Femi Fani-Kayode hospitalised after DSS grilling – Lawyer claims during forgery trial Former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode’s trial for alleged forgery was stalled on Monday, February 20, as he was absent when the case was brought up before the Lagos State Special Offences Court in Ikeja.
Femi Fani-Kayode is standing trial for allegedly presenting false documents, fabricating evidence and procuring execution of documents before an Ikeja Special Offences Court. He is accused of tendering forged medical report before Justice Daniel Osiagor of the Federal High Court in Lagos, where he is being prosecuted for alleged N4.9bn fraud.
During the resumed trial on Monday, the former Minister’s lawyer, Wale Balogun told the court that his client has been hospitalized after a “running battle” with the DSS and police.
The operatives of the Western Nigeria security network, codenamed Amotekun Corps in Iwajowa area of Oyo State, has foiled a kidnap attempt of a Chinese man who was working on a site at Ayanma area along Egbonron village in Iganna town.
The security operatives, who carried out this operation, collaborated with the men of Local Hunters in Iganna town upon receipt of the information from one of the vigilantes working at the site.
“Our operatives swung into an action in order to assist them. After a gun duel with the kidnappers, our men were able to over power them and gun down one of them. Two of the kidnappers were later arrested while four(4) escaped with gun shot injuries of various degrees”, the command noted.
The Amotekun Corps who stated that one AK-47 Rifle was recovered, added that after due consultation with the Corps Commandant, the corpse and the items recovered were released to the police.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has debunked the fake news posted on the verified Instagram and Facebook handles of the First Lady of Nigeria, Mrs Aisha Buhari.
The fake news posted on the two social media handles of the First Lady on Tuesday morning purportedly indicated that the old N200, N500 and N1000 banknotes have been allowed to be recirculated as legal tender till May 1, 2023 contrary to the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari that only the old N200 banknote is allowed as legal tender till April 10, 2023.
ODUDUWA NEWS reports that not a few Nigerians are currently agitated over the new Naira scarcity, a development that has led to violent protests in Lagos, Ogun, Oyo and Edo States.
But, minutes later the CBN posted a real press statement it issued days ago and a counterfeited or distorted version of it posted by Mrs Buhari, which conveyed the fake news.
Tweeps and Instagram users received the news with mixed feelings. While some of them praised the First Lady for the new development, others quickly pointed out the inherent bad grammar in the fake statement suggesting that it was a fake news.
Meanwhile, the CBN Governor has reiterated in the recent press release that he would not rescind his decision on the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari and also vowed that he would launch his machineries to go after the people behind the fake news.
Five days to the 2023 presidential election, Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke of the Federal High Court, Lagos, on Monday granted the prayer of the Labour Party seeking an order to bar the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from using the Chairman of the Lagos Parks and Garages, Musliu Akinsanya, popularly known as MC Oluomo from distributing election materials in the state.
Lagos Reporters reports that MC Oluomo is a staunch supporter of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the presidential flag-bearer of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The Labour Party had objected to the plan by INEC to use MC Oluomo, describing the transport union leader as openly partisan. According to them, any association of INEC with any platform under the control of MC Oluomo is a big risk.
With Monday’s judgment, the prayer of the Labour Party has been granted.
A former member of the House of Representatives who is also a member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)’s Presidential Campaign Committee (PCC), Hon. Olasupo Abiodun has assured the people of Oke-Ogun area of Oyo State that the Presidential flag-bearer of PDP has assured of his readiness to resuscitate the abandoned Ikere Gorge Dam project, situated in Iseyin local government.
Olasupo who told journalists in Iseyin on Monday at a rally to drum up support for former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, Governor Seyi Makinde and other PDP candidates during the oncoming general elections that the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) failed to deliver on any of their promises to the people of Oke-Ogun from 2015 to 2023.
“I can categorically tell you that we have the confidence of the leadership of PDP and Alhaji Atiku that the abandoned Ikere Gorge Dam will be resuscitated alongside other major social infrastructural facilities in Oke-Ogun.
“The APC Government has promised to complete and put the dam into use for generation of electricity and portable water but as we have all seen, they failed us, apart from this, there is no federal presence in our region, this will change if we vote for Atiku and return Makinde for second term in office.”
The Ikere Gorge Dam is a major earth-fill dam in Iseyin local government area of Oyo State with reservoir capacity of 690 million m³.
The dam was initiated by the military regime of General Olusegun Obasanjo and started in 1983 by the administration of Shehu Shagari and was targeted at generating over five megawatts and supply portable water to residents of Oyo, Kwara, Ogun and some parts of Lagos State.
