Rising Spectatorship: LMC goes tough on Stadium Safety Requirements

The League Management Company (LMC) has shifted focus to ensuring strict compliance with safety measures at match venues against the backdrop of rising numbers in spectatorship at matches of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL).

Over the past four seasons, the LMC has been working with clubs on strategies to win back fans to match venues after years of dwindling attendance attributed to such reasons as lack of fidelity of match outcomes, poor quality of pitches and absence of adequate security amongst others.

With public acclaim of the excitement of league games and the attendant return of fans to the stands, the LMC is reminding the clubs of the imperatives of always putting in place adequate measures for crowd control and safety of everyone at match venues on match days.

Attendance at NPFL matches has been rising with some games attracting full capacity and having some fans not able to gain access to the stands. There have been some photographs that showed possible breach of regulations in which it was observed that more fans may have been admitted to the games than stadium capacity can allow.

Citing Rules B15.19 of the 2016/17 Framework and Rules, the LMC reminded all clubs that match day tickets must be issued to all spectators to a match even if the gates were declared free.

The LMC said this is also in consonance with world football governing body, FIFA requirements as contained in FIFA Safety Regulations, Article 18.1 which states that “On match days, only persons in possession of valid permits shall be granted entry to the stadium. Valid permits include Match tickets, Workers’ identity cards and Passes”.

The memo signed by the LMC Chief Operating Officer, Salihu Abubakar explained that the measure was to ensure proper crowd control and for record purposes.

Noting that some clubs have of recent been observed to have failed to implement adequate crowd control measures, the LMC insisted that all Clubs are required to comply with and implement health and safety measures to prevent overcrowding of stands or the stadium, or other situations which may endanger the lives or wellbeing of spectators.

It also directed that clubs must put in place other safety requirements such as having trained stewards whose responsibility will include but not limited to monitoring the stands to ensure capacity of sectors assigned to them were not over crowded, directing fans to appropriate sitting areas and alerting authorities of risk situations.

Another requirement the LMC harped on is the provision of functional public address systems which should be operated on match days for announcements.

Osun N165bn debt exaggerated, says Aregbesola

The Osun State Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, has described as mere exaggeration the N165.91bn debt burden hanging on the state.

The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative had claimed that the state’s  N165.91bn debt should be of great concern to the state.

The Federal Government agency said this in a recent report it released which listed Osun State as the third most indebted state in the country.

But the governor, in a statement issued by Bureau of Communication and Strategy, Office of the Governor, Semiu Okanlawon, said the  debt being touted as huge could not be  compared with the development that the state had  witnessed in the last six years.

Aregbesola said those criticising his administration for borrowing were ignorant of what governance was all about, saying the funds were judiciously spent for developmental projects which would transform the economy of the state very soon.

He stated that if the  N165bn debt was divided by the four  million population of the state, the burden each person would bear out of this debt was just N2,031.25.

The statement partly read,  “To analyse this alleged N165bn debt, Osun is made up of four million people. Four million residents are here in Osun and this debt anyway has been transformed largely to a bond organised by the Federal Government that would last for 20 years.

“Let us now divide N165bn by four  million people for 20 years. To help you mathematically, this will give  N2,031.25 as cost of N165bn debt to every resident of Osun per annum.

“Ironically, this debt that people are shouting and crying about summed up to N5:56 per person daily. This practically means that every Osun resident carries a burden of N5.56 per day.

“This government we are talking about that puts burden of N5:56 on every citizen of the state, thus feeds every pupil in the public school with N70 every school day.”

INVESTIGATION: Lawyer indicted for fraud in the UK nominated as judge of Nigeria’s Court of Appeal

On February 22, the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, published the names of 12 lawyers it said had been shortlisted for appointment as Court of Appeal judges after an intensive two-day screening exercise that involved 187 lawyers.

In a statement announcing the shortlist, the NBA explained that the exercise was in response to the call by the President of the Court of Appeal for it to nominate “suitably qualified candidates” to be considered for appointment as judges into the second highest court in the country.

A PREMIUM TIMES investigation has revealed that one of the finalists, Rita Chris-Garuba, formerly Rita Kuku, in 2000, was indicted for a series of professional misconduct, including putting clients’ funds to her own use, and a £250,000.00 mortgage fraud in the United Kingdom where she worked as a solicitor.

