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Intimate Affairs: The juicy power of the other room

By Funke Egbemode

The other room is the most important room in the home and in any woman’s life. Every woman knows that. So, don’t mind those who are pretending to be holier than the sacred sanctuary. It’s okay to have powers in and over the other rooms, but a woman who does not know how to wield the influence derivable and derived from the other room is indeed a powerless woman.

Yes, the power of the boardroom is plenty power. But what is the power of the boardroom without the power of the bedroom? At best, the power of the boardroom is transient. It is power that can be wrested from your hands in one board meeting. It is power you can be suspended or retired from. Without your entitlements too! But the real influence of the other room is sweet, and long-lasting. Even when a woman gets promoted to the position of a first wife, she only shares that power with the new entrant, she does not have to relinquish it altogether.

There would still be things the new wife will not happen on or know just because she knows how to apply her make-up. A woman who has lived with her man for 20 straight years most certainly knows where all the buttons are on that body and how to insert the right keys to open the right doors. A new wife, yes, knows how to manipulate current ring-back tunes and his caller tunes because the man was sneaking in at weekends to chop-and-clean-mouth, it is still the licensed owner of the other room who knows how to wake the giant up from the deepest slumber. But let’s not wait too long at that bus stop.

Moving on, every woman must know and use the power of the other room. It is the power you hold tightly, girls. You sit tight on it. It is not democratic power. It is monarchical. You hold on to it until death do you part. Oh yes.

But I must warn that the other room is a room of strategy that must be used strategically. It is a room you can enjoy every day but the powers therein must be deployed strategically and with tons of wisdom otherwise the advantage will be lost.

A friend once told me how she used to do extra duty on her husband any time he announced he was going to be working late or going for a management retreat out of town. She would do an all-nighter in the other room. She would coax him up and ensure he gave a good account of himself the night before. Then she would ice the cake with a long-drawn-out dawn work-out in the morning and then let him leave the other room, spent and thoroughly used. She knew ‘bros’ was a strong man but when a man has been thoroughly dealt with at night and in the morning, the ‘conference materials’ will have to do more than struggle to wake the giant up. Right. If you ask me, every wife of every busy man should give their men a good work-out in the other room to ensure the guys have less wild oats to sow. Get some of the juice for yourself. How smart can you claim to be if you clean a gun for hours, load it with bullets, cock it and then you let him go shoot it somewhere else? Babe, you are all the shooting range he needs. Let him practise all he wants in the other room.

Talking about shooting range, too many women voluntarily retire from the other room and still expect to continue to wield influence over ‘oga’. It does not make sense. You are either in the other room or you are outside it. No woman can stay outside that powerful room and remain powerful. That is why I said that this matter is not a democracy. You have no term or tenure. Play your politics right and stay put. Do whatever you need to do. It is a war and all is fair in war. Play fair only when it suits you. When you need to go the extra mile to keep your place and ‘oga’ in the other room, plaster a designer smile on your face and do what you need to do. Just remind yourself of your wedding vows and what the holy books say…

But is the other room the only room of influence? Some say the kitchen is also important. They underscore that with one suspicious saying: the best way to a man’s heart is through the stomach. Seriously? I do not buy that line. Fine, they told us all kinds of things when we were getting married but the things we have all learnt on the job are unquantifiable. Who drew the map that linked the stomach of a man to his heart? Let us be sincere, that kind of road network is suspect. What kind of geography is that? And if you still doubt that kitchen theory, ask why wives, women employ cooks and house-helps for the kitchen and no woman wants to be helped in the other room. Ah ah, my point exactly. The superior room is the other room. Everybody is welcome in the kitchen. The other room? No.

A lot of work, of course, goes into keeping your space in the other room. Plenty of sweat and long nights. No woman should let all that go to waste, after all, the bible said that we shall eat the fruit of our labour. Whatever cannot be fixed in the other rooms must find solution in the other room. Whatever a babe can’t fix through her man’s stomach, she must fix behind closed doors. Whatever argument a woman can’t win with long logic in the living room, she must take to the other room for final adjudication. You see, it is in that room, only in the other room, that a woman gets to play judge and jury. It is one place where a woman can baptise her husband, pray for him and God watches you both and clap and smile and say, well done, my daughter. See how divinely appointed the other room is!

Whatever you do, never ever forget that the other room is the most superior room and that only smart women know how to deploy the power therein.

From the choice of which schools a woman wants the children to attend, to where she wants him to acquire property and holiday destinations, a little extra work in the other room can lessen the hours spent on arguments. Being extra nice to your man in the other room, if you get my meaning, will make his cantankerous sister less influential. Paying more attention to his sensitive buttons will make him less antagonistic to your Christmas budget. New tricks, new techniques may work better when you want more housekeeping allowance than the logic of falling naira and rising dollars.

But I must warn that the other room is a room of strategy that must be used strategically. It is a room you can enjoy every day but the powers therein must be deployed strategically and with tons of wisdom otherwise the advantage will be lost. If the power in this room is not handled smartly and intelligently, it may be misinterpreted as blackmail. A man must not be deprived of what he paid for, even if he paid in instalments. You cannot withhold from him his entitlements. Just rev it up, keep it warm and some times, serve it so hot he begins to speak a foreign language.

Whatever you do, never ever forget that the other room is the most superior room and that only smart women know how to deploy the power therein.

Funke Egbemode can be reached on [email protected])

As politicians dither and dodge, number of Nigerian death row inmates swells to a record 3,413

By Segun Adeniyi

With his supporters turning the Kirikiri (Lagos) Maximum Security Prison into a pilgrimage site, authorities of the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) were forced to move the condemned Founder/General Overseer, Christian Praying Assembly (CPA) Church Worldwide, ‘Daddy G.O., His Holiness, The Most Honourable Dr Rev King’, to Kuje Prison in Abuja. Not long after, according to sources, the same problem surfaced and King was transferred to Kaduna Prison. Today, ‘God in black skin, the man of the moment, every moment and the final moment, the last preacher of the truthful gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ’ is in Maiduguri Maximum Security Prison in Borno State where, from what I have gathered in recent days, he continues to live large as devotees troop to pay him obeisance. And on Monday, as has been the tradition every year for almost two decades, there were several pages of colour adverts to celebrate his birthday.

The story of King says a lot about criminal justice administration in Nigeria – both positive and negative. While the judiciary has discharged its responsibility creditably, the executive has become a clog, with a growing number of Nigerian death row inmates. Last December, the NCoS spokesman, Abubakar Umar, lamented that there are 3,413 condemned inmates across the country. Part of the constitutional responsibilities of Governors is to sign the death warrants of convicted murderers or commute their sentence to imprisonment. Unfortunately, our governors would rather do nothing. The result is that death row inmates end up spending decades on a roller coaster existence. In his own case, King has spent nine years as a condemned man.

