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Oluwatoyin Osho: I didn’t accuse my uncle of N9.8million fraud
For years, Abayomi Arodu and Oluwatoyin Osho had lived like brothers. Arodu is Osho’s uncle, being a younger brother to Osho’s mum. They had so strong a relationship that when Arodu took ill sometime in 2009 and wanted to travel to India for a medical procedure, he handed over his family and businesses to Osho. That was because Arodu was unsure of his return, judging from the severity of his ill health.
According to Arodu: “I entrusted all my landed property into his care with the conclusion that I may not make it back to Nigeria. I had thought I would die as a result of the sickness then, but God’s mercy saw me through and preserved my life.”
Arodu said that his nephew had offered him some millions of naira, when he was travelling, which he turned down because his company had already taken care of all his travel expenses with additional funds.
“All I needed was just for him to be there for my family while I was away,” he said.
When he returned after four months, he met with Osho with a view to repaying the loan he had used to support his (Arodu’s) business. He found out that Osho had spent millions of Naira to the tune of N19.8million to sustain the smooth running of the business.
The process of repaying that debt set the ground for what had lingered for 10 years as a family feud between the two men. The matter had gone from Police stations to the court and was wrongly reported by a national newspaper that Arodu duped his nephew of N9.8million.
In reality, Osho had stood in for Arodu by managing his private business, with his personal funds.
Arodu had sought Osho’s understanding on gradual repayment of the loan. Osho had committed the sum of N19.8million, out of which Arodu has paid N10million, while a balance of N9.8m remained.
According to Arodu, Osho refused to come for amicable draft of the loan repayment schedule, even when some family elders intervened.
Osho refused to show up, making it difficult for comfortable terms of payment for him then.
Meanwhile, another family problem arose between the two men, which made the gentleman’s agreement between them to be discarded. Rather, what was a brotherly gesture turned into a quarrel that led them to Police Stations and eventually a magistrate Court in Ogba Lagos.
That was aggravated by Osho, who was also having some personal issues and experiencing some frustrations in his business, which needed money to be sorted out immediately.
Hence, he went to his uncle to claim the balance of his money while both were still recovering from the family feud that was unrelated to the money. That was how the transaction degenerated into a case for police stations and eventually landed in court.
Luckily for the two, the presiding magistrate at that time, after hearing their cases, threw out the matter and told them to go and settle at home as brothers should.
But a reporter of a national newspaper had picked the story and reported that Arodu had duped Osho of N9.8million, a report even Osho himself was shocked to see.
According to Osho: “It was the little family issue that we had that got escalated and my own financial pressures. But from Mowe, Isheri, to Area G Ogba Police Stations and to the Magistrate Court, there was never a day I said my uncle duped me. I only said he was owing me. My statement is still at Area G police station and even court records can show that. I had no single idea why the newspaper said I accused my uncle of defrauding me. That story still baffles me till date. There is no way I could have accused a man, who is like a father to me of duping me. That’s not possible. I maintain till today and even up to the time of going to my grave that my uncle never duped me.”
Asked how he thought the story of the fraud against Arodu came about, Osho said he suspected that some unscrupulous Police officers and some court officials must have twisted the story to that.
“I was even shocked to see the story in a newspaper. I have gone to the newspaper to narrate my story but that does not seem enough. I want to state again that my uncle never duped me of N9.8million. It was a misunderstanding that arose from a family issue that triggered the whole thing, which we have settled at home,” he said.
Arodu felt that the story could have landed him in prison and tarnished his reputation as an honest worker and businessman.
However, Osho said at that time, he felt embittered that he wasn’t appreciated for his efforts and love towards his uncle (Arodu) and his immediate family members.
Osho maintained that the police added to the issue, which prompted him to take action against his uncle up to the court. He said he was accused of gun possession, which was not true.
“Again, I felt abandoned by my uncle when I needed him most at the first police station, which was the reason I wrote a petition against him,” he said.
However, Osho is today sorry and still bothered, 10 years after. He believed that he had wronged his uncle beyond bounds. He maintained that he never accused his uncle of defrauding him nor did he arrange for the reporter to come cover the court proceedings.
Rather, he alleged that it was either the reporter picked the story from court when the proceedings was on and made a wrong publication about it or unscrupulous police officers who got the story twisted.
“I never accused my uncle of defrauding me nor did I arrange for any reporter to publish a false report about him. I don’t do the kind of business he does. So, I couldn’t have said I gave him money to buy goods that I know nothing about, for me. It’s just not possible. I didn’t say that at all,” he emphatically stated.
He added that though, he was deeply hurt and was naughty out of frustration, he did not accuse his uncle of defrauding him.
However, the remaining part of the loan (N9.8million)has since been balanced and all grievances settled. The brothers and family members are all now united and living like one happy family that should be.
Osho expressed gratitude to his uncle for putting a closure to the 10-year row in the family by accepting him back as the proverbial father to the prodigal son. “I am grateful to my uncle/father. Words are not enough to convey the weight of my appreciation. I’m also using this same medium to apologise for the inconvenience I might have caused him and his family, especially his image. And I hope he truly finds it easy in his heart to forgive me,” he concluded. He apologised to his uncle, his immediate family and the entire Arodu family.
Fuel marketers across Abuja on Wednesday continued to sell Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly known as petrol, at old prices more than 24 hours after Dangote Petroleum Refinery announced a reduction in its ex-depot price, Vanguard is reporting.
The paper reported that its investigation, showed that major retail outlets were yet to adjust their pump prices despite the N75 per litre reduction announced by the refinery on Monday.
At the retail stations visited in Abuja, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Retail and TotalEnergies dispensed petrol at N1,335 per litre, while AA Rano sold at N1,350 per litre. AYM Shafa and Conoil outlets sold the product at N1,330 per litre.
