AHEAD of the February and March 2023 dates for the general elections in the country, cracks are appearing on the wall of organized Labour in the country.

The workers’ unions as represented by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) cannot be said to be speaking with one voice as regards who should lead the country from May 29, 2023.

To say the least, the house of Labour is not united on the matter. Sentry recalled that last June, the leadership of both NLC and TUC announced Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) as the preferred choice of Nigerian workers.

NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, described him as one of the finest Nigerians and the first presidential candidate of Labour Party to be recognised by the labour centres. For his part, TUC President, Mr. Quadri Olaleye said all the unions were pleased with his emergence and ready to work with him. He said the entire labour movement had accepted him and would ensure workers vote massively for him in the presidential elections.

But chapters of the NLC and TUC in some states have since been rejecting Obi and endorsing others candidates for the presidency. In a surprise move, the leadership of the unions in Lagos State on Thursday endorsed the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, for second term in office.

Feelers reaching Sentry also revealed that Labour unions in Oyo State are on the verge of declaring their supports for a presidential candidate other than Obi.

Similarly, unions in Ogun State recently threw their weight behind the APC candidate, describing him as their preferred choice.

Organised labour, made up of NLC and TUC in Borno State, recently in Maiduguri, commended Governor Babagana Umara Zulum for being worker friendly and declared support for the candidates of the ruling APC in the state in appreciation of the governor’s performance.

In Cross Rivers State, some members of organised Labour are accusing the leadership of the NLC and TUC of trying to force them to support candidates of the Labour Party. In recent weeks, several petitions have been written to call attention to the development.

Sentry gathered that the development may not be unconnected with an earlier allegation that Wabba and Olaleye carried out the June 2022 endorsement of Obi without properly consulting with their chapters. “The crack did not start with the denunciation of Obi by the chapters, it started last year when our president publicly endorsed a candidate without consulting us,” a state chairman of one of the unions told Sentry in Lagos on Thursday.

It is left to be seen how the leaderships of NLC and TUC will manage this very open split over choice of candidate to back ahead of the elections.

Weeks to the 2023 general election, and at a time when other governorship candidates are working hard to convince voters to support their aspiration, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flagbearer in Lagos State, Dr. Abdul-Azeez Adediran, aka Jandor, is still battling for acceptance by his own party men and women.

Checks by Sentry revealed that he spent the better part of the Yuletide period visiting aggrieved party chieftains and groups to refute claims that he’s not serious about winning the gubernatorial contest.

“Not only that, he also spent time during each visit to reassure party leaders and members that he’s not an agent of the ruling party as he is being painted in some quarters,” a member of the State Executive Committee revealed.

“To many PDP members, it will be a waste of time and energy working for Adediran ahead of the general elections. They have been made to believe that he’s an All Progressives Congress (APC) mole in PDP. These allegations are so strong that he and his team could no longer ignore them.”

While Sentry was still wondering if it could be true that a candidate is still being suspected of spying on his very own platform barely a month to a crucial election, the man in the storm personally confirmed the reports.

Speaking during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, he denied being a mole and insisted he is strongly determined to end the ruling party’s reign in the state.

Jandor wondered why it is still being insinuated that he, a former APC chieftain and former leader of the Lagos4Lagos Movement, is close to the APC presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, when in actual fact he has never met with the former governor.

He said it would be illogical for him to be APC’s mole and be giving the party ‘headaches’ in his campaigns. “Though I was in APC for some years until January 2022, I had not had a one-on-one meeting with Tinubu. It might be difficult for anybody to believe.”

“I have not set my feet on his Bourdillon house. Yes, I was coming from APC, but I have never been elected or appointed. I have only been a consultant on that corridor,” Adediran said while struggling to convince his party members to believe him.

While Sentry is not in a position to determine whether he’s telling the truth or not, it’s just amazing trying to imagine how a man can be a mole in his own house. If Jandor is a spy in PDP, who actually is he spying on? Some of the party’s leaders in Lagos should kindly provide answers to this pertinent question as soon as possible.

AFTER months of trying to placate gladiators in the crisis tearing the Rivers State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), party leaders and concerned stakeholders within and outside are now left to wonder how messy things can get following the latest twists.

A couple of months to the 2023 general elections, the state chapter is factionalised into two camps made up of those supporting Governor Nyesom Wike, in his prolonged face off with the presidential candidate of the party, Atiku Abubakar, and those who are opposed to his war against the former Vice President.

While Wike had openly declared that the state chapter will not work for Atiku’s 2023 presidential aspiration, some prominent chieftains of the party, led by Senator Lee Maeba and former Governor Celestine Omehia, are defiantly backing the former VP.

