01/04/18

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Latest Reality Blog is a legal blog where you are updated on online latest news, gist, entertainment, events, motivational text, and genue articles.

President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday inaugurated the Kaduna Inland Dry Port and warned the Nigeria Customs Service and port officials against frustrating the effective use of the facilities.
Inaugurating the facilities in Kaduna, Buhari said the customs and the port officials must make the facilities work and not to frustrate business, commercial and industrial enterprises with unnecessary bureaucracy.
“It remains for Customs and Ports officials to make these facilities work and not to frustrate business, commercial and industrial enterprises with unnecessary bureaucracy and inflicting on them delays and hardships, thereby defeating the object of the whole exercise as has happened in the past.
“Make these facilities work this time,’’ he stressed.
According to him, the hinterland business community has waited for too long for such facility that has tremendous potentials to ease the way of doing international business for the interior based importers and exporters.
He said that the development of Inland Dry Ports was an important factor in the nation’s economic development efforts.
“As Ports of origin for exports and ports of destination for imports, the Inland Dry Ports will accelerate the implementation of our economic diversification policy.
“The concept of Inland Dry Port has gained widespread importance with the changes in international transportation as a result of the container revolution and the introduction of door-to-door delivery of cargo.
“It provides importers and exporters located within the nation’s hinterland, especially industrial and commercial outfits, access to shipping and port services without necessarily visiting the seaports.
“It also enables them to process clearance of their import cargo and take delivery of their raw materials and machinery close to their places of business.’’
President Buhari also said that the Dry Ports would provide exporters the much needed facilities to process, package, consolidate and forward their exports to their customers all over the world without having to physically be at the seaports.
According to him, this replicates the port economy in the various centres where the Dry Ports are located inland thereby generating employment and contributing to the ease of doing business.
He said in addition to the Kaduna Inland Dry Port, six other Inland Dry Ports in Ibadan, Aba, Kano, Jos, Funtua and Maiduguri, which had also been gazetted, were at various stages of completion.
He congratulated the Kaduna State Government, the Federal Ministry of Transportation, Nigerian Shippers’ Council as well as the hinterland importers and exporters on the inauguration of the facilities.
The president also commended the initiative of Nigerian Shippers’ Council towards promoting the provision of these modern transport infrastructural facilities.
He, however, urged the Concessionaires of the other six Dry Ports to emulate the Concessionaires of the Kaduna Dry Port by accelerating work on theirs so as to ensure speedy completion of the projects.
He said that with the full complement of the seven Dry Ports, congestion at the seaport and traffic gridlock in the port complex would be eliminated.
“Consequently, the cost of transportation and cost of doing business will be reduced,’’ he said.
He lauded the efforts of the Kaduna state government for facilitating the establishment of Kaduna Inland Dry Port.
According to him, the provision of access roads and other utilities to the Dry Port by Kaduna State Government is worthy of emulation by the other Dry Ports host State Governments.
He urged relevant stakeholders across the public and private sectors, particularly Nigeria Customs Service, Nigerian Ports Authority, Nigerian Railway Corporation, Shipping Companies and Agencies, Seaport Terminal Operators, Clearing and Forwarding Agents, Road Haulers and importers and exporters to utilize the facility optimally. LR News
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The Adamawa Police Command on Thursday confirmed the arrest of a policeman who was alleged to have shot to death seven farmers in the state.
The arrest followed a petition by a Civil Society Organization, Progressive Mind for Development Initiate.
The petition signed by the President of the CSO, Abubakar Abdulsalam, alleged that the officer, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, committed the offence on Nov. 23, 2017.
It indicated that the police officer, while in charge of Safer Highways Patrol Team, arrested the farmers who were working on their farms at the outskirts of Gombi town, tied and shot them to death.
The petition further alleged that the same officer had on April 30, 2016, while in charge of a police outpost in Kem village, Shelleng Local Government area of the state, killed four people suspected of committing robbery.
“We as a concerned organization consider the act of the suspect (policeman) as an act against the provision of the Constitution and infringement on the fundamental rights of the people in question.
“If such act is not checked it will continue to spread like wild fire and eventually Nigeria will be unsafe for its citizens,” it added.
Spokesman of Adamawa Police Command, Othman Abubakar, said the policeman had been arrested and detained as investigation continues into the case.
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Latest Reality Blog is a legal blog where you are updated on online latest news, gist, entertainment, events, motivational text, and genue articles.
Alaka Abayomi




Suspected Badoo kingpin, Alhaji Alaka Abayomi, has said he is ready to submit himself to the Nigeria Police Force for investigations.

