 The Nigerian Air Force denies Wall Street Journal's report that it paid $50,000 to bandits to secure an anti-aircraft weapon. APC State Congress leaves many party members disgruntled. We will be reviewing the Congress. And young Nigerians mark the one-year anniversary of the NSAR's protest that shook the country. Good morning, thanks for joining us on a Monday morning here on PLOS TV Africa. Welcome to The Breakfast. I am Hussao Yee. And I am Messier Boko. Thanks for joining us. Very interesting weather on a Monday morning. It rained across Libos Island yesterday. I'm not sure if it got out of the way to the mainland. But I wasn't expecting any rainfall in half-way through October. Well, but if you actually see the weather, it's been quite sunny. So definitely, you just know that the cloud will be very pregnant. And that's why we definitely experienced the rain. However, it was in between, you know, sometimes when it rains in Libos, it can be very dramatic. Yeah. Yeah, I, maybe I was the only one, but I felt just a little bit, you know, like a teaspoon of amaranth on Friday. I felt like the weather was extremely dry, you know, and a little windy on Friday. I felt like, you know, just a little bit of amaranth. It probably was just me. Maybe just maybe we're just approaching that season. And it's important that we, you know, get ready for the weather that's fast approaching. We'll still move around with the umbrella. The rains aren't done yet, apparently. Welcome once again to the breakfast. Let's get into some of the stories making headlines. And of course, our top trend in this morning, it made headlines across Nigeria yesterday and even got a response from the Nigerian Air Force. And that is the report by the World Wall Street Journal that says that the Nigerian security agencies, you know, DSS paid $50,000 to bandits in order to retrieve an anti-aircraft weapon that was allegedly seized from soldiers in the battlefield. And, you know, that created loads and loads of conversations yesterday that eventually, you know, made the Nigerian Air Force spokesperson eventually put out a response to it. You know, simply saying that these were all fabrications and their lies and they normally wouldn't even spend time responding to such fake stories, but they had to clear the air because it was entirely necessary at that point. So let me, first of all, get what you think, you know, concerning this. Well, I definitely knew that we're going to get that response from the Nigerian Air Force. I mean, if you have that kind of allegation or story being put out, what do you expect? So it was expected, it was really expected, but the truth is not as whose report do you believe if the Wall Street Journal do have, you know, substantive evidence. Because at the end of the day, we're talking about evidence, evidence, facts. You're able to prove it beyond, you know, the story that's been put out. Although some persons will say, yes, this is a credible outfit, the United States very credible. So why would they put out a story like that? Why would they put out a story of what benefit would it be? You would want to begin to question all of that. But as it is right now, the question is, whose report do we now believe? Do we believe that of the Nigerian Air Force or we believe that of the U.S. outlet called the Wall Street Journal? Sadly, Nigeria and the UN Security Agency, the Nigerian government in general itself, has, you know, over time, and not just in this current administration over time, but I would say it's been kind of worse in this current administration, because it's often in a place where once there's a denial for anything, you know, you already see people say, well, once they deny it, you know that there's some element of truth in it. And it has happened many, many times when the government comes out to say, oh, this is completely false. It is, you know, fabrication. It is hoax and some of all of that. And then a couple of days later, they, you know, change their statement and say, okay, well, you know, it is actually true, but this is what really happened. So that's the first part, you know, that nobody really takes, you know, the statements from the Nigerian government of Nigeria Security Agencies and their representatives 100%. Everybody, you know, when you get these statements these days, you say, well, let's see how it goes, because nobody really believes. And so that's the response a lot of people that I saw people, you know, putting out with God's Nigerian Air Force statement. But the Wall Street Journal, first of all, is expected, you know, because of, like you said, is expected to be a very credible source of information. When they put out such reports, you know, there is expected to be no doubt, you know, that they've carried out the investigation thoroughly and they've been able to put these things together with pure facts and they know what they are talking about. But I wouldn't also take away the fact that we live in a world today where the media can be used for anything, you know, and pretty much the same things were done in the last administration in the end of the last administration in 2014. There were all sorts of, you know, publications here and there. There are still some things that we still haven't been able to find out what the truth are entirely. And, you know, very likely, in particular, the chip-up girl story, there's still, you know, the conspiracy theories here and there. I would say that there are certain things about that whole situation that may not have been exactly the way it was told. But there were a lot of international media organizations that carried it. I'm just speaking with regards to Wall Street Journal and whether we should believe their report or not. You might also say, OK, well, maybe they're still, you know, equal to our reporters. The only difference is that they're in the United States. And so they might be used to play politics