After an indictment, the Law Society of England and Wales described Mrs. Chris-Garuba as lacking the “integrity”, probity and trustworthiness” expected of a legal practitioner, and subsequently struck her name off the Roll of Solicitors.

The Law Society is the professional body of solicitors in England and Wales. It regulates conducts of solicitors as well as protects the public from dishonest practitioners.

Mrs. Chris-Garuba was admitted to the Nigerian bar in 1980. She moved to the UK in 1995.

After practising as a registered foreign lawyer in the country for a while, she qualified as a solicitor in August 1998. But barely six months after she was admitted as a solicitor, she ran into trouble after she, alongside her partner, Axel Nares, was charged with fraud, and “conducts unbefitting of a solicitor” before a three-person tribunal of the Law Society chaired by J.C Chesterton.

A record of the trial obtained by PREMIUM TIMES from the Law Society showed that the charges against Mrs. Chris-Garuba and Mr. Nares were filed by Peter Cadman of the Office of the Supervision of Solicitors on January 27, 1999. Mr. Cadman further presented a supplementary list of allegations against the duo on February 20, 2000.

Both accused were charged with utilising clients’ funds for their own use; drawing money from client’s account above what was permitted by Rule 7 of the Solicitors Accounts Rule 1991, and the failure to keep account properly written up for the purpose of Rule 11.

They were also charged with the misappropriation of clients’ funds. Other charges against them were the use of client’s fund for the purpose of other clients, and unreasonable delay in the conduct of professional business.

Mrs. Chris-Garuba was specifically charged with misleading a client as well as obtaining a mortgage by deception.

The trial opened on June 20, 2000, but hearing proper started on June 23, 2000 at 10 a.m. at the Court Room, Gate House 1, Farringdon Street, London.

The charges against Mrs. Chris-Garuba and Mr. Nares were considered so grave that the hearing continued for over 10 hours and did not end until 8.20 pm.

Mrs. Chris-Garuba did not raise any objection to the long hearing, she even turned down an offer by the tribunal to take a break, saying she had no need for one.

MORTGAGE FRAUD

The investigation into the accounts of her law firm, Temple Chambers, by the Law Society’s Monitoring and Investigative Unit began in July 1997, at the time when Mrs. Chris-Garuba was a registered foreign lawyer in the UK handling investment matters.

The tribunal was told that Mrs. Chris-Garuba obtained a mortgage by deception.

In March 1996, she purchased a property at luxury High View Gardens, Cyprus with the help of a £150,000.00 mortgage obtained from Preferred Mortgages using her full name at the time, Rita Ifeyinwa Kuku.

However, she fell short of her mortgage repayment and accumulated arrears.

Not wanting to lose the property due to accumulated arrears, she arranged for the sale of the property to herself, using her maiden name, Chukwuma, with a mortgage advance from another company, Abbey National Building Society.

However, the date of birth she used when applying for the first mortgage with her married name was different from the one she used when applying with her maiden name.

When applying for the new mortgage, she used an identity card that identified her as a marketing consultant instead of a lawyer. She also used different addresses in the applications.

She admitted to the tribunal that she was both the vendor and purchaser of the property and that she had kept accounts under her married name and maiden name. She said she had put in £100,000.00 of her own into the property.

Mrs. Chris-Garuba explained that just before the transactions, she had been divorced from her husband and had suffered “considerable trauma” and was in a sorry emotional state”. She told the tribunal that she and her children did not receive any maintenance from her former husband and that she was scared he would be able to claim a substantive portion of her property as a result of the divorce.

She further told the tribunal that the new mortgage cut her monthly repayment from £2,071.00 to £1,000.00. She said after rebuying the property, she continued to repay the new mortgage faithfully and did not fall into arrears.

On why she used different dates of birth when applying for the mortgages, she explained that it was a genuine error or the misreading of her handwriting and that she had not intended to use an incorrect date of birth.

On why she used a different address to apply for the new mortgage, she claimed that she only became aware that her broker used a different address upon receiving the statement of offer from Abbey National Building Society. She admitted that the use of a different address instead of her residence would create the impression that she had hatched an elaborate charade to deceive, which was not what she intended.

Her explanation fell flat on its face as the tribunal described the mortgage deal as being “extraordinary”.

