Femi Adesina, the former Special Adviser to late ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, has called on Nigerian leaders to walk the talk.

Most of the Nigerian youths, according to Adesina, are frustrated because they are not able to secure good jobs or enjoy better quality of life.

This was disclosed by the former presidential aide at the annual public lecture of the Foursquare Gospel Church, Aba Ibeji, Oluyole Local Government Area of Oyo State, it was gathered.

“Nigeria is being held back by poor leadership and corruption,” he said.

For him “Nigeria has all that it takes to move forward, large youthful population, rich natural resources, fertile land, good geographical location.

“It’s corruption and bad leadership that is holding Nigeria back. “Nigeria is endowed with human and natural resources but unfortunately, it has not translated to wealth.

He said the promises made by past and present leaders of the country have not been fulfilled and he has called on present leaders to turn their words into action so that citizens will benefit from the resources of the country.

Meanwhile, Solomon Dalung, a former Minister of Youth and Sports under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, has also condemned the Presidency for defending the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, over allegations involving Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew.

Dalung said the official response by presidential spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, failed to answer critical questions on how a supposedly fictitious presidential agency operated within government circles.

He said while the Presidency sought to exonerate Gbajabiamila, its explanation revealed gaping holes in government oversight.

“It is up to the Presidency to explain how an individual was able to allegedly forge an appointment letter, operate from the Federal Secretariat, recruit personnel, engage government institutions, meet diplomats and reportedly obtain a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) account without being detected,” he said.

He also questioned reports that the alleged agency was in the national budget.

“If the council was fake how did it make it into the budget,” Dalung said.

He said budget proposals go through several levels of executive and legislative scrutiny before getting approval and asked who presented, processed and approved the alleged provision.

Dalung also queried how the office space was allegedly obtained at the Federal Secretariat, who gave the approval for the allocation of the space and why the operation was not discovered earlier.

He also dismissed reports of the death of Dolapo Babatunde Tanimola, who investigators said was identified by Adeyemi as the one who helped procure the alleged forged appointment letter.

Dalung asked if investigators had performed an autopsy, coroner’s inquest or forensic review of Tanimola’s communications and financial records.

But Dalung said while the allegations against Adeyemi were before the court, accountability should not end with the prosecution of one person.

The government must explain how its institutions either interacted or failed to detect what the presidency now calls a fictitious agency, he said.

Dalung asked the Presidency to furnish documentary evidence, timelines and official records on the inclusion of the alleged agency in the national budget, its operations within the Federal Secretariat and the failure of institutional safeguards.

The post Why Nigeria Has Failed to Move Forward — Buhari’s Former Aide, Adesina appeared first on TheNigerian.

Good morning!! Here is today’s summary from Nigerian Newspapers;

1. The Defence Headquarters, DHQ has announced the successful rescue of Mrs Amina Abubakar, wife of the late Maj.-Gen Abubakar Rabe (Rtd.), former Director of Defence Information, after a fierce encounter between troops and bandits. The Director of Defence Information, Maj.-Gen Samaila Uba said in a statement issued on Monday that the rescue was carried out during intensified search and rescue operations.

2. The Federal Government recommenced the mass prosecution of terrorism suspects before a Federal High Court in Abuja after an earlier exercise in which about 500 were prosecuted. The exercise, which started on Monday is expected to last till Thursday, was said to involve about 600 persons going out on trial, Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi said.

3. The Federation Account Allocation Committee, FAAC has shared a total of N2.257 trillion as the revenue generated in April among the Federal Government, the 36 states and the 774 local government areas across the country. The revenue allocation was approved by FAAC at its May meeting in Abuja.

4. Aminu Abdussalam Gwarzo, the governorship candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC in Kano State, has picked Mustapha Rabiu Kwankwaso, biological son of Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso as his running mate. The young Kwankwaso is the immediate former Commissioner for Youths and Sports.

5. The Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday ordered the deregistration of African Democratic Congress and four others for failing to meet the constitutional requirements for political parties in the country. In a judgement, Justice Peter Lifu ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to deregistered the affected parties having failed to secure 25 per cent of the votes in the last general elections in compliance with the provisions of the law.

