The Unimaginable!!

Oyedepo had on Sunday reacted to report that Buhari was dead and the President in Aso Rock was Jubril El Sudan.

Oyedepo, speaking from Living Faith church HQ at Canaan land, Ota, on Sunday called on Buhari to as a matter of urgency, address the nation on the allegation.

But, reacting, Buhari’s aide, Ogunlesi took to his Twitter page, describing Oyedepo as a hater of Buhari.

He wondered why the cleric would go to a far length to discredit Buhari.

Ogunlesi wrote: “Olatunji Dare, one of Nigeria’s finest satirists, wrote a piece titled ‘Buhari’s Double’ on Nov 27:

“Pastor of one of Nigeria’s LARGEST CHURCHES cites the SATIRE in a sermon (apparently yest) as evidence PMB likely dead.

“I know the Bishop has always detested PMB (its a free world, really, the right to dislike anyone is guaranteed constitutionally atink), but I don’t understand why he keeps going this far to peddle/amplify (from the pulpit) falsehood and disinformation about him. 

The notorious rumour in circulation on Nigerian streets sounds every bit like a citation from a James Hadley Chase. Chase has a pleasant notoriety with his crime fiction novels that hold you spellbound. With a gloating slide to it, the rumour is trending, with celebrated gusto, of the “death” of the man Nigerians elected into office in May, 2015. On the social media, in whispers and grisly jokes on the streets, a “man in the know,” who argues with the persuasive acumen of a salesman, suddenly emerges from the blues and clinically volunteers information on how Muhammadu Buhari passed on in the United Kingdom in 2017, only to be super-imposed with a body-double, said to be one Jibrin from Sudan.

It sounds more like a classic thriller from Chase. In, for instance, You Can Say That Again, Jerry Stevens, a Los-Angeles out-of-work bit-part movie actor who worked small-time, got an offer of a job that was worth a thousand dollars a day in California. What kind of job would be worth that huge pay? The brief was to act as body-double to one of the most powerful and indeed, the richest man in the world, John Merrill Ferguson. The reason for the impersonation was simple: Ferguson, at the centre of a multi-million dollar secret deal, had been on daily watch by tattler newshounds who wanted exclusive stories on his life. In order to stave off these nosey hyenas, Ferguson needed to railroad them from his moves and thus, the need for Stevens as a stand-in. The money involved was so entrapping that Stevens couldn’t resist the offer, a whiff off his wildest imagination. However, from the moment he agreed to the Ferguson deal, he suddenly found himself in an intricate web of stark terror, unimaginable nightmare, murder and intrigue that swallowed him and his greed.

But, how could this crime fiction model be deployed to explain the governance of the largest concentration of blacks all over the world, Nigeria? How could that almost global celebration of matrimony between Nigerians and General Buhari, consummated in 2015, descend to this level of abysmal distrust and mistrust? Is this trending narrative of a body-double borne out of the normal four-yearly Nigerian orgy of politicking, the usual friction that comes with the “we” and “them” social dichotomy between the upper and lower classes, or the ordinary human cynicism?

There is no doubt that public confidence in the Nigerian leadership has broken down irretrievably. There is also no doubting the fact that galloping misrule has alienated Nigerian leaders from the ruled, so much that the “them” and “we” almost live like cat and mouse in the polity. Is this why this callous concoction is a trending narrative in Nigeria?

Of a truth, rumour is not native to Nigeria or Nigerian politics. Indeed, rumour is a communication concept which involves a tall tale whose veracity is not quickly or ever confirmed. Circulated from person to person, mostly on an issue of societal concern, rumour spreads like the Californian bushfire. In 1902, German William Stern authored a pioneering work on rumour which his student, Gordon Allport, built upon. It was followed by Robert Knapp’s definitive work in 1944 which he entitled A Psychology of Rumor. Of the three basic characteristics of rumour identified by Knapp, the one which says that rumour “express(es) and gratif(ies) the emotional needs of the community” seems to explain the force of this Nigerian rumour on their president. It is also in tandem with a 2004 work by Prashant Bordia and Nicholas DiFonzo, which found out that the transmission of rumour is reflective of a “collective explanation process.” So, is Buhari’s death rumour simply a distrust borne by perception of his failure in government?

