 On the breakfast today, we take a look at the security situation in the southeast with a focus on emo state, where there is a constant blame game between political leaders. And then, what is the relevance of the Auditor General of the Federation in a government that fights corruption with words and no action? And as always, we take a journey through the newspapers and review the big stories making headlines. And good morning, thanks for joining us on the breakfast here on PLOS TV Africa. I am Osao Gie Ogbama. And I am Massive Opo. It's a beautiful morning and it's good to have you join us. Yes it is and of course once again saying welcome back to work and happy new year if we haven't set out already here from the of course from the breakfast. We hope that you enjoy the next two hours with us. Pretty interesting discussions that we have for you from the southeast and of course talking corruption and the fight against corruption. It's going to be a follow-up discussion like we started yesterday after the Auditor General has continued to put out numerous reports detailing either misuse of funds or just misappropriation of billions and billions of Naira that don't seem to be making a part of a national discussion. And of course we'll be talking of issues in the southeast. Two governors, the next governor and the current governor, trade in blame over the security challenges in the southeast. But first we start with what's trending this morning. What are the biggest stories? The big one we're starting with is here in Lagos state. And we're going to let you watch a video clip just before we get into discussing it. And of course I would ask that you be prepared. Thank you sir. I'm here on the instruction of this person to the AGF sir. And that is why I'm here. I'm too small or too low to call them. You guys are lazy. We do stay here. You can call them the early sir. So that they will also be here. So inspecting them also has to come. I'm here on the instruction of this person to the AGF. I'm talking to the AGF sir. I'm talking to the AGF sir. Okay. So it's not aware that you are here. But we're inspecting the call that we should send you. That's I'm saying to you. Yes sir. Because when I make the phone call to the topper, if you can call and say that the governor is here in front of you, what should you do? It is not my duty to call because I'm too low to do that sir. Okay. If you call. So where are your men? My men are here. They are all over the place. How many men do you have here? I have several of them sir. You've got a number. I cannot precisely tell you the number. So even if anything happens to your men, you don't even know the number of men. I know the number of my men. And what is the number? We talk to some other people to you. What is the number that you have here? I'm sorry sir. You're still here. So you cannot go down head front of the number are you from? For the security purpose I cannot say this is the biggest. So you don't know the number of men? I know the number but for security purpose I cannot say this is the biggest. So you know I'm the one talking to you. Yes sir. So you are an assistant inspector. Assistant what do you do? I'm an architect of CSP. Yes sir. Okay. Right. So craftsmen don't worry. I'll make two phone calls. Right. One to the inspector general police. Yes. One to the attorney general police. Actually I have spoken to him this morning and said he knows nothing about the fact that he is still here, very illegal operation. They have absolutely nothing and I'm the chief secretary of the state. Not even with my, the inspector general wrote to me and before I said to her probably he is there now. They are not from the legal state police command. Are you defying the governor's instructions? Right. They are not from the legal state police command. He says it's come from a butcher. And I don't know what other interests do they have beyond just keeping peace of the country. This is not an expectation that I will expect for them to keep peace because they don't have any business. Well of course that was the legal state governor Babajide Song Walu confronting policemen who have been stationed at the Magudu estate for maybe about two weeks now. If you remember we had that interview some time ago speaking with a barista who is a resident in Magudu who was complaining that a bulldozer was brought to their estate. And of course some of the buildings in the estate were marked for demolition. He also spoke about policemen being with those people who came for the demolition. It has continued to be a seaming siege at the Magudu estate since then. And of course a quick background to where all of this is coming from. There are certain persons who had their land taken from them by the legal state government as early as the 70s. They approached the court. The court of course gave them a ruling from the lower court too. Of course the Supreme Court gave a ruling asking that the legal state government allocate 549 plots of land to these persons who had their lands taken from them in the 70s. But unfortunately since that ruling was given no land has been allocated to them. These persons have now of course decided that they will take back their land in Magudu phase two. And that's where all the drama has been coming from. It's not a recent incident. It's been going on for a very, very long time. The residents in Magudu who have certificate of occupancy and bought those properties and bought those lands, of course cried out I believe and the legacy governor had to step in to figure out what is going on. This has gone on from successive governments, not just the Magudu Song Wulu. It's been on since Tinubu and of course Fashalambu dates. It's been on. It's just now Song Wulu's time to also deal with the same issues. And I'm sure that the governor is currently thinking he should just finish his tenure and pass it on to another governor that will continue to settle this quarry. Because that's honestly the way that I see it. Because it's a really big issue. I'm not sure if the legal state has 549 plots of land to give anybody. Neither do they have enough