 Many Southern leaders backed the call by the region's governors for a national conference. But does a national conference what Nigeria needs? Kidnappers of a deeper life pastor demand a 30 million Naira ransom. And we'll review the papers this morning like we always do, and tell you about two things that happened on this day years back. Welcome to The Breakfast on Plasti, the Africa, I am Annette Felix. And I am Osauge Ogba, bright and early on a Friday morning back to work to, of course, the whole of Nigeria. And in a sense, we may not find that very funny this morning, but everybody needs to go back to work. It's no public holidays today. I have a few people complaining. We've been working all week, alright, so you have no reason to complain. Welcome once again, we have a lot to share with you this morning, numerous, you know, various conversations that we're going to be dealing with. But let's start with what's trending, first of all, across Nigeria today. What's trending, oh my. So, we had David Dedehi, an investigative reporter, just a few days ago to talk about the story he did regarding the, you know, Inno Bong or Moran story about how she went looking for a job and how she was raped and brutally murdered and buried in a shallow grave. So, there's a response to that by the Aqwai Bombs State Governor. He put out a statement through his lawyers demanding that David Dedehi issues a retraction and an apology. That's because of how much, you know, that article implicates the Aqwai Bombs State government and how later tweets he issued, you know, seemed to put a link between the first lady of the state, Ekerity Apabio, and, you know, the hotel where a certain, you know, civil servant in the Nantia Delta Civil Service, Khufri Effyong, had, you know, gone to a liaison with the alleged murderer who is Uduak right now. So, it's just a lot here. It's a one, two, three page statement issued by the lawyers of, you know, Gautul Apabio by Starr Atan Illegal Services. So, they've given him 14 days to issue a retraction and apologize, or, you know, he'll be issued with a lawsuit. First of all, David Dedehi has a wish on to never be afraid of lawsuits, mostly because of the confidence that he, you know, portrays. And of course, he puts out, you know, his personality and his work. So, you know, I'm not sure where this will go. But, you know, does this really demand, you know, from, I mean, I read through the, you know, the follow-up to investigations in the community among Omorin's death and, you know, the statements and the parts where Gautul Apabio and his wife were mentioned, you know, and I personally didn't see a lot, you know, that demanded, you know, any lawsuit or anything, you know, but if they, you know, felt angered by it, then, yeah, it's their right to sue or to, you know, demand an apology. He mentioned that Khufri Effyong is a member of the public service in, you know, in the state and also that one of the locations where it is very likely from their investigations, from their tracking of the cell data and the likes, yeah. One of the places where he very likely had met with the suspect, Uduak, you know, is a hotel that is very likely owned by the wife of Gautul Apabio. So, he doesn't necessarily, and if you read it very well, he doesn't necessarily say that, you know, Gautul Apabio or his wife are involved in any of this. You know, he really only just mentions that, you know, they're very likely the owners of that place from his investigations and that, you know, worst case scenario which he tried to paint is that there is a human, you know, body part trafficking ring, you know, that the, you know, some people in the state are involved with and, you know, another worst case scenario is that for a top government official like Khufri Effiong and, of course, where he resides, places who have meetings and all of that, that is very likely that some of all those places are, you know, it's possible rather that some of all those places might be connected with, you know, this worst case scenario which is the, you know, body parts trafficking ring. So, you know, that's where, you know, the Gautul Apabio and his lawyers, you know, come in and they say that those insinuations, you know, those statements, those tweets basically paint Gautul Apabio and his wife in, you know, bad light and they demand an apology and all of that, which, you know, like I said, they have every right to. But for me, I am personally thinking, you know, like David had said when we spoke with him, that these are some of the information that he is tweeted, the information that he has also put out is information that you expect from the police. A couple of days ago, there was an argument on social media when someone was saying, oh, you know, why should the police be given a daily update on the case? You know, why, you know, a Nigerian's demanding that the state government also gives a daily update on the case. You know, and I was saying that we're so used to mediocrity that we challenge anybody who demands accountability and demands, you know, a better system. In a sane climate, in a climate in which I expect the police and the government of the state will be on that case and not rest until every single, every tiny little detail of that case is exposed. And it's not because, you know, that fear of, oh, you know, we don't want to put our sense of information until we're sure. It's not that. If you see, you know, what happened with George Floyd, with Anton Sterling, with any of all the, you know, the Americans, black Americans who have been murdered by the police