President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan on Thursday advanced reasons why the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC) will continue to harvest defectors from the opposition parties. Lawan said people were beginning to appreciate the fact that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari had done so much with so little resources. Lawan spoke in Abuja when he led Senator Ishaku Elisha Abbo and his fellow defectors from Peoples Democratic Party in Adamawa to the National Secretariat of the All Progressives Congress. The Yobe State Governor, Mai Mala Buni who is the chairman of the Caretaker/Extra Ordinary Convention Planning Committee led his team to receive the new defectors. The Senate President said the more people in opposition appreciated the giant strides of the Buhari government, the more the harvest of defectors into the ruling APC. “We believe that we haven’t seen anything yet. We will see more coming from the opposition parties. “Only last week, the Governor of Ebonyi State left PDP for the APC. Yesterday(Wednesday), the youngest Senator in the current dispensation, having consulted vary widely, deeply with his people at home decided to leave PDP for APC. “This is what we expect from leaders. When you see a government trying hard with so little to ensure development in our country, in our communities, and society, the best thing to do is to be part of that effort. That is patriotism. “We came in 2015. We inherited everything but poor governance. But thank God, the President came with determination and focus to ensure that this country works for citizens of this country “That government resources are prudently and efficiently and economically applied for the benefit of the people. “Though we inherited an empty treasury, the price of crude went down so badly, yet the little resources we started with provided a lot more of infrastructure, of services to the people of these country. “So any right-thinking politician, when you see prudence when you see integrity and sincerity when you see purposefulness in leadership, the best thing for you to do is not to be left alone. It’s for you to join forces with such leadership for the benefit of people you represent or lead. “I want to commend our brother, very Distinguished Senator Abbo for taking the right decision at the right time. Nigeria needs every hand on deck. “This ship is going to reach the final destination by the Grace of God. We will continue to be committed to making Nigeria better irrespective of the resources available to us. “We had our good days in revenue but those days were bad days in performance. Now it is the reverse. Our revenues are so low. In fact, it has never been this bad and yet infrastructural development in Nigeria is unprecedented. “With that so little, Nigeria is all over now a construction site. From the East to the West. From the North to the South. Therefore, our brother took the right decision by joining APC today,” the Senate President said. Lawan who is also the leader of the APC caucus in the Northeast geopolitical zone said the party would ensure that it captured Adamawa State and other states in the zone now being controlled by the opposition by 2023. “Let me be very specific and emphatic. Adamawa State is APC. People in Adamawa, majority of them are APC and therefore Adamawa State deserves APC Governor, APC National Assembly, APC state Assembly and all the local government areas. “I lead the Northeast caucus of the APC. We are doing everything possible and we will keep the momentum to ensure that all of Northeast turns APC by the Grace of God either before 2023 or by 2023,” Lawan said. The Caretaker chairman of the party, Governor Buni assured the decampees that they would not regret their decision to join APC. “Senator Abbo, your entry is timely because we will soon start the process of building this party from the bottom up. “We are starting with the membership registration across the country and this will culminate in the National Convention to elect our new leaders who will take over the affairs of the party. “Many more are joining the APC because we have a leader, President Muhammadu Buhari, who is doing justice to all manner of citizens,” Buni said. Senator Abbo said he decided to decamp to APC because he was fascinated by President Buhari’s prudent management of the scarce resources and his commitment to the poor and vulnerable people in the society.

Despite video evidence to the contrary, the Minister of Information and Culture , Lai Mohammed, has denied announcing an increment in the fine for hate speech from N 500, 000 to N 5m . Mohammed, who on August 5, 2020, announced the decision of the National Broadcasting Commission to increase the fine for hate speech stated on oath that he did not do so . The minister said this in a counter-affidavit in response to an originating motion filed before a Federal High Court in Lagos , by human rights lawyer , Inibehe Effiong . Effiong is challenging the imposition of N 5m fine on Nigeria Info 99. 3FM Lagos and the threat by the National Broadcasting Commission to punish other broadcast stations in the country over alleged hate speech. In an affidavit deposed to by a Litigation Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture , Sunday Ojobo, the minister stated that he never announced the fine . The affidavit further read , “ Paragraph 19 is denied. The 2nd defendant ( Mohammed) did not announce an increment in any fine for hate speech from N 500, 000 to N 5, 000, 000 or any other because there is a governmental body or institution mandated to regulate and enforce the Nigerian Broadcasting Code . ” The minister further stated that the constitution allows for human rights to be suspended for the sake of national interest . He wrote , “ The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria provides for derogation from fundamental rights in the interest of public safety, public order and for the purpose of protecting the rights and freedom of other persons. ” Mohammed further stated that the NBC Act gives the commission the power to sanction stations that contravene its code. The minister also argued that Effiong was not directly affected by the NBC sanctions and therefore lacked the legal right to challenge NBC’ s Code . He added , “ The 1st respondent ( NBC) has powers in determining and applying sanctions including revocation of licences of defaulting stations which do not operate in accordance with the broadcast code and in the public interest . “ A public affairs commentator , anchor of programmes and the media are not to use their platform to incite public violence or disorder or in a manner detrimental to the national interest . “ It is within the purview of the Federal Government of Nigeria to maintain public safety, public order in the interest of all citizens of Nigeria to avoid breakdown of law and order . ” In its response to the suit , NBC insisted that it had the right to sanction errant stations . In an affidavit deposed to by a litigation clerk, Kabir Fabode , from Adeola Adewara and Co , the commission stated that the applicant was not a broadcaster and therefore lacked the right to challenge its actions.

