News
Deal with Wike, Anyanwu, Fayose, others at your own risk – Turaki
It was yet a clatter of political weaponry as the two contending factions for the soul of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), entered a fresh battle zone on Thursday, by releasing public disclaimers against each other, each of them still laying claims to the authentic leadership of the former ruling party.
Shortly after the leadership of the party controlled by Kabiru Turaki released a disclaimer against those it claimed to have sacked recently, the opposing group in the camp of Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), followed suit.
Both sides displayed pictures of those they claimed to have expelled from the party and warning the public not to deal with them with the Turaki group also containing names of Samuel Anyanwu, embattled National Secretary, Ayodele Fayose, former Governor of Ekiti State and Umar Bature, they claimed were affected by the decision of its National Convention held in Ibadan on November 15 to 16.
Others included, in the document signed by Turaki, who was elected as National Chairman at th convention, included Kamaldeen Ajibade, Mao Ohuabunwa, George Turnah, Dan Orbih, Austine Nwachukwu, Mon’d Abdulrahman and Abraham Amah.
“These actions were necessary to cleanse our ranks of elements who have consistently worked against the PDP’s interests, including holding parallel congresses, sponsoring litigations and canvassing votes for opposing parties.
“With these certificates, the affected individuals are free to continue to align with any political platform of their choice, but they can no longer claim membership of the PDP. We must now rebuild ahead of the next general election. The PDP will never die. This party is bigger than any individual or group, and those who have chosen to dine with our opponents while still wearing our colours have been shown the way out.”
But in a swift reaction, the Wike group, not only fired back, but released its own 18-man list it claimed to have been expelled at a meeting of its own National Executive Committee (NEC) on November 18 for offences ranging from “anti-party activities” to “gross misconduct”.
The 18-man list cancelling that of the 11 in the Turaki list, included, Bala Mohammed, Governor of Bauchi State, Seyi Makinde, his Oyo State counterpart, Emmanuel Udom, former Governor of Akwa-Ibom State, Adolphus Wabara, former Senate President and Board of Trustees (BoT) Chairman, Dauda Lawal, Taofeek Arapaja, Kabiru Tanimu Turaki, and Ben Obi, Bode George, Okechukwu Obiechina, Emmanuel Ogidi.
Others in the list, signed by Anyanwu, who was one time at the centre of the PDP leadership crisis, included, Emmanuel Eledan, Suleiman Kadade Mohammed, Sumaila Adamu Bunza, Kosheodo Sotonji, Daniel Woyengikuro, Umar Sani and Umar Bargo.
Anyanwu warned: “Anybody parading himself as a newly elected national officer of the party is an impostor and a meddlesome interloper. The Ibadan convention that produced Turaki’s NWC was a charade and a mere social gathering not recognised by the constitution of the party.
For President Bola Ahmed Tinubu there is no other way for African countries to get out of the woods but to engage in massive industrialisation – transforming their rich mineral resources into finished products rather than exporting them in their raw states.
This was the major highlight as he took the podium on Tuesday at the ongoing Africa Forward Summit at the Kenyatta Convention Centre in Nairobi.
Tinubu, who led Nigeria’s government, diplomatic, and business delegation to event, told his audience that Nigeria was ready to assist in the deeper economic integration and industrial growth and prosperity he envisaged for the continent.
Highlighting Nigeria’s blue economy potential as a key driver of Africa’s development, and decrying its underutilisation due to insecurity and uncertainty, he said: “Today, I make an explicit commitment: Nigeria will intensify regional coordination by offering our Deep Blue Project’s maritime intelligence infrastructure as a shared data hub for willing Gulf of Guinea states.
“Interoperable systems, harmonised laws, and seamless joint enforcement must become the daily reality, not an aspiration on paper. Let no one misunderstand: maritime sovereignty does not repel investment — it attracts it. Secure sea lanes, predictable regulation, and functional courts are the preconditions that unlock private capital. Governance has de-risked Nigeria’s maritime proposition. We now invite partners to build on these gains as we advance climate-aligned port modernisation and the digital transformation of our maritime sector.
