Residents of Enugu metropolis, Monday, deserted the streets in compliance with the sit-at-home order of Simon Ekpa, a self-styled leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB. This is despite the order of the Enugu State government for workers and business people of the state not to observe sit-at-home today.

A survey carried out by THE WHISTLER showed that schools, banks, traders and major vehicle transport companies did not open for operations. Our correspondent also observed the presence of security operatives in some strategic areas of the metropolis.

Some residents commended Gov Peter Mbah for being bold in stopping the sit-at-home in the state. They however faulted his approach.

Solomon Eze is a security consultant. He said, “No doubt this is the first time a governor of the state has been frontal in addressing the sit-at-home. I would advise Mbah to first of all show commitment towards the real cause of the sit-at-home. He should consult with his fellow South-East governors and send a delegation to President Bola Tinubu towards releasing Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, spiritual leader of IPOB. He has been discharged and acquitted, hence the decision to keep him in the custody of the DSS is former president Muhammadu Buhari’s personal agenda. Mbah should explore that aspect rather than condemning the agitators for destroying the economy of the state. Kanu is fighting for the oppressed people of South East.”

A school proprietor, Janet Ezeme, said, “I wouldn’t have asked my pupils to come to school today. It is a risk that no sane person would take. The governor should have started by compelling his civil servants to report to work on Mondays, and experiment with them rather than issuing an order to that effect. That pronouncement created more fear because he played into Simon Ekpa in faraway Finland. I think Ekpa’s order was more complied with.”

A journalist, Tony Okeke, commended Mbah, and blamed the continued incarceration of Kanu on the selfish ambitions of past governors of South-East states.

According to him, “South-East Governors Forum, then led by ex-gov Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State, was never proactive in effecting the release of Kanu. They worshipped Buhari because of their political ambitions. Thank God most of them failed woefully in the last elections. They never for once approached Buhari then as a body to release Kanu.

“So Mbah started well, but he should know that Soludo of Anambra State attempted the same, and harvested gory incidents afterwards. Enugu lacks adequate security to guarantee relative safety in the way Mbah envisages. I have seen one police helicopter hovering in the capital city. But what about the fate of our rural dwellers? I am from Igboeze North, a hotbed of IPOB. There is nothing like presence of security agents there as I speak with you.”

THE WHISTLER reported that Mbah ordered businesses to begin operations in the entire state today, adding that sit-at-home was antithetical to his administration’s quest to grow the economy of the state. The state police command, through its PPRO, Mr Daniel Ndukwe, also stated that the command had deployed both human and material resources to ensure security of lives and property across the state.

Sit-at-home was declared in the entire South-East states by IPOB to pressure the release of Kanu, who was arrested in Kenya and brought to Nigeria in 2021. Despite the Appeal Court order for his release because he was illegally brought to Nigeria, then President Buhari did not comply. Kanu is being tried over alleged running a proscribed group, treason and jumping bail.

An estate developer, Kelly Nwogu, was on Friday remanded by the Federal High Court in Lagos for allegedly obtaining N65m from a church under false pretence.

The defendant is facing three counts of conspiracy, obtaining by false pretence and fraudulent conversion, preferred against him by the Police Special Fraud Unit.

Nwogu was arraigned alongside his company, Livelihood Homes Limited, and others still at large before Justice Peter Lifu.

The prosecutor, Emmanuel Jackson, told the court that the defendants and others now at large, committed the offences sometime this year.

Jackson told the court that the estate developer, his company, and others now at large, fraudulently obtained N65m from a church in the Ojodu area of Lagos State, with a false pretence of having plots of land for sale at the Ewekoro Local Government Area of Ogun State, and Agbara, Badagry Expressway in Lagos.

He said after receiving the money from the church, the defendant failed to give out the land as promised and also failed to reimburse the church.

According to him, the offences contravened Sections 8(a), 1(1)(8) and punishable under Section 1(3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, No. 14 of 2006 and Section 15(2)(b) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 as Amended in 2012.

Nwogu, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Following his not-guilty plea, the prosecutor asked the court for a trial date and also urged the court to remand the defendant in the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Centre pending the conclusion and determination of the allegations against him.