every now and then. We shouldn't take everything that they say hook, line, and sinker. But if these things are true, then it is, you know, it is stunning. You know, and that's a lot of the people who responded to when the story broke yesterday were shocked and embarrassed that we are at that stage where even the president and the presidency has to go pay ransom to these bandits. And it brings up that same picture of who really is funding terrorism in Nigeria. And if you continue to be a source through which these people make money, then you might as well be, you know, be said to be funding terrorism in Nigeria and funding some of all these groups. I saw another report. I'm not sure who, by some U.S. policymakers or so, that said that bandits and terrorists, you know, have been, you know, taken advantage of the Nigerian government and making money of the Nigerian government, you know, and some of all of that. There's a couple of reports that came out yesterday here and there. But we cannot rule out the possibility. I mean, we can't rule out the fact that there's a possibility that that can happen because we've seen a lot happening in the Nigerian space in terms of security. So if we say that, yeah, because if you look at it, the life of the presidency or the president is really at risk, and anything can happen. We've seen several attacks on different, you know, aircrafts. I mean, the helicopters that which the vice president from on mistaken, you know, almost crashed the several. I mean, you also find out that the bandits at some point have come to, at some point to say, okay, yes, we're responsible for bringing down, you know, the, what's it called, the helicopter for, or the Air Force, the other one. The Air Force, okay. So you see that there's a possibility that that can happen. It's not rocket science in our own space. So the only challenge here right now is how credible is this information? And it's up to the Wall Street Journal now, you know, to do a good work. Well, I'm not sure if they will, you know, go further. I really don't know. But, you know, I would say that the statement from the Nigerian Air Force and the Nigerian government, you know, doesn't in any way calm any nerves. It doesn't in any way make people say, oh, you know, Washington is definitely lying. There was really nothing in that statement besides the fact that, oh, this is just a hoax and it was set up. This never happened. I mean, it really was just, you know, stereotype Nigerian government response to say that this is trying to embarrass the president and trying to, you know, to derail the fighting against terror. How are we going to be buying back weapons from people that we have been fighting and we have been defeating so and so. But it's a, you know, stereotype response that, you know, they always put it. It doesn't in any way convince you that this is completely false. And even those who say, oh, you know, what kind of weapon are we talking about here? You know, how is this possible? How's it, you know, because if you look at, if you look at the, what's it called again, the anti aircrafts gone. Yes. It is. I mean, what would that be doing in a battle? Because, you know, in that report, the report states that it got missed during some kind of attack, the military base and all of that. So what exactly, how come we had that weapon at that point in time in that space? Because it's not necessary. That's not, I don't know, but do you, do we need that weapon? It's unnecessarily out of airplane. So you start like we're using that. So exactly how did it get there? It doesn't really add up. It's one of the things that was brought up, but, you know, there's also people that I saw respond and say that, yes, you might take that caliber of weapon in order to clear certain areas, you know, that AK-47s and the likes cannot necessarily reach. And so instead of using your fighter jets all the time, you might take some of those very, very high-powered caliber weapons in order to, you know, clear off some areas that bandits, you know, may be hiding. And maybe that's how it got into that place in the first place and eventually got missing. But these are all just, you know, until there is complete proof that these actually happen. And of course, it's going to be one very, very, you know, big story and another very, very embarrassing story, you know, from the current government and, you know, what really we are doing with regards to fight against insurgency and some of all of that. And it leaves space, more and more space for people to say that. To speculate. Yeah, to speculate, you know, and say that, you know, whatever it is that the secret agents are saying, you know, you may want to take it, you know, with a pinch of salt because what the reality is might be completely different. But of course, we hope that in the next couple of days we would see, you know, more to that story. Maybe the Wall Street Journal will put out more. Maybe the Ninder & Air Force will be able to also clarify that it was a completely fake story. Maybe they will sue if they have to. But I don't expect that will happen. Away from talking security and the, you know, bandits, let's move over now to corruption. It's also in the news that the EFCC has invited from our anniversary government, of course, Vice Presidential Candidate Peter Obie. And that's regarding the Pandora paper release that was put out by premium times. And of course, it's an investigative report that has covered a lot of people across the world, not just in Nigeria. But his story was the first one that was put out. And a couple of days ago, over the weekend, you know, there was news that the EFCC has invited Peter Obie for questioning. Well, is it a wrong thing? No. I think it's okay to invite him. But some consents have been raised as regards his invitation. And some people would think that, you know, this could just also be another witch hunt of the opposition, because