Reports reaching Daily Sun now indicate that a prominent Igbo monarch, His Royal Highness, Igwe Henry Chibueze Onwughalu, known as the Eze Ndigbo in China, is dead.
According to reports, the Igwe, who hailed from Adazi Ani in Aniocha Local Government Area of Anambra State, had suffered stroke and eventually slipped into a coma several days before his death on Wednesday, March 8.
The businessman and philanthropist was said to have been building a house prior to his death.
ABUJA-President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to return to the country tomorrow,Friday.
The Presidency said on Thursday. President Buhari A statement signed by the Presidential spokesman, Mr. Femi Adesina stated that “President Buhari expresses appreciation to teeming Nigerians from across the country, and beyond, who had prayed fervently for him, and also sent their good wishes.”
It will be recalled that the President left the country on January 19, 2017 for a vacation, during which he had routine medical check-ups.
He was originally billed to return on February 6 but the holiday was extended based on doctors’ recommendation for further tests and rest.
A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Maitama, on Thursday sentenced to death two former policemen, Ezekiel Achejene and Emmanuel Baba, for being responsible for the death of two out of the six Igbo traders shot dead in Area 11 of Garki, Abuja, on June 8, 2005.
The presiding judge, who is also the Chief Judge of the FCT High Court, Justice Ishaq Bello, however, freed three other policemen, who were prosecuted along with Achejene and Baba, for the death of the six traders.
Those discharged and acquitted were a former Deputy Commissioner of Police, Danjuma Ibrahim, Nicholas Zakaria and Sadiq Salami.
One other accused person, Othman Abdulsalam, was said to be at large and was never brought to court throughout the trial.
The deceased victims, who were auto spare part dealers at Apo area of Abuja, were Ifeanyi Ozo, Chinedu Meniru, Isaac Ekene, Paul Ogbonna, Anthony Nwokike and Tina Arebun.
The judge anchored the convict Achejene and Baba for the death of two of the deceased persons.
The two were convicted on the basis of their extra-judicial statements in which they confessed that they were directed to shoot two of the deceased.
Justice Bello held that the retraction of their statements while giving oral evidence during the trial was merely an afterthought.
The judge held that being directed to commit a crime could never serve as a valid cover.
He held that it was “folly” for the convicts to think they could be “discharged on the ground of ‘I am directed’.”
But with respect to the three other discharged and acquitted persons, the judge held that police investigation was unable to link them with the alleged crimes.
Canada-based lady, Stephanie Otobo, who has been in prison over her alleged sexual scandal with Apostle Johnson Suleman, on Thursday breathed the air of freedom.
Recall that Ms Otobo, who claimed to have a sexual relationship with Apostle Suleman earlier in the week, shared details about their alleged relationship in a video interview with an online media platform as well as screenshots allegedly of steamy chats between the two.
Ms Otobo, who was arrested at a bank in Lagos State, Nigeria where she had gone to enquire about her frozen bank account on Friday, said she held sequestered by the police as part of a plot by the pastor to get her to recant her story and is facing extortion and terrorism charges.
However, Stephanie’s father, Reverend Benson Otobo, openly denied any relationship between the Man of God and his daughter
According to Ms Otobo, Apostle Suleman went for her marriage introduction at her family house, an allegation her father claimed to be false.
In his reaction on Social media, the Apostle enthused that the lady could have been a more presentable young woman.
The clash reportedly started when a bus used his side mirror to hit a Hausa woman at sabo last night.
The Magaji of Hausa community in Ile- Ife and secretary to the central mosque in the town, Alhaji Nasir Magaji has explained the cause of the mayhem.
Magaji explained that a Hausa man allegedly slapped a wife of a Yoruba man, Kuburat, who was a pure water vendor.
He said: “It was Kuburat that provoked the Hausa man who slapped him and that after slapping her, many Hausa people were not in his support as they scolded him for doing that, but the Yoruba who were not pleased with the situation, retaliated by beating the Hausa man and others.”
Hausas and Yorubas clash at ile-Ife, Osun state
Gunshots are being heard while some shops have been set ablaze and residents have deserted both Sabo and Lagere, Ile-Ife, in bid to escape the clash.
Police and army personnel have been discharged to the area.
The Osun state government has declared a two day curfew in Ile-Ife which will start from 6pm and end by 7am till Friday, March 10.
According to a statement from the Director of Bureau of Communication, Media and Strategy to Governor Rauf Aregbesola, Mr Semiu Okanlawon: “The curfew has been compelled by the breach of the peace in the area which led to avoidable destruction of lives and properties.”
