YORUBA OPC MEMBERS NABBED WITH POLICE GUNS USED IN ROBBING DURING YULETIDE

Policemen attached to the Anti-Robbery Squad, State Department of Criminal Investigation, Yaba, have arrested three members of the Odua People’s Congress with two police guns.

The suspects ─ Gbadamosi Azeez, aka Agarasha; Salami Raufu, aka Orobo; and Waheed Oseni, aka Oosa ─ were apprehended with a pump-action rifle and an AK-47 rifle after a tip-off that the men were allegedly planning to rob Mushin residents during the Yuletide.
It was learnt that the police had first arrested Azeez, who allegedly used his tricycle to ferry ammunition for the group.
The suspect was said to have led the police team to Folarin Street, Mushin, on December 29, where Raufu and Oseni were arrested.
Azeez, an indigene of Ogun State, denied knowledge of the guns, saying he had been called by a leader of the OPC, Olori, to drive him to meet a friend.
He said, “I am a member of the OPC and I drive a tricycle. I have been doing this for two years now. Sometime in December, 2014, I had finished working and parked my tricycle by the roadside.

BREAKING NEWS!!! Explosion Rocks Bayelsa

BREAKING NEWS!!! Explosion Rocks Bayelsa

Speaker of Bayelsa House of Assembly, Kombowei Benson, has claimed that masked men, in Korokorosei bombed his country home,  hours to the supplementary election in Southern Ijaw Local Government and 101 polling units in the state.

Benson was accused by a group, Patriots of Ijaw Nation (PIN), of accommodating some former militants from Delta and Rivers states at his country home ahead of tomorrow’s poll.
 
Speaking on a live radio programme on the supplementary election, Benson disclosed that some people from the community sent a message to his wife’s phone that his house had been bombed.

Benson said no life was lost during the incident as he and his relatives were still in Yenagoa but that the explosion caused a huge damage, according to eyewitnesses account.

He narrated how he got wind of the development at about 4.00am yesterday morning. “I was asleep in my house here in Yenagoa and at about 4.00am, my wife’s phone rang and a message was sent to us that they had gone to bomb  my house with dynamite. It is not something unexpected because they had always been promising to attack, kill or assassinate me  or my family members.

Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of being the sponsors of the five suspects arrested by Bayelsa State Police Command over plans to attack strategic locations, including the home of former president Goodluck Jonathan.

The APC governorship candidate, former governor Timipre Sylva spoke on the arrest and said the police should do a thorough investigation and get to the root of the matter.

Sylva alleged the PDP was making frantic efforts to secure bail for the arrested hoodlums.

Dasukigate: EFCC Chair Summoned to Aso Rock Twice in 24 Hrs after Arrest of Buhari’s Associate, Isa

EFCC Chair Summoned to Aso Rock Twice in 24 Hrs after Arrest of Buhari’s Associate, Isa

THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Wednesday widened its reach in arresting suspects in the $2.1billion arms deal involving former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd) and some influential Nigerians.

The arrest of Brig. Gen. Jafaru Isa (retd), an associate of President Muhammadu Buhari and former military governor of Kaduna State, was the first chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), to be arrested in the alleged diver- sion of $2.1 billion meant for arms purchase by officials of the Jonathan administration.

The APC chieftain, who is now a guest of the EFCC, was the military administrator of Kaduna State from December 1993 to August 1996 during the military regime of the late Gen. Sani Abacha.

He was a very senior member of Buhari’s party, Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), that later aligned with other opposition fronts to form the APC on whose platform he contested the gubernatorial election of Kano State.

Our sources also disclosed that Isa is a very close friend of Dasuki, the embattled former NSA.
It was from his residence in Asokoro, Abuja that EFCC operatives picked him up that night.

Before his arrest, EFCC sources noted that Isa had been invited to appear before the commission on the same Wednesday he was arrested. But rather than comply with the invitation, he allegedly wrote the commission through his lawyer. EFCC’s investigation allegedly exposed payment of N100mil- lion to Isa.
EFCC’s dissatisfaction with Isa’s stance and response, ac- cording to its spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, led to his ar- rest to enable the suspect clarify the ‘questionable receipts’ from Dasuki. As he remains in EFCC detention, the commission noted that investigations into the allegations against him would continue.
In a related development, the Acting EFCC Chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, has in the last 24 hours been sighted twice in Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He was first seen in the Villa briefly on Wednesday and yesterday, he was back there.
The EFCC boss did not speak with reporters.

