How Former APC Legal Adviser, Muiz Banire Wrote Petition That Triggered Arrest Of FIJ Journalist, Daniel Ojukwu

 

Facts have emerged on what led to the arrest of a journalist with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), Daniel Ojukwu by the Nigerian police. 

 

According to FIJ, Daniel Ojukwu was arrested by the police after a petition was written by Muiz Banire, a popular Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and founder of the United Action For Change.

 

Banire was a former national legal adviser of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), was appointed by President Bola Tinubu as the Lagos State Commissioner for Special Duties in 1999. 

 

In 2000, he headed the ministry of transport until 2007 when he moved to the ministry of environment

 

His petition was in relation to FIJ’s coverage of financial mismanagement in the office of Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, senior special assistant to the president on sustainable development goals (SSAP-SDGs).

In one of its investigations into the SSAp-SDGs office, FIJ reported that, with two weeks left in Muhammadu Buhari's presidency.

 

Orelope-Adefulire, his senior special assistant on SDGs, transferred N147.1million to a restaurant account for the construction of classrooms and a skill acquisition centre. 

 

The findings also highlighted how the restaurant secured and began executing a government contract without receiving any initial payments less than two years after starting operations.

 

When the media organisation visited the hamlet that was supposed to house the school on October 6, 2023, the structure could not be located.

Furthermore, when FIJ called Nkiru Ezekwesili, the owner of Enseno Global Ventures (Enseno GV), the Abuja-based restaurant, on October 17, 2023, she denied any knowledge of the proposal. 

 

By the way, this same eatery posed as an engineering firm to steal N367.46million from the government.

 

In a related development, it was reported that on Sunday, February 26, 2023, barely 24 hours after the country's presidential election, the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs (OSSAP-SDGs) paid N47,511,621.63 to a company named Tru 3 Nigeria Limited for the construction of one unit of six classroom blocks in Ogun State's central senatorial district. 

 

This was a one-time payment for a contract that was never advertised and for which the contractor was never contacted. 

 

This firm was established on June 14, 2009, and has been in operation for 14 years, however it has never completed a building contract, at least not until 2021, when Orelope-Adefulire began paying it. 

 

Since October 27, 2021, Tru 3 has received payments for at least five contracts executed for the government. Awarded by the same entity and paid for by that same entity, all five contracts total N586,257,759, paid between October 2021 and February 2023.

 

For writing all these stories, Ojukwu went missing on Wednesday, May 1, his numbers were switched off, and his whereabouts were unknown to colleagues, family and friends.

 

SaharaReporters had also reported how Nigerian tweeps questioned the arrest of Daniel Ojukwu by the police.

 

The netizens lambasted the police force and its spokesperson, ACP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, for "abducting" the journalist for carrying out his constitutional duty while deliberately ignoring criminal allegations against Ibrahim Dende Egungbohun (IBD Dende), an Ogun State-based businessman accused of smuggling, some officers of the Nigeria Customs Service reportedly involved in smuggling and President Bola Tinubu’s loyalist, Musiliu Akinsanya, popularly known as MC Oluomo, despite evidence.

 

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