“As we endorse the Nairobi Declaration, Nigeria affirms that maritime sovereignty and ocean governance are the non-negotiable foundations of Africa’s Blue Economy transformation. We will continue to earn that sovereignty — through institutions, through assets, through law, and through iron-clad regional solidarity that turns our waters from a theatre of risk into a story of shared resilience.
“The oceans have no duplicate as a common heritage of mankind. For Africa, moving from sea blindness to ocean sovereignty is not a choice — it is a generational duty. Nigeria is ready, and we invite all present to join us in that duty.”
Blaming international financial system, for the poor state of industrialization in Africa, Tinubu insisting that Africa must not remain locked into raw-material exports while importing finished goods.
Hear him: “Last September, from the podium of the United Nations General Assembly, Nigeria warned that the international system must reform or risk irrelevance. We spoke not only of the Security Council but of the financial and trade structures that quietly de-industrialise our nations. The evidence is before us. Despite decades of independence, Africa’s share of global manufacturing value added remains below 2 per cent.
“We export raw minerals, crude oil, and agricultural commodities, and we import processed goods at a premium. This pattern is not an accident. It is the product of a global financial architecture that starves our industries of affordable capital, tolerates massive illicit financial flows, and imposes policy constraints that our competitors themselves never observed when they built their own industrial bases.
“Nigeria does not come to this discussion as a supplicant. We come as a nation that has taken painful, homegrown decisions to put our house in order — removing fuel subsidies, unifying our exchange rate, recapitalising our banking system with over US$3.4 billion, and exiting the FATF grey list. These reforms were sovereign choices, not external conditions. They have delivered a declining debt-to-GDP ratio, now projected at 32.3 per cent in 2026, stronger external reserves of $45.5 billion, and a return of investor confidence. But, Excellencies, even a reforming nation like Nigeria is being forced to de-industrialise by a financial system that is stacked against us.”
The President added that in 2026, Nigeria will spend about US$11.6 billion on debt servicing — nearly half of projected revenue.
“Every single dollar that leaves our treasury to pay punitive interest rates is a dollar that did not go into our steel sector, our textile mills, our agro-processing plants, or our digital industries. It is a dollar that did not train a young Nigerian engineer or provide affordable power for our factories. Our industrial base is being starved of the blood it needs — long-term, affordable finance — while creditors and rating agencies treat African sovereigns as permanent high-risk borrowers, regardless of our fiscal performance.
“So, I ask this gathering: how can an African manufacturer compete with a competitor in Europe, Asia, or North America when the cost of borrowing in our nations is five to ten times higher? How can we build cross-border industrial value chains under the African Continental Free Trade Area when our infrastructure projects face a financing gap deepened by the very institutions meant to bridge it? The answer is plain: we cannot. The international financial architecture, as currently constituted, is an instrument of industrial disarmament for Africa.
“Nigeria is not asking for charity. We are demanding a financial system that intentionally enables Africa to industrialise — to process its own minerals, refine its own crude oil, manufacture its own pharmaceuticals, and compete fairly in global markets. We will continue to borrow responsibly, but we insist that our creditworthiness be measured by our economic fundamentals and our industrial potential, not by outdated stereotypes,” he noted.
On migration, Tinubu said addressing root causes was essential, stressing that people would not risk dangerous journeys if opportunities existed at home.
He said Nigeria had embedded migration management within its broader economic reforms, including subsidy removal, banking recapitalisation, and agricultural modernisation.
He also called on international partners to increase investments in climate adaptation, energy access, digital skills, and job-creating sectors, urging that a portion of Official Development Assistance (ODA) be directed toward reducing irregular migration pressures.
Tinubu also called for stronger African cooperation in shaping global migration governance, saying existing frameworks such as the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration remained insufficient due to their non-binding nature.
He expressed support for African Union initiatives including the Migration Policy Framework and the Khartoum Process, while urging stronger links between regional and global systems.
The Africa Forward Summit, co-hosted by Presidents Emmanuel Macron and William Ruto, brought together leaders and officials from over 30 countries.
Opening statements were delivered by Macron, Ruto, UN Secretary-General António Guterres, and African Union Commission Chair Mahamoud Ali Youssouf.
