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Odili, the coward, sycophant, displayed my picture in his toilet – Wike
“When I was governor, my pictures everywhere in his house. Sitting room, bedroom, kitchen, even in the toilets. My pictures were everywhere. But today, all the pictures have been removed,” were the words with which Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), emphasised the extent Peter Odili, former Governor of Rivers State in kowtowing towards any government in power for his personal gains.
Wike in an immediate clapback to the lacerating comments Odili, civilian governor of the state between 1999 and 2007, accusing him of wedging a war against Sim Fubara, his successor and incumbent, for denying him the opportunity of pocketing the resources of the state, said if anyone was guilty of greed and avarice, he (Odili), should carry the trophy.
Odili, who spoke at a Christmas ballad he organised in honour of Fubara and his family, had praised his guest for summoning an unusual fortitude to confront Wike’s alleged desire to capture Rivers State through ferocious but unnecessary political war, wondering why the FCT Minister would be so greedy to attempt to destroy the state.
“it is now over 12 months, since the 25th October 2023, when a fierce existential fight, though unnecessary, was waged against Governor Fubara over the soul of Rivers State. Governor Fubara confronted the challenge, prevented the quest by one man to capture the State as a private estate, emancipated Rivers people, steadied governance and made civil servants and Rivers people happier as it used to be until he left office in 2007,” Odili was quoted.
But at a thanksgiving service organised by Martin Chike Amaewhule, factional speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Wike fired back at the former governor, in which government he served as a local government chairman, describing him as a coward who chickened out of his quest to become President because of the fear of former President, Olusegun Obasanjo.
Also stressing Odili’s alleged sycophancy and greed, which had made him to praise any governor in the state to high heavens for his personal gains, such as he was now showing to Fubara, his new find, the Minister asked: “Must you be a trader all the time? As governor for eight years, what else are you looking for?”
Regretting the situation he accused Odili of dragging himself, he added: “You know, I didn’t want to say anything but somebody called me last night, and told me what someone said in the social media. I said until I read it myself. This morning, I read in the newspapers what our former governor, Sir Dr Peter Odili, said.
“What did he say? He said that the present governor has been able to stop one man who wanted to convert Rivers State to his personal estate. ’Between him and myself, who has turned Rivers State to his personal estate? His wife is a Chairman of Governing Council, his daughter is a commissioner, his other daughter is a judge and he is the general overseer. Who has now turned Rivers State to his private estate? I am sure if care is not taken, if there is a chance, he can even arrange a marriage for the governor.
“It was his nephew, his late elder brother’s son who was recommended for commissioner. He took the slot and gave it to his own daughter. Someone who didn’t remember to stand for the son of his late elder brother, is that an elder statesman? It is painful that Dr Odili, out of political sycophancy, had forgotten all he said in the past.
“All of you here remember when I was governor, this same Odili praised me to high heavens. In fact, he said then that all past governors in Rivers State combined did not do better than me. In 2007, after he left office, he couldn’t come near power in the state because Amaechi was the governor then. He was gone! Like somebody said that God will use someone to lift up someone. When I came in as governor in 2015, I won’t use the word resurrected, but I brought him back to life.
“All of us know about PAMO University. But for us, there wouldn’t have been anything called PAMO University. Rivers State was sponsoring 100 students per session and for every semester, each of the students was paying nothing less than N5m. Then, Rivers people were attacking me up and down. I personally called Julius Berger to build a mansion for him to live. He was calling everyone to the house then, telling them, come and see what Wike has done for me. Wike has shown me love. He was taking them round the house.
“Now, because you have organized a Christmas carol for the governor, I didn’t say you should not do your Christmas carol, but why reduce yourself to such a laughing stock? People will still see it on television how he was telling the whole world then how God used me to bring him back to life politically. Why not do your Christmas carol, collect what you can collect and leave me alone? The governor, who all of us made, has not spent one year in office and the same Odili was already saying the governor has beaten the records of all the past governors of Rivers State.
“When I was there, he said I had surpassed the records of all the past governors, including himself. What can he even show that he did in his eight years as governor? But a governor has not spent one year, you are saying he has done more than all the past governors. You spent eight years as governor and someone who hasn’t spent one year has surpassed your records? What manner of elder talks like that? Is that what an elder statesman should be known for?
“What can I learn from this kind of elder? What kind of advice can one get from him? This moment you are saying something, the next moment you are saying something else. You see, if your children begin to ask you, is this not the same man you were praising before? What would you tell them? When I was plotting who will be governor after me, was he (Odili) there? Then, he complained about this governor, saying he couldn’t stand to talk to the public. But today, he is organizing Christmas for the same governor he was against then.
“He has forgotten all that he said in the past. I named this after you, I named that after your wife. What have I not done? You said we should not be part of the government, we have left. We are managing, you have taken assembly money, they are not dying of hunger and they will not die of hunger. We are okay.
“I am focusing on my job in Abuja and all these sycophancy won’t take him to the level I have attained. This is a man who wanted to run for president then, he didn’t have the balls, and he chickened out. Simply because Obasanjo said no, he would not contest, he ran away. Because of him, I never invited Obasanjo to Rivers State to commission projects. I felt it would humiliate him.’’
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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