you also have petitions that have been raised as regards some, you know, stakeholders in the political space. And nothing has been done. For instance, just as I said yesterday, because when this conversation pop up, you find that there's always a record. And so you have this group of persons who are saying, yes, let's talk about Tanubu, who's the spin of petition as regards the billion van. What's with that? How come that has not been followed through? So it's very important that we begin to treat everyone equally because at the end of the day, it definitely just begin to look like, okay, is it that you're actually looking out for some set of persons and then you're leaving some out? Nothing really wrong if you ask me if you say that he's been invited for questioning. As a matter of fact, it's okay. But is it just that there's more to that? Or could it just be that the government is just flexing her muscle? And some people are already calling that you see the EFCC. It has become a tool for, you know, more like... Yes, exactly. It's just like maybe you have a government beginning to use the EFCC, you know, to pursue and do all the extra stuff. You're on the real reason that it was created. But I think that there's nothing wrong if it's been invited for questioning. Well, I've also seen, you know, a lot of people respond, you know, in that same way. And mostly because, you know, at every time that you would expect that the Nigerian government would be able to surprise, shock Nigerians, do things different, you know, they fail. And the reason I'm saying this is because just as was expected, and that's what, you know, I've seen people respond, just as was expected, the only person that has been called so far by the EFCC is Peter Obi, who of course, you know, is a PDP member, and of course running, you know, in the opposition party. The other people that have been mentioned, and funny enough, you know, I'm not even sure what concerns the EFCC with this, and that's actually one of the big parts of it. Because you said, you know, it's not surprising that the EFCC called him, but it's not necessarily an EFCC case. We're talking tax avoidance versus, you know, tax... what's the other word now? Anyway, so what has been described is that the EFCC has not been a crime. And even the premium times that put out that report said it's not necessarily criminal. It is more of an issue for the Court of Conduct Bureau to investigate and say, okay, did he declare these things or not? It's not necessarily, it hasn't, it's not even a crime to decide to open, you know, shell companies in a different country so that, you know, you can avoid paying tax. It has not been in any way described as a crime, even by the premium times. So when the EFCC steps in like this, it can fall into... Or you then, of course, will listen to people who will say that this is really just political and this is the Nigerian government once again doing as expected from the Nigerian people, but not what is right. And of course, there's other people that have been mentioned. Boyegao Itola has been mentioned, you know, with the same Pandora papers that Abiodam has been mentioned. One of the pastors, Oidepo has been mentioned also. A couple of people, the Falawiyu family and many of them that have been named that have not in any way been called. And a lot of these persons that have been mentioned here and there, there's more of them that have more reasons why it should be the EFCC that should invite those people, not even Peter Albi. Peter Albi's case and, you know, the story concerning him really should be a Code of Conduct Bureau issue if he gets to that stage. But... So there's a possibility that this is just, you know, government trying to flex a muscle. I mean, that's what it looks like. And that's what I said that every time you expect Nanyangomen to at least, you know, do as... Do something different. They fail, you know, and do as expected and just fall into that same trap that not necessarily a trap, but fall into that same narrative that people have always mentioned that this is really just a political witch hunt. It may not be, but they fail to act different. They fail to do, you know... They expect it. But somehow, some way, you always, you know, would make people continue to have these conversations and continue to point out that, you know, this is where you failed and you failed here again and once again you failed to do what is right. Because once again, premium time put out the statement and said over and over that this is... It hasn't been accused of any crime. It hasn't been accused of stealing money. It's really tax evasion versus tax avoidance, which some of the biggest do these same things. They're countries, they're cities in the world that have survived and their economies have run mostly because of other... billionaires across the world that come to put their money there. So they reduce the amount of tax that they pay in their home countries. So it's not a crime in any way. But did he declare these things to the Code of Coronavirus and that's really where the conversation is. And he has been questioning about these things and he said he really didn't think that it was necessary at that time. So now it's not the issue of whether or not he should have done that and what is going to be... Even if that's what it is, it still has no business with the EFCC. It's a Code of Coronavirus conversation. It has nothing to do with the EFCC. But you know, I'm not actually surprised because if you look at it, let's talk about road administration. You find out that there's always duplication of roles. You have agencies created time in, time out. So you still find some agency performing the duty of another agency and that's because you constantly just have these people all created and most times nobody gets this, okay, let's begin to spell out your roles and responsibility. I think they know. But there