A Chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC) and former National Director of Legal and Public Affairs of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Evangelist Kwamkur Samuel has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to be steadfast and disassociate himself from the Islamization conspiracy of the former Governor of Kaduna state, Malam Nasir El-rufai.

Kwamkur stated this while addressing newsmen in Jos the Plateau state capital.

He also condemned in strong terms the vituperations of Mallam Nasir El-Rufai in a video against the Christian community and non-Muslims in Nigeria in his recent address in Hausa language to some Islamic clerics at the end of his tenure.

According to him, for El-Rufai to think that the Asiwaju vote is a victory for Islam is very unfortunate and speaks volumes of his kind of bigotry. He said his outburst has destroyed the remaining respect he enjoyed from patriotic Nigerians while calling on Asiwaju to be mindful of friends, associates and politicians like El-Rufai who seek to work with him as they will do more harm to the system and the nation at large.

The APC Chieftain further said Christians who supported Bola Ahmed Tinubu did so out of sincere hope that both himself and his Vice will work to ensure sustainable development of Nigeria through their policies, experience and exposure.

“It should be known that we did not vote Tinubu out of El-Rufai”s deception (Taqiya) as he claimed. It should be made known to El-Rufai that against his wild imagination of achieving an Islamization agenda through dominance and persecution of Christians, Christianity grows better in persecution and supposed dominance.”

He further stressed “We shall continue to preach inclusiveness, equity and fair play in the true sense of these words. We shall never practice deception to cling to power. No it is against our faith.” He said.

Kwamkur also appealed to the Northern governors to truly work towards dealing with poverty, insecurity and the likes and ensure the provision of good healthcare and other benefits of good governance, rather than to dwell on preaching hates, religious and tribal differences.

Ahead of its nationwide strike, the National Labour Congress (NLC) has called for the disclosure of how money saved from subsidies were spent.

This was the submission of NLC President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, during an interview with Arise Television on Sunday evening.

“We need to know who these subsidies were paid to and what the funds were used for.

“Can we have the names of the people and companies that collected these subsidies? We have agreed on some alternatives before now, why are those alternatives not working?”

He also expressed disappointment following meeting between the government and the NLC on Sunday, June 4.

According to him, no progress was made because “the government did not seem interested in the NLC’s position regarding the fuel pump price increase resulting from the removal of fuel subsidies by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu”.

The NLC had declared last week that it would embark on nationwide strike on Wednesday, June 7, in a bid to protest the fuel price hike.

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) on Sunday presented to the representatives of President Bola Tinubu, a list of demands to be met following the removal of petroleum subsidy.

Arising from the session at the presidential villa, Abuja on Sunday night, both parties agreed to meet again on Tuesday to give time to the President to consider the demands.

Spokesman on the President’s side, Dele Alake, told correspondents after the meeting that the session was constructive.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) was not represented at the meeting.

He affirmed that the demands put forward by the union were not impracticable but added that the president needed time to consider them.

While noting that the meeting would reconvene on Tuesday, Alake said government would look into the issue of minimum wage since the removal of subsidy has the immediate consequence of reducing the purchasing power of the people.

He announced that a tripartite committee would be set up to study all dynamics relating to the subsidy, assuring that by Tuesday, government would have something concrete to report.

Emerging from the meeting, Alake told reporters: “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 announced 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 also to 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.

Mr President is most likely going to constitute a tripartite committee, that is a committee of the 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.”

When asked to disclose the demands, the spokesman said: “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 reduced 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.”

On whether the team is also negotiating with the NLC, said no, but that they are making efforts to reach the congress..

Alake explained: “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. Sometimes, they could be meeting with their own executives 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.”

On whether the meeting discussed the claim by one of Tinubu’s spokesmen, Bayo Onanuga’s claim that NLC was working for the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the just concluded elections, Peter Obi, Alake declared: “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.”

Also speaking, the President of TUC, Festus Osifo, affirmed that the union presented the list of demands to the government after consultation with its members.

He explained: “As will recall that we were all here on Wednesday last week and after the meeting, after the meeting of Wednesday, government gave us their position and told us the reason why they did what they did, but on our part we did not agree with them. So they presented some of the things they considered as palliatives to us, that we should consider them in the meeting, but we told them no that we cannot consider them in that meeting, that we’re going back to call our respective organs.