But counsel for the defendant, Bernard Omang, applied to the court to admit his client to bail in the most liberal terms.

His request was rejected by the court on the ground that there was no proper application to support his request.

Consequently, Justice Lifu ordered that the defendant be remanded at the Ikoyi Custodial Centre and adjourned the case till June 14 for the commencement of trial.

Let me start with a confession. I am a closet romantic. I love red roses and blue violets. I love petal-strewn, candle-lit scenes. I love to be wined and dined in exotic places. Everyone close to me knows that my vacations are incomplete without a beach and or a beachfront hotel room. The full works. Life is to be lived and what’s a well lived life as a woman if she has not been wowed by scented candles and exotic dinner on a beach? Every man, every woman must look back, at least once, and smile at the days leading to marriage and bless the day they found their partners. But I am a realist and I do not believe in long courtships heading nowhere. No, No matter how purple a relationship is, I do not believe in time-wasters.

Dating without a wedding date within sight is totally dumb unless what either of the parties involved have in mind is a fling. If it’s fling, by all means, have fun. Do your crazy things, feed your fantasies. But if you have both agreed that this is for keeps and you are each other’s final bus stops, then do what needs to be done, put a ring on it. Smart girls should date smart. Just like working smart yields better rewards than working hard, dating smart is better than dating hard. Long courtships are just long hard things that should be given a wide berth.

Sure, it is important to look before you leap and every girl should do her due diligence before she says ‘I do’ or even ‘I don’t’. I just don’t see the diligence in looking for years without leaping. It is neither due nor diligent if you allow a man to test-drive you until your tires are worn. That would be based on what logic? Yes, short and sharp courtship can leave you jumping into a ditch but who said you can know everything about a woman or a man just because you have been dating for five years? What smart girl allows herself to be ‘dated’ for five years, anyway?

Whatever you think is the downside of a short courtship, a long courtship is still bad. And before you come up with the archaic argument of how a woman needs to study a man, show me a wife who can swear that she absolutely knew her man before she said ‘ I do’. Men are closed books and you can’t judge them by their macho covers. It takes time to know a man. Okay, and a woman too. So? Short courtships are not good for anybody. Neither is long courtship. The sane thing is to stay in the middle of the long and the short courtship.

Find a middle road. It’s either a relationship is serious or it is not. You are either heading for the altar or the rocks. If you are dating a man and in all of the 52 weeks that make a year, you don’t smell seriousness, you’ve been had. Cut your losses and take a walk. The earlier the better. Hanging on to nothing is foolishness and you know what is most saddening; most women in relationships that are going nowhere are actually aware of the fact. They are just too afraid to cut loose; you know all that nonsense about ‘where do I start from’ bla bla bla. If you don’t end a bad affair while time is still on your side, you are liable to end up a lonely irritable old maid, by which time it would be too late to start anywhere.

Let me also stress here that long courtships are even worse for men. A trusting guy could end up with a playgirl who just loves the idea of love while ‘cutting shows’ at the expense of the well-brought-up son of good parents. There are bad girls all over the place, let’s admit it. Some are even so frivolous or mean or both that you wonder if they were born like that. You know I’ve always said all girls are born good, that it is the men ruin their pinks with their dark hearts. But my eyes have seen things in this city. These pretty little things wearing false this and that and calling every guy ‘baby’ are trouble propelled by turbo engines. They are cute and smooth. I have also concluded that they know how to keep their men strapped to their bedposts which is why some men who graduated with First Class at age 21 become ‘mumu’ in their scented hands. The bobo is all brains when you meet him in his expansive office during the day but you wait for his girlfriend to sashay through the door and his brains simply shuts down. He follows her all over the place like a puppy, wagging his fluffy tail.

We must re-orientate our boys that being book-smart without being street-wise is bad for their hearts. A girl who keeps fencing her boyfriend of two years from meeting her family is a suspect. If all she wants is to eat at all the fancy restaurants in the city, be spoilt silly on her birthday and pampered to an inch of her life at Valentine without making any moves towards Nikkah or the altar, take a step back, son, and reassess the situation. If all the plan she wants to make with you is about her getting the latest designer fragrance or a weekend to de-stress in Zanzibar, dude, you just might be the latest ’maga’ in town.

