President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has strongly condemned the brutal killing of 16 travellers in Edo State, describing the act as senseless, barbaric, and unacceptable.

Akpabio, in a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Media, Jackson Udom, expressed deep sorrow over the incident and called for swift justice to assuage the pain of the victims’ families.

“I am deeply saddened and disturbed by the gruesome murder of 16 travellers in Edo State. This senseless act of violence is unacceptable and has no place in our society,” he said.

The Senate President urged security agencies to conduct a thorough investigation and bring the perpetrators to book without delay.

“I condemn in very strong terms this heinous crime and urge the relevant authorities to ensure that those responsible are held accountable for their actions. Justice must be served to prevent further occurrences and reassure Nigerians of their safety.”

Akpabio further emphasised the need for unity in the face of violence, calling on Nigerians to resist divisions that could arise from such tragic events.

“As a people, we must work together to promote peace, unity, and understanding. We cannot afford to let such acts of violence divide us or undermine our collective efforts to build a better Nigeria.”

He extended his condolences to the bereaved families, the government, and the people of Edo State, praying for divine comfort in their time of grief.

“My heartfelt condolences go to the families of the victims, the government, and the people of Edo State. May God grant the departed peaceful rest and give their loved ones the fortitude to bear this irreparable loss.”

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He was a kingpin of lechery. On May 8, 2006, a South African court under Judge van der Merwe acquitted him of rape of Fezekile Ntsukela Kuzwayo, an HIV-positive AIDS activist, who was the daughter of his friend, Judson Kuzwayo. During trial, Zuma pleaded that the sex was consensual but admitted that he had unprotected sex with the lady. He then stunned the world with his bizarre claim that he had “showered afterwards to cut the risk of contracting the infection.”

In the process of studying power relations in Nigeria, sex as a phenomenon is often understudied or underrated. In other words, while power relations are known to be shaped by a complex interplay of factors that range from the economic, political, social, to the cultural, including individual characteristics and relationship dynamics, hardly are gender and sex reckoned with.

In my piece of March 6, 2022 with the title, Buhari’s Serial Rape Of Nigeria’s Lady Justice, I doubled down on a sub-theme of the powerful role sex plays in national politics. To do justice to this, I recalled a September 7, 2008 cartoon sketched by Jonathan Shapiro, award-winning cartoonist with the Johannesburg-based Sunday Times whose cartoon identity was Zapiro. I illustrated the piece with a submission that though political cartooning may look harmless, it can be nerve-racking, provoking the bile of political office holders and triggering a huge political umbrage in the process. This cartoon triggered a huge ball of fire in South Africa. Named ‘Rape of Lady Justice’, in it, Zuma, who was then leader of the African National Congress (ANC), and later to become president, was seen loosening his trousers’ zippers for a sexual romp. On his head was a shower cap. Before him, flung on the bare floor, was a blindfolded lady with a lapel inscribed, “Justice System” hung on her chest.

Four hefty and menacing-looking men knelt by the Lady Justice’s side, holding down the “wench”, whose skirt was half peeled off. They were political surrogates of Zuma in the ANC, which included Julius Malema, then leader of the ANC Youth League. The scale of justice had fallen down beside the Lady Justice, with one of the men smilingly beckoning on Zuma to clamber her, muttering, “Go for it, boss!”

That cartoon shot Zuma into a fit. Indeed, he immediately sued Zapiro for the sum of £700,000. Massive reactions followed it, ranging from the condemnatory to the laudatory. The ANC, SACP and ANC Youth League pilloried it as “hate speech,” “disgusting” and “bordering on defamation of character” and then petitioned the South African Human Rights Commission for redress.

I went into all these dogo turenchi, just as I did in another piece I wrote on February 6, 2022, to ask that we must not underrate the power of sex in high places. In that February piece, I borrowed a line from Irish poet and playwright, Oscar Wilde, who said, “everything in the world is about sex, except sex. Sex is about power”. With it, I submitted that the Wilde theory should tell us that there is an intersection between gender, sexual power and political power. This was further escalated by renowned scholar, Prof Wale Adebanwi, in one of his journal articles, where he submitted that “the African man of power must display or exhibit his virility – particularly sexual virility.” In the same vein, Zimbabwean journalist and blogger, Fungai Machirori, urged us to study the sexual histories of our men in power because, from the rhythm of their silently dangling penises, we may find a compass to their politics.