billions to simply compensate these persons who lost their land back then. But the main angle that we're looking at this morning is that encounter between the legal state governor and the chief superintendent of police who seemingly, and that's what everybody was pointing at, that it was a seemingly complete disrespect to the legal state governor. Well, you want to go that far. Some people like to say this. There's people who also argue that he wasn't disrespectful. He was simply following orders on some of all of that. And my response to that is, because in the middle of all these conversations, people will say, well, you can't try this with Wiki. You can't try this with Ganduja and some other governor. You can't try with Fiosha and some of all of that, which is okay. It's fair. But it really just showed that it's maybe because of the humility of the legal state governor. I really have no idea. But it, for me, told a very, very, very, very painful picture of how we've continued to complain about the federal instructor we're running and why the police continues to take its control or orders from Abuja. The need for state police would also come up in this conversation and some other things. But for me, what is key also is the fact that the governor himself in that short clip mentioned that these persons here are here on illegal operation. And you would expect that the police officer, who, of course, he said he has spoken to the attorney general of the federation and he has noticed that these people are here on illegal operation, that person should be arrested. If you are there, nobody can agree that they sent you. The attorney general said, I didn't send anybody on any errand or on any mission. Then that person I expect should be arrested. But he also mentioned the fact that he's going to put two calls because when he was talking to you know, the police officer who actually was also explaining to him that he's not in the situation to put that call across. And so he said he was going to put the call across eventually. Now, my question is, I mean, I'm looking at it at all angles. A lot of people would be expecting that the governor should have acted, you know, differently. And with that comparison with the governor of legal, I mean, with the governor of river state, yes, some weekend and others, you know, you would be expecting that should he slap him? Should he go violent? What do you expect at the end of, you know, what do you expect of him at the end of the day? But my point is, I'm thinking on the other hand, maybe he probably wouldn't have just, you know, show up and ask that the police he should have put the call across before showing up at the scene. I'm thinking that that should have been sorted out. He should have put over all of these calls. And I'm sure that there would be no need for all of that. But that's on the one hand, because now you're saying you have to call, you're asking him to call. And if you also look at the constitution, I mean, some part of the 1999 constitution that you have, you know, a lot of persons saying we have this flawed constitution. First of all, you say we the people. A lot of people are saying we were not present. Who are the people that were there? There's need for us to review this constitution, because I mean, there are a lot of lacunas and flaws in it. But it feels like we're not paying attention. Now, and if you say he's the chief security officer of the state, he shows, you know, typically that he cannot call the shots. I mean, these police officers are not answerable to him. And so you also want to ask yourself a situation that happens, a case in Lagos state, where you have a principal officer, an administrator, of course, he's the number one citizen, the governor of Lagos state, you would expect that he should have a handle. He should have a control over what's going on in not just at least you have been informed, you know, according to some, you know, that report. I mean, if it's actually anything to go by, he had suggested that the Supreme Court judgment that the Lagos state government should be involved in settling all of this, the dispute. That's what, you know, you know, a little part of that particular. Let me make some things clear. The legacy governments are well, the Supreme Court ruling, the Lagos state government. And of course, you cannot go ahead with any demolition or enforcement of laws without the Lagos state government and the Lagos state attorney general being aware, you know, any of those executions. So they are aware. It's not, they haven't been left out. What we're talking about here is what happened yesterday or when the governor confronted this person and the governor, you know, as chief security officer of the state, it makes very little sense, you know, that you're sending officers from Abuja to come and do, you know, enforce, you know, whatever court ruling or whatever court judgment without the chief security officer of the state being aware that those men are going to be present and they're going to be enforcing anything in the state. And what I'm saying is that, you know, the Supreme Court judgment also mentioned that, you know, the government, the Lagos state government should be involved in resolving the matter. So therefore, you know, that court judgment has actually given a lot of powers, you know, to the governor, however you want to see it, right, that you should be involved in resolving. And so if that's the case, if we're saying that this is a Supreme Court order and that's anything to go by, why then do we now have to have police officers all the way from the federal capital territory? And another question is, so how long will we continue, how long will we continue, you know, with all of this, that you have a case in a particular state and then you have to order the federal. And so you also want to look at the constitution that, you know, when you have an order, I mean, if a governor has to give an order or whatever, there has to be some clearance from the president or maybe, you know, the commissioner of police. And so it therefore lives in very helpless. A lot