6. The African Democratic Congress has picked former Rivers State Governor and ex-Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi as running mate to former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar for the 2027 presidential election. The party said Amaechi’s emergence was sequel to extensive consultations and reflected his performance as runner-up in the ADC presidential primaries as well as his record in public service.

7. The gantry price of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) has been slashed by N75 per litre by Dangote Petroleum Refinery. The refinery said in a circular to fuel marketers on Monday that the adjustment was due to the de-escalation of the tension in the Middle East which had affected energy prices in the past three months.

8. Joseph Okpe, a 43-year-old commercial bus driver, has died after he was reportedly beaten by a group of officers of the Nigerian Air Force over a disagreement regarding a minor traffic incident involving their vehicle. The incident, it was learnt on Monday, took place on May 9 along the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, where the officers allegedly assaulted the deceased.

9. The Anambra State Police Command arrested two suspects allegedly involved in the production and distribution of adulterated alcoholic beverages in the state. The suspects, Ikechukwu Okeke, 42 and Okeke Chukwuemeka, 38, were arrested on Monday morning by the operatives attached to the Rapid Response Squad/VCRU, based on credible intelligence received by the police.

10. The Governor of Osun State, Ademola Adeleke, has condemned the judgment of the Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday which deregistered five political parties, describing it as an abuse of court process and a direct violation of a subsisting order of the Court of Appeal. This was disclosed in a statement issued in Osogbo on Monday by the governor’s spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed.410

The post Nigerian Newspapers: 10 Key Things You Need to Know This Tuesday Morning appeared first on TheNigerian.

MERCHANTS of psychotropic substances, regardless of the jurisdiction of their operations, do not take prisoners. ‘’Obi fere ha azu’’ as my igbo people would say of deeply evil and heartless people. They are buccaneers of the bare foot. They are merchants of sorrow, veterans of blood sport and dispensers of death. They have usually no room for errors. They leave nothing to chance – because the price for it would be prohibitively expensive. That includes dying with their own lives. Once you are in you are hardly out. No sabbatical. No leave of absence. There’s no retirement. They are a merchant of death and destruction as drug dealers, and behave as they do, because as the Igbo would say ‘’onye na-ebe isi anaghi ekwe ka ewere nma gafe ya na azu’’. The transliteration would go something like this: a person who is into the business of severing heads never allows a person with a sharpened machete behind him.
It is a serious business . Drug business at any level as a lord or baron , or as a courier or scout , or a mole embedded inside government security agencies , or a whistle-blower when law enforcers are planning for a raid . It runs for 24 hours a day and seven days a week . In the chain the baron will not tolerate any weakness. He does not give a second chance to any operative who’s laid back, no matter how lowly in the hierarchy the faltering operative may be. He is not at all bothered by the sight of blood. It wouldn’t matter if the person being ‘’wasted’’ is a blood relation, a sibling or even parents. The drug baron is a mortal enemy of security agents of the state especially those that cannot be compromised . This is because he operates outside of the law .

This is why normal societies avoid any situation that would allow any person with a dubious background to capture political power at any level, certainly not at the highest echelons of statecraft. No state institution would be safe. Not the bureaucracy. Not the magistracy. Not the courts of law. The laws, no. Not the political system. Not the parties. Not the norms and mores of democracy and the greater spectrum of society. Not the economic. Not a single thing. The power is concentrated. And jealously protected. Favours are kept and dispensed personally at the whim and pleasure of the drug lord. The economy is arranged for the service and benefit of one – the lord of the manor.