Pan-Yoruba sociocultural group, Afenifere, on Thursday declared that Nigeria is on the brink of collapse, insisting that the country must restructure to survive the near precipice . “The truth is that the country has virtually become ungovernable and unless we restructure and restore Nigeria to federalism, the country is on the brink of collapse and God should save us from the worst case scenario,” Afenifere said. This was contained in the communique issued at the end of its national caucus meeting held at the Akure country home of its Leader, Chief Reuben Fasoranti. In the communique signed by the National Publicity Secretary of the group, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, Afenifere asked the Federal Government to immediately implement the report of the 2014 national conference. Open Seme border The group also called on the Federal Government to immediately open Seme borders and three other borders in the Southern part of the country. The meeting decried what it called the federal government’s attitude of “a dog that breastfeeds its own puppies and kills other animals for lunch as per management of borders.” It said, “While the Seme and other Southern borders have been closed for a year now against our people and recently opened for the use to Dangote and BUA, Nigeria is constructing a rail line and about N30b highway to connect with Fulanis in Niger Republic with whom the Fulanis running Nigeria have cultural kinship. “We reject this apartheid policy and demand the reopening of Seme and other southern borders now! “As Nigeria enters the worst recession in 33 years and the second in five years of the Buhari government, we are equally besieged by attendant poverty as well as insecurity worsening across the land with kidnappers, armed robbers and bandits on the prowl and government helpless and unable to govern effectively. Berates FG over Lekki massacre On the recent #EndSARS protest, Afenifere berated the Federal Government, saying, “It has become more disheartening that the Nigerian government continues to tell all untruths about the massacre in spite of the CNN revelations and the Lagos coroner advertising unidentified dead bodies dumped in its mortuaries from 19-27 Oct 2020. “It smacks of absolute lack of conscience for anybody to still be talking of “massacre without dead bodies.” Afenifere said it was not sure that the current investigation is capable of unraveling what happened in Lekki. “For instance, we gathered that two sets of soldiers came to Lekki, one from Lagos and another from Abuja. What mandate was given to each and by whom? We need to know why Lagos governor was allegedly blocked from reaching the president first after changing the curfew time and after the massacre,” the communique added.

