₦airaland Forum

Abuja billionaire in custody

Aspirants to testify against officials

Who got the N750 million nomination bribe that has caused a huge scandal in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)?

Two key officials of the ruling party’s National Working Committee (NWC) fingered in the deal are said to be on the run.

A manhunt has begun for them as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) cast its net wide to recover the cash.

House of Representatives member Ndudi Elumelu was said to have given the cash to win the party’s Delta State governorship ticket.

An Abuja billionaire, who collected the money from Elumelu, is in police custody.

He is said to be a friend of a PDP National Vice Chairman and son-in-law of a former Minister of Aviation.

The suspect was arrested last Friday and some exotic cars were taken away from his Abuja home.

While EFCC is looking into Elumelu’s petition, more aspirants have volunteered to testify on the huge cash-for- nomination deals during PDP’s primaries.

Elumelu petitioned EFCC when he could not get the party’s governorship ticket.

A source in EFCC said: “So far, we have been able to get clues that two members of the NWC of PDP had direct link with the collection and disbursement of the N750 million.

“We have their names and we may invite them for interrogation any moment from now. The suspect said he was just helping a friend and the money was handed over to some NWC members.

“It is too early to prejudge the affected NWC members. But when we invite them, we will let you know.

“But the suspect is still with us giving vital information on how he tried to help Elumelu as a friend.”

As of press time, the affected NWC members were trying to wield influence to resolve the matter amicably.

A party source said: “There is tension everywhere, the NWC members are calling for amicable resolution of the issue at stake.

“They do not want anything that can affect the image of the party. I think they want to refund the cash quietly to avoid any backlash on the party and their political career.

“I think the luck with Ndudi Elumelu is that he is from a well-connected family which will make cheating him difficult”.

Findings also revealed that a chartered jet was also on standby for some of those behind the deal in order to get the governorship ticket for Elumelu.

Another source added: “They embarked on many shuttles with a chartered jet during the transaction.

“The N750million deal was one of the reasons why Tony Obuh, the hitherto anointed candidate of the Governor of Delta State, Emmanuel Uduaghan lost out.

“To some extent, those who collected the cash assisted in scheming out Obuh from the race. But they could not rout out the party’s eventual governorship candidate, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, whom they did not know had been a friend of the National Chairman of PDP, Alhaji Adamu Muazu, for many years.

“They really cheated Uduaghan without knowing that they were digging their graves.”

Other aggrieved aspirants are also seeking their pounds of flesh. They are said to be ready to squeal on how some PDP leaders negotiated nomination deals with them.

A third source said: “Since this incident became public knowledge, more aspirants have volunteered to go to EFCC with more information about the activities of the Screening, Electoral Committees and Appeal Committees.

“You could see that during the primaries, some aspirants were disqualified but miraculously they were cleared again.

“Some said they parted with huge sums without getting the party’s tickets for offices aspired to.

“They said they have records of how the monies were paid or wired. I think there will be more revelations in the days ahead.”

http://thenationonlineng.net/new/alleged-n750m-bribe-two-pdp-leaders-run/

Bayswater:
At last, the mystery behind Buhari's education is being unravelled. Reports have it that Buhari did attend secondary school but he dropped out before his final exams to join the military.

A full press release shall be made concerning this in the coming weeks, it would now be left to INEC to determine if he actually meets the requirements of the Nigerian constitution for a presidential candidate.

This is very silly. Dropped out to join the military. Even if that were true, the military training, do you know what it entails?. Is it not at the very least an HND qualification?. Can you read a map without knowing geography?. Can you calculate the angle to set artillery gun without knowing basic physics?.

dammytosh:
He is busy pretending to be loyal and doing nothing everyday.

When asked what he is doing today, he said "NOTHING"

but you did nothing yesterday.

He replied " I did not finish doing nothing yesterday, i will continue today"

Now this post is very funny.

This is an informed article.
Only an id**t votes for a president because he built a bridge and refurbished trains. First of all road building and trains are not the Presidents's job. It means the collective IQ is low in the country when a fundamental RIGHT becomes a bargaining chip for votes. Most of the things half exposed politicians are deceiving the electorate with are on the UN's basic human development lists.

All infrastructure federal projects should now be planned in 10 year cycles, with financing arranged in and kept in transparent dedicated accounts. The projects will be agreed to by all political parties and all stakeholders including ethnic nationalities. Execution of the projects will commence immediately in all geo political zones and physical evidence mist be verifiable on ground and completion dates mist beknown

If we do these, all boju boju will be exposed and corruption will come down. Also the start and stop way of handling projects will be done away with and no party in power can punish a region by not developing the area. The national assembly should be highly involved in the planning cycles and the entire process should not take more than two weeks to develop a wish list for the next ten years.

