The Deputy Governor of Edo State, Philip Shuaibu, has withdrawn the suit he filed at the Federal High Court to stop alleged plots by the state governor, Godwin Obaseki, to remove him from office. Shaibu, in a circular dated September 5, 2023, cited the case with Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/1027/2023 which named the Inspector General of Police, State Security Service, the Governor of Edo State, and the Chief Judge of Edo State as defendants. The deputy governor stated that the decision to withdraw the suit came after a series of meetings involving himself, Obaseki, and well-meaning citizens of Edo and Nigerians, including party leaders, traditional rulers, and the Archbishop, Benin Archdiocese of the Catholic Church. With due respect to these eminent personalities and leaders whose persuasions and persons I cannot ignore, I, Rt. Hon. Comrade Philip Shaibu have authorized and instructed my Solicitors to withdraw the Suit forthwith,” Shaibu wrote. “I wish to sincerely thank and appreciate these well-meaning Nigerians, Party Leaders, Traditional Rulers, and my Archbishop, His Grace Most Rev. Dr. Augustine Akubeze for their kind words, advise and encouragement thus far in ensuring peace and unity in our dear State, Edo. “I also wish to place on record my special thanks to Mr. Governor, my boss and senior brother for this path of peace.”

  The Senate has foreclosed the possibility of the National Assembly cutting down on expenses despite the economic hardship occasioned by the removal of fuel subsidies. The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Yemi Adaramodu, told journalists in Ilorin, Kwara State, on Monday that the National Assembly is not responsible for any economic hardship experienced in Nigeria. He identified what he described as many cogent roles, including committee works and oversight roles, played by lawmakers without any allowances attached, insisting that calls for them to cut down on expenses cannot be valid. Adaramodu made the remarks moments after the tribunal ruled in his favour, upholding the All Progressives Congress (APC) stalwart’s electoral victory against Senator Biodun Olujimi of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

  Some government ministries, departments and agencies in Abuja are currently shut in solidarity with the two-day nationwide strike declared by the Nigeria Labour Congress, The PUNCH has observed. Our correspondent who visited the Federal Secretariat on Tuesday morning alongside other major areas such as the popular radio house which houses some agencies under the Ministry of Information and National Orientation observed that the areas were deserted as workers decided to stay back home. Banks located in the areas surveyed were also under lock and key. Our correspondent who visited one of the major commercial banks located at the Federal Secretariat was told there would be no banking operations due to the strike declared by the NLC. The PUNCH reports that Friday, the NLC in a communique released which was jointly signed by its national president, Joe Ajaero and Secretary, Emmanuel Ugboaja said it decided to take the decision following the failure of the Tinubu-led Federal Government to dialogue and engage stakeholders within the organized labour on efforts to cushion the effects of the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit popularly known as petrol on the “poor masses”. Already, the organized labour in August staged a one-day protest which grounded activities in major cities across the country. While listing some of the other reasons why it would mobilize its members for the nationwide shutdown, the centre accused the police of laying siege at the national headquarters of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, alleged exploitation of the rights of workers in Imo state, interference in trade union matters by the Abia State government, proposed demolition by the new minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike among others.

  A faction of the New Nigeria Peoples Party under the leadership of Major Agbo has expelled the presidential candidate of the party, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, over his alleged anti-party activities and misappropriation of party campaign funds. Kwankwaso’s expulsion was announced in a statement released in Abuja on Tuesday by NNPP factional National Publicity Secretary, Abdulsalam Abdulrasaq. The development is coming barely three days after the factional leaders vowed to probe the former Kano governor and some of his loyalists over the alleged misappropriation of over N1 billion generated from the sale of nomination forms. But Abdulrasaq affirmed that the decision to expel Kwankwaso with immediate effect was taken after he failed to appear before the disciplinary panel to defend himself over the allegations of ‘gross anti-party activities and mismanagement of party campaign funds within five days.’ The spokesman however reiterated that his expulsion was done in line with the provisions of the party constitution 2022 as amended. He said, “The NEC met in an emergency session on Friday, September 1 and resolved that following the refusal of Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso to appear before the disciplinary committee which sat on Thursday, August 31, after being duly invited in writing, he is hereby expelled from NNPP with immediate effect. That the erstwhile presidential candidate, Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso will be reported to appropriate quarters to answer questions on financial impropriety relating to mismanagement of public funds.” Reacting, an ally of Kwankwaso and National Auditor of NNPP, Ladipo Johnson, frowned at the report, saying Agbo’s faction does not have the locus standi to dismiss the former governor. “Expel who? These people are no longer our people. They are out of the party and cannot speak on behalf of the party. Let them form their own party or go to court. It is as simple as that. There are so many important things to worry about in this country. “How can they expel Kwankwaso? Someone whose relationship with the National Working Committee is intact here at the national headquarters in Abuja? We will soon be having a press conference to address this matter,” he said.

