Jir Extols Gov. Alia For Repositioning Benue

... Calls on supporters to get their voters' cards, APC e-registration membership cards

By Terfa Naswem 

Benue State Commissioner for Transportation, Power and Renewable Energy, Hon. Joseph Ter Jir extols the Executive Governor of Benue State, Rev. Fr. Dr. Hyacinth Iormem Alia for repositioning Benue State on the trajectory of unprecedented development.

He is extremely impressed with the tremendous impact Gov. Alia is making on the people of Benue State, stating that those who are hellbent on propelling activities that will impinge on the progressive roadmap of Gov. Alia for Benue State will never succeed.

It is incontrovertible that since 1999, Benue State has never witnessed this kind of development which hitherto was only in the illusions of Benue indigenes. Hon. Jir notes that Alia is not a neophyte in progressive leadership and has surmounted most of the impediments in his government which made the completed and ongoing projects possible.

In ensuring that Gov. Alia continues with his good work for Benue State, Hon. Jir appeals to supporters of Alia who don't have voters' cards to go to the nearest INEC office and register to obtain theirs so that they will be able to reelect Alia.

Since the new electoral law has made emphasis on direct primaries and consensus, expunging delegates participation, he urged supporters of Alia to register as All Progressives Congress (APC) members through e-registration which is expected to continue after the congresses are completed.

He said if they obtain their APC e-membership cards, they will be qualified to participate in the direct primaries to give Alia the go-ahead as the candidate of APC for his reelection including others.

FCT High Court Strikes Out Joinder Motion Of Firm Adversely Affected By Exparte Order

By Peter Dansu 

Justice Othman Musa of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory has turned down a request by a firm, EOD Lagos PFM Limited to be joined as a party in a Lagos property dispute pending before the court. 

The firm has been adversely affected by the order of the FCT High Court sealing up the premises, at Plot No A Block 12, Lekki Peninsula Scheme, Lagos State,  where it carries out it's business activities. 

Officials of the  court sealed up a property located at Lekki Peninsula Scheme, Lagos, following an Exparte Order granted by Hon. Justice Othman Musa of the FCT High Court. 

The sealed up property houses various business entities including Angelos, Café, Zevis, Pharmaceuticals, EOD PFM Ltd, Lord of Hosts Miracle Church, who have been carrying on their various businesses in the premises for several years. 

Following the Exparte Order granted by court to seal up the property, the firm applied to be joined in the suit pending before the FCT High Court with Suit No. FCT/HC/CV/4636/2025 between Mr. Henry Orabuchi V Police and Others but the court turned down the application. 

Upon hearing the application for joinder vide Motion No. M/402/2026, the Court on February 19, delivered a ruling refusing to join the interested party in the suit or vary the Order to exclude the area where their business is located. 

In its motion, EOD PFM Ltd had prayed the court to be joined or vary the order of the  court to exclude the area where its business  premises in the property is located but the court dismissed the motion. 

Also, the court awarded a punitive damage of N500,000.00 against the party for bringing the motion before the court. 

The court was not swayed by the facts showing that the tenant that brought the motion for joinder operates its business on a piece of land that is clearly distinct from the portion of the reclaimed land claimed by the plaintiff or the fact that the affected tenant had been out of business since the Lagos property was sealed up in December, 2025 in line with the Exparte Order of the FCT high Court. 

In refusing the application, the Court held that the company did not file a ‘statement of defence’ in the suit even where the Affidavit demonstrated the company’s interest in the property and how the Exparte Order has affected their business. 

The award of cost of N500,000.00 against an innocent tenant whose business premises has been sealed up by the Exparte Order of Court granted without jurisdiction, does not serve the interest of justice in any way.

The Hon. Court has no jurisdiction to grant the Exparte Order and has not demonstrated any inclination to equity and fairness in discharge of judicial duty.

The plaintiff had alleged that his fundamental Rights as guaranteed under Sections 34, 35, 36, 37, 41, and 44 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), and Articles 9 and 14 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, have been breached. 

He claimed that he purchased 3,000 square meters of reclaimed land situated at the back of Plot No A Block 12, Lekki Peninsula Scheme, Lagos State from the Landlord, Mr. Emecheta Elvis Eze, which has nothing to do with the premises where the business entities are located.

 The plaintiff filed the suit to shield him from honouring invitation of the Nigeria Police Force, following a Petition against him by Prof. Mike Ozekhome, SAN, (lawyer to Mr. Emecheta) over Mr.

Henry's conduct that amounts to criminal trespass, damage to property and threat to life. 

In the fundamental Rights suit filed by the law office of Chikaosolu Ojukwu, SAN, on behalf of the plaintiff, it was argued that the Police Invitation infringes on his fundamental Rights and is aimed at compelling him into relinquishing his lawful proprietary and contractual rights over the 3,000square meters of reclaimed land behind the sealed up property.

In his Exparte application before the Court, Ojukwu urged the Court to grant an Exparte Order to seal up the Lagos property.