“So, we went back, called the NEC of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria on Friday and during the NEC meeting, the NEC of TUC decided that because we already told government as at Wednesday that we’re taking their demands back, we want to go and look at them because they asked us for our demands, we said we didn’t have the mandate to discuss the mandates as at then.

“So we went back, we called our meetings on Friday, we had extensive deliberations and our NEC now mandated us with some lists of demands, to come and meet with the government side today. So the meeting we just concluded, we have detailed and marshalled out the list of our demands to them.

“They also in turn told us that when they presented the items to us on Wednesday we told them that we were going back to our principals, so they also need to touch base with Mr President so that we’ll reconvene this meeting again on Tuesday. Topmost in our demands was clearly stated, that for utmost good faith and in the interest of social dialogue, that they should revert to back the pump price while discussions continues.”

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) on Sunday presented to the representatives of President Bola Tinubu, a list of demands to be met following the removal of petroleum subsidy.

Arising from the session at the presidential villa, Abuja on Sunday night, both parties agreed to meet again on Tuesday to give time to the President to consider the demands.
Spokesman on the President’s side, Dele Alake, told correspondents after the meeting that the session was constructive.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) was not represented at the meeting.

He affirmed that the demands put forward by the union were not impracticable but added that the president needed time to consider them.

While noting that the meeting would reconvene on Tuesday, Alake said government would look into the issue of minimum wage since the removal of subsidy has the immediate consequence of reducing the purchasing power of the people.

Following the denial by Ondo State Deputy Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, over the allegations of domestic violence against his wife, the civil society group, Society for Women Empowerment (SWE) has issued a 7-day ultimatum to Ayedatiwa to publicly apologise to his wife for allegedly manhandling her.

But the Office of the Deputy Governor in a statement denied the allegation as baseless and a false report meant to tarnish the image of Ayedatiwa by some faceless group.

This is just as the wife of the deputy governor, Oluwaseun, took to her social media page to condemn domestic violence, saying no to domestic violence.

However, the women’s group maintained that it stands resolutely on its allegation, challenging Ayedatiwa to dare them and tell his wife to publicly deny the alleged battery.

The group on Sunday, in a statement signed by its coordinator, Damilola Charles, accused Aiyedatiwa of “repeatedly beating and abusing” his wife, even in the presence of his staff and friends.

The group said: “We have read the reaction of the deputy governor. It is funny how the deputy governor was approbating and reprobating.

“You claim the allegation is a lie but also admitted that it’s a domestic matter. Yet, you didn’t ask your wife to do the rebuttal and sign it. Nigerians are not fools. We understand this situation.

“We are particularly interested in pursuing this to a logical conclusion because there are many women out there who are dying in silence and suffering from domestic abuse.

“They are soaking their pillow’s tears and afraid to speak up because their husbands are highly placed. We are saying no more domestic violence. Irrespective of who you are.”

But the deputy governor maintained that “this falsehood and its peddlers would have ordinarily been ignored at this time but the need to halt further negative reports and rumours capable of creating needless tension in our state has necessitated this response.

“The said allegation of domestic abuse against the person of the deputy governor is a figment of the imagination of those behind it and their ungodly intentions to cause 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”

The statement explained that “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 of causing crisis where there is none and we therefore warn those spreading such falsehood to desist or face the consequences.

“It is concerning to see that a faceless group said to be headed by a name not known anywhere in the State could sell such fabrication to media men. It is more concerning, however, that such lie, which was not backed with any evidence whatsoever, could be promoted into a news item by journalists.

“In the last four months quoted in the false report as timeline, His Excellency has been busy with official duties of his office and has during the period performed the duties of the office of the Governor as delegated to him by his boss, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Odunayo Akeredolu, while he was on Leave.

“It is therefore uncharitable for anyone to claim that the Deputy Governor has in that period carried out “multiple assaults” on his spouse who is out of the country. This is nothing but political blackmail taken too far.

