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EXCLUSIVE: Tinubu, Amaechi in a N750m deal………..+ Many Dirty Details Revealed!

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Details are beginning to emerge on some of the sweetheart deals that cemented the relationships of the old guard of the All Peoples Congress (APC) and Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State.

As the dust from the tremors of the political landscape settled back in 2013 with the defection of the five Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors to the APC, what followed were weeks of getting-to-know-deals in the APC.

“Finding their feet in the new environment had huge financial implications for the newcomers. Behind the photo opportunities that the country was treated to, the sharks among them moved in quickly,” a source involved in the exchanges told the Nigerian Times.

To the delight of the APC top brass, Amaechi who appeared in a hurry to acclimatize started picking the tabs of many party programmes. We learnt that even the publicity arm of the party had a new lease of life on account of Amaechi’s generosity. Lai Mohammed, the APC’s publicity czar, became a frequent flyer on the Lagos/Port Harcourt, Abuja/Port Harcourt routes.

That was when Bola Tinubu, the ultimate power broker in APC, moved in. No governor in the Class of ’99 comes close to Bola Tinubu in privatising public resources. Lagos has been such a boon that almost a decade since he left office, he has been a central figure in all the political intrigues.

Those abreast of the early days of the relationship characterize it thus: “Amaechi was the political orphan on the prowl with plenty of cash buying up affection and influence in the new political family. Too many doors opened up to him because the party, in many respects, was poorly funded and too often, depended on Tinubu’s mood swings. Tinubu on his part was seeing beyond Amaechi’s new convert’s zeal; he had his eyes fixed on the honey pot that was Rivers State. They hit it off”.

Tinubu owns both TV Continental (TVC) and Radio Continental (RC); companies that have always been run by a few journalist friends of his. But a few years ago, he brought in a former top shot of Qatar based Aljazeera to rejig the place. Part of the reforms was the launch of a pay TV arm called Consat TV (Continental Satellite Television). Since he had his fingers burnt in the defunct HiTV, Tinubu had always dreamt of a business to rival South African owned DSTV. Consat was his answer and the service launched in June.

His next move was to tie up Consat and the Rivers State Government. Consat TV and the Rivers State Government entered a deal for the purchase of fifty thousand decoders at the premium rate of fifteen thousand Naira per decoder. The deal set the Rivers State treasury back by seven hundred and fifty million Naira. Nigerian Times can report that since the signing of the deal and full payment was effected, less than ten percent of the decoders have been supplied.

Why a government would want to buy decoders for its citizens remains unclear, but watchers of the Rivers State treasury say it is one of the “transfer of wealth” cases they have been witnessing since the governor decamped to APC.”

The relationship had recorded its first victim almost immediately. In a classic case of journalism misreading the dark art of a proprietor’s interest , Bola Tinubu’s TVC, or more precisely, Oluchi, who was TVC’s correspondent in Port Harcourt ,when the Rivers State House of Assembly crisis began, was to pay a steep price. Her crime was that bit of the trade every journalist lives for, a scoop.

On the day Chidi Llyod, the governor’s supporter went wild, bludgeoning another member on the head with the mace, it was Oluchi and her crew that brought the scenes across homes in the country. But because of the limited coverage of TVC not many people saw the video that night. Indeed the government and many media houses had eggshells on their faces in the intervening twenty four hours.

The governor’s propaganda machine got all the newspapers to report the event as one more instance of Wike’s supporters’ belligerence. Unknown to them, Oluchi had reported the event as it unfolded, correctly identifying Chidi Llyod as the villain and properly situating him between the warring camps. It took twenty four hours for other media houses, especially the newspapers to realise that they have been badly used.

TVC, itself, was forced to stop running the story the following day. By then the video had gone viral. Miss Oluchi was declared persona non grata in Port Harcourt. Her company could not protect her and fearing for her safety she escaped to Owerri. Her cameraman returned home late one night to find his house ransacked. He fled Port Harcourt too. After many months of idling away in Owerri, and the company ignoring her, she resigned.

RIVERS STATE GOVERNMENT REACTS

In her reaction, the Information Commissioner in Rivers State, Ibim Semenitari, admitted that though such a deal exists between Consat TV and the state government, the agreement was never about Governor Rotimi Amaechi, but about the good of the people of the state.

