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The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike has said his rift with Governor Sim Fubara of Rivers State was purely politics.

Wike said it is politics if he demands N20 billion monthly and is allowed to award all the contracts to himself.

Addressing journalists in Abuja, the immediate past Governor of Rivers State wondered where Fubara was when he was fighting.

The minister vowed to remain politically relevant and maintain his structure.

According to Wike: “If I Demand N20 billion every month and even award all the contracts to myself, that’s politics. Where was he when I was fighting?

“I have to be politically relevant and I must maintain my political structure. I can’t allow anybody to cut me out immediately.

“If you like accuse me all you like, I won’t have a sleepless night because the right thing must be done.”

The rift between Wike and Fubara led to attempts by some members of the state assembly to impeach the governor.

The governor, however, resisted the attempts.

The House of Representatives has kicked out the N5 billion presidential yacht proposed by the Nigerian Navy from the 2023 supplementary budget.

Chairperson of the House Committee on Appropriation, Abubakar Bichi, announced this on Thursday after the passage of the N2.17 trillion supplementary budget by the House.

While speaking to journalists, Bichi said the committee removed the item and moved the money to the student loan section to make it N10 billion.

More to follow…

Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, is set to be flown abroad for medical treatment following injuries sustained after he was attacked in Imo by thugs suspected to have been spponsored by the state government.

Ajaero had traveled to Owerri on Wednesday, November 1, to rally Imo workers for a planned protest against alleged infringements on the rights and privileges of workers by the state government.

The initially peaceful protest escalated into violence as reports emerged of the emergence of alleged thugs who targeted the protesters and labour leaders.

According to Benson Upah, the NLC Publicity Secretary, speaking to The Nation on Thursday, Ajaero’s injuries, incurred during the scuffle, necessitated medical attention beyond the capacity of the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in Owerri.

Meanwhile, labour leaders have called on security agencies to fish out the thugs who attacked Ajaero and his team in the southeast state.

Big Brother Naija Season 7 winner, Josephine Otabor, better known as Phyna, has revealed that women who take emergency contraceptive pills are also committing abortion. 

This is coming after she was dragged for confidently stating that every woman has experienced one or two abortions during an interview with media personality Chude Jideonwo.

In a recent interaction via her Instagram page on Wednesday , a fan confronted the BBNaija star about the generalization of her statement on abortion.

“Did you think before saying there is no woman who has not done abortion,” the fan quizzed.

Phyna, however, stood her ground, asserting that except for virgins, women using a morning-after pill after having sexual intercourse constitutes abortion. 

She wrote, “Only virgins are safe hypocrites. As long as you are having s3x as a woman. If you drink postinor that’s abortion. If you drink becharm ampilox and warm water, that’s abortion. Keep crying for all I care.”

The Vice Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, Anambra State, Prof Charles Okechukwu Esimone, has approved the immediate suspension of a staff member, Nwafor Ogbonnaya Nwesuzor, for six months for allegedly presenting a forged degree result to the university.

A statement signed by Special Adviser to the Vice Chancellor on Public Relations and Special Duties, Dr. Emmanuel C. Ojukwu, on Thursday, stated that the staff presented two degree certificates bearing Nwafor Osborne Ogbonnaya and Nwafor Ogbonnaya Nwesuzor respectively.

The statement explained that Nwesuzor reportedly abandoned his undergraduate programme and forged the university’s statement of result and a letter of exclusion from the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC), all bearing the name, Nwafor Osborne Ogbonnaya and presented the documents for the school for employment.

The statement said that the suspect later went ahead to complete his degree programme, adding that the alleged forgery was discovered when he wrote to the university requesting to change his degree result.

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It added that the new result he submitted bears the name, Nwafor Ogbonnaya Nwesuzor, including a different class of degree which raised suspicion.

The school stated that upon further investigation, it was discovered that Nwesuzor forged his degree result and letter of exclusion from the NYSC based on the obvious disparity between the documents he submitted originally and the new documents he was trying to substitute.

