Gunmen have kidnapped Kawu Yakassai, the organising secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kaduna state.

Yakassai is said to have been abducted on Friday night in Soba LGA of the state.

No ransom has been demanded for the release of the APC chieftain yet.

Confirming the development on Saturday, Mohammed Shehu, chief press secretary (CPS) to Uba Sani, governor of Kaduna, said his principal has directed security agencies to fish out the kidnappers and rescue Yakassai.

Shehu said the Kaduna government is working to recruit 7,000 vigilantes to complement the efforts of the security agencies in Kaduna.

“Yes, he was abducted on Friday,” the CPS said.

“The state governor has directed security agencies to go after the kidnappers.

“This is partly the reason why the state government is seeking to engage 7,000 vigilantes to complement the efforts of the security agencies in tackling the security issues.”

The state has been combating the menace of kidnapping for years now.

Gov. Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State says the state government has so far spent N7.6 billion on constructing and equipping the ultra-modern motor park in the state.

Yahaya stated this while inspecting facilities at the park on Saturday.

He queried the contractor for working behind schedule saying that such would no longer be condoned by the state government as his administration is eager to ensure the utilisation of the project for the benefits of the people.

“We have invested N7.6 billion on this project and the contractor had been lagging behind and that would no longer be tolerated.

“We are eager to put the facility to use for the benefit of our people,” he said.

On the contractor’s pledge to deliver the project by September, Yahaya said “I will charge you if you don’t deliver by September ending because N7.6 billion is no small money.

“We are not owing you a kobo and so there is no reason why you shouldn’t deliver by that September,” he added.

The governor said that the state government had set up a committee to ensure seamless relocation of all existing parks in the metropolis, hence the need for the contractor to deliver by the September deadline.

He said that critical stakeholders in the transport sector in the state had given their supports as the project would be beneficial to them, create more jobs and make movement in the state easier.

According to him, the relocation of the Bauchi motor park was to give room for more developmental projects in the state, adding that a three arm zone would be cited at the location after its relocation.

“Once the motor parks are out, we shall see where we will utilise to take care of the interest of everyone as we are expanding and growing towards making Gombe a modern city,” he said.

On how the state government raised the N7.6 billion, Yahaya said the project was financed through a bond, adding that the government had commenced a post-dated payment and had been paying in installments.

He stated that the management of the motor park had been ceded to Gombe Revenue Optimisation Company Limited to work with the unions in the transport sector to recoup the money over time.

He said that the investment in the project is huge and expected to benefit the people of the state and impact positively on the economy.

Yahaya also inspected ongoing projects in the state capital which include the ongoing construction of the Sharia Court of Appeal, Bauchi Motor Park and some road projects in the Gombe metropolis.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the governor had on Thursday set up a task force to facilitate the smooth transition of operations from three major motor parks to the ultra-modern park.

The three major motor parks to be relocated to the new park along Dukku Road when completed are Bauchi Motor Park, Dukku Motor Park and Dadinkowa Motor Park.

The ultra-modern motor park has the following facilities: road networks, 250 shops, a clinic, a hotel with 100 people capacity, a fire service station, a trailer park which can contain 2,500 trailers at a time, police outpost amongst others.

The project, awarded by Ibrahim Dankwambo’s administration in 2012 at the initial contract sum of 3.2 billion naira is said to have gulped almost 2.8 billion billion naira and attained 43 per cent completion status before being allegedly abandoned.

The Dr Abdullahi Ganduje-led National Working Committee NWC of the ruling All Progressives Congress APC on Friday night inaugurated six additional members into its fold amid protests from the Kogi, Abia, and Cross River states chapters of the party.

There was a failed attempt to swear in the officials on Thursday night, but the protest from Gov. Yahaya Bello of Kogi State and other stakeholders from Abia and Cross River effectively stalled the process.

Those sworn in were the Deputy National Chairman, North, Ali Bukar Dalori (Borno State); National Vice Chairman, North West, Garba Datti Muhammad (Kaduna State); National Legal Adviser, Prof. Abdul Karim Abubakar Kana (Nasarawa State); National Welfare Secretary, Donatus Nwankpa (Abia State); National Woman Leader, Mary Alile Idele, PhD (Edo State); and, the Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Duro Meseko (Kogi State).

An earlier nominee for the North Central Zonal Organizing Secretary of the party, Ikani Shuaibu Okolo from Kogi state was however dropped to placate the state Governor, Yahaya Bello whose nominee for the office of Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Ismail Yahaya was dropped.

