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Nwosu replies Soludo: Single term, an option because you failed *ADC on rescue mission
John Nwosu, candidate of the African Democratic Congress in the November 8 governorship election in Anambra State, has clapped back at Charles Chukwuma Soludo, incumbent governor of the state, reminding him that nobody would have contemplated a single term option, had he kept faith with the people as he promised in 2021, when he was pitching for his present job.
Weighing in against the backdrop of the controversial statement the governor made on Friday, in which he declared that any candidate in an election that dared tell electorates that he would do a single term in office when the constitution allowed eight years, must be sent to a mental home for brain examination, Nwoso, dismissed the contention as not only fallacious, but scandalous, especially coming from the person of the governor.
Many Nigerians had interpreted the statement as a direct attack against Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), in the 2023 election, who had vowed that he would only do one term in office so as to give way to the North in fulfillment of the unwritten power-sharing agreement between the North and South of the country, through rotation of the presidency.
Brushing aside the allusion to any form of contextual interpretation of the governor’s declaration, at a party rally in Ekwulobia, Aguata Local Government Area of the state, the ADC candidate said in whatever light it was viewed, the comment was completely wrong.
A statement by Sunny Igboanugo, Director, Media and Publicity, John Chuma Nwosu Governorship Campaign Council (JCN-GCC), quoted the party flagbearer as saying that another four years of the listless governance, might sound the final death-knell on Anambra State that has been plunged into a bottomless pit in the last four years.
“It does not matter whether he was addressing Peter Obi or anybody else. The basic question should be, why should I be throwing my hat in the ring at a time like this? The answer is simple. Anambra is galloping dangerously towards the edge of the precipice. Nothing is working in the state because crime has taken over. With another four years of this dangerous glide, the disaster is predictable.
“I don’t want to wait for that to happen before doing something about it. I must provide the platform for the people of the state crying under the weight of the present parlous situation to take their fate in their hands and redeem the situation. So for me, rescuing Anambra from this dangerous drive, is not an option, it is a duty.”
Stressing that Anambra people would not be detained by the hidden gambit of suggesting that every governor must desire to spend eight years in office, dismissing it as pure blackmail, Nwosu argued that a well-focused, visionary and purposeful governor could deliver great feats in four years than a directionless and purposeless ones seeking power for the sake of it only.
“Let me leave out great men like Abraham Lincoln or John Kennedy or Mandela, who did not spend more than four years in office, as people have already pointed out. Look at what is happening in Abia State. See the exploits of Governor Alex Otti in just two years. The wonders he has performed during this period has surpassed the last 24 years of his predecessors.
“Such visionary leadership is what Anambra is missing and that’s what we are coming with. We don’t need more than four years to implement our SHEEMS agenda, which captures our vision for Security, Health, Education, Economy, Markets and Social Welfare. I don’t need four years to make Anambra run a smart government model by tracking criminals and fighting crimes through hi-tech mechanism.
It will not take us four years to rid our streets of state actors humiliating and torturing citizens in the street in the name of revenue collection. We don’t need four years to introduce Artificial Intelligence (AI-enabled) security system that will run on face-recognition technology with a fully-equipped Command and Control (CAC) certre, to fight crime.
“Our Healthcare will run on latest technology along the best practices in global medical practice usin AI and other hi-tech medical facilities, with focus on first-class assessable and affordable programmes anchored on Primary Health Care (PHC), complete with Emergency Medical and Transport Services (EMTS), he said.
“Transforming our Education through the STEM model of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics will be done in less than four years, using the current global prototype to equip our children with the ability to grapple with modern developments. Four years will not be needed for Anambra children to stand out once again as national bests in WAEC and NECO examinations.
“We shall deliver a new infrastructural map for Anambra State with a solid Road Maintenance Department (RMD) similar to the PWD (Public Works Department) in compliance with the Anambra Integrated Development Strategy (ANIDS). This will not take us four years to do.
“Our Markets programme of eradicating the choking taxing system will be achieved in less than four years. To enhance enterprises and improve ease of doing business, we will ensure tax reduction and our means of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) recovery will have human face. We shall deploy technology in revenue collection instead of the use of thugs.”
“As for our Social Welfare, we shall be empathetic to our people. We shall help them pick the pieces of their lives under the present harsh economic condition rather than making their conditions worse. Outside the yawning gap in real governance, has been a clear show of emotional intelligence. We shall alter this mindset and make our government about our people and not our people for government. We don’t need four years to do that.
“Let me reiterated that I shall do only four years and hand over. Within that period, I shall set Anambra on a sound pedestal, based on strong institutional framework that will never allow the present failure of leadership. Once that is achieved, our mission would have been achieved. The joy of achieving that is more fulfilling than even 100 years in office without anything to show.”
Justice Muhammad Nuraddeen Bello of High Court sitting in Sokoto State has sentenced three men, including a foreign national, to death by hanging, after convicting them on charges bordering on terrorism and arms proliferation.
The convicts, Yusuf Muhammad (alias Sallau), a Nigerien; Jabbi Alhaji Yalle; and Kabiru Muhammad, were apprehended on 13th June, 2025, by the Department of State Services (DSS) Counter Terrorism Unit in connection with cross-border criminal activities bordering on arms trafficking and terrorism.