Is Father Mbaka also among the DSS?

Abimbola Adelakun

On New Year ’s Day, Catholic Priest and Founder, Adoration Ministries in Enugu, Revd. Fr. Ejike Mbaka, prophesied that those who had benefitted from the humongous corruption perpetrated on the watch of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, would try to assassinate President Muhammadu Buhari. I have used the word “prophesy” guardedly because in Nigeria, many of the things that are

marketed as prophecies are a mishmash of commonsense, media reports, scientific research, and analyses carried out by people who study trends using academic tools.

For one, every leader in the world is in danger of being assassinated for either ideological reasons or for the sheer fun of it. That is why they expend huge resources guaranteeing their security. Even the Pope faces a similar threat regularly. It will not be “prophesy” if anyone says he is going to be killed. Unless Mbaka has contacts in the Department of State Services or he is an undercover agent, and therefore can share credible information about an impending presidential assassination, this is neither prophesy nor divine inspiration.

Many a “prophet” in Nigeria is simply a dowser and there is perhaps no better proof of this than how many of them prophesied how Jonathan would win the presidential election in 2015 and how Buhari would lose.

The beginning of the year presents an opportunity for these prophets to wave their sticks and make some more claims to guide their flock. I recently reviewed the 2015 prophesies of a notable Pentecostal pastor whose church proposes to have a parish in every street in Nigeria at least and could not but question how he could make more prophesies for 2016 with a straight face. Weeks after the science community already announced the discovery of a new sexually transmitted disease – Mycoplasma genitalium – he prophesied that one would surface. Those who missed the news in his church would think it is the prophesy coming to pass when they contract it. Prophesies by another popular pastor based in Lagos, whose church was involved in a building collapse last year, were development-oriented except his idea of Africa exchanging agricultural produce in return for technology from developed countries is far behind time. The Holy Spirit can surely do better.

In an article I did in 2008 titled, Nigerian Nostradamuses, I pointed out how these prophets provide an alibi for themselves even as they discharge these prophetic insights.

They tell us there will be divine wrath visited in the form of natural disasters but to avert it, we only need to repent of our sins and pray. Natural disasters, however, cannot but occur – and thank God for scientists who can predict them with far more accuracy. If it truly happens, they get the credit for having prophesied it. If it doesn’t occur, they ask us to thank God for answering our prayers. Whichever way it goes, they are indemnified against legitimate inquiry.

As tempting as it is for me to dismiss Mbaka’s proclamation of presidential assassination as another episode in the constant mis-employment of religion in service of propaganda, I concede that his sense of ownership of Buhari’s government is understandable. Mbaka took a definite stand for Buhari – a major risk – at a time it was not politically expedient to do so. Now that his gamble has paid off, he owes it to the public to do more protecting the same government by campaigning for Buhari in the name of “prophetic utterances.” Although he will claim divine inspiration, much of his New Year message reads like a press release from Lai Mohammed.

Let me be clear that I do not oppose clerics of all hues wading in the murky waters of politics. Like every one of us, clerics are citizens and can hardly afford to be neutral when the survival of the nation and her inhabitants are threatened. In the Old Testament, the mark of a great prophet was the one who could look the king in the eye and say, “Thus saith the Lord…” without pandering to or sweetening his message. Those times, the prophet was an equivalent of a social critic, channelling spiritual capital towards mitigating abuse of power by rulers who got high on the power they embodied. While Nigeria is lucky to have such intrepid men of the cloth, a number of “Daddys-in-the-Lord” are men who cannot afford to offend the powers that be because their fingers are deeply embedded in the king’s feast.

If the end goal of clerics engaging the state is not to liberate people mentally, politically and socially, then it is virtually useless. If, at the end of the day, it is about getting the president to come to your church or mosque, grant you import waivers, fly you to Jerusalem to go pray to an omnipresent God, and allow you to desecrate public facilities and institutions while practising your faith, then who needs such a self-serving agenda?

