Wole Soyinka Denies Exchanging Contacts With The Boy That Denied Him Flight's Window Seat

There has been an overwhelming debate as to what transpired between Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, and a ‘young man’ that asked for his seat before a flight.

Wole Soyinka Professor Wole Soyinka In case you missed it…. Media Mogul, Mo Abudu, shared a mail from Professor Wole Soyinka on her Instagram page, where the Nobel Laureate gave a short explanation on the incident he described as “very minor”. Mo Abudu, explained that the content of the mail was shared after she got the approval of Wole Soyinka.

It reads:

Hallo Mo, Someone sent me Patrick Tonye’s comment on the plane incident, and I saw your brief comment. It was a very minor thing and I’d forgotten all about it. However, after reading the boy’s response, I became curious. First, I never exchanged a word with him throughout beyond inviting him to take his allotted seat. Never spoke a word to him after that.

Certainly never exchanged contact. So of course, I wonder if it’s the very individual who’s posted this or a total fake.

The phenomenon of stolen identities takes very strange dimensions and has become a source of worry. I wonder if this is one such. Anyway of your finding out. I don’t operate in social media as you probably recall.

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Nigeria Is Heading To Bankruptcy..Emir Of Kano

The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, yesterday made a case for a total but gradual removal of subsidy on oil products and electricity tariff. The emir, who was speaking at the 3rd National Treasury Workshop in Kano, said government must take a bold, but difficult decision of addressing the problem of these two sectors for the country’s economy to flourish.

“100 per cent of what we earned in the petroleum sector went out to import petrol. You are treasurers, is this sustainable? The country will be bankrupted and we are heading to bankruptcy,” the traditional ruler said. The emir asked what was so crucial about petroleum products that the nation had to sacrifice education, healthcare and infrastructure just to have “cheap petrol” and risk the financial stability of the country.

“It is a difficult decision but if the president wants to deal with poverty, he has to deal with this. And you have to tell Nigerians that they have to be ready, if the international price of oil goes up, people must be ready to pay more and if it goes down people will benefit. We have to be responsive to what happens everywhere,” he added.

“Now we have this situation where people need to be told the truth because people don’t understand that N1.5 trillion into fuel subsidy is N1.5tr out of education, healthcare and infrastructure and that is why we have so many children out of school and that is why we have problem of malnutrition.

And where are you going to get the money to solve these problems if all the money is going into petroleum sector?” the emir queried. The emir said the consumption of power and petroleum products are private individual decisions and government could not fight poverty by subsidizing these products.

“As treasurers, you are not just accounting money and keeping it, you are managing it and your duty is to tell the president, Sir look at these numbers, we cannot afford this, and if we continue spending billions on fuel subsidy, spending hundreds of billions on power subsidy this country will go bankrupt.

“And I am hoping that, again what I have said is simple honest contribution to you, so that you can begin to push through, even though it is difficult.” The emir also said, “Nigeria is the only country whose balance sheet does not benefit from an increase in the price of oil, and this does not start with this government, it has been on for 20, 30 years.

Today you have tension between America and Iran the price is going up, every oil producing country is going to be happy because it is going to earn more. But in Nigeria, we are going to earn more and we turn round and spend what we earned on importing petroleum products.”

Earlier in his opening remarks, the Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, said the objective of the workshop was to promote accountability and transparency in all facets of the nation’s finance and management architecture. “It is expected that participants should appreciate that accountability and transparency remain major watchwords for prudent financial management practices and are therefore, major prerequisites for economic growth and development,” he said.

In his goodwill message, the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, said the best strategy for fighting corruption was to mobilize everybody to take part, as no one had the monopoly of knowledge. He charged the participants of the workshop to take lead in the fight against corruption being critical stakeholders in the financial sector.

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Insecurity:Afenifere Blasts Osinbajo Over New York Comments

Apex Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere has advised Vice President Yomi Osinbajo to kneel before God and ask for forgiveness, insisting that Yorubaland is still under siege.

The group’s call on the Vice President comes on the heels of a security summit convened by South West governors in Ibadan, Oyo State yesterday.

Describing Osinbajo’s comment in New York on Sunday as unfortunate, it said the Vice President’s cheap politicking with the lives of Nigerians “shames the Yoruba people.”

The Afenifere stated this in a communique issued after its General Assembly at the Akure residence of Chief Reuben Fasoranti yesterday, asserting that the Federal Government and security agencies were treating security issues in the country with kid gloves.

“Meeting reviewed the security situation in Yorubaland and was overwhelmed by reports of traumatisation of our people by Fulani herdsmen, kidnappers and militia in the six states of the South West zone, as well as Kwara and Kogi states.

