The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has released Phillip Tunji Ojo, a lawyer who had been detained at its facility in Oyo State.

Ojo’s release comes approximately 24 hours after he was arrested by the anti-graft agency in Ibadan.

The detention of Ojo prompted members of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to stage a peaceful protest, demanding the unconditional release of their colleague. The protest, led by the Ibadan NBA Chairman, Ibrahim Lawal, was held at the EFCC’s Iyaganku zonal office on Thursday morning.

Lawal, who confirmed Ojo’s release, explained that the protest was necessary to express their dissatisfaction with what he described as the “illegal and unlawful detention” of Ojo while performing his professional duties.

He also highlighted the need to end the recurring harassment of lawyers by the EFCC.

According to Lawal, some EFCC officers exhibited hostility towards the protesting lawyers. However, Ojo was eventually released following the intervention of the Zonal Director of the Commission, Hauwa Garba Ringim.

In her address to the protesting NBA members, Ringim appealed for calm and called for enhanced cooperation between the Bar and the EFCC, particularly in the ongoing fight against corruption.

The post EFCC Frees Lawyer After 24-Hour Detention, As NBA Protests In Oyo first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

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Cleveland was America’s first and only two nonconsecutive-terms president in history. He was also the first democrat to become the American president in 28 years. Famously renowned for always speaking the truth, he was regarded as a very virtuous man, so much that his most memorable quotation, ramped up into a cliché, was “Tell the Truth.” Like Nigeria’s Muhammadu Buhari whose minders ingenuously chiseled out an alias, Mai Gaskiya, of out of his simple lifestyle which, unbeknownst to the generality of Nigerians, was a façade that covers gross latitude for egregious corruption by the people who surround him, America was later to find out that, wrapped up inside that Cleveland shawl of “telling the truth” was the most untruthful cover-up in American history, far more scandalous than Watergate. What revealed Cleveland’s real persona was his battle with mouth cancer and an extraordinary, even if political cover-up of this infirmity that lasted almost a century, garnished with a successful attempt to keep it from the American people.

Cleveland had assumed the American presidency on March 4, 1885 as the second bachelor president in her history, after James Buchanan. Critics called Cleveland debauched, due to his penchant for “bringing his harlots to the vicinity of the White House.” However, on July 1, the summer of 1893, Cleveland suddenly disappeared from the radar and couldn’t be found anywhere in the White House. Or anywhere in America. It was a challenging time when America was embroiled in what newspapermen labeled, in oblique vernacular, “The money question.” America was teetering on the brinks of financial and social chaos. The economy was threatening to kiss the canvass; unemployment figures were competing with the firmament in height; banks and factories were shutting their gates with reckless abandon and stock prices were in a free fall.

On May 5, 1893, two weeks shy of his 56th birthday, the second day of his swearing in at the Capitol for a second term, Cleveland noticed a rough spot on the roof of his mouth which, by the prodding of his wife, Frances, prompted the invitation of the president’s friend, New York surgeon and Cleveland family physician, Dr. Joseph Decatur Bryant, to look it up. Bryant diagnosed oral tumour, malignant in nature, “an ulcerated surface with an oval outline about the size of a quarter of a dollar.” He called it a “bad looking tenant” that should be evicted post-haste.

Right from the 5 BC, cancer had garnered the notoriety of the most dreaded disease in human history. America of the 19th century was no exception, nor President Cleveland himself. He was thoroughly afraid. The dread was such that, even Greek physician of the Age of Pericles, Hippocrates, also known as Hippocrates of Kos or Hippocrates II, who was renowned to be one of the most outstanding personalities in medical history, was quoted to have urged that “It is better not to apply treatment in the cases of occult (internal) cancer; for if treated, the patients die quickly; but if not treated, they hold on for a long time.” The fear was that, if the cancer afflicting Cleveland had gone into metastasis, the lower part of his left eye socket would be removed during surgery and thus permanently impairing his vision.

