A political activist, Deji Adeyanju, has accused the State Security Service of offering him a bribe to shelve a protest demanding the release of Sahara Reporters publisher, Omoyele Sowore.

Mr Adeyanju on Tuesday in Abuja displayed N1 million cash he said was offered to him by agents of the SSS.

The activist led several other protesters to the headquarters of the SSS in Abuja on Tuesday morning. The demonstrators have been asking the SSS to comply with a federal court order for Mr Sowore to be released from custody.

Mr Sowore was last month granted bail by the Federal High Court in his ongoing trial for alleged treason and defamation of President Muhammadu Buhari. He met the stringent bail conditions on November 6, but the SSS has declined to release him.

Mr Sowore’s lawyer, Femi Falana, said the SSS had been plotting to file additional charges against Mr Sowore in order to continue justifying his remand in custody, which he declared as effectively illegal since Wednesday when he met all conditions.

After SSS controversially claimed on Friday that it was holding Mr Sowore because no one had come to pick him up, Mr Adeyanju held a sit-in outside its headquarters on Saturday to demand Mr Sowore’s release, but the secret police ignored the protesters. PREMIUM TIMES also confirmed Saturday that the SSS was not ready to release Mr Sowore, contrary to what it wanted the public to believe.

‘Bribe at gunpoint’

On Tuesday, as businesses resumed across the country following a public holiday, Mr Adeyanju returned with activists to demand SSS compliance with the court order.

Yemi Adamolekun of Enough Is Enough was also seen in pictures of the demonstration circulated on social media.

Shortly after the demonstration began, Mr Adeyanju displayed new N500 notes he said totaled N1 million before other protesters and media cameras.

He said the money was offered to him by the SSS at gunpoint to call off the protest. PREMIUM TIMES could not immediately verify links between the cash Mr Adeyanju displayed and the SSS.

A spokesperson for the SSS, Peter Afunanya, did not return PREMIUM TIMES’ request seeking comments about Mr Adeyanju’s allegation.

The protesters, who gathered at about 11:30 a.m., were dispersed by armed officers shortly thereafter.

Premium Times

By Henry Ukazu

Greetings Dear Friends,

I guess you may have heard the saying, ‘the joy of life is not how happy you are but how happy others can be because of you’.

There’s always an internal feeling of warmth and fulfillment to know that because of the role you played in the life of someone, who can be a mentee or subordinate, they were able to succeed. I once highlighted that Mentors Are Life Savers in one of my articles with the same title.

Every being loves to be happy because happiness brings peace, tranquility, and clarity of mind. Once you have peace within yourself, family, organization and business, you are bound to have clarity of mind which will, in turn, make you focus very well in addition to being inspired to make right decisions. Therefore, it will be wise to say, peace is necessary for any rational and progressive mind/business to succeed. In the course of this article, we shall be exploring different ways we can inspire ourselves.

Every successful or great person was inspired in one way or the other. Every successful business was also inspired by another business, mentor or even the desire to solve a challenging problem in the society. We all need inspiration to move to the next stage in life. Thus the question now becomes, how can one get inspired?

Inspiration comes in different shapes and sizes. It can be internal or external.

Internal Inspiration:

Internal motivational comes from within. It’s just like the act of intuition. Internal inspiration is the best form of inspiration. This is because when the force is from within, it opens up with unlimited opportunities and potentials. It’s important to note that nobody can inspire you more than you can inspire yourself. Genuine inspiration always comes from within.

According to a philosopher, “I was thinking one day and I realized that if I just had somebody behind me all the way to motivate me I could make a big difference. Nobody came along like that so I just became that person for myself.”

