The battle to unravel what the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, has called “true identity” in aid of his petition at the tribunal enters crucial stage on Thursday as the Chicago State University has assured that all documents being sought by the applicant in relation to Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, would be released and exposed if granted by the court.

Atiku who has been locked in a battle with Tinubu regarding the actual winner of the 2023 presidential election at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal extended the frontiers of the war to the US in what his camp said is to expose the ‘actual’ Tinubu following several discrepancies in his biodata submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

Although Tinubu, who courted controversy regarding his real name, age and academic records since 1999 when he won the governorship seat in Lagos has denied all accusations of deliberately concealing his true identity, Atiku believes certain records in the US where the current president schooled and worked could settle the controversy.

Whichever way, the Atiku camp told THE WHISTLER, “it’s a win-win for us,” as “we are sure the reason Tinubu made an application to deny the release of that information means his true identity would be unravelled.

“Is he a male? What course did he study? When? What’s his date of birth?

“We would know all of those and even more,” a member of the Atiku camp said on Wednesday.

In its deposition to the court, the Chicago State University, CSU, has requested the court to grant “only limited and targeted discovery” of the information however assuring that in the event the court rules otherwise, it’s bound to honour the court decision immediately.

The University however wondered how information being sought by Atiku would aid his petition at the tribunal in Nigeria, it nonetheless said, in the event the Court determines to allow any discovery to proceed here, the University urges the Court to direct only limited, targeted discovery on the University.

“As leave to issue any discovery has not yet been granted, and the Court’s views on what if any discovery is appropriate here under 28 U.S.C. §1782 are not yet known, it is premature for the University to raise objections to the scope of the documents and information sought in Abubakar’s two subpoenas.

“But without limiting further objections, which the University expressly reserves, the University notes that the scope and relevancy of certain of Abubakar’s requests are clearly inappropriate,” the University added.

Citing it said, “For example, Abubakar’s document subpoena Request No. 5 seeks information on diplomas issued by the University for a 44-year period (1979 to the present), and Abubakar’s deposition subpoena Topic No. 7 seeks information on the employment status and reasons for departure of a former employee in the University’s General Counsel’s Office

“Following this Court’s ruling on the Application, should any discovery be permitted, the University will meet and confer promptly and in good faith with Abubakar’s counsel to attempt to address all the University’s concerns.”

Suspected armed robbers have invaded a female hostel at the Rivers State University (RSU), Port Harcourt on Thursday, where they robbed and sexually assaulted some of the students.

The robbers carted away mobile phones, cash, and other valuables belonging to the students.

The incident occurred in Hostels D and C, located near the school’s back gate, where a lot of female students are accommodated, at around 1:45 a.m.

According to a student, the robbers were armed with guns and machetes, and they operated for about 45 minutes. They injured about four female students before making away with cash, phones, and other items of value.

The students staged a protest around 8 a.m. after the incident, making the school’s management to shut both entrances to the institution to prevent the protest from escalating.

The Lamidi Apapa faction of the Labour Party (LP) has said Ikechukwu Ukaegbu is the governorship candidate of the Labour Party for Imo State and not Athan Achonu.

It therefore said it has ‘voided’ the governorship flag-off of Ukaegbu for the November 11 governorship election in the state.

The Julius Abure faction had held its flag off on Wednesday in Owerri where it unveiled Athan Achonu as its candidate.

Abure, LP presidential candidate Peter Obi and Abia State governor, Alex Otti, attended Achonu’s campaign flag-off, where the party declared its readiness to dislodge the All Progressives Congress (APC) incumbent, Governor Hope Uzodimma.

However, hours after the event, the Apapa camp said it held an emergency National Working Committee (NWC) meeting, late Wednesday, where the flag-off was declared null and void.

The Apapa camp has insisted that Ikechukwu Ukaegbu is the authentic candidate of the LP for the Imo governorship election.

Ukaegbu emerged as candidate in a parallel primary conducted by the Apapa faction on April 16 but a day earlier, April 15, Achonu was elected as the party’s flag bearer in an election held by Abure’s camp.

The Apapa camp announced that it had voided Achonu’s campaign flag-off in a statement released on Thursday.

The statement, signed by Apapa, as Acting National Chairman, Saleh Lawan,
Acting National Secretary and Arabambi Abayomi, National Publicity Secretary, also faulted Peter Obi for endorsing Achonu.

“The Labour Party (LP) National Working Committee (NWC) in an emergency meeting yesterday, Wednesday, 23rd August, 2023, have disclaimed Mr Peter Obi’s assertion and voided the illegal, unlawful and unauthorised Imo State Gubernatorial Campaign Flag-Off of Senator Athan Nneji Achonu, awaiting the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting concurrence today, Thursday 24th August, 2023,” the statement said.

