 Former Senate President Ikke Ikwe Madu has been charged alongside his wife, Beatrice Mwanek Ikwe Madu with conspiracy to arrange and or facilitate a travel of another person with a view to exploitation. We'll look at this on the breakfast this morning. Also on the breakfast, we'll bring you a sports update with the sports journalists. And don't forget, we'll also go through today's newspapers and analyzing the stories of the day. Good morning to you. We're back with the breakfast and plus TV Africa. It's a beautiful Friday morning. We're reaching you live from our studios on Victoria Island Lagos. My name is Kofi Bartels. And I am Messi Boko. Thank you for joining us this beautiful morning. Right, Messi, Medidi's looking bright and sparkly this morning. I almost had to come with shades, you know, sunshades so your brightness doesn't blind me. A few are very flattered, but that's fine. Fantastic, fantastic. Like they say, new day, new drama. And of course, I'm sure that not a few of you would have seen the videos trending around on social media. And of course, a trending segment is what we usually start with. We'll look at some of these stories making the rounds especially on social media. This particular video showed what looked like a bizarre scene, you know, for me initially when I saw it, I thought maybe there was some sort of drama being acted in the Supreme Court of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Maybe you had some, some of the Nollywood actors or actresses going there should have seen. You know, so I said, ah, who is this actor who is in a lawyer's outfit? You know, what movie should we be expecting to come out? Only for me to see an interview and a gentleman who seems to be a lawyer, actually is a lawyer, was speaking and explaining himself. He's a human rights lawyer, Markham, a chief, Markham Amoy Robo. He wore a traditional outfit, you know, sort of looking like a juju priest to the Supreme Court of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. All right, so he caused a stare when he wore that African traditional worship as a tire. I don't know how to call the African traditional worship as a tire because I mean, some poor wear suit like me, but they're traditional worshipers. He looked more like a juju priest and you can see his, there are two feathers on his wig. I don't know if they're eagle feathers or chicken feathers, whichever is their feathers. He has a kalabash with cowries, you know, like a gourd, sort of a gourd, I think that's what we should call it. Hanging on a red strip of cloth around his neck, he used a chalk, this white local chalk to draw a circle around his right eye and he has instead of his trousers, his black trousers, he has a red cloth, you know, which he tied around his waist. Also on his arms he has some cowries, his hands, his wrists, and on his ankles he has anklets and you could near to hear the sound of the anklets we're making. I can imagine that the panel of judges at the Supreme Court were not slow to finish their sitting when they saw this man walk majestically into the chamber. Anyway, so this was yesterday, Friday, June 17. No, this was last week, Friday, June 17, it was reported. And this is not unlinked with this story to many people that the Supreme Court had granted the use of hijab by female Muslim students in non-government-owned schools in Lagos State. And at a court issue this judgment following an appeal by the Lagos State government in the case versus Asiat Abdul Karim. So this lawyer was barefoot, you know, clad in this outfit. At the end of the session he addressed journalists, you know, who were keen to know why he addressed it in such a way. And what he said was that following the decision of the Supreme Court and the contents of the Nigerian constitution as contained in section 38, which allows for religious expression, freedom of expression of religious beliefs, that he was exercising his own right, his own right to practice his belief even in clothing, to anywhere he wishes to to. We have a guest joining us this morning and we'll be looking at this before we move on to the next trending story. I'd like to say a very good morning to a legal practitioner, Ivan Sufeli, who's standing by. Ivan Sufeli, good morning to you and thank you very much for your time. All right, so this is quite a bizarre one. Oh, okay. Ivan Sufeli is there. Yes, nice to have you. Good morning to you. Join us, yes. Good morning, I hear you. All right, can you understand that the public, some section of the public, they need to press, linking what the chief and lawyer has done to what happened in the Supreme Court in the ruling of Friday, 17 June? Yes. Well, the lawyer, what the lawyer was an expert in protests. The one that was not made express by him, himself, expression, or expression. But he's not to be happy with many lawyers. Okay. Because we're going to have, okay, the scope of his own principles. Well, like he rightly mentioned, I mean. Yes, since we're having some some issues with the gentleman