Last Thursday, the ghost of the spat between Senate President, Godswill Akpabio and senator representing Kogi West, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, will seem to have rested. In the relations of power in the senate, on that day, Akpabio, it will seem, had succeeded in showing Akpoti-Uduaghan that, as bland-looking as the old Nigerian pence looked, it was not a currency to be trifled with by the Kobo coin (Bí tọrọ ṣe yọ to, kíì s’ẹgbẹ Kọbọ). Not only was she suspended for six months for violating senate rules and bringing the senate “to public opprobrium”, her salary and security details were withdrawn while her office would be locked during the pendency of the suspension.

If you watched the senate proceedings leading to Akpoti-Uduaghan’s suspension, you would be sorry for Nigeria. Then, African-American Sterling Brown would come to your mind, just as you visualize Jonathan Shapiro’s cartoon in Akpabio figuratively loosening his trousers’ zippers for a forceful sexual romp with the Lady Justice. With same lens, you would see Majority Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, Adenigba Fadahunsi and other fawning senators holding down the “wench”, smilingly beckoning Akpabio to “Go for it, boss!”

Like Africans, African-Americans grew to know the wisdom which teaches that injustice is a furnace that burns and destroys. The life of Sterling Brown, professor at America’s Howard University, folklorist, poet and literary critic, was chiefly dedicated to studying black culture. In one of his poems entitled “Old Lem,” Brown wrote about mob violence and injustice which black people suffered in the hands of the American criminal justice system. American writer and civil rights activist, James Baldwin’s ‘The Fire Next Time’ also speaks to this theme. In the America of the time, black parents, aware of the danger of their blackness and the violence and death they could suffer, deployed folklore to cushion them, even as they told stories that depicted their skewed realities.

There was this famous folklore told to African-American children while growing up. Entitled “Old Sis Goose,” it goes thus, as I reproduce it verbatim: One day, “while swimming across a pond, Sis Goose got caught by Brer Fox. Sis gets pissed off because she believes that she has a perfect right to swim in the pond. She decides to sue Brer Fox. But when the case gets to court, Sis Goose looks around and sees that besides the Sheriff who is a fox, the judge is a fox, the prosecuting and defence attorneys are ones too and even the jury is comprised entirely of foxes. Sis Goose doesn’t like her chances. Sure enough at the end of the trial, Sis Goose is convicted and summarily executed. Soon, the jury, judge, Sheriff and the attorneys are picking on her bones.”

The morals of this old anecdote are two. One, as encapsulated in one of the lines of Apala musician, Ayinla Omowura’s track, is that, if you do not have a representative in a council where your matter will be decided, even if you are right, you would be adjudged guilty. The second moral is that, if the courthouse is filled with foxes and you are an ordinary, lonely goose, there will be no justice for you.

In the senate last week, Akpoti-Uduaghan was Sis Goose who looked around and saw that, beside the judge, Akpabio who is a fox, the prosecuting and defence attorneys were all foxes, too. Even the jury is comprised entirely of foxes. Though they appeared as unbiased umpire senators, they were flesh-starved foxes baying for blood of the hapless little Goose. And Sis Goose was summarily executed.

First, we must realize that, just like other Nigerian institutions, the power, glory, graft and corruption at the beck and call of Akpabio’s senate presidency is breathtakingly awesome and humongous. Don’t mind his suffocation of these agencies in his most times nauseating jokes, Akpabio has the power to literally turn anyone’s night into day. If you enter his senate as a pauper and find favour in his ego, you could upstage Mansa Musa, ninth Mansa of the Mali empire’s wealth. Owing to this largesse in his hands, as ants gravitate towards the pee of a diabetic, the senate president has the pleasure of a humongous number of solicited and unsolicited fawners and senatorial Oraisa (praise-singers) and hangers-on latching to his apron strings. It is a tactic to have a bite of the corruptive mountain of pies in the hands of the titular. This need to grovel by the feet of power was affirmed by Senator Opeyemi Bamidele. Akpoti-Uduaghan had alleged that, in a midnight call he made to her, he had threatened that, if Akpabio went down, she, too (ostensibly meaning a huge mound of free wealth) would similarly go into the incinerator.