“All the reports provided clear indications of state failure, as security forces have largely become incapable of safeguarding the lives of our people against criminals as none of them has been arrested or tried at the moment,” it said.

Speaking with journalists, its National Publicity Secretary, Yinka Odumakin, lamented that the Federal Government has been giving excuses for Boko Haram and Miyetti Allah groups for their crimes against Nigerians.

“It is against this backdrop that the meeting was scandalised by Osinbajo’s opportunistic and provocative utterances in New York in which he dismissed the danger we face in Yorubaland and other zones of the country, as being politically motivated.

“As if he is unaware that we are in a digital world, which explains why America and Britain have issued travel directives to their citizens not travel to more than 2/3 of Nigeria,” he stated.

Odumakin quoted Osinbajo as saying: “With respect to kidnapping… in parts of the country, again, this is not entirely new. In fact, some of the kidnappings… are simply not true anywhere, some are fueled by politics.”

Besides the daily tales of horror across Yorubaland in the hands of the Fulani marauders, Afenifere also queried Osinbajo on the criminal activities that happened in President Muhammadu Buhari’s hometown, Daura.

“Is the report of the kidnap of a District Head from President Buhari’s town from May 1 till date politically motivated? And was the President speaking of another country when he handed kidnappers on rampage to God?

“Was former Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole, playing politics when his son was kidnapped? Was it politics when Ondo State Governor recently announced that kidnappers attacked his convoy? it queried.

The Yoruba elders noted that if Osinbajo could not answer these questions, he should kneel before his God and ask for forgiveness for violating “Thou shall not lie” commandment.

Afenifere also advised Osinbajo not to allow his ambition and political interest to push him to make such infuriating comments as the number two citizen of the country again.

Among other demands, Afenifere insisted that the Federal Government should ensure immediate enforcement of law and order to flush out criminal elements from the country.

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Tribunal Didn’t Reject My Request To Inspect INEC’s Server...Atiku Abubakar

Just when it seemed it had sunk finally, the INEC’s server controversy trailing the 2019 presidential election bobbed up again yesterday with the major contender, Atiku Abubakar, insisting the Presidential Election Tribunal did not reject his request to inspect the electronic data facility.

“What the honourable tribunal said is that it is still at preliminary stages and the main case has not begun, and that the matter of granting access to inspect the INEC server is not relevant to the preliminary stages. It is a matter to be adjudicated upon when the case proper is being heard,” declared a statement by Atiku’s media aide, Paul Ibe.

Atiku therefore warned that the “celebration by the administration of General Buhari that their electoral heist has been covered is premature. Their giddiness has even blinded them to the eyewitness testimony given to multiple media in interviews by staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission that there is indeed a server and that they actually submitted results and accreditation through it.”

The clarification came in a reaction to an earlier statement “from Aso Rock Villa, wherein spokesperson for General Muhammadu Buhari praised the ruling of the Presidential Election Tribunal, which ‘rejected’ the request by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, and the Peoples Democratic Party, to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission to grant access to their server used for the 2019 presidential election.

“After praising the so-called ‘landmark ruling’, the statement went on to claim that ‘the existence of a purported server is being contested and if a purported inspection had been allowed at this stage, it would have amounted to the determination that it indeed existed even when its existence is being contested’.”

Atiku however said: “In their rush to claim a Pyrrhic victory, the General Buhari administration missed out the fact that the 2019 budget has multiple line items for procurement, maintenance and service of the server they claim does not exist.”

Noting that “the last has not been heard” on the matter, the presidential candidate said he was “eagerly” anticipating the “actual ruling of the tribunal when the case proper begins.”

He therefore concluded by reminding “those who are gloating in their ignorance” that he laughs best who laughs last.

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Benin Republic Houseboy Bags Life Imprisonment For Killing Lagos Millionaire

An Igbosere High Court in Lagos on Tuesday sentenced a Béninoise cook, Sunday Anani, to life imprisonment for the murder of his employer, the Chief Executive Officer of Credit Switch Ltd., Opeyemi Bademosi.

Justice Mobolanle Okikiolu-Ighile convicted Anani following his plea of guilty to a one-count charge of voluntary manslaughter.

Anani, 22, was initially charged by the Lagos State Government on two counts of murder and armed robbery.

He pleaded not guilty but when trial began, Anani entered a plea bargain agreement for a lesser charge.

He then pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter with the help of his counsel, Mrs Aderenra Adeyemi, the Director of the Office Defender

He, therefore,  confessed that he stabbed Chief Bademosi to death in his Ikoyi, Lagos, home, while trying to rob him.

