News

PDP crisis goes haywire as Wike ‘pulls out of all previous agreements’

Published

3 weeks ago

May 25, 2025

ADMIN

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has pulled out from all previously reached agreements aimed at resolving the ongoing crisis within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), pledging to continue the struggle until justice is achieved.

In a personally signed statement on Sunday titled “PDP Crisis: My Position,” Wike expressed concerns over what he described as consistent breaches of agreed resolutions, specifically blaming Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, for fueling the party’s internal problems.

“I told Governor Makinde that non-adherence to agreements is the root of the PDP’s current troubles and that he remains the chief culprit in this regard,” Wike stated.

He stressed that the agreements, including the recognition of Senator Samuel Anyanwu as the National Secretary in line with the Supreme Court judgment, withdrawal of all legal cases involving Rivers State by the party’s National Legal Adviser, and the immediate discontinuation of the suit seeking a state of emergency in Rivers, must be upheld without deviation.

Wike maintained that since the concerned parties had failed to honour these resolutions, he was left with no choice but to withdraw from the reconciliation process and continue his fight for justice within the party.

The statement read in part, “Since after the 2023 General election, the PDP has been wantonly swinging from one part of a slippery precipice to another, owing fundamentally to dishonesty and lack of trust amongst its key stakeholders. To stem this ugly trend, efforts have been made to arrest this pernicious virus of dishonesty and treachery and enthrone fidelity to agreements with a view to stabilizing the party and moving it forward.

“To this end, a meeting of the G5 was held in Lagos. In that meeting, I made it clear to the Governor of Oyo State, HE. Seyi Makinde, that he was the architect of our problems, pointing out to him that non-adherence to agreements reached was the bane of the party, and that he was the chief culprit of this anomaly.

At the end of the meeting, we resolved to bury the hatchet and make progress.

“As a follow-up to the aforementioned meeting, there was an expanded meeting in Abuja involving HE. Seyi Makinde, HE. Umaru Fintri, HE. Bala Mohammed, HE, Bukola Saraki, and I in Saraki’s guest house. In that meeting, I made it clear that I had no personal problems with HE. Bala Mohammed, except that he hides under the facade of Chairman of PDP Governors Forum to serially renege on agreements. Tensions rose mightily in the meeting and it took all concerned to calm frayed nerves.

“At the end of the meeting, we came to some resolutions, including: that Senator Samuel Anyanwu remains the National Secretary of the PDP in tandem with the Supreme Court judgement, all legal matters relating to Rivers State must be withdrawn by the National Legal Adviser, the suit on the State of emergency be withdrawn forthwith, and nobody should deviate from the agreements so reached.

“In the light of the foregoing, they pleaded with me to attend the stakeholders’ meeting at the Bauchi Government Lodge, regardless of my many engagements. I attended the meeting and clearly reiterated my earlier concerns, and to this end and in order to resolve all other lingering and pending issues, a committee was formed, headed by HE. Bukola Saraki.

“It is disheartening to note that even before the Bukola Saraki Reconciliation Committee began its work, the gentleman’s agreement we reached at Saraki’s Guest House was already being crudely violated. To my chagrin, Seyi Makinde had connived with Peter Mba of Enugu State to orchestrate the summoning of the meeting of so-called South-East leaders to recommend that if Ude Okoye was not adopted as Secretary, they would pull out of the PDP. I have since granted an interview to the effect that, that resolution of the South-East leaders can not hold.

“Again, Seyi Makinde organized some people in the National Secretariat to insist that the Deputy National Secretary should act as National Secretary, in violation of the agreement earlier reached. To attempt to give credence to this farce, a letter was written by the Deputy National Secretary, calling for a meeting of the NEC of the party. Furthermore, the letter confirming the candidacy of the Governorship candidate of the party in the forthcoming Governorship elections in Anambra State, duly signed by the National Secretary, Senator Anyanwu and the acting National Chairman, was portrayed as rejected by the party through a rebuttal letter signed by the National Publicity Secretary, acting on the orders of Seyi Makinde and Peter Mba.

“All these actions are in complete violation of the agreements reached and would not do the party any good whatsoever. On the 24th of May 2025, in Jos, for instance, a well publicized and properly attended zonal elective congress of the PDP was aborted because the letter inviting INEC to the congress was signed by the Deputy National Secretary of the party. INEC refused to attend because the proper signatory recognized by law, that is Senator Samuel Anyanwu, was not a signatory to the invitation notice. This is undeniably distasteful, provocative and annoying, to say the least.

“I have painstakingly put out all these facts so that PDP members and the general public would know the truth. I have been in this party since 1998 and have worked tirelessly for the survival of this party with all my strength and it is on record that none of these persons have done anything close to what I have done to sustain this party. What is more painful is that I contributed substantially to most of these governors winning their elections, yet I have not made any personal demands on any of them and I would never do so.

“Most importantly, I had thought that we could keep the trust amongst us, but since it is now obvious that they would continue to play games to the detriment of the party, as is the case in the current debacle in the North-Central zonal elections, I have now firmly decided to pull out of all agreements hitherto reached. I have decided to fight on until justice is attained.”

News

Just in: Trump plans visa restrictions on Nigerians, others

Published

2 hours ago

June 15, 2025

ADMIN

United States President Donald Trump is considering imposing a travel ban on Nigeria and a host of other countries, mostly from Africa.

The affected countries are expected to meet new requirements laid down by the State Department within 60 days.

“The new list includes Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Egypt, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

“The memo identified varied benchmarks that, in the administration’s estimation, these countries were failing to meet.

