Edo: The Comrade at Bay.

By Okharedia Ihimekpen

There are many people who believe that Comrade Adams Oshiomhole deserves to be taught a lesson over the certificate scandal he is facing in an election petition tribunal in Edo state. A stunted growth adult, Oshiomhole believes he has finally got the Universal theory, which is “The political elimination of the Godfathers”, in other to rescue his people from the sterile dishes of good and bad governance. He regards himself as a child of history, destined to retire all perceived political enemies in other to impose himself as the only undisputed leader of his Edo people.
He combines an adroit machismo and daring, brilliantly evocative of Ibrahim Babangida, the self made ex-Military President and evil genius of Nigeria. It is not surprising then, because of his considerable skill and religious commitment to the use of abusive and uncut language, that he has used his fabulous labour experience to compel even the Edo intellectuals of the likes of Odigie Oyegun and the Chief David Edebiris, to bow to his whims and caprices to fashion for himself a catholic role in Edo state politics.
He is the symbol of Anti-Anenihism and Anti Godfatherism in Edo, a society dominated by formidable foes. The question is, assuming he Oshiomhole really posses the primary and the modern school leaving certificates he claims to have in the oath he deposed to before the Independent National Electoral Commission, is Edo state not too sophisticated to be governed by such a semi-literate fellow, who can hardly differentiate between micro and macro economics, nor put before the Lamido Sanusi the Edo’s position on his economics of the new Naira notes.
Oshiomhole firebrand personality had been forged in the furnace of trade unionism. Though as he confessed in the AIT sponsored political debate, that everybody knows his history, as haven started at the age of 17 years, he also has confessed in other occasions that he joined the Arewa Textile industry as a tailoring apprentice and junior staff before he joined the Labour Union.
Being a dropout after a year in the Modern school, on the account of his parents being unable to pay his fees, Oshiomhole grew up with cruel indignation and anger against all establishment, as being the only way to establish himself. Oshiomhole grew up a bitter man, whose past had been humiliated by deprivation and poverty and by a decadent leadership and absolute statecraft.
In 2007, the Lucky Igbeinedion cabal desperately in search of who to use against Chief Tony Anenih and the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party found in Oshiomhole the needed qualities to silent the duo once and for all.
Igbinedion and his “Grace Group” while in the PDP served as moles by allegedly bankrolling Oshiomhole's election expenses in the Action Congress of Nigeria and at the same time giving Edo electorate the impression that they were still in the PDP. To compound the issue, Senator Oserheimen Osunbor of the PDP, though won the 2007 election, could not display political maturity in victory. He allowed himself to be engulfed in political intrigues he was poorly educated about, even when his election victory was still being challenged by Oshiomhole and the Igbinedion cabal in the tribunal. Osunbor eventually lost the contest, so much that, the shock has today rendered him into political irrelevance in the politics of the state.
Ironically it is the same PDP that has developed  cold feet in the people’s desire to challenge the election and the academic credentials of Oshiomhole in an election tribunal. Three factors had always worked against the PDP since 1999. First was the recycling of Lucky Igbinedion in 2003, in the sermon that there was no vacancy in the Government House except Igbinedion, even when it was obvious that he, Igbinedion, has not performed. Secondly, the arrogance the party displayed when in power and thirdly their lack of political will, inconsistency and inability to take radical decisions on issues that borders on the sensitivity of the people.
This is exactly what they have just displayed in the case of their withdrawal from court, even when the generality of their party faithfuls are behind their candidate General Ehigie Airhiavbere.
This also informed why the followers of the party unanimously filed behind Airhiavbere in November 2011, when the party held it primaries. Tired of the status quo, and anxiously in a hurry to bring on board a new PDP, the party faithful rejected the call to support old members of the party who were contesting the party primaries for the new comer Airhiavbere as their flag bearer, just as it is today that Airhiavbere has become the rallying point of the party.
Today, the tribunal is on course and there are two things that must come to pass in Edo after the titanic trial. First, whichever way the pendulum goes, governance of Edo State will never be the same again. Second, the tribunal would have redeemed the integrity of the judiciary to have done justice and Justice seen to have been done. But let there be no two opinions about it that, while Airhiavbere would have written his name in the league of Edo political history as a man that led his people at the time of need, Oshiomhole too would always remain a reference point even now as the Edo comrade is at bay.

