The United States Army has promoted a woman of Nigerian descent, Amanda Azubuike, from Lieutenant Colonel to Brigadier General at a military base in Fort Knox, Kentucky, USA.
Born in London, United Kingdom, to Nigerian parents, Azubuike joined the US Army in 1994 and became an aviator after passing the Army Aviation Officer Basic Course.
Commenting on her leadership qualities, US Army Futures Command Commander, General James Rainey, stated that Azubuike “makes everyone around her better.”
After her aviation career, which spanned 11 years, she continued her career in the Army as a public affairs and relations officer.
Azubuike currently serves as a Deputy Commanding Officer at the US Army Cadet Command and previously served as a Chief of Staff/Senior Military Advisor at the Office of the Secretary of Defense. She was also Chief of Public Affairs at the United States Southern Command, Fort Lauderdale Area, and the Director of Public Affairs, Joint Force HQs-National Capital Region/Military District of Washington.
Presidential Candidate oftheLabourParty (LP), Mr Peter Obi, has said he would dialogue with themembers ofthe proscribed Indigenous Peoples ofBiafra (IPOB) and other agitators to restore peace in the country if elected president come February 25, 2023.
Obi, a former governorof Anambra State stated this while responding to questions on insecurity in thecountry at the corporate headquarters ofthe Media Trust Group (MTG), owners of Daily Trust titles and Trust TV in Abuja. IPOB is a separatist organisation in Nigeria, which claims that its main aim is to restore an independent stateof Biafra in the old Eastern Region ofthe country, comprising mainly today’s South-East and South-South regions.
The group was founded in 2012 by Nnamdi Kanu, a British-Nigerian known for his advocacy ofthecontemporary Biafran independence movement.
It was designated a terrorist organisation in 2017 under theNigerian Terrorism Act and subsequently, Kanu was arrested and taken to court over terrorism-related offences.
The group had been accused of killing security operatives, politicians, traditional rulers and ordinary citizens. Its members were also fingered in thedestruction of symbols of authority like policestations and INEC offices, among others.
In other parts ofthe country, theBoko Haram/ISWAP fighters have been raging war against theNigerianstate for over 13 years while activities of militants occasioned by oil theft have denied Nigeriatheopportunity to benefit from its oil wealth. In the North West, bandits have been terrorising the people ofthegeopolitical zone.
My approach will be different’
While answering questions after his visit to Media Trust, Obi said, “I have said it times without number, Nigeria does not have more agitation than Brazil, if you want I will show you countries that have had agitations in the past, whether it is Brazil, Mexico, whether it is this.
“In our South East, it is a simple thing, I will dialogue, I will discuss, it is a democracy, and in a democracy, you govern by consensus. If anybody says he is not happy, you call him and you sit him down and discuss with him.
People agitate in my house, my wife, my children. If you say to me you have lived with your wife all through and you people have never quarrelled, then you are not married. You disagree and settle it – that is agitation.”
If elected, Obi said he would govern by consensus and listen to all for smooth administration ofthe country.
“I will govern by listening to the people. I will visit every state in Nigeria. We have a huge land in theNorth that if properly invested and cultivated, will change Nigeria. The more I pull people out of poverty, the more I reduce agitation, the more I reduce criminality. What you are seeing in Nigeria today is a cumulative effect of leadership failure over the years and all I want to do is to be seen to be that man who changed this country called Nigeria,” he said.
Asked whether he shares the federal government’s position in designating IPOB as a terrorist organisation, he said, “I don’t want to go into that place. I have told you, I will dialogue with anybody, anything they like let them call you, I will meet and we discuss.
“I don’t like the way people were treated during theEndSARS, I will apologise. We must have a country ofhealing and love; that is what leadership in a democracy is.
I am going to meet people in the North, I am going to meet people everywhere and say come, let’s be a family. I want Nigerians to be proud that they are Nigerians. What we have now is we have a country called Nigeria but we don’t have Nigerians. I want to bring back Nigerians.”
