A self-acclaimed native doctor, popularly known as “Akwa Okuku Tiwara Aki n’Oba,” has been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment following his arrest by the Anambra State Government last year.
The High Court sitting in Awka, however, ruled that part of the sentence will run concurrently with the period already spent in custody, effectively leaving him with eleven months to complete his jail term.
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According to the ruling, after serving the prison term, he will take up the following activities as ordered by the court:
He will become an ambassador for youth reorientation.
His Oba shrine will be destroyed
He will no longer practise “Okeite” and won’t administer such charms.
Upon completion of his term, he will make a public statement denouncing “Okeite” and such charm practices
He will serve his prison term at Awka Correctional Centre.
He was arrested over alleged shady fetish activities linked to dangerous charms prepared for youths for financial boom, among other charges.
The arrest forms part of the state’s crackdown on criminal elements and fraudulent practices impacting the people of Anambra State negatively.
The Ogun State Government has approved the award of a contract for the construction of an Abeokuta Division of the Court of Appeal complex in Abeokuta.
The approval was granted at the Ogun State Executive Council meeting held in Abeokuta on Friday.
Ogun State’s Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Oluwasina Ogungbade (SAN), provided the details of the contract after the meeting.
The contract, valued at ₦6,118,098,154.70, provides for the development of the court complex on a 2.6-hectare parcel of land adjoining the existing State Judiciary Complex in Olipakala Village via the Kobape area of Abeokuta, within the Judiciary Cluster along the Abeokuta–Sagamu Expressway.
This is part of the steps by the state government towards deepening access to justice and bringing appellate adjudication closer to the people of Ogun State.
A review by the Ministry of Justice showed that a clear majority of appeals currently heard by the Ibadan Division of the Court of Appeal emanate from Ogun State.
The absence of a division within the state has, over the years, increased the financial burden on litigants and legal practitioners and, in some instances, contributed to delays in the resolution of appeals.
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The state government has consistently demonstrated readiness for the takeoff of the Abeokuta Division. In preparation, six duplexes were constructed on 4,359 square metres of land in Ibara Housing GRA to serve as official residences for justices of the division. In addition, twenty bungalows at the Prince Court Estate, Kobape, have been set aside for support staff.
In 2025, the state received approval from the president of the Court of Appeal for the Abeokuta Division to commence operations.
This followed the special sitting of the court in Abeokuta in May 2024, during which about ten panels sat in the state and disposed of over 150 appeals within three days.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the new Court of Appeal complex will take place in the coming days, while construction is expected to be completed within twelve months.
A National Commissioner with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) defended its timetable, stating that the timeline provided to political parties for establishing a comprehensive digital membership is quite feasible.
The commission, on Thursday, released a revised timetable outlining timelines for party compliance, voter registration processes, and other pre-election activities.
The timetable requires political parties to submit detailed digital membership registers by April 2, 2026, which has led to objections from various political parties.
But the agency’s national commissioner, Mohammed Kudu Haruna, during an interview on Channels Television on Politics Today on Friday, dismissed claims that political parties face difficulties meeting membership requirements.
“I don’t see what the big problem or big issue with membership is. Right now, they are supposed to have had their membership sorted out.”
“Every serious party should have no problem collating its membership,” he said.
Meanwhile, the spokesman of an opposition party, the African Democratic Congress (ADC), who also appeared on the show, Bolaji Abdullahi, claimed that the amendment of the Electoral Act was a tactic by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to rig the 2027 elections.
He emphasised that his party would not permit this.
”What I can assure you is that ADC will not be used to legitimise a fraudulent process,” Bolaji said.
However, Haruna was confident that completing the registration process within the stipulated timeline should not be a challenge.
“I don’t think that it is difficult to have that registration process done by April,” he noted.
Reacting to the rejection of the timetable by the ADC, Haruna maintained that the commission is bound strictly by existing laws.
“They are entitled to their opinion. That is the law of the land. INEC doesn’t have the pleasure of rejecting any law. It is guided by what the law is,” he said.
Despite defending the timetable, the commissioner acknowledged that the schedule presents operational pressures for the commission.
“Of course, we are bothered by it. We need six months now for our money to be released, and a lot of the things we require are not off the shelf,” he said.