The All Progressives Congress APC in Oyo state has described the reported jubilation, in the Agodi Government House, which followed the decision of its presidential candidate, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to pay a courtesy visit on Governor Seyi Makinde last Thursday during the Presidential Rally held in Ibadan as laughable, childish and revealing.
There were reports of different interpretation being given the development as those in the camp of Gov. Makinde and Oyo PDP were said to have claimed that the courtesy visit was a tacit endorsement of the governor by Tinubu in what they termed as a fulfilment of an agreement between the former Lagos state governor and the five aggrieved governors of the PDP who might have foreclosed the possibility of supporting former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, in this Saturday poll.
In a statement issued on Monday and made available to journalists in Ibadan by its Publicity Secretary, Olawale Sadare, Oyo APC challenged Governor Seyi Makinde to take the advantage of the hardship inflicted on the people by the controversial cashless policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and demonstrate the populist in him if he indeed meant well for the masses or apologize for all the fake and misleading actions he has undertaken since he assumed office in 2019.
“Rather than dissipating energy and time on seeking endorsement here and there, Gov. Makinde should start thinking about what becomes of him after leaving office on May 29, 2023 since he has failed to deliver on his electoral promises for close to four years now. Only God knows how much fortunes he (Makinde) has wasted in recent times in the name of securing endorsement for second term from every Tom, Dick and Harry even as most of those reported to have pronounced such fake endorsement later came out to deny it.
“The case of Ibadan Family Heads (Mogajis) took to the media space few days ago to denounce the story of fake endorsement being circulated by the Gov. Makinde’s media handlers and sponsored propagandists. For his dream of genuine endorsement from all and sundry to to be realized, Gov. Makinde would have to render an account of stewardship reflecting enviable growth in all the key sectors of the state economy, good relationship with all stakeholders including brother governors across South West states, flawless security architecture among others.
“To set the record straight, Asiwaju Tinubu only demonstrated statemanship and maturity by visiting Gov. Makinde in his office as the number one citizen of the state at the moment. And in as much as it is highly necessary for all hands to be on deck in Yorubaland to secure maximum number of votes for the APC’s Presidential candidate in this Saturday poll, it won’t be out of place for Tinubu to pay such visit while everything he was quoted as saying was circumstantially appropriate.
“In any case, the only genuine endorsement which a low performer like Gov. Makinde can get would be from hungry political tools usually assembled by a lousy and indecorous member of his cabinet who is notorious for constituting public nuisance in the political space. As a matter of fact, Gov. Makinde would be able to get the endorsement of the cerebral leader of the Progressives in Tinubu only if he could boast of 10 percent of what Gov. Sanwo-Olu has done in Lagos. Rather than dropping the name of Tinubu, Gov. Makinde should first seek forgiveness from all the gladiators who assisted him to power in 2019 only to be humiliated immediately he was sworn-in.
“Lastly, we use this medium to impress it upon Gov. Makinde that the time to showcase the humanitarian spirit in him is now. Governors of Kaduna, Kano, Lagos, Ogun, Edo, Borno, Kogi and other states of the Federation have raised their voice to challenge the hurting cashless policy of the CBN while they have also issued directive to business people and bank executives in their respective states to receive old N500 and N1000 notes from depositors to ease the pain in the land. Gov. Makinde must borrow a leaf from his colleagues and come to the aid of the suffering residents of Oyo state.” APC concluded.
Violent protests erupted in Sagamu area of Ogun State on Monday as protesters register their displeasure over the scarcity of new Naira notes.
ODUDUWA NEWS reports that the protesters barricaded the road, attacked and burnt Union Bank, First Bank and Keystone Bank branches in the area.
The ugly incident has halted commercial activities in the once busy area, as shops are now closed and the road deserted following fear that the protest may escalate.
The police spokesman in the state, Abimbola Oyeyemi, confirmed the development.
“We are in Sagamu now. The place is seriously burning,” Oyeyemi said.
“They attacked Union Bank and First Bank as well as Keystone Bank. We are there right now.”
Governor Dapo Abiodun had last week called for calm in the state, saying it is important for residents to keep the state safe. However, hoodlums have shunned the governors’ pleas and continue to cause public disturbance
The Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu SAN has called on president Muhammadu Buhari to act as statesman and ensure that the money redesign policy is halt to prevent pocket of violence recently recorded in the country.