On July 1, 1893, President Cleveland got lost inside the Oneida, his friend, Commodore Elias Benedict’s yacht. For five good days, he was declared missing. William Williams Keen, America’s most famous and celebrated surgeon of the time and a team of other surgeons, performed the surgery to remove the cancerous tumor that had grown dangerously and embarrassingly on the president’s upper jaw and palate. The most shocking aspect of it was that, one very enterprising newspaper reporter, E. J. Edwards, later got the information and reported the secret surgery. Cleveland’s Garba Shehus descended on the journalist with the highest acerbity ever. They even labeled him “a disgrace to journalism.” It was not until decades later that one of Cleveland’s surgeons exposed the startling disappearance.

I told this long story so as to be able to bring the Nigerian and African experience of the Cleveland disease – not the disappearance per se but the stunt of keeping ailments out of the people’s klieg by elected presidents, in focus. While some may argue that the Cleveland covert surgery legitimizes many similar equations in Africa, the fact that this happened in America, in the “dark age” of the 18th century, delegitimizes such argument.

Drawing shawls on the health status of African leaders today while they suddenly disappear to undertake their own surgeries inside Cleveland’s type Oneida yacht has a history behind it. It is the mentality of continuation of the great empires and monarchies of Africa where kings were perceived to be infallible, super-human and incapable of falling prey to the afflictions of plebeians and common people. African leaders, seeing themselves in same mould of kings and emperors, believe that they must not be heard having failing health, nor their health status made public. In what other way can it be said to them that, no matter one’s status in life, no one is immune to death and health failings?

This trend that I call the Kabiyesi mentality, has bred a pandemic of leaders of Africa who, almost like 19th century Cleveland, “abdicate their thrones” covertly to seek remedies abroad, without the knowledge of their people.

In October, 2016, that was how President Peter Mutharika of Malawi disappeared from the radar, at which time he was 76 years old, suddenly undertaking his own surgery inside Cleveland’s type Oneida yacht. He had gone to attend the United Nations General Assembly mid-September and didn’t come back until October 16. This provoked speculations in Malawi that he had died, with his cagey aides failing to divulge his whereabouts. There were later disclosures through the grapevine that he had vamoosed to some parts of Europe to attend to his health. Same was the story of Gabonese President, Ali Bongo, son of Omar Bongo. At a time in November, 2018, Ali was said to have been “seriously ill,” with speculations rife in the air that he had died after suffering from stroke. He was just 59 yearrs then. Findings however later revealed that he had not died but that was holed up in a Saudi Arabia hospice.

Oil-rich Angola’s Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, who ruled the country from 1979, also eloped to Spain to have his own surgery-inside-Cleveland-type Oneida yacht. He had sought medical remedy to an undisclosed ailment in May, 2017. It was after about three weeks of his noticeable absence from the public that his foreign minister, after pressure from the opposition, confirmed his unceremonious absence. Again, until his death at age 95, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe was always dashing in and out of Singapore hospitals. In the same vein, Benin Republic’s Patrice Talon was perhaps one of the rarest breeds of that African leadership caste to make public disclosure on what ailed him. After the 59-year old president, who took over from Thomas Yayi-Boni, disappeared from the radar for about three weeks, his minders, on June 19, 2017, released the information that he had undergone two successful surgical operations in Paris. He said doctors had found a lesion in his prostate.This further necessitated another surgery in his digestive system.

Last week, Nigeria took her own ample shares of African presidents’ unwitting communication of their superhuman status to the public. President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria had jetted out to the United Kingdom to undertake his own surgery-inside-Cleveland-type Oneida yacht, “for routine medical checkup.” In March 2017, the then 74-year-old president had suddenly appeared on the radar, after unceremoniously disappearing for seven weeks, from January 19. He had jetted to the UK to treat an ailment which till today is undisclosed, flakes from which stoked the general perception that his failing health had grossly been responsible for the ungoverned space that Nigeria had become for the period of his presidency.