The court presided over by Justice Musa granted the Exparte Order on November 24, 2025 to seal and secure the entire property, including the reclaimed land at the back of the property measuring 3,000 square meters 

He also ordered the immediate stoppage of all construction works, activities, actions, or steps on the said property while ensuring that no person, authority, or entity howsoever described is permitted access to or entry upon the property pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit pending before the court.

Following the order of the court which was supposed to have been vacated, having elapsed, on December 30, 2025,, all the occupants of the property and their workers were forcefully chased out of their business premises and the property was sealed up by people who introduced themselves as officers of the FCT High Court, from Abuja. 

All efforts by the various business owners to explain to the FCT Court officials that their business premises is different  from the 3,000square meters of the  reclaimed land upon which the plaintiff claim is predicated, met stiff resistance as they were forcefully pushed out of the premises without being allowed any opportunity to remove anything from there.

The institution of this case in FCT Abuja and the grant of the Exparte Order suggests a grand and calculated scheme orchestrated to cause mischief and hardship on the Landlord of the Premises and the innocent occupants who have been deprived of access to their business premises. The Business owners are not parties to the alleged agreement between Mr. Henry Ugonna Orabuchi, and Mr. Elvis Emecheta, over the 3,000 square meters of the reclaimed land behind their business premises and are not parties to the fundamental rights enforcement suit. 

The Exparte Order of the FCT High Court over the Lagos property is a manipulation and abuse of judicial process using the instrumentality of the judiciary itself (FCT High Court) which has occasioned great hardship and injustice on the business owners and Landlord.

Igbo Ministers Commission condemns killing of Ondo traditional ruler, urge Yoruba to unite with Igbos against common enemy

By Peter Dansu 

Igbo clerics, under the umbrella of  Concerned Igbo Ministers Commission, have condemned the killing of an Ondo State monarch, Oba Kehinde Falodun.

Oba Falodun, the Alagamo of Agamo in Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State, was shot dead on Wednesday by gunmen who invaded his palace. 

Reacting to the development, the Concerned Igbo Ministers Commission, in a statement signed by Rev Tony Uzor Anthony, warned that the 'Jihad' Nnamdi Kanu foretold has spread to Yorubaland in the South-West.

The Igbo monarchs urged the Yoruba to to unite with the Igbos to fight a "common enemy".

The religious leaders expressed regrets that Nnamdi Kanu's warning about spread of Islamic jihad to the South ob Radio Biafra was ignored by the authorities and instead used as evidence to convict of terrorism.

"The concerned Igbo Ministers Commission expresses profound sorrow and outrage over the cold-blooded assassination of His Royal Majesty, Oba Kehinde Falodun, the Alagamo of Agamo Community in Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State.

"This respected traditional ruler was slaughtered in his own palace on February 18, 2026, by suspected Fulani terrorists (commonly referred to as bandits) who invaded his domain. Eyewitness accounts describe armed men speaking Hausa, operating in the exact pattern of the marauding Fulani jihadist elements that have terrorized communities across Nigeria for years. We extend our deepest condolences to the grieving family, the people of Agamo, the entire Ondo State, and the broader Yoruba nation. No community deserves such barbarity.

"Yet, as Concerned Igbo Ministers  who have sworn to defend life, liberty, and justice — we cannot remain silent on the preventable nature of this tragedy. Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the Supreme Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has for over a decade issued clear, prophetic warnings about the systematic Fulani jihadist agenda to overrun Nigeria, seize ancestral lands, and impose Fulanization through terror. Those warnings, broadcast on Radio Biafra and played in open court, were not “hate speech” — they were accurate intelligence ignored at Nigeria’s peril.

"The very judge who presided over Mazi Kanu’s case and handed him a life sentence on trumped-up terrorism and treason charges — Justice James Omotosho, an indigene of Ondo State — now watches these same Fulani terrorists strike at the heart of his own community. While IPOB and the global Igbo family mourn this loss, we must state plainly: had Justice Omotosho and Yoruba political leaders prioritized justice by facilitating the unconditional release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, this monarch would likely still be alive today," the statement said. 

According to the clerics, Kanu's voice is the only force the truly terrifies the sponsors of the jihadists in government. 

"His continued illegal detention has emboldened these terrorists, allowing the jihad he repeatedly exposed to spread from the Middle Belt into the South-West. The blood of Oba Kehinde Falodun cries out from the ground in Ondo State — a direct consequence of the injustice meted out to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu," the clerics added. 

The Concerned Igbo Ministers Commission demanded the immediate and unconditional release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from the Sokoto Medium Correctional  facility, and an international investigation into the Fulani terrorist network operating with impunity across Nigeria.

The clerics also urged Yoruba leaders, including South-West governors and traditional rulers, to publicly join the call for Kanu’s freedom and end the dangerous narrative that positions Igbo people as their enemy.

They equally called on the United States government and the international community to exert diplomatic pressure on Nigeria to end this cycle of selective justice and state-sponsored insecurity.

"Concerned Igbo Ministers will not stand idly by while our kith and kin in Nigeria are hunted like animals. The time for political games is over. Release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu now — the security and survival of every Nigerian community, Yoruba, Igbo, and beyond, depends on it.

Biafra’s light will continue to expose darkness. Justice delayed is justice denied — but justice for Nnamdi Kanu is peace for Nigeria."