 Anambra governorship election is not yet over, as Professor Chaus Soludo, Valentino Zibou and Senator Andu ban others get ready for supplementary elections in Ihala local government area of the state, today from 10am to 4pm. And also the former chairman of the Defund Pensions Reformed Task Team of the leadership may now has been convicted and sentenced to 80 years in prison for laundering about 171 million nile. We're glad to have you join us on a beautiful Tuesday morning of the breakfasts right here on Place TV Africa. I am Messi Bopu. Once again, thank you for joining us. I am Usagi Obon looking like it's going to be very, very interesting Tuesday with the conversations that we have for you this morning. Thanks for joining us and we hope that you had a very beautiful night rest. Welcome to a new day for the people in Anambra state. The elections continue. It's not over yet. We would have expected that we would be talking about a new governor of Anambra by, you know, at least or at most yesterday morning Monday, but seeing the way things have played out, you know, the elections were scheduled for Saturday eventually have continued all the way till tomorrow, today rather, where there's going to be another supplementary election. We hope that the elections today go smoothly and peacefully without any other hitches that, you know, need further elections. You know, I hope that we don't continue number of elections all the way to the end of November. Hopefully that doesn't happen. Just to elect one governor, I hope that it doesn't continue because there's so much, you know, and it's, you know, it's getting tiring having to deal with all these. We spoke about this yesterday, you know, how it's embarrassing or disappointing that a whole of the local government area didn't have any election for an election that had been prepared for the last four years. We eventually got to election day and, you know, they still had these issues. So we hope, you know, we'll, of course, we'll bring in you further details as the day goes by and it's one of the things that we'll be talking about this morning also in our discussions on the program. Well, let's first of all start with our top trending stories, Abdul Rashid Meina. You must know that name from the pension reform tax team. He has been accused or he was accused of, you know, of stealing or, you know, misappropriating billions of Naira. Yesterday, of course, a court in Abu Jha eventually sentenced him to eight years' imprisonment for one of the charges. I think it's a combination of almost about 20 years that are meant to run concurrently. 21 years. Yes, that are meant to run concurrently. And of course, some people have said this is once again another victory in the fight against corruption. Sadly, there's also those who have complained about how long this has taken because this court case has been running for years now. That there's a time when he also absconded and left the country and then he was rearrested someplace and brought back. His son also is also in custody and of course also faces charges. So we'll see how this turns out. There's a little bit of drama yesterday with the DSS and the prison officials arguing about who, you know, takes control or takes custody of Abdul Rashid Meina after he was sentenced to eight years in prison. Well, for me, definitely to those who are very concerned about how far this process has actually taken now. If you want to remember 2013, you say Abdul Rashid Meina, the issue of corruption in the pension. He was dismissed at a time, fast fought 2015 and then he was declared wanted by the EFCC and fast fought again to 2016. At some point or there about 2016, 2019 or at some point, you also hear, oh, he's been cleared of all the charges. And he actually asked for an apology from the National Assembly and the country saying, oh, it was just all of that drama. He was falsely accused. And in 2019 as well, there were also stories saying that his posters were also out, you know, vying for governorship candidates and all of that. And at some point also, he was recalled back to the civil service. I mean, for me, that has been very dramatic. And, you know, the attorney general of the Federation at the time confirmed that, yes, he was back and, you know, he was not all only back, but he was promoted. And then he was ending salaries. So it's this one dramatic corruption case. And let's not forget the party this time. A lot of persons were really concerned because this current administration led by President Mohammed Bahri is out for, you know, the fight against corruption. And some persons thought that, you know, with the civil service in the drama is really going to be very dramatic. So it is one case that is actually, you know, being back and forth. Now, let's even stay with the path that he was recalled back to service. How do you recall someone who's been declared wanted by the EFCC? At some point, he said he's been cleared. So how do we explain all of that at this point in time now? And to the fact that he started vying for whether he vied or maybe you had people pushing his interest, you know, it doesn't really make sense. I'm the one. And for me, you also have some other school of thought saying eight years after all that's been done, we're looking at approximately two billion era. And you want to juxtapose that with all of the pains that those who are in the civil service have actually gone through, I mean, the suffering, the agony, the pain. And some persons would have probably lost their lives. Is eight years, you know, that judgment, is it enough? Will this judgment actually help in the fight against corruption? Because this is some of