King was arraigned at the Lagos High Court, Ikeja on 26 September 2006 for the murder of one Ann Uzor, a member of his church, and the attempted murder of five others. He allegedly doused the six with petrol before setting them ablaze on grounds that they committed fornication. While Uzoh died from injuries sustained from the burns, others survived, though they may also have died by now since nobody followed up on them. In a judgement delivered on 11 January 2007, Justice Olubunmi Oyewole convicted and sentenced King to death for the murder of Ann Uzor. King appealed the judgement but lost. Not satisfied, he approached the Supreme Court which on 26 February 2015 affirmed the judgements of both the Lagos High Court and Court of Appeal.

The five-man apex court bench that tried the case was led by then Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen. Facts of the case, according to the late Justice Sylvester Ngwuta who read the lead judgement, “could have been lifted from a horror film.” Ngwuta said: “The prosecution’s case was that the appellant accused six of his people of immoral behaviour. He called them together, beat each of them with many hard objects and after the beating, he assembled them downstairs, made them kneel and he caused petrol to be poured on them and a struck match thrown on them. They all sustained various degrees of burns. While five of them escaped, the sixth of them who later died sustained 65 per cent degree burns. You can imagine her last day in the hospital.” King, according to Justice Ngwuta, “denied this incident, saying though he punished them for immoral behaviour, the punishment was different from the incident that gave birth to this charge. He said they sustained injuries when a generator exploded. But throughout the proceedings, this mysterious generator was never produced.”

There are two issues here. The first has to do with what I once described as ‘faith and fanaticism’ in Nigeria and how that is being exploited by charlatans. But that is not my business for today. The second is on the issue of the death penalty itself. During the 2023 World Day Against the Death Penalty last October, Attorney General of the Federation and Justice Minister, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), stated that many countries, including Nigeria, are being encouraged to consider reforms on capital punishment. “The World Day against the Death Penalty is not merely a day of solemn remembrance, but a call to action,” Fagbemi said. “It is a day when we, as global citizens, come together to emphasise that every life is sacred, and no mistake or crime should ever push us toward actions that we cannot reverse.” Many Western diplomats also used the occasion to campaign for Nigeria to drop the death penalty even when, in some of their countries, they still carry out executions.

I followed the execution drama of Kenneth Smith who was subjected to inhaling pure nitrogen through a mask until he suffocated last month in Alabama, United States. The United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights (UNCHR), Volker Türk, and several others, had urged Alabama State authorities to cancel the execution on 25 January but were ignored. And despite claims that the execution (the first through such method anywhere in the world) would be “swift, painless and humane”, Smith reportedly shook, convulsed, writhed, and gasped for breath until he was pronounced dead after more than 20 minutes.

The story began on 18 March 1988, when Elizabeth Sennett, wife of a Pastor, was stabbed to death in a contract killing orchestrated by her husband, Charles Sennett, who later committed suicide when he realised his cover had been blown. The Pastor, said to be heavily indebted, was having an affair with another woman, and had taken out a life insurance policy on his wife before hiring Billy Gray Williams who in turn recruited Smith and John Forrest Parker to assist in her murder. Each was paid $1,000. At trial, Williams (the middleman) was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole and died in prison in November 2020. Smith and Parker who carried out the killing were both sentenced to death. Parker was executed via lethal injection in June 2010. Not surprisingly, it took a long time to execute the judgement on Smith because of several lawsuits filed on his behalf.

However, the real drama started on 17 November 2022 after Smith had eaten what was supposed to be his last meal and said the traditional goodbyes to his mother and grandson. With his death warrant already signed, Smith was placed on a gurney inside the execution chamber, his arms and legs strapped down. But for almost four hours prison officials could not find the intravenous line on Smith’s body to administer the lethal injection. By the time the execution was suspended close to midnight, shortly before expiration of the death warrant, Smith’s body was already riddled with puncture holes, according to reports. What followed was predictable. Lawsuits were again filed to stop his execution but they all failed. “After more than 30 years and attempt after attempt to game the system, Mr Smith has answered for his horrendous crimes,” Alabama Governor Kay Ivey who signed the death warrant said in a statement shortly after the execution on 25 January. “I pray that Elizabeth Sennett’s family can receive closure after all these years dealing with that great loss.”

This then brings me back home to Rev. King who has been on death row for the past nine years. Interestingly, birthday congratulatory adverts in his honour this year offer a practical solution to the problems of Nigeria. “Daddy, you are God’s divine solution to the problem of mankind. The problem you cannot solve does not exist. All the prophecies that you gave about Nigeria have come to fulfilment exactly as you prophesied,” wrote Eng. Somitobechukwu King. “If the power brokers of Nigeria would be humble enough to consult you, I know for a fact that you are the only man endowed with the ability to transform Nigeria from the capital of poverty and clandestine activities which it currently is, to one of the wealthiest and adorable nations of planet earth.”

At a period in history when Nigerians are going through harrowing times, this may indeed be the solution we need. But before ‘His Holiness’ can rescue our country; he must first rescue himself from the death sentence for which there is no longer any appeal.

Now to the issue of capital punishment. As much as I understand the argument against the death penalty (‘an eye for an eye makes the world go blind’), I have also wrestled with the question of how to ensure closure for families of those gruesomely murdered, including by killers who show no remorse for their crimes. Don’t such families also deserve justice? That precisely was the question resolved in Alabama with the execution of Smith last month. At some point in Nigeria, the matter of ‘His Holiness, Dr Rev King’ will also have to be resolved. One way or another!

Much Ado about Oronsaye Report

On Monday, the federal government announced its preparedness to implement theSteve Oronsaye Report of 2012 and the subsequent 2014 White Paper by the Mohammed Bello Adoke inter-ministerial committee. President Bola Tinubu, we have been told, has given the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) a 12-week implementation timeline. “Many agencies will be scrapped, and many others will be merged, to pave the way to a leaner government,” according topresidential spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), following Monday’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting. The specific agencies to be merged or scrapped have also been highlighted so the weeks ahead are bound to be interesting in that regard.

Considering that I have written several columns on the Oronsaye Report, I crave the indulgence of readers to share a few excerpts from the first one, ‘Public Service in Private interest’, published on 7th February 2013, before I conclude with my take on the current issue.

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.. anybody who has read the report of the Presidential Committee on the Restructuring and Rationalisation of the Federal Government Paratastals, Commissions and Agencies cannot but understand the waste we call government in Nigeria. Chaired by former Head of Service, Mr Steve Oronsaye, the committee, established in August 2011, submitted its report in April 2012. And it has come out with damning revelations. The executive summary highlights some of the salient rot in the identified 541 federal government agencies, 50 of which have no enabling laws! There are also 55 agencies that are in the statutes book yet not under the supervision of any ministry and some of them include: National Agency for Population Programmes and Development; Population Activities Fund; Population Fund Activities Agency and Population Research Fund!