  The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), on Monday demolished shanties at Kabusa Junction in Dutse District, Abuja. Mr Mukhtar Galadima, Director, Department of Development Control, FCTA, who led the operation, told journalists that the removal of the illegal structures was to sanitise the area. Galadima explained that the shanties have taken over the entire roundabout, negatively affecting the serene environment around the junction. He added that the demolition was in line with directives from the Minister of the FCT Administration, Mr Nyesom Wike, that illegal structures, particularly shanties, should not be allowed in the city. He also said that the areas taken over by the shanties were meant for an overhead bridge which would soon be constructed. “The removal of the shanties is in continuation of our commitment to sanitize the city and make the environment healthy. “Kabusa is constituting an eye sore for people coming into the city because of the shanties that occupied most parts of the junction. “The area is reserved for an inter-change and with time, there will be an overhead bridge that will connect ring road two and the outer southern expressway. “We are starting from this point to Galadima roundabout. When we chase away illegal occupants in the area, we will come up with a plan that will accommodate all the traders in an organised manner,” he said. Galadima insisted that illegal structures in the area must go down for genuine infrastructural development. (NAN)

  A 52-year-old man, Marcus Olasege, was on Monday arraigned for assaulting and attempting to kill one Mohammed Alli in Lagos State. The defendant was arraigned before Magistrate O.Y. Adefope of a Yaba Magistrates’ Court on two counts of assault and a breach of peace. The police prosecutor, Haruna Magaji, told the court that Alli and the defendant had a misunderstanding over an undisclosed issue some time ago. Owing to this, Olasege visited Alli’s construction site and started stoning his workers when he could not find him. When Alli arrived at the scene, the defendant was said to have stabbed him with a knife on the left side of his face and stomach. According to Magaji, the incident happened on August 12, 2023, around 12 noon at Bishop Oluwole Street, Lagos State. He added that the offence contravenes and is punishable under Sections 168(d) and 173 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State of Nigeria 2015. The charges read in part, “That you, Marcus Olasege, on August 12, 2023, around 12noon, at a site in Bishop Oluwole Street, Lagos, in the Lagos Magisterial District, did assault one Mohammed Alli by using knife to stab him on the left side of his face and stomach which caused blood to be gushing out and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 173 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State of Nigeria 2015.” The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charges preferred against him. The magistrate granted the defendant bail in the sum of N200,000 with two sureties in like sum and adjourned the case till September 22, 2023, for mention. The defendant was remanded in custody of the Nigeria Correctional Service pending when he will perfect his bail conditions.

  The suspended Chairman of Ijebu East Local Government Area of the state, Mr Wale Adedayo who was released on Monday after spending three days in the custody of the Department of State Security Services has said that he remained unshaken in his demand that Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, should allow the local governments in the state have access to federal allocations meant to develop the grassroots. He also stressed that he has no regrets about the actions he has so far taken despite his arrest and detention for three days. Speaking with our correspondent in Abeokuta shortly after his release, Adedayo said that he was detained because of a petition sent by Governor Abiodun to the security agency wherein he was alleged to have been making inciting comments that could jeopardise public peace. The LG boss who was last Thursday suspended by seven councillors in his local government for three months over allegations of maladministration and financial mismanagement however, said that he had told the DSS that there was never a time he made any inciting comments other than the letter written to the former governor of the state, Chief Olusegun Osoba where he alleged that Abiodun has not funded the local governments in the state for two years. He said he equally told the DSS that he would never write a retraction of his statement that there has been zero allocation to the local governments in the state. He, however, apologised to the governor if he felt that the statement had embarrassed him saying that he only wanted the best for the people at the grassroots. He disclosed further that other LG chairmen in the state contributed to the letter written to Osoba on the zero allocation to the local governments, adding that he only edited it and appended his name. He said that he was surprised that his colleagues could back down from the struggle. The DSS, Adedayo said, “Claimed there is a letter from the governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, that I was making inciting comments against the state government but I told them that there was nothing like that or who did they say I have incited? They said that I was planning a protest but I said I don’t know anything about that and I told them that I had only done what my conscience said that I should and this I did with my other colleagues and chairmen even though they all ran back. My conscience is very clear in the letter I wrote to Chief Olusegun Osoba, the former governor of the state and a national leader of our party, APC. “Some of the chairmen had input into the letter, I only did the editing of the letter, put my name there, and then sent it and what is written in the letter affects all the council chairmen, so it is not about getting their backing or not. So what the governor wanted me to do was to do a retraction of what the letter contained but I said that I won’t do that. The DSS later said the governor said that I have embarrassed him and I said if the governor felt that I have embarrassed him, I am sorry but the truth is that the facts are there for “I am not fighting with Governor Abiodun, he is my friend, he’s my egbon, my senior brother but my take is if the local governments are doing well, it’s all to the credit of Mr Governor. He is the one people will be talking about and I gave them the example of the government of Otunba Gbenga Daniel between 2003 to 2011. If you go to the 236 wards in the state you will see the footprints of this government at the grassroots, the people will be saying Daniel did this, he did that but it was the local government chairmen that did all of these projects yet people till today will be shouting the name of Gbenga Daniel. All of these were made possible because the governor allowed the local governments to have access to their federal allocations. “So, I said the same thing will be happening if Governor Abiodun allows the local governments to have access to their funds. And then they came up with the issue of being sponsored, I am 57 and I know what is good for the people, no one is sponsoring me and they said that I should apologise and do a retraction but I said no. I said if the governor said that he was embarrassed I am sorry but I equally added that if the governor had funded the local governments all would have been to his credit, I wrote all of this for the DSS.” When told that the Joint Account Allocation Committee saddled with the responsibility of managing the council fund in the state has said that no dime of the local governments was missing, Adedayo said, “Let them tell that to the EFCC, I have sent my letters to them. Who is even JAAC? This concerns the local government chairmen and if each of them claimed that they have been collecting the money meant to develop their council areas they should be ready to give account to the people.” The suspended council boss also said that he would soon challenge what he called his illegal suspension in court saying that all the allegations levelled against him by the lawmakers were tissues of lies and mere fabrication.