“The tribunal commented in particular upon the extraordinary behaviour of Mrs. Kuku in arranging a transaction in which she apparently transferred property from herself to herself using her married name on one hand and her maiden name on the other hand and where she went to the length of instructing separate firms of solicitors to act in connection with the sale and with the purchase. The tribunal had no doubt at all that that had been a dishonest course of dealing,” the Law Society stated.

WITHDRAWALS FROM CLIENTS ACCOUNTS

As at July 8, 1997, an investigative accountant discovered a minimum shortage of £1,841.68 in a client’s account handled by Mrs. Chris-Garuba. She told the tribunal that she had partly paid back the money on July 30, 1997 by a lodgement of £840.00 from her own money. She said the remaining money will be covered by charges for cost due to the firm.

The tribunal was also told that Mrs. Chris-Garuba made the following withdrawals totalling £5,717.69 from a client’s account in contravention of the Solicitors Accounts Rule: an unallocated £4,550.00 was transferred from client to office bank account; £950 unallocated payment for personal use, £217.96 in bank interest incorrectly debited to client’s account.

Further, the investigative accountant discovered that between March 24 and June 3 1997, six transfers varying between £200.00 and £1,550.00 and totalling £4,500.00 were made from client account to office account. The discovery also showed that none of the withdrawal was allocated to any individual account in the client ledger.

During the hearing, Mrs. Chris-Garuba’s only explanation for why the unallocated transfers were made from client’s accounts was that they might have been made in error, a record of the trial noted.

In one instance, the tribunal was told that Mrs. Chris-Garuba acted for a client simply identified as Mr. H, who purchased a property in Manchester worth £67,450.00. The transaction was closed on June 3, 1998. On June 9, 1998 the client’s account was charged £1,050 for stamp duty. When queried about the transaction, Mrs. Chris-Garuba admitted that the payment did not represent the statutory one per cent charged for stamp duty. She claimed the payment was not related to the matter.

“Mrs. Kuku (Mrs. Chris-Garuba) was at the time of the inspection unable to attribute the payment of £1,050.00 to any other client matter and agreed that the payment gave rise to a shortage on client’s bank account of £1,050.00,” the Law Society noted.

Mrs. Chris-Garuba admitted to the tribunal that she did not keep proper account as stipulated by Solicitors Accounts Rule 11.

She also admitted that she drew money from clients’ accounts in excess of what she was permitted. But she denied that she used the money withdrawn for her own purposes.

But the tribunal ruled that she had done as exactly as she was accused.

“It was clear from the Monitoring and Investigation Officer’s report that the books of the account of the firm had not been kept properly written up and that Rules 7 and 8 of the Solicitors Accounts Rules had not been complied with,” the tribunal stated.

“The Tribunal found that Mrs. Kuku had utilised clients funds for her own purposes as that was the inevitable consequence of money being transferred from client account to her own account.”

The tribunal then ruled that Mrs. Chris-Garuba and her partner, acted in manner unbecoming of solicitors, and in ways contrary to what the public has come to expect from legal practitioners and thus ruled that they be struck off the roll of solicitors.

“The Tribunal considered it right in respect of each of the respondents that he and she should be struck off the Roll of solicitors. Neither of them had behaved with the integrity, probity and trustworthiness which members of the public were entitled to expect, and the profession demanded, of a member of a solicitors’ profession.”

When reached for comment, Mrs. Chris-Garuba answered her phone but ended the call midway into our enquiry. She did not answer subsequent calls made to her neither did she reply a text message sent to her number asking for comment.

When contacted, the President of the NBA, Abubakar Mahmoud, said he was abroad and requested that enquiry be sent via his email. He promised to pass same email to the department in charge. More than 48 hours, no response was received from the bar association. He did not reply a text message sent to him reminding him to send the response.

A HISTORY OF SHADY DEALING

Mrs. Chris-Garuba, who is married to a former military governor of Bauchi State, Chris Garuba, alongside her husband, was also mentioned in the notorious Halliburton bribery scandal.

A leaked file about the scandal obtained by French Newspaper Le Monde and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) revealed a strong link between Mrs. Chris-Garuba, her husband, and a mysterious individual identified as Abu Shuiabu and Jeffery Tesler, a UK lawyer who used a network of secretive banks and offshore tax havens to funnel $182 million in bribes to top Nigerian officials in exchange for a $6 billion contract to build Nigeria’s liquefied natural gas company.