Alaka, who had been declared wanted by the Lagos State Police Command, however, said he would not appear before the state Commissioner of Police, Edgal Imohimi.

He alleged that investigations would be compromised if carried out under Imohimi’s supervision, urging the Force headquarters in Abuja to take up the matter.

Alaka spoke to PUNCH Metro on Wednesday on the heels of the arrest of a herbalist, Fatai Adebayo, who allegedly administered oaths on Badoo members before they went on operations.

On Wednesday, the Lagos State Government also sealed off Alaka’s filling station and hotel on Ijebu-Ode-Itoikin Road, in the Sabo area of Ikorodu, saying the facilities violated the state’s Urban and Regional Planning Law of 2010.

Alaka, in a telephone interview with our correspondent, said he was not apprehended and challenged the police to come up with evidence against him. He was, however, evasive when asked where exactly he was.

The embattled businessman, who spoke in Yoruba, said, “What evidence did the police have before calling me Badoo (kingpin)? Did any suspect mention my name? What does sealing my property have to do with this case? I applied and paid for the Certificate of Occupancy for the filling station five years ago, but I have not got it. I have evidence of payments.

“Since the police declared me wanted, no policeman came to my house or office to invite me. The police have my number, but they did not call me on the telephone for invitation. I don’t believe I am wanted because no invitation was sent to me. Since the police said they were looking for Badoo members, they have not arrested any prime suspect.

“I want the government to intervene. I am ready to appear before the police or any investigative body, but not before the Lagos State Police Command and Edgal (Imohimi). A team should be set up to investigate the matter, particularly from Abuja. He (Edgal) declared me a Badoo kingpin, but what evidence does he have? About five security men guarding the filling station have been arrested.”

Alaka explained further that he had sued the police command and Imohimi at the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, for blackmail, but the respondents had yet to appeared before the court.

He alleged that the court had also delayed ruling on an injunction application filed by his lawyer, seeking that the police be restrained from arresting him (Alaka) pending the determination of the substantive suit – blackmail.

The 51-year-old claimed that his issues with the police started when he declined to pay N10m bribe an Investigating Police Officer reportedly demanded from him.

He said, “I can no longer walk freely around Ikorodu for fear of area boys administering jungle justice on me. I have read about the herbalist that was arrested. I don’t know him. Why didn’t police allow him to talk to journalists? The case should be transferred from the Lagos State Command; they have dented my image. I sleep in my house in Magodo; no policeman came to arrest me.

“I will not show up at the Lagos State Police Command for three reasons: one, they don’t have evidence against me. I was arrested and released the following day without being told to write a statement.

“Secondly, the CP has refused to appear in court. The case has been in court since August 2017. For three adjourned dates, the court was said to be on vacation. During the last sitting, the judge adjourned till February 2018 for ruling on the injunction, which is very suspicious.

“Thirdly, I will not surrender myself to the CP because he will compromise investigation. But I am ready to appear before the Inspector-General of Police and the National Assembly.

“The genesis of this issue was when the IPO requested that I should pay N10m to settle some police officers at the command. It was when I refused to pay the money that I was arrested. I have petitioned the National Assembly and the IG on this.”

When contacted for reactions to the allegations made by the suspect, the Lagos State Police Public Relations, SP Chike Oti, said he had no comment.

He said, “I have no comment to make because the case is under investigation. Everything concerning the subject is under investigation. The command won’t bandy words with him. He is being wanted by the police and he should turn himself in.”

Earlier on Wednesday, the Lagos State Government sealed off Alaka’s filling station, hotel and event centre.

The state government in a statement by the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Steve Ayorinde, said the outfits belonged to “a suspected Badoo cult kingpin, Alhaji Alaka Abayomi Kamal.”

The commissioner said the structures were sealed off for violating the Lagos State Urban and Regional Planning Law of 2010.

The statement read in part, “The police, had on December 22, 2017, declared Alaka wanted in connection with series of well-orchestrated killings and nefarious activities of the Badoo cult in the Ikorodu and Epe areas of the state.

“Alaka is believed to be the ringleader of the Badoo menace.

“The Lagos State Government is joining the Nigeria Police Force in asking Alaka to come out of hiding and submit himself to the law in his own interest.