Rumour is as old as mankind. There is this Ijesha town in present Osun State where ancient myth claims that the people do not eat snail because one of its founders beheaded his wife on account of rumoured infidelity. While on the farm, dried snail sputum on the wife’s wrapper had been misinterpreted to mean a concubine’s semen. In memory of the fidelity of the amazon, descendants of the Ijesha town are said to be forbidden from eating snail, as totem of her death.

Recent history of rumour throws up khaki shorts-wearing humanist and educationist, Tai Solarin. At the cusp of national angst with wily gap-toothed military president, Ibrahim Babangida, Solarin had been fingered as purveyor of the rumour that an international magazine, Ebony had listed Babangida among World’s Richest personalities. Sure it had one of its enemies by his balls, the IBB government literally humiliated the frail and asthmatic Solarin by first arresting him and getting him to climb a number of stairs of some-storied building and immediately, beamed NTA cameras on him as he got to the grilling room. A copy of the 100-plus page Ebony was tossed at him, amid the growling bark of his interrogator asking him to point the particular page of the IBB wealth story. A vividly embarrassed Solarin coughed and sweated helplessly as he frantically flipped through the pages. To finally deconstruct the fabled newspaper columnist, his griller had asked, “Dr. Solarin, if I was one of your students and I wrote this for you in an exam, will you score me an A, B, C or F?” to which the Almighty Solarin waffled.

Rumour is also a potent weaponry in political discourse and communication strategy. Negative rumors about an opponent are more fatal than a blow in the heart. In Oyo State, politicians call it ibon oselu – political gunshot, the mortal blow from which a victim may never recover. Allegedly pioneered by the enfant terrible of Oyo politics, Lamidi Adedibu, when then incumbent governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala received his own mortal shot in months leading to the 2011 elections, parceled via the tale that the food he distributed to school children had caused the death of some of them, Alao-Akala limped into the election mortally wounded by the rumour. When a wall of his house in Ogbomoso fell and killed someone, the rumour of his voodoo sacrifice of persons to actualize his re-election became a mortal sting akin only to a snake’s venom.

On November 10, 2018, Kanu made what he called a broadcast from Israel, his latest fugitive refuge. Therein, he had stoked the insinuations. According to him, Buhari collapsed on Tuesday January 17, 2017 and was immediately rushed to London via Casablanca “where his presidential jet made a stopover.” In his words, Buhari stopped breathing and the plane had to make an emergency landing in Casablanca to pick up a life support machine and then flown to London. In the hospital in the UK, said Kanu, the President was declared brain dead on the 20th of January, 2017 but the life support machine was switched off on January 27, 2017 and Buhari pronounced dead. Pursuing this further, Kanu said Buhari’s corpse was then flown to Saudi Arabia on January 28, 2017 for internment. The procurement for a replacement for Buhari then began, said the youth, and a .Jubrin, Sudanese, made to undergo plastic surgery in London, to become Buhari’s look-alike, was made. Confirming his thesis, Kanu claimed that the Jubrin has a different earlobe from the original Buhari and that the Jubril has a full set of hair unlike the bald Buhari, among other alleged inconsistent physical characteristics.

While Kanu’s allegation, as bombastic as it may sound, may look literally ambitious, it has variants in history and is provoked by some incoherent manifestations of the man, President Buhari. Indeed, political decoy is a long-standing concept in use to impersonate politicians for the purpose of drawing attention away from the real person and for political or espionage purposes. For instance, for intelligence purpose, soldier M. E. Clifton James was used successfully to impersonate General Bernard Montgomery in World War II. It was only after Adolf Hitler’s death that it was found out that he employed a body double, Gustav Weler. For the purpose of attending public functions after World War 11wherein he feared he could be assassinated, Joseph Stalin, Soviet leader, is alleged to have made use of a “Rashid” as his double. Saddam Hussein, Henry Kissinger and Boris Yeltsin were all alleged to have also used body-doubles.