An ECOWAS court sitting in Abuja, has dismissed an application filed by the Muhammadu Buhari-led government asking that the suit filed by the Nnamdi Kanu, the director of Radio Biafra be quashed.
Jubilation has erupted among members of Radio Biafra faction of IPOB led by Nnamdi Kanu and those sympathetic to his plight, following this report.
Kanu’s suit seeks the court to grant him an unconditional release from detention as well as damages to the tune of $800 million.
According to Channels TV, the Nigerian government asked the court to dismiss the case because it is a subject matter before a federal court and the appeal court.
The government’s counsel had argued that, Kanu’s application constitutes an abuse of court process.
The presiding judge, Micah Wright-Williams, dismissed the application of the government for lacking in merit.
The court said it has the jurisdiction to hear cases of infringement of human rights.
ABUJA—SENATE President, Bukola Saraki yesterday said that what Nigeria as a country needed at the moment, is full recognition of the Igbo as a people. Saraki said the country needed the people of the South East geo- political zone of the country more than ever.
The Senate President spoke yesterday in Abuja while declaring open the 4th Made-in-Aba Trade Fair holding in the nation’s capital city and facilitated by Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, Abia South.
The Made-in-Aba Trade Fair in Abuja is a zonal intervention project of Senator Abaribe.
The Senate President, who was represented by the Deputy Senate Majority Leader, Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah said the ingenuity of the Igbo would have enhanced Nigeria’s production capacity over the years, adding that Nigeria as a country was paying the price for neglecting the creative prowess of the Igbo.
He said: “If there is anything this country needs now, it is the Igbo. Nigeria needs the Igbo’s technological advancement now. We are paying the price of ignoring the creativity of Ndigbo in the past.”
According to him, the decision of governments over the years to neglect the productive instinct of the Igbo had led to the backward state of the economy, adding that “In God’s wisdom, recession has come to force us to look inwards.”
Speaking on the Made-in-Aba trade fair, Senator Saraki, who noted that the Senate would continue to do everything to promote made in Nigeria goods, said that the upper chamber had taken it upon itself from last year to amend the Procurement Act to ensure that the local manufacturers benefit from the over N2 trillion government expenditure on procurement.
Saraki said: “With the amendment of the Public Procurement Act, which has passed final reading in the Senate, and is making its way through the House of Representatives, we are in the process of making it easier for manufacturers and entrepreneurs around the country to benefit from the over N2 trillion in government procurement contracts.
“Through this challenge, which is still ongoing, we hope to identify goods, services and other products that can be matched with investors and government agencies, to further the plight of our homegrown businessmen and women.
“On our part, we in the Nigerian Senate, and the National Assembly as a whole, will continue to do everything within our mandate and power to ensure that our domestic manufacturers and service providers have the enabling environment that they need to thrive. I believe in Made- in- Nigeria, I believe in Made- in-Aba. The possibilities ahead of us are endless”
Also speaking at the event, the Abia State Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, who disclosed that local manufacturers of shoes and leather products export at least one million shoes to Europe on a weekly basis, said that the state is happy that Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has approved the garment making industry of the Made- in- Aba sector.
According to the governor, there are 15,000 shoe makers in Aba, who produce 300,000 shoes per day, while one million of these shoes find their way to Europe and other parts of the world on a weekly basis, just as the exports are estimated at about N1 billion weekly.
In his remarks, the initiator of the Trade Fair, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, who explained that the project is designed to promote Nigeria and to grow the country, expressed his joy that the idea was spreading across the country like wild fire, adding that it was a no-go area in 2013 when he floated the idea.
He added: “When we started in 2013, it was not fashionable to promote Made- in-Aba or Made- in- Nigeria goods. I thank the Senate President and my colleagues who supported us to stage last year’s edition after which we passed a motion to encourage local manufacturing and then, we also passed an amendment to the Procurement Act.”
He also thanked the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN) for remaining steadfast to the idea of promoting made-in-Nigeria, just as he encouraged other lawmakers to situate their zonal intervention projects in SMEDAN.
‘SMEs responsible for 84% of NLC workforce’
Speaking also at the event, Director General of SMEDAN, Dr. Dikko Umar Radda who noted that small and medium enterprises are responsible for 84 percent of the Nigerian labour workforce, said: ”In Nigeria, SMEDAN/NBS survey, 2014 estimated a total of 37 million MSMEs”
These contribute total employment of 59.7 million persons (or 84%) of Nigeria Labour force, 48 % to nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 7.3% to exports respectively.”
