The detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, has urged the Federal High Court to send him to Kuje prison.

He alleged that the Department of State Services had no medical facility to treat him, adding that there was a conspiracy for him to die in the DSS custody.

He said, “People will come to see me they will not allow them. They don’t have a medical facility. I have congestive heart failure. They are patching me up.

“My foot is swollen. I asked them to conduct surgery, and they said they couldn’t. There is a conspiracy to die in detention. I want to be transferred to Kuje.”

Details later…

Former Governor of Benue State, Senator Gabriel Suswam has slammed the government of President Bola Tinubu.

Speaking on Tuesday, he said the current administration under the All Progressives Congress, APC, doesn’t have a direction.

Suswan claimed that all the policies, including economic and social, have fallen flat on their faces.

The former governor stated this while fielding questions on Arise Television’s News programme.

He suggested that Nigerians need a viable alternative, which is achievable with serious and focused leadership.

“We had President Olusegun Obasanjo who did very well and handed over to late Umaru Musa Yaradua, who unfortunately died, and his tenure was completed by his Vice President Goodluck Jonathan. Unfortunately, Goodluck Jonathan lost the election to the All Progressives Congress, APC; he lost to Muhammadu Buhari.

“We lost that election because of what’s happening today, there was a lack of discipline in the party at that time, coupled with the massive propaganda and lies by the current party in power now. We couldn’t make any headway and we lost the election.

“Buhari came in making promises of change. Buhari’s eight years have come and gone, and it’s left for Nigerians to frankly determine if they were better off or worse than then.

“I believe this country nosedived and changed for the worst. Because if we look at the economic parameters that were left by Jonathan and what happened during Buhari’s time, most Nigerians say they would have preferred Jonathan’s time.

“The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, we thought would win that election. Nomination was done, and then a crisis started after former Vice President Atiku Abubakar was nominated to carry the flag of PDP. Some Governors felt they were short-changed.

“It’s obvious that the APC under the current leadership doesn’t have a direction. All the policies, whether they are economic, political or social have fallen flat on their faces. And so, Nigerians need a viable alternative, which is achievable with serious and focused leadership, something I can provide."

Nigerian comedian and public affairs commentator Atunyota Akpobome aka Alibaba has revealed that some states should be classified as local government areas.

He made this known when he featured as a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Tuesday.

He said some of the 36 states of the Federation were created by the military to appease some commanders who were later deployed to the states as administrators.

Alibaba said subregionals unable to generate enough revenue to sustain their operations but depend solely on monthly allocations from the Federal Government should be local government areas.

At the country’s independence from Britain in 1960, Nigeria had three regions — Northern, Western, and Eastern — which would later become four with the creation of the Mid-Western region two years later. But between 1967 to 1996, the military created 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, from what existed. 774 local government areas exits within the 36 states.

Alibaba said, “Some states were created just to appease some military officers. ‘Oh, this guy is a senior military officer, he comes from this area, we can’t give him a state now, let’s just create a state and take care of those people’.

“Or the issue of: We want to create four states in the north, let’s just balance it with some states in the south so that it will look deliberate because some of the states that were created needed to be local governments.

“Up till now, we have states that if they do not get federal allocations for three months, there will be problem in the state. Meanwhile, those same states have enough natural resources.”

The social commentator said Nigeria’s multifarious challenges started when the federal military government asked the regionals and the states to bring all their monies to the national purse and then began to give them whatever they think they should get through the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).

He also faulted the 1999 Constitution bequeathed to the country by the military regime of ex-Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd), during the country’s transition from military rule to democratic governance in May 1999.

Alibaba said, “Our constitution is the biggest problem we hve now; it’s an anomaly, it’s not actually a constitution; it’s something that some people drafted, got some lawyers to knock it together because the constitution doesn’t speak to the growth and national development of our country.

“The truth is if you want this country to grow, let each state generate its own revenue. The Federal Government can assist them if they want to but the funds and revenue that comes from certain states should not be shared to every other person.”

Nollywood producer and actor, Chief Okechukwu Nnadi, popularly known as Andy Best is dead.

