Category: Sentry

Sentry

Two Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors, Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and David Umahi of Ebonyi, were at daggers drawn last Saturday over a costly joke the former cracked on the latter’s relationship with President Muhammadu Buhari.

It is widely believed that Umahi is the closest PDP governor to Buhari, and the governor himself has made no pretence about his closeness to the President, so much so that it was speculated in the past that he would defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

But at a meeting of PDP governors and prominent party members as Wike was honoured by his Ikwere people in Port Harcourt last Saturday, a joke the Rivers State governor made of the Buhar/Umahi relationship struck the wrong cord in the Ebonyi State governor and almost resulted in fisticuffs between the two state chief executives.

The meeting was said to have begun on a convivial note and exchange of banter. Then entered Umahi, and Wike jokingly welcomed him, saying, “Ah, here comes Buhari’s man!”

The remarks elicited laughter from the other governors, but it did not resonate well with Umahi, who angrily asked Wike, “Who is more Buhari than you? I have many of your pictures with Buhari which are not known to the public!”

Umahi then threatened to make Wike’s pictures with Buhari public if he was provoked further by his host. Was Wike rattled? Those present said he was speechless. Umahi’s outburst ended the discussion on Buhari and the meeting moved to discuss other issues.

Sentry

This is a classic instance of the instability of human conditions. At the age of 20, he had become a millionaire at a time the naira was worth more than the dollar. At 26, he became the youngest Nigerian to receive the National Merit Award during the Ibrahim Babangida-led military administration in 1986.

Orji Uzor Kalu became the governor of Abia State when he was not yet 40 and ruled the state for eight years between 1999 and 2007. He capped a life on the fast lane with his recent election as the senator representing Abia North, eventually emerging as the Chief Whip in the upper chamber of the National Assembly.

But all that took a dramatic turn penultimate Thursday with his conviction by the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court which sentenced him to 12 years imprisonment for N7.65 billion fraud while he held sway as Abia State governor.

Although he has become a prison inmate since then, Sentry gathered that the reality of his new condition did not dawn on him until some of his associates began to visit him in the prison. Recall that the former governor reportedly asked the prison officials who led him out of the court after the judge pronounced his conviction: “Where are we going now?”

A few days after he landed in prison, one of his business associates was said to have paid him a sympathy visit but was shocked at the pitiable picture cut by the former governor, who was said to be wearing a pair of bathroom slippers.

“See me now eating in the prison,” a pensive Kalu reportedly told his visitor, who struggled to find the words that could console him. An erstwhile colleague of his as governor, who spent some time in incarceration, also visited him. The flamboyant ex-governor advised him to stay strong and regard his travails as another phase of life.

Sentry gathered that the former Abia State governor has been moved from Lagos to the Kuje Prison in Abuja for reasons no one could fathom.

Sentry 

More than eight months after he was reelected as governor and more than six months after he was inaugurated for a second term, Taraba State Governor, Darius Dickson Ishaku, finally appointed his commissioners during the week. But Dapo Abiodun and Nyesom Wike, his counterparts in Ogun and Rivers states, are yet to do so since they were elected or reelected in March.

No one seems to know why Wike who is fully in control of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State and has no opposition within the party is yet to appoint a cabinet.

Dapo Abiodun, on his part, says he is taking his time to woo credible and knowledgeable people who are doing well abroad to be part of his government. Among the eggheads being courted by Abiodun is said to be a respected female medical practitioner based in Europe and an engineer based in the United States of America.

In other words, Governor Abiodun wants a cabinet of technocrats who would help him to perform and has been trying to convince them, according to sources close to him. All that will be known when he eventually does. But that is not the story.

The story is that the governor gave some cabinet slots to his party in the state to fill and the party has not known peace since he announced the gesture because chieftains of the party cannot agree on those to be appointed.

The governor is said to be highly disappointed that APC leaders in the state are working at cross purposes and that the number of people nominated are so high that he would need another six months to screen them.

Sentry 

We are once again in that season of the year when ubiquitous presence of policemen is the order in major cities.

Their numbers on the streets can be intimidating, but it is nothing for motorists to worry about.

For the average cop, the issue around this time of the year is hardly about particulars but how well he can cajole motorists to make him part with something from their pockets.

To this end, they have designed such slogans as ‘Oga, your boys are thirsty.’

Sentry ran into a group of them in Lagos during the week and they greeted with the shout of ‘Daddy, Daddy! We’re here for you o.’

Sentry

Since the surprise defeat of Governor Seriake Dickson-backed candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the recently concluded governorship election in Bayelsa State, the story about town is that the PDP candidate, Senator Douye Diri, lost to his All Progressives Congress (APC) counterpart, Chief David Lyon, because the latter had the backing of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

That, however, is not the thinking of Governor Dickson, who was said to have told his close aides and associates that Jonathan was the least of his problem in the election because Diri’s defeat was masterminded by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Dickson reportedly said without Buhari’s influence, it would not have been possible for the APC to secure within 24 hours a stay of execution of the Appeal Court judgment declaring that the party had no candidate for the election.

