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The Action People’s Party’s appeal, which contested Bola Tinubu’s election as president in the February 25 presidential elections, was rejected by the Presidential Election appeal Court.

After the party withdrew the petition with the file number CA/PEPC/02/2023, the court dismissed it.

After the parties adopted their responses on Monday, the PEPC postponed until Wednesday the pre-hearing of the petition filed by the party against the respondents, Tinubu, the All Progressive Congress, and the Independent Electoral Commission.

The party informed the court of its decision to withdraw the petition “brought under paragraph 29 (1,2,3,4) of schedule of election petition…seeking leave to withdraw the petition marked CA/PEPC/02/2023” when the hearing was resumed on Wednesday.

Wole Olanipekun, who represented Tinubu, M.O. Fagbemi, who represented the APC, and A.B. Mahmoud, who represented the electoral commission, as counsel for the respondents, did not object to the withdrawal.

“We are not opposing the petition…we are not asking for a cost.”

Responding, Fagbemi said, ”ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. We are not opposing…Let those who have not done the needful do so, the flight is moving.”

Similarly, Mahmoud said, “We do not oppose it. We have no objection to the petition being withdrawn and struck out.”

The petition was withdrawn, and the respondents made no objections, thus the court dismissed it.

“Having carefully considered the application, we are satisfied that there is no collision on the part of the respondents,” Justice Haruna Tsammani, the PEPC’s presiding judge, stated in the brief order. “The petition numbered CA/PEPC/02/2023 is hereby dismissed having been withdrawn.”

On Tuesday, a 23-year-old Adekunle Ajasin University student from Akungba Akoko in Akure Ondo State (name withheld) described how she was allegedly raped by the founder of her church, Oluwafeyiropo Daniels of I Reign Christian Family Church, in front of an Ikeja Special Offenses and Domestic Violence Court.

The former assistant pastor of the church’s branch in Akungba testified before Justice Ramon Oshodi’s court that she met the bishop for the first time on May 28, 2018, when he was in Akure for a program.

The rape victim stated that she joined the church after that and when her pastor, Toyosi Bamishe, needed to give over to another pastor, she became a member of it. Babajide Boye, the prosecutor for Lagos State, led her in the examination-in-chief.

She claimed that the bishop had called her to the Lagos church to punish her for missing a ministers’ conference because it conflicted with her brother’s wedding and for missing the deadline for transcribing roughly six of the bishop’s audio sermons.

She said that on June 21, 2020, the defendant asked her to report to him in the sitting room and then revealed her his plans for the church over the following five to ten years.

The woman said in court that she was watching television at the time he entered the living room and demanded she remove her clothes.

She claimed that the bishop had informed her that having sex with her would demonstrate her allegiance.

She claimed that after telling him that he was not her husband and that she could not have sex with him, he revealed to her some of the things he did for his spiritual father.

She claimed that the bishop turned to raping her after she refused to cooperate with him.

She said, “He pinned me against a three-seater couch and raped me. He was bigger than me and I was bleeding from my private part.

“I was begging him but he didn’t listen. I told him I was bleeding, he said he knew and that I should shut up.

“When he was done, he ordered me to go and wash up immediately. He collected my phone and cleaned the blood before I came out. He said I should not tell anybody and that the day I tell anyone, I will run mad.”

The woman admitted to being terrified, but the next day she got on her phone and sent her pastor a message on WhatsApp using a code, and he concluded that she had been abused.

She claimed the pastor at first assumed it was a prank and that Daniels was trying his loyalty.

She added, “On June 23, I was planning how to leave and when I came out of the room, he was tying a red towel and he said I should even be happy that he raped me, that he told me he wanted to have sex with me and I rejected him.

“He said people would have been happy that he had sex with them. He took off my clothes and raped me again. He told me that I would die if I tell anyone.

“I bled the second time and he ordered me again to go and take my bath and ordered me back into the room. I immediately sent a message to Pastor Oladejo that the bishop had raped me again.”

She explained that the defendant had driven her to a hospital in Lekki where she had met a physician who belonged to the Lekki Church.

The victim said that the defendant told her in the car before they arrived at the hospital that she should tell the doctor that her boyfriend had sexually assaulted her.