It was so bad that some cynics wickedly alleged that the character that was flown back to Nigeria after the weeks of treatment in a UK hospice was a Buhari look-alike from Sudan and that the original had passed on. Buhari too didn’t help matters. Anytime his minders fail to put on the latch and he speaks ex-tempore, the president gives them public relations migraine, veering off course into irrelevances like a wandering spirit. This is why they only release him for photo-ops, taking care that he does not get any media engagement. For how long is this window-dressing going to last?

The only known communication of Buhari’s ailment by the presidency was the claim that he had an ear infection, an ailment that took him to the same UK in 2016. On May 7 of same year, Buhari went back to the UK for “further medical checks,” necessitating his before-now voluble wife, Aisha visiting him. His Vice-President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, acted as President during this interregnum and Nigerians, who had witnessed a previous Katsina kinsman of Buhari, Umaru Yar’Adua, dying in office, were wary of this continuous absence.

Whether he personally learnt his lessons from “the mistake” of temporarily dispensing power to his ngbati ngbati VP or that the Villa cabal felt threatened by Osinbajo’s superlative three months performance in office, it was obvious that they both dreaded such equation ever happening again. So, this time around when Buhari hopped into the presidential jet to his UK infirmary, his minders, seemingly emerging from sleepless nights of studying the constitution, obstinately announced that he would not vacate power to anybody, as the constitution allows him to spend his two weeks projected stay with medics in the UK.

There must be a genetic dysfunction in African presidents which necessitated them not disclosing their health status. Worse still, they try to hold on to power like an adhesive, in spite of and despite their failing health. Let leaders, especially African leaders, who have the tendency to be unduly secretive, disclose the facts of what ail them to their citizens. These citizens will in turn pray for their leaders’ recoveries. On the claim that the opposition would capitalize on the disclosure to torpedo them, let who is immune from sickness and death throw the first stone.

If the health failings of the presidents are such that they cannot function in office effectively, since presidency is not a birthright, let them step aside and their deputies step in. Of course, those who profit from the power stagnation arising from the incapability of ailing leaders would fight tooth and nail to continue to pad them up. Don’t they know that there is a metaphysical and indeed, physical link between the health of the president and the health of a nation? No one needs any peep into the Ouija-board to know that since Buhari came back from the infirmary in 2017, he had literally and figuratively ceased to be capable of administering Nigeria.

The most germane question to ask is, why hasn’t Buhari constructed a world-class hospice similar to the one he visits periodically and shamelessly in the UK, in his six years of being president? Is it naivety, inability or sheer incompetence? The billions of dollars voted to resuscitate an abiku Port Harcourt refinery will no doubt build twice of such and stuff it with world class medics.

Those who argue strongly in defence of Nigerian sovereignty should well know that that same sovereignty is seriously bayoneted by the Nigerian president being a captive patient in a foreign hospital, subjected to the medical suzerainty of UK nationals, on their own soil. There is no doubting the fact that all information about Nigeria and what ails her president would by now be in the hands of the United Kingdom government. So what sovereignty are we talking about?
Administering Nigeria has since been done by proxies. This is why Nigeria has been very sick, from all ramifications.

Consequently, all manner of afflictions, ranging from security, social to economic, have been attempting to down the Nigerian ship of state. Now imagine how many Nigerians have died, literally and metaphorically, due to the absence of firm, knowledgeable and perspective Nigerian leadership and presidential power since Buhari took ill. This is why many members of the cabal who forcefully make Nigeria’s presidential corpse to walk are spending blood money and occupying blood-encrusted offices. The blood of those who die or get incapacitated due to lack of grits of presidential power, in that un-Godly process, is crying for vengeance.

The post The President Is A Sick Man: Buharis’ secret surgeries inside Oneida yacht  first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

The post The President Is A Sick Man: Buharis’ secret surgeries inside Oneida yacht  appeared first on MegaIcon Magazine.

Effiong said this in a statement while reacting to Osinbajo’s vow to waive his constitutional immunity to pave the way for the “most robust adjudication” over an allegation that he took N90bn from the Federal Inland Revenue Service to fund the 2019 general elections.