As I recalled last week, immediately Akpoti-Uduaghan leveled allegations of sexual harassment against Akpabio on Arise TV, a build-up began to salvage Akpabio, the King Fox and prevent the largesse empire from falling. First came Onyekachi Nwaebonyi, senator representing Ebonyi North. Nwaebonyi’s fawning is nauseating. On a television show, he acknowledged Akpabio, a first among equals senator, as “our father” and had to be rebuked like an erring kindergarten pupil by the anchor of the programme. Nwaebonyi later came back to attack Akpoti-Uduaghan in the unkindest manner as a serial philanderer. Thereafter came Ireti Kingibe and Neda Imasuen. While Kingibe, who claimed to have driven herself to the television station, struggled frenetically to make her female senator colleague the victimizer, she deodorized King Fox as her victim. Imasuen, chairman senate committee on ethics, even before his committee sat on the alleged infraction of Akpoti-Uduaghan, told the world on another television interview that Akpabio shared same beatification qualities with Angel Gabriel. The question then is, if Nwaebonyi, Kingibe, Yemi Adaramodu and Imasuen could externalize an issue on television and not the parliament, what criminalizes, in the so-called senate rules, Akpoti-Uduaghan doing same?

At the televised senate hearing, King Fox, in defiance of the rules of equity and justice, was judge, jury and accused who sat in judgment over his own case. Second, it was obvious that the foxes had gathered for Akpoti-Uduaghan’s legislative obsequies. It was also apparent that the executioners had been carefully selected for the job. One by one, the senators assembled arsenal with which to shed the Kogi senator’s blood. Chief Whip Mohammed Monguno clinically prepared the guillotine. Spears, axes, knives and swords were readied. Monguno stood up and went into oblique narration of how Standing Order 55(1) had been violated. Now, like an objectionable character, a meddlesome interloper who Yoruba call Karambani, Kogi West Senator, Sunday Karimi, acting like all fawners at the feet of power, admitted he put Akpabio in “this problem” because he pleaded with King Fox to allot chairmanship position to Akpoti-Uduaghan.

Then, Ade Fadahunsi, ex-Customs officer, representing Osun East, began his own gibber on the floor of the senate. While accepting that the senate was a consequential parliament and that its integrity(?) had gone down, Fadahunsi saw the allegation of sexual harassment against King Fox as “mere trivial matter” and admitted he didn’t “want to know what is the undercurrent.” In his parliamentary arrogance, Fadahunsi even saw it as “an insult” for “a radio we licensed” to invite a man alleged to have gone on a rampaging libido to come and explain what he saw inside the pot of soup that made him tilt his hands suggestively (t’ó rí l’obe t’ó fí gaaru ọwọ). Fadahunsi then lifted the bible to reify his doggerel, fawning over King Fox in the process.

Still during the executioners’ hearing aimed at taking Akpoti-Uduaghan through the gallows, Mohammed Dandutse, representing Katsina South senatorial district, stood up, his babanriga fluffing helplessly like the lame hand of an invalid. He waffled so pitiably that you would wonder what he was talking about. After him, Cyril Fasuyi, in his usual kowtow, did not fail to fawn. Even Senator Ita Giwa, on television, propounded a bizarre theory which argued that, once a woman had risen to become a senator, she was immune to sexual harassment. This pitiably suggested that a woman senator must have had enough of men to be moved by the typhoon of their harassment. Nigerians’ mouths were agape.

So many issues crop up from the Akpoti-Uduaghan travails. The first can be seen from Opeyemi Bamidele’s argument in favour of her suspension. During this executioners’ session, he argued that the Kogi senator must have been so execrable in behaviour that, all political parties, all genders and all age demographics were in alignment with King Fox against her. Opeyemi did not tell Nigerians that the executioner senators were only defending their esophaguses in the hands of King Fox.

As argued by many, the National Assembly is our modern day equivalent of the “I” as “We” thesis, the secrecy and single-purpose pursuit cult of the Yoruba Ogboni fraternity. Espoused by Peter Morton-Williams in his journal article entitled, “The Yoruba Ogboni Cult” (Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 30, No. 4 (Oct., 1960, pp. 362-374) Morton-Williams didn’t follow Leo Frobenius’ earlier 1910 examination of the Ogboni cult in Ibadan, in the process of which he referred to its members as “mystery-mongering greybeards’.

