News
Wike as FCT Minister is Tinubu’s greatest undoing – Kingibe
Ireti Kingibe, Senator representing the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), is sure that President Bola Tinubu’s ruination in office would either come from making Nyesom Wike Minister of the strategic area of Nigeria or be fast-tracked with it.
This is because the Minister has decided to take impunity to an all-time high at his job, by disregarding every form of official norm and the rule of law, preferring to act as if the city of Abuja is his private estate, where he could whimsically determine how to behave.
A guest of Prime Time, a public affairs programme on ARISE NEWS Television network, on Monday, Kingibe, one of the four Senators in the current 10th Senate, spared no unkind words in describing the former Governor of Rivers State, of not only disregarding the rule of law but corruption.
At loggerhead with the FCT Minister right from inception, Kingibe, told her host that naturally, the people of the area were usually not too bothered about which party was in power, but how they were treated, had taken particular notice of Wike’s level of impunity which had brought them monumental pain, adding that this had in turn de-marketed the administration of Tinubu.
Hear her: “It is my personal opinion that that is rather unfortunate, because if I were making a list of all the things President Bola Tinubu has done wrong, the greatest wrong he’s done to himself, the thing that has demarketed him the most, has been Minister Wike because is a mini-Nigeria. Even people who vote in other places, they live here and they come and go.
“When you watch the impunity, it doesn’t sell this government. The truth as I said is that people of the FCT ab-inition, were not really hostile to the President because we’re not inclined that way. We’re not focused on parties. We focus on actions and how did you govern us.
“Let me give you an example of the people you expect to vote for you. In Bwari, there is a land allocated for a government general hospital. Minister Wike revoked it and he’s having all sorts of markets or malls or something. Now how do you think the people will feel who expect that at the very least, you build that hospital and not take it and give it to your cronies?
“All these things are documented. They’re not done in a hidden manner. It is done in the open and you can do your worst manner. Minister Wike has been harassing all of the FCT people because of ground rent. In fact, he is not giving any time. If you don’t pay your N2,000 that you owe, we’ll revoke your whole house.
“For N80,000 or N2,000 or whatever your ground rent is, he revokes it, including embassies. Now, I have documents. If Minister Wike is so popular, how come it is easy to get secret documents of everything that is going on within the FCDA (Federal Capital Development Authority)?”
She recounted how the Minister unilaterally reduced the landmass from University of Abuja, from 11,000 hectres to just 4,000 hectres by revoking 7,000 without recourse to the Land Use Act, forbidding taking away land allocated to institutions for private usage.
“There are things that are no-brainers – that are obvious. For instance, Abuja university, has approximately, 11,000 hectres. But Minister Wike has revoked 7,000 of and left them with 4,000. It is definitely against the Land Use Act for you to take land from institutions and give them to individuals.
“Now, a lot of the things I bring up in public about what Minister Wike can do and not do, would have been best discussed privately. But as far as he is concerned, nobody should speak in the FCT and I say, it is not so. He therefore leaves me no choice for these things to be discussed publicly. The average person does not have access to him, but when the Minister does something and they’re offended, they bring it to me.”
Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Governor of Oyo State, on Thursday, finally threw his hats into the ring by declaring his intention to run for president in 2027, with a message – history beckons.
The governor, whose ambition has been a matter of speculations for months now and who had teamed up with forces angling to force President Bola Tinubu, out of power, told a teeming crowd in Ibadan on Thursday that time had come to reset Nigeria.
At a mega-rally to announce the alliance between the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and the Allied Peoples’ Movement, (APM), Makinde, expressed worry over the dwindling fortunes of Nigerians, vowing to engage Nigerians to end the drift.
Hear him: “Without a multi-party system, there is no democracy. Where is our multi-party? Where do we go from here? We have been pushed to the wall.
“They calculated and self-opposition cannot unite but I am here to say that the opposition is the everyday Nigerian. This is the time for all us to ensure Nigeria works for us. This is the time to confront it fears. It is time to engage as citizens and not spectators.
