The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has said it will remove the former Director-General of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, Dr. Doyin Okupe, from its watchlist following his arrest by the Department of State Security Service at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos on Thursday, January 12.

According to EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwajuren, DSS acted on a watchlist request made in July 2016, before the recent conviction of Okupe.

The statement read;

“The Department of State Services, DSS, today, January 12, informed the commission of the interception of Dr. Doyin Okupe, former presidential adviser, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.

“The service acted on a watch-list request issued on July 18, 2016, over six years before his recent conviction on money laundering charges by the Federal High Court, Abuja.

“The commission was in the process of formally lifting the watch-list before his interception and will expedite action in this regard.”

Hon Aderoboye Samuel, the lawmakwer representing Odigbo Constituency II as Deputy Speaker of Ondo Assembly has been sacked by an Ondo High Court sitting in Akure.

The court also ordered the Assembly to immediately reinstate Hon Iroju Ogundeji as its Deputy Speaker.

Ogundeji, who represents Odigbo Constituency 2, was impeached for alleged gross misconduct.

The Nation reported that he was suspended in July 2020 and efforts he made to resume plenary following court orders failed.

The court which nullified the 2020 impeachment of Ogundeji as the Deputy Speaker, also ordered Aderoboye to stop parading himself as the Deputy Speaker.

Abba Bichi who is the son of the Director-General of the Department of State Security has denied reports claiming his mum, Aisha, ordered men of the DSS to assault the New Nigerian Peoples Party governorship candidate in Kano state, Abba Yusuf, at the Aminu Kano International Airport’s VIP lounge on Sunday, January 8.

It was reported that Aisha Bichi ordered the arrest of Yusuf following a confrontation they had at the airport.

According to the publication, the governorship candidate’s convoy caused traffic congestion which prevented Bichi’s convoy from gaining access to the VIP lounge.

An argument reportedly ensued and it is alleged that Mrs Bichi ordered her security details to arrest Abba Yusuf.

It is also alleged that Mrs Bichi ordered the assault of one of Abba Yusuf’s aide, Garba Kilo, pictured far left above, who she spotted filming the altercation.

However in a post shared on his Instagram page, Abba Bichi, denied the claims.

His post reads;

One of his goons attempted to go after the wife of the dg that’s when the DSS agents attached to her neutralise him which resulted in his injuries.”

”The wife of the DG DSS never ordered the arrest of abba Gida gida or the killing of his political goon! The convoy of the dg DSS wife was blocked by the thugs of abba and the DSS agents demanded entrance into the airport which the goons denied, the agents approached and the goons turned violent while abba Gida gida was watching from his car while all of this was unveiling!

The DSS agents decided to make entry again into the airport then abba Gida gida who was in his car decided to come down from his car and started harassing the DSS agents and ordered his goons to be violent, while all of this was happening the wife of the dg DSS came down from her car and pleaded with abba Gida gida to let it go which he turned on the wife of the dg and started raining insults on her.

The Aare Onakakanfo of Yoruba land, Gani Adams, has dismissed as untrue reports that members of the Oodua Peoples Congress were involved in the crisis that erupted in Ojota, Lagos, on Monday.

In a statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Kehinde Aderemi, Adams said the Ojota rally came as a surprise, adding that none of his members were part of the crisis.

“Let me clear the air on the crisis that had engulfed Ojota this morning. There were unconfirmed reports linking members of the OPC to the mayhem. I want to state it clearly that none of our members were at the scene of the incident.

“The OPC is not against the liberation of the Yoruba race, however, it is a fact that the struggle for the liberation of the Yoruba race is an inalienable right of all the Yorubas to champion self-determination. We are not part of the peaceful rally held in Ojota.“Our position on regionalism is very clear. It is sacrosanct because that is what we are seeking at the moment.

“Nigeria should be restructured to full regional autonomy, where each region will be at liberty to operate at their own pace.

“It is unfortunate that the report was done in bad faith to discredit our organisation.

“So members of the public should not be deceived by unconfirmed reports.

“Information at my disposal from the visual contents of happenings in Ojota indicated a peaceful rally that later went awry, leaving in its wake a bitter experience that led to the death of one of the Yoruba nation agitators.

“It is unfortunate that such a crisis could lead to such fracas that eventually claimed one life,” he said.

The Minister of Niger-Delta Affairs, Chief Umana Umana, has charged members of the Governing Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission to be faithful in the implementation of the recommendations of the report of the commission’s forensic audit.

Umana gave the directive while inaugurating the new board of the commission in Abuja, urging the board members to immediately hit the ground running.

This was contained in a statement signed by the NDDC Director, Corporate Affairs, Dr Ibitoye Abosede, and made available to journalists in Port Harcourt on Wednesday.

The new board has a former presidential aide, Lauretta Onochie, as chairman and Dr Samuel Ogbuku as Managing Director.

Umana stressed the need for the board and the management to strictly adhere to the provisions of the Procurement Act, as well as financial regulations to ensure prudence in the management of limited resources.

“Every contract above the threshold of management is to be referred to the Ministerial Tenders Board of the Federal Executive Council. Any breach of contract approval limits will attract severe sanctions,” he warned.

Umana also charged the board to look into “allegations of irregular employment from 2019 and follow up on the ongoing personal audit in the Commission to make sure all cases of employment during the period under review were in accordance with extant rules and regulations of the service.”

The minister urged the board members to focus on the completion of ongoing projects and advised them to shun the lure of the “award of spurious and indiscriminate new contracts,” to help in repairing the negative public perception of the NDDC.

In his remarks, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha, noted that the inauguration of the new board would not have been possible without the collaboration of the National Assembly.

Mustapha, who was represented by a former Permanent Secretary, Mrs Habiba Lawal, urged members of the new board to bring all their expertise to bear to transform the lives and environment of the region.

Also speaking, the chairman of the board, Onochie, appealed to Nigerians, especially people from the Niger Delta region, to give them the necessary support to deliver on their mandate.

The Commissioner of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Development, Sa’adatu Bello Kirfi, has resigned her appointment hours after her father, Bello Kirfi, was stripped of his traditional title as ‘Wazirin Bauchi’ and removed as a member of the Bauchi Emirate Council.

Kirfi, who was a retired federal civil servant, Second Republic Minister and former Minister of Special Duties, was removed over his alleged “disloyalty and disrespect” to the State Governor, Bala Mohammed.

In the letter obtained by our correspondent, the commissioner didn’t give any reason for her resignation. She merely stated she was resigning and thanked the governor for the opportunity to serve.