Justice Alexander Owoeye of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Thursday halted the hearing of the charge filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, against Ezekiel Onyedikachi also known as Eezee Tee over what he described as an ‘Administrative’ procedure.

The EFCC had filed a four-count charge against Onyedikachi over alleged fraudulent conversion.

During the hearing on Thursday, Chikaosolu Ojukwu, SAN along with Dr Monday Ubani, SAN, announced appearance for Onyedikachi while Bilikisu Buhari announced appearance for the EFCC.

The defendant, Onyedikachi who had been absent at the last court hearing was however present in court.

After the parties announced their appearances, Justice Owoeye informed them of an ongoing administrative procedure in respect of the matter and that he would not be able to make any pronouncement in the case.

“There is an administrative procedure going on in this case, and until it is completed, I cannot make any pronouncement on it,” he said.

The judge also declined to grant the request by Mr Ojukwu that parties should maintain the status quo pending the completion of the administrative procedure.

He subsequently adjourned the matter till May 14.

[Vanguard]

In 1966, a young Nigerian woman did what no African woman had done before. She published a novel with an international press company. The book, Efuru, was as much a milestone as it was a disruption.

At a time when African literature was dominated by male voices — Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o — Flora Nwapa insisted on something different. She put an African woman at the centre of the story.

Make no mistake. Nwapa didn’t just write literature. She carved out a space for African women in politics, publishing, storytelling, and history. More than 50 years later, her name is still mentioned with reverence, carrying the same weight as her male contemporaries.

A WOMAN OF MANY FIRSTS

Born Flora Nwanzuruahu Nkiru Nwapa on January 13, 1931, in Oguta, present-day Imo state, she was the eldest of six children. Her father, Christopher Nwapa, was an agent for the United Africa Company (UAC), and her mother, Martha Nwapa, was a teacher. Education was non-negotiable in their home, and Flora excelled.

She attended Archdeacon Crowther Memorial Girls’ School before enrolling at the University of Ibadan, where she studied English, history, and geography. After graduating in 1957, she earned a diploma in education from the University of Edinburgh. She worked as a women’s education officer in Calabar, Cross River state, taught at Queen’s School, Enugu, and later became an assistant registrar at the University of Lagos.

During this time, Efuru took shape. The manuscript landed in the hands of Chinua Achebe, then an editor at Heinemann’s African Writers Series. He saw its promise and recommended its publication. That decision made history. Efuru became the first internationally published novel by a black African woman.

WRITING WOMEN BACK INTO THE STORY

Before Nwapa, female characters in African fiction were background figures; wives, daughters, mothers, or seductionists were rarely the protagonists of their own narratives. Efuru changed that.

The novel’s titular character, Efuru, is an independent Igbo woman who defies societal expectations. She leaves an unhappy marriage, takes charge of her own life, and remains strong despite personal losses. Most strikingly, the novel doesn’t force her into the conventional “happy ending” of marriage and children. Instead, she follows a spiritual path, becoming a worshipper of the goddess Uhamiri.

This was radical for the time. Nwapa wasn’t writing about women as victims; she was writing about women who made choices — flawed, unconventional, but theirs to make.

As Marie Umeh, a scholar and expert on African literature, highlighted in “The Poetics of Economic Independence for Female Empowerment”, Nwapa achieved something remarkable with Efuru. She laid the foundation for a new literary movement that defied conventional portrayals of Nigerian women, challenging their reduction to mere roles or rebellious figures.

Nwapa continued to challenge norms with Idu (1970), Never Again (1975), This is Lagos and Other Stories (1971), and Emeka, Driver’s Guard (1972), among others.

REBUILDING AFTER WAR

By the late 1960s, Nigeria was in turmoil. Following the Biafran War, Nwapa fled Lagos. In 1970, after the war, she was appointed minister of health and social welfare in Nigeria’s former east central state — the first person to hold the post.

Her role was critical. She worked to reunite children displaced by the war with their families and oversaw the return of those evacuated to other countries. In 1971, she became minister for land, survey, urban development, and establishment, leading efforts to rebuild war-torn communities.

