Nigerian comedian, Bowoto Jephta, popularly known as Akpororo, has said that the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, will spend eight years to recover his ‘stolen mandate’ from Bola Tinubu, the All Progressive Candidate, (APC) at the 2023 general elections.

Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Tinubu winner of the presidential elections with 8,794,726 votes, while Obi who came third with 6,101,533 votes.

The former Anambra State Governor, however, rejected the results and headed to court to challenge and reclaim his ‘stolen mandate.’

Speaking about the on-going electoral tribunal in a recent show, Akpororo said that the LP candidate will likely spend the next eight years going to court to retrieve his stolen mandate.
Speaking in Pidgin, Akpororo said, “Peter Obi still dey go court abi? no worry, that court na eight years him go spend.”

No leader or President in the history of our country has effected so many positive changes and reforms and appointed so many credible, decisive, courageous and effective people into key positions in his administration within THREE weeks of being sworn into office as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (@officialABAT).

Today even his most ardent critics and those that bent over backwards to stop, discredit, denigrate, humiliate and destroy him during the presidential campaign are commending him.

He has made those of us that recognised and appreciated his value and potentials, had faith in him, risked all, stood with him and fought for him proud and most importantly we have been vindicated.

Thanks to BAT Nigeria now has a new lease of life and the light of God has began to dispel the thick darkness and tangible cloud of stagnation, retrograde and retrogressive policies, monumental corruption, vicious persecution, selective application of justice, abuse of power, incompehensible incompetence and wholesale and malicious impunity that we have witnessed over the last few years.

Today where are those that deprived the Nigerian people of all their money and threw them into penury in the name of printing new notes just to stop Tinubu from emerging as President?

Where are those that mocked and poured scorn on him on television, in the newspapers, on social media and in international forums and that consistently portrayed him as being shallow, superficial, dangerous, incompetent, unreliable and evil to the Nigerian people and the international community?

Where are those that said he was too old to be President, that he takes hard drugs and that he is a drug baron, thief, international criminal and a mafia don?

Where are those that said he cannot put a sentence together, that he talks hullabaloo and gibberish and that swearing him in would be tantamount to inviting the military to take power and lead to a coup?

Where are those that said he is incurably and terminally ill and that he is so broken, befuddled, confused, incapacitated and debilitated by sickness, senility and old age that he could not possibly perform well as President and Commander in Chief or make the right decisions and choices?

I say shame on them all!

I also say kudos to BAT and glory hallelujah to the Living God who saw fit to provide Nigeria with a second chance by making him President.

(FFK)

The immediate past Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom is currently in custody of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Our correspondent gathered that the ex-Governor was invited by the anti-graft body for questioning over his stewardship.

Ortom, however, drove into the Makurdi zonal office of the agency, which is located at Alor Gordon street in the state capital at exactly 10:08am.

He walked straight into the building.

The former governor’s media aide, Terver Akase, and Principal Special Assistant on Special Duties, Abraham Kwanhgu, were sighted with him.

He had not left the premises as of 11:25am when this report was filed.

Recall how Ortom handed over a debt profile of N187.7 billion to the administration of Reverend Father Hyacinth Alia.

Ortom at a brief ceremony held at the old banquet hall of Government House in Makurdi, told Alia that the handover notes in three volumes were summary of his eight years administration.

The governor explained that the total income of the state during his eight years sojourn amounted to N734.9billion as at April 2023 while the total debt incurred by the state within the period stood at N187.7billion inclusive of unpaid salary, pension arrears, loans and bonds among others.

He also intimated his successor of a debt swap/reduction arrangement between the state and the Federal Government to the tune of N97.716billion.

Ortom explained that with an expected inflow of N48billion, after discount, the negotiated debt swap would be reduced to N45.2billion, thereby bringing down the state’s total debt profile.

He further disclosed that his administration already secured an approval of N41billion loan and a N20billion Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) facility, urging the Alia’s administration to press for the release of the money when sworn in.

We are aware of the seemingly unending gross mismanagement and massive fraud in the Oil and Gas Sector of Nigeria (Upstream and Downstream) which has extended to recent massive crude oil theft by some multinational oil companies. We are also very much aware of the dire negative consequences of these vices on Nigeria’s Economy, Social Stability and National Security.