Haruna explained that INEC would need to procure additional Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines to replace lost units, as well as print ballot papers and result sheets.
While the commission previously printed much of its materials internally, he said several raw materials were sourced externally.
“INEC is getting ready, but I can’t tell you that we are ready because we have yet to get the money for the sensitive materials,” he stated.
The commissioner also revealed plans to revalidate the voter register but expressed concern over public participation in the process.
“We intend to do a revalidation of the voter register, but the main problem is we have a period of publication for objections and so on, and people never get back to us; sometimes it is a kind of self-indictment,” he said.
On whether the forthcoming election would be glitch-free, Haruna was cautious.
Former US president Bill Clinton faces a grilling from a Congressional panel on Friday on his well-documented links to Jeffrey Epstein, as Democrats seek to shift focus onto Donald Trump’s own ties to the convicted sex offender.
Clinton features prominently throughout the latest Epstein files disclosures, with the former president insisting that he broke ties with him well before the disgraced billionaire’s 2008 conviction for sex offences.
Mere mention in the files released by the US Department of Justice does not imply wrongdoing, and Clinton has not been accused of a crime or formally investigated.
READ ALSO: Bill Gates Admits Affairs But Denies Involvement In Epstein Crimes
He follows his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who testified Thursday, defiantly calling for President Trump — who, like Bill Clinton, had ties with Epstein — to appear before the panel.
“If this committee is serious about learning the truth about Epstein’s trafficking crimes… it would ask (Trump) directly under oath about the tens of thousands of times he shows up in the Epstein files,” she said in an opening statement published online.
The depositions under oath are being held behind closed doors, with Bill Clinton likening the proceedings to a “kangaroo court.” The couple has called for them to be open and televised.
The grilling comes with greater peril for the former president than for his wife, as he has acknowledged extensive interactions with Epstein, but said he never visited the shady financier’s private Caribbean island.
Epstein mingled with the world’s rich, famous and powerful, and was convicted in 2008 for soliciting sex from girls as young as 14.
He died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while facing trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.
The Republican-led House Oversight Committee is probing those who were linked to Epstein, particularly in light of the Justice Department’s disclosures of millions of new documents related to its investigation of him.
Hillary insisted that she had neither flown on Epstein’s plane nor visited his island.
The Clintons had initially rejected subpoenas ordering them to testify in the panel’s probe, but the Democratic power couple agreed to do so after House Republicans threatened to hold them in contempt of Congress.
– Newly released pictures –
Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks to the press after her deposition with the House Oversight Committee as they investigate links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, in Chappaqua, New York, on February 26, 2026.
Hillary Clinton said in her opening statement to the panel that it “justified its subpoena to me based on its assumption that I have information regarding the investigations into the criminal activities of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.”
“Let me be as clear as I can. I do not.”
Democrats say the investigation is being weaponised to attack Trump’s political opponents rather than to conduct legitimate oversight.
Bill Clinton features prominently in the trove of investigative files related to Epstein released by the Justice Department, but has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
Previously unseen photographs from the files include one showing the former president reclining in a hot tub, part of the image obscured by a stark black rectangle.
In another, Clinton is pictured swimming alongside a dark-haired woman who appears to be Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Clinton has acknowledged flying on Epstein’s private plane several times in the early 2000s for Clinton Foundation-related humanitarian work.
This undated photo from the personal collection of Jeffrey Epstein, provided by the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on December 12, 2025, shows US President Donald Trump (L), flanked by Epstein (C), talking to an unknown woman. Democratic lawmakers released a new cache of photos on Friday from the estate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein that includes images of US President Donald Trump and former president Bill Clinton, AFP) /
David Markus, an attorney for Maxwell, said recently that Clinton and Trump are “innocent of any wrongdoing.”
The depositions are being held in Chappaqua, New York, where the Clintons reside.
Dozens of journalists have converged on the wealthy hamlet, and the Secret Service erected metal barricades around the arts centre where the depositions are happening.
The Plateau State Government has held an emergency security council meeting following a spate of security incidents that heightened tension in Jos, the state capital, and parts of the state.
The meeting was chaired by Governor Caleb Mutfwang and attended by the Deputy Governor, senior government officials and heads of security agencies in the state.