Jonathan, David Mark, Tambuwal, Gbonigi others congratulate Mimiko

Jubilant crowd in Akure

President Goodluck Jonathan has congratulated Olusegun Mimiko, the winner of Saturday’s governorship election in Ondo state. This was made known in a statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Reuben Abati said. DOWNLOAD the results HERE.
Jonathan said “as Governor Mimiko looks forward to the commencement of his second term in Office, the President urges him to be prepared to work even harder to  justify the fresh mandate given to him by the people of Ondo state who voted for his re-election on Saturday.”
“President Jonathan assures Dr. Mimiko that the Federal Government will continue to engage constructively and positively with the Ondo State Government in collaborative efforts to achieve faster socio-economic development and better living conditions for people in the state and all other parts of Nigeria,” the statement added.
The Returning Officer, Adebiyi Daramola had declared Mr Mimiko the winner of the Ondo election having polled the most number of votes.
Dr Mimiko of the Labour Party had polled a total of 260, 199 votes. The PDP placed second with 155, 512 while ACN came third with 143, 512 votes.
Meanwhile report from Abuja confirmed that the Senate President, Senator David Mark has spoken with Dr. Mimiko on phone. He was said to have congratulated him on his success at the poll.
The Speaker  of the House of Representatives, Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal has also congratulated Dr. Olusegun Mimiko over his re-election as Governor of Ondo State for a second term. He made this known in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Malam Imam Imam, Tambuwal noted that Mimiko’s victory was a manifestation of the people’s trust in his leadership abilities.
ALSO, a close friend of Dr. Mimiko confirmed that several other notable personalities from within and across the country such as Rtd Rev. Bolanle Gbonigi, Chief Edwin Clerk, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, Chief Anthony Anenih and others have all sent congratulatory messages to Dr. Mimiko.
With votes counted from 18 local governments areas of Ondo State, Dr. Mimiko , the candidate of the Labour Party, garnered 260, 199 votes winning majority of the total valid votes in 13 local government areas of the state. He thus fulfilled the two third requirement stipulated by law.
Two of his main rivals, Olusola Oke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)and Barrister Rotimi Akeredolu of the Action Congress Party of Nigeria polled 155, 961 and 143,512 votes respectively .
LibertyReport

North using Boko Haram to distract President Jonathan – Southern Mandate

The Southern Mandate has warned that the ongoing violence in the Northern parts of Nigeria would spell doom for the nation, noting that the crisis is one of the strategies put in place to distract the government of President Goodluck Jonathan.
The group said this while reacting to the apprehension of a Boko Haram kingpin in the House of a serving senator in Maiduguri, last Friday.
Southern Mandate in a statement issued in Abuja, on Saturday, after a meeting of its members, said the Boko Haram insurgency was a deliberate means of distraction put in place by the Northerners to frustrate the Goodluck/Sambo’s administration.
The statement signed by representatives of the three southern geo-political zones alleged that the move to use the House of Representatives to impeach the president on claims of poor budget implementation was a way of frustrating Mr. President’s political ambition.
It reads in part: “It is common knowledge that the Boko Haram insurgency was masterminded by these enemies of progress and national stability to create a scenario of insecurity and portray President Jonathan as incompetent to govern the country. When the strategy was deflated and cracks emerged in their fold, a new Boko Haram with a wholly political agenda was born to wrest power from the South through any means and at any cost,”the group said.
“When there was insecurity in the Niger Delta region, no one called for impeachment of the president in power even as the agitations were genuine, unlike the case of Boko Haram which we consider as a secret violent political party with highly placed and influential individuals in the country as members, fighting at all cost to unseat a democratically elected president. That is just a single leg of the battle against Jonathan”. The group berated former governor of Yobe State, Sen. Bukar Abba Ibrahim, over his recent comments that the president must review the 2013 budget in order to favour the north of face more Boko Haram insurgency, it described his statement as “treasonable felony”.
DailyPost

Back-and-forth: University of Jos says Bature forged certificate, he says university’s disclaimer is a forgery

inShare

by Stanley Azuakola

The University of Jos has once again, loudly dissociated itself from the claim by a member of the House of Representatives, Abdulrazak Nuhu Bature, who represents Ningi/Warji Federal Constituency of Bauchi State, that he possesses an Advanced Diploma in Public Administration (ADPA) from the university.
Bature claims to be a 2006/2007 graduate of the ADPA programme of the institution in his curriculum vitae, but the university insists that he was never its student.
In September, the university PRO had put up a disclaimer in two national newspapers making its position clear. Shortly afterwards, Bature went and paid for a public notice in a national daily in which he tried to discredit the university’s disclaimer saying that it did not emanate from the school.
This forced the university to release this fresh disclaimer, in which it claimed that the published disclaimer from Bature did not emanate from them and so should be disregarded by the public. In the fresh disclaimer entitled Re-Disclaimer, the university described Bature’s advertisement as a forgery designed to confuse the public and re-affirmed its earlier publication that the legislator was never a student of the institution.
Deputy registrar (Information and Publications) of the university, Steve Otowo, told journalists that the university stands by the earlier disclaimer.
Otowo said: “The recent publication claiming that the disclaimer did not emanate from the university is clearly a desperate attempt to confuse issues and it cannot stand. The person was never a student of this university.
“For the avoidance of doubt, I wish to reiterate that Abdulrazak Nuhu Bature never applied for, nor was he ever given admission into the ADPA Programme of this university.
“He, therefore, did not graduate with the 2006/2007 set as he claimed or with any other set for that matter.
“The ADPA testimonial and certificate that the said Abdulrazak Nuhu Bature claims to have obtained are forged as the documents did not originate from the university.”
He said the matter has been reported to the police while the university’s lawyer has also been contacted.

