Headline

Ilorin Amusement Park: Toyin Saraki’s Lawyers Warn Kwara Govt, APC, Others Over Libel

Published

7 years ago

August 18, 2019

Editor

Former First Lady of Kwara State Mrs Toyin Saraki has stated emphatically that she has no link whatsoever in the ownership of Ilorin Amusement Park.

Mrs Saraki’ s reaction followed tweets that created the impression that the new government had taken over the said park from her. Now she has told the writers to retract the stories on social media within 24 hours.

Lawyers acting for Mrs Toyin Saraki, has issued a Letter Before Action – Cease And Desist Caution Notice – to Kwara State Government, the state Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and one Titi Anifowoshe, a personal aide to Minister-Nominee Former Senator Gbemisola Rukayat Saraki-Fowora warning them to retract a defamatory story they sponsored on the social media against the former First Lady on the ownership of an Ilorin Amusement Park.

In a letter addressed to the Kwara State APC Chairman, Bashiru Bolarinwa and the others which was made availabe to The Boss, the law firm of Austen-Peters & Co, demanded that the state government, the ruling party and the aide of the minister designate should publish a retraction within 24 hours.

The text of the letter reads:
“We write on behalf of Mrs Toyin Saraki (hereinafter referred to as “Our Client”) who has complained about the malicious publication of falsehoods against her person on your Twitter handle known as “@MediaApc”, published at about 12.45 am on Thursday 15 August 2019, and reproduced and published by a Titi Anifowoshe @d_legal_eagle, ostensibly a personal aide to a former Senator, Minister-Nominee Gbemisola Rukayat Saraki Fowora, at 10:57am on 15th August, 2019.
The objectionable tweets respectively contained the following words:

“Kwara State Govt has taken back the Amusement Park from former 1st Lady, Toyin Saraki, wife of former SP Bukola Saraki who took over the property as her personal possession after paying #62M for a land that is worth over #1.2billion using fake company to take over the land.”
@MediaApc https://twitter.com/MediaApc/status/1161776837669916672?s=08

And:

“Kwara State Govt has taken back the Amusement Park from former 1st Lady, @toyinsaraki Toyin Saraki, wife of former SP @bukolasaraki who took over the property as hers after paying #62M for a land that is worth over #1.2bn using fake company to take over the land. #TakeItBack
@d_legal_eagle
https://twitter.com/d_legal_eagle/status/1161940010251292672?s=08”.

In their warning, Austen-Peters & Co further stated:

“Our Client finds the entirety of the publication mendacious, libellous and criminally defamatory. She believes that the peddling of malicious falsehood in the said publication was done deliberately and maliciously in a bid to bring her to disrepute before right-thinking members of the public, especially because there is no iota of truth in the publication.”

“First, Our Client has never at any time, owned, nor sought to own any portion or the whole, of the Ilorin Metropark, formerly known as Ilorin Amusement Park.

“Secondly, it is pure falsehood to assert that the Kwara State Government has taken back any property from Our Client let alone the Amusement Park, since she never had it.

“Thirdly, there was never a time that Mrs Saraki paid the sum of N62 Million or any other sum for the acquisition of the Amusement Park.

“Lastly, Mrs Saraki has never operated any fake company and it is criminal defamation to allege that she did so and used it to acquire the said Amusement Park. Nothing of such ever took place.

“It is matter of fact for the public record and public knowledge, especially in Ilorin and Kwara State that Our Client, as the First Lady, donated a children’s playground and ancillary landscape gardening, to the Amusement Park in 2004, as a philanthropic gesture, which was enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of children, and their families, freely. Mrs Saraki has not had any contact with the Amusement Park or its then administrators, the Kwara State Ministries of Social Welfare and Works and Housing, ever since the time of her donation in 2004, beyond hosting children’s parties on public and religious holidays, during the time of her then role as First Lady of Kwara State, which concluded on 29th May, 2011”, the law firm stated.

Austen-Peters & Co further demanded the following on behalf of Mrs Saraki:

“An immediate and unequivocal retraction of the publication by APC Kwara State, to disabuse the mind of the public as to whatever misrepresentation the publication might contain. Such rebuttal should enjoy, as a minimum, similar prominence of place as the original publication”

“An immediate undertaking that you shall not cause to be published, any form of falsehood against Mrs Saraki”

and

“An unreserved apology to Mrs Saraki for the publication of malicious falsehood against her person.”

