A journalist with Daily Trust newspaper, Eyo Charles, has shed more light into what transpired during a press briefing with a former Minister of Aviation in Nigeria, Femi Fani-Kayode.
In a viral video, Fani-Kayode, who recently took a tour of some South-South and South-East states, described the journalist as ‘very stupid’ for asking who was bankrolling his trip.
Reacting via a statement, Fani-Kayode said he had no apology to offer, insisting that the journalist’s comment was insulting.
However, in a statement on Tuesday, the reporter gave a full account of what transpired during the media briefing.
Charles said the former minister sent one of his security aides to further threaten him after the press conference.
He said, “It took the intervention and pleas from Chief Press Secretary to Governor Ayade, Mr Christian Ita, and other journalists before the ex-minister would leave the Daily Trust reporter, saying, ‘You can go ahead and write your rubbish. I have marked you’.
“When he returned to his suite, he sent one of his security aides to further threaten me. The man accosted me, saying what effrontery did I have to ask such a stupid question, and what was my next action.
“Sensing how tensed up the atmosphere was, I said to the man, ‘I had apologised to the ex-minister. If the usage of the word ‘bankroll’ was offensive to him, then I withdraw it. What more should I do?’ I then sneaked away.
“Now the ex-minister is circulating a doctored video, claiming I was rude to him. What could be farther from the truth! I have a modest background and well trained as a high priest to respect people of all standing. Please note, too, that I am a bishop in the Brotherhood of the Cross and Star, which exalted stand can never allow me to descend to insulting public figures or anyone.
“This is also to colleagues that have called to express unhappiness that I did not ‘give it back to FKK.”
He said Fani-Kayode had given the go-ahead to be asked any questions, but when it came to that on the “bankrolling”, he lost his cool.
Charles added, “Time for question, Christian Ita moderated. But Olanrewaju interjected and sought permission from the ex-minister that questions be limited to what FKK had said. But FKK himself said there was no problem at all. That we should ask any manner of question.
“Many asked questions. Gill Nsa of The Nation, for instance, asked whether his national tour had any political undertone such as having presidential ambition. A reporter from the state-owned TV asked whether some of the 33 projects he said Ayade had embarked upon, such as the 278km superhighway from Bakassi to the border of Benue State as well as the deep sea port were not, in fact, white elephant projects.
“FKK disagreed strongly and said what Ayade needs is the federal government to take over the projects and that Nigerians would see that the superhighway for instance will boost trade and integrated Nigerians.
“Now the question that would break the camel’s back! When I was recognised, I asked, “Sir, please you did not disclose to us who is bankrolling you….” FFK did not allow me to land with the question when he threw caution to the wind and shouted at me, and said the press briefing was over.
“He then rained terrible abuses on me, calling me unprintable names; that I was sponsored to come and ask and insult him.”
Lionel Messi has told Barcelona he wants to leave the club after nearly two decades with the Spanish giants.
The club confirmed on Tuesday that the Argentine sent a document expressing his desire to leave “immediately”.
The announcement comes 11 days after Barcelona’s humiliating 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals, one of the worst defeats in the players career and in the clubs history.
Messi said he wants to “unilaterally” terminate his contract with the Spanish giants, a club source confirmed to AFP on Tuesday.
Lawyers for the Argentina star sent Barca a fax in which they announced Messi’s desire to rescind his contract by triggering a release clause.
However, the club maintains the clause expired in June and he remains under contract until the end of the 2021 season.
Messi has won a record six Ballon d’Or awards during his time at Barcelona as the top player in the world, and has helped the club win 10 Spanish league titles and four Champions League crowns.
United Captain, Harry Maguire, with his brother, Joe Maguire.
Manchester United captain, Harry Maguire, has been found guilty of aggravated assault, resisting arrest and repeated attempts of bribery in Greece.
He was found guilty alongside his brother, Joe Maguire, and their friend, Chris Sharman.
Maguire spent two nights in police custody after he was arrested during a holiday with family and friends on the Greek Island of Mykonos.