YNaija.com

Afolabi Ogunde: Where UK’s Daily Mail Goofed on Bishop David Oyedepo and Winners Ministries

Bishop David Oyedepo

When the British begun to colonize Africa just few centuries ago, they saw nothing wrong with using the Gospel of Christ to bamboozle our ancestors into surrendering their lands and resources over to Her Majesty’s government; now fast-forward to modern times where African pastors are some of the most influential persons on Earth, it seems the detractors have arrived in busloads.
The Daily Mail, one of the United Kingdom’s most widely read publications is the detractor of the day. Perhaps somebody needs to hand them a copy of the King James version of the Bible, or maybe a contemporary version of the material would suffice.
Prosperity ministries like Living Faith, popularly known as Winners, will continue to generate a lot of confusion-based controversy in places like the United Kingdom where the people increasingly are distanced from the doctrine of the gospel (the Word of God).
Many ex-Christians and Christianity bashers always cite the fact that Jesus Christ was humble and didn’t fly in private jets or ride in luxury cars; they always remember how Jesus rode on an ass. Well the gospel also informs us that he made himself poor so that we could become rich. 2^nd Corinthians 8:9 says “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich”.
Church attendance in British churches are at an all time low, and many of the British church buildings are now tourist centers and not places where men go to fellowship with God. The Africans who were first taught Christianity by British missionaries in the 19^th century have now mastered the gospel in a way that certifies the Great Commission given to men by Christ. I can imagine how the Archbishop of Canterbury would be ticked off about this, or the Bishops of Reading, Newcastle, Coventry and Birmingham, just to name a few.
Truth is African Pentecostalism is the most successful and fastest growing branch of the Church of Christ world-wide, and the scandal prone churches of the West are uneasy considering the trend.
Statistics show, “regular church attendance in the United Kingdom stands at 6% of the population with the average age of the attendee being 51. This shows a decline in church attendance since 1980 when regular attendance stood at 11% with an average age of 37. It is predicted that by 2020, attendance will be around 4% with an average age of 56.This decline in church attendance has forced many churches to close down across the United Kingdom with the Church of England alone being forced to close 1,500 churches between 1969 and 2002. Their fates include dereliction, demolition and residential conversion.”
The statistics paint a picture whereby funds are being generated by African churches where attendance is on the increase, and diminishing in British churches where attendance is on the decline.  It’s easy to see how the Charities Commission can get sidetracked and misinformed. However it would be a violation of several international and divine laws for Her Majesty’s regulatory bodies to revoke the status of a faith based institution.
The Roman Catholic Church is arguably one of the richest institutions on the face of the planet. Africa’s prosperity ministries/churches are rapidly amassing the wealth that took centuries for some religious organizations to acquire. There is bound to be a conflict of interest as there are many open and hidden interests that would not want to see this scale of empowerment for the African man.
Living Faith ministries owns at last count, three universities in Nigeria. In less than a decade some of the graduates are already working for globally recognized institutions like the World Bank, Goldman Sachs, KPMG, Deloitte, Mobil, Total, Chevron and a long list of other Fortune 500 companies. It is understandable why some anti-progress machineries are in motion, what is befuddling is how one of Britain’s most widely read newspapers goes about misinforming its readers about a progressive faith-based spiritual organization that is ordained by God.
The Daily Mail has been sued severally for libel in the past and has had to cough up millions of pound sterling in damages to the victims of its occasionally leaky mouth. One would think that the publication would have done legitimately not to publish the junk it did on Sunday. Including in the article was this, “Followers (of Living Faith) are urged to target vulnerable people such as the lonely, the sick, the homeless and the suicidal as potential candidates for conversion.”
To the undiscerning eye, Winners will be made to look more like Exploiters, whereas the truth remains that the writers are obviously not of the Christian faith and are just looking for a story controversial enough to sell their newspapers. Christ did tell his servants to minister unto the down-trodden and the bed-ridden and the poor. A quick fact check of the New Testament would have saved the Mail this ignorance that is sure to cost them.
The obvious remains yet to be stated and it’s as simple as this, before the journalists at the Mail rush to the press again, they should patiently pick up a copy of their bibles, dust it thoroughly open, and read some of the pages. After all, every man is entitled to have freedom in his religion, and in the way he thinks about God and HIS prophets. There should not be an abuse of this right by anybody, not even the Fourth Estate.
The only intelligent portion of the article was after it, in the comments section. A commentator from  Grove Park South East London said, “Are any members of his congregation complaining about the money they pay this man and his family? Has any member of his congregation complained that they did not receive the ‘blessings’ they prayed for or that the devil was not knocked out off that woman when she received that blow to the face? Has any members of his congregation been convicted of any criminal activity? If the answer to those questions is “no” then really what harm is this so-called Man of God causing?”
BusinessNews

