 Nigeria moves to allow Twitter to work in the country again. But what is the real cost of the ban on the social media side? We'll be finding out this morning. Football leaders in Europe put a lot of excitement near a messy overplay outside La Liga for the first time. And Romelu Lukaku is back to Chelsea. We'll talk all about that. Plus our regulars of the press and top trending and also today in history. Say good morning and welcome to a Friday morning on Plus TV Africa. It is the breakfast. Thanks for joining us. I am Osauge Ogbama. And I am Anette Felix. Good morning to you and good morning Osauge. Good morning to you. So I talked to an instructor today, the first one. I find it both hilarious and saddening because it's something we've seen time and time again. And that's the conflict between religion, right? We've talked about how pastors defraud the members, even these members going ahead to protest in churches and things like that. Now, what we're seeing with pastor or apostle, John Suleiman, we don't really have the details clear yet because they've taken this to the police. It's still been investigated and all of that. But the story is that Apostle John Suleiman had transferred money to members of his church, both in the state and out of the country. And this particular concerned citizen took this up with his own means of investigation. Going ahead to say that this was fake, this was a scam and that Apostle John Suleiman was using money angels to basically defraud his members. And there are publications online that surface yesterday. The church has responded saying, yeah, they have a right to express themselves, but that they were wrong in the accusations. And they took this up and arrested the man involved. His lawyer, Inibia Effiong, said that he spent about 10 hours in cell with his client. And that's after meeting all the stringent bill conditions except one. So the issues here are many. First of all, the church and money is something that we've debated for a long time. Apostle John Suleiman has been in the news for controversial reasons many times before, but we understand his huge following and you can understand people who come out on social media to defend him, even though we don't know the facts of the case as of yet. The facts of the case are pretty simple. According to Inibia Effiong was representing Israel Balugun. Israel Balugun is the guy who was arrested. Apparently, Apostle John Suleiman had claimed that he had angels send money to certain members of the church and also some people in Atlanta, Georgia, I believe. And of course, they received alerts from these angels. And so Israel Balugun, of course, on his own platform, spoke up and debunked those claims and said that it's not possible that angels will send money to anybody and all of that. He then, of course, Apostle Suleiman then wrote a petition to the Andrian police who then picked up Israel Balugun and accused him of defamation and cyber-stalking or some whatever. Say they were saying he was calling him a yahoo man, a fraudster, working in connection with Raj Papi. Yeah, he obviously has the right to do. And everybody has their Twitter platform. As long as it's not in any way, he should share his thoughts on what he feels. If he feels like you're lying, he'll tell you say you're lying. Yes, he feels that you're being fraudulent. He should say that you're being fraudulent. If he, of course, can back up those claims. And the challenge here now is, according to Inibir Hefeg, because I watched a video yesterday where Inibir Hefeg is then saying, if you feel like Israel Balugun was wrong, then show us these angels. Bring these people who received a lot from angels. Let's look at their bank statements and see which angels sent money to them, including the person who's in Atlanta, Georgia. And then, of course, went forward to say that, why don't we also use these angels to fund those states and fund the Nigerian economy if angels can send money to a person or send money to people's bank accounts? So the case is pretty simple. It's a pretty simple case. The challenge really is here how, and it's going back to, of course, me referring to the Hosh Poppy case, where fraudsters, basically, and anybody, can use that level of influence to ask the police to do their bidding. And that's exactly what it is. And so he, like Hosh Poppy did with the Vincent case, asked Gassupakop, aka Babari Gassela, to arrest Vincent for his own personal reasons. And, of course, they went ahead and did it and locked him up and beat him up. According to these allegations, beat him up until he was hospitalized. It's pretty much the same thing with this case. Now Israel Balugun was arrested, was sent to the police station in Garki, and then they gave him very, very stringent bill conditions that you would expect for a murderer or a kidnapper or someone who has committed very, very serious crimes and not for someone who simply debunked your claims on his own social media platform. And that's really what the case is about. Why does Apostle Suleiman not allow that someone will be able to say, okay, I don't believe in the things that you've said. And why is the police so easy to do the bidding of supposed rich or influential people in Nigeria? That's really what this whole case is about. It's embarrassing. Both for the Nigerian police and for Apostle Suleiman. And I