One major noticeable trait today that is at variance with Buhari who was a military Head of State, is the deviation from his dour and tough hombre persona. Except the humour he is said to inject into discussions today, you cannot but agree with that snide comment allegedly made of him by America’s Donald Trump that the figure he saw in Buhari was “lifeless.” The Buhari of today lacks grits, is most time askance, disinterested in virtually everything, unnaturally withdrawn, with a receding memory and acts like one being propelled like the cartoon character, Fido Dido. Witnesses to this came from some Nigerians who held a parley with him during his recent trip to France.

However, there are so many holes in claims that the present Buhari in the Aso Villa is a body-double. First is that Nigeria is too porous for such a secret to endure. Second, the secret must be in possession of virtually all world leaders, especially the voluble Trump, that it wouldn’t take long for it to bounce back home; third is that those who have interfaced with Buhari and his current impersonator would surely spot the difference. My haunch is that Mr. President’s manifestation of acute withdrawal, austere energy of governance and other indices is a withdrawal syndrome associated with sufferers of the kind of ailment that he battled, who is probably manifesting the effects of exotic drugs administered on him to keep alive. You will recall that his memory loss and incoherence have been manifest before that infamous trip to the UK for treatment. His mis-pronouncements of the name of his party, the APC and Osinbajo’s, for instance, predated his travel to the UK. But why some people won’t allow this gentleman rest at home is my major bother.

Two federal institutions incubated during the regime of Immortal Obafemi Awolowo as Premier have not ceased to lure me into aimless mind wanders. One is the Liberty Stadium and the other, the University College Hospital, both located in Ibadan, capital of the Western Region. Commissioned for operation on November 20, 1957 by the Princess Royal, the UCH will be 61 years old in two days’ time. The Nigerian Federal Minister of Health, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, took up the vision. One million, five hundred thousand pounds sterling (£1.5million) was said to have been raised for its initial construction and it first sod turned in 1953. Queen Elizabeth II of England did the partial opening of the new hospital complex while visiting Nigeria in 1956 but it was completed with a total sum of Four million, Five hundred thousand pounds sterling (£4.5 million).

UCH became the hub for infirmary, not only in Africa but for many parts of the world. Gradually however like all things Nigerian, it is beginning to kiss the canvass. While medical equipment are obsolete and decaying, successive governments have contributed their own quota to its decay. Recently, religion, that destructive cancer that is whittling the cells of the Nigerian nation, crept into UCH. There is this hall at the back of the Mortuary which used to house an eatery that has now been converted into a church ground. Vigils hold on end there and patients in their wards who need peace and quiet are constantly woken up to the religious howls and shouts coming from the hall. This is what happens when people are confronted by the helplessness/hopelessness of medicine and its equipment. Yes, we know that doctors treat and God heals but confusing the church for the hospital is one tragedy that is strictly an African ignorance and symbol of our backwardness. When you go to the Liberty Stadium and you are confronted by its decay, filth and rot, you cannot but wonder what will happen if our forefathers, incubators of these dreams, wake up to life today. Someone said the stench of the rots will kill them again; immediately!

Oshiomhole and a Corruption Allegation That Won’t Abate

Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, (APC) was riled beyond description during the week that just ended. He could not put up with constant “unsubstantiated” allegations of corruption against him which allegedly occurred during the just-concluded primaries of the party. Ordinarily, the allegations are so mind-boggling and should get anyone losing their sleep. $55 million! Is there such money in the whole of the world? And for a single person as bribe?

Oshiomhole was so angered that he was emitting stings like an injured viper. Henceforth, said the party chairman, anyone who trifles with his patience and levels such “unsubstantiated” allegation will have to meet him at the law courts. Great! That is a Comrade talking. Only that, in the true spirit of Comradeship and in the true abidance with the kernel of “a name” he claimed to have built over the years, Oshiomhole should submit himself for investigation so that the “incorruptible” name could be clearly situated.

