‘Tinubu boy’ Muiz Banire instigated abduction of Daniel Ojukwu with petition over muckraking stories
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Muiz Banire, a ‘Tinubu boy’, was the person who wrote the petition that led to the abduction on May 1 of journalist Daniel Ojukwu who works with Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), according to findings by FIJ.
FIJ is a muckraker that has always been a thorn in the flesh of the government, a doggedness it has also applied to the Bola Tinubu administration by revealing its sleazes and hypocrisies, one of which is the recent exposure of top government officials allegedly involved in smuggling and treasury looting.
Ojukwu went missing on May 1, just over a month after the military authorities released from detention, First News Editor Segun Olatunji, whom soldiers abducted from his home in Lagos on March 15.
Olatunji said he was detained and tortured in an underground cell in Abuja for two weeks, and combined with the case of Ojukwu – whom the police have now confirmed is in their custody – Tinubu is confirming the accusation of critics that he is hiding under the guise of democracy to run an autocratic government.
Banire, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) – who served under Tinubu as Commissioner when the President was Lagos Governor – is the founder of the United Action For Change (UAC), which he touts as “a pressure group and think tank with the drive to build a society where people are valued and treated equally, and enjoy their rights as full citizens.”
Banire has also once served as National Legal Adviser of Tinubu’s political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
FIJ quotes UAC as claiming on its website that it is “striving to enable citizens to exercise their democratic rights and assert their dignity as full citizens and take control of their lives.”
Banire’s petition
FIJ reports Banire’s petition is on its 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 reports on the office of the SSAP-SDGs, FIJ disclosed how, with two weeks left of the Muhammadu Buhari administration, Orelope-Adefulire paid N147.1 million to the account of Enseno Global Ventures (Enseno GV) for the building of classrooms and a skill acquisition centre.
Enseno GV is a restaurant based in Abuja.
The report also highlighted how the restaurant secured and began executing a contract for the government without receiving any initial payments less than two years after it began operations.
On 6 October 2023, when FIJ visited the community that should have hosted the school, the edifice could not be traced.
Also, when on 17 October 2023 FIJ called Nkiru Ezekwesili, owner of Enseno GV, she denied any knowledge of the project.
This same restaurant has also posed as an engineering company to collect N367.46 million from the government.
FIJ equally reported how on 26 February 2023 – 24 hours after the presidential election – the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs (OSSAP-SDGs) paid N47,511,621.63 to Tru 3 Nigeria Limited for the construction of one unit of six blocks of classrooms at the Central Senatorial District of Ogun State.
This was a one-time payment for a contract that was never publicised, and for which the contractor was never mobilised.
Tru 3 Nigeria was registered on 14 June 2009 and has been operational for 14 years, but it has never executed a construction contract, at least not until 2021 when Orelope-Adefulire started paying it.
Since 27 October 2021, Tru 3 Nigeria 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 totalled N586,257,759 paid between October 2021 and February 2023.
Police arrest and abduction
For writing these stories, Ojukwu went missing on May 1, his telephone numbers were switched off, and his whereabouts unknown to colleagues, family and friends.
On May 2, FIJ made a missing person report at a police station in the area where Ojukwu was headed. However, on May 3, a private detective hired by FIJ tracked the last active location of his phones to an address in Isheri Olofin, a location FIJ now believes was where the police originally picked Ojukwu up.
Ojukwu’s family subsequently got wind of his detention at Panti in Lagos, where they were made to understand the authorities are accusing him of violating the 2015 Cybercrime Act.
On May 4, the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) of the Inspector General of Police relocated Ojukwu to the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC) in Abuja, and later moved him to Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID).
Ojukwu, supported by FIJ’s legal team, is scheduled to be interrogated at 8am today.
_________________________________________________________________
Related articles:
Olatunji denies apologising to ‘Tinubu boy’ Gbaja over alleged $30b loot story
IPI Nigeria urges Tinubu to uphold Constitution, secure release of FirstNews Editor Olatunji
Army releases FirstNews Editor Olatunji after detaining him for 2 weeks
SERAP alerts, Tinubu already violating Constitution by banning journalists
__________________________________________________________________
