Billionaire Ned Nwoko has attributed the high level of prostitution to Southerners shunning polygamy

In an interview with Guardian on Saturday, Nwoko said a man with multiple wives focuses more on them as opposed to a monogamous man who lavishes money on girlfriends.

He also made reference to his ancestral lineage and that of the Ooni’s known for multiple wives.

Nwoko, who is seeking the senatorial seat for the Delta North, said: “Many women are out there on their own without husbands, especially in the southern part of the country, and there is a high level of prostitution.

“What some of our girls do to make ends meet is regrettable and if our men emulate their northern counterparts by having more than one wife, that could probably change the situation.

“The average southern may have only one wife but many girlfriends also, and he is spending his money on the girlfriends; sometimes even more than on his wife.

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“The man, who has three wives, for instance, concentrates on them and his children; every money he makes is spent on the family and he is more likely not to have any girlfriends or concubines. The money those with several girlfriends spend on them is a gift, not an investment in the family.”

Nwoko, who has four wives and 19 children, added that he and the Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II, were serving Nigeria by marrying many women.

“My grandfather and the Ooni’s grandfather and the then Olowo of Owo took many photographs together. So, the Ooni and I have that kind of common background, because our grandfathers were kings and served Nigeria in that capacity. And we are now also serving Nigeria by having many wives,” he stressed.

The All Progressive Congress (APC) youths in the North East has inaugurated an 88- member Presidential Campaign Council for the ruling party’s presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Gombe.

They said it is time to pay back for Tinubu’s love and support for the people of the region.

Addressing journalists after the inauguration of the council members at International Hotel Gombe, the APC North East Zonal Youths leader, Dr. Jason Baba Kwaghe said the council members selected almost on equal numbers cut across the six States of Gombe, Yobe, Borno, Adamawa, Taraba and Bauchi in the North East.

“He is a supporter of the North East. He has supported Atiku Abubakar from Adamawa state, supported Nuhu Ribadu from the same Adamawa state and picked Kassim Shettima from Borno state. I have never seen a bigger lover of the North East in the country than Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” he said.

He said the ruling party is relying on its structures across the country to deliver victory for Tinubu in the 2023 general election.

“Elections are won by people who have feet on the ground. We have 21 Governor’s of the APC, more than 80 senators and over 200 House of Representatives members. All these ones have sworn to the party and the people that they are going to deliver Asiwaju for the presidency and we are holding them for their words,’ he said.

According to him, Tinubu’s presidency for Nigeria means cohesion, unity and keeping to promise adding that Tinubu has worked all his life for the emergence of northern presidential candidate.

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“In 2007, we saw how he supported the current presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party PDP, Atiku Abubakar to emerge as the presidential candidate of the Action Congress and gave him the platform. Unfortunately he didn’t succeed. In 2011, he did the same thing with our brother from the same Adamawa state as Atiku, Malam Nuhu Ribadu as the presidential candidate of the ACN in 2011.

“In 2015, we all knew that without the support of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, as the biggest coalition member of the APC, a Buhari Presidency may not be possible and he repeated it again in 2019 so today for us in the North it’s only fair for us to payback this man that has been a lover of the north. This is our pay back time,” he said.

Kwaghe said Tinubu’s presidency is also presenting an opportunity to strengthen the bond of unity between the North and the Southern part of the country and this can only be achieved by fulfilling the former Lagos governor’s age long dream of becoming the President, saying “he has done it for our brother and we will do it for him now.”

Responding to a question on the NorthEast Region being Atiku’s stronghold, Kwaghe said it used to be so because there was no Northeasterner on the ballot but now with the emergence of Senator Kassim Shettima on the ballot, it will no longer be so.

He added that even though Atiku is coming from the region, it is the turn of the south to occupy the Aso Rock villa since the North West is about rounding up the slot of the North and it is only just for power to return to the south and the person in the south is Tinubu.

A 60-year-old grandmother and a pregnant woman were among those arrested during interdiction operations in which 5,527.15 kilograms of methamphetamine and cannabis sativa, as well as 132,090 tablets of tramadol and 2,000 bottles of codeine were recovered by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) across five states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja in the past week.