“We urge the good people of Ondo State to ignore such falsehood as those behind it may just be plotting further attacks on the Deputy Governor to promote their sinister agenda”

But shortly after the denial, the deputy governor’s wife, Oluwaseun, shared a screenshot of the story alluding that she was assaulted by her husband.

In a video posted by her with the caption: “According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 1 in 3 women worldwide have experienced physical and/or sexual violence at some point in their lives.

“This staggering statistic highlights the pervasive nature of domestic violence and its impact on women globally. Say NO to domestic violence!”

One of the social media users, Sunday Banjo who reacted to the post confirmed that he was a witness to the assault on Oluwaseun on December 19, 2022.

One of the social media users, Sunday Banjo who reacted to the post confirmed that he was a witness to the assault on Oluwaseun on December 19, 2022.

“Lucky Orire Aiyedatiwa flog you on December 19. I am a witness to it. Go to the court of law I will join to give evidence. Lucky is an animal in an animal in a human clothes.

“I will recommend the Deputy Governor Lucky Orire Aiyedatiwa to proceed on mental health assessment and marriage counseling. Carrying woman outside your marital relationship is a criminal offence.” He commented on another post.

Senegal’s government has disconnected access to mobile internet services in certain areas as riots rocked the country over the sentencing of the popular opposition leader Ousmane Sonko to two years in jail.

A statement from the government on Sunday said there was deadly rioting in which “hateful and subversive” messages have been posted online, hence, the need to cut internet services.

According to Reuters, Senegal has been hit by three days of violent protests in which 16 people have died, one of its deadliest bouts of civil unrest in decades.

Last week, the government limited access to certain messaging platforms, but many people were able to bypass the outage with the use of virtual private networks that hide the location of the user.

It extended the outage on Sunday to include all data on mobile internet devices in certain areas and at certain times, the statement said.

The message, however, did not reveal the areas that were affected or at what times, but residents across Dakar said they were unable to access the Internet without a wifi connection on Sunday afternoon, a time of day when protests have generally started to gather steam.

“Because of the spread of hateful and subversive messages…mobile Internet is temporarily suspended at certain hours of the day,” the statement said.

On Thursday, Sonko was sentenced on Thursday and the jail term if upheld could prevent him from running in the February presidential election, and this has resulted in violence.

Protesters have also been angered by President Macky Sall’s refusal to rule out running for a third term. Senegal has a two-term presidential limit.

Internet cuts to stifle dissent are common in Africa and date back to the 2011 Arab Spring when rulers in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya sought to control the spread of information. Since then Gabon, Gambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and others have done the same at times of instability.

A former governor of Edo state, Adams Oshiomhole said President Bola Tinubu has an immediate solution to cushion the consequential effect of the subsidy removal.

Oshiomole stated this while speaking in an interview with Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.

The former governor expressed confidence that issues arising from the removal of fuel subsidy will be quickly resolved between the Federal Government and the organized labour.

According to Oshiomhole, Tinubu recognizes the impact the withdrawal of fuel subsidy is having on Nigerians and is determined to take immediate action to cushion it.

He said, “This president recognizes that the effect of the withdrawal is already here, people are already going through some level of discomfort and therefore there has to be an immediate solution to it.

“Now that immediate solution is what we discussed and the fact that we are meeting on Tuesday again shows that clearly, we realize that this is not one of those things you want to buy time because it has a real negative impact, on particularly, the most vulnerable group.

“But we have a solution to it because you are going to make savings, so take from that savings or even if it is borrowing.

“So, whatever it is, you can leverage some revenue and improve wages to cushion the cost of living, I think it is legitimate, I think it is doable, it is not something that you want to spend two to three months negotiating,” he said.

Oshiomole, who is a former president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NUC), was part of a meeting between the Federal Government and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) on Sunday.

He said the meeting was productive, adding that the government will consider all the demands by the TUC and revert on Tuesday.

Oshiomole said if Nigeria can save about N7 trillion by ending subsidy, the Federal Government can take part of that money and put in the wage sector.

He said, “This is possible because those savings will go into the federation account which will be distributed among the three tiers of government and so every tier of government will have more money and should be able to meet the consequential increase in wages.”

