An official of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Mr. Omiwoye Sunday, has been shot dead while attempting to stop some boys from being attacked.
Omiwoye had gone to visit a friend at Agbala area in Ondo town along with his wife when the incident occurred.
Witnesses said he parked his motorcycle in front of his friend’s house when some hoodlums chased some boys to the area and the boys ran towards him.
He was said to have attempted to prevent further attacks on the boys when the hoodlums shot him dead.
His wife, Bunmi, said she ran into the compound when the hoodlums asked them to stay out of the fracas.
”Last Sunday, My husband and I went to see one of his friends that stays on the same street with us.
“Suddenly, some men ran towards where we were standing by the gate. My husband was trying to park his motorcycle then. So, two gunmen came with bike and started beating the boys that ran to us.
“My husband challenged them. But they told him that they were not there for him and that he should go inside the gate. I went in immediately, but my husband was still outside standing by his motorcycle.
“Later, we heard a gun shot. So, I ran out of the gate and saw my husband on the floor in a pool of his own blood. The gunmen ran away with his phone and motorcycle key.”
Some residents in the area said several persons have been attacked previously in the area.
It was gathered that the corpse has been deposited at the State Specialist Hospital morgue in Ondo town.
Ondo police spokesman, DSP Funmilayo Odunlami, could not be reached for comments.
A group of young Nigerians under the aegis of Yahaya Bello Network (YBN) on Tuesday appealed to Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, to run in the 2023 Presidential race to enable the country achieve desired peace and robust economic development.
The group, composed of young people from the North-west and North-central zones of the country, besieged the state capital Lokoja in a town hall meeting.
The National Chairman of YBN and the convener of the town hall meeting, Abdulamart Mai Kwasherwa, from Kano State said the Network was out to ensure actualisation of “Not Too Young To Rule” Act and as well to appeal to Governor Yahaya Bello to contest the 2023 President race as the youngest contestant.
Mai Kwasherwa noted that the governor had proved his mettle as a capable leader in Kogi and also has the capacity to lead the country to the promised land.
“Many elders have led this country but we are yet to reach our destination in terms of development and this time around we want a young and dynamic leader in the person of Governor Yahaya Bello to contest the presidential election so that inject new knowledge and ideology into the governance of the country” he stated.
The convener of the meeting who said that God had blessed the people of Kogi State for giving them a leader in Governor Bello noted that the leadership style of the governor is very rare in the country.
“God has blessed this state with a pragmatic, detribalised leader and the youngest governor in Nigeria. I have never seen a leader that cares so much about the welfare of youths and women.
“He has the largest number of youths in his government far more than any other state Governor in this country and this is the type of a leader we want as president who will weave the six geopolitical zones together for the purpose of unity and prosperity” he said.
Kwasherwa also commended Governor Bello’s stance on the Covid-19 and efforts in securing the state.
“There was massive insecurity in the state before he took the mantle of leadership and today due to his tireless effort and commitment to security issues, Kogi is one of the safest states in the country.”
The Chief of Staff, Abdulkarim Jamiu Asuku, who represented the governor at the occasion lauded the effort of members of YBN for organising the town hall meeting in Lokoja , Kogi State.
He noted that going by fairness, equity and justice , the North-central zone since 1999 has never tasted the position of Vice President and President, stressing that 2023 ought to be for the zone without any eyebrow from other geopolitical zones.
The Chief of Staff however told the multitude of the youth that at appropriate time the people’s governor will make his intention known and he assured them that Governor Bello he knows will not disappoint the youth.
“His Excellency Governor Yahaya Bello feel your concern toward the leadership of this country, the governor will soon make his position known to Nigerians” he assured.
Also speaking, Alhaji Abdullahi Bello, Kogi State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) said history was being made in Nigerian political terrain with the youths now taking their destiny in the hands to support one of their own to move the country to the next level of development.
The APC Chairman said that Yahaya Bello presidency would ensure adequate reward for hard work, excellence and dedication adding that the country’s leadership over the years had lacked a good rewarding system.
