The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has berated the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Abdullahi Ganduje for allegedly saying that his party would dislodge the PDP governance in Ondo and Osun States and by extension, capture the entire South-West.

Both the National PDP and States expressed serious reservations to Ganduje’s comment.

The National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Debo Ologunagba, while speaking at the party’s National Secretariat, Abuja, described Ganduje’s submission as reckless and threatening.

He critisised Ganduje harshly for his choice of words, saying the dictionary meaning of the word ‘capture,’ which Ganduje reportedly used, involves forceful control/occupation and enslavement, stressing that “we cannot be enslaved in our own land.”

Ologunagba stated that the South-West has always been the bastion of opposition and democracy, noting that for the APC National Chairman to come to Ondo State to issue such a threat is worrisome.

According to him, comments as that of Ganduje’s was what scuttled the First Republic, the ‘wetie’ in the 1960s, adding that history repeated itself in 1983 when the ruling National Party of Nigerian (NPN) made attempts to force Akin Omoboriowo as governor in Ondo State.

Pointing out that history is threatening to repeat itself and that any attempt of the APC to force itself upon the people of Ondo State will be resisted by the people, the PDP spokesperson reinforced demand by the Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, for the redeployment of the Ondo State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mrs. Toyin Babalola.

For him, the REC has been hob-nobbing with APC chieftains and showing obvious acts of partisanship.

Also lashing out on Ganduje, Osun State Chapter of the PDP asked the former governor of Kano State to pay serious attention to the political history of the South-West to assist him in making informed lines while making public comments about the region.

Calling on Ganduje to exercise caution in his desperate attempt to impress his party stalwarts, the Chairman of Osun PDP, Sunday Bisi, in a statement, cautioned Ganduje over such reckless utterances capable of igniting citizens’ which, in turn, could destabilse the country, saying Osun people will decide their Governor when the poll is opened for such exercise.

He said for a man who could not salvage his home state for the APC, owing to his disastrous regime as governor of the state, to start threatening fire and brimstone in the South-West, is not only reckless but absolutely off-point.

The PDP Chairman described Ganduje’s postulation as a careless plot to plunge the Southwest into avoidable political turmoil in a country that is already on a stressed line of ethnic distrust and economic challenges.

A former member of the House of Representatives, Farouk Lawan, has finished serving his imprisonment at Kuje Custodial Center in Abuja.

Lawan, who was jailed five years for receiving the sum of $500,000 bribe from business mogul, Femi Otedola in the 2012 oil subsidy scam completed his jail term on Tuesday.

The former lawmaker disclosed this in a statement he personally signed and made public on Tuesday.

He expressed happiness at leaving the confinement, saying his freedom makes a new beginning in his life.

While thanking Allah for his freedom, Lawan stated that “today marks the beginning of a new chapter in my life as I step out of Kuje Custodial Centre, with a heart full of gratitude to Allah SWT for seeing me through this trial.”

Expressing deeper gratitude to God, the ex-convict said he is alive, in good health and high spirits to be with his family, friends and associates.

He said he remains grateful and indebted to his family and friends who stood by him through what he considered as “trying phase of my life.”

Lawan, who was the Chairman of the House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy Regime, was arraigned in 2013 after he allegedly demanded for a bribe of $3 million from billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola, who accused him of receiving the sum of $500,000.

The bribe was said to help influence the removal of the name of his oil company from the list of indicted companies in the fuel subsidy scam of 2012.

Lawan has appealed the judgment and the panel held that the prosecution failed to prove that he demanded and agreed to accept the sum from Otedola, to exonerate his company from the list of indicted firms.

Lawan was convicted on the three count charges preferred against him by the federal government with a sentence of five years each for the first two counts, and seven years for the last count, all to run concurrently.

Meanwhile, a Federal Capital Territory High Court had sentenced him to seven years in prison but the Court of Appeal in Abuja reduced the jail term to five years.

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and a Senator representing Kwara South in the National Assembly, Oyebola Yisa Ashiru have been enmeshed in corrupt and drug dealing allegations.

Sensor Ashiru, while speaking on the floor of the Senate on October 15, 2024, had declared that the enforcement agency is corrupt and needed to be probed for the rise in the rate of drug trafficking across the country.

Responding, NDLEA Chairman, Mohammed Buba Marwa, took a swipe at the lawmaker for his utterances and alleged that the corrupt allegations against the agency were borne out of vendetta.

Defending the agency further, Marwa, while speaking to journalists on Monday, noted that Senator Ashiru’s claims were baseless, adding that Ashiru had developed personal hatred against the NDLEA since the day its operatives raided the senator’s personal residence in GRA Ilorin, Kwara State, on February 4, 2024, and found illicit drugs.

Marwa disclosed that the Federal lawmaker was using his house as joint for illicit drug dealers, saying that two of Ashiru’s aides identified as Ibrahim Mohammed and Muhammed Yahaya, were arrested, while a third suspect bolted away.

He stated that the agency carried out the raid following credible intelligence indicating that the house was being used for drug trafficking and consumption.

The agency also revealed a separate operation in June 2023, which led to the arrest of another associate of the senator, Oluwatosin Odepidan, in Offa, Kwara State.

He said Odepidan was found in possession of methamphetamine and cannabis, stressing that despite attempts by the senator’s personal assistant to have the case dropped, Odepidan was prosecuted.

The NDLEA boss pointed out that initially, Odepidan abused the bail privilege granted him in 2023 but was rearrested and convicted in June 2024.

Marwa maintained that Ashiru’s attack was an attempt to tarnish the agency’s reputation, following the legal actions taken against his associates.

Meanwhile, Ashiru’s office denied all allegations of NDLEA, dismissing them as fallacious.

Ashiru’s Legislative Aide on Media, Olaitan Adeyanju submitted that it was preposterous and mere fishing for justification that NDLEA had to wait for the senator’s remarks on the floor the Senate before making its “spurious allegations.”

He said Ashiru never employed any aide bearing Ibrahim Mohammed or Mohammed Yahaya as claimed by NDLEA, acknowledging that the agency’s operatives visited the senator’s Ilorin house but found nothing incriminating.

According to him, “The entire house was searched, and nothing incriminating was found. If any drugs were found on certain persons mentioned by the NDLEA, it is rational to ask at which court of law were the culprits charged?”

He also denied allegation that Ashiru sent some person to the NDLEA to influence the dropping of drug allegations against anyone known as Tosin Odepidan, disclosing that “all the names mentioned by the agency are strange, and none works directly or indirectly with Senator Ashiru.”

Adeyanju further averred that the NDLEA has the duty to take anyone suspected of drug dealing to court rather than name- calling and engaging in media trial, saying that the agency’s rebuttal was misleading.

He alluded to the senator’s stance that many criminals, cultists, armed robbers, and drug addicts find their way back into business after gratifying and bribing law enforcement officers, asking NDLEA to search its house and fish out bad eggs.