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Saraki Open Letter To Akpabio: Don’t Politicise, Trivialise Call For Due Process In Senate

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Saraki Open Letter To Akpabio

Saraki Open Letter To Akpabio: Don’t Politicise, Trivialise Call For Due Process In Senate

Saraki open letter to Akpabio: don’t politicise, trivialise call for due process in senate. Former Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki has described as “cheap politics and trivialising of a serious issue” the claim by incumbent Senate President, Godswill Akpabio that the call on him to ensure that transparent and open process is instituted to investigate the accusation levelled against him by one of his colleagues, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan is an attempt to remove a Niger Delta person from office.

Saraki, in a statement signed by Yusuph Olaniyonu, the head of his media office in Abuja, urged Akpabio to read his press statement dated March 1st, 2025 very well to understand that there was nowhere he suggested the resignation of the Senate President.

“Rather, he advised that Akpabio should act in the best interest of the legislative institution by ensuring that no reasonable person is left with any doubt about the fact that the allegations raised by the Senator were investigated and justifiably dispensed with.

“The attention of the Abubakar Bukola Saraki Media Office has been drawn to the statement made by Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio while addressing the leaders of some “youth ethnic groups” on Friday that certain individuals from Kwara and Adamawa States want him removed because he is from the Niger Delta region.

“Ordinarily, Dr. Saraki would have ignored the statement as a sign of the times in which we now live. However, its underlying motive of politicising and trivialising a serious issue that threatens the integrity, credibility, and importance of the legislature is the reason why we think we should not allow the Senate President to create a misleading impression of the issue at stake in the all-important institution that the National Assembly represents in our democracy.

“Dr. Saraki in his last comment on the Akpabio-Natasha Akpoti Uduaghan crisis never called on the Senate President to resign or step aside.

Rather, he urged the Senate President to be conscious of the fact that perception is reality and therefore he should avoid treating the allegations by the Senator in a manner that will create the perception that the Senate as an institution is trying to cover up issues bothering on s£ xual harassment, gender discrimination, and abuse of office.

“Also, Dr. Saraki made it clear that his intervention was neither about Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan nor whether her claim was right or not.

He stated that since the Senator has gone public with such serious allegations against the presiding officer, the image of the institution should be saved through an honest, sincere, open, transparent, and unbiased investigation.

“In that press statement, he also pointed out that there are already existing processes recommended in the Constitution, laws of the land, Senate rules, conventions, and precedents to be followed in carrying out such investigation.

“Again, Dr. Saraki is of the firm belief that his suggestions are for the benefit of the legislative institution. So, he will repeat the same suggestion no matter where the Senate President comes from and whichever party he belongs to.

It is not because the incumbent is a member of the APC, that the former Senate President is from the PDP or that the former is from the South-South zone while the latter is from the North Central zone. Far from it. It is disingenuous and crude to describe Dr. Saraki’s comment along those primordial lines.

“This issue is definitely not one in which Akpabio should exploit ethnic sentiments, political division, or regional proclivity. This will neither be in his own interest or that of the institution over which he is presiding. He should face the reality on ground and do what is right.

“The former Senate President believes that when a sensitive matter suggesting sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and mistreatment of women comes up anywhere, it evokes the pains that thousands of women across the nooks and crannies of our society experience daily.

Thus, when it is raised in a place like the legislative institution, it is an opportunity for us to handle it with utmost openness and transparency to ensure that justice is not only done but glaringly seen to be done.

Saraki Open Letter To Akpabio

Saraki To Akpabio

“Once again, Dr. Saraki stands by and maintains his earlier suggestion to Akpabio and the Senate leadership on the allegations raised by the Senator from Kogi State.

An open, transparent, and honest investigation of the allegations is still needed to ensure that the Senate is not cast in the image of an institution that is tolerant of sexual harassment, gender bias, victimisation and mistreatment of women, abuse of office, and enthronement of the culture of silence.

By having such an investigation, the general public and the international community will have more confidence in our legislative institution.

“People like Dr. Saraki have made huge sacrifices in defending the integrity of the legislative institution and will not desist in speaking up for the right thing to be done. May God bless our institutions and our country”.

Signed
Yusuph Olaniyonu
Head, Abubakar Bukola Saraki Media Office
Abuja

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Crime

EFCC: 32 Internet Fraudsters Jailed In Ibadan

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EFCC

EFCC: 32 Internet Fraudsters Jailed In Ibadan

EFCC: 32 internet fraudsters jailed in Ibadan. The Oyo State High Court and Federal High Court in Ibadan have convicted and sentenced 32 individuals for internet-related fraud. Justices Ladiran Akintola, O.S. Adeyemi, K.B. Olawoyin, G.A. Sunmonu, and Nkeonye Maha handed down various sentences after the convicts pleaded guilty to charges of impersonation and cybercrime.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibadan Zonal Directorate, prosecuted the offenders on separate one-count charges. Sentences ranged from community service to prison terms, with some convicts given the option of fines.