Ganduje who acknowledged that the party has taken serious notice of Yahaya said he would be put forward for other appointments.

He said those who lost out in Abia and Cross River states would also be considered for appointments as a way of satisfying all the aggrieved.

Addressing the event which begun at about 8:40pm, Ganduje said the party is currently putting its house in order because it is determined to win the forthcoming off-season governorship elections in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa states.

According to him, the party would be in the various state capitals to inaugurate its National Campaign Councils for the three governorship elections, as a way of connecting with the grassroots.

He said; “There is no doubt that during the last meeting of the National Executive Committee NEC of our party, the NWC was mandated to undertake some tasks on behalf of NEC.

“We have succeeded. We consulted with stakeholders, governors and others. We know there are some aggrieved people and they are very important. We will discuss with them and I will speak later on that.

“We have taken a decision that every Wednesday, we will conduct our weekly NWC meeting. It is very important. Also, we have already made a resolution that our party as an institution will be active throughout the year and not just during election periods. Our party will have operational and functional offices right from the wards, LGs, States, Zonal and national offices as you can see. We believe we will be able to abide by all these.

“Very soon we will launch the National Campaign Councils for our three states – Imo, Bayelsa and Kogi- going into elections this year. Instead of inaugurating the councils here in Abuja, we have decided to do so in the various state capitals so that we can connect with the various stakeholders.

“All of you are competent. We have seen your credentials and you have been nominated and elected through due process by the various stakeholders and therefore we congratulate you.

“As earlier mentioned, there is no doubt that there are some people who are also competent but you can only fill a person.

“From Kogi state, we have Ismail Yahaya. We have taken note of him and he will be engaged in one way or another. We have Ikani Shuaibu Okolo from Kogi state. He too will be engaged appropriately in our government. Mrs Obinna from Abia, she took will be accommodated. Hon. Dr Stella Ekpo from Cross River. I think she is a medical doctor. She and two others from Cross River state, according to the outcome of our dialogue, will be accommodated in our government.

“With these, I think we have achieved complete agreement and dialogue. We have achieved dialogue and we have deepened dialogue within our party and this is our culture. We are not dictators but that does not mean that everyone must necessarily agree with you”, he added.

The oaths of allegiance and office were administered on the new officials by Barr. Mustapha Abubakar, a Notary Public.

Angela Liu, counsel to former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar in the US, says Chicago State University has provided two similar certificates indicating that President Bola Tinubu attended its institution.

Liu said while the first certificate was signed by three people, the other one was signed by two people.

She was speaking in response to a submission by Tinubu’s lawyers.

According to filings by Oluwole Afolabi and Christopher Carmichael, counsel to Tinubu, an unidentified clerk of the university made the error about the date the school stated on his recently-issued certificate, thereby creating “the appearance of differences”.

The counsel of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate said while one document asserts that Tinubu was issued the certificate on June 22, 1979, another suggests that the president received the degree on June 27, 1979.

The former vice-president is seeking a disclosure of the president’s certificate from the US university. The documents he is making his case on – tendered at the US court and presidential election tribunal – were seen by TheCable.

“The document marked ‘A’ is the certificate submitted by Tinubu to INEC. This certificate is in every material respect, exactly the same as the document marked ‘B’ except for the following,” Liu said.

“Document ‘A’ is signed by at least 3 people whereas ‘B’ is signed by only 2 people.

“The document marked ‘E’ states that Tinubu was issued a certificate on 22nd June 1979 but then proceeded to forward a copy of a certificate (‘B’) dated 27th June 1979. Please note that ‘A’ is actually dated 22nd June 1979, but this document did not emanate from CSU. Only ‘B’ did.

“It is clear that either ‘A’ or ‘B’ is fake (if not both). You cannot have two certificates issued by the same university, to the same person, for the same course of study, but issued on different dates and signed by two different sets of people.

“The documents ‘A’ and ‘B’ both state that Tinubu graduated with a BSc in ‘Business AND Administration’, whereas document ‘E’ (which came from CSU) states that he graduated with a BSc in ‘Business Administration’.”

The lawyer said CSU’s website reads: “The College of Business offers a contemporary business program leading to a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration or Masters in Business Administration (MBA)”, adding that “nowhere is there any reference to ‘business and administration” throughout the website.

The lawyer argued that it was not possible for Elnora D. Daniel to be among those who signed both certificates because she was only the president of the university between 1998 and 2008.

