidents,  those who have his ears would always remind  him of all these. And there is no  difference between him and Buhari in terms of being easy prey in the hands of wicked cabal. Even,  Tinubu's  own cabal  may be worst than Buhari's own cabal.  The signs are everywhere.  l hope you're reading  between the lines. There is " fire in the Soweto". 

This whole thing is also a wake-up call for Governor Uzodinma,  especially in his bid for second tenure . Yes, APC governor.  The  worst opposition to his second term  bid may not come from within,  but from  "without". Outside.  Don't say l told you. Do not quote me. Do not quote Sam. Onwuemeodo. Caveat emptor.  Disclaimer.  l am only guessing. lmagining things.  Which can't be located or situated.  . On your "marks". Ready....go!!!. The expected heat may be imported. External heat. Perhaps,  from the barbeach or zuma rock. Do you understand? 

The Lagos State Government had, on Wednesday, May 10, 2023,   arraigned Eze Ndigbo in Ajao Estate Lagos, Fredrick Nwajagu, on terrorism charges.  And he has been remanded in prison custody. The man was quoted to have said that, if the attacks on the lgbos and their properties in Lagos continue,  he might invite IPOB. That was a conditional statement. He didn't invite IPOB.  But he's  already in prison. And  those who attacked,  killed and maimed lgbos during the elections in Lagos  walked away free and still walking freely . l am still painting a picture. What to expect from BAT's Presidency. 

The Chief of Army Staff , Lt. Gen. Faruk Yahaya on Friday ,  May 5,  2023, had had reason or reasons to threaten to crack down on  potential threats to Tinubu's inauguration on May 29.

ln doing that,  Gen. Yahaya warned the  "lndigenous People of Biafra , IPOB,  Eastern Security Network, ESN  and other fringe groups not to test the will of the military ". He specifically mentioned IPOB and ESN and described similar groups in other parts of the country as " fringe groups". Are you following?. What to expect. 

Even when  l have never read where IPOB had threatened to frustrate or prevent the inauguration of Tinubu as President on May 29. The man singled out IPOB and ESN, and  left other related groups in other parts of the country. 

That's the nature of the on-going blackmail against the South East and the people of the area. There is nothing to show or believe that Tinubu's presidency would be different from that of " Bubu", with regard to the fate of the South East. 

With the prevailing circumstances and  for Tinubu's presidency,  APC leaders in the South East or the South East people in general,   are all Obidients. Or,  IPOB. Depending on which of the words they would prefer to use at any given time. That's their mindset. That's their belief. Nobody should wait to be told all these. 

Orji Uzor Kalu had thought that,  talking against Obi's Presidential bid  or the corporate aspiration of the South East people to produce the President of the Country this time, would make them to bring him in or take him into confidence or forget his role in the Lawan for President venture.  But he has seen that, that's not the case. They are also  holding him in contempt. He has seen that the sound of bitter kola in the mouth does not reflect the taste. At all. At all, at all.

The only consolation is that,  if the South East people survived Buhari's eight years of negligence and gross disregard,  they would also survive Tinubu and whatever he comes up with. Necessity has always  remained the mother of invention. The earlier this situation is understood,  the better. 

Nevertheless,  we shall continue to clap for Jesus. And there is nothing anybody can do about it.

FESTUS KEYAMO IS A ROGUE: I HAVE AN IDEA HOW HE MADE THE MONEY HE NOW BRAGS ABOUT

By Emeka Ugwuonye, Esquire

I could not contain my laughter when I read about the social media controversy over Festus Keyamo’s house in America. For several reasons, it was a relief to me to find out that Keyamo is now a property owner in America, which makes him amenable to the jurisdiction of the United States’ courts. 

Time line is important the understanding how Keyamo made the money he used in purchasing a house in America. The story is full of ironies. In his feeble defense to the allegations of corruption as to how he was able to purchase a house overseas while serving as a minister, Keyamo was reported to have said as follows:

“In 2021, I again wrote to the relevant agencies (by letters dated January 22, 2021), informing them of the movement of those funds out of the country to purchase a property as a better investment decision, instead of the funds lying idly in the account whilst I am in public office,” 

He was further reported to have said that the building was about the cheapest of his several properties. He claimed that his flourishing and manned law chambers and his real estate investments are still far more financially profitable than serving Nigeria. He said also that “serving our country is a labor of love.” 