One should ask, what genuine contribution has Mbaka made to the polity by prophesying that Buhari would be killed other than generating fear among the vulnerable and sowing seeds of distrust that only need one unfortunate event to hurriedly germinate? In a country where people take pastors so seriously even when they prophesy STDs, should they not use words to edify rather than tear down fragile walls? Really, what is such a prophesy supposed to achieve even if it were true that Mbaka heard clearly from God? What is his congregation – and by extension, everyone who hears – supposed to do about it? Pray? Panic? Or just be prejudiced against those being accused of corruption so we can add the potential for murder to their list of sins?

If I may suggest to Mbaka, he should leave the job of the DSS to the men who are trained to spot and tackle such threats. That propensity towards running the President’s errands, combined with a lack of discretion, brought disrepute to Christian Association of Nigeria and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria under Pastor Ayo Oritsejeafor in the last administration. He was not only partisan, he became politically exposed; the kind he should be preaching against if he had had more restraint.

Mbaka, I am sure, does not want to go down that ignoble path. If he wants to get into the arena, he can take up a subtler role; the kind played by Prophet Nathan who made King David face his misdeeds in an audacious yet tactful way.

Buhari, I guarantee, needs such a voice of conscience in his head. One only needs to look around our leaders and see how their fawning admirers and sycophants use the cries of “Sai Baba” to insulate them against reality.

In these times when Buhari’s government that promised change is flailing, and even some of his ardent campaigners are getting worried that their great expectations are being shortchanged, it is important that some of those who are close to our leaders retain their heads and speak some earthy truth to him when necessary. Mbaka owes it to his constituency – and the nation in general – to help this government succeed in spite of its present shortcomings. He cannot perform the critical role his own involvement with Buhari has thrust on him by becoming a megaphone for the government. There are more than enough people already jockeying for that spot. For a man of the cloth, it is tantamount to self-debasement to join the league of Buhari fan club who have committed their lives to blind praise singing.

When Mbaka visited Aso Rock recently, Buhari thanked him for the role he played in getting him elected and declared him courageous. I assure Mbaka that the true test of his courage has yet to come. When he can face Buhari and like Prophet Nathan, tell him where he is missing it in the discharge of his duties to the state without minding losing presidential patronage, then he will know what courage feels like.

Dasukigate: Olu Falae Received N100 Million!

Dasukigate: Olu Falae Received N100 Million! (See His Shocking Reaction)

Chief Olu Falae, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Presidential Candidate to the defunct Alliance for Democracy, AD has confessed he got the sum of N100 million from the former Peoples Democratic Party BoT Chairman, Chief Tony Anenih during the last year presidential election, the fund, which was originally to procure arms for the Nigerian armed forces to combat insurgency in the northeastern part of the nation.

According to New Telegraph, Falae said the money was purely an interparty affair between the PDP and the Social Democratic Party (SDP), which he is the National Chairman. The former presidential candidate said the money was given to the SDP to effectively campaign for the PDP in the 2015 presidential election. According to him, in the build up to the 2015 general elections, the PDP and SDP entered into working agreement.

His words: “In the build-up to the presidential election, the PDP approached the SDP which I chaired. The then ruling party solicited for our support in order for President Goodluck Jonathan to win the March 28 presidential election. “Anenih related with me as the chairman of the PDP BoT and I did same as the SDP National Chairman. He wrote to me as PDP BoT chairman and I wrote back as SDP National Chairman stating conditions/terms for the alliance.

I have the record. “It is true that N100 million was given to my party to endorse and work for the Jonathan’s candidature in the 2015 election. We used the money for that purpose and we effectively campaigned for the PDP since we did not have presidential candidate in the election. The money was not for me.

“Thank God I’m a retired civil servant. I have all the documents to prove all that transpired between the two parties.” The former Finance Minister stated that there was no way he could know that the money was from arms fund. “With all the money PDP has and having spent 16 years in power, how would I know that the money was from the arms deal? No reference was made to the arms deal. So, they should not bring me into the arms issue.

The relationship was purely interparty affairs,” Falae told New Telegraph. New Telegraph exclusively reported that Anenih, in his letter to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), stated that the former SGF and ex-governor’s groups were given N100 million each in the build up to the 2015 presidential election.

Chief Tony Anenih in a letter to the EFCC had named some PDP bigwigs, other who benefitted from the sum of N260 million he allegedly got from the office of the former National Security Adviser, Colonel Sambo Dasuki (Rtd). Anenih said all the monies he spent was N441 million, which is above the money he was actually given.