‘I’m not Igbo candidate’
While urging Nigerians to vote for him, he said he is not an Igbo candidate but the most qualified candidate among the 18 flagbearers.
“I am contesting as a Nigerian, I don’t want people to vote for me because I am an Igbo man or because I am from South East because people don’t buy bread cheaper because they are from that zone.
“I don’t want anybody to vote for me because I am a Christian; I don’t want them to vote because it is my turn, it is not inheritance. It is the turn ofNigerians to take back their country. I want them to vote for me because of character and competence, I have thecapacity, I have the commitment, I am qualified,” he said.
The Federal Government only paid lecturers under the aegis of the Academic Staff Union of Universities for 18 working days in the month of October.
Lecturers and senior members of ASUU, who spoke to PUNCH under strict confidence noted that the government only paid half salaries.
AMILOADED had reported how ASUU called off its eight-month-old strike on October 14, 2022. Lecturers were encouraged to resume back to work by the union on that same day.
Speaking with newsmen, a senior member of the National Executive Council, said, “We were only paid for the days after the strike. I received a half salary. Other members are angry right now, they are blaming the NEC for calling off the strike.”
Another member, who confirmed the development, said, “Yes, it is true, I received half salary. It seems the government is set to kill unionism in the country but we are ready for them.”
Gov Wike has committed executive recklessness ! Gov Wike has the opportunity of building the database of River state indigenes and be paying all the unemployed people living wage ,including the aged .
He has the opportunity of building agricultural and industrial estates where people will be gainfully employed and productive. What is really wrong with our Leaders ? Gov Wike has shown how to encourage consumption . Our political leaders are just wasteful.
GGM will continue to show our people how to build a sane and productive society.
Nigeria’s INEC Playing Ethno-Religious Card And Incapable Of Conducting Inclusive, Secure, Free, Fair And Credible Presidential Election In 2023
…Intersociety disclosed in a letter to sixteen US Congress Committee Chairs and Ranking Members
Onitsha, Eastern Nigeria: Thursday, Nov 3, 2022
The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), Nigeria’s leading independent and not-for-profit research and investigative Democracy and Human Rights organization since 2010 had internationally told sixteen top US Congress Committee Chairs and Ranking Members drawn from the United States’ Senate and House of Representatives that ‘Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is notoriously playing ethno-religious card and incapable of conducting inclusive, pluralistic, secure, free, fair and credible Presidential Election in Nigeria, fixed for 25th Feb 2023’. That is to say that all international promises by Nigeria’s INEC to hold “free, fair and credible polls in 2023” are hoax and do not contain an iota of truth or seriousness. However, Intersociety makes bold to say that the only exception to the above is for INEC to be internationally compelled through a firm threat of withdrawal of multimillion dollar funding supports, sanction and blacklisting to mandatorily and timely issue Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) to 29.5m registered voters denied PVCs since 2019 and 31st July 2022 as well as compelling the Commission to totally flush out estimated 20m ghost or fictitious identities, underage and illegal migrants from the National Register of Voters. Fearfully, going by the statistical realities on ground including bureaucratic entanglements, chronic armchair and carefree attitudes and recalcitrance of the Commission, this exception is almost an act of impossibility or dead on arrival.
Intersociety had also stated in its letter that Nigeria’s INEC’s preparations for the crucial 2023 Presidential Poll especially as they concerned non-discrimination, inclusiveness and pluralism have been dealt a devastating blow by the Commission including by dangerously disenfranchising 77.4m Nigerian citizens of voting age through one ethnically and religiously motivated discriminatory bureaucratic conduct or the other. This was statistically the case during the country’s 2021/2022 Continuous Voters’ Registration (CVR) exercise; to the extent that “30m citizens of voting age were never registered; and out of 27.4m citizens that struggled under the rain and the sun to be registered, 18.1m got disenfranchised or had their registrations destroyed”. These, Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission perpetrated and perpetuated inexcusably, frivolously and irrelevantly. The 77.4m disenfranchised citizens of voting age are strongly projected to be from Nigeria’s estimated 120m truly Nigerian voting population including: 30m unregistered citizens of voting age, 18.1m registered voting citizens whose registrations were destroyed by INEC, 20m registered voters denied PVCs since 2019 and 9.5m newly registered voters yet to be issued with PVCs since 31st July 2022.