The truth is, the APC will be going into the 2019 elections with a hugely stained apparel. How can a party whose credo, lingo and catchphrase is integrity, go into a general election with its Number One man wearing an apparel that the people perceive and see as grossly stained? The description of the bribery roulette is so graphic, with known go-betweens’ names mentioned, that could take a literary enigma like Sidney Sheldon to concoct. No sane government or party should sleep with such huge dis-advertisement as its pillow. How can both Buhari and Oshiomhole mount a campaign rostrum and promise to clean the polity when, on Oshiomhole’s table dangles a corruption Sword of Damocles of that Hiroshima and Nagazaki proportion, with his khaki shirt and trousers allegedly festooned with such army of maggots? Indeed, if I were Oshiomhole, I will tender my letter of resignation immediately.

As an aside, I must give kudos to President Muhammadu Buhari. I drove past the Omi-Adio, Bakantari flank of Oyo-Ogun States’ border last week and saw the massive light rail project ongoing. It is said to link Lagos and Ibadan and is billed for completion in a couple of months. I had, upon reading it in the newspapers hitherto, thought it was a fiction.

The defendant, 26-year-old Okon Happiness, was reported to have entered a shop in the market owned by one Kehinde Lawanson and took away the yams valued at N2,100.

Luck, however, ran out for him when Lawanson, after seeing him coming out of her shop and out of the market with the items raised alarm.

A mob chased him, caught him and handed him over to the police at Ikotun Division.

Okon was arraigned before the court presided over by Teslimi Shomade on a one-count charge of stealing.

He pleaded guilty to the offence, saying he stole the items because he was hungry.

Prosecuting Counsel, Kenneth Asibor, said the complainant refused all entreaties to settle the matter, insisting that it be charged to court.

The defendant pleaded for leniency, promising not to repeat the act.

Magistrate Shomade convicted him and directed that he should serve his sentence on the court premises.

Femi-Fani Kayode, a former Minister of Aviation has insisted that the person occupying the Presidential Villa is not President Muhammadu Buhari.

Fani-Kayode said Nigerians would be shocked in 2019 when the true identity of the president would be uncovered.

He was reacting to the ongoing crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress, APC.

“If I say what I know about APC Nigerians will burn down AsoRock within 24 hours”- Gov. Okorocha.

“There is something rotten in the APC that stinks worse than a dead body.

“For example the true identity of the man in the Villa that claims to be Buhari will only be made known after he is defeated and steps down from power.

“When that happens, Nigerians will be shocked to the marrow. In 2015, I warned about his fake certificate. Today I am warning about his fake identity.”

The Governor of Ogun State, Ibikunle Amosun, has said that contrary to perception, he has no hand in the reported interrogation of the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, by the State Security Service (SSS).

Mr Oshimohole was reportedly grilled by operatives of the SSS Sunday following petitions by some governors alleging he accepted bribes in the course of the party primaries held recently.

Mr Amosun is one of the governors having a running battle with the APC chairman after his preferred governorship candidate, Adekunle Akinlade, lost to Dapo Abiodun.

Other governors having problem with Mr Oshiomhole include Rochas Okorocha of Imo and Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara.

Speaking with State House correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari for the third time in a week, Mr Amosun said he has no power to order the probe of the APC chairman.

“I think you are probably giving me an oversight role and I am not a security person, so clearly I think that question will not be for me,” he said

The Ogun governor said if he wants to fight Mr Oshiomhole, he will do so openly.

“I don’t have to hide under a finger to fight. If there is need for me to put my views across, you know me by now that I will do it,” he said.

Daily Trust newspaper Thursday reported that Mr Oshiomhole suddenly travelled out of the country to the United States of America fuelling speculations that he fled to allow for rising tension to cool down before he returns.

Asked for reaction Mr Amosun said “I have told you those things are beyond my pedigree and you are asking me questions that I am not well suited for. The one that I have to talk about we have said it loud and clear that it doesn’t even need add anything.”