“The class of degree in both results presented varies. The forged statement of result with the name Nwafor Osborne Ogbonnaya bears second class lower division while the original result with the name Nwafor Ogbonnaya Nwesuzor bears third class,” the statement said.

According to the statement, the Vice Chancellor had therefore approved his suspension for six months so as to enable the school authorities carry out further investigations into the forgery allegation.

“In following due process, the Vice Chancellor in exercising his powers based on the university rules and regulations approved his immediate suspension from the employment of the university for six months while his case undergoes other processes in the university before final action,” the statement said.

The Basorun of Oyo, High Chief Yusuf Ayoola, and four other claimants in a suit instituted against the Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, and two others, were absent as Oyo High Court sitting in Awe area of the state struck out the case on Thursday.

Leading Reporters had reported that the Kingmakers in Oyo town, popularly known as Oyo Mesi, dragged the governor and the state’s Commissioner for Local Governments and Chieftaincy Matters, as well as the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice to court to stop them from aborting the process for the selection/appointment of the candidate for filling the vacant stool of Alaafin of Oyo candidate by Kingmakers.

The other claimants in suit no, HOY/38/2023 were Lagunna of Oyo, High Chief Wakeel Oyedepo; Akiniku of Oyo, High Chief Amuda Yusuf; Areago Basorun of Oyo, High Chief Waheed Oyetunji and Alapo of Oyo who is also Warrant Officer for Alaapini of Oyo, Chief Gbadebo Mufutau, and they were all absent in court.

Justice Ladiran Akintola, while ruling on the suit, struck it out sequel to its withdrawal by the claimants.

Meanwhile, the claimants have filed a fresh suit no HOY/14/2023, of which the presiding Justice said the date for the hearing would be communicated to both parties.

The stool became vacant after the demise of Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, who reigned for 52 years and died at the age of 83 in April 2022

The Coalition for the Protection of Democracy, COPDEM, has called for judicial amendments and electoral reforms to project rule of law and democracy in Nigeria.

According to the group, the Supreme Court judgment which upheld the election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, dismissing all appeals challenging the February 25 elections, has made Nigerian jurisprudence a laughing stock in the global community. 

Addressing journalists on the apex court’s verdict midweek in Abuja, the COPDEM spokesperson, Mr. Great Imo Jonathan, said that the Coalition’s intention was to take the country back from the hands of those that had ruined it.

The group affirmed that by the verdict, the Supreme Court had chosen to invert common sense, throw reason, logic, and principles of justice out of the window. 

It expressed serious concerns that the judgement was inadvertently a subtle means of legalising forgery, identity theft, perjury and electoral illegality in Nigeria, as there apex court did not recommend any sanction in its judgement.

COPDEM, therefore, called on all Nigerians in authority to heed the call of Hon. Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammad, to amend the laws and rescue our judiciary from the present and future embarrassment.

Jonathan said, “Despite global outcry, the Supreme Court, like the Appeal Court before it, chose to make the Nigerian jurisprudence a laughingstock of the global community.

“In reaffirming Chief Bola Tinubu as the duly elected President in the presidential election of 25, February 2023, the Supreme Court has chosen to invert common sense, throw reason, logic, and principles of justice out of the window.

The Supreme Court decision has simply legalised forgery, identity theft, perjury and electoral illegality in Nigeria! As Nigerians, we ask, please, what is law and why do we go to court? 

“To a lay man, law is simply the ratification of those common convention, principles, ethics, and mores we have all chosen to live by as humans in a society. We make them into a document and create infrastructures and institutions to interpret them whenever there is need for clarity. 

“Therefore, the court, as such institution, carries the burden of reminding us why we are humans and how far we have travelled from primitivity, as hunters, gatherers, wanderers that are not bound by laws but simply living in a Hobbesian state of nature.

“The court and laws are there to inhibit by punishing such primitive tendencies to ‘snatch it,’ ‘grab it’ and ‘run with it’ like we saw on 25 February this year. Courts and laws should exist to chide, reprimand, and necessarily sanction actors of such conduct, either as individuals or as institutions.