“She was neither president of the university in 1979 – when the certificate was purportedly issued – nor was she president in 2022, when the replacement certificates were issued,” she said.

The lawyer also expressed dismay that both certificates bear different letter fonts and logos of the university.

Bauchi state Police Command has arrested one Adamu Ibrahim, a 15-year-old from Jital village in Bauchi state for allegedly amputating a farmer’s left hand over a misunderstanding.

Police investigation revealed that on Thursday, 24th August, the suspect (Adamu Ibrahim) who was armed with a stick and machete invaded the victim’s farmland and destroyed the yet-to-be-ascertained value of crops.

According to a statement signed by Bauchi police spokesperson, SP Ahmed Mohammed Wakil, on Saturday, a disagreement ensued, in the course of which the suspect stabbed the victim upon asking him to vacate his farmland.

He said, “As a result, the victim’s left hand was chopped. The suspect drew his machete and chopped off the left hand of the victim.”

Police Preliminary Investigation also revealed that the suspect had on several occasions trespassed into the victim’s farmland with his cows while rearing.

He said the unfortunate incident followed a series of complaints to the suspect’s father by the victim for intrusion into his rice farmland by the suspect.

“On receiving this report, the Area Commander, Metropolitan swung into action and activated more preventive measures to avert circumstances that may result in a herder-farmer clash in the area and equally directed the arrest of the suspect,” PPRO added.

The victim was rushed to the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Teaching Hospital, Bauchi for medical attention.

The Bauchi state Commissioner of Police CP Auwal Musa Mohammed, warned herders to steer clear from intrusion into farmlands in the state.

The CP directed the suspect be charged to court upon completion of the discreet investigation.

Prior to the submission of the list of those he wanted to be members of his cabinet to the National Assembly for screening, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu did not leave Nigerians in doubt about the qualities of the people he would use to drive his “Renewed Hope” mantra. The President had pledged to look beyond constituting a government of national unity and assemble a cabinet of national competence where people of genuine character and high pedigree in their chosen careers would bring their rich experiences and professionalism to bear on nation building.

However, the President did not lose sight of the importance of pulling ‘political warlords’ that control significant ‘political troops’ in the opposition parties to his administration while also rewarding members of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), for their hard work that resulted in his victory in the last presidential election.

Sources told The Guardian that prominent among members of opposition the president reached out to while forming his cabinet was the presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and founder of Kwankwasiyya Movement, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. And the reason is not far-fetched.

Kwankwaso reaffirmed his political dexterity with the outcome of the last general election in Kano State. The landslide victory of NNPP against the ruling party, which had enormous state power and resources at their disposal, repositioned him as a politician that must be reckoned with. Kwankwaso defeated the APC presidential candidate in Kano, where the party had a sitting governor in the person of Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, who is now the National Chairman of the party. He equally humiliated a former vice president and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar; and also the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Mr. Peter Obi. Although Tinubu was able to secure 517,341 votes, which was above 25 per cent of votes cast in the state, Kwankwaso’s 997,279 votes validated his supremacy in Kano politics. Atiku and Obi came well behind with 131,716 and 28,513 votes respectively.

Before the presidential inauguration, Tinubu held a closed door meeting with Kwankwaso alongside other prominent members of the opposition in Paris, France. Although the outcome of the meeting was confidential, there were permutations that the meeting was part of strategic horse trading by Tinubu to woo Kwankwaso back to APC. Those familiar with the development disclosed that Kwankwaso had confirmed that Tinubu was seeking the possibility of convincing him to join his cabinet of national competence and then return to the APC. Another source also disclosed that the possibility of an amicable resolution of impasse between Kwankwaso and Ganduje was not left out of the discussion at the meeting.

While the dust raised by the Paris meeting had not settled, Tinubu invited Kwankwaso again to Aso Rock two weeks after his inauguration, perhaps to cement their new political romance and explore the possibility of Kwankwaso’s appointment as minister. It was after the meeting that Kwankwaso, for the first time, expressed willingness to join Tinubu’s cabinet with the caveat that the final decision would be made after due consultations. A reliable source told The Guardian that after the four-hour Aso Rock meeting, many people believed that Kwankwaso’s ministerial appointment had been sealed.