The trial was continued after the case was postponed to May 24 and 25.

Several structures at the Nigerian Air Force Base on Airport Road in the Federal Capital Territory were destroyed by fire on Wednesday morning, causing fear.

As of the time of publication, the source of the fire that destroyed the military base next to the national headquarters of the Nigerian Correctional Service was unknown.

Our correspondent, however, can attest to the prompt action of Federal Fire Service personnel in the fight against the fire.

Amiola Adebayo, Head of Operations, FFF FCT, responded to a question about the event during a phone conversation with our correspondent by saying that firemen are putting great effort into extinguishing the fire.

Adebayo said, “The fire gutted part of the NAF Base, and our men are here putting out the fire, and we’re working hard to completely quench the fire.

“However, I can’t confirm the cause of the fire outbreak yet, but we’ll put out a statement once our findings are concluded.”

In its ruling on Tuesday, the Supreme Court of Nigeria upheld Ademola Adeleke’s position as governor of Osun State.

In order to defeat the incumbent governor Adegboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress, who received 375,027 votes, the Independent National Electoral Commission reported that Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party received 403,371 votes.

Oyetola and the APC, however, contested the election’s outcome and went to court.

On July 16, 2022, the state held its governorship election.

The tribunal, presided over by Justice Tertse Kume, proclaimed Oyetola the winner of the election on January 27, 2023, and revoked Adeleke’s victory.

A gang, made up of a Nigerian national and three Saudi Arabians, involved in the smuggling and sale of cocaine have been arrested with about 2.2 kilograms of the drug seized from the suspect, Saudi Gazette reported on Monday.

The Police Criminal Investigation Department revealed that it foiled an attempt to smuggle in and the sale of 2.2 kilograms of cocaine in the city of Riyadh.

Riyadh police seized a quantity of cocaine and a sum of money. Legal measures were taken against the suspects and referred to the competent authorities.

Authorities have called on Saudi citizens and expatriates to report any information of suspicious activities related to drug smuggling or sale to the police.

Iran announced on Monday, May 8 thattwo men who had been given death sentences for blasphemy had been executed.

According to the news website of the judiciary in Iran, Mizan, Yousef Mehrad, and Sadrollah Fazeli Zare were put to death in the Arak jail in central Iran.

According to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, they were detained in May 2020 on suspicion of participating in the criticism of the Superstition and Religion Telegram channel.

According to the panel, both individuals were confined to solitary confinement for months without access to family members.

Mizan on Monday confirmed this by saying that the two were operating a large number of websites that promoted atheism, Islamophobia, and other anti-religious viewpoints.

Iran Human Rights director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, claimed that the killings demonstrated the “medieval nature” of theocracy in Iran.

Reacting to their deaths he said; “The international community must show with its reaction that executions for expressing an opinion is intolerable, the refusal of the international community to react decisively is a green light for the Iranian government and like-minded people around the world.”

According to Iran Human Rights, Iran killed at least 582 individuals in 2022, up from 333 in 2021. The most recent assessment on executions by Amnesty International ranked Iran as the second-largest executioner in the world, trailing only China, which is said to execute thousands of people annually.
               

Playwright Prof. Wole Soyinka has criticized media reports that Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the election of February 25, 2023, visited his home in Abeokuta, Ogun State on Sunday in an effort to mend fences as inappropriate and distracting.

Soyinka spoke in a statement on Monday titled, “A visitation, and the allure of “reconciliation. ’’ Obi in a tweet after the visit noted among other things that he cherished the Sunday visit which was intended to “erase the needless misconceptions about the relationship between the great icon and the Obidient family. ’’

The Nobel laureate had criticized the vice presidential candidate of the LP, Datti Baba-Ahmed, in April on Channels TV and later on Arise TV for trying to dictate to the Supreme Court during an interview about the election won by the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

However, Soyinka and an ex-deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Kingsley Moghalu, were harassed online by the “Obidients,” as Obi’s supporters are known. In a tweet, Moghalu called Soyinka a phenomenon that “unlettered and uncultured people may not fully understand in an age of lazy social media where many don’t read or think deep.”