Some countries had “no competent or cooperative central government authority to produce reliable identity documents or other civil documents,” or they suffered from widespread government fraud.”

Others are Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Bhutan, Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan, Syria, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

The countries on the new list are also expected to submit to the State Department, on Wednesday, an initial plan of action to meet the new requirements.

In March, Trump had considered imposing a travel ban on 43 countries, while Nigeria was not on the list.

The 43 countries were divided into three groups: red, orange, and yellow.
The red group consists of 11 countries whose nationals would be barred from entering the US.

The orange group comprises 10 countries whose visas would be sharply restricted.

The countries under yellow were given 60 days to address concerns.

News

BREAKING! 3 days after, another helicopter crashes in India, killing all crew and passengers(Photos)

Published

4 hours ago

June 15, 2025

ADMIN

Sad! Three days after the devastating Air India Crash in Ahmedabad, a Bell 407 helicopter has crashed in Gaurikund, Uttarakhand, early Sunday morning, killing all seven people on board, including the pilot.

The accident occurred at around 5:30 AM in a remote area of the Himalayan state. According to Indian media reports, the aircraft was carrying five adult passengers, one infant, and the pilot when it went down.

Authorities have not yet confirmed the cause of the crash, but rescue teams have been dispatched to the site for recovery operations. The identities of the victims have not been released pending notification of their families.

Uttarakhand, a region with challenging terrain, has seen previous aviation incidents due to unpredictable weather and difficult landing conditions. Investigations into the crash are ongoing.

News

Iran-bound businessman nabbed at PH airport for ingesting 53 wraps of cocaine

Published

4 hours ago

June 15, 2025

ADMIN

. As NDLEA recovers tramadol consignments in winter jackets going to Europe at Lagos airport; intercepts N1.1billion opioids in Rivers; 2,687kg skunk in Cross River

Barely two weeks after operatives of the National Drug Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA) Kano, intercepted a 60-year-old businessman Chinedu Leonard Okigbo heading to Iran with 65 pellets of cocaine in his stomach, their counterparts at the Port Harcourt International Airport (PHIA) have arrested another businessman, 44-year-old Ezemokwe Chukwuebuka Christian for ingesting 53 wraps of the same class A drug while on his way to Tehran Khomeini, Islamic Republic of Iran.
Ezemokwe was arrested at the Port Harcourt airport on Saturday 7th June while trying to board Qatar Airways flight QR1434 flying to Tehran Khomeini in Iran via Doha. After a body scan proved positive to ingestion of illicit drug, he was placed on excretion observation during which he expelled 53 wraps of cocaine in six excretions with a total weight of 1.172kg. The suspect claimed to have gone into the criminal trade two years ago, moving between the West African sub-region and Iran.

Similarly, NDLEA operatives at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Ikeja Lagos in the early hours of Saturday 14th June intercepted an Italy bound passenger Edobor Ambrose Ali on an Air France flight. The NDLEA officers in collaboration with the Aviation Security of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), discovered drug consignments hidden in the luggage of the suspect during baggage scanning at the tarmac.

The suspect was thereafter brought down from the aircraft for baggage identification after which a thorough search of the bag led to the discovery of 14, 410 pills of tramadol 225mg and 200mg concealed in winter jackets. In his statement, Ebodor said he lives in Italy where he was hired and sent on the all expense paid trip to Nigeria to courier the drug consignments to Milan, Italy for a fee of 2000 Euros.
At the Port Harcourt Ports in Onne, Rivers state, NDLEA operatives on Friday 13th June intercepted a shipment of 157,800 bottles of codeine-based syrup worth over N1.1 billion naira in street value, during a joint examination of a watch-listed container with men of Customs Service and other security agencies. The opioid consignments were hidden behind 257 cartons of ceramic sanitary wares.
At least, three suspects: Friday Achibong Joseph, 47; Abraham Anthony Willy, 21; and Utibe David Okon, 24, were arrested on Thursday 12th June when NDLEA operatives raided a warehouse in Obereakai, Odukpani LGA, Cross River state, where a total of 2,687kg skunk, a strain of cannabis, was recovered. Same day in Bauchi state, NDLEA officers acting on credible intelligence, arrested the duo of Iriemi Imonikhe, 49, and Sa’idu Ladan, 30, along Bauchi -Jos road after 195 blocks of skunk weighing 287kg were discovered in their Toyota Camry car marked AKL 201 GG.
While 14 jumbo sacks of skunk weighing 560kg were recovered from a wooden boat at Oniru beach in Lagos by operatives of the Marine Command of NDLEA on Thursday 12th June, officers of the Muhammadu Buhari International Airport Maiduguri (MBIAM) same day arrested two businessmen: Ishaku Abdullahi, 30; and Buba Usman, 32, at the arrival hall of the domestic wing of the airport with various quantities of ecstacy pills and skunk packaged in fanciful wraps labelled as ‘Lychee’ and ‘Porro Legal’
The War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, social advocacy activities by NDLEA Commands equally continued across the country in the past week. Some of them include: WADA sensitization lecture delivered to students and staff of Command Secondary School, Orba, Uden LGA, Enugu; Divine Gift International School, Abakaliki, Ebonyi; Baptist Primary School, Ago-Are, Oyo; and St. Vincent Secondary School, Oti-Oron Okobo, Akwa Ibom state, among others.
While commending the officers and men of MMIA, PHIA, MBIAM, PHPC, Marine, Cross River, and Bauchi Commands of the Agency for the arrests and seizures of the past week, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) praised their compatriots in all the commands across the country for pursuing a fair balance between their drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts.