 Fresh facts have revealed the scope of the crisis in Nigeria's aviation sector. Only 38 out of 98 airplanes are active. Will it get worse before it gets better? A federal government minister is disagreeing with the federal government. Nigeria's telecommunications minister thinks it is a bad idea to introduce a new telecoms tax. So look at this on the program today. And as usual, we have in-depth analysis of the headlines contained in today's national dailies. That's a beautiful, beautiful Wednesday morning. We're back with a breakfast on Plus TV Africa. My name is Kofi Bartels and of course we have a bumper packed program for you with information, discussions and interesting analysis lined up to give you a very good start to your day. And this is a place to be Plus TV Africa. You get it better. Now where else once again you're welcome. We have a top trending segment to begin with and of course as we go on we'll get to the other things. We earlier advertised them and what we do on this segment is basically look at what is generating conversation and debate on the social space and we bring it on television. Now we start with what's going on in all your state, whether judiciary staff in all your state on Tuesday complied with a sit at home directive issued by the judiciary staff union of Nigeria, Jusson for short. That's what they called. Now why is Jusson on strike? Now Jusson is on strike because of the delay in the payment of their July salary is an interesting one. The delay in the payment of their July salary. Though your state, Jusson public relations officer, Mr. Obafunshou, Obafunshou rather Okulaja told the news agency of Nigeria that the decision for the action was resolved after the union's congress held on Friday. So they had a congress and a meeting held on Friday. Then this led to the union going on strike. He said the workers had not received their July salary while all the government agencies were paid on July 25, all right, while all the government agencies were paid on July 25. That's before the end of the month. These workers had not received their salary. Of course some would say it's early days yet, it's not yet the middle of the month so maybe they should calm down and wait for some time before they go on strike. But no, they are not waiting. They actually feel that it's time for the government to pay them. All right, so they're on strike and this will mean that the courts in your state will be on hold because of course the judiciary workers are the ones that make the courts tick. All right, judiciary staff, you know, the clerks and all, but if you want to file your case, you know, and everything you have to go through them to make sure everything is on point before you proceed to the court. But sometimes it's possible for the courts to have skeletal services. So let's see if the courts in your state will be able to hold. This is what he said, quote, our members do not have money to come to work. Our members do not have money to come to work. So we directed them to sit at home. Juicen is yet to receive the July salary in the state. And this delay in salary payment has been like since December 2021. So it's probably been on and off since last year. And they probably have had enough. And they said, now, if you don't go on strike, this will not go pay also. And they have gone on strike. This, of course, is the responsibility of the state government. This is all your state judiciary. OK, so it's not about the federal government, just to be clear. He said that, quote, we call on the state government to put us on the priority list as a third arm of government. If the executive and legislative arms are given priority, then the judiciary should also be given priority. The sit at home strike will continue until we receive a July salary. Of course, in some states, the government to everything they can to make the judiciary comfortable. Because you don't want anything going wrong there, you know what I mean. And, of course, it affects the generality of society. Everybody, every sector is able to go to court. The gates of the courts are locked. The gates of the judiciary complex are locked. Then it affects the entire society, including government. I'm sure that if the governor of your state had a court case that was really important in terms of his political future or political destiny or something that affected him, these courts will be open. So let's see. The state governor is a proactive governor, quite a young man, and relatively young compared to the other governors. And I've seen him flying in Israel, trying to look at farms and everything to see whether he can import them to your state. So it seems to be a forward-thinking individual. And hopefully, this would not go beyond 24 to 48 hours. Like Abacha has said, anything that goes beyond 24 to 48 hours government is complicit. But regarding this anyway, that's a security code. So let's see. Let's hopefully this will change. Let's quickly go to Kaduna and look at the Kaduna Abuja hostage situation. The those who were kidnapped on the plane train that was headed from Abuja to Kaduna in Kaduna State some time ago, March 28, to be precise. The fourth batch of released kidnappers have found their way back to freedom. All right, this is a fourth batch. We had the first batch, second batch, the third batch. Recently, after a video emerged of the terrorists flogging the kidnapped victims. And now the fifth batch has come on. You can see the gentleman, five on your screen. The one to your extreme left or to the extreme right is a professor. His name is Mustafa Umar Imam, or you can call it him Mustafa Imam. He's an associate professor in the Usman Danfordio University teaching hospital, all right. And he spoke. He is the one who was said had a gunshot. He had a gunshot injury. And the news filtered out that he was wounded by a bullet. So he's one of those that was released. He's sitting down. He looks OK, all right. And you can see there's a logo at the background. That is the office of the Desert Herald. Now the publisher of the Desert Herald, Tukrumamu, has been in talks with them. He's the one in the middle there, OK? He's been in talks with the terrorists to try and negotiate on behalf of some