Expectedly, Wike has declared Maeba, Omehia and those with them as dissidents who doesn’t mean well for the people of Rivers State. Efforts by some leaders of the party within the state to mediate between the two groups have failed. Sources within the party say things have finally taken a turn for the worse.

Findings by Sentry revealed that last Thursday’s attack on the residence of Maeba, who is the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Council in Rivers State, may have infuriated his supporters within the party who are now poised for a showdown going forward.

Suspected political thugs Thursday morning invaded the residence of Maeba in the GRA, Phase 3 axis of Port Harcourt. A source told our correspondent that the hoodlums had camped at a nearby street before storming the politician’s house, shooting sporadically at the building after breaking the gate into the compound.

About five cars, including a jeep, were reportedly destroyed by the invading army of thugs while three persons in the compound, including Maeba’s relative scampered for safety.

Checks by Sentry indicate that a group of supporters of the former senator are now guarding the house. Many of them pointed fingers in the direction of the state government and vowed to resist any further victimization of opponents of Wike in the state. “We won’t fold our hands while Wike and his people chase everybody out of town. Enough is enough,” an ally of the senator said on Friday.

But supporters of the governor are insisting that neither Wike nor his administration will waste time to plot an attack on Maeba. According to a former Commissioner who sought anonymity, “Maeba and those with him cannot win election anywhere in Rivers State. Why would our governor or government waste time going after him? If they choose to stage whatever drama just to show their paymaster that they are important, that is their headache. We are too busy plotting victory in 2023,” he said.

For weeks, since the first day of October, Senator Bassey Albert, the incumbent representative of Akwa Ibom North East senatorial district of and governorship candidate of Young Peoples Party (YPP) for the 2023 election, has been hard at work along with supporters of his very young party.

YPP was practically unknown to people of the state before the senator emerged as flag-bearer last June. He and his backers put up what many have described as a ‘very impressive show of force’ to reiterate his determination to defeat the candidates of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC) at the guber poll next year.

Albert was the Commissioner for Finance between 2010 and 2014.

After his many well-attended rallies across the state, many analysts started viewing the now embattled lawmaker as one of the leading candidates in the race. He was seen as capable of springing a surprise.

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No doubt, Bassey Albert and his young political party became much more visible across the state following the launch of his governorship campaigns and Sentry can bet that some of his associates and friends have already started dreaming of lives in the Government House.

Sadly, all that changed suddenly. Rather than dreaming of spending time in Government House, Albert is now cooling his heels in Ikot Ekpene prisons in the state.

A Federal High Court in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom capital, Thursday, convicted and sentenced the YPP candidate to 42 years in prison for corruption. He was prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC). The legislator was promptly taken to jail to serve his prison term.

Sentry gathered that he was accused of receiving bribes of 12 cars worth N254 million from an oil marketer, Olajidee Omokore, during his tenure as Commissioner for Finance.

The now convicted governorship candidate was a member of the PDP, the ruling party in the state until last June when he defected to YPP, after failing in his bid to secure the gubernatorial ticket of the ruling party.

The politician left no one in doubt that he was a major challenger to the PDP candidate, Umo Eno, and APC’s flag-bearer, in next year’s governorship election in the State. But with his incarceration following his conviction for corruption, his gubernatorial dreams have suddenly gone up in smoke. That’s unless he gets a judicial reprieve. Talk about a bitter twist of fate!

WOMEN in Adamawa State and beyond are celebrating the Appeal Court verdict that reinstated Senator Aishatu Dahiru Binani as governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2023 general elections.

The applause is largely from the ranks of women across party divides in the Northeastern state. Obviously, the female gender are solidarising with the embattled woman politician in the spirit of the Beijing Conference.

Several women groups have come out to applaud the verdict and called on Binani’s opponents to respect womanhood by throwing in the towel. Human rights group under the aegis of the Adamawa State Chapter of Women in Politics, (WIP) had earlier lamented the continued marginalisation and discouragement of women’s participation in politics in the country, following the October 14th judgment of the Federal High Court sitting in Yola, which nullified Binani’s candidacy. The women expressed their displeasure at a rally held in Yola the state capital.

But they are now rejoicing after the court reinstated her as APC candidate. The judgement was delivered by a three-man panel of justices, namely Tani Yusuf Hassan, M.O. Bolaji and James Abodego. It ordered that Binani’s name be submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) immediately.

Minister of Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen, has applauded the ruling.  She said women would lead Binani’s electioneering campaign through the length and breadth of Adamawa State. “I knew that we will make it. Today is a day that we are going to celebrate. From here we are moving to the house. We will move to the streets and watch what will happen in Adamawa. We will lead the campaign, Adamawa women already are fully mobilised, they have said that if she’s not given her mandate, they will not come out to contest or vote in any election,” she said.