Executive blow: Gov Okorocha punches Peter Obi’s aide for denying him seat

It looks like an executive blow when Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State on Saturday landed a heavy punch on a protocol officer for allegedly refusing to allow him sit on a chair reserved for the Anambra State Governor, Mr. Peter Obi, at the 80th birthday celebration of former vice president, Chief Alex Ekwueme, in Enugu.
The ‘war’, we gathered ensued 20 minutes before the arrival of some dignitaries.
According to the report, the seater was reserved for the host Governor, Mr. Sullivan Chime and Obi. The Deputy Governor, Mr. Sunday Onyebuchi, represented Chime who has been out of the country for months now.
Apparently irritated by his refusal to allow him occupy the seat, the indefatigable governor landed a heavy punch on the protocol officer simply identify as Mr. Ifeanyi Onukuba, who works with Obi.
It was the intervention of a police officer attached to the Bomb Disposal Unit in Anambra State, Mr. Felix Alumona, that stopped Okorocha from removing the tag bearing Obi’s name from the seat.
It was further gather that Okorocha’s Aide de Camp (ADC), Gabriel Onu, aggressively descended on Alumona, hitting and renting his uniform, while other security details attached to the Imo governor joined in the fight.
When the battle was crossing the elbow, Okorocha quickly waded in, saying, “Hey, please stop the fight! Let us not fight over an ordinary seat. I will share the seat with Peter Obi.”
Okorocha’s aides were seen grumbling saying, “Why is it that anywhere we go, they always reserve a special seat for Obi. Is Okorocha not the leader of Ndigbo?”
When governor Obi arrived the venue, he squeezed himself between Onyebuchi and Okorocha.
DailyPost

N2.8 million extortion: Police kill businessman in Abuja

Men of the Federal Capital Territory Command of the Nigeria Police are now at the centre of the controversial killing of a businessman (name withheld) after allegedly extorting N2.8 million from the incident occurred at Karu police division.
A corporal attached to the crime department allegedly killed the suspect he was investigating after extorting N2.8 million from him.
LEADERSHIP WEEKEND’s sources explained that the corporal (name withheld) was the investigating police officer (IPO) in charge of the suspect’s case. He hails from Cross River state but speaks Hausa language fluently.
Sources said that the deceased who was detained at the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) cell lived a flamboyant lifestyle and drove assorted cars. He recently added a Mercedes Benz to his fleet of cars.
LEADERSHIP WEEKEND gathered that the deceased was picked at a joint called Ibiza, located along the Mararaba-Keffi expressway, while he was having a drink with some friends on a trumped-up charge of armed robbery.
Sources said the deceased was detained and tortured for several days, an ordeal which forced him to reach a deal of parting with the sum of N2.8 million to the police for his freedom.
He was allegedly brought out from the police cell and went with the late businessman to a new generation bank, Karu branch, where he withdrew the amount and handed it over to the corporal who allegedly took him to a bush along Karshi road and shot him dead.
According to our source, unknown to the police, the businessman had programmed his bank alert messages to his sister’s phone.
Trouble, however, started when the sister of the late businessman got the bank alert that the said amount had been withdrawn by the brother who was in police detention. Wondering how her brother could have made the transaction while in police detention, she rushed to the Karu police station where she demanded to see him.
According to our sources, “the police could not produce him and, after playing one trick after another, they said it was the SARS that picked him from the cell’’. LEADERSHIP WEEKEND gathered that the family launched an avalanche of inquiry which led to the arrest and detention of the corporal and one of his colleagues in the armoury section of the division.
Our correspondent eventually called the DPO and also sent a text message to him which he did not respond to until the time of going to press. Meanwhile, the FCT police command has said it was investigating the allegation that police operatives extorted N2.8 million and killed a businessman.
Police spokesperson Doris England, in a telephone chat with LEADERSHIP WEEKEND, said the FCT commissioner of police, Mr. Aderenle Shinaba, had ordered the deputy commissioner in charge of Criminal Investigation Department to conduct a thorough investigation into the incident.
“The CP has detailed the DCID to investigate the allegation. He ordered him to conduct a thorough investigation. It was a team that was taking him (victim) to a place when the incident occurred. The DCID is still on it and has not submitted his report,” she stated.
 DailyPost