Hon. Ahmed Mohammed, Deputy Speaker, Kogi State House of Assembly commended the convener of YBN for the evolution of the group cutting across states in Nigeria.
“Our priority as Kogites is to see Governor Yahaya Bello becoming the next President of Nigeria because of the quality leadership in him which he has demonstrated in Kogi State.
“With him at the helm of affairs of this country, the Nigerian dream will come true. Our body language, thinking and dream is Yahaya Bello and our dreams shall come true and become a reality.” he prayed .
Secretary to the State Government (SSG) Dr Folashade Arike Ayoade described the aspiration of Governor Yahaya Bello as timely in view of the prevailing challenges assailing the country.
However, the town hall meeting also featured the inauguration of the Kogi State executive council of the YBN.
The estranged wife of a former minister of aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, Precious Chikwendu has told a customary court of the Federal Capital Territory that he has erectile dysfunction.
The former beauty queen further stated that the chieftain of the All Progressives Congress never had sexual intercourse with her in their six-year relationship because of his alleged challenge.
According to Chikwendu, the four children she had with the former minister were conceived through artificial insemination.
Chikwendu claimed that she was forced to be celibate during her relationship with Fani-Kayode.
She also told the court that the former minister did not perform any rites before their marriage nor paid her bride price.
The estranged wife of Fani-Kayode charged the court to declare that she was never married to the APC chieftain.
Like she has done several times, Chikwendu accused Fani-Kayode of assaulting her while they were married, adding that the former minister lied to her that his marriage to his third wife had ended.
The petitioner, Chikwendu stated this in her November 29, 2021 “Application for issuance of civil summons/plaint” against Fani-Kayode, the respondent.
The suit, numbered FCT/CCK8/01/043/2021, was filed by her counsel, Mr Abiodun E. Olusanya.
She is seeking the following reliefs:
“An order declaring that there was no customary marriage between the petitioner and the respondent (despite their six-year cohabitation) under the Nanka, Orumba North, Anambra State of Igbo native law and customs.
“Alternatively, assuming by the evidence during the trial the court finds that there was a customary marriage between parties:
“An order dissolving the customary marriage between the petitioner and the respondent forthwith.
“An order granting the petitioner access to and custody of the four children of the cohabitation between parties especially during their academic calendar.
“An order ordering the respondent to be continuously responsible for the academic, medical, clothing and welfare of the four children of the cohabitation.
“An order ordering the respondent to release and return the Petitioner’s property.”
“The properties are the petitioner’s certificates and documents, trophies from the United Nations pageantry, Red Range Rover SUV, registered under her foundation’s name and the foundation’s certificates and the petitioner’s picture, among others.”
She identified others as her mother’s burial videos and souvenirs, her mother’s certificates and documents, her clothes and personal belongings including gadgets, sewing machines left at the children’s play area and her refrigerator and kitchen gadgets for her food company, Mommy Pee Food.
Chikwendu said her relationship with Fani-Kayode was full of “woes, lies, deceits, quarrels, assaults, battery and domestic violence, lack of trust and absence of love, public disgrace and shame, and absence of sex due to the inability to sexually perform and intolerable behaviour of the respondent.”
“She contended that there was never a marriage between the parties on the ground, among others, that the respondent “has continuously behaved in such a way that the Petitioner cannot reasonably be expected to continue to live with the respondent any further or formally enter into any form of traditional marriage whit him.”
She added: “From the inception of the cohabitation, the Respondent has been a violent person who attacks the Petitioner and her family members at will without provocation.”
She averred that in 2016 when the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) raided Fani-Kayode’s house, she found his marriage certificate with his third wife, Regina.
She said she confronted him with it and requested to see their divorce certificate, following which he allegedly confessed that he had yet to do so.
Chinwendu said, “At every attempt, the petitioner made to have sexual intercourse with the respondent, there was never erection of the respondent’s penis/manhood and penetration was frustrating.
“During such periods of frustration and sexual desire, the petitioner would be left with the choice of merely rubbing herself on the respondent, to have the slightest bit of relief.