She told the us that it was wrong to say that just 10 percent of the decoders had been supplied, adding that 50 percent of the product (the quantity which the state government paid for) had been delivered.

While defending the agreement for the supply of the product, the Commissioner noted that the deal was important given that the Federal Government’s digitization policy would soon take off and the state government needed to comply.

“First, your figures are wrong, but to your question, 50 percent has been supplied and that is all we have paid for. What we are doing is not about the purchase of the decoders, but about the digitization policy which will commence soon’’, she explained.

Semenitari added, “We are getting the decoders because we need to migrate to the new platform and we are also grooming installers for the project which will in turn empower our youths by way of providing job opportunities’’.

According to her, since the state owned television station and radio station were in the process of joining the rest of the world in migrating to the new platform, it was important that the purchase was made to enhance the penetration of information to the remotest parts of the state.

“The penetration into the villages will not exist since we want to reach the largest mass of the people if we do not do this migration,’’ she explained.

The Devil in the Detail of the Government’s Defence.

Consat TV which launched in June this year is one of three pay TV firms apart from the popular but expensive DSTV.

GOtv is a cheaper offering from Multichoice and StarTimes which is a joint venture between the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and Chinese investors.

The NTA StarTimes, the biggest player in the direct to home television service sector is offering free decoders ahead of the 2015 digital migration.

Until the Christmas promotion started, the decoders went for N3, 900 with one month free subscription and offering 35 to 70 channels at 1,000 Naira monthly or up to 3,000 Naira monthly.

NTA Startimes is currently available in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Aba, Benin, Enugu, Ilorin, Jos, Kaduna, Kano, Markurdi, Onitsha, Port Harcourt, Sokoto, Uyo, Yola, and Ibadan.

GOtv owned by Multichoice Africa with some channels from the DSTV bouquet offers a similar service to StarTimes and is a direct competitor. For N2, 900 subscribers get a GOtv decoder including one month subscription to GOtv Plus – which gives them access to over 41 local and international channels.

But until the recent promotion, Gotv access cost was 6,900 Naira for decoder, outdoor antenna, remote, and 1 month free Gotv plus package.

However, consat TV is one of the new Nigeria pay TV which offers subscribers only 24 channels at a cost of N15, 000 for dish and accessories and subscription price of N4000 per month.

And very crucially, both Startimes and Gotv are plug and play. No installation fees.

So, far from Mrs Semenitari’s pro-poor fibbing, this is a deal done at the behest of the mafia don.

 

Additional Info from Nig Times

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JUST IN: Court Remands Lagos Teacher In Kirikiri For Assaulting 3-Yr-Old Boy

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A 45-year-old teacher from Christ-Mitots International School, Stella Nwadigbo, has been remanded by a Magistrate Court in Ogba for allegedly assaulting a three-year-old child in the Ikorodu Local Government Area of Lagos State.

Nwadigbo, who was suspended by the school management in response to public outcry, was remanded by the court at Kirikiri Correctional Facility, awaiting the next hearing on February 18, 2025.

The teacher was remanded on Thursday after the Police arraigned her for beating a pupil, “Micheal Abayomi,” who was unable to write the numbers 16 and 61 during school hours.

 

More to come…

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Fayose lacks honour, can’t spell ‘politics’ – Buhari’s ex-aide, Ojudu

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Former Special Adviser on Political Matters to ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, Babafemi Ojudu, has said ex-governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose lacks honour and can’t spell the word “politics.”

Ojudu made the remark while recounting how he defeated Fayose during the 2011 senatorial election in Ekiti State.

He alleged that Fayose became governor after his impeachment because he engaged in vote-buying and the people of Ekiti State were hungry.

The former presidential aide disclosed this during an interview on Edmund Obilo’s podcast, State Affairs on Thursday morning.

Ojudu said despite Fayose having money to prosecute the election, he defeated him with 68,000 votes while the former governor had 28,000 votes.

According to Ojudu: “Fayose has no honour now, he is a man of dishonour, he became governor again because people are hungry, vote for a pot of soup and N5000, everybody will vote in an environment of poverty.