I found those claims from Keyamo to be untrue, deceptive and totally misleading. If in 2021, Keyamo write his last of a series of correspondence seeking to transfer money that had been lying idle in his account, it is logical to believe he earned the money in 2019 and 2020. He wouldn’t really worry that the money was lying idle if he just earned it. The interval between his first correspondence and the final one in 2021 may have been more than one year. Hence, my assumption that it was in 2019 that Keyamo came upon the money he needed to offload or launder through purchase of a property in the United States in 2021.

Before I go further, let me state a logical assumption. If the money Keyamo used to purchase the property in the United States was proceed of unlawful transaction, then his purchase of property in America can properly be classified as money laundry. I shall now identify the particular transaction in 2019 from which Keyamo got 230,000 USD. 

I was in remanded in Kuje prison in February of 2019 in one of those cases the police filed to keep me from starting the End-SARS protest head of when it finally occurred. I was placed in a special cell along with an inmate called GO. The called him that because he was the leader of the Christian inmates and in charge of the prison chapel. He was placed in a special cell as the do high profile inmates such as politicians and rich people. Because the prison officials treated me like an important inmate, I was placed in the same special cell with this GO. Our cell was next to the cell of Governor Joshua Dariye, another high profile inmate. 

PLEASE NOTE: I was only remanded in prison awaiting trial. I have never been convicted of any offense in my entire life anywhere in the world, including Nigeria where every effort has been made to convict me. But I have been charged more than ten times by Nigerian authorities. So far, I have won all the cases. And in each case, I was charged because I criticized law enforcement. It is important to make that clarification. 

 

One night, around 19th of February, 2019, a new inmate was brought to the cell I occupied with the GEO. The inmate was a man from Pakistan. His name was Muhammad Khalid Khan.

Of course, bringing him to our cell meant that he was viewed as a high profile inmate or someone with money to pay the officials. As Khan entered the cell and the after the warders left and locked us inside, I and GO introduced ourselves to him and began to interview him. It is a standard practice that when you enter a cell, the inmates in that cell would interview. You and give you the rules of that particular cell and the rules of the custody as well as the rules of the prison. The depth of questioning during the interview depends on the comparative strength and personality of the resident inmates and incoming inmates. I wasn’t interviewed when I entered the cell. My fight with the police was already well known and the inmates and warders knew of me before I got to the prison. 

In the case of Khan, he was told I was a lawyer and he expected I would grill him. The moment I saw him, I knew this was a tough guy in the criminal world of which most Nigerians could not imagine. He was quiet and unassuming. Yet, from experience, I knew this was a big fish. I wasn’t really authorized to interview him. But did so out of curiosity. A Pakistani in Nigerian prison is not a frequent occurrence. My initial impression was involved in terrorism financing. So, I grilled Khan in the presence of GO. He told me he was arrested at the airport upon landing in Nigeria. He wasn’t sure the particular law enforcement agency that arrested him. I knew I could figure it out if he could tell me the offense he was charged with. I knew he must have been charged with an offense because he wouldn’t be remanded in prison without a remand warrant issued by a court. Also, the name of the court (Federal High Court) gave me the idea that this was a drug related offense or terrorism. He also indicated to me that they were trying to extradite him to America. That gave me the impression that he must be wanted by America either for drug-related offenses or terrorism-related financing. But Khan did not really know much about details of the processes playing around him.

I tried to know why he was in Nigeria. But he was evasive. I tried to know his exact contacts with America. He told me he had never been to America. I had to draw certain conclusions from that. The only way America would want to extradite a foreigner who has not been to America is if his actions affected victims in America in a serious way. 

Normally in extradition case, the offense is actually packaged by the foreign government. All there is for Nigeria are some straightforward diplomatic and administrative protocols whereby the Nigerian Ministry of Justice takes the suspect to the Federal court and presents the documentation that was formulated by the American Department of Justice. The suspect may not know the details of the offenses., except what he could read from the document served on his shortly before he appears before a court. Even the Nigerian government will not know the details of the offenses. All they will see in Nigeria is that the United States Government wants this individual extradited based on vaguely described offenses. In a standard criminal case in Nigeria, the prosecutor would draft the charges and file them along with proof of evidence and serve same on the suspect. So, in a standard criminal trial, the defendant must know the details of the offences he was charged with. But Khan arrived in Kuje without knowing the details of the offences against him. From experience, I knew that he was facing extradition. 

