Encomium
WORRIES AS BOKO HARAM BRIDE DISAPPEARS
The disappearance of a former Boko Haram bride who recently returned home after three years in the militants’ stronghold in northeast Nigeria has stoked concern about the difficulty of deradicalising and reintegrating women seized by the jihadists.
The wife of a Boko Haram commander, 25-year-old Aisha, was among 70 women and children who in February finished a nine-month deradicalisation programme, having been captured by the army in a raid on the militants’ Sambisa forest base last year.
Last month Aisha vanished from her family home in Borno’s state capital Maiduguri, taking the baby boy fathered by her Boko Haram husband and some of her clothes, according to her younger sister Bintu Yerima.
Phone calls to Aisha after she disappeared went unanswered, and her mobile has since been switched off, her sister added.
EFCC DENIES PROSECUTING SARAKI, DISOWNS ROTIMI JACOBS
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has said that it was not prosecuting the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki in the recently concluded false declaration of assets case.
In a series of tweets on its twitter handle @officialEFCC, the anti-corruption agency made it clear to Nigerians that it was not the prosecutor at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) trial.
The EFCC also disowned counsel, Rotimi Jacobs saying that he is an independent anti-corruption lawyer to the state and could be counsel to any organisation.
During the two years trial of Saraki, Rotimi Jacobs was always referred to as counsel to the EFCC, but the EFCC clarifies that he is not attached to the commission.
OSINBAJO IS IN CONTACT WITH BUHARI EVERYDAY – LAI MOHAMMED
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said Acting President Yemi Osinbajo gets in touch with President Muhammadu Buhari everyday and that there is “so much trust” between both men. Mohammed said this when he appeared on Politics Today on Channels Television.
Asked if President Buhari is in support of the meetings the Acting President is having with leaders of the North and South East amid growing tension in both regions, the minister said there is no concern about that.
He said, “The Acting President is daily in touch with Mr President, so I am very confident that Mr President is in the full know of what the Acting President is doing and there is so much trust between the acting president and the president. I don’t think there should be an area of concern at all.”
I WILL WIN THE BY-ELECTION – ADELEKE
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for Osun West Senatorial District, Ademola Adeleke, has said he will win the by-election on July 8.
Adeleke spoke yesterday in Abuja when the party’s National Chairman, Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff, presented him with PDP’s flag at the party’s national secretariat.
Adeleke is running for the vacant seat his brother, Senator Isiaka Adeleke, occupied until his death on April 24.
According to him, the death of his older brother will be a deciding factor in the election, while his PDP candidature has elicited fear in the state’s All Progressives Congress (APC).
Adeleke, who defected from the APC to the PDP during the selection, said he had returned to his political base.
OSINBAJO, EMIR SANUSI IN SECRET MEETING
Acting President Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday met behind closed doors with the Emir of Kano, Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, in the Presidential Villa, Abuja. It was gathered that the meeting which took place at the Vice-President’s mini conference room, lasted for about two hours.
The Emir was on a “Thank You’’ visit to the acting president, who recently joined other well meaning Nigerians to stop the Kano State House of Assembly from its investigation of alleged misappropriation of funds and other infractions levelled against the Emir.
It would be recalled that the House resolved to drop the probe following a plea through a letter by Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano state.
BUHARI SHOCKED OVER SARAKI’S VICTORY
President Muhammadu Buhari has reacted to the resounding victory of Senate President Bukola Saraki, at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).
Buhari, who spoke through his Special Assistant on Prosecution, Okoi Obono-Obla, was shocked that the CCT could dismiss the weight of “overwhelming evidence” against Saraki, who was tried for false assets declaration.
Recall that the two-man panel of the CCT, led by its Chairman, Danladi Umar, unanimously upheld the no-case submission filed by Saraki, after the prosecution closed its case with 48 exhibits tendered, and after the testimonies of the fourth and the last prosecution witness, on May 4, 2017.
The CCT Chairman, Umar, in his lead ruling, exonerated Saraki of all the charges, among other grounds, the failure of the prosecution to obtain Saraki’s statement and make it part of the proof of evidence.
FG RATIFIES $187M AFAM PLANT TO BOOST POWER SUPPLY – FASHOLA
In a bid to improve power supply in the country, the federal government yesterday ratified the Afam emergency fast power plant.
This was disclosed by the minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Fashola said FEC ratified the earlier approval given for General Electric to undertake the project so that the country can complete 240MW of emergency power through 830MW turbines this year.
He further stated that council also approved the contract for the construction and rehabilitation of the sub-station to enable the evacuation of power once the turbines are installed.
ORUBEBE’S CONVICTION BY CCT OVERTURNED BY APPEAL COURT
The controversial conviction of former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs Godsday Orubebe by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) has been overturned by the Appeal Court.
Justice Abdu Aboki, who read the lead judgment, faulted the CCT’s conclusions in its judgment of October 4, 2016. The court held that the CCT, headed by Danladi Umar, was wrong to have convicted Orubebe for false asset declaration when he had sold the property he was accused of not declaring.
SHOW YOURSELF IF YOU ARE REALLY ALIVE – ERIC JOYCE
A British Politician and former Military Officer, Eric Stuart Joyce, has again stirred up controversy, over the health of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Joyce, who had insisted that Buhari was dead, has now challenged the Nigerian President to prove otherwise.
He said, “Nigeria has an extremely capable Acting President, of course, but if Mr. Buhari is declared dead or permanently incapacitated, then it will be the second time in succession that a Northern Muslim President has died, and been replaced by his Southern Christian Deputy.”
He further stated that, it is a challenge in a country whose democracy is based upon a complex balance of different regional and religious interests given excuses that are not real.
NATIONWIDE JUBILATION AS OSINBAJO ORDERS ALL NIGERIANS TO STOP PAYING ELECTRICITY BILLS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE
Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, through the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, has reminded electricity consumers not provided with prepaid meters, to stop paying electric bills presented by Distribution Companies, DISCOs, on the basis of estimated billing methodology.
The Commission also ordered the DISCOs not to disconnect any of such customers that refuse to pay the bills, and further advised such customers to report to the commission if disconnected.