While giving the recipients twenty-four (24) hours to fulfil the above-mentioned demands in full to properly vindicate Mrs Saraki, the lawyers stated that their client reserved her rights in full to seek appropriate remedies without further recourse to the publishers of the objectionable content.

In a related development, records at the High Court, Ilorin, indicate that the case initiated by the Ilorin Emirates Descendants Progressives Union in 2013, which named Mrs Saraki as 7th Defendant along with the purported sellers and purchasers of the Ilorin Amusement Park, a claim which the Kwara State Government had in 2013 denied, had since been discontinued on 7th May 2019, at the request of the claimants. The court had also struck it out.

The alleged purchaser of the Park, Artee Industries, owner operators of Park & Shop, a supermarket conglomerate headquartered in Lagos, and managed by Dutch Firm SPAR Nigeria/DESPAR, is owned by a billionaire Indian family, according to the CAC Register.

When contacted, a spokesman for Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, stated: that “Her Excellency, Mrs Saraki had waited patiently for over seven years for the erstwhile misguided complainants, Dr Saliu Ajibola Ajia, Dr Sa’ad Omoiya, Alhaji Saleh Duro Garba, of the IEDPU, whom had inexplicably listed Mrs Toyin Saraki as the 7th defendant, in 2013 without notice to her, to realise the defamatory folly of wrongly attaching her name and reputation injuriously, to a matter she had no knowledge of, whatsoever. The addition of her name in that case, without any notice served to her, was, in our opinion, a frivolous and malicious abuse of judicial processes in an already overburdened court system, and thus her legal counsel immediately approached the court independently to strike out her name. The case was subsequently abandoned by the claimants, was ruled by the judge to be struck out for lack of diligent prosecution, only for the same claimants to later themselves discontinue their own case on March 7th 2019, after seven years of tarnishing the name and reputation of an innocent woman”.

The aide continued that: “Mrs Saraki, out of the goodness of her heart, in 2004 supported the rehabilitation, restoration and beautification of the long abandoned park and also donated a children’s playground for public use, enjoyed freely by hundreds and thousands of children in the Ilorin Emirate.

“It is unfortunate that due to politically motivated rumours and abuse of judicial process, innumerable children and citizens of Ilorin Emirate have been denied the peaceful enjoyment of those once green recreational acres for over six years. For the identified sponsors and actors of slander, libel, and defamation to now seek to tarnish the reputation of the Park’s only benefactor in over two decades, in a repulsive attempt to justify their own discontinuance of their slanderous misadventure, in order to re-open the now uninhabitable overgrown and weed infested expanse of land, because they are now in government themselves, is a reprehensibly diabolical action that should be roundly condemned by all right thinking people”, he said.

ENDS

Headline

Adenuga, Dangote, Otedola, Rabiu Make 2026 Forbes Africa Billionaires List

Published

8 hours ago

March 10, 2026

Eric

Aliko Dangote, Mike Adenuga, Femi Otedola, and Abdulsamad Rabiu have been named among Africa’s richest individuals in 2026.

According to the latest Africa Billionaires ranking released by Forbes, Dangote retained his position as Africa’s richest man, with an estimated net worth of $28.5 billion. He added about $4.6 billion to his fortune over the past year, largely driven by the strong performance of Dangote Cement on the Nigerian Exchange Limited.

Telecommunications magnate Adenuga also retained his place among Africa’s billionaires.

The founder of Globacom and chairman of Conoil Producing remains one of Nigeria’s most influential entrepreneurs with diversified interests spanning telecoms, oil and gas, and banking.

Otedola, chairman of Geregu Power Plc, also featured on the list despite a slight dip in his wealth over the past year. Forbes estimates that the billionaire investor lost about $200 million following the sale of a majority stake in the power generation company at a discount to its market price.

The increase in Rabiu’s net worth was largely driven by the performance of BUA Cement, whose shares rose 135% over the past year, outperforming the broader rally on the Nigerian stock market.