Immediately Khan realized that I was a lawyer both in Nigeria and the United States and that I had deep knowledge of extradition proceedings, he was so happy. He began to seek my help immediately. He wanted me to guide him. I told him flatly that he was facing an uphill task. This was because he was not a citizen of Nigeria. All those constitutional defenses a Nigerian citizen could normally invoke to prevent extradition would not be available for a non-Nigerian citizen who finds himself fighting extradition in Nigerian courts. Khan pressured me to link up with lawyers outside the prison to challenge his extradition. I told him there was really no hope for him in that respect. I advised him that his best option was to pursue diplomatic option since I could see that he was highly connected to the Government of Pakistan. That was actually true because right from the moment he got into the cell, he was able to communicate directly with the Pakistani Ambassador and even the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Pakistan. 

It was much later that I realized that Khan controlled an international drug trafficking and money laundering network responsible for trafficking narcotics to the US, Australia, Africa and Europe. His money-laundering network was widespread throughout the US, Australia, Canada, Africa, Europe and Asia. And American government wanted him badly. 

Khan was really impressed with my knowledge of things concerning his type of case. He was impressed when he realized I was able to decipher information he did not want to divulge to me. For instance, I knew he was going to be taken to the Southern District New York. I also could tell that he would be convicted if taken there. I just explained to him the conviction rate of the US District Attorney for the Southern District of New York. I also explained to him that when the DOJ and the State Department go that far to get a suspect, it is because they believe he is a high valued suspect and they must have excellent evidence against him.

Due to the fact that Khan trusted my judgment and analysis, he kept pressing me to find a lawyer for him in Nigeria would take his case. Even though I managed to convince him that on points of law and available precedent, he would not win in court on the merit, he wanted me to find a way to bribe the court. He made it clear to me that he would pay up to 5 million dollars in bribe in I could arrange for people that would set him free in exchange for that money. I was reluctant to even consider his request. While I was able to discuss the law with him, I was totally clueless when it came to arranging officials that would be able to take money from him and set him free. 

Khan promised to give me 100,000USD upfront if I could help him with that, and 200,000USD when he would get back to Pakistan. I didn’t want to consider this. Besides, it could be dangerous messing with a man like Khan with an international network of bad guys. So, I politely declined. However, GO thought otherwise. He thought that the money Khan was offering for help was too much to ignore. When I went to court the following day, GO was alone with Khan. GO convinced Khan that he would fine him a lawyer, well connected with the government that would help him. The lawyer GO found for K was Festus Keyamo. When I came back from court, I noticed that Khan was avoiding me. He and GO did not want to tell me that they had reached out to Keyamo and that Keyamo had agreed to help Khan. 

The next day, Keyamo visited the prison in his Landcruiser. I knew that Keyamo came to Kuje, but I did not immediately realize who he came to see. All I knew was that Khan was taken out to meet a visitor and that GO went with him. It was later that night that I realized that Keyamo had promised Khan that he would use his connections in the Buhari Government to stop his extradition. I was told that Keyamo charged Khan 280,0000 USD for that. Khan was willing to pay anything. I tried to convince Khan that Keyamo was only trying to dupe him. I felt that with the level of interest the United States Government had in Khan, even the President of Nigeria would not be able to stop the extradition. So, I knew that Keyamo was lying to Khan. He just wanted to take the man’s money. Unfortunately, as I tried to stop Khan from trusting Keyamo, Khan began to see me as someone opposed to his only solution. Also, GO felt that I was about to spoil the opportunity of him getting money. I learnt that GO was to get 50,000USD for his role in arranging for Keyamo. I later heard that Keyamo gave 50,000USD to a relative of GO out of the 280,000USD Khan paid him. 

NOTE: The prison environment is an unusual place where things are whispered in hushes. Verification of information cannot be 100%. My reader must take that into consideration in drawing his conclusions.

I felt mad when I heard that Khan had actually paid Keyamo. I became more and more critical of the entire deal. GO and Khan conspired with the officer-in-charge of the prison to place me in solitary confinement for two weeks where I would not have contact with Khan or any other inmate. They believe I might ruin the whole deal. Of course, Khan settled the officer-in-charge in this whole deal. Even before Khan arrived in our cell, the officer-in-charge was already in his pocket. You won’t know what 10,000USD cash can do to a Nigerian civil servant if you put it in his pocket until you see how the Officer-in-Charge was fawning toward Khan. 

For four weeks, I found myself in the segregation unit of Kuje prison. It was called segregation cell because it was designed to isolate an inmate and keep him away from the prison population. Khan was now being escorted by specially designated inmates and warders for the purpose of ensuring that his path would not cross mine during the 60-minutes-a-day period that I was allowed to come out of my cell. But don’t forget that every warder is so easy to compromise. So, segregation or no segregation, I knew what was going on. I discover within a relatively short time anyway. So, I knew that Khan continued with the Keyamo charade. 

