News

Mantu Never Rigged Elections For US -PDP …Alleges Plots To Clampdown On Oppositions, Others …As Secondus Gives Lai Mohammed 48Hour-Ultimatum Over Looters’ List

Published

9 years ago

April 2, 2018

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has dismissed the advice by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to learn from former Senate President Senator Ibrahim Mantu’s claims on how he rigged elections for the party.
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement yesterday, said Senator Mantu’s reported claims was personal to him and has nothing to do with the PDP, as the party never directed any of its members to rig election on its behalf, at any point since its formation in 1998.
“Senator Mantu spoke about his personal activities and tendencies in the elections where he participated. The PDP has never directed or had any pact with him to rig election on its behalf. Never!
“Individuals run their elections on the platform of political parties once they emerge as candidates. In the PDP, candidates are issued with the party’s Code of Conduct containing the basic rules of electioneering engagements.
“There is nowhere in this rules of engagement where candidates or party members are directed to rig elections on behalf of the party. If any member’s conduct transgressed these basic rules of engagement, that individual did not act on behalf of the PDP, and as such the party cannot be vicariously held responsible.
“It will therefore be misplaced for anybody, including the APC, to surmise that Senator Mantu, in the said confession of rigging, acted on behalf of the PDP.
“After all, in 2007, Senator Mantu lost his own senatorial election. What, then, happened to his rigging machinery, if he could not deliver himself,” the party said.
Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday drew attention to what it said were clandestine plots by certain agents of the Federal Government and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to clamp down on key members of the opposition parties ahead of the 2019 general elections.
It claimed that part of the “heinous plot” was also to arrest members of the civil society, opinion leaders, the media and professional groups who refused to buy into the fabrications, lies, deceptions and propaganda of the APC and the Federal Government.
National Publicity Secretary, in Abuja, said the PDP was reliably informed that the plot against opposition will be hinged on trump up charges of corruption, allegations of plotting to disrupt the processes leading to the 2019 general elections as well as the alleged politicization of security issues in the country.
The opposition party stated: “The first leg of this scheme is to commence a vicious intimidation and harassment of PDP members who have refused to succumb to pressure to join the APC in their undemocratic quest to create room for a one-party state in Nigeria.
“This will be followed by arrests, detention as well as the jailing of members of the opposition and others perceived to be opposed to the interests of the APC ahead of the elections.
“The PDP, which grew our democracy to become sustainable and successfully handed power to the opposition after the 2015 general election, has a responsibility to ensure that democracy and the application of its tenets flourish without let in our country.
“The PDP and the majority of Nigerians, rallying under our repositioned platform, will never be intimidated or cowed by the principles of democracy.
“All we are saying is that the APC and its Federal Government must provide good governance and live up to its campaign promises of eradicating corruption, vanquishing insurgency and bringing our currency to the value of one naira to one US dollar, among others.
“We want the APC and the Federal Government to know that this country belongs to all of us and that this plot against the people will be firmly resisted not only by the members of our party but also by the generality of Nigerians and the international community at large.”
However, the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, has given the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, 48 hours to withdraw his statement listing him among past looters or face litigation.
According to the spokesperson for the PDP chairman, Mr. Ike Abonyi, who said this in a statement, last Saturday, Secondus made the demand in a letter to the minister by his lawyer, Emeka Etiaba (SAN).
The minister had last Friday, alleged that the party chairman collected N200million from the Office of the National Security Adviser in 2015.
But in the letter with reference number EESE&C/1/31/03/18 dated March 31, 2018, and addressed to the minister, the party chairman also demanded a retraction, apology and payment of N1.5billion as damages.
The lawyer alleged that the said publication “has damaged the image of Secondus as he has been humiliated, castigated and vilified by many as a result of the falsehood published by the minister.”
The letter noted that if Mohammed failed to meet the demands within 48 hours, “we shall within 72 hours from today, proceed to a court of competent jurisdiction to ventilate our client’s right under the law and shall further seek the protection of the court against you.”
Similarly, the PDP has alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari had no moral rectitude to fight corruption in the country, describing him as a direct beneficiary of what it called “corruption freebies” deployed by his party leaders to fund his 2015 presidential campaign.
The party noted that the President, who declared that he had no resources to run a presidential campaign in 2015, ought to have known, particularly as a leader, that the billions of naira deployed in his campaigns were proceeds of alleged corrupt activities of known All Progressives Congress (APC) governors and leaders.
The party therefore challenged Buhari to make open the sources of funds available to his campaign in the 2003, 2007 and 2011 races, as well as the names of the donors.
The PDP, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, last Saturday, said Buhari and his party leaders had “huge confessions” to make on how they allegedly raked in stolen state resources to prosecute the 2015 elections.
