Tag: Nigeria

Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the 2023 presidential election, Atiku Abubakar, has accused the presidency of twisting key facts that indicted president Bola Tinubu of certificate forgery to confuse Nigerians.

Atiku made the allegation on Sunday in a statement issued by his media adviser, Paul Ibe.

Recall Tinubu has been a subject of serious inquest in a US court following decades of controversy surrounding his educational records.

He had provided different accounts that he graduated from a Nigerian College after his initial presentation that he did not attend a college but wrote the senior secondary school certificate examination from home before proceeding to the US fell through.

The president also made another explanation that the certificate which the Chicago State University, CSU, issued to him alongside other students in 1979 upon graduation could not be found after a military attack on his house.

He said he proceeded to obtain a replacement certificate from a third party but three different certificates with various discrepancies are in circulation including the copy he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

These discrepancies including his real name, age, and if indeed he attended CSU after first filing before the country’s electoral body in 1999 when he was vying to be Lagos State Governor, that he graduated from University of Chicago prompted Atiku’s request to put to rest the confusion about the president’s identity.

The CSU indeed acknowledged there was a Bola A. Tinubu, who was its student, said the certificate the president presented to INEC ahead of the 2023 general election was not issued by it.

Atiku in the statement on Sunday highlighted the key takeaways against the president from the court saying, “On page 26 of the deposition which is publicly available, the Registrar of the Chicago State University, Caleb Westberg, under oath, was asked a simple question that, “CSU has determined that it does not have a true and correct copy of the diploma issued to Bola Tinubu is 1979, correct? To which the Registrar responded, “That’s correct.

“Also, on page 27, a similar question was put to Mr. Westberg: So, CSU, after going through every diploma, was unable to find an authentic copy of any diploma that CSU issued to Tinubu in 1979. Is that correct? The CSU Registrar, in his response, said: We did not find any diploma issued by CSU in 1979 to Mr. Tinubu.”

He further stated that when asked whether the CSU is aware of or in possession of the diploma that Tinubu submitted to INEC,” Mr. Westberg simply said, “Correct, we are not aware of it.”

Over the weekend, the confusion surrounding the president’s past worsened when his discharge certificate from the National Youth Service Corps was made public.

The NYSC discharge certificate showed the president commenced his compulsory national service in 1982 ending in 1983 with the name Tinubu, Bola Adekunle.

Soon after the certificate was made public, the president who’s always been known as Bola Ahmed Tinubu had his Wikipedia profile edited to read Bola Ahmed Adekunle Tinubu further raising eyebrows to what more the president could be hiding.

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Arsenal on Sunday defeated Manchester City 1-0 at the Emirates Stadium in their week 8 of the Premier league season.

Second half goal from Brazilian star, Gabriel Martinelli after 86 minutes gave Arsenal the maximum point in the game that was drab but full of energy.

Both teams adopted technicalities and patience to cancel each other out in the first half.

After coming on top in the first half in which the trajectory of the game shifted in their favour, City could only muster one goal shot on target.

Pep Guardiola’s men almost took the lead when Nathan Ake’s header was cleared off the line.

Arsenal not starting Saka showed clearly while Martinelli started from the bench.

Short of key players, Mikel Arteta started Trossard and Jesus but both could not influence the game in Arsenal’s direction.

Second half began with Arsenal replacing Trossard and the game came alive.

They pressed forward and put City under pressure. They even came close to opening the scoring via a corner.

But City retaliated as the ball was released to Alvarez on the left wing. His cross into the defence was cleared as City searched for a goal.

Despite a flurry of changes City could not dominate proceedings as Stones and Nunes came in for Lewis and Kovacic.

It was Arsenal that broke the deadlock when Martinelli hit a shot that took a huge deflection and found the back of the net to put them a goal ahead.

Arsenal are now second in the table with 20 points behind Tottenham while City are third with 18 points.

