…Arrests 3 For Cyber-Related Offences, Uncovers 50,000 email accounts/passwords from a suspect
The Nigeria Police Force has unveiled a Cybercrime Reporting Web Portal. The portal which can be accessed by clicking on the link https://incb.police.gov.ng/ is part of efforts directed at ensuring ease of crime reportage by members of the public to enable prompt investigation, arrest and prosecution of perpetrators of cybercrime and other related offences.
The portal caters for complaints pertaining to cybercrimes. With this, victims/complainants can now report cases of cybercrime online, at any time and from any part of the world. The cases are promptly attended to by the Cybercrime Unit of the Force domiciled with the INTERPOL National Central Bureau (NCB), Force Headquarters, Abuja and the newly created Cybercrime Unit at the INTERPOL Annex, Alagbon Close, Ikoyi, Lagos. The new portal will provide updates on achievements being recorded by the Nigeria Police and will, among other things, avail the citizens knowledge of basic cyber-related issues such as emerging cybercrime trends, the modus operandi of the cyber crooks and offer tips on how citizens could make themselves less vulnerable within the cyberspace.
The Force urges potential users of the portal to ensure that only correct and accurate information, devoid of deliberate falsehood, misrepresentation and misinformation, are provided when filing their complaints.
Meanwhile, three (3) suspects, namely Onwuka Emmanuel Chidiebere a.k.a Ceeceeboss TMT 32yrs ‘m’ currently residing at Lekki, Lagos State, native of Aro-Ikpa in Abia State, Ikechukwu Ohanedozie a.k.a Dozzy 34yrs ‘m’ and Onuegwu Ifeanyi a.k.a SSGToolz 35yrs ‘m’ of Prof’s Avenue, Umudagu, Mbieri, Mba-itolu LGA, Imo State have been arrested by the Nigeria Police Cybercrime Unit, INTERPOL National Central Bureau (NCB), Abuja.
The three suspects were arrested following Intelligence report received from INTERPOL Cybercrime Directorate in Singapore on global attacks by Nigerian cyber gangs who engage in mass email phishing campaigns and distribution of malwares aimed at stealing authentication data from browsers and email headers.
Findings so far reveal that of the three suspects, Onuegwu Ifeanyi a.k.a SSGToolz specializes in creating, designing, selling of phishing links and hosting malwares on website used by the gang for phishing and hacking purposes. He collects charges running into several millions of naira from other fraudsters he mentors and improves their phishing capabilities.
Onwuka Emmanuel Chidiebere a.k.a Ceeceeboss TMT, a graduate of Business Administration from Imo State University specialises in business email compromise and hacking. A comprehensive forensic analysis reveals that he had in his laptop-computer over 50,000 email accounts and websites including passwords of various individuals and corporate entities across the world. He recruited the third suspect Ikechukwu Ohanedozie a.k.a Dozzy, a medical student of Imo State University, into the gang. Ikechukwu Ohanedozie sorts and profiles e-mail accounts to determine financial strengths of prospective victims and passes on information obtained therefrom to Onwuka Emmanuel Chidiebere. All the suspects will be charged to court on conclusion of investigation and prosecuted in line with the Cybercrime Prevention/Prohibition Act, 2015.
Meanwhile, the Inspector General of Police, IGP M. A Adamu, NPM mni reaffirms the commitment of the Nigeria Police Force in protecting the cyber space and bringing all cyber criminals to book. He reassures confidentiality of all reports and complaints made to the Police through the cyber portal.
DCP Frank Mba
Force Public Relations Officer
Force Headquarters
Abuja
When the axe dropped on the re-election bid of Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State recently, it cut so deep that healing from it before the governorship poll in September 19 would be a miracle akin to zero coming up on a roulette table with the last try.
Last Thursday, the long-drawn Edo House of Assembly crisis reached a crescendo with the impeachment of the factional speaker, Frank Okiye, by 17 lawmakers. It is a 24-member House with Okiye and nine others loyal to Obaseki hitherto calling the shots while the remaining 14 lawmakers were not inaugurated and their seats controversially declared vacant by the Okiye-led minority.
Alas, three of Okiye’s nine supporters, including the deputy speaker, Yekini Idiaye, later joined the 14 lawmakers to make a total 17, yet, Idiaye was promptly and crudely impeached by Okiye and his six-man team. It was all part of the mischievous machination of a power-drunk governor. But events played out contrary to Obaseki’s draconian plot.
Shortly after the inauguration of the 17 lawmakers, Obaseki caused the roof of the Assembly complex to be removed while heaps of sand and gravels for a purported renovation were dumped at the gate, therefore, preventing entry or any decent sitting by the lawmakers.
The lawmakers, then, beseeched the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, to intervene and he wrote to the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, asking him to provide adequate security for the lawmakers to prevent a possible breakdown of law and order.
The timely call by the AGF sounded the death knell on Obaseki’s second term bid and for those, who believe in karma served as a comeuppance for his blasé injustice against legitimately elected lawmakers.
For many weeks after the Assembly ought to have been inaugurated in 2019, Obaseki refused to initially order a proclamation, in line with constitutional provisions, to clear the way for the inauguration and constitution of the seventh assembly.
This reluctance, which would later snowball into an open confrontation, was reportedly predicated on the governor’s belief that he did not have enough foot soldiers in the Assembly as against the number loyal to his predecessor and former national chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.
His deliberate dithering caused further depletion in the number of the lawmakers loyal to him and he vowed that the doors of the assembly would remain shut for as long as he desired.
This elicited outrage from well-meaning Nigerians, who warned him against what he was doing as unconstitutional and that it had dire political consequences. Still, no amount of intervention or appeal could sway Obaseki.
Like a dog fated to loss and misfortune, it would not hear the whistle of the hunter. Obaseki had made up his mind to deny the good people of Edo State adequate legislative representation while fighting his benefactors to the finish.
When he eventually inaugurated the house, he exempted a majority of the duly elected lawmakers and enabled illegality to run and reign. He forgot that the bread always falls on the buttered side; that he who sows the wind will inevitably reap the whirlwind.
Now that he is self-destruct and fighting the battle of his political life, with the consequent distraction from electioneering, Obaseki has, conversely, traded a sound, issue-based campaign for brigandage, where he is a neophyte. September 19 is almost a foregone conclusion for Obaseki. It takes not much to see this.
What should have been a two-horse race between him and Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu of the APC has become a home run for the latter, who opinion polls and popular sentiments favour. The consensus now is that despite his incumbency, Obaseki is the architect of the misfortune that has truncated his re-election bid in midstream.
Without any political structure or understanding of the political terrain, Obaseki, then an aide of Oshiomhole was piggy-backed to the Government House by his principal, who swore by everything he held sacred that Obaseki would take the state beyond the point he did.
