KOGI ASSEMBLY CRISES TAKES A NEW DIMENSION :
Online Journalist, Odaudu Joel Minister , wife Arrested!
Governor Wada is Deploying an outdated Gestapo Tactics!-Phrank SHAIBU
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Citizens have reacted to the over-12hr arrest and detention of Odaudu Joel Minister and his wife, a journalist and citizen reporter who was arrested by the police on the orders of the Kogi State governor, Capt. Idris Wada , at 12.30am this morning for what a Police source said, was connected to a comment he posted on Facebook about the Governor on the crises rocking the state House of Assembly.
The said post was said to have exposed a secret meeting held at the Kogi State Governors Lodge Asokoro between Governor Wada and Hon. Yakubu Yunusa, the Majority Leader of the Kogi State House of Assembly representing Ofu constituency and a strong member of the 13-anti impeachment lawmakers on 5th November, where the State Governor was alleged to have begged the said Hon. Yakubu profusely to work on his colleagues from Kogi East who are members of the 13-anti impeachment group to dump the group and was also said to have offered each of the Igala born legislators 25million each.
The said meeting came after it was reported that,efforts by the Kogi State Government to win-over another set of four members of the House in support of Bello from Kogi West also met a brick wall.
Investigation revealed that a meeting to allegedly coax the four members to support the state government’s anointed Speaker was held at about 10.30pm on Wednesday last week at Chief Jide Omokore’s House in Maitama Abuja.
According to our source, those at the meeting were the Deputy Governor of Kogi State, Arch Yomi Awoniyi , Chief Omokore and Prince Olusola Akanmode among other political leaders from Kogi West Senatorial District.
The pro-Bello’s members present at the said meeting, were Hon Henry Ojuola (Yagba East State Constituency), Hon Foluso Daniel (Mopa Muro), Hon Yori Solomon Afolabi (Ijumu) and Hon Abidemi Adeyemi (Yagba West).
Another top source at the meeting disclosed that the Arch. Awoniyi-led group requested the four legislators to withdraw their support for Hon Bello in order to confer legitimacy on the Speaker elected by 12 members of the House.
The source said: “The four lawmakers reply to the plea was that they were men of integrity and that they will not sell their integrity over a pot of porridge. They said they would rather maintain their integrity than capitulate
Mr. Odaudu Joel Minister , an online journalist and former moderator of a facebook group; The KOGI POLITICAL PLATFORM was alleged to have been beaten like a notorious criminal by some men of the Nigerian Police from The Kogi State Police Command, Anyigba division on the orders of one Hajia Habiba Wada, a younger sister to the Governor. This came as a follow up to an earlier calls to Mr Odaudu Joel Minister from one Fatima Abdullahi née-Wada,threatening the online journalist to either stop reporting stories on her father or risk arrest,detention and total annihilation. Our source has it that the social critic was arrested in his residence in Anyigba in Dekina Local Government area at or about 12.30 am today. “All i can say for now is that no arm was found in the possession of Mr. Odaudu Joel Minister when he was arrested.” A source was quoted as saying.
“Let me place on record that,what happened to this man is indefensible,” said a Lokoja-based lawyer,Idris Kabir on telephone, adding, “Curiously, the penal code doesn’t know Internet defamation as an offense.” The lawyer accused Governor Wada and the police commissioner of abuse” of power as well as “stretching a law to cover a ground that it does not cover.” “This man called a Governor should take a cue from President Goodluck Jonathan. If there were a law like that,Mr President would have arrested over Ten Million Nigerians because he is the most abused president on the social media”
When contacted, a Kogi born Media Consultant,Phrank SHAIBU had this to say “I want to say with all sense of modesty and responsibility that the way Mr. Odaudu Joel Minister was treated by the Police today is unlawful, barbaric, cruel, brutal, evil, vicious, wicked, vindictive and reckless! Why would Mr. Odaudu Joel Minister and his wife be that bashed when no arm was caught in his possession? What did he do to warrant that inhumane and sadistic treatment by people who are supposed to be friends of the masses? Where is the Freedom of Information and Right to Speech and Expression conferred on Mr. Odaudu Joel Minister by the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended)? Whosoever instigated this shameless act must be apprehended, rebuked and condemned by all lovers of democracy.”