The man at the top of the pile plunders and expropriates and privatizes the national treasury for the benefit of one and those in his good books at any material time. If you disagree you are never tolerated. Disagreement is considered as a treason that attracts capital punishment carried out by public execution or hanging by the neck until the ‘’traitor’’ dies. If the use of the instruments of coercion and violence of the state proved inconvenient, the baron could resort to the notorious ‘’Italian solution’’ where the offender is disappeared, never to be accounted for, or simply shot at point blank range, and killed on the streets like a dog, and the killers would never be found. That was our reality in this country under military dictatorships — murdering people in broad daylight in public execution style. And they were intended to send a strong message to would be ‘’traitors’’.410

Fear is king in the hearts of citizens ruled by a despot. And despotism in government is not the monopoly of military elements who seized political power. All drug barons are dictators. To run successfully an empire based on the proceeds of psychotropic substances which are mind benders and wasters of generations, an iron fist is a sine qua non. The baron would soon, but not too soon, become a toast without raising fears among his subjects. In any empire or even a country run by a drug lord [remember we said earlier that no drug dealer really retires from that business] everyone is a spy on everyone else. In such places fear is a constant. Fear is usually something you can feel. You do not have to do or say anything wrong for you to be disappeared in such an environment. It should be enough to send you to the place of no return, the mere suspicion of your loyalty or commitment to the cause. Only a benevolent drug lord, and he does not live in this universe, would hesitate to visit upon his survivors the ‘’crimes’’ of the dead member.

If a drug baron gets hold of the highest levers of state power, the country is lost. The moves for state capture tend to be dogged, swift and relentless. No institution in that country would be safe. The judiciary would be compromised, tainted and corrupted. Independent minded judges and sundry officers would be dismissed from their positions and replaced with loyalists and minions. Mansions would be built for judges who will preside over cases involving their benefactors, at one point or the other. In such cases the state conqueror and his confederates would not care about real or perceived bias. In these cases, it would not be unheard of to see judgments by judges with sentences and paragraphs that appear to have been lifted directly from the partisan political stump speeches of a member of the ruling elite and cabal. It is also in such countries that you see courts of coordinate jurisdictions issuing judgments which contradict each other like confeities. One judge makes a ruling on the conduct of a critical and sensitive state institution, another judge jumps up immediately to make a counter ruling to favour the ruling cabal. If it is a liberal democracy, the power brokers would shamelessly blur or even obliterate any semblance of separation of powers. The baron or his enablers would grab the funds of the judiciary and then go ahead to determine the remunerations of judges and sundry judicial officers, determine their promotions, the domestic and foreign courses that they would be permitted to attend and the size of the estacode, the promotion or the stagnation of their spouses who happen to be working in other government institutions.

Like wannabe dictators and dictators in so-called democracies, drug barons seek immortality in many forms. In North Korea, for instance, there are giant and life-size statues of the succession of dictators in every nook and cranny of that country. North Koreans are reminded constantly who is in charge. The present ruler is the grandson of the original ruler. Kim Jong Un has been accused of murdering his own brother in order to consolidate power . He’s said to be grooming his daughter to be his successor. Donald Trump is the president of the United States of America and another wannabe dictator. His banner is in front of the offices of the Department of Justice, which by America’s convention is usually autonomous and independent of the president. Not under Trump who just turned 80 last Sunday. July 4th will mark America’s 250th birthday. Trump has worked very hard to blur the line, and to submerge America’s independence anniversary under the celebration of his own birthday. He is furiously working with his Treasury Secretary who is said to be a man married to another man to make a $250 bill with his image embossed on it. It is to be a commemorative legal tender. The American Constitution prohibits the appearance of the image of a living person on American currency (coins or notes), but this fact does not deter Trump and his sycophantic collaborators. He is facing headwinds from some Americans, the judiciary and parts of Congress. There are not many countries under the spell of would-be dictators that are so lucky.

Another strongman in pursuit of eternity is Vladimir Putin, president of the Russian Federation. It’s what dictators do. Putin is Russia. Russia is Putin. He makes oligarchs. He kills the oligarchs. His enemies regularly die falling out of the windows of 15-storey apartment blocks or hotel rooms. His critics, among them those in exile, are tracked down and poisoned with lethal chemicals. He has imperial ambitions. That is why he has been waging war on Ukraine since 2022. The Russian Duma [parliament] has many things in common with Nigeria’s national assembly, the most important being their lapdog roles for the executive arm of government and the imperial presidencies. It must be noted neither Trump nor Putin are stained of any report of drug dealings.