He was initially arrested for assaulting a police officer while attempting to resist arrest in the Greek Island.
Greek police said in a statement on Friday that officers had tried to break up an altercation between two groups outside a bar and that the three foreigners had then verbally abused and assaulted one of the officers.
The statement claimed that after arriving at Mykonos police station, the three arrested individuals then “strongly resisted, pushing and hitting three police officers” and that “one of the detainees tried to offer money so that the trial against them would not be completed”.
Nigerian Instagram celebrity, Ramon Abbas widely known as “Hushpuppi“, has been arraigned in a court in California, United States, ahead of his trial on October 13.
Hushpuppi pleaded not guilty to four counts of conspiracy to commit money laundering conspiracies, wire fraud, international money laundering and engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity, a report by Premium Times, said.
In June, the 37-year-old known for flaunting an extravagant lifestyle on social media, was arrested in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, by special operatives of the Emerati Police and American Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The FBI’s investigation, according to the affidavit, alleged that Abbas financed this extravagant lifestyle through crime.
He is alleged to be the leader of a group that facilitates computer intrusion, business email compromise fraud and money laundering.
His targeted victims, majorly in the United States, had been duped of hundreds of millions of dollars, the FBI says.
On the first night of the Republican Party convention, the President’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, took centre stage and commanded the nation’s attention.
“Trump’s policies have been like rocket fuel to the economy,” Mr Trump said during his speech, praising his father’s leadership. But his most powerful lines were not about the president; they were swipes at Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee for the presidency.
“Biden’s radical left-wing policies would stop our economic recovery cold,” Mr Trump said. He warned conservatives that Democrats would undo the economic gains that people had made with his father in the White House.
“Biden has promised to take that money back out of your pocket and keep it in the Swamp,” Mr Trump said, adding: “That makes sense, considering Joe Biden is basically the Loch Ness Monster of the Swamp. For the past half-century, he’s been lurking around in there.”
A fierce advocate for his father’s platform, Donald Trump Jr’s supporters say he can electrify a room while his detractors accuse him of pouring petrol on the flames.
His presentations are laced with full-throated attacks on liberals, Hunter Biden – Joe Biden’s son – and on the media (that’s when the crowd roars).
Firebrand speaker, sportsman and big-game hunter, Mr Trump is doing everything he can to help his father win re-election. The Republican strategy has focused on energising the president’s base of supporters, and they see the younger Mr Trump as their ace in the hole.
He has an unusual rapport with the president’s supporters, many of whom live in rural parts of the country and also love to hunt. “He’s viewed as a conduit to the Trump base,” explains Ron Bonjean, a Republican strategist with ties to the White House.
They like his “no-nonsense” style, says Michael Kuckelman, the chair of the Kansas Republican Party who is now at the Charlotte convention.
Many of the president’s base like the way that the younger Mr Trump has at times gone even further than his father, supporting, for example, the gun industry’s efforts to have restrictions on silencers eliminated.
He is also admired for his boldness – he has aligned himself with colourful characters. Last year, he appeared at a rally for We Build the Wall, a group that was founded as a way to raise funds for the wall.
Founders of the group have recently been charged with defrauding donors.
In his role as a campaign speaker, Mr Trump is often surrounded by signs emblazoned with his father’s name. In these moments, his part seems preordained: when you have the same name as your father, it is natural to slip into the role of cheerleader. And while some men might chafe at the part, he has thrived in his father’s shadow.
He is treated like a rock star at conservative venues.
Lawrence Levy, the executive dean of Hofstra University’s National Center for Suburban Studies, says that Mr Trump is an unusually effective advocate for his father on the campaign trail. And it could be a stepping stone to a more prominent role.
“The successful sons of powerful people learn not just to live but to thrive in what may seem like their father’s shadow but will someday disappear and they will be the family’s patriarch,” says Mr Levy.
In the meantime, he is in many ways similar to his father and is just as divisive as the president.
While the president’s supporters cheer him on, liberals recoil.