“Abure and others illegally and unlawfully conducted unauthorised gubernatorial primaries of the Labour Party (LP) in Imo, Bayelsa and Kogi states on 15th April, 2023; while Alhaji Lamidi Bashiru Apapa conducted the legally valid primaries on 16th April, 2023, that has been adjudged by the Owerri High Court judgment of 23rd June, 2023, and Appeal Court judgment of 18th July, 2023, that upheld Chief Ukaegbu Ikechukwu Joseph Ikenga as the authentic Labour Party gubernatorial candidate in Imo State,” the statement added.

The Apapa camp, in the statement, further alleged that Abure and members of his executive committee “colluded with Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials to upload illegal names on the INEC portal because they had the INEC portal codes which they have refused to hand over to Alhaji Lamidi Bashiru Apapa”.

FIFA opened disciplinary proceedings against Luis Rubiales on Thursday after the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) president kissed Spain star Jenni Hermoso on the lips following the Women’s World Cup final last weekend.

“The FIFA disciplinary committee informed Luis Rubiales, president of the Spanish Football Association, today that it is opening disciplinary proceedings against him based on the events that occurred during the final,” world football’s governing body said in a statement.

FIFA said the incident “may constitute violations of article 13 paragraphs 1 and 2 of the FIFA disciplinary code”.

Spain star Hermoso released a joint statement with union Futpro on Wednesday, which called for action to be taken against the RFEF president.

“We are working to ensure that acts such as those we have seen never go unpunished, that they are sanctioned and that the exemplary measures are adopted to protect women footballers from actions that we believe are unacceptable,” the statement said.

Spain’s women’s football league, Liga F, also called for Rubiales to be sacked.

Rubiales, 46, initially attacked his critics before eventually apologising but the criticism of his behaviour has not abated.

The legal process initiated by the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, asking the Chicago State University (CSU) for a discovery of President Bola Tinubu’s academic records has got a new twist, as lawyers to President Tinubu in their fillings blamed the clerk of the 156-year-old institution for the errors in the APC presidential candidate’s academic documents and certificate.

It will be recalled that the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois had given Tinubu up until August 23 to make a formal filing on why his records should not be released to the petitioner, Atiku Abubakar.

In complying with the directive of the court, however, Tinubu’s lawyer, on Wednesday said that an unidentified clerk of the university “unfortunately” made the errors as to the dates the school stated on his recently-issued certificate and when he actually graduated, thereby creating “the appearance of differences.”

Tinubu’s new claim was made before the judge hearing the case, Jeffery Gilbert of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago.

Atiku had subpoenaed the CSU to make a discovery of Tinubu’s academic records, believing that such discoveries will shed more light on the controversies surrounding Tinubu’s educational claims.

There have been crises of authenticity about the documents that Tinubu submitted to the Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and a viral document that the CSU in the 1970s admitted a female student bearing Bola Tinubu, who was born on March 29, 1954.

While President Tinubu claims that he was born on March 29, 1952, he had also, at different times, listed 1954 as his birth year in the past.

The flame of controversy around President Tinubu’s academic records began to burn when, in 1999 during his run for the Lagos State governorship position, he claimed to have attended schools in Nigeria, which included Government College Ibadan, but which he later rescinded.

He also recently expunged his primary and secondary education from his records after it was discovered that other schools he listed under oath in his 1999 INEC form CF001 did not exist anywhere in Nigeria.

However, the documents being sought by Atiku seek to highlight which early education credentials Tinubu submitted to CSU before he was admitted into the university.

Atiku’s contention was that Tinubu had presented contradictory claims in Nigeria and the CSU in responding to a previous subpoena.

Tinubu’s response, which was signed by his lawyers, Oluwole Afolabi, and Christopher Carmichael, quoted in part, “unfortunately, in responding to the illegal and invalid subpoena, CSU made several errors.

“CSU issued a new diploma for Bola A. Tinubu, but incorrectly wrote the date of graduation as June 27, 1979.

“The correct date was June 22, 1979, but that scrivener’s error – along with a change in the CSU logo, the font on the diploma, and leadership at CSU who signed the diploma created the appearance of differences between an earlier issued diploma and the one issued in response to the 2022 subpoena.”

The Governor of Ebonyi, Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru, has approved the empowerment of 1,500 young citizens of the State who are hawking and doing other menial jobs in various cities with the sum of N2m each.

The governor disclosed this on the occasion of the 3rd State Executive Council meeting in Abakaliki.

He revealed that the beneficiaries will be brought back to the state in three batches of 500 persons and will be profiled and trained in the areas of vocational and technical skills.

The governor added that those doing menial jobs will be empowered and monitored to ensure that the funds are judiciously employed for business purposes.

After about six months in captivity, without ransom forthcoming, armed bandits operating in some parts of Niger state have released the remaining 56 farmers they abducted in Adunu village and adjoining communities in Paikoro Local Government Area of the state.

The armed bandits apparently frustrated that ransom was not forthcoming and they are spending money to keep the captives alive had earlier released a video threatening to kill the remaining people if ransom was not paid immediately.