One Ahmed Idakwo who wrote on the Facebook page of The Kogi Political Platform said: “Mr. Odaudu Joel Minister and myself were neither friends nor enemies. We do not share identical political ideology and I don’t know him in person. We have even trade-tackled issues with each other on social media to the extent that he was compelled to block me; but our sprained relationship would not stop me from kicking against the illegality and injustice waged against my fellow human being by enemies of democracy.This is rather unfortunate! Injustice to one is injustice to all!”
this online journalists are worse than terrorists. ukpaka reports and saharareporters are just two minute examples.
barrister, this boy even admits it on his page that they are doing e-terrorism. he is bein sponsored by the opposition. his grouse with the governors daughter seems personal. he has made it a habit to post fabricated stories about her and her family on the internet. some say he is upset because he did not get political appointment, some say her enemies are using him. at the end of the day, the truth will surely come out.
Well done Gov Wada for tackling these baggars. Just don’t go to court, but hang his legs and shave him with a broken bottle. Useless journalists that write on things that do not concern them. Go ahead Mr Governor and take Odaudu to Bamuda triangle or organize your party thugs to deal with the baggars who are disturbing you while you are busy eating. Local tyrants and apprentice dictators like you are good for our nascent democracy as the press must be gagged, so that you become an emperor in kogi. Well done and more grease in your onerous task of dealing with real or immaginary enemies of the state.
Chijioke, are uou truely a barrister?
KOGI PROGRESSIVE YOUTH FOR CHANGE PRESS RELEASE
RE: CRUEL AND MALICIOUS STATEMENT BY JOEL ODAUDU ALIAS MINISTER AGAINST THE GOVERNOR’S FAMILY
OJM THE ‘ONLINE JOURNALIST’ IS AN UNSUCCESSFUL LIAR.
“No man has good enough a memory to be a successful liar” – Abraham Lincoln
Kogi progressive youth for change is a non partisan group of youth in Kogi state whose mission is to ensure that our youth participate actively in bringing about positive change in our society.
We have watched the events of the past few days with utter disbelief and disgust. The youth of our state are appalled at the level people will go to achieve cheap popularity at the expense of any form of dignity that they should accord themselves.
Ordinarily, we would have chosen to ignore the antics of one ‘Odaudu Joel Minister’ a self styled ‘online journalist’ who thinks he can achieve fame by blackmailing family members of politicians but for the fact that his persistent falsehood peddling is capable of presenting the youth of Kogi as desperate elements who subscribe to the dirty politicking tactics of blackmail and character assassination employed by Joel and his sponsors.
Wikipedia defines Online journalism as the reporting of FACTS when produced and distributed via the internet. We are yet to understand how Joel Minister, a contract Glo sales staff fits into this profession with the fabricated stories he chooses to put on the internet about the families of politicians especially our hardworking Executive Governor.
Having gone through the various write ups of Joel, We cannot help but notice the inconsistencies:
1. On the 5th of November 2012 Odaudu Joel Minister wrote on the Kogi Political Platform page that the governor’s daughter called him to threaten him over a post he ‘copied and pasted’ about the details of a meeting between the governor and a house of assembly member. His words: “She THREATENED me to substantiate the post or PAY THE PRICE by TOMORROW MORNING! I have a RECORDED VERSION which I am going to publish by tomorrow morning”
2. On the 12th of November, he was quoted in the Nation as saying “ the governor’s daughter threatened him to either stop reporting stories on her father or risk arrest, detention and total annihilation”. He went on to add “ the governor’s sister asked him to sign an undertaking that I will delete the Kogi Political platform from the facebook because according to her it was being used to vilify Wada” . In the same paper, he says “ Habibat Wada brought thugs to my house, But when she saw that I was calling the police, she ran to the station and brought policemen to arrest me and my wife”
3. In a petition to the IG on the 14th of November( 9 clear days after he reported the threat on facebook), Mr Odaudu Joel accuses some members of the family of the Executive governor of Kogi State of a plot to eliminate him and his family over and Open letter he wrote to the Governor on the lingering political crisis in Kogi state posted on his facebook wall suggesting the way forward. Mr Odaudu states clearly for the world to see that “the daughter of the governor (not the governor’s sister again) called him on the 5th of November to either delete a facebook group which I pioneered, known as the ‘Kogi Political Platform’ or have me thoroughly dealt with, permanently silenced and have my generation wiped out from Kogi state”. He goes on to say “ Hajiya Habibat raided my house with about 15 armed thugs AND 7 policemen to arrest me and my wife”.