According to the report, one common feature of virtually all the parastatals is the prevalence of high personnel cost as “many of them receive more budgetary allocations for personnel than they require because that component of their budget is usually inflated”. Several of them are also “obvious duplications of existing bodies” which then underscores the fact of “overlaps and enormous wastage of scarce resources”. To compound the situation, “successive administrations have over the years created parastatals which were not necessarily based on requisite need assessment that would drive development agenda”.

Debts owed local contractors, the report stated, had long been verified and paid off by a previous administration, which instructed all MDAs to ensure that any new debt be treated as First Line charge entities in Annual Budgets. However, “several years on, it is worrisome that payment to local contractors continue to feature in our National Budget, thereby giving the impression that the authorities are condoning the bad behaviour”. Further revelations include the fact that there are 106 core research and quasi-research institutes spread across the nation with little or no end product and this may be why: “In the 2011 Fiscal year, the sum of N97,108,917,918 was allocated to all the Institutes with personnel and Overhead Costs accounting for N42,581,362,128 and N10,157,863,826 respectively. Of the N44,369,691,964 allocated to Capital, only N10,408,574,488 was for core research activities.” We can see from the more than N97 billion earmarked for Research Institutes that only about 10 percent of the money is expended on core research work with the rest going into salaries and sundry procurements!

Most of the revelations in the Oronsaye Report depict very clearly that public office in our country has become avenues for the pursuit of private interests by many. But that is just a small part of the story of waste if one considers the unwieldy nature of the governing boards of these agencies and their number, as well as their overlapping and duplicating functions. For instance, some of the agencies in the ministry of Culture and Tourism are: National Institute for Culture Orientation; National Theatre; National Troupe of Nigeria; National Council for Arts and Culture; Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization; National Gallery of Arts; National Commission for Museums and Monuments and then you have the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) and National Institute of Hospitality and Tourism Development Corporation! Yet each of these nine stand-alone agencies has a Director General or Managing Director, full board membership and a retinue of mostly redundant staff. And it is from the Oronsaye report that I learnt that we actually have a full-fledged Research Institute for the study of Trypanosomiasis!…

ENDNOTE: For those who are excited about the decision of the current administration to implement the Oronsaye Report, let me remind them that we have been down this road before. In April 2020, then Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, announced that President Muhammadu Buhari had approved implementation of the report on which a White Paper was also approved. “This is a report that has been in place for a long time and there hasn’t been implementation, but the President has approved that it should be implemented,” she declared. Not only was nothing done in that direction, but the administration ended up adding hundreds of new federal agencies such that the number of agencies in the federal government budget for this year is 929! So, rather than a reduction, we have almost doubled the number of federal government cost centres that we had 12 years ago before the Oronsaye Panel.

Mindful of this motion without movement that has been the bane of public engagement over the years, Oronsaye prefaced the submission of his report in 2012 with a recall. More than a decade after the White Paper on the Ahmed Joda Panel Report on the Review, Harmonization and Rationalization of Federal Government Parastatals, Institutions and Agencies (2000) by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, Oronsaye told President Jonathan twelve years ago, “some parastatals and agencies, which government had decided should either be scrapped, commercialized, privatized or self-funding, are still receiving full government funding, which runs into billions of Naira.”

Reducing the cost of governance is good. But the jury is still out as to what the Tinubu administration intends to do with the Oronsaye Report. I will wait to see what happens in the coming weeks!

This article was originally published as “His Holiness, Daddy G.O.” on Death Row, By Olusegun Adeniyi.

You can follow me on my X (formerly Twitter) handle, @Olusegunverdict and on www.olusegunadeniyi.com

Wigwe’s service of songs holds March 7 at RCCG Resurrection Parish Lekki, City of David excluded

The family of the former Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of Access Holdings Plc, Herbert Wigwe, has announced arrangements for his burial rites.

Wigwe died alongside his wife, Chizoba, and son, Chizi, in a helicopter crash in the United States on February 9, 2024.

The former Group Chairman of Nigerian Exchange Group Plc (NGX Group), Abimbola Ogunbanjo, was also aboard the helicopter, with all passengers confirmed dead.

The family of the late businessman, in the funeral announcement, said the burial rites will commence with a celebration of the professional legacy of Wigwe at the Eko Hotel in Lagos on March 4 and will end with an outing service at the Redeemed Christian Church Of God (RCCG), Lion of Judah Parish, Isiokpo, Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State on March 10.

The lives of Chizi and Chizoba will be celebrated in separate ceremonies scheduled for March 5 at the Eko Hotel in Lagos, before a night of tribute a day later at the same venue.

A combined service of songs will be held on March 7 at the RCCG, Resurrection Parish, Lekki, followed by a Christian wake-keeping at Wigwe University, Isiokpo in Rivers State.

The combined funeral and private internment service are slated for March 9.

Meanwhile, the City of David parish of the RCCG where the late Wigwes worshipped was excluded from the burial programme.

It was gathered that the exclusion may not be unconnected with the lavish 60th birthday party of the parish senior pastor’s wife, Siju Iluyomade, after the death of the billionaire businessman.

Many Nigerians have argued that the cleric’s wife who was like a spiritual mother to the Wigwes should have postponed her birthday party over the demise of the Access Holdings boss.

The Conclave

The amazing $1 billion donation to a medical school and the Nigerian connection

“The 93-year-old widow of a Wall Street financier has donated $1 billion to a Bronx medical school, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, with instructions that the gift be used to cover tuition for all students going forward.

The donor, Dr. Ruth Gottesman, is a former professor at Einstein, where she studied learning disabilities, developed a screening test and ran literacy programs. It is one of the largest charitable donations to an educational institution in the United States and most likely the largest to a medical school.
The fortune came from her late husband, David Gottesman, known as Sandy, who was a protégé of Warren Buffett and had made an early investment in Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate Mr. Buffett built.

The donation is notable not only for its staggering size, but also because it is going to a medical institution in the Bronx, the city’s poorest borough. The Bronx has a high rate of premature deaths and ranks as the unhealthiest county in New York. Over the past generation, a number of billionaires have given hundreds of millions of dollars to better-known medical schools and hospitals in Manhattan, the city’s wealthiest borough.

Ecstatic Medical Students at Bronx Photo Credit: Mint

While her husband ran an investment firm, First Manhattan, Dr. Gottesman had a long career at Einstein, a well-regarded medical school, starting in 1968, when she took a job as director of psychoeducational services. She has long been on Einstein’s board of trustees and is currently the chair.