He said, “If the Federal Government and the APC are serious about fighting corruption and not just out to persecute PDP members, they should have begun with the probe into the source of the billions of naira used for President Buhari’s 2015 presidential campaigns, particularly in the face of allegations that the fund was looted from treasuries of various APC states.
“Can President Buhari, in all honesty, claim ignorance of reports in the open media that a South-South governor (allegedly) looted several billions from his state accounts and diverted the sums into Buhari’s 2015 campaigns?
“We challenge President Buhari to tell Nigerians what he has done regarding the leaked memo showing N9trillion ($25billion) corrupt oil contracts at the NNPC as well as the alleged stealing of N1.1trillion worth of crude oil, all in a sector under his direct purview as minister of petroleum.
“The Presidency should tell Nigerians what has been done to recover the stolen N18billion Internally Displaced Persons intervention fund and the N10billion National Health Insurance Scheme fund alleged to have been stolen from the Treasury Single Account by APC officials and Presidency cabal.”
In a statement, the party listed cases of alleged looting by officials of the federal government in the Buhari administration but which the PDP said have been swept under the carpet.
Dismissing the list released by Mohammed as hollow and laughable, the PDP challenged the minister to name any of its members that has been convicted for treasury looting.
The party said the list is an extension of Federal Government’s media trial of its members and challenged it to come up with names of its members against whom the federal government had secured convictions.
It added: “The list put forward by the Federal Government as purported looters amounts to a cheap blackmail as none of those listed have been indicted or convicted by any court of competent jurisdiction or any panel of enquiry in our country.
“The list issued by the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, only goes to show that the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Presidency have no prove of corruption against the PDP.”
The party said in its frenzy and desperation, the Federal Government even included names of individuals who are not standing trial or under investigation for any act of corruption, as well as those who are not even PDP members.
“The Buhari-led Federal Government has manifested its frenzy by going after matters that are in court and in which none of the persons have been convicted, thus betraying their wickedness and desperation to mislead the public, the court and divert attention from the heavy looting involving their members.
“We are not in doubt that the individuals he has mentioned will take their legitimate stride and pursue appropriate action in the court.
“However, attacks on individuals, who are members of our party, do not in any way detract from the fact that the PDP, as a political platform, is not a party of corruption.
“It is unfortunate that the APC and its government under whose watch horrendous sleazes are happening on a daily basis and a government that has failed to fulfill the littlest of its campaign promises, can spend a wholesome three years searching for flimsy allegations to discredit our party and its members.”
In a related development, the Chairman, PDP Governors’ Forum, Ayodele Fayose, faulted the “looters’ list” released by the Federal Government which included the name of Secondus.
Fayose, who is the Ekiti State governor, in a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, wondered why the list did not include the names of those who had been earlier indicted by the Federal Government.
The statement said, “Surprisingly, while the name of the PDP National Chairman, Uche Secondus (with N200million) appeared on Lai Mohammed’s clownish “looters’ list”, that of Diezani Alison-Madueke, who they claimed to have traced N47.2billion and $487.5million to, was missing.
“Is it that the Federal Government lied against Diezani ab initio, or she has also been baptised into the All Progressives Congress comity of saint looters?”
In its reaction, the Rivers State Government said it will not publish the list of those indicted by a panel of inquiry it set up to probe the sale of assets belonging to the state because a White Paper on the matter was already in the public domain.
The Commissioner for Information and Communications, Barrister Emma Okah, said that the immediate past governor, Chibuike Amaechi, had gone to court to challenge the constitution of the judicial panel of inquiry.
Okah said, “If the White Paper has done the job and it is in the public domain, what is new again about the list?”
A former National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, also alleged that there was a secret plan by the Federal Government to convict him for corruption.
Metuh, who is on trial before a Federal High Court in Abuja for alleged corruption, was named by Mohammed to be among six members of the PDP who allegedly looted the treasury in 2015.
Metuh, in a statement titled ‘My reply to the media trial’, last Saturday, said, “By this publication, the Federal Government has breached our constitution by seeking to burden me with two criminal trials on the same charge, one before Justice Okon Abang and the other before the media.
“The major crux of the prosecutions argument is that I ought to have known that the money was part of an alleged and yet-to-be proven unlawful activity of Col Sambo Dasuki (rtd), a former NSA to President Jonathan.
“In view of the weakness of the case against me, the APC-led Federal Government resorted to all kinds of dirty tactics to dehumanise and intimidate me.
“I have been reliably informed that the Federal Government has ordered a conviction at all cost to ensure that the PDP is tainted before the elections. The government‘s determination to achieve this objective is clearly highlighted by the refusal to allow me to attend to my deteriorating health notwithstanding several expert medical opinions on the matter.”
Metuh said that, by going to the media to name him a looter and without cross-checking the definition and dictionary meaning of the word, the Federal Government has not only given “a body language but has issued a direct intimidation and threat to the judiciary to get a compulsory conviction.”
With this, he said there was no way the Federal Government would allow justice to be done in his case.

