BIAFRA NEWS : PDP disqualifies two presidential aspirants, to forfeit N80m

 

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on Friday, disqualified two of its 17 presidential aspirants.

With their disqualification, the two aspirants would forfeit the N40 million they paid for the expression of interest and nomination forms.

The chairman of the presidential screening committee, Senator David Mark announced the disqualification of the two aspirants on Friday evening.

Mark, however, declined a request by journalists to reveal the identities of the affected aspirants and the reason(s) for their disqualification.

When asked if the screening committee made any recommendation to the party to refund the N80 million nomination fees paid by the aspirants, Mark said: “Why should the party refund the money?”

BIAFRA NEWS : 2023 Presidency, I Can’t Tell If I Would Contest – Ex-President, Jonathan

 

Jonathan said he could not tell if he would run for presidency in 2023,

Former President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday reacted to calls that he should run for the 2023 Presidency.
Jonathan said he could not tell if he would run for presidency in 2023, Daily Post reports.

He disclosed this while addressing some supporters who besieged his office in Abuja, asking him to run for the Presidency in 2023.

Jonathan was quoted as saying, “I cannot tell if I’m contesting.”

Hundreds of supporters, including women and youth groups, had stormed his office, asking him to contest for President in 2023.

The supporters arrived at the office with a musical band around 8:50am.
They lamented that hunger, insecurity,

 and unemployment, among others, had become the order of the day since he left office.

The supporters said that both men and women had turned to beggars because of the unfavourable policies of the present administration.

BIAFRA NEWS : If Biafra Comes, An Igbo Man Will Still Destroy It – Apostle Suleman Knocks South-East Over Disunity

 

Suleman opined that the problem of the Igbos were the Igbos.

The President of Omega Fire Ministries, Apostle Johnson Suleman, has claimed that the Igbo are the problem of Igbo and are always destroying one another.

Suleman in a sermon said the Igbos never support their own and would publicly disown one another.

Making reference to the struggle of Biafra, Suleman said if the nation was created, it would still be an Igbo man that would destroy it as they did not support one another.

He made reference to the emergence of an Igbo Senate President Evan Enwerem whom he said was removed by another Igbo man, Chuba Okadigbo who was also replaced by Anyim Pius Anyim.

Suleman opined that the problem of the Igbos were the Igbos.

He said, “Somebody from the South, somebody from the East. You betray your people. Look at this agitation for Biafra. Who are the people attacking Biafra most, Igbos? Shameless Igbos. Am I in support of Nigeria dividing? No. Am I in support of Nigeria separating? No. Do I believe we should be together? Yes. But even if you don't agree with the man who is your brother, should you say it publicly if you are not a fool? Can't you say it amongst your people?

“If today they get that Biafra, it is an Igbo man that will scatter it. That is the truth. During the time of the Senate, when an Igbo man became a senator, it was an Igbo man that removed him. You remember the Enwerem, Chuba Okadigbo, Pius Anyim...remember all of them? It was Igbo that was removing Igbos. That was the first and shortest Senate Presidency we have had in this country.

“An Igbo man employs an Igbo boy to sell in his shop, he will wreck him. He will carry all the man's money, he will buy land. He wouldn't wait to be settled. The problem of Igbo is Igbo. I repeat it, if you sell your brother, even the buyers will not trust you.”

BIAFRA NEWS : IPOB insists April 27 ban on open grazing, beef sacrosanct

 

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has re-affirmed April 27 as date set aside for the enforcement of the ban on open grazing and beef consumption in the South East.

Also, the group, in a statement by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, yesterday, disclosed that enforcement of the ban on open grazing in the zone, which had since been pronounced by South East governors and passed into law by many states in Biafra land, would take effect simultaneously.

It, therefore, advised anybody dealing on cow business in the South-East to have a ranch, warning that any cow seen after the deadline will be treated as contraband.

“Anybody interested in cow business in Biafra land must have a ranch, and properly mark the cows with their ranch name or symbol for easy identification.

“The measures have become necessary to stop the senseless and wanton killings in Biafra land by Fulani jihadists masquerading as herdsmen.