The 23 billionaires on the continent are now worth a combined $126.7 billion, representing a 21% increase from 2025 after they collectively added $20.3 billion to their net worth.

Across the continent, billionaire fortunes were boosted by strong equity market performance, record corporate profits, and improving currency stability in several African economies.

South Africa remains the highest number of billionaires on the list, with seven individuals, followed by Egypt with five, Nigeria with four, and Morocco with three.

No female billionaires from Africa appeared on the 2026 ranking list.

Headline

Israeli Ambassador Accuses Iran of Spreading Terror, Sponsoring Extremist Activities in Nigeria

Published

5 days ago

March 6, 2026

Eric

Israeli Ambassador to Nigeria, Michael Freeman, has accused Iran of sponsoring extremist activities in Nigeria and other parts of the world, alleging that Tehran supports groups aimed at destabilising countries while pursuing its hostility against Israel.

Freeman made the remarks on Friday while speaking during an interview on The Morning Show on Arise News.

The envoy claimed that Iran is the only country within the United Nations that openly expresses a desire to destroy another sovereign state, referring to repeated threats against Israel.

According to him, the Iranian government has, over several decades, supported militant groups and terror organisations around the world in pursuit of that objective.

Freeman alleged that Iran has backed groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, adding that Tehran was also behind the October 7 attack carried out by Hamas against Israel.

He further claimed that Iranian activities aimed at spreading instability have been observed across several regions, including Europe, Australia, and parts of Africa.

Speaking specifically about Nigeria, the Israeli ambassador alleged that the Islamic Movement of Nigeria receives backing from the Iranian government.

According to Freeman, statements of support from Iran’s leadership, including posts by Ali Khamenei on social media, have openly indicated such ties.

He said: “The issue here is about Iran. Iran is the only country in the world, in the United Nations, who expressly desires to wipe another country off the face of the earth. Iran has stated its very policy is to destroy Israel. Is to wipe Israel off the map is to make sure they kill every single person and no regime, no country that has an express desire to destroy Israel, and it’s not only an expressed desire.

“We’ve seen over 47 years, they’ve taken all the actions they can in order for that to happen. We’ve seen them sponsor terror organizations. They were behind October the seventh massacre of Hamas. We’ve seen them sponsoring Hezbollah. We’ve seen them acting in Europe. We’ve seen them acting in Australia. We’ve seen them acting in Nigeria.

“We’ve seen these people acting all across the world in order to spread disturbance for them to try and carry out their aim of destroying Israel, and Israel will not allow another country to have nuclear weapons when they’ve expressly stated they want those weapons to destroy Israel”.

“I think that it is well documented. We know that there are certain movements, for example, the Islamic movement of Nigeria is sponsored and is backed by the Iranian regime. This is not me saying this, we’ve seen that documented by the Iranian regime.

The Supreme Leader posted on X his support and his backing there. So that’s very open. And there are other areas as well that Iran is working for, destabilizing, not only Nigeria, but all of West Africa.”

Headline

Why Nigerians Must Reject INEC’s Revised Timetable – ADC

Published

1 week ago

February 28, 2026

Eric

By Eric Elezuo

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), during the week, released a fresh elections timetable, with major amendments to accommodate the just passed and signed Electoral Act 2026 by the National Assembly and President Bola Tinubu respectively.

Following the repeal of the Electoral Act, 2022 and the enactment of the Electoral Act, 2026, which introduced adjustments to statutory timelines governing pre-election and electoral activities, the Commission has reviewed and realigned the Schedule to ensure full compliance with the new legal framework.

Accordingly, the Commission has resolved as follows:

Presidential and National Assembly Elections will now hold on Saturday, 16th January 2027 as against the earlier stated February 20, 2027
Governorship and State Houses of Assembly Elections will now hold on Saturday, 6th February 2027 as against the former date of March 6, 2027

Also in accordance with the approved Schedule of Activities, the electoral bidy noted in the revised timetable that:

Conduct of Party Primaries, including resolution of disputes arising from primaries, will commence on 23rd April 2026 and end on 30th May 2026.

Presidential and National Assembly campaigns will commence on 19th August 2026.

Governorship and State Houses of Assembly campaigns will commence on 9th September 2026.