The names of Mr. Shuaibu and the Garubas were listed along with Mr. Tesler’s in an account named Bridlington Enterprises Limited, a shell company based in Gibraltar.

The mysterious 65-year-old Shuaibu, who gave his address as P.O Box 53322, Ikoyi WAN-Lagos, ran Bridlington’s accounts, making several cash withdrawals from HSBC in Switzerland.

On November 11, 2005 – he visited the bank to request a transfer of $600,000 to an unknown individual.

Despite the indictments, however, Mrs. Chris-Garuba, and the 11 other nominees, await confirmation by the President of the Court of Appeal for their new positions.

Transparency International disowns Magu

Recent reports that Transparency International UK had endorsed the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu, have proven to be false.

A statement issued by the anti-corruption body EFCC had said that the international anti-corruption monitor had endorsed Mr Magu as an anti-corruption icon.

The statement of the EFCC had come on the heels of the rejection of Magu by the Nigerian Senate as the nominee for confirmation to head the commission.

However, in a statement by TI announcing the event which Magu was invited to, it was categorically stated that the invitation was not an endorsement by the World body.

TI-UK stated in its website http://www.transparency.org.uk/ it said that it had to clarify that inviting Magu did not constitute an endorsement as reported in the Nigerian media.

“in light of reports in Nigerian press, TI-UK would like to clarify the following points: “The event is being hosted by Transparency International UK, Global Witness and The Corner House.

“This event does not constitute an official follow-up to the London Anti-Corruption Summit, hosted by the UK Government in May 2016.

“The purpose of this event is to contribute to the discussion about the effectiveness of the UK-Nigerian asset recovery process, and more generally the UK’s asset recovery regime.

“All invited guests speak on behalf of either themselves or the organisation they represent – their participation does not represent an endorsement by TI-UK.”

Last week, The Senate had rejected Mr Magu’s nomination following a report by the DSS which alleged that he would constitute a liability to the anti-corruption fight of the current administration.

The security body had alleged that Magu hob-nobbed with individuals who were under investigation by the commission.

The report added that he (Magu) lived in a N40 million house paid for by someone being investigated by the commission.

Following this report which was sent in October 2016 and reaffirmed last week by the DSS, the Senate rejected Magu’s nomination. (NAN)

Ife crisis: Arrest Hausa suspects in 48 hours, OPC tells FG

A pan-Yoruba group, Oodua People’s Congress, has given the Federal Government and the Nigeria Police Force 48 hours to arrest the Fulani/Hausa persons involved in the crisis in Ile-Ife, Osun State, which resulted in the death of about 46 persons.

The OPC gave the warning in a statement by its founder, Dr. Fredrick Fasehun, on Thursday.

It said, “We hereby call on the Federal Government to intervene within the next 48 hours to ensure that justice is institutionalised and no side is provoked to defend justice according to its whims and caprices. Various communities have Abraham as their father. A word is enough for the wise.”

The group said it was unfortunate that 20 Yoruba persons, including a monarch, were arrested and paraded by the police while not a single Hausa/Fulani belligerent was detained.

The OPC added, “The police and the Federal Government appear determined to make scapegoats of Yoruba living in Ife over this crisis. It is unfortunate, strange and insensitive that two people are fighting and authorities are arresting only one party in this unfortunate mayhem.

“We sympathise with all victims and casualties over this moment of madness that has eroded two centuries of harmonious cohabitation between the Hausa settlers and their Yoruba hosts. But we demand equal treatment of everyone involved on both sides of this crisis.”

The group questioned the role of a former Kano State governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, in the arrest of the 20 persons.

It said Kwankwaso stampeded Governor Rauf Argebesola of Osun State and the Commissioner of Police into the ‘senseless’ arrests.

According to the OPC, Kwankwaso’s role is reminiscent of the role played by President Muhammadu Buhari in the Yoruba/Fulani clash in Ibadan in 2000.

“Kwankwanso’s post-violence role in Ife is akin to that played by Gen. Muhammadu Buhari who in October 2000 travelled to Ibadan to challenge the late governor Lam Adesina over the reprisal on Fulani herdsmen who had unleashed an orgy of raping and killings on Yoruba farming communities.