In his eight years as governor, Oshiomole did his best, wresting the state from the misrule and wanton mismanagement of state resources from the PDP government that had been in power since the return to a democratic dispensation in 1999. He assumed office at a time the state revenue was so low but with high expectations from the people.
But with sheer commitment and sound economic policies, the fortunes of the state were turned around. Within his first term, Oshiomhole raised the IGR of the state from N300milion to over NI.6 billion; and embarked on a massive infrastructure renewal of the state, building hundreds of kilometres of new roads, schools and hospitals among others.
During electioneering in 2016, even Obaseki said, “Given the high level to which Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has taken Edo State, going forward, the state needs a governor that is game-ready, one that will hit the ground running. I believe I am that person by the grace of God.” He also promised to build, consolidate, sustain and improve on the achievements recorded by Oshiomhole’s government.
That, perplexingly, was the point of departure. Obaseki was never grounded in the politics of the state, in fact, there were insinuations that he barely knew his way around Benin City, the state capital much less the hinterlands, but Oshiomhole did not listen to all of the leads that forewarned him.
In his estimation, the re-engineering of the state economy, which Obaseki and the team at the Edo State Government Economic and Strategy Team (EST) effectuated was enough to convince him that he could be trusted.
Oshiomhole, a redoubtable labour activist, who had spent over three decades in the trenches advocating and agitating for better remuneration for Nigerian workers, stomped the nooks and crannies of the state, propagating the ideals of his presumptive successor, assuring the people that he was qualified and capable of taking the state to another level of development.
Oshiomhole campaigned as though his life depended on it and Obaseki won without any input into the entire electioneering process. All that was required was his presence and at best, a vote of thanks.
Now that he was actually expected to experience what it means to campaign for a governorship election, he has short-circuited the process and done his second term bid a devastating damage that has ultimately foreclosed whatever chances he and his soap-opera cheer-leaders thought he had on September 19.
Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki’s recent recourse to threats of retaliating violence against his perceived political opponents is rather unbecoming of someone occupying an exalted office as the governor and whose primary responsibility is to protect lives and property.
By many of his actions, outgoing Governor Obaseki has shown very poor temperaments that are not gentlemanly enough for his current job, the latest being his threat to resort to violence if his perceived political opponents perpetrated violence any.
Though some news media reported that the governor issued warning to perpetrators of violence, however, watching the governor’s statement on national television it was obvious that instead he threw caution to the wind while he vowed to unleash violence in retaliation for violence.
Governor Obaseki’s words were clear. “Nobody has monopoly of violence. If they want violence, we will show them violence. So, if you see anybody smashing any car because my poster is on the car, let us know and we will show that person that we are in government,” he said.
He did not stop at that, the governor indicated that his response would be lawless but even at that he would be protected by the immunity that exempts state executive and their deputies from facing the legal consequences of their actions while still in office.
“We will show that we are in government and I am governor and Philip is the deputy governor. We will show them we are the only two, who have immunity in this state. We are the only two today, who have immunity and I am sending a very clear warning,” Obaseki further explained.
The signal the governor sent was that he could use state apparatus to retaliate violence. But that is wrong! As a governor, he is the Chief Security Officer and as such, must not be seen to be perpetrating or encouraging violence for whatever reason. Rather, he is expected to take all necessary actions to move against anyone instigating violence.
By his statement, Governor Obaseki ran foul of Section 12(2b) of the Nigerian constitution, which provides that security and welfare of the citizenry is the basic purpose of government. So, referring to the president as Commander-in-Chief of Armed Forces and governors as Chief Security Officer is not by choice. It is a constitutional responsibility to which they swore an oath to uphold.
The governor’s utterances have continued to elicit responses and increase tension. He has been at loggerheads with his predecessor, Comrade Adams Oshiohmole, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and a cross section of Nigerians, who had already taken to their social media accounts to castigate him for stooping so low in his desperation to return for a second term.
Speaking against the backdrop of the fracas between the governor’s supporters and his party supporters recently at the palace of the Oba of Benin, Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Ewuare II, the former APC national chairman said the governor should have selected better words to quell possibility for violence and not elect to stoke it by his uncouth statement.
“If they want violence, we will give them violence, a leader does not talk like that. All he should say is that those merchants of violence I am pleading with them whether they are in my party or in another party they should take it easy. When a leader on live television says we will give them violence, fire for fire…” Oshiomhole said, noting with disdain that the governor should have been a peacemaker.
The APC Campaign Organisation for the Edo State governorship election, which has maintained that the governor was up to no good and that he plans to unleash violence on it members, described Governor Obaseki as a confused man, who is only speaking out the criminal plans he and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are hoping to executive before, during and after the election.
The party said the governor and his party, the PDP are aware they had been rejected by the people of Edo State.
The APC explained that it was the only party campaigning on its documented manifesto, because its sole strategy to win the election is by winning the hearts and the goodwill of the people through well thought-out programmes and policies that will bring relief and erase the failures of the past four years.
Former media aide to the governor, who is presently the APC Campaign Organisation spokesperson, Prince John Mayaki, said: “Despite spending four years in office, Obaseki has neither achievements nor plans to show. He is campaigning largely on empty rhetoric, revisionism, and shameful blackmail and propaganda.
“Election may be weeks away, but the truth has finally dawned on Obaseki. He is on his way to a sound, comprehensive defeat so like all failures, he is already preparing the grounds for his defeat with false, ridiculous accusations.”
Meanwhile in the fallout of the violent exchanges outside the Oba’s palace, Vice Chairman, Media and Publicity Committee of the APC Campaign Council, Mr. Patrick Obahiagbon, raised the alarm, alleging that the governor has sinister motives towards Oshiomhole and a business mogul, Captain Idahosa Okunbo.
Obahiagbon claimed that after the palace incident, APC supporters were attacked on the streets of Benin, saying it was “unacceptable to us as a party. How long more can we persuade our teeming party loyalists to hold back?”
The former House of Representatives member, who said the opposition PDP unleashed terror on the citizenry by enlisting the support of renowned cultists in Benin, further alleged that Obaseki is working on plans to arrest the duo of Oshiomhole, Okunbo and other APC leaders on the eve of the election for not supporting him. He also claimed that there was a plan to set Okunbo’s farm on fire.
“The PDP and the governor were planning to arrest and detain the former National Chairman of the APC Comrade Adams Oshiomhole on the eve of the election and also set fire on the farm of billionaire businessman, Captain Hosa Okunbo for refusing to back the second-term agenda.
“Obaseki is planning to continue his persecution of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole with trumped-up and inconsequential charges at the eleventh hour of electoral politics. His plan is to arraign Oshiomhole for a probe that has been revealed as nothing but a targeted political witch-hunt and then deny him bail on eve of election to paralyse the APC.
