News & Announcements

As Osun State clocks 32 years on 27 August, a publishing outfit, The Erudio Alphabet Company, is set to release an epochal book on its evolution formally.

Titled Courage & Character: The Definitive History of Osun State, the 460-page coffee table book recounts the history of the struggle of the people for their State till military president Gen Ibrahim Babangida, acceded in 1991. The book covers the activities of the various administrations, concluding with that of Rauf Aregbesola.

There are sections on the governments of Col Leo Ajiborisha, Senator Isiaka Adeleke, and the military interregnum featuring Colonel Abel Akale, Navy Captain Anthony Udofia, Lt Col Anthony Obi, Col Theophilus Olufemi Bamigboye. The administration of Chief Bisi Akande brought back the civilians.  The book Courage and Character extensively documents the government of Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Rauf Aregbesola.

The book is dedicated to “The Omoluabi of Osun” described as “brave hearts, unrelentingly optimistic, and flinty in their determination” and “to the abiding memory of the first executive governor of Osun State, Senator Isiaka Adetunji Adeleke”.

Courage & Character is Volume One of the Osun Trilogy. It offers a rich narrative in four parts. President Muhammadu Buhari wrote the foreword, and immediate past governor Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola authored the preface. Sections include the story of Abdulsalami Agbaje, an Ibadan high chief, described as “the unlikely catalyst” for creating the Oshun Division following a gang-up by the Ibadan nobility in the 1940s.

Oshun Division following a gang-up by the Ibadan nobility in the 1940s. There are accounts of the struggle, the creation of the state, and the highlights of each state administrator or governor from 1991 to 2018.

According to The CEO of Erudio Alphabet, Temitope Lakisokun, “the Osun story is essentially about a people’s rejection of subjugation and oppression; their quest for independence and sovereignty, and the struggle for survival and relevance.”

Bayo Idowu

For: The Erudio Alphabet Company

China is strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposed to the U.S. planned arms sale to Taiwan and urges the United States to revoke its decision immediately.

The U.S. State Department had approved a possible $500 million sale to Taiwan of infrared search and track systems for F-16 fighter jets and other equipment, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Thursday.

Wang Wenbing said the U.S. arms sale to China’s Taiwan region seriously violated the one-China principle and the stipulations of the three China-U.S. joint communique, especially the August 17 Communique of 1982.

The sale also violated international law and basic norms governing international relations, undermined China’s sovereignty and security interests, and jeopardized peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.

“It sends a gravely wrong signal to separatist forces seeking ‘Taiwan independence,’”  Wang said.

The spokesperson said Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory.

He pointed out that the Taiwan question was purely China’s internal affair that brooks no foreign interference.

“China urges the United States to abide by the one-China principle and the stipulations of the three China-U.S. joint communiques, immediately revoke its planned arms sale to Taiwan.

“Stop arms sales to Taiwan and U.S.-Taiwan military contacts, and stop following the dangerous trend of arming Taiwan and endangering peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” Wang said.

He added that China would take resolute and forceful measures to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

No fewer than 7,000 migrants to Europe were stranded in the Republic of Niger following the July 26 coup and the subsequent closure of the borders of the francophone country.

The migrants who have been trying to go back home have been trapped in Niger since late July, when members of the presidential guard overthrew the country’s democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum.

Bazoum was ousted on July 26 in a military coup led by the former commander of Niger’s presidential guard, Abdourahamane Tchiani.

The AP reported on Wednesday that United Nations officials estimate that about 1,800 migrants are living on Niger’s streets because centres run by the International Organisation for Migration were too crowded to take in more. The centres hold about 5,000 people trying to get home.

According to the acting interim chief of mission for the agency in Niger, Paola Pace, the UN agency has been assisting approximately 1,250 people a month to return to their countries this year. But the closure of borders and airspace has forced it to temporarily suspend returns, and its centres are now jammed at 14 per cent over capacity.

“This situation poses challenges for migrants, as migrants staying in these centres may experience heightened stress and uncertainty with limited prospects for voluntary return and already crowded facilities,” she said.

Niger’s junta closed its airspace, and regional countries closed border crossings as part of economic and travel sanctions, making it hard for people to leave.

Niger is an important route for both Africans trying to reach Libya as a jumping-off spot to cross the Mediterranean to Europe and those who are returning to their homes with help from the UN.

The closure of the airspace has restricted access to the country’s regions, posing difficulties in reaching vulnerable populations in need of aid.

Wagner chief dead

Meanwhile, the founder of Russia’s Wagner Group mercenary force, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has been listed among the passengers on board a plane that crashed north of Moscow, according to Russian state media.

