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I’m shocked at Tinubu’s volte-face – Obi *Insists President culpable in ADC crisis
For Peter Obi, candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 presidential election, one of the most surprising developments in Nigeria today is the role President Bola Ahamed Tinubu is playing to promote and sustain the current parlous political situation.
Obi, who stated on Monday that nobody needed a crystal ball to ascertain that the President and the All Progressives Congress (APC) were responsible for the various crises faced by opposition parties in Nigeria, maintained that Tinubu’s past pro-democracy records had since vanished and left him promoting the sort of anti-democratic acts he fought against years back.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), hitherto, Nigeria’s main opposition, LP and now the African Democratic Congress (ADC), have at various times witnessed intense leadership crises, with all but two of governors elected on the platform of the former ruling party, defecting to the APC.
Obi, former Governor of Anambra State, who is now a major contender for the presidential ticket of the ADC, told his host on Prime Time, a public affairs programme on ARISE NEWS Television that all the crises, had the hand of the APC hand sponsoring renegades to cause trouble.
Against the backdrop of the bombshell dropped by the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), which on April 1, 2026, announced that it was no longer recognising the leadership of David Mark and Rauf Aregbesola, National Chairman and National Secretary respectively, Obi maintained that it had all the shades of the external forces.
Obi, who hinged his position on the alleged denial of the ADC permission to use government-owned grounds as the venue for the convention, and blocking even the ones owned by private individual, said it was a clear signal to the situation of opposition in the country.
His words: “That shows you the integrity of our democracy. If you’re denied the simple thing like venues and everything, it shows where the country is drifting to where parties – everything enshrined in our constitution – yet, a party that is supposed to be the main opposition party cannot be allowed to exist.
“The problem is the government. The government doesn’t want other parties to exist. They’re not playing by the rules. I don’t know why they’re doing that but I believe that unless a party in power decides to support our institutions to be able to play their parts, we’ll be having such problems.”
Regarding the question of INEC derecognition of the Mark executive, Obi disagreed, saying: “There have been decided cases clearly that say that INEC as a referee or a regulatory body should not and nobody should interfere in the internal affairs of a political party. There are so many decided cases, which ordinarily would have been enough. But because the present government is bent on disrupting the entire system, that’s why we’re going round and round.
“You can see what they have reduced our judiciary to. It is now become part of the mess they’re creating. Government in power should ensure and protect the opposition. They should make opposition work. They should make it stronger.
“I’ve been in party disputes in the past under President (Umaru) Yar’Adua. I recall him calling the then INEC Chairman and saying, I don’t want any problem in any of the parties. I want the parties to be stable, function very well and we have free, credible, transparent elections.
“Look at what is now happening to our democracy. It is now being destroyed. And it is being destroyed by those who yesterday were victims of similar things and were shouting to the world and threatening to bring down everything if the right things were not done.
“Now, you have the opportunity. That’s what is surprising me in Nigeria – how people can be show commitment to a cause or promise something and when they’re given the opportunity, they’ll fail dramatically.
“Nobody would have believed that today, we’ll be where we are in this democratic process considering the actors who are involved in governance today.”
The echoes of the drums rolled out to celebrate the rescue of the 44 teachers and students, kidnapped from some schools in Oyo State, after 56 days in the bush, would surely be disrupted abruptly, with the divergent echoes of a fresh abduction, this time coming from Kogi State.
Reports indicate that the gunmen, struck on Tuesday at the Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, in Dekina Local Government Area of the state, abducting four students, the school principal and a National Examinations Council (NECO) ad hoc staff member.
Authorities of the Kogi State Police Command, who immediately unleashed their operatives in hot pursuit of the abductors, said the attack occurred at about 5:25 p.m. while the students were writing their NECO examination.
Saliu Oyiza Afusat, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and spokesman of the command, said a combined team of police personnel and other security agencies has launched a search-and-rescue operation following the incident.
Informing that one of the students was actually rescued immediately, she said efforts were ongoing to secure the release of the remaining victims and apprehend the attackers, adding that Naziru Bello Kankarofi, the state Commissioner of Police, alongside the Brigade Commander and the State Security Adviser to the Governor, Commodore Jerry Omodara (Rtd), were already on the way to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment.
Oil prices are expected to go down now with the announcement of Donald Trump, US President that he will no longer impose a 20 percent “safe passage” fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The POTUS, hinged his reversal of the decision on the intervention from some Gulf countries, who pleaded with him not to toe the line due to the massive economic impact the decision would make on the region.
Indeed, oil prices had shot up immediately Trump announced the new levy on Monday while declaring the US ‘the guardians of the Hormuz strait,’ a measure which he said was to pay for the cost of guarding the volatile area in order keep supply of oil flowing.
Reports said that Gulf allies of the US worked frantically to get Trump on the phone in time to talk him out of the idea altogether, while a flurry of appeals came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
In response, the POTUS, posting on his Truth Social platform, wrote: “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.”
Trump, who said the investments would be “MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” added that the deals would see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the US at “Historic levels.”
The Gulf nations have committed to invest trillions of dollars in the US, though it remains unclear how much of that they will actually spend over the next several years.
Meanwhile, the US continues to bomb Iran in what appears to be a resumption of active conflict between both countries, despite an ongoing roadmap to end the conflict.
Reports say operatives of the Osun State Police Command, and those of the Department of State Services (DSS) had tracking the trail of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), for weeks, before he was eventually pulled out of his hole on Tuesday.
However, the duo, were said to have pulled back after failing to track him through his mobile phones, which he had reportedly switched off for about two days, making it difficult to locate him, leaving the stage for the members of the Police Intelligence Response Team (PI-RT) led by Moses Lohor, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
Lohor, said to have previously served as the Commander of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of Osun State, and reported to have been involved in high-profile security operations and controversies, after taken over fielded his men to pick up signals from their well-oiled signal networks.
Regarded by many Osun residents as one of the key security officers who contributed significantly to the peace and stability enjoyed in Ilesa and other parts of the state during his tenure, he was said to have relied on his contacts before his transfer out of the state, said to have raised concerns from the public about the security situation he would be leaving behind.
His exit from the state was said to be hinged on an incident in 2024, in which he allegedly shot one Iyanda Alowonle, then Chairman of Osun State Motor Transport System, in the stomach at the police station in the state prompting an order for his arrest by then Inspector General of Police (IGP).
His effort was said to have paid off when he successfully tracked down the controversial PFIPC, boss, who was seen on Tuesday evening, in a shot video on social media undergoing interrogation, and eventually handed him over to Ibrahim Gotan, Commissioner of Police in the state.
The PUNCH quoted one of the sources as saying: “The arrest (of Adeyemi) took place on Tuesday morning by the IRT squad, who immediately moved him to Abuja. After he was arrested, he was taken to Ibadan and from there to Abuja.”
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