The leader of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, Primate Elijah Ayodele has cautioned Nigerians from referring to Bishop Oyedepo, Pastor Paul Enenche, and other pastors that supported the candidate of the Labour Party in the last presidential election, Peter Obi, as “fake”.

In a statement signed by his media aide, Osho Oluwatosin, Primate Ayodele asked Nigerians not to blame the pastors because they want a change in the country.

He made it known that they didn’t give any prophecies; rather, what they did to support Peter Obi were declarations and prayers.

The cleric explained the opposition candidates didn’t even listen to the prophetic direction given to them in order to win the election and they should even be blamed not the pastors that supported them with their pastoral callings.

‘’People should stop attacking men of God that supported Peter Obi for the presidency. You can’t blame them because all they want is change. The country is hard and they want a change. They didn’t prophesy, all they did was a prophetic declaration. The likes of Paul Eneche, Oyedepo, and others didn’t give prophecies for Peter Obi.

‘’When you say Nigerian pastors disappointed you, it’s just funny because those that even gave prophetic direction for opposition candidates did anyone listen to them?. I said then that Tinubu was ready to take the victory by all means and I also told Obi and Atiku what to do to win the election but did they do anything? Why are you blaming Nigerian pastors?’’

Primate Ayodele further clarified that he isn’t talking about men of God that said the swearing-in of Tinubu as president won’t hold but those who used their pastoral platforms to seek support and prayers for Peter Obi.

‘’I am not talking about pastors that said swearing-in won’t hold, I am talking about those who stood with Obi during the election using their pastoral platforms.

“There is a difference between prophetic declarations and prophecies. The former is about your will before the Lord and the pronouncement that God should shift situations. They are not God, they just wanted a change. Stop blaming the prophets for whatever happens in the country,’’ he stated.

AS DIRECTED by the leadership of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria MWUN, employees of shipping companies in all ports formations today began an indefinite strike over poor wages and alleged dehumanizing workingconditions.

The industrial action is also taking place across all dry ports, jetties, terminals among others.

It was gathered that Dockworkers, Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, workers and Seamen/Nigerian Inland Water Ways, NIWA and Water Transportation employees would join from tomorrow in solidarity should the shipping companies fail to address the workers’ grievances.

This came as the Nigerian Shippers Council, NSC, summoned a stakeholders’ meeting today in a desperate attempt to resolve the matter and ensure that the industrial crisis does not lead to a total shutdown of the nation’s ports.

Vanguard was informed that the stakeholders’ meeting holding at the NSC premises, is slated for 8.30 am.

At the strategic meeting of leaders of MWUN and officials of the Shipping branch of MWUN including plant officials of each shipping company weekend, it was agreed that irrespective of the meeting called by NSC, operations of all shipping companies must be shut from today until further notice.

Recall that at a briefing Thursday in Lagos, President General of MWUN, Prince Adewale Adeyanju explained that the strike was due to poor remuneration of workers and the refusal of shipping companies operating in Nigeria to agree on a minimum standards for working conditions and remuneration of staff.

Adeyanju lamented that the NSC seemed to have totally lost its control and regulatory powers over the shipping companies who have refused to obey the federal government interventions on the matter.

According to him, the matter had been dragging for the past six years, and the shipping companies have refused to implement a minimum standard for shipping companies’ workers.

According to him, “The former Minister of Transportation, Muazu Sambo had directed the NSC to midwife the process between MWUN and Shipping Association of Nigeria SAN.?

There had been meetings upon meetings at the instance of the Executive Secretary of the NSC,but the attitude of the SAN is nothing to write home about.

“Wednesday, we were at the meeting and it did not go well. This is an embarrassment to us and even the Ministry of Transportation who initiated the meeting.?As it is, the remuneration in the Shipping sector is like a death sentence, the SAN are running away from its responsibility.

“This matter is not new to all the stakeholders, ultimatums had been given and they tried to talk us out of it. Because of the sensitivity of the ports, we always weigh the options. But the way it is now, there is no way we are going to continue issuing ultimatums.

“The former Minister did not make a mistake by asking the Shippers Council as an economic regulator to midwife this negotiation process. It is the the nonchalant attitude of SAN that is making us take this step.”

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.