Morton-Williams classified the Ogboni Cult into two grades membership – the Wé-Wé -Wé – ‘children’ of the cult, its junior grade Ologboni or Alawo (Owners of the Mystery or the Secret), and the the Olori Oluwo, ritual head of the Ogboni. The Nigerian senate is similarly classified, with the Senate President replicating the Oluwo. The senate chambers, which is akin to the Ilédì (lodge) of the Ogboni, is where secrets are lidded. In Ogboni cult, kolanuts are split and eaten as an act of reminder that the Ogboni members are bonded in secrecy. This act makes it very hard for any of the Ogboni to factionalize the fraternity and breaking the pod of secrecy that binds the cult. Any member who violates this code courts ritual sanction. As the Ẹdan Ogboni, a pair of brass/bronze figure that represents male/female, linked by a chain, is a symbol of membership and abidance by the rules, so is the Senate Order book. So, when Remi Tinubu, a woman who had also once been a victim of verbal sexual flagellation, also came out to reinforce the power of the secrecy of the Senate over an alleged debasement of womanhood, it only confirmed the fraternal solidarity of this modern senate cult.

The Akpoti-Uduaghan travails have so many symbolisms. One is gender, in which case, the Kogi senator is suffering the audacity of her femininity. In this patriarchal society, it is a crime for a woman to be beautiful, brainy and, on top of it, attempt to disrupt the status-quo. The penal sanction meted out to such disruptors is ostracism or death, as is in the Ogboni cult. Second is that, as the pigeon (eyele), the bird that eats and drinks with the house owner in time of plenty, the senate fraternity considers it sacrilegious for Akpoti-Uduaghan to repudiate the fraternity oath. The Ilédì, Senate chambers, a la Senator Ita Giwa, is home for the lascivious, the sleazy and the heart-wrenching. As the harvest for the seed of membership of Ogboni is prestige, wealth and societal honour, for the Nigerian senator, it is humongous cash. If Akpoti-Uduaghan is aquaphobic, not ready to face the ostracism that logically comes from fighting a fraternity’s status-quo of which she had been a member, she had no reason to jump inside the river.

For the man of power, sex is a conquest game, won either by shedding drops of a virile libido or the victory of ego over a woman traducer. It was what Adebanwi meant by his “the African man of power must display or exhibit his virility – particularly sexual virility.” As it stands now, Fox Akpabio has succeeded, according to Akpoti-Uduaghan’s unsubstantiated allegation, in being “made happy” through his summary execution of the Goose. For how long? Only time will tell.

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The Nigerian Senate has suspended Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan for six months following allegations of misconduct and violation of the Senate’s Standing Rules.

Her suspension, announced during Thursday’s plenary session, stems from a heated dispute with Senate President Godswill Akpabio, whom she accused of sexual harassment—an allegation he has denied.

Reading the recommendations of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Code of Conduct, Akpabio declared:

“That the Senate do suspend Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan for six months for her total violation of the Senate Standing Rules (2023 as amended) for bringing the presiding officer and the entire Nigerian Senate to public opprobrium.”

Efforts by some senators to reduce the suspension to three months were unsuccessful as a majority vote upheld the six-month penalty. However, the Senate left room for reconsideration, stating that the suspension could be lifted or shortened if she submits a written apology.

“For the Senate to consider lifting this suspension or reducing the tenure of the suspension, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan shall submit a written apology to the Senate before her reconsideration,” Akpabio added.

Despite the suspension, the Senate ruled that salaries for Akpoti-Uduaghan’s legislative aides should continue.

“The aides of Natasha are not Natasha,” Senator Orji Kalu argued while seeking an amendment to the sanctions. “It would be wrong for this Senate to deprive these aides of their allowances.”

Following the decision, the Kogi Central lawmaker was escorted out of the chamber by the Sergeant-At-Arms. Before exiting, she reportedly declared, “This injustice will not be sustained.”

Origins of the Controversy

The crisis began on February 20, 2025, after a seating arrangement dispute between Akpoti-Uduaghan and Akpabio. She later accused the Senate President of sexual harassment and abuse of office, submitting a petition to that effect.

However, the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions, led by Senator Neda Imasuen (Edo South), dismissed her claims. The committee ruled that her petition was “dead on arrival” due to procedural lapses, particularly her decision to personally sign the petition instead of securing an external endorsement.

Undeterred, Akpoti-Uduaghan re-submitted the petition, but the committee, on the same day, recommended her suspension for violating Senate rules.

Additional Sanctions

Apart from the suspension, the Senate resolved to:

Lock her office for the duration of the suspension.

Bar her from the National Assembly premises.

Halt her salary payments, although her aides will continue to receive their allowances.