lawyer. Yes, we're hoping that we're able to. No, this led to a dispute where a young lady was caught in the web, between that case was caught through the process. Only for the Supreme Court. And that you can wear. And all that, that is the fundamental right of a couple slated in section 48. I don't know as you look up at the Supreme Court. No. I don't know what it means. You are in the army. F4. Every other discipline. Which still doesn't have to be appropriate to take up a traditional way. And other religious or regale. So they have placed a proper climate. It is this barbarism. I will do just this court. The. Is seems to be deroding the. The. Professional. And. Of institutions. I'm a professional. Of course. What is my. Demonstrated here is an. Of. Of. Of. Of. Of. Of. Of. For. The. And that is what nobody could. At a Supreme Court. This could not. Because they know that this. Very big trap. Make any other. Other case we'll see. And that case will be. We ask lawyers. We have to run on the judgment of the Supreme Court. as president. So whatever the Supreme Court says, that doesn't belong to people who are not... Are there consequences for his action? I mean, we need to get, you know, away from that. We understand the points that you've actually established. He is actually protesting the judgment and the ruling of the Supreme Court as regards the hijab wearing in Lagos State for students, that particular judgment. And he's saying that he will not just... this would not just be his own dressing, but he would ensure that his friends, members of his family, quintents, and his children would also be dressed like that to different... there are different schools. Right. That's what he said. But do you think there's any consequences? Are there consequences for his action? Consequences. The consequences because the legal promotion is a norm to have established code of dress. Okay. Established code of dress. The Supreme Court will deliver a judgment regarding the Secondary School, that will move in the Secondary School. Well, the lawyer in question may have put on a broad expression. That's the thing to do with the expression, not rights, as it depends on the constitution. Then the court can also... that's what is important to be happening here. But I think it should have... it should have consequences, because the tax consequence, that might be opening the code for... okay. For people to know what they're doing, and get a look at the pipe, and maybe put the people on top of the thing on the pipe and not get it. But I think the best to come, for those people that would like to protect, and then who wants to make a statement about what is the good thing I've done. We are going to spend more on this. And we'll be caught on the judiciary in a few minutes. All right. Evane Sofali, thank you so much for being part of the show this morning. We need to move away right now. Thank you. We appreciate your thoughts on the issue. Thank you. All right. That's it. On the issue of having the legal practitioner appearing in court in his traditional attire. And that might just come as... a lot of people have seen that has been very sarcastic. While still looking at our top trending conversation. The federal government leaves ban on international basketball competition. And I love the... whoever is handling the Twitter handle for the Tigers. They just come up with a lot of comic memes and very funny posts. The federal government decided to suspend a Niger's basketball team from international competition. Now, according to the report, this is following the intervention of some stakeholders. It feels like a lot of persons are very excited about it. I mean, we saw reactions from Nigerians being excited. But the big question still remains if, you know, the energy, the morale for this players have actually not dropped. Because we also saw comments prior to that time where they said, hey, this will be the last time whatever come up and play for Nigeria. I really don't know what the spirit will be for this players now, the basketball players at the international level. Do they still have their spirit very high? Do we think that their spirit has been crushed? And do you think that there's standard chance going to the game, you know, to win it with all of this that has happened? It's another question that a lot of persons have been asked. And that's a good thing to see that, you know, the federal government have conceded, you know, decided to, you know, consider the decision to lift this particular ban, which has gotten some persons been on the other side of the divide. But how does this impact on the players? Do they still have their spirit very high? Is there a tendency that if they get into the games, they would definitely, you know, win the game with all that has happened? Kofi? Yes, indeed. This is an interesting one. You know that we've had some, some infighting in the Nigerian basketball federation. I mean, Nigeria has been rising, you know, in terms of basketball. You look at the male basketball