But the growing political rapprochement between Kwankwaso and Tinubu did not go down well with Ganduje; and he didn’t hide his disapproval of the moves. In a leaked telephone conversation with Alhaji Ibrahim Masari, who served as a placeholder running mate while Tinubu was still shopping for the authentic vice presidential candidate, Ganduje was heard lamenting being treated unfairly by Tinubu as shown by Kwankwaso’s invitation to France and the Presidential Villa.

In the conversation, Ganduje insisted that Tinubu’s invitation to Kwankwaso alone has rendered him irrelevant as leader of APC in Kano, adding that the president should have extended a similar invitation to him as well, “even if it will be a symbolic appearance”.

Ganduje said: “What could I have told him? Now he (Tinubu) is seeing Kwankwaso as an alternative to us? No problem. Is it because we are not in government, even when we lost the election because of him (Tinubu)? Even if he would see Kwankwaso, he ought to have called us too. Or don’t you understand, even if it is symbolically.”

Another APC stalwart in Kano, Abdulmajid Danbilki Kwamanda, an ardent supporter of former president Muhammadu Buhari, also kicked against Tinubu’s rapprochement with Kwankwaso and the idea of giving him an appointment in the government, warning that it could trigger internal crisis in APC.

Kwamanda insisted that any attempt by Tinubu to align with Kwankwaso would be considered as betrayal of the trust and commitment of APC supporters in Kano.

“We in the North-West Zone do not welcome Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso into APC. We do not accept the idea of Bola Tinubu giving him any appointment even as low as a messenger in our party. Should Tinubu ignore our outcry and appoint Kwankwaso, we are going to disrupt the entire APC in the North and withdraw our support for him. If we set the party on fire, not even Tinubu as a president can put out that fire.

“We are the North and the people are our people. We have invested all our efforts, integrity and dignity in the North to mobilise the people to vote for Tinubu. They refused to vote for a fellow northerner just for him to win in the region and he now comes and embraces our major opposition. We will not accept that. We assure Tinubu that we will turn our back on him if he decides to ignore our call. We don’t welcome Kwankwaso to our party and don’t give him any appointment. This is our message to all,” Kwamanda said.

He further advised Tinubu to steer clear of the antics of Kwankwaso, reminding him that, “the former Kano State governor is smart enough to lead the president and the party into disaster.”

“He had condemned voting for Tinubu in Kano and described the president as an enemy of the North. This is an unhealthy character. It will therefore be a mistake to welcome him to the party or give him any appointment in your government,” he advised.

The eventual submission of the ministerial nominees to the National Assembly with Kwankwaso’s name conspicuously missing left many tongues wagging and the Presidency has maintained a deafening silence on the issue since then. Meanwhile, the two nominees from Kano State, Abdullah Gwarzo and Dr. Maryam Bunkure, have been assigned portfolios. While Gwarzo is the Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development, Bunkure is the Minister of State for FCT.

Gwarzo, a long time ally of president and governorship candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Kano in 2011, was personally picked by the president to reward his loyalty. On the other hand, Bunkure, who was picked to replace Maryam Shettima (Shetty) whose removal came a few hours to the screening, is a close friend of Ganduje’s daughter and served as Commissioner for Higher Education during Ganduje’s administration for four years.

It was gathered that the president jettisoned the idea of appointing Kwankwaso into his cabinet because he believes there is no sense in empowering the opposition, who would eventually use the resources to fight back. Besides, it was gathered that the president was equally discouraged by the demolition of public property constructed by the Ganduje administration by the new NNPP government in Kano.

The Director of Publicity at APC national headquarters, Bala Ibrahim, had last weekend stated that the persistent attack on Ganduje’s legacies in Kano may have cost Kwankwaso a position in Tinubu’s cabinet.

Ibrahim said: “Kwankwaso is a force to reckon with in the politics of Kano. But the way and manner his Kwankwasiyya Movement goes about conducting itself has made the support for Kwankwaso to wane gradually. This is because of the brigandage the movement is bringing into the politics of Kano, and by extension, Nigeria.

“The president must have felt the pulse of the public and weighed the relevance and implementation of his policies, particularly his effort to win the hearts of the Kano people. There is no way you will dismiss the political maturity, sagacity and experience of Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje when it comes to the way he plays politics in Kano. If you weigh the two on a good calibrated scale, the political weight of Ganduje is by far higher than that of Kwankwaso.

“I believe the President must have listened to people who will give him honest and sincere advice, people who read the political temperature of the state very well, not those who are misguided by the hullabaloo of commotion caused by the brigandage of the Kwankwasiyya Movement. It is in that direction I think the President took the decision not to treat Ganduje lightly.”

