 Nigeria's electoral commission has expressed a fear that insecurity in parts of the country may lead to the cancellation or postponement of the forthcoming general elections. How can this be evented? Well stay with us for a conversation with a security expert. With all eyes in Nigeria on the forthcoming general elections and equally important national exercise, the population census comes up after the election so look at why Nigeria needs to have the national count at this time. And enough of the press will bring you in-depth analysis of today's major newspaper headlines all these ahead on breakfast. And we're back with the breakfast and plus TV Africa. It's a beautiful, beautiful Wednesday morning, reaching live from our studios right here in Victoria Island, Lagos. My name is Kofi Bartels. Once again, you all can get into the conversations later, of course, as we earlier advertised. But let's quickly take you through what has been trending as far as conversations online are concerned. Some interesting ones today. And of course, a lot of Nigerians not wasting time taking the opportunity of access to platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to share their views and even the traditional media to share their views on some of these issues that have gotten the attention. The first one we'll look at is from the Department of State Security Services, the DSS, which has been in the news a lot recently. I mean, we know the DSS had made some statements regarding the fear of scarcity in the country given some ultimatum to the surprise of many, you know, some people asking what does the DSS have to do with the security situation in the country. Well, that ultimatum, I don't know what happened to it because people are still queuing for petrol. It's still not available as it should be in some parts of the country. People are consumers are paying more than 400 now for a liter of petrol. So what happened to the threat or the deadline or the ultimatum by the Department of State Security Services? I don't know. But another controversial activity or incident involving the DSS recently was the attempt to arrest the governor of the central bank of Nigeria, called in the Mayfield, the man affectionately called Mephi by some Nigerians. Well, what the latest is, is that the DSS has come out to inform Nigerians or to allege that the politicians are waging war against the director general of the secret police, you know, the secret service of Nigeria. So they're claiming that some politicians are waging war. That's what they said against the DJ or the DSS rather. So the DJ is saying that some politicians are waging war against the DSS according to Yusuf Bidji, who is the DJ of the organization. And he says it says that there's a smear campaign or some politicians are launching or have launched a smear campaign against the DJ Yusuf Bidji and key officials of the service. And the secret police is saying the smear campaign is due to the services on compromising stance, what they call it on compromising stance on some critical governance and policy issues. All right, some critical policy and government issues is saying that because they're trying to do things straight, people are not happy politicians. Some politicians are not happy trying to smear the name of the DJ. The service is also expressing this concern not more than 24 hours after or barely 24 hours after the CUP, which is a coalition of the United Political Parties in Nigeria announced that it had summoned an emergency meeting in Abuja, the nation's capital, to deliberate and reach a decision on the continued stay of the DSS DG in office in view of his recent activities, which they said allegedly, allegedly undermined President Muhammad Buhari's promise of a free and fair general election. So is what they're saying they want to do. Now, if you recall, the members of this opposition parties under the CUP Pibana released a statement through its Staring Committee Secretary High Chief Peter Amé. They also went on to express their worry over what they call the alleged repeated involvement of the DSS DG in activities, which they said threatened a hope for credible elections. But Peter Afunaya is a spokesperson for the DSS. Yesterday he released a statement on behalf of the agency as expected, and he said those behind the plot, as he's put it, to smear the reputation of the DSS, its DJ and leading officials. He says they have engaged civil society organizations, they've engaged non-governmental organizations, and they've also engaged others to stage rallies around the country. Road shows and press conferences all in a bid to discredit Yusuf Bidji, the DG of the DSS. So, I mean, this is something that we have to, we just give you the report. Some Nigerians are really not in favor of the DSS. They're not really that popular, of course, as a security agency with some of the things that have happened in the past. And if you monitor the comments online, most people are not taking the words of the DSS saying there's a smear campaign against the DG. One of the controversial issues also involving the agency was a news report that said the DSS DG's wife stopped a governorship candidate in Kano State from boarding a plane. We told them it was a mal-drama, the Malamaminu Kano International Airport in Kano State. The wife of the DG is Aisha Bidji. This is a report. I'll just go over to Daily Trust because they put up a story about this. And I'll read what they said. They talked about mal-drama, that aforementioned airport, and they said that the woman reportedly prevented the state governorship candidate of the New Niger People's Party, NNPP, from boarding a flight. And we're told that trouble started after the motorcade of use of allegedly delayed Mrs. Bidji's convoy from gaining access to the VIP lounge of the airport. So this is one of the controversial issues regarding or surrounding the DSS in recent time. There's the latest one. Where do you stand? What do you think about this? Do you believe that there's a smear campaign against the DG and top officials of the agency? There's things that we're not compromising. We're taking a stand, a