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I’m alive and well, people should mind their business – ‘missing’ Ejiro
Days after she was declared missing, Ejiro, the Nigerian stylist who was rumoured to be missing, has finally resurfaced blistering with anger and admonishing those in frenzy over her whereabouts to leave her alone and mind their businesses.
Addressing expressing concerns that her sudden disappearance from the public eyes had some sinister implications, she claimed that there was nothing wrong and no need to make such conclusions as the decision was completely her own design.
Speculations had become rife after one Nkechi Harry-Ngonadi, who raised concerns about her well-being, alleging that she had been manipulated by a “special prayer group,” on Instagram, which stripped her of her belongings and asked her to close shop in her business.
In fact, so intense was the search and controversy over her affairs that it became a major topic on What’s Trending, a popular segment on The Morning Show, the breakfast programme on ARISE NEWS, television network, where the hosts x-rayed the issues around it.
Ngonadi claimed that Abba’s Heart Ministry, the embattled Instagram prayer group, had brainwashed Ejiro, cut her off from loved ones, and convinced her to sell her belongings and hand over the proceeds.
However, Ejiro who, in an Instagram video, stated that she was neither missing, kidnapped, nor under any form of coercion, expressed shock at the public outcry over her disappearance, explained that she had been unaware of the search for her because her social media accounts had been disabled.
Hear her: “I am actually Ejiro, the most talked about Ejiro online currently, the acclaimed missing lady and I am here to talk about the alleged kidnapping, debt, cajole and all that people have been talking about.
“First off, I am alive and well, I was never kidnapped, cajoled or hypnotised like some people said. I am actually addressing this a bit late because Instagram disabled my account so I have been off social media for a while.”
She revealed that she only recently learnt about the manhunt initiated by Ngonadi, which accused certain individuals of wrongdoing.
Ejiro clarified that her absence from family and friends was a personal choice, stemming from internal conflicts that had even led to police involvement.
She recounted an incident where she met with her siblings in late January after they began searching for her, which escalated into harassment of her friends and multiple police reports.
“I was just recently notified that there was a search for me, a manhunt on NHN’s page saying I am missing and all that, accusing the innocent. I am truly shocked and surprised and I just had to address it this evening. There is nothing wrong with me, I am not missing. My old line was actually up until January 4, my family could reach me whenever they could. I just distance myself from them because I wanted to be alone because of family issues.
“I do not want to bring most of them here and personal issues myself. So, distancing myself from my family, I do not see it as a big deal. I actually went to meet them sometime at the ending of January because my brother and my younger sister were all over the place, accusing people, looking for me, so I had to go meet them.
“I went to my younger sister’s store in Abuja and due to that confrontation, it led to several issues, they harassed my friends, it was a lot of things that we ended up in three police stations and every police station we went throughout the case said first off I am not a child, I am an adult over 18 years and I can do whatever I want to do and there is no case there.”
Addressing rumours that she had been pressured to shut down her fashion business, Ejiro denied any external influence, stating that she made the decision due to personal struggles.
She dismissed claims that Joy Solomon, the group’s founder, had instructed her to close her business, calling the allegations embarrassing and unfounded.
“And I told them to back off thinking that everything has ended. I changed my number because I just wanted to start my life over again and now I have seen several allegations about me and I am just surprised. I shut down my own business, my own homegrown business.
“A business I grew by myself, not with my father’s money or mother’s money. I grew the business for almost eight years and I was having a lot of psychological breakdown and I decided to take a step back from my own business and now they accusing Prophet Joy of telling me to shut down my business and I am surprised.
“It is my own business, I can decide what to do with it. Pastor Enoh Jerry can testify, I was having a break down. It was a milestone birthday for me and I was having a breakdown. I knew I had to take a step down from that job.
“It is annoying and I am disappointed that I have to come on here and start explaining my own life to everybody but because this is what it is, I have to just clarify things not because of me but for every other person involved in this.
“I took a step back from my fashion business towards the ending of 2023 and I do not think I owe anybody any explanation for that. I explained to my siblings that I am taking time off the business but it is nobody’s business.