There were earlier reports that speculated that the Wagner chief, who is presumed dead, was a backer of the junta in Niger.

The Russian state aviation authority Rosaviation says that a specially created commission “has begun investigating the circumstances and causes of the accident with the Embraer-135 aircraft, which occurred on August 23 in the Tver region.”

The authority’s statement said the plane belonged to MNT-Aero LLC, which specialises in business transportation, the BBC reports.

“According to preliminary data, there were seven passengers and three crew members on board the aircraft, which flew on the Moscow-St. Petersburg route,” the authority said.

“The Commission of the Federal Air Transport Agency is starting initial actions at the scene of the accident and has also begun collecting factual materials on the training of the crew, the technical condition of the aircraft, the meteorological situation on the flight route, the work of dispatch services, and ground radio equipment,” the statement added.

“At this stage of the investigation, specialists will also have to search for on-board means of objective control for their subsequent decoding and analysis of the records of the “black box,” the authority said.

UK minister, service chiefs meet

In a separate report, the United Kingdom’s Minister for the Armed Forces, James Heappey, met with top defence leaders and military chiefs to deepen defence cooperation between both countries and discuss the situation in Niger.

This was contained in a statement by the British High Commission in Abuja and made available to our correspondent on Wednesday.

Leaders in the Economic Community of West African States Commission bloc said that they would keep all options on the table for a peaceful resolution to the crisis and ordered the activation of an ECOWAS standby force to restore constitutional order in Niger.

Former colonial ruler, France and the European Union suspended security cooperation and financial aid to Niger following the coup, while the United States warned that its aid could also be at stake.

Britain had condemned attempts to undermine democracy, peace, and stability in Niger and said it stands by ECOWAS in their efforts to restore stability in Niger.

During Heappey’s visit, he met with senior leaders within the Nigerian Ministry of Defence, as well as the Chief of Defence Staff and Chief of Army Staff.

He also met with the ECOWAS Chairman, Bola Tinubu, where he reiterated the UK’s support for ECOWAS’ ongoing diplomatic efforts to ensure a peaceful return to democracy in Niger.

According to the statement, the minister said the UK and the Nigerian armed forces have a long-standing security and defence relationship, underpinned by a shared desire to support regional and international peace and security.

He said, in part, “The UK supports ECOWAS in calling for the peaceful restoration of constitutional order and democracy in Niger, and we’ll work with both ECOWAS and our partners across West Africa to support them in that aim.”

Meanwhile, West Africa’s chief mediator in the Niger crisis, ex-Nigerian military leader Gen.

Abdulsalami Abubakar, told the BBC on Wednesday that military intervention remains the last option to resolve the situation in the country.

He said his delegation from the regional grouping ECOWAS has started negotiating with military junta leader Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani and expressed hope for an amicable resolution.

Gen. Tchiani earlier announced a three-year transition plan at the weekend, which ECOWAS rejected.

Donald Trump has surrendered in Georgia on charges of plotting to overturn the state’s 2020 election results in an arrest that saw the first-ever mugshot of a former US president.

Mr Trump had to pay a bail bond of $200,000 (£160,000) to be released from the Atlanta jail while he awaits trial. Afterward, he described the case as “a travesty of justice”.

It was his fourth arrest in five months in a criminal case, but this was his first police booking photo.

Mr Trump later posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, for the first time since January 2021. He shared the address of his website and the mugshot with an all-capital letters caption: “Election interference. Never surrender!”
He joins the ranks of American public figures who have had arrest booking photos, including Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Al Capone and Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

Mr Trump argues the cases against him are politically motivated because he is leading the Republican race to challenge President Joe Biden, a Democrat, in next year’s presidential election.

The first former or serving US president ever to be indicted, he made the round trip from New Jersey on his private jet on Thursday afternoon.

Mr Trump was whisked to Fulton County Jail by a more substantial motorcade than he has used for previous court appearances this year.

He was inside the facility for around 20 minutes. Dozens of his supporters gathered outside.
Records posted on the jail’s website described Mr Trump as a white male, 6ft 3in, and weighing 215lbs (97kg), with blond or strawberry hair and blue eyes. His inmate number was P01135809. 
Before heading home he told reporters at the airport that he was entitled to challenge the result of a vote.

“I thought the election was a rigged election, a stolen election,” said Mr Trump, who often makes unfounded claims of widespread ballot fraud in 2020. “And I should have every right to do that.

“As you know, you have many people that you’ve been watching over the years do the same thing, whether it’s Hillary Clinton or [former candidate for Georgia governor] Stacey Abrams, or many others.”

