News
We’ll keep awake 24 hours to rid Abuja of terrorists – Wike
Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), on Wednesday, ordered the six Area Council Chairmen within the enclave to conduct full profiling of vigilance groups assisting security operatives in the nation’s capital, and ensure all the details of each member is known and well documented.
The former Governor of Rivers State, at a strategic security meeting with members of the FCT Council of Chiefs and the council chairmen, said the administration would continue to work with the traditional rulers in ensuring foolproof security for the nation’s capital.
He said: “We have asked all the Area Councils to set up vigilance teams and we believe that those vigilance teams won’t be the ones perpetrating the crimes. Therefore, they must be profiled so that they are known. Who are they? Are they from our communities? So that we won’t say we want to solve a problem and then cause another one. They (chairmen) will have to do that with you (traditional rulers).
“We have told the police and other security agencies to itemise all their needs and we are going to meet them so that our people can sleep comfortably with their eyes closed. We thought that there is a need to meet with you and the council chairmen so that we can work in synergy and be on the same page.
“If there are things you think we should do too, we are willing to partner with you so that the challenges we are facing now will be a thing of the past. You must work hard because insecurity is not written on anybody’s face. Anyone can be a victim and that is why we must do everything possible to ensure that our subjects are not victims of these criminals.
“We are not folding our hands we are not sleeping. We are working 24 hours round twh clock. Again, you would have heard that we are demolishing shanties. You know criminals won’t want to live in known houses. They commit crimes and run to shanties that can’t be easily traced. So, we will continue to demolish shanties. You need to support us. You don’t allow people to bring propaganda. There is nothing like that.”
“Very soon we are going to roll out our buses which will be painted in Abuja colours and we won’t allow taxis that are not painted in our colours to operate so that this issue of one chance can be eliminated.”
“We sincerely thank all of you for your concerns and efforts. Before Mr President departed this afternoon he said I should inform you that government is doing all within its powers to curb insecurity. Already, the government has shown strength. It has shown courage in fighting insecurity across the country.
“This is the FCT where many Nigerians want to come and stay and so we are more concerned because when the capital is threatened, the whole country is threatened. So, we are very serious with security. We are not sleeping. We are working 24 hours.
“We have met with the councils and we have told them the little we need which is information to be able to help security agencies that are directly involved in the fight against criminalities. Nobody would say there is anywhere in this world no matter how developed that has no form of insecurity or the other.
“The only difference is that it is either nipped in the bud or you are sure that if it happens the criminals are caught. But that is not an excuse for us. We are ready to ensure it doesn’t happen or when it happens, the perpetrators are arrested and made to face the wrath of the law.
“The President has given us series of approvals to make sure that security agencies are fully equipped to fight this crime and we cannot do this alone without your support. You have a role to play in securing your domains. You know those around your domain. If there are unfamiliar faces, you can let the council chairmen know, so as to report to my office so that actions can be taken.”
Adamu Baba Yunusa, Ona of Abaji and chairman, FCT Council of Chiefs, who said the minister was not new to governance or to Abuja, expressed optimism in his ability to turn around the fortunes of the territory.
“You are not new in Abuja and we trust you that you are going to change the story of Abuja by God’s grace. Continue with what you are doing and we are backing you,” the monarch said.
Watching, last week, the “ceremonial” unveiling of the statue of Chinua Achebe held at Ogiidi, Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State, my first reaction was instant curiosity, then followed with one or two questions.
First, – when did Chukwuma Charles Soludo start celebrating excellence in people instead of pulling them down? Who has he celebrated before now?
Second – what would Ugobelunenuoji, Ndigbo’s gift to the world, have said, if he were still here with Soludo on earth, or if those who planned that project and actually attended that event, had contacted him in the spirits to seek his approval?
I asked these questions, given what we all know about the literally giant – the author of Things Fall Apart – that epic that has mesmerised the global audience since making its debut some decades ago, especially after reading There Was A country – his last intervention before he left to join Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Akwaeke Abyssinia Nwafo Orizu and the rest of his Anambra greats.
For those in doubt, go back and read what Achebe wrote in that last hand-down, interpret its essence and situate it with the picture you have about Soludo, the man that undertook that project, before arriving at what you think would be the countenance of the recipient of that supposed “honour.”
But you don’t even have to go far in re-reading that last drop-off. In the case you find it too tedious or the book is not readily available, just use your phone, search Achebe’s reaction to national honours award on google or any other search engine on the internet and see the result.