“Let’s assume that the allegations of me giving out my things are true, how is that anybody’s business? But even at that, I left that one aside… This is very embarrassing for me to come on live and start talking about things like this
“For me, I feel very exposed, embarrassed, disgraced. I cannot believe that I am all over the internet and if one has to be famous for this, missing and I am surprised with all the rubbish they have said and I know that even coming live to talk about this would not clarify anything.
“Because people would still go about saying what they want to say but I just needed to clarify that I am alive and well, not cajoled by anybody, not hypnotised. What else have they said? Because I just joined social media and I have seen all sorts. Seriously at this point, I think that people are doing me dirty. This is not fair.”
Ejiro also addressed the issue of her rented apartment, which was allegedly sublet to Taiye Adekan without proper notice. She admitted that she had breached the rental agreement but defended her actions.
“Down to the apartment, it is my property, it is my own house. My rent expired, I had a lot of debts I had to sort out and because I stopped the business the way I did, I could barely afford my rent and I said let me just leave, I wanted to move out from there,” she said.
“My siblings asked me what I wanted to do, I said I do not know yet but let me just leave the house but it is embarrassing to say this that they were concerned about my properties than me. They waved it aside like it was nothing serious for them. They were asking about properties.
“I left my own house and they still went to my own house, house that I paid for with my own money, properties I bought with my own money. Went there abusing people, accusing people, I gave it out to someone, yes I breached the contract. It was someone via the connection of Abba’s Heart that needed a space.
“We had an agreement, come in, renew the rent, I would leave the house for you. And now Taiye went online, saying all sorts of rubbish. Taiye was not informed about the transaction that went down behind the scenes, about me being paid for the properties he got but I do not think I owe him such explanations.”
Nigeria would not be in the sort of socio-political and economic mess it is currently facing but for the cowardice of the present crop of governors, Rotimi Amaechi, former governor of Rivers state, said on Tuesday, saying the country needed courageous leadership at the state levels to confront the ugly situation.
As chairman at the public presentation of Sule Lamido’s autobiography titled: Being True To Myself, written by Sule Lamido, former Governor of Jigawa State, Amaechi, who later became a two-time Minister of Transportation under President Muhammadu Buhari, bewailed the parlous political situation where governors could no longer speak for the people.
Stressing the timidity of his successors, the former governor, who was apparently miffed at the rate at which opposition governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), were defecting to the ruling APC, in spite the parlous economic situation in the country, he said such a crisis would never have been allowed during his own time.
Amaechi, who was chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) during Lamido’s second term, but eventually defected to the APC to lead the campaign for the election of Buhari, told his audience: “I asked you (Lamido) this morning, what is going on currently in the country, in Nigerian politics — would it have happened when we were governors?
“You said no. And the answer is no. We would confront the government, confront the President. That’s how radical we were, that’s how our governors forum operated, that’s how determined we were to change things.”
Dwelling on his relationship with the ex-Jigawa governor, who was in office between 2007 and 2015, Amaechi said their working relationship was strong, despite occasional disagreements — including Lamido’s initial objection to his election as NGF chairman.
“We were quite good friends in government. We had our bad times when we disagreed. I made the mistake of assuming he was as radical as I was. So, he was one of the governors I clung to when it came to radical decisions. The last one before we broke ranks was when we all agreed to go against President Jonathan. We formed a committee of governors and others.
“At the end of the day, he went to find a new party, the SDP. We said, ‘If we go to the SDP, we will lose the election. Let’s hang on to this one called the APC.’ He disagreed and left us. That’s where we parted ways. You must never forget the battles we fought.”
“There is no question that there are huge challenges. But if you look at the balance sheet that this President inherited — massive liabilities arising from the very reckless misuse of ways and means — you’d understand why these steps were necessary.”
These were the exact words of Adams Oshiomhole, Senator, representing Edo North at the National Assembly on the state of the Nigerian economy, expressing confidence that the way the President was going, it would not be long before the parlous situation would experience a marked improvement.
Oshiohmole, former Governor of Edo State and former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who was a guest of Politics Today, a public affairs progromme on Channels Television, said on Tuesday, Nigerians were justified to feel unhappy over the rising cost of living and the closure of businesses since the removal of fuel subsidy in 2023, but urged them to be patient and maintain trust in the reforms.
