Metro

[JUST IN] Edo APC Primary: Protest Rocks Party Secretariat In Benin

Published

2 years ago

February 24, 2024

Barely 24 hours after Senator Monday Okpebholo was declared winner of the All Progressives Congress governorship primary in Edo State, one of the 11 aspirants that lost out, Dennis Idahosa, was at the national headquarters of the party to demand justice.

Idahosa, who arrived at the party secretariat at about 2.30pm accompanied by a horde of his supporters, described Thursday’s re-run election as a ‘selection’ and not an ‘electoral’ process as the ruling party wanted the world to believe.

The Edo federal lawmaker was one of the three winners that emerged from controversial first primary held on February 17, which was subsequently declared inconclusive.

Governor Hope Uzodimma, who was the then chairman of the primary election committee, had announced Idahosa as winner, while the returning officer, Stanley Ugboaja, declared Okpebholo as winner.

Elsewhere, Ojo Babatunde, who claimed to be representing the returning officers in all the local governments also declared Anamero Dekeri as the winner of the election.

The outcome of the shadow election had led to a public outcry forcing the National Working Committee of the APC to declare the poll inconclusive, a pronouncement that paved way for last Thursday’s re-run election that produced Okpebholo as the winner.

Addressing newsmen at the main gate of the secretariat on Saturday, Idahosa threatened to drag the APC to court if the party fails to return his mandate.

The lawmaker, who told reporters that he has submitted protest letter to the APC governorship Appeal Committee, also appealed to President Bola Tinubu to call the APC NWC to order.

He said: “I am not here to make trouble. I am a lawmaker but one thing that we want is justice. Today, I might be a young man but it might be the children of NWC members tomorrow. We have to do the right thing, if we continue to do what is wrong as a country, we are not going to move forward.

“So I am calling on Mr. President to call NWC to order. Elections were held on the 17th of February. What they did on the 22nd was just selection. I challenged one of the LGA returning officers to show me a picture of him at the local government headquarters where he collated the results, he was just blabbing. There was nothing because I know that they were in the same hotel in Benin and that’s where they wrote all the results.

“So my fellow party members, I am not here to make trouble. I am only here to seek justice. I have written yesterday to the appeal panel commitee and I know they will do justice. I just want to go through the process, having exhausted the party’s conflict resolution mechanism. I will go further to seek justice in the court of law as I will not allow this to stand.”

An Edo lawyer and chieftain of the party, Bernard Ekun, who accompanied Idahosa told journalists that the NWC was deliberately trying to avoid fielding a viable candidate for the election.

According to him, when something is inconclusive, it invariably means some areas have been identified for primaries to before it can be termed completed.

He said, “The governor who was in charge of the purportedly selection primaries said that it was going to be a fresh election. Between you and I, when you know the issue of INEC, there is supposed to be 21 days notice from INEC for that primary. Nothing of such was done and we are out of time. Are you people saying that the selection process you have done, which you called a fresh election, should be acceptable to us?

“Our demands is that the February 17 primary stands. That is known to law. What they have done is kangaroo selection. What these people have done is that they have sold their responsibility and the excellence in them as reasonable men. They have sold it for a Chinese cusuine. People were in their hotel sleeping. How were they able to get the results? There was no election. We stand on February 17 election because that is the only that is one duly observed within the ambit of the law.”

Metro

Man Stabs Friend To Death Over Woman In Ilorin

Published

2 days ago

October 23, 2025

Editor

The Kwara State Police Command has confirmed that a 21-year-old Gafar, on Tuesday evening, allegedly stabbed 25-year-old Usman Tunde to death during an argument over a choice of woman in Ilorin.

The state police spokesperson, SP Adetoun Ejire-Adeyemi, said the command received a distress call around 2:30 am on Wednesday and promptly dispatched officers to the scene.

She said the police team that went to the culprit couldn’t find him, as he and the entire extended family in the family compound had fled to an unknown destination.

The Guardian Newspaper reliably learnt that Gafar and Usman, from Ile Olowo in the same area, were close friends in the neighbourhood of Oja Gboro.

According to an eyewitness, the deceased and his alleged killer started the argument over a woman in the Oja Gboro at a sugarcane vendor stand.

A police source (names withheld) later informed that the light argument later degenerated to a violent confrontation with Gafar, allegedly stabbing Tunde in the chest with a knife.

“We heard that they were arguing over a girlfriend they were both interested in, and that before the passers-by could stop them, Gafar had allegedly brought out a knife and stabbed and killed his friend,” the police source added.

Meanwhile, the victim, a resident of Ile-Soro 2, in Oja Gboro, Ilorin, was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital, from where he was referred to the General Hospital, Ilorin, where he was confirmed dead on arrival.

