Â
Following the 5th December 2020 Imo North Senatorial by-election to replace the late Benjamin Uwajumogu, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared victory in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC) without proclaiming a winner. This was due to a multiplicity of cases by APC members claming to be the partyâs candidate and the various reliefs they were able to procure from different courts. But in a recent petition signed by the partyâs acting National Chairman and governor of Yobe, Mai Mala Buni, APC accused Supreme Court Justices Mohammed Dattijo, Abdu Aboki and Helen Ogunwumiju of conspiring with the Peopleâs Democratic Party (PDP) to deliver the senate seat. This grave allegation has already elicited a response from the apex court with dire implications for the people of Imo North and democracy in Nigeria.
Â
Despite protestation from my friend, Waziri Adio who has been her greatest supporter and encourager right from the beginning, I had warned my wife when this whole idea started three years ago that on no account should it get to the media. I promised financial support and when necessary rally close friends but it should always be our own way of giving back to the society in a quiet way. When Ms Tolu Salami, a Masters degree holder and job seeker, joined to assist in managing the âschoolâ, I should have seen a red flag with the opening of a Twitter account. But with a followership of just 75 comprising family and friends, I never thought much of it. Then the photograph of Amatala, a two-year old who was in the habit of loitering around the âschoolâ premises with book in hand, changed everything!
By Olusegun Adeniyi
An emergency family meeting was called to apprise all eight people in the house of our health circumstance and the precautions we had to take. The moment I announced a two-week quarantine and treatment, the house keeper who had been looking forward to travelling home to Akwa Ibom State at Christmas to bury his father muttered something which I didn’t hear. But my son, Oluwakorede, apparently heard him. “Can’t you hear what daddy said? We all have Covid and you say you want to go to your village to bury your father. You want your family to bury more people?”