team in the performance at the World Cup and the Olympic Games. You look at the female basketball team also doing their best to match up to what the males have been doing and also perform well as well in doing tremendously well. The, the, the Tigress, which is what the female basketball team is concerned now. This infighting in the Nigerian basketball federation is what may have led the federal government to say we're, we're drawing where we're, we're going to just, you know, ask everyone to go home, you know, ask everyone to go home and we're going to interfere and make sure we try to maybe probably, you know, solve the problem. And the federal government's way, you know, this is government now solution to the internal wrangling in the Nigerian basketball federation is to, to, to ban or to withdraw Nigeria from all international tournaments. I mean, I personally, and I'm sure a lot of people were elated, you know, when they saw that the Nigerian female national basketball team had qualified for the 2022 women's World Cup build for Sydney, Australia. And, you know, when the federal government said, no, we're going to be, we're drawing all our teams from our international tournaments, you know what it takes for Nigeria to qualify for the World Cup in basketball in a tournament where you have the likes of Angola in a, in a continent, sorry, we have the likes of Angola. You have the likes of Mali, I mean, and you have the likes of Algeria, of Egypt, of Senegal. You know, it is, it is, it is not a bad threat of Nigeria. Like it may be in football or soccer, as some call it, for Nigeria to qualify for the World Cup. It takes a lot for Nigeria to, to, to step ahead of some of these countries like Angola, Senegal and Mali to make it to the World Cup. It takes a lot. And the government just said, you know what, we're going to withdraw the national team from international tournaments. Last month, Sunday Dari, who's the minister of sports and his involvement, had agreed, said President Buhari had agreed to withdraw Nigeria from competing for the next two years in these international tournaments. It sort of reminds you of the biblical story where you have a Solomon with two women saying the child is mine, the child is mine. And what happens is Solomon takes the baby, says, give me a sword. And so I'm going to slice his baby in half. If, if that's what's going to happen, I'll kill. And then the real mother says, oh, please, please, please, please, don't, don't kill the baby. Let the old man have it. And you know, so, so, so this is, this is, I don't know what we're intending to, to, to just spoil everything, everything was cut everything. And of course, a international basketball federation swiftly, mercy, without wasting time, swiftly moved to replace Nigeria. All right. From in, in that tournament, they, they, they replaced Nigeria of the team that Nigeria had beaten to get to that tournament, which happens to be Mali. And now they're telling us that they have rescinded a decision to suspend Nigeria. I mean, it's bizarre, but you know what Nigeria should, should realize from this, this is the kind of people who are running the country for you. All right. There's a kind of, so what, I didn't go to now tell the IBBF to, to take Nigeria back. And if, if you have them take Nigeria back, you know, what, what's the, because you're still at the end of the year, you need to look at the psychological trauma. I mean, the trauma that this probably would have cost this players because at some point we saw a lot of them venting via social media and Twitter. And what have you talking about how they're feeling, how they would never want to be identified with the country in Nigeria. But it brings us back to the issue of saying, Hey, was it even the right thing for the federal government to do? If you have conflict, if you have issues in the system, there are no ways that we can resolve conflict. Do we have to go on a showdown? Because the conflict, I mean, if it feels like the entire country should shut down, it feels like when you have conflict in that situation, that's all just go down and everything is not working because we have conflict. It just shows that at the end of the day, leadership should be able to provide all of this. But like we constantly would say that Nigerians and Nests and democracy, we're growing and we're still growing. We're hoping that we get it right as we, you know, move along. Well, if we're saying that, you know, there should be a shutdown, what sector, what sector of our national society of national life is actually not working? No, no, I'm saying that if we think, I mean, you said that the reason for the, you know, the suspension of government's decision is because of the in-fighting that's going on. And that's conflict. No, no, no, no, the reason for such. The reason why. For the withdrawal of Nigeria from international. Of course, yes, yes. You're saying that you're saying that things are not working. So we're saying that if things are not going on, should