A beautiful woman aware of what she can reel in with her shapely ‘fronters’ and eye-popping backside is dangerous for a serious-minded guy, loaded and looking to settle down. Girls like the perfect gentleman who treats them like ladies but a greedy one who has a side-Aristo is prone to take advantage of a good man, turning a short trip into a wander in the wilderness.

Of course, long courtship is bad business for any right thinking woman, and it won’t be because of lack of patience on a girl’s part. It’s simply and totally about common sense. Letting a man dangle you on his key string is dumb, dangerous and a bloody waste of time, and time is what a woman doesn’t always have,

A long courtship going nowhere strips a woman of her dignity and self-esteem. Because she is hoping that tomorrow will persuade him to make an honest woman of her, she ignores other eligible males. Because she thinks he’d propose at the next valentine dinner, she discourages the real Mr Right. She reads stupid meanings into everything he says or does even when the bloke is just having fun. For instance, she mistakes his presence at her mother’s 60th birthday for commitment of an ‘acting son-in-law’. Nonsense, it’s just another party for him. So what if he attended with his friends? Did he not attend parties the previous weekend?

If you play wifey at weekends while he plays the field all week, he’s not the man you think he is. If after three years of dating, he is still pussy-footing about ordinary introduction ceremony, cut him loose before his bad ways ruin your self-esteem. That he won’t propose does not mean you are not a wife material. He’s just not the groom meant for you. You can’t remain his plaything forever while he enjoys the best of both worlds. A man who leads a young woman on, knowing he would not marry her was badly brought up by his mother and his father taught him nothing. A woman who strings a good man along is sowing evil seeds for her daughters to reap later. If this long date is leading to a dark alley, the time to turn back is now. 

The 7th Osun State House of Assembly led by Speaker Timothy Owoeye of the All Progressives Congress(APC) is ending abruptly as Governor Ademola Adeleke announces proclamation of the 8th Assembly.

The 8th Assembly will not be led by the APC because the party performed abysmally in the last state assembly elections which resulted in its candidates losing all the seats to members of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) except for the Boripe/Boluwaduro State Constituency seat retained by the APC.

Following APC’s loss of power in the state in 2022, a crisis rocked the 7th assembly over a Christmas largess that almost resulted in the impeachment of Owoeye by lawmakers before it was settled.

The last sitting of the house was held last week as the lawmakers held a brief meeting to end their tenure without any celebration.

Governor Adeleke signed and sent a letter to the Clerk of the house dissolving the 7th Assembly while a proclamation order on the 8th Assembly was equally signed by the governor on Friday.

The governor invoked Section 105, sub-section 3 of the Nigerian constitution in announcing the dissolution of the 7th Osun State Assembly and issuing proclamation for the 8th Assembly.

Adeleke’s letter titled, ‘DISSOLUTION OF THE 7TH ASSEMBLY OF OSUN STATE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY, reads as follows: “Whereas it is provided in Section 105 Subsection 1 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended, that a House of Assembly shall stand dissolved at the expiration of a period of four years commencing from the date of the first sitting of the House.

“Now, therefore, I, Senator Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke, the Governor of Osun State of Nigeria, in exercise of powers bestowed upon me by Section 105 Subsection 3 aforesaid, and of all powers enabling me in that behalf, hereby proclaim that the seventh (7th) Assembly of Osun State House of Assembly is hereby dissolved with immediate effect.

“Given under my hand and the public seal of Osun State of Nigeria at Osogbo, this Friday, 2nd Day of June, 2023”.

Subsequently, the proclamation order as contained in letter titled, “PROCLAMATION FOR THE HOLDING OF THE FIRST SESSION OF THE 8TH ASSEMBLY OF OSUN STATE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY” read, “I write to convey my proclamation for the holding of the 8th Assembly and it reads as follows:

“Whereas it is provided in Section 105 Subsection 3 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended, that the person elected as Governor of a State shall have powers to issue a Proclamation for the holding of the First Session of the House of Assembly of the State concerned immediately after his being sworn in.