We also know as a fact that the seemingly unending desire and determination by successive Leaders of the Federal Government of Nigeria to bow to external pressures to remove the so-called subsidy on petroleum products in Nigeria is as a result of this massive fraud and crude oil theft in the Nigerian sector which has continued to deny Nigerians of needed foreign earnings for critical national development. The resulting astronomical increases in pump prices of the petroleum products are currently making life so unbearable for Nigerians.

While we sincerely appreciate and commend President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for patriotically and courageously attempting to confront these vices in the Nigerian Oil and Gas Sector with a view to eliminating them, we however wish to state that from our extensive knowledge of and experience in the operations and management of the Petroleum Sector of Nigeria, it will be practically impossible for him or indeed any President of Nigeria, to achieve this patriotic mission by mere reaching an agreement with Organised Labour Unions on implementation of some palliatives.

As a matter of fact, we strongly disagree with substantial part of the proposals so far presented by President Tinubu’s team and the Leaders of the two Labour Unions for addressing the crisis in the Petroleum Sector. Honestly, it is unbelievable that for many years now our labour leaders will continue to refuse to embark on nationwide strike actions if the Federal Government refuses to allow their members who are very competent and capable of operating and maintaining the four petroleum refineries, to continue to do so.

It is an undeniable fact that these four Refineries had no major operational or technical faults before they were shut down by Directives of some persons in Government. The many so-called Turn Around Maintenance or Rehabilitation of these four Refineries for many years now by different Regimes are also major scams just like the fuel subsidy scam President Tinubu seeks to end.

Therefore, as first major action to be taken by President Tinubu to restoring sanity to our Petroleum Sector, we are strongly advising him to immediately assume the position of Substantive Minister of Petroleum Resources. He must never fall to any pressure or blackmail from anywhere for him to appoint anyone else as the Substantive Minister of Petroleum Resources lest the rot and fraud in the sector will worsen and jeopardise Nigeria’s Peace, Order and National Security.

Secondly, there is very urgent need to repeal the Petroleum Industry Act which has regrettably laid the smooth and protective foundation for these vices to continue to thrive in the Sector and also gave birth to an NNPCL that is the worst thing to happen to the Nigerian Petroleum Sector. It is suicidal for any developing nation to fully privatise its critical national resource like Petroleum and allow so-called international market forces and individuals to determine its survival.

Finally, we are requesting that the Nigerian Petroleum Sector reverses back to its 1970s Status as State Owned and Managed and operate Joint Venture Partnership with IOCs in line with the laudable OPEC’s Vision and Mission; Nigeria being one of the leading members. The sad fact that a few unpatriotic and corrupt top Nigerians in corridor of powers and in NNPC abused the powers of their offices to cause gross mismanagement and massive fraud in the sector is not enough reason to embark on jeopardising our National Security and Economy by allowing a very few individuals to now own and control this massive wealth and petroleum resources of our country as the PIA now allows to do under the guise of Privatisation

Comrade (Engr) Igbini Odafe Emmanuel
National President
VATLAD

laments difficulties in getting documents from INEC

The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar and his party will on Thursday, June 22 close their case in their joint petition challenging the declaration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 presidential election.

The petitioners, according to a pre-hearing report were supposed to close their case on Tuesday but, their lead counsel, Chief Chris Uche (SAN) brought to the notice of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) that they lost two days out of the days allotted to them and asked that the two days be returned them.

The petitioners, who told the court during the pre-hearing session that they would call 100 witnesses have called only 25 witnesses so far.

Speaking with newsmen, Counsel to the petitioners said that they might call additional five witnesses to have a round figure of having called 30 witnesses.

Uche said that some of the documents to be tendered in the remaining two days would take the place of the remaining 70 witnesses.

“We are closing our case on Thursday, it was supposed to end today (Tuesday) but because we lost two days, one of which was the June 12 public holiday, the court graciously extended our time by two days”, Uche told newsmen after the proceedings.

Earlier in the proceedings, the petitioners lamented the difficulties encountered in getting Certified True Copies (CTC) of documents out of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in aid of their joint petition challenging Tinubu’s election.

At the resumed hearing of the petition, Counsel to Atiku and his party told the court that getting materials from INEC is like getting weapons from an opponent

He told the Court that getting documents from INEC is very difficult, but commended the legal team of the electoral body, headed by Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN) for their assistance in getting some of the documents from INEC.

Uche applied for a stand-down in the proceedings to enable the petitioners to mark the deluge of documents made available to them Tuesday morning.