Keeping me in segregation was becoming a problem because I was popular with the junior warders. They routinely flouted the orders given to them to be strict with me. I wasn’t as segregated or as isolated as the officer-in-charge had expected. His staff undermined his goal in that respect. Because I was not as isolated as he expected, I had the capacity to reveal to the United States Government that Nigerian prison officials were cooperating with Khan to frustrate his extradition. This was true really because the officer-in-charge and GO gave Khan a phone and sim card with which he was communicating with Keyamo and his people in Pakistan. I knew that if I sent to the District Attorney in New York the WhatsApp number K was using in Kuje, the FBI would be able to track his WhatsApp chats and that it would cause tremendous panic. And I could so easily do that because inmates had easy access to phones in prison. So, the officer-in-charge was really worried about me, especially as he knew that his staff were sympathetic to me. Indeed, they were hostile to their boss, really. One day, the officer-in-charge came to the segregation unit very angry. He was shouting at me. He said: “Barrister Emeka, you are a dangerous man. No other inmate has been able to set my staff against me as you have done. But I will show you that I run this prison”. Honestly, I didn’t see that coming because I was not doing anything in particular to antagonize the warders against their Officer-in-Charge. The warders were acting on their own understanding of events around them.

Two weeks after Keyamo was said to have taken money from Khan, the court granted the government application and ordered that Khan be extradited to the US. It dawned on Khan that I might have been right about Keyamo. But even after the court had ordered the extradition of Khan, a few days before he was to be taken to America, Keyamo still told Khan to bring another 100,000USD which he claimed was demanded by the Attorney-General in order to stop the extradition. I understood that Khan also gave that additional 100,000USD to Keyamo. 

I was released from segregation when the pressure became too much on the Officer-in-Charge. When released from solitary confinement, I was placed in another cell in another custody and forbidden from meeting or speaking with Khan. Initially, Khan agreed to stay away from me. But as Keyamo’s promises did not materialize and things were going in the opposite direction, Khan became desperate to speak with me. He sent inmates to reach out to me to seek my advice. 

Less than a week after I came out of solitary confinement, I saw the prison official going to remove Khan from his cell. I understood that move, that mood. All of a sudden, officers were laughing and smiling turned stern-faced. Agents of the US Government had come to the prison accompanied by NDLEA officers to take Khan. As Khan was leaving the prison, he saw me and he began to scream so I would hear him: “I need my money back. I need my money back. Keyamo took my money but failed to deliver”. He actually spoke with Keyamo that morning and Keyamo assured him that everything was alright. I felt pity for him. I knew what was awaiting him outside the prison gate. I knew that in less than 24 hours, he would be in New York before a judge that would remand him. I estimated that in addition to the N380,000USD that Khan probably paid to Keyamo, he must have paid additional 130,000USD on other officials and intermediaries. 

Khan is now serving his long prison term in the US. I intend to visit him in the US prison to get the full story and to tell him that Keyamo now has a house in America. He can arrange to get his money back.

Why should I or you believe what I was told about Keyamo in the case of Khan? I had to compare what I heard in the case of Khan with what I had known about Keyamo and his law practice, which he now brags about. The following events made it easy for me to believe what I heard about Keyamo in the Khan’s case:

1) In 2011, there was a fee dispute between my law firm in America and the Nigerian Embassy in America. Then the Embassy was headed by Ambassador Ade Adefuye. My firm was in the process of exposing the fact that Ambassador Ade Adefuye connived with several government officials in President Jonathan’s administration to misappropriate 27 million dollars, being the proceeds of sale of Nigerian Government properties in the United States. To stop me, Ambassador Adefuye sent a message to Mrs. Farida Waziri, the then Chairperson of the EFCC. On a routine visit to Nigeria on February, 2011, the EFCC used the DSS to abduct me at the Lagos Airport. Apparently, they had watch-listed my name at the request of Mrs. Farida Waziri and EFCC. 

2) I was detained by the EFCC and asked to made a deal that I would keep silent over the matter. I refused. Farida Waziri decided to detain me at their Abuja office, just to please Ambassador Adefuye and allow him and his team time to clean up. I was detained for more than a month before they filed any charge against me. Mrs. Farida Waziri engaged the services of Festus Keyamo to prosecute me. According to Keyamo, Mrs. Waziri said to him: “This man (Emeka Ugwuonye) is a troublemaker, you are the type of person to fight him for me”. Keyamo filed a charge against me at the FCT High Court, accusing me of misappropriating 1. 5 million dollars of the Nigerian Embassy money in Washington DC. No problem! As a lawyer, I was happy to have the opportunity to defend myself in court. But Keyamo did not allow me to defend myself. 

