The Monday sit-at-home has once again paralysed activities in some parts of Anambra as banks, schools, markets, motor parks, and fuel stations were shut.
Several roads across major cities such as Onitsha, Nnewi, Oba, Obosi, Ekwulobia and some parts of Awka were empty as vehicles deserted the roads.
The Monday sit-at-home declared by the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, which the group said had said on several occasions that it has cancelled today coincided with May 30, which is always being celebrated as “Biafra Day” across the globe.
Also, it was gathered that gunmen late on Sunday killed an unidentified policeman at Ogidi, Idemili North Local Government Area of the state and dispossessed him of his rifle.
In a viral video circulating online, the policeman was seen lying in a pool of his blood while a group of people gathered around the corpse.
As of the time of filing this report, the police spokesperson, Ikenga Tochukwu, could not be reached as he did not take his call nor respond to a text message sent to his phone line.
A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the detention of former Imo Governor Senator Rochas Okorocha in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) pending the determination of his bail application.
Okorocha was alleged to have laundered funds to the tune of N2.9 billion while serving as governor of Imo.
To join Okorocha in EFCC custody is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and an ally to the ex-governor, Anyim Nyerere Chinenye.
Justice Inyang Ekwo gave the order on Monday after Okorocha, Chinenye and five companies were arraigned on a 17-count money laundering charge filed by the EFCC.
He was arraigned alongside Anyim Nyerere Chinenye, Naphtali International Limited, Perfect Finish Multi Projects Limited, Consolid Projects Consulting Limited, Pramif International Limited, and Legend World Concepts Limited as 2nd to 7th defendants respectively.
Okorocha, who was accused of refusal to stand trial, was arrested on Tuesday by the anti-graft agency after about seven-hour siege at his Abuja residence.
Okorocha, through his lawyer, Ola Olanipekun (SAN), had on Friday approached the court on a liberal terms but the request was turned down by the court.
Justice Ekwo adjourned till Tuesday for the hearing of the bail applications by Okorocha and Chinenye.
The five companies are: Naphtali International Limited, Perfect Finish Multi Projects Limited, Consolid Projects Consulting Limited, Pramif International Limited and Legend World Concepts Limited.
The Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Enugu State, Barr. Ugoh Agballa, on Sunday disclosed that former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu was making desperate attempt to take the party’s governorship ticket.
There have been speculations around Ekweremadu’s political future following his withdrawal from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, governorship primary election.
But, at a press conference, Agballa said Ekweremadu was mounting pressure on the APC to grab its ticket.
He, however, said such a move would never work, describing it as evil.
He started thus: “Ekweremadu is a man I have great respect for. We have held discussions, on the need for him to come and join us as a member of the party, the same way I met other persons.
“I reached out to him before our primary, but he informed me in the presence of the South-East chairman of our party, that we should give him our ticket for governorship position.
Even after our primary, he is still insisting that we should give him ticket.
“And I’m baffled because his demand is repugnant to natural justice, at variance with the Electoral Act, which he is one of the makers.
“His demand is evil, ignoble, shows that a man does not change his colour.
“He is in court claiming that he was subverted during the PDP primary, but the same man is now running up and down, disturbing us up and down, mobilizing Senators to prevail on our national chairman to subvert the Electoral Act.
“The Electoral Act is clear, nobody can give him a waiver to undo what we did.
“Uche Nnaji is our candidate; he emerged after a primary election duly observed by INEC.
“We want Ekweremadu to be our member but we cannot give him our governorship ticket. These are some of the things that give bad image to Nigeria politicians.
Ekweremadu wants to be Governor but the position was not even zoned to Enugu West, but he wants to take Enugu East turn. Now, he wants to come and subvert us and I ask, what kind of a man is Ekweremadu, who is this Ekweremadu.
“He is not a member of APC and he is demanding our ticket, is he now blinded by ambition. If I see him in my party, I will treat him like a mad man.
“His demands portend grave danger to our political system. I will not allow desperados to come and scatter what we have laboured for.
“Ekweremadu has been in power for 24 years, he should support others. It must not be about him all the time. We are not operating absolute monarchy.”
Agballa ended with a caution, “Ekweremadu zukwanu ike” (Ekweremadu rest).
Police Special Tactical Team have arrested one of the suspects allegedly involved in the recent killing and beheading of Anambra Lawmaker representing Aguata II Constituency in the State’s House of Assembly, Hon. Okechukwu Okoye, and his media aide, Mr. Cyril Chiegboka.