“The state government has also enjoined the police to offer the public a reward for any useful information on the owner of the Alaka Filling Station, hotel and the event centre in Ikorodu.”

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President Muhammadu Buhari



A Diaspora Igbo group under the platform of the Igbo Ekunie Initiative has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of treating killer Fulani herdsmen with kid gloves.

The group’s declaration followed the killings of about 50 persons in fresh attacks on Benue communities by suspected Fulani herdsmen on New Year Day.

The Igbo group described as an irony for the Federal Government to proscribe the Indigenous People of Biafra that was innocuous while patting herdsmen who had inflicted pains and agony on Nigerians on the back.

While saying that the proscription of IPOB was presumptuous and unacceptable, it asked Buhari to reconsider the ban.

Speaking at a press conference in Awka, the Anambra State capital, on Wednesday, the  President of Igbo Ekunie, Mr. Tochukwu Ezeoke, asked  Buhari to negotiate with IPOB before the 2019 general elections or the Igbo would have no other option but  to review their stand with the government of the All Progressives Congress.

Ezeoke insisted that IPOB was not a terrorist organisation, adding that the purported proscription of the group would continue to be resisted until the right thing was done.

He said, “2019 is around the corner. It’s a time to take decision. Herdsmen cannot be killing our people and somebody will look the other way, but had to proscribe IPOB that is innocuous. It is disingenuous to allow that; it’s unacceptable.”

The group’s statement read in part, “We therefore call on President Buhari, governors of the South-East, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, opinion leaders, and human rights groups to engage IPOB and other self-determination groups in fruitful dialogue that will address their grievances and permanently end agitation across Nigeria.

“In the same vein, we call for the immediate withdrawal of all charges against IPOB members and the unconditional release of all detained members.”
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Latest Reality Blog is a legal blog where you are updated on online latest news, gist, entertainment, events, motivational text, and genue articles.
General Idi Amin Dada



The name Idi Amin has gathered so much negative connotations over the years that it is understandable why most people in today’s world may not want to know anything about the man behind the name. It is taken for granted that there is nothing good about the former Ugandan head of state, Gen. Idi Amin Dada. The consensus: He was one of the worst leaders that ever walked the planet; a disgrace to Africa.

Most of the films and media materials about him perpetuated this perception. In biographical movies, he was depicted as a paranoid despot, a flesh-eating daylight vampire, a buffoon whose only educational qualifications were the ones he awarded himself when he became the overlord of the 24 million-people landlocked East African enclave in 1971.

I still cannot erase my memories of one of such movies which I watched during my primary school days. My innocent mind could not comprehend such barbarity – where an archbishop was killed by a President, and in the next scene the murderer opened his refrigerator and pulled out a blood-wet chunk of human flesh and chucked it into his fetish mantra-reciting mouth. It was horrifying.

In fact, one of such flicks, the Last King of Scotland, played by one of my favourite actors, Forrest Whitaker, won an Oscar. I saw the movie in 2007. Great performance by Whitaker, which I enjoyed because I was an adult and was not horrified. By then, I knew it was just a movie.

Believe it or not, most of the dramatic depictions of Idi Amin are not accurate. They were exaggerated for effect, and to institutionalise the already existing image of the tyrant as painted by the Western world immediately his politics turned East-friendly during his years in power in the 1970s.

An aside: This is why I always maintain that leaders should write their own story, no matter how ugly. The narrative you pen of yourself shall aid posterity when the time comes for a posthumous court hearing in order to determine your legacy profile. If you did not leave a memoirs or autobiography, your enemies shall write one for you. At that time, nobody would be able to contact you to edit the copy.

It was of recent that I finally took time to watch a true life documentary film on Idi Amin. I listened to him talk in real interviews and attend to real life government demands and functions as the head of state, not dramatised or staged. It was not perfect, but it was a fair portrayal of a real (bad) man in a real environment. It is left for the viewer to judge, without having the “badness” shoved down their throat.

The title of the movie is “General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait” a 1974 documentary film made by French director, Barbet Schroeder, with English dialogue. The film depicts Amin at the height of his power. It is an extended character study of its subject, which followed Amin closely in a series of formal and informal settings, combined with several short interviews in which Amin expounds his unconventional theories of politics, economics, and international relations.

