NDLEA Lied Says Senator Lola Ashiru

Senator Oyelola Ashiru’s office has issued a statement to debunk wrong and fallacious impressions created by the NDLEA in its press statement issued on 21 October 2024.

The NDLEA alleged that Senator Ashiru’s house in Ilorin, Kwara State, was raided, and illicit drugs were found. This accusation comes on the heels of Senator Ashiru’s declaration on the senate floor that the NDLEA is corrupt.

We find it preposterous and mere fishing for justification that NDLEA had to wait for the senator’s observation on the floor the Senate before making its spurious allegations.

As a matter of fact, Senator Ashiru never employed any aide bearing Ibrahim Mohammed or Mohammd Yahaya as bandied by NDLEA.

The agency claimed that its operatives visited the senator’s Ilorin house and found nothing incriminating. The entire house was searched, and nothing incriminating was found. If any drugs were found on certain persons mentioned by the NDLEA, it is rational to ask at which court of law were the culprits charged?

It is also important to state that Senator Ashiru has not sent any aide to the NDLEA to influence the dropping of drug allegations against anyone known as Tosin Odepidian. Indeed, all the names mentioned by the agency are strange, and none works directly or indirectly with Senator Ashiru.

The NDLEA has the duty to take anyone suspected of drug dealing to court rather than name- calling and engaging in media trial.

This clarification is necessary to set the record straight and address the misleading information circulated by the NDLEA.

It is an open secret that many criminals, cultists, armed robbers, and drug addicts find their way back into business after gratifying and bribing law enforcement officers.

The NDLEA ought to search its house and fish out bad eggs rather than seek cheap publicity!

Senator Ashiru remains committed to serving the people of Kwara South and upholding the truth at all times in the search for strict professionalism among our law enforcement agencies.

Olaitan Adeyanju
Legislative Aide (MEDIA) to Senator Lola Ashiru

Lagos Assembly To Hold Second Public Hearing On LG Administration Bill

– invites Attorney-General for interpretation of Supreme Court judgment

Sahara Weekly Reports That The Lagos State House of Assembly on Monday agreed to conduct another public hearing on a bill that seeks to review the Local Government Administration law of the state.

The House also invited the Attorney-General of the State, Lawal Pedro, for an interpretation of the recent Supreme Court judgment on financial autonomy for local governments.

The resolutions came at a sitting presided over by the Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa.

Dr. Obasa said the review of the Local Government Administration law is not aimed at scrapping the LCDAs but to further strengthen them.

“I agree on the need for us to schedule a second allotted day for the public hearing,” the Speaker said while adding that he had been inundated with calls by people who wanted to know the fate of the LCDAs.

“We are not scrapping the LDCAs. Rather, what we are trying to do is to look at the recent Supreme Court judgment in terms of Lagos and local governments’ joint account and fashion out a way where the parent local governments and the LDCAs work together without the LDCAs being shortchanged,” he added.

The Speaker also agreed on the need to work on the formal listing of the LCDAs by the National Assembly.

“Kano has 44 local governments, and out of Kano, Jigawa was created and has 27,” he said as he suggested a review of the revenue-sharing formula by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission.

Chairman of the Committee on Local Government, Hon. Sanni Okanlawon, had while reporting on the public hearing earlier conducted by the committee, said that many of the stakeholders invited for the event could not make it.

He attributed the poor attendance to the weather condition of the day just as he prayed the House to approve a second allotted day for the exercise.

Supporting Hon. Okanlawon’s request, his colleague, Hon. Ladi Ajomale said: “A lot of people are saying they do not understand what is going on and maybe the government is trying to wipe some people out of the local government system,” he said.

He also called for a liaison and better collaboration with the National Assembly to make the upper legislature understand why the LDCAs should be listed as substantive local governments.

On his part, Hon. Desmond Elliot noted that because of the size of Lagos in terms of population and its economic importance to Nigeria, it was imperative to work for the listing of the LCDAs.

“Anambra state has 21 local governments, and it is nowhere close to what Lagos has in terms of resources, economic importance, and dividends of democracy,” he said.

Eromosele Ebhomele

Chief Press Secretary to the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly.

My mum forcing me into prostitution, Delta schoolgirl alleges

A 15-year-old school girl in Delta State, Emmanuella Monday, has cried out for help from her hideout, after escaping from a man who her mother allegedly gave her to, urging relevant authorities to rescue her from her ‘abusive’ mother who she accused of allegedly trying to force her into child prostitution in exchange for money.

Emmanuella, who claims to be in Senior Secondary School 2 at Triumphant School, Effurun, in Uvwie Local Government Area of Delta State, alleged that her biological mother had contracted her to unnamed men to take sexual advantage of her.

This was contained in a video sighted by our correspondent in Warri where the girl specifically stated that her mother took her to meet a man in a hotel on Sunday and thereafter eloped after dropping her off with the man.

Emmanuella said, “My mother has been taking me to men. And last Sunday, after church, she took me to meet a man in a hotel.  She left and said that she was coming back. She did not come back till the evening, and left me there.”

Emmanuella told PUNCH Metro that her mother took her to one Beeland Hotel at Orhuworun Road, Udu Local Government Area of Delta State “to meet an Aboki man and said she was coming back, and till it was late, she didn’t return.”

The girl informed PUNCH Metro that she however “managed to escape from the hotel room, when the Aboki man went to have a bath.”

But she deposed that she consequently became infuriated and refused to go back to the house.

She added, “So, on getting out of the hotel room, I did not go to the house again. I managed to find my way to a friend’s house and stayed with that family overnight. On Monday morning, I went to school and reported the matter to my teacher. And my teacher said she was going to do something about the matter.”

Emmanuella added, “This is not the first time my mother is taking me out to go and meet different men. And she is always concerned about me and marriage.”

When contacted on the phone, Emmanuella’s mother, Mrs. Eunice Asulie, told our correspondent that her daughter had been missing from home, adding that she had “been searching for her.”

She said, “My daughter, Emmanuella, has been missing for days and I have been searching for her everywhere and could not find her.  I don’t know her whereabouts. I am looking for her.”

Speaking further, the mother stated that she had reported the matter to the police at the division close to them and the police were also searching for her.

The proprietress of Triumphant Schools, Mrs Magareth  Oghuvwu, explained how Emmanuella got to school on Monday amidst sobs, narrating her ordeals in the hands of her own mother who, she said, wanted to force her into prostitution.

Oghuvwu posited that the school management thereafter contacted law enforcement agents on the matter.

@PUNCHNG