On the sidelines, Tinubu met Madagascar’s President Michael Randrianirina and held talks with CAF President Patrice Motsepe, where he reaffirmed Nigeria’s readiness to host the 2026 CAF Awards.
He was accompanied by senior government officials, including ministers of foreign affairs, finance, agriculture, marine and blue economy, environment, industry, communications, as well as leading private sector figures such as Aliko Dangote, Tony Elumelu, Abdulsamad Rabiu, and Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede.
The summit featured discussions on investment, AI, digitalisation, agriculture, creative industries, climate change, and strategies to translate policy discussions into industrial development across Africa.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is claiming to be the victim in the fracas that ensued at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH) in Akwa Ibom on Tuesday, which led to the arrest of Eyo Ekpe, Deputy Chairman of the hospital’s Medical Advisory Committee (MAC).
In a detailed account of the incident, which caused panic at the institution following the arrival of the EFCC operatives at the facility, the anti-graft agency, explained that its operatives were in the hospital on lawful duties to make enquiries on a medical report of one of its suspects.
On Tuesday, a video clip showing workers, patients and visitors, scampering away as plumes of smoke suspected to be from teargas canisters fired into the premises, went viral, attracting a backlash from the public.
Amid the commotion that ensued, the operatives, said to have arrived the institution in two saloon cars and a tinted bus, with some officers wearing masks and others dressed in EFCC-branded jackets, eventually spirited away Epe, Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery.
Dele Oyewale, spokesman of the commission, however said the operation was legitimate, adding that the operatives only visited the hospital to authenticate a medical report presented by a suspect who has been remanded over allegations of defrauding multiple microfinance banks, including University of Uyo Microfinance Bank.
Oyewale Head of Media and Publicity, who narrated how the agency previously wrote two different letters to the hospital management over the medical report but received no response, added decided to visit the hospital for further enquiry over the matter.
He wrote in a statement: “As a last resort, operatives of the Commission visited the Chief Medical Director of the hospital on Tuesday to make further enquiries, only to be locked in with a false alarm and subjected to unprovoked attack by misguided staff of the facility who pelted them with stones and other dangerous objects,” the statement reads.
“While within the hospital, the CMD reportedly directed that gates of the facility be shut, making it impossible for any lawful enquiry to be made.
“Police authorities in Akwa Ibom State advised the CMD to open the hospital gates to enable the operatives exit the premises peacefully but the entreaties were turned down.
“In spite of the hostility and provocation, there was no breakdown of law and order as the operatives exercised restraint and professionally made their ways out of the hospital premises without disrupting its activities.
“Enquiries bordering on operational engagements of the Commission are lawful. It is therefore necessary to remind the public and corporate bodies that they are obligated to cooperate with the agency in such circumstances.”
Operatives of the Ogun State Police Command, have launched an intensive manhunt to rescue three members of a family, who were taken captives after gunmen launched an attack on residents of Ipojo Golden Estate in the Oke-Eri, in Ijebu-Ode area of the state.
The incident, which indicated another taste yet again of the current insecurity sweeping across the country, was said to have occurred on Monday evening.
Oluseyi Babaseyi, spokesman of the command, who spoke of the efforts of the operatives, confirmed the accounts of the residents who said the attackers came around 7 p.m., armed with sophisticated weapons, forcefully gained entry into the residence, ransacked the building, and whisked away the three victims.
A palpably anguished Yesiru Badewa, head of the family of the abductees, who was said to have been away on official duty when the incident occurred, was quoted as warning that one of the victims was seriously ill and faced life-threatening danger.
His words: “This has devastated us. One of those abducted is sick, and we are worried her condition may deteriorate in captivity. We appeal to the authorities and kind-hearted Nigerians to come to our aid.”
Oluseyi Babaseyi, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), however called for calm as the command had intensified tactical operations to rescue the victims and apprehend the perpetrators, adding that the operatives were committed to tackling kidnapping and ensuring the safety of residents and property in the state.
Hear him: “The Ogun State Police Command is aware of the incident at Ipojo Golden Estate, Oke-Eri, Ijebu-Ode, and has intensified tactical and intelligence operations to rescue the victims and apprehend the perpetrators. The command remains proactive and committed to tackling kidnapping and other violent crimes across the state.”
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