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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

7 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

RSG Moves To Diversify Rivers Economy …As Farmers, Others Laud Ibas Over Implementation Of RAAMP

Published

3 days ago

June 20, 2025

The Tide

The Rivers State Government has restated its readiness to diversify the economy of the state from oil to Agriculture.

This is as farmers and other stakeholders have commended the Sole Administrator of Rivers State, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (Retd) for approving the implementation of Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing project (RAAMP) in the state.

Permanent Secretary, Rivers State Ministry of Agriculture, Mr Maurice Ogolo, said this during a meeting on implementation of RAAMP in Ikwerre, Eleme and Ogba Egbema Ndoni Local Government Areas.

Ogolo said the programme would create an agricultural industrial hub in the 23 local government areas, and urged the people to embrace the project.

Meanwhile, rural farmers and other stakeholders in the State have lauded Ibas for approving the implementation of RAAMP in the State.

RAAMP is a world bank program with support from the International Development Association ( IDA), the French Development Agency and the Federal Government of Nigeria.

According to a statement made available to newsmen, the programme aims to strengthen the institutional and financial base for sustainable management of state and rural networks, fostering historic development to enhance food security, creating access in rural communities to boost agricultural processes through creation of durable access roads and agro logistics centres/hub.

Tide source confirms that the program has been in operation since 2020 with 19 states benefitting.

The benefitting states are Kano, Katsina, Sokoto, Kebbi and Bauchi.

Other beneficiaries are Plateau, Kwarra, Ondo, Niger, Gombe, Anambra, Cross River, Taraba and Benue states.

The source said that 12 new states including Rivers State recently completed their requirements for inclusion into the RAAMP 3.

Speaking at the stakeholders’ meeting at Isiokpo, Nchia and Omoku, headquarters of Ikwerre, Eleme and Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni local government areas respectively, a cross section of farmers described the programme as timely as it would boost food production as well as create markets for agricultural produce.

At Eleme, HRH Emere J D Nkpe warned against politicising the project.

The people also complained against incessant destruction of crops by herdsmen and called for it to be checked.

Also speaking at Omoku headquarters of Ogba Egbema Ndoni Local Government Area,Eze Allison Dan and Barrister Lola Nwaribe commendation the government for the program but warned against it going the way of other programmes.

For Barrister Nwaribe Women in the area needs assistance to break free from subsistence agriculture

Speaking at the three ocal government areas Ogolo said Rear Admiral Ibok Ete Ibas rtd needs to be commended for approving the implementation of the program in the state.

Ogolo said the program is aims at diversifying Rivers economy from oil to Agriculture.

He said the program will also enable farmers to move from subsistence farming to commercial agriculture, adding that access roads will not only be created to farms but markets will be built for farmers to sell their produce.

He listed other benefits to include creation of employment for the youths and helping small traders to boost sales.

Also speaking the state RAAMP Coordinator,Mr Joshua Kpakol said the “the essence of this project is to provide rural access roads and improve agricultural marketing systems across the 23 Local Government Areas of the state”

Kpakol said the project is divided into three components which are improvement of Rural Access and Trading Infrastructure, Sector Reform,Asset management and Agro logistics performance Enhancement and Institutional Development, Project Management and Risk Mitigation.

He urged farmers and traders to embrace the project as it would go along way in changing their fortunes.

At Ikwerre and Eleme local government areas respectively, the sole administrators of the two councils Hon Isaiah Christian and Dr Gloria Obo Dibiah said the councils will work towards the success of the program.

They commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Sole Administrator of Rivers state for ensuring that their respective councils benefits from the programme.

John Bibor

News

Defamation: Court Grants Natasha N50m Bail

Published

3 days ago

June 20, 2025

The Tide

The FCT High Court in Abuja, yesterday, granted the suspended Senator representing Kogi Central Senatorial District, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, bail in the sum of N50 million and one surety who must be a person of reasonable integrity resident in F.C.T Abuja and owns a landed property within the Abuja Municipal Area Council.

The trial judge, Justice Chizoba Orji, made the declaration in a ruling after taking arguments for and against the bail application from the parties in the suit.

The Attorney General of the Federation, in a three-count criminal charge marked CR/297/25, accused Akpoti-Uduaghan, the sole defendant, of making defamatory statements against the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, during a live television broadcast.

The charge, which lists Akpabio and the former Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, as nominal complainants, alleged that Akpoti-Uduaghan claimed Bello had conspired with Akpabio to orchestrate her assassination outside Abuja, disguising it as a mob or local attack.

According to the Federal Government, these allegations were made during a live broadcast on Channels Television’s Politics Today on April 3, 2025.

The Federal Government claimed that Akpoti-Uduaghan knowingly or recklessly made these imputations, fully aware that they could harm the reputation of the individuals involved.

The charge alleged that she said, “Let’s ask the Senate President, why in the first instance did he withdraw my security, if not to make me vulnerable to attacks? He then emphasised that I should be killed, but I should be killed in Kogi. What is important to me is to stay alive, because dead men tell no tales. Who is going to get justice for me?”

The charge also cites her statements during the programme as saying, “That you, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, on or about the 3rd day of April 2025, during the same Politics Today programme on Channels Television in Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, made the following imputation concerning Yahaya Adoza Bello, former Governor of Kogi State.

