OPC Expelled members seek Tinubu’s support to remove Adams – OPC

The Oodua Peoples Congress has warned the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress and former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, against associating with some of its former members.

Bola Tinubu

The OPC, in a statement on Tuesday by its Director of Media and Publicity, Mr. Yinka Oguntimehin, said it had uncovered plans by dismissed members of the group to co-opt Tinubu to oust Mr. Gani Adams as the organisation’s President/National Coordinator.

According to the OPC, the dismissed members of the group had written a letter, dated August 4, 2015, to Tinubu, seeking his support and blessing to remove or get rid of Adams as the OPC president.

A copy of the said letter, which was made available to our correspondent, was signed by Rasak Balogun, Monsuru Akande, Musiliu Amusa, Adesina Akinpelu, Olayiwola Ogunsolu, Lateef Ogungbayi, Gbenga Egunlusi, Ranti Akande, Lateef Oshodi, Soji Folorunsho, Segun Olusanya, Idowu Akintunde, Sunday Bankole, Kehinde Ogunyale, and Sunday Adebayo.

The statement read, “The dismissed members, in a letter dated August 4, 2015, and signed by all of them, appealed to the former governor to help them with their plans to remove or get rid of Mr. Gani Adams as the National Coordinator of OPC.

“The names, handwriting and signatures on the letter tally perfectly with the information available in our archives. They have also mounted a campaign of calumny and malicious falsehood to malign the person of the national coordinator in the print and electronic media all to no avail.

“In their letter to the former Lagos State Governor, a copy of which was brought to our notice by a good Samaritan, the dismissed group regarded themselves as ‘The Ten Million Boys Strike Force’ – an appellation for their crude conduct. They are so desperate to enlist Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to get the support of the former governor and enlist some Yoruba leaders to create crisis in the OPC.”

The congress said its National Coordinating Council was in “unequivocal support” of the leadership of Adams and urged members of the general public to disregard its former members.

It further described as unreasonable the alleged efforts of the ex-OPC members, “who were expelled on account of their illegalities”, to seek the support of the former Lagos State governor in order to oust Adams.

OPC Expelled members seek Tinubu’s support to remove Adams – OPC

OPC Class In Kwara: Three killed, six severely injued

No fewer than three persons were feared dead  on Sunday at Agbamu in Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara State following a clash  among members of  the Oodua Peoples Congress.

An eyewitness, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said no fewer than six other persons sustained varying degrees of  injuries during the fracas.

He added that the injured victims were rushed to some undisclosed private hospitals in the area  for medical attention.

The source said trouble erupted when some OPC members, who were allegedly expelled recently from the group, stormed St. Paul Anglican Primary School, Agbamu, where  the 10th anniversary of the coronation of Arigbamu of Agbamu, Oba Samuel Dare, was holding to protest their expulsion before OPC National Coordinator, Chief Gani Adams.

The protest was said not to have gone down well with some members of the state chapter of OPC, which later snowballed into a violent clash among the OPC members.

A policeman at Agbamu Police Post, who spoke with our correspondent on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to journalists on the issue, confirmed to journalists that three people died.

He said, “We never envisaged this kind of security breach; hence, we would have called for reinforcement from other neighbouring police stations. By virtues of their large numbers, they held everybody to ransom.

“I can confirm to you that three people were shot dead, while several others were seriously injured. The injured ones have been taken to nearby private hospitals.”

The Police Public Relations Officer, Kwara State Command, Mr.  Ajayi Okasanmi, said he had yet to be briefed on the clash.

OPC Class In Kwara: Three killed, six severely injued

Buhari to revoke Jonathan’s contracts to OPC, ex-militants

Anyone who thinks that the administration of the incoming president, General Mohammadu Buhari would tolerate the surveillance of oil pipelines and waterways by private individuals or groups should better think again as there are now plans to discard the practice and revert to the use of conventional security agencies.

Saturday Vanguard’s investigations during the week indicated that already some highly placed persons in Buhari’s camp with military and security backgrounds have begun to fashion out ways that would facilitate the process.

It was gathered that the man behind the process was a Director in the All Progressives Congress, APC, Presidential Campaign Organisation.

His briefs included to liaise with experts in the sector and other people with rich legal background to work out the template for the new surveillance policy.

When this is completed, the incoming administration, we gathered, would further equip the Nigerian Armed Forces, especially the Army and Navy, as well as the police and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC and hand them over the job of protecting the oil pipelines and other installations both onshore and offshore.

The implication of this however, is that Buhari’s government would stop the contract with some former Niger-Delta militants or groups like the Odua People’s Congress, OPC in the South-west region which the Jonathan administration had awarded such contracts.