strong stance on issues of critical governance and security concern. And because we're being strong in this regard, some politicians are not happy. The CUPP particularly talked about activities or actions by the DSS that may threaten the elections. I don't know if you followed the actions of the DSS, activities of DSS in recent time. And if you think that is what they've done in particular, or they've undertaken some actions in recent time, in particular that will compromise the elections. I don't know if you think there's something like that going on. But this governorship candidate in Canada state, of course, is a politician, is a candidate, elections are out of the corner. Should we interpret or interpret what happened between Mrs. Bitchie and the candidate as an official action of the agency, an official policy of the agency, or maybe something that is a distraction, something that probably is not a policy of the agency, something that just happened to have happened and should be looked into and not read too much into it. I don't know where you stand on this. But we'll leave it at that. And we'll move on to the next top trending segment. This is a story. This is a really sad one. Social media was awash with news, not just news, but also fun words, kind words, expression of sadness, and just especially kind words regarding the life and times of peace. I am Osigwe. It's a legendary, legendary Nigerian entertainer, movie producer. She is the founder of the AMAA Awards. That's the Africa Movie Academy Awards, or AMA, as it's called. And she died reportedly at the St. Nicholas Hospital in Lagos, I'm not sure which of the St. Nicholases this is, because we have a number of them. But that's not the issue. She is sort of being in coma since Saturday. From the reports we have, her colleagues were the ones who put out the information, according to a particular report, Zig Zulu, who is a movie maker, a movie producer, on a platform shared by these movie actors, we call them Nollywood in Nigeria. He put up a statement saying, quote, our president, peace has passed. As of Saturday, she was reported to be in a coma at St. Nicholas, but now her family has confirmed her transition with the memory of her life being a blessing, resting peace, dear peace, he shared on that platform. That's how the news spread. All right, some colleagues and close friends of the woman who went to see her at hospital could not believe that she had passed on, you know, that this issue was just in the ICU. You know, she was just in ICU and I couldn't believe that she had died. It's really sad. Some of the movie producers, her co-movie producers have gone, taken to the social media platforms to also, you know, remember her, express their sadness and, you know, console the family. One is Obi Emeloye also went on his social media page to confirm the passing of peace. I am Osigwe. And of course, the information was put out that the family has not made an official statement, you know, so that's what we're told. It's very, very sad. She remembered for many things, especially her moves in the movie industry, especially with the African Movie Academy Awards, a big event which holds every single year. She has movies very, very notable movies under her belt. So let's look at some of the things that she achieved. She was also the president of the Association of Movie Producers and one of the most prominent figures in the Nigerian movie industry known as Norwood. She will be missed apart from being the founder of the African Movie Academy Award. She was known because of her passion and dedication for the Nigerian film and entertainment industry. Really sad. She was born into the notable family of Osigwe, I am Osigwe in Inquere, in Amos State. That's in the southeastern part of Nigeria. She had a degree in law and political science from Oxford Brookes University in England. She published magazines, a magazine, a magazine called Clicks. It was specifically targeted by the Black population in England. So she was doing things over there. She shot her first music video for hip-hop between singers P-square. Yes, indeed. She shot her first music video for P-square and she also managed P-square for some time. Indeed, it's just really sad. Now, the African Movie, the African Film Academy, which she established, it's a body, or she founded a body that governs the film ceremony. It's been on since 2005. Because of her achievements in the movie industry, in film and entertainment, she was given a national award of member of the Order of the Federal Republic, MFR, in 2012. An honor bestowed on her by the federal government of Nigeria for her contribution to the film industry. Really sad. In 2015, she started the Africa One Initiative to commemorate Africans in the entertainment industry. Among awards that Peace Ayamwa Sigwe has received in 2019, she was honored with the African Film Pioneer Award at the African Film Festival TAF, one of the popular festivals for movies in Africa. Of a film. She also, like we said, is a national president of Association of Movie Producers. She's been president since 2020. A lot of movies under her belt. I'm sure that as time goes on, we will have the opportunity to look at some of these movies and also to remember her as she should be remembered. Also May the Soul of Peace, Ayamwa Sigwe, Rest in Peace. I remember seeing her moving all over the place in the early years of the African Movie Academy Awards. Very energetic, very full of life. She's a mover and shaker. She was just so energetic. An ideas person, really. To have made a wife such an award to get to the stage she got with partnerships, I mean she had partnerships with global organizations and in multinational institutions. I think she did so well. She did so well and she will be missed. She's left her mark, an indelible one of that on the sounds of time. So we will say a consolation to her family and friends of Peace Ayamwa Sigwe, Rest in Peace. All right, let's move on to the last one. The leader of the prescribed Indigenous People of Biafra group, Masi Namdi Kanu, has been in custody for some time now and that is not news. But what