In recent years, she has become close friends with Dr. Philip Ozuah, the pediatrician who oversees the medical college and its affiliated hospital, Montefiore Medical Center, as the chief executive officer of the health system. That friendship and trust loomed large as she contemplated what to do with the money her husband had left her.

In an interview on Friday at the Einstein campus in the Morris Park neighborhood, Dr. Ozuah and Dr. Gottesman spoke about the donation, how it came together and what it would mean for Einstein medical students.

In early 2020, the two sat next to each other on a 6 a.m. flight to West Palm Beach, Fla. It was the first time they had spent hours together.

They spoke about their childhoods — hers in Baltimore, his, some 30 years later, in Nigeria — and what they had in common. Both had doctorates in education and had spent their careers at the same institution in the Bronx, helping children and families in need.

Dr. Ozuah described moving to New York, not knowing a single person in the state, and spending years as a community doctor in the South Bronx before ascending to the top of the medical school.

Leaving the airport, Dr. Ozuah offered his arm to Dr. Gottesman, then not quite 90, as they approached the curb. She waved him off and told him to “watch your own step,” he recalled with a chuckle.
Within a few weeks, the coronavirus brought the world to a grinding halt. Dr. Gottesman’s husband, in his 90s, became ill with the new pathogen, and she had a mild case. Dr. Ozuah sent an ambulance to the Gottesman home in Rye, N.Y., to bring them to Montefiore, the Bronx’s largest hospital.

In the weeks that followed, Dr. Ozuah began making daily house calls — in full protective gear — to check in on the couple as Mr. Gottesman recovered. “That’s how the friendship evolved,” he said. “I spent probably every day for about three weeks, visiting them in Rye.”

David and Ruth Gottesman

About three years ago, Dr. Ozuah asked Dr. Gottesman to head the medical school’s board of trustees. She had done the job before, but given her age, she was surprised. The gesture reminded her of the fable about the lion and the mouse, she told Dr. Ozuah at the time, explaining that when the lion spares the mouse’s life, the mouse tells him, “Maybe someday I’ll be helpful to you.”

In the story, the lion laughs haughtily. “But Phil didn’t go ‘ha, ha, ha,’” she noted with a smile.
The money.

Dr. Gottesman’s husband died in 2022 at age 96. “He left me, unbeknownst to me, a whole portfolio of Berkshire Hathaway stock,” she recalled. The instructions were simple: “Do whatever you think is right with it,” she recalled.

It was overwhelming to think about, so at first she didn’t. But her children encouraged her not to wait too long.

When she focused on the bequest, she realized immediately what she wanted to do, she recalled. “I wanted to fund students at Einstein so that they would receive free tuition,” she said. There was enough money to do that in perpetuity, she said.

Over the years, she had interviewed dozens of prospective Einstein medical students. Tuition is more than $59,000 a year, and many graduated with crushing medical school debt. According to the school, nearly 50 percent of its students owed more than $200,000 after graduating. At most other New York City medical schools, less than 25 percent of new doctors owed that much.

Almost half of Einstein’s first-year medical students are New Yorkers, and nearly 60 percent are women. About 48 percent of current medical students at Einstein are white, 29 percent are Asian, 11 percent are Hispanic and 5 percent are Black.

Not only would future students be able to embark on their careers without the debt burden, but she hoped that her donation would also enable a wider pool of aspiring doctors to apply to medical school. “We have terrific medical students, but this will open it up for many other students whose economic status is such that they wouldn’t even think about going to medical school,” she said.

“That’s what makes me very happy about this gift,” she added. “I have the opportunity not just to help Phil, but to help Montefiore and Einstein in a transformative way — and I’m just so proud and so humbled — both — that I could do it.”

Dr Phillip Ozuah

Dr. Gottesman went to see Dr. Ozuah in December to tell him that she would be making a major gift. She reminded him of the lion and mouse story. This, she explained, was the mouse’s moment.
“If someone said, ‘I’ll give you a transformative gift for the medical school,’ what would you do?” she asked.

There were probably three things, Dr. Ozuah said.
“One,” he began, “you could have education be free —”

“That’s what I want to do,” she said. He never mentioned the other ideas.

Dr. Gottesman sometimes wonders what her late husband would have thought of her decision.
“I hope he’s smiling and not frowning,” she said with a chuckle. “But he gave me the opportunity to do this, and I think he would be happy — I hope so.”

Einstein will not be the first medical school to eliminate tuition. In 2018, New York University announced it would begin offering free tuition to medical students and saw a surge in applications.

The Name

Dr. Gottesman was reluctant to attach her name to her donation. “Nobody needs to know,” Dr. Ozuah recalled her saying at first. But Dr. Ozuah insisted that others might find her life inspiring. “Here’s somebody who is totally dedicated to the welfare of others and wants no accolades, no recognition,” Dr. Ozuah said.

Dr. Ozuah noted that the going price for getting your name on a medical school or hospital was perhaps a fifth of Dr. Gottesman’s donation. Cornell Medical College and New York Hospital now include the surname of Sanford Weill, the former head of Citigroup. New York University’s medical center was renamed for Ken Langone, a co-founder of Home Depot. Both men donated hundreds of millions of dollars.

But it is a condition of Dr. Gottesman’s gift that the Einstein College of Medicine not change its name. Albert Einstein, the physicist who developed the theory of relativity, agreed to confer his name on the medical school, which opened in 1955.

The name, she noted, could not be beat. “We’ve got the gosh darn name — we’ve got Albert Einstein.”

This article originally titled $1 Billion Donation Will Provide Free Tuition at a Bronx Medical School was culled from https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/26/nyregion/albert-einstein-college-medicine-bronx-donation.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

Pastor arraigned for allegedly raping and impregnating daughter

By Onozure Dania

Emmanuel Orekoya, a Pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God was on Tuesday arraigned before the Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court for allegedly raping and impregnating his 17- year-old daughter.

The defendant is facing two counts of unlawful sexual intercourse and sexual assault preferred against him by the Lagos State Government.

It was also gathered that the defendant in the process of having sexual intercourse with his daughter, allegedly impregnated her.

The state’s prosecution counsel, Mrs Abimbola Abolade, told the court that the defendant committed the offences sometime in 2017 at Jacob Adeleye Street, Odoeran, Itire area of the state.

The prosecutor also told the court that Orekoya sexually assaulted the victim, by inserting his finger inside her vagina and inserting his penis inside her mouth.

According to the prosecutor, the offences Orekoya committed contravened Section 137 of the criminal law of Lagos State 2015.

However, the defendant pleaded not guilty to the charges pressed against him.

Justice Soladoye adjourned the case till April 17, 2024, for the commencement of trial.