Akeredolu was quoted as saying, “the crises engendered by the policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria to redesign some currency notes, threaten to disrupt, not only the forthcoming general elections. The events of the past days, culminating in the intervention of the apex court in the land, and the increasing gale of violence sweeping through the country, portend serious danger to the current democratic governance. Consequently, this period invites all patriots to speak out with a view to proffering practicable solutions and not project cheap partisan interests.
*I seize this opportunity to appeal to the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, to play the role of a Statesman at this crucial moment. It is apparent that the crises, which the current policy on currency swap has created, continue to spiral menacingly.
“There is incontrovertible evidence bordering on miscalculation, error of judgement and/or disinformation on the part of the policy makers, especially the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Godwin Emefiele, on the failed implementation of the policy, the effect of which compels the whole country to groan, immeasurably, at present.
“There is hardly anyone who contends with either the statutory functions of the Central Bank of Nigeria or the occupier of the office of its Governor, one of which is the monetary policy. It is also not debatable that the President and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria is empowered, under our law, to exercise certain executive power. It can, however, not be the original intendment of the drafters of the relevant statutes that the implementation of any policy should occasion widespread hardship and pervasive agony in the land.
“The safety of the people is the supreme law. Any measure, purportedly designed to ameliorate their conditions, must not reduce the entire populace to a beggarly existence. There is pervasive discontent in the land. A policy, presented as currency swap, must not be construed by both the reasonable members and people of average intelligence in the society to convey the deplorable impression of contrived subterfuge manifest in the official confiscation of legitimate deposits of the people in banks, as a counter measure against electoral malfeasance, terrorism and banditry.
“Desirable as the policy appears to be, its implementation excites curiosity as regards the real motive of its drivers, especially at this time when the conduct of general elections is almost here. The mere knowledge that the N1000 and N500 notes represented 82% of the currency in circulation and that the N200 note, whose validity has been extended, by fiat, for another 60 days, represented 7%, expose the mendacious slant in the advice given to Mr President. This counsel clearly misrepresented, deliberately, the facts as they existed before the commencement of the implementation of the policy.
“The implementation of this policy has been woeful despite claims to the contrary. The suffering of the masses, occasioned by the non-availability of new notes to replace the old ones, equally decreed out of existence by presidential fiat in contravention of the CBN Act, 2007, could have been averted if the strategy of a gradual and systematic withdrawal of the old currency notes had been adopted. I make bold to assert that the unfolding events across the country show that the policy has failed significantly. It is, therefore, expected that the President will halt this needless drift into the abyss of chaos, more so, when the ruling of highest court still subsists.
“I call on the President to allow both the old and new notes co-exist until such a time when normalcy returns to the country. It will be a fitting parting gift for the people of this country, especially the downtrodden, who feel the negative impact of the poorly implemented policy. While the reasons adduced for the policy appear legitimate, there can be no justification for the confiscation of the lawful earnings of Nigerians. The negative impact which the mediocre and, I dare say, mischievous implementation of the policy by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria is having on the poor people and small business owners defeats all the good programmes of the Federal Government designed to elevate as many people as possible out of the morass of poverty.
“There is no shame in rescinding a decision adjudged not only unpopular and counter-productive, but which also bears the insidious seeds of potential conflagration in the land, one of the ostensible reasons for this ill-conceived policy”.
The Oyo State gubernatorial candidate under the platform of Accord Party, Chief Bayo Adelabu has said that education sector in Oyo State is not adequately funded because the Governor of Oyo State, Engr. Seyi Makinde has failed to prioritize public schools.
He alleged that the teachers in Oyo State have been writing exam questions on the blackboards against the usual printing of exam questions as obtainable in the past administration.
He said this while answering questions at the ongoing gubernatorial debate in Ibadan.
He also claimed that many public schools in Oyo State are in dilapidated state because they lack adequate infrastructures.
He however charged the Governor of the State to ensure that some of the identifiable problems in public schools are properly addressed in order to ensure that education sector performs excellently
The governor of Oyo State, Engr. Seyi Makinde has admitted that he couldn’t achieve his plan on agric revolution as promised in his campaign in 2019 due to the massive infrastructural development his administration embarked on.
He said this while answering a question directed to him by the panelists at the ongoing gubernatorial debate in Ibadan.
He said he was unable to achieve the agric revolution because of the fact that he needed to embark on infrastructural development that would open up the rural settlement because there is great infrastructural deficit in Oyo State.
He however stated that he would ensure that agric business is prioritized if he is re-elected for the second term.