Ayodele Fayose, immediate past Governor of Ekiti State, says Nigerians will be running to other neighboring countries to feed if President Muhammadu Buhari wins a second term in office.

Fayose also urged the President to "face governance and stop complaining".

According to the former Governor, "the President’s time is almost up".

A statement on Thursday by Fayose's media aide, Lere Olayinka, accused the president of spending "three and a half years blaming his predecessors and inflicting both security and economic crises on the country".

The statement read: “When he was seeking the votes of Nigerians, he never said he was coming to complain. Rather, he promised to fix what he claimed to have identified as the problems. It is no longer funny that a President who assumed office three and a half years ago is still complaining about how he met the country, instead of Nigerians having feelings of how well he has solved the problems he claimed that he had the capacity to solve.

“He should stop singing the same song of lamentation that he has been singing since 2015 and learn from his colleague in Ghana, who hit the ground running immediately he assumed office. Only a leader who lacks competence and is challenged by knowledge and exposure will blame his predecessors for over three years.

“Nigerians of mostly below forty years who voted for the President in 2015, did so because they never experienced him as a Military Head of State. Now that they have seen that he does not have the required capacity to govern a country like Nigeria, they are eager to vote him out.”

The former Governor charged leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to "put everything into the 2019 elections, so as to rescue Nigerians from the present state of anguish occasioned by the directionless All Progressives Congress (APC) government".

He continued: “Today, Nigeria has become the ‘Poverty Capital’ of the world. God forbid, a Buhari’s second term will turn Nigeria to a republic of poverty where people will be running to other neighboring countries to feed. PDP must therefore work very hard to save the country from going down completely."

A Germany-based man, Eddie Murphy Idahosa has been banished from Edo state for insulting the Oba of Benin.

A crowd of people escorted the man out of the community, never to return for disrespecting their king.

Murphy who is the last born of Dennis Idahosa’s mother, the APC house of reps Candidate (Ovia Federal Constituency) was found guilty of desecrating the crown of Benin Kingdom by challenging the authority of His Royal Majesty Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku Akpolokpolor, Oba Ewuare II.

Four out of the six Governors of the zone were present in the meeting which lasted about one hour.

They were reluctant to talk to State House correspondents afterwards, but in a brief answer to the reason behind their meeting at the Presidential Villa, Governor of Bayelsa State, Siriake Dickson who spoke on behalf of others simply said, “My colleagues and I came to have audience with the President, to discuss issues pertinent to our country and also pertinent to our respective states.

“We had a robust and fruitful discussion with the president and he promised to look into it in anyway possible.”

When pressed on the area of discussion, Governor Dickson added, “We don’t want to go into those details.”

The other Governors included Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State, Siriake Dickson of Bayelsa State, Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State and Nyesom Wike of Rivers State.

The Bishop of Living Faith Church (aka Winners Chapel), Bishop David Oyedepo, yesterday said the inability of the government to arrest killer herdsmen in some part of the Middle Belt zone was because the killers were agents of the government.

Speaking in Ota, Ogun State, at the Church’s Sunday Service titled ‘Covenant Day of Settlement and Thanksgiving’, the clergyman stated that it was absurd for the government to fail in arresting some self-confessed killer herders in Jos, Plateau State.

Oyedepo said: “Help me ask them how many mosques have been destroyed by these people? You can also ask them how many of those who have destroyed the church has ever been caught? How many of the destroyed churches has government ever added a dime to rebuild?

“I have said it, let us remove the mask from the masquerade and nobody will fear it anymore. Government is part of this thing; you don’t need to go to school to know that.

“If people claimed responsibilities to the killings in Jos and were not arrested, the question is who is to arrest them? Is it the citizens or government? It’s the government, but they cannot arrest them because they are their agents.”

While stating that every leader is a caretaker and God remains the creator and owner of every nation, including Nigeria, he added that Nigeria would have peace when they understand that God is in control of everything, including the land.

“When a caretaker starts behaving like a landlord he will be removed. God is the permanent landlord of the earth.