families. And he had spoken to the press before, saying, I'm talking to the terrorists to try and see how I can secure the release of some of our brothers and sisters who are in captivity. So he is the one with them. It's not clear if any of the victims, released victims, paid money to secure their freedom, all right. So that's what we see. The names of the gentlemen released are, like I said, Professor Mustafa Imam. He is a medical doctor associate professor with the Usman Danfordio University teaching hospital. We have Akibu Lawaw, Abu Bakr Ahmed, Rufai Buktar Shuaibu, and Sidi Aminu Sharif. These are those who were released. Of course, so far 37 victims have regained their freedom. So far 37 victims have regained their freedom from the den of the kidnappers. And I mean, we hope that to have more of them being released, of course, details have emerged of the gentlemen and ladies and the youngsters who have been in detention so far. You know, he had some things to say, Professor Mustafa Imam had some things to say about their experiences in detention. You know, he said that he was a de facto doctor in the camp of the terrorists, treating the terrorists and even the victims as well. He said one of the ladies there almost died because she had simple malaria and there was no drug to treat her, she went into coma. So as a medical doctor, he had to manage the situation. It's very harrowing. I don't know if we're ready to play that clip if we will listen to the doctor and what he said, you know, to the press, you know, at that office of the Desert Herald. Let's go there and listen to him. I am Associate Professor of Medical Medical School with the Department for the Investing Supervisory. I am one of those that were adopted by people around me on the 28th of March. I'm on the train that left Abuja to Akademi. The situation is really, really dire and terrible. Okay, can you say about your experience? My experience is really terrible. I mean, you can see, I just finished 7 years, 10 years of joy that I've been. I mean, I have really gone back and I'm going to be reunited with my family very soon. Now, frankly, it's not the experience I've been through. The last four months was not something I, like even my enemy to go through because, I mean, there was, there was very food. I mean, for people to eat, we were hungry for the last three and a half months. I mean, we were quite surprised in the last two weeks. We actually, I mean, they started bringing a food stock that we made and we, we were actually okay in the last two weeks. But then for the first three and a half months, we were actually very, very, very hungry. And when I say very hungry, this is an understatement. I mean, there were days that we go and we just eat it once. We eat once every on certain days. And we just imagine there are children that are there every one year and we each have it just every one year and 90% feeding once a day. Just do the math, just do the math. I mean, when you talk about medication, I literally was the medical doctor on camp. I was treating the captives as well as the bandits or I would say Boko Haram, Boko Haram members. There wasn't medication to the very frank with you. I mean, we heard on the radio somebody was claiming that they would bring medication whenever it was needed. There wasn't any medication on camp. I mean, we could go days, there was a day that the particular lady Boko Haram malaria. So malaria, you could treat malaria with a hundred, with 1,000 lira. But this lady literally was going into coma because there wasn't. Interesting development there. And of course, it's funny to see that these released kidnapped victims or kidnapped persons are able to give press statements. That video was shared by Tukrumamu, the publisher of The Desert Herald. But it's interesting to note and to see that they can give interviews and they can speak to the press and to the public and tell what happened while doing captivity and all that. You don't see any activity around them. You don't see any, there's nothing. There's no police, no security, nobody around. I remember one of the episodes of kidnap in Kaduna State where some students who were kidnapped in the Baptist High School and the parents did all they could to get the children free. Now, when they were brought out, the security authorities or agencies that were present wanted to forcefully take them to government house. And the parents protested and said, no. And then they spoke to the press and said, we were the ones who paid for them to be released. And it seems that like now, the government of Kaduna State may have given up because at least at that time, they were interested in being the face of all of this, because of having an interaction with the families to say, okay, how are we going to go about it? Now the families are the ones, media organizations publish just like the Desert Herald and the ones who are presenting these people to the public. Where is the Kaduna State government in all of this? Where is the federal government in all of this? Where are the security agencies in all of this? So is it that they get out, they go somewhere, they release the video with very important information, maybe some of it should not even be put out. It's just handed over to the security agencies and then they can use that to do their work. They release this information, they speak to the press and then they go home. They go home and they, I mean, they're on television, they're on radio, they're on the papers, they're on the internet, which is okay. But where is the government in all of this? It's a question to be asked. Where is the government in all of this? Has government also given up on rescuing these persons? I mean, the last gentleman who came out said a lot, gave a hiring account of what was going on there. And this gentleman who has come out has also given a hiring account of what's going on there. And he says that he wouldn't wish this on his enemy. We know those who are in captivity. These terrorists consistently release videos showing the allocation, showing where they are and the kidnapped victims are and not a single person, not even one has been rescued by the government. It may be possible for the government