By Erasmus Ikhide

I should have allowed Isaiah Usifo his grieving rights and his band of mourners, to continue to have their days in the sun, but for their primitive equivocation; banna sense of fraudulent entitlement and sanctimonious dabbling, that tends to signpost the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi and Comrade Barrister Julius Abure as fraudulent entities.

I have also read a terse piece from a designated prostitute; a ‘common entrance’ with smelling sewage tank, and a debased moral squalor – going by the name Blessing Agho, adding her gruff – raspy voice unto Isaiah Usifo’s bargain. Duelling on this impish creature of mere surfaces with multiple failed marriages, would be an unwarranted distraction to this all important subject of nation building.

I read Isaiah Usifo’s off-line musing to my well articulated response to his mottled and muffled scripted article, ladened with transactional motives, reeking of silly entitlement, dishonesty and hypocrisy against the President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Joe Ajaero, the Labour Party (LP) leadership and Comrade Barrister Julius Abure.

“Infantile write- up without addressing the subject matter of criminal allegations against Julius Abure and his strange gang in the national working committee of the Labour party.

“Insults on Isaiah Osifo, insults on the Judge that restrained Julius Abure and his strange fellows from functioning in the National Working Committee of the Labour Party, and false accusations of the ruling APC are not responsible answers to whether Julius Abure forged a court affidavit, his crime against Labour party members, his crime against the Constitution of the LP and his crime against the Constitution of Nigeria”, Isaiah Usifo quipped.

Two things must have happened to Isaiah Usifo: it is either that he has a problem with comprehension or he has sold his soul for what is already known; namely, to ensure that Nigeria sabotage continues, and the resolve of the masses to extricate themselves from total paralysis and colonial asphyxiation, remains forever elusive.

In my yesterday’s response to his trash of allegations against Comrade Julius Abure, I wrote that the Nigeria Police Force; with documentary evidence(s) controverted itself for asserting in their report that they did not hear from the Labour Party or the National Chairman, before the report was concluded and released to the public. Police certified through copy of the report painfully revealed that it can’t be heard liable for the report. Isaiah Usifo is aware that the police authority has since invited the Labour Party Leadership, alongside Barrister Julius Abure for interrogation.

“Even the police report dated March 9th, 2023 and signed by Junaid Bukar, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Special Enquiry Bureau (FCIID) Abuja, upon which this order was made by Justice H. Mu’Azu reads thus: “Note that this report is issued purely for information purposes. The Nigeria Police shall not be held liable for any action whatsoever which may emanate from the use of this document”. The police report in question indicted police authority by saying that the Labour Party leadership and Barrister Julius Abure were not giving fair hearing as they could not make themselves available for interrogation”.

“On the issue of the propriety or otherwise of the Abuja High Court jurisdiction, I stated in the same article thus: “Apart from enjoying the voyage of judicial hysteria and legal impunity, an FCT High Court Judge and his Court should not have interfered over a matter of Comrade Abure’s purported suspension carried out in Esan-North-East in far away Edo State, when there is a High Court of justice in Edo state”. My submission above were the points and answers I provided for Isaiah Usifo’s infantile article yesterday, which he deliberately refused to read and comprehend.

By the way, what is Comrade Barrister Julius Abure’s purported offence, if we may ask? Over the last two decades, he has been nurturing and flowering the tree of Labour Party, singlehandedly and selflessly while opportunistic politicians like Isaiah Usifo has been lurking around the corner to grab the fruits from the tree he planted and tended to maturation. From the position of Assistant Secretary of Edo State Labour Party chapter, he rose and became elected as the State Secretary. From there, he became Deputy National Secretary, National Secretary and, ultimately the National Chairman.

Except for characters like Isaiah Usifo and his condescending lazy laybacks; burdened by devious envy, loathing progressivism that would deride unequalled and enviable contributions to the stabilization of the Labour Party (LP) in Edo State, Nigeria and the global community. The most disturbing trend in all of these is Edo citizens’ penchant and obsessive instincts to always put down one of their own, once stardom is attained. What else would have motivated a band of loafers to congregate against one of their best, having sprung the labour Party from zero to hero?

