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DSS files terrorism charges against blogger who streamed Igboho’s house raid on Facebook
Kayode Oyero
The Department of State Services has filed terrorism charges against Amudat Babatunde, a female blogger who did a Facebook Live around 2am on July 1, 2021, when the DSS in a joint operation with sister agencies raided the Ibadan residence of Yoruba Nation agitator Sunday Adeyemo also known as Sunday Igboho.
Babatunde and Noah Oyetunji (male) are two of the 12 detained aides of the activist yet to be released by the secret police despite that a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on August 4, 2021 had granted them bail.
Known as ‘Lady K ifeoluwa show’ on Facebook, the blogger with over 17,000 followers had turned on her Facebook Live on the midnight of July 1 during the raid of Igboho’s house by the Nigerian security forces.
Seated on a bed in a room in one of the apartments in Igboho’s residence in the Soka area of Ibadan, a fear-torn Lady K had made a 12-minute video, alerting the world that DSS operatives had “attacked” the residence of her boss.
In the video which is still on her Facebook page as of the time of filing this report, an alarmed Lady K had said, “Please share this video, soldiers have attacked Chief Sunday Igboho’s house. We are under attack. Nigerian soldiers have attacked us at Chief Sunday Igboho’s house.
“You can hear the gunshots. This is about 2am. They have been shooting for over 10 minutes now. I had to confirm it before coming on this Live. I heard their gunshots from my sleep. I can’t come out now. They told me not to come out but alert the world through this Facebook Live.”
Igboho’s spokesman, Olayomi Koiki, had also alleged that the DSS removed the closed-circuit television in his principal’s house after the raid, an allegation the DSS has not denied.
Lady K was said to be a member of the media team of the Yoruba Nation arrowhead before the DSS arrested her alongside 11 others during the raid. The secret police also said its operatives killed two other associates of the activist during a “gun duel”.
Lady K and 11 others had approached the court through their lawyers to exercise their constitutional rights to freedom.
Justice Obiora Egwuatu of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja had on August 4, 2021, granted bail to the 12 detainees but the DSS freed 10 of them last week and held back the blogger and Oyetunji after over 60 days in detention following their arrest since July 1.
One of the detainees’ lawyer, Pelumi Olajengbesi, had appealed to the DSS to respect court orders and release Lady K and Oyetunji on bail while three Senior Advocates of Nigeria – Femi Falana, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa and Ifedayo Adedipe – had said that the DSS was inviting anarchy and lawlessness into the country by not obeying the order for the release of the detainees.
Olajengbesi had also threatened to institute contempt of court proceedings against the DSS director-general, Yusuf Bichi.
However, in a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CR/305/2021, which was dated August 31, 2021, the DSS through one of its lawyers, S.M. Bello, filed five terrorism charges against Oyetunji and Babatunde also known as Lady K.
The DSS alleged that Oyetunji and Lady K were in possession of firearms for terrorism-related activities while it specifically alleged that Lady K promoted terrorist acts through her Facebook account.
“That you Amudat Habibat Babatunde (f) adult of Okeara of Ibadan, Oyo State did use your Facebook account as a platform to promote terrorist activities contrary to Section 18 (1 &2) of the Cybercrimes Prohibition Prevention Act 2015,” count five on the charge sheet read.
The court has not fixed any date for the hearing.
But reacting in a chat with The PUNCH, Olajengbesi described the charges as “baseless, vexatious, shameful and without limbs.”
Igboho, wanted by the DSS for alleged arms trafficking, has been in detention in Cotonou, Benin Republic, since July 19, 2021 when he was arrested at an airport as he tried to board a Germany-bound flight.
Watch Facebook Live by Lady K around 2am on July 1, 2021
Punch Online
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Just in: I’ll resign if Yahaya Bello is not prosecuted – EFCC chairman
Just in: I’ll resign if Yahaya Bello is not prosecuted – EFCC chairman
Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has vowed to follow to a logical conclusion the prosecution of former Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello.
He states this on Tuesday during an interactive session with media executives in Abuja.
The EFCC chairman said he would resign if Bello escaped prosecution.