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First, the two issues that threw Akpoti-Uduaghan and Senate President Godswill Akpabio to centers of discourse have throwbacks to and possess symbolic bearing in American and biblical history. Many have berated her on why a trifling matter of space/seat allocation on the floor of the parliament should get her that worked up. They must, however, have forgotten that one of the issues that women who try to square up to men in a patriarchal society like ours face and fight is visibility. While in pursuit of the male dominance thesis, men try to hold women down, such women try to assert themselves and create visibility for themselves.

Akpoti-Uduaghan’s squabble over seating arrangement and Akpabio’s senate’s resistance and insistence on maintenance of status-quo remind me of the famous Montgomery bus altercation of 1955. On December 1 of that year in Montgomery, Alabama, a 42-year-old woman named Rosa Parks did what philosophers call against method. Paul Feyeraband, an Austrian philosopher, had in 1976 pioneered that thesis. In a racial American society of the time where blacks were inferior and expected to leave their bus seats for whites, Parks refused to give up hers for a white male passenger. Her refusal sparked off a boycott that changed the paradigm of racial relationships in America. It even shot the less-known Martin Luther King Jr to world recognition. At the risk of sanctions for her impudence, Parks had reportedly told the Montgomery bus driver, “My feet are tired.” Like Parks’ fight for the visibility of the black race, Akpoti-Uduaghan’s resistance was a fight for the visibility of women.

If other women in the senate like Ireti Kingibe had seen the fight as being beyond mere seat allocation into an underscore of their womanliness and fight against the irritant male-dominated status-quo, they probably would have given the Kogi senator more collective push. Like Bettina Aptheker wrote in her Foreword to Nawal El Saadawi’s A daughter of Isis, “women (daily) struggle for voice and human dignity and to overcome the binds of patriarchy…and are crushed under patriarchal conventions”. Women’s sexuality is constantly crushed in this struggle.

The second issue that flows from the first is Akpoti-Uduaghan’s allegation of sexual harassment. People have taken stands either on account of their stomachs, what lies between their thighs or their political affiliations. Again, the allegation is a symbolism. Many who cannot stand Akpoti-Uduaghan’s femininity or her boldness to underscore it in a patriarchal senate have likened her allegation to the biblical Portiphar’s wife who alleged that Joseph wanted to sexually assault her. Many have also brought out her alleged history which they claim feeds the trope of her usual allegations of blackmail against the male gender. If allegation is a typecast, Akpabio’s alleged history with women validates Akpoti-Uduaghan’s allegation. A couple of years ago, Joy Nunieh, a former NDDC MD, had alleged that she slapped the senate president when he attempted to sexualise her in his guest house at Apo, Abuja.

On an Arise News interview, Ireti had attempted to infantilise Akpoti-Uduaghan, the same way a huge percentage of the senate fatherlise Akpabio, who is only first among equals in the parliament. This is due to the huge war-chest in the possession of his leadership and capability to substantially jerk up members’ personal finances through graft. The other day, on the same television station, Peter Onyeka Nwebonyi, representing Ebonyi state, did this by claiming that Akpabio was “our father.” Last Friday, Kingibe did this, too, by referring to Akpoti-Uduaghan as “my daughter”. She further fell into the argumentative pitfall of claiming that since Akpabio never assaulted her and the two other female senators, Akpoti-Uduaghan’s allegation must be concocted. I pray thee, do these elderly women still possess their colleague’s sultry disposition? And, isn’t it a rarity to see lascivious flesh-devouring vultures attempt to take grandmothers for supper?

We cannot suffer on all fronts by having a national assembly that is allegedly a cesspit of Nigerian national patrimony-devourers, as well as a home for devourers of the flesh of our women. Yes, it is almost an impossibility to prove sexual harassment by a woman, but Akpoti-Uduaghan’s boldness and the sheaves of evidence she claimed to possess to buttress her claim should be encouraged. No one must attempt a “family affair” settlement, or else one more rascally libido would be let loo loose.

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The Senate and House of Representatives have postponed their plenary resumption, initially scheduled for Tuesday, January 28, 2025, to Tuesday, February 4, 2025.

This development was announced in separate statements by the two legislative chambers on Friday.

According to the Clerk of the Senate, Andrew Nwoba, the shift in date is due to the ongoing defense of the 2025 budget proposal by Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).