Chief Nnadi hails from Umunkwo Village in Isiala Mbano Local Government Area of Imo state and was the CEO of Andy Best Production, a foremost movie production firm in Nigeria.

Andy Best produced so many Nollywood movies like The Lion of Africa, White Poison, My Father’s Cup and others.

The remains of the foremost producer have been deposited at the Aladinma Mortuary, in Owerri

Eleven persons have been killed while 42 others sustained varying injuries as a bus conveying students from a top Kenyan university collided with a truck on a busy highway after skidding in heavy rain.

The accident occurred at 5:50 pm on Monday, March 18, at Maungu, 360 kilometres from the capital Nairobi, when the students from Kenyatta University were travelling to the coastal town of Mombasa.

Ten people from the Kenyan varsity died on impact and another died later in hospital, police said, adding that 42 people were seriously injured.

“The driver of (the) university bus was overtaking a fleet of motor vehicles and as it was raining heavily, the bus skidded to the right side of the road,” the police report said.

This “prompted the driver of the truck to avoid head on collision, hence hitting the left side of the university bus,” it added.

The bus was carrying 58 people on an academic trip.

The injured were taken to a hospital in the nearby town of Voi, the Kenyan Red Cross said on X, formerly Twitter.

Kenyatta University said on Tuesday it was “deeply saddened” by the accident and had set up a help desk at the main campus to provide “assistance during this challenging time”.

“Some of the injured students are in the process of assessment for possible evacuation to Nairobi,” it said.

Controversial Islamic scholar, Ahmad Gumi has made an allegation against security agencies.

He claimed that security agents know the hideouts of bandits.

Gumi said security agents who accompanied him during negotiations knew the hideouts of the bandits in the Northern part of the country.

Speaking with Nigeria Info FM, on security agencies not knowing the hideout of bandits, the cleric said: “I don’t think they (security agents) are truthful with you. When I go, I go with them; I don’t go alone.”

On the identities of the bandits, Gumi said they are mainly herdsmen, who are largely Nigerians with few foreigners.

The cleric also emphasized the necessity of negotiation with the perpetrators behind the recent abduction of approximately 287 students from Kuriga Government Secondary and LEA Primary Schools in the Chikun Local Government Area, Kaduna State.

He proposed that negotiation could lead to a safe return of the captives without necessarily involving financial transactions, hinting at potential prisoner swaps.

Gumi portrayed the bandits as marginalized citizens deprived of basic social services like education, infrastructure, and water.

The suspended Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Calabar, Prof Cyril Ndifon has made a claim against the lawyer representing the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC.

Ndifon claimed that ICPC lawyer is not registered to practice in Nigeria.

He told the Federal High Court, Abuja, that this contravened Section 2 of the Legal Practitioners Act which states that a practicing lawyer’s name must be contained on the roll of legal practitioners in the country.

Recall that the professor is currently standing trial on amended four counts of alleged sexual harassment and gratification.

Also joined in the matter is his lawyer, Sunny Anyanwu, who was alleged to have harassed ICPC’s star witness, urging her to shun the ICPC’s invitation.

Dr. Osuobeni Akponimisingha has been appearing in court for the ICPC alongside Joshua Alobo.

In a motion on notice filed on behalf of the suspended Dean by their lawyer, Joe Agi, they urged the court to acquit them of the sexual harassment and cybercrime charges filed against them by the ICPC.

The motion on notice partly read, “The amended charge in this case is incompetent and preferred by a person whose name is not on the roll of legal practitioners in Nigeria under Section 2 of the Legal Practitioners Act and thus robbing this court of its jurisdiction.

“The amended charge was preferred by one Dr Osuobeni Ekoi Akponimisingha, a person whose name is not on the roll of legal practitioners in Nigeria under Section 2 of the Legal Practitioners Act.”

The defendants also urged the court to refer the two prosecution counsel to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee.

“We hereby seek an order of court striking out the amended charge, in this case, same being incompetent and preferred by a person whose name is not on the roll of legal practitioners in Nigeria under Section 2 of the Legal Practitioners Act and thus robbing this court of its jurisdiction.

