Gist Arena

T he Indigenous People of Biafra on Sunday described as false the allegation that the group intended to disrupt the November 18 governorship election in Anambra State. A statement made available to our correspondent in Awka, Anambra State by the group’s Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, said the instruction to its members and others was for them to boycott the poll not to disrupt it. He said the concept of disrupting the poll was being propagated by some South-East leaders to discredit IPOB. The statement read in part, “The leadership and entire members of the Indigenous People of Biafra worldwide, led by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, wish to state for the purpose of clarity that we are boycotting the Anambra governorship election, which is a form of civil disobedience. “The rumour that the IPOB intend to disrupt the polls on Saturday as peddled by politicians, Nnia Nwodo-led Ohanaeze Ndigbo and the Independent National Electoral Commission, is not only baseless...

L ate warlord, Odumegwu Onukwu’s first son, Emeka, has disclosed who killed the late Biafra civil war hero. Emeka accused widow of the late warlord, Bianca Ojukwu of killing her husband. In an interview with The Telegraph, Emeka alleged that Bianca locked Ojukwu away and refused family members from having access to him when he had stroke. He alleged that while, “Ezeigbo” was sick, Bianca “chose not to take care of him and rather pleased herself.” Emeka claimed that the former Nigerian Ambassador to Spain refused medical personnel from administering “a CAT scan, MRI nor subjected to any of the standard procedures applicable to a stroke victim.” He said, “Bianca has been saying and I do not want to associate myself with her. This is a woman who wants to create an impression that she loved Ezeigbo, but while Ezeigbo was sick, she chose not to take care of him and rather pleased herself “When Ezeigbo had a stroke, he was being ‘treated’ at home. He was neithe...

T he international media arm of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Radio Biafra, has resumed operations. But instead of the fiery rhetoric with which it was associated with, the radio announced the sack of Nnamdi Kanu, as director and leader of IPOB. The Radio Biafra’s programme started between 6am -7am on Sunday with the lady announcer, who gave her name as Ifeoma Okorafor, stating that the radio was restructuring. Then the shocking announcement that “Mazi Nnamdi Nwanekaenyi Kanu, the former Director of Radio Biafra is hereby dismissed and removed as Director of Radio Biafra following extensive and intensive consultations” According to Okorafor, one “Mazi Ezenwachukwu Sampson Okwudili is Kanu’s replacement.” She reeled out reasons why Kanu was removed to include: “Personalisation of the Biafran struggle and derailing from the core objectives of IPOB as a grassroots movement. “Kanu’s actions and his decisions to incite members of IPOB towa...

T he founder of Innoson Nigeria Limited, Innocent Chukwuma, has denied there was a bench warrant application at the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court instituted by the Nigerian government seeking his arrest. The government had applied for a bench warrant for the arrest of Mr. Chukwuma and his company, as well as Charles Chukwu and Anajekwu Sunny for failure to present themselves before the court. The defendants, alongside Maximian Chukwura and Mitsui Osk Lines, are facing a four-count charge of falsifying shipping documents amounting to N2.4 billion. While Mr. Chukwura and Mitsui Osk Lines had attended every court proceeding since the charges were instituted in 2015, the rest had been continually absent. In his response to the PREMIUM TIMES publication, Mr. Chukwuma through Cornel Osigwe, Head of Corporate Communications at Innoson Group, said there was no pending charge against the Innoson boss as the police had, on February 17th, 2016, withdrawn the char...

B etween himself, his wife and close lieutenants, President Muhammadu Buhari has at least 101 aides, PREMIUM TIMES can report. However, over 50 percent of those aides are attached to the office of the vice president. PREMIUM TIMES has obtained a list of presidential appointees serving as aides to President Buhari, his wife, Aisha Buhari, the vice president, Yemi Osinbajo, and other government officials. Apart from the two men, Mr. Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, has eight aides attached to him. Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, has six presidential aides atttached to his office, while the Secretary to the Government of the Federation has five of such aides. The wife of the president has three recognised aides while the two presidential media assistants are attached to the Minister of information and Culture, Lai Mohammed. Mr. Osinbajo is said to have appointed at least 15 of those aides between June and August, 2017 when Mr. Buhari...