“He is planning to use COVID-19 as a ruse to neutralise grassroots leaders of our party, the APC on the eve of the gubernatorial election by abducting and detaining them in isolation centers. This way, disenfranchising them and forestalling the political force they would deliver in pursuant of APC’s victory,” Obahiagbon alleged.
Everyone in the governor’s camp who is familiar with some of his major mistakes would agree that apart from setting out to wage a protracted war against his predecessor, his attack on Captain Okunbo is perhaps another major mistake he made in his quest to return to power in the September 19 election.
Though the governor is not without one or two of his supporters cheering him up on his violence agenda, his handlers should be smart to enough to evaluate the negative public opinion that trailed his unfortunate and irreversible commentary on the social media.
A France-based Nigerian scientist, Mr. Oshinubi Kayode wrote: “I just watched ObaGone (Obaseki) on Channels News saying, ‘if they want violence, we will give them violence’. This is coming from a sitting governor and number one leader of Edo State. His handlers should let him know it is a reckless statement. He will lose this election and heaven won’t fall!”
A public affairs analyst, Christopher Sunny was of the opinion that “Obaseki doesn’t know anything about politics and it’s late to start learning. From what is happening now, and for the real and verifiable fact that Oshiomhole alone has won over the voters to the APC candidate, Obaseki now speaks like a frustrated person. He’s lost already.”
For Tunde Olamide, who said he previously has some degree of sympathy for the governor, his position that he would match anybody violence for violence, deprived him of that support.
“I had sympathy for him going into this election, but that was a reckless and irresponsible statement coming from the Chief Security Officer of the state,” Olamide stated.
Kelechi Onyeaka was particularly appalled that rather than issuing threats, he should be convincing the electorate on his policy statements and realisable campaign promises.
“These are some of those issues. No policy informed debate. This has become a norm among those vying for elective offices. No plan for post COVID-19, economic recovery, security and education,” he said.
Soji Oladejo, who is an advocate for good governance said: “When I heard him say that, and the way he looked charged and aggravated, I knew he had lost it. Completely reckless and a grossly irresponsible thing to say by a sitting governor.”
Judging from the governor’s utterance, Kalita Aruku feared that Nigeria might not be ripe with state police yet despite the advocacy by many Nigerians, noting, “You can imagine! Those are the characters we want to give state police to?”
Whatever are the governor’s arguments he should not be carried away with so much rage as to throwing caution into the wind! His ambition is not worth anybody’s life. He could take a cue from a former president of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, who saw defeat and bowed out honourably rather attempting to force himself on the country thereby provoking violence and avoidable bloodshed. Amenaghawon wrote from Owerri in Imo State
The re-election campaigns of Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, and his new political party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) recently suffered a major setback, when they were totally disgraced penultimate week outside the Palace of the Oba of Benin, Ewuare II.
The governor’s convoy was blocked. The angry residents numbering hundreds booed and jeered at him and his guests. They called him various derogatory names, particularly “thief.” It degenerated into violence, scores were injured and properties vandalised.
That development did not go down well with the governor and the PDP and has generated different reactions from both parties, because of the potential implications it has on the governor’s political fortunes. The direct interpretation of the incident could that he had been rejected by the people and that his defeat is not just imminent, but would be overwhelming.
Not anybody could fathom that level of outrage outside the Benin palace against an incumbent governor and the implications are huge. For one, if it was just the youth, who reacted like that, they had sent a clear signal to the Oba that they weere done with Obaseki.
The reason was simply because in Edo State, the Oba of Benin is well respected in political decisions and a politician, who does not have the backing of the palace would find it very difficult, if not impossible to garner the support of the people.
The PDP claimed that the APC sponsored the attack and that the grand plan was to eliminate the entire opposition leadership, because Obaseki had the PDP National Chairman, Uche Secondus, members of the PDP National Working Commissttee (NWC), Governor Neysome Wike (Rivers State), Governor Ifeanyi Okowo (Delta State), Governor Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto State), Governor Seyi Makinde (Oyo State) and other notable leaders with him.
Earlier, at a press conference, the APC had pointed fingers at Governor Obaseki over the violent incidence at the Oba’s palace. The Vice Chairman, Media and Publicity Committee of the APC Campaign Council, Mr. Patrick Obahiagbon, specifically blamed the clash on the PDP.
He alleged that the governor resorted to violence, because the duo of former governor and former National Chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and business mogul, who his government had been victimising for fear that he was planning to pick the APC governorship ticket, Captain Idahosa Wells Okunbo.
Obahiagbon stated that after the palace incidence, APC supporters were accosted and attacked on the street of Benin, stressing that it is “unacceptable to us as a party. How long more can we persuade our teeming party loyalists to hold back?”
The former House of Representatives member, who said the opposition PDP unleashed terror on the citizenry by enlisting the support of renowned cultists in Benin, further alleged that Obaseki is working on plans to arrest the duo of Oshiomhole, Okunbo and other APC leaders on the eve of the election for not supporting him. He also claimed that there was a plan to set Okunbo’s farm on fire.
“The PDP and the governor were planning to arrest and detain the former National Chairman of the APC Comrade Adams Oshiomhole on the eve of the election and also set fire on the farm of billionaire businessman, Captain Hosa Okunbo for refusing to back the second-term agenda.
“Obaseki is planning to continue his persecution of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole with trumped-up and inconsequential charges at the eleventh hour of electoral politics. His plan is to arraign Oshiomhole for a probe that has been revealed as nothing but a targeted political witch-hunt and then deny him bail on the eve of election to paralyse the APC.
“He is planning to use COVID-19 as a ruse to neuter grassroots leaders of our party, the APC on the eve of the gubernatorial election by abducting and detaining them in isolation center. This way, disenfranchising them and forestalling the political force they would deliver in pursuant of APC’s victory,” Obahiagbon alleged.
Not unmindful of the attacks on him just on the ground of assumption that he was the preferred candidate for the governorship and his perceived support for the APC candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, Okunbo was quick to state that he had no hand in the embarrassment the governor faced at the palace.
He said: “I condemn the booing of the governor and the PDP team, and the reprisal attack. I am particularly pained that some ungodly insinuations in some quarters have linked me with the unfortunate saga.”
But away from all the rhetoric, the governor’s goodwill is fast dwindling among the people and so also is his political fortunes.
In 2016, his cousin, Dr. Don Pedro Obaseki categorically urged the people not to vote for him. He didn’t stop at that, he stepped down his ambition and endorsed Ize-Iyamu of the PDP then on the ground that he was the “best candidate” for the election.