  Guinea-Bissau’s President Umaro Sissoco Embalo has appointed two new officials to protect his security, who took up their duties on Monday with the head of state alluding to coups d’etat elsewhere in Africa. The security appointments were made shortly after coups in Niger and Gabon, both carried out by the security officials of the government. General Tomas Djassi was named as head of presidential security, while General Horta Inta was appointed as chief of staff for the president on Friday. These two positions have long existed in the government’s organisational structure but have not been filled for several decades. Djassi and Inta were sworn in Monday during a ceremony at the presidential palace, according to an AFP journalist. Guinea-Bissau has suffered four military coups since independence in 1974, most recently in 2012. An attempt to overthrow Embalo took place in February 2022. “It’s true that coups d’état carried out by presidential security officers have become fashionable,” the president told reporters on Monday, while assuring that “any suspicious movement will be met with an appropriate response”. Before his new appointment, Djassi was the head of the national guard, an elite unit of the army whose intervention helped stall the 2022 coup attempt. Inta was head of the central police station in Bissau. Last month, Embalo warned that Niger’s coup presented an existential threat to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), saying the deposed Nigerien president Mohamed Bazoum was that country’s only legitimate leader. AFP

  A suspected cyber fraudster, Precious Mayor, and three accomplices identified as Prince Afam, Israel Simon and Emmanuela Mayor have been arrested for alleged hostage-taking at Oreyo, the Igbogbo area of Ikorodu, Lagos State. PUNCH Metro gathered that the suspects had accommodated three male adults identified as Ejika Ozor, 22; Emeka Ukegbu, 20; and Solomon Uche, 19, who came from Imo State to learn cyber fraud. At the commencement of their apprenticeship, the men were locked indoors and given a target to learn and know how to defraud unsuspecting victims. After failing to get results after some days into their training, the victims were beaten and subjected to different forms of torture every day by their hosts. Frustrated by the style of learning, the three male adults who had been deprived of stepping out of the house since they arrived devised a means to escape. A resident in the area said they were apprehended by local vigilantes on Monday, August 25, after being caught scaling the fence of the house where they were held. He said, “The three boys came to the area about three weeks ago. We rarely see them since they arrived until Monday around 3pm when they were seen climbing the fence from their compound. Some residents who saw them initially thought they were thieves and decided to alert the local security. It was when they were arrested and interrogated that we discovered that they have been locked up in the house. Different marks were also seen on their bodies which showed they were severely tortured. The local security later handed them over to the police.” After taking custody of the victims, a team of policemen stormed the apartment and arrested the four suspects. A police source who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity said, “The four suspects were arrested the following day after the boys were brought to the station. They also confessed to have been punishing the boys in a coordinated manner. One of them beats the boys daily while another person monitors and prevents them from escaping. “The only female among them is the wife of their leader. One black jacket, one jack knife, some phones, one black pot and items suspected to be charms were recovered from them.” The state Police Public Relations Officer, Sp Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed the development. “The victims were tortured and deprived of their freedom. The arrested suspects have been moved to the State Criminal Investigation Department,” he said.