hope that as this case progresses, that he will be able to at least show that his claims were true. And angels actually did send money to these people where these angels came from, how much they received. And some of all those extra details necessary here. Fly fees. Yeah. If the angel is using BVN or what not. There has to be, because, listen, Christianity has suffered so much from characters who set up church as a source of income, as a business. And it's one of the reasons a lot of people these days would say, okay, I'd rather just stay at home and speak to my God than go to any church. Because I don't even believe in these churches anymore. And it's not saying that all of the churches are fraudulent. There's some, I believe, that some really genuine Christian bodies. But because of these, you know, cases here and there where pastors can do whatever it takes to ensure that they grow their numbers and they grow their following and grow their popularity, that's why Christianity itself has continued to suffer. But to be honest, right, if Apostle John Suleiman can believe in the extraordinary of using angels to send money to followers, I wonder why he didn't go that route when it comes to finding justice. Because why then do you have to go ahead and involve the police? I mean, that's a form of injustice on its own because you feel that you have the funds to do so. You feel that you can buy those police officers and those people just go ahead and arrest people simply because it just seems unfair. And then when you look at the bail conditions, that's just another kettle of fish. These issues continue with law enforcement, judiciary. And I really don't know when this will end. I was just going to chip in. I don't think we need to go too far to determine whether these miracles actually happen. It didn't happen. There's no need to argue the level of faith that you have. This investigation should actually be easy to conduct. Yeah, there's no need to be digging deep into the kind of faith that you have. High records. To show that angels sent anybody money. It didn't happen. Neither did anybody from the spiritual realm pay money into anybody's account. They might have just brought cash to you instead of paying into your account. So all these claims did not in any way happen and there's no need going too far. I really want to hear the side of Apostle John Suleiman. Like, I want to have him address this issue because when I started talking about this, I mentioned that we don't have all the facts because what we just saw is that letter he wrote back, the petition. But we want to hear from Pastor Apostle John Suleiman help us break down exactly what he meant when he said it was angels that sent that money. We want to get the details. We want to get the facts. And then we can look at both sides and say, okay, maybe things actually happen supernaturally that we, you know, that's just beyond our comprehension. I want to give him that benefit of the doubt. Well, hopefully we get to speak with him in Behef Young himself, who was a lawyer to the accused. All right, so in Lagos, the Lagos State government has actually shut down about 20 different pharmacies and patent medical clinics. And, you know, this was in certain areas and in Shamolu, Bariga, Oronshuki areas of Lagos State, they said that these, it was a statement actually from the State Commissioner for Health, Professor Akia Bayomi, yesterday, Thursday. He said that these affected pharmacies and patent medicine stores had contravened certain regulations that guide the operation of pharmacies and patent medical stores that they were indulging in illegal practices that were failing to comply with regulatory standard. You know, it just went on and on and you know, quoting sections of the Provisions Act of 1999 talking about fake drugs, you know, counterfeit medicines and all of that. So they were concerned with how these drugs were stored. They were concerned with the fact that they didn't have enough license or the approved licenses that they were selling drugs that were not approved. So just lots of concerns there. I think that's a good one, but my question really would be, how many people have been victims of these counterfeit medicines? You know, how late really did they come? Because we know people who've heard experiences, even if we don't know anyone personally, who've heard experiences of people, you know, falling victim to fake medication. I've heard of people who died simply because they take, they took fake malaria medication. So if these drug stores have been able to function operate for months and maybe even years, you know, it makes me ask questions, why now? Why did it take so long before, you know, these people were caught? What does it take to open a pharmacy store? Do you just go ahead rent a shop and just paint it white and start, you know, stocking up drugs? You know, really, how late was this action? Well, you know, it's obvious there's a lot of work that needs to be done with regards cleaning up what Nigerians consume. You know, now that of course, they've had their responsibility for a long time. People have criticized NAVDAC for not being as effective as they should. But of course, I'm sure that they also do what they can with the resources available to them. The Lagos State government, of course, you know, has, you know, taken that responsibility