Mr JOEL MINISTER, PLEASE MAKE UP YOUR MIND:
WHY WERE YOU THREATENED? WAS IT BECAUSE OF AN OPEN LETTER OR BECAUSE YOU PUBLISHED THE DETAILS OF A MEETING BETWEEN THE GOVERNOR AND A HOUSE MEMBER?
WHAT IS IT EXACTLY THAT THE GOVERNOR’S DAUGHTER SAID WHEN SHE CALLED TO ‘THREATEN YOU’ OR IS YOUR RECORDING TELLING YOU A DIFFERENT THING ALL THE TIME?
WHY DID IT TAKE YOU NINE FULL DAYS TO REPORT THE THREAT TO THE POLICE- EVEN AFTER YOU CLAIM SHE SENT A BUS LOAD OF THUGS TO YOUR OFFICE THE NEXT MORNING?
WHO ASKED YOU TO DELETE YOUR FACEBOOK ACCOUNT-THE GOVERNOR’S DAUGHTER OR SISTER?
DID HAJIYA HABIBA BRING THE POLICE AND THE THUGS AT THE SAME TIME OR DID SHE RUN TO GO AND CALL THE POLICE WHEN SHE SAW YOU WERE CALLING THE POLICE?
Just like the words of Abraham Lincoln above, Mr Minister’s memory cannot keep up with the lies- hence the numerous contradictions.
It is easy for Odaudu Joel Minister to present himself to the unsuspecting public as a ‘freedom fighter’ but to those of us who have been following the story from the beginning and all other discerning minds, we see a boy who has gotten carried away by the cheers of the small crowd of like minded individuals on his facebook page and is seeking cheap popularity by assassinating the character of prominent individuals in society.
To the unfortunate public who have had to put up with this shameless display of Joel, we tell you that Joel is an unfortunate victim led by greed into the hands of desperate politicians in our state who have resorted to launching campaigns of calumny against the Governor and his family as a consolation for their loss at the polls. Joel is just the piper who is playing the tune of his paymasters.
We want to use this medium to draw the attention of the Security services to the threat by Odaudu joel’s paymasters “ to make Kogi state UNGOVERNABLE if the police dare interrogate their piper ’Joel’ for organising violent attacks against members of the Governor’s family”.
We also commend the members of the family of our Executive Governor for using legal means to handle the various attacks on them by Odaudu Joel and his sponsors.
Finally, We express confidence in the capability of the Nigerian police to see this matter to a logical conclusion. We implore them not to be deterred by the threats of violence from opposition politicians in Kogi state
KOGI YOUTHS STAND UNITED IN RESISTING AND CONDEMNING ANY ATTEMPT BY OPPOSITION POLITICIANS TO TURN OUR STATE INTO THE BATTLEGROUND THAT OTHER STATES IN THE NORTH HAVE BEEN TURNED TO. CHANGE HAS COME TO STAY IN KOGI AND IT WILL REMAIN SO.
Mr Odaudu Joel Minister, No matter how hard you try to cover your tracks with lies and illegal actions, the truth will surely be revealed very soon for the whole world to see.
SIGNED.
COMRADE EMMANUEL ADUKWU, HASSAN THOMPSON, COMRADE ATABOR ARUWA
FOR KOGI PROGRESSIVE YOUTH FOR CHANGE.