“A product of nepotism,” says Christina Greer, an associate professor of political science at Fordham University.
Jon Reinish, a New York-based Democratic strategist, says that he taps into dark strands of the current presidency, describing him as a “younger, more acidic version of his father”.
Says Mr Reinish: “Donald Jr is the gasoline on the fire.”
A bearded man with short-cropped hair, Mr Trump wears open-collar shirts and throws his hands around when he talks. During his speeches, he bounces on his feet like a boxer in the ring. “He energises and electrifies a room,” says Jack Oliver, a Republican fund-raiser. “He has a radiant personality.”
Mr Trump spent his childhood summers in Czechoslovakia, as it was then known, hunting with his paternal grandfather, and had a rowdy youth. In his early twenties, he was arrested in New Orleans on charges of public drunkenness and thrown in jail.
He and his ex-wife, Vanessa Haydon, a former model, have five children. His current girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, is a fund-raising official for the campaign (she calls him “Junior Mint”, an affectionate term).
He became a lightning rod for controversy because of a meeting in New York that he had with a Russian lawyer, a woman with ties to the Kremlin, in June 2016. The meeting was scrutinised by special counsel Robert Mueller during his investigation into ties between the campaign and Russia that summer. But in the end, Mr Mueller said there was not sufficient evidence of a criminal conspiracy.
His father acted protectively of his son and downplayed the significance of it. “He had a meeting. Nothing happened with the meeting,” the president told me and other reporters on Air Force One in the summer of 2017.
The president spoke of his son, an executive for the Trump Organization, as if he were much younger. “He’s a good boy,” said the president. “He’s a good kid.” Lately both men have focused like a laser on the polls in November. Their future hang in the balance.
Why Trump Jr Skittles Tweet Sparked Storm
As Hofstra University’s Lawrence Levy explains, the younger man’s prospects may be enhanced by the results on election day. “He’s positioning himself to be the financial and political heir to the Trump brand and what he chooses to do with that will depend on how successful this campaign will be.”
Mr Levy says that he could go far.
“The base is wild for him. He is very popular in red states. If for some reason he only wanted to become a member of Congress, he could run very successfully,” he says. “But I think his ambitions are bigger than that.”
His chances for future success will be higher if he can help win this one for his father. From now until November, they both have their eyes on the prize.
Two people were reported dead and 16 others feared trapped on Tuesday after a residential building collapsed in Western India, the Police said.
The five-storey building said to house several families, collapsed in Maharashtra state’s Raigad district on Tuesday.
Police officer Shashikiran Kashid said two people died in the accident and the seven injured people were rescued by the National Disaster Response.
More than 70 people were initially feared trapped, but Raigad Police Chief, Anil Paraskar, said about 60 inhabitants managed to flee just as they felt the tremors when the building began to crumble.
The officials denied media reports that they were rescued.
Meanwhile, the Police revised the figures of 22 injured it released on Monday night.
Police suspect the building had structural defects.
However, a criminal case was filed against the builder.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed grief about the accident and instructed local authorities to provide all possible assistance to the victims.
Building collapses are common in India, usually due to shoddy construction, substandard materials, and disregard for regulations.
Many of these accidents occur during the monsoon season.
Nigeria's Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu
The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, has suspended entry requirements for applicants who wish to join the Nigeria Police Force as constables.
The NPF is looking to recruit 10,000 personnel in line with the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to add 40,000 policemen to the NPF over a period of four years.
The requirements listed in the recruitment include that applicants must be aged between 17 to 25 years and possess a minimum of five credits, including English and Mathematics in WASSCE/NECO/GCE/NABTEB.
Applicants were also required to be medically, physically and psychologically fit and must not be less than 1.67m tall for male and 1.64m tall for female.
“Female applicants must not be pregnant at the time of the recruitment,” the statement said.
The IGP in a signal dated August 24 directed that no candidate should be disqualified irrespective of their physical appearance, age and qualification.