“The petitioner then insisted parties should seek medical help for the respondent, and on visiting the family doctor, the respondent claimed he was diagnosed of having a cyst on his penis/manhood, which is not allowing the respondent to have erection and or perform sexually.
“The respondent was supposedly placed on cyprotab and the doctor suggested that the respondent should go and decide when he wishes to remove/untangle the cyst.
“Few days after the visit to the doctor, the respondent informed the petitioner that he had discussed with Regina and she had prayed over it, that the respondent should not do the operation, else he would die.
“The respondent never took the cyprotab medication, but any time the petitioner tried to engage the respondent in sexual activities, the respondent would claim his penis/manhood was paining him and then drink the medication.
“The petitioner bought sex toys for the respondent, but the respondent refused to use it and warned the petitioner never to suggest it again.
“Chikwendu averred further that since August 2020 that she walked out of the cohabitation with the Respondent, she had been continuously denied access to her children and her children have been continuously deprived parental motherly care and protection.”
She accused Fani-Kayode of not paying his domestic staff/workers/nannies, “which leaves the workers angry and they could unleash and or transfer their anger on the children, they may kill any of the children any day, if the children are left with the respondent.
“Most of the domestic staff/workers/nannies that are not paid their wages, usually resign and run away without informing anyone and considering the security situation, the workers could kidnap any of the children.
“Currently the respondent is in court with some of the former domestic staff/workers for noa payment of salaries and abuse.”
Students and staff of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) in Imo State on Tuesday avoided the main entrance of the school over a coffin that was dumped there.
They took alternative routes to avoid the object.
It could not be confirmed who dumped the coffin, but sources said it could be members of one of the communities that have been at loggerheads with the institution of a land.
Some palm fronds were also placed at the school gate, apparently to warn the management to steer clear of the disputed land.
A source said: “We woke up this morning to see that thing there. “We do not know who placed it, but some people have told us that it is one of those communities in dispute with the school over the school’s land.”
President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the suspension of the management of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC).
He approved a new interim governing board to oversee the company’s daily operations.
It followed the industrial action embarked on by staff members over non-payment of arrears of pensions, allowances, salaries and promotion.
The dismissal, conveyed by the presidency to the Federal Ministry of Power, takes immediate effect, according to a statement by the Minister of State for Power, Mr. Goddy Jedy Agba.
The statement added: “The presidential directives as conveyed has also directed the Bureau of Public Enterprises to set up a new management team of the AEDC.
“However, in a memorandum of understanding MOU, jointly signed by the Minister of state power Goddy Jedy Agba, the chairman Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission NERC, Sanusi Garba, Director General Bureau of Public Enterprises, Alex Okoli, Comrade Joe Ajaero on behalf of the union, the Federal government has ordered the suspension of the strike, given 21 days within which the outstanding emoluments and entitlements of staff will be paid.
“Government has described the nonperformance and incompetence of the AEDC as a national embarrassment, saying the suspension of the management team subsist until further notice.”
A 7-year-old girl, Damilade Fadare who was declared missing on evening of December 6, 2021, at Adehun, Ado-Ekiti, the has been found dead in the early hours of today.
According to reports, she was found dead this morning stabbed multiple times by a neighbour, who thereafter kept the corpse inside a cooler.
The house where she was found allegedly belongs to a pastor at Bolorunduro Street in the Adehun area.
It was gathered that the pastor said his wife was not around yesterday when officers of the Ekiti State Police Command were searching for the child, hence so the policemen could not search the house.
According to reports, irate residents of the area have the house ablaze due to the heinous act.
The court has ordered the remand of 108 suspects recently arrested by the police during a raid on the Merchant Navy training ground in Lagos.
86 male suspects were remanded in Ikoyi prison, while the 22 female suspects were remanded in SCID Panti, while the case was adjourned till January 18, 2022 for mention.
The court order was given on Monday after the suspects and their commander were arraigned before the Chief Magistrate Court, Yaba, Mrs. O. A. Olatunbosun.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, CSP Adekunle Ajisebutu, on Monday, said the 108 suspects were arraigned before Chief Magistrate O.A. Olatunbosun, adding that 107 suspects were granted N100,000 bail with two sureties in like sum.
