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I didn’t get N500million from Tinubu – Apapa *Says, Obi was aware of my ordeal
Lamidi Apapa, self-acclaimed National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP), has attributed his survival from the hands of members and supporters of the party, who nearly lynched him in the premises of the Court of Appeal, Abuja on Wednesday, to the mercy of God and presence of the media at the scene.
Narrating his experience, Apapa, who was practically whisked away by the police and other security operatives after an initial drama inside the courtroom serving as the venue of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) for the 2023 polls, thanked God for saving his life, saying he was in court to assert himself as the Acting National Chairman of the party and to confirm the state of things on the petition of the candidate of the party, Peter Obi.
Obi, who was desatisfied in the declaration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on March 1, had filed a petition at the tribunal to challenge it.
Apapa, who told the reporters that he had before the court began its proceedings, sensed trouble, after the Director-General of Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Organisations, Akin Osuntokun, refused to vacate a chair that was reserved for chairman of the party, recounted his ordeal thereafter.
“I went to him and inquired to know on what capacity he was sitting on the seat. I told him that since I am in court today, I am the right person to sit on that chair. They pounced on me, removed my cap and I am very sure that if not that you people (journalists) were there, I would have been dead by now.”
The 78-year-old, who accused Obi of being aware of the plot to attack him, explained how he allegedly met with members of the presidential campaign group of the party on Tuesday to broker peace among the warring factions, where he was warned that he would be dealt with should he attend the court session.
“They threatened that if I appear in court that something would happen. There is no truth in the allegation that I collected N500million to scuttle Obi’s petition against the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. Obi is liar. I had been shielding him before. He’s a liar for saying that he does not know me. I actively participated in all the campaigns the party held before the presidential election and also flew back to Abuja with him in the same aircraft on one of the occasions.
“I want to tell the whole world that he is a liar. I have been in the party for over 21 years while he is not even up to one year in the party. I have never taken any kobo from anybody and I have challenged anyone that has any evidence to bring it forward. It’s not true that I was in court to withdraw the petition against Tinubu. Apart from money, what else does he (Obi) have that I don’t have?”
Still accusing the party’s candidate of refusing to respect the court order that suspended the Julius Abure-led executives of the party, he also rained curses on those that removed his cap during the incident.
“As you can see, I have recovered my cap. But as for the person that removed my cap, he will suffer till the end of his life. I saw him. He is a young chap but he will never grow old,” he added.
“Nothing must happen to Peter Obi. An injury to one is an injury to all. When one opposition leader is intimidated, every opposition voice is diminished,” came the immediate reaction of Atiku Abubakar candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), in the 2027 presidential election on Thursday.
It was a day Atiku, who came second in the 2023 election and Obi, third, in the declaration made by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), also asked for the release of Nasir el-Rufai, former governor of Kaduna, warning that democracy is threatened when opposition figures are intimidated.
Obi, Governor of Anambra State between 2006 to 2014, had accused the federal government of deliberately frustrating his means of livelihood and targeting opposition figures, while appearing on #WithChude podcast, a programme hosted by Chude Jidonwo, a popular Nigerian social media host.
On the same Tuesday, Obi’s outing broke on social media, where he claimed that the way the Tinubu government was pursuing him, he was not sure of making it to the 2027 election alive, the family of the former Kaduna State Governor, also came publicly to describe stark details of what the family head, currently in detention since February this year, has been facing.
Conveying his distaste on the two situations through, Phrank Shaibu, his spokesman, Atiku, Nigeria’s Vice President between 1999 and 2007, added: “When one citizen begins to fear because of his political beliefs, democracy itself becomes the casualty.”
In a quick riposte to the scant regard, Aso Rock seemed to have placed on Obi’s fears, the former VP, said: “The Presidency must understand that democratic leadership demands composure, not contempt. When a citizen, particularly an opposition figure, voices concerns about the state of the nation or his personal safety, the first duty of government is to reassure through statesmanship, facts and responsible conduct—not through insults.
“Democracies are strengthened by reasoned engagement, not by invective. A government that answers every criticism with abuse projects insecurity, not confidence. The opposition is not the enemy of Nigeria.