“An order of court striking out all the appearance of Joshua E. Alobo from the prosecution counsel for appearing as a private legal practitioner in a criminal case without the fiat of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation.

“An order of court referring both Osuobeni Ekoi Akponimisingha and Joshua E. Alobo to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee for answering and caused to printed on their processes the title ‘Dr.’ ‘Professor’ when they do not have the academic qualifications to show for the titles thereby misrepresenting themselves to the public and bringing legal profession to ridicule and shame.”

Mele Kyari, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL has made a promise to Nigerians.

He stated that the refinery in Kaduna State will be ready for production by December 2024.

He disclosed this during a meeting with the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria and the Major Energy Marketers Association of Nigeria in Abuja.

He disclosed that operations at the Port Harcourt refinery are scheduled to begin in two weeks.

According to Kyari: “We did a mechanical completion of the (Port Harcourt) refinery, that was what we said in December. We now have crude oil already stocked in the refinery. We are doing regulatory compliance tests that must happen in every refinery before you start it, and I assure you that this Port Harcourt refinery will start in the next two weeks.

“Completing the mechanical work means that you are done with the rehabilitation work, now you have to test to see how it works. Of course, we have also completed the mechanical work on the Warri refinery.

“It is also undergoing regulatory compliance; processes that we are doing with our regulator, and this will soon be completed and it will be ready.

“The Kaduna refinery will be ready by December. We have not reached that stage in Kaduna, but we promise Kaduna will be delivered by December.”

Afe Babalola (SAN), the founder of Afe Babalola University, has said that indigenes of Ekiti state are facing hardship because all former Governors failed to implement the blueprint for the state.

According to him, the plan was for Ekiti to be the best state in Nigeria but it failed.

Speaking at the commissioning of ABUAD Multi-System Hospital, Annex Odo-Ado, at Igirigiri road in Ado Ekiti, Babalola commended Governor Biodun Oyebanji for his recent strides, adding that the vision behind the creation of Ekiti was to make it the best state in Nigeria.

He said;

“It pains me that you didn’t become governor of Ekiti much earlier than now. We know what we did to bring Ekiti State into existence. Our vision was for Ekiti to be the best state in Nigeria, that will be setting the pace as my university is setting the pace now.

“Unfortunately those who became governor before you didn’t have the love of Ekiti. Go and tell them that I said so. That is why we are facing so much hardship in the state. When I was a local government councilor in the sixties, I didn’t receive a salary.

“That was when there was development in Ekiti Local Government. We thought that those who are coming to govern Ekiti will follow our footstep and our blueprints but they refuse to follow it. However, this governor is doing a yeoman’s job.”

President Bola Tinubu has been issued a warning by the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC.

The party says Tinubu will struggle to get two per cent votes in the 2027 presidential election in the capital if he fails to stop the minister, Nyesom Wike from killing the party.

The party leaders stated this at a press conference in Abuja, lamenting the disregard of APC members in recent appointments made by Wike.

They also said the party may lose the next Area Councils election if the situation remains unchanged, claiming that the minister is killing the political structure of the APC in FCT due to his lack of regard for the party and its leadership.

The APC chieftains, led by convener, Comrade Abdulwahab Ekekhide, and co-convener, David Omobolaji Obaje, said the minister, since assuming office, has refused to sit with the leadership of the party, even though the party has written him a series of letters for him to grant them audience, but all to no avail.

Recall that Wike, a PDP member, was appointed FCT minister by President Tinubu, the leader of the APC.

Ekekhide, however, said the leadership and entire members of the APC family in the FCT, in unison, reject “in very strong terms the continuous lopsided appointments, abandonment and total disregard for the APC in FCT by the minister.”

“We call on Mr. President, who is the Governor-General to call the Minister to order, so that he can retrace his steps and start empowering the party or else, the party will struggle to get 2% for the President in the 2027 Presidential election and may lose the next Area Councils election if the situation remains this way.

“As we all know, the President is the Governor-General of the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT), but delegates his powers to a Minister, and today Barr. Nyesom Wike is standing in for the President as Hon. Minister of the FCT,” he added.