“This kind of bias will only embolden belligerent Hausa-Fulani throughout Nigeria and give them pariah status amongst other nationalities,” the OPC warned.

The OPC decried the failure of the police and the Federal Government to dislodge Fulani herdsmen who had since 2016 invaded and occupied the Agatu and Oturkpo communities in Benue State and parts of Enugu State.

“Where are those Hausa-Fulani who went on a killing spree in Southern Kaduna, Agatu and Chief Olu Falae’s farm? Are they untouchable? The Federal Government and the police should stop behaving as if Nigeria is the Hausa-Fulani’s conquered territory where they can kill and maim and rape at will,” the OPC.

Also, the Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, and the Gani Adams’ faction of the OPC have  cautioned the police over the handling of investigation on the crisis in Ile-Ife.

In separate statements, they accused the police of displaying ethnic bias in their investigation, noting that this is not good for the unity of Nigeria and its people.

The governor, who condemned the killing of innocent people and destruction of properties in Ile-Ife, said crime must be treated as crime; “whether committed by Yoruba, Ibo, Hausa or any tribe. However, handling of crime must be without ethnic bias,” he added.

Fayose said it was “strange that in a clash involving the people of Ile-Ife, who are Yoruba and Hausa, who are settlers in the ancient town, only Yoruba were arrested, taken to Abuja and paraded before the press.”

The governor, in a statement issued in Ado Ekiti on Thursday, by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, condemned the mayhem and described the loss of innocent souls as unfortunate.

The statement said, “If there was a clash between Yoruba people and Hausa in Ile-Ife, are the police now saying that only the Yoruba took part in the crisis?

“Both Yoruba and Hausa were attacked. Properties belonging to both Yoruba and Hausa were destroyed. Are the police saying that those 20 Yoruba that they paraded in Abuja were the ones who attacked the Yoruba people that were also victims of the crisis and destroyed those houses belonging to the indigenes of Ile-Ife that were destroyed?

“In my own opinion, the investigation so far conducted by the police was done with ethnic bias and I demand a thorough investigation that is devoid of ethnic sentiments.

“Also, to prevent a recurrence of such crisis, I call on the Osun State Government to set up a judicial panel of inquiry to ascertain the remote and immediate causes of the crisis, as well as identify the masterminds of the crisis.”

Also, the OPC has criticised the Nigeria Police Force for conducting what it described as a subjective investigation into the March 8 crisis in IIe-Ife.

The OPC in a statement  by Adams on Thursday, said it wondered why those who triggered the violence had not been paraded by the police.

The group described the entire investigation as “lopsided, highly bias and possesses an element of foundation of injustice.”

Meanwhile, son of the governor of the old Ondo State, Adekunle Ajasin, Tokunbo, has decried Yoruba monarch’s silence after the police paraded only Yoruba people in the aftermath of the crisis between Yoruba and Hausa-Fulani in Ile-Ife.

Ajasin, who spoke in Ibadan on Thursday, is the founder of Atayese Federalist Movement, a Yoruba socio-cultural group.

Ajasin, who chided the police for showing bias against the Yoruba people in the arrest of suspects, said he was shocked and surprised that Yoruba monarchs had not risen to defend their people in the face of persecution. He described the police action as treachery against Yoruba nation.

He added, “…We are surprised that none of our traditional rulers said anything even when one of them was arrested along with the suspects. That is sacrilegious.”

SENATORS MAKARFI, SHERIFF AND OTHERS SIGN PEACE DEAL IN ABUJA, THURSDAY.

PDP BOUNCES BACK AS THE BIGGEST PARTY IN AFRICA, RESOLVES TO KICK OUT APC IN 2019.

SENATORS MAKARFI, SHERIFF AND OTHERS SIGN PEACE DEAL IN The crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ended Thursday on a peaceful note with the feuding parties agreeing to sheath their swords in the interest of party unity.

National Reconciliation Committee of the PDP headed by Governor Henry Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State brokered the deal.

The parties said it was time to put their differences aside and work to take back power from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2019.

PDP in a communique signed by both the Senator Modu Sheriff faction and the Ahmed Makarfi Caretaker Committee, agreed to halt the current practice of making public statements capable of further inflaming the crisis.