3) The day I was granted bail on that charge, Keyamo filed another charge against me at the Federal High Court, accusing me of failure to declare my assets. Keyamo could have amended the charge he filed against me at the FCT High Court to add this new charge. But he wanted to file a separate one-count charge in a different court so that I would have to go through bail application and remand all over. That was a way of denying me the benefit of bail granted by the FCT High Court. At the Federal High Court, Keyamo failed to appear on court on many dates, thereby delaying my arraignment and bail application. Finally, after three months of abusive detention, Justice Bello got very upset and asked the EFCC team led by Keyamo why such abusive practice. Justice Bello granted me bail and insisted it must be perfected that day. I was finally released on May 12, having been detained since February 14. 

4) Festus Keyamo even forged a court order suggesting that I was detained pursuant to a detention order. Yes, Keyamo forged a court order ( I still have the order for posterity). After three months of detaining me unlawfully in Nigeria, I returned to the United States, but this time I had two cases to answer in Nigeria. Many people in the US told me not to return to Nigeria. They said it is an evil land that should be avoided since I was able to return to the United States. But I had to return to Nigeria because I needed to defend those cases. I could not be pushed out of Nigeria by Keyamo and Waziri.

5) Of course, I did not keep quiet. I continued to criticize Farida Waziri for corruption and abuse of powers by the EFCC. , In July of 2011Keyamo filed application asking the courts to revoke by bail because I was critical of Farida Waziri and EFCC. The courts refused to revoke my bail. When I returned to attend court hearing in November of 2011, Keyamo and Mrs. Farida Waziri conspired to charge me again with an entirely different offense. They claimed that I refused to pay one Nigerian client of my firm who was represented by my firm in New York. They arrested me at the Abuja High Court where I had come to attend court hearing and took me to Lagos. My luggage and everything were still in my hotel. They took me straight from court to the airport and flew me to Lagos. When I got to Lagos, I was detained and charged with refusing to pay the Nigerian client. All these are false allegations. But once a charge has been filed in court, it takes time before you will be able to show that the charges were false. I was detained at the Lagos for another two months waiting for bail hearing and Keyamo did everything to drag and delay my bail hearing. I was granted bail by Justice Christopher Balogun. I returned to the US on December 24, 2011. 

6) I now had three EFCC charges lying against me in three different Nigerian courts in two different cities. I had the opportunity of staying away from Nigeria. But I did not want Farida Waziri and Keyamo to force me of Nigeria. So I kept coming to Nigeria to attend court dates. I knew I would defeat Keyamo in court eventually. It would cost money and more, but I would defeat him. So, I refused to stay back in the US.

7) While in EFCC detention in Lagos in December of 2011, I met Senator Festus Ola. He served one tenure as Senator for Ekiti State. Senator Ola was brought to the EFCC cell accused of fraud. Senator Ola’s case was interesting. He was wrongly arrested by the EFCC and he filed fundamental rights enforcement action against the EFCC and won a judgment of 50 million naira. Senator Ola wrote to the EFCC demanding to be paid his judgment amount. According to Senator Ola, Keyamo got wind of the fact that Senator Ola was trying to recover his 50 million judgment. Keyamo contacted Ola and offered to recover the money for Ola if Ola was willing to give him (Keyamo) 33% of the 50 million. Senator Ola turned down Keyamo’s offer. The next day, someone called Ola and told him to come to the office of EFCC to collect his 50 million. Ola went as he was invited, only for him to be arrested and taken to Lagos. When Ola met me at the EFCC cell, he told me about his case and right from there we became friends and he requested me to be his lawyer against the EFCC. From Ola’s case, I had a good idea of how Keyamo operated.

8) By the way, according to sources available to me then, I was told that the friendship between Keyamo and Farida Waziri started before she became the head of the EFCC. They all called her Aunty. When Waziri became the head of EFCC, Keyamo went to her to solicit for favors for old time. She rewarded Keyamo by giving his EFCC cases.

9) When I came back to Nigerian in February of 2012 to attend trial before Justice Balongun, the judge considered the preliminary objection I had filed. In my application I requested the court to dismiss the case against me because the events alleged against me occurred in the United States. There was no way Nigeria court would try an event that occurred in the United States and which was not a crime in the United States. Justice Balogun agreed with me and was clear in his judgment. He even rebuked Keyamo for filing such a frivolous case against me. So, one case was down. I was confident that the same thing would happen to the case they filed against me in Abuja over the alleged 1.5 million case.