“Cows seen outside ranches with effect from April 27 shall be treated as contraband products. Owners of such cows should have themselves to blame.

“Igbo people alone in Biafraland spend more than N3 trillion every year on cows. We, therefore, want to stop using our money to finance the genocidal attacks on our people by Fulani herdsmen. Let them keep their cows that we may have our lives,” the statement stated.

MEANWHILE, the matter on abduction and rendition of IPOB leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, from Kenya to Nigeria, has taken a new dimension from Nigerian courts to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in New York, U.S.

This follows the petition the law office of Kanu’s international counsel and spokesman, Bruce Fein in Washington DC U.S., sent to the United Kingdom (UK) Ambassador to the United Nations and President of the UNSC, Barbara Woodward.

The petition, dated April 9, 2022, was posted to The Guardian yesterday by the Special Counsel for Kanu and IPOB, Mr. Aloy Ejimakor.

The petition, which was also copied to Kanu’s wife, Uche, told the UNSC President that they were respectfully “acting under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter to pass a resolution establishing an international independent investigation commission to establish criminal responsibility for Nnamdi Kanu’s kidnapping, torture, and extraordinary rendition from Nairobi, Kenya to Abuja, Nigeria on or about June 2021, and indefinite, ongoing, arbitrary detention in solitary confinement thereafter by the Federal Government of Nigeria,” among others.

The petition urged that the resolution should also establish a special tribunal to prosecute persons the commission finds to have been responsible for Kanu’s kidnapping, torture, extraordinary rendition, and arbitrary detention.

BIAFRA NEWS : Why court reduced FG’s charge against Nnamdi Kanu from 15 to 7

 

The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Friday, struck out eight out of the 15-count treasonable felony charge the Federal Government preferred against the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB,  Nnamdi Kanu.

Trial Justice Binta Nyako held that the charges were mere repetitions that did not disclose any offence that could be sustained by the proof of evidence before the court.

FG had in the counts that were struck out, alleged that Kanu had through his broadcasts, incited members of the public to not only stage a violent revolution, but to attack police officers and also destroy public facilities in Lagos State.

While the court threw out counts 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12,13 and 14 of the charge, it okayed Kanu’s trial on counts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 15.

The ruling followed an application Kanu filed to quash the entire charge against him, which he insisted was manifestly incompetent and legally defective.

The embattled IPOB leader, through his team of lawyers led by Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), argued that the court lacked the jurisdiction to try him on the strength of an incompetent charge.

Ozekhome (SAN), further told the court that his client was “unlawfully, brutally and extraordinarily renditioned from Kenya without his consent”.

He argued that since some of the allegations FG levelled against Kanu, were purportedly committed outside the country, the high court, therefore, lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the charge.

“The charges appear to give this court a global jurisdiction over offences that were allegedly committed by the Defendant, without specifying the location or date the said offences were committed”.

He argued that under the Federal High Court Act, such a charge must disclose the specific location where the offence was committed.

More so, Ozekhome contended that Kanu could not be charged with belonging to an unlawful organization since the action of FG, in proscribing the IPOB, is still subject to legal dispute at the Court of Appeal and therefore subjudice.

Consequently, he urged the court to dismiss the charge, as well as to discharge and acquit the defendant of the entire 15-count charge pending against him.

“This case is hollow, there is nothing in it. It is dead on arrival. Elements constituting the offence must occur within the jurisdiction of this court”, he argued.

However, FG’s lawyer, Mr Shuaibu Labaran, opposed the application and urged the court to allow the prosecution to open its case.

He argued that Kanu’s application would touch the substance of the case that is yet to be heard.

“The position as of now is that the IPOB is a proscribed organization which was duly proscribed through the due process of law”.

He argued that Section 32 of the Terrorism Prevention Act imbued the court with the requisite jurisdiction to handle the trial.

“We urged my lord to refuse the application to pave way for the commencement of the trial in Ernest.

“This is a matter that has been pending for over five years now”, the prosecution counsel added.

Meanwhile, the court, fixed slated May 18 to rule on an application Kanu filed to be released on bail, pending the determination of the charge against him.

