An Oyo State High Court sitting in Ibadan on Monday extended an interim order restraining the Department of State Services, and the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), from arresting, killing, or harassing Yoruba nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, also known as Sunday Igboho.
The court presided over by Justice Ladiran Akintola also extended the order stopping the DSS and AGF from freezing the accounts of the embattled activist facing trial in Cotonou, Benin Republic.
Lead counsel for Igboho, Yomi Aliyu (SAN), confirmed the development to reporters on Monday after the ruling.
He said, “The judge said the interim order of injunction should continue until September 7 when we will go back to court.”
It had earlier been reported that Justice Akintola had on August 4, 2021, ordered the secret police and the AGF not to arrest Igboho or freeze his bank accounts.
Counsel for the AGF, E. Simeon, had appealed the court to vacate its earlier restraining judgement but Aliyu said he had filed for an extension of the order on August 26, 2021, therefore, the new application should not be granted.
Simeon consequently sought another adjournment for him to reply to the application as the time frame of seven days had not elapsed.
On his part, the DSS lawyer, T. Nurudeen, said he had not been served with the new processes, urging the court to adjourn the case.
Justice Akintola subsequently adjourned the case till September 7, 2021, for hearing.
Igboho had through his counsel approached the court and filed an originating summon alongside an application praying the court to stop the DSS and the AGF from arresting him.
He is also seeking N5bn damages for the destruction of his house and cars.
Igboho, wanted by the DSS, has been in detention in Cotonou, Benin Republic, since July 19, 2021, when he was arrested at an airport as he tried to board a Germany-bound flight.
The DSS had raided his Ibadan residence on July 1, 2021, killed two of his associates and arrested 12 others.
Igboho and the leader of the umbrella body of the Yoruba self-determination group known as Ilana Omo Oodua, Banji Akintoye, have been seen together at press conferences and rallies championing the cause to secede from the Nigerian state and establish a Yoruba Nation despite the Federal Government’s insistence of a united and indissoluble Nigeria.
Akintoye, 86, said he relocated to Benin Republic to ensure the release of 48-year-old Igboho.
Nigeria’s Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has said unlike ex-President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime is looting Nigeria’s treasury on low-key.
Speaking of brazen looting of the country’s funds under Jonathan, Amaechi stated that the looters “had nothing to do to show for it.”
“They did not have a carpentry shop, but they were billionaires. They did not hide it. But here (Buhari’s regime), if you are stealing, it is done quietly,” the minister revealed in an interview with Daily Trust.
Speaking on how the regime has managed the country’s resources in the past years, Amaechi, an ally of Buhari, noted that stealing was taking place “quietly” under the regime.
“I want Nigerians to be honest. Can you openly take money from this government? I am not saying whether we are corrupt or not,” he acknowledged.
Amaechi also claimed that corrupt officeholders displayed their wealth without fears of being prosecuted, compared to the current administration where looters “face the consequences” for their actions.
“Let us assume we are corrupt: can you openly take money in this government? In the past governments, what happened? You can take money in the streets. Corruption was so pervasive that nobody was talking about it,” said Amaechi. It was not hidden that people completely and openly displayed their wealth.”
Admitting that Buhari’s regime is not corruption-free, the transportation minister pointed out, “But here (under Buhari’s regime), if you are stealing, it is done quietly. I am not saying it is good. It is a sin punishable.
He added, “In the previous government, you could steal, and you won’t be caught. If you were caught, there wouldn’t be consequences. But in this government, if you steal, there are consequences.”
In its ‘2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Nigeria’, the U.S. noted that corruption under Buhari was “massive and pervasive.”
“Although the law provides criminal penalties for conviction of official corruption, the government did not consistently implement the law, and government employees frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity,” the U.S. report said. “Massive, widespread, and pervasive corruption affected all levels of government, including the judiciary and security services.”
The report also accused anti-corruption agencies, Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) and EFCC of only going after low-level officials but delay procedures in cases of high-level officials indicted for financial crimes.
“The bulk of ICPC and EFCC anti-corruption efforts remained focused on low- and mid-level government officials,” explained the U.S. report. “In 2019, both organisations started investigations into and brought indictments against various active and former high-level government officials. Many of the corruption cases, particularly the high-profile ones, remained pending before the court due to administrative or procedural delays.”
Critics have accused Buhari of failing to tackle corruption which he said would be his priority prior to his first election in 2015. Corruption has remained rampant as Nigeria ranked 149 out of the 180 countries surveyed in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2020.
The 2020 ranking makes Nigeria the second most corrupt West African country, with Guinea Bissau topping the list.