The PUNCH

The day of glory and falsehood on Aba Power Project

By Sam Amadi

Congratulations to Professor Barth Nnaji and his crew for the successful completion of Aba Power project after many years of setbacks. This is a day of jubilation for Aba residents and people of the five southeast states. Governor Alex Otti and his officials deserve praise for their contribution to the completion of the Aba Power project. Aba is the heartland of Igbo industrialization. The prospect of 24 hours power every day in Aba portends good fortunes for the Southeast region. This is evidently a landmark event that elicits joy across the country.

But, it is sad that some want to turn a day of glory to a day of falsehood. Some with other agenda against others would not allow Barth Nnaji, his team, Governor Otti and the people of Aba to rejoice on this important milestone. There was no need to use the happy occasion of the commission of the Aba Power and Geometry to peddle blatant falsehood about the project and the roles certain persons may have played.

Many people in Nigeria and outside the country has drawn my attention to an article going viral on social media where my person and character was scandalized in regard to events surrounding Aba Power project. I am sad at false statements published by the BusinessDay newspaper on Tuesday, February 27, 2024. The article written by a certain Lolade Akinmurele and titled “The dark side of the Aba power project” peddles falsehood about my person and my role as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).

The article chronicles the history of the project and focuses on those the author believes frustrated it. The article narrates how then Vice President, Namadi Sambo, Emeka Offor, DG, BPE, Benjamin Dikki, Mohammed Bello Adoke, the Attorney General of the Federation, and Anyim Pius Anyim allegedly frustrated Bart Nnaji and Aba Power. I am not bothered with the tendentious narration of events. I am angry at the attempt of the author to rope me into the alleged conspiracy. He wrote “Offor, who was blocking the project, has Ayim Pius Anyim, secretary to the government, in his pocket, while Sam Amadi, the Chairman of and CEO of NERC, was beholding to Anyim”.

Interestingly, the author does not mention any action that I or NERC took or decision that we made that affected Bart Nnaji adversely and benefited Emeka Offor. To show that the inclusion of my name in an alleged conspiracy was a deliberate plot to tarnish my name, in the same article, he mentioned the positive action NERC under my leadership as Chairman and CEO took which was sympathetic to Bart Nnaji. For example, he states as follow: “A report by NERC, after a visit to the Geometry Power infrastructure in Aba, submitted a report that ‘it will be a disservice to the country in general and the company (GPAL and APL) in particular, after investing such a huge amount of money in power infrastructure, to be denied the term of the tripartite agreement. A disregard of the agreement will cast a doubt on the federal government privatization process and send a wrong signal to other prospective investors in the private sector”. How the head of an agency that wrote such a report be accused without any other contrary fact of conniving against the Aba Power project? Of course, the phrase “beholding to Anyim’ in that contest was added to tarnish my reputation. The manner my name was obliquely mentioned as a stooge of Pius Ayim is an effort to paint me as someone who is not as honest as he professes. It is a deliberate effort to stain my integrity and public service records.

I have always cherished my honest public service record in Nigeria. I have challenged anyone who has any evidence of financial or other improprieties against me during my five years stewardship in NERC to bring it forward. In fact, I have on numerous occasions asked to be thoroughly probed for any financial other improprieties. Since over 8 years I left office, no one has issued me a query for any wrongdoing. I am very proud of my character and reputation, and I will defend it with every ounce of energy and pint of blood. As someone who has built and maintained a character and reputation for truthfulness, honesty and integrity, and who cherishes greatly my record of unstained public service, I bear a responsibility to correct this falsehood and present the truth facts of my role in the Aba Power project saga.

It is important to note that even by the account of the author, neither NERC nor I played key role in the contract between Bart Nnaji and the federal government and the sale of Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC). As a regulator, we were very clear that our role is regulatory and not transactional.
In the foregoing I make the following statements of facts.