Outside the APC rigging machine; the widespread maiming and unmitigated killing of electorates who refused to vote for their party – the whole world attested to the fact that another Edo man, like Tom Ikimi, Tony Anenih, John Oyegun, and Adams Oshiomhole, once again midwifed the Labour Party from the blues and won over 15 states, fair and square, to the admiration of forward looking global community – but to the agony of political jobbers like Isaiah Usifo.

Now this: anyone familiar with Isaiah Usifo’s arrogant proclamation to superior analysis will not condone his affronting strategy the moment he is at the loosing end. Repudiation of characters like him anywhere they are found is the actual interrogation that can propel nations to higher levels, away from the savagery and criminality which is our default setting.

In proper qualification, Isaiah Usifo’s article against the Labour Party and Comrade Abure is the computation of the elect consensus with insidious intention to have the Nigerian masses glue to the past. One point Isaiah Usifo missed terribly as a despondent Edo man is the fact that what he could not achieved in private recesses with Barrister Abure can’t be obtained via overt animosity, hostility and uncontrollable rage in form of enemy’s patronizing bellicose articles.

Nigerians know the undesirable brood of politicians and their political parties that must not be allowed access to the seat of power; Labour Party and Comrade Abure are not one of such categorization. Isaiah Usifo should have been educated enough to know that collective bargaining far outweighed his selfish and antidiluvian interpretation of forgery and justice.

Isaiah Usifo’s cessation to unnecessary embroilment with his benefactor, Comrade Julius Abure and the Labour Party, in the state and at the national level would be more beneficial to him in the long run. Struggling for the centre of the bed with just one person would amount to being found in bed with deprived scoundrels!

Erasmus Ikhide can be reached via: ikhideluckyerasmus@gmail.com

By Erasmus Ikhide

The Isaiah Usifo’s reductive article, titled “NLC And Julius Abure: A Study In The Fusion Of Politics And Crime”, is at best a self-rehabilitating gruff meant to levitate his squandered political career; at worst, a jaundiced outing that casts a gloomy shadow on the dark part of his political resurrection in the nearest future. From the tone of his jaded article against his benefactor, Isaiah Usifo exhibited the cruelty of paradox, now that the beggars can no longer be choosers.

First, it is important we beam a searchlight on the unenviable past of Isaiah Usifo’s political life, which has instigated his current trajectory for self-abnegation and self-repositioning as Edo State Governorship election approaches next year. We can only make sense of his present state and station, as a political outcast to come to a firm cognition of his immediate political future. I will get back to this shortly.

To be true, Isaiah Usifo’s sponsored tirade against the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) under the leadership of Comrade Joe Ajaero and Comrade Barrister Julius Abure, the National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP) is a vicious attention – not only to mis informed political observers – but also to stand the truth and the doctrine of fair hearing on its head.

Isaiah Usifo’s myopic twitches about ‘Crime Nexus’ in the case of black market ex-parte court injuction issued by Justice H. Mu’Azu of Abuja High Court, against the Labour Party leadership and Comrade Julius Abure further re-emphasized the oblique inter-power jockeying being orchestrated by the All Progressives Congress (APC), and its paid bootlicking agents like him, towards the destabilization of the party over non-existent forgery of candidates signatures, as alleged.

For Isaiah Usifo’s education – an ex-parte order of interim injunction is a constitutional leverage specifically given to Judges to make an order in exceptional circumstance, to grant the request of an applicant in a suit in the interim without hearing from the other party – as it were. This definition in itself stands justice on its head, where parties to criminal cases or otherwise are not given fair hearing before injunctive orders are issued.

For the record, Justice H. Mu’Azu of the High Court in the case of the Labour Party National Chairman, Comrade Barrister Julius Abure for which he granted reckless ex-parte injuction is a brazen act of legal impunity and outright desecration of the hallow hall of the judiciary, as the last hope of the common man. Aside that, an ex-parte court order is solely meant to protect the res; i.e, the Judges and the judgements emanating from the courts must at all times be in favour of the institutions, rather than hateful depredation and plundering of political parties and its leadership.