External Inspiration:

This is the motivation that is derived from outside forces, e.g. music, mentors, books or even situations like hunger, poverty and life challenges. According to some schools of thought, external inspiration has been the reason they succeeded in life (business, home and academics). This group of people believes that without these external forces they wouldn’t have been able to achieve a great deal in life. Proponents of this theory fail to understand that, they were able to succeed because they had the internal zeal to succeed and the external forces only came as a catalyst. For example, publishing inspirational and motivating articles every week can be a challenging task because it takes discipline to commit to the task. However, as a prolific writer and author, I strongly believe, if one is not inspired, it will be hard for one to write nor matter how inspired the external factors are at play.

Techniques to get inspired:

Get Started:

The beginning of any task is usually the most challenging part. If you can begin a task with little or no resources, you can be sure of everything coming true if you are diligent. Take, for instance, you want to start a business, write a book, begin a Ph.D. program, contest for election, or even starting a good cause/campaign, etc. All you need is just a starting line for the universe to know you have a vision. A little push or inspiration can do the magic. Once you commit to this task, the universe has a way of coming around to support your work. You can also begin by breaking all your tasks in a little piece and taking them one step at a time.

Write your plan

Having a concrete blueprint on what you plan to do is another way to get inspiration. For example, you need to have an idea where you plan to be between 6 to one year, 3 years, 5years, 10 years as the case may be all things being equal. This plan will enable you to inspire yourself. Also, you can write down all of your goals and vision to keep track of where you are, and where you want to be. By so doing, you will keep track of how far you have come in life.

Reduce the daily distractions

Just like success needs concentration and positive energy, inspiration doesn’t work well with distractions.  When you are easily accessible it will definitely become hard for you to focus. It’s quite unfortunate to note that many people spend less time on what really matters and spend more time on what doesn’t really matters. In order to change this habit, you’ll need to reduce the influx of distractions that is surrounding you. By so doing, you’ll be truly inspired to focus well.

Play music

Music can be a form of inspiration. I personally use music to get work done depending on my state of mind and what I am working on. A typical example was when I was writing my first book, music was one of my biggest inspirational energy, especially when I was down.

Be grateful

Most times we get caught trying to get to the finish point without taking time to take stock how far we have come. Being grateful for who you are and what you have been able to achieve in life can inspire you to do more. It’s always good to reward yourself and celebrate your successes (no matter how big or small they are).

In conclusion, it is pertinent to note that you are the ultimate measure of how far you’ll go in life. According to Wayne Dyer, “Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it’s always your choice.” If you don’t do the work, nobody will do it for you. Therefore, I charge you today, to inspire yourself.

Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s the author of the acclaimed book Design Your Destiny – Actualizing Your Birthright To Success. He can be reached via henrous@gmail.com

The Court of Appeal has nullified the election of a senator from Ekiti State, Dayo Adeyeye.

According to Punch Newspaper, Justice Uzor Anyanwu of the Appeal Court in Kaduna, who read the judgement on Wednesday, upheld the tribunal judgment declaring Abiodun Olujimi of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) winner of the Ekiti South Senatorial election held on February 23.

Following the declaration of Mr Adeyeye by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the winner, Mrs Olujimi filed a petition to the election tribunal, alleging that there were irregularities in the election.

She submitted that she scored the highest number of lawful votes cast during the keenly contested poll.

Mrs Olujimi asked the tribunal to nullify Mr Adeyeye’s victory and order a supplementary election accordingly in the district.

In her written address, the petitioner claimed that the election was not conducted in substantial compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Acts, having been allegedly fraught with all manners of irregularities.

She asked the Tribunal to annul votes in areas that were found to be incredibly marked with irregularities.

She also accused INEC of dereliction of duties and alleged that the documents used for the conduct of the election were not duly signed by party agents.

Mr Adeyeye was initially sacked in September by the tribunal in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State capital. The tribunal declared Mrs Olujimi winner.

At the final computation, Mrs Olujimi polled 54,894 votes to emerge victorious over the Senate committee chairman on media and publicity, who polled 52,243.

On Wednesday, Justice Anyanwu upheld the tribunal ruling and directed INEC to issue a certificate of return to Mrs Olujimi.