The PDP has chopped too much money from Obasanjo's time on ''bridge to nowhere' projects where they line their pockets, fund elections and poor quality infrastructure are delivered that nay last one rainy season.

davies123:
I am weary of the lies,deceits, blackmails and propaganda peddled by some elements against Jonathan...The least you can do before you attack is get your facts right....


Get simple facts right,Jonathan has been president 4 years ,7months he was swarn in for the first time on the 6th May 2010.

Is this so difficult to figure out?!!

Okay but when is he leaving?

LeStylo:
Supposedly, the motive is in the "offensive" cartoons published nearly a decade ago. The "terrorists" were likely teenagers then and likely not to ever have seen the cartoons ever before. Strange motive if you ask me!

Apart from the following concerns raised in the video:
- no blood after AK47 was shot at a very close range
- ID card conspicuously left at the crime scene
- All suspects killed and case closed!

What about:
- How did the police figure out the face of the other terrorists? They see through masks?
- Why would the terrorists scream, "We have avenged the Prophet!"? Looks like need to leave behind a readily understood motive by all
- How did the heavy traffic in Paris gound to a halt ahead of the attacks? Someone made road blocks ahead of attacks?
- The camera footage is not by a rookie. It's too calculated and stable for an ordinary witness to crime and gunshots. Not even when the rifle exploded did the video shake. Odd?

Take this with a pinch of salt. May not entirely be what it seems! If terrorists will attack France, no better place than the "stolen" oil interest by Total in Libya.

Just my odd feelings about it all!

I started doubting it when I saw the trained movements of the attackers. There is a particular way a skilled NATO military operative would move versus the way a half trained Islamic zealot would. Also Islamic terrorists would have killed more than the total number people killed and most definitely would not have taken hostages. Hostages for what?.

azzima:
"IF YOU JAIL THE CORRUPT, WHO WILL MANAGE THE ECONOMY"- Goodluck Eberle Jonathan (January 2015)

We Don enter one chance with this mumu of a leader o.

Did he really say this?.

This id**t travels round the world on a Nigerian passport. He stamps visas to go to Germany and Cyprus where he has investments. His ECOWAS passport which he needs to run his schools in Benin Republic is based on Nigerian citizenship.

The PDP died about three months ago. Right now it is just a nexus of relationships to actualise individual ambitions.

calebo101:
As in en, this particular guy (administer or so) is so foolish with all his statements. Imagine what he said?

There is no country where they vote for president because of roads. Roads are always built who ever is in power and they are a right. It is corruption and lack of exposure that is worrying all of you.The average length of construction of a good project.is 5 years. Elections are 4 year cycles. Fashola cannot complete is.Red and Blue line railway project, if Jimi Agbaje wins (unlikely), do we then give him credit when it is completed in his term?
Should Buhari take credit for second niger bridge!.
The electorate needs sophisticated means of assessing governors, for Presidehts it is even more serious and rigorous.

Thank you @motherlode. Good post.

In FeBuhari, cluelessness will disappear from our National life.

thaoriginator:
Why?

Fear of saying something that jeopardises his political career with electorate in the north.
This man is trying to build his own base.

omolami:
Jonathan administration has not failed.Jonathan is transforming and trying to advance d country while d agrieved are setting him back by sponsoring bombings and terrorism in d far north.Equally,in transformation,he may have to step on toes.The toes he stepped on are those drawing nigeria backward.Buhari, obj etc are part of the toes.

The administration has not failed. One man's presidency has failed.
There are good and bad PDP governors in the states. At the federal level five or six ministers are good and you can average out and give a mark to the entire administration. I give the administration a D overall. Five or six ministers are very good but defence, police, petroleum, security, internal affairs, power, external affairs, health and education are bad.
The President is also very BAD and must be changed quickly.

jusRadical:
It is very heart breaking that former president Olusegun Obasanjo looted the Ajaokuta steel complex.

Many of the machines installed at the complex were moved to Obj's steel mill after he privatized the complex. This is very bad. The present owners have spent billions of Naira replacing some of the stolen machines. This has affected their capacity to pay their staff salaries - I guess more than 12 months salary. Even now, the owners need over 2billion naira to continue the replacement.

Obj stole a lot from Nigeria.

Kindly provide name and location of this steel mill.

Buttocks:
Because Yoruba people are born saboteurs.