But as luck would have it, instead of carrying out their threats, the remaining captives were released even when ransom was not paid, hence family members and their loved ones are thanking God for touching the hearts of the bandits to favour them.

Some of the family members revealing the cheering news to Daily Independent recalled how their loved ones fell victim to the armed bandits on the 14th of March, 2023 and had remained in captivity because ‘we could not raise money to pay ransom’.

Beatrice, a relative to one of the victims told our correspondent, “I am grateful to God Almighty that the armed bandits have released the remaining 56 farmers abducted from Adunu and my uncle is one of them, to God be the glory”.

Also speaking on the developments, the Coordinator of Justice, Development and Peace Commission, Catholic Diocese of Minna, Rev. Fr. Bahago Dauda Musa, confirmed that the victims have been released.

The Catholic Priest however said the returnees were in need of mental health support to recover from the emotional trauma they have been subjected to over the past six months while in the armed bandits’ den.

He said, “I have interacted with the victims of armed banditry in Niger state and I must confess that the experience hasn’t been a wonderful one; it has been very traumatic. These victims had gone through a lot, many of them or their loved ones were kidnapped”.

“So, so many of them that regained their freedom from the armed bandits are battling with series of post-traumatic disorders and that is seriously affecting their mental health, and that is why I said they needed urgent attention and rehabilitations”.

Rev. Fr. Bahago Dauda Musa is therefore appealing to the Governor Bago led administration and health experts to come to the aid of the victims by assisting them to recover from mental health to enable them to recover from the post-abduction horrific experiences.

Premier League side, Crystal Palace is set to splash the sum of €12 million for the services of Super Eagles and Leicester City striker, Kelechi Iheanacho, but a reliable journalist has revealed that Roy Hodgson will only make an official move on one condition.

Turkish journalist and Europe Transfer Football expert, Ekrem Konur revealed on Wednesday via social media platform-Twitter, that Iheanacho who doesn’t want to play in the English Championship, will be offloaded by the Foxes, owing to his huge weekly wage.

At the King Power Stadium, the Nigerian currently pockets £80k-per-week, which he has more than earned during his 210 senior appearances at the club since joining from the Premier League’s reigning champions Manchester City back in 2017.

According to Konur, “Crystal Palace is planning to open negotiations for Iheanacho with a bid of around €10million to €12million.”

However, the 26-year-old’s contract is set to expire in less than a year meaning that the ongoing window will be Enzo Maresca’s final opportunity to cash in should he not want to risk losing his prized asset for free, and especially having suffered relegation, that’s probably a sensible choice.

According to Football Insider, the Nigeria’s international could seal his departure in the final days of the transfer market, and whilst it’s stated that he has admirers over in Saudi Arabia, the centre-forward could end up staying in the top-flight and making his way to Selhurst Park.

The Nigerian Navy has set ablaze a vessel identified as ‘MV Cecilia’ with about 350,000 litres of stolen Automated Gas Oil also known as diesel in Woji, Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State.

The vandalised vessel, according to the Navy, had been inactive for two years, but was used as a storage tank for illegally refined products.

Commander of Operation Delta Safe Rear Admiral Olusegun Ferrera said, “The water tanks have been converted as a storage tank for these illegal products and the vessel has not been to sea for the past two years.”

Ferrera was represented by the maritime component commander of the Joint Task Force for Operation Delta Safe, South-South, Navy Commodore Adedokun Siyanbade.

Before it was set ablaze, two Naval gunboats manned with personnel had escorted the impounded vessel alongside a tug boat.

They pushed the vessel to a safe location in the sea where it gradually convulsed into flame. The process is reported to have lasted for two hours.

On August 16, personnel of the Nigerian Navy Ship, Pathfinder, Port Harcourt seized the MV Cecili vessel. Three suspects were arrested.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said that the ban on the importation of whole-body SIM cards raked in over N55 billion for local manufacturers.

This was disclosed by the Executive Vice-Chairman (EVC) of NCC, Umar Danbatta, at the second edition of the Nigerian Telecommunications Indigenous Content Expo (NTICE) in Lagos, on Wednesday, August 23.

Danbatta, who was represented by Ubale Maska, the commission’s Executive Commissioner (Technical Service), also revealed that they've created the Nigeria Office for Development of Indigenous Telecoms Sector (NODITS) as a special-purpose vehicle to bring it to fulfilment.

He said;

“I am happy to inform you that NTICE is one of the achievements of NCC through NODITS because it has served not only to promote pillar number five (strategic partnering) of the strategic management plan SMP 2020-2024 of the commission.

“The commission is equally committed to continuously supporting micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and innovators to promote our talented young persons and ventures through angel investments, research and development support, exposure to investors and sponsorship to local and international tech events.

“This ban has not only eased the burden on our demand for foreign exchange but has also created business in excess of N55 billion for the local SIM card manufacturers in Nigeria which in turn has created direct and indirect jobs.”

Danbatta also urged the government to grant the telecommunications industry autonomy to enable it to thrive.