is a complete abuse of power every now and then. And that's really what it is. It's abuse of power. It's complete disrespect for whatever the rule of law should be simply because they leave in the country and they know that they leave in a system that would not checkmate them. But of course, they would take advantage of situations like this to bully who they feel that they can bully into silence and we would see how this turns out also. Finally, of course, and our top trend in the stories this morning is with regards the end SARS protest where in the last couple of days, if you have been following online, there have been 20 days of activism that has been going on just to mark one year remembrance of the end SARS protest. And of course, the 9th of October 2020. If you have also driven past the leaky tour gate, you must have also seen police presence there in the last week or more that, you know, a lot of people have also said is definitely with regards preventing any protests across the country. I remember Fawze the Bad Guy musician put out a statement on his Instagram saying October 2020, they killed innocent souls that were simply asking not to be killed or brutalized a year later. No one has been punished yet for those heinous crimes. As opposed, police commissioner warned the gain citizens exercising their fundamental human rights. Yes, a police commissioner. A couple of war million citizens decided to put together a summit to reflect on last year's events and honor the lost souls. Event center pulls out and of course states instructions from above. As I type this there's already heavy police presence at the leaky tour gate. Best thing they could come up with is organizing concerts to try to distract us from remembering the real heroes in all of this the people they murdered. What we will never do however is be quiet we will never ever ever be silenced not today, not on the 20th, not ever. Well the truth is, you know, impunity would always continue where you have laws without sanction and there just would just be like just mere musical you know instrument and what have you that's the problem. It's really bad when you see, you know evil will continue to thrive because we don't do the right thing. Now it's bad if you know, those who actually committed crime. I mean let's look at that first of all what's the essence of the people what was the real message because at some point we also got the impression that they were they were trying to change the narrative. Some elements were really trying to change the narrative about the hashtag answers and then you had a lot of persons who hijacked the entire system to make it you know violent. At the time I wasn't really within the space well of course wherever I was I was able to monitor and see what was going on across. You could see that these persons were really the message was actually one. They were asking and you know police brutality reform the police and some of this concerns that they were asking were really very genuine. I mean at the end of the day it would be in favor of the Nigerian police or they force entirely. I see police brutality up until this point the fact that I mean the most annoying part is the fact that you know justice to some point has not been meted. I mean those who were involved in this act no one no arrest has been made there's still all claims that nothing really happened it was just an event and nothing really happened and then there's just some narrative that has been put out there and you know a lot of people as usual would always want to blame the media for the narrative that's been put out there so very sadly that arrest has not been made persons have not been prosecuted persons ought to lose their jobs I mean that's that's what it should be but that's not happening and then let's also look at you know the behavior after what do we still have police brutality I mean has he ended so if it just feels like to some point that particular cause you know that particular action was just in vain. Just recently I don't know if you saw that video that was making the rounds within the weekend the police officer that was you know just manhandling the young man slapping and beating him these happen every day and he really breaks my head for every time I see that the people that ought to care for us the people that ought to look out for the interest and protect them they have now become those who are now tormenting and torturing them so it's quite unfortunate that it feels like the message that was actually been put out no one is listening. Yeah we need to go anyway these are the actual two main facts what really has changed with regards to the injurious policing system in the last one year the reasons behind the Ansar's protest has in any way been achieved aside ending the special anti-robbery squad has the Nigerian police been able to see any sort of reforms whatsoever even police officers that don't even understand that that protest really was to somehow someone make their jobs better and to make them respect the value of the Nigerian life and the Nigerian person they still don't even understand the reason behind the protest so how much has changed has anybody been prosecuted has anyone been jailed has any you know body got in actual justice from the loss of lives you know prior to the protest and you know during the protest these are the questions that have still not been answered and second what's wrong with protesting what's wrong with a peaceful protest what's wrong with a summit what's wrong if people want to gather and reflect on what happened a year ago you know and the Nigerian government still continues to fight it why do we have police presence at the toe gate these you know are just really really red flags left and right you know concerning this but we'll follow up and of course continue to talk about these things stay with us when we come back take a goulay joins us with off the press