As provided by law, campaigns shall end 24 hours before Election Day. Political parties are strongly advised to adhere strictly to these timelines. The Commission will enforce compliance with the law.

But in a swift reaction, the opposition coalition, African Democratic Congress (ADC), rejected the revised 2026–2027 general election timetable, describing it as a politically biased schedule designed to favour the re-election agenda of President Bola Tinubu, and calling on all Nigerians to speak up enmasse to reject the revised timetable.

The ADC, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, on Friday argued that the new deadlines and compliance requirements under the Electoral Act 2026 create near-impossible hurdles for opposition parties seeking to field candidates.

On February 13, INEC initially scheduled the 2027 Presidential and National Assembly elections for February 20, 2027, while the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections were fixed for March 6, 2027.

The timetable, however, faced objections from some Muslim stakeholders who noted that the dates coincided with the 2027 Ramadan period.

Following the concerns, the National Assembly amended Clause 28 of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, reducing the required election notice period from 360 to 300 days, allowing INEC to adjust the election dates.

Subsequently, INEC released a revised schedule on Thursday, signed by its Chairman, Joash Amupitan, moving the Presidential and National Assembly elections to January 16, 2027, and the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections to February 6, 2027.

Reacting, the ADC said the requirement that political parties submit a comprehensive digital membership register by April 2, 2026, effectively bars opposition parties from participating.

The party stated: “The African Democratic Congress rejects the updated 2026–2027 electoral timetable released by the Independent National Electoral Commission. What has been presented as a routine administrative schedule of the upcoming general elections is, in fact, a political instrument carefully structured to narrow democratic space and strengthen the incumbent administration ahead of the 2027 general elections.

“According to the timetable, party primaries are to be conducted between April 23 and May 30, 2026, just 55 to 92 days from today. However, more significant is that, pursuant to Section 77(4) of the Electoral Act 2026, political parties are required to submit their digital membership registers to INEC not later than April 2, 2026.

“That is only about 34 days away. Section 77(7) further provides that any party that fails to submit its membership register within the stipulated time shall not be eligible to field a candidate. These are not routine administrative rules but are deliberately constructed barriers designed to exclude the opposition from participating in the election.”

The party further noted that Section 77(2) of the Electoral Act 2026 requires the digital register of members to contain name, sex, date of birth, address, state, local government, ward, polling unit, National Identification Number (NIN) and photograph in both hard and soft copies, while Section 77(6) prohibits the use of any pre-existing register that does not contain the specified information. It warned that failure to meet these requirements would lead to disqualification.

The ADC questioned the fairness of the digital membership requirement, noting that the ruling All Progressives Congress began its registration process in February 2025, long before the requirement became mandatory.

“It is not a product of foresight but insider advantage. They knew what was coming. They therefore had one full year to carry out an exercise that other political parties are expected to complete in one month, during which they must collect, process, collate and transmit large volumes of digital data to INEC under the threat of exclusion. This is practically impossible.

“Democratic competition is based on a level playing field that does not give any contestant an undue advantage. A system where one party exploits incumbency to gain a one-year head start on a requirement that other parties only became aware of when it was nearly too late is a rigged system.”

The ADC said it has joined other opposition parties in rejecting the Electoral Act 2026, adding that the INEC timetable is equally rejected as it appears designed to serve what it described as a self-succession agenda.

“Let it be clear that ADC will not take any action that appears to confer legitimacy on a fraudulent system. We are reviewing our options and will make our position known in the coming days,” the party said.

The party also called on civil society organisations, democratic stakeholders and Nigerians to scrutinise the timetable and demand fairness, stressing that democracy cannot survive when electoral rules are structured to produce predetermined outcomes.

The party has consistently accused the Tinubu-led All Progressives Congress (APC) of scheming to silence the opposition as the 2027 General Elections draw closer, citing his manipulation of state governors and Assembly members from jumping ship, and settling with the ruling party.

Presently, the president’s party has a total of 31 out of 36 states governors, more than majority of the national and states Houses of Assembly.

A frontline publisher and chieftain of the ADC, Chief Dele Momodu, has warned that Tinubu is gradually transforming into full-blown dictatorship, stressing that his second term in office would turn state governors into ‘total slaves’.