“I will rather support Pastor Ize-Iyamu, who represents the collective aspiration of Edo people than support Godwin Obaseki, who is being promoted by external political and economic investors,” Obaseki stated in 2016.
Talking about making a choice between Ize-Iyamu and Obaseki, his first cousins said: “Osagie is actually an uncle and Godwin is a cousin, so both of them are family. But it is not the family I am looking at because I can no longer wish Edo State based on family filiations; I cannot because someone is my brother because we answered the same name wished away the collective patrimony of the entire Edo nation.
“You don’t need to be told I am a very convinced young man, I have come to praising my conviction even as a young boy, when we were fighting as a CLO Director, running radio Kudirat and in Godwin I would not lie, I see nothing that represents my vision to change Edo State.”
The APC candidate, Ize-Iyamu, also feels there are enough reasons why the people don’t want the governor to have a second term. In a recent interview, he said contrary to claims that Obaseki has been a performing governor, who is hated by a political godfather that is mad at him because he was not allowing the access to the state’s purse, but identified several factors that made the governor ineligible for a second term.
“They say we have a technocrat as a governor. How can you have a governor, who didn’t pass his school certificate? How was he able to enter university with three credits and none of them were English and Maths? He is always talking about godfather. Who is the godfather? This is the governor, who increased security votes of the state from N6bn to N7.5bn. The money goes to him.
The APC governorship hopeful said Governor Obaseki is not getting the people’s support, because he has not made good his campaign promises in the education, security and health sectors, and that despite all accolades he receives for his major achievements in the education sector, Edo Best, he did not employ teachers throughout his first term of office.
While he continues to appeal to his supporters not resort to violence, Ize-Iyamu has repeatedly assured the people of the state that given the opportunity to lead, he would ensure that the people experience economic growth and infrastructure development.
Thus, from the orchestrated show that held outside the palace of the Oba’s place to the much anticipated election of September 19th, it is evident that the battle is already a lost for Obaseki and that indeed, the governor’s defeat would come handy as a critical lesson in poor and vindictive leadership. Importantly, re-electing Obaseki coud mean rewarding treachery, betrayal and ingratitude.
Many factors will stand against the re-election of the outgoing governor of Edo State, Mr. Godwin Obaseki at the September 19 governorship election. But very importantly, his decision not to carefully select those he picked as enemies and refusal to heed the advice of unbiased Edo indigenes, who urged him not to escalate his political war with his predecessor, Comrade Adams Oshiohmole, would haunt him.
Rather than bury his ego, Obaseki did not only fight Oshiohmole, he ended up pissing off most of the prominent leaders in the state and notable members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and started building his own political structure that could not even survive the party primary selection stage of the nomination process.
Perhaps, when the governor narrowed down on a very prominent Edo son, businessman and renowned philanthropist, Captain Idahosa Okunbo, as the possible choice for his replacement, he did not hesitate to launch a desperate and aggressive smear campaign against the retired commercial pilot.
Obaseki’s resort to taking his fight to Okunbo would definitely have negative consequences on his second term ambition for obvious reasons.
One, it gave him up as a desperate politician. Two, he pissed off a lot of Edo indigenes, because they considered the oil magnate an easy going individual, who does not deserve to be humiliated and thirdly, it portrayed the governor as a disrespectful person. This is more so because Okunbo said it repeatedly that he was never interested in the Edo governorship.
But the man Obaseki chose to attack has an impeccable personality and also enjoys a lot of goodwill among his people. Little wonder, one Hon. Marvelous Zibiri, who was believed to be acting the governor’s script said, had described Okunbo in unprintable names, because of an encounter the businessman had with the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in 1995 and for which he was exonerated.
Although Zibiri later recanted and apologised profusely, his deliberately careless statement soon released a floodgate of reactions that nearly consumed him, such that the governor’s camp, believed to have instigated him, also immediately abandoned him and left him to his fate.
Then another one, Adaze Emwanta, wrote equally false narratives about Okunbo in what confirmed that the governor’s men had been assigned to start the character assassination project against him.
He was very embarrassed by how recklessly the governor targeted him and so also were his friends from home and abroad. The people were amazed at the deluge of falsehood that was maliciously created to destroy his hard-earned reputation and lower it before the general the public all in the name of politics.
Okunbo had narrated that in 1995 during the era of General Musa Bamaiyi as the NDLEA Director-General, a petition was written to the anti-drug agency, querying how he came about his wealth and acquisition of choice properties. But he immediately instituted a legal action against the NDLEA in a case with charge No: MOT/L/163/95 at the Miscellaneous Offences Tribunal, Lagos.
It was concluded that the prosecution had not made out a prima facie case to warrant him to even defend himself, and as such, was discharged and acquitted of all charges on a ‘no case’ submission.
“I’m wondering what I had done wrong to deserve these reckless, false and malicious attacks on my person from individuals associated with the incumbent administration,” Okunbo lamented during the attack on him.
Though he said he had endured deliberate character assassinations from people he described as “beasts of no gender,” an apparently disappointed Okunbo added: “I would no longer gloss over any intentional mischiefs that do incalculable harm to my person, name, business and brand.”
Many Edo State indigenes did not take kindly to the governor’s course of action. A number of them came to the open, not only to defend the person of Okunbo, but to also condemn the orchestrated and coordinated attacks. The people were collective in the description of Okunbo as a man of impeccable integrity.
Admonishing those running the errands of attacking Okunbo, a lawyer and Apostle of Edo renaissance, Daniel Osa-Ogbegie said, “if one is sent an errand of a slave, one should carry it out as a child (a freeborn).” He meant that they were doing the wrong thing and should not just do it because they were pushed to do so.
Just as the Latin word: Vox populi, vox Dei, meaning the voice of the people is the voice of God, a long list of people from different walks of life had come out to vouch for Okunbo’s impeccable integrity.
Former House of Representatives member, Hon. Sunny Aguebor, who described him as a man of integrity, said the attack on him was baseless and unfounded.
“You have built a name and business empire for yourself over the years. You are a man of strong character. Sir, I advise you to kindly disregard the cheap, malicious character assassination. It does not deserve your precious time. My father told me only a tree with fruits attracts stones. You are a big tree with so many fruits, so stones are expected,” Aguebor urged Okunbo.
Also, reacting to the attacks on Okunbo, a lawyer and Assistant Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State, Mrs. Bisi Idaomi, assured the philanthropist that the people of the state would take up his fight if the governor’s men do not desist from peddling further falsehoods against his person.
Idaomi said: “Here is a man, who does more for our people, leaders, students, women from Edo extraction than those in the present Edo State government – sending one of your aides to insult and peddle falsehoods about our son would be resisted by the ordinary Edo man and woman within the ambit of the law. This is a firm promise.”