  1. The contract between Prof Barth Nnaji and the federal government over the Aba Power project was entered in 2005, five years before I became Chairman of NERC. The contract was a leasehold over some part of the Aba distribution area. The contract requires the federal government to allow Bart Nnaji to operate the two business units in Ariara and Osisioma in Aba, described as the ‘ring-fenced area’. Bart Nnaji also has a power plant to supply power to the ring-fenced area. The contract anticipates privatization and gives Aba Power the right of first refusal over the ring-fenced area whenever the federal government intends to sell the Enugu Distribution Company.
  2. Prof Barth Nnaji was the Minister of Power from 2011 to 2013 when the process for privatization was completed. He was only removed just before the winners of the bid were announced. Throughout the relevant period of the privatization, Professor Barth Nnaji was Minister of Power and had de facto control of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) that executed the privatization process. He chaired the Presidential Task Force on Power and was key figure in the National Council on Privatization that made key decisions about privatization. The Director General of BPE, Bola Onaguruwa worked closely with him and generally under his control as Minister of Power.
  3. I was appointed chairman of NERC in December 2010 after the federal government through the Ministry of Power and the BPE had rolled out the Presidential Action Plan for Power whose highpoint was privatization of the PHCN successor companies. NERC’s responsibility was to provide regulations to support the privatization. The most important components of regulatory support are the evaluation of the assets of the various companies to be privatized and the preparation of tariffs. The Minister of Power and the DG of BPE asked NERC to evaluate the assets of the 11 distribution companies (DISCOs), including the Enugu Disco. There was no request to separate the ring-fenced areas from Enugu Disco for separate evaluation. The reason being that the Ministry of Power and BPE intended to privatize the entire Enugu distribution area to whoever was the preferred bidder.
  4. To the best of my knowledge, Prof Bart Nnaji as part of his business plan, intended to buy the Enugu Disco. There is nothing wrong about that. He is an entrepreneur whose entry into power sector was first as a private power producer in a deal to supply power to Abuja metropolis. Perhaps, based on the confidence that he would win the bid he neglected or forgot to separate the Aba Ring-Fenced area from the rest of Enugu Disco before he authorized the privatization of the entire Enugu Disco, including the Aba ring-fenced area. Later, when I confronted both DG BPE and Prof Bart Nnaji on why he failed to separate the Aba ‘ring-fenced’ area from Enugu Disco before authorizing privatization, they argued something to the effect that the Vice President opposed them. I have no proof of this fact.
  5. Professor Barth Nnaji organized a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to bid for Enugu Disco, including the Aba ring-fenced area. He set up a special committee of BPE and Ministry of Power officials to evaluate the bids for the discos. After close of bid, his SPV, was adjudged the winner of the ENTIRE Enugu disco, including the Aba ring-fenced area.
  6. At no time did I participate in evaluating or choosing the winner of the bid. A few NERC staff who participated in the evaluation process were mere observers because NERC as a regulator has no responsibility to sell private public enterprises.
  7. After the evaluation and selection of Barth Nnaji’s firm as the preferred bidder, Chief Emeka Offor’s consortium petitioned on the ground of error. The Presidency empaneled a special committee chaired by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Power. The Chairman of NERC, the DG of BPE and BPE consultants were member with a mandate to review the process. After reviewing the process, the committee agreed that Chief Emeka Offor’s consortium ought to win the bid after correcting the error. The NCP approved Chief Emeka Offor’s consortium as the winner of the bid and the preferred bidder.
  8. After the declaration of Chief Emeka Offor’s consortium as the winner, Bola Onagoruwa, the DG of BPE, wrote to NERC to cut off Aba ring-fenced area from Enugu disco area and reevaluate it for Barth Nnaji to purchase. NERC rejected that request because it would violate regulatory due process. You cannot conclude a sale of a territory and after the buyer has fulfilled terms and conditions you alter the sale. While he was the Minister of Power and supervised the privatization, Professor Bart Nnaji had opportunity to demand the performance of the contract he had with federal government to be given the right of first rejection to purchase the Aba ring-fenced area before privatization. He did not do so, since he had reasonable expectations that he would purchase the entire Enugu disco. But unfortunately, he lost to Emeka Offor. NERC took the view that it would be a corrupt and unlawful action to alter the completed transaction to compensate Bart Nnaji in the circumstances in which he participated and lost out in the wholesome sale of Enugu disco.
  9. As a responsible regulator, NERC sent a team of its technical staff to evaluate the work done by Geometry and Aba Power on the ground. The team reported highly of the efforts of Prof Bart Nnaji and his team. Based on this report, I wrote to the CEO of Enugu Distribution Company to implement the contract between the federal government and Bart Nnaji by allowing Aba Power ‘operationalize’ the contract to exercise authority over the Aba ring-fenced area as a lessee.
  10. Bart Nnaji proceeded to court against the federal government for violating the lease agreement. Later Emeka Offor joined the suit. NERC was not part of the suit and had nothing to do with the contest between both parties.
  11. There were many interventions at the presidency to settle the matter. At one of those meeting, President Jonathan asked me as Chairman of NERC to resolve it because I would follow due process. At NERC as a commission resolved to undertake a public hearing on the matter to ensure transparency and give all parties, including customers of the ring-fenced area to express their opinions. NERC advertised a date for a public hearing to conduct due process review of the dispute between Bart Nnaji’s company and Emeka Offor’s EEDC. Before the hearing, we got a letter from the Attorney General of the Federation asking us to hands-off as the matter was before the court.
  12. The next time we had something to do with the matter was at the instance of the Buhari presidency. NERC had a regulatory meeting and issued an expert opinion that restates that Enugu disco should allow Aba Power to ‘operationalize’ the lease but as a lessee of Enugu disco and EEDC as lessor. This means that Aba Power will pay Enugu disco regulated fee for use of its network. Barth Nnaji rejected this view because he claimed he ought to be given full control of ring-fenced area by the federal government.
  13. The last official engagement with the matter before I left office in December 2015 was a special meeting called by the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo. Chief Olanipekun SAN led Bart Nnaji and Chief Ademola SAN led a director of Enugu disco for Emeka Offor for the meeting. The Vice President endorsed the NERC recommended option as the fair and legal approach to solve the problem.
  14. It is important to note that throughout this period I never had any meeting with either Emeka Offor or Pius Anyim or any of Emeka’s Offor’s proxy in any form on the matter in dispute. There has been no moment in my multiple interactions with Anyim Pius Anyim as Secretary to Government of the Federation that he ever sought my opinion or offer any opinion to me about the dispute over Aba Power. Chief Emeka Offor never met me privately in my office or anywhere to discuss the matter with me.
  15. As a matter of fact, it was Bart Nnaji who had made efforts to discuss the matter privately with me. First, he came to my office to discuss the matter with the highly revered Paschal Dozie. I told Mr. Dozie the truth as I always do that the only solution short of a judicial decision to the benefit of Bart Nnaji is to operationalize the lease so that Aba Power pays lease to Enugu disco and distribute power in the ring-fenced area. Bart Nnaji also came to my house with another of his friend and we had lunch, and I restated my position. So, if there is anyone who has had personal conversation with me over the Aba Power project it is neither Pius Anyim Pius nor Emeka Offor. It is actually Professor Bart Nnaji.

These are facts which can be crosschecked with records with NERC. I challenge anyone who doubts this narration of facts to trigger a Freedom of Information request and scrutinize the records of proceedings of NERC regulatory and management meetings. As I always state in matter of integrity and due process, if there is any evidence that I ever had a meeting with anyone or anyway took any action contrary to what I stated here I will voluntarily go to prison for any such offence.

Let me make it clear. One of the accusations against me is that I was fiercely independent as a regulator and did not listen to anyone outside NERC in regulatory decisions. Everyone in the power sector knows that I would rather resign than submit to the dictation of anyone outside NERC. I have said it before that I am personally responsible for any decision I made as NERC Chairman. I had in the past absolved President Jonathan or any other person from any liability for decisions made by NERC. No one pressured or forced me to take any action that is wrong or self-serving. I am proud that nothing has been found against me more than 8 years since I left office as the Chairman of NERC. Since then, I have not done any work for any company in the electricity sector. I removed myself from any benefit from the sector far beyond the 2 years that the Act requires me to recuse myself. I have not received one kobo from any company in the Nigerian electricity industry. I challenge anyone to contradict me on this claim.

The article tried to stain my reputation by suggesting that I worked on behalf of Anyim and Emeka Offor to delay or deny the completion of Aba Power project. That is an absolute falsehood as the facts above attest. It is an insult to suggest I was beholding to Ayim Pius Ayim in doing my work on Chairman of NERC. As records show, in all circumstances, I acted on my understanding of what the law and facts require of me as a regulator. It is ironic that it was the same Anyim Pius Anyim who once told me that President Jonathn once said ‘Please let everyone allow Sam do his work. For once, let us have a man of courage and integrity who would not succumb to anyone”. I am proud that I maintained that integrity throughout my tenure at NERC. I am sure Prof Bart Nnaji knows me so well. He is not and cannot be part of this blatant lie.

Whereas I need to correct the false statement against me, it should not obscure the great achievement of the moment. The commissioning of the Aba Power project is a testimony to the commitment and resilience of Prof Bart Nnaji. It is a good fortune for Governor Alex Otti and the people of Abia as they strive to make Aba the industrial heartland of Nigeria as it deserves to be. Nigeria now has an example of how to do it better and faster from the Aba Power project.

Let us embrace the learning without the falsehood.

As for BusinessDay and its writer, they will have their day in court for libel.

How greed, politics and murky dealings nearly killed Aba power project

By Lolade Akinmurele 

The world was a very different place when Geometric Power first agreed with the federal government in 2005 to generate and distribute power in Eastern Nigeria’s industrial hub of Aba.