Further, several independent findings by Intersociety and others supported by pieces of verified video, pictorial and textual evidence have also indicated that Nigeria’s INEC has systematically flooded the National Register of Voters with millions of ghost or fictitious identities, underage children and illegal migrants as “registered voters for 2023 Presidential Poll”, with number currently estimated at 20m. Nigeria’s INEC is also mindlessly engaging in another round of massive disenfranchisement by denying a total of 29.5m registered voters PVCs. This is to the extent that there are still no fewer than 20m registered Nigerian voters without PVCs since 2019 as well as 9.5m newly registered voters registered between 28th June 2021 and 31st July 2022 who are yet to be issued with PVCs less than four months to the crucial 2023 Presidential Poll. Nigeria’s INEC was investigated and found to have played ethnic and religious card as far as preparations for 2023 Presidential Poll are concerned. Apart from clear discriminatory and segregated CVR exercise, the Commission applied same despicable policies and methods in the 2015, 2019 and 2022 distribution of PVCs; to the extent of 50% PVC distribution for South/non Muslims and 90% for North/non Christians. It was further discovered that the chief motive of the Commission in all this is to conduct the 2023 Presidential Poll with substantial number of the 2019 registered voting population independently and widely criticized for being highly disproportionate in the context of Nigeria’s multi ethnic and religious groupings and their voting populations.
Therefore, it is most likely correct to say that as it stands today, out of the so called “93.5m registered voters in Nigeria for 2023 General Polls”, according to INEC, the number of truly Nigerians with PVCs is 44m which does not include 29.5m without PVCs and independently estimated 20m ghost or fictitious identities, underage children and illegal migrants captured as “registered voters for 2023 General Elections in Nigeria”. Fears are also very high that the 44m truly Nigerians with PVCs are not ethnically and religiously proportionate or equitably represented along Christian-Muslim lines. For record and intellectual purposes, the statistics supporting Intersociety’s international letter to the sixteen top US Congress Committee Chairs and Ranking Members are drawn from a 24-Page Special Investigative Report on Illegalities of INEC ahead of Nigeria’s 2023 Presidential Poll, supported with 43 Statistical References. The Special Investigative Report was concluded by Intersociety on 26th Oct 2022 after five months of compilation (June-Oct 2022), featuring critical evaluation and analysis of INEC’s released statistics and related policy statements from the Commission and other Government agencies including inter-agency bodies (military, police, etc), CSOs, diplomatic bodies, media reports, etc. Included are INEC’s statistics relating to 2015 and 2019 Continuous Voters’ Registration exercises, their Permanent Voters’ Card distribution and collated Presidential Elections’ Results’ from 36 States and the FCT including those that voted with PVCs and others who voted outside voting biometrics or without PVCs.
Intersociety’s letter to the sixteen US Congressional Committee Chairs and Ranking Members was dated 26th Oct 2022 and successfully delivered to them as follows: Honorable Robert Menendez, Chair, Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate; Honorable Jim Risch, Ranking Member, Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, Honorable Richard Durbin, Chair, Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate; Honorable Chuck Grassley, Ranking Member, Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Honorable Pat Leahy, Chair, Committee on Appropriations, United States Senate; Honorable Richard Shelby, Ranking Member, Committee on Appropriations, United States Senate, Honorable Sherrod Brown, Chair, Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, United States Senate, Honorable Pat Toomey, Ranking Member, Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, United States Senate; Honorable Gregory Meeks, Chair, Committee on Foreign Relations, United States House of Representatives; Honorable Michael McCaul, Ranking Member, Committee on Foreign Relations, United States House of Representatives, Honorable Jerold Nadler, Chair, Committee on the Judiciary, United States House of Representatives, Honorable Jim Jordan, Ranking Member, Committee on the Judiciary, United States House of Representatives, Honorable Rosa L. DeLauro, Chair, Committee on Appropriations, United States House of Representatives, Honorable Kay Granger, Ranking Member, Committee on Appropriations, United States House of Representatives, Honorable Maxine Waters, Chair, Committee on Financial Services, United States House of Representatives, Honorable Patrick McHenry, Ranking Member, Committee on Financial Services, United States House of Representatives.
