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Alleged Certificate Forgery: Metropolitan Police Petitioned Against Buhari’s CoS, Abba Kyari

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6 years ago

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By Eric Elezuo

The Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, and one his closest confidants, Mr. Abba Kyari, may be in for the greatest test of his career as a lawyer, Mr. Kalu Kalu Agu of Kalu and Kalu Associates has petitioned the Metropolitan Police, London, alleging that the President’s right hand man presented a forged document and lied on oath while testifying on behalf of the President and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) at the just concluded Presidential Election Tribunal.

The man, who is regarded as the brain box of the Buhari administration, found himself on the other side of the law, when on July 30, 2019, while standing as a prime witness for Buhari and the APC, declared that he personally took delivery of a Cambridge Assessment International Education document issued in the name of Mohammed Buhari.

In the petition titled PETITION AGAINST MR. ABBA KYARI FOR FORGING CAMBRIDGE ASSESSMENT INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION DOCUMENT, and addressed to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Mr. Agu requested the outfit to conduct an official investigation to determine the circumstance behind the procurement of the said document in the terms of source of procurement and other sundry matters.

In its opening paragraph, the petition noted thus;

“On the 30th of July, 2019, one Mr. Abba Kyari claimed to have procured from CAMBRIDGE ASSESSMENT INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION in London and within the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom a certifying statement , a ddocument of controversy, if not dubious origin for the sole purpose of deceiving the general public in the United Kingdom and Nigeria”

Faulting the process under which the document was procured, which the petitioner claimed nullified its authenticity, he further highlighted seven basic tips that supported his motion under which a third party can be issued the document. These, he said were revealed from the website of the Cambridge Assessment International Education. Among them is “that the CAMBRIDGE ASSESSMENT INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION only delivers the said ‘CERTIFYING STATEMENT’ either by email or by post and not by personal collection”.

Consequently, Mr. Agu called for the investigation of the said misrepresentation taking into consideration the following:

  1. Where did Mr. Kyari get the certificate which he enclosed alongside his application form for the issuance of the said “CERTIFYING STATEMENT” which he claimed he procured from CAMBRIDGE ASSESSMENT INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION among five other demands.
  2. Whether Mr Abba Kyari as an individual can apply for the said “CERTIFYING STATEMENT” not being an ACADEMIC INSTITUTION or an EMPLOYER of the candidate?
  3. Whether the said “CERTIFYING STATEMENT” can be delivered to Mr. Abba Kyari by hand as he claimed he signed and personally collected same by hand in UK?
  4. Evidence of the said application by Mr. Abba Kyari to the CAMBRIDGE ASSESSMENT INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
  5. Evidence of the mandatory payment of the fee for the issuance of the said “CERTIFYING STATEMENT”
  6. Evidence of the candidate’s AUTHORISATION to the CAMBRIDGE ASSESSMENT INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION for the release of the said “CERTIFYING STATEMENT” to Mr. Abba Kyari

The petitioner concluded by praying thus:

“With the greatest respect, sir, in the circumstance the said “CERTIFYING STATEMENT” claimed to have been procured by Mr. Abba Kyari is found to be forged, it will be of great service to United Kingdom, Nigeria and the International Community that Mr. Abba Kyari is arrested and arraigned in a court of competent jurisdiction in the UNITED KINGDOM for FORGERY.

Mr. Kyari, a prominent member of the President Buhari cabinet, has been in the news mostly for the wrong reasons ever since he joined the administration took root on August 27, 2015. He has been accused in many quarters as being the ‘head of the cabal’ Nigerians have speculated as leading the government. He is also a close relative of President Buhari.

A product of three prominent England based institutions of higher learning, Abba Kyari worked for the law firm Fani-Kayode and Sowemimo for some time after his return to Nigeria. He also served as Editor with the New Africa Holdings Limited Kaduna. In 1990 he served as Commissioner for Forestry and Animal Resources in Borno State. From 1990 to 1995, Kyari was Secretary to the Board of African International Bank Limited. Abba Kyari was Executive Director, Management Services, United Bank for Africa Plc. (UBA) and was later appointed Managing Director and Chief Executive of the Bank. He was appointed a Director of Unilever Nigeria Plc in 2002 and is a Director of Exxon Mobil Nigeria. He is a recipient of the Nigerian Honor Award of Officer of the Order of the Niger (O.O.N).

Mr. Agu, on his part, has remained an albatross on the neck of President Buhari and his administration, moving from one court to another and seeking one injunction after another against the incumbent.

In January 2019, Agu joined the duo of Labaran Ismail and Hassy El-Kuris, to stop President Buhari from contesting the 2019 Presidential Election, alleging that the President lied in his form CF 001 submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission regarding his educational qualifications and certificates. However, the case was struck out in July by a three-member panel of justices, which unanimously held that the matter lacks merit, having been filed outside the time provided by Section 285 of the Nigerian Constitution.