Dickson was said to have argued that to secure the stay of execution order, APC needed a copy of the court judgment which it did not have. Lost on the governor, perhaps, was the allegation by APC that the judge who delivered the no-candidate judgment vanished into the Government House after delivering the judgment and became unreachable.

Dickson is said to be peeved that Buhari could stab him in the back in spite of his disposition as the most loyal PDP governor to the President.

He is also said to have accused an acclaimed national leader who is not in government but is well respected and influential of aiding his defeat after flying in a helicopter to meet with Lyon in Yenagoa on the eve of the election.

Sentry

A unique opportunity for the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and Edo State Governor Pius Obaseki to end their rift went up in smoke on Thursday.

Invitations were extended to the warring parties for the meeting of South-South leaders in Abuja where it was hoped that their differences could be settled, but the Obaseki’s camp declined the invitation.

The Governor’s camp chose not to attend the meeting on the ground that it would hold in Oshiomhole’s house and that would defeat the principle of neutrality in dispute resolution.

Though the governor and his people were said to have attended similar meetings in the same house, the governor’s handlers say that cannot be now as the relationship between both leaders have broken down irredeemably.

Efforts of a reconciliation committee previously constituted by the party equally came to nought. No doubt about it, Edo will be a battleground in 2020.

In a declaration that seemed to vindicate President Muhammadu Buhari’s call for a forensic audit of the accounts of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) when the leaders of the region visited him in the Presidential Villa recently, the Acting Managing Director of the commission, Dr. Gbene Joi Nunieh, was reported as revealing in an interview with journalists in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, that a certain consultant was being paid N1 billion monthly just for collecting money from international oil companies (IOCs) on behalf of the commission.

The furious Acting MD was also quoted as saying that the commission had suspended the monthly payment to the consultant, saying that it does not need an intermediary to receive the statutory payments due to it from the IOCs.

“We have a consulting firm engaged as a collection agent. We have another company that also collects 3 per cent whenever money is paid by the International Oil Companies. We don’t need a middle man to collect 3 per cent for gas. The money should just be paid into NDDC accounts with the CBN,” Nunieh said.

Some weeks ago, a colleague of Nunieh in the interim management had accused an unnamed senator of getting over 80 contracts, many of which were not executed.

Sentry gathered that Nunieh’s move is pleasing to President Buhari, who sees it as an indication that she knows what needs to be done to rid the agency of the rot that has bedeviled it for years and made nonsense of all the funds the Federal Government has pumped into it.

But there also lies President Buhari’s dilemma. The interim board that has Nunieh as Acting MD was put in place by Senator Godswill Akpabio in his capacity as the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs while the President has appointed a board which the Senate has cleared and is asking the President to swear in to take charge of the Commission’s affairs.

Akpabio, on his part, wants his interim appointees to continue and is believed to be enjoying the support of some Niger Delta governors and influential members of the President’s kitchen cabinet.

The President is now left to choose between going with Akpabio by retaining the Interim Management Committee and going with the Senate by swearing in the board appointed by it.

Sentry

Since he was charged with bank fraud and money laundering in the United States of America last week, the CEO of Air Peace, Allen Onyema, has been defending himself. His lawyers have also risen in his defence just as the airline’s Chief of Administration and Finance, Ejiroghene Eghagha, has been defending her integrity

But there is unease in the Amnesty office, the outlet charged with the responsibility of rehabilitating and reintegrating repentant members of the militant groups in the Niger Delta, where Onyema allegedly functioned as a consultant before he went into airline business.

Credible sources said that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is set to swoop on Amnesty Office to find out the kind of consultancy job Onyema did for them and determine whether Onyema made his money from the office.

It was also gathered that the chief executive officers (CEOs) of two banks, including one that is very active in the South East and was investigated by EFCC in connection with Diezani Allison-Madueke’s money laundering case, may be quizzed over the alleged laundered funds. Trust SENTRY to report the developments.

Sentry

The governorship elections in Kogi and Bayelsa states have come and gone, but the dust they raised may take some time to settle.

A N3 billion largesse a governor doled out to some influential members of the party in Abuja is causing a stir as some aggrieved party members are clamouring for sanctions against the recipients of the said sum.

Although it was difficult to know who got what, Sentry learnt that the errant party henchmen actually demanded for N6 billion to facilitate the victory of the party’s candidate but got N3 billion as advanced payment.

It was not clear at press time whether the governor in question would be willing to pay the outstanding sum with the party’s loss of the election or demand a refund of the sum already paid.

But it is more likely that the influential members would not get more than they have received even if they will not have to make a refund, because the governor who gave out the money is said to be peeved that the party’s National Working Committee has been “unduly quiet” about the results of the elections.