in police shootings and all of that, you would notice one thing, that every day, the head of police in that state or in that county always is addressing the press, giving daily updates of what's going on, who might be connected, where the investigations are going. There are parts that they wouldn't mention, obviously, because of police, you know, investigations still ongoing. But they know that they owe it to the public, to address the public on every single detail of them. You know what I mean? As many of the details of the investigation that they can, they know that they owe it to the public. Another thing is, the information, like David mentioned, that he pulled out, is information that the police themselves should have sought. We don't need to have a David Houdain to seek out information like that. We don't need a David Houdain to check who Akban, what's his name? Akban, the Akban guy, the suspect. We don't need David to do that investigation. It should be the police, the police in the Akwaibom State's job to ensure that they check who he spoke with, to ensure that they reach out to the mobile telecommunication companies to find out who might be connected with the case and not just wrap it up and say, oh, the Prime Minister has been caught, we're done, everybody go home, he will be prosecuted and all of that. It's their responsibility. And I mentioned it that day that in other murder cases, not that crimes have been committed in Nigeria, we've barely seen that there is other connections. We've barely seen that the police goes beyond what we can see and bringing other people that might be connected to the case. So if there truly is a possibility of human trafficking, the possibility of harvesting of organs in Akwaibom State, do we expect, did anybody expect that the police in the state will go that length to ensure that they find out who we spoke with, what happened in the hours before she died, what happens in the hours after she died and days after she died, who else might be connected to him? We don't need David today. So it is their responsibility that he is carrying out and this is what we're getting out of it. Sadly. Yeah. Really, I understand what you said because even here on Today in History, we've shared cases that happened, murder cases, 10, 20, 30 murders happening at different times in history, in a place like America. And years later, the police is able to piece these murders together until this murder was committed in 2010, 2011, 2012, but they were all committed by the same person and it might take time, but they eventually produce the suspect or whoever is guilty. And just to quickly note that the majority of the accusation or the bone of contention with the Acquire Bomb State Government and David Udehi is basically from the tweets he put out after that article. So according to the message that Gautunapabia's lawyers wrote to David Udehi, and reading from that, he says, quote, he says, in one of your tweets, via Twitter handle David Udehi on the 11th of May, 2021, you published your following statement to the entire world. And this is a tweet that David Udehi put out. He said, in other words, this place where Frank Uduak-Akban, fresh from murdering Innu Moren, came to meet Khufri Efiong, belongs to the wife of Khufri's boss at Federal Ministry of Ninja Delta Affairs, Gautunapabia. So which politician has Khufri been running around for? That's David Udehi there speaking. So the lawyers of Gautunapabia here says, the implication of the above statements, which has enjoyed white circulation, creates the impression that Senator Gautunapabia and his wife, Mrs. Iqaiti Apabia, were not only complicit in the death of Innu Bongumoren, but are also members of a syndicate specializing in the procurement, sale and use of human body parts for ritual. And two, that Davok Sweets' alleged to be owned by Mrs. Iqaiti Apabia, Senator Apabia's wife, is used by members of this alleged syndicate, particularly Uduak Apkan and Khufri Effong to carry out their illicit transactions. He went on to say that Senator Apabia does not know and has never met this guy or never had any contract with this Khufri Effong. Neither has, you know, the wife that has never had anything to do with them and they have nothing to do with the death of Innu Bongumoren and that Davok Sweets is not the property of Mrs. Iqaiti Apabia. So he went on and on and on to say that if David Udehi had done a quick search with the CAC Couples Affairs Commission, they would have found out that Davok Sweets is not a property of Mrs. Iqaiti Apabia and neither is she a board or a director and that he needs to put out a retraction and an apology. And David Udehi, he has replied on Twitter about four hours ago. He said, instead of sending old policemen to fight with me on TV or threatening me with lawsuits, just authorize Airtel and MTN to release the voice notes of the conversation between Frank Aqbang and Kufri Effiong. Very simple and this will end all the controversy. No need for plenty talk. And I went on to say the data is there. So really these are things that are very important and I feel I understand where the governor is coming from. It feels like information of your character, how it seems that information seems to lead to you. When David Udehi asked, so which politician is he running errands for? And if he works with the government and if this building and I don't know David Udehi's source that made him conclude that Davok Swit is owned by the first lady of Aquabomb State. I don't know where that's coming from. But if they're denying this, I can understand