Perhaps the most notorious person who was dealing drugs while he was president of Panama is Manuel Noriega. In 1983, Panama’s army general, Noriega, took political control of the country. But a year earlier, as head of military intelligence in that country, he had struck a deal with Pablo Escobar’s Medelin Drug Cartel through which he allowed Colombian cocaine shipments to pass freely through Panama’s airport. He pocketed $200,000 for every plane load that came through the country enroute to the US and elsewhere. The cartel also paid him commission of up to $4million a month. By 1989, Noriega was said to be worth some $400million from the drug business. America knew about his dealings but turned a blind eye, because Noriega was a CIA agent who had been on their payroll since the late 1950s. America knows what to do with assets they no longer want, or whose cover has been blown. So an American asset is a double-edged sword. There is an expiry date and the end can be devastating.

By 1985 Noriega had murdered and beheaded a political opponent, Hugo Spadafora, and had become a liability to the United States. Three years later a grand jury in Miami and Tampa indicted him on charges of racketeering, drug smuggling and money laundering. US forces stormed Panama on December 20, 1989 to arrest him, but Noriega escaped and took refuge in the Vatican embassy in Panama City. That year, Noriega had cancelled the results of the country’s democratic elections. The US surrounded the Vatican embassy and played deafening rock music 24/7 as psychological warfare. On January 3, 1990, Noriega exited the embassy and surrendered his arms. In America he was tried, convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison. He served 17 years and was released on good behaviour. He was extradited from a U.S. prison to France, where he was tried and convicted for laundering money through French banks. Noriega died in prison in Panama in 2017 while serving his prison terms including for murdering his political rivals.

Likewise, a former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez, was convicted of connections to drug trafficking. In 2024 he was convicted by a US federal jury of conspiring to import into America more than 400 tons of cocaine between 2004 and 2022, and sentenced to 45 years in prison. He was pardoned and released by Trump last December. At the beginning of the year, American troops stormed into Caracas and whisked away the previous president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife. The couple is being held in a US prison awaiting trial for allegedly conspiring to traffic cocaine and partnering with drug cartels. Maduro has entered a plea of not guilty. He called the charges against him a means to advance “imperial” designs by Americans to gain access to his country’s vast crude oil reserves. He claimed he was a ‘’kidnapped president’’ and a ‘’prisoner of war’’. Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro [Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego] is currently in the US’s crosshairs over concerns with drugs. Since taking office, he has only been sanctioned by the American Treasury Department for allowing the explosion of cocaine production in his country. The ousted president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, was also said to have offered the presidential palace as a safe haven for the drug business of his brother. He was said to have profited from the drug business when sanctions took their toll on the country’s revenues.

The lesson is that those who use presidencies of nations as a shield to deal on drugs and those who had ties with drug cartels before assuming political power do not usually end well. For those who were or still are agents of the CIA and assets of the United States, it is worse. When they fall out of favour or become a liability to that foreign power, their falls are cataclysmic. Let those who have ears hear. And get ready. Because the end is going to come for sure. And it might be unpleasant.

The post OPINION: Narco-Presidencies and How They End appeared first on TheNigerian.

Senator representing Edo north, Adams Oshiomhole accused senate president Godswill Akpabio of harbouring a bias against him, saying the senate leader is suspicious of his activities and influence within the national assembly on Sunday, June 14.

Oshiomhole made the remarks amid rising tensions in the senate over controversy generated by his recent comments on the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.

The former Edo state governor stated that Akpabio has an unfounded prejudice against him despite his contributions to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the victory of president Bola Tinubu in the election.

“Don’t forget I was a founding governor of the APC and deputy director-general of Bola Tinubu campaign council that gave us victory. I am not saying that I am responsible for the victory, but I worked for it and I am happy that we got it.

“He (Akpabio) is so paranoid about anything that concerns me. Everybody in the senate knows that if senator Akpabio have his way, he will lock me out of the senate because he has deluded himself into thinking that I am possibly the devil he knows. “He doesn’t know there are many angels,” he said.

“The next senate leadership arrangement will be very different from the present one,” the senator predicted citing growing dissatisfaction among lawmakers.

“I can say the 11th senate will not be like the 10th. That is impossible.” senators are grousing about his style of leadership. But we cope and I have tried to assure him that ‘Look, senate president, I am a very fulfilled person.