everybody, should everybody shut down? Should we all just shut down? Should the entire world shut down? Yes. Because you would never have. The point I was trying to make was that, you know, I mean, the thing that is most not working in this country, the thing that is most not working is government. Yeah. So if they're shutting down, like you're saying, or withdrawing Nigeria from international tournaments because it is in fighting in the basketball federation, then government itself should also be withdrawn from national life. And that's why I'm saying that, you know, the decision was not. Because the country is surviving in spite of government, not because of it, you know. And that's why I'm saying that, you know, as long as, you know, we leave as humans on earth, there would always be conflict. I mean, there would always be a situation. It wasn't a wise decision that government would withdraw. The government would actually withdraw, you know, or say, hey, we're withdrawing our players from the international competition. It's not the best thing to do because you always have a situation. And that's why you have leadership to provide solution and insight to all of these issues. Do you know, do they know what it means to qualify for the basketball world cup? Do they know the benefits that will come to those girls, to Nigerians, to the basketball in Nigeria? Do you know how many teams in the NBA and all the leagues in Europe and in Asia would say, we want Nigerian players? I just think this is just Nigerians should realize the kind of people who are running the country to take such bizarre decisions. It beats my imagination. It does, messy. Let's go on. On the state is in southwest Nigeria. Of course, that state has been in the eye of the storm. A lot of grief and emotion pouring out over the weekend as the about 40 persons who have been killed in our church attack at the St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, you know, were buried. And lots of questions being asked by Nigerians and those who want to see a resolution of the situation. I mean, we can talk about, or we can also talk about Kaduna, where we also have lots of church members also abducted as well. What's been going on? There have been lots of questions. And yesterday, the leader of the Omoteco Corps, or CORE, rather, in the state had announced that, you know, some of the suspects have been arrested. Now, what happened was the Omoteco Corps in Ondo State paraded 71 persons, they said, were arrested for various offenses in Ondo State. And they used that opportunity to hint the public through the press that they also had napped some persons as far as the incident is concerned. In fact, the man you're seeing in white and a walkie-talkie on the chest, on your screen, is the commander of Omoteco in Ondo State. He is a delay. He said that they arrested some suspects linked to the attack on the church. He said weapons and vehicles were recovered in the process of the apprehension. In fact, he said they actually recovered a vehicle that very day is what he says. They came on motorcycles and a golf vehicle. We have successfully recovered the vehicle and will soon arrest all the kids. It was specific when he said a golf vehicle. But some questions being raised by this development. Of course, the press men there were asking, where are the people you said you've arrested? If you're parading 71 suspects for other crimes, where are the people that you say you've arrested? You know, we need more details. What are their names? How many are they? He didn't tell us how many they were. How many are they? Also, word of note, is the fact that just like the last fake news that came out, where it was said that they had arrested some people, the police had to deny again. Giving a lot of work to the police public relations officer in Ondo State, Fumilayo Odunlami, she has had to come out again this time to also say that the Ondo State Police Command has no knowledge of the arrest of suspected terrorists who invaded, attacked and killed worshipers at the St. Francis Catholic Church a few weeks ago. This is what the police is saying. So what's going on? Is it that there is no cooperation between the security agencies in Ondo State? That's another one question to ask. Number two, where lies the power of a motorcycle to arrest and parade suspects in the constitution of Nigeria, the secured architecture? We don't have state police yet, but of course we want to see that there's a prosecution, a recent prosecution of those who killed innocent people in that church. And that's what it is, conversation for another day, but we're saying that for those who were killed, we're hoping that the security agencies will swing into action and these persons will be identified, be made to face the law. And that's what Nigerians are expecting. That's the motion atop trending this morning. We'll take a break when we return. We'll take you straight to the papers this morning, looking at the front pages for national denies. Please stay with us.