The Nobel laureate responded by stating that the seeds of impending fascism in the political sphere had clearly blossomed in two separate statements in April titled “Fascism on Course” and “Media Responsibility.”

The essayist responded to the reports of Obi’s visit by writing, “Before it gains traction and embarks on a life of its own, I wish to state clearly that the word “reconciliation,” inserted into some reports of Peter Obi’s visit to me on Sunday, May 7, is a most inappropriate, and diversionary invocation.

He added, “Let me clarify: I know the entity known as Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party. I can relate to him. I know and can relate to the Labour Party on whose platform he contested elections. There are simply no issues to reconcile between those two entities and myself. However, I do not know, and am unable to relate to something known as the “Obidient” or “Obidient Family.” Thus, albeit in a different vein, any notion of reconciliation, or even relations – positive, negative or indifferent – with such a spectral emanation is simply grasping at empty air.

“During that meeting, attended by two other individuals only, the word “reconciliation” was never bruited, neither in itself nor in any other form. It simply did not arise. By contrast, there were expressions of “burden of leadership,” “responsibility,” “apology,” “pleading,” “formal dissociation from the untenable,” all the way to the “tragic ascendancy of ethnic cleavage,” especially under such ironic, untenable circumstances.’’

The senior statesman added that the conversations were open and inventive, repeating that the idea of reconciliation was obviously irrelevant and never brought up.

Soyinka stated, “The following should be understood, but never underestimated. What remains ineradicable from that weekend of orgiastic rave in the social media was the opening up of the dark, putrid recesses in the national psyche that we like to pretend do not exist. It invited – into minds seeking a grasp on reality – gruesome variations on images from Dante’s Purgatorio. A fathomless pit was exposed, at the bottom of which one glimpsed a throng of the damned, writhing in competitive lust for the largest of the gangrenous ladles in a diabolical broth. To peek over the edge of that pit for a prolonged spell was to turn giddy, with a risk of falling into the tureen of inhuman pus. To attempt to navigate one’s way, however gingerly, along a mat spread across the infernal abyss, is an invitation to moral suicide.’’

According to him, he draws attention to writings he wrote on the subject of truth-based reconciliation and the moral necessity of reparation for the serious-minded.

The Nobel laureate said, “There will be further elaborations forthcoming in Democracy Primer III – Bookcraft’s Intervention series, now brought forward for publication on June 12, the watershed extorted from the current regime as the nation’s Democracy Day.’’

The American boxer Mohammed Ali’s rope-a-dope strategy, where blind menace was left flailing helplessly at the disdainful manifest of truth, was something he also approved of. He noted that if from this point on, he complied with entreaties from several valued, genuinely concerned directions and ignored new provocations, however vile, it was only because of that.

On Sunday, presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, paid a visit to Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka.

Obi in a statement Sunday night described the visit as enriching, saying he had a useful discussion with him.

Recall that supporters of Obi had recently attacked Soyinka over an interview where he said he had warned Obi that if he lost the presidential election, it would be due to his supporters.

But on Sunday, Obi moved to pacify the literary icon.

“Today (Sunday) I visited one of Nigeria’s most revered figures and an international literary icon, Prof Wole Soyinka. Prof Soyinka has been my father whom I hold in very esteem for what he has achieved and stands for in the struggle for a better Nigeria. His reputation as a fighter for justice and equity in our society has been legendary and we will never ignore them.

“I had a very useful and enriching discussion about his aspirations for a better and greater Nigeria. He shared a lot with me about his dream for a greater, more inclusive Nigeria.

“I reminded the Nobel laureate of the huge price he paid just before the outbreak of civil war, fighting for the cause of the Igbos. I cherish this Sunday visit which was intended to erase the needless misconceptions about the relationship between the great icon and the obidient family,” Obi said.

As the competition for the 10th Senate presidency becomes “tougher,” Godswill Akpabio, a former minister of Niger Delta affairs, has received the support of 72 non-serving senators.

Akpabio was previously predicted to succeed Abdullahi Ganduje as the next president of the Senate.