According to him, 98 percent of the MSMEs are micro enterprises, employing less than ten persons. The SMEDAN has taken it upon itself to help grow its capacity to enable Nigeria realise her economic aspirations. He also thanked Senator Abaribe for pioneering the effort aimed at promoting Made-in-Nigeria, adding that trade fairs like the one being flagged off, easily facilitate direct customer-to- contacts as well as sales.
He said that so far, over 400 enterprises have showcased their products in the trade fair, adding that with an average of 200 persons visiting per day, the fair was adjudged good and successful.
The Federal Government has advised Nigerians against visiting the United States of America at the moment except for crucial matters as a result of the lack of clarity in the country’s new immigration rules.
The advisory was sequel to the barring of some Nigerians, with valid US visas, from entering the US in recent weeks.
“At least, four Nigerians with valid visas were denied entry to the US within the last two weeks and sent back to the country on the next available flights,” the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora Matters, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said on Monday
In a statement on Monday, Dabiri-Erewa advised Nigerians without any compelling or essential reasons to visit the US to consider delaying their trip “until there is clarity in the new immigration policy.”
She added, “In the last few weeks, the office has received a few cases of Nigerians with valid multiple-entry US visas, being denied entry and sent back to Nigeria.
“In such cases reported to the office, the affected persons were sent back immediately on the next available flights and their visas were cancelled.”
She reminded Nigerians in the Diaspora to abide by the rules and regulations of their host countries and be good ambassadors of the country.
Francis Adekola, who was affected by the immigration restriction, explained that he was prevented from attending a friend’s wedding in Mississippi on February 15, 2017.
Narrating his bitter experience, Adekola said he was detained for over 10 hours before he was placed on aircraft and returned to Abuja via Johannesburg.
He said, “I travelled to the US on February 15, but when we got to the Atlanta airport, where I was to connect another flight, I was asked to step aside at the check-in counter by an armed border protection officer.
“He walked me to the luggage section and searched my wallet and bag. He also collected my telephone (set) and went through the contents: SMSes, pictures, WhatsApp chats, everything.”
Adekola, who recently finished his Ph.D at a Canadian university, said he was informed by the immigration agent that he did not have strong ties in Nigeria and that he might not go back home if allowed into the US.
Though he was allowed to speak to someone in the US, he stated that he was still prevented from entering America.
Adekola added that his mobile was not returned to him until he got to Johannesburg.
“My documents were not released to me until the plane was airborne on its way to Abuja even though my home was in Lagos,” he said.
He explained that he saw some nationals of other countries, who were also denied entry to the US, noting that the wasted trip cost him over N1m in airfare.
The US embassy could not be reached for comment as it had yet to respond to an email, sent to it, seeking its reaction to the barring of Nigerians.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was also unavailable for comment.
Its spokesman, Clement Aduku, did not return calls to his mobile and had yet to respond to an SMS as of the time of filing this report on Monday.
Trump signs new executive order
The US President, Donald Trump signed an executive order on January 27, 2017, barring people from seven, Muslim-majority countries from travelling to the US for 90 days.
It also stopped all refugees for 120 days and Syrian refugees permanently.
The ban caused global outrage as well as chaos across the US before it was frozen by a legal ruling.
The US Mission to Nigeria had earlier assured Nigerians that the executive order on immigration would not affect Nigerians, noting that visa applicants would continue to get two-year multiple entry visas as before.
It also said the order would not affect the validity of visas held by Nigerians, noting that its visa policy to Nigeria had not changed.
The US Ambassador to Nigeria, Stuart Symington, and the US Consular Chief, Meghan Moore, had explained to journalists on February 3, 2017 that the US visa policy was based on reciprocity, stressing that Nigerians would not be discriminated against.
Trump signs new travel ban, exempts Iraq
Meanwhile, Trump signed a new executive order on Monday barring immigration from six Muslim-majority countries, dropping Iraq from the January’s previous order, and reinstating a temporary blanket ban on all refugees.
It removed language in the original order that indefinitely banned Syrian refugees and called for prioritising the admission of refugees, who are religious minorities in their home countries.
That provision drew criticism of a religious test for entry and would have prioritised Christians over Muslims fleeing war-torn countries in the Middle East.
The new ban, which takes effect on March 16, also explicitly exempts citizens of the six banned countries, who are legal US permanent residents or have valid visas to enter the US – including those whose visas were revoked during the original implementation of the ban, senior administration officials said.