As of 2019, Nigeria ranked 146th, although the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) did not agree with the ranking.
Tajudeen Bakare, a leader of Ogboni fraternity who was arrested in July at the Yoruba Nation rally in Ojota, Lagos has said he chose not to disappear when men of the Lagos Police Command seized him.
According to him, he considered it inappropriate to disappear because he was arrested alongside some other persons.
Bakare, who spoke in Yoruba, said there were six other people in the vehicle with him when they were arrested and he was concerned about their fate should he escape and leave them behind.
He said he allowed himself to be arrested with the others “to protect them because they are not members of Ogboni fraternity”.
Bakare revealed this during his recent interview with BBC News Yoruba.
He also disclosed that he was shocked at the murder allegations levelled against him by the state’s authorities, saying he had no gun with him when he was arrested.
“We were not arrested at the Yoruba Nation rally ground. And I did not kill anybody. Or how is it possible for someone who does not have a gun on him to shoot another person to death?” he said.
Bakare submitted that still, he was not perturbed.
He said should there be another Yoruba Nation rally, he would be actively involved.
Policemen had besieged the venue of the Yoruba Nation rally in Ojota on July 3, 2021 and in an attempt to disperse protesters, allegedly shot one Jumoke Oyeleke.
President Muhammadu Buhari has slammed the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) for unleashing terror on the South-East and parts of the South-South, describing them as thieves and terrorists.
The President said this in a statement by his media aide Garba Shehu on Sunday.
President Buhari, however, maintained that to achieve success, communities must unite against these horrific attacks, saying retributive violence was not the answer.
He challenged religious, traditional, and community leaders on the need to preach peace and preventing violence.
”Attempts to simplify the reasons into a basic narrative may help raise donor-dollars for international NGOs, fill pages of overseas newspapers and burnish foreign politicians’ faith credentials,” the President argued. “But this does not increase understanding, nor offer solutions. If anything, simplistic theorising and finger-pointing make the situation worse.”
He pointed out that “it is important both for Nigerians and the international community to appreciate that there are” a multitude of factors responsible for the worsening insecurity in Nigeria.
President Buhari further explained that “there are no religious connotations at all when the primary purpose of these acts is to extract money.”
The President insisted that the “herder-farmer” violent conflict was a matter of “water and land,” not religion.
“Then the herder-farmer clashes. While international voices and some Nigerian politicians who seek personal gains from division declare this a matter of religion, for those involved, it is almost entirely a matter of access to water and land,” he stated. “Herders have moved their cattle into contact with farmers for millennia. But increasingly, due to population pressure, escalating aridity of northern states, and climate change, they are forced to travel further south to find grazing lands.”
On the activities of IPOB, the President noted that “further afield in the South-East, IPOB are not struggling for freedom when they attack police stations and property, but rather committing acts of terrorism” to steal money.
“IPOB is not defending Christians, as their highly paid foreign lobbyists claim,” Mr Buhari pointed out, “when almost every citizen of those states they terrorize is uniformly Christian.”
A few months ago, President Buhari’s regime repatriated IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, from Kenya, and now facing various criminal charges in court. He is in detention. Kanu and IPOB are seeking the secession of the South-East from Nigeria.
However, Buhari has urged Nigerians to be united against “those who seek to divide us for their own nefarious financial and political gain.”
The Academic Staff Union of Universities has expressed its readiness to embark on another round of industrial action following what it called the failure of the Federal Government to implement an agreement signed with the union.
The union is giving the government till month end (Tuesday) to reach out or it will activate the procedure of embarking on strike.
The union’s President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, who disclosed this in an interview with The PUNCH on Sunday, added that the Federal Government no longer picked its calls.
Recall that in March 2020, ASUU embarked on a strike following its disagreement with the Federal Government over the funding of the universities and the ineffectiveness and discrepancies around the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System and others.
ASUU, however, developed the University Transparency and Accountability Solution to replace IPPIS and had several meetings with the Ministries of Finance, Education, Labour and Employment, and the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation before it was approved but yet to be implemented.
Likewise, the Federal Government and ASUU signed an agreement aimed at resolving some of the demands of ASUU, a development that led to the suspension of the strike on December 24, 2020.
In addition, after a meeting with the FG on August 2, 2021, Osodeke said the Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency insisted that UTAS must be re-presented to the end users.
Also, at the meeting, Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, assured ASUU that the N22bn earned allowance captured in the 2021 supplementary budget would soon be accessed by university workers.
On the contrary, Osodeke told one of our correspondents on Sunday that the Federal Government had stopped reaching out to ASUU and had failed to implement the agreement reached.