To another former House of Representatives member, Hon. Samson Osagie, Okunbo is as an inestimable asset in Edo’s socio-cultural and economic framework saying, “Those whose official duty is to malign and pull down others usually don’t go far in life. We must continue to extoll our own frontline generals in business, politics, administration and in all facets of human endeavours.
“For those with power today, remember there is nothing permanent in life, not even our positions today. We stand with Captain Hosa at this moment of the ineffectual attempt of some carpet beggars and unfriendly people to undermine his humanity,” he said.
The publisher, Mid-west Herald and former Commissioner for Transport, Hon. Orobosa Omo-Ojo, also lent his voice to the discussion. He eulogised Okunbo’s sterling records as a youngster. He said he had been “tested and polished by the vagaries and the whimsical arbitrariness of Nigeria’s economy and political uncertainty. Like precious metals, the storm only brought out your gem!”
Others like Hon. Razak Edo-Osagie said Okunbo’s intimidating and progressive profile has been a source of worry to some, including his friends. Also, Hon Festus Ebea and many more commentators assured him that the people would resist any attempt to malign him.
The prevailing scenario was aptly captured in Osa-Ogbegie’s response to Emwanta where he said, “Wẹ will nọt accept Godwin Obaseki’s recourse to strangulation of the businesses and politics of Ẹdo sons and daughters anymore. There are better ways of playing politics without all these shows of desperation and aggression.
“It is gratifying to note that a majority of Ẹdo people is pleased with Captain Idahosa Okunbo. I am sure the palace is also pleased with him. God Almighty and Enikaro oghe Ẹdo hia will continue to serenade him with all good things.”
This is a brief capture of how people responded to attacks on Okunbo by the Obaseki-led government. It showed that the people didn’t want their son messed up in the otherwise intractable political war between Obaseki and Oshiohmole and that is the general feeling among a majority of the people and so it has to stop.
Despite the advice not to do so, the governor successfully made an enemy with Okunbo and that is one enemy too many, because though he is not a politician, he enjoys a huge support among the people of the state and that support is now working in the favour of Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu.
The governor’s predicament would have been minimised if he had taken heed of the advice of the Okanlete of Esan Land, Major General Cecil Esekhaigbe (rtd), who as far back as early 2019, warned him to desist from going into the election, quarrelling with those that supported him to win his first term election.
He suggested that instead, he should forge a working alliance with them. But the governor felt otherwise. He added more enemies to his battles. And when he began to receive torrents of endorsements for second term and acknowledgment of good performance by his so-called supporters, Esekhaigbe (rtd) told Obaseki that the endorsements were not enough to win him a reelection.
He said any attempt for the governor to alter the political structure on which he came to power would have negative impacts on his reelection.
“He (Obaseki) should be conscious and resist the temptation of being misguided by the assumed support of many political soldiers without weapons. It is obvious that the political class in the Edo State All Progressives Congress (APC) is yet to realise the need for genuine rapprochement between the Governor and his predecessor.
“Every well-meaning APC stalwart should support the state party chairman towards this rapprochement, as they must be conscious of the fact that Edo State is not a one-party state. This is not the time to play the ostrich and subterfuge is not a virtue.
“I am not convinced the governor has enough ammunition from these drumbeats of war and proliferation of endorsements. The imminent battle is a needless one as it fails the requirements of jus in belloand jus ad bellum (a just war and a justification for war).”
Surely, Obaseki is aware that he has a very formidable opponent in the person of Ize-Iyamu, whose ambition is a response to calls by notable leaders, who consider him capable of putting his wittiness to work in policy formulation, ensuring more even distribution of wealth, proper management of human and natural resources.
Although the jury is already out, it is only proper to let an irreverent and ungrateful Obaseki stew in his own juice. September 19, here we come!
Isn’t it an irony that Captain Idahosa Wells Okunbo, a self-effacing, patriotic, hardworking, sincere and compassionate individual, has been continuously drawn out of his beautiful and enviable private life, just because a pretentious cartel that feigns to ‘hate money’ but lives a life that only money – perhaps illicit money – can sustain wants what he has?
It therefore belies logic that a private individual, who has continued to invest his hard-earned money into staggering, commendable philanthropy, to ultimately improve the cause of humanity, is the target of the sudden attacks of some people, both on the political and business fronts.
But that’s easy to decipher, anyway. They desire what he has, not just in terms of money or influence, but good deeds, character and sound upbringing. Even the Holy Book talks about the spirit of envy and victimisation. It condemns it, because it’s evil; not of the Lord.
The latest spin against this illustrious son of Bini Kingdom was from the stable of the Editor, Saturday title of the THISDAY Newspapers, Yemi Adebowale. It’s been a long time I read a title editor of a major national daily plunge cheaply into the arena with mutilated facts, discarding every iota of circumspection.
First, this was disturbing somewhat, because journalism, like a few other great callings, is guided by basic and simple rules, however, considered by its practitioners as golden.
Thus, for a title editor of a major and prominent national daily, balancing accounts is sacrosanct, whether it is a column, analysis, feature or basic news story. But, in the event, that your facts had not been confirmed, the rule says, leave out. You cannot claim to be under any form of pressure to the detriment of the credibility of your company and the hard earned reputation of other people, whom you can only aspire to be. Pray you get any close.
However, after researching into Adebowale’s kind of person, it was not disappointing to learn from some of his colleagues, both within and outside the newspaper company, how he is wired. He accords details and research no respect.
One would be committing same offence to, therefore, reel off some of the commentaries about him. But to the THISDAY management, there’s a lot to do to help him. The likes of Adebowale requires periodic re-training to measure up to standard in every definition of the word, if he must start to live up to billings.
That said, it is also disturbing to note that anyone would be back in this station and on this very matter over the Secured Anchorage Area (SAA) of the Lagos Waterways, managed by the Ocean Marine Solutions Limited, a going concern owned by Captain Hosa and which has lived up to its reputation over the last 14 years.
There’s no debating the fact that the Managing Director of Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala-Usman has more than an official interest in the SAA and does not hide it except for the likes of Adebowale, who would rather gloss over the obvious but focus on sheer pizzas and flashes – without any substance whatsoever.
Even if the renowned love of Hadiza’s life was a stakeholder in the sector and wanted everything to go his way, did it mean others with equally critical stakes in the sector and the Nigerian project should be destroyed on account of the billionaire in question?
Let’s revisit the facts again, perhaps, for the record. There’s no gainsaying the fact that the cooperation and support provided by the Ocean Marine Solution Limited (OMSL) to the Nigerian Navy in securing the Lagos delineation of the nation’s waterways has been the biggest relief savoured in recent time against unceasing pirates’ attacks, which in turn has boosted revenue significantly.