is news is that his lawyer, one of his lawyers has said that he is experiencing a deteriorating health. According to Ifai Jofo, who is a member of the Kanu legal team, he said that when he paid the leader of the group, his routine visit, the man was not in good health. Ifai Jofo has been active on Twitter, so if you check him out, you see his Twitter account and you see long statement he shared on that micro-blogging platform Twitter. Ifai Jofo said Kanu has been suffering from heart problems and some mineral deficiencies which require specialist attention, he alleges that the man who is in DSS custody has been refused access to his private doctors for the management of his health condition. That is what Ifai Jofo said. He visited Kanu on Monday at the DSS detention facility in Abuja and of course this is a routine visit that they have from time to time. He says that his client, Namdi Kanu, needs immediate attention without further delay. One of the things he also said is that the lawyers tried to give or offered the Department of State Services one million Naira to be able to get Masi Kanu's drugs. In fact, Ifai Jofo said that Chief Mako Zekome, who is Kanu's lead counsel, offered the DSS one million Naira so that his medical needs could be attended to, but the DSS rejected that one million Naira saying they had all the resources they needed to have to be able to get him his medical needs, so they rejected that money. According to Ifai Jofo, he says Kanu needs medication for his heart and his chest burns and that for the past nine days the DSS has refused to give him the prescribed medication for his heart and chest burns for the past nine days. That's what he said and so that one million Naira was meant to help the secret police buy the drugs if they could not get them, but they rejected it saying they have a financial capacity to provide the drugs. He also said that Masi Kanu needs to be released and he needs to be set free because detaining him means that his life is in danger and also he says that why has the DSS failed to give him the needed medical attention while still detaining him despite a court injunction that has freedom. So he also used the opportunity to remind everybody that there is a court ruling that has set the man free and he should be released as quickly as possible. Well of course for me I don't think anyone should can blame the DSS for not collecting or accepting the one million Naira because you know how will it sound if if if an agency of government is collecting money or taking money from the lawyers of somebody who is standing trial to attend to the person. It doesn't speak well of the government so I think you know not collecting that money or rejecting that one million Naira is the best it's a good thing the right thing for the DSS to have done. The picture all right that we will have seen and the analysis and the reaction of being oh they're now making money off Kanu you know it's not good but of course the man needs to be given his medication as quickly as possible. There's no reason why he should be in detention for nine days and shouldn't be given medical attention. It's the right of any prisoner he's not a prisoner he is still you know he's released by the courts but he is someone undergoing trial all right and he had a case in court and it took him in to detain him he was not sentenced to prison any prison okay so even prisoners who have been sentenced found guilty they deserve to be treated right they have rights okay a prisoner has rights not like say no because you're found guilty of murder or corruption or stealing or something they are sent to prison they should leave you there to die no a prisoner has rights and that's why you have health facilities you have clinics you have doctors in all the prisons in the country if you don't have a medical facility there there's somebody can take them to to be attended to they don't just take them there to die you know and then it's expected that the DSS will be even better than the correctional facilities you know what I mean because it's well documented the the walls it reveals the state of a correctional facilities detention centers or the prisons rather in the country as we speak most of them are overcrowding but if it's a DSS detention facility we don't know about that we don't know if it's legal for the SS to detain anyone but the courts had okayed it before so probably it's legal it's expected that they would have better treatment there you know because DSS is a bit more loaded if you want to call it that so and this is a high profile case this is a high profile detainee and they need to do everything possible to make sure that such news and information doesn't come out to the public we don't hear things like this not that doesn't come out to the public but that this does not happen all right especially in the case of this one was a high profile detainee and you know the volatile nature of things in the southeast we don't want anything to happen to Mazen Amrikano because if anything happens to him who knows what is going to happen to the security situation in the country all right it is of utmost importance security wise let's start from there since we're talking about the department of state security it is of utmost importance that Mazen Amrikano be kept healthy it's very important if anything happens to him I mean we might see chaos in the southeast you might see unrest going to you know levels never seen before how he supports how his kith and kin how his people react so why would you deny him his drugs for nine days doesn't make sense so DSS has to do everything possible to make sure that's such a high profile detainee who has been released by the courts as if an agent for said should be kept healthy should be given everything he needs don't forget the trial judge had already said that kind of should be given afforded all the comfort that DSS can give him this includes his medication please do the needful all right we'll leave with that thank you very much for your time when we come back we'll look at what the papers are saying this morning right here on the breakfast stay with us