Adamu also directed police commands and formations nationwide to attend to all applicants, who successfully submitted their applications online.
“Inspector-General of Police directs that you attend to all applicants who successfully submitted their online applications to police recruitment portal irrespective of their physical appearance, age and qualification. You are not to disqualify any applicant for any reason whatsoever.
“Note that your recommendation for each applicant will serve as a guide to ascertaining the suitability or otherwise of each applicant. Ensure that the entire process is transparent and devoid of corruption and closely monitor activities of ICT personnel and other members of the team for strict compliance, please,” it added.
Ali Silas Agara, a Christian nominated to take over as Chairman of National Population Commission, has been finally replaced with a Muslim, Hon Kwarra Nasiru Isa.
President Muhammadu Buhari had in two separate letters dated March 20 and August 12, 2020, nominated Agara, a former deputy governor of Nasarawa State, to head the NPC.
The letter by the President also contained names of individuals, who will serve as members of the commission for five years as stipulated by federal character.
Others recommended alongside Agara are Muhammed Chuso A. Dottijo, member from Sokoto; Alhaji Razaq Gidado, member from Kwara; Ibrahim Mohammed, member from Bauchi; Joseph Kwai Shazin, member from FCT; Engineer Bala Almu Banya, member from Katsina; and Mrs Bimbola Salu-Hundeyin, member from Lagos.
“The positions to which appointments are to be made include the office of the Chairman from Nassarawa State, four new commissioners representing Sokoto, Kwara, Bauchi and the FCT, as well as the renewal of the appointment of others,” one of the letters by the President reads.
But in another letter dated August 21, Isa, an Hausa-Fulani also from Nasarawa State, was named as NPC Chairman while Agara was downgraded to a member of the commission.
SaharaReporters had exclusively reported how some officials within the Nigerian Government were not contented with Agara’s nomination being a Christian.
A government source confirmed to SaharaReporters that Abdullahi Sule is among top Northern Muslims, who worked against a Christian being appointed to head the commission.
“Governor of Nassarawa and Chief of Staff told Buhari not to handover NPC to a Christian,” the source said.
Nigerian Government has appointed the Chairman and CEO of Channels TV, John Momoh, as acting chairman of the governing council of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka.
In a letter signed by the Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono, dated August 21, 2020, Momoh was directed to convene an emergency meeting of the council to “consider and, if found suitable, approve the senate nomination of the acting Vice-Chancellor for University of Lagos, in line with the enabling Act.
“You are to preside at the meeting in the absence of the substantive pro-chancellor/chairman of council who has had to recuse himself in line with the visitor’s directive.
“You are to also submit a report on the decision of the council to the visitor through the honourable minister of education immediately thereafter.”
Momoh has been the president of the institution’s alumni association and a member of the council representing the association.
His appointment follows the removal of lawyer and businessman, Wale Babalakin, from the position over the leadership crisis in the university.
The House of Representatives on Monday defended its decision to suspend activities of its standing and ad hoc committees, saying there was no hidden agenda.
It also faulted its Committee on Treaties, Protocols and Agreements for investigating the $500m loan facility Nigeria recently secured from China, saying it had already been approved by the National Assembly and captured in the 2020 Appropriation Act.
But before activities of the committees were suspended on Thursday, the Committee on Treaties, Protocols and Agreements had written the Ministry of Transportation, demanding documents containing loan agreements with China from 2000 to date.
Among the facilities the committee is probing is the $500m loan secured from China-EXIM Bank to finance railway projects under the Ministry of Transportation.
The Peoples Democratic Party had, on Saturday, asked the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, to step aside for allegedly frustrating investigations into executive corruption.
The party stated this in a statement titled, ‘PDP Berates Gbajabiamila For Frustrating Corruption Investigation in the House of Representatives … Asks Speaker to Step Aside,’ signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan.
But the Majority Leader, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, who is also the leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress caucus in the House, in a statement on Monday, berated the PDP for faulting the decision of the House to stop committees from investigative hearings.
