Politics
Senate Meets With Service Chiefs Over Insecurity
The leadership of the Senate has met behind closed doors with service chiefs over the lingering security situation in the country.
The Tide source reports that present at the meeting were the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor; Chief of Army Staff, Lt.- Gen. Faruk Yahaya; Chief of Naval Staff; Vice Adm. Awwal Gambo, and Chief Air Staff; Air Marshal Oladayo Amao.
Others were the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Usman Baba; the Director-General of Department of State Services (DSS), Yusuf Bichi; the Commandant General of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, Dr Ahmed Audi and the Director General National Intelligence Agency (NIA); Ahmed Abubakar.
Our source also reports that the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, was said to be attending the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting when the closed-door session was held at the Senate.
Speaking at the opening of the meeting, Senate President Ahmad Lawan, said the security challenges had lingered and the Senate had hoped that the situation would have been better.
He said: “This session is to look into where we are today and this current position where we are is most frightening. This is like there is nowhere to go.
“We have to review what more we have to do and what differently we have to do.
“Insecurity is everywhere and especially if it is coming to the point of dislocating the security situation where the government is quartered.
“We will really review and see what more we have to do and how differently we have to do.
“Our population is largely peasant. Most of our people are in the rural areas and they live their lives by going to farms. We all know this. In many parts of the country today, that is a herculean task.
“My belief is that we can do better to secure the rural areas, the so-called ungoverned space at least for our population who go to farms to earn their living.
“Where our agricultural productivity is drastically going down, that will complicate the security situation because the most ordinary Nigerian cares more about what he or she or what the family will eat. And of course, all other things are secondary.
“We have problems with our economy to some extent because of insecurity. No foreign direct investment or not as much as we would ordinarily attract to our country.
Our prayer is to start seeing serious, remarkable and dramatic changes from today.
“We hope that our discussions will give us the opportunity to consider other things or other areas or ideas that we didn’t have before,” Lawan said.
In his remarks, the Chief of Defence Staff said that issues of national security must be seen from a collective perspective.
While noting that quite a lot had happened and quite a lot had been done, Irabor assured Nigerians that the military would do more to improve the security setting across the country.
“The commitment is there. No one is leaving any stone unturned in redressing all the imbalances within the security environment,” he said.
Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, has directed his legal team to resume all court proceedings against Mrs. Tracy Ohiri over her repeated allegations of indebtedness and other claims against him.
Mrs Ohiri had publicly accused Senator Umahi of owing her N280 million for campaign materials from his tenure as party chairman in Ebonyi State.
The allegations went viral on social media, where she also accused the Minister of sexual harassment.
Security agencies arrested Mrs Ohiri, and she was subsequently prosecuted. Her lawyer, Barrister Marshall Abubakar, intervened, leading to the deletion of all posts and a public apology, which also gained widespread attention online.
However, days after the apology, Mrs Ohiri resumed her claims against Senator Umahi.
In a statement issued on Saturday by his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Francis Nwaze, Senator Umahi said he had informed Barrister Abubakar during the intervention that if Mrs Ohiri could provide verifiable evidence, logs, and communications from the period in question, some of his associates were willing to contribute a sum of One Billion Naira (N1billion) to her, evidence which, he said, she had yet to provide.
“The Honourable Minister of Works, Senator Engr. David Umahi, has been monitoring the ongoing public discourse surrounding the claims and counterclaims by Mrs. Tracy Ohiri.
“Ordinarily, this would have been ignored, but in the interest of truth and public clarity, it is necessary to address the issues directly”, the statement read.
The statement clarified that Barrister Abubakar acted in good faith and without any financial interest, motivated solely by a desire to assist Mrs Ohiri.
At no point did the lawyer discuss or negotiate any payment with the minister, although some well-meaning associates independently offered support”, the statement added.
Senator Umahi reiterated the conditions for resolving the matter: either the claims must be tested in court, or Mrs Ohiri must provide credible evidence, including all relevant communications, to substantiate her allegations.
The minister emphasised that Barr Abubakar conducted himself with integrity throughout the process.
“Following the failure to meet these conditions, particularly the inability to provide verifiable evidence, the Minister has directed his legal team to proceed with all court processes to ensure the truth is fully established,” the statement said.
Senator Umahi said despite years of public provocations and attacks, he chose to remain silent, focusing on national and state services.
He thanked Nigerians who had taken time to assess the facts and noted that “not everyone who presents themselves as a victim truly is one, and in some cases, narratives are deliberately inverted.”
The Minister affirmed that he will not be distracted by Mrs Ohiri’s allegations and remained committed to his mandate at the Ministry of Works.
“The focus remains on results, service, and ensuring that Nigerians continue to benefit from projects that improve connectivity, economic growth, and national development. This administration will continue to pursue its transformation agenda with dedication, transparency, and an unwavering sense of responsibility,” he concluded.
A Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt has adjourned proceedings in a suit filed by three aggrieved members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to April 14, 2026, for the hearing of all pending motions.
Justice Stephen Jumbo made the pronouncement during a recent sitting in Port Harcourt.
The suit, which borders on the legitimacy of the party’s leadership structure in the state, was instituted against the factional State Chairman of the PDP, Chief Aaron Chukwuemeka, alongside the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) and other respondents.
Also joined in the matter are the PDP as a corporate entity, the Rivers State Government, as well as Obio/Akpor, Port Harcourt City and Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Areas, including their respective Vice Chairmen and Councillors.
The claimants, Enyi Uchechukwu, Wisdom Kalio and Uche Amadi, approached the court via an originating summons seeking judicial interpretation on the validity of actions taken by the Chief Chukwuemeka-led state executive committee of the party.
Central to the dispute is whether the said executive committee, whose emergence the claimants contend has been nullified by a subsisting court judgment, retains the legal authority to act on behalf of the party in critical electoral matters.
The plaintiffs specifically urged the court to determine whether the factional leadership could validly submit a list of candidates to RSIEC for the purpose of participating in local government elections.
They further questioned the legitimacy of the PDP’s participation in the August 30, 2025 local government elections, contending that any list purportedly submitted by the factional leadership was invalid and of no legal consequence.
In addition to the declaratory reliefs sought, the claimants also prayed the court to grant consequential orders addressing the outcome and conduct of the said elections across the affected local government areas.
At the resumed hearing, counsel representing the PDP and the affected local government councils informed the court that they had only recently been served with the originating processes and accompanying documents.
The defence team, comprising several Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs), disclosed that service of the court processes was effected on March 13, 2026, leaving them with limited time to adequately prepare their responses.
Consequently, the defence counsel applied for an adjournment to enable them study the processes and address the legal issues raised, particularly as they relate to jurisdictional questions and points of law.
Counsel to the claimants, Glory Chizim-Chinda, did not oppose the application, following which the presiding judge granted the request and adjourned the matter to April 14, 2026, for the hearing of all pending motions, with a possible ruling expected ahead of the substantive suit.
By: King Onunwor
A former state lawmaker in the old the Rivers State, Professor Alex Eseimokumo, has described Nigerian opposition political parties as mere preposition political parties.
He also advised the country’s electorate against selling their votes during next year’s general elections.
The former legislator, who is also the president of the Institute for Peace, Conflict Resolution and Entrepreneurial Research, said this in an exclusive interview with The Tide on the sidelines of an event organized by the institute in Port Harcourt.
He said opposition political parties in Nigeria have been reduced to preposition political parties as most of them are not only dinning with the government but advising government on what to do to win election.
“The problem in Nigeria is we are not practicing politics the way it is supposed to be.The opposition are more in preposition.
“You see, opposition is supposed to find out things that are wrong in government but in our present day politics, you see opposition even dinning with the other group. So, there is basically nothing like opposition in Nigeria “, he said.
He lamented a situation where some individuals within the opposition are allegedly working hard to prevent their parties from fielding presidential candidates in the forthcoming election, adding that such individuals were only there to protect their personal interest.
Prof. Eseimokumo said as a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), he could not wish his party to fail in the election, even though nothing is impossible in Nigeria.
He noted that though the government in power has been trying it’s best, there was more to be done.
In his words, “I’m an APC member, so I don’t have the right to criticize my party but a word of advice: we still need to do more, more people oriented leadership where everybody will feel carried along.
“For now, I’m campaigning for APC to be re elected and if I stand here to say APC is not doing well, I’m not being fair to myself. But I think, with God all things are possible, there can be changes”.
On his assessment of the performances of governors of the Niger Delta states, Prof Eseimokumo said the governors were doing well within the limit of their resources.
” I don’t know what is given to them as allocation, but if what we are seeing in terms of window dressing is not window shopping, then they are doing well”, he said.
Meanwhile, Prof. Eseimokumo has advised Nigerian electorates against selling their votes during the forthcoming elections.
He said credible election could only be achieved when the electorates refuse financial inducement during the elections.
According to him, though Nigerian voters had been difficult to persuade, the time had come for them to stop selling their votes.
Prof. Eseimokumo said the forthcoming elections will serve as a litmus test for the Nigerian electorate to demonstrate their desire for changes in the country, stressing that free and fair elections will continue to be a mirage in the country until the was a change in the attitude of the electorate.
“If you want your vote to count, don’t take money from anybody; if you want your votes to count, don’t collect money for your vote. The moment you collect money for your vote, you have sold your conscience”, he warned.
He said his institute will continue to work for peace, not just in the Niger Delta region but across Nigeria.
By: John Bibor
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