If the Metropolitan Police heeds the petition, and conducts an investigation, it may just boost the chances of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the tussle to snatch Buhari’s presidency gets tougher.

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Remembering Biafran Warlord, Dim Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu (1933 – 2011)

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22 hours ago

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November 8, 2025

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By Eric Elezuo
He came as a unifying force, defying all known luxury to settle for career he was in love it – military. His name was Dim Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu; a Nigerian soldier turned Biafran Warlord as a result of exigencies that ‘cannot be ignored’.If Ojukwu had lived till date, he would have been celebrating 92 years on November 4, the day he was born. But Ojukwu died on November 26, 2011 after a brief illness in London. He legacy has remained evergreen, especially among the Igbo speaking tribe of Nigeria, residing in the south-east region of the country; a people, he gave his utmost best to liberate from the shackles of mass murder, supervising a bloody war with little or no arms and ammunition for 30 months.

Ojukwu is the toast of the average Igboman, his shortcomings notwithstanding.

Born with the shinniest of silver spoons in the Zungeru area of colonial Nigeria, on November 4, 1933, to one of the wealthiest individuals of his time, Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu, the young had the best of everything life could offer, growing up. He was educated at obe of the most prestigious institutions in the country then, King’s College, Lagos, and later at Epsom College in Surrey, England.

He proceeded afterwards to Lincoln College, Oxford University where he obtained a master’s degree in Modern History in 1955. He returned to Nigeria to serve as an administrative officer and suddenly, contrary to expectation, he joined the Nigerian army, and grew by the ranks. He was the first of a kind, joining the military with a retinue of academic successes and certificates.

It would be noted that Ojukwu joined the army in protest. He was protesting the termination of his appointment in civil service when he was posted to Calabar, by the Sir John Macpherson at the instant of his father.

A breakdown of Ojukwu’s sojourn in the field of academics has it that at the outbreak of World War II when he was seven, his father sent him to St. Patrick’s School and CMS Grammar School both in Lagos. In 1944 at the age of 10, Ojukwu started studying at King’s College, Lagos. In 1945 when Ojukwu has stayed for two years in Kings College, his father, who want him to be educated in England, made consultations from his English friend. Epsom College in Surrey was recommended and by 1946, he was sent there for an advanced education.

Ojukwu stayed at Epsom for six years. During that time, he excelled in academics as well as in sports and athletics. He played rugby for the college winning the spring javelin throwing and discus. At 18 he entered Lincoln College, Oxford and studied briefly in 1952. Loius wanted his son to be a lawyer as it was the most common in Nigeria but Ojukwu wants to read modern history. Between 1952 and 1955 he studied law and later switched to history. He also joined the West African Students’ Union in Oxford. During his final years, he joined Oxford Rugby Union as wing three quarter in Lincoln College’s team. Ojukwu graduated with a B.A in arts in 1955 and travelled back to Lagos. He would later return to Oxford to obtain his M.A.

His destiny was beginning to get shaped when six years after Nigeria’s independence in 1960, a group of military officers overthrew the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa-led civilian government. The failure of the coup brought General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi to power, and he appointed Ojukwu as the Military Governor of the Igbo-dominated Eastern Region.

Following a pogrom against the Igbo in several parts of Nigeria, especially in the north after the coup that claimed Aguiyi-Ironsi’s life, Ojukwu, as the governor of Eastern Region, engaged the government in several diplomatic discussions on the road to peace. An accord was reached during some of the parley, one of which is the popular Aburi Accord.The failure of the Accord and continuous pogrom led Ojukwu into seceding from  Nigeria, declaring the Republic of Biafra, and becoming its first Head of State. The action led to a civil war, which has been argued in many quarters as a genocide against the Igbos of the then-Eastern region.

Ojukwu did not have what it takes to fight the war as regards weapons. He only had the determination and willpower of his people. But that did not take them far as the Nigerian military, with support from the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, came out victorious, using the weapon of hunger and alleged genocide.

Ojukwu’s effort to use the foreign media to highlight the plight of Biafran civilians and depict the war as genocide against Igbos went unheard, receiving recognition only from France, Haiti and Cote d’ Ivoire among one other two others. He lost the war after superlatively standing off the Nigerian military with its massive oversea’s support, and with it, the young Biafran nation and about three million Biafrans.

Ojukwu subsequently fled to Ivory Coast in exile, where President Félix Houphouët-Boigny granted him political asylum. He returned to Nigeria 1981,when President Shehu Shagari granted him total amnesty.

Though he tried unsuccessfully to grab political power, he made his mark for himself and his people. He began by fighting to reclaim all his property across the country, and married the 21-year-old Bianca Onoh, daughter of a one time governor of Anambra State, C. C. Onoh.

He died in 2011 at the age of 78 in London, England. His body was returned to Nigeria, where Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan gave him a state funeral, a funeral suitable for a general, which he was. He was buried with full military honours, including a 21-gun salute from the Nigerian Army, and thousands of people attended his funeral.