He added: “It’s a work in progress. The surgeon has gone to carry out the surgery. He understands that there is a level of pain — there has to be pain. But the good news is that the patient is healing. Maybe he could heal faster, but there can be no question that the patient is healing.”
Stressing on the issue of the exchange rate unification as a painful but critical decision to align supply with demand, he warned that failure to do so could have plunged the country into a Zimbabwe-like economic collapse, adding: “The consequential increase in cost of living was predictable. But if that was not done, Nigeria was on its way to Zimbabwe.
“President Tinubu deliberately chose to make all the difficult but necessary decisions in his first term to pave the way for long-term recovery. He took the right decision by insisting that in the first term, he would take all the tough decisions — prayerfully — so that as we move on, the situation improves.
“There is no magic to governance. I don’t think any Nigerian who understands the macroeconomic environment that was inherited by this government would expect that, in 24 months, everything would be fixed. Truly, this economy was badly mismanaged. This is not to blame anyone, but to speak to fact. I can say the worst is over, and we are going to begin to witness improvements in standard of living.
“As a governor, it took me time to have a holistic view of the challenges I inherited and to decide, in terms of priority, what to do first. As a Nigerian, I live in the community and among the people. I can say that there is a level of hardship, but things are improving.”
“Given where we are today in the economy, Tinubu will still win the presidential election. The President eliminated an exploitative foreign exchange regime that previously benefited only a privileged few. Tinubu abolished the ‘benefit of exchange rate’ transfer to bureau de change. Today, what he gets in exchange rate is what I get. Eliminating that free rate — which was available to a few people connected with the CBN management — took courage.”
Senate on Wednesday brushed aside the objections of Abdul Ningi, Senator representing Bauchi South at the National Assembly to commence acerated hearing on a whopping ₦1.783 trillion statutory appropriation bill for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The bill for the appropriation of the amount, came through President Bola Tinubu to the Senate in charge of making laws for the FCT, urging them to approve the proposal for the 2025 financial year.
Shortly after reading the letter transmitting the proposal, the upper chamber on Wednesday, harkened to the request of the President to give the bill expedited consideration, noting that its passage was critical to ensuring an effective and service-oriented administration for residents of the FCT.
But an attempt by the Bauchi Senator, elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to halt debates on it pending when the members were abreast of the details was ignored as the Senate invoked Order 78 to allow the bill to scale second reading the same day it was introduced.
Palpably dissatisfied, Ningi, who was once suspended for questioning the financial integrity of the Senate, had raised concerns about the procedure under Order 77 (3 and 4), pointing out that lawmakers had not been provided with copies of the bill prior to the debate.
Leading the debate on the bill, after the objections were brushed aside, Opeyemi Bamidele, Senate Leader, explained that the proposed legislation seeks to authorise the issuance of ₦1,783,823,708,392.00 trillion from the FCT Administration’s Statutory Revenue Fund to finance personnel, overhead, and capital expenditures between January 1 and December 31, 2025.
The budget breakdown includes N150.35 billion for personnel costs, N343.78 billion for overhead, and N1.29 trillion allocated for capital projects.
Bamidele underscored that the primary objective of the budget was to drive an effective and enduring service-oriented administration, with a strong focus on completing ongoing projects that have significant impacts on infrastructure and essential services in Abuja.
He noted that the budget prioritises the continuation of existing projects in the FCT, with the introduction of new ones deemed crucial.
It was on the same day that the Senate also confirmed the appointment of five Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) submitted by the President in March for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The confirmation, which followed the receipt and consideration of a report by Simon Lalong, Chairman of Senate Committee on Electoral Matters during plenary on Wednesday, who urged members to confirm the nominees having passed the screening exercise.
The approved RECs are Umar Yusuf Garba (Kano State), Sa’ad Umar Idris (Bauchi State), Chukwuemeka C. Ibeziako (Anambra State), Umar Mukhtar (Borno State) and Dr. Johnson Alalibo Sinikiem (Bayelsa State).
Tinubu having his way because today’s governors are cowards – Amaechi
Tinubu almost clearing Buhari’s economic mess – Oshomhole
Wike to get N1.78trillion as 2025 budget *Senate ignores Ningi’s objection
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