Yorubas are known to sabotage bad governments. We even sabotaged Obasanjos third term agenda and "do or die" politics. hough to be fair to him he did not want it bad enough, if he had spent up to N2.5 trillion like some people in govt now have done maybe he would have gotten it and nothing would have happened.
That is Nigeria for you.

macof:
Because the North will always support their own, no matter what...they have the born to rule mentality

As fit South, especially Yorubas...sadly Yorubas are politically illiterate. Check history since 1960, Yoruba have been pushed around only Obasanjo resisted such

Yorubas moved for independence, resisted Abacha, lost families and wives. June 12 was Yoruba, all political radicals in the south, Gani Fawehinmi, Fela, Falana, Wole Soyinka, Tai Solarin were Yorubas. In the South in terms of radicalism we also had Ijaws like Adaka Boro, Saro Wiwa, even this misguided Asari Dokubo and the now corrupt Tom Polo have been resisters.
Kindly furnish me any other southern tribes apart from Yoruba and Ijaw who have resisted the establishment in Nigeria?.
I need you to mention any Ibos who have ever done this?.

If you say Nzeogwu, I will educate you by saying Nzeogwu was essentially a Hausa radical officer, the troops he used to kill Sardauna were all Hausa troops which reinforces all I have been saying against those who think Hausa Fulani people are dumb followers of aristocrats.
So in all these radical political movements in Nigeria where we're the Ibos?. I will tell you where they were, they were trading and making money.

ilugunboy:
OP

Who are the southerners ??

My brother thank you.
Most groups in north central today are cousins to Ibos in terms of origin.
Oyo empire was originally a Savannah empire and northern Kwara and kogi states were part of its centre, resistance to Jihad progressively drove the constantly changing capital of that empire downwards with military divisions taking up the former capitals. I don't really know who southerners are.
Nigerians want the same thing for government, perform, don't divide us and don't steal our children's money.

Splashme:
The North are much more politically mature than the South.

They rally round their own no matter how bad he may be. Remember the dyiing Yar'adua? They did everything to retain the vegetable

The north also had a richer history of radicalism than the south. IBB went into a mosque years ago and they took away his shoes. Not stolen, just taken away to spite him and send a message. Northern radicals included; Aminu Kano, Bala Islam, Balarabe Musa (who unfortunately now has turned tribalism), many more.
Their universities were hot beds of anti establishment activism which governments since the IBB regime refused to deal with. I don't think they are necessarily tribalist, Abiola won hands-down in the place against a fellow Muslim.
The big problem for everybody is that this 50 year old radicalism has now been given a religious coloration and heaped upon the vehicle of Jihadism for its actualization.
Southerners are westernized shallow middle class people who want to read, learn a trade or do some business and live a 'normal' life. I think we need some depth in the south, life is more than making a living. A Christian should join social awareness groups, do missionary work, get serious about political mobilization. Most importantly get tough on government and demand accountability. The only "big woman" doing this now is Oby Ezekwesili and the level of criticism impugning her motives have been heavy.
If southerners had protested strongly against Good luck during fuel subsidy scam, immigration service interview deaths and many other corrupt activities, Jonathan would have gotten the message and self corrected for the good of everybody. Not criticizing your own man is destroying him. Even Asari Dokubo takes Jona to the cleaners for whatever reason you may suggest at least it keeps the man on his feet.
Now Jona is making stupid statements on the stump, the latest being what Yorubas would call a "ki lagbe, ki leju" statement supporting lower punishment for small cases of stealing and no supporter is calling him out.

jerseyboy:
Combination of things. Self hate, inferiority complex, need for acceptance, fear of the Hausas, poor understanding of the complexities of Nigeria.

.
CORRUPTION IS WHY.
Lack of inferiority complex is exactly why we are voting Buhari. We dont think the north is superior so we doht feel desperate to return a clueless corrupt southerner into office.

Goodluck has serious character defect related to money and corruption.
Please study his actions well beginning when he was deputy governor. He is gentle and humble in everything except money. The most aggressive I have seen Good luck Jonathan in the last ten years was when money was involved.

He was having a humble interview until someone spoke about asset declaration and he gave his I don't give a damn speech. The Nwobodo speech was also made in anger and fear. It is actually the altitudes of a village thief to a policeman. This man has serious native dishonesty and God has already stopped him.

Let tribalists and northo-phobic sentimentalists continue deceiving themselves.

If you give this man a second term he will RUIN this country. He is a very strange character, completely UN-interested in good name, reputation or even a legacy but strongly interested in money for himself and his cronies.

hollandis:
I hope it happens.Let Yorubas go their way,Hausas go their way and let ibos and NigerDeltans co exists peacefully

The last four words are impossible to achieve. This is ah example why division is a cowardly way out. The nation needs spirit of sacrifice qnd toughness. We have a democracy, let us leverage on it. Jonathan will lose the elections on the basis of performahce, why should that divide the country when it just might be good news for the majority of the country.

mikeansy:
you are taking the President's words out of context

if you look at the full speech you will see that the President was questioning the wisdom of jailing people for 300years as it solves nothing. Jailing Jim Nwobodo for 301years for allegedly stealing one Peugeot has not meant corruption has disappeared in Nigeria. That is the point the President was making.