The development comes amid growing public expectations that the reduction in Dangote Refinery’s gantry price would quickly translate into lower pump prices nationwide.
Explaining the delay, the President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), Dr. Billy Gillis-Harry, said retail prices are influenced by several factors beyond refinery gate prices.
Speaking to Channels TV, Gillis-Harry said: “Prices reflecting at the pump are dependent on availability of the product, the other is the cost. The cost of purchasing the product and cost in terms of logistics, and preparing the particular petroleum to be delivered to the people”.
According to him, downward price adjustments often take longer to reach consumers because marketers need to recover the cost of existing stock purchased at higher prices before restocking at lower rates.
When asked why increases in fuel prices are usually reflected immediately while reductions are delayed, Gillis-Harry said the dynamics of supply management play a significant role.
He explained: “It is mainly affected by whether the producer has additional resources or not at the time. Increases in prices are mainly caused by the need to restock. There must be that advantage pushing the price upward to be able to pay for new supplies.”
He further acknowledged that marketers generally seek to exhaust existing inventory before implementing lower prices.
“That’s the basic idea. But in petroleum, a mixture is involved, and loss is taken, though not in a way that affects the capital needed to restock,” he added.
Also speaking on the issue, energy analyst Olabode Sowunmi said fuel pricing in Nigeria is influenced by a combination of domestic supply arrangements and logistics costs, rather than crude oil prices alone.
He noted that although international crude oil prices remain an important factor globally, their impact on local petrol pricing is not always direct.
“Global price of crude oil is a factor internationally and not necessarily in Nigeria,” Sowunmi said.
Explaining that Dangote Refinery operates under arrangements that allow a portion of crude supply to be priced in naira, reducing the direct impact of international market fluctuations on local fuel prices, he said: “So basically the issue will have to be from the point of refinery to where it touches the final person. Logistics costs within the domestic supply chain remain a major determinant of the final pump price paid by consumers.”
Peter Obi, candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), has given assignment to Nigerians to put all those aspiring to take up political positions in the country through the grill to ascertain their level of integrity, saying it was required as a sine qua non for the job they seek.
Obi, who has been a subject of discussion in the polity since the allegation of corruption was levied against him by Kenneth Okonkwo, spokesman of his campaign in 2023, over the conduct of the party’s primaries to choose candidates for the 2027 general elections, said the grilling must start with his own person.
A guest in an interview on a podcast with Rufai Oseni, a popular television anchor, the former Governor of Anambra State, stated that it was actually for this reason that he had now sworn to see the litigation he instituted against Okonkwo through.
His take is that the Nollywood actor should use the courtrooms to give all the details of bad behaviour, following his threat to expose him fully, after alleging that he was collecting money from aspirants in the said election for electoral favours.
Hear him: “The issue of taking Kenneth Okonkwo to court wouldn’t have arisen if he had stopped at those allegations. But he claimed he still has more he would expose about me in the future. So, I am very happy to take him to court so that he can expose me publicly, alongside other Nigerians. If any of them has any criminal allegations against me, they should bring them to court.
“Not just Kenneth, everybody should now say those things they know that is bad about me or I did that is wrong because it’s good for the system, it’s good for the society,” Obi said.
“So, if you know that when we were in primary school, this man was cheating or didn’t go to the primary school, didn’t go to secondary school, didn’t do, if you know this man has done something criminal somewhere, this is time to bring it up.”
For the umpteenth time, Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has warned about the dangerous implication of using state institutions, particularly the judiciary to destroy Nigeria’s democracy, saying it is an ill-wind that blows nobody any good.
Atiku, presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), speaking on the heels of Tuesday’s verdict of the Court of Appeal, halting the de-registration order by the Federal High Court, insisted that judicial officers must not lend themselves to any act capable of undermining the nation’s democratic process.
The appellate court had ordered a stay of execution on the order made on Monday by Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court Abuja, for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deregister the ADC alongside four other political parties).
A totally scandalised Court of Appeal, sitting in Abuja, had taken umbrage, sparing no hard words in upbraiding the lower court judge, stating that his likes were unfit to sit on the bench.
In a unanimous ruling by a three-man panel, the court held that Lifu’s action was “the highest form of judicial impertinence”, stressing that the Supreme Court previously held that a judge who acted in such a manner.
Describing his conduct as the height of judicial rascality, the upper court, stated: “Courts are enjoined to protect their integrity. This Court has supervisory authority over the trial court.
“The decision of the lower court to proceed with the judgment despite the express order of this court is a brazen violation of the hierarchy of the court and the 1999 Constitution.
This court has the duty to invoke its powers in ensuring that its orders are obeyed. The application for a stay of execution is here yet granted. The enforcement of the judgment is stayed.”
Atiku, who hailed the position of the higher court, which restored his hope to be on the ballot as presidential candidate in the 2027 election, also noted the role of INEC as “significant.”
He said: “I welcome the Court of Appeal’s decision to stay the execution of the Federal High Court judgement seeking the deregistration of our great party, the ADC, and four other political parties. It is particularly significant that INEC itself initiated the application for the stay.
“The development reflects growing public concern over judicial contradictions and politically charged rulings within the judiciary. “Any attempt to undermine Nigeria’s hard-won democracy through judicial manipulation is a grave danger to the Republic. If our democracy suffers further injury, history will demand accountability from those entrusted with dispensing justice.
Outside ADC, Lifu’s order, also included: Action Democratic Congress (ADC), Action Peoples Party (APP), Action Alliance (AA), Accord Party (AP) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), similarly slammed for allegedly failing to meet the constitutional requirements for continued registration and participation in elections.
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