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Less than 300 people watch TV in Edo – APC *Okpebholo can speak English

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“If Okpebholo comes on an interview with you, is he talking to people? He will be talking to only a few people who can afford DSTV in Lagos. Edo State people cannot afford DSTV where he can be heard. Okpebholo is moving from one place to the other, reaching out to people, and his message is resonating with them.”

These were the exact words of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in Edo State, for which it believes it would be a waste of time for Monday Okpebholor, to make a television appearance to canvass for votes, hence his preference for face-to-face, meeting with the electorates for the September 21 governorship election in the state.

Jarrett Tenebe, the party’s chairman in Edo State, while appearing as a guest of The Morning Show, a breakfast programme on Arise News Television, on Thursday, while explaining that Okpebholor’s much-advertised non-media appearance was not because of his mortal fear to commit grammatical blunders in public, but a strategic move to meet the people at their own abode rather than using the media, which had little effect, due to few viewership.

He told his hosts: “Governance in Edo stopped where Adams Oshiomohle stopped. Obaseki has impoverished the State” Edo APC Chairman Tenebe criticised.

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Jarrett Tenebe, the Chairman of the All-Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State, has offered a scathing critique of Governor Godwin Obaseki’s administration, accusing the governor of plunging the state into poverty and bad governance.

Tenebe in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Thursday, defended the APC gubernatorial candidate, Monday Okpebholo, highlighting the severe economic downturn in Edo State under Obaseki’s leadership, as the reasoning behind Okpebholo’s campaign strategy. He also pointed out the sharp decline in residents’ ability to afford basic services.

“The statistics we have of people who can actually connect to DSTV or Gotv that you are on, we have about 80,000 who are supposedly able to get DSTV. As I speak, we cannot have up to 300 people that can connect to DSTV because of how Obaseki has impoverished the state and how everyone is now poor in Edo state due to bad governance.”

He argued that this was a direct result of Obaseki’s poor governance, which has left many Edo residents impoverished. The economic hardship, according to Tenebe, has influenced Okpebholo’s decision to prioritise grassroots engagement over television interviews.

The APC Chairman also raised serious concerns about the upcoming election, alleging that Governor Obaseki is planning to rig the results. He accused Obaseki of arming a militant group known as the Edo State Network (ESN) to influence the election in favor of his candidate.

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“The idea that Obaseki wants to rig the election is true because we could see that in the past few weeks, what has been going on. He has a militant group that he calls the ESN that he wants to use to rig the election. He has armed them, he has bought guns for them and we have been calling on government to proscribe that group so that they will not be used for that election and up till date, nothing has been done.”

On the issue of governance and attracting investors to the state, Tenebe criticised the Obaseki administration’s track record. He stressed that the state has little to offer investors due to a lack of meaningful development.

“To become a governor of a state, there is a process you have to go through. First, you have to sell yourself to your people and not to investors. Secondly, your election comes, and you are elected. Thirdly, you are sworn in and become governor. At that point, you start selling the state. As I speak now, what is on the ground in Edo State is nothing to write home about. All they have done in the past are just MoUs. So, what do we even have to sell to investors?”

He further criticised the handling of the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), suggesting that despite the increase in revenue, the funds are not being used to benefit the people.

“Fine, IGR has increased, but what have they done with the IGR that has increased? The people are paying taxes, but they are not seeing what the money is being used for. The corruption here is obvious. If you are collecting money from people, they should see what you are using it for. The increase of IGR has nothing to do with the people right now. Edo State, as I speak, is in disarray, and the people are angry because of the fraud that is obvious. Obaseki has run the state aground.”

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BREAKING: Death penalty for fake drugs! *NAFDAC to push new law at NASS

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Those peddling fake and substandard drugs in Nigeria should be ready for the hangman’s noose, if the thinking of the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), becomes the new law.

Mojisola Adeyeye, Director General of the body, who said on Friday that no other form of punishment is fitting enough, gave instances of where the application of such dangerous substances in form of health drugs, had led to fatalities.