For her service, she was awarded the national honour of Officer of the Order of the Niger in 1982.

BEYOND WRITING: THE BUSINESS OF REPRESENTATION

Nwapa decided that it wasn’t enough to just tell stories; she changed how they were published. In 1974, she launched Tana Press, becoming the first African woman to own a publishing house.

Through Tana Press, she published her later works, including One is Enough (1981) and Women Are Different (1986). More importantly, she gave other African women a platform, ensuring their voices weren’t silenced.

Despite the government’s talk of supporting indigenous publishing, she received little financial backing, and so her publishing house fell apart. But for Nwapa, it was more about giving Africans control over their narratives than commercial success.

A PROUD LEGACY 

While her male contemporaries won Nobel Prizes and international accolades, Nwapa’s work was sometimes dismissed as “domestic” or “feminine”. But she wasn’t writing for the Western literary elite. She was writing for Africa and Africans.

She once said, “The European conquest of Africa radically altered this state of affairs with devastating consequences for women and, by extension, the society as a whole.”

She remained a force beyond literature, advocating for women’s economic and educational empowerment, especially in rural areas.

Nwapa passed away in 1993, but her legacy is undeniable. Without her, there is no Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, no Buchi Emecheta, no new wave of African women writers reclaiming their narratives.

This Women’s History Month, her story deserves to be told loud, proud, and unforgettable.

Two persons have been confirmed dead and six seriously injured after a three-storey building collapsed in the Odoriwu estate at the Elf Bus stop area of Lagos.

The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) said it activated the state’s emergency response plans and response team from the Lekki and Cappa Bases after receiving distress calls concerning the incident at about 2:25 pm on Wednesday.

Olufemi Damilola Oke-Osanyintolu, the permanent secretary of LASEMA, stated in an update that the bodies of two male casualties were removed from the debris of the collapsed building.

He added that injured victims received initial medical care from the LRU pre-hospital care unit before being taken to the Marian General Hospital for further treatment.

Oke-Osanyintolu said LASEMA deployed light and heavy-duty equipment to the incident scene for the search and rescue operation.

He noted that the immediate cause of the incident is yet to be ascertained, adding that further investigations will be conducted.

According to him, other operatives of agencies at the scene of the incident for the search and rescue operation include the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA), Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Rapid Response Squad (RRS), Lagos State Ambulance Service (LASAMBUS), the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service, the LRU Pre-Hospital Care Unit, and ITEC personnel

A federal high court in Kaduna has ordered an interim forfeiture of N1.37 billion allegedly diverted from the Kaduna state government into a private account.

The money, originally allocated for Kaduna state’s abandoned light rail project, was allegedly diverted during the administration of Nasir el-Rufai, who served as governor from 2015 to 2023.

In an ex parte motion filed on February 14, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences (ICPC) claimed the el-Rufai administration never executed the project and depriving the people of the benefits of rail transport system.

The commission accused some officials of diverting the money through Indo Kaduna MRTS JV Nig. Ltd, a joint venture entity set up in 2016 by the state government and Indian business people.

Hauwa Buhari, the presiding judge, granted the application moved by E.O. Akponimisingha, the ICPC lawyer, on February 28.

The judge ordered the interim forfeiture of the money and also directed the ICPC to publish a notice in any two national newspapers, requesting any person with interest in the property to present their claim and show cause in court why the asset should not be permanently forfeited to the federal government.

The matter was adjourned to April 8, 2025, for interested persons who may want to claim the money to make their case before the court.

BACKGROUND

The Kaduna state government, under el-Rufai, entered into a joint venture agreement with Indo Kaduna MRTS JV Nig. Ltd. in October 2016 for the construction of a light rail transport system.

However, the ICPC revealed that payments for the project began before the company was officially registered.

Despite its lack of formal incorporation by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) until May 10, 2017, el-Rufai’s administration reportedly approved payments to the entity as early as December 2016.

Between December 2016 and January 2017, the then-governor was said to have authorised a total payment of N11.1 billion to the company’s account domiciled with Sterling Bank.

Out of this amount, N1.373 billion was allegedly diverted into a private account, which was later traced by the ICPC.