‘I would Have Been A Prostitute Today’ - Popular Actress, Omotola Jalade

Veteran Nollywood actress, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, has revealed some intimate details about her upbringing including how she almost went into prostitution.

Omotola recounted her childhood experience in a recent interview with Chude Jidenwo.

She revealed how her father passed away when she was 12 years old, adding it was a tragic incident that left her emotionless as she never grieved his death.

The actress further added that she was close to going into prostitution to survive because of the challenges she faced at a young age.

She said, “I think everything have been today, positively or negatively was because of the death of my father, it affected me so much, because I did not mourn my dad.

“I understand that I was his only child for a long time and my dad and I were very close, he was the manager of Lagos country club at the time, many influential people come there and because of that, I started rolling with people of influence from a little age.

“When I was 13, they came to pick me up from school, I knew something was wrong and prayed that hope nothing has happened to my dad.

“When I got home, I realized my dad was dead, so going through that mental process, I didn’t know how to react and I didn’t know how I was feeling, I was just silent but now that I’m older, I think I really understand everything. So I just became emotionless and it has affected me till today.

“There is nothing anyone says to me that can move me, I am so confident in who I am and I don’t fear anyone. I don’t fear for my life, probably I would have become a prostitute today, I was very desperate to do anything and said I would rather sell my body than for anybody to take my younger brother apart.”

Credit: Vanguard 

Naira Notes: Instruct CBN To Respect Court Order, Judiciary - Oluwo Begs Buhari

The Paramount Ruler of Iwoland, HIM Oba Abdulrosheed Adewale Akanbi, has appealed to President Muhammad Buhari to influence the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to respect the Supreme Court judgement on recirculation of new naira notes.

He described the presidency and CBN silence as grievous affront that could turn judiciary to paperweight arms of government.

He further lamented the sufferings of Nigerians in the face of naira scarcity, urging the government to be sensitive to people's pain.

He feared continuous silence of the federal government and CBN will not only heighten the starvation inflicted on Nigerians but will also dampen the country's economy.

He begged President Muhammad Buhari to instruct the CBN on new naira note recirculation has guaranteed by the apex court. 

A statement by Oluwo through his press secretary, Alli Ibraheem, further reads " There is need by the federal government to respect the sanctity of judiciary by respecting the supreme court judgement on the new naira note recirculation "

"Nigerians are suffering. I appeal to President Muhammad Buhari for a review of the new naira regime to restore the hope in the judiciary"

"It is pathetic seeing us in this naira mess where you have your money in account but don't have access to cash to buy common bottle water. It is worst in the side of the masses, artisans and petty traders without account. Nigerians can no longer endure this hardship. Supreme Court has spoken. Please, the federal government and CBN should please listen "

"The silence of the naira authorities will turn judiciary to paperweight should they refuse to act on the directive of the apex court. I fear and  pray the continuous silence will not promote anarchy in the country "

Why Oyo LP Dumped Its Guber Candidate For Makinde - Rep Candidate

Candidate of the Labour Party in Ibadan North Federal Constituency in the just concluded presidential and National Assembly elections, Femi Dexter Akin-Alamu said on Monday that the party decided to support the re-election bid of Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State for the March 11 governorship election.

He said that the leadership of the party are of the view that the governor has shown capacity to lead Oyo State to greater heights.

Akin-Alamu, in a statement made public in Ibadan, said that the governor has shown vision and the desire to engineer a modern Oyo State, adding that leaders of the Labour Party have seen that the governor's vision tallies with their aspirations for the state.

He said: "After much thoughts, prayers and consultation with the leadership of Labour Party in the state, I, together with other leaders of the Labour Party in Oyo State have decided to give our full and unreserved support to the person that we believe stands way above others in our assessment. 

"We cannot preach a different gospel when it seems not to favour the candidate of our party. Party loyalty cannot be put above public good."

He said that the leadership of LP had met with the party's gubernatorial candidate for a review after the presidential election and arrived at the realisation that it was better to support the re-election bid of Governor Makinde.

He added: "I saw the need to meet with the governorship candidate of the Labour Party so as to understand his plans, vision and strategy in order to arm my convictions about his candidature so that we can go to work. 

Before I could make this happen, I was invited to a meeting of all candidates and state EXCO on Wednesday and was told by the chairman that the meeting was put together to review the February 25 Elections and hear from the governorship candidate about his plans for the March 11 elections.

"At the meeting, it was acknowledged that the Labour Party indeed has great opportunities, but those opportunities must  be maximized. "Since a lot of people have accused our gubernatorial candidate of doing almost nothing to win his election, he was requested to tell the assembly his plans, vision, strategy and budget for the election. He was also requested to tell how much he had to spend for the elections and if there was any shortfall between his budget and how much he had.