For instance, Olusegun Obasanjo was Nigeria’s president at the time, a position he would hold for another two years until 2007.

Alex Otti, the current governor of Abia State, was an executive director, commercial banking at First Bank and won’t assume his role as managing director and CEO of Diamond Bank, one of the major financiers of the Aba Power project, until 2011, six years later.

Kashim Shettima, Nigeria’s vice president, who inaugurated the plant on Monday, was the manager of Zenith Bank’s Maiduguri branch.

It would, however, take nearly two decades for Geometric to finally get a shot at fulfilling its promise to provide  24-hour power supply to the city of Aba after it turned on the first of its four power-generating turbines for the first time on Sunday, February 25, 2024.

The transformative Aba Integrated Power Plant, Nigeria’s first, may now be up and running, with residents of the city jubilating over the impact it would have on the economy, but the private greed and government ineptitude that held it back for so long may forever cast a dark cloud over private investments in the power sector of Africa’s most populous country.

Geometric Power, owned by a professor of engineering and former minister of power, Barth Nnaji, had been prevented from keeping its promise of lighting up Aba after vested interests, crony capitalists, an inept bureaucracy putting up barriers to doing business and murky dealings traceable to the very top of Nigeria’s political class combined to delay the 181-megawatt power plant.

The plot to stop Geometric was at the time enabled by a hapless president, a vice president captured by vested interests and a defanged Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).

Also playing a starring role in grounding the Aba power project was the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), where conflicting interests had led to deceit, and a private sector entity – Interstate Electrics, owners of Enugu Disco, whose intent was essentially to kill Geometric.

It was a tale with few heroes but lots of villains who conspired to keep the city of 2.5 million people perpetually in the dark.

Emeka Offor, the chairman of Chrome Group and promoter of Interstate Electrics Limited, who was a close friend of Namadi Sambo, Nigeria’s Vice President at the time, was said to have frustrated the operation of the power plant primed to deliver uninterrupted power supply to Aba, a shoe and garment hub in Africa.

The sheer misanthropy that accompanies Nigeria’s version of barefaced political brigandage and patronage has left households and industries in entrepreneurial Aba, the “Japan of Africa,”  trapped under increasing blackouts.

Households in the Southeast experienced blackouts several times a month.

In 2000, the combined turnover of the shoe and garment industry of Aba, the third-largest commercial city in Nigeria, was $200 million.

Offor, who was blocking the project, had Pius Anyim, secretary to the government of the federation, in his pocket, while Sam Amadi, the chairman and CEO of NERC, was beholden to Anyim.

Benjamin Dikki, director-general of the BPE, and Mohammed Bello Adoke, attorney-general, were also marionettes of the vice president.

Together, they managed to pull the wool over the eyes of former President Goodluck Jonathan, keeping him out of the loop with spurious procedural and legal issues.

Their delay tactics slowed down the take-off of a project financed by a consortium of American investors, local and international banks, as well as the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s private-sector arm.

In 2001, after the successful execution of the 22 megawatts (MW) emergency power station in Abuja to serve a dedicated distribution network within the Federal Capital Territory, Nnaji, founder of Geometric, was inspired to initiate the Aba Integrated Power Project, a distribution project with an embedded generation company.

In 2004, Geometric Power Limited signed a memorandum of understanding with the Federal Government to build a power plant in Aba, and a year later, in April 2005, Geometric signed the Aba concession agreement, also with the Federal Government, which gave it the right to distribute power to Aba.

The government, NEPA, and APL executed a lease agreement on April 28, 2005, for the distribution of power to the ring-fenced residential and commercial consumers at Aba.

By the terms of the agreement, NEPA assigned its right to distribute electric power on the ring-fenced island of Owerrinta, Osisioma, Ogbor Hill, Factory Road, and Port Harcourt Road in Aba, and also leased its distribution facilities within the contract area.

Despite the huge promise it held not only for Aba but for a country where stable power was elusive and officials were scouring for templates to keep the lights on across the country, it appeared as though Geometric Power would never light up Aba as the politically-influential Emeka Offor stood in the way.

Geometric was licenced in 2005 to deliver power supply to Aba and Ariaria business units, just two out of 18 business units in the Enugu Disco licence areas.

However, the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) sold EEDC to Emeka Offor’s Interstate Electrics without exempting Aba from the sale, thereby causing friction between Interstate Electrics and Geometric.

The backing of then Vice President Namadi Sambo titled the balance in favour of Offor’s Interstate Electrics.

According to knowledgeable sources, the former vice president had vested interests in Interstate Electrics and wanted the company to end up buying Enugu Disco.

The Sambo-led National Council on Privatisation (NCP) bent the rules of the privatisation of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) successor companies, when Interstate Electrics failed to meet the August 21 deadline for the payment of the remaining 75 percent of the bid value.

The company was said to have lobbied the NCP and BPE to get them to grant it an extension to pay for the asset, for which industry analysts said there was no moral justification when similarly some investors were shut out at the preliminary stages in the same circumstances.

Until it got to Interstate Electric’s inability to make any payment at the August 21, 2013 deadline, the NCP and the BPE did not allow any exception. Even when Dangote was a few minutes late in submitting its bid for Geregu and Shiroro, it was disqualified.

In November 2012, the vice president had, through a memo, directed the BPE headed by Bola Onagoruwa to disregard the 2004 Memorandum of Understanding with Geometric Power, and the 2005 and 2006 lease agreements that ring-fenced Aba and Ariaria business units in favour of Geometric, but because she insisted that the contract should be honoured, she was asked to quit ‘with immediate effect’ on November 27, 2013.

Originally published by Business Day

Analysts described the development at the time as curious in terms of timing and very disturbing from an investor perspective.

In suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/106/2013, filed at a federal high court in Abuja, Geometric sought to restrain BPE from listing the two business units among government-owned companies slated for privatisation, as selling or privatising the entire Enugu Disco contravenes the existing agreements between the Federal Government and Aba Power Limited and Geometric.

In another suit number, FHC/ABJ/CS/106/2013, Interstate Electrics Limited sought to be joined in the case instituted by Aba Power Limited and Geometric Power Aba Limited against the BPE.

In the understanding that an out-of-court settlement would be the best option for settling the dispute, the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) set up a peace committee.

In its report, obtained by BusinessDay, the NCP committee admitted that “BPE indicated that Aba ring-fence was encumbered, yet it included Aba ring-fence in its bid and that Aba ring-fenced area belongs entirely to Aba Power Ltd. with its generating power responsibilities.”

A report by NERC, after a visit to the Geometric Power infrastructure in Aba, submitted that “it will be a disservice to the country in general and the company (GPAL ad APL) in particular, after investing such a huge amount of money in power infrastructure, to be denied the terms of the tripartite agreement. A disregard of the agreement will cast a bad light on the Federal Government’s privatisation process and send a wrong signal to other prospective investors in the power sector.”.