Diego Maradona’s death could spark a family feud over his estate as he leaves behind five children he recognised as his and six others he has been linked to, Daily Mail reports. Before he died one of his daughters joked he could make up a starting eleven with his kids after a 23-year-old Argentinian was named as the latest woman fighting to prove she was his daughter. Maradona had recognised two sons and three daughters by four different women – including his ex-wife Claudia Villafane and former long-term partner Veronica Ojeda – as his own. Giannina Maradona, one of the former footballer’s two daughters by Villafane, joked last year after the names of three children said to be his in Cuba were made public: ‘Just three more needed for the team of 11. You can do it!!!’ In October last year a 23-year-old brunette called Magali Gil emerged as the latest possible member of Maradona’s brood. Popular Argentinian TV programme Intrusos said she had a young daughter which would have made the former Naples and Barcelona star a grandfather if he was confirmed as her father. She is understood to have launched legal proceedings in April last year to try to prove her blood link. Journalist Adrian Pallares told Intrusos: ‘Her mother didn’t raise her but her adoptive family, who gave her all their love. ‘The time came when she discovered she didn’t belong to that family and that her father could be Diego Armando Maradona.’ In February she broke her silence in Argentina to confirm the situation had not moved forward and begged the football legend to agree to a DNA test. She had already confirmed on Italian TV she had been adopted as a youngster and her birth mum contacted her at the start of 2019 to tell her who her real father was. Magali told Argentinian journalist Tomas Dente, speaking at the start of the year for the first time in her home nation: ‘Sadly we still haven’t been able to fix a date for the DNA test. ‘I’d like to think that the predisposition Diego’s lawyer Matias Morla spoke about last December when we met is still there so this can be resolved as quickly as possible and in the best way possible. ‘I’m anxious and worried at what’s happening because this is something which is key for me, my identity and my past. ‘I’m trying to stay calm and understand that we’re talking about Diego Maradona who I know has got a packed diary. ‘I’d just like to urge him to realise there’s a person who’s waiting and needs him to be able to resolve my identify and put an end to this search.’ The Magali bombshell first emerged a month after Santiago Lara, who comes from the same Argentinian city of La Plata where Maradona managed Gimnasia y Esgrima, made a renewed TV appeal for the football legend to recognise him as his son. The teenager, whose waitress mother Natalia Garat died aged 23 from lung cancer in 2006 and was raised by her ex-boyfriend Marcelo Lara, spoke for the first time in 2016 of his fight to find out who his real father is. He said at the time: ‘I’ve been told my real father is supposedly Diego Maradona. My dad is always going to be Marcelo Lara but what I’ve been told is that my real father is supposedly Diego Maradona. ‘I think I look like him, the face, the curls, everything. I look at Marcelo and I know we’re not alike. It’s not easy to wake up in the morning with that feeling.’ ‘I found out after I went past a newspaper stand near my house aged 13 and saw a magazine front cover with Maradona’s face on it and mine pixellated underneath. ‘I was left in a state of shock because I didn’t know what I was doing in the magazine. I went running home and asked Marcelo what was going on and he explained everything. ‘He told me my mum was well-known on the modelling circuit when she was younger and he told me he had the feeling I wasn’t his son. ‘He told me a DNA test was asked for but was never forthcoming.’ Maradona’s lawyer Matias Morla said months before the footballer’s death he would assume his responsibilities as Santiago’s father if the blood link was confirmed. Morla has previously been quoted as saying ‘Everyone knows that in Argentina there’s Santiago and another person that people are talking about’, although other media in the South American country have speculated the 11th child that would make up Diego’s football team is a fourth Cuban. The Cuban trio whose names have already been made public are Joana, Lu and Javielito, born after Maradona moved to the Caribbean island in February 2000 to fight drink and drug addictions. Mr Morla, who admitted in October 2018 the ex-footballer had been ‘naughty’ in Cuba and confessed: ‘There’s going to be a lot of Maradonas, a lot, even if some people don’t like it’, has confirmed the trio met him during the funeral of Fidel Castro. Over recent years Maradona had recognised his grown-up son Diego Junior, born from an extra-marital affair with Italian model Cristina Sinagra, and 23-year-old Jana who met her dad for the first time nearly six years ago following a court fight by her mum Valeria Sabalain. Maradona also had two daughters by his ex-wife, 32-year-old Dalma and 30-year-old Gianinna, and a seven-year-old son called Diego Fernando by former girlfriend Veronica Ojeda. Several Spanish-language memes went viral after Maradona’s lawyer revealed the three Cuban children. One said: ‘If you were born between 1980 and 2019 and you have extraordinary footballing skills, contact us. You could be a son of Diego Maradona.’

Former presidential aspirant, Adamu Garba, has explained why he and his lawyers were absent in court for the suit he filed against Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Garba had dragged Dorsey to court over the role he played during the EndSARS protests of last month. Dorsey had given publicity to a Twitter account which revealed how people could donate to support the EndSARS protesters clamouring for an end to police brutality. Tope Akinyode, a legal practitioner and defendant in the suit, revealed yesterday that Garba and his lawyers failed to show up in court yesterday. Giving a reason for his absence, Garba said, “Our lawyers got the notice for the hearing pretty late, so we had to request for adjournment to the case which the court graciously granted. Thus the 21st April 2021 date was set. “However, we may approach the court to request for an earlier date. Stay tuned. We will win this. We will pursue this case to the end. No going back. “We will not allow any violation and/or interference in our local political affairs by any foreign actor. “This case will serve as a deterrent to anyone who grossly abuse his privilege against our country. Jack must pay. “We trust in the court ability to deliver the right justice, against violation of our sovereignty, subversion of our peace and collective well-being of Nigeria’s security. “We, therefore, look forward to having Twitter office in Nigeria and $1bn for the victims of #EndSARS protest. “Join me, lets win for our country, Nigeria.”