where they're coming from to say he said his bid is mine but it's not. You say who's his policy? Who's he running errands for? When you're maybe referring to me, I can understand all that. But I feel that they should look at the bigger picture as to the fact that David Udehi, a journalist here who seemed to have no ulterior motives but justice and truth is trying to get to the bottom of the matter. Who killed Inobong Umorin? And definitely if he seems he's not acting alone, Udrak Akman right? If he's not acting alone, who were the people who sent him? Who really is he running errands for? These are the questions we need to ask. Also very important, we know that in the article that David Udehi put out, he talked about how this particular guy Udrak Akman made a call to a certain blessing Godwin and it was a call that lasted just for a few seconds. And funny enough, a particular person named Blessing Godwin put out a statement on Facebook recently saying how she saw a job of a treatment online. She applied for the job. This person named Ezekiel called her but did not call her anymore and she put two and two together in the timeline of the information and reached the conclusion that possibly why she could not reach the guy anymore was when the murder and rape of Inobong Umorin was taking place. It all just falls into place and I show the police can't pick up on all this information. The government should be able to dig deeper beyond the surface. If we're seeing books of people, sandals of students dating back to the year 2013-2015, this is beyond Inobong Umorin. This is has to do with the lives of thousands of lab and exaggeration, at least tens and tens of Nigerians especially women and girls that were missing or that have been murdered. Their murder should be investigated. The police should get to the bottom of this. Like this lady said this certain blessing Godwin she mentioned that if they had been able to establish connection and she went for this purported interview she would have been in her shoes. This is best in Godwin. I'm reading from her statement. She says maybe it should have been justice for Inie and justice for blessing. How would my parents take the news? She went on to say then I imagined if he had succeeded in raping and killing Inie without her friend. Remember Inie's friend raised the alarm in Lagos. Without the friend raising the alarm and his evil been exposed I would certainly have been the next victim. And she went on to say oh thank God that she was spared. So it's really deeper than Inobong Umorin and the police should do more. Once again that's where I was going. Normally should not be solely David's responsibility to unravel all these things or to look into these aspects of this conversation and this murder. It should be the Nigerian police. They should be the ones asking these questions. They should be the ones seeking these answers. It shouldn't just end with one person being arrested and that's it. Does he make confessional statements? Are they working on the statement that he's making? Are they seeking information from these telecommunications companies that David mentioned? Is there going to be a request that we hear the phone conversations between David not David now Akman and Kufrey. These are the questions that they should ask. And of course like you've mentioned the crime scene which has obviously been contaminated. Should the police be looking deeper into other people that may have been declared missing many years ago, months ago that have not been found. Do they have any evidence of anybody or any of these people that may have gone into that location? The important questions, once again is the Senate miss of Nigerian affairs, no longer governor, has the right to defend himself and to speak out with regards to where his name has been mentioned but I personally don't see it as roping him in. Any hotel can be used, any location can be used and any name can be mentioned but once again he does have a right to demand an apology and a retraction. And I think another much bigger issue really is the issue of press freedom in Nigeria. Really, do we have a free press? Can I carry out an investigation and sleep in my eyes closed and not be worried that the people who have been implicated and my reports shows that indeed they were involved would not come after me in the dead of the night. Can I carry out investigations and not... I have friends who are investigative journalists who you can call them paranoid but they take extra, extra care because of their movement, because you know, documentaries they've produced or investigative reports they've put out have led to a lot of people getting in jail for crimes they've committed. So there's issue of press freedom in Nigeria, can you really do we really have a free press in Nigeria? Take a... Such a sad reality. Most of the people who have been able to freely put out these type of investigative reports have had to do it outside Nigeria and obviously is no longer in Nigeria and that's why it's free to express all of this. Look at what happened with the kind of state government investigation. The journalist went through hell after he put out information on corruption in kind of state back then. Anyway, we're out of time for this. There's also a conversation on the solemn law to present moment of worry who's been accused of a 31 billion Naira fraud but we probably would chip that in a lot later. Let's take a short break when we come back. We're moving to Off the Press. What are the big stories making headlines across Nigeria today? We'll share them with you.