Mutiny: 3,032 Soldiers Revolt; Reject Redeployment To N-east To Fight Boko Haram

 

The 3032 soldiers, who were pardoned last August for various offenses during campaigns against the Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram, in the North East of Nigeria, have rejected posting to the fronts. The soldiers explained that they were never really pardoned and re-integrated into the Army, but rather, re-sentenced to the war front.

IGBERE TV learned this created anxiety at the Command and Staff College, Nigerian Army School of Infantry, NASI, Jaji, Kaduna state, when over 3,000 soldiers – who claimed to have been subjected to unimaginable ill treatment after their pardon were gathered by the Commandant of NASI, Major General Kassim Aldulkareem, to inform them that they have been assigned new riffles and should be ready for deployment to the fronts on the 11 January, 2016.
According to sources, the soldiers complained that they have not been fully re-instated into the Nigerian Army, because attempts by them to report to their units were rejected at their bases since they have no re-instatement letters.

The soldiers also said that since they have been kicked out of the barracks they have not been paid for seven months making their families who live off-barracks begging for food.

It was gathered that, they cried,

“We are not going! Give us re-instatement letters! You are sentencing us back to war,” among others. According to sources, the Commandant hurriedly left when the soldiers were becoming uncontrollable.

One of the soldiers who spoke to some newsmen on grounds that his name not be mentioned said: “Look at me; I have put in about 28 years of my life serving this country. I have seen action in Liberia; I have been to Rwanda, Sudan and even served overseas and we the Nigerian troops did very well and were decorated in some occasions.

“But, our experience in fighting to save our motherland is too sad a story for the outside world to know. We are not cowards. We held on for over four months facing Boko Haram.

“I just want to say that after the Army dismissed about 5,000 of us, 3032 of us were pardoned last August. Since that time, the Army Authority has treated us like prisoners of wars.

“We were told to assemble in Jaji on August 17, which we did. Then on August 19, the General Officer Commander, GOC, of 1st Infantry Division, Maj. Gen Adeniyi Oyebade gathered us and without prior noticed moved us to Nigerian Army training Centre, NATRAC, Kontogora. Some of us found ourselves there in bathroom slippers. We were just taken straight to the place. Then, without any additional clothes or uniform, we were subjected to what was clear punishment, not training for another three weeks.

“Still in the clothes we came, we were again relocated to 333 artillery Barracks, Njetilo, Maiduguri. We got nothing but constant insults as cowards. We were there without uniforms no arms. They just left us there and we were abused and told to assemble at every two hours through these days for another three weeks.

“In Jaji, we went through another round of punishment, not training. Yet, we were not given any letter to show that we are still serving soldiers.

“So when the Commandant came and said we were going back to the North East, without clearing our status, we felt we have been punished enough.” he said.

The Public Relations Officer, PRO, of the Nigerian Infantry Corps, Major C.K Abaide, told our correspondent on phone that he was not aware of the development.

“I shall reach you back immediately I have our side of the story”, he said, but never did at the time of sending this report.

KANU IN DETENTION AS SHI’ITE LEADER, EL-ZAKZAKY TO FINALLY REGAIN FREEDOM

The Punch reports that the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), has demanded the release of Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN).

Malami, according to a statement, asked the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs to formalise its request for the ‎release of the Shi’ites’ leader, who alongside some members of the group, have been in detention since December, 2015.

Sheik El-Zakzaky may regain his freedom soon.

This was after the group clashed with troops in the convoy of the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai, ‎in Zaria.

Salihu Isah, the AGF’s special adviser on media and publicity, in a statement on Thursday, informed that Malami gave the advice on how to press for the detainees’ release during a visit to him on Tuesday by a delegation of the supreme council to put together by its national president and the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar.

‎
“I will do whatever I can within the confines of the law to see how an amicable resolve can be achieved.

“So when your demands are formalised, I will treat and facilitate it to the appropriate quarters accordingly,” the AGF was quoted to have said.

“As Muslims, we know what is obtainable in Islam especially in the area of rights, individual rights, especially rights of way.

“As Muslims, we have a collective responsibility to create awareness through our preaching on tolerance and compliance according to the dictates of Islam,” Malami stated, adding that the clash between the Shi’ites and the Nigerian Army in Zaria was unfortunate and sad.