Meanwhile, counsel to INEC, Kemi Pinhero (SAN) told the court in his submissions that INEC officials brought the documents from all over the country and that the petitioners are yet to pay for the certification of the documents.

He said, it is incumbent on the petitioners to prepare a schedule of documents they wish to tender.

The court rose for about ten minutes to enable parties in the petition to put heads together and find a way forward on what to do with the documents and when parties came back, Uche reported to the court that they have agreed that the petitioners go back with the documents, prepare a schedule of documents and mark them for tendering on Wednesday.

The five member panel of Justices of the court, led by Justice Haruna Tsammani adjourned till Wednesday, June 21 for continuation of hearing in the petition.

The Department of States, DSS, has told the Federal Capital Territory High Court that the ex-governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, is a flight risk and there is credible intelligence that “he is making frantic effort to flee the country if released prematurely on bail”.

 Justice H. Muazu of the FCT High Court had on June 16 ordered the DSS to allow the suspended governor to be accessed by his lawyers, pending the determination of the fundamental rights application filed by his legal team represented by J.B. Daudu SAN.

President Bola Tinubu had on June 9 suspended the CBN governor from office, to enable investigation into allegations against him.

The CBN Deputy Governor, operations, Folashodun Adebisi Shonubi, was subsequently directed by the president to step in in acting capacity.

But at the resumed hearing on Tuesday, his legal team called for their client’s release from DSS detention while accusing the secret service of arresting him in a commando style and subjecting him to inhuman treatment.

The applicant also contended that the former CBN governor’s arrest was political and was connected to his monetary policies, including the redesign of the naira which was approved by former president Muhammadu Buhari.

But in a counter affidavit filed by its counsel, I. Awo, the DSS denied the allegation, maintaining that it remains apolitical and does not act in the interest of any political group or persons.

Awo further argued that the applicant was arrested over alleged breach of trust, among others.

“The applicant was arrested upon reasonable suspicion of commit acts which constitutes criminal breach of trust, incitement to violence, criminal misappropriation of public funds, economic sabotage, economic crimes of national security dimensions and undermining the security of Nigeria;” he said.

Awo further contended that upon the arrest of the applicant, a detention order was obtained from a court of competent jurisdiction to enable the agency keep him in lawful custody for 14 days having discovered that investigations into his office will take a little while to conclude.

Awo denied the applicant’s submission regarding solitary confinement, saying he has enjoyed unfettered access to good medication, dieting, his family and persons of his choice.

The DSS said that if the court grants the embattled governor bail, he will use his “enormous resources” to frustrate investigations against him and jeopardise exhibits it needs to prosecute him following his arraignment.

“That it will not be in the interest of justice and national security to grant the applicant’s application,” Awo said in his counter affidavit deposed to by Hamza Pandogari.

After hearing submissions of counsels, court adjourned to July 13 for ruling.

Nigeria is the second most cyber-secure African country for business in 2023, according to recent research by a leading application security company, Indusface.

Recent research has shown that 68% of high-revenue growth companies have embraced a hybrid model worldwide. With businesses enjoying remote or hybrid working, benefits including reduced maintenance costs, improved flexibility and extended talent pool, cyber security awareness has become more critical than ever.

With this in mind, Indusface said it reviewed the most secure countries for businesses to allow their employees to work from, by creating an index score based on cybersecurity data including DDOS attacks, phishing sites, Malware hosting sites and compromised computers.

Nigeria came second with an index score of 74.68 and the lowest number of compromised computers per 100,000 internet users in all African countries reviewed.

Computers that have been infected with the Gamarue botnet open doors to hackers and make it easier for them to take control of your business data and devices. Nigeria also has the fourth lowest DDOS attacks among all African countries reviewed, with an average of 21 attacks per 100,000 internet users.

With an astonishing average of 5,588 compromised computers per 100,00 internet users, Tunisia ranks as the least cyber-secure African country with a cyber security index score of only 50.92.

In its report, Indusface found out that Senegal is crowned the most secure African country for businesses to allow employees to remotely work from, with a cyber security score of 78.09 out of 100. The country has the lowest number of DDOS attacks in Africa (9) from 2015 to 2021 as well as the fewest phishing sites per 100,000 URLs (80) compared to all other African countries reviewed, making businesses less worried about sensitive information being stolen.