10) Both Keyamo and Farida Waziri were aware that they had no case against me because everything they claimed I did wrong occurred in the United States. To ensure that they had something to hold me in Nigeria, they created an offense that could be said to have been committed in Nigeria. While in EFCC detention, they asked me to fill an asset declaration form. I told them that I did not have all the information there and then. They said: “Okay, Barrister, no problem. Just write it down here that you did not have the information”. I wrote it down. They used that to make a case of failure to declare assets against me. Their case was that when I was asked to declare assets, I refused.

11) Because the FCT High Court Judge initially trying the case of 1.5 million dollar against me knew that the case was a pure vendetta, he adjourned it indefinitely. For two years the case did not come up. Keyamo wrote a petition to the Chief Judge accusing the judge of wrongdoing. The case was transferred to another Judge, Justice Chizoba Oji. By now, we were in 2015. The first thing I did before Justice Oji was to file a preliminary objection following similar application as what I made successfully in Lagos. The issues were the same. To block my application, Keyamo claimed that the 1.5 million incident occurred partly in Abuja and he cited the newly enacted Administration of Criminal Justice Act to say that the court could not decide on a preliminary objection until the end of the case. (This is a provision mischievously placed in the Nigerian law to enable the state to use abusive prosecution to punish opponents). 

12) With the objections of Keyamo and the lies he told the court; the court could not rule on my objection until after the end of the prosecution’s case. I continued to face two major criminal trials. I represented myself till toward the end, when I finally was able to bring in a very brilliant and able Jeff Njikonye, SAN to dispose of the two matters. I was facing the 1.5 million charge at the FCT High Court and I was facing the failure to declare assets charge at the Federal High Court. These are useless cases which Keyamo pursued against me just to punish me. He held me back with these cases for ten years, while collecting money from Nigerian government for prosecuting these cases. 

13) On the 1.5 million cases, Keyamo desperately tried to call witnesses to testify against me. He called Hassan Yusuf, a former official of the Embassy who was familiar with the transaction. But Yusuf could not lie for him. In fact, Yusuf refused to testify against me because he knew I did nothing wrong. Keyamo tried to bring in Mr. Felix Pwol, another former official of the Embassy, but Pwol refused to testify because he knew I did nothing wrong. Keyamo went and brought the poor Professor George Obiozor. He blackmailed the old man into coming to testify for him. But Obiozor’s testimony was favorable to me in the end. 

14) On February 24, 2021, the judge of the Federal High Court discharged and acquitted me of the charge, holding that I did not do anything wrong and that the manner in which they tried to get me to declare my assets was manipulative and abusive. They were desperate to set me up. Also, on July 2, the judge of the FCT High Court dismissed the charges against me concerning the 1.5 million dollars. In other words, in July 2021, the court finally decided the application I filed in 2012 and repeated in 2015. The court delayed that application for 9 years because Keyamo lied to the courts about basic facts of the case. The court, in its judgement, observed that the only connection Keyamo was able to show between Nigeria and the offense alleged was that I visited Nigeria and they found me at the Lagos airport. Further, the court wondered: “But if the link with Nigeria was that you found him at the Lagos Airport, why did you bring him to Abuja Court? Is there no court in Lagos?”

I went to this length to show you who Kayemo is, how he probably made money in 2019, which he probably used to buy a house in America in 2021. Also, I noticed that Keyamo was bragging about his great law practice. I wanted to show you the truth about his law practice and the kind of things he does and on the basis of which he claims to be a great lawyer. If that is it, it then means that being crooked and dishonest is what it takes to be a great lawyer in Nigeria. In fact, in his application to become a SAN, Keyamo must have cited his cases against me as proof that he is a good lawyer. And they made him a SAN for that. Nigerians have a lot to feel ashamed of for having a country like this. Keyamo is a cheap crook, and he knows it. I can reveal more about him, if given the opportunity.

For Keyamo to claim to be a successful and honest lawyer is a great irony. The only good thing is that he can now be sued in America so easily. God is bringing him closer to justice. US is not a jungle where he has thrived. All his life, he would hide behind a powerful institution to commit atrocities. He hid behind Farida Waziri and the EFCC. Now, he can hide behind the President-Elect to commit more atrocities. But Nigerians are not as stupid as he thinks. They are watching him.