Included in the film are many candid scenes of Amin and his military in action: the paratroopers practise their exercises on a slide similar to those that would be found in a children’s playground; a welcoming committee of villagers is forced to flee the dust and backdraft from Amin’s helicopter as it lands; a cabinet member picks his nose with the end of a pencil during one of Amin’s speeches in a cabinet meeting.

In one sequence, Amin rebukes his cabinet ministers for their failure to represent Uganda “correctly” to the world. Even while remonstrating with his foreign minister for his public-relations failures, he is jocular and joking as always – two weeks later, the documentary points out, the foreign minister’s body was found floating in the River Nile.

It was in the movie, while he gave a particularly interesting interview sitting backing a lush garden, that I discovered that Idi Amin had a “green streak”, that is, a leaning towards environmentalism. Amin’s environmental proclivities no one has ever noted, ostensibly because the people he killed never allowed the world take notice of the trees he saved.

In the interview he discussed how to effect environmental awareness among the populace.

“You can educate people through traditional dance. How to make a good garden like this – it will be in the song. When you are singing people are watching. You talk about the flowers, how you can make a very good garden in your house.”

As the interview progresses, one notices that Amin becomes suddenly excited, as one who is discussing a deep passion exudes when expressing such innate feelings. He suddenly interjectes, “This song has got meaning. I must go and make this song!” I also noted that the next sequence in the documentary film shows a Ugandan drama troupe entertaining audience in a green themed dance-drama where the actors and dancers all wear leaves and wield one wildlife artifact or the other.

The interview continues, “You must have a house with pit latrine. Make it clean. People understand all. And you must boil water before you drink because you may help disease in the stomach; you are helping the doctor (by boiling your water before drinking).”

Here, Idi Amin was discussing water sanitation and hygiene matters in a most rudimentary manner which once again shows an underlying concern for environmental challenges. I do not think that as a military leader he was playing politics by trying to discuss the issues that the people faced. A leader such as himself almost always stays with discussions of governance at a high level, and assigns civilian appointees and associates to outline details. I believe that for him to go from describing military operations to detailing WASH survival tips – while wearing full military regalia – he must be an environmentalist at heart.

What is more, he also hinted at a crude understanding of global warming. Remarkably, that was at a time when the idea of a warming earth had not even been broached by scientists.

Continuing in the interview, he said, “You must work hard. You must produce more foods for export, for selling, to get more money, and for reserve in case of dry season, because of the hot sun. You will have a reserve food in your store. You will not die of hunger.”

I underline the phrase “because of the hot sun” due to its significance. When Amin gave the interview, the word, “global warming”, had not entered the dictionary. The term, global warming, was first used in its modern sense on August 8, 1975 in a science paper by Wally Broecker in the journal called “Are we on the brink of a pronounced global warming?”

So, I believe that in spite of Amin’s blotched image, he had all it takes to metamorphose into a green giant. If the idea of global warming and climate change was on the global front burner in his time, there was the likelihood that he would have used the term in his interview – and propaganda. Hence, instead of saying that Ugandan farmers were threatened by the hot sun, he would have said they were threatened by climate change.

Indeed, knowing the kind of showy politics he played at the global scene, he was the kind of African leader that would easily become the self-appointed apostle of climate change. He would have sought to out-play America’s former Vice-President Al Gore. He would have gone to Europe to embrace green politicians like the French green politician Dominique Voynet. He would have sought to become a green star.

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Shooting Stars have lamented the death of their former goalkeeper, Raymond King. King died on January 1 in Lagos at the age of 52.

In a  condolence message signed by the club’s Executive Chairman, Mr Gbolagade Busari, the  Ibadan club described King’s death as “shocking and untimely”.

“Raymond King’s death is shocking and untimely. I was just praying after learning about his illness only for the worst to happen. We pray to God to comfort the family at this trying period. It is a big loss to Nigerian football,” Busari said in the statement.

King, initially from Akwa Ibom before he proclaimed himself as Ogun State indigene, was a member of the 1979/80 Flying Eagles. He helped Shooting Stars reach the final of the 1984 African Clubs Champions Cup competition, where  they lost to Zamalek of Egypt.

King also played for Abiola Babes of Abeokuta, Leventis United of Ibadan and later moved to Greece before returning to Nigeria.

He was robbed on arrival at the Murtala International Airport, losing his earnings in Greece and his passport. While trying to arrange for another travelling document, the Greek club later cancelled his contract with them when he did not return as earlier scheduled.

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