To some, Ojukwu is a contentious figure in the history of Nigeria, but to many, especially the Igbo, he is a hero and wears a messianic cloak. They believe that though the war was lost, a statement was made in the loudest of voices.

Today, however, the voice of Biafra has re-echoed, first from MASSOB, and presently from Nnamdi Kanu’s Indigenous People of Biafra (IBOP).

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HURIWA Demands Probe As Nine Soldiers Accused of Links to Boko Haram Allegedly Escape from Custody

Published

4 days ago

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November 5, 2025

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A major security breach has hit the Nigerian military after nine soldiers reportedly escaped from a guardroom at Maimalari Cantonment, Maiduguri — headquarters of the Army’s 7 Division.

Military sources said the incident occurred around 2:15am on Monday.

Most of the escapees were said to have been detained for alleged links with Boko Haram and involvement in arms trafficking in the North-East.

“There was a jailbreak on Monday around 0215 hours at Maimalari Cantonment. Nine personnel detained mostly for dealing in arms running with terrorists escaped,” a source, according to some media reports, confirmed.

One of the fugitives has since been recaptured, while a manhunt is underway for the remaining eight.

The military has reportedly launched an internal probe to uncover how the soldiers succeeded in breaking free from the high-security facility.

Meanwhile, a pro-democracy and civil rights advocacy group – Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA) of Nigeria has condemned the criminal activity of letting out such high value suspects at a time that the nation is gripped by the threats of the United States of America government’s threats to unleash military airstrikes targeting Islamic Terrorists like Boko Haram terrorists and ISWAP.

HURIWA believes that if the report is factually accurate, then there is more to it than meets the eyes. It means that there is a high network of conspiratorial plots from the topmost echelons of the command structures and these collaborators and saboteurs of the war on terror must be identified, arrested, prosecuted for treason and jailed for life.

HURIWA tasked the Chief of Defence Staff, General Olufemi Oluyede and the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Waidi Shaibu to take the matter as a high priority case and to go after the escapees just as the commander charged with securing their detention should be immediately suspended and all those who participated in aiding and abetting their disappearances must be arrested and prosecuted for sabotaging the counter terrorism war in Nigeria.

“If this is true, it means that the claims made by the Borno state governor, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum, of the existence of saboteurs of the war on terror within the Nigeria Army is much deeper than we are all contemplating.”

The Rights group stated that although the Nigerian Army is yet to react to the development at the time the media filed this report, the escapees were alleged to be involved in arms trafficking to terrorist groups operating in Nigeria’s North-East just as it was gathered that reports of the jailbreak have led to serious concerns within Nigeria’s security sector.

HURIWA expressed disappointment that saboteurs embedded within the nation’s military circles orchestrated the ugly development just few days after President Bola Tinubu appointed new service chiefs as a way to pass a message that they are invincible but the civil rights advocacy group stated that allowing these important and strategic suspects who sabotaged the war on terror to escape without being caught on time, it therefore means that there is the urgency of the moment to review the entire spectrum of military operations against Boko Haram terrorists given that their informants and suppliers of weapons have successfully penetrated the military institution, which is a very big shame.

“When we call for heads to roll, we truly mean that many bad eggs must be immediately weeded out of the Army given that they are actually undermining the National security of the corporate entity of Nigeria. It is time for a transparent overhauling of the security operations against terrorists in the country.”

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Should I Have Traveled with My Enemies’ Children, Wike Defends Traveling with Sons to Official Assignment

Published

5 days ago

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November 4, 2025

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Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has reacted to viral photos showing his sons accompanying him on local and foreign trips, saying he has the right to carry them along.

He argued that his sons, as master’s degree holders, need the exposure.

“What law says that my sons shouldn’t travel? Let the FCT say where they paid ₦1.

“What official matter? Did they sign any document? It doesn’t need to be a personal trip.

“What’s wrong? So, I can travel with anybody from the FCT. I can travel with anybody in Nigeria. I have that right.

“Oh, come on, they have to know how Nigeria is. They have to learn about government,” Wike said on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday.

Asked whether he was teaching them to become politicians, he said, “No, that’s not correct. My first son is a lawyer. He said, ‘No, I’m not going to practice. I want to be a farmer.’

“I said, ‘What do you mean by this? He said, ‘No, this is what I want to do.’ I said, ‘Okay’. What do you do?

“They’ve gone for training in Spain. They’ve gone for training in Lisbon.

“My second son finished from King’s College — a master’s degree in Economics. He said he wants to be in real estate.”

The former Rivers State governor also said he is happy that his sons behave responsibly and give him comfort.

“I’m so happy that I have children who have given me comfort, who have not given me problems.

“Assuming they were somewhere smoking. You would have said, ‘Oh, look at these children now. Who are they? I will not travel with my enemy’s children,” he added.

Wike has been spotted with his sons at official events, including the commissioning of projects in the FCT.

Last week, he was criticised by some Nigerians for taking them to a summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

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