to rescue, maybe not because of the circumstances and the safety of those who have been kidnapped, but at least let us see something happening. I mean, the last sets that were released, the man who came out, who was in the viral video, who was looking so lean and malnourished, he said that the families had tried to go get them out and they were stopped by the government. But this time they were able to find their way behind the backs of the government. So, I mean, is this at a loss cost? And someone asking, is it that the authorities do not know where these people are? If the families can communicate with them and can go meet them and pick up their relatives, if the people like the publisher of the Desert Herald, Tokurumamuken, be in constant communication with these terrorists and negotiating with them. And if these individuals are coming up with the information, knowing where they are and how they moved and all that, how impossible is it for? The authorities, the intelligence community, the security agencies to track them, at least say we know where you are, we are watching them, we are tracking them and we know what to do. For now it seems like the government has given up and is not interested. It seems in securing the release of these individuals, you know, it's sad. I mean, private citizens, private Nigerians who are not in government, who are not security, in the security sector, have been able to use geolocation devices and technology using the videos that have been put out to find and to point out exactly where these terrorists are. Instead of people not in government, just with their phones, looking at the videos and using some technology, some application software with the videos that have been released to say, hey, if you do this A, B, C, D, E, you can find and trace them. Lo and behold, the government can't even do that. It's a very sad situation. Let's move on and let's hope for the best. I think if you have a family member there, you need to see how you can get money to pay the terrorists and get them out. And this fuels the conspiracy theory of some people in Nigeria that the government or people in government or people in some positions of authority are complicit in all that is going on. You're left to make your mind up whether you believe those theories or not. Now, this is a very sensible one because it involves a media practitioner. But yesterday, I saw that my colleague on another television station, AriseTV, Rufai Yoseni was trending. And I said, which Rufai do this time? Who is he harassing today? And it turns out that he had an altercation with a police team when he was accosted while driving on a BRT lane. The BRT lane is what you see, for those who are watching, it's not in Nigeria or in Lagos, it's what you see on the Lagos highways. It's reserved for the BRT. BRT is a bus rapid transport. And these are public mass transit buses that are provided by the Lagos State government and are run by a government-owned company. By a government-owned company or companies because you have about two of them. I think it's also could be described as a public-private partnership. We want to call it that. So these lanes are reserved, like you have in other countries, in Lagos, Nigeria's largest city, so that these buses can easily wade through the traffic. And they are the only ones allowed on those lanes. No other person, no individual, no government authority, nobody has a right of way on those lanes. They are strictly reserved for the bus rapid transport teams. So the policemen in Lagos said accosted and stopped Rufai Oseni when he was seen on the BRT lane, allegedly on the BRT lane, and an altercation, a verbal altercation ensued between Rufai Oseni, a popular television presenter in Nigeria and these police officers. Let's listen. Someone on other scene took a video which has also gone viral. So let's listen to what transpired and we'll be right back. Let's go. So, you know, quite a number of people, especially on Twitter and Instagram and even Facebook have been commenting on this and some saying, hey, Rufai should be an example of morality, you're a journalist like myself and you're found in this situation, you're found in this such a scenario shouldn't be while you're on the BRT lane. I mean, if you wanna look at some of the comments, I'll read some of them, you know, some were saying, hey, Rufai should be arrested, he should be imprisoned, you know, he's a journalist. That's how they do. Some were saying, oh, that's how journalists do. You sit on television and then they blast government, they blast of authorities, they talk as if they are holier than thou. Look at him, you know, and all that and all that is what some people were saying, you know, some body sharing some quotes by Charlie Boyle and all that. You know, he was saying he'll call the governor, he'll call the governor. And some people were saying, you know, if you don't know the governor, then you are in trouble. Some saying Rufai ran to Twitter for sympathy from deadly lions and he was cooked like a father, you know. Et cetera, et cetera, some people saying that, oh, those who are criticizing him are members of a particular political party because he's always criticizing the government or he seemed to be asking the hard questions. Let's call it that. I think that's the best way to put it, you know. And a lot of other things like that were put out. So anyway, Rufai was taken to court. I mean, you can hear him on the video saying that he'll call the governor, he'll call the governor, I'll call the governor. You know, so people are saying, I mean, does it mean that we who don't know the governor, you're better than us? Why should you say that? Are you not also a human being in Nigeria like us who should be held accountable under the law? We remember when fascia lacquer and minister of works and housing was governor of Lagos State. He had one time or the other stopped security operators from using the BRT and arrested them. Especially I remember one customs officer who was stopped and arrested by governor, the then governor, fascia la who was the one who started these BRT, these BRT lanes. So people are saying you broke traffic rules, you should be punished. And indeed, indeed, I