“The law reminds of the need to set standards and follow them strictly. When the law and courts fail to do their duty, anarchy prevails, general disillusionment about the place of the once hallowed temple of justice sets in. We begin to see good as bad, and bad as good.

“The character of Judges is public property. Justice must be rooted in confidence, and confidence is destroyed when right- minded people go away thinking: ”The Judge is biased”. – See: Bakare vs. Apena [1986]4 NWLR (part.33) page 1SC.

“To our utter dismay, eternal shame and pain, the Supreme Court, in its recent judgment in affirming Tinubu as president has set a dangerous precedent where no matter the gravity of an alleged offense, the suspect can readily escape justice if he is smart enough to plead technicalities. 

“With due respect to the Supreme Court Justices, forgery in election matters is not same as forgery in criminal law. In the case of SALEH V ABAH (2017) The Supreme Court treated forgery under the electoral act as it is provided under same act.

“According to the presiding justice in the case, he stated ‘We have reiterated on several occasions that ours is not only a Court of law but public policy. Forgery of certificate for the purpose of election and electoral processes and forgery under criminal law are not the same issue. Forgery under the Electoral Act is a specific law on forgery or presentation of a forged certification for the purpose of election. 

“The best forum for electoral forgery is election tribunal as against general criminal trial. This is what played out, rightly in this appeal. The Supreme Court treated the issue of Tinubu’s forgery as if under the criminal law.

“What the electoral act is saying is different from what the law of forgery under criminal law has provided, the court if not biased should interpret the law as it is, anyone who has presented a forged certificate should be disqualified from contesting for any office within Nigeria. “We hereby call on all Nigerians in authority to heed the call of Hon. Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammad, to amend the laws and rescue our judiciary.”

Rivers State was thrown into a political crisis this week, following an attempt by the state’s lawmakers to commence impeachment proceedings against the governor.

A Rivers State High Court in Isiokpo Division, on Wednesday, issued an interim injunction, restraining the state House of Assembly and the Speaker, Martin Amaewhule, from impeaching Governor Siminalayi Fubara.

Also restrained by the court are the Deputy Speaker, the Clerk and the state Chief Judge Simeon Chibuzor-Amadi.

The judge, Ben Whyte, issued the order, following the deposition of the motion Ex Parte, filed by Damian Okoro, SAN, on behalf of the governor against the defendants.

The court further restrained “the defendants and their agents, privies, proxies and representatives from initiating, continuing or proceeding with the process of the removal of the claimant from office as the governor of Rivers.”

The defendants were also restrained by the order of the court from “interfacing with and/or preventing the claimant from carrying out the duties and functions of his office as governor, pending the hearing and determination of the Motion on Notice.’’

The judge ordered the parties in the case to maintain the status quo, by not taking further action on the purported impeachment of the applicant as governor.

The court adjourned the case to 14 November for a hearing.

The Court of Appeal in Abuja has sacked the former Governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam, from the Senate.

In a unanimous decision by a three-member panel of Justices on Wednesday, the court upheld the appeal filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Emmanuel Udende, challenging the Benue State National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal’s judgment, which returned Suswam of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the Senate.

The appellate court held that the tribunal wrongly evaluated the evidence presented before it and arrived at an erroneous conclusion.

In its verdict delivered by Justice Abimbola Osarugue Obaseki Adejumo, the court set aside the tribunal’s judgment and affirmed Udende’s victory in the February 25 senatorial election.

More to follow…

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors’ Forum is currently meeting with former Rivers State Governor and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.

The politicians have now gone behind closed doors.

The meeting is coming on the heels of reports of a rift between Governor Simi Fubara and his predecessor, who is currently Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The two men reportedly fell out less than six months after Fubara’s inauguration.

Both politicians have been in the news since the Rivers State House of Assembly began impeachment proceedings against the governor on Monday.

On Monday, Fubara stormed the assembly complex with his loyalists to prevent the lawmakers from carrying out their plan.