The most cyber-secure countries in the world, according to the security company, are Honduras, South Korea, and Japan. [data] The most secure countries to work from in 2023

Below is the list of the top 8 most cyber-secure African countries in the world:

Vice President Kashim Shettima has decorated the Acting Inspector-General of Police, Mr Kayode Egbetokun at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The brief decoration ceremony was performed jointly with the spouse of the new Acting Inspector-General of Police, Mrs Egbetokun.

The event was witnessed by senior government officials, including the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume; Imo Governor, who is also the Chairman of the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF), Hope Uzodinma;

Others are the Chief of Staff to the President, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila; the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu and the outgoing Inspector-General of Police, Alkali Baba.

On 18 June, a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Boeing 777-200 (registered PH-BQI) operated flight KL588 between Lagos, Nigeria and Amsterdam Schiphol, The Netherlands. While flying over the Mediterranean Sea, the pilots diverted to the airport of Barcelona in Spain. 

One of the passengers started labour, and delivered her baby in one of the galleys of the aircraft, much to the delight of passengers and crew.

Spanish air traffic control guided the aircraft down towards runway 02 of Barcelona Airport where the aircraft safely landed. “Both mother and baby are doing well,” air traffic control tweeted, and wished them a speedy recovery.

A few hours later, the aircraft departed for Amsterdam, where it landed with a delay of two hours and twenty minutes.

“Wonderful handling of both the emergency landing in Barcelona plus the baby delivery by KLM crew + medical staff at El Prat airport! Both mother and newborn are safe! We went on to AMS and now heading back home in Madrid,” passenger and Pablo Ruiz-Múzquiz wrote on his social media channel.

Vuelo de Lagos a Ámsterdam se desvía de urgencia esta madrugada a #Barcelona por pasajera en avanzado estado de gestación que se ha puesto de parto. Le facilitamos descenso y maniobra de aproximación a pista 02 mientras coordinamos con el aeropuerto la atención médica. Según nos… pic.twitter.com/wBgF6fZf2u

— ????Controladores Aéreos ???????? (@controladores) June 19, 2023

Caption for image is "Oh! Premature baby incoming!" Wonderful handling of both the emergency landing in Barcelona plus the baby delivery by @KLM crew + medical staff at El Prat airport! Both mother and newborn are safe! We went on to AMS and now heading back home in Madrid pic.twitter.com/tDSldv78tm

— Pablo Ruiz-Múzquiz (@diacritica) June 19, 2023

[aviation24.be]

The boards of at least 14 agencies pulled through Monday’s sweeping shake-up aborting the tenure of the top hierarchies of the Nigerian Government’s agencies, parastatals, institutions and state-owned companies.

President Bola Tinubu’s directive to dissolve the apex decision-making organs of the establishments falls within the ambit “of his Constitutional Powers and in the Public interest,” said the government in a statement Monday night.

The rejig continues a chain of leadership changes in major government institutions since the president assumed power barely three weeks ago.

Godwin Emefiele, the central bank governor, was asked to vacate his seat on 9 May to allow the government to start a probe into the operations of the apex bank under his watch. The State Security Service has since detained Mr Emefiele.

Folashodun Shonubi, the bank’s deputy governor overseeing the operations directorate, has been acting in his stead.

On Thursday, Abdulrasheed Bawa, chair of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, was suspended, later presenting himself to the secret police for questioning.

President Tinubu will temporarily handle issues that, ordinarily, members of the dissolved boards were duty-bound to treat until new boards are in place, the statement said.

Such matters will reach the president via the permanent secretaries “of their respective supervisory Ministries and Offices,” the statement added.

The dissolution does not, however, affect boards, commissions and councils listed in the Third Schedule, Part 1, Section 153 (i) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.

PREMIUM TIMES presents the list of the identified boards, commissions and councils, featuring in the Third Schedule, Part 1, Section 153 (i) of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution as amended.

They include:

(a) Code of Conduct Bureau;

(b) Council of State;

(c) Federal Character Commission;

(d) Federal Civil Service Commission;

(e) Federal Judicial Service Commission;

(f) Independent National Electoral Commission;

(g) National Defence Council;

(h) National Economic Council;

(i) National Judicial Council;

(j) National Population Commission;

(k) National Security Council;

(l) Nigeria Police Council;

(m) Police Service Commission; and

(n) Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission

[Premium Times]