Anyone would appreciate this more, when the situation is juxtaposed with the experience of investors and stakeholders in the Port Harcourt axis of the waterways, the home state of the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, where the pirates have continued to have a field day, without as much a resistance from any security architecture put in place and designed for such purposes.
But in Lagos, with the cooperation and support that the OMSL has continued to give to the Nigerian Navy, the state now has its Secured Anchorage Area (SAA) sufficiently protected, a situation that is not only encouraging to investors but has further motivated stakeholders to function more effectively.
It’s bad enough that some stakeholders had earlier approached the NPA leadership on the need for better security funding for the Lagos waterways, to which it replied it could not muster the amount of money in question, before they turned to OMSL for this effective and mutual cooperation, which has continued to yield desired results.
This also informed why stakeholders in the industry frowned at a recent order, which allegedly came from the Hadiza-led NPA, threatening to arrest and sanction operators at SAA. That was to say the least, disturbing and counterproductive. The stakeholders even wrote a letter to that effect to the president, Muhammadu Buhari, and had it published in some of the major national dailies.
On the contrary, as a function of procedure and protocol, assuming there were allegations of infractions, which must be entered properly for record purposes, the right thing to do would have been to report the development to the Nigerian Navy, which in turn, would investigate such claims and take appropriate action to stem the tide.
But to sit in the comfort of her office and out of sheer vendetta, victimisation and favouritism, dish out orders to the Navy to arrest vessels they were meant to protect, not only questioned her understanding of the operations of that sector but also spoke to getting unduly involved in a purely business and security concerns.
To think that the agency under Hadiza has no alternative security architecture in place in the event that the frustration of OMSL continues, the resort to rethinking the allegations of sabotage in the many attacks by the pirates might be inevitable.
To support this position, which her spin-doctors were blinded to, not only did the Senate clear OMSL and give it a clean bill to continue with its good work of assisting the Nigerian Navy to protect the Lagos waterways by providing the much-needed logistics after listening to the submission of stakeholders; the OMSL has also enjoyed commendation from foreign partners for doing an irresistibly good job at the Lagos waterways.
In addition, the submission by Captain Hosa on the operations of OMSL at SAA during the Senate hearing was so stellar that he left the chambers with his shoulders high and other stakeholders as well as the legislative committee members proud of him. He knew the issues and sold them conveniently without resorting to lies or cheap blackmail.
Therefore, to fault Adebowale’s submission that Hadiza “came to the job with a reform agenda, largely, to block leakages of revenue and stifle contractors from taking advantage of the NPA to line their pockets with money due to the federal government”, the opposite has been the case. He would do well by doing some soul-searching.
Sadly, Hadiza came to the job with crass immaturity and gross inexperience in a highly technical turf and rather than take the pains to learn the intricate nuances, she’s been preoccupied with just one agenda: to protect the business concerns of an individual, known in the industry as the love of her life. How is that doing the job of the federation entrusted to her or executing a reform agenda?
There’s no way to spin this, picking on Captain Hosa alone is a clear indication that there’s more to it. Adebowale mentioned some other interests but not the names of those behind them. He, however, went all out depicting Captain Hosa in his compromised mindset, because Adebowale thought the retired commercial pilot was his pay master’s problem at NPA.
As an editor of the category that THISDAY generously but erroneously placed Adebowale, he would have saved himself some embarrassment, if he had spoken to other stakeholders, say in LADOL and the BUA Group and asked how much of victimisation they had so far suffered in the hands of Hadiza, just because she was and is still determined to protect the interest of just one man. I’m sure they would speak to him off-the-record to, at least, cure his poisonous ignorance.
It was, therefore, not surprising in any form or shape that people, who were supposed to supervise as well as guide a delinquent and irreverent MD would also go on a national television to corroborate lies and fictions, only to justify their premeditated plans against an innocent man, who is legitimately doing his business and following the laws of the land.
The interesting thing is that the heads of both the ministry and the agency are products of the approval of the Senate, the same way the senate had given SAA a clean bill of health to continue with its operations. We either live by the laws of our land or quit when we are too big to be guided by them.
Captain Hosa has chosen to be a patriotic Nigerian, who would do right and seek justice, wherever and whenever his rights are impugned. The current play at SAA is not an exception. He is by far more of a blessing than those, who are abusing their privileged positions today. But tomorrow, when they are no more, posterity would speak to their records too, in clear unmistaken language.
Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki appears to have added a new preference to his unkind character traits and it’s called SADISM. He’s suddenly developed an intentional penchant for delighting in the misfortune of others. And as a political neophyte, spurred only by the irrationality of his infantile choices, his inability to strategically channel his bile, especially for logic-driven results, is quick to expose him and his petty ecstasy.
I suffered a momentary pang of shock recently, when I learnt of the lies being joyfully spread around by the Edo State governor amongst his close-knit allies. The embattled outgoing governor of Edo State has been propounding to his sycophantic cliques, his new theory on why the All Progressives Congress (APC) does not stand a chance in the September 19 governorship election.
According to him, a certain individual from the northern part of the country, who used to assist the ruling party by arranging some dollars from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is no more, and therefore, the party would be unable to muster enough funds for the election, which automatically leaves him in a position of strength as the incumbent.
How more wicked, satanic and insensate can a character be, all in the name of an ambition? His excitement, when others suffer misfortune is both legendary and incomprehensible. This also underscores why all the good people in Edo State today are standing in a camp different from his.
For eight years, Obaseki headed former Governor Adams Oshiomhole’s economic team and managed the state with him, literally taking the decisions from behind the scene. This, understandably, was the reason Oshiomhole, against all odds, deemed it fit to push him forward as his successor, because not only was he with him for that long, he was in charge of the state’s economy.
No sooner had he assumed office than he started seeking the fall of his benefactor as the national chairman of the APC, aligning with Oshiomhole’s traducers in the party to victimise and denigrate him till he was eventually pushed out of his position as the APC chairman.
To get him into office, Oshiomhole did everything within his reach, including projections that were never to be and allusions that were later proven overtime as incorrect. But to pay back, he’s done practically everything, including telling palpable lies and painting Oshiomhole black. It was the ‘cutest thank you’ ever in appreciation of all that Oshiomhole did for him.
But he didn’t stop with Oshiomhole. He’d probably read some puerile laws of power and decided to go after everyone, who contributed to his success, as not just his payback for their good deeds to him, but also to gloat, if misfortune eventually befalls any of them.
This, of course, brings to mind, the speed at which he went after Captain Idahosa Wells Okunbo. Curiously, this started after some people moved to get Okunbo into the governorship race, an overture he expressly turned down.