also to protect, you know, residents of Lagos from these fake medicine stores and these, you know, unregistered, you know, medicine stores or off-the-counter medicine stores. So there's a lot of work. And you know, you cannot really, in any way quantify the damage that these stores, you know, may have caused to residents of Lagos. The healthcare system in Nigeria is not, you know, big or strong enough to be able to verify what a person, you know, the cause of a person's sickness, you know, that may have come from a fake, you know, drug that a person bought. Some of these things could cause cancer. Some of these things could, you know, cause, you know, organ damage, you know. And we, there's so much work that needs to be done. And that also includes those guys in the market. If you go to any very, you know, small market around Lagos, you must see some of all those guys selling drugs in wheelbarrows or very, very, very small shop. Even on the roads, that's on Balindi. They're there, you know, in Yabba. They're just in the open air. Which, you know, are not in any way registered with, you know, the Nigerian pharmaceutical society or any of all those organizations. And so there's so much work that needs to be done. Unfortunately, yes, I understand drugs are expensive. A lot of people can't afford drugs and be big, you know, named pharmacies across Lagos. But at the same time, you know, we also need to not use that excuse of how expensive drugs are to poison ourselves. You know, I also get to see, and, you know, I don't know how this happens, but those people will sell some things in bottles with trees, leaves. They call them, they call them herbs. They call them. Yeah, those things, yeah. So, so I'm not. And now we haven't been sold on social media. So it's almost mainstream now. Yeah, but I think that we, I don't know. I feel, you know, there has to be some level of, some level of regulation with those things also, because I don't know how they work. And I've seen people buy those things and they say, give me 15 an hour of this and 20 an hour of this and, you know, 100 an hour of that. And they mix everything in the bottle and chicken and it's brownish and looking very odd. See, the fact is, when it comes to herbs, right? Herbs, when you even look at, you know, really just text like the Bible, you know, it talks about God giving us herbs for medicine, right? And it is indeed fact that there are some herbs that you can grow or, you know, get in the wild or purchase that can help, you know, cure some ailments. And we know these traditional Agbocellas in Lagos, in the western parts of the country, you know, where they sell these things. They're able to, they have knowledge of these things. They're able to mix them for you. But the challenge now is not with the herbs and, you know, the efficacy. It's not people who are trying to exploit that for the purpose of making money. Who now take that step forward? They now have factories that are, you know, unapproved. I've heard of people bribing and NAVDAC and SON just so that they can get their approval to manufacture those things in their houses. But, you know, that one is a valid issue that should be looked into. But the issue of people now going further to purchase fake medication from countries in Asia and bring it here knowing fully well that these drugs are not good enough. These drugs actually are counterproductive to your health. That is, I mean, this should be punishable by the law. This is a serious offence because you're intentionally... I think you're going too far even talking about Asia. There's a lot of these drugs that are just chalk. Manufactured here? It's just chalk, really, you know, and it's packaged, it's, you know, beautifully packaged and, you know, given a name that everybody knows and that's it. Oh, even one that's actually is, I mean, if you're not extra careful, you won't notice that it's fake. There's a lot of times, I'm sure everyone has their experiences when they take a medication and it doesn't work. The biomedication from a pharmacy, maybe not a very, very big name pharmacy, but, you know, get some drugs they take it and it doesn't work. It's out of two things, out of your body has, you know, started to either not function with that particular medication, you need to increase your dosage, or you look for a different brand, or that is just fake medicine, you know, and that's really what it is. So there's so much work that needs to be done, you know. I always like to be in the middle and say, I understand, you know, the concerns of people and being able to afford medication in some of these pharmacies because there's certain types of even paracetamol that you get to into a pharmacy these days and tell you it's 3,000 naira, or 4,000 naira for just a card of paracetamol or panadol. But of course, the roadside sellers will sell that same thing, you know, for 200 naira or 100 naira. So I understand the concerns with, you know, being able to afford some of these medications, but there's still a lot of work that needs to be done so that we can at least reduce the amount of people who fall sick or have terminal illnesses from buying drugs in some of these medicine stores. And everybody should go through some type of regulation, including their go-sellers. It's not banning them, you know, and I understand, yes, like you mentioned, you know, herbs