Advocating that only stiff penalties would deter peddlers especially when deaths of children became involved, the NAFDAC boss, who appeared as a guest on The Morning Brief, a breakfast programme on Channels Television, said: “Somebody bought children’s medicine for N13,000 or something like that, another person was selling about N3,000 in the same mall. 

“That raised an alarm. Guess what? There was nothing inside that medicine when we tested it in our Kaduna lab. So, I want the death penalty. Because you don’t need to put a gun on the head of a child before you kill that child. Just give that child bad medicine.”

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Advocating that the National Assembly and the judiciary to make the proposal a reality, adding that the agency was open to partnering with lawmakers and other stakeholders on the matter, she added: “You cannot fight substandard, falsified medicine in isolation. The agency can do as much as it can but if there is no deterrent, there’s going to be a problem.

“Somebody brought in 225mg of Tramadol that can kill anybody, fry the brain and you give a judgment of five years in prison or N250,000. Who doesn’t know that that person will go to the ATM and get N250,000? That is part of our problem.

“There are no strict measures to deter [people] from repeating the same thing. We can do as much as we can but if our law is not strong enough, or the judiciary is not strong enough to stand up, we’re going to have a problem.

“So, our judiciary system must be strong enough. But we are working with the National Assembly to make our penalties very stiff.  But if you kill a child by bad medicine, you deserve to die. We have a lot on our plate in stemming drug peddling.

“Withe about 2,000 staff members nationwide and limited funding, NAFDAC is constrained in carrying out its activities. So, when it comes to staffing, you’re right on the point. We are short-staffed and I am hoping things will be better.”

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Give us electoral offences tribunal to take care of heist – INEC  

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Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday, made a fresh push for the creation of an electoral offences tribunal, to curb the cases of attacks on the Nigerian democratic system.

Mahmood Yakubu, INEC Chairman, told reporters at the commission’s first regular quarterly consultative meeting with the media that the tribunal had become important owing to the backlog of electoral offence cases.

He said: “A major obstacle to the speedy dispensation of justice in this regard is that electoral offences are not time-bound as is the case with post-election offences through the tribunals. Furthermore, they are solely prosecuted by the Magistrate and State High Courts in the jurisdiction where the alleged offences are committed,” the INEC chief told the gathering.

“No priority attention is given to such cases as the courts deal with a variety of other cases. Consequently, electoral offences are carried over from one General Election to another which may sometimes affect the diligent prosecution of the cases. It is therefore imperative to renew our call for the creation of the Electoral Offences Tribunal that have a specific jurisdiction and limited timeframe for the speedy dispensation of cases.”

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Bemoaning the delay in the justice delivery system, citing the conviction of a returning officer in Akwa Ibom after six years in court, the INEC boss, said: “The recent successful prosecution of a Returning Officer in Akwa Ibom State is a case in point.

“The Commission has been diligently pursuing the case which arose from the 2019 General Election. In this particular case, it took nearly six years to achieve the successful prosecution at the trial court.

“Through our collaboration with the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) cases involving 774 alleged offenders from the 2023 General Election are being prosecuted. So far, successful prosecutions have been recorded in Kebbi and Kogi States while our collaboration with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on vote-buying has yielded similar results in Lagos, Kwara, and Gombe States. Yet, many cases are still pending.”

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Again, terrorists attack Sokoto, kidnap 10 worshippers at a mosque

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A mosque in Bushe community, Sabon Birni Local Government Area of Sokoto State, fell into the hands of bandits on Friday, after which 10 worshippers including the Imam were spirited away, adding to growing cases of terrorist attacks.

Channels Television reports that the gunmen invaded the mosque on Thursday while worshippers were performing their early morning Subhi prayer, quoting residents as saying that the gunmen had been molesting the people of the community for some time now, even with the presence of security agents.

Ahmed Rufai, spokesman of the Sokoto State Police Command, who confirmed the attack on Friday, said the police authorities were working with other security agencies to rescue the abducted victims.

A member of the Sokoto State House of Assembly, representing the Sabon Birni B state Constituency who also confirmed the attack, commended the security agencies for their timely intervention.

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