The contracts to ex-militants to police Nigeria’s waterways runs into billions of naira, the money, experts say should have been invested in the Navy to perform the role.

In the build up to the last general elections in the country, the media was awash with reports that the outgoing president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan awarded a surveillance contract estimated at about N9 billion to the OPC. OPC leader, Gani Adams severally thanked President Jonathan for the contract.

Buhari had Wednesday, during his meeting with Rivers State chieftains of APC in Abuja warned that his government will not tolerate”an army within the army or a police within the police” in the country.

He had also, at a forum in Abuja, told Nigerians that he would upon assumption of office reopen the books of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC for proper auditing in a bid to ensure transparency in the oil sector of the economy.

Speaking in exclusive interview with Vanguard, a member of the Board of Trustees of APC, Chief Sam Nkire said that Buhari would have to tinker with the contracts if they were not properly awarded.

According to Nkire, the outgoing government of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, had a lot of underhand deals with some groups.

“Well, once a government has been swept away, it ceases to exist. The new government takes charge and whatever it decides to do, becomes the law. If the government or presidency of Buhari thinks those contracts were not properly given out or were not given to qualified people, of course, the government will cancel those contracts.

“And from what I know of the incoming president, he will not waste a day to cancel those contracts because these are the reasons why Nigerians rejected the PDP government. Because, they did things that should not be done. They did things without recourse to the law.

“They did things with impunity and knowing Buhari as a man who abhors impunity; a man we can say is one of the incorruptible persons, I will be surprised if he does not revoke contracts that were wrongly awarded if he sees them”, Nkire said.

Other areas the incoming Buhari’s regime would look into according to Saturday Vanguard’s investigations include the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, an agency responsible for the regulation of the activities of Nigerian shipping, maritime, labour and coastal waters and the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS.

Sources who spoke to Saturday Vanguard said that the two agencies stink with corruption and financial improprieties.

“ Two other agencies Buhari must look into are NIMASA and FIRS. Stories of corruption in those organizations cannot be ignored. For the incoming president to be taken seriously in his pledge to fight and win the war against corruption, he must sanitize these places. They stink,” a reliable APC source added.

 

Buhari to revoke Jonathan’s contracts to OPC, ex-militants

OPC, Jonathan campaigners lead Lagos anti-Jega protest

The Oodua Peoples Congress and the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation in Lagos on Monday morning led other protesters to storm the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, demanding the sacking of the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, before the March 28 elections.

The bus of the campaign group and the members of the OPC, who massed at the 7UP/Toll Gate end of the expressway, led the protesters, who were chanting anti-Jega songs, giving reasons why Jega should be sacked.

The OPC members carried guns, cutlasses, pocket knifes among other weapons, occupying one end of the busy highway while some members of the groups harassed some motorists and passers-by plying the road.

Some people, who were clad in black vest, said to be beneficiaries of the SURE-P, also constituted a sizable portion of the protesters.

Heavy traffic built up along the highway as the protesters, who were well protected by heavy police presence, took over one part of the road, grounding movement of other road users.

The protesters took time to distribute leaflets containing seven reasons why the INEC boss should be sacked.

The leaflet also contained what the OPC described as the achievements of President Goodluck Jonathan and why the President should be re-elected.

The protesters are said to be on their way to the National Stadium, Surulere, through the Ikorodu Road, where they will hold a rally.

The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra on Friday protested in Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, among other locations in the South-East, calling for the immediate removal of Jega.

On Sunday, the All Progressives Congress alleged that it had uncovered a plot by its Peoples Democratic Party counterpart to fund ethnic militias to protest and demand Jega’s sacking.

It added that such ethnic militias included the OPC.

OPC, Jonathan campaigners lead Lagos anti-Jega protest

Nigeria’ll regret if Buhari wins - Fasehun

Says OPC will mobilise house-to-house for Jonathan

By Clifford Ndujihe

Frederick Fasehun

LAGOS—FOUNDER of the Oodua Peoples Congress, OPC, and National Chairman of the Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN, Dr. Frederick Fasehun, has asked Nigerians to brace up for years of nightmares, if they fail to re-elect President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 polls.

Speaking at his Century Hotels, Okota office, while receiving Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Niger Delta Affairs, Hon. Kingsley Kuku, yesterday, Fasehun said Jonathan deserves re-election on account of his achievements since coming to power.

He recalled the reign of the All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential candidate, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) as military Head of State and said he would not like to experience it again.