“Whatever job I am asked to do, I ask God to give me courage and even greater wisdom to do that job to the satisfaction of my constituents. It is very well known that the senate president is biased against me. “I am not going to speculate as to why he has bias,” he said.

Akpabio often becomes uneasy whenever he interacts with certain senators, Oshiomhole added, citing an encounter involving senator Abdulaziz Yari as an example.

“Many people in the senate know that. In fact, if I go around the floor of the senate and I go greet certain persons and we have conversations, the man becomes uncomfortable. “Let me give you an example,” Oshiomhole said.

“Senator Yari approached the senate president and said he wanted to be the vice-chairman of the senate committee on Interior. I am chairman of the Senate Interior Committee. The senate president told him, “So you want to join Senator Oshiomhole to plan how to remove me as Senate president?” But I just laugh.

The senate president is “first among equals” and subservient to the collective will of senators, he says.

“If you understand the way the senate works, the senate president is the first among equals. The senators favour only the persons elected.

Remember, if senator Yari had gotten the majority, he could have become the senate President. It is not a question of what anybody wants. It’s about who the senators want,” he cautioned.

The comments come days after the senate publicly dissociated itself from Oshiomhole’s characterization of the NNPC as a bunch of criminals and thieves, insisting that the comments were his personal views and not that of the Red Chamber.

Last week, during plenary, the senate passed a motion sponsored by senate leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, clarifying that no committee of the senate is empowered to issue, authorise or execute a warrant of arrest without strict adherence to the Legislative Houses (Powers and privileges) Act and the express approval of the senate president.

The resolution followed reports that the senate committee on public accounts recommended the issuance of a warrant of arrest against former NNPCL Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), Mele Kyari, over his failure to honour invitations by the committee.

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Human rights activist and former presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, has reportedly been taken to hospital after collapsing during a confrontation between police operatives and protesters at the Unity Fountain in Abuja.

The incident, which was reported to have happened during a Democracy Day protest on Friday against insecurity, economic hardship and what demonstrators say is poor governance.

The protest that drew activists and civil society groups was dispersed after security operatives shot teargas canisters to disperse the gathering, Vanguard quoted witnesses as saying.

Chaos erupted as protesters ran for cover in clouds of teargas, eyewitnesses said.

Sowore was said to have been affected by the fumes and later lost consciousness in the confusion.

Supporters and fellow activists rushed to his aid and evacuated him from the protest ground.

According to sources close to the activist, he regained consciousness while being transported away from the scene in a vehicle.

After the incident, Sowore was reportedly taken to an undisclosed hospital for medical examination and treatment.

The development added to the tension at the protest site that was attended by demonstrators who condemned the police action.

The protesters had come out to demand urgent action on rising insecurity, economic hardship and governance challenges in the country.

The post Sowore Collapses During Protest, Rushed to Hospital appeared first on TheNigerian.

The Senate has distanced itself from the arrest warrant issued by its Committee on Public Accounts against the immediate Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari. The chamber also condemned uncomplimentary comments by Senator Adams Oshiomhole describing NNPCL as “a bunch of criminals and thieves”.

The repudiation came after a motion moved by Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele under a point of order on urgent national importance. Bamidele said the Senate had to protect its institutional integrity, ensure adherence to the Legislative Houses’ Powers and Privileges Act and protect fair hearing and due process.

The controversy broke on Wednesday when the Public Accounts Committee, led by Senator Ibrahim Dankwambo, resumed its investigation into queries raised against NNPCL by the Auditor General of the Federation in audit reports for the years 2017 to 2023. At the session with the former NNPCL management, the committee resolved to issue an arrest warrant against Kyari.

At the same session, Senator Oshiomhole, a member of the committee, made negative comments about NNPCL. The former management team were interrogated and he described the company as “a bunch of criminals and thieves”.

But barely 24 hours later, the Senate in plenary, disowned both the committee’s action and Oshiomhole’s comments, stressing that they did not reflect the position of the institution.