Okay, you probably don’t know how to go about it! Let me fill you in a little bit. Twice, this man was offered awards of national honours by two different Presidents of Nigeria and twice he threw it to their faces.
Don’t forget, that award is not moi-moi! It is what some Nigerians would give half of their fingers willingly to get and some desperate cravers, actually pay mouth-watering amounts in cash or kind to get it.
Why? Simple! As a recipient, you not only stand out among your peers and in national reckoning, but flashing that medal alone grants you access to exclusive privileges in many quarters. At airports, government offices, institutions and other public places, you get the highest Very, Very Important Personality (VVIP) treatment, by force of convention and law.
Now, you know what that means to the average Nigerian, who is so craving of distinct social stature that he has a generator called – I better pass my neighbour. To some, it is everything. This is what Achebe denounced, not once, but twice.
In rejecting the first offer of the Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR) he had this to say: “I have watched particularly the chaos in my own state of Anambra where a small clique of renegades, openly boasting its connections in high places, seems determined to turn my homeland into a bankrupt and lawless fiefdom. I am appalled by the brazenness of this clique and the silence, if not connivance, of the Presidency.”
That was in 2004, when Anambra was consumed or submerged in a cataclysmic eruption of blitzkrieg carried out by political bandits, with the same President Olusegun Obasanjo, who offered him the award, believed to be looking the other way, if not complicit.
Then, in 2011, the government tried again, this time by President Goodluck Jonathan, Obasanjo’s protegee only to get the same response of the award thrown at his face, when Achebe, retorted once more in a terse letter: “The reasons for rejecting the offer when it was first made have not been addressed let alone solved. It is inappropriate to offer it again to me.”
Now, the question – what has changed either at the federal level or in Anambra to inspire this latest attempt by Soludo? Would the Achebe the world knows, approve the mfoto and mmegheri that have defined the circus show of shame called Soludo’s outing in the last four or five years now? Would he look at Soludo and say daalu, nwannem or would he derisively dismiss him with a similar rebuke delivered to Satan by Jesus Christ – away with thee?!
Here is the thing! If Soludo were any other, outside being the most intellectually-gifted in the Nigerian corps of governors today – his case would have been mitigated by virtue of pleading ignorance. But a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), a former university teacher, and a globally-acclaimed scholar, whose pedigree earned him the position of an advisor to top global institutions, could not be ignorant by any means.
Therefore, his throwing-in with the charade and wickedness of the central government in power in Nigeria today, could only be deliberate. His approval, support and rationalisation of President Bola Tinubu’s not only insipid, clueless and impulsive outing that has made Nigeria the poverty capital of the world, but one decked in impulsiveness, brazenness, brashness and impunity make it even worse.
Now, this is the issue! Achebe, rejecting such awards when things were better, at least with the standard of living of Nigerians, would probably puke at the prospect of Soludo’s new offer, especially being hands and legs in full support of today’s more parlous situation.
Pray! Would Achebe, for instance, as an Anambra man, approve Soludo’s current unmerited attacks on Peter Obi, given the nuances surrounding it? Would the Ugobelunenuoji, sanction a government, whose staffers rampage the streets, practically crippling citizens with pestles, breaking the spines of others, stripping young women to their birthday suits in the display of raw power as the world has seen of Soludo’s Anambra?
Too bad that he is no longer here, hence the ill-motivated attempt to harvest his name, “boasting the privileges of their high offices.” That is why death is such a terrible thing. Otherwise, would Soludo attempt such an insult on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie? Let him try and see what he gets.
Meanwhile the effigy in question is not even Achebe in anyway. It reflects not only a bad job but the bad mind-construct of those who erected it. The world knows what Achebe looks like. No need saying it that at the appropriate time, it would be pulled down and a proper statue that reflects the image and personality, erected to bestow TRUE HONOUR to the icon. Enough said!
My name is Sunny Igboanugo, I’m The Tiny Voice!
Venezuela’s ousted president Nicolas Maduro and his wife will go on trial in the United States in June 2027, a court ruled Wednesday, after the US military captured them in a stunning nighttime raid in January.
The former leader, 63, and wife Cilia Flores have been held in a Brooklyn jail for more than seven months after pleading not guilty to federal drug trafficking and firearms charges.
American commandos snatched the pair from their compound in Caracas on January 3. The lightning operation combined naval, air and ground forces, deposing the strongman who had led Venezuela since 2013.
During a roughly 20-minute hearing, Judge Alvin Hellerstein set the trial date for June 1 next year following a joint request from prosecutors and defense counsel.