He said, “I called Yahaya Bello, as a serving governor, to come to my office to clear himself. I shouldn’t have done that.
“But he said because a certain senator has planted over 100 journalists in my office, he would not come.
“I told him that he would be allowed to use my private gate to give him a cover, but he said my men should come to his village to interrogate him.”
Olukoyede said the EFCC did not violate any law while trying to arrest the former governor from his residence.
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“Rather, we have obeyed the law. I inherited the case and I didn’t create it. Why has he not submitted himself to the law?” he asked.
“I have arraigned two past governors who have been granted bail now — Willie Obiano and Abdulfatah Ahmed.”
The EFCC chairman promised that anyone responsible for impeding Bello’s arrest from his home in Abuja would face the full force of the law.
“We would have gone after him since January but we waited for the court order,” Olukoyede said.
“As early as 7am, my men were there, over 50 of them. They mounted surveillance.
“We met over 30 armed policemen there. We would have exchanged fire and there would have been casualties.
“My men were about to move in when the governor of Kogi drove in and they later changed the narrative.”
He vowed that all those who have dipped their hands into the nation’s coffers would be investigated and prosecuted.
Olukoyede said, “If I can do Obiano, Abdulfatah Ahmed and Chief Olu Agunloye, my kinsman, why not Yahaya Bello?”
Just in: I’ll resign if Yahaya Bello is not prosecuted – EFCC chairman
News
Updated: FG to route 20% of palliatives through traditional, religious leaders
FG to route 20% of palliatives through traditional, religious leaders
President Bola Tinubu has directed that 20 per cent of palliative food intervention should go through religious and traditional institutions.
Vice-President Kashim Shettima made this known on Tuesday while delivering a keynote lecture at a High-Level Dialogue of Faith Leaders on Nutrition in Nigeria held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He said, “The Imam of Bayero University (BUK) mentioned about the exclusion of the traditional and religious leaders in the distribution of palliatives.
”The President has approved that 20 per cent of the palliative in terms of food intervention be routed through our religious organisations and the traditional institutions.
“The Tsangaya schools, the mission schools will be specially targeted for such intervention.”
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The Vice-President said that government was working out the logistics through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to ensure smooth implementation of the intervention programme.
“This intervention will be anchored by the office of the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Sen. Abubakar Bagudu, and he is going to anchor the programme.
“We are going to provide the overall supervision towards the implementation of the programme.
“Also 20 per cent of the funds for the School Feeding Programme is going to be channelled through the office of the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning to the religious bodies.”
Shettima said government had commenced the engagement and working out modalities for the intervention to ensure a very transparent disbursement.
He added that the intervention would include Tsangaya and Mission schools.
News
Peter Obi was never a Labour person, LP just special vehicle – Doyin Okupe
Peter Obi was never a Labour person, LP just special vehicle – Doyin Okupe
Former director-general of the Labour Party presidential campaign, Doyin Okupe has said the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, never believed in the ideologies of the party.
Okupe stated this while answering questions in an interview on Arise Television’s flagship programme, The Morning Show.
The Labour Part, according to Okupe was just a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for the presidential election.
Okupe who resigned his membership of the Labour Party in January, on the grounds of ideological differences said his membership of the party ended the moment Obi lost the election.
“The LP for us — for Peter Obi and I — and those in the leadership of the movement… the party was a special purpose vehicle (SPV).
“I have never been a labour person, I have never operated on the left before but we needed a platform and this was the only platform readily available to us.
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“We thought that if we won the election… there are no fast and hard rules about ideologies. You can always find a shade between the left and the right. You can always move to the centre.
“We were hoping and praying that if we won we would find a way to come to some consensus with the labour.
“Peter Obi is not a labour person. He is not a leftist person, he is a trader, he is a businessman just like me. I am a liberal democrat, I believe in liberal democracy, I believe in free enterprise.
“I am not a social worker. As far as I’m concerned, my membership of labour expired the moment we lost that election.”
The former presidential aide said it was “unreasonable” for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to present a northerner as its candidate in the buildup to the 2023 election.
Peter Obi was never a Labour person, LP just special vehicle – Doyin Okupe
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