Headline

Obi Disowns Photo-shopped Pictures With Simon Ekpa

Published

2 years ago

July 27, 2023

The Obi-Datti Media Office has disowned a picture of the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, purportedly taken with the Finland-based Biafran separatist, Simon Ekpa standing by his side.

Head of the Media Office, Diran Onifade, in a statement he signed in Abuja, on Thursday, dismissed the photograph which has been making the rounds on social media, as photoshopped.

He explained that desperate trolls who were hell bent on casting his principal in bad light were behind the picture and several others in their bid to tarnish his hard earned reputation.

Onifade said, “We all grew up being educated that photos tell a thousand stories and do not tell lies as photos are usually self-evident.

“Yet that was long years ago and long before digital technology took the World like a storm.

“That standard narrative has changed remarkably with dubious minds always ready to deploy it creatively albeit negatively, to create what is non-existent.

“Obi-Datti Media office notes that the scenario is exactly what played out in the photoshopped picture of the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi supposedly standing with the Finland-based irritant Biafra agitator, Simon Ekpa all in a desperate move to drag Obi’s name into disrepute by linking him with the ugly story that Ekpa has become in Nigeria.”

He further said, “For clarity, the picture was taken by Obi standing with an admirer on a Virgin Flight on Friday, July 21, 2023. In trying to authenticate their filthy and disgustingly dirty act, they inserted the picture of Aisha Yusuf behind them.

“The memory may be short to forget that Obi was the first to describe the sit-at-home thing as an act being engineered and bred by a criminal that the system has refused to squarely tackle.

“Now that the menace of this crime is becoming manifest even to attract the views of the nation’s parliament, it may be necessary to critically study the handling of this crime.”

In a related development, he accused those he described as troll agents commissioned by the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, of putting out a fake advert purporting Peter Obi as “providing 20GB Free Data and N5000 Airtime in celebration of his 62nd Birthday.”

The Obi-Datti Media Office said, “This is a SCAM! Subscriber beware!

“It is mindboggling that these criminal ploys are passed off as playing politics. Instead of seeking the line of a final solution to the cankerworm that has embarrassingly held the region and the country down, some mischief makers who are obsessed with Peter OBI’S rising fame are concerned with linking him to Ekpa.

“Yet, another failed attempt to dent the political Eagle whose concern is how to create a new Nigeria and reduce the growing poverty in the land.

“Obi-Datti Media office thinks that the reasonable thing to do if this country is sincere in tackling its socio-political and economic challenges is to quietly study the views laboriously expressed by this phenomenal political leader of contemporary Nigeria instead of trolling him endlessly.”

Headline

Peru Anti-government Protesters Clash With Police

Published

15 hours ago

September 21, 2025

Editor

Hundreds of anti-government protesters clashed with police in the Peruvian capital Lima on Saturday, throwing stones and sticks as officers fired tear gas on the demonstrators, AFP journalists reported.

The protest, organized by a youth collective called “Generation Z”, is part of growing social unrest in Peru against organized crime, corruption in public office, and a recent pension reform.

“Today, there is less democracy than before. It’s getting worse… because of fear, because of extortion,” said 54-year-old protester Gladys, who declined to give her last name.

Around 500 people gathered in the city center, under heavy police presence.

“Congress has no credibility, it doesn’t even have the approval of the people… It is wreaking havoc in this country,” said protester Celene Amasifuen.

The clashes broke out as demonstrators tried to approach executive and congressional buildings in Lima.

The radio station Exitosa said that its reporter and a cameraman were hit by pellets, commonly fired by law enforcement.

Police said at least three officers were wounded.

Approval ratings for President Dina Boluarte, whose term ends next year, have plummeted amid rising extortion and organized crime cases.

Several opinion polls show the government and conservative-majority Congress are seen by many as corrupt institutions.

This week, the legislature passed a law requiring young adults to join a private pension fund, despite many facing a precarious working environment.

AFP

Headline

Fresh World Trouble Looms As Netanyahu Tells Western Leaders ‘There Will Be No Palestinian State’

Published

15 hours ago

September 21, 2025

Editor

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said there would be no Palestinian state, in a message addressed to the leaders of Britain, Australia and Canada after they recognised Palestinian statehood.

“I have a clear message for those leaders who recognise a Palestinian state after the horrific massacre on October 7: you are granting a huge reward to terror,” he said.

“And I have another message for you: it will not happen. No Palestinian state will be established west of the Jordan River.”

Britain, Australia and Canada on Sunday became the first tripartite Western nations to recognise a Palestinian state.

Britain and Canada became the first G7 countries to take the step, with France and other nations expected to follow at the annual UN General Assembly, which opens Monday in New York.

“Today, to revive the hope of peace for the Palestinians and Israelis, and a two-state solution, the United Kingdom formally recognises the State of Palestine,” UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a message on X.

“Canada recognises the State of Palestine and offers our partnership in building the promise of a peaceful future for both the State of Palestine and the State of Israel,” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney wrote on X.

This comes after decades of requests for sovereignty from the Palestinian side.

Portugal was also to recognise Palestinian statehood later Sunday, as Israel came under huge international pressure over the war in Gaza triggered almost two years ago by the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack.

Headline

Badenoch Slams UK’s Palestine Recognition Decision As ‘Absolutely Disastrous’

Published

16 hours ago

September 21, 2025

Editor

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch condemned the Prime Minister Keir Starmer-led United Kingdom’s decision to formally recognise the State of Palestine.

PUNCH Online reports that Britain, alongside Australia and Canada, on Sunday recognised a Palestinian state in a seismic shift in decades of Western foreign policy.

Britain and Canada became the first G7 countries to take the step, with France and other nations expected to follow at the annual UN General Assembly, which opens Monday in New York.

However, the decision triggered swift Israeli anger and condemnation from the opposition.

Reacting in a statement on her X on Sunday, Badenoch described the move as “absolutely disastrous.”

She argued the move rewards terrorism with no conditions, and the decision would be widely regretted.

She said, “Absolutely disastrous. We will all rue the day this decision was made. Rewarding terrorism with no conditions whatsoever put in place for Hamas.

“It leaves hostages languishing in Gaza and does nothing to stop the suffering of innocent people caught in this war.”

The Winchester opposition leader accused Labour of pandering to its “hard left” rather than fixing Britain’s pressing domestic problems.

“It is because Labour cannot fix the big problems in our society that they focus on discredited student union campaigns to appease the hard left.”

Listing examples of Labour’s failings, she said, “They cannot fix the NHS, so they push assisted suicide. – They cannot create jobs for young people, so they give them votes at 16.

“They cannot sort out immigration, but they will recognise Palestine instead. And so on. This is the same man who paid £35bn of reparations to Mauritius along with the surrender of the Chagos islands.”

Badenoch also criticised what she described as the prime minister’s lack of judgment.

“Everything we are seeing is a consequence of a Prime Minister who has no plan for the country and no judgment.

“He will spend the next four years delivering the hobbyhorses of the Labour left to stay in power and leave a HUGE mess for us to clean up.”

Earlier, Starmer announced the recognition of Palestine in a post on X, saying the move was intended to provide a two-state solution.

He said, “Today, to revive the hope of peace for the Palestinians and Israelis, and a two-state solution, the United Kingdom formally recognises the State of Palestine.”