News

Military Shake-Up: NAF Redeploys Senior Officers, Appoints New Commanders

Published

1 day ago

November 9, 2026

The Tide

The Nigerian Air Force has approved a major shake-up of its senior leadership, involving fresh appointments and postings across its operational commands, strategic institutions and Defence Headquarters.

The exercise, approved by the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Sunday Aneke, on November 7, 2026, is aimed at strengthening command effectiveness, enhancing institutional capacity and sustaining operational readiness.

In a statement yesterday, the Director of Public Relations and Information, NAF, Air Commodore Ehimen Ejodame, said the appointments covered Service Headquarters, operational commands, training institutions and other strategic establishments.

The statement partly read, “The NAF has approved a major strategic realignment of its senior leadership through a fresh round of postings and appointments designed to strengthen command effectiveness, enhance institutional capacity and sustain operational readiness in support of national security objectives.

“The exercise, approved by the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Sunday Kelvin Aneke, on 7 November 2026, takes effect from November 2026.

“The appointments span Service Headquarters, operational commands, Defence Headquarters, training institutions and other strategic establishments, reflecting a deliberate effort to align leadership competencies and professional experience with the Service’s evolving operational and institutional priorities.”

At the NAF Headquarters, Air Vice Marshal AK Ademuwagun was appointed Chief of Transformation and Innovation, while AVM IV Ajiboye became Superintendent of Standards and Evaluation.

Other appointments include AVM PN Amadi as Chief of Air Intelligence; AVM NN Ananaba as Chief of Operations; AVM AH Bakari as Air Provost Marshal; AVM EE Efiom as Chief of Training; and AVM AJ Laoye as Chief of Aircraft Engineering.

The Air Force also appointed AVM NI Ilo as Air Officer Commanding, Tactical Air Command; AVM BR Mamman as AOC, Mobility Command; AVM OS Ogunsina as AOC, Logistics Command; AVM MN Onyebashi as AOC, Special Operations Command; and AVM FCS Nwakara as AOC, Ground Training Command.

At the institutional level, AVM PB Philips was appointed Commandant of the Armed Forces Command and Staff College, while AVM MC Ekwueme became Commandant of the Armed Forces Resettlement Centre.

Similarly, AVM AO Akinbunwa was appointed Commandant of the Air Force War College, while AVM OC Ubadike became Commandant of the Air Force Institute of Technology.

Other appointments include AVM AI Sambo as Commandant of the Nigerian Air Force College of Logistics and Management, and AVM M Yusuf as Deputy Commandant of the Nigerian Defence Academy.

At the Defence Headquarters, AVM UK Abdullahi was appointed Director of Defence Operations, while AVM EOE Ebiowe was posted to the Office of the National Security Adviser as Deputy Coordinator, National Intelligence.

Also, AVM DDG Pwajok was appointed Director of Technical Services at the Defence Intelligence Agency, while AVM I Sani became Deputy Chief of Defence Intelligence.

Other senior officers were posted to various directorates at the Defence Headquarters, including operations, military strategy, cyber operations, civil-military relations, search and rescue, special duties and joint warfare doctrine.