The statement was titled, ‘’You’re suffering from horrific political hallucinations – Doguwa replies the PDP.’
Ado-Doguwa said, “It is at first repulsive for an opposition party, the PDP, that has seemingly lost the actual meaning and essence of opposition, to have brought in undue politics into a matter of national interest, especially at the time of prevailing health and economic challenges.
“Although one should not have glorified them with a response by wasting precious time required for fixing the economic woes which they recklessly plunged the country into, it has become imperative, for the sake of educating their sympathizers, to set the record unambiguously straight.
“It is ridiculous to discover that the PDP, a supposedly major opposition party in the country, does not know the workings of the National Assembly, let alone know where the constitution and the House procedures have been breached.”
According to the lawmaker, it has never been the practice of the House to continue with committee engagements while on annual recess, especially with the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Ado-Doguwa added, “It will be of interest to the PDP, the investigations the House is currently undertaking, including the Chinese loans, cover the 16 years the PDP was in power and when most of the loans were obtained. So, maybe they should be thanking the House leadership for covering up their misdeeds.
We have approved $500m Chinese loan, probe not necessary – Reps
“Hence, making reference to the recent $500m China loan by the PDP spokesman which has already been approved by the National Assembly through a transparent and formal request was either a deliberate misrepresentation of facts or an utter ignorance of history.
“Therefore, it is pertinent to know that the government has already captured the recent loan in the 2020 appropriation law and it should not be a subject of any controversy or query in the committee’s investigation process, at least for now. And as a matter of norm and procedure, the House can only wait until disbursements and utilisation commence before embarking on oversight implementation.”
We haven’t discontinued probes – Majority Leader
The Majority Leader stated that the House had not discontinued other investigations, including those concerning the Niger Delta Development Commission, the Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund, power sector as well as all other allegations of corruption in ministries, departments and agencies of the Federal Government.
“All the pending investigations will continue as the House reconvenes,” he stated.
According to the lawmaker, the House under the leadership of Gbajabiamila will remain focused, committed and well-guided in safeguarding its institutional integrity, “without necessarily jeopardising our good working relationship with the Buhari-led popular government.”
Ado-Doguwa further said, “In fact, the PDP lacks the moral standing to accuse the leadership of the House of abetting corruption or protecting questionable officials from the ongoing investigation. For us in the APC, fighting the menace of corruption by prosecuting corrupt individuals has been the cardinal objective of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.”
The Majority Leader stressed that the leadership of the House had observed “the deteriorating working relationship with the executive arm of government, which was mostly due to misconducts and sometimes deliberate and calculated attempt by some disgruntled government officials to drag the institution of the legislature into needless controversies for political gains.”
According to the lawmaker, the fact that the lawmakers are empowered by the constitution to oversight government agencies “does not in any way mean we should do that with injurious intentions.”
He argued that the wisdom of the oversight duties in the Constitution was “not to engage in a bickering with the executive.”
House – We have no plan to cover up corruption
The statement further read partly, “At this point, I must also make it clear that the House of Representatives has no clandestine plans or motives to cover up any corrupt engagement or business of the government. But as rational and progressive members, we are indeed committed to our partnership with Buhari administration to fight corruption in all ramifications, and provide good governance.
“Consequently, it must be borne in mind that gone are those seasons when the legislative arm of government would be stampeded or used by the so-called opposition forces to discredit, undermine or malign our own government.
“The steps we have taken recently are with the best of intentions and in the best interest of the House. It is our hope that you would continue to help to sustain the tempo so that together, we can bring sanity and grace to the Legislature and to further salvage its institutions. “
Panel replies Amaechi, transport ministry, demands more documents
Meanwhile, before the leadership of the House suspended activities of the panels, the Committee on Treaties, Protocols and Agreements had written to the Ministry of Transportation, demanding details of Nigeria’s loan agreements with China from 2000 to 2020.
The committee’s chairman, Nicholas Ossai, had last week accused the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, of failing to provide most of the documents requested from the ministry.