of people have constantly said that, you know, this just goes to show that there's need for state police that we need to practice, you know, full or true federalism, you know, because in its real sense, I mean, there's something like true federalism is because we're not doing the right thing. And that's why we constantly have this. So, I mean, but you also have the arguments of people saying, oh, true federalism will never be it because the governors, these police officers would be under the control of the state governors and what have you. But, you know, it is quite unfortunate 500 houses marked for demolition. And so for the longest time, and this is not a new conversation talking about the seeming powerlessness, you know, if there's a word like that of state governors, the chief security officer of the state is really just a title given to governors. They really have almost zero control over security. So it's like a figurehead. It's absolutely. And this basically shows you that the governor really has no control. I don't think he even has that more control over the commissioner of police in his state. Because, you know, like you said, the governor shouldn't have shown up. He should have maybe called, you know, to go there and go and ask those questions. But obviously, those things have failed. And that's why the governor has to show up by himself. But even when he showed up, he still showed that he had almost absolutely no power in that, you know, on that spot at the time. One thing I will continue to mention, when you say 549 plots, the Supreme Court does not say that anybody should go and demolish anybody's house or demolish 500 houses in Magudu. The Supreme Court ruling says that the legacy government should give these people who approved the court 549 plots. It doesn't specify it as in Magudu. It could be in Iberjuleki. It could be in Niko'i. It could be anywhere. That's what it says. It has nothing to do with Magudu. The foundation of all these controversies, Magudu, and I understand that. That's why those people are there. And what this really seems like for me is people have tried to get the legacy government to implement and execute that court order and give them their 549 plots. And legacy government's success, successive legacy government, have failed to do that. So what they are trying to do instead is bully the residents of Magudu, bully Lagos State, until some action is taken. And that is why police officers left their duty posts in Abuja. No, but they're working on instructions. They're working on instructions. Who's instructions? Attorney General of the Federation. But Attorney General said he's not aware. Oh really? But you know, in that particular, do we need to play the video again? No, but the governor said he has spoken to the Attorney General. Attorney General said he's not aware. But you also, if you listen to that video very well, you probably would have heard. Someone is lying. So who's lying there? I don't know. Someone is lying. Because he mentioned that. I mean, the police officer looked like I'm doing my duty. I'm so sorry. I can't put this call across. I'm just, you know, the list. We're saying this, we're saying pretty much the same thing. And so this instruction is coming from the Attorney General of the Federation, which has been pulled through the court. Mercy, does the Attorney General not know what the Supreme Court ruling says? Is he not aware that the Supreme Court rule doesn't necessarily say… I am not surprised. We live in a society, and this is one major consent that we have. I mean, we live in a society where, you know, there's so much lawlessness. I mean, there's so much lawlessness. We do not have regard for the law. And we constantly, because like I always say, the developed claims that we make reference to in all of these countries that are functional, they don't fall from the space. The people make these things happen. So you can't just say, oh, we have to go. And I tell you that Nigerians, including our governors outside of this place, are law abiding. You need to see them very humble, very, very respectful, and what have you. But when it comes to us, it feels like we choose the part of the Constitution we want to obey, and we do the one we want to join. And all of the impunity. And so you constantly ask yourself, how do we now address… Because I don't understand. You have also made reference to the fact that this is what the Supreme Court judgment had said. And we also have the fact that this… So if the Supreme Court judgment has constantly involved the legal state government in all of this, how come then do we have the presence of the police all the way from the FCT? I mean, looking at all the security consents that were faced in this country, we can't have these police officers deployed over there. Well, we need to go on. But once again, somebody is lying. It's either the chief superintendent is lying, that is the general sent in. No, I know. I'm saying somebody is lying in this place. It's either the chief superintendent is lying that the general and IG sent in, or the attorney general lied to the legal state governor because Babaji is the only one who said that he has spoken to the attorney general. The attorney general said he is not aware. So is either the attorney general lied to the legal state governor, or the legal state governor maybe didn't call the attorney general. I'm not saying the legal state governor is lying. No, no, no. But he's also said that he's going to put a call across. I mean, he's… Yeah, but in that same way, he said that he has spoken to the attorney general and the attorney general is not aware. And then he, the governor, declared that this is an illegal operation. And I would expect that if it's an illegal operation, you have your security detail, then you should be able to chase those people away. How do you chase them? I mean, this is not, this command, these persons that you have here in Lagos State are not within the jurisdiction of Lagos. It's not the Lagos State command. But they are not illegal operation. So it doesn't matter whose jurisdiction it is. Well, but