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Pope Francis on Sunday called for prayer for the restoration of peace in the warring nations of Israel and Palestine.

Recall that on October 7, 2023, Palestinian militant groups from the Gaza Strip launched a large-scale offensive against Israel, breaking through the Gaza–Israel barrier and forcing entry into Gaza border crossings, nearby Israeli cities, adjacent military installations, and civilian settlements.

The pope who was speaking at St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican, called for an end to attacks in Israel as he added that terrorism and war do not lead to a solution.

“War is a defeat. All war is a defeat. Let us pray for peace in Israel and Palestine.

“I follow with apprehension and pain what is happening in Israel. I express my solidarity with the families of the victims,” he told crowds after his traditional Angelus prayer.

He added, “I pray for all those who are living through hours of terror and anguish. May the attacks and the weapons cease, I beg you.

“Terrorism and war do not lead to a solution, but only to the death and suffering of many innocent people.”

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The Yoruba Youth Council has passed a vote of confidence on the Group Chief Executive
Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited Mr Mele Kyari.

It described the attempts by some unscrupulous elements to blackmail Kyari as a distraction
that would do the oil industry no good.

The YYC said that rather than joining other faceless group to blackmail the NNPC Boss, it
would further increase its level of partnership and support Kyari in view of the numerous
successes recorded by the GCEO in the oil and gas industry.

The group said it is on record that the NNPC GCEO was appointed at a time when disputes,
aside from oil theft and pipeline vandalism, were paralysing oil production.

However, it added that within a few months of stepping into office, Kyari was able to resolve these disputes.

The Yoruba Youth Council in a statement jointly signed by the President and Publicity
Secretary, Comrade Eric Oluwole and Saheed Adeola said when Kyari came in as the then
GMD in 2019, he instituted a multi-security control room manned by the NNPC and all
assets of the company were linked in real-time to the command-and-control center.

The Center was responsible for monitoring, locating, and reporting suspicious activities to
various security agencies for intervention. The effort led to oil production recovering to 1.6
million barrels per day at the close of 2022.

The YYC said that after seeing the damages which oil theft continued to wreck on the
country’s earnings, Kyari pushed the Buhari administration to re-introduce private security
arrangements which eventually led to the revalidation of Tompolo’s pipeline surveillance
contract.

Since then, oil production has continued to stabilize and seen a steady increase.

The Yoruba Youths said findings revealed that Kyari came at a time when disputes, aside
from oil theft and pipeline vandalism, were paralysing oil production. But within a few months of stepping into office, Kyari was able to resolve them.

These include the dispute between Shell and Belema Oil that shut in over 30,000 barrels per
day production in OML 25, and over agreements with SNEPCo and other PSC partners to resolve the disputes around another deep offshore block, OML 118, leading to the renewal of that acreage with the prospect of a new $10billion investment in the development of the Bonga South-East Field.

Among the resolutions was the execution of the Abo OML 125 Heads of Terms leading to the resolution of the issues around most of the deep offshore Production Sharing Contracts.

This paved the way for the renewal of OML 125 and further investment.

There was also the successful resolution of 1993 PSC dispute which holds over 90% of
Nigeria’s deepwater production, paving the way for unlocking over 7 billion barrels of oil,
20Tcf of gas reserves, and potential investment of up to US$40bn over the next five
years, and at the same time relieves NNPC of almost US$10bn in contingent liabilities.

The YYC also said Kyari achieved the commercial discovery of hydrocarbon in the Gongola basin of the Upper Benue trough and attained the Presidential flag-off of the Kolmani Integrated Development Project (KIPRO) on 22nd November 2022, with over one billion barrels of oil and 500BCF of gas addition to existing hydrocarbon reserves, which will go a long way to enhance national energy security, create jobs opportunities and stimulate balanced economic growth.

As part of the strategic drive to shore up national reserves, tje Group said Kyari expanded hydrocarbon exploration campaigns to the Sokoto and Bidda basins and achieved a spud-in for the ongoing exploration projects in the Nasarawa and Chad Basins.