“I have been the only one who defeated him in an election; he stood against me during the Senate election, he had 28,000 votes and I had 68,000 votes.

“This is also a story of how I defeated him, he had the money to spend but I didn’t have the money to spend.

“Then, a radio station organized a debate between me and him which was actually an unfair competition. When we got there, I went in my Agbada while he came in a Tee shirt and jeans.

“As soon as he entered, I saw an inscription on that Tee-shirt “Politics is Serious Business” and I saw that politics was wrongly spelt.

“I was happy that I had this guy today. I called my photographer, ‘please snap his chest, which he did,’ we went on and he accused me of all sorts of things.

“He called me a road side journalist and I was just waiting. After we had thrown all kinds of barbs at each other, the moderator said ‘we have come to the end of the debate but I will give you two minutes each. Who is going to start?’

“And I said my governor must start, he thought I was actually being civil but I needed to talk last so that he would have no reply.

“When he finished, I said ‘today is my saddest day because I don’t know what to tell my 13-year-old daughter when I get back home – that the man who was my governor, who wants to go and represent Ekiti in the Senate does not know how to spell politics.

“People at home, I’m calling your attention to the chest of this former governor of yours who wants to go to the Senate and can’t spell politics – are we going to continue having illiterates in power? He just put his hands on his chest and ran out of the studio, that was a killer punch.”

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Call, Data Tariffs will increase — Nigerian Minister, Tijani declares

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The Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, has confirmed that Nigeria’s telecommunications tariffs will soon increase.

He, however, assured Nigerians that it will not be the 100 percent that telecom operators are pushing for at the moment.

TIjani disclosed this at the end of a stakeholders meeting with Mobile Network Operators, MNOs on Wednesday in Abuja.

He said that very soon, the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, would approve the new tariffs and make it public to Nigerians.

“You have seen over the past weeks that there has been agitation from some of these companies to increase tariffs. They are requesting a 100 percent tariff increase.

“But it will not be by 100 percent. We are still looking at that study, and NCC will come up with a clear directive on how we will go about it.

“We want to strike the balance as a government to protect our people but also protect and ensure that these companies can continue to invest significantly.

“We need to ensure that as a sector, we get our acts together and ensure that from the regulation side, we put the right regulations in place that can ensure the growth of this sector.”

The minister also noted that the federal government would no longer leave investments in infrastructure in the sector to private companies alone.

“As a country, over time, we have left this investment in the hands of the private sector. They typically invest where they can see returns in the short to medium term.

“We will not want this conversation to just be about tariff increase. I think what the world is talking about today is meaningful connectivity.

“You want to have access to very good quality service.

“A part of it that the consumers may not be aware of is the investment that needs to go into the infrastructure that is used to deliver these services,” he said.

The Executive Vice-Chairman, EVC, of the NCC, Dr Aminu Maida, said the meeting with stakeholders was about the sustainability of the industry.

“We have looked at all of these factors, and that is why, like the minister said, it is not likely that we are going to approve a 100 percent tariff increase.

“I know that Nigerians are agitated to hear the exact percentage approved. There is still some stakeholder engagement that we are going through, but you will hear from us within a week or two.”

He said that the NCC had put a number of tools and instruments into place by revising its quality of service regulations for compliance service quality.

He noted that the MNOs must comply with simplified templates to show Nigerians charges per minute for voice calls, SMS, and a megabyte of data.

“We are moving away from the regime where you will have a main rate, and then you will now have a bonus that is at a different rate.

“It makes it often complicated and difficult for Nigerians to actually understand what they are being charged for.

“This is one of the things that, when we took a lot of time over the past year looking at data, there was this agitation that the MNOs are stealing our data,” he said.

Earlier, we reported that Tijani was meeting with telco stakeholders amid increased pressure for a telecom tariff hike.

Meanwhile, telecom subscribers had also urged telcos to consider alternatives to tariff hikes.
This comes as telcos, including MTN and Airtel, had recently written to the NCC for fresh tariff hike approval.

We recall telcos recently threatened a shutdown of the sector if telecoms tariff hike is not approved.

Meanwhile, telecom subscribers had also urged telcos to consider alternatives to tariff hikes.

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