“Too many arrogant foes who pose to own this nation, be warned because the day of God’s judgement is here.

“Those who sponsor and perpetrate killings and also offer covering for killers to keep killing, God will lead them to rest. God will give us peace in this country by all means.

“God enthrones kings and removes kings,” he said.

The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, has lambasted former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, and the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar.

Speaking through its Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, APC said their new alliance will fall like a pack of cards before President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 general election.

The party stated that the former president’s description of Atiku as a corrupt, disloyal and unpatriotic leader who was not fit and proper to lead the nation was enough testimonial to the unsuitability of his former Vice.

This was contained in a statement Nabena issued on Sunday in Abuja.

The statement read, “Throughout their second tenure in office, (2003-2007) and until last fortnight, former President Olusegun Obasanjo had described Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as a corrupt, disloyal and unpatriotic leader who was not fit and proper to handle the mantle of Nigerian leadership.

“Only recently, Obasanjo vowed that God would not forgive him if he supported the Presidential aspiration of Atiku as ‘it would amount to handing Nigeria over to sharks and looters.

“It is this tendency towards indecision, insincerity, double talk and deception that has made Nigeria ridiculed in the eyes of the international community.

“A statesman is known for his principles and his statements are based on the strength of his convictions.

“When a supposed national leader makes declarations that are subject to change at any time based on his mood, such a leader loses his integrity and reliability.”

Nabena further described PDP’s 2019 vice presidential candidate, Peter Obi, as double-faced and pretentious.

“Nigerians cannot be deceived, we have seen them all – Presidential Library, Bells and American University of Nigeria, Breweries and Shopping Malls, all established with largely public funds but privately owned by public officers,” he added.

Nabena said that as a former military head of state and Petroleum minister, Buhari made no attempt to acquire an oil well, private jet or estates in Nigeria and abroad.

“Muhammadu Buhari is definitely different from the double-faced candidates seeking election,” the statement said.

An Ebute Meta Magistrates’ Court sitting in Lagos, on Wednesday ordered a 32-year-old man, Seun Efundiya to be remanded in prison for allegedly stabbing his friend to death following a disagreement over a sim card.

Efundiya, who sells and registers sim cards, appeared on a charge of murder. His plea was not taken.

The prosecutor, ASP Clara Olagbayi, told the court that Efundiya committed the offence on April 14, at about 9.30 pm, at Olukusi Street, off Palace Road, Ijede in Ikorodu, Lagos State.

Olagbayi said the accused stabbed his friend, Mark Ogbe, to death over his refusal to lend him a sim card.

“The deceased and the accused had engaged in a fight because the accused had refused to lend Ogbe a sim card.

“In the process, Efundiya stabbed Ogbe with a broken bottle that made him bleed to death,” she said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the offence violates Section 223 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015 which prescribes a death sentence on conviction.

The magistrate, Mrs O.A. Olagbende remanded the accused at the Ikoyi Prisons pending an outcome of legal advice from the Lagos State Director of Public Prosecutions.

She adjourned the case until June 4 for mention.

Seven Filipino Roman Catholic devotees, including a woman, have been nailed to wooden crosses as a mark of honour for Jesus Christ.

The News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, reports that the demonstration was watched by thousands of spectators but frowned upon by church leaders.

Three devotees wearing crowns of twigs were nailed to crosses by villagers dressed as Roman centurions on a dusty hill in San Pedro Cutud village, and four others were nailed to crosses in nearby farming villages in San Fernando city north of Manila, tourism officer Ching Pangilinan said.

The spectacle reflects a unique brand of Catholicism that merges church traditions with folk superstitions.

Many of the mostly impoverished penitents undergo the ritual to atone for sins, pray for the sick or for a better life, or give thanks for what they believe were God-given miracles.

The Lenten rituals are frowned upon by church leaders in the Philippines, Asia’s largest Roman Catholic nation, especially if the events are used to boost tourism and business.