He went further to enumerate how his administration is seeking new ways to prevent people from stealing rather than wait for people to steal so that you send them to jail for 300years.

How do you look for ways to prevent people from stealing?. How can an intelkigent man say he wants to use technology to solve the problem of corruption?.If someone hacks into a govt computer to steal and the system security prevehts it and he is unsuccessful, the law still acts against him. He is tracked, arrested and jailed.

bokohalal:
The once respected Nigerian Tribune! Chief Awolowo must be turning in the grave.

The Awolowo family is divided. Some have been bought over by Jonathan. Awo' s grand son is chairman of a parastatal under the ministry of trade and investment.

They will continue without corruption and nepotism

gratiaeo:
This trash does not in a anyway answer question about Buhari certificate. We want to see Buhari certificate!

Before m o st of you were born books had been written about Buhari and we all knew his educational level. He was classmates with most people on Nigeria's who's who. Distractions are just to divert attention from the issues the President has with the populace.

scribble:
The PResident has many haters, detractors, naysayers, maligners etc

I was one of those on the bandwagon of Presidential bashers until the Lord showed me that I was merely part of the children of rebellion

Jonathan is a part of God's divine agenda for Nigeria and I wondered why grace is so abundant in his life

He has gone from testimony to testimony and whether the devil likes it or not he will also record another testimony next month.

Here is why I think he lives a testimony filled life:

The President is a good hearted man.

He has adopted so many children and he does well by them...Lord knows all the wedding he is attending are not his biological children but those he took in and he is good to them. Before he was President, whilst still a professor in Bayelsa...

he was feeding them

he was schooling them

he was nursing them

Biko, Ejo, Mbok tell me why he wont be a candidate of the goodness of the Lord?

There is nothing that can STOP the plethora of blessing this man has racked up in the Heavenlies....

He is a soft spoken man, he does not abuse his power...i can go on and on

A man that has full authority over his family will have over the nation

I wont use this opportunity to malign opposition figures but so many of them need to get their house in order and focus on doing genuinely good deeds, not with money that they have stolen but with their substance...

Maybe then they will stand a chance to be like Nigeria's No. 1

You have tried. Keep it up.
GMB for president in FeBuhari

customized13:
did Mandela contest four times and failed?

Was Mandela desperate?

Dont compare buhari whose 1st tenure was an economic failure to Mandela.

Each year Mandela spent in prison was campaign. Buhari's first tenure of only 18 months was a success, they had stabilized the economy and their approval rating was high. Naira exchange rate was stable, foreign exchange was adequate for 9 months importation and we were paying up our debts very fast. Ajaokuta steel was being completed and refineries were being expanded.

Khodry:
Is buhari the right man for the job?? Pls dont attack me o,lets just do some logical thinking here and see if truely buhari is the right man for the job.Before i start posting some of the question that brought about this my question.I commend Mr president for making the statement:
1. That the generation before him and his generations have failed this country and that the 2015 election is for pple between the age of 18 and 23.The generation that will take Nigeria to the moon
2. That we cannot curb corruptions by putting pple in jail,rather we can curb it by closing avenue for pple to be corruption by using modern technology i.e ICT. Kudos for such statement Mr president.
Fellow youth of this country, our own and lay man definition of dividend of democracy are; employments,good road,food electricity and water .Please how many of these our so call past leaders and even current have been able to give us? How many have given us?
Is it the same buhari we know in 2003, 2007 and 2011 we have now?
The pple buhari is associating with i.e party leaders are they pple of good antecedent?
Can this truthful, and God fearing buhari as many claimed not apply this principle that if you can beat them you join them? Etc
,

Buhari is the best man for the job now. Let us stop asking the same questions over and over.
Buhari will win and it would be the PDP's fault for representing Jonathan for elections again with all his baggage. Buhari is running on anti corruption and security platforms which have been presented to Nigerians as the main issues for now. PDP did nothing to manipulate the discourse in time or maybe the APC was right and those two are indeed the major issues now.
Apart from that Buhari has a personal (not party) political base estimated now at 24million in the north alone. The best way to have stopped him in his tracks was to present another PDP candidate that was free of corruption and who could not have been be accused of non performance against BokoHaram this the PDP did not do.
PDP has to pay for its bad habit of allowing incumbent presidents to buy over entire party machineries using money and threats of EFCC. Now there is no way of making everybody happy in a party not united by ideology but mass self interest.