Speaking after the meeting on Friday, Governor Mutfwang said the council reviewed security developments recorded within the last two weeks, including a mining-related incident in Wase Local Government Area and several attacks that claimed lives in different parts of the state.
He expressed the government’s condolences to the families of the victims, describing many of the deaths as avoidable.
“We have just finished a very high-level security council meeting where we examined all that has happened on the Plateau in recent days,” the governor said, adding that the government had put measures in place to prevent a recurrence.
He commended security agencies for their response to recent incidents and assured that efforts were ongoing to improve response time to distress calls.
READ ALSO: Four Killed, Two Soldiers Missing In Plateau Attack
Governor Mutfwang condemned attacks on travellers and communities, stressing that the government would not tolerate unlawful actions.
“Every life on the Plateau is sacred, and the government will not sit idle and allow people to take the law into their hands,” he said.
He announced that henceforth, only authorised law enforcement agencies would be allowed to block highways, warning that any unauthorised roadblocks would not be tolerated.
The governor also cautioned communities against harming travellers, stating that community leadership would be held responsible where such incidents occur.
He dismissed claims that Plateau roads were unsafe, describing them as attempts to mischaracterise isolated incidents, and urged residents to remain law-abiding and vigilant.
On the use of social media, Governor Mutfwang warned against the spread of misinformation and incitement, noting that the government would take action against individuals who use online platforms to fuel violence.
He commended youths in the state for exercising restraint despite recent provocations.
Also speaking, the Commissioner of Police, Bassey Ewah, said security agencies were adopting both kinetic and non-kinetic measures to reassure residents and restore confidence.
“Where the need arises, the law will be applied without prejudice to anybody,” he said.
Youth leaders and stakeholders from the Southern Kaduna Senatorial District have held a rally to demand the transparent prosecution of the eight-year tenure of former governor Nasir El-Rufai.
The group also publicly distanced itself from a group that recently declared solidarity with the former governor.
At a press briefing held in Kafanchan on Thursday, the headquarters of Jemaa local government area, the coalition described the pro–El-Rufai gathering as unrepresentative of the region.
Speaking on behalf of the coalition, the former Youth leader of Southern Kaduna Peoples Union, Nasiru Jagaba, and the Chairman of Southern Kaduna Peace and Security Network, Christopher Derek, said the individuals involved in the solidarity meeting do not speak for the people of Southern Kaduna and should be disregarded by the public.
In a series of demands, the youth leaders called on federal anti-corruption and security agencies — including the Department of State Services, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission to continue investigations into the alleged ₦432 billion under scrutiny in Kaduna State.
They also demanded full public disclosure regarding statements allegedly attributed to the former governor concerning payments of public funds to armed bandits during his tenure.
“We insist on detailed information consistent with Kaduna State’s commitments under this global transparency initiative. Any undisclosed security-related payments would directly contradict those publicly declared principles. Kaduna cannot subscribe to openness internationally while operating secrecy domestically,” he said.
The youth leaders also alleged that the group failed to acknowledge what they described as painful experiences endured by communities in Southern Kaduna during El-Rufai’s administration, including killings, displacement, and destruction of property.
READ ALSO: FG Sues El-Rufai Over NSA Phone-Tapping Claims
They specifically referenced the arrest and detention of the late Chief of Kurama, Dr Ishaku Damina, stating that the incident remains a painful memory within the community.
“We wish to make it unequivocally clear that those individuals are unknown and do not represent the people of Southern Kaduna and cannot speak on behalf of our communities. And we urge the general public to disregard the statements of these aliens with southern Kaduna vibes.
“They are a group of young men who, out of personal and financial interests, have chosen to ignore the painful experiences endured by the people of Southern Kaduna during the administration of Malam Nasiru El-Rufai.
“For personal gain, they have suddenly forgotten the killings, the rapes, the destruction of properties, and the merciless murder of children, including infants in their mothers’ wombs, that occurred during that period. The scars of those tragic years remain fresh in the hearts of our people.
“As just one example of what many consider cruelty and abuse of power: the former Governor ordered the arrest of the Chief of Kurama, Dr Ishaku Damina, who was detained for months without trial. Even when he became critically ill, he was allegedly denied release for proper medical attention. When he was eventually released, he died shortly thereafter. This incident remains a painful memory for many in our communities,” Derek stated.
