News
Jandor: Tinubu didn’t endorses Hamzat *I’ve briefed President on my ambition
It is not true that President Bola Tinubu has settled for Obafemi Hamzat, currently Deputy Governor, as his choice to replace Babajide Sanwo-Olu, his boss in next year’s governorship election in Lagos.
This angle came from Abdulazeez Adediran, who is also eying the number one job in the state after missing it in 2023, when he contested for it on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), coming third behind Sanwo-Olu the winner and Gbadebo Rhodes Vivour of the Labour Party (LP).
Against the backdrop of emerging stories in recent days that both the President and the powerbrokers in Lagos, had settled for the Hamzat, Adediran, popularly known as “Jandor,” told his host while appearing on Politics Today, a public affairs programme on Channels Television he would be one of the first to know about such a development, being very much keen for the job.
His words: “He (Hamzat) hasn’t even said to us himself that he is running. He is the deputy governor of Lagos, qualified, with over 20 years of experience in that space. As we speak, the party says it’s going to be direct primaries. If tomorrow it says this is what we are doing, we will fall in line. The party is supreme.
“No, the President hasn’t endorsed anyone. I am an aspirant, and we are a few people also gunning for this. We will be the first set of people to know if there is anything like that because communication will come.”
Revealing his own encounter with the President over the matter, the former PDP candidate, who defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC), last year, admitted that Tinubu neither discouraged him from contesting nor promised him the party’s ticket.
He said his earlier attempt to poach for the job was based on his belief that he could deliver adding that even Tinubu made his own ambition to run for offices open before going for them.
Jandor, who spoke on the political profile in the state, also announced the death of any opposition to the ruling APC structure, adding that though he trusted in his own ability to take over from Sanwo-Olu, he would support any candidate the party produced if he was not favoured.
Hear him: “Absolutely, because if you don’t believe in yourself, nobody will believe in you. When the President was running for the ticket, he came out to say he wanted to run. Lagos politics is increasingly consolidating. There is nothing like opposition again in the state. I will support the party if I fail to secure its ticket.
With Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu serving his final term, the race for the 2027 Lagos governorship is gathering pace within the APC.
Prominent figures who have been rumoured to be intersted in the seat include Hamzat, former governor Akinwunmi Ambode, Tokunbo Abiru, an aide to the President, Hakeem Muri-Okunola; Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, and Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa.
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.”
-
News4 days agoBREAKING: Mystery death! *Female student dies a day after arriving Umahi’s home!
-
News4 days agoDon’t jump to conclusion! *Umahi speaks on mysterious death of female students!
-
News3 weeks agoBREAKING: Court sentences Nigerien, two others to death over terrorism
-
News2 weeks agoBREAKING: EX-SSG mowed down by gunmen! *He resisted being kidnapped – driver
-
News4 weeks agoTwo hours after Igboho’s ‘red-eyes’ to ‘Fulani’ leaders, gunmen free kidnap victims!
-
News3 weeks agoAbductors of Oyo teachers panicking, freedom coming for victims soon!
-
News3 weeks agoChicagogate: Nigerians return to court! *Move to stop Tinubu from 2027 polls
-
News3 weeks agoObi to Tinubu: You’ve done enough harm, resign now! *President worse than Starmer