“Now, therefore, I, Senator Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke, the Governor of Osun State of Nigeria, in exercise of powers bestowed upon me by Section 105 Subsection 3 aforesaid, and of all powers enabling me in that behalf, hereby proclaim that the First Session of the Eighth (8th) Assembly of Osun State House of Assembly shall hold on Tuesday, 6th June, 2019 at 10am in Osun State House of Assembly.

“Given under my hand and the public seal of Osun State of Nigeria at Osogbo, this Friday, 2nd Day of June, 2023”.

…Orders Imo SUBEB to refund N482m paid illegally to unqualified contractors

THE Senate has indicted the Office of Accountant General of the Federation over its refusal to repay short term loans given to Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, from special funds accounts totaling N910 billion.

It uncovered this after investigation by the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, led by Senator Matthew Urhoghide, Edo South, following the submission of 2017 Auditor General’s report.

According to the query, the loans and debts arose from Special Funds Accounts totaling N910,039,557,742 and showed that the balance remained unpaid throughout the year, though they were designed to be short term.

In its response, the Office of the Accountant General claimed that several letters were written to the then Minister of Finance to authorize the settlement of the loans granted against allocations of various MDAs.

The AGF office further said it had requested the minister to include the loans repayment in 2017 budget.

Urhoghide’ committee observed that there was continous abuse of the special funds by the executive as the withdrawals were continually made for political expediency outside the purpose for which the funds were meant .

The report read: “ There is continous abuse of the special funds by executive as the withdrawals are continually made for political expediency outside the purpose for which the funds were meant.”

The Senate, therefore, ordered that all outstanding loans be recovered by the Accountant General of the Federation and evidence of recovery presented to the Auditor General and Senate Public Accounts Committee within 60 days .

Meanwhile, the Senate, after considering the report, directed the Executive Chairman of Imo State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, to account for money paid to companies not financially capable, contrary to requirement of extant rules.

The chairman of the board failed to appear before the committee to defend the allegation of payment without due process.

The National Industrial Court sitting in Kano state has ordered the state government to reinstate sacked Chairman of the state Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission, Muhuyi Magaji Rimingado with immediate effect.

The court presided over by Justice Ebeye David Eseimo ruled that the removal of Rimingado from office as the state anti-corruption boss was “illegal, null and void.”

Rimingado was appointed the state anti-corruption commission’s head by the Abdullahi Ganduje administration which later sacked him over corruption allegations and illegal appointments of some of his staff.

Seeking redress, the sacked chairman dragged Kano State Government, the House of Assembly and Attorney General of the State to court challenging the legitimacy of his removal from office.

The court presided over by Justice Ebeye David Eseimo granted his three prayers against the defendants.

The judge ruled that the second defendant has no right to recommend the dismissal of the plaintiff without first hearing from the claimant.

The Ondo State Deputy Governor, Mr Lucky Aiyedatiwa, has denied the allegation that he was fond of beating up his wife, Mrs Oluwaseun.

A group, under the auspices of the Society for Women Empowerment, alleged that Ayedatiwa had physically assaulted his wife twice in four months which, according to it, was against the ethics of his office.

However, the deputy governor in a statement issued through his media aide, Mr Kenneth Odusola, said he had never raised his hand to his wife since they got married.

Aiyedatiwa, who described the women’s group as faceless, said the media report that he engaged in domestic abuse and assault on his wife was baseless and false.

The statement read,” The said allegation of domestic abuse is a figment of the imagination of those behind it and their ungodly intentions to cause a crisis in the state had been known for weeks and therefore such falsehood did not come as a surprise.

“While His Excellency reserves the right to privacy on issues pertaining to his family, it is pertinent to state clearly that there has never been any domestic violence between the Deputy Governor and his lovely wife, Mrs. Oluwaseun Aiyedatiwa, who at the moment is outside the shores of the country.

