Author: Tunde Akingbondere

Senator representing Ekiti Central, Opeyemi Bamidele, has justified the recent gale of defections to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of chieftains of the opposition parties. Addressing the media shortly after the three Senators representing Kebbi state formally announced their defection to the APC on the floor of the Red Chamber, the Leader of the Senate dismissed claim that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was coercing members of the opposition parties to join the APC. Bamidele equally declared that by accommodating defectors, the Tinubu administration was creating a government of national unity. He said: “We will not close our doors to…

Senator Adams Oshiomhole, who represents Edo North Senatorial District, has publicly lambasted veteran journalist and Arise Television co-host Dr. Reuben Abati, challenging him to a physical confrontation over what he described as “mischievous” and “disrespectful” comments made during a recent broadcast. Oshiomhole posed the challenge while speaking on Politics Today, a current affairs programme on Channels Television on Tuesday. The former Edo State governor was reacting to a question Abati had posed to Ifeanyi Okowa, the immediate past governor of Delta State, during a recent interview on Arise TV. “I was particularly shocked that a senior editor could ask the…

In Nigeria’s cutthroat political arena, power is not given. It’s asserted. But in Ondo State, we have a Governor more at ease with silence than with leadership. Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa recently nominated two individuals to the South West Development Commission. A constitutional right. A political duty. Yet, he watched without protest as Senator Michael Opeyemi Bamidele (MOB) unilaterally swapped one of them for his own candidate. No pushback. No outrage. Not even a public whimper. This wasn’t just a substitution. It was a slap and our Governor took it with ease. No defense. No resistance. Perhaps he mistook cowardice for…

The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, has denied viral report that the Federal Government has commenced extradition proceedings against Simon Ekpa, a factional leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra. In a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Communication and Publicity, Kamarudeen Ogundele, on Friday, the AGF said the reports misrepresented comments he made at a stakeholders’ engagement held on Thursday in Abuja. The statement read, “The attention of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), has been drawn to media reports where he was…

The Federal High Court in Abuja has granted leave to the Registered Trustees of the Ekimogun Roundtable to make a formal application for an order of Mandamus to be served against the National Assembly, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Honourable Abiola Makinde, the member representing Ondo East/West Federal Constituency. The decision, as delivered by Hon. Justice B.F.M. Nyako on March 13, 2025, is a follow up to an ex-parte motion filed on March 12, 2025, by the applicant. The motion seeks to compel the National Assembly to fulfill its statutory duty by disclosing information regarding the plenary…

Robert Prevost has been elected as the new Pope. He will be known as Pope Leo XIV – the first American pontiff to be elected leader of the Catholic Church Prevost, 69, is greeted with huge cheers from thousands gathered in St Peter’s Square “May peace be with all of you,” he says from the Vatican balcony Chicago-born Prevost is seen as a reformer and worked for many years as a missionary in Peru before being made an archbishop there. Donald Trump has congratulated the new Pope – the first American pontiff – describing it as an “honour” for the…

White smoke has reportedly risen above the Sistine Chapel, a signal that cardinals have chosen a new pope on the second day of the conclave. His identity, and the name he will take as pontiff, will be revealed soon. There are 133 voting cardinals, who have all been sequestered inside the Vatican during the conclave. Any one of them needed two-thirds of the vote to become the next pope. Take a look at how the voting process works. We just heard a huge cheer of relief and joy as we saw the white plume of smoke rising from the Sistine…

An impostor Monarch, Prince Adekolajo Aladeseyi, who allegedly installed self as the Olujare of Ijare in Ifedore Local Government Area of Ondo State, had been nabbed yesterday, arraigned before Ondo state Chief Magistrate Court sitting in Akure. He was docked alongside four other accomplices who allegedly participated in the illegal installation few weeks ago in April, 2025. The self-styled monarch, Adekolajo and two chiefs; Fasore Lawrence and Adegbenro Akanle were on Thursday ordered to be remanded in custody on the order of the Court for instigating crisis in Ijare. Aladeseyi and others were arraigned before the court by the Police.…

An impostor Monarch, Prince Adekolajo Aladeseyi, who allegedly installed self as the Olujare of Ijare in Ifedore Local Government Area of Ondo State, had been nabbed yesterday, arraigned before Ondo state Chief Magistrate Court sitting in Akure. He was docked alongside four other accomplices who allegedly participated in the illegal installation few weeks ago in April, 2025. The self-styled monarch, Adekolajo and two chiefs; Fasore Lawrence and Adegbenro Akanle were on Thursday ordered to be remanded in custody on the order of the Court for instigating crisis in Ijare. Aladeseyi and others were arraigned before the court by the Police.…

I have pondered on this for a long time, and I must now give voice to it—before we are once again used and discarded, before we are called out, not to think, but to chant. In less than two years, another round of elections will arrive. And, like clockwork, those who sit in power—feeling threatened—will summon a familiar refrain: “Yoruba Ronu!” Think, Yoruba, think! But is it really about thinking? Or is it just another ploy to manipulate and distract? If we were truly thinking, would our present condition not demand revolt rather than re-election? Young and not-so-young Yoruba “activists”…