For: International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, Onitsha, Eastern Nigeria
Principal Officers:
/s E. Umeagbalasi
Emeka Umeagbalasi, Criminologist/Researcher
Board Chair @ Intersociety
/s C. Umeche
Chinwe Umeche Esquire, LL.B, BL
Head, Democracy and Good Governance Program @Intersociety
/s C.Udegbunam
Chidinma Udegbunam Esquire, LL.B, BL
Head, Campaign and Publicity Department @ Intersociety
/s N.C.Bernard
Ndidiamaka Chinaza Bernard Esquire, LL.B, BL, LLM
Head, Int’l Justice and Human Rights Program @ Intersociety
Contacts:
Mobile Phone/WhatsApp: +2348174090052, Email: info@intersociety-org.ng, Website: https://intersociety-ng.org
The Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Gregory Onwubuasi Obi, will on Thursday, meet with various OBIdients Support Groups on Zoom.
Mr. Obi, who disclosed this on his Twitter handle on Wednesday, said the meeting will hold on the 3rd of November.
“I’ll be interfacing with the global community of OBIdients Support Groups on Zoom. I need to and I am ready to listen and hear from you directly,” he tweeted.
Time of the zoom meeting is yet to be communicated to the public.
In what appears to be a premeditated clamp down on groups supporting the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi, and his running mate, Dr Yusuf Datti, the federal government of Nigeria has blocked the Keystone bank account of Take Back Naija: a socio-political movement supporting the presidential bid of the former governor.
Though, at the time of filing this report, no excuse has been given for the sanction but the spokesman of Take Back Naija, Danjuma Garba Musa in a statement, described the action as an act of political persecution, suppression and intimidation from the powers that be.
Garba while noting that Peter Obi and Yusu Datti are the most credible and competent candidates in the 2023 election, added that it is the constitutional right of the group to support any candidate of their choice.
He however, stated that the latest action by the government will not stop the group from supporting Peter Obi and his running mate, Dr Yusuf Datti in 2023 election.
Part of the statement reads, “TBN Global has been notified that it’s bank account with Keystone bank has been unjustifiably blocked by a government order. We see this development as an act of political persecution, suppression and intimidation from the powers that be to stop the youth driven grassroots movement from carrying out activities protected by the constitution.
“TBN is a socio-political movement and a non-governmental organization made up of well meaning patriotic Nigerians, actively engaged in promoting good governance and democratic ideals in Nigeria. It is our core value support competent and credible candidates during elections leveraging the energy of youths who will determine electoral outcomes at all levels irrespective of the political party. Against the 2023 general elections, TBN Global Leadership had endorsed Mr Peter Obi and his running mate Dr Yusuf Datti Baba Ahmed of the Labour Party as the most credible and competent candidates.
TBN has publicly solicited and equally received donations for the sole purpose of funding grassroots activities to support the Obi-Datti presidential campaign activities. We categorically state that blocking our account or any manner of repression will in no way stop us from supporting the Obi-Datti 2023 mandate.
“It is our constitutional right as citizens of Nigeria to support and promote the candidate(s) of our choice. Therefore, we appeal to the relevant authorities to reconsider this sanctions.
“We also urge members of the public especially our donors to bear with us while we seek redress to unlock our account.”
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arrested the Kogi State House of Assembly candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, Ismaila Atumeyi, with N326 million and $140,500 cash.