Due to government’s silence over their demands, Osodeke said the union would not hesitate to embark on a fresh strike to protest government’s failure.
He said, “The government has refused to reach out to us. Government officials have stopped. In fact, they don’t take our calls again. Nigerians should tell the government to do what they agreed to do.
“We signed an agreement and even in May, we reached a final agreement; this is August and nothing has been implemented. Does it make any sense? We are giving them till the end of August and after that, we start the procedures.”
Adeola Soetan was a staff of the Nigeria Television Authority, NTA, Abeokuta when some young student leaders from the Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, Ile-Ife visited the station. Cladded in black, they came in connection with the annual commemoration of the June 7, 1981 massacre of six students in Ife by the Police.
The students looked so young, yet articulate and confident while being interviewed, that he decided in furthering his studies, to attend the OAU. So in 1986, he was admitted into the institution for a five -year course in Agriculture. He was aged 25.But when he got to the campus, the student union that attracted him, had been banned over protests against the student massacre at the Ahmadu Bello University, ABU.
On campus, he started writing and pasting articles why student unionism should be restored. His articles carried his name and room number. One day, two young students, Yinka Odumakin, later a national figure in Nigerian politics, and Kola Odetola visited and invited him to join a student journal, ‘Ripples’. A month later, they invited him to a student seminar where he met young students discussing how to revive the student union and intelligently analyzing national and international politics. That was how he joined the radical students movement.
About three months later, during the university convocation, the representative of the Visitor, Admiral Patrick Koshoni, was stoned by students protesting the trial for treason of eleven electricity senior staff who had gone on strike in protest against the neglect of their sector. Soetan was not present when this happened. He had attended an all-night social party the day before, and slept most of the day. So when Koshoni was stoned, he was sound asleep in his room. About 9.30pm, Odumakin and Odetola came to his room and asked whether he listened to the NTA Network News. No he hadn’t. So they informed him he was one of the students the university claimed to have identified stoning Koshoni and has therefore been rusticated indefinitely. He was just four months on campus!
Soetan an orphan since 19, was sponsoring himself in school with help from his sister, Rosalyn Soetan. She seemed so devastated and exclaimed: “How could you go and stone the Minister?” He replied: “ I did not stone the Minister, I was not even there.” She responded: “Ah! Iro ni”(Ah! It is a lie).
Soetan went to court to prove he was not physically present at the convocation and was not given any hearing. Also, to point out that three of the eight rusticated students were pen names, so how could the university claim people whose identity they do not know, were seen stoning the Minister? Additionally, that one of the remaining names, Seni Ajayi was served his rustication letter in Ondo whereas the person served had graduated and left the university! So, it was clearly a case of mistaken identity. Soetan lost the case but the reinvigorated student union asked the rusticated students to resume classes, and the university turned a blind eye.
In April 1990, Soetan was elected the student union President. Shortly afterwards, there were national student protests and the OAU students union was banned and the school closed down for one month.
Then there was an attempted coup in the country on April 22, 1990 and state security agents invaded the campus and abducted two lecturers, Professors Omotoye Olorode and Idowu Awopetu. In the process of spiriting the lecturers away, one of the agents in his car lagged behind, was apprehended by the students and beaten. The university authorities wanted to save the life of the security agent from the thousands of angry students, but could not persuade them, so they appealed to Soetan.
He asked in what capacity he was to intervene since the union had been banned. But the university denied the union was banned. So he spoke to the students and assured them that the union was capable of handling the situation. Later, the university wrote the students inviting them to meet government representatives who were threatening to storm the campus unless the agent was released. The students rejected the letter, insisting it should be properly addressed. Two hours later, the university unbanned the students union and returned with a letter addressed to the President of the students union. So the students agreed to the meeting. The security agent was released after spending 12 days in the students custody.
In 1991, the National association of Nigerian Students, NANS, ordered a nationwide students boycott of classes in furtherance of its demand for a N2,000 bursary for students and the right to education. When a student congress was called in OAU to mobilise for this protest, a cult group, the Black Axe posted notices decreeing: “No Rally. No protest on campus. Be warned.” When Soetan led the student congress that held in Awolowo Hall, there were disturbances.
His supporters guided him to safety in his Room 273, Awolowo Hall. Then the armed cultists smashed his door, dragged him out, broke a flower vase on his head and brought him to the ground floor. It was at that point students realised what was going on and came to his rescue. The cultists broke into a run, fleeing into the hills. But one of them ran to the bar of the Student Union Building, SUB, from where he flung bottles at the students injuring a number. The students retaliated likewise and he was severely injured. He died while being taken to the teaching hospital.