The reenactments of the crucifixion, however, have persisted and become a tourist attraction in the largely unknown villages in Pampanga province, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of the capital.

While the crucifixions have become a tradition for villagers, they still leave many foreign tourists bewildered.

“It’s terrible,” said Luke Henkel from Florida. “You wanna stop it.”

Mayor Edwin Santiago of San Fernando, where San Pedro Cutud lies, said more than 400 police officers were deployed and first-aid stations set up to look after the huge crowds.

We provide assistance because we can’t stop the influx of tourists,” Pangilinan said, adding, “We don’t promote it as a festival but it’s rather a show of respect to a local tradition.”

Villagers used the crowd-drawing events to peddle food, water, fans, umbrellas and souvenirs and rent out parking slots and toilets

A leading cellphone company provided tents for shade with its name embossed on them.

Archbishop Socrates Villegas said it’s best for Catholics to mark Lent with prayers and acts of love and charity.

“Instead of spilling your blood on the streets, why not walk into a Red Cross office and donate blood? Choose to share life. Share your blood,” Villegas said in remarks posted on a Catholic church website.

There was a mild drama, Thursday, at the State Command of the Nigeria Police headquarters, Lokoja, as the incoming Commissioner of Police, Esa Sunday Ogbu, was not available for handover.

The outgoing CP, Ali Jaga came to the office in company of AIG of Police Zone 8, expecting to see the new CP.

THE UNIMAGINABLE  which has been monitoring developments around the state command gathered that the new CP had earlier been threatened a day to his resumption.

The Kogi Governor, Bello, reportedly told him to leave the state.

The new CP, as a result of the intimidation, left for Abuja Thursday morning.

Efforts to speak with the Force PPRO, Jimoh Moshood was not successful as he did not pick calls put across in his two lines.

The Inspector General of Police, IGP Ibrahim K. Idris, had ordered the immediate removal of Kogi State Commissioner of Police, CP Ali Janga over questionable circumstances that led to escape of two key suspects in a matter involving Senator Dino Melaye.

The new CP, Ogbu was Commissioner of Police, Federal Operations, Force Headquarters, Abuja before his posting to Kogi State.

Blood samples from the first 13 suspected patients of the virus were dispatched to the WHO facility three weeks ago for a confirmatory test following a clinical diagnosis of monkeypox by medical doctors in Bayelsa State and officials of the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

One of the patients receiving treatment for the virus at the quarantine center in Bayelsa State reportedly committed suicide, state government officials said on Monday.

The victim allegedly took his life on Monday at the makeshift quarantine center at the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital, Okolobiri, in Yenagoa Local Government Area of the state.

Addressing reporters on Monday evening in Yenagoa, the State Commissioner for Health, Ebitimitula Etebu, stated that the deceased was among the 21 patients receiving treatment at the teaching hospital.

Dr. Etebu was joined at the conference by the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, the Chief Medical Director of the NDUTH, Dimie Ogoina, and other senior health officials.

He expressed regret that the patient took his own life despite his rapid recovery from the virus, noting that the deceased’s medical history did not suggest that he had suffered from any mental illness or depression.

The health commissioner maintained that the patient did not die from the disease, adding that the police and his family have been duly informed and all due diligence was being followed for his eventual burial.

While sympathizing with the family, Dr. Etebu said that a committee has been put in place to evaluate the victim’s past and recent clinical and social history in order to determine if there were undisclosed mental illnesses or personal family problems that could have justified the suicide.

Dr. Etebu also confirmed the outbreak of monkeypox in the state following laboratory evidence from samples sent to the WHO reference laboratory in Dakar.

Reports of an outbreak of monkeypox in Bayelsa State surfaced three weeks ago when a family in Agbura, Yenagoa, began experiencing symptoms of the virus after eating a monkey.

Dr. Etebu assured the general public that the government was taking proper measures to contain the outbreak and ensure that all patients suffering from the virus receive adequate treatment.

On his part, Mr. Iworiso-Markson urged residents to continue to use preventive measures and ensure they avoid eating bushmeat.