According to reports, the member of the Unknown Gummen gang, identified as Nnamdi Michael, who claimed to be a Commander in the group was arrested on Sunday.
The reports were corroborated by pictures and videos of the suspect which recently went viral on the social media.
The short note that accompanied the post reads “At about 1.35pm, today at Ebenator-Udene Village, Amichi, Nnewi South LGA, Nnamdi Michael, was arrested by special tactical teams.
“He was unveiled as part of gang operating as Unknown Gunmen UGM while enforcing Sit At Home order at Amichi, extorting money and causing mayhem.”
It was also seen in the viral video that the suspect confessed to be a murderer and a member of the deadly group, as he also revealed that he had killed only three persons since he joined the group.
“We only tied them to confess if they were politicians, but two died. It was only one that was shot dead,” The suspect said in Igbo language.
“As for the one that was beheaded, it was not me that beheaded him. I had not been made the Commander then, but I joined them during that operation. Our Commander then is now dead,” he added.
The suspect is currently in the police custody for further interrogations and investigation.
The viral social media post also identified a main accomplice of the suspect as Chikwendu Mbonu, who was tagged a witch doctor of Obiagu and declared to be at large now, while his shrine has been destroyed.
However, in his reaction, the Spokesperson of the Anambra State Police Command, DSP Toochukwu Ikenga said he could not confirm the authenticity of the video, saying that the Imo State Police command was responsible for the arrest.
Efforts to get the remarks of the Imo State Police Command’s Spokesperson, CSP Abattam, proved futile, as calls to his phone were not answered.
Vinicius Junior scored the only goal of the game as Real Madrid beat Liverpool 1-0 in Saturday’s Champions League final in Paris to become kings of Europe for a record-extending 14th time after a night marred by problems outside the ground that led to the kick-off being delayed by over half an hour.
Brazilian winger Vinicius turned in Fede Valverde’s enticing low cross in the 59th minute at the Stade de France and Liverpool could not find an equaliser as Jurgen Klopp’s side lost to the Spanish giants in a Champions League final for the second time in five seasons.
The Anfield side will wonder what might have been had the outstanding Thibaut Courtois not pushed Sadio Mane’s shot onto the inside of a post when they were on top in the first half, as they fell short of a trophy treble.
Winners of the English League Cup and FA Cup this season, they just missed out to Manchester City for the Premier League title and were denied a victory here which would have put them level with AC Milan on seven European Cups.
Instead Real have a fifth Champions League in nine seasons to go with their Spanish title, as Carlo Ancelotti becomes the first coach to win European club football’s greatest prize for a fourth time.
Ancelotti was also in charge of Real when they won the 2014 final having also triumphed with AC Milan in 2003 and in 2007, the latter victory coming against Liverpool.
– Delayed kick-off –
The match kicked off 35 minutes later than the planned 9:00 pm (1900 GMT) start in the French capital after chaos at entrances to the stadium led to fans being unable to get to their seats.
UEFA said it was “sympathetic” towards those affected and put the huge build-ups of supporters at gates down to “thousands of fans who had purchased fake tickets which did not work in the turnstiles”.
Tear gas was also fired by police as a small number of people could be seen trying to scale fences around the perimeter of the groud.
The final was only moved to the French capital after Saint-Petersburg was stripped of the game following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.
The delayed kick-off may have been responsible for the slow start to the game itself, as it took 16 minutes before there was an incident of note, Mohamed Salah turning a low Trent Alexander-Arnold cross towards goal only for Courtois to save.
Liverpool were seen as favourites to avenge their loss to the Spanish giants in the 2018 final in Kyiv and they began to take control of the game.
Mane came agonisingly close to opening the scoring in the 21st minute as he skipped his way into a shooting position inside the box only for Courtois to tip his net-bound shot onto his right-hand post.
Klopp’s side, with Fabinho and Thiago Alcantara starting in midfield after overcoming fitness worries, were on top but could not turn their superiority into a lead.
Outstanding Courtois –
Real, meanwhile, created almost nothing in the first half with Karim Benzema quiet, but their captain briefly thought he had got the breakthrough two minutes before the interval.
The Frenchman prodded home after the ball broke back to him inside the area but the offside flag was raised.
The decision to disallow the goal was upheld after a lengthy VAR check, despite Fabinho deflecting Valverde’s touch through to Benzema.
Yet Ancelotti’s side kept their nerve and were rewarded with the goal as the hour mark approached.