He also confirmed that he was the person caught on closed-circuit television camera fleeing the scene of the crime.

The defendant’s initial plea of not guilty would have fetched him a death sentence by hanging, if found guilty.

Before sentencing the defendant, the court asked his counsel, if he had an allocutus – plea for leniency.

Adeyemi said: “The defendant is a young man and he is remorseful about what he has done. He is a first-time offender, there is no evidence that he committed any crime before this.

“Our humble application is to urge your lordship to grant a sentence of years certain.

“However, if my lordship is mindful of upholding what we have agreed in the plea bargain, we will accept the sentence therein.”

The Lagos State Director of Public Prosecutions, Ms Titilayo Shitta-Bey, opposed the prayer.

Shitta-Bey said: “We urge this court to grant the maximum sentence for the offence of voluntary manslaughter as charged.”

She said that there were some “special aggravating circumstances” surrounding the case, such as breach of trust.

“The defendant was employed into the home of his boss, entrusted with a high level of responsibilities as a cook.

“Barely three days after resumption of duty, the defendant cut short the life of a man that gave him a new lease of life, depriving him the privilege of enjoying life with his wife and children.

“Judicial notice must be taken of the fact that this act of violence by domestic employees against their employers is becoming rampant.

READ ALSO: I’m still a judge, Ofili-Ajumogobia tells court

“The sentence must reflect that this conduct is unacceptable to our society; we must send the message to others of like minds.”

After, the submissions, Okikiolu-Ighile passed judgement on Anani.

The judge said: “it is annoying that a young man like this will involve himself in this kind of crime. What did he hope to achieve in life involving himself in this kind of crime, I ask?

“It is very painful that a young man, who the family of Bademosi welcomed in their home as a cook, ended up causing so much havoc and endless pain.

“It is even more painful that the defendant had no motive of working but came into the house with a criminal intention to steal, kill and to destroy.

“The defendant admitted, ‘I killed him.’ This was an innocent and unsuspecting family”.

Upholding the plea bargain and sentence agreement, the judge held: “Sunday Adefonou Anani is hereby sentenced to life imprisonment.

“The term of imprisonment shall commence from today, June 25, 2019.”

The prosecution had said that the defendant committed the murder on Oct. 31, 2018, at Park View Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos.

It said that the defendant stabbed the deceased, aged 67, to death with a knife, and stole his valuables, in contravention of Sections 223 and 297 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015.

The prosecution called two witnesses, including the deceased’s wife Ebunola Bademosi, who testified as to how she found her husband in a pool of blood.

While trial was going on, the defendant through a letter dated May, 20, written through his counsel, expressed his willingness to voluntarily plead guilty to a lesser offence, which was thereafter accepted

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Police Arrests Man For Selling His 3 Day Old Son For N150,000

A 27-year old man has been arrested by the police for allegedly selling his 3-day old baby boy after lying to his wife that the baby died after delivery in Ozubulu, Ekwusigo local government area of Anambra State. The baby was reportedly sold to Mrs Anulika Okafor, a native of Uruokwe village, Ozubulu.

The police spokesperson, Haruna Mohammed, who confirmed the incident, said the three suspects have been arrested while the baby has been recovered. He said, “At about 7:pm, Police detectives attached to Ozubulu division arrested one Chukwuma Enemuo ‘m’ 27 years of Okwutu Amawka village, Ozubulu in Ekwusigo LGA of Anambra State.

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Buhari Appoints Ahmad Rufai Ag Director Department of Petroleum Resources

President Muhammed Buhari has appointed Mr. Ahmad Rufai Shakur as the acting Director of Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR). The appointment followed the expiration of the four year tenure of Mr. Mordecai Ladan and in line with the provisions of Circular Ref. No.SGF.50/S.II/C.S/268, a statement by the agency said.

The former Director, sources in the agency said, formally handed over the affairs of the Department on Friday, to Mr. Shakur who until his appointment was the Deputy Director and Head, Corporate Services Division and the most senior officer in the agency.

A statement posted on agency’s website said Mr. Shakur comes on board with over 32 years’ experience in the oil and gas industry with very robust service records in the regulatory arm of the sector.

“A graduate of the Ahmadu Bello University with a Master of Business Administration degree, Mr. Shakur has held various positions across the value chain of the DPR from the zonal offices to headquarter and has attended numerous management and leadership courses locally and internationally in notable institutions worldwide like the Columbia Business School, New York USA and Wharton Business School, Pennsylvania, USA.” Shakur is expected to steer the Department to the next level, the statement added.

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