Metro

Nigerian Military Kills 50 Jihadists During Army Base Raids

Published

2 days ago

October 23, 2025

Editor

Nigeria’s military said on Thursday it had killed 50 armed insurgents using drones to carry out multiple attacks on army bases in the volatile northeast.

The authorities in Africa’s most populous country and one of its powerhouses have been fighting the Boko Haram jihadist group and its Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) splinter for 16 years.

The groups are seeking to establish a caliphate in the northeast.

In the early hours of Thursday, troops aided by fighter jets engaged insurgents who had launched coordinated attacks on bases in the towns of Dikwa, Mafa, and Gajibo in Borno state, as well as in Katarko in neighbouring Yobe state, a military spokesman said in a statement.

The military did not say which faction was behind the attacks, but intelligence sources told AFP that ISWAP militants were responsible.
“The combined ground and air efforts resulted in the neutralisation of over 50 terrorists across all the locations,” Lieutenant Colonel Sani Uba, said in the statement.

Ground and aerial pursuits were still ongoing to track down “over 70 of the wounded” insurgents, Uba said.

Soldiers seized dozens of kalashnikovs, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) from the militants, he said.

In a post on X, the army shared pictures showing soldiers standing over a row of several dead bodies said to be of jihadist fighters and their weapons at one of the targeted military bases.

Uba said several soldiers were wounded in the fighting, without giving numbers.

“Some vehicles and buildings were also gutted by fire from the terrorists’ armed drones and RPG fire during the battle, especially in Mafa and Dikwa, where a part of the defences were momentarily breached,” he said.

Armed insurgents are increasingly using drones, often commercial models modified to drop bombs or grenades.

A resident in Mafa showed AFP videos and pictures from the area showing the charred carcasses of several trucks and said the militants had set them ablaze during the attack.

Mafa locals said the trucks were mostly laden with cement heading to Chad, whose drivers had parked for the night for fear of militant attacks on the highway.

The conflict has killed more than 40,000 and displaced around two million people in northeastern Nigeria.

It has spilled over into neighbouring countries, prompting the creation of a regional military coalition to combat the Islamist groups.

Earlier this month, at least 14 soldiers were killed in two attacks in Borno state blamed on insurgents — one at an army base, the other when a military convoy was ambushed.

Since 2019, soldiers have shut down some smaller army bases and moved into larger, fortified garrisons known as “super camps” in an attempt to better resist militant attacks.

Metro

Nnamdi Kanu Protest: Court Fixes Oct 29 To Hear Police Suit Against Sowore, Others

Published

2 days ago

October 23, 2025

Editor

The Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed October 29 for the hearing of the suit filed by the police against Omoyele Sowore and other conveners of the #FreeNnamdiKanuNow protest held on October 20.

The suit, originally scheduled for October 20 for the respondents in the ex parte motion to show cause why the interim order made by the court should be vacated, could not proceed.

The hearing was stalled as a result of the protest, which was held on the same day, crippling the court activities at the Federal High Court in Abuja.

Justice Mohammed Umar had issued an interim order restraining Sowore and others from protesting for the release of Nnamdi Kanu in some sensitive areas in Abuja.

Justice Umar barred the protesters from demonstrating around the Aso Rock Villa, National Assembly, Force Headquarters, Court of Appeal, Eagle Square and Shehu Shagari Way, pending the hearing of the motion on notice.

The judge also made an order of abridgement of time “within which the respondents will respond to the application on notice to cause the ex-parte order be set aside on Monday, the 20th of October, 2025 at 9.00am,” before adjourning until Oct. 20 for hearing of the motion on notice.

The order followed the ex parte motion moved by the police lawyer, Wisdom Madaki, on behalf of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN), on Friday.

The Police Force, in the ex parte motion, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/2202/2025, had sued Sowore, Sahara Reporters Ltd, and Sahara Reporters’ Media Foundation as 1st to 3rd respondents.

The force also joined the Take It Back Movement, TIB, for the Transformation of Nigeria, Or Any Form of Organization or Person (s) acting with Either Express or Implied Instruction, or Any Other Organization or group with a similar intention; and Unknown Persons as the 4th to 5th respondents, respectively.

In the affidavit supporting the ex parte motion, Bassey Ibithan, a police officer attached to the Directorate of Legal Services at Force Headquarters, Abuja, averred that if not granted, the protest might threaten national security.

DAILY POST reports that Sowore had planned to organise the protest for the release of Kanu, the detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB.

The 2019 and 2023 presidential candidate of African Action Congress, ACC, had mobilised for what he called a planned peaceful protest against Kanu’s detention on October 20.

A number of persons were reported to have been arrested during the protest, including Kanu’s special counsel, Aloy Ejimakor, who is billed for arraignment on October 24 at a Kuje Magistrate Court in Abuja.