the argument. Don't you think we're sending, you know, a signal out there to say, OK, it's OK. You just say you probably do eight years, which has already been counted according to it. So he's already done two years already and then it probably has, you know, six years. Well, I mean, I would agree. I would, you know, understand, you know, those sentiments, mostly because, but it's very dependent on what the law says. You're not going to give a person, you know, 200 years if the law says, you know, that the person gets five years. But is it applicable to everyone? That's the question, because you find some other persons who are not highly placed in the society, given some kind of sentence. I probably might not be able to mention specific, but, you know, looking at the amount involved. It doesn't seem like it applies to everyone. You know, but I would always say, and, you know, with these type of arguments, I would always say it depends on your, your, the prosecution and your defense team. If you get a good defense team, you know, they somehow, somewhere able to get you, you know, favorable time. You know, best case scenarios. But there are other times when the, you know, the justice system actually does go ahead and give you a time that is very, very, very suitable for the crime that you've committed on. And if the prosecution team is able to prove their case beyond reasonable doubt, because that's what Justice Abangia is saying here, that the EFC has been able to prove their case beyond reasonable doubt. But I would agree, you know, with anyone whose sentiments say that they don't think that eight years would really be enough time to be spent in jail for someone who stole, stolen, stolen. Well, has been accused and found guilty of sealing billions of Naira that were meant to be, you know, money for pensions for, you know, for Nigerian workers. He should refund it. Well, is it, I mean, not just to have, if you don't have. No, you have to refund it. That's it. That sentence. I don't care. But that's the idea behind jail, because if you can refund it, then they may not need to send you to jail. No, you don't have to refund it and do the time. Not every time, you know, that, you know, those forms are still available to, you know, for a person to refund. And I've never really agreed with the idea of a plea bargain, because it came into, I think it was during Abangia's time. I believe that the whole idea of plea bargain came into Nigeria's, you know, system, where someone would be accused of stealing billions and billions of Naira and buying properties across the country and across the world. And then when they are eventually caught and, you know, during their caught case, then there's something about plea bargain where they give back some of the money that they stole, which a lot of times is really just a fraction of the money that they stole. They let go of some of the houses that they bought, you know, and eventually they walk, you know, and we've seen a couple of those cases which were, which I thought were very, very, very bad example of, you know, the fight against corruption. I would also mention, you know, and I've said this before that when we see cases like this, yes, Abdul Rashid Mayna is the one whose name has been called multiple times, but I think it's also important that, you know, we do not let our system fail us, or we fix the system to a stage where we get to punish other people who were facilitators to this crime, because he didn't walk into any bank and gather all these funds and put them in his gun and was gone, run away. He didn't take two billion Naira from any suitcase or from any vault. These funds were, these crimes were facilitated by people in the civil service also that worked under him, that worked in the same office with him, that signed off on certain payments, that signed off on certain transfers to certain bank accounts and on all that. And so he should not be the only one whose, you know, fingered here. There's many, I believe, there's a couple of other people who were also, you know, facilitators to this crime that should be arrested, and it's the same thing with governors, with deputy governors, with speakers, with House of Assembly members, whoever it is. When you hear that a governor misappropriated seven billion Naira, you know, in Abia state or what not, he did not, you know, by himself walk into the state coffers and pack all that money. It also brings us to, you know, another point that's been raised that he probably might just be taking the 404, a lot of blessings because, like you have mentioned, he wouldn't have actually acted, you know, all by himself. Now, another thing that stood out for me with that court judgment is the fact that according to, you know, what the court actually held, it's not possible being a civil servant. It's not possible to have all of that, looking at his earnings, his salaries and everything altogether. You know, all of this funds found in the accounts, 300 billion, 1.5 billion and all of that. You know, it's not possible that he should end all of that. So I think that this is just one out of so many cases. There are a lot, I mean, there's a lot of corruption that's ongoing or ongoing in the civil service. And I'm thinking that, you know, that we need to pay attention. But however, some people would say is, you know, better late than none or never. And it's better that we have a judgment than not have a judgment because I felt like, I feel like, and I also felt at some point that, you know, it's a hopeless situation because we're not heading anywhere. At some point, it was just in 2021 that, you know, the court actually had a knot to go ahead, you