However, the Chairman of NNPP in Kano, Dr. Hashim Suleiman Dongurawa, refuted the claims, saying there wasn’t an official statement from the Presidency where Kwankwaso was promised a ministerial appointment. Although he acknowledged that Tinubu and Kwankwaso held a series of meetings towards forming a government of national unity, he insisted that Kwankwaso must not necessarily be a member of Tinubu’s cabinet before rendering his support.

Dongurawa said: “There was no occasion where Kwankwaso had solicited to be appointed as minister in Tinubu’s government just as no official statement was released through APC promising Kwankwaso any political appointment. What actually brought about the speculation was the meeting that Kwankwaso had with Tinubu on the issue of unity and Tinubu’s willingness to incorporate competent hands irrespective of political affiliation.

“Quite alright, Kwankwaso was ready to support Tinubu not because of any political gain but for the unity, development and growth of our dear nation. Don’t forget that Kwankwaso is a former governor, former minister, former senator and former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, with requisite competence and wealth of experience.

“He’s also a man of repute and a political leader who understands the dynamics of the political economy of this country. He understands very well the system of national unity and competence and is full of capacity to contribute his quota to national development. You are talking of ministerial appointments in the face of a man who has contested the presidential election but lost gallantly.

“Let me also remind you that Kwankwaso and Tinubu are long time friends. They were both class of 1999 governors. They had a common interest when they formed APC in 2014. He contested APC presidential primary in 2014 alongside President Buhari and even won the senatorial seat of Kano Central under APC in 2015.

“So, Kwankwaso and Tinubu are close friends right from the formation of the party. If Kwankwaso today come out to support Tinubu’s government, people should not be worried about that. It is not until Kwankwaso is offered a ministerial appointment that he would support Tinubu and for those insinuating such, it is quite unfortunate that I cannot help them out of their ignorance.”

Meanwhile, a reliable in Kwankwanso’s camp stated that he communicated his rejection of a ministerial appointment to Tinubu as a strategy to secure his political dynasty.

According to the source, Kwankwaso was clever enough to quickly withdraw, realising the political calculation of Tinubu to tactically gag his influence in Kano politics. The source also maintained that rejecting the ministerial appointment alone has altered Tinubu’s early scheming for 2027 elections.

“For anyone to have thought President Tinubu would ever think of withdrawing Kwankwaso’s ministerial appointment means either the person is being a mischief maker or totally ignorant of the entire game. How would Tinubu reject Kwankwaso because of Ganduje when the same Tinubu ignored Ganduje and still went ahead to invite Kwankwaso to France? You should first ask yourself who is looking for who and at what cost.

“The crux of the matter is that Kwankwaso at the late hours expressed his kind rejection of the appointment for obvious reasons. Kwankwaso understands the need to be extra careful with Tinubu who knows and understands political mathematics so well. Whether you like it or not, Kwankwaso has built a strong political landscape in the most populous state in the country. He’s a political force you must reckon with as far as northern politics is concerned today.

“Kwankwaso realised that coming to join Tinubu’s cabinet is simply surrendering your empire to a bigger emperor. He realised that such an offer is a potential threat to his political dynasty and so, he quickly watched his back. Another basic reason Kwankwaso turned down the ministerial offer was the emergence of Ganduje as APC national chairman. We also realised that he cannot work for Tinubu without fully surrendering to instructions from Ganduje,” the source said.

The Police Command in Benue, has confirmed the arrest of one Aondohemba Joseph, over the death of Justice Margaret Igbetar, a retired President, Benue Customary Court of Appeal, The State’s Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Sewuese Anene, confirmed the arrest in a statement on Saturday in Makurdi.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the 73-year-old Igbetar, who retired from service on Oct. 17, 2015, was said to be living a private life and was hardly seen in public.

Anene said the judge was found in a pool of her own blood in her kitchen on Friday, with deep cuts on her back.

“On Aug. 24, information was received at ‘E’ Police Division Makurdi, that Justice Margaret Igbetar (rtd), could not respond to calls and was no where to be found. Detectives were immediately deployed for investigation.

“A search conducted within her house at Wantor Kwange Street, Gboko Road, Makurdi, led to the discovery of her body in a pool of blood inside her kitchen. It was also observed that she had deep cuts on her back.

“Further investigation led to the arrest of one Aondohemba Joseph, and recovery of exhibits for detailed investigation,” the Police spokesperson said in the statement.

