News
State of Emergency: I didn’t give anyone $15million – Akpabio
“People are just conjuring the story of the $5,000, $10,000 to add flavour to their malice and hate campaign. He has been doing it. He did it last year, so why is this one associated with money.”
These were the exact words with which Godswill Akpabio, Senate President waved away the allegation that the Chairman of the National Assembly parcelled a handsome $15,000 bribe for his colleagues in the Red Chamber to endorse the State of Emergency rule in Rivers State, on Thursday.
The Senate President reportedly struck a deal with his colleagues to help President Bola Tinubu, push the measure he announced as cure to the political crisis in Rivers State, but which a groundswell of some informed Nigerian public claimed was unconstitutional and urged the National Assembly to kill the move.
But he not only dismissed the allegation as part of a hate campaign directed against his person, but question the reason why he would be given money to anyone and where such money would have come from in the first place.
Saturday Vanguard, reporting on the reaction of the Senate President for the first time on the allegation that he facilitated the disbursement of the dollar for votes in his Maitama residence during the breaking of fast with Senators in two tranches, first $5,000 on Tuesday and then $10,000 on Wednesday, the eve of the vote on the proclamation, quoted him as waving off the charges.
The former Governor of Akwa Ibom State who conveyed his position through Eseme Eyiboh, former member of the House of Representatives and now spokesman, while dismissing the allegation as part of the campaign of hate and malice against his person, however acknowledged hosting his colleagues at the session.
Eyiboh, Special Adviser on Media, was quoted as saying: “I am aware and it is true that since Senator Godswill Akpabio, the President of the Senate assumed that position he has been breaking fast. He did it last year, he did it this year, so why is it turning it into a rumour?”
“On the issue of the dollars, he is giving the money for what? I am aware of the breaking of the fast but I can tell you I am not aware and it is not true of the dollars, whether $5,000 or $10,000, people are just conjuring it to be able to give flavour to their malice and hate campaign.”
The echoes of the drums rolled out to celebrate the rescue of the 44 teachers and students, kidnapped from some schools in Oyo State, after 56 days in the bush, would surely be disrupted abruptly, with the divergent echoes of a fresh abduction, this time coming from Kogi State.
Reports indicate that the gunmen, struck on Tuesday at the Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, in Dekina Local Government Area of the state, abducting four students, the school principal and a National Examinations Council (NECO) ad hoc staff member.
Authorities of the Kogi State Police Command, who immediately unleashed their operatives in hot pursuit of the abductors, said the attack occurred at about 5:25 p.m. while the students were writing their NECO examination.
Saliu Oyiza Afusat, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and spokesman of the command, said a combined team of police personnel and other security agencies has launched a search-and-rescue operation following the incident.
Informing that one of the students was actually rescued immediately, she said efforts were ongoing to secure the release of the remaining victims and apprehend the attackers, adding that Naziru Bello Kankarofi, the state Commissioner of Police, alongside the Brigade Commander and the State Security Adviser to the Governor, Commodore Jerry Omodara (Rtd), were already on the way to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment.
Oil prices are expected to go down now with the announcement of Donald Trump, US President that he will no longer impose a 20 percent “safe passage” fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The POTUS, hinged his reversal of the decision on the intervention from some Gulf countries, who pleaded with him not to toe the line due to the massive economic impact the decision would make on the region.
Indeed, oil prices had shot up immediately Trump announced the new levy on Monday while declaring the US ‘the guardians of the Hormuz strait,’ a measure which he said was to pay for the cost of guarding the volatile area in order keep supply of oil flowing.
Reports said that Gulf allies of the US worked frantically to get Trump on the phone in time to talk him out of the idea altogether, while a flurry of appeals came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
In response, the POTUS, posting on his Truth Social platform, wrote: “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.”
Trump, who said the investments would be “MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” added that the deals would see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the US at “Historic levels.”
The Gulf nations have committed to invest trillions of dollars in the US, though it remains unclear how much of that they will actually spend over the next several years.
Meanwhile, the US continues to bomb Iran in what appears to be a resumption of active conflict between both countries, despite an ongoing roadmap to end the conflict.
Reports say operatives of the Osun State Police Command, and those of the Department of State Services (DSS) had tracking the trail of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), for weeks, before he was eventually pulled out of his hole on Tuesday.
However, the duo, were said to have pulled back after failing to track him through his mobile phones, which he had reportedly switched off for about two days, making it difficult to locate him, leaving the stage for the members of the Police Intelligence Response Team (PI-RT) led by Moses Lohor, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
Lohor, said to have previously served as the Commander of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of Osun State, and reported to have been involved in high-profile security operations and controversies, after taken over fielded his men to pick up signals from their well-oiled signal networks.
Regarded by many Osun residents as one of the key security officers who contributed significantly to the peace and stability enjoyed in Ilesa and other parts of the state during his tenure, he was said to have relied on his contacts before his transfer out of the state, said to have raised concerns from the public about the security situation he would be leaving behind.
His exit from the state was said to be hinged on an incident in 2024, in which he allegedly shot one Iyanda Alowonle, then Chairman of Osun State Motor Transport System, in the stomach at the police station in the state prompting an order for his arrest by then Inspector General of Police (IGP).
His effort was said to have paid off when he successfully tracked down the controversial PFIPC, boss, who was seen on Tuesday evening, in a shot video on social media undergoing interrogation, and eventually handed him over to Ibrahim Gotan, Commissioner of Police in the state.
The PUNCH quoted one of the sources as saying: “The arrest (of Adeyemi) took place on Tuesday morning by the IRT squad, who immediately moved him to Abuja. After he was arrested, he was taken to Ibadan and from there to Abuja.”
-
News6 days agoBREAKING: Mystery death! *Female student dies a day after arriving Umahi’s home!
-
News6 days agoDon’t jump to conclusion! *Umahi speaks on mysterious death of female students!
-
News3 weeks agoBREAKING: Court sentences Nigerien, two others to death over terrorism
-
News2 weeks agoBREAKING: EX-SSG mowed down by gunmen! *He resisted being kidnapped – driver
-
News4 weeks agoTwo hours after Igboho’s ‘red-eyes’ to ‘Fulani’ leaders, gunmen free kidnap victims!
-
News4 weeks agoAbductors of Oyo teachers panicking, freedom coming for victims soon!
-
News2 days agoBREAKING: Terrorists strikes another school! *Kidnap principal, students, NECO official!
-
News4 weeks agoChicagogate: Nigerians return to court! *Move to stop Tinubu from 2027 polls