Maduro, dressed in a beige prison uniform and wearing glasses, did not speak during his third US court appearance other than to say hello to the court as he entered.
Flores, wearing the same outfit with her blonde hair tied back, sat a few feet from him with the couple flanked by their lawyers.
Protesters with signs reading “Free President Maduro” gathered outside the Manhattan courthouse waving Venezuelan flags, while opposing demonstrators held placards calling Maduro and Flores “dictators.”
Judge Hellerstein also on Wednesday set a November 17 hearing devoted to defense motions, including a challenge to the legality of how Maduro and Flores were captured.
Maduro himself has said he was “kidnapped” and described himself as a “prisoner of war” back in January.
Since Maduro’s capture, Venezuela has been led by his former vice president Delcy Rodriguez, while the United States effectively controls the country’s oil exports, with proceeds going into special accounts overseen by Washington.
US prosecutors allege that Maduro used state power to protect and promote illegal drug smuggling, and that he allied himself with cartels to ship tons of cocaine into the United States.
Maduro has denied the four counts he faces: “narco-terrorism” conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices as well as conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
Flores has similarly pleaded not guilty to the three counts she faces: cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
The United States in April allowed Venezuela to pay for Maduro’s and Flores’s legal defense, something previously barred by US sanctions.
The couple had sought to have their cases dismissed on grounds that blocking the funding violated the US Constitution’s right to counsel of one’s choice.
Maduro also faces a civil case in the United States after the families of five young men slain in Venezuela alleged that he ordered the extrajudicial killings as part of a wider pattern of state violence.
The complaint filed last month states that Maduro had an elite security force called Special Action Forces, or FAES, execute the men between 2017 and 2020.
It says the victims were among thousands killed under Maduro’s command by units including FAES, which dissolved in 2021 after complaints of human rights abuses including from the United Nations.
During his 2013-2026 presidency, he was widely accused of using political repression to cling to power. Both of his re-elections, in 2018 and 2024, were rejected as fraudulent by numerous countries, including the United States.
Maduro was expected to seek immunity in the civil proceedings as a head of state, The New York Times reported.
In what seems a major irony, the Nigerian Police Force (NPF), an institution that ought to be the bastion of law enforcement, has been named as topping the culprit’s list in habouring ghost workers – a phenomenon in which public funds are funneled into private pockets due to payroll padding.
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), which made the revelation, indicates that no less than 908 ghost names were uncovered across several federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), with the NPF most guilty.
Announcing a recovery of about N942 million allegedly paid out through the fraudulent payroll scheme.
Musa Aliyu, Chairman ICPC, who disclosed that the discovery followed an investigation launched in 2024 after the commission identified irregularities in pension payments, explained that the probe exposed widespread payroll manipulation, with fictitious names allegedly inserted into government salary systems to syphon public funds.
Stressing how some senior public officials enrolled relatives and associates on government payrolls and diverted the salaries for personal use, he cited one case in which a suspect allegedly placed the names of his wife, son and mother-in-law on the payroll while also collecting the salaries of 12 other workers.
Referring to how investigation report, covering at least 50 federal MDAs, unravelled the scams with the Nigeria the police recording the highest number of suspected ghost workers at 570, he named other affected institutions to include the National Water Resources Authority with 80 ghost workers, the Federal Ministry of Works with 56, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with 24, and the Ministry of Defence with 19.
Also on the list, were the Ministry of Power and the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment each recorded 17 ghost workers, while the Federal Ministry of Health had 15 and the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation had 12.
He further disclosed that the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Ministry of Interior were also implicated in the investigation, although the commission withheld the number of affected names in those institutions as inquiries continue.
-
News2 weeks agoBREAKING: Mystery death! *Female student dies a day after arriving Umahi’s home!
-
News2 weeks agoDon’t jump to conclusion! *Umahi speaks on mysterious death of female students!
-
News4 weeks agoBREAKING: Court sentences Nigerien, two others to death over terrorism
-
News3 weeks agoBREAKING: EX-SSG mowed down by gunmen! *He resisted being kidnapped – driver
-
News1 week agoBREAKING: Terrorists strikes another school! *Kidnap principal, students, NECO official!
-
Uncategorized4 days agoMary Habila: That autopsy must happen!
-
News4 weeks agoBREAKING: Primate Ayodele to pay Kwankwaso N10billion over Obi betrayal claim!
-
News2 weeks agoN8trillion scandal: Obi digs in! *Tinubu has no further business in office