The legal team of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has written to the British High Commission, requesting that the commission should send delegates to monitor the court proceedings on the leader of IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, coming up next week 18 January 2022. The Lead Counsel to IPOB, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, disclosed this to Vanguard in Owerri, on Wednesday. He said their request was to ensure that their client, Kanu would be given a fair trial, adding that the British government owes it as a “sacred duty” to ensure that Kanu who is a British citizen gets a fair and just trial. He also raised an alarm alleging that Kanu’s case has a “political undercurrent.” As captured by Vanguard from Ejiofor’s statement, “We act as Barristers and Solicitors to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, we write this request to Her Excellency, on behalf of our client and with his consent and authority, may we respectively notify Her Excellency, criminal proceedings in respect to the 7-count amended charge preferred against our client and pending at the Federal High court division in Abuja, is due to continue on the 18th, 19th and 20th of January, 2022. “Given the foregoing, may we gratefully please request Her Excellency to send representatives of the High Commission to observe the proceedings of the court on those adjourned dates and on any other date to which further proceedings in the cause may be adjourned until the matter may be disposed of. “The need to ensure that our client is giving a fair trial has compelled us to make this request. The British government owes our client, a British citizen, a sacred duty to ensure that the whole process of his trial is fair and just in all circumstances. “It must be remembered that his purported indictment on criminal charges has a political undercurrent. This fact impels all truly democratic countries of the world.”

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Publicity Secretary in Ebonyi State Nwoba Chika Nwoba has slumped in court. Nwoba slumped around 3 pm when he was brought to the Magistrate Court 3 inside the Ebonyi Judiciary Headquarters Abakaliki by the Police on Wednesday. He had been in police detention since Sunday when members of Ebubeagu Security outfit handed him over after arrest. He is being accused of spreading fake news on social media, a crime punishable under the controversial cybercrimes law signed into law last year. The PDP in the State had claimed that he was beaten by Ebubeagu officials who arrested him before the Police rescued and placed him under arrest. The Police had failed to arraign him on Tuesday despite bringing him to the court premises. His lawyer complained on Tuesday that the Police had refused him medical treatment despite the injuries he sustained from the alleged beating. When he was brought to court on Wednesday, he slumped as he was about entering the court. Efforts to resuscitate him failed, forcing the Police to rush him out of the court premises possibly to a hospital. However as journalists prepared to leave to file their reports, he was brought back by the Police. At the time of this report, he was still in the car in a slumped state under the sun. His lawyer, Luke Nkwegu told reporters the police claimed to have been ordered to bring him back to the court and arraign him dead or alive. It was gathered that the court was waiting for the Magistrate to appear for his arraignment. Details shortly…

Chief Ayo Adebanjo, leader of Pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, on Wednesday, criticised former President Olusegun Obasanjo, for saying that oil found in the Niger Delta region constitutionally belonged to Nigeria. Adebanjo, at a press briefing in Lekki, Lagos, expressed disappointment that 84-year-old Obasanjo cited Nigeria’s “flawed” constitution to make the “provocative statement” with “magisterial authority”. The 93-year-old Afenifere leader also unequivocally backed 94-year-old leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum and Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Ijaw National Congress, Chief Edwin Clark, that people oil produced in the Niger Delta states belonged to the people of the region and not to the people of Nigeria. Adebanjo’s speech was titled, ‘Obasanjo provocative statement, catalyst to Nigeria’s breakup: Niger Delta resources don’t belong to Nigeria’. He went on a trip down memory lane and gave a perspective on constitutional evolution in Nigeria, insisting that the current 1999 Constitution must be changed to reflect fiscal federalism, regional autonomy and resource control. The nonagenarian said, “Before the issue degenerates therefore into disputation between two respectable elder statesmen (Obasanjo and Clark), I owe a duty to our founding fathers to throw some light on the historical constitutional evolution of the country to help us move Nigeria forward. “With my recent interaction with Gen. Obasanjo, I can appreciate his passion for a united Nigeria. But a united Nigeria does not exist from his own perspective and understanding only. Nigeria has existed before he became the President of the country with our founding fathers with equally great passion if not greater passion for a united Nigeria. “Our colonial masters brought the various ethnic nationalities together through various constitutional reforms under a unitary form of government from 1914 to 1950 under Macpherson Constitution when Nigeria was divided into three regions namely Northern Region, Western Region and Eastern Region. “The Macpherson Constitution which was supposed to last five years under a unitary system collapsed in 1953 following a motion by the late Chief Anthony Enahoro for self-government for Nigeria in 1956. The then Colonial secretary Sir. Oliver Lyttleton later known as Lord Chandos summoned the political leaders, our founding fathers, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Sir Ahmadu Bello and Chief Obafemi Awolowo to Lancaster House in London. “It was at this conference that the defects in Macpherson Unitary Constitution were dissected and they settled for a Federal Constitution which became operative in 1954 with the establishment of the three autonomous regions headed by a Premier. “The provision of this Federal Constitution with some amendments was incorporated in the 1960 and 1963 Independence Constitution. The residual powers in the constitution reserved for the federating autonomous regions. Revenue allocation was agreed to be on derivation which you now refer to as resource control with the payment of 50% (section 140, 1963 Constitution) to the region where the revenue was derived. It was a two tier Federal system with the State government being co-ordinate and not subordinate to the Federal Government. “This was the peaceful co-existence position of the unity of the ethnic groups until 1966 when the military took over the government and abrogated the constitution agreed to by our founding fathers and set up the present 1999 constitution. The obnoxious provisions of this constitution have been the cause of instability in the country.” Continuing, Adebanjo added, “When General Obasanjo asserts that the Niger Delta Resources is not owned by Niger Delta but Nigeria, is the General suggesting that God created the resources in Niger Delta when Nigeria came into existence in 1914, or it was there before the amalgamation? “It is the amalgamation and the decision of our founding fathers to live together under the conditions agreed to in Independence Constitution that make other parts of Nigeria to lay claim to the resources of Niger Delta. The question of the protection of Niger Delta resources against external forces by the Federal government is not a big deal but a responsibility assigned to the Federal Government under the Federal System. “I will therefore passionately appeal to General Obasanjo to join hands with the other patriots to bring pressure to bear on President Muhammad Buhari to ensure the change of the present fraudulent constitution by restructuring the present unitary constitution to the federal system agreed to by our founding fathers before the 2023 elections to enable the nation to move forward peacefully in unity and progress.”

Okezie Ikpeazu, governor of Abia, has lashed out at those asking why it is taking long for his administration to complete the construction of a bridge in the state. The construction of Aba-Osisioma flyover is said to have begun in 2017 — over four years since his administration commenced the project. In a recent interview he granted to a radio station in Abia, Ikpeazu said the people did not ask him to construct the bridge but he embarked on the project because he saw a need to. The governor said those asking about the project do not have cars, adding that people who do not have cars have no business with a flyover. “Are you the one that asked me to build the flyover? I started the flyover on my own because I saw the need for it,” he said after he was asked about the project. “Most of the people demanding updates on the flyover don’t have vehicles, they are moving about with legs. “What business does those walking have with the flyover? They should be happy that we are almost done with the flyover. We are currently working on the stone base of the flyover.”

A customer has called out a loan app after they put out an obituary declaring him dead. The customer named Chinedu Azuwuike said the repayment of the loan was overdue for only 5 days and he came online to see an obituary with his name and face on it. The obituary announced that he “died” on January 4, 2022, and will be buried towards the end of the month Chinedu has vowed never to pay them back for the sick stunt they pulled. “If I pay them, let this obituary be real,” the debtor swore as he called out the loan app.