"The assembly wanted to know his strategy to raise the shortfall. 

"Unfortunately, the gubernatorial candidate was upset about the questions, and he thought the best thing to do was walk out on everyone. 

"When he left, the state EXCO reached a unanimous decision that the gubernatorial candidate lacked the seriousness, commitment, and capacity required to win the election and the party should therefore find another gubernatorial candidate from another party to support.

Personally, I have since then, been assessing all the main gubernatorial candidates of the other parties, assessing them in terms of the 7Cs required in a leader I would support, I assessed them in terms of character, competence commitment, capacity, credibility, compassion, and creative solutions to the problems of our state.

"Our full and unreserved support will, therefore, be going to his Excellency, Governor Seyi Makinde in his re-election bid as the governor of our dear state.

"Difficult as it may, there is no way I can personally justify campaigning for our governorship candidate in good conscience when a candidate such as Engineer Seyi Makinde is in the race, and this is not based on any personal sentiments, but solely on the earlier mentioned seven leadership assessment criteria."

Winners, Losers Of 2023 National Assembly Election In Oyo State

Though the National Assembly election in Oyo State had come and gone but intrigues preceding the elections and surprises that followed have remained a major topic of discussion within the political circle in the state.

The 25th February, 2023 election, held alongside that of Presidential, was indeed a keenly contested one. In fact, many are still in shock with the outcomes of the election.

The main opposition party in the state, the All Progressives Congress (APC) swept the three senatorial districts (Oyo South, Oyo Central and Oyo North) and eight out of the fourteen House of Representatives seats. While the incumbent party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) struggled to win four Reps seat, and the other two (Oluyole and Ibadan North East/Ibadan South East) were declared inconclusive by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Of course, the rift between G5 Governors, which Governor Makinde is a member, and the national leadership of PDP has largely agreed to be responsible for the woeful performance of PDP at the polls in Oyo State.

The G5 Governors, comprising Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, Samuel Ortom of Benue State, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State, Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, have insisted on resignation of PDP Chairman, Dr Iyorchia Ayu.

This explains why Makinde refused to endorse his party's Presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. Rather, he asked Oyo people to vote for all PDP candidates in the National Assembly elections but vote national unity, equity and justice above political interest for the Presidential poll.

This his position, however, didn't only caused a kind of confusion within Oyo PDP but also greatly worked in favour of APC. As the state almost delivered 100% to APC in both Presidential and National Assembly elections. The damages were just too much for PDP. So huge that the party even lost areas believed to be their strongholds. Where the power of incumbency was believed to have worked in their favour.

Like the Oyo South Senatorial district, where APC candidate, Barr. Sarafadeen Abiodun-Alli defeated Joseph Olasunkanmi Tegbe of PDP and others. Even with the fact that Sarafadeen Abiodun-Alli is a grassroots politician, nobody thought he would have floored Tegbe the way he did. Judging by the amount of money Tegbe committed into the electioneering process and his close relationship with Makinde. But interestingly, Alli, the former Secretary to the state government, polled 111,513 votes against Tegbe's 92,481 votes. While Kolapo Kola-Daisi of the Accord, who came third in the poll, recorded 33,641 votes.

In Oyo Central Senatorial district, Dr Yunus Akintunde, candidate of APC, won the poll. Akintunde defeated PDP's candidate, Chief Bisi Ilaka, Engineer Dotun Nurudeen Faozey (Accord) and other candidates. Akintunde polled 108,776 votes; Chief Bisi llaka of PDP has 101,213 votes, while Engineer Nurudeen Faozey of Accord scored 41,743 votes. Whereas Ilaka, a chief of Oyo Alaafin and the former Chief of Staff to Makinde, was picked as the likely winner in that zone. 

Senator Abdulfatai Buhari of Oyo North Senatorial district was able to retain his seat in the Senate. His victory was not surprising though. He is the incumbent and a two term APC senator. He is very strong politically and well loved in the zone. He scored 90,078 votes to defeat his close rival in the poll, Hon. Akinwale Akinwole (Wolekanle) of PDP who polled 77,034. Shina Peller of Accord came third with 54,732 votes.

Meanwhile, Hon Adeyemi Akeem aka Skimeh successful stages a come back into the House of Reps. He is the APC incumbent honourable at Afijio/Atiba/Oyo East/ Oyo West. The son of late Alaafin Adeyemi, Akeem Adeyemi recorded 34,822 votes to defeat his close rival from PDP who has 31,621 votes. Accord has 13,544 votes.