But on getting this hint, Obaseki went after the retired commercial pilot. Although he did not want Okunbo to run for the position, he never sat with him to solicit his support. Yet, the only time he made a remark about the governorship to Okunbo was at a reception in Lagos, where he derisively addressed him as “Incoming Governor”, to which Okunbo immediately dispelled and reiterated that he wasn’t interested in the office of the governor.
Coincidentally, as Okunbo narrated recently in a lengthy press statement, on the same day that the reception held in Lagos, the story of a move by the Nigeria Ports Authority against Okunbo’s company, the Secured Anchorage Area (SAA), was published in some of the dailies.
The story had insinuated again that Okunbo was interested in the Edo governorship, even when intelligence had reached the Edo-born businessman and philanthropist that Obaseki was the one behind the rumour.
“As God would have it, while in the company of some friends at the governor’s house in Benin, on one occasion, I confronted him that he was the one behind the attack on my company. In a bid to defend himself, he put a call through to someone in Lagos and, perhaps, mistakenly left the phone speaker.
“He asked the person at the other end: ‘Why is the MD of NPA worrying Captain?’ and the man replied: ‘Godwin, I thought you said this man was fighting you. The MD of NPA is fighting your battle for you.’ I quickly told him that I had caught him. On this occasion, I had witnesses and, if further probed, names could be mentioned,” Okunbo narrated.
Okunbo also recalled that, when Obaseki was the chairman of the National Economic Council’s Ad-Hoc Committee on Oil Theft and Pipeline Vandalism, “I got a feeler that a damaging report was going to be written about my company by the Committee.
“I was then given an opportunity to address the Committee on the matter to defend my company and its job. My defence was excellently delivered, but at the end of the day, when the report came out, it was still damaging even when I had complied with my threshold and responsibilities.
“It is sad that Governor Obaseki has been paranoid about me even before he became governor, for reasons best known to him,” he noted, adding that he had since known that the disagreements “between Comrade Oshiomhole and myself, during his eight years administration in Edo State, were orchestrated from the background by Governor Obaseki.”
Need I say more that, Obaseki is irredeemably evil and sadistic and that ingratitude remains his stock-in-trade? How does anyone situate the video of a colleague-governor, Abdulahi Ganduje, conspicuously placed at a roundabout in Benin, just because he is leading his party’s campaign in September? What joy does it give him?
How do you even start to define the character of a governor, who ordered a crackdown on his people in a campaign period? Do I need to say it more expressly that he lacks wisdom, patience and the perseverance required to occupy his current office? He is simply innately wicked hence his going after all the illustrious sons and daughters of the state.
It’s in Obaseki’s interest to stop looking at the rear mirror of bringing back the untruths about Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, because it helped him to win the 2016 election. He should look at the windshield of the future of what Ize-Iyamu has to offer the Edo people in the next four years and if he must look at the rear mirror, then he should tell us all what he too has done for the Edo people in the last four years, definitely not on power-point presentations of things that have never happened.
The general belief is that he actually has nothing to campaign with and his only escape is to attack the character of his opponent and try to discredit them. Obaseki has nothing to offer Edo and when given the chance in the last four years, all he has done is to impoverish them and sold to them projects only on paper with propaganda and nothing to show on the ground. But he has kept his social media rats busy, promoting paper presentations of his achievements and encouraging them to abuse their elders. Is that the 200,000 jobs he promised the youths?
Well, whoever it was that Obaseki claimed was no more but had always provided financial back-up for the APC through the CBN, it is yet to be seen how Obaseki too would survive the post-office financial scandal that is definitely to come on his trail after the September 19 election. Fingers crossed!
The linking of a renowned and revered businessman as Capt. Hosa Okunbo to the humongous corruption allegations against former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke is nothing but a ploy by mischief makers to dent his hard earned reputation, a group has said.
Concerned Maritime Operators (CMO), said “All the co-travellers of Diezani are either in exile or in court with her.” It said their is no basis whatsoever to associate Capt. Okunbo with the alleged misappropriation of state funds by the former minister.
Recall, Capt. Okunbo had said “I have never written a statement in the EFCC or any anti-corruption agency to date. If, indeed, I was with Dieziani, will I still be doing business in the NNPC where I am a champion for service delivery?”
For the past four years, a patently false story had been circulating about his purported business dealings with the former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Allison-Madueke, especially as regards the controversial offshore processing agreements (OPAs) popularly known as oil swap involving the former minister and her cronies.
Captain Okunbo, a former commercial pilot, is the chairman of Ocean Marine Security Limited, an offshore asset protection company, rendering services to major oil companies in Nigeria, including the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC.
The former minister Alison-Madueke has been under investigations since the outset of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration in 2015. The United States Department of Justice had list her and two other businessmen, Kola Aluko and Jide Omokore as persons of interest in a civil complaint filed at a District Court in Houston, Texas, detailing how the duo laundered millions of dollars on her behalf which were used in buying properties in the U.S. and the UK in return for oil contracts.
CMO Chairman, Mr. Tunde Hamzat said: No cowardly soul resides in the likeable billionaire businessman, Captain Hosa Okunbo, because he is no trembler in the world’s storm-troubled sphere. Cowardice and doubt disperse in the blaze of his scorching righteousness because his business and personal ethics are so firmly anchored on the steadfast rock of conscience and integrity.
“The renowned and revered businessman would never use gilded words to mask deceit neither does he brandish fickle principles and statistics to conclude with a false truth. He is, indeed, unlike many rabble-rousers who flashes documents to lock down evidence but never real facts to back their proof,” the group said in a statement that was issued yesterday.
There were reports that more names involved in the multi-billion dollar deal would be revealed as investigations continued.
Hamzat who said he expected the media to end such malicious reports, expressed displeasure on what he called sheer laziness and unprofessionalism on the side of some bloggers who have sustained the misrepresentation of the contract that formed the basis for the misleading publication.
According to him, the falsehood is being assisted with the ubiquity and freedom of social media and that it had become increasingly clear that maintaining silence further would be misconstrued for consent.
The group averred that neither he nor any of his business entities had ever been engaged “in any deal requiring lifting the tiniest drop of oil, crude or refined. I am not a trader; I have never submitted nor participated in any “Oil Swap” deal, neither do I own a company trading in any petroleum products.”
Hamzat said Capt. Okunba’s over four decades in business spanning engineering and technology, energy, integrated service in the petroleum sector, maritime, security, agriculture and others, integrity has been his guiding principle and a core value with which he has been able to earn trust and confidence of companies and corporations of global repute.
He claimed that Okunbo has never stood before any administrative, judicial or legislative panels to answer any questions related to any shady deal.
