Pep Opara's Blog

Iran on Tuesday warned North Korea against accepting any nuclear deal with U.S. President Donald Trump, the Associated Press quoted the semi-official Fars news agency as saying. “We don’t know what type of person the North Korean leader is negotiating with. “We are facing a man who revokes his signature while abroad. “It is not clear that he would not cancel the agreement before returning back home,” Iran’s government spokesman, Mohammad Bagher Nobakht, was quoted as saying by IRNA new agency. Trump pulled the U.S. out of a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran on May 9, calling it deeply flawed and re-imposing unilateral sanctions. Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, signed a joint statement on Tuesday, pledging to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula while Washington committed to providing security guarantees for its old enemy. The joint statement signed at the end of their historic summit in Singapore gave few details on how either goal would b...

Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, on Tuesday said it was confusing for President Muhammadu Buhari to honour the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, late Chief Moshood Abiola while at the same time admiring his ‘tormentor-in-chief.’ Soyinka spoke in Abuja at the conferment of posthumous CGFR on Abiola and GCON on late Gani Fawehinmi and others in Aso Rock. Though Soyinka did not mention who the Tormentor-in-Chief was, but his words pointed to the late brutal dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha who Buhari had been praising in recent times. According to him, it was confusing for Buhari to honour Chief Moshood Abiola on the one hand, and be admiring the late politician’s “Tormentor-in-Chief” on the other. Soyinka described the Tormentor-in-chief as one of the worst dictators in the history of the country, who should be facing international court for his crime against humanity, saying it was sad that Buhari had something to do with such a man. He explained t...

For the past 25 days, Melania, wife of US President Donald Trump has not been seen in public and already tongues are wagging about her whereabouts. The US First Lady on 14 May underwent a medical procedure to treat a benign kidney condition. She remained at Walter Reed Medical Center until May 19. Now reports have it that Melania will not be joining President Trump on his upcoming trips to the G7 summit in Quebec and the highly anticipated summit between the United States and North Korea in Singapore, her spokeswoman told ABC News. The 48-year-old first lady has not been seen in public since May 10, when she and the president welcomed home three American detainees from North Korea. Today marks the 24th day she has not been seen in public. Last week, as questions swirled about the state of her health and the hashtag #whereisMelania trended online, she tweeted that she was “feeling great” and “working hard on behalf of children and the American people.” Mel...

         An Igando Customary Court in Lagos on Monday saved a four-year-old marriage between Mrs Musilimotu Olashuyi and her husband, Gbenga, who conspired with a cleric to sleep with her.  Musilimotu, had earlier approached the court, seeking to end her marriage, claiming that an Alfa made love to her with her husband’s approval. “Actually, my husband got to know the Alfa through me because I always go to his mosque to pray. “When he told me that my husband business is not moving fine, I brought him home to meet my husband. “Before I know what was happening, my husband conspired with him to use me for money ritual. “It was with my husband’s consent that the Alfa had sexual intercourse with me for three days. “After the incident, I started getting sick and getting emaciating and I told people around me what happened which led to the arrest of the cleric and my husband ran away. “My husband resurfaced at the station after the cleric br...

The Nigeria Police Force has ordered Senate President, Bukola Saraki to respond to his allegation of indictment in the Offa Bank robbery within 48 hours rather than appearing in person. The police had said on Sunday that it would be inviting Saraki as five of the robbery suspects indicted him. Saraki, earlier on Monday asked his Aide De Camp, ADC, to go to the police to collect the letter of invitation so that he could appear before the police. But Saraki, in his twitter handle  @ bukolasaraki,  said the police did not want him to appear in person again, but that he should write to them to clear his name in the mess. “Following my earlier tweet, I have received the letter from @PoliceNG. They are no longer asking me to appear at any station, but to respond in writing to the allegations within 48 hours — which I plan to do,” he twitted. See tweet above.

  The National Assembly is keeping the details of the 2018 budget top secret, despite jacking it up by more than 10 per cent. The Daily Trust reported that the NASS increased its spending from N125 to N139.5 billion, but did not give a breakdown of what items made up the single line item. Last year, following pressure from various stakeholders, the leadership of the National Assembly released its budget details, a development that gave the public the opportunity to scrutinise the allocations. In the budget that has been transmitted to President Muhammad Buhari for assent, the lawmakers allocated N139.5bn to themselves as a line item under statutory transfers. Daily Trust reports that 18 days after the 2018 budget was passed, the National Assembly has not revealed the details, unlike what obtained last year when the details were released same day the national budget was passed. In a phone interview, a lawmaker said aside the details of the 2018 budget, the implem...

           Abia police command has arrested members of three suspected child traffickers, who are baby sellers, including 17-year-old Gift Daniel, who sold her two-day-old baby boy for N670, 000. According to report by PM News, the Police Commissioner, Mr Anthony Ogbizi, said this on Monday, while briefing newsmen in Umuahia on the activities of the command. Ogbizi also said that the command arrested no fewer than 22 other suspected criminals, following raids by his men in the wake of renewed criminal acts in different parts of the state. In an interview with newsmen, Daniel said that she was compelled to sell the baby due to financial difficulties. She said that her first baby, also a boy, was sold by her own mother after delivery, hence her resolve to personally sell the second baby. “My mother sent me away from the house, when I became pregnant for the second baby and because of the financial difficulties, I started looking for somebody to h...