It has been argued repeatedly that ex-parte motions should only be deployed at an extreme emergency. One of the most troubling aspect of Justice H. Mu’Azu’s ex-parte court order in the matter under review is that, it violated rule 43 and rule 3 of the FCT High Court Civil Procedure Rules which says an Ex Parte order must not exceed seven (7) days.

This same Justice Mu’Azu had issued similar injuction in 2022, as reported by the Nigeria Weekly Law Report, in the case of the APC candidates. That is in spite of the fact that total condemnation has been trailing his judicial rascality; unwarranted ex-parte orders in matters that are purely domestic affairs of a political party.

On whether courts have jurisdiction to interfere with internal affairs of political parties, 2022 Electoral Acts states thus: “the courts do not have the requisite statutory vires to interfere in or with political decisions by political parties, in the process of running their domestic affairs for the purposes of winning elections. In the instant case, the decision by the 2nd respondent to jettison the principle of zoning or rotation for the purpose of selecting/nominating a candidate to be sponsored by it to contest for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the 2023 election.

Apart from enjoying the voyage of judicial hysteria and legal impunity, an FCT High Court Judge and his Court should not have interfered over a matter of Comrade Abure’s purported suspension carried out in Esan-North-East in far away Edo State, when there is a High Court of justice in Edo state.

Besides, the law stipulations that once there are criminal elements in an affidavit, the other parties must be put on notice before an injuction is summarily deployed. Even the police report dated March 9th, 2023 and signed by Junaid Bukar, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Special Enquiry Bureau (FCIID) Abuja, upon which this order was made by Justice H. Mu’Azu reads thus: “Note that this report is issued purely for information purposes. The Nigeria Police shall not be held liable for any action whatsoever which may emanate from the use of this document”. The police report in question indicted police authority by saying that the Labour Party leadership and Barrister Julius Abure were not giving fair hearing as they could not make themselves available for interrogation.

This is the reason Isaiah Usifo’s apocalyptic political meltdown must be revisited. As a former member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP); who later migrated to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), prostituted further to join the Labour Party (LP), where Comrade Julius Abure gifted him the Labour Party Governorship ticket free of charge in 2020, Usifo remains a dismal mess in the study of political instability that has turned the political landscape into a chaotic bedlam.

Only last week, Isaiah Usifo approached the same Julius Abure in Abuja, begging to return to the Labour Party for self-rehabilitation. Today, he is gangly and openly vilifying his all time political benefactor for want of political direction. Julius Abure is conscious of Usifo’s political trade-game for obtaining political party ticket and running with it for the highest bidder. As Chief of Staff to the defacto Governor Osarieme Osubor, Isaiah Usifo championed the rebellious militia political gang that debrided and demonized Chief Tony Anenih as political outlaw. That singular act of indiscretion led to Governor Osubor’s humiliation and outright expulsion from Osadebe Avenue via judicial intervention.

For Isaiah Usifo, what many dubbed diabolical motivations in politics or duel unto death when his pecuniary interests are not meant is the tragedy of the politics of the Fourth Republic; having exhibited similar traits while he was on Barrister Kenneth Imasuagbon’s Governorship campaign trail in 2016.

It’s not too late for Isaiah Usifo to shape out of politics of ethical tornado and psychological destabilization that celebrates politics of cannibalism, and shape into politics of realism. It’s time for him to avoid political discourses that are filled with mixed motives, selfish intentions and abhorrent objectives that seethes with cauldron of contradictions.

Erasmus Ikhide can be reached via: ikhideluckyerasmus@gmail.com

By Victor Osagie

IN the last two decades, Barrister Kenneth Imasuagbon, a Nigerian educationist, lawyer, entrepreneur, philanthropist and politician has remained altruistically consistent; stoutly focused and consciously people friendly, while ministering to the most basic needs of Edo people, regardless of his political setbacks at electioneering.

