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Senate Threatens to Shut Down NASS over Continuous Killings

Published

8 years ago

April 18, 2018

Eric

The Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, has said the National Assembly may be shut to help President Muhammadu Buhari administration find an end to the spate of killings by herdsmen and militias across the country.

The upper chamber of the National Assembly also noted that the campaign by the Federal Government for more foreign direct investments in the country would fail if the spate of insecurity persisted.

Ekweremadu, who presided over the plenary on Tuesday, spoke while ruling on a motion moved by Senator Suleiman Adokwe (Nasarawa-South) over the continued killings in his senatorial district.

Adokwe said, “Throughout the weekend to this moment, herdsmen have unleashed mayhem on the people of my senatorial district, leaving many dead bodies, numerous injured persons and hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons.

“The victims are largely the Tiv speaking ethnic nationalities, with a reported dead toll of 32 persons, and we are still counting.”

The senator described the attacks as “a well -coordinated and simultaneous carnage” across Awe, Obi, Keana and Doma Local Government areas of the southern senatorial district.

“The tragedy is that for four days running, this mayhem has continued unhindered, unchecked, unstopped by any arm of the law and security enforcement agencies.

“Indeed, right under the nose of the armed forces and the police, this killing is sustained by sheer negligence or refusal to act by the security agencies. It is very sad that in Nigeria, with all the security forces, a whole senatorial district will go on being punished by militia and no action coming from government,” Adokwe said.

Making reference to the recent call by a former Chief of Army Staff and ex-Minister of Defence, Lt-Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (retd.), that Nigerians should defend themselves against killers, the lawmaker said the call was right.

He said, “It is no wonder that very eminent Nigerian citizens have urged Nigerians to defend themselves because their security is in their own hands and no longer in the hands of the Nigerian security forces.

“I am very emotional on this matter and I am not one given to emotion very easily. But what I have gone through this weekend is very horrifying; it is very distressing and sad. It is as if we are in a lawless society where life is brutish; where there is absence of state powers. We call on the Federal Government to stop this carnage.”

Several senators who spoke on the killings decried that Buhari, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, had not done enough to end the attacks. Some of them also accused the security agencies of negligence and bias.

After the debate on the motion, which lasted about one hour, Ekweremadu stated that there was the need for the legislature to do more in seeking an end to the killings.

He pointed out that the National Assembly could not exist without the people who the members are representing. He also said there would be no election if the electorate had been killed.

Ekweremadu said, “If we have nobody to represent, nobody will have a job here. So, security is more important than any other thing that we do here.

“If it gets to a level where we have to shut down this National Assembly and sit down with the executive for as long as it lasts to resolve the problem, we will have to do that.”

The Deputy Senate President said the chamber deliberately gave the matter the attention and priority it deserved through the debate.

He said, “As we have pointed out, the primary purpose of government anywhere in the world is the preservation of the lives of citizens.”

The Deputy Senate President pointed out that such trends would not have lasted in a country like South Africa. He said Nigeria should seek help from other countries if it had been overwhelmed by the security challenge.

He said, “I ask myself: assuming this is happening in America, in the United Kingdom or France, will it take all this time to be resolved? Not even in South Africa. But it appears that we are taking too many things for granted. The time has come for us to seek help from other countries. We should not be ashamed to ask for help.”

In his contribution, Senator Barnabas Gemade backed Danjuma on his self-help call, alleging that there was an ongoing cleansing of his ethnic group, Tiv.

He said, “This country is becoming a state without control. It is a state in which we have seen ethnic cleansing.

“It is a shame that a sitting government could watch criminality go to the level that we have seen it today. Rather than rise up and take very decisive steps against it, we embark on denials and shield this evil by just explaining, with flimsy excuses, that these are communal clashes between communities.

“The carnage in Nasarawa-South affects mainly people of my ethnic group, who are in large population in Nasarawa-South. It is the same kind of killing that is going on in the Goma, Logo and Gwer West local government areas of Benue State. And it is the same kind of killing we are witnessing in Wukari and Takum LGAs. It is targeted at a particular ethnic nationality – my own people.

“I don’t understand why responsible people elected to control the government of Nigeria will simply turn away from the reality of this matter.

“Yet, there are people who are armed and are killing people as they like. And the Inspector-General of Police would fly by helicopter to a town, land in the market square and be asking people whether there was any militia in the town or not. And nobody seems to caution anybody. This is very sad. We have done enough of a minute silence for innocent Nigerians being killed.”

The Punch

Featured

Strategy and Sovereignty: Inside Adenuga’s Oil Deal of the Decade

Published

1 day ago

January 11, 2026

Eric

By Michael Abimboye

In global energy circles, the most consequential deals are often not the loudest. They unfold quietly, reshape portfolios, recalibrate value, and only later reveal their full significance.

The recent strategic transaction between Conoil Producing Limited and TotalEnergies belongs firmly in that category. A deal whose implications stretch beyond balance sheets into Nigeria’s long-troubled oil production narrative.

For Mike Adenuga, named The Boss of the Year 2025 by The Boss Newspapers, the agreement is more than a corporate milestone. It is the culmination of a long-term upstream strategy that is now translating into hard value barrels, cash flow, and renewed confidence in indigenous capacity.