The appointments also affected the Defence Space Administration, where AVM AA Suleh was named Deputy Chief, while AVM OA Oyename and AVM SS Lazarus were appointed Directors of Earth Observation and Launch Vehicles and Space Operations, respectively.

Furthermore, AVM GI Jibia was appointed Deputy Force Commander of Operation Hadin Kai, while AVM JI Ukeh became Commander of the Nigerian Air Defence Corps.

The statement said the exercise was part of efforts to strengthen leadership renewal, institutional accountability and operational effectiveness across the service.

According to the CAS, the professional competence and wealth of experience of the newly appointed officers would advance his command philosophy and strengthen the Air Force’s capacity to deliver decisive airpower effects in support of joint operations and national security objectives.

“All affected officers are expected to assume their new appointments and complete the necessary handover and takeover formalities on or before November 13, 2026,” the statement concluded.

News

SERAP Demands Details Of FG’s N50,000 Relief Payments

Published

1 day ago

November 9, 2026

The Tide

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged the Federal Government to disclose details of the funding, implementation and administration of its N50,000 National Emergency Relief and Stabilisation Intervention.

The organisation asked the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Dr Bernard Doro, to provide information on beneficiary selection, payments, contracts with digital financial service providers and safeguards against political interference.

SERAP made the demand in a Freedom of Information request dated November 7, 2026, and signed by its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare.

The request followed the ministry’s October 30 announcement of the NERSI programme, which is intended to provide N50,000 in financial assistance to vulnerable Nigerians.

SERAP said important questions remained unanswered about the programme’s total funding, geographical coverage, duration and the methodology for selecting beneficiaries from the National Social Register and verified national identity records.

It urged the minister to disclose budgetary allocations, funds released and expended, eligibility criteria, beneficiary verification processes and the geographical distribution of recipients.

The organisation also asked the ministry to clarify whether the N50,000 assistance was a one-off payment or a monthly intervention, noting that the ministry’s public statement described it as a monthly payment, while a subsequent frequently asked questions document did not clearly specify the frequency or duration.

In the request, SERAP said, “Nigerians have a right to know how public funds allocated to NERSI are being spent, who is receiving the assistance, how beneficiaries are selected and whether the programme is reaching those most in need.”

The organisation raised concerns about possible political interference in the programme, particularly ahead of the 2027 general elections.

“Publicly funded social assistance must be allocated strictly on the basis of genuine need and objective eligibility criteria. It must not be used to reward political supporters, secure partisan loyalty, finance political mobilisation or influence the electoral choices of vulnerable Nigerians, particularly ahead of the 2027 general elections,” it said.

SERAP further insisted that beneficiaries should not be required to attend political rallies, support candidates or display political materials as a condition for receiving the assistance.

“Beneficiaries must not be required or encouraged to attend political rallies, support political parties or candidates, display political materials or demonstrate political loyalty as a condition for receiving assistance. NERSI is a government programme funded with public resources, not a personal gift or political benefit from any office-holder or political party,” the organisation stated.

It also urged the minister to publicly invite the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to monitor the programme’s implementation and expenditure, investigate allegations of corruption and help ensure that funds reach intended beneficiaries.

SERAP expressed concern over reports that some Nigerians who received notifications of the N50,000 assistance had been unable to access or withdraw the funds, while others reportedly received messages indicating that they were ineligible.

“These reports raise questions about the accuracy of beneficiary verification, the reliability of payment arrangements and the effectiveness of mechanisms for resolving failed or disputed payments,” it said.

The organisation urged the ministry to investigate the complaints, publish its findings and ensure that all eligible beneficiaries received the assistance.

It also asked the government to disclose agreements with the digital financial service providers engaged to administer the payments, including ALAT, MoMo PSB, NairaGram, OPay and Moniepoint.

SERAP requested details of the providers’ roles, fees and performance, as well as information on how beneficiaries’ personal data would be protected.

“The use of the National Social Register and national identity records to identify beneficiaries must be governed by clear rules and appropriate data-protection safeguards. The Ministry should disclose how these records are being used and ensure that beneficiaries’ personal information is protected, while making anonymised and aggregated information available for public scrutiny,” it said.

The group further asked the ministry to publish anonymised information showing the number of beneficiaries and the amounts paid or scheduled for payment in each state and local government area.