Early in 2007, Barrister Kenneth Imasuagbon stepped down for Mr Adams Oshiomhole to fly the ticket of the Action Congress when both of them contested the Governorship of the state because Edo North were Oshiomhole comes has never produced the Governor of Edo state. That is the typical Ken Imasuagbon with a sense of justice and fairness. A man who abhors desperation in politics.

Ever resilient Ken Imasuagbon activated his quest to govern Edo State when he defeated General Charles Airhiavbere in Benin speaking areas in the seven location government areas of the state but the General managed to win the keenly contested primary election with the help of the Chief Tony Anenih, Chief Dan Orbhi and a host of other political big wings.

The very recent of his political act of selflessness and magnanimity was demonstrated in 2020 when he willingly stand down his gubernatorial ambition for Governor Godwin Obaseki to fly the Peoples Democratic Party’s ticket when the pillaging Mr Adams Oshiomhole of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as then national chairman of the party pulled out the carpet from under Governor Obaseki’s feet.

It is only a personage of Barrister Kenneth Imasuagbon’s outstanding large heartedness that could subordinates his long time sought after ambition for another persons, considering the fact that himself is from Edo Central that has not been given opportunity to produce the Governor since 1999 at the debut of the present Fourth Republic.

Apart from being a household name in Edo State, Barr. Kenneth Imasuagbon’s biography, date of birth, age, early life, family, wife, education, political position, net worth, houses, are daily manual rehearsed by the citizens of the state who are jostling for a renewed Edo State that works.

Born on May 4th, 1966; educated at the prestigious Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, with a degree in Law, Kenneth Imasuagbon is one of the self-made Nigerian politicians and a humanist, as well as a thoroughbred advocate of equity and justice, as an equalist.

Barrister Imasuagbon is also the chairman of the Abuja based Pace Setters Group of Schools and a principal partner at Imansuagbon and Co. Company, a legal firm he founded. In the early 1980s, he worked as a technical assistant in training at the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA).

His household name is popularly known as “The Rice Man” as a result of his annual sharing of rice. Over the years, he has repeatedly visited and still visiting the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), with Rice and some Donations the hospital management for the payment of hospital bills of numerous patients who could not pay their medical bills, annually. This humanitarian gusture has earned him a ward named after his name “Kenneth Imansuagbon “ ward in UBTH.

Asides UBTH’s celebratory contribution and human solidarity efforts for the less privileged and the downtrodden, Irrua General Hospital has benefited and still benefiting immensely from Barrister Imasuagbon uncommon and unyielding commitments for Edo State that works. Often time he visited the hospital to share rice and make payment of medical bills to support family and patients that cannot offset their bills. And this has become a regular routine.

Barrister Kenneth Imasuagbon has been dubbed Sports Grand Patron in Nigeria for over a period of time. The Kenneth Imansuagbon’s All Secondary Football Competition is one of the football platforms where young and talented youths look forward to in Abuja for onward football carrier in the international communities.

The educationist has made the point time and again that investments in education is the best that has happened to humanity and Edo people, and that he would make education a priority once elected the Governor of Edo State, comes 2024.

Powerful Edo citizens like Chief Gabriel Igbinedion, the late Prince Tony Momoh, and prominent Benin Chiefs and Professors were with him on several occasions University of Benin where he constantly give out iPads to students in the presence of other dignitaries as witnesses. Recipients are usually a thousand students yearly for a period of ten years in the State. At many other occasions, the former Deputy Vice-Chancellor of University of Benin, Prof Akenzua was also one of the special guests, and some traditional rulers across the states who graced the occasions, like the Onogie of Ewohimi, The Oba of Ayegunle Akokoedo- O’Hara Igara.

As the moves towards 2024 Governorship election generates traction, Edo people are not looking far between because Barrister Kenneth Imasuagbon who fits the bill, holds the aces. The people are eagerly waiting for his rainbow coalition mandate. With Barrister Kenneth Imasuagbon, it is Edo citizens’ turn to enjoy good governance!