He challenged anyone whether in the NNPC, the media or anywhere else to come forward with any evidence that can puncture his assertions while declaring, “I implore cowards and mischief makers who are quick to broadcast unverified Whatsapp messages and the Nigerian media to be thorough, fair and objective in their journalistic responsibility.”
Capt. Okunbo is a globally-certified Ambassador of Peace who has been decorated home and abroad as a Citizen of Humanity. Though his businesses, which have added immeasurable value to the Nigerian economy and philanthropy, Capt Okunbo makes history every hour and industriously adds page after page, volume after volume, as if nature were holding up a monument to his exploits.
One of the few blessed men who started from the scratch, kept their nose to the grindstone and turned seemingly insignificant ideas into behemoth industries, Capt Okunbo is a man that would be sent to Mars and still treat it as a stepping stone to Saturn – the quality of constant invention and self-improvement that has earned him worldwide acclaim and prosperity, he stressed.
“Okunbo exudes the lustre of the proverbial leading light thus distinguishing his persona amid a range of middling men. He radiates compassion, ardour and acclaim that no life’s odd could tame. Having hacked his path to affluence in honest, industrious strides, he spreads out like a bastion of human aspiration even as his exploits become objects of the world affection. Everywhere he navigates, he exudes a spirit of humaneness and generosity that even the world’s finest and most daring philanthropists live in awe of.
“No wonder he was, in 2019, bestowed with the prestigious Order of Lafayette award at the United Nations day for Global Peace. The Order of Lafayette is a patriotic, hereditary, nonpartisan, and fraternal organization established in New York City in 1958 by Colonel Hamilton Fish III (1888-1991), a former Congressman from New York and decorated veteran of the First World War.
Captain Okunbo was especially honoured for his distinguished role in encouraging, engendering and entrenching peace and harmony in Africa and the world at large. He was presented with his award by His Excellency, Robert Blum, chairman of the Order of Lafayette Awards. Present at the auspicious and exclusive awards presentation were diplomats and political and economic leaders from all over the world who had all come to celebrate with one of their own,” Hamzat said.
There have been reports of an ugly and unfortunate booing incident that took place outside the palace of our revered Royal Father, the Oba of Benin, Ewuare II, on Saturday, July 25, 2020, during the visit of members of the National Campaign Council of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The PDP entourage, including the Edo State Governor and governorship candidate of the PDP in Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, were reportedly booed while going in and out of the palace by a motley crowd of mostly young boys, according to media reports.
Some members of the crowd who reportedly embarrassed the PDP team and the State Governor were said to have been subsequently attacked allegedly by some gun-toting thugs and sustained varied degrees of injuries in the attack.
While I condemn the booing of the governor and the PDP team, and the reprisal attack, I am particularly pained that some ungodly insinuations in some quarters have linked me with the unfortunate saga. It is against this backdrop that I have deemed it necessary to make the following clarifications:
1. That I was invited to the Palace of the Oba of Benin for a very private ceremony, which I did not even attend with my friends; and that the private ceremony, which had no bearing at all with politics, took place hours after the booing incident happened outside the Palace;
2. That I was not privy to the ugly incident during which Governor Godwin Obaseki was reportedly booed;
3. That as a responsible citizen and elder statesman who respects constituted authorities, I would not subscribe to any act that tends to disrespect or denigrate any constituted authority whether in Edo State or any other State in Nigeria;
4. That I sincerely frown at the brazen act of disrespect for constituted authorities by the crowd of young men who reportedly became unruly on sighting the entourage of the PDP National Campaign Council and Governor Godwin Obaseki at the palace of the Oba of Benin;
5. That I will never, ever be a party to any plan, plot, action or inaction to embarrass our most revered father, Oba Ewuare II, who is non-partisan; and who plays the role of a father to all sons and daughters of the great Benin Kingdom;
6. That I was not associated with the activities of the unruly crowd and therefore could not have been sent to the palace by me to embarrass the PDP entourage, including the State Governor whom I respect as the number one citizen of the State;
7. That I have equal measure of respect for other State Governors who were on the entourage with Governor Godwin Obaseki, some of whom are my personal friends; and could not have encouraged any plot to boo or embarrass them;
8. That just as I was not privy to the ugly incident outside the palace of the Oba Of Benin, our revered Royal Father, Oba Ewuare II, was also not even aware of what transpired outside until later after he had been briefed about it;
9. That those who made insinuations linking me with the ugly incident were just trying to drag me into their politics and create the impression in certain quarters that I was responsible for their rejection by the people;
10. That I state solemnly that, in my position as a role model to our teeming youths who look up to me for guidance and support, I cannot, under any guise, undertake directly or sanction indirectly any action that will place me in a position of disrepute before them and other well-meaning members of the society;
11. That, for the records, our revered Oba of Benin, Ewuare II, will not, at all times, condone any act of indiscipline by the youths;
12. That I urge my good people of Edo State, associates and supporters to rest assured that I remain the person they have ,good neighborliness who is committed to the promotion of peace, security and orderliness in our society;
13. That I have always preached to the hearing of everybody that the ambition of any man is not worth the blood of any Edolite;
14. That I call on all Edo people to join hands to ensure that they eschew violence in the electioneering by the political parties and in the forthcoming September 19, 2020 governorship election;
15. God bless Edo people; God bless Edo State; God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria; Oba Gha to Kpere, Isee!
Captain Idahosa Wells Okunbo
Sunday, July 26, 2020
Captain Idahosa Okunbo’s benevolence transcends his achievements in business. As a well-known and celebrated philanthropist in Sub-Sahara Africa, he has contributed immensely towards the development of education and scholarship, the promotion of entrepreneurship and youth development, as well as poverty reduction programmes.
Most recently, he has made large donations to projects aimed at the total annihilation of illegal migration and human trafficking of young Africans.
The menace of irregular migration and trafficking in persons is far more personal to him, because of his understanding of how deep this challenge portends to the economy and the devastating effect it has on families and the society.
It is for this reason that he singlehandedly partnered and sponsored the Nigerian Young Professionals Forum (NYPF), which launched an initiative themed: International Action on Illegal Migration and Trafficking in Persons, and whose anchor project, Skills and Entrepreneurship Development Program (SED-P), was designed to identify young Nigerians and redirect them towards self-reliance and strategic development.
With his huge contribution, the programme was able to organise its first International Conference in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, in 2019. It was a huge success, which saw the convergence of representatives from various United Nations, International, and African agencies, as well as several panel experts and other development partners.
The Skills Entrepreneurship Development Programme (SED-P) has thus far trained hundreds of persons in various skill-acquisition drives across Nigeria.
This gesture was made possible with Captain Okunbo’s support.
*Siasia is Chairman, Nigerian Young Professionals Forum (NYPF)
www.nypf.org.ng