Atumeyi who is seeking to represent Ankpa 11 Constituency in the Kogi State House of Assembly was arrested on Sunday, October 30, 2022, alongside one Joshua Dominic, an alleged serial fraudster, in a sting operation at Macedonia Street, Queens Estate, Karsana, Gwarinpa, Abuja.
Also arrested in connection with the fraud is Abdumalik Femi, a former bank employee, who allegedly supplied the inside information that facilitated the attack on the bank by the syndicate.
The EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, confirmed to The Punch that Femi was picked up today (Tuesday), November 1, 2022 at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Lagos.
“Following his arrest, a search was conducted on his home in Morgan Estate, Ojodu where a total of $470,000 USD was recovered.
“The arrest of the suspects followed months of investigation into the hacking of one of the commercial banks by a syndicate of fraudsters who pulled off a heist of N1.4billion,” he said.
The syndicate allegedly moved N887 million into the account of Fav Oil and Gas limited, from where the monies were paid to several Bureau de Change operators and some auto dealers for exchange into United States dollars and purchase of high-end cars.
Dominic, who has severally been arrested for fraud, allegedly helped Atumeyi perfect the hacking plan through Abdumalik. Dominic, a self-styled investment expert and Managing Director of Brisk Capital Limited was arrested in May 2021 by the Special Fraud Unit of the Nigeria Police for alleged N2 billion investment scam. He allegedly defrauded over 500 persons in a phony investment scheme.
Two Range Rover Luxury SUVs were also recovered from the two suspects arrested in Abuja.
Uwujaren noted that the suspects would be charged to court as soon as the investigation was concluded.
Meanwhile, the commission expresses concern about the rising spate of cyber-attacks on banks and the reluctance of the institutions to report such breaches to law enforcement.
While warning that such reticence would only embolden the criminals, the EFCC appeals to financial institutions to collaborate with it to secure the financial sector from threats of cyber-attacks.
The EFCC had in the wake of the recent announcement by the Central Bank Nigeria of plans to redesign and re-issue higher denominations of the naira, warned Bureau de Change operators to be wary of currency hoarders who would attempt to seize the opportunity to offload the currencies they had illegally stashed away.
Nigeria’s first Aviation Minister and prominent member of the Zikist Movement, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi is dead.
He died this morning in his home town of Ukpor in Anambra State, aged 93.
The statesman who was popularly known as The Boy Is Good, recently led a delegation of prominent Igbo leaders to Aso Rock where he made a case for the detained leader of the Indegenous People of Biafra IPOB, Nnamdi KANU
Barring any change of orders, Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo of Anambra state has ordered the immediate arrest of some prominent citizens of Anambra state over flying revenue windows in their control if they refuse to appear before the Chairman, flying revenue committee, Anambra State and Deputy Governor of Anambra state by Wednesday this week.
reports that the order to arrest some of these prominent citizens including Chief Ngozika Nwokpagu and Mr Akai Egwuonwu came about following government suspicion that they allegedly divert revenue accruals to the state government over the last 8 years.
The government is worried over tax diversion in some quarters in the last 8 years and wished to unravel some of the mysteries, hence the decision to go after the untouchables in the state.
Sources close to Governor Soludo informed us that the Deputy Governor of Anambra State, Dr OnyekaChukwu Ibezim who doubles as the Chairman of the committee on flying revenue has been briefed to invite all those managing flying revenue windows in Anambra assumed as untouchables on Wednesday November 2nd,2022 at the Deputy Governor’s conference hall , Government House Awka.
For Akai Egwuonwu, who is the MD Zara stores Awka, and proponent of Anambra Rice, Soludo wants to know why ‘Anambra rice ‘concept and branding has been personalized and discover if he pays any taxes and revenue to the state for such branding and business.
Chief Ngozika Nwokpagu on his part is being summoned to explain why he is operating a park at Onitsha south, Fegge. He is expected to show evidence of payment to Anambra state Internally generated revenue for his businesses in the last 8 years.
So many others are also being invited for interview on flying revenue windows in the state.