In February 2014, a team from the Federal Ministry of Power, led by the permanent secretary, after visiting Aba, submitted that “the sanctity of the lease agreement of 2004 and the supplementary agreement of 2006 between the Federal Government and Geometric Power be respected and maintained.”

Several promises by former President Goodluck Jonathan to resolve the matter never materialised, and it was not until 2020 during the Muhammadu Buhari administration that the impasse was resolved.

Described as the biggest investment in the Southeast, Geometric Power has spent some $800 million on its integrated power project, which includes building a 27-kilometre natural gas pipeline from Owaza in Ukwa West LGA in Abia State to the Osisioma Industrial Layout in Aba.

Nnaji disclosed as far back as 2015 that his firm paid $3.5 million monthly as interest on the $500 million borrowed from Diamond Bank and other Nigerian financial institutions.

Geometric Power’s Aba project may be a case of better late than never but its dark side surely leaves more to be desired.

This article written by Lolade Akinmurele was originally published by Business Day on February 27, 2024 with the title: The dark side of the Aba power project.

NBA Abuja (Unity Bar) announces the death of kidnapped Chris Agidy, Esq.

Dear Learned Silks, Elders and members of the branch. It is with a heavy heart that we announce the death of the past Secretary of the branch, Chris Agidyi Esq, who was killed by his kidnappers while in captivity.

Recall that Musa Isiaka, Esq. the Secretary of the branch issued several statements about the efforts being made by the branch working with his immediate family and the Police to find him.

The branch worked effectively with the Nigeria Police to get to the end of their investigations. As you know, until the Police concluded their investigations, it was impossible for us as a branch to act on speculations about his death.

It is in this light that that the Chairman of the Branch, Afam O. Okeke, Esq. AICMC appointed Michael Awo Ejeh, the Publicity Secretary and Emmanuel I. Utomi, the Provost to work with the Police FCT Command throughout the process of Investigations, arrest of the kidnappers and the recovery of the remains of our late and fallen member.

On Monday 19th of February 2024, the Publicity Secretary and Provost were drafted to the Anti-Kidnapping Section of the Police to interview the Kidnappers and get information about the kidnap of Chris Agidy, they were formally informed that he was killed by them, while on their way to their camp. The branch officer worked with the Police in eliciting information from the suspects. In all the stages of investigations, the branch worked in collaborations with Mrs Agidy and some members of her family.

Also, on the 23rd of February 2024, the branch Officers held a physical meeting with the Commissioner of Police, FCT, Mr. Bennett Igweh, at 10:20 am and in attendance were the FCT PPRO and several officers of the Nigeria Police who were involved in the investigation of the case. Mrs. Agidy, her father and the two children were also in attendance. At the meeting, the Publicity Secretary spoke on behalf of the Chairman insisting that justice must be done and the corpse must be properly identified and released to the family for a decent burial. He informed the CP of the worries of members of the branch about their personal security and the general security of the FCT.

At this meeting, the Commissioner of Police informed the NBA Abuja Officers that several of the kidnappers have been arrested and those on the run would be arrested and prosecuted. The CP also said that all efforts were being made to recover the remains of Chris Agidy, Esq through the credible information provided by the suspects who were in Police custody.

According to the CP, his men were in the bush combing the kidnappers camps around the kuje area of the FCT Abuja.

The CP also said that this crime was committed before he was appointed as CP but that since he assumed office, he has cleaned up the FCT of kidnappers by personally taking the fight to their camps.

He assured us that the criminals will face justice and promised to do his part in supporting the children of the slain Lawyer.

He assured the NBA that he is doing everything to make FCT safe for all.

The branch also were fully working with the Police to identify the remains and recover them. The Police assured the branch officers that medical and forensic experts were deployed to identify the corpse. The branch was also informed yesterday 26th February 2024 when the remains of the fallen former Secretary were recovered.

We will continue to work with his wife and family until the funeral date is announced.

The branch wants to use this moment to request us to please keep him and his family in your prayers. May his gentle soul rest in peace.

Signed:

Michael Awo Ejeh,
Publicity Secretary,
NBA Abuja Branch.

Kidnapped NBA Abuja(Unity Bar) branch ex-secretary, Chris Agidy confirmed dead

Barrister Chris Agidy, a former Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Abuja branch (Unity Bar) and a Senior Legislative Aide, (SLA), to the lawmaker representing Delta North, Senator Ned Nwoko, who was kidnapped by bandits in 2023, has been confirmed dead.

The Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Police Public Relations Officer, SP Josephine Adeh, confirmed this to the media on Tuesday.

Recall that at least 19 persons were in November 2023 kidnapped from their homes in the Galadimawa area of nation’s capital by gunmen.

A report earlier emerged that 12 of the abductees were killed.

However, the identities of the deceased was not clear as the lawmaker and the security operatives continued efforts to rescue the lawyer.

Confirming the killing on Tuesday, the FCT PPRO said the lawmaker’s aide was killed by one of the wanted notorious kidnappers terrorizing the country’s capital city, Samaila Wakili.

Wakili was arrested on February 24 at the Sardauna Forest, in the Toto area of Nasarawa State, by police operatives.

The FCT PPRO said the suspect, upon his arrest, “led police operatives to where the remains of Barr. Chris Agidy is”.

She noted that “the remains was recovered and deposited in Gwagwalada General Hospital”.

NBA Abuja Branch (Unity Bar) Publicity Secretary, Michael Awo Ejeh elected CPN Nigeria Assistant National Secretary

Michael Awo Ejeh was on Monday elected as the Assistant National Secretary of the Child Protection Network Nigeria (CPN Nigeria).

Child Protection Network Nigeria was established by UNICEF as the foremost umbrella of CSOs on Child Rights and Child Protection in Nigeria. CPN Nigeria is an official of government at various levels, Ministry of Women Affairs, Social Development Secretariat, ILO, UNICEF, UNODC and so many other organisations that work in the areas of children.

At the second Annual Child and Society Conference and Awards, held at Lagos Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Ikeja, Lagos, Michael Awo Ejeh was elected as the Assistant National Secretary of CPN Nigeria.

Last year, Michael Awo Ejeh was awarded the Gani Fawehinmi Outstanding Impact Award at Ikeja Lagos in recognition of his work in human rights.

CPN Nigeria was instrumental in the passage of the Child Rights Act and it is the foremost implementing Network for the enforcement of the Child Rights Act.

Michael Awo Ejeh also was appointed by the Benue State Government as a Member of the State Taskforce on Human Trafficking.

Congratulations to Michael Awo Ejeh for his work and activities in human rights.

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