“Please be informed that there is a change in the resumption date due to the ongoing budget defense. It has been rescheduled from Tuesday, 28th January 2025, to Tuesday, 4th February 2025, at 11:00 am prompt,” Nwoba stated.

Also, the spokesperson for the House of Representatives, Akin Rotimi, cited the need to give committees sufficient time to conclude their budget engagements as the reason for the postponement.

“The postponement is necessary to allow Committees sufficient time to conclude ongoing budget engagements and defenses with Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs),” he said.

“This measure ensures a thorough and comprehensive approach to legislative responsibilities. The House remains committed to fulfilling its legislative mandate for the benefit of Nigerians and appreciates the understanding of all stakeholders,” Rotimi added.

President Bola Tinubu had on December 18, 2024, presented the ₦49.7 trillion 2025 budget proposal to a joint session of the National Assembly for consideration and approval.

The budget defense by MDAs is a critical phase in the budgetary process, as lawmakers scrutinize allocations to ensure they align with the nation’s developmental priorities.

With the postponement, both chambers reaffirm their dedication to ensuring due diligence in the passage of the 2025 Appropriation Bill.

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Oyo State governor and Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, Mr. Seyi Makinde, has declared that there is no truth in the claim by the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, that states of the federation got an additional N30 billion each outside of their statutory revenue allocations, to address food insecurity in their states.

The governor stated this on Thursday, noting that Oyo State has not received any N30 billion from the FIRS or the Federal Government, adding that his government has been and will always be open and transparent to the people of the state.

Makinde, who added that he has been doing everything to cushion the effect of the economic hardship on the people, warned that leaders should instill confidence and hope in the citizenry in this trying time rather than playing the blame game.

Makinde stated this in Iseyin, where he commissioned the newly-renovated multi-billion Naira Iseyin Central Mosque facilitated by legal icon, Ahmed Raji, SAN, hailing the religious harmony in Oyo State as being exemplary.

He stressed that apart from Oyo State not getting N30 billion from any agency or department of the Federal Government, he could say the same for his colleague-governors as vice chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF).

Governor Makinde decried Akpabio’s reliance on unverified reports, clarifying that states couldn’t get funds from the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), since all revenues go into the Federation Account and belong to the Federal Government, states, and local governments.

According to Makinde, the only fund that Oyo State got from the Federal Government outside of statutory allocation was N2 billion out of the N5 billion promised to all states in the wake of the removal of fuel subsidy, adding that the Federal Government had even been asking for the refund of the N2 billion

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President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, on Thursday, assured foreign investors of the safety of their investments in Nigeria, just as he restated the commitment of the Federal Government under President Bola Tinubu, to providing a conducive business environment for Foreign investors in the country.

Senator Akpabio stated this, in his office while receiving in courtesy, the JAMPUR INTERNATIONAL GROUP FZE, led by the CEO, Mohammed Shafiq.

According to him, ” I welcome you on behalf of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Nigeria is very safe and ready for investors. I am aware you are already investing in Nigeria in the area of mining, power, and trading. Thank you for employing Nigerians in your companies”.

Speaking further, Akpabio noted that the decision of the Federal Government to put in place a single rate for foreign exchange was a deliberate attempt by the government to further assure foreign investors of the safety of their investments anywhere in the country.

“The current administration has been able to normalize our foreign exchange rate by having only one window. Investing in Nigeria is worth the while because of the returns on investments based on our population of over 200 million and the land mass.

“The President is ready to ensure that people get value for their investments, himself being a strong businessman. He has a track record of achievements in Lagos State when he was the governor. Lagos today has become one of the largest economies in Africa because of the foundation he laid.”

Akpabio assured his visitors of the safety of their investments through legislation, saying ” I assure you that the Federal Government will do everything humanly possible to protect your investments by putting in place enabling laws on investments and security for its citizens and foreign investors”.

Earlier in his speech, Muhammed Shafiq said he was in the Senate to formally congratulate the President of the Senate on his emergence as the Chairman of the National Assembly and to wish him well in office.

” We are here to congratulate you on your election as the President of the Senate and to intimate you on our readiness to continue to partner with the government in the area of mining, agriculture, and power.”

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President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has provided financial relief to the children of the Salvation Army Officers, who lost their lives in a ghastly auto crash that occurred on the bridge across Ovia River, near Benin City, Edo State.

The accident occurred while they were returning from the Church’s Officers’ (Pastors’) Council in Lagos.