Mr Trump was charged last week alongside 18 co-defendants with meddling in Georgia’s election results following his loss to Mr Biden by fewer than 12,000 votes in that state.

The former president was heard in a phone call pressuring Georgia’s top election official to “find 11,780 votes” during the ballot count.

Among the 13 charges Mr Trump faces are racketeering, soliciting a public official to violate his oath of office, conspiracy to impersonate a public officer, conspiracy to commit forgery and making false statements.

He denies all the counts against him.

Half of his co-accused have already been booked at Fulton County Jail in recent days ahead of Friday’s deadline. They include former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

One of Mr Trump’s co-defendants, the leader of Black Voices for Trump, Harrison Floyd, is being held in custody after turning himself in on Thursday without a bail agreement, court officials say.

A Georgia judge granted a speedy trial request to another co-defendant, attorney Kenneth Chesebro. His case is now due to begin on 23 October.

Just hours before turning himself in, Mr Trump replaced his leading defence lawyer, Drew Findling, with veteran Atlanta criminal defence attorney Steven Sadow.

One of the conditions of Mr Trump’s bail release is that he refrain from any comments, on social media or otherwise, that are intended to “intimidate” witnesses or co-defendants. He is also not allowed to have any communication with the other co-defendants, except through his lawyers.

Before arriving in Georgia, Mr Trump continued to criticise the prosecutor bringing the charges, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat, who he accuses of trying to sabotage his White House campaign.

Posting on his Truth Social platform, he blamed Ms Willis for murder and violent crime in Atlanta, writing that “people are afraid to go outside to buy a loaf of bread”.

Niger has authorized Mali and Burkina Faso’s armed forces to intervene on its territory in case of an attack.

The three allies’ foreign ministers said they had met in the Nigerien capital Niamey to discuss boosting cooperation on security and other joint issues, according to a joint statement on Thursday.

According to Reuters, this might be a possible sign the junta in Niger plans to keep resisting regional pressure to stand down.

The statement said the ministers welcomed the signing  by Niger junta leader General Abdourahamane Tiani of two orders “authorising the Defense and Security Forces of Burkina Faso and Mali to intervene on Nigerien territory in the event of an attack.”

“The Burkinabe and Malian Ministers … reiterated their rejection of an armed intervention against the people of Niger which will be considered as a declaration of war,” it said.

The main West African bloc ECOWAS has been trying to negotiate with the coup leaders but warned it is ready to explore all measures including the deployment of troops into Niger to restore constitutional order if diplomatic efforts fail.

Any escalation risks further destabilizing the insurgency-torn region as Niger’s junta-led neighbours, Mali and Burkina Faso, have said they would back Niger in any conflict with ECOWAS.

Lamido Apapa was named the new national chairman of the Labour Party on Thursday after Julius Abure was dismissed by the Court of Appeal in Owerri, Imo State.

Additionally, the court directed the Independent National Electoral Commission to promptly recognize and publish the names of each candidate for governor in Imo, Bayelsa, and Kogi states who was put out by the Apapa-led National Working Committee.

Additionally, the court disqualified additional members of the Abure-led LP faction, including Imo State Senator Athan Achonu, from running for governor.

Apapa claimed in April that his expulsion from the party was erroneous and that he was still the ‘legal acting chairman.’

It was reported on August 14 that Abure had been confirmed as the National Chairman of the Labour Party by a Court of Appeal sitting in Benin City, the capital of Edo State. Obiora Ifoh, the party’s national publicity secretary, revealed this in a statement.

Prior to this, on May 26, The PUNCH reported that an Edo-based State High Court had denied the notice of suspension that some party members at the ward level had issued against Abure. Justice Emmanuel Aihamoje, the judge, dismissed the case for lack of merit.

Following the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the chairman of the Wagner Group, in a plane crash on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday paid respect to him, referring to him as “a person with a complicated fate,” according to several media reports.

In a speech that was broadcast, Putin acknowledged that he had known Prigozhin since the 1990s. The Russian Leader stated that Prigozhin “made serious mistakes in life” while perhaps alluding to his abortive insurrection.

He said, “This was a person with a complicated fate, and he made serious mistakes in life but also sought to achieve the necessary results – both for himself and at a time when I asked him to, for the common cause, such as in these recent months.

Putin sends his condolences to the families of the fallen Wagner servicemen and acknowledged the part they played in the conflict in Ukraine.

“I would like to note that these are people who have made a significant contribution to our common cause of fighting the neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine

“We remember and know it, and we will not forget it,” he continued.