Assuring that OPC members will embark on house-to-house mobilisation for President Jonathan and ensure that he gets another four-year term, Fasehun said: ‘’I have been under the military before. Leopards don’t change their spots. What baffles me is Buhari has guts to attempt governing Nigeria again. It will not come to pass. When he came to power in 1984, he asked political leaders to report at the nearest police station. Many of them died in detention. That is the man who wants to come back to rule Nigeria. I don’t want to experience Buhari again. Four years of Buhari will be four years of nightmares.”

Apart from his achievements, Fasehun said he would mobilise for Jonathan because he has refused to abuse his presidential powers unlike some of his predecessors.

He said: ‘’For five years no Nigerian has been sentenced (extra-judicially) outside the courts. Jonathan is a democracy addict. He takes criticisms in his strides. We will work and ensure Jonathan gets four more years. Let Mr. President be rest assured that in this part of the country (South-West), any contestant with him will lose his deposit. We must go round from hamlet to village, from town to cities campaigning for Jonathan. Let us not lose the opportunity to enjoy Jonathan’s administration further. If we did, we will regret it.’’

 

Nigeria’ll regret if Buhari wins - Fasehun

One dies as police, OPC clash in Lagos

Members of the Oodua People’s Congress and policemen clashed at the Tolu Police Division, Ajegunle, Lagos State on Saturday evening.

Police block INEC Entrance

One member of the OPC, identified as Dauda Apampa, lost his life, while a police corporal, identified simply as Emeka, sustained gunshot in the incident.

PUNCH Metro learnt that the fracas was caused by a disagreement over the release of an unidentified man from OPC’s custody.

It was learnt that prior to the fracas, the man at the centre of the disagreement had been arrested by OPC men on Friday for allegedly raping an 18-year-old girl.

The OPC Lagos State Governor, Wasiu Afolabi, told our correspondent on the telephone that after his men had arrested the alleged rapist, policemen forcefully released him from their custody.

He said, “A young lady, who sells amala, reported that she was raped by one guy and we arrested him. The guy’s mother ran down to the police station and policemen came shooting and released the guy from our custody.

“The following day, which was Saturday, three OPC men went to have a discussion with policemen at the station in a bid to settle the misunderstanding, but in the process, things went out of hand and Apampa was shot and killed.

“After the killing, I had a chat with the policemen at the station and they claimed that my men were the first to attack and that they (police) shot in self-defence. They said a corporal was also shot in the fracas.

“But when I went to the hospital to see the so-called officer, I discovered that the police were only trying to cover up their crime because the policeman in question only had a minor injury.”

The OPC boss urged the government to look into the excesses of policemen, especially those attached to Tolu Police Station, as they had become notorious for such.

“I have told my boys not to retaliate. OPC men are gallant and if they decide to retaliate, there will be too much blood,” he said.

A police source at the station, however, said they went to effect the release of the alleged rapist because they learnt that OPC men were torturing him.

The source said they were trying to avoid a repeat of the Ejigbo torture which led to the death of a woman last year.

He said, “The case was not rape. An 18-year-old mother and a man had sex on the promise that the man would pay her N7, 000. After sex, the man refused to pay. Two days later, the lady approached the guy and told him to pay up, but the guy beat her up and chased her away.

“The lady then reported the matter to OPC men and they marched down to arrest the man. They took the man to a location and tortured him for many hours. When policemen got wind of the situation, they stormed the place on Friday and rescued the man.

“The man was then taken to the station where he was given necessary documents to take to a nearby hospital for treatment, while the 18-year-old lady came to the station to write a statement.”

The police source stated that a day after the man was rescued, the disgruntled OPC men, wielding guns and charms, stormed the station and threatened to burn it down.

The police source said, “They came to our station and started shooting. They said the police had no right to seize a suspect from their custody.

“The OPC guys were feeling invincible because they had put on charms for metaphysical protection and they started shooting. They shot a corporal, Emeka, and when we saw that we had no choice, we fired back.

“In the process, one of the OPC boys was also shot. He died, but his corpse has been taken away by his colleagues.”

Police Public Relations Officer, Ngozi Braide, who confirmed the incident to our correspondent on the telephone, said investigations into the shooting had commenced.

Braide said the policeman, who fired the killer shot, had been arrested to allow for objective investigation.

She said, “The policemen said they were under attack and shot in self-defence. However, the policeman who fired the killer shot has been arrested. Also, the corporal, who was shot by the OPC men is recuperating at a hospital.

“Normalcy has since returned to the area and security has been beefed up to prevent a recurrence at the station.”

Meanwhile, our correspondent learnt that the slain 45-year-old OPC man had been buried.

One dies as police, OPC clash in Lagos