“It was part of the meeting, the discussions that Akpabio had with Yahaya Bello that night, to eliminate me. When he met with him, he then emphasised that I should be killed, but I should be killed in Kogi. You knew or had reason to believe that such imputations would harm the reputation of Yahaya Adoza Bello, former Governor of Kogi State.”

The senator is also accused of making defamatory statements about Akpabio during a telephone conversation with Sandra C. Duru in Abuja on March 27, 2025.

The alleged statement is as follows, “That girl that was killed, what’s her name, umm…. Imoren Iniubong, her organs were actually used for the wife, because the wife was really ill… when they killed the girl, and her organs were used for the wife.”

The Federal Government contends that Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan knew or ought to have known that this claim would harm the reputation of Senator Godswill Akpabio.

Meanwhile, the Senate President, Bello, and four others have been listed as witnesses in the trial.

The arraignment of Akpoti-Uduaghan was initially scheduled for June 3, 2025. However, the strike action of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria stalled the arraignment.

Meanwhile, a similar matter is also lodged before Justice Muhammed Umar, of the Federal High Court in Abuja.

While Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan was slated for arraignment before Justice Umar, she, however, did not appear for the arraignment since the prosecution had not been able to serve her as stated in court.

The prosecution, however, applied for a bench warrant to be issued on the suspended senator, which the court refused.

At the commencement of the hearing, the counsel to the Attorney General of the Federation, David Kaswe, told the Court that the matter is for arraignment of the defendant (Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan).

Natasha was docked, and the three-count read to her. She pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

Akpoti-Uduaghan’s legal team, led by Professor Roland Otaru (SAN), afterwards informed the Court that a bail application filed on May 27 has been submitted to the court.

Kaswe, however, informed the court that the Federal Government is opposing the bail application and called the attention of the judge to a counter-affidavit filed before the court to this effect.

He proceeded to ask the court to remand the Kogi Senator in prison as she poses a flight risk.

He said, “In view of the charge, we will be asking for a remand in a correctional facility.

The defence counsel, however, interjected, stating, “We already filed an application for bail. We are in a court of law for Justice. We have a motion on Notice dated May 27, 2025. You represent the Ministry of Justice, not the Ministry of Injustice.

“If your lordship graciously will, we urge your lordship to grant the bail application. This is a case where your lordship has the discretion to grant bail, and nobody can query it, not even the president can query it. Even on self-recognition because it is not a case of murder.”

Referencing the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, Otaru added that anybody who is charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed innocent until proven guilty. “And she pleaded not guilty. As she is standing there, she is innocent until proven otherwise,” he added.

Justice Chizoba Orji, after listening to both arguments, however, granted Natasha bail in the sum of N50 million, with one surety who must be a person of reasonable integrity resident in F.C.T Abuja and owns a landed property within the Abuja Municipal Area Council.

News

Benin Monarch Receives 119 Stolen Artefacts From Netherlands

Published

3 days ago

June 20, 2025

The Tide

Oba of Benin, Ewuare II, has received 119 stolen artefacts from the Netherlands.

The Oba who disclosed this on Wednesday in Benin, the Edo State capital, said plans by some international cartel to re-loot the artefacts were thwarted after he prayed to God and the ancestors.

He said, “I thank President Bola Tinubu for supporting and committing to the efforts former President Buhari put in place to ensure the artifacts are not re-looted because there were groups in this country believed to be an international cartel that had all sorts of conspiracy to re-loot our artifacts.

“They stole and burnt our Kingdom. They killed my people and tried to kill their spirit and their morale. Today, the boldness, courage, and bravery of the Benin people are still there. Events of 1897 reduced that to a significant level that Sometimes when I see my people, they are afraid of the unknown.

“The return of these objects has reawakened the courage we had in our people. We do not want modern-day politics and partisan politics to diminish the courage of our people.

“The Director General of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments has been doing wonderful work. His predecessor was part of the conspiracy to re-loot our artefacts. We had a running battle in this hall.

“I addressed my Chiefs in Benin language, and I said these artefacts belong to my ancestors, and I will not sit on the ancient throne and watch the artefacts re-looted. They would rather remain where they are than be re-looted. I thank the government of the Netherlands for working with us. This is part of the efforts to reawaken the morale and spirit of my people.

“After 1897, the kingdom was reduced. There was a government in this state that wanted to reduce the kingdom more and scatter it. I am angry when I speak about it. Why would anybody want to scatter the kingdom.

“The youths were courageous like the youths of those days. They were not afraid of anybody. I vowed that it would not happen. Not in my reign. Not while I am sitting on this throne. God heard my prayers. My ancestors heard my prayers. This throne is not partisan, but I should support what is good for my people.

“I urge the youths to be tough and strong in the face of adversity. This is not for anybody else. It is for my ancestors.”

The Benin Monarch further prayed for the return of more artefacts.

The NCMM DG, Olugbile Holloway, said the commission and the Benin Royal Palace were working hard to ensure more artefacts were returned.

Edo State Governor, Monday Okpebholo, who was represented by the Secretary to State Government, Barr. Musa Ikhilor said his administration would continue to build necessary infrastructure to preserve the returned artefacts as well as collaborate with the Federal Government to improve the storage system for the artefacts.

The General Director of the Wereld Museum, Marieke Van Bommel, said, “The artefacts are looted, and we have a policy in the Netherlands to bring them back. We are bringing back 119 artefacts. We don’t have more. These are the collections in the Netherlands. There are more collections in Europe, but that is not up to us. They have been with us for over 100 years.”