Bello, who found all three defendants guilty as charged and sentenced them to death by hanging, while also ordering the forfeiture of all monetary exhibits recovered from the convicts to the Federal Government, said: “The conviction is the latest in a series of successful prosecutions by the DSS in its sustained operations against terrorism and organised cross-border criminal networks across Nigeria.”
The sentencing is coming about two weeks after the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja sentenced each of the five suspects arrested on May 31, 2026, by the DSS for their involvement in the November 21, 2025, attack on St Mary’s Catholic School, Papiri, Niger State, to 25 years’ imprisonment.
Justice Binta Nyako, had handed down the judgment after the men, including two Nigeriens, pleaded guilty to all four terrorism-related charges, bordering on support for the commission of an act of terrorism, breaching both Section 16 of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, and the Firearms Act, were pressed against them.
According to Count One, the men were accused of jointly conspiring to assist a terrorist by agreeing and intentionally playing various roles towards conveying 15 AK 103 rifles as well as about 1,434 rounds of 7.62mm live ammunition from the Diffa region, Republic of Niger, to one Malam Ahmad, a member of the Boko Haram terrorist group based in Borgu, Niger State, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 26(1) of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
Primate Elijah Ayodele, is on the verge of coughing out a whopping N10billion, if he fails to offer unrestrained apology to Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, former Governor of Kano State within the next 24 hours, and retract his claim that the former Minister of Defence is bidding his time to betray Peter Obi, to whom he is to contest the 2027 presidential election as a running mate.
Without doing so, the controversial cleric, should be ready for a major court battle with the vice-presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), the platform on which the pair is to contest the election.
In a letter indicating a legal action against Ayodele of the INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church over defamatory remarks, Kwankwaso, through Magaji Mato Ibrahim, SAN & Co., his lawyers demanded an immediate retraction and apology from the cleric over the allegations.
Details of the letter, dated June 11, and unveiled through the X platform of the legal team, was based on a viral video recorded during a live-streamed church service, where the preacher made allegations targeting Kwankwaso’s integrity as Peter Obi’s running mate under the NDC.
Quoting the cleric as stating: “KWANKWASO IS A FAKE TO OBI, KWANKWASO WILL BETRAY YOU. KWANKWASO HAS BEEN PAID TO BE VICE PRESIDENT TO OBI AMONG OTHER LIBELOUS COMMENTS WHILE PRETENDING TO BE A PREACHER,” the former governor said the comments were unprovoked, grossly unfounded, and carefully designed to create a rift within the ranks of the political party and its supporters.
Handing Ayodele a 24-hour ultimatum to publish a full and unequivocal retraction across all social media platforms and news outlets with the same prominence as the original video, they also demanded a written undertaking that he would cease and desist from making any further malicious statements against their client, warning that failure to comply, would lead to full legal actions.
The letter stated: “We shall claim substantial damages to the tune of Ten Billion Naira and cost of the action on a full indemnity basis amongst other reliefs.”
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday demanded the immediate end to the exportation of minerals from countries in Africa in their raw forms, which he said had led to massive exploitation of the continent.
The President, told member countries of the African Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG), a forum of Ministers in charge of Mining and Solid Minerals on the continent to speak with one voice to promote, collective interests, ensure value addition, and prevent the continent from becoming merely a source of raw materials for the rest of the world.
As the Grand Patron of the group, chaired by Dele Alake, Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, gave the charge while receiving a delegation of AMSG in the State House, Tinubu told the delegation that the group had a critical role to play in strengthening Africa’s bargaining power in the global mineral market and ensuring that the continent derives maximum value from its natural resources.
His words: “ What we should do is avoid bureaucracy and deceit; we must put an end to exploitation. The rest of the world won’t mind if your country is a cesspit of dams and rubbish and excavates your raw materials without giving value.
“It is our responsibility to collaborate and cooperate to ensure that these metals and minerals bring value to us, bring technology to us, and we can do it. It is how much each country will put into the research, development and refinery. I don’t see reasons we cannot demand centralisation of that conversation somewhere on the continent. So why not utilise that in our research and development and knowledge-based economy to enhance the quality of life and bring prosperity to our people.”
Emphasising that Africa possessed enormous mineral wealth that should be strategically harnessed to drive industrialisation, create jobs and accelerate economic transformation across the continent, the President, said the era of exporting raw minerals without local processing and beneficiation must give way to a new model that encourages investment in local industries, technology transfer and the development of value chains that retain wealth within Africa.
Alake, who had earlier expressed gratitude to the President for his exemplary leadership under the Renewed Hope Agenda, said the gesture had shown support for Nigeria’s mineral sector, especially in the local value-addition and economic diversification drive, where artisanal miners are empowered.
He told the President: “You encouraged us to look at the focal point of the establishment of this group, which is to ensure that the African natural resources, especially with regards to minerals, critical matters, are localised, the beneficiation coming directly to Africans generally.
“You charged us that we should set our sails very high and ensure that local value addition is a pivot around which all the objectives of this organisation should revolve.
“So, sir, we have gone implemented your charge and we are quitted that today local value addition is reverberating all over Africa.”
He added that some member countries have gone ahead to ban the export of raw minerals.
He explained members of the body were in Abuja for the Fifth edition of the African Natural Resources and Energy Investment Summit (AFNIS 2026), to push for a new continental approach to resource management and industrial development.
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