they have refused to move. Anyway, for a lot of people, it was interpreted as completely disrespectful to the person and to the office and the seat of the governor of Lagos State in that moment. Other people might say, oh, he was simply just doing his job. But the question that I've continued to ask is, what job exactly are you doing? Because nobody has actually to demolish any house. Nobody has, no court has actually to stand at Magudos Gate and intimidate people. So what job really are you doing as a police officer who was sent from Abuja by persons who have said that they didn't send you? I'm sure that we'll continue to make conversations across Lagos and across Nigeria today and we will follow up and see where it leads. Let's move away from there to something, well you might hear every now and then about rituals and attempted ritual killings in Nigeria. Teenagers, three of them, 16-year-old and two 15-year-old teenagers have been arrested in Bios' estate for attempting to use a young girl, who was a friend of one of them, for ritual purposes. They were arrested after they invited a particular young lady in Delhi, Comfort, to the house of one of them, cut her finger and of course sprinkled the blood on a mirror in the house. They were eventually arrested by the police in Bios' estate, along with the, in collaboration with the youth in Bios' estate. And this of course, once again, is not a new discussion across Nigeria. Every now and then you have people being killed or people being arrested with either human parts or while trying to murder somebody for ritual killings. I'm hoping that these teenagers maybe were misled or maybe some part of the story may not be entirely 100% correct because it makes absolutely no sense why a 16-year-old and two 15-year-old are trying to do rituals. And of course it brings back the question that I've always asked, do rituals really, really, really work? So it brings us back to the fact that meaning the street parents you would say I want a hammer. So basically it's the quest to hammer, the quest to want to make it. Yeah, but does it really work? Because I don't know, I ask the same question. So I keep asking how killing another person, taking another person's life would actually bring money to you or make you rich and make you wealthy or make you have monies. Because if we understand the principles and how money really works, you have no business having money if you're not rendering services, you're not producing and what have you. So it's really sad. First of all, it's very sad and it constantly brings us back to the fact that society is just a reflection of different families. So last society as we have, at the end of the day, you have families, pockets of families, and we need to pay attention. As much as we say, oh, it doesn't really matter how much of attention we need to pay the kids that would be horrible, would turn out very horrible. But I'm saying that it feels like we're already overtaken and overwhelmed by parenting. Because at the end of the day, you still find some of these values. We need to inculcate them. They are values. We need to understand. We need to teach these children, our children. We need to let them understand how money works. They need to understand integrity. They need to understand hard work. They need to understand the entire process. And I think that we live in a dispensation or a generation where there's so much the crave for wanting to make it very quick. So the quick, quick, fixed scheme. And that's why you find a lot of people who want to see. So sometimes you see it via actions, investment plans, and people want to just throw their monies into some kind of investment where they see so much, the turnover is so much. And you're not asking yourself, that's not blood money. That's not juju. Yeah, well. I'm just saying this is on a lighter note. But I'm just saying that there's a lot of work to be done. But it's not peculiar to the Nigerian society where young people want to be rich fast. It's across the world. The only difference here is the means through which young Nigerians try to be rich, either through internet fraud or, like we've said, rituals. Some other very, very insane things. But the good part of this whole story that we just shared is that the victim didn't die. I mean, the victim wasn't killed. The story says that her finger was caught and the blood was sprinkled on the mirror. And probably need to ask questions as to what exactly, if there's any part of the constitution that speaks about ritual killings or rituals in general. But what is mother now? Yeah, but the person didn't die. No, no. So what would they do? That's attempted mother now. No, necessarily. So what really can they be charged? Because your finger, it's not attempted murder. It's a finger that was caught. So what's the essence at the end of the what if you died? I mean, what if the entire go was to just kill you and what they were able to do? Well, that's why they would, I'm hoping that they will be sent to court so that they can answer some of these questions. And that's why I brought up trying to understand if there's any part of constitution that speaks about ritual killings or anything. If you want to charge them with attempted murder, then yeah, that would make some sense. But they still will be because they're young and foolish. I hope that they will still find a way to wriggle themselves out of this because there's no actual criminalizing of, there's no, or you go to jail if you commit ritual killings. If it's murder, yes. Because I'm thinking that it is, because of how our society is fashioned over time, we have decided to, that phrase just came through with us. So we don't say, okay, it's rituals. We said it because at the end of the video, what is rituals then? What rituals are you talking about? Anything that's going to take away the life of any man or anyone, that's more than that. My point is on this particular case, nobody was killed. On this particular case, the defense can even argue that it wasn't necessarily attempted murder because it was a finger. I mean, it was a finger that was