Author: Editor

By Hassan Gimba This is not what I had intended to discuss this week, but circumstances have given it priority. Yobe is a state that is blessed. Here, I am not talking about how blessed it is with peaceful and peace-loving people. No. Nor am I talking about the natural resources the Maker buried there. No, not at all. I am not even going to talk about the abundance of human resources in Yobe State. I want to look at it from just one aspect – the political angle. Politics, from Greek (politiká – ‘affairs of the cities’) can be…

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Dr Eme Okoro is the immediate-past Secretary to State Government, SSG, Abia State, who served in Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu’s first tenure. In this interview with Ikengaonline, he revealed why the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had a disastrous outing in the just-concluded elections in the state. The elder statesman also told the Governor-Elect, Dr Alex Otti, what he must do first to succeed in office. Stephen Ukandu reports: Dr Alex Otti of the Labour Party has just emerged as Abia Governor-elect, thereby ending your party, PDP’s 24 year – rule in the state. Did it come to you as a surprise? No. Otti’s…

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By Gabriel Agbo “I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from slavery in Egypt. Do not worship any other gods besides me. Do not make idols of any kind, whether in the shape of birds or animals or fish. You must never worship or bow down to them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not share your affection with any other god! I do not leave unpunished the sins of those who hate me, but I punish the children for the sins of their parents to the third and fourth generations. But…

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By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu For 21 years, we had an annual ritual of speaking every New Year’s Day and more often besides. You could always trust him to provide a season’s worth of deep insight wrapped in a bodyguard of fun, humour and hilarity. On 1 January 2023, however, it was impossible to reach him – and try as I did – it was difficult to extract a clear understanding of what the problem was, even as it was evident something was not right. That was until the afternoon of Tuesday, 14 March 2023. Mbabai, the community in the heart of…

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Lawrence Nwimo, Awka The Anambra Police Command has threatened to prosecute social media influencers whose stock in trade is to peddle fake news in the state to cause disharmony. The command also warned against mob actions which had often resulted in extrajudicial killings of suspects in the state. Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in the state, Tochukwu Ikenga, stated these in a statement made available to journalists on Sunday. He was reacting to a trending news item on social media platforms alleging that officers of the ‘B’ Divisional Headquarters, Awka tortured a man to death and labeled him an armed robber over…

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Our Reporter, Abuja with Lawrence Nwimo, Awka The Labour Party (LP) has accused the All Progressives Congress of trying to foist religious tension and political crisis on Nigeria. This is as the Labour Party distanced its presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, from a viral video of voice conversation purportedly between him and Bishop David Oyedepo, describing it as “a product of deep fake.”   A statement made available to Ikengaonline on Sunday said the ruling party is engaging in acts that are aimed at damaging the credibility of Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi, whose mandate, they claimed, was stolen. The statement titled, “APC’s…

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Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia Coalition of South-East Youth Leaders, COSEYL, has demanded immediate release of Eze Igbo in Lagos, Eze Fredrick Nwajagu, arrested by the operatives of the Department of State Services, DSS, over his alleged threats to  invite members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, to come to Lagos and protect Ndigbo and their property against attacks by thugs. Nwajagu who made the threat in a viral video was arrested Saturday morning by DSS operatives. Irked by the action of the DSS, COSEYL sought to know if it was an offence for someone to seek protection against attacks in…

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By Biodun Jeyifo It was the strongly counter-intuitive nature of my initial interest in Peter Obi and the ‘Obidients’ that made me almost instantly a dedicated observer of the man and the movement. As the term implies, to be counter-intuitive is to go against intuition and normal expectations and yet be correct in so doing. In a typical counter-intuitive act, all the usual expectations and calculations prompt you to move ahead but you move back. Or you are prompted to ignore or pay little attention to an event but something tells you that it would be better for you to pay…

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Ben Ezechime, Enugu The Chairman of Presidential Campaign Council for Labour Party (LP) in Enugu State, Mr Emeka Mamah, has challenged Judges involved in the 2023 election cases to maintain high profile image of the Judiciary by being objective while delivering judgments in election cases before them. Mamah said this at the weekend when he received an award of “Excellence” from the South East Media Forum in Enugu. “I want to appeal to them, they are the last hope of the common man. “They should look at this cases on their merits and give judgment to the people that truly deserve…

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Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia The  ever busy Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway, was Saturday, barricaded at Ofoeme Junction of the Umuahia-Okigwe axis by truck drivers protesting the alleged shooting of a driver and his assistant (‘conductor’) by security agents. As at the time of filing this report, it was not yet clear which of the security agencies fired the shots. This is coming less than 24 hours security agents also allegedly shot dead four unarmed Biafra agitators protesting the continued detention of the Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, in Aba. Ikengaonline was told that the shooting of the driver…

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