News
Who is making Dr. Ikpeazu Chinese or North Korean?
Ikechukwu Ogbonna
Last week, an innocuous but dangerous story surfaced online and some WhatsApp platforms. The story, which could have fitted into an April fool’s Day treatise or at best, a comic relief, bore no source or byline of any writer.
Titled : “Breaking News”, it went on to state that in “a landmark ruling that has stunned the nation, the Abia State High Court has sentenced former Governor Okezie Ikpeazu to death by hanging after investigators traced N1 Trillion to his secret foreign account in Australia.” It went further to state that, “the money was originally budgeted for the Abia International Airport Project and a light rail system that promised to change the ace of the state.”
One fictitious Justice Chukwuemeka Nwogu, who was said to have delivered the judgement was copiously quoted and security guards were said to have kept the former Governor under heavy guard, pending the execution.
Ordinarily, the ruse of a story would have been dismissed as one of those Click baiting stories or at best, a joke taken too far. But when a prominent Igbo journalist, a septuagenarian and a columnist in major newspapers, Chudi Amuta, uploaded the story on his Facebook page and it started circulating online and WhatApp platforms, it was evident that someone was pushing the ruse but found no better way of attacking Ikpeazu, other than using a deviously mischievous means to attain the goal.
Instructively, Ikpeazu found no reason to react to the story since it existed only on the imagination of the ghost writer. Ikpeazu did not bother to react because, in the first place, there was no such case anywhere. Again, had there been such a judgement , it would have been novel in Nigeria, putting our country at par with the likes of China and North Korea, where such bizarre pronouncements are made and executed.
For sure, there is no provision in Nigeria’s Law, both the Penal and Criminal Codes that provided death by hanging for any corruption case, no matter the magnitude.
The authors and backers of the rogue article only wanted to embarrass or unsettle Ikpeazu, who had maintained his silence since he left office in May 2023. As at the time the ‘Concoction’ was making rounds, Ikpeazu was in his country home in Abia, attending to his private matters.
But a development following discreet investigations by his aides revealed something shocking. The Judge, whose photograph was used to illustrate the story pointed out that, that copy of the portrait that was used was his official photograph, which was only available to the state government, at the State Ministry of Justice. He wondered how such an official document found its way to bloggers and writers, when in the real sense, photographs of judges are not in the public domain.
The big question now is: Who leaked the photograph from the state government’s custody? Did thieves steal the file of the judge or someone in the ministry was doing a job against Ikpeazu?
The answer to that question is now left for the state government led by Dr. Alex Otti, to answer.
But certain facts stand out. It is on record that Otti had accused Ikpeazu previously of budgeting N10billion for an airport, which he(Otti) did not see on assumption of office. That was despite Ikpeazu stating clearly that some leaders of the state considered an airport project not a high priority when the proposal was made. As such, the fund was channelled into other pressing state needs at that time.
What is evident currently is that mischief makers and agents of destruction in Abia forget that Ikpeazu has finished his eight-year, two-four-year terms successfully. He is not in a contest with Otti or any other person in the state. Otti has a re-election in 2027 to battle for. He will face the people of the state, not Ikpeazu. He will face the APC, PDP, ADC and other parties that are interested in governing Abia. Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, an accomplished Academic, has no business with the success or failure of Otti, having finished his own tenure and handed over two years ago.
So, rather than chasing shadows of a past administration, Otti and his men should focus on convincing Abians on the need for his second term. He should rather worry about which platform he will use to prosecute the 2027 election, now that his platform, Labour Party is wobbly and without a sure footing.
He should also channel his energy to delivering tangible projects that will convince the people about his genuineness on the seat. It is not Ikpeazu that stopped President Bola Tinubu from coming to the state last week, after all the hype and noise about inaugurating his projects, which was eventually done by the Minister of Works, David Umahi at the last minute. That was after the president had been advertised to be coming to Abia three times to no avail.
One thing that is certain is that, Ikpeazu would not be on the ballot with Otti again. So, the governor and his goons have their work cut out. No amount of Campaign of Calumny against Ikpeazu is enough to stop the looming battle in the state in 2027.
Ikpeazu is in his home and is not under security surveillance. Neither is he under any trial by any manufactured Judge. Even if he is under trail, it will be a public issue, not a story written with no name by faceless writers. The writers should come out and boldly state their case. The Innocent is not afraid. It is the guilty that is afraid of his shadows. Nigeria is neither China nor North Korea.
Ogbonna, a Lawyer, wrote from Aba
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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