Bamidele told the Senate any committee performing oversight under Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution must do so in accordance with natural justice, fairness, objectivity, parliamentary responsibility and respect for the rule of law.

“Although the Senate has broad investigative and oversight powers, such powers must be exercised in a manner that does not create the appearance of bias, prejudice, prejudgment or predetermined conclusions about any person or institution being investigated,” he said.

He specifically argued that the warrant of arrest issued against Kyari was fraught with procedural irregularities and should be declared null and void. He also called on the Senate to discountenance Oshiomhole’s description of NNPCL.

“Such procedural irregularities may expose Senate proceedings to avoidable legal challenges and diminish public confidence in the institution,” warned Bamidele. He said that any statements suggesting guilt before the conclusion of the investigations were prejudicial to the proceedings.

The motion was strongly supported by Deputy Senate President Barau Jibrin, Senate Whip Tahir Monguno, Senator Adamu Aliero who described Oshiomhole’s comments as reckless, and Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, who moved that Oshiomhole withdraw the statement.

In his reaction, Oshiomhole said he made the comments under duress occasioned by equally uncomplimentary remarks against the Senate and senators by former NNPCL Chief Financial Officer, Alhaji Umar Ajiya, during the investigative hearing.

The Senate, in its resolution, formally distanced itself from Oshiomhole’s statement calling NNPCL “a bunch of criminals and thieves,” stating that such comments are not the official stance or determination of the Senate.

The chamber also discounted the purported arrest warrant issued by the Public Accounts Committee on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, against Mele Kyari.

The post NNPC: Senate Disowns Committee’s Arrest Warrant for Kyari appeared first on TheNigerian.

Former Chief Financial Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Umar Ajiya, has denied allegations of financial misconduct against the company, saying NNPC and its workers are not thieves.

Ajiya disclosed this at a sitting of the Senate Public Accounts Committee investigating the alleged misappropriation of funds.

The remarks came after allegations by the senator representing Edo North, Adams Oshiomhole, who reportedly described NNPCL as a “house of thieves.”

“There is nothing to hide and there is no misappropriation of funds as being claimed,” Ajiya said.

He also clarified that the sum spent on the company’s incorporation and rebranding was ₦2.9 billion and not ₦5.8 billion.

“We are no thieves,” said Ajiya. It was not ₦5.8 billion but ₦2.9 billion that was used to register NNPC. For the last five or six years I have been coming before this committee and defending the reports of the company.

I need to assure Mr Chairman and distinguished Senators here today and indeed all Nigerians that there is no money missing.

The company released its audited accounts in a bid to be more transparent and counteract public mistrust, said the former CFO.

“We would not have had the guts to publish the audited accounts in the last 44 years if there was actually missing money in NNPC during our time. I want to make it very clear,” Ajiya said.

“The accounts were prepared and never hidden from the public, and sometimes even with the Auditor General of the Federation.

“So, we made it a duty upon us to not only give to the Auditor-General, but also to put it on our website, so that Nigerians can criticise and scrutinise, to get out of the opaqueness and that lack of trust that the public had on NNPC.

The post “We Are Not Thieves” – NNPCL Fires Back at Oshiomhole appeared first on TheNigerian.

A coalition of aspirants in the just concluded All Progressives Congress (APC) primaries, has condemned what they described as “wicked and distracting attempt” to link the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Dr. Mudashiru Obasa, to the peaceful protests held last week over the party’s primaries.