In Ogbomoso/North/South/Orire Federal Constituency, son of the late former governor of Oyo State, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala, Olamiju Alao-Akala won the seat. 

Olamiju, APC candidate scored 33,268 votes while the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP candidate, Olufemi Onireti has 27,126 votes. His victory was predicted long before the poll. It was a kind of pay back for Olamiju from the people of that zone. His late father was a grassroots politician and philanthropist. 

Alhaji Najimdeen Oyesina Oyedeji aka 'O'Shine', a close ally of Governor Makinde and PDP candidate won Iseyin/Itesiwaju/Iwajowa/Kajola Federal constituency seat. Oyedeji polled 30,372 votes to defeat other eight contestants.

Dr Anthony Adebayo Adepoju, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, defeated a serving honourable, Muraina Ajibola in Ibarapa North, Ibarapa Central Federal Constituency election.

Adebayo Adepoju,  popularity known as ‘Ibarapa Kan’, polled 12,884 votes to defeat other candidates.

The story is the same at Ibarapa East/Ido Federal Constituency, where Engr. Aderemi Oseni also defeated a sitting honourable.

Oseni, the Ibadan-born business magnate and clergy, scored the highest votes of 26,285 to defeat his closest rival, the incumbent, Hon Oluyemi Taiwo, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who polled 10,988 votes.

Other popular APC honourables who retained their seats include Hon. Musiliu Akinremi aka Jagaban of Ibadan North Federal Constituency; Hon Akin Alabi (Egbada/Ona Ara) and Hon Wasiu Olafisoye Akinmoyede  of Akinyele/ Lagelu Constituency.

In Ibadan Northwest/Ibadan Southwest, Hon. Saheed Fijabi's hope of coming back to the House of Reps was dashed. As Hon. Adedeji Stanley Olajide popular known as Odidiomo defeated him in the keenly contested election to retain his seat.

PDP candidate, Olajide garnered 23,847 votes to defeat Hon Fijabi of the APC, who received 22,815 votes.

Hon Kareem Abisodun Tajudeen ‘Were’ of APC won Saki East/Saki West/Atisbo seat; Ojo Sunday Makanjuola (PDP) Ogooluwa/Surulere, while Lateef Olaide Muhammed of APC defeated other candidates in Irepo/Olorunsogo/ Oorelope.

US Promoter Drags Portable To Court

Nigerian street artist, Habeeb Okikiola Badmus, popularly known as Portable is in the news again for another bad reason.

According to a statement made available to a report, Portable had entered into an agreement with a certain Mr Musibau Olawale Babalola, a US-based music promoter and Chief Executive of Fathia Entertainment LLC for a musical concert collaboration. By the agreement Portable was to perform in 8-10 North American cities and the promoter was to procure an American Visa for Portable and his crew members.

Fulfilling his own end of the deal, the promoter engaged the services of American Attorney and paid the sum of $12,000:00 (Twelve thousand US dollars) to secure a work permit for Portable to enable him transverse the designated US cities for the shows, in consonance with US immigration laws.

The promoter also said he paid the sum of $3,950 statutory fee for USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services work permit on behalf of Portable.

The promoter also submitted that he paid Portable the sum of $2,500, N3.4M and N1M respectively and a date was fixed for Visa interview at America Embassy.

"Portable in his characteristic manner, displayed unprofessional conduct at US embassy and exhibited other sundry abrasive behaviors and was denied visa on two occasions. All the pertinent questions normally asked of a visa applicant were posed to Portable and instead of him answering the question in simple English he understands, instead he decided to answer the Consular in his local language, obviously not understood by the Consular," the promoter said.

"Portable's denial of visa could be predicated on his claims on social media of being the founding member of a dreaded cult group. The US Embassy does not issue visas to people of questionable character and therefore could be one of the reasons he was denied visa," he added.

After the visa denial saga, there was an agreement between the promoter and Portable, that the latter will refund all the expenses incurred.

Considering the circumstances, the promoter said he reduced the amount to be refunded to N8M and Portable agreed to make the payment, but pleaded to do so in 5 installments.

Portable made the first installment of N2M, but reneged on his promise to balance up. Due to Portable's refusal to effect the balance payment, the music promoter engaged the services of M. B. Fabunmi Esq of law firm of Messrs Hoxton Partners to commence a legal proceedings against Zazzu star to recover the said debt and damages.

In the Lawyer's letter to Portable, the sums of $29,890 and N3.4M were demanded from him and Portable, through his Lawyer denied owing the music promoter any $29,890, but admitted owing the sum of N8M from which N2M has been paid.

This suit has been assigned to Honourable Justice Ogala of the Ikeja High Court.

Credit: Vanguard