“Poverty is the enemy. Hunger is the enemy. Insecurity is the enemy. Corruption is the enemy. Kidnapping is the enemy. The daily bloodletting across our communities is the enemy. A government that devotes more energy to attacking its critics than confronting these existential challenges has confused political survival with the purpose of governance. There are schoolchildren and teachers still waiting to be reunited with their families. There are countless innocent Nigerians languishing in the camps of kidnappers,” he said.
“These are the emergencies that deserve the full machinery of government—not endless political sparring with opposition figures. The Federal Government must devote the same urgency it applies to political communication to rescuing kidnapped Nigerians and restoring public confidence in national security.”
Regarding the plight of el-Rufai, Atiku stated: “The continued detention of Mallam Nasir El-Rufai has generated widespread public concern. Every Nigerian, irrespective of political affiliation, is entitled to due process, equal protection under the law and the presumption of innocence until proven guilty by a competent court. Justice must never create the appearance of selective application.
“Public confidence is not restored through insults or propaganda. It is restored through openness, accountability and the courage to answer legitimate questions,” he said.
“Governments earn trust by confronting controversy with facts, strengthening institutions and demonstrating that no one is above scrutiny. Our elders say: ‘When the drums of injustice beat for your neighbour, do not dance, for tomorrow they may beat for you. Every Nigerian, regardless of political affiliation, has a stake in defending the democratic space. Release Mallam Nasir El-Rufai.
“Bring home every abducted schoolchild, every teacher and every innocent Nigerian still languishing in the hands of kidnappers.
“Stop chasing political opponents and start confronting the crises that are bleeding our nation. History will not remember how fiercely a government fought its critics.
“It will remember whether it protected its citizens, upheld justice, rescued the vulnerable and preserved the democracy entrusted to its care.”
“They apologised to me privately. I said they should put it on social media. They said they will not put it on social media, it will affect their credibility, because it’s not just them, but their other programmers at the Al Jazeera network too.”
These were the words of Daniel Bwala, while giving further insight into what has transpired along the line since his controversial interview with Mehdi Hasan of Al Jazeera, a global television network in March 2026, stating that the station privately apologised to him.
Bwala, who appeared on The Morayo Show, a private talk-show programme, hosted by Morayo Afolabi-Brown, a popular television presenter, however said because both Mehdi and Al Jazeera, refused to make the apology public, he was prompted him to instruct his lawyers in England to sue for defamation.
Clips on the controversial outing in which Bwala, spokesman for the campaign of Atiku Abubakar during his presidential bid in 2023, were in the public domain for several weeks after where a groundswell of commentators believed his performance was not only underwhelming, but he was outrightly disgraced.
He added: “The substance of the apology was that they should have told me that part of what they discussed with me was a talking point, that they were also going to interrogate me on my credibility for supporting the person I had attacked before.
“By their own ethics, they ought to have told me that, but they said they were sorry they didn’t. If you’re bold, if you call yourself a journalist, a fact-checker, you run your programme live and let people judge live.
“If you’re thinking straight, that’s what you’d do. You took creative control of the programme. You made a recorded programme. Ethics demanded you publish it exactly as it was recorded.”
Informing that the programme ran for one hour and 30 minutes but Al Jazeera published only 49 minutes, he accused the network of skewing the footage in Hasan’s favour, adding: “The deeper point is that they cut out the parts where I was fact-checking him and the crowd was clapping for me, and instead kept the parts where he was speaking and people were clapping for him. He’d ask me a question, I’d deny it, then he’d play the old clip. We call that ‘cut and joined’ in media. After doing that, which amounts to a smear campaign, he didn’t give me the chance to react to it.
“Instead, he let it appear that I was simply asked a question, denied it, was shown the clip, denied it again, was shown another clip, and denied it again. He removed that part, because if he’d left it in, anyone watching would understand that I had already answered the question upfront, and that my later denials were a response to his repeated bringing it up. That’s where the unethical conduct of a professional issue arose.
“When they apologised, I said no, put it on social media. They refused. So, I instructed my lawyers in England to go to court. The case is currently in court. Because my advisers in England said it’s defamation of character.”
More successes are being recorded by Nigerian forces trying to rout out terrorist in parts of the country, with emerging reports indicating that the perpetrators are currently running scared from the hot onslaughts they are getting from the operatives.