“For the opposition political parties, this is the time to unite and work in unity and give our nation the much reset it needs. The time to reset Nigeria is now. Ibadan is the city of warriors. The first grand alliance is formed. The PDP and APM is formed. This handshake will allow us to field candidates from presidency to state Assembly. And so, I declare my candidacy for office of the president of Nigeria.”
Eyo Ekpe, a professor of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH), on Wednesday, gave a detailed account on how operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) manhandled him on Monday.
He told reporters that he was at sea on why he should fall victim to the assault against his person and eventually arrested given that was not right person directly involved in the information the agency sought.
Some operatives of the EFCC who invaded the hospital, had whisked Ekpe away after firing teargas to scare away the workers, patients and visitors to the hospital, following what appeared like a fracas the ensued over what it claimed was a routine duty in the facility.
Ekpe, Deputy Chairman of the hospital’s Medical Advisory Committee (MAC), described how an operative had first entered his office to make inquiries on why the hospital was yet to give a response to an EFCC inquiry over a medical report linked to a suspect facing trial.
He detailed how he briefed the operative that the said response was being prepared and even went ahead to show him the draft of a letter in that regard, which needed to go through the gamut of official endorsement before being released.
Hear him: “The head of that internal medicine department looked at the report and also discovered that the name of the doctor that signed the report is not a member of staff of that department.
“I had prepared prepared a response to the EFCC on Monday, May 11, 2026, based on the findings. When the EFCC operative visited my office the next morning to collect the document, I told him that the response was ready in draft. I even showed him the draft, but told him that the document still needed approval from the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital before it could be officially signed and released.
“He pretended to have accepted that. He left, but later later returned with another armed operative and informed me that I was under arrest. I asked him why. I was not the one that issued the medical report. My name is not on the medical report. The report was not issued from my unit.
“But he said I would get the answer when I get to their office. I then asked him to at least wait for my staff member who I sent on an errand before joining them. But they refused.
“They started pushing me. They dragged me out of the office. Then I began to cry while they were dragging me. They had warned me not to speak. They had taken my phone. My cry as they were dragging me, attracted the workers to the scene, who enquired what was going on, but because they ordered me not to speak, I couldn’t say anything. They had their guns.
The members of staff of the hospital initially blocked them from taking me away. They then made a call. After that I saw many masked and armed men came violently, broke the protector, threatening the people that were around and people ran away.
“They picked some staff that were still by me. they dragged me and other staff, five of us into their van downstairs. By that time they discovered that the gate of the hospital were locked. So, they drove towards the gate and packed and the commotion continued. We were inside the van.
“I was so emotionally and psychologically traumatised that I couldn’t even look out of the vehicle to see what was happening outside. But I know that teargas and live bullets were shot. That’s all I can say for now.”
Joyce Abdulmalik, of the Federal High Court, Abuja, heard on Wednesday, how Zenith Bank raised alarm over the huge transaction in one of its branches by Abubakar Malami, former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF-MoJ).
The bank said it immediately filed a Suspicious Transaction Report (STR) in respect to the transactions, during its appearance in the ongoing trial of Malami, his wife, and son over allegation of massive looting of funds belonging to the Federal Government during his tenure.
Mashelia Bata, a compliance officer with the bank, who appeared as witness in the case, where Malami, et al, are facing a 16-count charge bordering on alleged money laundering to the tune of N8.7 billion, to which they pleaded not guilty, gave the testimony while being questioned on the bank’s roles in the matter.
Details of the testimony conveyed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), stated how the compliance officer who was cross-examined by Adebayo Adedeji, lawyer to the defendants admitted that the deposits in the account statements complied with the guidelines of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Arguments had stretched when Adedeji, opposed Jibrin Okutepa (SAN), lawyer to the EFCC, who had asked the witness to explain the meaning of a suspicious transaction report, stressing that there was no ambiguity in the term.
However, Okutepa, in response, maintained that section 215(3) of the Evidence Act did not preclude him from re-examining the witness while urging the court to allow the question for proper explanation.
After Abdulmalik, agreed and overruled Adedeji, the witness told the court that banks were required to alert the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) about fund deposits coming in a repetitive pattern, adding: “Any deposition of funds seen in a pattern or repetitive, you must escalate it to the NFIU.”
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