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Leregate! We’re beginning to fathom Wike’s gloating over 2027 – Atiku
Nothing but an independent an “independent and transparent” investigation into the unauthorised release of the voter registration details of Emeka Ike, a Nollywood actor, will satisfy Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the African Democratic Party (ADC).
The demand is coming against the backdrop of the controversy surrounding how Lere Olayinka, spokesman to Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) got access into the actor’s private data with the Independent National Electoral Commission, not accessible to the public.
The information had been shared in the screenshots displayed by the Minister’s spokesman on his X platform, showing details of Ike’s voter registration transfer from Imo state to the nation’s capital city.
The development had generated a groundswell of outcries from Nigerians who demanded to know how Olayinka came about the information, restricted only to the administrative portal of the commission, which could only be accessed through passwords known to only its personnel.
Joining the fray, Atiku discountenanced the position of the commission, which in a statement on Tuesday, dismissed claims of a major breach or external hacking of its continuous voter registration (CVR) database.
The electoral umpire, had attributed the unauthorised disclosure of Ike’s voter information to the misuse of valid internal credentials by authorised personnel.
But pooh-poohing the commission’s position, Atiku, Nigeria’s Vice President between 1999 and 2007, who conveyed his position through Phrank Shaibu, his spokesman, maintained that although INEC had admitted that sensitive voter information had been released without authorisation, the commission failed to provide answers to some questions.
Stressing the need for the commission to provide answers on how sensitive voter information in its custody found its way to the hands of a political actor, the former VP stated that it must go beyond publishing press statements on the issue to providing full findings of the investigation for transparency purposes.
“INEC’s statement has moved this issue beyond conjecture. The Commission has now confirmed that voter information was accessed through credentials assigned to personnel participating in the ongoing CVR exercise and that such information was released without authority.
“That admission alone should concern every Nigerian. What Nigerians want to know is simple: how did information that resides within a restricted electoral database find its way into the hands of political actors and their associates?
“The fact that there was no external hack does not diminish the gravity of the incident. If anything, it raises even more troubling questions about internal controls, institutional safeguards, and the possibility of political interference.
“The Nigerian people deserve to know the complete chain of custody. Who accessed the information? Who requested it? Who received it? How did it leave INEC’s custody? And why did the trail lead directly to political actors associated with a serving minister who has repeatedly made unusually confident pronouncements about the outcome of a future election?”
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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