The university was closed down for two weeks. On resumption, Soetan was invited with some students to write a statement on the incident at the More Police Station, Ife. Eighteen of them were detained and later taken to police cells in Ibadan. After about one month, Soetan and three others were brought back to Ife, and amidst police-student street battles, were charged with conspiracy and murder before a magistrate court. They were remanded at the Ilesha prisons where they spent seven months (June 12, 1991-January, 1992) before the police discontinued the case.
On return to campus, Soetan was again expelled, this time for failing to register for two semesters which was impossible as he was in police cell and prison for eight months. The struggle to get him recalled went on for over two years.
Soetan, even without failing his examinations, spent 13 years in OAU for a five-year programme. He passed through four Vice Chancellors: Professor Wande Abimbola who first expelled him; Professor Adeniyi Osuntogun, the next to expel him; Professor Wale Omole, the third to expel him; and Professor Makanjuola Roger who signed his certificate. Yesterday, Sunday August 29, 2021, this indomitable fighter, turned 60.
Ekiti State Health and Human Services Commissioner, Dr Oyebanji Filani
Ekiti State Health Commissioner, Dr Oyebanji Filani, said that the state had stepped up sensitisation campaigns targeted at curtailing the spread of COVID-19 across the 16 council areas through drawing residents’ attention to the ongoing second phase COVID-19 vaccination exercise.
Filani said the exercise was as well to remind the people of the need to continue to comply with WHO safety protocols and as well to observe personal and environmental hygiene in view of the suspected cholera cases reported in some areas in Ekiti State.
Filani, spoke on separate occasions at Otun Ekiti in the Moba Council Area on Saturday while addressing traditional rulers and different ethnic communities including the Hausa Community, where he also sensitised the community on cholera outbreak.
The commissioner, who said cholera was another public health issue in the state, disclosed that the three suspected cases in which test results were inconclusive had been taken for further investigations.
He said, “These sensitisation meetings became necessary because Ekiti State has been recording a high number of positive cases of COVID-19 on daily basis since July.”
Filani, who said the government recognised the relevance and important position the monarchs occupied in their various communities, urged them to impress on their people to get vaccinated and as well observe the protocols to prevent the spread of the virus.
He, however, clarified that “the Moderna vaccines currently being administered in the state are for eligible residents who haven’t received any jab of the COVID-19. Anyone who had received the first dose of Astra-Zeneca vaccines should wait for the second dose that would arrive soon.”
Filani charged the Hausa community in Moba Council where there was a report of a suspected case of cholera “to continue to observe personal and environmental hygiene.”
The Oore of Otun, Oba Adekunle Adeagbo, who spoke on behalf of the traditional rulers, praised the state government’s effort to curtail the pandemic and assured that the monarchs would mobilise for the vaccines and also ensure compliance with necessary safety measures in all their domains.
Also, the Hausa community leader in Moba Area, Danjuma Yusuf, assured that all necessary support would be given to the government and their host communities to contain all issues of public health concern.
General Overseer of Omega Fire Ministries International, Apostle Johnson Suleman
A Nigerian Pastor and Author, Dr Bolaji Akinyemi, has asked the Nigeria Police and the United States Government to investigate the claims of Senior Pastor and General Overseer, Omega Fire Ministries International, Apostle Johnson Suleman of receipts of miracle bank alerts by his congregants, at gatherings in Edo State, Nigeria, and Atlanta, USA.
In a video containing clips from a Holy Ghost Convention in Auchi, Edo State in June and an Impact 2021 programme in Atlanta, USA in July, Suleman had declared that angels would credit the bank accounts of some members of the congregation.
And as the video revealed, many congregants presented their testimonies of receipt of instant credit alerts from “angels”.
“There is a miracle alert here; she just got a miracle alert of $1,000. Miracle alert!” Suleiman had screamed.
“As you get it, run here. Angels will begin to put money in your accounts.”
One congregant who came out even said he received an alert of $989 and 70 cents.
“Papa, there is a miracle here,” one said.
“You gave your word at about twelve minutes past eight, and it is now thirteen minutes past eight and she has been credited with several zeros.”
A vlogger, Israel Balogun, who later exposed the money miracle ‘session’ was arrested by the Police.
In a letter to the Attorney General of the United States of America, dated July 23, 2021, through the Office of the Legal Attaché US Embassy, Abuja, Apostle Akinyemi requested an investigation into the incident as “it is capable of sending wrong information to the global community of churches and may also bringing the CHRISTIAN FAITH to disrepute, derision, and ridicule.”