The statement further quoted the State Commissioner of Police (CP), Bartholomew Onyeka, as strongly “condemned the dastardly act”.

Onyeka further assured that he would unravel the mystery behind the death and bring perpetuators of the barbaric act to book.

NAN also reports that Igbetar was born on Oct. 17, 1950, in Mbape, Shangev-ya, Tsar-Mbaduku, in Vandeikya Local Government Area of Benue State.

She started her career as the Assistant Registrar, Grade I Area Court, Katsina-Ala, Benue State in 1971, and rose to become a Judge of the Customary Court of Appeal in 1995, a position she held till 2003 when she was appointed President of the court.

Igbetar was a founding member of the International Federation of Women Lawyers, (FIDA), Benue State, a life member, first Chairperson of Benue branch and a National Trustee of the association.

The late Justice served as a member, Election Petition Tribunal, Bauchi State, between 1998 and 1999, National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal Imo/Abia State in 1999 and the Gubernatorial Election Petition Tribunal, Kebbi State.

She was also a member of the Committee on Review of the 1999 Constitution in 2000.

The Gender Unit of the Nigeria Police Force Criminal Investigation Department, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), on Friday, raided Ignobis Hotels, Gado Nasco Road in Kubwa, Abuja, for alleged abuse, and endangerment of minors.

The raid was led by Inspector Ossai Ojobo, an Investigation Police Officer, along with officials of the Social Development Secretarial (SDS), FCT Administration and representatives of a non-governmental organisation.

After the raid, the Hotel Manager, Mr Akbueze Chidi and a restaurant operator in the hotel, Ms Priscilla Abuyah, were arrested and taken to the Force CID for questioning and further investigation.

The raid followed a petition by Human Rights Agenda Network (HRAN), an NGO, to the Social Welfare Department of the SDS, alleging that the hotel was harbouring minors and exposing them to sexual exploitation.

Mrs Joy Omokivie, the SDS Officer in charge of the case, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), that the SDS channelled the petition to the Gender Unit of the Force CID to investigate the matter.

Omokivie added that the hotel was classified as a brothel by residents, where young girls, including underaged girls were being brought in for sex.

She said that in the petition, HRAN had alleged that a 12-year-old minor and her younger brother, 4, were staying at the hotel with a woman, purported to be their mother.

She added that after some investigations, the 12-year-old girl was rescued and currently in the custody of the Social Welfare Department, “while the young boy is still with the mother.”

According to her, the raid was part of an ongoing investigation to determine the veracity of the allegations and if found to be true, rescue the minors and prosecute the culprits.

HRAN had in the petition accused the woman, Mrs Immanuela Austyn-Araki, a Bolt driver of abandoning the children in the hotel in the morning, leaving them to fend for themselves.

The NGO claimed that the children eat mostly snacks and noodles until she returns late at night or the following morning.

HRAN added that its investigation revealed that the woman lodged in the hotel with the children for more than two years, exposing them to all kinds of sexual conducts by other adults lodging in the hotel.

The group said that the girl was allowed access to the internet and accessing sites not suitable for underaged children, adding that the girl had an account on Tik-Tok where she uploads adult related contents.

According to the group, men, including the hotel owner, pay regular visits to the room occupied by the minors and their mother, whenever the mother is not around.

HRAN also expressed suspicion that the woman may be involved in child trafficking, alleging that there were under aged girls in the hotel premises working as commercial sex workers.

The NGO, thereafter, asked the police to investigate the matter with a view to save the endangered child and bring the culprits to book.

However, after reading the petition at the Force CID, the manager of the hotel and the restaurant operator declined making any response except in the presence of their lawyer.

Meanwhile, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Hotel, Mr Eze Obasi, refuted the allegation, saying “I am a good Christian and a traditional title holder in my community.

“As such, I cannot be a party to sexual exploitation, abuse, or endangerment of underage girls in my hotel.

“All I know is that the woman in question was being maltreated by her husband and she came to the hotel with her children to seek refuge from her abusive husband.

“This complaint has been brought before me by four different groups and it has been settled.

“I do not understand why police officers will still come to the hotel to embarrass my clients in the name of police search for minors,” he said.

After the raid that ended around 8:30 p.m., the young minor and the mother were not found at the hotel.

The Information and National Orientation Minister, Mohammed Idris Malagi, and theSpecial Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity,AjuriNgelale,started their jobs by inaugurating a refreshing and applaudable departure from the primitive information management strategies of their predecessors. But can they sustain the moral high ground they signposted in their initiatory speeches?