At the heart of the transaction is a portfolio rebalancing agreement that sees TotalEnergies deepen its interest in an offshore asset while Conoil consolidates full ownership of a producing block critical to its medium-term growth trajectory. The parties have not publicly disclosed the monetary value, industry analysts place similar offshore and shallow-water asset transfers in the high hundreds of millions of dollars, depending on reserve certification and development timelines. What is indisputable, however, is the deal’s structural clarity: each partner exits with assets aligned to its strategic strengths.

For Conoil, the transaction represents something more profound than asset shuffling. It is the validation of an indigenous oil company’s ability to operate, produce, and partner at scale. That validation was already underway in 2024, when Conoil achieved a landmark breakthrough: the successful production and export of Obodo crude, a new Nigerian crude blend from its onshore acreage.

In a country where new crude streams have become rare, Obodo’s emergence signalled operational maturity. More importantly, it shifted Conoil from being perceived primarily as a downstream and marginal upstream player into a full-spectrum producer with export-grade assets.

The commercial impact was immediate. Obodo crude enhanced Conoil’s revenue profile, strengthened cash flows, and materially improved the company’s asset valuation.

For Mike Adenuga, Obodo represented something else entirely: oil income with scale and durability. Producing crude shifts wealth from theoretical to realised. It is the difference between potential and proof.

That momentum was reinforced by Conoil’s acquisition of a new drilling rig, a move that underscored its intent to control not just resources, but execution. In an industry where rig availability often dictates production timelines, owning modern drilling capacity gives Conoil a strategic advantage lowering costs, reducing dependency, and accelerating development cycles. It also enhances the company’s bargaining power in partnerships such as the one with TotalEnergies.

Taken together, the Obodo crude success, the rig acquisition, and the TotalEnergies transaction, these moves materially expand Conoil’s enterprise value. While private company valuations remain opaque, upstream assets with proven production, infrastructure control, and international partnerships typically command significant multiple expansion. For Adenuga, all of these represents a stabilising and appreciating pillar of wealth.

As The Boss Newspapers honours Mike Adenuga as Boss of the Year 2025, the recognition lands at a moment when his oil ambitions are no longer peripheral to his legacy. They are central. In Obodo crude, in steel rigs, and in carefully negotiated partnerships, Adenuga is shaping a version of Nigerian capitalism that privileges patience, scale, and execution over spectacle.

In the end, the most powerful statement of wealth is not net worth rankings or headlines. It is the ability to convert strategy into assets, assets into production, and production into national relevance. On that score, the Conoil–TotalEnergies deal may well stand as one of the most consequential chapters in Mike Adenuga’s business story and in Nigeria’s evolving oil future.

Featured

Peter Obi, Only Life in ADC, Says Fayose

Published

3 days ago

January 10, 2026

Eric

Former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, says the former presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, is the only life in the African Democratic Congress, ADC.

Fayose made this statement on Friday while fielding questions in an interview on ‘Politics Today’, a programme on Channels Television.

He also said that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is technically no more, adding that it is dead.

The former governor equally said that Oyo State governor, Seyi Makinde, should not be dragged into the woes of the PDP.

He said: “Obi is the only life in ADC; all other people in ADC are semi-existent. If Obi had remained in Labour Party or has gone to Accord Party, he is the only life there. All the other people there, they are not existing. They are old-forces.

“Openly, I supported Tinubu in 2023. I didn’t hide it. Till now I’m still there. I don’t jump. I have said it to you I’m not a member of APC and I will never be.”

DailyPost

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More Troubles for Ahmed Farouk: Dangote Drags Ex-NMDPRA Boss to EFCC over Corruption Claims

Published

4 days ago

January 9, 2026

Eric

The Chairman of Dangote Industries, Aliko Dangote, through his legal representative, has filed a formal corruption petition against the former Managing Director of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Farouk Ahmed, at the headquarters of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

This was disclosed in a statement made available to our correspondent by the Dangote Group media team on Friday.

Recall that Dangote had earlier petitioned the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission to investigate Ahmed for allegedly spending $5 million on his children’s secondary education in Switzerland. He withdrew the petition a few days ago, even as the ICPC vowed to continue with its investigation.

The statement on Friday said Dangote’s petition to the EFCC followed “The withdrawal of the same petition from the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, a strategic decision aimed at accelerating the prosecution process.”

In the petition, signed by Lead Counsel Dr O.J. Onoja, Dangote urged the EFCC to investigate allegations of abuse of office and corrupt enrichment against Ahmed, and to prosecute him if found culpable.

The petition further stated that Dangote would provide evidence to substantiate claims of financial misconduct and impunity.

“We make bold to state that the commission is strategically positioned, along with sister agencies, to prosecute financial crimes and corruption-related offences, and upon establishing a prima facie case, the courts do not hesitate to punish offenders. See Lawan v. F.R.N (2024) 12 NWLR (Pt. 1953) 501 and Shema v. F.R.N. (2018) 9 NWLR (Pt.1624) 337,” the petition read.

Onoja further urged the commission, under the leadership of Mr Olanipekun Olukoyede, “To investigate the complaint of abuse of office and corruption against Engr. Farouk Ahmed and to accordingly prosecute him if found wanting.”