The decision of a governorship aspirant, Nuhu Ribadu, to approach the lower court to seek the nullification of Binani’s candidacy over alleged irregularities, had angered many women organisations.

Ms. Comfort Ezra, a leader of the WIP in Adamawa, noted that according to the INEC, women and youths accounted for over 75% of the registered voters, but lamented that despite the figure women are still being sidelined and discouraged from aspiring for key political leadership positions.

She said women appreciate the wisdom of the justices for upholding issues raised by appellant in the earlier judgement by the High Court. Of course, her anger and that of numerous other women, against the judiciary, appear to have fizzled out as they celebrate the victory of one of their own.

Ayodele Fayose, former governor of Ekiti State, is in the news again. This time for what many call a good reason, following his pledge never to insult the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, despite their being in different parties ahead the 2023 general elections.

Not a few commentators on social media have described the controversial politician as an Omoluabi after he made the declaration.

Fayose, a chieftain of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), made the comment on Thursday, November 17, 2022 on Channels Television’s Politics Today.

“If people are expecting me to abuse Tinubu to show that I am not supporting him; I would not do that,” he said during the show. The former Ekiti governor and an ally of Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, claimed that despite the political differences some northern governors or politicians have with President Muhammadu Buhari, they don’t resort to abuses.

He described Tinubu as a Yoruba leader and as such, he won’t descend to disrespecting the former Lagos State governor. Fayose said he respects Atiku Abubakar of PDP the same way as the APC candidate.

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“Atiku Abubakar and Bola Tinubu are over 70 years old leaders, why were they sitting together to rub minds and did not carry cutlasses against it each other? Count me out of that (insulting Tinubu). I am not going to be insulting Atiku,” Fayose insisted. “I am not going to be insulting Tinubu.”

The PDP chieftain also reiterated his stance on power shifting to the southern part of the country. As far as he is concerned, since Buhari who is about to complete his second term is from the northern region, the southern part of the nation should produce Nigeria’s next president. Many have continued to interprete his position to mean he will back a southern presidential candidate.

Fayose’s stance is at variance with his position during the run up to the 2015 presidential elections when he descended heavily on the then candidate of the APC Buhari, who went on to win the election.

“Today, perhaps due to the Omoluabi tendencies he now exhibits, Fayose is no longer one to abuse someone older than him just because of political differences. That’s what the Omoluabi spirit can do,” a commentator on Twitter said

WHEN Anambra State Governor, Chukwuma Soludo, said the investments in the state by Peter Obi, former governor and presidential candidate of the Labour Party, are now “worth next to nothing”, he didn’t envisage the kind of brouhaha his comments would cause within the camp of the Obidients, as supporters of the LP presidential hopeful are called.

But Sentry wishes to inform the former Central Bank Governor that the ‘stone’ he threw at Obi’s house is now giving the inhabitants of ‘Obidient Castle’ sleepless nights.

Soludo spoke on Thursday during an interview on Channels Television. Obi served as Anambra governor between 2006 and 2014 amidst series of legal battles occasioned by impeachment and issues on election schedule. As part of the 2023 electioneering campaigns, some investments Obi said he made on behalf of the state when he was governor have been generating debate on social media as accusations and counter accusations continue to trail them.

While Obi and his supporters insist that the decision to make the investments is now benefitting the state, his critics say they cannot find traces in Anambra. The LP presidential flagbearer, in an interview in 2018, had said he invested $20 million in International Breweries on behalf of the state while he was governor. Checks by some independent observers revealed that less than $13 million was ploughed into the venture at the time, and the amount was now worth less than $6 million.

But on Thursday, Soludo simply undressed Obi publicly as he threw spanners into his claims over the controversial investments. The governor was asked about the value of investment made by his predecessor on behalf of the state.

Hear him: “There was something I read about somebody speculating about the value of whatever investment. What I have seen today, the value of those investments is worth next to nothing.” Speaking further, the Anambra governor said he would rather invest in infrastructure that will better the lives of his people than in a private company.

“First of all, you have to rebuild the public infrastructure; that is building the future. We are investing in our schools, hospital. We are creating Anambra as Africa’s leisure entertainment hub; modernising our cities; embarking on urban regeneration; giving our people light so that they can have quality air to breathe; controlling pollution, and dealing with flooding and erosion. I’m not going to leave those and say I’m saving money to go and invest in a private company.”

Sentry gathered that the Obi camp are still brainstorming on how best to react to the bad press generated by this negative remarks by the governor of his home state. And trust critics of the former Anambra State governor, they are not sparing him and his team. Social media has been awash with many describing Soludo’s statement as a damning verdict on Obi’s performance. To put it mildly, the stone Soludo threw into Obi’s house did more than enough damage.