are important. They are part of the things that, you know, are also medicinal, but I feel like there should be just even just a little bit of regulation. Even if it's just in the hygiene aspects of it, you know, how are these things made? Where are they made from? You know, the places where they are, you know, mixed and produced, are they clean enough for, you know, consumption later on and all of that? So we don't start a new virus here in Nigeria. Yes. And lastly, a top-trending series of our security. So we know that the Southern Governors have been, you know, meeting recently, talking about ways to end, you know, this famine, the hellish crisis and all of that. And they had set a timeline for September to fully implement the anti-open grazing law. But it's August 12th and we've saw the Ocean Assembly passing this anti-open grazing bill. You know, they're saying that to make sure that farmers and herders clash are reduced and they said that it's criminalising open grazing in ocean state. And this is meant to prevent the killing of farmers. It's to prevent sexual molestation, environmental degradation, pollution. It says, when this bill becomes law, no person or group of persons shall rear, herd or graze any livestock in any parts of the state, except within permitted ranches. So it seems they're having plans to have, you know, certain ranches where, within which you can go ahead and graze. And that outside that is definitely is legal. They've also prohibited, you know, ranching by minors. You can see, obviously, that guy looks like a teenager. And you see lots of them, you know, avoiding their sticks and, you know, shepherding their cattle. So it's criminalising, you know, minors doing that. And the bill is also stipulating a three-year imprisonment without the option of fine if you're contravening that law. So, like I mentioned, other states, you know, they've all come together to say, by September, they should be able to make this among all southern states. We've heard people on the breakfast that we've had representing the Caterbillers Association saying that, oh, this is backfire. We have so and so a million amounts of cattle herders across the country. This would destabilise us to, you know, lots and lots of threats. But let's see if this will be one of the solutions finally. We've heard lots of anti-open grazing, anti-open grazing, but it really doesn't hold much water. It just seems like it doesn't go beyond the headlines. When it comes to actual implementation in those states, those state governments, go ahead to make sure that that's a reality. So what steps are they taking? Are they enforcing more border control? Are they actually creating those ranches? Are they communicating with these herders in those communities? Let them know that this is what you need to do if you want to wreck cattle. So there's a lot of background work that needs to be done before these things just become law because at the fundamental level of lawmaking, consultation with stakeholders is key. What do you think is how you... So I think, well, I agree with almost what you said. I think it's a first step. It's a big step, but it's a first step also with regards protecting lives and property of people in the Nigerians generally. And the governors have made their... taking their decision and everybody needs to go with it. Because the lives that have been lost because of the grazing and the farmers' herders' clashes have been too much to just ignore Nigeria. The conversation about justice for these lives, it's a totally different conversation. That's a wider conversation. For now, I think these steps need to be taken, but at the same time, it's also important that they start to look with regards to state police and look at how they can better protect residents of their states because some of all these killings and kidnappings don't happen because of cattle. Some of them are really just murder that happens. I've been seeing reports of Ainogu State lately that are very, very troubling, but I don't think that has a lot to do with cattle. So whatever is necessary that needs to be done, they should go ahead and do it. If they feel like the ban on open grazing is important, then yes, they should go ahead and do that. But at the same time, security needs to be improved. Nigeria's security setup is too poor for a country of 200 million people, the giant of Africa, it's just too poor. We don't have enough... Police officers, we don't have enough information technology with regards to security. We don't have enough of anything concerning security. Your love needs to be done. If I am to make any recommendation to be that, this policing thing should be concluded soon enough because if this state creation thing goes through, if Ainogu really does the referendum and states, residents in areas, the side that they want their own state, about 20 new states to be created would need massive recruitment of local law enforcement agencies to make sure that the security doesn't... Security challenges don't escalate to a new dimension. Not very likely, but we'll see how it goes. We can barely deal with that in six. Anyway, let's move on. You see you're good with it. We'll take a short break when we come back. GD Johnson will be joining us with Off the Press and we get to look at the major stories making headlines across Nigeria this morning.