“We cannot compromise our nation’s security by allowing visitors entry when their own governments are unable or unwilling to provide the information we need to vet them responsibly or when those governments actively support terrorism,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on Monday.
The new measures will block citizens of Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen from obtaining visas for at least 90 days.
The order also suspends admission of refugees into the US for 120 days, directing US officials to improve vetting measures for a programme that is already widely regarded as extremely stringent.
Trump signed the executive order in the Oval Office outside the view of reporters and news cameras, after more than three weeks of repeated delays, the latest of which came after White House officials decided last week to delay the signing to avoid cutting into positive coverage of Trump’s joint address to Congress.
The traditional ruler of Afaraukwu Umuahia Autonomous Community and father of the detained director of radio Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, HRM Eze Israel Kanu, has fingered the leader of the Biafra Independent Movement (BIM), Chief Ralph Uwazurike, as the architect of his son’s ordeals.
The monarch made the allegation during a chat with newsmen in his palace after the traditional marriage of his daughter, Princess Chinwe Kanu.
He said that Uwazurike was behind the continued detention of Nnamdi Kanu at the Kuje Prison, Abuja.
According to him, Uwazurike’s grouse with Kanu was because he had exposed his (Uwazurike’s) poor handling of funds raised by members of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) when he was the leader of the group.
The monarch also accused Uwazurike of tipping off security agencies about Kanu’s movement before they arrested him in Lagos upon arrival from London in 2015.
The 84-year-old traditional ruler expressed shock that Uwazurike would suddenly turn against Kanu who he had pursued the Biafran agenda with.
He therefore asked Ndigbo to hold both the Federal Government and Uwazurike responsible should anything untoward happen to Kanu.
The monarch, who said his health had continued to deteriorate since the arrest and detention of his son, appealed to the Federal Government to release his son to prevent his (father’s) early death.
He insisted that his son committed no crime to warrant his continued detention, saying that people have the right to self-determination if they no longer feel comfortable in their present association.
Meanwhile, IPOB has accused the South East governors of showing no commitment to the struggle for the release of Kanu.
It expressed sadness that the governors have refused to identify with Kanu’s cause whereas their counterparts in other geopolitical zones always speak out on any issue affecting their subjects or region.
The Zonal Coordinator of the Lion Zone of IPOB in Ikwuodia, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Mr. Emeka Mbamarah, made the allegation at weekend during the traditional wedding ceremony of Kanu’s younger sister, Princess Chinwe Kanu at Afaraukwu Ibeku Umuahia, Abia State.
He wondered why no governor from the South East had considered it necessary to visit Kanu at the Kuje Prison while they are junketing round the country to honour birthdays of some politicians responsible for Nigeria’s woes.
The Federal Government and former president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday traded words over the kidnap of Chibok schoolgirls and the rescue efforts.
While the Federal Government, speaking through Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed, had asked Jonathan to stop passing the buck on the missing Chibok girls of Borno State and accusing his administration of playing politics with the abduction, the former president said the minister attempted, as spokesman of the then opposition party, to frustrate his government’s effort to rescue the abducted girls.
In a press statement released on his behalf, Mohammed accused Jonathan of allowing the Boko Haram insurgency to escalate, while urging him to stop engaging in finger-pointing over the issue of the Chibok girls abducted under his watch.
The minister said such finger pointing was an unnecessary distraction from on-going efforts to secure the release of the girls, who have remained in captivity for long.
According to him, ‘‘while former President Jonathan reserves the right to defend his administration, he should not engage in finger-pointing by saying, in a statement, ‘some people who have obviously been playing politics with the issue of the Chibok girls will stop at nothing to further their interest.’”
Mohammed said if anyone ever played politics with the issue of Chibok girls, it was Jonathan’s administration under whose watch the girls were abducted.
He recalled how the then opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) repeatedly alerted Nigerians of the dangerous game being played with the insurgency by the Jonathan government.
He said: “After the girls were kidnapped and the Jonathan administration did nothing for all of 15 days or made any determined efforts to rescue them thereafter, our party, the then opposition APC, told the nation several times that the whole Boko Haram crisis was allowed to escalate by the PDP-controlled Federal Government so they can use it as a political tool ahead of the 2015 elections.
“In a statement on September 8, 2014, we said: ‘President Jonathan-PDP’s political manipulation of the Boko Haram has to be understood as part of its poker-like calculus for clinging on to political power ahead of the 2015 elections. The Boko Haram crisis is readily used by the PDP to rationalise the Jonathan government’s abdication of its constitutional responsibilities, including visits and assistance to areas affected as well as effective response to abductions (e.g. the GEJ government was silent over the Chibok girls kidnaps for over 15 days).’”