Channels Television, is quoting military authorities at the Operation Hadin kai (OPHK) conducting military blitzkrieg against the terrorists in the North East as saying that the troops received six Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP), one of the major terrorist groups operating in the area, who surrendered alongside their families, at the 192 Battalion (Main) Sector 1 of the body.
Quoting a statement on Wednesday by Mohammed Goni, spokesman of the military operation, with headquarters in Maiduguri, Borno State, the report, said that among the items recovered from the terrorists and their families included a cumulative sum of more than N1.5 million, two Tecno mobile phones, and other items.
Th statement, added that troops of 115 Task Force Battalion, while conducting ongoing search and rescue operations in Askira/Uba Local Government Area of Borno State, on July 7, rescued two additional abductees from a terrorist hideout, where they also recovered cash of N1.2 million suspected to be proceeds of criminal activities, food items, and other logistics believed to have supported terrorist operations.
The rescued victims have since been evacuated to a secure location where they are receiving appropriate medical care and psychosocial support, the report said, adding that during the same period, the troops noted that it contained a coordinated attack by ISWAP terrorists in Borno, and one of the soldiers was killed.
“Although the insurgents briefly exploited a section of the base’s defensive perimeter during the intense firefight, the troops rapidly regrouped, mounted a determined counter-offensive and decisively expelled the attackers, inflicting significant casualties and forcing the surviving terrorists to flee with varying degrees of gunshot wounds.
“Regrettably, one gallant soldier paid the supreme price, while two gun-trucks and some combat enablers sustained damage during the engagement. The situation at FOB Logomani remains firmly under the control of Operation HADIN KAI troops, with reinforcements deployed, exploitation operations ongoing and additional measures being implemented to further strengthen the defensive resilience of the location.”
Detailing how troops of 232 Battalion apprehended a notorious criminal in Gombi Local Government Area of Adamawa State, the statement, said: “Follow-up exploitation of the arrest led to the recovery of one AK-47 rifle, two magazines, and twenty-eight rounds of 7.62mm special ammunition.
“The suspect and recovered items are currently in military custody, while further investigations are underway to identify and apprehend other members of the criminal network.”
Similarly, the statement said troops of the 149 Battalion arrested two suspected terrorist logistics suppliers in the Mobbar Local Government Area of Borno State.
The recovered items include cash sums, a Volkswagen Golf vehicle, construction materials, household items, and other supplies suspected to have been destined for terrorist elements.
The suspects are currently undergoing interrogation, while the recovered items remain in military custody as investigations continue.
As part of ongoing offensive operations, troops of 24 Task Force Brigade, in conjunction with members of the Civilian Joint Task Force, conducted a clearance operation on known terrorist enclaves around Wulgo.
During the operation, the troops said they exploited the terrorists’ hasty withdrawal and recovered a sack containing assorted illicit drugs abandoned by the fleeing insurgents.
“The recovery further underscores the sustained pressure being mounted on terrorist elements, denying them freedom of movement and disrupting their operational capabilities.”
Relatedly, the troops apprehended a suspected BHT/ISWAP logistics supplier at the Molai checkpoint in possession of large quantities of medical supplies without due clearance. The suspect and items recovered are in custody for further interrogation.
Again, in Sector 2 Area of Responsibility, Troops of 233 Tank Battalion, in conjunction with local hunters, intercepted and arrested a suspected BHT/ISWAP terrorist logistics supplier from Ngirya village of Tarmuwa LGA with five motorcycle tires. The suspect and items are in military custody for investigation.
“These latest operational gains underscore the effectiveness of sustained offensive operations, actionable intelligence and the seamless collaboration among security agencies and auxiliary forces in dismantling terrorist logistics networks, disrupting criminal activities and protecting vulnerable communities across the North East”, the statement added.
Headquarters Operation HADIN KAI assured the public that ongoing search and rescue operations will continue with unwavering resolve until every abducted person is accounted for and safely reunited with their families.
“The Theatre Command also issues a stern warning to individuals involved in supplying food, fuel, construction materials, transportation or any other form of logistics to terrorist groups to immediately desist. Anyone found aiding, abetting or collaborating with terrorist elements, directly or indirectly, will be identified, apprehended and prosecuted in accordance with the law.”
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