think a popular Twitter user, Dipo, is known as Agbeni Dipo, said that Rufai is just embarrassing himself. I've had points on my license. I've had to attend courses to avoid getting a point. It doesn't, it's not in Nigeria or Agbeni or some other country. It says I've paid several bustling tickets. Does that make you a criminal? This pretentious and sainthood attitude for social media is just lacking. Another person, Maurice Moyer, who's also popular on Twitter, said, oh, APC coming after Rufai because of traffic offenses is laughable. He admitted to breaking the traffic law will pay all necessary fines. And that's that. All right, and the fine is just a 70K. Indeed, indeed, yes indeed, the fine is 70K because Rufai was taken to court yesterday. He was taken to court. He was found guilty of contravening the Lagos State Transportation Law 2018. And he was subsequently fined the statutory 70,000 error. He made the payment immediately after which his vehicle was released to him, after which his vehicle was released to him. All right, and he's been able to put up sort of an explanation as to why he broke the traffic law and drove on the BRT lane. All right, he was on Twitter and Instagram, put out a video saying that he was a traffic diversion. All right, but I also want to quote him. You know, it's better to quote him. He said quote, during a Twitter Live, I think a Twitter Live video, I said I will call the government and I have the right to say I'll call the governor of a state because he is the chief security officer. That's what Rufai said. He said quote, if I didn't feel treated otherwise, I have a right to say that. The only part I apologize for was when I use expletives. He said bastards. He said I apologize for calling them bastards. But I will call the governor. I have every right to say that. He said also in that live video that the circulating video did not capture where his car was forcefully taken away from him by the police. Rufai said that the incident happened after the incident happened rather. Some police officers followed him to the BRT lane where his car was stopped because me and the police official went, he said, this is what I'm quoting him now, he says because me and the police officials went through the place where the BRT lane incident happened. And when we got there today, he confirmed that there was supposed to be a diversion around them. He said there was supposed to be a diversion around them. And I showed him where the thing happened. He also said that before he made a settlement with the police on Tuesday and on Monday, the police pointed a gun at him and forcefully took his car away. So that wasn't captured in the video. He says that I kept on asking, where are they taking my car to? None of them talked. I kept asking, where are they taking my car to? None of them talked. So he said the car belongs to his friend and he called him to explain. I called my friend and he sent some police escorts to come and pick me. Rufai said that he also wanted to say that by the time the escort had came, that he, Rufai, had been brutalized by the police. Since my car's been forcefully taken from me, I was upset. I did not go to the police officer because he had thrown some tantrums and said I should do my worst. He said, then I said I will call the governor and the right to say I will call the governor of the state because he is the chief security officer. So Rufai, number one, given reasons why I said he would call the governor number two, explained that there seemed to be a diversion in that area. Number three, saying that there was some parts of the incident that were not captured in the video that a gun was pointed at him. He also said his friend's vehicle was forcefully taken from him. That's what he said. And number four, he apologized for the use of the worst but he said that he will not back down on saying he called the governor because governor is his chief security officer. So it seems like there's some part of this episode that was not captured on video, maybe an altercation, all right? And of course, the pointing of the gun at Rufai. I know Rufai as a logical human being. He's not somebody who acts irrationally, otherwise he wouldn't be in a position he is. And when I first saw this, I said what could have happened to make this man this angry? Because I personally have been in a similar situation before what personally, what could have happened to make this man act like this? So he's given his side of the story. He said that there was a diversion around the area. And then when the policeman accosted him, they didn't treat him well. He said he was brutalized, the gun was pointed at him and the forcefully took his car and that's why he said he would call the governor. But he apologized for calling the ambassadors and using the words nonsense and all that. So I mean, that's that's that. But of course it's been turned to a political issue on Twitter. Yes, someone said, no, because of his, his heart stands, you know, the style of journalism that he practices holding government to account and all that, which is his constitutional duty. Maybe the APC folks are going after him and criticizing him on Twitter and while some are coming to his rescue, you know, but this is purely an apolitical issue. You know, the excesses of our police officers, we know that also, you know, meant to be in a B actually now, is having a diversion enough, all right, for you to be on the BRT lane with others using that lane as well. You can see in the video, some of the cars were moving, you can see them moving there. So what was going on? However, personally, before I can jump to conclusion, I'll need to talk to Rufi, all right, and also to the people there. But he has said that he didn't do this intentionally. There seemed to be some diversion around there. And I think that's that. It's a, it's another interesting occurrence in our social space. Got people talking. I think it's over with the man at speed. It's fine, he's apologized. And we can move on. We can move on. All right, my name is Kofi Bartel. So we have to take a pause at this time. We'll return to look at what the papers are saying today. We have our guests standing by. Please stay with us.