On his first day in office on August 1, Ngelale took deserved and carefully targeted potshots at the rude and crude informational tactics of his predecessors. “Gone forever, by the grace of God, are the days when government spokesmen and women would speak down to Nigerians, would use condescending language with Nigerians, and would display some form of institutional arrogance toward Nigerians,” he said.“That will NOT be tolerated under my leadership.”

His message resonated with a broad band of Nigerians, especially on social media, because since the return of civilian rule in 1999, Nigerians have come to associate incivility, crudity, arrogance, and insults with the job of presidential spokesmanship. To have a presidential spokesman disavow this template of relating with Nigerians is pleasantly surprising.

For his part, Malagi, in what seemed like a veiled dig at his immediate predecessor, assured Nigerians that lies and propaganda would no longer be instruments of information management. “This time around, a process of restoring popular confidence and trust in government and its policies shall not lie in the domain of propaganda,” he said. “In other words, the era of relying on propaganda to propagate government programmes is now over.”

This is music to the ears, especially coming after Lai Mohammed whose entire career as Minister of Information and Culture was defined by a bewilderingly extravagant fondness for willful and easily falsifiable lies. Lai’s first name doesn’t just share an uncanny phonemic kinship with “lie”; he actually embodied lies in the most audaciously disreputable way imaginable.

All government information managers lie, but Lai’s lies were unmatched in their coarseness, brazenness, vulgarism, and disdain for the intelligence of Nigerians, which once caused me to wonder if he isthe victim of a psychiatric disorder called “pseudologia fantastica” or “mythomania,” that is, chronically compulsive lying that causes liars to believe their own lies. A successor who repudiates this reputation is worthy of our attention.

I have written several past columns on the ineffectiveness of lies, intimidation, insults, and propaganda as means of official communication. In a February 28, 2015, column titled “Why Nigerian Politicians Now Prefer American Public Relations Firms,” for example, I wrote:

“Nigeria’s political public relations is crude, vulgar, and intellectually impoverished. No one who desires to change the hearts and minds of people should rely on it. Nigeria’s brand of political public relations, for the most part, does no more than attract enemies, scare away potential converts, and ossify negative opinions about candidates.

“It consists in barbarous, impulsive, sophomoric insults against real and imagined political opponents—and cloying, hagiographic defense of principals. It lacks nuance, is childish, and seems unconcerned with logic and persuasion.

“The performance of Reuben Abati and Doyin Okupe (who in fact describes himself as an ‘attack lion’)—and several others before them—in the defense of their bosses and the demonization of their bosses’ real and imagined political enemies is a classic example of the kind of primitive political public relations that holds sway in Nigeria. In this kind of political public relations, not only ‘political enemies’ come under heavy fire; facts, truth, and logic also become casualties.”

As spokesmen for Olusegun Obasanjo, Doyin Okupe and Femi Fani-Kayode trafficked in what I called an “unprecedented display of ill breeding and rudeness to our elders” and everyday Nigerians and “reckless and irresponsible juvenile bravado.”

Although Olusegun Adeniyi was urbane, responsible, polite, and guarded in the performance of his job as Umaru Musa Yar’adua’s spokesman, the ease with which he defended the obvious lies and fraud of the administration, especially in the last days of Yar’adua when governance basically ceased, made it difficult to take him seriously.

Then Reuben Abati came and started the trend of inventing group slurs for critics of the government. He infantilized and pathologized critics of Goodluck Jonathan as “collective children of anger.”

Femi Adesina built on Abati’s collective slurring of critics. One of Adesina’s most notable “achievements” was the invention of a vacuous, unimaginative, and idiotic insult for critics of Muhammadu Buhari. He called them “wailing wailers.”

As I pointed out in past columns, “Wailing Wailers” is a historically positive termbecause it is one of the earliest names of the reggae band formed by Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Wailer in Jamaica. The band took the world by storm with the irresistibly lyrical force and anti-imperialist content of its music.It betrays a spectacular creativity deficit to insult your opponents with a term of esteem.

Outside its creative use as the name of a music band, “wailing wailer” is an unintelligent waste of words. It’s akin to saying “writing writers” or “singing singers.” It takes unbelievably remarkable stupidity to think that “wailing wailer” or “wailer” is an insult, but it bespeaks an even more astonishing height in the ignorance index to hurl it at an opponent and imagine you have done something great.