caught. And they can argue because they're really young and that's why I actually feel bad for them. I'm also thinking because I also remember a time where we had a conversation, especially when you had a don't college situation. And I remember, you know, someone very close family was saying that maybe we need to get to a point where we have, you know, for all of these young children, we need to have a case where, when they turn 18, then they would definitely wherever they are in any part of the community. But what, so you don't get to my point. What are you charging these teenagers with? Attempted mother. It cannot be attempted murder. No, because the finger was caught. I mean, let's look at, let's look at. Assault on battery, maybe. But that attempted murder. So what if the original intention? So let's just say that we live for the cause. Let it be for the cause and the police too. What if they squeezed her nose? And so what if the, because okay, what of the case now? Let's begin to liken that to that of, you know, Sylvester, right? And they were charged with, no, this, this children. Sylvester died. He died. What if the intention was not to kill him? That's homicide. So you're saying, if you're saying that the court is being, do you know the original intention? At the end of the day, the fact that you cost the debt of another person is almost high. So what if the original intention, I mean, the fact that they caught the finger and then eventually died? So how do we not establish the intent? So, so I'm thinking that we leave that to the court and the police to sort that out. It's a lot of thinking this morning. The attainee does same thing. No, it's not an excuse. And I'm hoping once again that, you know, this would end with an assault on battery charge because you cannot necessarily, what if they say it wasn't rituals? Vee. I mean, what is it? So what was the intention? I mean, this is not tennis. They felt like, you know... This is not tennis. Assault on battery. What assault on battery? What if the original intention was to kill and then that got truncated and so they were able to just cut the finger? Are you thinking in that direction? It's still, they still, you know, have a lifeline. That's my point. I'm also thinking there should be served, you know, some punishment. Attempted murder? Of course. No, please no. Anyway, our final top training story this morning is going to be talking tech now. For those of you who wear very active, you know, using phones in the early 2000s, you must know about the Blackberry phone. It has officially come to an end. And of course, this was, this was, you know, taking some time, you know, over the years they have slowly and, you know, in bits by bit, you know, started to shut down their production, shut down, you know, sales of these phones, you know, and of course, I think in 2018, they once again put out a final version of the Blackberry phone that, you know, had a full screen, didn't have the normal, you know, QWERTY key part, you know, as they, which made them very, very popular. But of course, yesterday they announced that the Blackberry will officially be ending its business. And of course, for those who still use the Blackberry device, they're simply saying that for people using the operating system 7.1, the Blackberry Playbook operating system 2.1, and earlier versions, all those versions will stop to work. But if you still have the device, and you're using it, you know, you're using an Android operating system on it, then it still will work. But those who are using the Blackberry OS, your operating systems will stop to work. And it really just reminds everyone of what the early 2000s were, like with regards phones, and how everybody had a Blackberry, but it was, you know, it's crazy about having a Blackberry. I remember the, I can remember the name of the one that I had that cost me almost, you know, depression, because the screen continued to have issues. And I remember, I think I had, the very first one I had was a Curve 2. It was bought by my girlfriend back then for me. Oh, they're really great. As a sweeper that I was. So, I mean, I'm also feeling the same way if you, you know, check on the social media space, of course, you see different resting piece Blackberry. I mean, it was a phone that really had a great impact on a lot of people, including myself. I mean, we loved it. We loved, you know, all of the chatting, the pings and what have you, you know, the emojis, they were quite, you know, very unique and all of that. So, but I just think that over time, Blackberry decided not to, you know, compete. They fell out. They were not evolving. I mean, talking about competition, because you would always have competition. Yeah, apple and the lens kicked them out of the park. So what that needed to do over the years was, you know, continue to evolve and evolve and evolve. We also have different brands who have also faced out and sometimes you imagine how unique there used to be. So, because in business, you constantly need to, you know, evolve, find new ways. And I'm honestly not even sure why the Blackberry device couldn't evolve, because, you know, when Apple, Apple was launched. Because they were really great and I'm thinking that there would have been such a great competition with Apple and what have you. So, but I'm just wondering what happened. Anyway, we all left it. Yeah, well, resting piece to the Blackberry device. But once again, it's not the phone itself. Your phone, if you're still using the Blackberry, it's not going to just simply melt in your pocket. If you use it on an Android operating system, then it still would work. It's just those who have the older versions of the Blackberry operating systems, 7.1, the Blackberry Playbook, as it's called, 2.1, and earlier versions that will no longer, you know, function properly. And eventually you have to, you know, put it in the ground and bury it. But that's all for our top trend stories this morning. We, of course, we take a shot, break it when we come back. We're looking through the major stories, making headlines this morning. Stay with us.