Those who were present during the presentation of the financial support of 10 Million Naira (N10,000,000) on behalf of the President of the Senate were, Envoy Nsentip Akpabio, Hon Victor Udofia, and TBM Joseph Akpan.

Prayers of strength and fortitude for the children of the deceased to bear the irreplaceable loss took place at the Akwa Ibom South East Divisional Headquarters of The Salvation Army, Akai.

Speaking on behalf of the President of the Senate at the presentation of the financial assistance, Envoy Nsentip Akpabio, said “The president of the Senate was more concerned about the welfare of the bereaved children and has also promised to do more, to give them productive and fulfilling future, through the provision of shelter, education and employment support. ”

Envoy Akpabio further disclosed that the President of the Senate decided to provide financial assistance in consideration of the immediate needs of the bereaved such as food, noting that “the loss of parents could put kids at a high risk of food insecurity.

Responding on behalf of the bereaved children, the Divisional Commander of Akwa Ibom South East Division, Major Udo Uwak, thanked and prayed for God’s continued blessings and protection upon the President of the Senate for promptly responding with hope and humanitarian aid to the children.

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Speaking at the Dinner organized for supporters of the Akpabio-Barau ticket, by the Stability Group, led by former Governor of Ebonyi State and Senator-elect Dave Umahi, Vice President Shettima, for the umpteenth time reiterated the commitment and strong support of President Bola Tinubu and the National Working Committee (NWC) of the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC) to the candidature of Senators Akpabio and Barau for the leadership of the 10th Senate.

According to him, “We are all in support of the emergence of Senators Akpabio and Barau as President of the 10th Senate and Deputy respectively. This support is intended to further engender unity and stability of the country.”

The Dinner which was held at the Transcorp Hotel in Abuja, had in attendance the majority of Senators-elect across party lines, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, and Alhaji Kashim Imam, among numerous others.

Vice President Shettima stated further, ‘’Apart from the religious angle, Senator Akpabio is very competent and he can lead the 10th National Assembly. At the same time, he is from a very important zone and he is also a man of Christian faith. So, in line with the Constitution of our country and conformity with the plurality of our union, the party and indeed, the President, thought it fit to support him’’.

As a practical demonstration of what should be done to cement the country together as one indivisible entity, Shettima said, ‘’Personally, my Chief Security Officer (CSO) is an Igbo man, who had worked with me when I was governor. He has been a dedicated and loyal officer, even in the heat of the Boko Haram attacks in Borno.

“My ADC is a Christian from the North, who has been with me for a very long time. When I appointed him, they said he is too junior by rank to be my ADC, but I insisted and even told them to make him my acting ADC pending when he would be promoted to the rank, he stressed”.

The Vice President assured the Senators-elect of his readiness to continue to work for the success and aspirations of the group by talking to those who were yet to join the group which he described as the “winning team”.

” I have been campaigning privately for Senators Akpabio and Barau and I will continue to do that till we deliver them on Tuesday. I will be leaving this dinner for another meeting with some senators who are yet to register their support”, he disclosed.

In his short speech at the well-attended dinner, the chairman of the Stability Group, Dave Umahi, thanked the vice president and the SGF for finding time, out of their very tight schedules to visit and solidarity with the Group, assuring them of the readiness of the Senators-elect to work for Nigerians and support the Renewed Hope agenda of the President for the benefit of Nigerians.

In his remarks, the SGF disclosed that even before he was appointed the SGF, he was already drumming support for the Akpabio-Barau ticket. He described the Stability Group as where to be because the Tinubu-led administration needs all forms of support to kick off on a very sound note.

Speaking at the event, the preferred candidates of the party, Senators Akpabio, and Barau, were short of the appropriate words to use in expressing their happiness for the support their aspirations have garnered from their colleagues when their endorsement was made public by the president and the leadership of the party.

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The leaders of Niger Delta Ethnic Nationalities Youth Forum ( NDENYF), on Thursday in Abuja, the nation’s capital, passed vote of confidence on  President Muhammadu Buhari and Minister, Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, for their commitments to the peace and  development of the region.

The group,  made up of all ethnic nationalities across the nine states of the Niger Delta Region, stated this while on a courtesy visit to the office of the Minister Niger Delta Affairs.

In a communique read on behalf of the youth group by its National President, Comrade Terry Obieh, the group said, ” we acknowledge the commitment of the President in continuing with the Amnesty Programme; the ongoing works on the East-West road which we hope will be completed in 2022 and hereby pass a vote of confidence on Mr President and the Minister for their development strides in the region, since they came on board.”