“It is not a secret that Mrs. Oluwaseun Aiyedatiwa has lived and worked in the United Kingdom for many years before her husband became an elected public official in Nigeria and since then she has been shuttling between the United Kingdom and Nigeria to take care of the home and the children who are also in the United Kingdom.

“Therefore, any report of alleged domestic issues within the family should be taken as the handiwork of the enemies of the state who are bent on causing a crisis where there is none and we therefore warn those spreading such falsehood to desist or face the consequences.”

Yesterday, the Federal Government had a meeting with the Trade Union Congress(TUC) on the fuel subsidy removal. Mr Dele Alake, Spokesperson to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu spoke on the outcome of the meeting.

What is your reaction to the meeting between the FG and TUC?

Well, as you all know, we had this reconvened meeting today as we promised you few days ago when we had the initial meeting with the Labour movement.

We said we were going to reconvene today to keep the engagement on in order to diffuse the tension in the land as a result of the withdrawal of subsidy, which is a reality.

Now, we are very happy to announce to Nigerians that this engagement has been very productive. The TUC that attended today’s meeting presented a list of demands and those demands we have studied and we are going to present to Mr President, for his consideration. But those demands we can announce to Nigerians that a lot of the items on the list, are not impracticable. What we need to do is to study the numbers very well. Then, we have asked the TUC to also give us a leeway to consult very exhaustively and reconvene on Tuesday to actually look at the numbers, viability, practicability of all the items that have been presented to us.

Now, most important and top priority on the list which the government is also looking at very seriously and the president has announced before, is the issue of the minimum wage which the Labour movement has demanded is the consequential impact of this removal of subsidy.

So, Mr President is most likely going to constitute a tripartite committee, that is a committee of Federal Government, including the state and then the organised Labour and the private sector.

Now, this is a tripartite arrangement, it will be a committee that will study all the dynamics of a wage increase in percentages, the numbers and the categories that will be affected.

So, by Tuesday when we come back to reconvene, to meet with the TUC again, we should have very concrete items to present to the world. But the most important thing for today is that we are making appreciable progress with the Labour.

What are the other demands beyond the minimum wage?

It is a list but we are not going to be listing all of them now. The most important is the minimum wage, that is increase of minimum wage. Because, when this thing is removed, the argument of Labour is that there is an immediate impact on the workers, on the purchasing power because price of fuel has gone up. So, that will necessarily reduce the purchasing power of the average worker. So, the next thing of immediate consequence is to increase the purchasing power of the worker. So that to me and to all of us on this side is the top most priority on the list. There are other things like the tax holidays which some categories of workers will be beneficiaries. But the most important is the minimum wage.

Are you negotiating separately with NLC?

No we are not but we are making efforts to reach NLC. We all agreed that we are going to meet here but again, in this game there are dynamics, sometime they could be meeting with their own executive and not able to meet with us, or they could want to postpone or they have not actually articulated their list of demands as the TUC. But we cannot second guess why they are not here. But efforts are being made to reach them, we are not isolating them at all.

How soon will the committee be set up?

Very very soon. We are going to meet Mr President now and we are going to give him a feedback on this and he is going to take an immediate decision. And like I said, Mr President himself, you all reported him, he has said that there will be a review of the minimum wage, you reported it.

So, we are not in disagreement with labour at all on that on that particular issue.

One of the President’s spokesman, Bayo Onanuga accused the NLC of pandering to the wishes of Peter Obi, did that come up in the discussion?

No not at all. It has no relevance to the discussion on the concrete terms of the welfare of the workers. Our discussion was majorly on the welfare of workers, how to cushion the impact of this subsidy removal on workers; that’s all. Not on any political partisanship.

Who is leading the government team in this negotiation?

Of course you can see all of us here, you can see the GCEO of NNPC, you can see some of us who have been mandated by the president. And don’t forget that a presidential system of government is executive in capacity. The president can appoint anybody, he can even appoint consultants to act on his behalf, so there is no issue about that. It is not actually germane.

Were you able to convince them to shelve the strike?

Of course we discussed that, and that is why we are still going to reconvene on Tuesday and that is appreciable progress.