Whereas, Ozekhome (SAN), argued that his client was entitled to bail considering the presumption of innocence he enjoys under the 1999 Constitution, as amended, FG’s lawyer, Labaran, urged the court to decline the bail request.

The Prosecution maintained that Kanu betrayed the previous discretion the court exercised in his favour when he jumped bail and escaped from the country.

He argued that it was owing to Kanu’s conduct that the court revoked his bail and issued a bench warrant for his arrest.

“My lord granted him bail in 2017 on health grounds, but since then, to date, no medical record was submitted to the court until he jumped bail.

“What we should be saying is contempt of court because he has flagrantly violated the orders of this court,” Labaran submitted.

However, Ozekhome, SAN, faulted FG’s lawyer for alleging that his client jumped bail.

He told the court that Kanu attended his trial regularly, until the military, in September 2017, invaded his home in an operation that led to the loss of lives.

Ozekhome insisted that it was the action of the Nigerian Army that made his client run for his life.

Besides, he argued that FG violated the fundamental rights of his client in the way he was forcefully abducted and extraordinarily renditioned back to Nigeria.

He, therefore, urged the court to allow Kanu on bail to enable him to effectively prepare his defence to the charge pending against him.

“My lord can limit him to stay in my house and I will not allow him to move around,” Ozekhome jokingly added.

Before the case was adjourned till May 18 and 26 for ruling and continuation of trial, Justice Nyako, dismissed Ozekhome’s contention that Kanu’s extra-ordinary rendition was illegal, stressing that there was a subsisting warrant from the court for the Defendant to be arrested wherever he was found.

“Rendition for the purpose of criminal prosecution is allowed. In the instant case, there is a bench warrant on the defendant, suffice it say, he is a fugitive before the court”, the judge held.

On the proscription of IPOB, Justice Nyako, held that though the matter is before the appellate court, the proscription order still subsists.

Meantime, FG had in some of the charges that were sustained by the court, alleged that Kanu had in his broadcast that was received and heard in Nigeria, issued a deadly threat that anyone who flouted his sit-at-home order, should write his/her Will.

It told the court that as a result of the threat, Banks, Schools, Markets, Shopping Malls, and Fuel Stations domiciled in the Eastern States of Nigeria, were not opened for businesses, citizens and vehicular movements in the Eastern States of Nigeria were grounded.

It alleged that Kau had on diverse dates between 2018 and 2021, made a broadcast received and heard in Nigeria, inviting members of the public to hunt and kill Nigerian security personnel and their family members, thereby committing an offence punishable under Section 1 (2) (h) of the Terrorism Prevention Amendment Act, 2013.

While FG, in count-8, alleged that Kanu, directed members of the IPOB “to manufacture Bombs”, it told the court in count-15 that the defendant had between the month of March and April 2015, “Imported into Nigeria and kept in Ubulisiuzor in Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, a Radio Transmitter known as Tram 50L concealed in a container of used household items which you declared as used household items, and you thereby committed an offence contrary to section 47 (2) (a) of Criminal Code Act Cap, C45 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004”.

BIAFRA NEWS : Nigeria's separatist protests are reminders of Biafran war

 

ENUGU, Nigeria — Slowly picking clean the beans he is trying to sell, Evaristus Nduka sadly surveys the nearly empty marketplace in Enugu, in southeastern Nigeria.

Mondays are no longer “for business because there is a lockdown,” Nduka says, referring to widespread weekly protests that have closed considerable commercial activity in the region.

A separatist group, the Indigenous People of Biafra, has ordered residents to stay at home every Monday as they continue their call for Nigeria’s southeast to become an independent country.

For at least eight months the group and its members have imposed the sit-at-home which is also to press for the release of Nnamdi Kanu, their leader being prosecuted for charges of treason and terrorism.

“It has crippled the whole of Mondays,” said Nduka of the protest. Many residents who have dared to go out on Mondays have been attacked and dozens have been killed, as reported over the months by the local media though authorities have not provided estimates. The lockdown is “affecting everything,” Nduka says.

The separatist group’s campaign reminds many of the short-lived Republic of Biafra which fought and lost a civil war from 1967 to 1970 to become independent from Nigeria. An estimated 1 million people died in the war, many of starvation.