The communique was jointly signed by Bernard Mikko, the factional PDP Acting National Publicity Secretary for Sheriff’s group and his counterpart in the Makarfi faction, Prince Dayo Adeyeye.

Other signatories are the factional acting National Legal Adviser of the PDP, Dave Iorhemba and Ahmed Gulak, former Political Adviser to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.

During the event which was witnessed by Governor Dickson and former Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu, the groups also resolved to work with the National Reconciliation Committee to put an end to the prolonged crisis.

The major actors in the matter emphasised that they would henceforth stop activities capable of further weakening the party.

The communique reads: “That all actors of the party should desist from making derogatory, inflammatory and divisive statements against party officials, stakeholders and members.

“That the party should not dissipate her energy amongst itself but to focus on how to unite and be a formidable opposition capable of taking over power from the failed APC led government.

“That all key actors in the on-going peace process should henceforth desist from making public press statements attacking each other and statements insinuating negative acts capable of dragging the party to the mud.

“In conclusion, all key actors in the PDP have agreed to work together with the National Reconciliation Committee led by Governor Seriake Dickson to engender peace and genuine reconciliation”.

The Sons, Daughters Of Ile Ife: Butchered, Paraded And Now Prisoners Of War By Fani - Kayode

Permit me to begin this contribution with an aside. The barbarians that launched a terror attack in Westminster, London yesterday in which four people were killed and many more injured are the same type of people that attacked and beheaded the sons and daughters of Ile Ife in their own homes and on their own land earlier this month.

They are also the same type of people that butchered the people of Southern Kaduna on  Christmas eve and Christmas day, that massacred the people of Agatu last year and that butchered the people of Zaki Biam a few days ago.

They are kindred spirits with those that have dedicated their lives to violence, carnage and cold-blooded murder and terror is their language.

My heart goes out to the people of London and indeed the whole of the United Kingdom. May the souls of those that were killed rest in peace.

Now to the meat of this essay. Let me make myself clear right from the outset. I do not regard the gallant sons and daughters of Ile Ife that were arrested, taken to Abuja and shamelessly paraded before the television cameras and the media by the Nigerian police a few days ago as violent criminals or murderers: I regard them as prisoners of war.

I do not believe that they have done ANYTHING wrong other than perhaps defend themselves and their community from a vicious and barbaric attack from a bunch of merciless and blood thirsty barbarians and I believe that at the end of the day they will be vindicated and set free.

I must commend Afenifere for not only stepping into the matter expeditiously and putting the Nigerian police and the Federal Government on notice but also for raising a powerful team of 21 Yoruba lawyers, which includes Wole Olanipekun SAN and the great Ahmed Raji SAN, to defend them.

It is no longer news that no Hausa/Fulani person has been picked up, detained, paraded before the television cameras or slated for prosecution by the police after the carnage that they unleashed on our people.

Many sons and daughters of Ife were brutalised and slaughtered in the crisis and yet the police have not arrested any Hausa/Fulani man or woman. Can you believe that? That is President Buhari's Nigeria for you.

One wonders if the police are trying to suggest that the gallant Ifes that fell and lost their lives during the course of the battle actually killed themselves?

Are they trying to suggest that nobody from the Hausa Fulani community committed any crime? Are they trying to suggest that the Hausa Fulani did not provoke the whole incident and draw first blood? This shameless pefidy is wholeheartedly unacceptable.

The whole crisis started when members of the Hausa Fulani community beat up a young Yoruba woman and stabbed her husband. They went further by killing another young man and displaying his badly mutilated body all over town in a wheelbarrow.

Finally they publicly beheaded yet another young man and jubilantly paraded his head in triumph on a long pole through the streets of the Hausa Fulani community in Ife known as Sabo.

The good people of Ile Ife, rightly, found this affront outrageous and unacceptable and they reacted violently. At the end of the day many people on both sides of the divide and FAR MORE than the police and the Nigerian media dare or care to admit were killed. Furthermore virtually the whole of Sabo was burnt to the ground.

These are the facts yet sadly the handling of the whole matter by the Federal Government and the way that they have distorted the facts, befuddled the issues and established a false and misleading narrative betrays a high level of deceit, deception and partiality.

The police should not be selective in this matter and the Federal Government needs to be careful with the way it treats Yoruba people.