Earlier Labour said you must revert to status quo, did you attempt to touch on that?
Of course we did. We touched on that, everybody looked at the practicability of that, the viability and otherwise. Now, the issue is that we will close all of those ones on Tuesday when we reconvene. Concrete decisions will be taken about that and then we will reach logical conclusions.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) is winding down crude oil swap contracts with traders and will pay cash for petrol imports as private companies could begin importing petrol as soon as this month, according to a Reuters report.

This means that NNPC is in the process of ending crude swap contracts with traders. Instead of exchanging crude oil for refined petroleum products, the state-oil company will now make cash payments for petrol imports.

The move is part of President Bola Tinubu’s plans to deregulate the petrol market and reduce the burden on government finances, the statement said.

President Bola Tinubu on Monday during his inauguration announced that “subsidy is gone” sending the market into a tailspin as those who had the products quickly shut their pumps and long queues emerged across the nation.

NNPC has been importing petrol from consortiums of foreign and local trading firms and repaying them with crude oil via what is known as Direct Sale Direct Purchase (DSDP) contracts since 2016 because it does not have enough cash to pay for the purchases, the statement said.

“In the last four months, we practically terminated all DSDP contracts. And we now have an arm’s-length process where we can pay cash for the imports,” Mele Kyari, group chief executive officer, NNPC told Reuters in an interview late on Saturday.

“This is the first time NNPC has said it is terminating crude swap contracts. By importing less gasoline as private companies import the bulk, NNPC will be able to pay for its purchases in cash.”

Nigeria is Africa’s biggest crude producer but imports most of its refined products after running down its refineries. Nigeria’s petrol import bill hit N5.2 trillion in 2022, the highest in six years, as the quest by the country to wean itself off imported fuel drags.

A significant drop in oil production last year coupled with high global fuel prices due to the war in Ukraine pushed NNPC’s debt to traders higher. It owed the consortiums about $2 billion, a September 2022 NNPC report to the Federation Account Allocation Committee shows, the statement said.

“An industry source with direct knowledge of the matter said NNPC was still allocating crude for fuel swaps for July loading, though less than in previous months. In its report detailing March crude oil loadings, NNPC also allocated crude to the swap contracts held by the consortiums,” Reuters said.

Kyari told Reuters that NNPC’s monopoly on petrol supplies was ending and private firms could start importing as early as this month.

“Nigeria’s total crude and condensate output was at 1.56 million barrels a day (bpd) as of Friday. Nigeria has struggled to meet its Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil quota of 1.742 million bpd due to grand oil theft and illegal refining,” Kyari said.

That has raised doubts on whether Nigeria can meet supplies for the 650,000-bpd newly commissioned Dangote Refinery. NNPC has a contract to supply 300,000 bpd to the refinery.

The Kano State Governor, Abba Yusuf, has announced the revocation of the sale of Hasiya Bayero Pediatric Hospital.

The hospital was allegedly sold during the administration of a former governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, to an All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain.

Governor Yusuf made this announcement during his visit to the hospital, reaffirming his commitment to enhancing healthcare services, particularly for women and children.

During his visit, Governor Yusuf expressed his concern for the well-being of the people, emphasizing the significance of accessible and quality healthcare.

He stated, “The health of our citizens, especially women, and children, is of utmost importance to my administration. We are determined to provide the necessary infrastructure and services to ensure their well-being.

“Revoking the sale of Hasiya Bayero Pediatric Hospital is a crucial step towards achieving our healthcare goals.”

Governor Yusuf further assured the public that his government would prioritize healthcare delivery, pledging to invest in improving medical facilities across the state.

He said, “We will not relent in our efforts to develop and upgrade healthcare infrastructure. Our aim is to provide comprehensive and efficient medical services, enabling every citizen to access the care they need.”

While the details of the revocation process are yet to be disclosed, the state government is expected to initiate an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the hospital’s sale.

Governor Yusuf emphasized the importance of transparency and accountability, stating, “We will conduct a thorough review to ensure that such incidents do not recur. It is crucial that public assets are protected and utilized for the benefit of the people.”