News
Tinubu dismisses fleeing rumour, says I’m Asiwaju of Lagos
National leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, has paid a solidarity visit to the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, days after the state suffered violent attacks from miscreants hiding under #EndSARS protests.
The attacks led to the death of many and destruction of public and private property including the palace of the Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu, and investments linked with the APC chieftain.
A television station, a newspaper house as well as assets of the Lekki Concession Company, the managers of the tollgate, which are seen as Tinubu’s assets, were torched by hoodlums.
Speaking with journalists later, Tinubu, who was asked about his whereabouts in the past few days, said he did not travel out of the country as earlier reported by some section of the media.
He said, “I didn’t go nowhere; I’m a Lagosian and I still hold the title of Asiwaju of Lagos and I am still a Jagaban.
“Fake news is all over the place. They say Seyi my son was kidnapped and was chased but look at him. I didn’t pay a penny to bring him here.”
Tinubu, a former Lagos State governor, condemned the recent invasion and massive looting of public and private assets in the state.
He told reporters that the purpose of his meeting with Governor Sanwo-Olu was to ask him if he had ordered soldiers to attack #EndSARS protesters at the Lekki tollgate on Tuesday.
The former Lagos governor said he asked Sanwo-Olu “if he didn’t order the attack, who ordered the attack? That’s all I needed from him.”
Tinubu stressed the need for a thorough investigation into Tuesday night attack.
He said, “First, we have to segregate the calendar – those who suffered casualty before the protests from the hands of SARS. You have to separate that from those who suffered casualty due to what happened at the tollgate.
“For those who suffered casualty from SARS, the commission of inquiry that is already set up will unearth that and will make their recommendations. I trust the calibre and the character of the people there; they are independent. That is one.
“Those who suffered casualty during the gunshots need to answer some questions too. Even though we want to help, we still must extract information that will help the government to prepare in future and understand how and when to react because the governor, in particular, is a youth.
“As a youth himself, he (Sanwo-Olu) quickly went to Abuja with the 5/5. The government immediately put into action, dissolved the SARS and had to work through other recommended actions, the needs they demanded. Within a few days, he reported back to the public. That is responsive enough.
“But where are we getting the looting, the carnage, the burning, the invasion of police stations, stealing of arms, maiming of the innocent? It is a handshake beyond the elbow.”
News
Abuja-Kaduna road: Infiouest not Infoquest awarded contract, active, says Minister Umahi
Abuja-Kaduna road: Infiouest not Infoquest awarded contract, active, says Minister Umahi
Minister of Works, David Umahi, has clarified that the contract for Section 2 of the Abuja-Kaduna highway was awarded to Infiouest International Limited, not Infoquest Nigeria Limited as stated in a Daily Trust report of Tuesday.
The minister stated this at a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, stressing that the contractor given the project had the capacity to deliver.
Daily Trust had published the status of Infoquest generated at 22:21 (Monday, January 20, 2025) as showing inactive.
The firm was reported to have got “No objection” from the
Bureau of Public Procurement ( BPP)
for the rehabilitation of a section of the
road at N252.89 billion.
It reported a source familiar with the procedures and operations of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, as well as extant laws governing awards of contracts, as saying Infoquest had never paid tax and hurriedly registered as a tax-paying entity in the early hours of Tuesday.
“As of yesterday (Monday), there was no record. It was registered today (Tuesday) with all the details,” the source said.
But the minister also in a statement issued by his media aide, Orji Kalu Orji, said the ministry had no business relationship with Infoquest Nigeria Ltd, but has a contractual relationship with Infiouest International Limited.
He said Infiouest International Limited was “corporately active and is absolutely in compliance with all legal requirements and regulations set by the Companies and Allied Matters Act.”
The statement described the Daily Trust report of Tuesday as “mischievous”.
It said it was a deliberate orchestration to malign the ministry and undermine the efforts of the Renewed Hope Agenda of the administration in revolutionising road infrastructure development, and to “demarket the company that has proven capacity in road construction.”
It demanded a public apology to be published in at least five national dailies “for unjustifiably publishing falsehoods against the Ministry of Works.”
The statement said that the ministry was facing a coordinated onslaught of “falsehood, blackmail, and gang-up by adversaries to the policy of the government because of the ministry’s insistence on a new order of value for money, quality assurance, and best practices in project pricing and execution.”
He urged the public and the media to join in what he called “a desirable fight against national sabotage by some contractors”.
During his press conference, the minister described Infiouest International Limited as capable of completing the Abuja-Kaduna highway as the company had conducted several projects in the country.
“Some of its equipment is leased to Julius Berger Construction Company,” Umahi added.
“We want the public to know that we are facing a backlash. Corruption is fighting back.
“ut I want the public to know that our hands are very clean and those who are demarketing us, we have not collected any kobo from anybody, we are insisting that the taxpayers should have value for their money,” he said.
News
Avoid confrontation with Trump, Bolaji Akinyemi tells Tinubu
Avoid confrontation with Trump, Bolaji Akinyemi tells Tinubu
A former Nigeria’s Minister of External Affairs, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, has advised President Bola Tinubu to avoid confrontation with Donald Trump, the newly inaugurated 47th president of the United States.
He also said Nigeria is not part of the focus of the 78-year-old most powerful president and that the country should not expect anything extraordinary from the Trump presidency.
Akinyemi spoke Monday night on a Channels Television programme, Politics Today, on how to relate with the US president.
The former minister said Tinubu should devise means of dealing with Trump “even if he does things that annoy or step on the interests of Nigeria”.
“If I were President Tinubu, I would try to steer clear of antagonising him because there is nothing a bully likes better than taking on people who are not strong enough to resist him,” Akinyemi said on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Monday.
“You know there is that African proverb that if you are not strong enough to take on a bully and you take him on, you are just even going to suffer more for it.
“That’s the advice I will give President Tinubu: try and avoid having a confrontation with him even if that means that he does things that annoy or does things that step on the interests of Nigeria. There are ways in which you could address his reaction without confrontation,” he said.
Prof Akinyemi faulted the inaugural speech of Trump as uninspiring, “shocking and depressing”.
The octogenarian said rather than rallying the world for peace, Trump took time to threaten the rest of the world with a bouquet of hostile policies including tacking back Panama Canal, renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, tariff wars, and others.
Akinyemi said the US president would “soon learn that there are repercussions to policies, to jingoism”, adding that the world is “in for a rough ride for four years” of the Trump presidency.
News
DHQ: Foreign fighters influx responsible for recent terrorists attacks
DHQ: Foreign fighters influx responsible for recent terrorists attacks
The military on Thursday reacted to the recent frequent terrorist activities in North-East and North-West states.
Defence Headquarters (DHQ) attributed the spike in the attacks to influx of foreign agents coming to strengthen the local terrorists.
The Director of Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba, disclosed this during a press conference in Abuja.
Some 40 farmers were brutally murdered last Saturday in Borno State by the terrorists.
Over 50 people including soldiers that went to retrieve the corpses of the farmers on Tuesday were yet to return home after terrorists ambushed them.
Buba said the new foreign agents served as reinforcements for their local colleagues.
He said the situation was made worse by local collaborators disclosing troops’ movement.
He said, “The resurgence in terror attacks can be attributable to the influx of foreign fighters that come in as reinforcement for these terrorists. These foreign fighters are from the Sahelian Region.
“The other contributing factor are the local collaborators that form a support base for these terrorists. They serve as informants to the terrorists reporting on troop movement.”
Buba however declared the troops remained “profoundly conscious of their role and responsibility in ending insurgency and terrorism in the nation.”
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