If nothing else the events of 1966, 1983 and 1993, all in the south west, which brought our country to a standstill, truncuated democracy and resulted in horrendous violence and a change of government proves that.

The truth is simple and clear: when it comes to a fight the Yoruba never back down and neither do they bow down to an insult or turn their backs on a challenge.

Afenifere has spoken for us all.  Gani Adams of the OPC has done the same and so has the reverred Pa Ayo Adebanjo who has been in active politics for the last 67 years and who has seen it all.

I have also spoken in a two-part article titled "The Hausa Fulani, The Yoruba and The Slaughter In Ile-Ife" and so have many others.


And what we are all saying is simple and clear: the Yoruba will not accept a situation whereby we are made second-class citizens in our own country.

If you do not accept that we are all equal before the law and before God, then we will no longer accept the concept or notion of one Nigeria. It is as simple as that.

When these same Hausa Fulani people slaughtered the indegenees and people of Southern Kaduna, Benue, Taraba, Plateau, Kogi, Kwara, Abia, Enugu, Delta, Edo, Ondo, Ekiti, Lagos and elsewhere none of them were arrested.

The police did not parade them before television cameras, they did not arrest their Emirs, their traditional title holders or their sons and daughters and they did not claim that they had committed heinous crimes.

As a matter of fact in most cases it was their victims and those  that they attacked that were rounded up and arrested simply for defending themselves.

This has to stop because that is what the police are doing in Ile Ife. They are rounding  up the victims and claiming that they were the aggressors and they are protecting the aggressors.

This  is reckless and dangerous. The Federal Government is playing with fire. And as Yinka Odumakin, the spokesman of Afenifere, wisely counselled just two days ago, the Buhari administration would do well "not to pull the Yoruba tiger's tale".

Yet sadly, as serious as this whole matter is,
some irresponsible miscreants and shameless elements in our midst, both in the government, the media and in the political class, have said that the whole thing was not an ethnic crisis and conflagration but rather a clash between a handful of Yoruba and Hausa Fulani miscreants and touts.

They have run to their friends in certain sections of the media who are more than ready to feed the Nigerian people with their usual "fake news" and false narrative in a scurrilous and futile attempt to becloud the fundamental issues and cover the whole thing up.

Yet if this is not an ethnic clash I wonder what is? You have the Yorubas on one side and the Hausa Fulani on the other. Both sides lost many people in the fighting. Then at the end of it all you only arrest the Yoruba and say it was not an ethnic clash.

You also arrest a Yoruba traditional ruler from Ile-Ife, Oba Ademiluyi, remove his beaded crown, handcuff him, take him to Abuja and parade him on national television as a murderer. One wonders whether he too can be described as a "tout and a miscreant?"

This whole affair and the way the authorities are handling it is utterly sordid and one is constrained to ask the following question: who is fooling who?

This shameless cover up by the Federal Government and the Nigerian police has to stop.

This dangerous recourse to political  correctness by the friends and functionaries of the Buhari administration and this perfidious attempt to bury the whole matter and cover up the atrocities of the usual suspects also has to stop.

Let us admit that we have a major problem on our hands and that in order to solve that problem the Government must stop protecting those who are in the habit of attacking and killing people that welcome them with open arms and allow them to settle in their communities.

The application of selective justice and the toleration of genocide, mass murder and ethnic cleansing by the Buhari administration must stop.

Airwoman killed by jealous lover laid to rest

Oladipupo Sholape, the air force officer who was murdered by her “ jealous” lover, was laid to rest at the air force cemetery in Ojo military barracks, Lagos state on Thursday.

Earlier, a candle night and procession held in Badagry, her hometown.

Shomzy, as the deceased was fondly called, was shot to death on March 12 by one Kalu BA, her colleague and lover.

They were both young officers at the Nigerian air force base in Makurdi, Benue state capital.

Sholape during her days in service

Before their love story turned sour, Kalu said Sholape “meant everything to him.”

There were reports that he murdered her because he found out that she was dating a senior military officer.

He was however apprehended and is currently under investigation.

Fayose cautions police over handling of Ife crisis

Fayose Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has cautioned the police over the handling of its investigation on the recent crisis in Ile-Ife, Osun State that led to the death of more than 40 people, saying “it appears that the police has so far demonstrated ethnic bias in its investigation and this is not good for the unity of Nigeria and its people.”