Officials quoted by Russia’s state news outlet Tass said that the disaster claimed the lives of all 10 people aboard the aircraft, including three members of the crew and seven passengers.

Putin acknowledged that a preliminary examination into the incidents had been initiated.

“But what is absolutely clear – the head of the Investigative Committee reported to me this morning, they have already launched a preliminary investigation into this incident. And it will be carried out in full and to the end. There is no doubt about that here. Let’s see what the investigators say in the near future. Tests — technical and genetic tests — are being carried out now. This takes some time,” he said.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, who had led the uprising in June, had pulled his men out of Ukraine, taken control of Rostov on Don in southern Russia, and threatened to march on Moscow.

Following months of conflict over the crisis in Ukraine, the action was taken.

A compromise that allowed Wagner troops to transfer to Belarus or enlist in the Russian army ended the standoff.

Prigozhin has only been seen a few times since the mutiny, where he was labeled a “traitor” by Putin at the time.

He was last spotted in a video that looked to have been shot in Africa on Tuesday.

Yusuf Bichi, the director general of the Department of State Services, has linked globalization to financial crimes, cybersecurity threats, and the undermining of democratic processes in Africa.

He asserts that the problem requires a thorough and multifaceted approach to be addressed.

At a seminar for the 16th Executive Intelligence Management Course held by the National Institute for Security Studies on Wednesday in Abuja, Bichi, who was represented by Director of Training Bolaji Toke, addressed.

The seminar was themed, “Globalisation and regional economic integration: Implications for sustainable development in Africa. ”

He said, “As we delve into the complexities posed by globalisation, ranging from cyber security, cyberthreats to financial crimes and organised criminal networks, and more recently, the interruption of the democratic process.

“We must acknowledge the need for a comprehensive and multidimensional approach. It is through platforms like the Executive Intelligent Management course that we enhance our collective capacity to address these challenges and forge a more secure and prosperous future. With a unique focus on Africa, we gather here this morning to explore the implications of globalisation. ”

He continued by saying that the current security concerns are significantly influenced by globalization and regional economic integration.

Bichi said, “In today’s world, you will agree with me that the landscape of security challenges is rapidly evolving and the dynamics of globalisation and regional economic integration play a pivotal role.

“The interconnectedness of a globalised world demands heightened collaboration and the sharing of information and expertise across borders.

“Transnational threats recognize no national boundaries and our ability to counter them effectively and to rely on our ability to work together seamlessly. “

Senator David Umahi, the minister of works, has voiced his displeasure with the caliber of the work completed on the Abuja-Lokoja route.

In an encounter with contractors on Wednesday in Abuja, Umahi criticized the caliber of the work done at the sites he visited, including the Abuja-Lokoja Road and the Lokoja-Benin Road.

Additionally, he threatened to revoke the contractors’ job certificates if they departed any site in any region of the nation.

Umahi said, “I have inspected about eight projects on the Abuja-Lokoja roads and was disappointed with what I saw. How can you collect money to do something and you didn’t do it right? Do you people fear God at all? We must do work for the people instead of ours.

“This last time there was a flood overflow here, they stayed over one week. You know, from my assessment, suppose there is a medical emergency, food supply, petroleum supply, and I think it was causing a food shortage in Abuja.

“So, we should have been able to design this and then use a ramp to raise it in the first place. Believing that tomorrow we will do it. And so, the contractor will not work on this section of the road apart from the bridge that way.

Umahi reaffirmed the President’s charge to complete Nigeria’s road infrastructure. Therefore, the initiative to make Nigerian roads motorable will not be pursued as a sacred cow.

He urged all contractors to adopt concrete pavement when building Nigerian roads, arguing that the technology gives the country long-lasting streets that can be used.

Samuel Ortom, the former governor of Benue State, has stated that he is prepared to be reached whenever necessary to address matters pertaining to his government.

This was said by Ortom, a member of the People’s Democratic Party who was unsuccessful in his campaign for a Senate seat, in a statement released on Wednesday in Makurdi, the state capital, by his media assistant, Mr. Terver Akase.

“I am capable of responding to the issues being raised against me and other officials of my government and I have always made known my belief in the rule of law.

“I am ready to make myself available to respond to issues bordering on my administration whenever the need arises,” Ortom said.

In response to claimed provocation by the state’s ruling All Progressives Congress, he pleaded with his followers to maintain peace and adhere to the law rather than inflame the political climate.

Ortom praised the complaints made about his alleged harassment to anti-corruption organizations, as well as the arrests of his appointees and the impounding of his vehicles.

The former governor also recommended prudence and caution in anyone making pronouncements about the situation in order to avoid inflaming the political climate.