It also sought records of any involvement of political actors in beneficiary selection, payments, access to beneficiary databases and the use of public resources to promote the programme.

To strengthen accountability, SERAP cited concerns raised by the Auditor-General of the Federation in the 2024 Annual Report regarding more than N78.8bn in public funds allegedly diverted or unaccounted for in the administration of social intervention and cash transfer programmes.

It also referred to concerns over N33.751bn in cash transfers made in 2023 for which relevant REMITA records and other supporting documents were reportedly not provided for audit.

“These findings underscore the importance of adequate financial controls, proper record-keeping, independent verification and effective oversight from the outset of the new intervention,” SERAP said.

The organisation said the information requested would enable Nigerians to assess whether the programme was reaching eligible beneficiaries and whether public funds were being properly accounted for.

It added, “Disclosure would also strengthen public confidence in social protection programmes and help ensure that resources intended for vulnerable Nigerians are used for their intended purposes.”

SERAP gave the minister seven days from receipt or publication of the letter to provide the requested information and take the proposed measures.

It warned that it would consider legal action to compel the ministry and other relevant authorities to fulfil their constitutional and statutory obligations if they failed to respond within the stipulated period.

News

Tinubu Didn’t Borrow ?120trn In Three Years, Presidency Replies Opposition

Published

1 day ago

November 9, 2026

The Tide

The Presidency has dismissed as misleading claims that President Bola Tinubu borrowed ?120 trillion in just three years while also removing the fuel subsidy.

In a statement posted on X yesterday, Special Assistant to the President on Social Media, Dada Olusegun, described the figures as the product of “Opposition’s propaganda machines.”

He said the claim that 16 past Nigerian leaders borrowed a combined ?46 trillion over 63 years, while Tinubu borrowed ?120 trillion in three years, does not reflect the full picture.

“Opposition’s propaganda machines claim that in 63 years, 16 past Nigerian leaders borrowed ?46 trillion combined, while President Tinubu borrowed ?120 trillion in just 3 years and still removed the fuel subsidy.

“But in reality, the ?46 trillion figure from late 2022 hid ?22.7 trillion in Central Bank ‘Ways and Means’ overdrafts that weren’t officially put on the books until May 2023,” Olusegun stated.

He added that earlier calculations converted foreign debt using an artificial exchange rate of ?448 to $1, when the street value was over ?700.

“When the exchange rate was unified in June 2023, the exact same dollar debt instantly looked ?13.4 trillion larger on paper overnight without a single new dollar being borrowed.”

In actual dollar terms, he said, Nigeria’s public debt rose from $113.4 billion in June 2023 to $120.9 billion by June 2026 — an increase of only $7.5 billion.

On the fuel subsidy, Olusegun noted that its removal had boosted monthly Federation Account Allocation Committee funds shared to states and local governments from ?656 billion in April 2023 to ?2.4 trillion by September 2026.

The claims being rebutted originated from a viral social media graphic that compared cumulative borrowing under previous administrations with the Tinubu government’s record and highlighted the subsidy removal.

Fact-checkers have described the graphic as misleading because the ?46 trillion figure represented outstanding debt at the end of 2022 rather than total borrowing by 16 leaders over 63 years, and because it did not adequately account for exchange-rate effects or the formal recognition of previously off-book obligations.

Nigeria’s total public debt stood at approximately ?87.38 trillion (about $113.4 billion) in June 2023, shortly after Tinubu took office.

By June 2026 it had risen to about ?166.79 trillion ($120.93 billion), according to Debt Management Office figures.

A large part of the naira increase stemmed from the 2023 naira float and the securitisation of Ways and Means advances inherited from the previous administration.

The latest rebuttal comes after Tinubu asked the Senate to approve the implementation of a $7.7bn external borrowing plan to part-finance the 2026 budget deficit.

The request, which translates to about N10.79tn at the budget exchange rate of N1,400 to the dollar, was conveyed in a letter read by the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, during Wednesday’s plenary.

The request replaced an earlier approval for $20.52bn and €1.045bn borrowings that the President had asked the Senate and the House of Representatives for a week earlier.

However, opposition parties, including the Nigeria Democratic Congress, criticized the request, citing concerns about the country’s rising debt burden and its implications for future generations.