The governor, who condemned the killing of innocent people and destruction of properties in Ile-Ife, said; "whether committed by Yoruba, Ibo, Hausa or any tribe, crime is crime and it must be treated as such. However, handling of crime must be without ethnic bias."

The governor said it was strange that; “In a clash involving the people of Ile-Ife, who are Yorubas and Hausa, who are settlers in the ancient town, only Yorubas were arrested, taken to Abuja and paraded before the press.”

In a statement issued in Ado Ekiti on Thursday, by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Governor Fayose, who condemned the mayhem and described the loss of innocent souls as unfortunate, said there was no way the Police can convince Nigerians that only those 20 Yorubas that were paraded in Abuja were involved in
 the crisis.

He expressed concern that the same police that intervened promptly in the Ile-Ife crisis, made arrests and paraded 20 people as alleged masterminds of the mayhem had been unable to arrest and parade any of the killer Fulani herdsmen that have wasted and still wasting the lives of thousands of Nigerians across the country.

“If there was a clash between Yoruba people and Hausas in Ile-Ife, are the police now saying that only the Yorubas took part in the crisis?

“Both Yorubas and Hausa were attacked. Properties belonging to both Yorubas and Hausas were destroyed. Are the police sayings that those 20 Yorubas that they paraded in Abuja were the ones who attacked the Yoruba people that were also victims of the crisis and destroyed those houses belonging to the indigenes of Ile-Ife that were destroyed?

“In my own opinion, the investigation so far conducted by the police was done with ethnic bias and I demand for thorough investigation that is devoid of ethnic sentiments.

“Also, to prevent future reoccurrence of such crisis, I call on the Osun State Government to set up a judicial panel of inquiry to ascertain the remote and immediate causes of the crisis, as well as identify the masterminds of the crisis.

"Most importantly, security agencies in the country must treat all crimes as the same, irrespective of those perpetrating them. As it appears, crimes committed by Fulani herdsmen against other Nigerians
 are not being treated as crimes that should be given attention  by the
 security agencies and this is worrisome."

Why House Of Representatives Suspended Debate On Sexual Harassment Bill

The House of Representatives has suspended debate on the bill to seek punishment for sexual harassment of students.

The bill, sent to the House for concurrence from the Senate, was suspended because it is restricted to higher educational institutions.

Presenting the bill for second reading, the House Majority Leader, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila (Lagos-APC), said the Bill needed to be expanded to accommodate other forms of sexual harassment beyond higher institutions.

“The way the bill is now is restrictive. It restricts its enforcement to only higher institutions of learning. What about secondary schools and the work place?

“I have concerns over this bill before we concur to it because it did not talk about sexual harassment in the banks, churches and homes.

“We should look for a way to widen its scope to encompass sexual harassment in other places.’’

But Rep. Aminu Shagari (Sokoto-APC) urged the House to go ahead with the concurrence while other aspects could be accommodated later.

Rep. Ayo Omidiran (Osun-APC) in her contribution said: “As a woman, I know sexual harassment can take place anywhere be it in market, church or work place; sexual harassment is sexual harassment anywhere.

“And women too, harass men not only men harass women so there should be different segments of harassment and it should be accommodated in the bill.

Ruling on the matter, the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, said there might be a need to write the Senate to inform them about what should be included or not.

“And for that reason we shall adjourn this debate pending when we have done proper consultations on the bill,” Dogara added.

(NAN)

Kids whose mother died in crash reunite with family

The two kids abandoned at the Ijebu Ode General Hospital, Ogun State, after their mother died in a crash have reunited with family members.
The PUNCH had reported that the children, aged eight and two, and their mother had boarded a bus from Ijebu Ode on March 12 en route to Ibadan, Oyo State, when the bus had a head-on collision with another vehicle along Ijebu Ode-Ibadan Road.

A Good Samaritan was said to have rescued the kids from a nearby river.
A source at the hospital told our correspondent on Thursday that the children’s family members had shown up.
The source said, “The father and relatives of the kids came on Tuesday with the police. He went to the mortuary and identified his late wife. The Ogun State Ministry of Women Affairs has picked up the children for handing over to the family.”

The Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Ambibola Oyeyemi, said the children would be handed over to the family.

Source: Punch