Spokesman of the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, made this known in a statement in Abuja on Sunday.

According to the statement, the grandmother, Mrs. Ibinosun Sandra Esther was arrested in Ibadan, Oyo state in a follow up operation following the seizure of 5.5kg Loud variant of cannabis imported into the country from South Africa.

Babafemi said the consignment, which she claimed was sent to her by her daughter was concealed in two giant speakers as part of a consolidated cargo that arrived the NAHCO import shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja Lagos on board an Airpeace Airline flight.

He said in a related development, NDLEA operatives also on Saturday 26th November intercepted 1.4 kilograms of methamphetamine concealed inside custard tins packed among cosmetics and foodstuffs going to Brazil via Doha on a Qatar Airways flight.

The statement revealed that a cargo agent, Salako Omolara Fausat who brought the bag containing the illicit drug to the airport and an intending passenger to Brazil, Anyanwu Christian who was to travel with the consignment were promptly arrested.

It reads: “Another attempt by a freight agent, Adebisi Aina Hafsat to export 3,000 tablets of tramadol concealed in motor spare parts to Banjul, Gambia through the NAHCO export shed was equally thwarted by operatives who seized the consignment and arrested her on Monday 28th Nov, while a follow up operation to Ebute-Meta area of Lagos the following day, Tuesday 29th Nov led to the arrest of the actual owner, Afam Chibuke Stanley, who is a spare parts seller. This was followed by the seizure of 100,000 tablets of Royal brand of Tramadol 200mg with a gross weight of 68.90 kilograms imported from Karachi, Pakistan on Ethiopian Airlines at the SAHCO import shed.

“In Abuja, operatives stormed the warehouse of a notorious drug lord and an ex-convict, Ibrahim Momoh, alias Ibrahim Bendel who escaped from prison custody to return to his criminal trade and recovered 81 jumbo bags of cannabis weighing 1,278kgs. Though the fleeing drug dealer is still at large and is wanted by the Agency, his warehouse keeper, 55-year-old Ghanaian, Richard Forson Gordon was arrested.

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“Ibrahim Momoh was first arrested on 27th November, 2014 with the same substance weighing 385.1kgs, prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to seven and a half years in prison on 22nd of April, 2020 but escaped from jail after three months. Meanwhile, no fewer than 2,000 bottles of codeine-based syrup were seized in a commercial bus by operatives on Friday 2nd December along Lokoja – Abuja expressway.

“In Rivers state, operatives on Saturday 3rd Dec arrested a 29-year-old pregnant woman, Kate Ibinabo with 34.4kgs cannabis sativa in Okrika area of the state. The Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd), CON, OFR, has however directed that she be granted administrative bail pending when shes delivered of her baby and thereafter return for her prosecution because at the time of her arrest, shes in her ninth month of pregnancy. In Ondo state, 241 bags of the psychoactive substance with a gross weight of 3,133kg were recovered from a building at Ilale Cashew, Ehinogbe, Owo, on Tuesday 29th Nov. At least, 507.9kgs of cannabis were also seized during a raid at the hideout of a fleeing drug dealer in Mushin area of Lagos on Thursday 1st Dec.

“In Cross River, 53 jumbo bags of C/S weighing 567.05kgs were seized from three suspects: Bassey Boniface Eyibio, 38; Effiong Akiba Etim, 30 and Ngbong Raymond, 45 at Mpara junction, Odukpani LGA on Thursday 1st Dec while conveying the consignment in a bus marked CKK 74 AA. Operatives equally arrested another suspect, Ali Mohammed along Potiskum- Damaturu road after they found 29,090 tablets of tramadol in his personal Honda car marked ABC 914 RW coming from Gombe to Damaturu, Yobe state.

“While commending the officers and men of the MMIA, Rivers, Ondo, Lagos, Cross River and Yobe Commands of the Agency for the arrests and seizures, Gen. Marwa charged them and their counterparts across other formations to continue to step up their offensives against drug cartels,” the statement reads.