Valverde drove forward down the right before firing a low ball across the face of goal for Vinicius to turn it in at the far post past his Brazilian national team colleague Alisson.
Just like in 2018, Real had drawn first blood, but this time there was no need for them to send on Gareth Bale in order to ensure victory.
Courtois was superb, flying to his right to keep out a Salah curler before two saves in quick succession late on.
First the Belgian got down low when substitute Diogo Jota deflected Salah’s effort towards goal, and then he produced a strong arm to turn a Salah strike behind.
Atiku Abubakar has been declared winner of the primary election of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP Presidential Primary Election.
For the second time in a succession, former Vice president will fly the party’s flag, haven done some in 2019.
Atiku scored 371 Votes to emerge the winner.
Rivers State Governor gave a good account of himself in the heavily dollarized election and garnered 237 votes to come second while Saraki came a distant third with 70 votes
Below are the scores of the other aspirants:
Oliver Diana 1 vote
Sam Ohuabunwa 1 vote
Anyim Pius Anyim 14 votes (suspected to be the 14 delegates from his Ebonyi State)
Udom Emmanuel 38 votes (probably from his Akwa Ibom State with 31 delegates and 7 others)
Sen. Bala Mohammed 20 votes (can be assumed that his 13 delegates voted for him and 7 others.
12 votes were void.
Twelve aspirants contested for the ticket of the PDP.
Total delegates is 773 but 767 were accredited to vote
Three aspirants stepped down before the commencement of the contest. While Sokoto governor stepped down for Atiku, Dr. Anakwenze Nwachukwu stepped down for Wike. Mohammed Hayatu-Deen stepped down earlier but didn’t mention whom he stepped down for.
Mr Obi has just announced his new Party. In his Twitter message to millions of his fans ,he has come to restore sanity in the political space . The full statement has it”I thank all Nigerians, especially our youths who have joined me in the mission of taking back and reuniting Nigeria.
This project is yours and for the future of your children. I am just a facilitator.
Since I resigned from the PDP because of issues that are at variance with my persona and principles, I have consulted widely with various parties and personalities to ensure we do not complicate the route to our desired destination.
For me, the process of achieving our goal is as fundamental as what one will do thereafter.
Therefore, I have chosen a route that I consider to be in line with our aspirations and my mantra of taking the country from consumption to production; and that is the Labour Party which is synonymous with the people, workers, development, production, securing and uniting Nigerians as one family”.
BVI Channel 1 online can authoritatively confirm that Mr Peter Obi has officially joined Labour Party as a political platform to pursue his presidential goal.
A presidential aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi has formally dumped the party.
The former governor of Anambra state made this known in a letter written to the National Chairman of the PDO, Senator Iyorchia Ayu.
He said he has also conveyed the same letter to the chairman of his Agulu ward two, Anaocha Local Government Area of Anambra state.
In the letter titled; ‘Resignation from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Withdrawal From the Presidential Contest’, Obi thanked his former party.
He, however, hinted at joining another party.
“I am writing to intimate you of my resignation from the Peoples Democratic Party which was conveyed to the chairman of Agulu ward 2, Anaocha LGA Anambra, effective Friday 20 May 2022.
“Consequently, I am by this letter informing you of my withdrawal from the PDP presidential primaries.
“It has been a great honour to contribute to nation-building efforts through our party. Unfortunately, recent developments within our party make it practically impossible to continue participating and making such constructive contributions.
Our national challenges are deep-seated and require that we each make profound sacrifices toward rescuing our country.
My commitment to rescuing Nigeria remains firm, even if the route differs.”
The former President of the Nigeria Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, has announced his withdrawal from the primary election of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP to elect the governorship candidate of the party today.
Ekweremadu, the senator representing Enugu West Senatorial zone was seeking the ticket of the party to contest for the Governorship of Enugu State urged his supporters to remain calm as the way forward will be announced soon.
However, in a statement released by Hon. Ogbo Asogwa, the Director General of his campaign organization, Ekweremadu announced that he won’t be participating in the primaries which is supposed to commence in some hours.
We wish to inform our supporters and Nigerians that the former Deputy President of the Senate and foremost governorship aspirant in Enugu State, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, will not be participating in the PDP governorship primary election scheduled for this Wednesday, May 25, 2022.
Meanwhile, we continue to trust God as we appreciate our teeming supporters and the good people of Enugu State for the enormous goodwill they have ceaselessly invested in the actualisation of the “Pathway to a New Enugu State”.
We urge them to remain peaceful and be assured that we will keep them abreast of our decision on the way forward.”