More than 50 years later, the new separatist group says the Igbo people, Nigeria’s second-largest ethnic group from the southeast, are still being marginalized and persecuted.

The Igbo, with about 30 million people of Nigeria’s total population of 206 million, are concentrated in five of the country’s 36 states, including Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states.

“What we have decided is any day our leader will appear in court, our people will sit at home in solidarity; to show that they like what the man is doing for them,” said Emma Powerful, a spokesman for the Indigenous People of Biafra.

About 70% of the region’s people stay home on Mondays and when Kanu appears in court, which Ebonyi state governor Dave Umahi said is a result of “fear” that is increasing poverty.

In Orizo town in Ebonyi state, Success Nworie, 19, says no one in her family goes out on Mondays, and “it is causing hunger,” because they mostly live hand to mouth, from one day to the next.

Many government offices in the region are effectively closed on Mondays, despite efforts to keep them open.

The reason is more “a psychological issue” than of support for the Biafran separatist movement and its leader Kanu, said Steve Oruruo, a spokesman for the Enugu state governor.

In addition to the frequent lockdowns, Nigeria’s southeast is also confronted by growing violence in which gunmen often target security facilities, like police stations, jails and military camps.

Although the pro-Biafra group insists its secessionist campaign is peaceful and distances itself from some of the sit-at-home directives, police blame it for several acts of violence including an April 2021 jailbreak in Imo state in which nearly 2,000 inmates were freed.

Nigeria’s southeast, once among the safest in the country, is now battling violence and deepening poverty as the lockdown hits “the entire economy of the people of southeast (and) the day-to-day activities,” said Alex Ogbonnia, a spokesman for Ohanaeze Ndigbo, a cultural group representing the Igbo people.

With even police officers being targeted by the violence, ordinary residents are afraid to go out on Mondays, he said.

After some police stations and the residence of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo president were attacked recently, Nigerian leader President Muhammadu Buhari said “the law and order situation in the entire southeast is being reviewed,” but such statements in the past have not succeeded in restoring stability.

There’s little confidence that order can be reestablished in the southeast by Nigeria’s security forces, which are already overstretched by the 10-year-old revolt by the Boko Haram Islamic extremist rebels in the country’s northeast and rapidly growing communal violence in the northwest.

With another Monday lockdown around the corner, residents fear a continuation of the cycle of violence.“It is very clear that the police are not enough to meet the security needs of the people,” said Ogbonnia of the Igbo cultural group.

 

 

BIAFRA NEWS : Why I slapped ‘drunken’ Obiano’s wife – Bianca Ojukwu finally opens up

 

Bianca Ojukwu has finally opened up on the fight incident involving her and Ebelechukwu Obiano, the immediate past first lady of Anambra state during the inauguration of Charles Soludo as the new governor of the state, on Thursday.

Recall, 9news Nigeria had reported that Bianca slapped the former First lady during the inauguration after she abused her, leading to a fight between the duo.

Bianca, who spoke about the incident while appearing on Arise TV on Friday, said Mrs. Obiano who was drunk, came to abuse her, which prompted her own reaction.

According to her: ”I didn’t pay any attention to her arrival. Surprisingly, she then walked towards me and I thought she was coming to greet me. Instead she verbally attacked me with her voice raised, taunting me and asking me what I was there to do, using unprintable, vile language.

“She asked if I had come to celebrate their last day in office but I ignored her completely. Then she kept on aggressively putting her hand on my shoulders and shouting.

“While I ignored her verbal onslaught as advised by people sitting around me, I requested twice that she refrains from touching me with her hands. She proceeded to do so yet again and tried to touch my head and remove my head tie. It was at this point I stood up to defend myself and gave her a dirty slap to stop her from attacking me. As she made towards me, I then pulled away her wig, she then held on to her wig with her two hands and tried to take the wig away from me.

“The former APGA chairman, Victor Umeh, told her to leave me and told everyone to leave. I was stunned by the stench of whisky in her breath at such an early hour of the day.

How could the first lady be so drunk at that time? I stayed back to watch the ceremony till the end and left with my dignity intact”.