₦airaland Forum

sweettease:
so you have joined the crew... SMH

A Nigerian drug convict, John Okoro, who fled from police custody in India last Monday, has been re-arrested.
Mr. Okoro, 35, was re-arrested by the Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) of Mumbai police.

ANC sources told The Times of India that Mr. Okoro was arrested from the Navi Mumbai area, from where he was planning to flee to Mangalore by a private bus.

Police sources said Mr. Okoro, who resided in Koparkhairane in Navi Mumbai, was arrested in 2014 in a drug case.

The court convicted him for a three-year jail term. He was sent to Nashik central prison after conviction.
Mr. Okoro was released from jail on December 31 and was to be deported to Nigeria. He was brought to the ANC’s Azad Maidan lock up and kept on the first floor. He was due to be deported on the day he fled.

On the pretext of going to the washroom, he jumped from the first floor at 2 a.m. on Monday and fled. He jumped from the balcony, crashing through the asbestos roof and fled on foot.

The constable guarding him also leaped from the balcony in a desperate attempt to nab him, but ended up injured. The officer is recovering at the Nagpada police hospital.
An alert was immediately issued for Mr. Okoro.

“Around 2 a.m., Okoro told the constable on guard that he wanted to visit the washroom. He was being taken there when he jumped from the balcony. He landed on the asbestos roof, which immediately gave away,” a police officer said.
“He ran in the directions of Mahapalika Marg.”

Lalasticlala, Mynd44

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on Saturday said it would study the court ruling ordering a temporary forfeiture of $153.3 million purportedly belonging to former Nigerian petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, before taking a decision.

Justice Muslim Hassan of the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court, on Friday, ordered a seizure of the money which was stolen from the NNPC, according to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, and stashed in three Nigerian banks, in US Dollars and Naira.

“It was a court ruling, and we have not studied the proceedings; when we do that we’ll know our response,” Ndu Ughamadu, NNPC’s spokesperson, told PREMIUM TIMES.

According to the EFCC, out of the $153.3 million, N23.4 billion was kept in Sterling Bank Plc, N9.08 billion in First Bank Plc, and $5 million in Access Bank Plc.

In his ruling on Friday, Mr. Hassan gave Sterling Bank and any other interested parties 14 days to appear before him to prove the legitimacy of the monies, failure of which the funds would be permanently forfeited to the Nigerian government.

The judge made the order in favour of the EFCC which appeared before him with an ex parte application seeking the temporary forfeiture of the funds.

According to the Commission, in December 2014, Mrs. Alison-Madueke invited the Managing Director of Fidelity Bank Plc, Nnamdi Okonkwo, to her office where they hatched the plan to move $153,310,000 out of the NNPC for the minister.

Mrs. Alison-Madueke, according to Mr. Awolusi, instructed Mr. Okonkwo to ensure that the money was “neither credited into any known account nor captured in any transaction platforms” of Fidelity Bank.

Mr. Okonkwo accepted and implemented the deal leading to the movement of $153,310,000 from NNPC to Fidelity Bank.

He said that two former Group Executive Directors of Finance and Account of NNPC, B.O.N. Otti and Stanley Lawson, helped Mrs. Alison-Madueke to move the cash from NNPC, Abuja, to the headquarters of Fidelity Bank in Lagos.

In 2012, Mr. Otti, alongside Steve Oronsaye, hugged headlines for attempting to discredit the report of the Nuhu Ribadu-led Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force which exposed the monumental corruption in Nigeria’s petroleum industry.

While he was serving as a member of the task force, Mr. Otti was appointed into the board of the NNPC by Mrs. Alison-Madueke.

Mr. Awolusi said in a desperate bid to conceal the source of the money, Mr. Okonkwo, upon receiving it, instructed the Country Head of Fidelity Bank, Martin Izuogbe, to take $113,310,000 cash out of the money to the Executive Director, Commercial and Institutional Bank, Sterling Bank Plc, Lanre Adesanya, to keep.

The sum of $5 million was kept with the Managing Director Access Bank Plc, Herbert Wigwe.
He said the remaining $40 million was taken in cash to the Executive Director, Public Sector Accountant, First Bank, Dauda Lawal, to keep.

Phone calls to the spokespersons of Sterling Bank Plc and Access Bank Plc did not go through.
But Babatunde Lasaki, the Spokesperson of First Bank Plc, said the bank was not directly involved in the transaction.

“We’ve said this thing before now that the transaction regarding Diezani and Mr. (Dauda) Lawal was in his personal capacity, and the money was not a First Bank transaction,” Mr. Lasaki told PREMIUM TIMES.
“We said that and we still maintain that.”

The EFCC arrested Mr. Lawal, Executive Director, Public Sector at First Bank, in May last year for allegedly helping Mrs. Alison-Madueke to launder $25 million.
Mr. Lawal had denied the allegations against him, maintaining that his relationship with the former minister was purely a professional one.

“This allegation is malicious and without substance in any material particular.”

Lalasticlala, Mynd44

Inkman:
Yes for a trip of this nature

Inkman:
So ...? Is she not the firstlady?

anonymuz:
who are they?

The ruling party, All Progressives Congress (APC) fought hard to get where it is today. However, it is dogged by a number of problems it would have to solve if it will continue to rule beyond the current government. The following list of problems, while not exhaustive, will be among the key ones to solve if the APC is to triumph yet again.

1. Internal Wrangling In States:

While the initial expectation was that all would be rosy for the APC, wittingly or unwittingly, stalwarts of the ruling party in many APC states are finding it difficult to consolidate their gains and the in-fighting in many states that degenerated to violence is a nightmare to the national headquarters of the party. There are intra-party conflicts in Kano, Kaduna, Plateau, Kogi, Bauchi, Yobe and Kebbi states among others, a development which has already elicited skepticism among many people, on whether the APC is actually a party to drive Nigeria’s quest for global relevance and socio-infrastructural developments beyond names and old glory of being the giant of Africa.

2. Creation of new ‘mega-party’ by aggrieved members:

Despite his denial, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s name has remained prominent on the list of aggrieved APC members planning to form a so-called mega party to the ruling party after the secret moves and parts of actions by some politicians were revealed. It was reported that the Ahmed Makarfi faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and aggrieved chieftains of the APC had intensified efforts at forming the party and parts of their gimmicks was the registration of new parties with INEC if the existing registered parties could not accommodate their targets.

While the APC is naturally expected to be concerned about the reported plan by the aggrieved members to join forces to float a new mega party, the Presidency is actually the one that is most alarmed especially as the 2019 elections seem to be the ultimate agenda of the intended coalition and a threat to the expected second term ambition of President Muhammadu Buhari.

3. Resurgence of legacy parties:

The continuous loyalty to the chieftains of the defunct trio of the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the Congress for Progressives Change (CPC) that merged to form the APC is part of the effects of the crisis rocking the states controlled by the APC.

This is most pronounced in states being governed by governors of ‘PDP descent’ who decamped to the APC to win the governorship tickets and were finding it difficult to do away with former PDP mates at the expense of the potpourri ideologies of the legacy parties of the APC. This challenge is mostly pronounced in the North, and especially among the ANPP and CPC.

4. The Board of Trustees (BoT) controversy:

One of the key factors holding down the constitution of the APC BoT is the controversy over the choice of its chairmanship. Like in other parties, the BoT of APC is seen as critical and influential albeit advisory and as such, many party members expect that it would be led by credible and courageous men, who can keep the party afloat the murky waters of the nation’s politics.

The trio of influential former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former Lagos State governor and equally influential national leader Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and present Minister of Agriculture Chief Audu Ogbeh were the top contenders for the Chairmanship of the BoT before the party resolved to suspend its inauguration.

The party in August 2014 announced a list of 74 chieftains, including Chief Tom Ikimi and some others who have decamped to the PDP. It was however reliably gathered that the BoT leadership will still be zoned through a special arrangement to reflect a balance in the geo-political zones the way it was done during the National Convention that produced the present NEC.

This is despite of the provision of Article 13.2 (X) of the APC Constitution (October 2014 as amended), on the powers of the BoT, and which stipulates: “The Board of Trustees shall elect its chairman, deputy chairman, secretary and other officers as it deems necessary, and formulate its own rules and procedures to regulate its meetings and activities.”

As it stands the Presidential ambition of Atiku Abubakar and the deliberate clog from the Presidency on party influence through the BoT was responsible for the inauguration of the board.

5. Allegations of corruption against party bigwigs:

One of the core mandates of the present administration is the anti-corruption war and the need to change the way Nigerians expend national wealth. There is however a big challenge for the ruling party with some of its chieftains accused of one form of corruption or another.

Those accused include Minister of Transport Rotimi Amaechi, the Secretary to the Government of Federation (SGF) Babachir David Lawal, Chief of Staff to Mr. President Malam Abba Kyari, and a former military governor of Kaduna State and chieftain of the APC Lawal Jafaru Isa, among others.

sarrki:
Fayose I won't support you on this

Sire focus more on ekiti people that gave you the mandate.

If there is need to divert fine

You are a governor not minister of aviation

delectablegyal:
the p.una..ni has a power of influence.

who run the world?

click like for guys, share for ladies.

Fremancipation:
This is why the current Biafran Movement is gaining momentum because a lot of decent people have genuingly look at the future and see no hope for real development. Even the opposition know this truth but they resist and campaign against it because they are scared of what the future hold for them without ndigbo in the picture. Don't let their ultra-ego on nairaland fool you.

Fremancipation:
Not only is it not achievable, BUT any progressive laws that will specifically benefit the eastern region will still have to pass through the Northern Dominated House of reps and Senate where they will shut it down.

Look at what happened to the PIB law that Jonathan tried so many times to pass. They frustrated that bill and started adding clauses that will make northern areas where oil pipelines are built to be considered host communities.

This is why I keep saying that even Igbo presidency will not do shiit for IGBOs

Statsocial:
Guy the Igbos can rival d political capital of any other tribe in Nigeria. You need someone in Aso rock(President) who can give ur region 8yrs of economic attention but you cant acheive that by clamouring for biafra at the same.