The minister further said that the APC had been vindicated two and half years after by the report by a United Kingdom newspaper that claimed President Jonathan rebuffed an attempt by the British government to help rescue the girls.
“We hope the former president will now refrain from stoking further controversy over the lingering abduction issue and allow the government of the day to focus on its on-going negotiations to secure the release of the Chibok girls,” he said.
Reacting to the minister’s comments, on behalf of the former president, Reno Omokri, former aide to ex-President Jonathan, said Mohammed lied about the last administration’s response to the kidnap of the Chibok girls.
According to him, “my response to his lies is as follows: Opinions are subjective but facts are sacred. The facts are that then President Jonathan immediately sprang to action to rescue the kidnapped Chibok girls and it was precisely the fallacious Lai Mohammed, whose words I caution the international community to take with a pinch of salt, that attempted to frustrate the efforts by the then government to rescue the girls.”
While releasing his facts, Omokri said: “Below are factual timelines with dates, names and location. I challenge Lai Mohammed to rebut them with his own facts.”
He stated that on March 12, 2014, the then minister of state for education, Mr. Nyesom Wike, wrote the governors of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa and advised them not to hold the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations in areas susceptible to the Boko Haram insurgency, which was ignored by Borno State governor.
He said: “April 14, 2014: Contrary to the advice given by the Peoples Democratic Party-led Federal Government of President Goodluck Jonathan, the All Progressives Congress-led government of Governor Kashim Shettima, for reasons best known to it, chose to ignore that advice and held the WASSCE examinations in Chibok, a mainly Christian town that was susceptible to attacks from the Islamic extremist group, Boko Haram.
“On the day in question, the girls of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, were kidnaped by Boko Haram while preparing to write their final physics examinations.
“Curiously, both the Principal of the school and her Vice were not on the school’s campus, as the girls were inside a dormitory. The Principal of the school, Hadjiya Asabe Kwambura, later claimed to have gone to Maiduguri for a ‘medical check up’ on the day of the abduction. It seemed very inauspicious for a principal of a school to schedule a non emergency ‘medical check up’ for a time when the school she presided over was having, perhaps, its most important activity of the year, school leaving examinations.
“This same woman later changed her story when she told Fox News that she had gone to Maiduguri to buy medicines and was informed by her daughter about the kidnap. But how did her daughter, a student of the school, avoid being kidnapped? It is noteworthy that this particular principal was never reprimanded or disciplined or in anyway made to take responsibility for this obvious dereliction of duty by the Borno State government, which owns the school.
“Flash forward to April 2, 2016: Governor Kashim Shettima confessed in an interview with Premium Times that he, the chief security officer of the state, did not inform then President Jonathan when the girls were kidnapped for reasons best known to him.
“April 17, 2014: Exactly three days after the kidnap, President Jonathan, who had not been formally informed of the issue because of the deliberate refusal of the APC-led government of Borno State to brief him, called for an emergency meeting at the Presidential Villa after the military independently alerted him.
“Multiple dates in April, 2004: The military, principally the Air Force, were given conflicting information as to what direction the fleeing terrorists took when they captured the girls. Were these conflicting information a deliberate effort to send the military on a wild goose chase?”
He said on May 2, 2014, “Jonathan sets up a fact finding mission to determine the facts of the kidnap and stresses that the mission’s work would not interfere with search and rescue efforts.” “ After consistent confused and contradictory information from the Borno state Government and various other authority figures, the Presidency invited the principal actors in the Chibok saga to the Presidential Villa to ascertain the truth. The Presidency was shocked at the non-appearance by officials of the Borno State government. The governor’s wife, who was invited, shunned the event and when the then First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, saw the scanty representation fromBorno, she famously exclaimed: ‘na only you waka come’?”
Omokri said: On “October 15, 2014, during the Presidential declaration by then candidate Muhammadu Buhari, now the incumbent President, Audu Ogbeh, at that time the Director General of the campaign (he was later replaced) said on live television that the pressure group, Bring Back our Girls, led by a virulent critic of the Jonathan administration,
Oby Ezekwesili, also said that the #BBOG campaign is led by ‘members of our party, the APC.’ This is an exact quote and reflects the politicization of the saga. “From the above, it is clear that Nigeria’s minister of information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has an estranged relationship with the truth.”