“We commend the Minister, Niger Delta Affairs on the efforts of his Ministry in fixing the failed section at Mkpolu which had claimed lives and obstructed commercial activities in the area. This is a major drainage channel which today, has saved lives of the residents.”

The group thanked the current leadership of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), through the directives of Mr President, for embarking on the completion of abandoned projects in the region, saying, ” we applaud the new focus of the NDDC which is aimed at completing abandoned projects; some dating back to 14 years ago, and some which started during days of the OMPADEC, such as the completion and commissioning of the 14 storey NDDC headquarters complex, the recent commissioning of the SPU Quarters for the Nigeria Police and completion of over 77 roads in the region by the NDDC without awarding any new contract are commendable.”

The communique noted the efforts of the President Buhari-led administration towards the Ogoni Clean- Up, stressing, ” we commend the President on the Ogoni- Clean Up, while urging him to extend the exercise to other parts of the Niger Delta. We appreciate the efforts of the Minister in ensuring the provision of electricity in Ondo South with a 132KVA substation, started by the NDDC over 12 years ago. We equally applaud the completion of the 1000 bed space hostel accommodation which will soon be commissioned at the University of Uyo by the NDDC. We urge the NDDC to look into the one at Niger Delta University. “

The Niger Delta Youths did not end their visit without placing some demands on President Buhari through the Niger Delta Affairs Minister, saying, ” with the completion of the Skill Acquisition Centres by the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, we call on the NDDC and the Ministry to initiate empowerment programmes for Youths and take them off the streets, noting, with the upcoming Christmas celebrations, the Youths have asked us to inform the Minister and the NDDC to initiate programmes that will empower them for a peaceful celebration.”

The group declared its support for the recently concluded forensic audit exercise into the activities of the NDDC, stating, ” we support the Forensic Audit exercise and we urge the President to make the report public inorder to expose the offenders and recover monies looted from the NDDC for further development of the region, adding, we join other voices across the region and the country to call for the constitution of the NDDC board with terms of reference.”

According to the three page communique, ” we call for a special financing intervention for the East-West road. Information available to us is that the RCC handled the failed portions of the road. We request that Mr President directs that Julius Berger or some other competent hands take over the construction of the East-West road for the benefit of all.”

Earlier in his welcome remarks, the Minister, Niger Delta Affairs Ministry, Senator Godswill Akpabio, thanked the Youths for the visit which he described  as a welcome development, noting, ” instead of having divided voices in the region, the youth leaders have today decided to come together as one. This unity would have not have come at a better time than now. A period where President Muhammadu Buhari is  doing a lot  for the region.”

” A period where the forensic audit has exposed over 14 thousand abandoned projects scattered allover the region. This exposure shows that the incoming board of the NDDC will have to continue and complete those projects for the people to own and use them. The current government will leave behind an NDDC with new terms of reference.

“This is a period of new focus for the empowerment of the people of the region and their development. A period when Niger Delta Youths are more focused than others which has made the region to be known as the most peaceful in the country, ” Akpabio stressed.

Speaking further, the former Senate Minority Leader, charged the youths of the oil producing region to continue to maintain the current peace for the speedy development of the region as planned by the Buhari- led administration, saying, ” as a government determined to take care of the future of our youths, we have put in place, Skill Acquisition Centres across the region. At the just concluded world forum in Paris, I canvassed for foreign investments  in the region because of the peaceful disposition of our youths. I went there mainly to sell our potentials to the international investors and community.”

According to Akpabio, ” this is the period Nigeria is trying to diversify its economy and the people of the region should be the first to embrace it. Our youths must do everything possible to be part of this new interest. It is a region that a lot must be done because the youths need empowerment. In the past, the region was neglected by successive governments, but the  current administration led by President Buhari is more than determined to make life meaningful for the people through infrastructural development and empowerment of the people.”

The Minister disclosed that he was delighted  to work  with the youths as their Minister. ” I am delighted to work with you as your Minister. We can talk to each other, inorder to have a better understanding of ourselves as a people. Let there be constant communication amongst us. When we are not well informed, fake news thrive in the society.”

On the East- West road, Akpabio reiterated the commitment of the government  to the completion of the road, saying ” the Federal Government is not sleeping over the road. We are discussing special funding sources for the road. President Buhari wants to complete section four of the road before he leaves office. “

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