Most importantly, though, why should a presidential spokesperson who is paid from the public purse vituperate all critics of a government with a crude slur? What does that achieve?

Well, I can tell you what it achieves. It creates a condition psychologists call reactance. Reactance occurs when people are motivated to persist in or double down on an opinion or course of action that caused them to be threatened with insults.

For example, I didn’t set out wanting to be a Buhari critic. In fact, like previous presidents, I wanted him to succeed for the benefit of the entire country. When I started calling out his missteps in 2015 in the most sympathetic ways possible, I got unwarrantedly violent pushback from people who thought Buhari was worthy only of worshipful admiration and not even the mildest censure for even his most obvious infractions.

The Buhari Media Center (BMC) was created to attack, smear, and libel me for merely daring to call out Buhari at a time when most people were scared of pointing out his weak points. But instead of cowing me, BMC’s attacks emboldened me and activated amotivational state of reactance that compelled me to reveal things about Buhari that I probably would have kept under wraps had BMC minions not set out to serially defame me for exercising my right to comment on the government.

Most critical, independent, self-aware people react the same way if their freedom of thought or action is violated with threats, insults, or other tools of emotional blackmail. In other words, it turns even fence-sitters into sworn enemies and hardens the opposition of opponents. The fact that Malagi and Ngelale appear to appreciate this elemental truth in persuasion and information management is admirable.

To my utter embarrassment, I had no knowledge of Ngelale until his appointment by Tinubu. I now know that he is a young man in his 30s (making him probably the youngest presidential spokesperson since 1999) who earned a political science degree from the University of Kansas in the United States in 2011 and had worked as Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs (and defended many indefensible things).

Perhaps, his youth, transnational experience, and awful experiences in the Buhari regime have helped to shape his new approach to interfacing with Nigerians.

Malagi’s position doesn’t surprise me. As I wrote in a casual May 18, 2022, article when he ran for APC’s governorship nomination in Niger State, I have known Malagi since the late 1990s when I worked for the Weekly Trust. He is by far the best credentialed minister of information that Nigeria has had in recent memory.

After teaching at a college of education for years,he ventured into public relations, advertising, marketing, and finally publishing. Apart from being the publisher of the Abuja-based Blueprint newspaper, he is also the proprietor of WE 106.5 FM Abuja, was general secretary of the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN) and has been a major player in the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR).

So, unlike past ministers of information, Malagi has deep intellectual and experiential familiarity with both public relations and journalism. Of course, this is no guarantee that he will succeed—or be better than his predecessors. Power both changes and reveals who people are. I know of no one who has remained the same after stepping foot in the corridors of power. I’ll be pleasantly shocked if Malagi is different.

For all you know, the praiseworthy words of Malagi and Ngelale may be no more than the ephemeral whispers ofhoneymoon sweet nothings. But the fact that they are unprecedented should invite us to pay attention and monitor how actions match the words.

Niger’s military leadership has expelled the French ambassador, Sylvain Itte, from the country.

This comes amid mounting tensions between the west African country and its international partners.

Itte was ordered to leave the country within 48 hours.

In a statement on Friday, Niger’s foreign ministry said the decision to expel the ambassador stemmed from his refusal to honour an invitation.

According to the statement, “other actions by the French government contrary to the interests of Niger” led to the ambassador’s withdrawal.

However, the foreign ministry did not provide details.

The junta had accused French forces of freeing captured “terrorists” and breaching a ban on the airspace in an attempt to destabilise the country.

The country’s military had also accused the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) of aligning its troops with a foreign entity whom it did not mention.

Niger, a former French colony, was France’s partner before last month’s coup in the fight against jihadi violence.

Niger’s junta also authorized troops from neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso to come to its defense, raising the stakes in a stand-off with other West African nations who are threatening to reinstate ousted President Mohamed Bazoum.

The junta leader, General Abdourahmane Tchiani, signed two executive orders authorizing the “security forces of Burkina Faso and Mali to intervene on Niger territory in the event of aggression,” senior junta official Oumarou Ibrahim Sidi said late on Thursday, after hosting a delegation from the two countries in the Nigerien capital, Niamey.

Sidi did not provide further details about the military support from the two countries whose military regimes have said any use of force by the West African bloc ECOWAS against Niger’s junta would be treated as an act of war against their own nations.

Before last month’s ousting Mr Bazoum, Niger was seen as the West’s last major partner against jihadi violence in the Sahel region below the Sahara Desert, which is rife with anti-French sentiment.