Within this year alone, the Council said Kyari achieved first oil in OML 13, restored
production in OMLs 11 and 18, and currently working to achieve first oil in OMLs 83/85
among others.

Kyari is also taking major initiatives that will move towards achieving FID for major projects in the deepwater and frontier basins such as the Bonga Southwest Apraro, Bonga North, Prowei, KIPRO, Owowo, Bosi among others.

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A housewife living in Maiduguri, one Milly Yakubu Gowon, has alleged that her husband’s “side chick” (girlfriend), whose name she gave as Ummi Dogo also known as Na’omi Nathaniel, a staff of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), is tormenting her due to her inability to have children for her husband. 

Gowon had posted the picture of Nathaniel, the woman she claimed was having an affair with her husband under the caption: “You made me to hate you, and l hate you with passion. Leave my family alone munafuka.”

When contacted by THE WHISTLER on why she had to go the extra mile to post the picture, the housewife said she ran out of patience and could no longer “bottle it. You see, if you keep bottling something, there comes a time you get tired of it. 

“If I hear that my husband is befriending someone, who is supposed to look for someone’s trouble? The side chick or me? Isn’t she the one stealing from me? Well, she has the guts to snap pictures with him and be sending to me telling me she gave birth for him! People do not know what I’m passing through.”

Gowon said she has been married to her husband for 27 years without a child yet, but according to her, the purported girlfriend who has been having an affair with her husband for over 7 years bore two children for him.

Gowon said she has never met the woman before in her enitre life, but was told she lives in Bauchi. 

She said: “I don’t have issue with my husband, this is our 27th years in marriage, he didn’t say he doesn’t love me anymore. We are legally married. We had a church wedding. But because she gave birth for him, she is even mocking me with it simply because I’ve never given birth? She will snap and send the pictures to me saying God has blessed her with children. 

“She has been sending different friend’s request on Facebook but I just ignored her. Can you believe that she went as far as changing her name on Facebook after I blocked her and she sent another friend’s request just to be sending those pictures? I used to know her as Ummi Dogo but she changed her name to Na’omi Nathaniel, I don’t know if she did that just to get me or not, but that was also a name my sister’s daughter was bearing, so I accepted the friend’s request and didn’t bother to check the profile picture. 

“It’s been 7 years or more that I know her to be having affairs with my husband. I suffered so much pain because of this whole thing, and all this while I refused to voice out, but once you see a woman voicing out this way, it’s because it’s too much.”

According to her, she confronted her husband with the issue, asking him if she ever bothered him about the woman, and when he said no, she then asked him why the lady in question kept pestering her and looking for her trouble despite all they both did to her?

Gowon explained that years back when she heard about the woman and confronted her husband about it, he told her that he mistakenly impregnated the lady and nothing more was between them.

He apologised and begged for forgiveness.  

“So I told him when she gives birth,  please bring the baby to me and he agreed. But after some time, he told me it’s not all women that like their children away from them. I now said ok no problem. 

“Later on I heard that he gave birth to another child with the same woman again. I still confronted him since he said the first pregnancy was a mistake, then what about the second one?”

Mrs Gowon also revealed that she found out that her husband has another child elsewhere with another woman, “he has another child elsewhere that is 20 years, I never got to find out until when the girl was 17 years.”

According to her she has faced so much pain because of all the chaos around her childlessness and had concluded that, “Personally, if he likes let him flirt anyhow he likes, but let none of those women contact me. Let them leave me alone.”

Meanwhile, THE WHISTLER also got in touch with Nathaniel to hear her side of the story. But instead of disputing or comfirminig the allegations, she was abusive.

“Journalist so you are foolish like this that someone will send you to me to interview me? You are very stupid, do you know who I am? OK better mind yourself I’m not your type. Go back and tell her I’m more than you two for ever!,” she told our correspondent.

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