Karl-Marx Edward Ikemefuna William George Okeke-Vonbatten, the $1.2 million-a-year lobbyist hired by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar in March 2026, was convicted of domestic violence in a Washington, D.C. court more than two decades ago, a confidential investigative report dated September 11, 2026, reveals. Case No. 2003 DVM 002653 was filed on August 2, 2003, at the District of Columbia Superior Court. The defendant, then identified as Karl-Marx Okeke, faced a charge of Simple Assault/Domestic. He was found guilty on October 8, 2003, and sentenced to 180 days in jail, suspended, along with one year of supervised probation. Court records…
Author: Abiola
Oba of Lagos Rilwan Akiolu has declared no vacancy in the Presidential Villa for the next four or five years, signalling support for President Bola Tinubu’s second-term bid. Akiolu spoke when the APC Presidential Campaign Council, led by Director-General Abdulaziz Yari, visited his palace. He urged politicians to ensure the 2027 election is peaceful and conducted responsibly, warning against the Machiavellian principle that the end justifies the means. Yari said the visit was the council’s first outing to seek the monarch’s blessings, prayers and advice ahead of nationwide campaigns. It had earlier visited the Sokoto Caliphate. He appealed for support…
The United States has formally commended Nigeria for sustained maritime security reforms following the removal of a 12-year Condition of Entry (CoE) that had been imposed on vessels sailing from Nigeria to American ports. The restriction was announced by the US Coast Guard in June 2014, and took effect that same month, after regulators determined that most Nigerian ports lacked effective anti-terrorism measures under the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code. The USCG carried out four separate assessments of Nigeria’s ports and maritime security framework between March 2024 and April 2026, culminating in the formal lifting of the restriction,…
Former presidential aide Reno Omokri has publicly retracted his previous description of President Bola Tinubu as a “drug lord,” stating that his independent investigation in the United States found no evidence to support the allegation. Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, Mr Omokri revealed that he traveled to Chicago in September 2022 to verify reports about Mr Tinubu’s academic history and alleged drug links. He arrived on 18 September and visited Chicago State University the next day, where officials provided documentary evidence, photographic evidence, and newspaper clippings confirming that Mr Tinubu attended the institution. “I honestly believed what the media…
A chieftain of the Labour Party (LP), Abayomi Arabambi, has instituted three separate legal actions against the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) over the academic credentials of Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC). The suits, filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja, seek orders of mandamus to compel the institutions to release official records relating to certificates allegedly issued to Obi. Arabambi predicates his actions on the alleged refusal of the federal institutions to release the details in line with the…
President Bola Tinubu finished ahead of Peter Obi by 1,067 responses in the Oxford–Metro Analytics’ National Trust Poll, Vanguard reports. The poll, which closed on September 7, recorded a total of 69,110 approved and unflagged responses in its final analytical dataset. Tinubu received 24,469 responses, representing 35.41 per cent of the total, while Obi polled 23,402, representing 33.86 per cent. Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar came third with 18,430 responses, representing 26.67 per cent. The result gave Tinubu an advantage of approximately 1.54 percentage points over Obi. The poll’s regional distribution suggested a significantly different electoral map from the 2023 presidential…
Ahead of the 2027 general elections, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) has suffered a major setback as its National Assistant Secretary, Malam Hassan Muhammadu (Babadalan Dukku), has officially resigned from the party and is set to join the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) . The resignation, which took effect immediately, was confirmed in a post shared on social media on Saturday with an attached letter. While the official resignation reason has not been made public, sources indicate that the decision followed extensive consultations with political stakeholders in his home state of Gombe. Malam Hassan Muhammadu, a prominent political figure in…
Former Labour Party (LP) vice-presidential candidate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, has declared that only divine intervention can prevent President Bola Tinubu from winning the 2027 presidential election. Speaking in an interview with Trust TV while assessing the political landscape ahead of 2027, Baba-Ahmed acknowledged Tinubu’s formidable political machinery, even while remaining critical of his policies. He noted that Tinubu spent about 16 years building a political base and played a pivotal role in bringing former President Muhammadu Buhari into the alliance that won the 2015 election. “Even though I don’t entirely agree with him, he did what others were not able to…
Omoyele Sowore brands himself a revolutionary, a man of the people ready to bleed for Nigeria. But while he sermonizes about “taking back our country,” his wife and two children live in Haworth, New Jerseysafe, comfortable, and a world away from the chaos he agitates for. When the heat turns up, Sowore runs. After 20 months in Nigeria, he has returned to his New Jersey home, announcing his arrival with theatrical defiance. This is a pattern, not a one-off. He has spent two decades living in the United States on a green card, building his media empire and raising his…
Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 general election, has reiterated his claim that he won the poll, alleging that former INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, worked against him despite publicly assuring the international community of a credible process. Speaking during an interview on Arise TV, Obi said Nigerians took INEC at its word in 2023, believing Yakubu’s assurances while the commission was allegedly working for his political opponents. “In 2023 we took things for granted, we believed the INEC… when he was actually working for the opposite,” he said. When asked if he had proof of…