Among the penalties:
– Some convicts received up to **two years in prison or were ordered to pay fines ranging from ₦30,000 to ₦500,000.
– Others were sentenced to community service without an option of fine.
– One convict, Adedara Ademola Ayobami, was ordered to refund ₦2.5 million to his victim.

EFCC

EFCC

Additionally, the court ordered the forfeiture of various assets recovered from the convicts to the federal government. These included money, phones, laptops, and several vehicles, such as Toyota Camry and Toyota Corolla cars.

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Akwa Ibom

Umo Eno Commissions Model school In Oron, Charges Shool Heads On Maintwnance Culture

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Umo Eno Commissions

Umo Eno Commissions Model school In Oron, Charges Shool Heads On Maintwnance Culture

Umo Eno commissions model school in Oron, charges shool heads on maintwnance culture and directs head teachers to live in school

Akwa Ibom State Governor, Pastor Umo Eno, has charged heads of schools and other institutions to ensure preservation of government infrastructures within their custody and to ensure that the intended benefits of government investments in the sector are delivered to the targeted beneficiaries.

He also tasked headmasters and headmistresses of model primary schools built across the State to utilize the live-in facilities to enhance their care for the pupils, and protection of the facilities in line with the aspirations of his administration’s ARISE Agenda.

Speaking at the commissioning ceremony of the Model Primary School, Uko-Oyukim in Oron Local Government Area, Governor Eno said a special education monitoring team was about to be activated to monitor the model schools, warning that any headteacher found not living on campus or whose school facilities are not well managed would be replaced.

He, therefore, tasked the Akwa Ibom State Infrastructure & Assets Management and Maintenance Agency to step up their vigilance over the educational facilities, adding that he was willing to bring to bear his private business experience as a hotelier, where he would work round the clock to ensure every guest enjoys utmost comfort, to make Akwa Ibom children receive the best from government investment in the education sector.

“Very soon, we are setting up education monitoring teams, and the team will help us ensure that all of these facilities are intact. They will monitor all these schools we are opening, from the washroom to the classrooms, all the facilities, the curriculum and of the work they are doing.

“The Headmasters or Headmistresses will also ensure that non of these facilities are destroyed. We must continue to maintain the standard. I am setting up a Governor’s Monitoring team, but they will work with the Honourable Commissioners to ensure that they give us the right information.

“If we come to your school, particularly our schools that are remodelled, and we find out that the standards are dropping, we will change the head Master or Mistress immediately.

If we come to the school and discover that you are not living on the school compound, we will send you back somewhere else.

“We can not use your money to put this edifice in place, only for it to go down in few months,” the Governor stated.

Speaking on behalf of Oron stakeholders, the Deputy Governor, Senator Akon Eyakenyi, described the emergence of Governor Umo Eno as God’s blessing to Akwa Ibom State and particularly thanked the Governor for accepting to be used to extend God’s love to Oron people.

According to Senator Eyakenyi, Governor Umo Eno’s value for education which fueled his drive to pursue and obtain a PhD has been demonstrated in his identification of primary education as being fundamentally imperative and therefore investing in giving Akwa Ibom children a good start up.

Umo Eno Commissions

Umo Eno Commissions

 

The Commissioner for Education, Professor Ubong Umoh, presenting an overview of the project, commended Governor Umo Eno’s model primary school initiative, maintaining that such underscores his administration’s dedication to transforming the educational landscape thereby fostering academic excellence and social development.

He said the Uko-Oyukim Model Primary School, designed to accommodate 495 pupils in 19 fully furnished classrooms on a 25:1 pupils to teacher ratio, was fully equipped with library, early childcare development facilities, solar-powered ICT laboratory, modern sick bay, spacious auditorium, dedicated staff quarters, seperate gender-specific sanitary facilities, with comprehensive human kinetic facilities that enhances education and sports development.

Pupils of the school, little Miss Happiness Antai and Master Godwin Asuquo, conveyed the feelings of the school community through a special address and a ballad which expressed the gratitude of the pupils, teachers and their parents to the Governor for the kind gesture he has extended to them through the state-of-the-art facilities.

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Peter Obi To Join The APC – Presidency

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Peter Obi To Join The APC

Peter Obi To Join The APC – Presidency

Peter Obi to join the APC – Presidency. The Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, has claimed that Peter Obi, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, will soon join the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Bwala made this statement while speaking on TVC’s Breakfast Show, where he reacted to reports about former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, leaving the APC for the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

During the discussion, Bwala stated, “Do you know we are emptying the Labour Party? Not because we are asking them to come, they are coming. Valentine Ozigbo has joined us, Balami has joined us, even Peter Obi will join us.”

Peter Obi To Join The APC

Peter Obi To Join The APC

He further suggested that ongoing political realignments, including discussions about a coalition against the APC ahead of the 2027 elections and El-Rufai’s move to the SDP, are primarily driven by personal ambitions rather than for good governance.

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