know, with this case. And finally, it's come to an end. It's taking a lot of time, but eventually, you know, this is what he gets. And, you know, like you said, you know, it's better that it comes late than it doesn't come at all. But some people would also argue justice delayed is, you know, you know, justice denied. We'll see how, you know, this also turns out, you know, and I personally don't think that this should also be recorded as a win in the fight against corruption. This is really just a court case, you know, that, you know, eventually found someone guilty. It's not a win in any way because corruption is still rife and it's still thriving and it's still like selling very well across Nigeria's, you know, public space. You know, and it's everywhere that you can smell it in every office that you can imagine. And so we've not really won the fight against corruption. Neither, you know, in my personal opinion, are we winning in any way. This is just one case. Anyway, moving away from the sheet may now we move over to the fight against insecurity. We're a sergeant in the army. His name Solomon Tossobo has been arrested by the Nigerian Air Force Army. And of course, is being charged with assisting with the in the attacking in the attack against the NDA that happened sometime this year. I think it happened on the 24th of August. If you remember when the Nigerian Defense Academy was attacked in Kadunata letter the loss of two military officers and a kidnap of one of them. A sergeant in the Nigerian Air Force has been arrested and been charged, you know, has been a party to that crime. I think we have a clips. I don't know if we have clips of pictures to quickly share with you of that person. Which, you know, for me, this is something that I'm also I'm happy about personally because of the fact that we've every now and then mentioned that the fight against insecurity also has to include the possibility that they are insiders and they are people who work in the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Air Force that are insiders and you know, you know, give out information to these terrorist assist these terror groups with arms and ammunition and whatnot. Yes, that's that's the picture of him. His name is Torsobo Solomon, Sergeant Torsobo Solomon. And he has been, of course, arrested over the NDA attack. Yeah, but you also have the fact that the Air Force is also saying, yeah, we did not arrest the officer over, you know, the NDA attack. That's actually, you know, in latest development. So it leaves us at this point where we're wondering whose report should we believe. Now, some concerns have also been raised as much as one would say, yes, you can't really have all of this kind of attack happening without an insider giving all of the information. So there would be some collaboration. Now, it's really, really worrisome. This is actually a force. Let's even assume that that's something to go by. Okay. Isn't it, you know, really scary that those who should protect us and look out for us are the ones, you know, giving out the attack. I mean, but I feel like there's a lot of work that needs to be done in the entire system. We need to begin to look at the recruitment process and all of that. We don't just have to, you know, have everyone come in. We have to have a process that would be able to screen thoroughly. I'm sure that we might not have, you know, a hundred percent. We're not expecting to have a hundred percent, you know, process, but whatever. However, I meant to say it's important that we pay attention to the recruitment process and all of that. But if this is something to go by, it's really, really worrisome. And to also mention some of the consents of Niger, the thing you can't trust is government. Anything that comes from them. And so how, where do we stand at this point in time when you say you can't trust anything that comes out of this government's mouth? Because every time they see a thing, even if a policy is about to be implemented or a policy is being stated, people begin to question what government is about to do. So that thing is across. We hope that due investigation will be done, proper investigation. So we get to the end of this. I also mentioned that the Air Force has also debunked the arrest. You know, so there's a little bit of controversy or confusion concerning this story over the arrest of this officer. The Nigerian Air Force has debunked, even if the papers carry it everywhere, saying that he has been arrested, Solomon Tosobal, Sajen Solomon Tosobal. But of course a quick update says that they are debunking the arrest of this officer. So we hope that there is some clarification as to what exactly is going on over there with Solomon Tosobal. If he truly has been arrested or it is the details concerning the reason for his arrest, that are a little bit controversial. But I guess we'll get to find out over time. Of course, remember that we're having a very, you know, full plate this morning on our discussions. We're also going to be talking about a little bit of crisis in emo state where the speaker has been impeached by of course other members of the House. It says about six members of the House went ahead to impeach the speaker. And this is in reaction to an impeachment of the deputy speaker that happened sometime in July. It's a messy situation in the emo state House of Assemblies. One of the things that we'll be talking about this morning. But before we get there, off the press comes up next where we have a quick review of the stories making headlines across Nigeria this morning. And we'll be joined by our guest, Mr. Chris Wandu. This morning on The Breakfast. Stay with us.