Tinubu Absent At Installation of New Olubadan
dead before her husband became governor and could not have contributed anything from his grave. Ebele wondered if being appointed as an ambassador to Spain had gotten into her head or if emerging the most beautiful girl in Nigeria warranted her looking down on others. She went on to caution Bianca and demanded to be respected for being the first lady and her husband the governor.
But Bianca would not stop denigrating Obiano. In 2021, Bianca accused him yet again of destroying the party with his bad leadership. It was again during the posthumous birthday of her late husband on November 4th, barely 24 hours to the governorship election. Bianca said Obiano should be held responsible if APGA loses the election in the state that it has ruled for the past 16 years. She blamed Obiano’s bad governance for the crisis within the party and the spate of defections taking place on a daily basis to other political parties in their numbers, especially to the All Progressives Congress (APC). She accused him of running the party like a secret cult, thus reducing the once vibrant party to a shadow of its former self. She blamed him for the extreme state of insecurity under his watch which has seen several citizens, including a traditional ruler in his community gunned down in broad daylight. She added that he squandered the massive goodwill the party once enjoyed and for that, she will no longer be attending any event organised by the party. She went on to invoke the spirit of her late husband on Obiano. In his usual manner, Obiano ignored Bianca and her accusations while his wife waited for the perfect moment, or so it seems, to strike.
So while the oath of office was being administered on Soludo, Ebele walked to where Bianca was sitting and asked, “So you are here? I thought you said you would never attend any APGA event again.”
To which Bianca reportedly told her to get lost. But Ebele continued to taunt her, called her a bitch and brushed her face with her palm prompting Bianca to stand up to slap her and thus started the ‘roforofo’ fight between them, which ended even before it began, no thanks to the security operatives at the event. Ironically, Obiano wasn’t even aware of the commotion his wife had caused and by the time Ebele returned to her seat looking ruffled and still raining insults on Bianca, all he could mutter was for her to sit down, but she rebuffed him and the former governor simply ignored her. However, a few have countered Obiano not being aware of what was going on. This group of people are of the opinion that he knew very much what was amiss, but was too tired of his wife’s shenanigans to interfere.
This may not be far-fetched as Ebele has allegedly been a thorn in the flesh of Obiano in all the years they have been married. Ebele isn’t actually Obiano’s first wife. She was alleged to be his secretary and after Obiano’s wife passed on, she found a way to muscle herself into Obiano’s home and she became his wife. In fact, on the day of their inauguration eight years ago, Ebele appeared with a baby she was nursing on the podium where they were to sit. However, rather than enjoy a happy home, it has allegedly been one hellish experience for Obiano due to his wife’s alleged notoriety. Her alleged unstable behaviour allegedly pushed the former governor to take to the bottles in an attempt to drown his sorrows. APGA party members claim that Bianca has always had a special status within that party but when the Obianos became governor, all that changed. Ebele, they allege, felt intimidated by any powerful woman doing very well in politics and business including Bianca and got her husband to sabotage Bianca’s senatorial ambition including the 20 million naira monthly payment. When Bianca found out, she called them ingrates who used her late husband’s name to climb to power but now working against her.
Born and raised in low scale Shitta, Ayilara, Ojuelegba, Surulere area of Lagos State, Ebele is not your average Igbo woman. She has allegedly always been associated with the streets. She is said to talk down on people, has a penchant for slapping people and once slapped her husband’s deputy some years ago. For someone whose husband took to see Buhari to announce her intention to represent her constituency at the senate, one wonders if the event of Thursday, March 17 will make or mar her ambition. Your guess is as good as mine. And as for Bianca, who threw caution to the wind and behaved nothing like a former beauty queen, will her action strip her of the honour she enjoyed as the widow of Biafra’s warlord? That remains to be seen.
The Iyalaje of Oodua, Princess Toyin Kolade, has been in a gay mood all week, following her exoneration from a N32.6 billion fraud case that was giving her sleepless nights.
That there is an obvious rift between Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the National leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), is no longer in doubt. The gulf between the two however, keeps widening with each passing day. This became evident during the lavish ceremony that marked the installation of Oba Lekan Balogun, as the 42nd Olubadan of Ibadan. Dignitaries from all parts of the country were in attendance at the ceremony, which took place at Mapo Hall in the Oyo State capital. While dignitaries, such as Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; former Vice President Atiku Abubakar; Governors Dapo Abiodun, Kayode Fayemi of Ogun and Ekiti States, respectively; Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi; Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi; and Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, etc, were present, Tinubu, who many looked forward to meeting at the event, was conspicuously absent.
Instead, the Jagaban of Borgu sent a representative in the person of Femi Pedro, his deputy when he was governor of Lagos State. For a man who has been junketing around the South-West to drum up support for his presidential ambition, his absence at the ceremony spoke more volumes than many of his foot soldiers would care to admit about the state of his relationship with the Vice President Osinbajo.
More worrisome is the fact that without batting an eyelid, Tinubu willingly sacrificed his attendance at the installation ceremony of the new monarch, who is incidentally his close friend and whose presence would have been a morale booster for the new Olubadan, just to avoid Osinbajo.
Only a week ago, Tinubu posted a terse message wishing Osinbajo a happy birthday on social media. Not only was the post a day late, he made the post all about himself with the kind of photograph he attached to the birthday message. The photograph was of
Tinubu, Osinbajo and their wives cutting Tinubu’s 67th birthday/ colloquium which took place two-years ago. Also pundits consider the photograph to be a subtle jab at Osinbajo who is allegedly eyeing President Mohammadu Buhari’s seat come 2023.
Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos struck out the charge against the socialite, sequel to a withdrawal application made by the Attorney-General of the Federation. Counsel from the Office of the
AGF, Pius Akutah, applied to withdraw the charge as a result of a letter from the nominal complainant, Access Bank Plc. In his ruling, Justice Lifu said that since the case was not heard on its merit, but merely withdrawn before trial commenced, the appropriate other to make is to strike it out and the defendants discharged.
THEWILL had earlier reported how the businesswoman was charged alongside six others before the court by the Office of the AttorneyGeneral of the Federation
(AGF) in a charge marked FHC/L/407c/2019, for allegedly obtaining the aforementioned sum by false pretence.
Others charged alongside Princess Kolade are four Indian nationals,
Prem Garg, Devashish Garg, Bhagwan Simgh Rawat and Mukul Tyagi, as well as two Britons, Marcus Wade and Andrew Fairie, said to be at large.
Also, four companies, namely Metal Africa Steel Products Limited, Wilben Trade Limited, Kannu Aditya India Limited, as well as Kolade’s Fisolak Global Resources Limited, were charged before the court for the same offences. Kolade had earlier refuted the allegations of being accused of fraud, claiming that she was contacted by the foreign nationals to clear some goods on their behalf, as a clearing agent, which she did and got paid for the services her company rendered. According to her, the Indian nationals, who supposedly got loans from the bank to carry out their business activities, at no point involved her in their dealings with the bank.
Kolade insisted that she had been fully exonerated by the Police Special Fraud Unit (SFU), which wrote to her and her company and even pleaded with her after discovering she was falsely accused.