He noted that the commander of the training camp, Mr Sunday Dakare, was granted bail in the sum of N5m with three sureties in like sum.
Ajisebutu said, “The suspects were charged with conspiracy, conduct likely to cause a breach of the public peace, obtaining money under false pretences, impersonation and fraudulently acquiring naval military accoutrement contrary to and punishable under sections 411, 168(b), 314, 79(i)(a)(b) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State of Nigeria 2015.
“One hundred and seven of the suspects, who were applicants, were granted N100, 000, and two sureties bail condition each, while their commander, Mr Sunday Dakare, had a stringent bail condition of N5,000,000, three sureties who are level 12 officers with landed properties within Lagos. The sureties must deposit their passports with the court.
Policemen from the Zuba Division in the Federal Capital Territory FCT, Friday, reportedly raided Dakwa community, an Abuja suburb, shooting an official of the Department of State Services (DSS).
The unidentified DSS official was said to be on transit when he was allegedly shot in the Dakwa raid.
No fewer than 37 residents and other passersby in the community were arrested during the operation which took take place around 8pm.
A resident, Aliyu Ibrahim, who introduced himself as a security guard in one of the private schools in the area, was one of the people arrested and taken to the police division where they spent the night.
He said other people arrested included traders, tea and roasted meat sellers as well as commercial motorcyclists.
“They stormed the area with three vehicles including a Hilux van, bus and a utility vehicle. “They operated alongside local vigilantes who rode the impounded motorcycles, while their owners and other arrested people were conveyed in the police vehicles.”
Another resident, who craved anonymity, alleged that the arrested residents were released the following morning on bail, after parting with N5,000 each.
Responding, the Zuba Divisional Police Officer (DPO), CSP Osor Moses, confirmed the shooting of the DSS official but said he was responding to treatment at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital in Gwagwalada.
He, however, referred our reporter to the FCT police command for further details on the incident.
At the command, the police spokesperson, DSP Josephine Adeh, said she would get back to our reporter but did not up till the time of filing this report yesterday night.
In a move to save his presidential ambition, the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is set to meet Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje over the crisis rocking the party in Kano State.
Tinubu had on Sunday met with Senator Ibrahim Shekarau, whose camp has been having a running battle with Ganduje over the control of the party structures in the state.
The former Lagos State governor singled out the leaders of the warring factions in Kano for reconciliation at a time when the just concluded congresses of the party had triggered a crisis in 13 states.
The meeting between Tinubu and Shekarau had raised dust in Kano, regarded as the votes’ bank of the ruling party.
The congresses had polarised APC in the state into two with the governor’s camp being chaired by Abdullahi Abbas while Shekarau’s faction has Ahmadu Haruna Danzago as chairman.
The crisis reached its crescendo last Tuesday when an FCT high court gave a judgement upholding the parallel congress held by the Shekarau-led faction and voided the Governor Ganduje faction.
The battle between the camps assumed a violent posture on Thursday when thugs torched the campaign office of Senator Jibrin I. Barau. A petition has since been written to the Inspector General of Police, Alkali Baba Usman, indicting top shots in the governor’s camp including its chairman.
The camp loyal to Governor Ganduje led by Abbas had denied sponsoring the attacks.
Why Tinubu wants Kano crisis resolved
A stalwart of the party told Daily Trust that Tinubu waded into the matter as part of plans to advance his yet to be declared presidential ambition. The former Lagos State governor has been romancing with Ganduje since after the 2019 general elections.
Tinubu had last month visited an elder statesman, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, in Kano, where he sought for the northern leader’s support towards the actualisation of his presidential ambition. Previously, clerics in Kano State had endorsed Tinubu’s presidential ambition.
The source said internal wrangling rocking the party in Kano State would affect Tinubu’s ambition, hence his intervention.
“Tinubu’s interest in all of these is the number of votes that can come from Kano. A good politician cannot play with the number of votes from the state. Lagos and Kano are central to any politician’s presidential ambition. Combined votes from the two states are over two million and that is why Kano was determinant of the 2015 and 2019 elections,” the source who is close to Ganduje and Shekarau said, pleading not to be named.