The lawyer said the Supreme Court had ruled in the matter of Bola Tinubu vs I.M.B Securities Plc that a person holding any of the executive offices that has immunity cannot waive it.

He said, “Based on the extant constitutional regime, the Vice-President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, cannot waive his immunity. The Supreme Court decided in 2001 in the case of Tinubu v. I. M. B. Securities Plc that the constitutional immunity under Section 308 of the constitution cannot be waived by the persons to whom the provision is meant to protect.

“In the said Tinubu’s case, former Governor Bola Tinubu decided to waive his immunity to defend a civil claim initiated against him. The Supreme Court barred the then governor of Lagos State from proceeding with the suit.”

The lawyer noted that immunity does not cover one from investigation, adding that there was no need for one to waive immunity in order to be probed by a law enforcement agency.

Effiong noted, “I wish to state that the immunity under Section 308 of the Constitution does not extend to criminal investigation by law enforcement agencies. This was the position taken by the Supreme Court in 2002 in the celebrated case of Chief Gani Fawehinmi v. Inspector General of Police.

“Provided the investigation does not result in the arrest or detention of the Vice President or compelling his appearance, he can be investigated.”

Effiong, however, said although Osinbajo could not be sued, he had the power to sue for defamation.

He said the law empowers anyone holding such an office to be able to sue to a certain extent.

The lawyer stated, “However, it should be noted that notwithstanding the immunity clause, the Vice President has the right to sue for defamation of character. While legal proceedings cannot be initiated against him, the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal have decided in several cases that the immunity clause does not prevent the beneficiaries from suing for defamation of character.

“In other words, Prof. Osinbajo can sue but cannot be sued. This was the position taken by the Supreme Court in 2007 in the case of Global Excellence Communications Ltd. V. Donald Duke.”

The statement of Prof. Osinbajo is political. Immunity does not cover investigation, therefore, the question of waiver does not arise in the circumstance.

https://iso.keq.mybluehost.me/saraki-speaks-on-engaging-in-media-war-with-efcc-magu-begging-him/

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The post N90bn allegation: You can’t waive immunity, lawyer tells Osinbajo appeared first on MegaIcon Magazine.

Agbaje gave the charge while addressing a pubic lecture organized by Law Students Association of the Lead City University, Ibadan.

According to the NBA boss in a lecture themed, ‘Be the lawyer of  your dream ‘, he said lawyers should be courageous, hardworking and be determined in their bid to be successful in life.

He added that though the educational system in Nigeria is not strong enough to enhance easy growth but “everyone aspiring to be a professional should strive with courage to transform the vision into reality”.

While charging lawyers to be more informed and develop their mental ability, the consummate lawyer, however called for the extension of period of pupilage  for adequate training and field experience.

Agbaje who is also eyeing the Oyo State governorship seat in the 2019 election informed that his mission in government is to take the state to the next level.

“The question of doing things differently is not the issue because the person who is occupying the seat has done his bit and what I want to do is to progress the state. The state needs advancement in education, health and other sectors, and that is what I plan to do if I become governor,” he explained.

Earlier in his welcome address, the President, Law Students Association of Lead City University, Ibadan, Mr. Wale Ojo Lanre, informed that the lecture was organized to further enlighten the student lawyers and prepare their minds on how to be a successful lawyer.

The post Oyo NBA chairman charges young lawyers on professionalism first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

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Oyediran was a staff of the Department of Public Prosecution in the Oyo State of Ministry of Justice.

She was accused of killing her husband with a knife after a disagreement on February 2, 2016, at their residence in Akobo area of Ibadan.

Oyelowo Oyediran, a France-based businessman hailed from Gbongan, in Ayedaade Local Government Area of Osun State.

DAILY POST recalls that Lowo, as he was fondly called, was stabbed to death by his wife on February 2, at about 6.10 a.m. at their home on 30, Abidi Odan Street, Akobo, Ibadan, after a heated argument ensued between them.

The couple had no child before the unfortunate incident.

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