On behalf of the group, former Kano Central senator Basheer Lado spoke at a press conference in Abuja on Monday in favor of assigning the position of 10th Senate president to Nigeria’s south-south geopolitical region.

“We, in the spirit of equity, fairness, political expediency and following extensive consultations with stakeholders, hereby express our total support for the zoning of the position of the president of the 10th senate, to the south-south geo-political zone of Nigeria,” he said.

“We also affirm our unfettered support for the position of the president of the 10th Senate who also doubles as the chairman of the national assembly to be conferred on His Excellency, Distinguished Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio, CON.

He continued by saying that the third position in the hierarchy of our current democratic system, that of senate president, “carries considerable weight in discharging vital constitutional responsibilities and charting the right course for our national development.”

“It is also important that the holder of such a position enjoys the confidence and support of the party leadership and that of his peers as Senator Godswill Akpabio undoubtedly does.

“With this same spirit of fairness, we also affirm our solid support that the position of deputy president of the 10th senate is conceded to distinguished senator Barau I. Jubril, CON, representing Kano north senatorial zone, Kano state.”

Akpabio has not formally announced his intention to run for the presidency despite all the support he has received from some APC members.

The list of the senators here below:

Ben Ayade
George Akume
Basheer Lado
Rilwan Akanbi
Barnabas Gemade​​​​
Grace Bent
Binta Masi Garba
Ayogu Eze
Andy Uba
Ibrahim Ida
Olorunnimbe Mamora​​
Anthony Adeniyi​​​
Ganiyu Solomon​​​
Gbenga Obadara​​​
Gbenga Kaka​​​
Musiliu Obanikoro​​ Arise Ayo​​​​
Felix Kolawole Bajomo​​
Hassain Mudashiru​​​
Domingo Obende​​​
Wilson Ake​​​​
Ita Enang​​​​
Heineken Lokpobiri​​
Clever Ikisikpo
Ita Giwa
Ibrahim Musa​​​
Alex Kadiri​​​​
Ocheja Emma Dangana
Jibriu Wowo
Isa Maina
Mohammed Ohiare​​
Abubakar Sodangi
Joseph Akaagerger​​
Jack Tilley Gyado​​​
Abubakar Tutare​​​
Bello Tukur​​​​
Ahmed Barata​​​​
Abba Aji Mohammed A. Mohammed​​
Umar Idris​​​​​
Adamu Talba​​​​
Sidi Ali​​​​​
Timothy Adudu​​​​
Ishaq Adebayo Salman​​​
Akin Odunsi​​​​​
Seye Ogunlewe​​​​​
Fatima Raji Rasaki​​​
Lanre Tejuoso​​​​
Nkechi Nwaogu​​​​
Margery Chuba Okadigbo
Mohammed Saleh​​​
Sani Kanba​​​​​
Abubakar Abdullahi Naamo​​
Danladi Sankara
Mohammed Ibrahim​
Sola Adeyeye
Anthony Agbo​​​
Ikechukwu Obior
Chris Adighije​​​
Emma Anosike​​​​
Jalo Zarami
Alkali Jajere Oladipo Odujinrin
Mohammed Alkali
Sunday Ogbuoji
Abu Ibrahim
Bello Maitama
Saddiq Yar’adua
Jide Omoworare
Anthony Manzo
Aminu Inuwa
Magnus Abeh

56-year-old former boxer named Moses Olapade punches his wife Tinuke into a coma over a TV remote.

According to reports, the incident happened at their home in Akure, the state capital of Ondo State, in the Oke-Aro Community.

Upon his return from his trip, Olopade wanted to watch a television program. However, his wife refused to give him the remote control to select his chosen station, which led to an argument and a subsequent free-for-all, claims a source who does not want to be named.

Olopade, a truck driver himself, is said to have thrown blows at the wife in a fit of rage, causing her to drop to the ground and go unconscious.

The report claimed that the neighbors were drawn to the scene by the children’s screams. The woman was soon transported to a local hospital, where she underwent resuscitation.

The state police public relations officer, Mrs. Funmilayo Odunlami, claimed to not have received a briefing on the situation when called.

The PPRO stated,” I have called the DPO of the Area ( B Division Police Station), but he said the matter was not reported at the police station.”