Another source said power brokers in the APC including a section at the centre and some governors who are allegedly averse to the Tinubu’s presidential ambition, are fuelling the feud.
“You know some powerful personalities in Abuja have reservations on Tinubu’s presidential ambition, thus they see this as an opportunity to advance their course by decimating the camp of Ganduje,” the source said.
The upcoming meeting between Asiwaju and Ganduje
Contacted, the Kano State Commissioner of Information, Muhammad Garba, said Governor Ganduje was also invited by the national leader of the party for the peace parley.
In a phone interview, he said; “Tinubu invited the two groups, both Malam Shekarau and Kano State governor to the reconciliation meeting. Asiwaju decided to hear from Malam first and subsequently hear from the governor and if there is any reason for reconciliation, then they take it from there.
“If you look at it politically and historically, there is always a contest or struggle for power after a second term. It happens during Shekarau and Kwankwaso.
“But at the end of the day, whether they are reconciled or not, the election will be conducted and Allah decides whoever emerges as governor, senator and what have you.”
Also Monday, the Kano State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Barrister Lawan Musa, told Daily Trust that a notice of appeal has been filed against last week’s judgment that recognised the ward congress of Shekarau’s faction.
He added that they have also filed a motion for stay of execution and other motions, which he said they believe will tilt the tide in their favour.
Shekarau met Asiwaju without our consent – G-7 sources
Sources in the camp told our reporters that Shekarau went to the meeting without the blessing of other members of his camp.
Operating under the G-7, the Shekarau’s camp has Senator Barau (Kano North), Rep Shaaban Sharada, Nasiru Auduwa, Tijjani Abdulkadir Jobe, Haruna Isa Dederi, among others as key members.
One of the sources said the former governor was yet to brief them on the outcome of his meeting with the APC national leader.
“As far as we are concerned, the meeting was personal and not for our group because he went there without our permission and since he returned, nobody has been briefed.
“What I can tell you is that nobody can handover Kano to anyone come 2023. The state is bigger than anybody,” one of the sources said.
He emphasized that the crisis rocking the APC in Kano was “to solely free the party and open it up to all in the state. As it is now, many people are being side-lined. They are practicing politics of exclusivity and it is not good for our democracy”.
Another source said they would meet today. “There is the possibility of asking Shekarau to tell the world that he went to Lagos on his own,” he said.
A member of the Governor Ganduje faction, Engineer Ramat Ungogo, said the meeting was a sign that the governor’s side is winning in the ongoing crisis.
Ungogo, who is the Chairman of Ungogo LGA, said if Tinubu had invited Ganduje, it would have been interpreted as though “father and son are combining to deal with Shekarau”.
Tinubu’s media aide, Mr Tunde Rahman, pledged to call our correspondent when his comment was sought on why his boss was interested in Kano.
He was yet to call up till the time of going to press last night.
The national leadership of the APC yesterday insisted that the congresses attended by its delegation were authentic. The party also said it was yet to receive and study the recent High Court judgment recognising Shekarau’s faction as legitimate in the state.
Speaking with newsmen on Monday in Abuja, Secretary of the APC Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, Sen. John James Akpanudoedehe, said the party did not send parallel state congress committees to the state.
“We are responsible leaders of the party and we won’t like to comment on a judgment that we haven’t seen.
“All I can tell you now is that we are going to apply for a certified true copy of the judgment. We haven’t seen it. We need to study the judgement.
“We didn’t give letters to two committees! How could we have done that? We won’t put fire in our own house. We know the people we gave the official letter to go to Kano and conduct the official assignment. That is the team we will accord recognition to,” he said.
In a separate interview, Barrister Auwal Ibrahim, who led the team that conducted the congress which produced the displaced Abdullahi Abass as chairman, told newsmen that the congress attended by Governor Ganduje was the authentic congresses.
There was no comment from Shekarau’s camp as the number of his media aide, Dr Sule Ya’u Sule was not going through.
By Ismail Mudashir, Saawua Terzungwe (Abuja) & Clement A. Oloyede (Kano)