He said, “I hereby request a thorough investigation into the claims of a pastor, Apostle Suleman of receipts of miracle bank alerts by congregants, at a gathering somewhere in Atlanta USA, the nature of the said miracle, if not address has the capacity to ridicule your banking system.
“This incident, which took place in Atlanta Georgia – USA, had the said man of God who is a Nigerian, whose ministry is based in Auchi Edo State, of interest to us, is the model American churches has become their global counterparts.
“It is expedient that this incident be investigated, as it is capable of sending wrong information to the global community of churches and may also bringing the CHRISTIAN FAITH to disrepute, derision, and ridicule. Putting this kind of unsubstantiated claims in public is capable of undermining the security apparatus of the banking system, as the congregants claimed to have received the alerts from unknown sources.
“The Special Fraud Unit of The Nigerian Police has been briefed of this ugly development and has promised to carry out an investigation, but since this act of banking system manipulation took place on American soil, we are duty-bound to keep you abreast of your responsibility. We look forward to your positive response, I will also be available to give any Biblical interpretation information that may be relevant in the course of your investigation.
In his petition to the Commissioner of Police, Special Fraud Unit, dated July 23, 2021, the priest requested an investigation into the claims of the pastor.
The petition read, “I hereby request a thorough investigation into the claims of a pastor, Apostle Suleman of receipts of miracle bank alerts by congregants after praying in a gathering somewhere in Atlanta, USA.
“This incident as captured in a video, with the link herein attached as evidence, took place in Atlanta Georgia USA, the said man of God is a Nigerian, whose ministry is based in Auchi, Edo State.
“It is expedient that this incident be investigated, as it is capable of sending wrong information to the public and also bringing the Christian faith to disrepute, derision, and ridicule.
“Putting this kind of unsubstantiated claims in public is capable of undermining the security apparatus of the banking system, as the congregants claimed to have received the alerts from their various banks.
“I look forward to your positive response as I will be available to give any Biblical interpretation information that may be relevant in the course of the investigation.”
Former National Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole
Former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, says his relevance to the party was never tied to him being its National Chairman.
“I am still active in all APC activities and I don’t think that I need to be the chairman to be of relevance.
“I didn’t join the party to become chairman, I joined in order to form an alternative platform capable of kicking PDP out of power and that objective was achieved.
“It doesn’t matter the way things have gone. The primary purpose was not for me to be APC Chairman,” Mr Oshiomhole said.
The former APC Chairman was a guest at a fundraising and investiture for Victoria Unuoarumi as the 10th President of the Rotary Club of Maitama, Abuja.
Speaking at the sideline, Mr Oshiomhole said he had no regrets he was removed as APC chairman. He said though an appeal court had long voided his removal, he has since accepted everything in good faith.
“The court judgement was delivered on July 2, 2020, about two weeks after I was removed from office. I decided to make it public because I saw many commentaries suggesting that people were not aware that the case was dismissed,” he said.
Also, Mr Oshiomhole expressed optimism that Nigeria would hold a hitch-free general election in 2023.
“I have hope for 2023. God will not forsake a nation of 200 million people in 2023, our democracy has come to stay, although it’s not perfect, a couple of things could be done to strengthen it.
“I believe that God in his infinite mercy will help Nigeria to sustain its democracy and guide us, as we move towards 2023 and the country will go forward.
“I want all of you to realize that I always make this point because Nigeria is much bigger than the total sum of the problems bedevilling it. So I am an optimist,” he said.
Cristiano Ronaldo is now the fifth highest paid footballer after his return to Manchester United.
Messi, six-time Ballon d’Or winner who joined PSG as a free agent, tops the list as he will be going home with a whopping €35m annually.
Messi’s teammate Neymar is second on the list grossing €30m while former Barcelona legend who now plies his trade in the J-League is third with Vissel Kobe with a yearly income of €25m.
Ex-Chelsea midfielder Oscar who now plays for Chinese Super League side Shanghai Port earns €24m annual salary.
Manchester United announced on Friday they have reached a deal to re-sign Cristiano Ronaldo from Juventus, 12 years after he left Old Trafford for
Sky Sport Italia reported that United have offered Juve 28 million euros ($33 million), agreeing a two-year deal with the superstar attacker worth 25 million euros per season.
Ronaldo won the first of his five Champions League titles and was first crowned the world’s best player during six years at United between 2003 and 2009.
In total he scored 118 goals in 292 games, also winning three Premier League titles, one FA Cup and two League Cups.
He joined 2018 after scoring a remarkable 450 goals in 438 matches in a glittering nine-year spell in Madrid that also included four Champions League triumphs.
Top 10 Highest Paid Footballers In The World Based On Their Weekly Wages