The group, in a strongly worded statement signed by prominent party figures and released to the press on Wednesday, insisted that the demonstration was a spontaneous expression of dissatisfaction by aspirants and their supporters across Lagos State.
The statement was signed by among others; Hon. Seye Oladejo (Mushin), Hon. Kolawole Taiwo (Ajeromi-Ifelodun), Hon. Noheem Adams (Eti-Osa), Hon. Stephen Ogundipe (Oshodi), Hon. Apata Samuel (Somolu), Hon. David Doherty (Amuwo-Odofin), Hon. Ganiyu Egunjobi (Agege), Hon. Ganiyu Ayuba (Alimosho).
However, the aspirants said the protest was not sponsored but the result of genuine grievances.
“It is an insult to the intelligence and a disparagement of the legitimate concerns of thousands of committed APC members and supporters to insinuate that they were sponsored to voice their frustrations,” the statement said.
The protesters, the group said, raised issues of alleged manipulation, distortion of results, cheating and disregard for party guidelines in the primaries. They said the concerns are not isolated or imaginary, but are the frustrations of party faithful who invested time, resources and political capital in the democratic process.
The signatories slammed unnamed persons for trying to make Speaker Obasa a scapegoat to trivialize the allegations and to divert attention from the need for justice, reconciliation and unity in the APC.
“Instead of dealing with the issues that lie at the heart of the protest, some have taken the easy way out: scapegoating. Such futile efforts are clearly meant to divert public attention from the need for fairness and party cohesion,” they said.
They called on party leaders to focus on resolving the outstanding issues from the primaries as they look ahead to the 2027 general elections. APC, they said, is strong because it can contain contrary views, fix its internal weaknesses and emerge stronger through dialogue and fairness.
“The concerns of aggrieved aspirants and their supporters should be addressed, not diverted. “Addressing these grievances in a sincere and urgent manner will bolster confidence in the party’s internal democratic processes and allow us to approach the upcoming elections with a united and formidable front,” the statement said.

The post Lagos APC Aspirants Reject Attempt to Link Speaker Obasa to Protest appeared first on TheNigerian.

Samuel Oyedotun, a former senatorial aspirant for Osun East, has warned the All Progressives Congress (APC) not to incite political violence in Osun State, saying no political ambition is worth the shedding of blood.

Oyedotun’s warning followed reports of shooting incidents in parts of the state Tuesday afternoon. He said the alleged shootings had heightened tension in areas including Ile-Ife, Owode Ede, Aregbe, Olaiya, Old Garage and Oke Fia.
Oyedotun, a US-trained mortgage stockbroker and former chairman of the Osun State Water Corporation Board, told politicians in a statement yesterday to put the peace of Osun above personal interest.

He said the Osun APC should not “set the state on fire” because of “inordinate ambition. “Any political office is not worth the blood of any son or daughter of Osun.”

He said the shooting spree was a “red flag” that must not be ignored, saying tolerating violence creates room for gunmen and cultists to thrive.

Osun has made progress under the present administration, the Accord Party chieftain said, urging political actors to sustain the gains through peaceful conduct.

He also stressed that elections should be held without fear and that those responsible for the violence should be held accountable.

He urged security agencies to arrest the perpetrators and be on alert ahead of the August 15 governorship election.

But the APC governorship campaign council dismissed the allegations, claiming that the attack was allegedly perpetrated by a political thug working for the state government.

The post “Don’t Set Osun on Fire” – Oyedotun Warns APC appeared first on TheNigerian.

Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, an Islamic cleric, has said that politics in the South-West geopolitical zone of the country is based on an irrational fear of Muslims and Islam.

He also wanted to be exempted from “dirty local politics” in the zone, following the controversy generated by his visit to Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

The cleric made his position known on Tuesday in a Facebook post amid reports that the abductors of 46 schoolchildren and teachers in the Oriire local government area of Oyo State on May 15 had demanded the implementation of Sharia law in the state as one of the conditions to release the captives.
But one of the victims in a video released by her captors Monday vigorously debunked the report of the implementation of the Sharia.

Mrs Rachael Folawe Alamu, who spoke from captivity, said the armed gunmen made no demand for Sharia nor ransom payment of N1 billion as reported in some quarters.

They only asked for the release of their comrades who were in the hands of the Nigerian authorities, she added.

Also, a major Islamic group, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), debunked the alleged Sharia demand in a press statement on Monday.

Reacting to MURIC’s statement, Gumi said, “I quite understand now how Islamophobia is shaping politics in SW and why I was unnecessarily dragged into their dirty local politics.

“I was in Ibadan not on invitation of any SW Muslim individual or group but as a representative of the Coalition of Northern Muslim Ulama.

“Is there anybody that can stop me going anywhere in Nigeria?

Some people have weird thoughts!

“I think that the whole saga is tele-guided by both foreign and local interests to promote a narrative and polarise the country.”

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